Knightmare "In Death's Shadow" Review

...This is going to be an odd review for me to do, as I was provided a copy of this album by the band directly (admittedly, by my own request: cheers for doing that, guys!). This does leave me kind of in an odd situation where I know that what I say is actually important to the band as they will read what I say, but, as a critic, I still have to be honest at the same time with my critiques. Since (at the time of writing this) I'm also about to take on a contributor role for a site which will require me (among other things) to do reviews for the site, this is technically my first professional review.

...So yeah, no pressure!

Anyway, with that disclaimer out of the way, let's start with the history of the band.

Knightmare are an Australian power/thrash band who have been active since 2005. From the looks of what I've seen of the band's history, the only consistent members of the band have been vocalist Mick Simpson (who is credited as MickoWar on this album: I'll stick to referring to him by his actual name in this review, as I don't especially want to be reminded of Manowar at the minute!) and guitarist Luke Besley (who is also part of the band Septerrus, which formed in 2008 and released their debut album, Tacit, in February 2013, and Seventh Sage, which formed in 2012 and...erm, that's all I know, to be honest!). Knightmare released their first EP in 2008, Unholy, which featured two musicians who, to my knowledge, have not done anything else since appearing on the EP (drummer Kade Moyes and guitarist James Jenkin) and bassist Blake Ford, now of death metal band The Ophidian Ascension (who formed in March 2009, released their first demo in 2010 and released their debut EP in August 2013). In between the release of that EP and this album (released in December 2012), the band had two musicians who did not make it onto the album: guitarist Rick Linguroski, now of the thrash metal band Demolition, which currently with one EP out (October 2007's Strike Force) and one album (2011's Kill Zone), and bassist Dean Gaudoin, who has a resumé of past bands, but nothing which he actually played on. On this album, the band's line up is completed with guitarist James (although he seems to prefer Jim) Munro (also part of Septerrus) and bassist Matt McConaghy (who, to my knowledge, has not done anything else since then). You might notice the lack of a drummer being mentioned in the complete line up for the album. I asked Jim about this in an email after spotting it while taking a quick read of the album's liner notes and he explained that, basically, the band's drummer at the time (I'm assuming it was Kade Moyes, but I might be wrong there) was injured at work and also left the band before recording was completed, so a combination of the guy's drumming and programmed drums (mostly the latter) were used to record the album. The band do currently have a drummer (Dave Allen), though!

So, with that out of the way, before I start looking at the album's artwork, I will add that the album's liner notes are actually pretty good! Growing up, one of the things I loved doing was looking at the liner notes to the albums I had (sometimes, when I didn't even want to listen to the album!) and it's great to see an artist actually put effort into the liner notes, as it tends to indicate that the artist actually wants the whole final product to be the best it can be instead of the artist just putting effort into the music and letting everything else be ignored. Since the liner notes technically only impact the presentation of the album to someone and not the actual music, I'll not critique that too much, but I will say that I'm not sure the colour choice was the best one overall: light purple (or pink, depending on how you look at it) and dark blue tend to clash horribly to my eyes, even when handled well. Still, it seems to work for the Horrors of Tzeentch, so maybe I'm unfairly complaining there!

And I'm pretty sure that reference went over a lot of people's heads...

Anyway, let's move on to the artwork for the album. I have to say, colour complaint which extends from the liner notes aside, I quite like it! It has the same kind of a feeling as a traditional power metal album, but it's got a darkness to it that shows this isn't power metal in the same vein as the European style of it, but a darker style that's more in line with US power metal (which, to be fair, is pretty much thrash metal with clean vocalists and fantasy concepts in the lyrics). I'm not entirely sure whether it's mostly based on a photo or is completely computer generated (a lot of it looks like it's from a photo, but with a lot of stuff added in to give the darker, more ominous vibe), but, if it's the latter, then I have to give the person who made the artwork credit for managing to make it look surprisingly realistic! If it's the former...well, credit to whoever took the picture and the people who added the effects afterwards, as the only effect that I feel doesn't work is the arm in the river. I can't exactly place why, but it just doesn't look entirely right to me...

Anyway, now I've looked at the artwork, let's dive into the music!

So, one of the first things that will strike you about this album is that all seven songs are somewhat long: the shortest is the opening track, "Cazador de Hombres" (...I don't actually know what that means), which is still nearly six and a half minutes long (as is the second shortest track on the album, "Apocalypse"). You could argue that this is Death Magnetic syndrome at work, but that would be horribly unfair...Metallica apparently took influence from Machine Head's The Blackening when they were working on that album, so it should actually be called The Blackening syndrome, if you want to be really accurate!

OK, being serious: this is not an album for listeners who lack patience, running for nearly an hour despite only being made up of seven tracks. Since I usually fall under this category (what can I say, I grew up mostly listening to folk, pop and punk for most of my childhood and early teenage years, genres which aren't exactly known for their long and epic songs, and I tend to avoid progressive metal in general unless it's in the vein of Queensryche and Crimson Glory!), I actually found it difficult to click with this album during my first few listens. So, if you are not fond of longer songs, you might want to give this a miss, as you'll probably find that this won't be to your taste.

The music itself...as weird as this might sound, I don't find it especially memorable, but I still really like it! One of the things that is the band's big strength is that their music flows brilliantly and is a joy to listen to...but one of their biggest issues is that very little of it really sticks with your once you've finished listening to it. It's very well played (and surprisingly unique sounding) thrash/power metal, with an understanding of the importance of having levels to your sound (so, not just playing the same kind of thing for fifty minutes and going "Yep, that's our album!", like a lot of bands seem to do...) to make the songs not wear themselves out, an almost progressive take on power/thrash metal that shows musicians who are writing far more intelligently than a lot of power and thrash metal musicians tend to (no offence intended to other power and thrash metal musicians reading this, of course: I just feel that Knightmare understands that progressive means more than just "technically demanding" and "long" and incorporates influence from progressive metal very nicely into their sound) and the performances are really enjoyable to listen to, but the problem is that very little of the album sticks in your mind when it isn't actually being listened to. Nothing on the album is bad by any measure, but, for an album connected to power metal, there is a noticeable lack of anything really catchy on it, which drags the album down for me quite a fair bit. If the band works on their ability to make their material more memorable in the future, I don't see why they couldn't go on to do great things in the future: the songwriting ability is definitely there to produce something amazing, it's just the ability to make their material memorable that I feel is letting them down at the minute. Most of the album was written or co-written by Besley, according to the liner notes (the only song he isn't credited as the solo writer of the music for a song is "Cazador de Hombres", where a co-writer credit is noted for someone with the last name Pertz (my research hasn't informed me of who that is: anyone who does know and wants to let me know, feel free to put it in the comments below!), and Mick Simpson is noted as the sole writer of the lyrics for "Granted Death" and co-writer of the lyrics to "Apocalypse": other than that, Besley is the only credited songwriter on the album), so I have to give the guy huge props for his hard work on the material!

Mick Simpson is a good vocalist, with a fairly strong voice and a fairly wide singing range. His performance on the album makes me think of Harry Conklin's on Jag Panzer's The Scourge Of The Light album, for some reason which I can't quite place. I also like his ability to swap to a somewhat growled lower range in the backing vocals: it adds something interesting to the band's sound which I feel gives them a bit of an edge. I wouldn't encourage him to make these more prominent in the band's sound, though, as I think the band's sound is fine as it is. The thing that surprises me is that Simpson has a somewhat small impact on the album as a whole: despite his role as the vocalist in the band, he feels somewhat underused across the album, with the focus mostly going on the music behind him. While this can work for some bands (Dream Theater springs to mind), I feel that it doesn't completely work here, as Simpson's presence feels small even on the band's shortest songs. I don't think this is a huge issue overall, but it's enough of one for me to feel that it will impact the album for people who aren't especially patient when it comes to longer songs.

I have to give a lot of credit to Munro and Besley for their guitar playing on this album as well. While I will say that it still seems to fall within the boundaries of thrash metal in general, there is a more melodic touch across the album in their playing that would easily justify connecting the band to the power metal scene. I can't really place which bands I am reminded of, but I wouldn't be surprised if the members were influenced by bands like Forbidden, Heathen and ...And Justice For All by Metallica (and maybe a hint of The Blackening by Machine Head and some Nevermore?) for the more progressive approach to their sound and combined that with influence from US power metal bands like Jag Panzer and Iced Earth and threw in a tiny bit of influence from death metal circles (although I can't think of any specific vocalist who would match Simpson's growls: I'm not a big fan of extreme metal in general...) for flavour. To a limited extent, I'm also reminded of Holy Grail's somewhat varied take on traditional heavy metal, for some reason. Besley also plays the cello on this album, which, I have to be honest, is not an instrument I'd have expected to hear on this album. Unfortunately, I have little reference on how a cello sounds when played well and I managed to miss it when I was listening to the album, so I'm going to have to pass on commenting on that. Sorry, dude, no offence intended!

McConaghy's bass is kind of just...there. On low volumes, it's nigh on impossible to hear it. Some will say that's a good thing because it encourages you to put the volume up louder and enjoy the music more, but I tend to find that, if you have to put the volume up to hear something properly, you can risk damaging your ears due to everything else being too loud, ESPECIALLY if the mastering is too loud. This has been a pet peeve of mine for a good while, though, so some people will probably be fine with how quiet the bass is and want to turn it up! For me, though...I don't know, I'd kind of like the hear the bass in stuff without needing to have to turn the volume up particularly loud. I guess I just kind of prefer bass heavy mixes, go figure...

