The Singles Collection (A Double Feature): "Hector's Hymn" by HammerFall and "Arise And Purify" by Sanctuary

What is it with bands releasing singles that I want to look at this week? Here I am, still somewhat tired from writing yesterday's article in this series and then HammerFall and Sanctuary choose today to go "NEW SINGLE TIME!"

...Eh, I've had a long wait between articles for this series in the past, so I guess I can't complain too much now that I'm having to do this type of article twice in as many days, can I?

Anyway, October is shaping up to be a rather interesting month for metal, which is saying a lot when you realise just how impressive 2014 has been for metal in general! We have Scar Symmetry releasing the first part of their three part rock opera, Exodus releasing their first album with "Zetro" Souza on vocals since 2004's Tempo Of The Damned, Amaranthe releasing their third album, Devin Townsend releasing his second album of 2014 (a sequel to his album with Ziltoid (don't ask if you don't know)) and Lordi making a return (and rather quickly, too!), but the two names that metal fans will no doubt be anxiously awaiting are by two bands who are underground legends of the metal scene: Sanctuary and At The Gates.

...I think my bank account is going to hate me by the end of September.

However, one band who have an album just around the corner are HammerFall, who took 2013 off after the somewhat disappointing Infected in 2011 (which I didn't dislike, but calling it underwhelming would be a bit of an understatement...) and are returning on the first of September (in the UK) with their ninth album, (r)evolution.

...AND this isn't the first single from this album, either, but I forgot to write an article on that one, so I'm going to review this one because it's the first song from the album I've heard.

Anyway, let's get started with the one most people are curious about: Sanctuary!

"Arise And Purify" Review

Sanctuary are one of those underground legends of the metal scene that are probably best known among mainstream metal fans for their connection to Nevermore: vocalist Warrel Dane and bassist Jim Sheppard would go on to form Nevermore with Jeff Loomis (who spent a little bit of time in Sanctuary before they disbanded). However, Sanctuary might also be known by people for a few other reasons: Dave Mustaine (Megadeth's vocalist, guitarist and general nutter) produced their debut album, 1987's Refuge Denied, Jeff Loomis auditioned to join Megadeth before he was part of Sanctuary, their song "Battle Angels" appeared in the video game Brütal Legend and (if you were around in the 80's and 90's) they toured alongside Megadeth and Warlock in support of Refuge Denied and Fate's Warning, Forbidden and Death Angel in support of 1989's (or, if you live in the US, 1990's) Into The Mirror Black. I'm going to take a guess that the bands were supporting the following albums at the time of their tours, as I really want to highlight what metal was like at the time of these tours:

• Peace Sells... But Whose Buying? (Megadeth)
• Triumph And Agony (Warlock)
• Perfect Symmetry (Fate's Warning)
• Twisted Into Form (Forbidden)
• Act III (Death Angel)

In plain English for the non-metal fans: that's a surprisingly large amount of metal classics being represented there.

Anyway, Sanctuary broke up in 1992 through a combination of label pressure to play grunge music and creative differences that were caused by this pressure. But, as I mentioned earlier, their legacy was never forgotten: Warrel Dane and Jim Sheppard, along with Jeff Loomis, would form Nevermore, possibly one of the few progressive metal bands who actually deserve that description just because trying to pin down their actual genre is nigh on impossible. However, in 2010 (the same year Nevermore released their last album, The Obsidian Conspiracy), Sanctuary reformed and now, three years and a half since Nevermore went on hiatus (or broke up: it's never been confirmed which is the truth) and four and a half years since their reunion, they are due to release their third album, The Year The Sun Died, on the 6th (or 13th: the UK release date hasn't been provided yet, but I've made a sensible guess based on the fact that new albums come out in the UK on Mondays) of October.

So, to recap: this is the first song Sanctuary have released in 24 years. The most recognisable members of the band have spent nearly two decades playing progressive metal that sounds rather unique (although surprisingly reminiscent of Dir En Grey, now I think on it...). And the band are underground metal legends who are mostly known for playing US power metal in the vein of Painkiller-era Judas Priest, only done a few years before Priest did it.

...If you're thinking "This is either going to be really good or really bad", you're on the right track!