I don't think I can really critique the drumming especially well, due to them mostly being programmed drums. What I will say is that I feel the band suffers a little bit from occasionally overusing double bass drumming. They're not as bad with it as some bands are and the drumming is generally varied enough to give it a free pass, though, so I'd say that's a bit of a minor complaint overall.

Moving on to the production of the album, I have to say that, while it might be a tiny bit on the loud side with the mastering, the mixing (if you take my bass complaint out of the equation) is pretty good and the actual production is just about perfect: it sounds pretty clear, but not in the sort of way that I see a lot of people objecting to. It's not the super clean style employed by, say, Killswitch Engage and Trivium (I'm reaching for metalcore bands because, well, most metalcore bands tend to have VERY clean production. Not that I personally have a huge problem with that: I can enjoy metalcore, when I'm in the right mood for it...), but it's definitely making the best of modern recording technology to get a very clear sound on the album. I doubt this will win over the people who like their music to sound like it was recorded in a garage in one take (although I feel I should point out that you COULD feasibly record a professional sounding final album in your garage, if you just set things up properly and soundproof your garage to prevent other sounds from leaking into it...), but, for most people, I don't see the production on this album being a huge issue. Huge praise to Luke Besley for his production work and props to Ermin for the mixing of the album and Plec for the mastering of the album, as, in spite of my complaints, you still all did a great job!

Before I move on to provide my final thoughts, a small nitpick involving the track listing on the album: I think the band might have missed a trick by putting "Cazador de Hombres" as the opening track on the album over "Granted Death". I just feel that the most atmospheric opening of that track might have been a better way to open the album than the more thrash influenced rush of "Cazador de Hombres". I just think it might have been better placed somewhere else on the album, as "Granted Death" feels to me like it could have opened the album just as well, if not better, than "Cazador de Hombres" did.

So, final thoughts? Well, I think the band have a lot of potential, but they have to tighten up their songwriting a bit before I think they will start to gain greater recognition around the world. Most of what they need to do is not anything especially drastic, though: just focus on making the material a bit more memorable overall, try to better integrate Simpson's vocals into it and maybe be willing to throw in a few more ideas that are a bit further out of the box for the style of music they are playing. While I feel the production is a slight weakness due to the somewhat quiet mixing of the bass and the mastering being a bit on the loud side, I can't really say either of them are crippling issues and, for the most part, could probably be fairly dismissed as me complaining about it just not matching my personal taste in production. I think that the band have the potential to go far, so, despite my rating probably not being high enough to justify saying this, I would definitely suggest keeping an eye on this band, as I have a feeling they could go on to produce something amazing in the future!

Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10

A brilliantly written and rather unique sounding, if not especially memorable, power/thrash album. If you're into power/thrash metal with a somewhat progressive lean to it, this is definitely worth checking out. For people who aren't interested in that kind of thing, though, you might want to give this a miss, as this probably won't be your kind of thing.

Personal Favourite Tracks: "Cazador de Hombres" and "Knightmare"

Live Performance Review: Metallica At Glastonbury

...OK, this is going to be something a bit different.

I actually was originally going to comment on the controversy of having Metallica as a headliner for Glastonbury, but, erm...I found the final result was a bit too much of an angry rant (even compared to some of my angrier articles!), so I opted to delete the final result. For a period of time, I was actually going to let Metallica's time at Glastonbury be passed by without comment (and unwatched, since I'm not a big fan of watching live events).

Then a friend of mine admitted on Facebook to having a new found respect for Metallica after seeing their headlining performance (bear in mind, he's usually the kind of guy who makes comments about Lars' drumming and Kirk's guitar playing) and I noticed that even blabbermouth.net, usually one of the first places to rip Metallica to shreds, was making positive comments about Metallica's show.

And I thought to myself "...OK, maybe I should give it a watch." Thank goodness for BBC iPlayer!

So, what did I think of it? Well, let's start with the setlist:

• Creeping Death
• For Whom The Bell Tolls
• Wherever I May Roam
• Sad But True
• Fade To Black
• Cyanide
• The Unforgiven
• The Memory Remains
• One
• Master Of Puppets
• Nothing Else Matters
• Enter Sandman
• Whiskey In The Jar
• Seek & Destroy

So, that's five songs from Metallica, three from Ride The Lightning and one each from Kill 'Em All, Master Of Puppets, ...And Justice For All, Reload, Death Magnetic and (technically) Garage Inc. Not a bad variety of tracks, if you ask me! Honestly, that's a much better setlist than I was expecting from them: I would have thought that they would have used the opportunity to play a lot of stuff from Load and Reload and dialled back the thrash a bit. That said, it doesn't seem a huge amount different from their usual sets, from what I've heard, so a little bit more of a shake up in the setlist would have been a cool idea. Some people might complain about the absence of some of their faster songs like, say, "Battery" and "Hit The Lights", but I can't really fault them too much for that, as Glastonbury isn't exactly a festival where these faster numbers are likely to have gone over especially well (plus, opening with "Creeping Death" more than made up for that, if you ask me!). I personally feel that a few tracks were missing which would have been cool for the band to play live: I would have like to have seen them play "Hero Of The Day", "King Nothing" or "Until It Sleeps" from Load (although, granted, I do really like those tracks) and I find the absence of "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)" to be a bit of a shame. That said, the presence of so much stuff from both Ride The Lightning and Metallica is certainly pretty cool, as they're Metallica's best (in my opinion: I know a lot of people prefer Master Of Puppets, but I find Ride The Lightning to be a bit better than it) album and their most famous album and both have had some heavy focus over the last few years, so it's understandable that so much stuff from both was included and I don't have any real complaints to make about on that front! The absence of new track "The Lords Of Summer" is kind of an odd move when you consider that it's been played at most Metallica gigs for the past few months, but I guess the band figured it wouldn't be worth playing the song at Glastonbury due to the album it's meant to be on not being done recording yet, which is fine with me: I've not bothered to listen to the track myself, so the absence of it didn't bother me anyway! If I could have had control over the setlist (as hypocritical as it is for me to say this, considering one of my earlier comments about them maybe wanting to shake up the setlist a bit more compared to usual), I would have probably had the band swap out "Wherever I May Roam" for one of the tracks from Load which I mentioned and encourage them to also add "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", as it's otherwise a pretty well balanced set (and doesn't include anything from St. Anger and Lulu, which is always a plus in my book!). Credit to the guys there, it's a really nicely handled setlist overall!

But the greatest setlist in the world doesn't mean anything if the performances are terrible. And that really is the big question: how does Metallica do with that setlist live at Glastonbury?

Well...really well, actually! I've never seen Metallica live before now, so I didn't know what I was expecting and, well, I'm glad I was in the house on my own when I watched it, as I spent most of the set singing along quite happily (and loudly...my apologies to the neighbours!) and just generally being rather impressed. Considering I've heard A LOT of negative comments about Metallica as a live act (and Lars and Kirk live in particular: James and Rob tend to avoid any noticeable criticism, as far as I've seen...), I was rather impressed with how well they did! Let me break it down as much as I can. As a note in advance, if I don't say anything about something, it's because I felt it was up to what Metallica did on the album version of the song and, because I don't feel like spending hours covering everything, I've opted to not cover it to avoid going "This was fine" multiple times.

James Hetfield

James' voice sounded pretty good throughout the set. I feel he was struggling a bit near the end of the verses for "Wherever I May Roam", which struck me as somewhat odd due to it being so early in the set that I was noticing him start to struggle, but I feel that such a complaint would be unfair, as live environments are very different from studio environments. "Sad But True" was also a bit patchy at points, but not to the extent that I found it distracting. "Cyanide" was a bit iffy in the quiet section, but it wasn't necessarily bad: I just didn't think it was the best it could have been, as James seemed to drop his voice to be a bit too quiet and seemed slightly caught out by it. I felt a bit disappointed that James didn't sing the higher range vocals on "The Unforgiven" in the chorus, but I'll admit that it's more just because I really like that higher range bit than any complaint about how he sung it live: he still did it justice in a more comfortable range for him. Not sure his lower range in "One" was the best it could have been, but he still did fine throughout the song and he had been singing for nearly an hour by that point, so it's understandable that his voice wouldn't be quite as good as it was when he started and he more than made up for it with just how powerful his additions to the song compared to the record version of the song were: you actually could feel the emotion in his voice at those points and it just made the song into possibly the best version of the song I've heard to date. Which, admittedly, isn't saying much due to how little I keep up to date with Metallica in general these days, but it's still impressive. I also have to admit that I gave an involuntary yell of "yeah!" when he sung "Scanning the scene in Glastonbury tonight" at the start of "Seek And Destroy": that was a really cool touch!

His guitar playing in general was, for the most part, as good as on the record, so there's not really a lot to say there. Huge credit to the guy, it's got to be tough to have played guitar as long as he has and still be just as good as you were over three decades ago!

As a frontman, James struck me as surprisingly down to earth in his interactions with the crowd. If you'd not told me Metallica were a big band and been big for over two decades (let's pretend for a second that I hadn't heard of Metallica), I'd have thought that he was the frontman for a bar band that had recently got big due to his friendliness on stage and general enthusiasm when interacting with the audience. You can also tell that he's still passionate about music now, which is really cool! One review I read of the band's performance on the live DVD they did with the rest of the Big 4 (Megadeth, Slayer and Anthrax) described him as like everyone's favourite uncle and, while I wouldn't QUITE go that far, it's fair to say that he strikes me as the kind of guy who you would really like to hang around with on a regular basis. There's no way around saying this, so I'll bite the bullet: he's just cool (God, how I hate having to use that word in that way...)! I liked his short speech between "Wherever I May Roam" and "Sad But True" about how it was about time that hard rock and heavy metal started to get represented at Glastonbury since everything else was already there (although I think the choice of dedicating "Sad But True" to the fans who have waited for a metal band to play Glastonbury and the British metal bands who dream of being on a stage at Glastonbury was an odd one: it's not exactly a song that seems to suit such a dedication, when you know the lyrics to it!), as he raises a fair point, but I doubt it's going to change much beyond MAYBE getting Deep Purple, Iron Maiden or (if they're still going by this time next year) Black Sabbath at Glastonbury...hmm, actually, I'd be cool with any of them headlining Glastonbury if it happened! One request to anyone who is going to do the organisation from Glastonbury, if you're reading this: if you're going to do that, could you also try to get Lindisfarne, Runrig and/or Planxty and organise their sets so that they AREN'T on at the same time as them? If you can do that...I'd like a ticket, please! OK, OK, continuing with critiquing James' performance as a frontman at Glastonbury. I liked his short speech between "Fade To Black" and "Cyanide" as well (it was actually cool to see the guy asking the crowd the questions he did), but, again, I'm not sure dedicating "Cyanide" to everyone watching was really the best decision: the lyrics to "Cyanide" aren't exactly what I'd say are the kind of thing you'd dedicate to someone. I'm not sure he needed to try to use the "brothers and sisters" line or the "Glastonbury family" one, but that's more because it's a bit of a cliche of the metal scene which annoys me whenever I notice it: for an audience that isn't aware of those cliches, it's probably a nice change to have the band trying to actually relate with you and want you to like them instead of basically ignoring you and just playing the music because that's what they're there to do. Whether that's going to be something more bands will try at Glastonbury...I don't know, it seems to be more in line with what works for punk, hard rock and metal music than anything else that goes to Glastonbury. It might set a bit more of a precedent in the future, it might not. Either way, if I'd been in that audience and had that happen, I'd have probably gone "Wow, that's cool!" So yeah, basically, James was a great frontman!

Lars Ulrich

This is the guy I was most worried about, if I'm honest. A lot of people have said that Lars has gone downhill as a drummer since the 90's started, and he wasn't great to start with. While I don't necessarily agree with their final point (thrash drumming is pretty intensive on drummers in general and isn't actually that easy to be able to do to any standard: I might rag on extreme metal drummers for relying heavily on double bass drumming, but I would never claim it's easy to do, as you're still hitting the bass drum very rapidly and, often, with a lot of power to make sure you can provide the punch expected for a metal band) and feel Lars is often unfairly criticised for the band he is in (his drumming isn't necessarily bad, it's just not great by thrash metal standards, which are actually very high standards when you think about what the average thrash metal drummer has to do in a typical song...on a technical level, I'd say that he's not quite into the level of most metal drummers (and most thrash metal drummers could probably outplay Lars without any real difficulties), but he is better than a lot of typical rock drummers in that he will rarely stick with just keeping a beat for the song and at least tries to provide an interesting performance behind the kit which can make paying attention to what he's doing worth it), I will admit that I was expecting a disaster area due to the fact that having a drummer mess up will often mess up everyone else as well. But Lars was, surprisingly, rather good! I wouldn't say he quite matches up to himself on record anyway in the show, but he managed to get through the performance without any real mess ups that I could notice and his double bass technique was a lot stronger than I think people were expecting it to be. I suppose my big concern is that, if this is considered to be one of Lars' best performances in a good while, it's not impossible that he stepped up only for this show and will get noticeably worse in the future. If I could send a message to Lars, I would encourage him to aim to match this standard of drumming from now on (either through practice or doing a bit more warming up before the show) and MAYBE break up the thrash drumming a bit by placing a few less complex songs in between the really difficult ones. It works for Dani Loble of Helloween (and Andi Deris, come to think of it), as it basically allows the guy to rest up a bit with something he can do without any difficulty before he has to go all out on songs like, say, "Kill It" or "Long Live The King".

Kirk Hammett

Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous about Kirk's guitar playing in advance of watching the performance, as I knew the guy had been getting back in touch with his thrash roots (playing shows with Exodus and Death Angel over the last two years will do that to you) and, well, I kind of like how he plays lead guitar (although the fact my knowledge of the guitar is literally just "Three chords and it looks like a guitar" may have something to do with that...). Like Lars, I find Kirk is often unfairly criticised, being perceived by many as a bad guitarist who gets by through doing the same thing with his solos every time (or through ripping off Dave Mustaine, depending on who you ask...). Which may or may not be true (again, I have limited knowledge of how to play the guitar and I do not wish to get into an argument with people about this!), but that doesn't necessarily make his solos bad in and of themselves: thrash metal isn't exactly a genre which demands great technical ability, just an ability to play very quickly, and, in that aspect, Kirk is definitely not a bad lead guitarist. Unoriginal in the creation of his guitar solos? Yeah, that'd be fair. Outright bad? Erm...not really, no. On a technical level, I'd say his lead guitar playing is definitely a lot better than most hard rock lead guitarists and is definitely on par with what a lot of metal lead guitarists can do, if not better in quite a few cases. Anyway, soapbox moment over, I think he did a great job live. For the most part, he replicated his solos from the band's records very well and the few moments where he did slip up were within what I would consider acceptable for a live performance (so, a few minor hiccups that most people would have fairly written off).  Again, however, comments indicate that this is one of Kirk's best performances in a while, so I fear that Kirk could slip back in the future. I really hope he doesn't, as his performance at Glastonbury was really good and actually has me kind of excited for the band's next album...just don't take until 2016 to get it done, as I'm still annoyed at having waited for it since I read news about a new album in 2011! Oh yeah, and please don't get Rubin involved in the production of it, too...sorry, moving on!

Robert Trujillo

The relative new boy to Metallica (he's been in the band since 2003), Rob has never really left an impression on me: I couldn't hear his bass at all on Death Magnetic thanks to the painfully loudly mastered production (thanks for that, Mr. Rubin...OK, OK, I'll stop!), I haven't listened to Beyond Magnetic much and I refuse to acknowledge that I ever listened to Lulu! So this was kind of my first chance to get a measure for Rob...and it still didn't leave me with much of one! For some reason, Rob's bass seemed rather quiet in the BBC iPlayer video, so I can't really say how well he did overall. Bear in mind, I was playing the video AND my laptop speakers at maximum and I was still struggling to hear him properly! Ah well, nitpick aside, he was fun to watch onstage and, when I did hear his bass, he did a fine job on it. No major complaints to make, but I would have liked the bass to have been louder!

So, what are my final thoughts on the show? Well, it was really, really good! A few minor complaints aside, it was just a great show that showed that, at least live, Metallica can bring it when they want to! If the band continue to match this standard on all of their following live shows and release a strong album in 2015 (with...you know where I'm going with that, so I'll stop there!), I reckon they'll still be going strong for at least a few more years! In terms of how their show will impact Glastonbury...I don't know. Part of me is wanting to say "This has broken down the doors, people: metal is coming to Glastonbury, and it'll rock it like a hurricane!", but another part of me suspects that Metallica are going to be known as the first and only metal band to ever play Glastonbury. Metal fans aren't exactly known for being open minded when it comes to a lot of the stuff that Glastonbury plays, so I suspect that metal fans aren't going to start suddenly flocking to Glastonbury and, as such, metal bands aren't likely to start being added because of an audience for them now being there. Throw in the typical people who make up the Glastonbury crowd and Metallica's appearance causing a lot of controversy among that crowd and I doubt another metal band will ever be invited. Maybe some of the people in the crowd will have been won over and encouraged to give hard rock and metal music a chance, but I fear that a large number of people will not have. And that's a huge shame, as Metallica's performance was brilliant! So, even though Metallica's performance is one for the history books, I suspect it will be all for naught in the long run.

But you know what?

If it was all for naught, then at least Metallica gave it their all and, in doing so, gave a performance that was fitting of their status as legends of metal. And that, at the end of the day, is all that the metal scene could have asked of them.

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10

Bakken "Death Of A Hero" Review

I'll be honest, this album has been one that I've been aware of for a while now. I first picked it up in early 2013 after reading a positive review for it, but I wasn't really impressed with it and, after a while, I deleted it off of my iPod and the computer.

And, up until recently, this band remained out of my mind. For various reasons, I never bothered to cast my mind back to this band. But then I was chatting to a member of an unsigned band who mentioned they were planning on making an effort to do some shows in the UK some time in the future and I found myself thinking "Hmm...I wonder who they might tour with?"

And my first thought...was Primitai, surprisingly!

Then I thought again and went "Hold on...what was that band from Ireland that I checked out ages ago?"

One quick google search later, I found Bakken again and figured "Well, why not get their album again for a review?" So, I downloaded their album off of bandcamp again (it's available on a pay what you want basis) and put it on.

Am I more impressed now than I was back then? Well, read on and find out!

Bakken are a relatively new power/thrash metal band from Belfast in Northern Ireland, forming in 2011. This album, their 2012 debut, appears to be their first release, from what I've seen, and the band's line up has been mostly consistent since they formed: drummer and backing vocalist Niall McGrotty, guitarist Mark-Anthony Mcgennis and guitarist/lead vocalist Simon Pickett have been together since the band formed and the band have so far only had one line up change, swapping from bassist Brian O'Kane (who played on this album) to bassist Adrian Stockman. They've mentioned an upcoming EP on their Facebook page, but I don't think it's finished yet, as it doesn't seem to be available anywhere yet.