But let's start with making the track available to listen to! Yeah, like yesterday's article, I can't find the video with my usual search feature that makes the video available to watch from here, so you're going to have to follow the link if you want to hear the song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dywhFx-piIE

The first thing that I notice is that this song sounds like a more simple version of what Nevermore were doing, but with Dane being more scream happy (if you know what I mean by that...) than he was in Nevermore. I'm going to have to sound like a grumpy elitist for a second, but I fail to see the point in Sanctuary reuniting if all they were going to do is basically play a more simple version of Nevermore's sound. Now, in fairness, the Nevermore influence was going to be inevitable due to how long Dane and Sheppard were in the band and Sanctuary does still have a decent background in their earlier sound (calling this progressive metal wouldn't exactly be right: it's not really that progressive, due to the song writing structures being somewhat typical overall), but I cannot shake off the feeling that this is material that could have come off of a Nevermore album and not off of a Sanctuary album. Now, I'll admit, I'm not hugely familiar with Sanctuary's stuff (the only songs by them I regularly listen to are "Battle Angels" and "Future Tense", both of which are the opening tracks for their respective albums), so it's not impossible that Into The Mirror Black has a sound which is like this, but I think most people will want the band to do something more like their debut and not that album, so, even if I'm wrong on this not sounding like Sanctuary, it's still a fairly valid criticism, if you ask me!

So, you'd expect me to dislike this from everything I've just said, right? WRONG! If you ignore the Nevermore sound to this song, it's actually really good! Some great performances on an instrumental level (although not to the level established in Nevermore) and Dane gives a surprisingly varied vocal performance as well: he hits some notes that you'd have thought would have been out of his range, considering how long ago it has been since he had to hit some of the notes he is reaching for on this album, and his lower voice, while not helping to prevent the Nevermore comparisons, is still rather impressive and actually fits in rather well with this type of music. I would have liked the song to have been a bit catchier, but there's little else I could have asked for regarding this song!

The production...it has a feel to it that brings to mind Dead Heart In A Dead World (Nevermore's album from 2000), although it might be because Nevermore are the band that keep coming to mind when I hear this! It's not bad, but I don't WANT to keep getting reminded of Nevermore when I'm listening to Sanctuary! I'm not demanding the band make their new album sound like their earlier albums: I'm just not wanting to hear the new album and going "Is this Nevermore in a bad disguise?"

Still, for all my bringing up Nevermore so many times in this review, I still have to say that this is actually really impressive! I doubt this is going to live up to 25 (or 24, if you live in the US) years worth of expectations, but I will say that this is something I will be pre-ordering, just on the strength of this song alone! If we take this as a guideline of what the album is going to sound like and assume this is the average level of quality on the album (more likely, it's going to be one of the stronger songs on the album, but let's run with my logic for a second, as it's much nicer to contemplate!), we're going to be in for an amazing album, possibly even an album that might be album of the year quality.

And I'm already putting aside money to pre-order this album when I normally don't bother pre-ordering albums, so make of that what you will.

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10

A really good song that only suffers from having to stand up to material that was last released over 20 years ago AND the legacy of one of the most iconic progressive metal bands of the metal scene. If you like Nevermore and wanted to hear it filtered through a less technically demanding sound, you're going to want to listen to this ASAP!

"Hector's Hymn" Review

HammerFall, to an extent, could be argued as being somewhat like Nevermore: they formed in the early 90's (in this case, 1993) from the ashes of a cult band (in this case, the vocalist and guitarist of the extreme metal band Ceremonial Oath, Oscar Dronjak, quit the band to form a new band, which became HammerFall), released their first album during the period when metal is perceived as having died when it actually only went back underground (in this case, 1997's Glory To The Brave) and who have gained a lot of support from the metal scene despite being somewhat ignored among the mainstream metal scene. Heck, they've even remained on the same label since they signed their first deal (Century Media Records for Nevermore and Nuclear Blast for HammerFall)!

Obviously, of course, nobody in HammerFall ever auditioned to be in Megadeth...to my knowledge!

That doesn't mean Nevermore and HammerFall are the same as each other, however: HammerFall are very much a stereotypical power metal band, with nothing else to shake that status quo up (unless you count the horror themes and more traditional heavy metal sound on Infected). Also, HammerFall have been noted as a band who have pretty much gone downhill since they formed while Nevermore have (for the most part) gotten more technical (and, arguably, better) with every album. Infected is considered by many to be the worst album the band have released by many, so the hiatus was considered by many to be a welcome sign that the band were going to recharge their batteries.

...What? I can't say whether their albums actually got worse with time or not: the only one I've heard by them is Infected! However, I found that a rather dull album, so I went into this expecting something like that, only with a bit more speed and a more typical set of lyrics for power metal.

Did I get that? Well, go give it a listen via the link below if you want to before you see my take on it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PtGFIrvtiAs#t=160

...Stuff it, I'll make this short: YES!

This is what I expected to hear when I first hear about HammerFall: fast paced guitar playing, rapid drumming, high pitched vocals and lyrics based on fantasy concepts. And I love it!

It's all well played, catchy...maybe a bit cheesy, but I don't mind that! This is just a really enjoyable track, nothing more or less. Sure, it's not original by any measure, but I'm always going to love this kind of thing whenever I hear it! The production does remind me a bit of Infected, but not with the heavier feel to it that made the album sound so much like a traditional heavy metal album. I think this song is far better than any song on Infected (possibly not counting "666 - The Enemy Within" or "Patient Zero": I really like those tracks!) and I imagine this is going to impress power metal fans. If you're not a fan of power metal, though, this is not likely to win you over, as it's very typical in how much it sounds like a power metal song. For that reason alone, I'm going to have to rate this lower than I want to in my heart, as I imagine this is going to not win over everyone and is not going to be an essential listen for quite a few people.

Final Rating: 7 Out Of 10

A very good, if rather typical, power metal song that shows a band making a return in truly epic style. If you like power metal, you should check this out, but, if not, you should give this a miss.

The Singles Collection (A Double Feature): "Edge Of A Revolution" by Nickelback and "Mask Machine" by Flying Colors

Typical, isn't it? You wait for ages to find a new single that you want to talk about and then two come along at once.

...Eh, it's been a while since I've been able to do a double feature and it was either this or start talking about Hearthstone (which I've recently started playing). By comparison, I'd say this was the more interesting for most people!

Anyway, before I start this, let me remind you of one thing: I DO NOT HATE NICKELBACK!

I might be overreacting a tad by doing that, but I don't want people automatically saying that this song is a 1/10 just because it's by Nickleback. I've already given my thoughts on Nickelback in a blog article a while back (which you can go read here, if you want to), so you should know my stance on them by now.

With that said, let's get started with this article!

"Edge Of A Revolution" Review

Nickelback are one of those bands who seem to draw either ridiculous amounts of hate or ridiculous amounts of love, depending on who you ask, and with little in between. For some, they are the worst band of all time and promote so much concentrated shit that they are a sign of everything that is wrong with the music industry...and, for some, they are one of the best modern rock bands to have formed for a good while, as they refuse to do pretentious bullshit, focus on having fun and write catchy stuff.

Honestly, I think both sides have valid points when it comes to the band, but both sides have exaggerated their viewpoints on the band so far that it's only when you boil the points down to a less vocal perspective that you notice how accurate they are. In favour of the band's detractors, it is very true that Nickelback are hardly the most creative band from a songwriting perspective, none of the members are ever going to win awards for their musical ability, their range of songwriting topics is limited enough for even death metal to be more varied by comparison and it is somewhat bemusing as to how Nickelback have become one of the faces of the post-grunge scene...but, in favour of the band's defenders, those same criticisms can also been seen as strengths if you look at them from another perspective, as it shows a desire to just play something the band likes to write anyway and with no real desire to necessarily do anything different just because they can do it. On top of that in favour of Nickelback, it IS fairly true that there has been a surprising lack of bands who have gotten big while writing stuff purely with the intention of it being fun to listen to: a distressingly large amount of post-grunge forgets the actual fun factor of music and, as such, write about a wider range of topics that actually mean nothing to a lot of people and can be perceived as the lyricist being caught up in their own misery.

In a way, I'd say Nickelback have a surprising amount in common with AC/DC, Motorhead and Slayer: all of those bands tend to rely on songwriting that is not exactly complex, has fairly limited lyrical themes and the members of the bands (with the possible exception of Tom Araya and Lemmy in their vocalist roles) aren't exactly known for being technically amazing musicians. The big problem with Nickelback, I guess, boils down a bit to overexposure (if you're hearing the same thing multiple times a day, it does stop being interesting) and the fact that, even considering their songwriting isn't especially complex to start with, you do tend to notice a bit of a formula with their sound. Yet, as I've just highlighted, there are many bands who rely just as heavily on a formula as Nickelback do who somehow escape the criticism Nickelback does. I'm not going to say that history will judge Nickelback kinder than they are being judged now, but I have a feeling that a depressingly large amount of the negative press they receive is VASTLY exaggerated, often to levels that is flat out impossible to accept as being made from anything other than a desire to try to keep Nickelback as the internet's favourite punching bag.

So yeah, my take on the band is basically "the detractors and fans have valid points on the band, but neither side is doing themselves any favours by screaming their opinion like it's the only one which matters", if you're really interested in having a detailed explanation of my take on the band for future reference (or didn't bother to read the article I linked you earlier...not that I'd blame you for doing that, as I'm not so fond of the article myself now!)...