First up, the cover. Well, I have to be honest, my ONLY real complaint is the colour scheme feels a bit too focused on the use of various shades of brown, as it can blend together a bit more than it should do. I think it might have benefitted from using a slightly wider variety of colours, as it might have made it more appealing to look at it. Other than that, though, I really like it! Sure, it's not exactly the most impressive cover, but, considering what you expect from a metal album, it manages to hit the spot perfectly between an old school mentality and a modern mentality. I really like the oncoming storm feeling of it, but the album title kind of gives you the idea that the storm is a tribute to a fallen hero. So, great work on the cover art, guys! Just please try to include a better colour scheme next time, I don't think that varying shades of brown is especially appealing to look at!

So, now that that is done, let's move to the actual music on the album.

One of the first things that will be noticed by most listeners is Simon's vocals. He sounds surprisingly like modern day James Hetfield (Metallica), but without the "HEY YEAH" verbal tic that's somewhat become his trademark and with a slightly different tone to his voice. I also think he sounds a bit like a slightly lower voiced Matt Heafy (Trivium), but this is likely to just be a case of shared singing influences, since Heafy is a huge fan of Metallica. There is still an aggressive edge to Simon's voice, but it's definitely not to the extent of Chuck Billy (Testament), Steve "Zetro" Souza (Exodus, Hatriot) or Dave Mustaine (Megadeth). I wouldn't say this is necessarily a bad thing, but I think his very noticeable resemblance to Hetfield will hamper the band's chances of success outside of the metal underground scene (after all, being a Hetfield clone is not really an acceptable thing these days in the metal scene), so I would encourage Simon to try to find his own unique style within what he can do with his voice. If this is all he can do with his voice, then maybe taking a leaf from Helloween and finding another vocalist might be an idea worth looking in to? Simon isn't bad by any measure, but I fear that, without a distinctive voice to help them to stand out from the pack, they will get missed very easily.

The other performances across the album are pretty good, if somewhat standard by thrash and power metal standards: you don't see anything amazingly technical from the band, but their performances are strong enough for you to appreciate that the musicians have a reasonable degree of proficiency with their instruments. Niall's drumming manages to avoid completely falling into the cliche of "double bass assault" throughout the whole album, but I think a bit more variety in the drumming might have been a good idea, as he does tend to go for the double bass a bit more than he really should do. If Niall is reading this, may I suggest taking a few more cues from hard rock bands like Kiss and Led Zeppelin and try to encourage the guys to write one or two songs where you don't need to drum like a typical metal drummer all of the time? A few of those songs will help to give Bakken's next album more variety and showcase your drumming talents better than constantly using the double bass will. As much as this might sound like an insult to people with more drumming knowledge than me, look at Lars Ulrich's drumming in "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)": he mostly plays to the song and doesn't bring out the double bass on that song, and it arguably shows how versatile a drummer Lars can be when you compare his drumming there to on "Hit The Lights". There's nothing wrong with playing more simple drumming if it would benefit the song more than the expected style of drumming would, if you see the point I'm making!

The guitar work on the album is pretty much typical thrash metal guitar playing (with hints of Megadeth's more progressive touch...although definitely not to the extent of Heathen and Forbidden's brand of progressive thrash!), so you pretty much know what to expect there if you've heard any of Metallica or Megadeth's 80's albums. However, there's also a more melodic edge to their style of playing that makes me think a bit of early Helloween and some US power metal a la Jag Panzer, Iced Earth (well, when Schaffer isn't pulling out the iconic Iced Earth riff that's pretty much Steve Harris' bass triplets replicated on the guitar...) and Skullview (and the number of people who are going to know who they are is probably smaller than the population of Soay...I would explain where Soay is, but I have a feeling that most people would be staring at this review as if I'd suddenly swapped to speaking in Greek if I did, so I'll just say it's not far from Skye and let you guys google it (and Skullview) in your free time. And yes, I have actually been there!). I'd say this gives them a slight edge that a lot of typical thrash metal bands don't seem to have, as it can be tough to play melodically and quickly at the same time without it all starting to blend together into a large mess of noise and this awareness of melody gives them a way to sound distinctive without necessarily sacrificing anything.

The bass...well, it's mostly just there. I've not really noticed it much during my listens to the album, but, when I have noticed it, it's been well played. I wouldn't say Brian O'Kane is on the level of Cliff Burton by any measure, though. Mind you, Burton was a legendary bassist, so I guess that's not really a fair comparison. He doesn't seem to completely suffer from the usual issue that a lot of bassists do of just following the guitars, but I don't hear him doing anything really distinctive a lot of the time. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but I would like to hear a bassist in a modern band (and not one with a strong progressive lean, either!) who is willing to be adventurous with their playing and is capable of actually having a commanding presence in the mix of their album, as it does get dull to hear bassists who mostly seem to think that they have to follow the guitars to fit in with the song. Which isn't true: you just need to put some time into writing your bass line to make sure it isn't clashing with the chord that the guitars are playing and still fits in with what the song is going for (to give a rather drastic example, you shouldn't start playing bass as if you're on a Motown record when you're part of a death metal band!).

The band's sound is pretty much how I described the guitar playing: mostly 80's thrash based, but with a more melodic touch to it and a hint of a progressive lean that will bring Metallica or Megadeth to mind. I would kind of like to see the band explore this more melodic part on their sound more than they do across the album: the only time they really go all out with it is on "Back To The Future" (which, sadly, is not about the film series...), which is one of my favourite tracks on the album! The most thrash focused track is another favourite of mine, "The Cursed", so this criticism isn't intended to say that the band can't write good thrash metal: they can! I just think it might be interesting to see the band explore some stuff more like what they were doing on "Back To The Future" in the future, as I think they're starting to find something interesting with that and, with a bit of work to combine that more with their thrash sound (and maybe a bit of influence from Irish folk music? OK, I'm probably one of a small number of people hoping for the band to do that, but I love Irish folk music when I'm not listening to metal and I think that older sound might help them to find their own unique sound more! The start of "Get Back To Your Feet" had a feel to it that I think could have been better realised with some folk influence to it and "Sasquatch" has a lead guitar moment that brings to mind some Irish folk influences...although it's not impossible that the band were taking influence from Gary Moore and not Irish folk music there!), I think they could start to find their own sound much better. If they do want to do this, I think Simon's voice could turn from being a potential hinderance into an asset: very few power metal vocalists sound like James Hetfield and, with a sound that mixes power metal and thrash metal (and a bit of Irish folk? I know, I can dream...) with a slight progressive lean, I reckon the band could very easily throw off the potential Metallica/Megadeth clone accusations. At the moment, the accusations, while not entirely fair due to Bakken's more melodic lean, are unfortunately not completely without merit. While there is nothing particularly wrong with sounding like Metallica meets Megadeth (heck, a lot of metal fans probably will want to see that!), I personally think that it might be wise for Bakken to better incorporate the more melodic touch of their sound into the thrash backbone they have and try to do something more unique with it (hence the Irish folk suggestion, although that one is more to my personal preference than anything else, so a pinch of salt should be taken if Bakken are reading this: what I really like might not be what everyone else does!), as it would do them a lot more favours in the long run than sticking with a sound like the one on their debut.

The production is pretty much your modern thrash metal production: fairly clean (although Bakken do manage to get a bit of an old school feel to the production as well, which is certainly commendable!), a bit loud on the mastering (which, in my honest opinion, is a flaw in ANY album, but I can understand why it would work for thrash metal in particular: it's MEANT to be loud and fast, so a mastering job which suits that is perfect! Well, unless you do something like Death Magnetic or World Painted Blood, of course...), heavy on the guitars (to the point that Simon can sometimes get a bit lost in the mix when he's not singing at his loudest...although, to be fair, the guitar tone on this album is so good that I'm not too bothered by this one!) and suspiciously lacking in the bass guitar if you're not playing the album at the loudest (which, due to the mastering, is actually not a sensible idea for your ears). If you're OK with the production of most modern thrash albums, you'll probably be fine with this, but, if you're one of those people who prefer the old school feel of 80's thrash metal records and finds modern production ruins the final product, this is not going to win you over.

So, final thoughts? Well, Bakken have put out a rather solid (if slightly unoriginal) debut album in the form of Death Of A Hero, and I'm surprised I didn't realise how strong it was when I first got it! There are still areas of improvement in the band's sound and I feel they still have the potential to release a better album, but what they have provided so far is very enjoyable. I won't say that I expect Bakken to be huge in the future, but I feel a bit like I'm looking at the modern day version of Helloween's Walls Of Jericho here: what they've provided is really good, but I have a feeling that what they release next, if they do take the time to develop their sound more, could be even better!

...So, no pressure, guys: I just compared your debut album to that of Helloween's debut! Just promise me that you'll try to make sure your next album is more like your Keeper Of The Seven Keys and less like your Chameleon, OK?

Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10

A very good debut that shows a band who still have room to grow. It's worth keeping an eye on these guys if you're interested in thrash and power metal, as I have a feeling they could go on to do great things!

Personal Favourite Tracks: "The Cursed", "Back To The Future"

(Link to the band's bandcamp page, if you wish to download the album: http://bakken1.bandcamp.com/)

The Singles Collection: "Armorist" by Overkill

FUCK ME!