But we're not hear to talk about all of that. We're here to talk about their new single! And, while I would love to go into detail about Nickelback's history (did you know their first two albums (1996's Curb and 1998's The State) are actually NOT in the radio friendly sound the band are know for now? They're actually darker albums than Nickelback's most well known discography would have you believe!), I have a feeling most people reading this don't even WANT to know more about Nickelback, so I'll cut to the chase and provide the link to the video to Nickelback's new single if you want to listen to it, since I can't get the actual video up on here for some reason. Sorry if that's not convenient for you guys reading this, but it's the best option at the minute.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBIBjb63W-U

So, one of the first things you'll notice is that...well, it sounds like Nickelback, which means it sounds like average post-grunge.

...Honestly, I could literally end the review here and I don't think you'd be missing anything from me. If I wanted to sum it up just now, I could just say that it's a song with a fairly decent hook and lyrics that are not great, but are at least somewhat serviceable, it's not especially complex on an instrumental level, but is well performed in any case, Chad Kroeger's voice is not bad, it's produced too loudly for my taste (with a lack of bass) and it'll appeal to people who are already Nickleback fans while giving those who don't like them more fuel for the fire that has now probably burnt for long enough that it should be classified as a hazard to the environment due to how much smoke it is putting out.

However, I feel I should give you a more detailed review. So I will.

Nickelback's brand of post-grunge is not exactly unique sounding, even among fellow post-grunge bands. While it's fair to say that they don't sound like the Foo Fighters, they don't really do a lot musically to distinguish themselves from most of the pack. While this probably isn't a huge problem if you're into post-grunge, it rubs me up the wrong way as someone who mostly finds post-grunge to not be especially interesting. However, they've been working with this sound now since 2005's All The Right Reasons (possibly even earlier: I've not bothered to check when they first did start playing this style of post-grunge, as I've not had the time to dig into Nickelback's whole discography before writing this), so I can't really suggest they shake up their sound at this point: they're content with their sound and, while it doesn't do anything for me personally, I can't exactly get angry about that, as it's not like it's a sudden change or anything.

The song itself is kind of the perfect post-grunge song in that you'll probably have forgotten the song once it's stopped playing. The chorus has a fairly decent hook, but it's not one that really sticks with you on a casual listen. Case of point, I wrote this article with the song on in the background and yet I still couldn't hum the song back to you if you asked me, despite multiple listens to it! The lyrics, from what I remember of them, are your somewhat typical call of arms for a revolution, hitting a lot of the cliches that you can think of for that kind of subject matter, but, despite this probably being something that will wind a lot of people up, I think that it'd be unfair to call something terrible just because it indulges in the cliches of what it is known for (heck, most action movies have a lot of explosions, guns, killings and stuff like that, but you don't see most people complaining about THAT, do you?), so I'll let it slide. I also cannot shake off the feeling that a lot of the song sounds like it's from another Nickelback song, but I can't place which one it is at the minute...

The instrumental performances aren't anything special: most of what the members are doing is not especially complex. However, it's fairly obvious that they're not playing just simple music because they can't play complex stuff: it seems like they're keeping it simple because that's how the members of the band like their music and they just want to play that. And I'm OK with that, personally: I'd rather see musicians playing simple music because they like it that way over them playing complex music horribly just because they want to make a foolish attempt at trying to demonstrate their instrumental proficiency.

Chad Kroeger's voice pretty much fits into the post-grunge scene so well that you can't really imagine the guy singing anything else. I don't see him having a voice capable of singing "Happy Birthday", if you see what I'm getting at. That said, I feel fairly confident in saying that a lot of vocalists in hard rock and metal music have voices which suit that style of music and not a lot else, so I'm not going to slate the guy for that. What I CAN slate him for is the fact that, even in the post-grunge scene, he's not exactly an exceptional vocalist. Sure, he can hit some surprisingly low notes in the backing vocals (go listen to "This Means War", if you don't believe me!), but his overall range seems somewhat limited in terms of what he sings in the main vocal lines for Nickelback's songs and he spends most of his time singing in a bellow that lacks any real subtlety. This song is no exception to that, so make of that what you will.

The production on this song is far, FAR too loudly mastered. Now, to be fair, this is a problem with Nickelback's stuff in general and I'm going by YouTube, which isn't exactly a place to make a strong opinion on a song's production, so I might as well be commenting on the colour of the sky (incidentally, it's black at the minute...because I'm typing this in the middle of the night) but, even on YouTube, it sounds far louder than any other song by Nickelback. It also seems to lack any bass presence to my ears, which is rather annoying. This is the state of modern production in music in general and it pisses me off every time it happens, as someone who has tried to learn bass in the past: how the hell am I supposed to learn how to play my favourite songs on the bass guitar IF I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR THE BASS GUITAR ON MY FAVOURITE SONGS?

So yeah...overall, if you're a Nickelback fan already, this is going to be right up your alley, as they don't change their sound at all with it and it's what you expect them to put out. If you're NOT into Nickelback, however, skip this one: they don't change their sound at al; with it and it's what you expect them to put out.

Final Rating ("Edge Of A Revolution"): 4 Out Of 10

A forgettable song by a band who most people expected nothing interesting from. For fans only.

"Mask Machine" Review

Flying Colors is ANOTHER of Mike Portnoy's post-Dream Theater projects, alongside The Winery Dogs (which, I'll admit, put out a rather enjoyable album last year) and, until he left it in June 2013, Adrenaline Mob (who put out their debut in 2012...which I have only not reviewed yet because I know most of the review would consist of variants of "bored", "dull", "snore" and "DEAR FUCKING GOD, WHY?!". Also, I will NOT look at their second album from earlier this year: I feel that horse has already been beaten to death!) and a few others which I can't be bothered to list and research because you'd otherwise still be reading this the day after you find this page. They formed in 2011 (although the idea for the band had apparently been around in the mind of executive producer Bill Evans since 2008) and released their debut album in March 2012. It must have done fairly well, as their second album is due to be released in late September/early October.

Now, Mike Portnoy is a musician I have a love-hate relationship with: on the one hand, he's an amazing drummer who deserves every accolade he has gotten and who has established himself as one of the best drummers in the world, but, on the other hand, I don't like the fact that he is still so bitter about leaving Dream Theater (with an incident in the last few weeks even cementing that he might be potentially as bad as Axl Rose is with Slash stuff) and a lot of what I've heard about him as a person has convinced me that he's not a person I'd especially like to know as a person. Throw in the fact that the band's first album apparently has aspects of alternative rock to it (a style of rock which I tend to have a low opinion of) and I was already approaching this with some apprehension. However, part of me was curious to see how this would sound, so I gave it a listen.

Doing my research into the musicians in the band aside from Portnoy (vocalist and rhythm guitarist Casey McPherson, keyboardist Neal Morse, lead guitarist Steve Morse and bassist Dave LaRue), I was surprised to learn that the members have all been around for a while: McPherson is also the vocalist of alternative rock band Alpha Rev, Neal Morse (who, it should be noted, is NOT the brother of Steve Morse) was one of the founders (the other being his brother, Alan Morse) of Spock's Beard (which is something that actually is from Star Trek: go look up the episode "Mirror, Mirror", if you want proof!), had previously played with Portnoy in the band Transatlantic and also has an active solo career, Steve Morse was a founding member of Dixie Dregs, has played with Deep Purple since 1992, spent a small period of time in Kansas (the band best known for the song "Carry On Wayward Son", not the US state!) in the 80's and even was the leader of a band under his own name (well, technically: it was called The Steve Morse band) for a period of time which later became his solo career and Dave LaRue has played in Dixie Dregs and The Steve Morse band (along with a few other things.

Yeah...this is a heck of a lot better than what I pictured the band was going to be on paper already! I was expecting something like Adam Levine fronting Dream Theater...crap, that might actually be a rather good idea! Seriously, if you could get a vocalist with a lot of soul and RNB influence in their voice to front a progressive rock or metal band, I imagine it would actually sound rather interesting, especially if the band add those influences to their sound...OK, OK, moving on before I get angry purists flaming me to death!

Again, apologies for only providing a link to the video: I can't find it when I do a video search in my blog's video finder thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdnKddL9giw

The thing that I have to start by pointing out is that you can definitely hear the alternative rock influence that was mentioned earlier here: the whole thing feels somewhat like a more progressive version of alternative rock due to how it's done. Yet, surprisingly, I have no problem with this when I actually hear it! It actually sounds rather interesting to listen to. It's not something I would regularly listen to, but it's not a bad sound, if I'm completely honest!

On a performance level, I have to say that the whole thing feels rather simplistic when you consider the talent in the band, yet I think it KIND OF works in the song's favour: there's an atmosphere to this song which is actually rather effective, so more complex performances might not have helped it in the slightest. Unfortunately, the whole song feels too long, so this relative simplicity makes the song less interesting on repeat listens and makes it a surprisingly difficult song to remember much from. On one hand, it feels like the members of the band are being criminally underused with their talents, but, on the other, I can't really think of any way I could have asked them to up the complexity without potentially destroying the song. It's funny: normally, I'd be happy for a band to go for a less complex sound, but, in this case, I'm torn between going "this should have been more complex" and going "this should have been shorter". I know doing both won't do much good, but I can't decide which of the two I would have honestly preferred, since both still have potential issues with them. It's really weird to try to describe this to you if you haven't heard the song yourself, but the best way I can think of putting it is by asking you to imagine a world class pianist playing a piano concerto which is clearly not a challenge for him to play and which goes on longer than it needs to: you would like to have heard a more challenging concerto that would have showcased the pianist's skills better, but, at the same time, you can't escape the feeling that a piece which didn't feel like it was too long would also have been a better move, but for a different reason. Yet you know that the shorter, more complex piece wouldn't have the same magic that either of the other two options separately would have provided. That's kind of what I feel like here: I want either a shorter song or a more complex song, but not a shorter, more complex song!