*Cough*

Sorry about that. This is going to require some context...

Overkill are a HIGHLY respected thrash metal band from New Jersey who have been going since 1980. They have been rather prolific, to put it mildly: White Devil Armoury, the album this track is from, is going to be their seventeenth studio album (or eighteen, depending on whether you count their debut EP as a full release or no: the band do, but I don't, as I count albums as full releases, not EPs). For reference, no other thrash metal band, to my knowledge, has managed to reach seventeen studio albums: the second highest record, to my knowledge, is sixteen albums, currently held (as of this week: their new album literally came out yesterday in the UK!) by the German beer metal thrashers (basically, thrash metal with lyrics relating to beer) Tankard. The third highest record, to my knowledge, is fourteen albums, currently held by both Megadeth and Sodom (although Megadeth may very well take the record away from Sodom: they're currently working on material for their fifteenth album, although I suspect we won't be seeing that until mid-2015 at the earliest...). Several thrash bands have made it into the double figures, but, at the rate they are going, Overkill might be the first to make it to twenty studio albums.

And, for the most part, I don't get how Overkill have made it this far and gained the acclaim they have.

I have listened to the band's last two albums (Ironbound and The Electric Age) as many times as I can, but, despite the thrash metal scene in general reacting to them as if they are the second coming of thrash metal jesus, my only thought has generally been "It's not bad...but why's everyone losing their shit over this?" To me, those albums, while certainly among the most ferocious and aggressive thrash metal to have appeared in a good while without mixing in influence from death metal, just lacked in solid hooks for the songs. Which might be it: thrash metal fans aren't exactly known for being friendly to stuff with anything resembling a hook, which is somewhat daft logic when you realise that every song needs a hook to be memorable, even if it's not a traditionally catchy hook in the sense of being poppy...

But I'm getting off topic.

Because of my generally unimpressed reaction to the band's last two albums, I was vaguely expecting this album to be along the same lines. I thought this album would be just another of those albums which I keep an eye on hoping to see the band drop the ball and get turned upon by the notoriously unforgiving thrash metal crowd (seriously, guys, how long are you going to hold everyone in the Big 4 except for Slayer in contempt just for releasing an album that wasn't an all out thrash album while letting less well known bands get off scot free for doing the same kind of thing? It pisses me off every time I see you do it, have some fucking consistency when you give bands scorn for doing stuff!), later see everyone else get excited over it and triumph it as a new classic, roll my eyes, try to explain to anyone willing to listen to me that speed and ferocity isn't everything in metal music, usually bringing up Judas Priest, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath as fine examples of bands who prove the thrash crowd wrong, then go find someone else to talk to because the thrashers treat me as a dumb idiot just because I'm actually pointing out something that is true (case of point, doom metal: think Black Sabbath with less blues influence to their sound and you pretty much have summed up the whole doom metal genre).

Then I heard this track.

...I refer you back to my opening sentiments.

Let's start with the link to the lyric video. As the music video is set to unlisted, I can't directly provide the video here, so I shall provide a link here. Seriously, music labels, stop making your lyric videos and music videos unlisted, it makes it look like you're trying to prevent an album from being promoted and gets people like me worried that the album is not actually a good album because you look like you're trying to hide it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZD8VIyj95Q

Anyway, let's look at the song itself!

As I mentioned earlier, Overkill's had a habit of writing really ferocious and aggressive thrash metal for a while now, so you'll be rather unsurprised to know that they keep this habit up nicely here. They do seem to lean a bit too close towards the cliche in modern day thrash metal of double bass abuse with the drumming on this song, but I'm usually not one to complain about this unless it's done over the course of a whole album, so I am hesitant to say that this is a big issue with me at the minute due to it only being one song. If this is a sign of the typical drumming on the album, then I see this being an issue when the album actually comes out, but, for the one song, it's perfectly fine, if a bit of a cliche. Seriously, let's look at the checklist for writing modern thrash metal: double bass drumming (check), bass guitar that mostly follows the guitars, but is played quickly (...nope, not here!), fast played, uncomplex guitar riffs (...eh, kind of) and vocals in the vein of Chuck Billy, Paul Baloff or Tom Araya (HELL NO).

That's the thing that surprises me, when you consider my previously mentioned dislike of Overkill: it's hard to say that Overkill do anything especially typical for thrash standards, as they actually don't! They're a more punk influence take on thrash metal, but not in the same way that leads to crossover thrash metal: it's just the band wears their punk influence on their sleeves in a way that is ever present across their sound, but the band injects it into the typical thrash sound in a way that...I can't quite put it in a way that will describe Overkill's sound very well, so let me put it this way: Motorhead were basically the genesis of speed metal, but they did it through basically playing heavily downtuned and distorted punk and rock n roll. Overkill are basically Motorhead if they had upped the ferocity, added more metal influences to their sound and got a more punk influenced Brian Johnson soundalike to sing instead of Lemmy.

...Huh, that's actually not a bad way to describe Overkill, now I think on it. Why do I not like these guys again, that sounds awesome on paper!

Oh yeah...they don't write great hooks for their songs. Shame, that would be a really...wait, the hook on this song is actually really good? As in, actually memorable on first listen? HALLELUJAH! THRASH JESUS, I HEAR YOU CALLING!

*Cough*

Sorry about that.

But seriously, the issue I mentioned earlier about the band not writing strong hooks? You'd not think it if you heard this track: it's got a pretty awesome chorus! You could sing it pretty easily after the first listen through of the song.

Since I think I need to stop sounding like I'm gushing about these guys, let me step back a bit and admit that there are a few issues with the song which I need to point out. The first is the lyrics: they're not exactly shining examples of lyrical brilliance. It's probably excusable due to the fact that thrash metal generally isn't known for having brilliant lyrics (heck, metal in general isn't known for having brilliant lyrics), but Overkill probably provide one of the weirdest bits of lyrics from an 80's metal band I can think of, as they resort to using initials in the pre-chorus that will sound suspiciously like text speak for stuff (I'm probably safe in assuming "G D M F" stands for "God Damn Mother Fucking", but "G D M" on it's own? In the context of the song's lyrics and the absence of the "F", I'm not entirely sure what the "M" must stand for, as "God Damn Mother" doesn't sound right and I can't think of another "M" word that fits in the context of the lyrics...anyone willing to explain that one for me? Also, YOU'RE A THRASH METAL BAND! WHY THE FUCK ARE YOU CENSORING YOURSELF WITH TEXT SPEAK?). I know text speak is a part of modern day society in the same way that having a porcupine stuck up your arse for several years would become a typical part of your everyday life, but this feels like a really odd concession for a band who were around before mobile phones were (yes, younger readers, there was a time when mobile phones did not exist. We also had the wonders of cassettes, tape players, the VHS and dial up connection internet when I was growing up...you don't know how lucky you are to have grown up with downloads, CD players, Blu-Ray and wireless internet, it's a hell of a lot more convenient by comparison!) and kind of has me wondering whether the band wanted to put something else down for the lyrics, but changed them at the last minute. Either that or somebody involved in the songwriting in the band has been listening to too much modern music...

The second is Blitz's vocals. I gotta be honest, his vocals are a love it or hate it kind of thing in much the same was as Steve Souza's are, and I'm mostly on the hate it side. No offence intended, but I don't find higher voices suit thrash metal very well, ESPECIALLY when they are somewhat nasal as well. While I can enjoy Blitz's vocals when I'm in the right mood, they usually just grate on my nerves. That said, I will give Overkill credit for the fact that I can't think of anyone else who I would want to hear singing their stuff (I don't see Chuck Billy making Overkill better, if you get the point I'm making), so credit to the band for making Blitz's vocals actually fit their sound instead of just writing something that any thrash vocalist could sing. Exodus could learn a thing or two about doing this...

The third is the production. This has been a bit of a recurring problem on the previous two Overkill albums, but, for the benefit of those not aware of it, I'll explain: the production sounds suspiciously mechanical. With Ironbound, it actually worked due to the title track being from the perspective of mechanical killers and the production gave the album a rather cold feel to it that was actually rather fitting. But, despite dialling it back since then, it's not been dialled back enough to stop you from noticing it. Which isn't a big issue, but it will be a problem if you aren't a fan of modern production.

Those issues, luckily, don't impact the song itself much, which, as I've mentioned earlier, is actually pretty good! I wouldn't call this a flawless song at all, but, if you're into thrash metal, this should be a track you'll really enjoy! If not...well, it depends on what you usually listen to, but I'd say this is worth a shot if your taste in music does point towards potential interest in thrash metal music (so, punk, faster styles of metal and stuff like that) and probably not if it isn't (so, folk, country, pop, opera, rap...).

Final Rating: 8 Out Of 10

A really good song that is only let down by a few relatively minor flaws. Thrash metal fans should really like this and metal fans in general are encouraged to give this a shot. If you're not a metal fan, then...well, first, why did you read this review, with all due respect? And you're advised to skip this one!

Oddworld Inhabitants "Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD" Review

I figured I'd try something a little different. See, I quite enjoy writing about music, but I do find that not having other stuff to talk about does mean that it's hard to keep up the enthusiasm, especially when I have half a dozen albums which I keep making vague motions towards reviewing and have to look at my collection of albums to review which is now covering my armchair and bed. But I don't have a large collection of books with me (...well, I do, but not where I currently live!), my knowledge of films is rather poor (which is kind of ironic, when you consider that I'm an unofficially retired actor...although I am still interested in acting and would happily act in something if a request came my way which would require me to, not to mention that I do want to do internet work which requires me to portray a character, so my retirement is more like "I'm not actively looking for acting work, but I will consider doing it if directly requested by someone and, if I come up with a character who I feel would be worth including in one of my projects, I will portray the character unless I have a valid reason not to"...I know, that's not really an effective retirement, hence why I said "unofficially retired"!), I don't watch a lot of TV at the minute and I try to avoid talking about serious topics like politics, religion and various industries because I know that kind of stuff is usually a hot topic for a lot of people and I would prefer to let people live and live on that one without having to read my speculations on this kind of stuff, especially considering I'm not hugely interested in those topics myself.

So, due to having nothing else I can really talk about, here's my first ever video game review!

Oddworld Inhabitants are probably one of the first companies I ever remember seeing a game by. Back when I was a young kid, I vaguely remembered seeing a section of a cutscene from a game that I thought looked interesting. For some reason, I never made a note of what the game was and I went on my merry way. Yet I never forgot that cutscene and it was nearly fifteen years later (specifically, earlier this year) when I finally found out what game the cutscene was from: Abe's Exoddus. I was happy to find that out, but I figured that I'd never see the game again, as I didn't have a PS1 and I didn't have a lot of spare cash at the time to pay what I assumed was going to be a huge amount to get the game, but then PSN came to the rescue and I happily downloaded the Oddboxx, which contains all of the Oddworld games, and started playing the first game in the series, Abe's Oddysse.

And proceeded to get my ass handed to me.

Brutally.

Repeatedly.

After a few hours of playing, however, I got accustomed to the difficulty spike and was fine...up until the next zone, where it felt like I'd gone back to square one.

I've still not finished Abe's Oddysse now, to be honest. I suspect I must be somewhere past the halfway mark, as I've been through both temples and am currently on my way back into the factory, but, at the moment, I just don't know. I was originally going to go through Abe's Exoddus, then go through Munch's Oddysse and finally finish with Stranger's Wrath, but I got so tired of dying that I opted to skip forward to Munch's Oddysse to spare my controller from getting thrown through a window.

And I was kind of bored by it.

It isn't a bad game, but, at the time of writing, I'm about halfway through the game and I can't help feeling like the game is lacking some of the charm that made Abe's Oddysse so good. While the addition of Munch is a good idea on paper and he's not really a bad character in and of himself, his slow movement speed just makes playing him a chore (although, I will be fair, he does get better whenever he gets a wheelchair) and he's not really added a lot to the game so far. Maybe he becomes a much better character later on in the game, but, so far, he just leaves me unimpressed.

By contrast, I've adored Stranger's Wrath since I first started playing it.

Let me start by discussing the flaws of the game first. Firstly, The Oddworld games' habit of setting the difficulty dial up higher than they really should do is more reasonably handled than usual, but there are still a few moments where you will be getting frustrated at the challenge of the game. One bounty in particular (I won't say which one, but those of you who have played the game probably know which one I'm thinking of) will hand your ass to you quite easily if you only have Zappflies with you (although I wasn't in that position: I just didn't want to use them because I was trying to capture the target alive), so you are strongly advised to keep your more interesting types of ammo as full as you can before you get to the actual target and to not be shy about using them when you get to the battle if it will make things easier. This isn't the only instance with really high difficulty, but this is the one which I felt overdid it so much that I really have to bring it up as a warning for potential interested gamers. The difficulty, for the most part, is otherwise fine, if still high enough to challenge you throughout the game and encourage you to heal up whenever you can (which isn't a big problem, thanks to Stranger's ability to recover health by LITERALLY SHAKING IT OFF).

Secondly, while the story is well handled for the most part, I have to say that a lot of the first half of the game will have you wondering where the plot went. You start out delivering an outlaw that you've captured to a town and then you go and do some bounties while the plot basically waits for you to do that. After that, the plot does pick up, but you still spend a lot of time doing bounties up until about the middle part of the game (which, for the benefit of those who have not played the game, I will not spoil for you). After that, the game continues to gather even more momentum, to the extent that you'd be forgiven for wondering why the game opted to wait so long to start bring this story out. Maybe I just took too long to get to that point, I don't know...

The third is the voice acting. While, for the most part, it is very good (which is all the more impressive when you realise that a large amount of the voice acting is done by one man: Lorne Lanning, who is one of the co-founders of Oddworld Inhabitants), I cannot help saying that I find the voice acting on the Grubbs rather grating to listen to. It's not necessarily bad, but I can't help turning up the music I usually have on in the background whenever they start to speak. Luckily, they don't talk a huge amount over the course of the game, so you can call this a nitpick pretty comfortably!

Fourth, as much as I enjoy the game, there's not a lot of reasons to replay it once you beat it for the first time. To be fair, this is a problem with a lot of single player games that focus on telling a story and don't have multiple paths to take the story down to encourage replays, but you basically have no reason to play this game again once you beat it unless you really want to experience the story. Which isn't necessarily a problem in and of itself, but, when you know what the twist is and then realise you have to spend about half of the game just to get back to it, you will probably have to fall back on the story of that half to get you there. And...well, you only need to read my second complaint to know that it isn't going to carry you back to the second part.

That's really about the only real issues I have with the game. Apart from that, you get a lot that is good at minimum!

First of all, the art style of the game is just wonderful to behold! If you're ever played an Oddworld game before now, you already know what to expect, but, if you haven't, then let me sum it up for you: highly creative character designs, a somewhat dark industrial look to the city buildings (mixed with a bit of what you might expect to see in a old Western film for this game) and beautiful open landscapes! Oddworld Inhabitants are probably best known for their great art style for their games (which makes it a huge shame that they've only released four original games since they were formed...), and this game certainly does not disappoint on that line!

Secondly, I really like the way the game combines play styles. By default, the game plays like a more typical third person action-adventure game, but, when you want to use Stranger's crossbow, it goes to a first person perspective rather like that of a FPS. Speaking as someone who is rather fond of these two types of games, I have to say that both styles are done very well indeed, to the extent that I'd actually say that it would be possible (if not a good idea: you can't run or punch in FPS mode and you can't shoot in default mode) to play the game in just one style if you really wanted to.

Thirdly, despite my complaint about the story taking more time than it really should to start coming together, I have to say that it's actually a pretty good story! I can't really talk about it much without spoiling some big twists, but I will say that, once the game starts picking, the story is easily one of the best stories I've seen in a game. True, it isn't necessarily an especially original story, but it's very well told and the twists will catch you off guard (which is why I'm not spoiling them in this review).

Fourthly, Stranger, while not the best protagonist the Oddworld series has provided us so far (that would be Abe), is a brilliant main character. He has a great design in general (although you might have a few questions post-first spoiler) and his catchphrase when he meets his bounties ("Dead 'r alive, yer ass is comin' with me") just reeks of the guy being a badass. And that's not covering the fact that he can literally shake off injuries to heal himself. If you want to get a good idea how to do a badass main character well, Stranger would be a good character to look at. It's honestly a shame that this is the only game he has appeared in so far, as I would be interested in seeing more of the character in the future...although, to be fair, his game WAS the last original game Oddworld Inhabitants released before basically bowing out of the gaming industry for a few years, so you can't exactly say he's been written out of canon yet!

They have me surrounded -- the poor bastards!

Moving on to the lesser details that I think really help to make the game, I really like the creative nature of the different ammo types. It would be easy to just make the crossbow fire a bunch of arrows or something which Stranger can buy from shops or something boring like that, but what this game does is makes the ammo be creatures which you can find and hunt for in the wild. While this is probably not a major thing for a lot of people, I really like it, as it shows a creativeness in the development that goes above and beyond the call of duty (pun not intended).

The game also plays wonderfully. The controls respond very well and, although I'm not keen on the fog effect that makes seeing a particularly far distance impossible, I can let that go due to the fact that this was originally an XBOX game and the HD version is basically a slightly spruced up port of it.

So, would I say the game is worth picking up? Well, I'll let Twilight Sparkle say it for me:

For the benefit of those who aren't interested in My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and, as such, didn't click on the video: YES! YES! A MILLION TIMES, YES!

Seriously, though, this game is really worth checking out. It isn't a flawless game, but the sheer creativity of the game is impressive and the flaws in it aren't especially serious on your first play through (although they do become more of an issue if you want to play it more than once). If you're been out of gaming for a while now and want a valid reason to get back into it, then this might well be that reason! I would personally recommend getting it along with the rest of the games in the form of the Oddboxx if you can, as you get four games for less than £20 if you do that, but this game is definitely worth picking up on its own if you can get it and you don't especially want to pick up the other games...although you'd be missing out on two brilliant games that are classic video games of the 90's (and Munch's Oddysse) if you go for that option!

Final rating: 8 Out Of 10

A very good game that, had it been the swan song to Oddworld Inhabitants if their departure from the video games industry in 2005 had been permanent, would have ended the whole franchise on a really strong note! Since it isn't, it leaves you a strong starting point to speculate into what the future of the franchise could be...and, if Oddworld: New 'n' Tasty is any indication, it looks like it's going to be absolutely amazing! It might look a bit outdated now, as it's been over nine years since the game originally came out (and over three since it first got a re-release onto relatively modern platforms: on PSN, it took until late December 2011!) and the story isn't really strong enough to justify more than one playthrough, but, if you aren't put off by that and this sounds like your kind of game, then go get a copy now! Trust me, it's worth picking up!