The vocals...well, alternative rock vocals were never my kind of thing, so I'm probably not the best person to sum up McPherson's voice here, but, to be fair, I think he's at least a decent vocalist. He does still suffer from some of the more typical features of alternative rock vocalists (albeit with a more pop influenced take on it), but I have no real problems with his singing voice aside from that.

The production...I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'd have liked LESS bass on this track! It literally powers through everything, to the extent that I can imagine it would probably go through every wall in your house if you played it even on a fairly quiet volume. This isn't necessarily a huge issue, but everything else seems a bit too quiet compared to the bass, which is NOT what I like to hear: I like to be able to hear the bass clearly, but not to the extent where everything else has to suffer! It's a fine balance to strike, but this is definitely going too far with the bass! Aside from the "bass is too loud" complaint, though, I think the production is fine!

So yeah...it's not something I would normally listen to, but, for what it's worth, it's actually not bad! I would hesitate to call this an essential listen for anyone, but, if you're into progressive rock and would like to hear a more atmospheric take on it that combines influence from alternative rock as well, then this is definitely worth a shot!

Final Rating ("Mask Machine"): 6 Out Of 10

A fairly enjoyable (if not especially memorable) track that suffers from a bass mix that is too loud and being a bit too simplistic from what you'd expect from the musicians in this project. Worth a listen if you like progressive rock and alternative rock (or like one and don't mind the other), but not likely to be your kind of thing if you're not a fan of either style of music.

An Annoying Thing Happened On The Way To The Judas Priest Facebook Page (An Angry Rant)

OK, that's it, metal scene, you've really, REALLY pissed me off this time!

Just today, I happened to be looking on Facebook and I noticed that Judas Priest had posted a photo on their official Facebook page of Rihanna wearing a Judas Priest shirt at one of her gigs. Now, I'll admit, I'm not fond of her music at all (there are maybe one or two songs by her which I have anything better than a polite dislike of), but I thought "OK, that's actually kind of cool: there's not a lot of people wearing Priest shirts out there in the public eye."

Then I checked the comments of that photo.

What I saw in the comments were statements that made me lose faith in humanity. I have not provided the names of the guilty parties, but I am only not doing that because I think these people do not deserve their names to be shared in the public eye. There ARE comments on the photo that are not like this (and some which pretty much say what I'm going to say), but I figured I should highlight some of the ones which pissed me off.

• Kill it with fire, fucking posers.
• What a bunch of bullshit. I just lost a little respect for Priest for putting this out there. U oughta be ashamed lol. Please take it down your fans are embarrassed here. At least I am.
• Chris brown was breakin her jaw breakin her jaw
• fuck that stupid cunt..
• Maybe Chris brown beat some sense into her ..now she listens to real Music
• Who is she? Has she ever heard of Judas Priest? Terrible cunt.
• What a disgrace!!!! I cannot imagine Rhiana covering a Judas Priest song!
• Why would we want a bunch of poppy wankers listening to good music? That's like giving fine wine to pig.
• that disgusts me..even disgusts me more coming from Judas priest official page
• Fuck off bitch !
• She needs to get beat again
• Stupid. She has someone who does her entire wardrobe I'm sure. She doesn't have a clue about Priest. If she did she wouldn't "sing" the bullshit that she does
• Go fuck ur self rihana! Go and sing ur fucking pop music! U suck and stop copping Pure Metal!
• Ruined a good shirt!
• Didn't she have a Krokus shirt last week ? SCrew her
• like she REALLY listens to Priest ?!?! GET REAL........ some wardrobe person dressed her, told her it would be "cool" .........shes a sack of talentless shit, as far as im concerened
• I just lost a little respect for JP putting this poser on here. Get this poser off this page right now and have some respect.
• This makes me wanna puke.
• She's such an annoying, whiney bitch... All her songs sound like she's whining.
• Fucke her, everybody...
• fucking nigger

The metal music scene, everybody: a close minded group of fucking assholes who think that you cannot like metal because you don't perform it.

If ANYBODY reading this agrees with any of those comments I've put up here, then stop reading this blog now and never come back here: I don't want support from a bunch of closed minded assholes like you, I want support from people who have some degree of common sense, and you agreeing with the comments has me suspecting that your common sense is lacking more than it really should be.

Let me make something very, VERY clear: music taste and music performance are very different things. I personally prefer to perform folk music when I do sing, but, as you probably could have guessed from reading this blog, I'm pretty fond of metal music. But I also listen to other styles of music: in addition to folk and metal, I also quite like country, punk, rock and some pop and blues. I'll also give credit to styles of music which I don't like when they do something which I think is pretty good: I personally quite enjoy Lady GaGa's album Born This Way because I feel it does some very interesting stuff on it and manages to tie it together nicely to form some rather good songs, but I would still say that Lady GaGa's type of music which she normally performs isn't usually my cup of tea if someone were to ask me about it.

And, I imagine, this is similar to what the members of Priest think too. Look at the covers they have done over the course of their career: Joan Baez's "Diamonds & Rust", The Gun's "Race With The Devil", Fleetwood Mac's "The Green Manalishi (With The Two-Pronged Crown)" and Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" can all be found on the band's albums over their career (although "Race With The Devil" is only available on the 2001 remaster of Sin After Sin). Rob Halford also mentions vocal influences that include Arthur Brown, Janis Joplin, David Bowie and Freddy Mercury, of which only Mercury could be claimed to have any noticeable link to heavy metal music.

That's one of the failings that so many people seem to have: they think that they cannot acknowledge liking anything that isn't in the style of music they describe themselves as a fan of and, as such, dismiss it as terrible just because it isn't within what they usually like to listen to.

That is not what music has ever, EVER been about. Every style of music, whether you like it or not, has something in it that will appeal to people and which, when you look at it from the right viewpoint, can teach you something that you might not get if you only stick with your comfort zone. Take rap: I personally cannot stand this style of music in the slightest, as I just find rapping to be something any idiot can do with enough practice. Yet I appreciate that, when it comes to freestyle rap, you have to basically have the same skills as a poet, as you have to come up with something to say on the spot within a limited period of time to think about it. In addition, rapping has a flow to it and, if your flow is terrible, you're not going to do well with it. So, as much as I don't like the style of music in the slightest, I respect that there is some talent to it, just not what I look for in music.

Because of this, I feel that I must do the one thing that I never thought I'd find myself doing and defend Rihanna from the metal scene's condemnation of her just for wearing a t-shirt.

...Yes, this is what my life has become, folks. Trying to be the voice of reason in a scene which has its head so far up its own arse that it considers itself above every other style of music in the world.

So, let's start with the references to Chris Brown, as I don't need to say a lot about them: if you think making fun of someone who got physically assaulted by someone else by referencing this fact is acceptable behaviour anywhere, then you are an asshole. No discussion: you're basically making fun of someone else's pain just because you don't like them. That is not acceptable behaviour ANYWHERE, and also shows that you clearly have no respect for just how damaging such an act can be to people. While Rihanna hasn't exactly shown the best response to being assaulted by Chris Brown by later getting back together with him (and breaking up with him again later), I think the point still stands: if someone gets physically assaulted by someone else, you do NOT have a right to treat that as a source of humour, no matter what you think of the person in question. Physical abuse of any sort is not funny in the real world, so, if you find that kind of thing worth making jokes about, you do not deserve to be considered a human being in my eyes, as you've shown a shocking lack of empathy and a level of cruelty that would make me wonder whether the human race would be much improved if you were to be removed from it. I will not say that you should leave the human race, as I do not think death threats are a mature thing to throw out, only that you should reevaluate whether you treating such a serious thing as a subject of humour is acceptable and, if you still see nothing wrong with it, go learn what it's actually like to have such a thing happen so you can understand why most people do not find it funny.

Moving on to the claims that Rihanna is a poser by wearing the shirt, I have to ask: do you actually KNOW Rihanna? Let me put it to you that Rihanna is actually a big metal fan and only doesn't perform metal music because that's not the kind of music she likes performing. Is there anything wrong with that? Not in my book!

However, let's assume Rihanna isn't a metal fan at all and is only wearing the shirt because she likes it or because someone else made her wear it: how exactly does her wearing the shirt say anything bad about the metal scene? All it does is have people who are fans of Rihanna going "Huh, never heard of Judas Priest before...I'll go check them out!" and they will. Maybe they'll become fans of the band, maybe they won't, but, any way you look at it, that's free publicity for the band.