Tim Ripper Owens "Play My Game" Review

...I'm going to have to be completely honest with you guys, I really want to like Tim Owens as a musician. It's not an easy job to replace Rob Halford in Judas Priest or Matt Barlow in Iced Earth, but he was able to do a decent job at it. From what I've heard about the guy, he's a really friendly and humble guy, which is sadly not as common as it really should be when it comes to vocalists in iconic bands. And, while I might not be a huge fan of his natural singing voice (I'm not fond of the tone of his voice), I can't deny that he has a strong voice and a pretty good range. I'd really love to be able to say something like "Owens is one of the most underrated vocalists in the metal scene", because he really is once you look at him as a vocalist in his own right and don't compare him to the sky high standards of the people who he replaced in Judas Priest and Iced Earth. Yeah, he didn't match up to them...but, really, who could? The fact he did as well as he did is genuinely an impressive feat, when you think about it...

But I can't say all of that without having something to work with involving the guy's music.

At the end of the day, I have to be a critic. And, speaking as a critic, nothing Owens has done has really won me over on the guy as a musician. I will be fair, he wasn't really to blame for his work with Judas Priest and Iced Earth, as he barely wrote anything for those bands, but I never really liked the first Charred Walls Of The Damned album (it just wasn't my kind of thing) and, while I do really like "Scream Machine" off of the Beyond Fear album, the rest of the stuff I've heard from that album just left me going "Meh" at best. It's honestly rather frustrating and kind of sad that I can't give the guy the credit he deserves, but I can't triumph the guy if I don't feel like he's giving me something to triumph. Being a nice guy in the music industry doesn't mean anything if your music isn't worth listening to.

This album arguably cements that fact. There are a ridiculous number of guest performers on this album, which at least shows that Owens has a lot of connections in the industry, but the record itself...well, I'll break it down more in the actual review, but I will say that this isn't going to be an especially positive review. So, if you're a fan of Owens as a vocalist and want me to triumph the guy...I'm really sorry, but I can't do that. So I wouldn't blame you for closing this page down on your web browser right here and not reading the rest of this review.

...Anyone still reading this?

Good.

Let's start with the artwork. I'm going to let you look at the artwork before I give my thoughts on it, as I think you will be able to spot a lot of the issues I'm going to point out.

So, let's start with that sticker. You might be thinking that's something that someone forgot to remove from the cover before taking the picture, but you'd be wrong: I can assure you that it is actually part of the artwork for the album. Yes, they actually want you to know that Doug Aldrich (ex-Dio and ex-Whitesnake guitarist), Chris Caffery (ex-Savatage and Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist), Rudy Sarzo (ex-Ozzy Osbourne, ex-Quiet Riot and ex-Whitesnake bassist...and was also part of Geoff Tate's version of Queensryche, but I'm trying to forget that one ever happened!), Steve Stevens (guitarist for Billy Idol), Billy Sheeran (ex-David Lee Roth, Mr. Big and The Winery Dogs bassist), Jeff Loomis (ex-Nevermore guitarist) and Michael Wilson (Queensryche and Soulbender guitarist), to name the ones on the sticker, played on the album. Here's where problem number one comes up: for a solo album by Tim Owens, there's a distressingly large amount of star power on here which could easily outstrip that of Owens' own. While singing for Judas Priest is a pretty impressive task, there's so much star power on here that it's very possible to forget that Owens is meant to be the main attraction, and advertising everyone else on the cover seems to be a very poor way to keep that focus on him. It'd be roughly the same thing that you'd expect to see happen if Kai Hansen (to pick a name that power metal fans will recognise, but most mainstream music fans won't) decided to release a solo album, got Maroon 5 to be his backing band and then put on the cover "With backing from Maroon 5". I know, extreme example that would never happen, but you see the point I'm making? If you're making a solo album under your own name and you're not the most recognisable name on the album, then something is terribly wrong.

The second issue is the art style. I get that it's going for a retro style like what you see on flyers back in the 80's or some interestingly shaded comics, but it just looks crap on the cover art for a metal album. It's fairly distinctive in terms of the style, but I just don't think it works very well for what Owens is trying to do. The background colour combination of red and...I think it is meant to be either dark red or brown? Anyway, it just doesn't work very well and makes things look kind of lazy. I will give credit for one thing, though: I like the little touches in the artwork which you can see if you look closely. I just think a better colour combination would have made it a bit better.

So, that's the artwork. But what about the music?

Well, before I start actually providing my thoughts on the music, let me provide you with the line up for every track. This might seem like padding, as most of the guys don't give performances that live up to their names, but I want to highlight just how criminally underused some of these musicians are.

Track 1: "Starting Over"

• Guitar: Bob Kulick
• Bass: Rudy Sarzo
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 2: "Believe"

• Lead Guitar: Craig Goldy
• Rhythm Guitar: John Comprix
• Bass: Rudy Sarzo
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 3: "The Cover Up"

• Lead Guitar: Jeff Loomis
• Rhythm Guitar: John Comprix
• Bass: James Lomenzo
• Drums: Brett Chassen

Track 4: "Pick Yourself Up"

• Lead Guitar: Steve Stevens
• Rhythm Guitar: Bob Kulick
• Rhythm Guitar: Mike Callahan
• Bass: Dennis Hayes
• Drums: Ray Luzier

Track 5: "It Is Me"

• Lead Guitar: Carlos Cavazo
• Rhythm Guitar: Mike Callahan
• Bass: Rudy Sarzo
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 6: "No Good Goodbyes"

• Lead Guitar: Bruce Kulick
• Rhythm Guitar: Bob Kulick
• Bass: Billy Sheeran
• Drums: Brett Chassen

Track 7: "The World Is Blind"

• Lead Guitar: Doug Aldrich
• Rhythm Guitar: John Comprix
• Bass: Billy Sheeran
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 8: "To Live Again"

• Rhythm & Lead Guitar: Michael Wilton
• Rhythm Guitar: Bob Kulick
• Bass: David Ellefson
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 9: "The Light"

• Rhythm Guitar: Bob Kulick
• Bass: Tony Franklin
• Drums: Bobby Jarzombek

Track 10: "Play My Game"

• Lead Guitar: Neil Zaza
• Rhythm Guitar: John Comprix
• Bass: Rudy Sarzo
• Drums: Simon Wright

Track 11: "Death Race"

• Guitar: John Comprix
• Bass: James Lomenzo
• Drums: Brett Chassen

Track 12: "The Shadows Are Alive"

• Guitar: Chris Caffery
• Bass: Marco Mendoza
• Drums: Simon Wright

There's also a bonus track on iTunes which adds Vinny Appice (on drums) to the list of names I've provided.

ON PAPER, that's a brilliant line up of musicians, with a huge amount of star power to take Owens to the next level.

But, unfortunately, Owens is the one in the driving seat: he wrote or co-wrote every song on this album. While he did not produce the album (Brett Chassen and Bob Kulick did), you can safely assume that all of the musicians were just playing what Owens wrote.

And there's no way to sugarcoat this: he's not a great songwriter and doesn't play to his strengths.

You remember me mentioning earlier that I'm not fond of the tone of Owens' natural singing voice? Well, that is what he mostly sticks with for this album. He rarely goes for his falsetto, so you don't get to hear him screaming like a motherfucker as he really should be doing, but trying to sing in a natural singing voice that I find grating to listen to. Some people say he sounds like Dio on steroids, but I think that saying that is an insult to the memory of one of the greatest metal singers of all time: Owens does not sound ANYTHING like Dio, and even DARING to imply that Owens can do what Dio did better than Dio did is practically sacri-fucking-legious!

...Well, OK, I'll be fair, Owens does clearly have some influence from Dio in his natural singing voice. But no fucking way is he Dio on steroids: Dio could sing songs with a conviction and in a way that made you engaged in what he was singing, in a way that was somewhat theatrical. Owens can't do that: he mostly approaches the song from the same perspective. And that perspective is just singing it without the conviction or theatrically of Dio. Even if the material on this album was better, I would still be unimpressed with Owens' singing voice on this, as he doesn't leave me convinced by his performance in the slightest. The best way I can put it is that I would expect unengaged singing on the demos of songs that are still being worked out, not on the final project that's meant to be listened to and enjoyed! I would let it go in that case, because it was obvious that the songs were still being tinkered about with and the vocals are just there to check how it sounds. Here, though...no. I expect to hear a much better performance than this.

Now here's when the album gets worse: the material, for the most part, is dull as fuck. Owens claims that he's aiming for songwriting that is in the vein of Judas Priest and Dio-era Black Sabbath on the back of my copy: straight to the throat, fist pumping metal that goes right for the bloodstream. Erm...hate to break it to you, dude, but this does not sound like it's in the vein of Judas Priest and Dio-era Black Sabbath. For a start, Dio-era Black Sabbath had lyrics that leaned towards a fantasy concept that was delivered by a vocalist who gave every word the importance it deserved without oversinging it and Judas Priest had a strong falsetto screamer who was leading a band playing rather quick heavy metal with high quality riffs. What you have, Mr. Owens, is mid paced boredom which you are delivering without any consideration of how important what you are singing is and without engaging lyrical concepts while also wasting the talents of some amazing musicians who might as well have not appeared on this album due to how unimpressive their performances. I know you know Judas Priest very well, as you sung for them, and you must know Dio's stuff well, as you're currently singing for Dio Disciples, so what I want to know is how the hell you messed THAT up?

The production...eh, it's not bad. Bass is too quiet, mastering is a bit too loud...if you've read this blog before now, you know the drill, I'm sure.

So, final thoughts? Well...no, I don't think I need to repeat what I think of this album, for there is NOTHING that needs to be said about it. I'll be fair, for all of my anger probably indicating otherwise, the album mostly sticks to being dull, so it's not an outright horrible album and definitely not as bad as my final rating is going to make it out to be. But the criminal misuse of the guest performers is something I just cannot ignore and, as such, I'm going to have to give one of the lowest scores I've given an album to date. If you can ignore the misuse of the guest performers, then add two points onto my final score.

Final Rating: 3 Out Of 10

A very dull album that criminally misuses the talents of the guest performers AND the guy who is supposed to be doing the solo project. If you can approach this without the expectations of what the guests can provide, you might find this a passable album, but not anything worth getting excited about. If you're a die hard fan of Ripper as a vocalist, you might find this enjoyable, but I doubt this is going to be one of his projects that you'll listen to a lot. Basically, I don't recommend this album to anyone UNLESS you can cope with Owens not doing what he does best, the guest performers not bringing their usual impressive performances to the table and material that is mostly very dull.

Personal Favourite Tracks: "favourite" might not be the right word here, but I found "Death Race" to be the most tolerable song on the album.

The Deadstation. "Episode One: Like Peering Into The Deepest Ocean Abyss." Review

...OK, I'll admit, I usually don't go for stuff on bandcamp. I usually prefer to just listen to stuff that I like and don't especially care to dig into the realm of bandcamp.

But that changed recently. See, I was working on something and I found myself wondering about something which I'd downloaded a while ago. So, I went back to bandcamp, downloaded it again and, while I was there, decided to glance around to see what I could find. And, while one project got my interest very quickly, I didn't find anything at first that I was definitely wanting to get.

So I decided to give it another, more detailed search. And this EP popped up in that search. Being curious and noticing it was available on a pay what you want basis, I decided to pick this up!

And boy, was I in for a surprise!

The Deadstation. are a progressive metal band from Boston, Massachusetts who are made up of three musicians: lead vocalist and drummer Greg Murphy, guitarist Ryan Mattheu and bassist/guitarist (he provides both on this EP) Shjon Thomas. I'll admit, I don't know a huge amount about the band (I've not found a lot of information about them beyond what I've just told you), but I don't think I need to say a lot more about them anyway, as this is only their debut EP and, from what I've heard, they have only really been around since 2011 (although I'm sure someone will be able to correct me on that one if I'm wrong). The band describe themselves as dystopian progressive metal (I don't think that's actually a thing, but sure, whatever you want to believe...) and, on their Facebook page, mention influences of 90's Dream Theater, post-rock, Metallica's first five albums (Kill 'Em All to Metallica), the effects done by The Edge (the guitarist of U2), the vocal harmonies of Layne Stanley and Jerry Cantrell (from Alice In Chains), depressing Radiohead videos, Born To Run by Bruce Springsteen, nerdy prog rock (which I'm GUESSING includes early Muse and Spock's Beard, but don't quote me on that one!) and Yngwie Malmsteen.

So, a surprisingly varied range of influences, dystopian themes and progressive metal? Consider me intrigued...but is it actually any good in practice? Well, let's see!

First up, the cover art. I have to admit, I actually really like it! It's got a feeling of being cold and emotionless which is actually really quite appropriate for the band's style of metal, but there's a human element to it that helps you to realise that there's something more underneath it all which shows that it's not all it seems to be at first glance. Maybe I'm reading too much into this and finding a bit of optimism which the band did not intend, but I personally find that what makes a dystopian future so interesting is not necessarily the hopelessness of the future, but how humanity copes with this dystopian future and strives to overcome the worst of it. Even when they fail, you start to notice the flaws in this future system and realise that there will eventually be a revolution to topple the corrupted system that has been put in place, even if it's not created by the characters we know from the story. I feel that The Deadstation, whether intentionally or just through me reading far more into it than I should have, have managed to capture this perfectly.

(Incidentally, random thought for you: how come there have been so few stories from the perspective of someone who is actually trying to protect the dystopian society they are part of? You know, a story from the perspective of one of those government agents who we always see getting overthrown in these types of stories and giving a viewpoint of it from the side of the oppressors as opposed to the oppressed? After all, we see enough stories where the rebels are always shown in the right, so why not tell a story where the viewpoint is actually from a person who is on the wrong side and is only fighting to defend what they know? Any writers who are reading this, get onto that, I'd really like to see more stories like that myself!)

Anyway, onto the music!

One of the things that strikes me is that the band were not kidding about their influence from Dream Theater. I am strongly reminded of the band when I hear this, but I wouldn't say The Deadstation. are necessarily ripping off Dream Theater or actively trying to sound like Dream Theater in the same way a lot of progressive metal bands do: they have their own twist on progressive metal that happens to have a healthy dose of Dream Theater's sound in it. I'll admit, I would prefer more progressive metal bands to take cues from Queensryche and Crimson Glory when it comes to progressive metal (if you will, do a more tasteful type of progressive metal where the focus is not on instrumental virtuosity, but on writing strong songs that are complex in a subtle way that is actually part of the songs), but I cannot deny the talent of progressive metal musicians who do the more typical approach to progressive metal and, well, there is always a part of my grumpy heart that wants to hear a band show off what they can do...although I wouldn't want them to do it to the extent of harming a song in the same way a lot of progressive metal bands do! The thing that I think gives The Deadstation. an advantage is that they seem to understand that less is more: the songs might be busy and rather complex, but they don't pack that into songs that are really long, focusing instead of keeping the songs to a length that doesn't feel excessive. The ONLY song that I think might have overdone it a bit is "Like Peering Into The Deepest Ocean Abyss: Drugs For Pain Inside.", a near eight minutes long song that, while still good, goes on just long enough enough that I cannot help finding myself being surprised to notice it is still going when I put it on in the background. However, it still works nicely, so maybe I'm being a bit harsh there. For the most part, the only thing that I think the band could have worked upon with their sound is to maybe add a few more different influences to their sound, as the strong focus on Dream Theater's sound will be off-putting to a lot of people who aren't fond of Dream Theater: other than that, I have no real complaints about the band's sound! Great work, guys, now you just need to work on making your own twist on the DT sound a bit more noticeable...

Moving to the performances...well, it's all technically very good, I have to say! However...yeah, you knew the words "Dream Theater" were coming up again, didn't you? The drumming, despite being good, does still seem a bit too influenced by Dream Theater: you have rather complex drumming along the same line as that of Mike Portnoy for most of the album, which is nice to listen to, but does feel a bit like it could have done with the occasional bit of dialling back due to how present the drums are throughout the album. The guitar manages to avoid sounding too much like Petrucci's playing style (although does still contain some influence from him), which is a rather good sign due to the fact that it indicates that the band are making steps towards find their own sound. The bass feels suspiciously quiet across the album, for some reason, but that could my ears failing to pick it up. Regardless, a bit more bass presence in the mix would be much appreciated! Greg Murphy's voice, while surprisingly reminiscent of that of James LaBrie, also manages to remind me a bit of that of a pop punk vocalist at points, although it's more a case that his voice just happens to have that same kind of tone than out of any presumed real influence. So, you have some great performances on this album as well!

Moving to the production, ignoring my previous comment about the bass mix, I think the EP might be a tiny bit loud with the mastering at points (and, ironically, too quiet in others: I literally have to put my speakers on maximum to hear some of the stuff properly, which is concerning when you consider that I can hear the rest of the EP fine on less than half volume on these same speakers!). It's not exactly badly done (it's mostly fine if you ignore the mixing issue), but I would have preferred a slightly more even mastering job due to the fact that might have improved the EP a bit (yes, I am actually saying that I would have liked a less dynamic master for this album for once: the quieter parts of the album are too quiet and the loudest parts of the mastering are a bit too loud, so I feel a more even mastering job might have benefitted the EP more!).

So, my thoughts? Well, one song overreaches itself a bit too much, the bass feels suspiciously quiet in the mix, the mastering is a bit loud at points (and too quiet in others) and the influence from Dream Theater can be overwhelming at points if you don't like Dream Theater much...and that's all that I really have to complain about! I kid you not, I have very little with this EP that I can complain about! Technically brilliant performances, great songs, great vocals, mostly good production...heck, the lyrics are pretty good as well! Frankly, I'm surprised this is available to potentially download for free: I'd have happily paid full price for this EP if they'd been charging a minimum price for it, as it's just that good! I would honestly say that, if you have ANY interest in more technical styles of metal music (not even necessarily progressive metal: power metal will do fine!), you should go and check this out! If you're not into more technical brands of metal, then you should still give this a go, as you'll probably still find something really good on this EP (most likely "Substance Defined."). If you aren't interested in metal at all...erm, I don't think this'll be your cup of tea at all, but, if you want to listen to this, then, by all means, give it a go!

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10

A flat out brilliant EP with a few minor flaws that stop it from reaching the heights it really should. If you are a metal fan with some appreciation for more technical brands of heavy metal, then you have no excuse for not picking this up: it's available on a pay what you want basis on bandcamp, for crying out loud, you could pick it up for free if you have no money to spare!

Personal Favourite Tracks: all of them, but my highlight is "Substance Defined.".

(Link to the band's bandcamp page, if you wish to download the EP: http://thedeadstation.bandcamp.com/)