Except you've made the whole scene look like it's not worth exploring because you're making a big deal out of Rihanna wearing a Judas Priest shirt and have insulted her and her fans. Great move, guys, you've just proven exactly why most people in the mainstream don't want to explore the metal scene: it is being filled with a bunch of closed minded assholes!

Moving to the next claim of losing respect for Judas Priest due to them posting the photo and demanding it be removed, I have to say that it's not up to you what a band posts on their page. It is up to them or whoever is posting on their behalf: if you don't like it, you demanding it be removed just makes you look like an overly possessive asshole who thinks you have a say in the handling of you idol's page. How would you like it if someone were to do the same thing on your personal Facebook page? You'd call them an asshole and refuse to do it, most likely! Yet you think that you have a right to do the same thing to your idol? NO, YOU FUCKING DON'T!

As for the insults...do I even need to make my thoughts clear on that one?

Metal scene, take that stick out of your arse and grow up. I don't like calling out a bunch of closed minded assholes, but, when it looks like the whole scene is doing it, I feel I have no choice except to do so!

Also, yes, I know I've used the term "closed minded assholes" a lot throughout this article. I'm trying to make a point and I refuse to descend to using far stronger (and far ruder) terms to describe the people who have done this.

Oh yeah, and, if anyone who left one of those comments reads this, would it kill you to take a few seconds to check your spelling and grammar if you DO want to make a comment? You kill off any chance of having your comment taken seriously when you look like you might be rivalled with your use of the English language by your average ten year old!

Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee HD Review

Well, I figured it might be worth trying to do another video game review, so here's another game in the Oddworld series. I know this might be a small range of games I seem to be tackling, but, really, I feel that, if I were to properly do video game reviews, I would really need to do video reviews of them to make my points more accurately and I don't have any way to record games at the minute, so I'm sticking with video game reviews as an occasional thing unless I get a DVD player that can record footage from the TV or a computer that I can hook my PS2 or PS3 up to and is capable of recording my gameplay off of it.

Plus, I really like the Oddworld games.

Anyway, Munch's Oddysee is the third game that Oddworld Inhabitants have released, coming out exclusively on the XBOX when it was originally released in 2001, and was the company's first 3D game (Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus were 2D, with a few moments that played about with that), as well as introducing the character Munch to the Oddworld games, along with a few newer things. When it originally came out, it gained reviews of between 7 and 8 out of 10 by a lot of games magazines and was pretty much one of the killer apps for the XBOX upon release due to it being one of the first games released on the system.

...Well, let's see if it stands up now!

Let me start with the stuff that I feel the game does well: the puzzles are actually fairly good, for the most part. They do wear themselves out over the course of the game, but you'll usually find the levels are very enjoyable to play through. Some of them are a bit infuriating (if you want to rescue all of the Mudokons in some levels, you better be willing to use save scumming) and some of them had me coming up with solutions that had me wondering whether I was playing the game the way the developers wanted me to (in one level where I had to rescue all of the Mudokons, I simply abused the fact that Abe could respawn infinitely and just charged at the Sligs and beat them up until they were all dead...and it was only AFTER I'd done that when I found myself going "Was I actually meant to do that?"), but, for the most part, the puzzles have one solution that is fairly easy to work out what you need to do to get to it and the challenge is doing it while saving everyone. Which is maybe not the most exciting thing for a lot of people more used to playing stuff like Portal or far more complex puzzle games, but, for a game that is somewhat like a 3D platformer with puzzle elements, it's a fair enough way of doing things.

The second is that the high quality voice acting the rest of the Oddworld games is known for AND the visually impressive art style that the series has is not only still intact, but manages to transfer fairly well into the 3D environment of the game. While I think the graphics here don't really do the art style justice in the same way that they did in 2D (and it's certainly not as well done as Stranger's Wrath would do it), it's still very impressive to look at!

The third is the new additions to the Oddworld series' creatures. While they are not quite as distinctive as the creatures from the 2D games, they all manage to fit in with what you'd expect from the Oddworld games and the more cybernetic creatures that crop up in the later levels do manage to showcase that there's a lot more variety to the inhabitants of Oddworld than we previously thought.

The fourth is the difficulty of the game. When you get the hang of the controls (which can feel a tiny bit weird at first and are still a pain when you've moving through narrow areas), the difficulty is enough of a challenge to make every level feel worthwhile, but rarely gets so difficult that you'll get outright annoyed at the game. Some of the larger levels could have done with a few more respawn locations, as you will sometimes have to make a noticeably long backtrack just to get Munch or Abe back after they die, but, for the most part, the levels are about the right length for what you'd want from this kind of game: just long enough to make you feel like you've accomplished something through getting through it, but not so long that you'll be going "OK, this stopped being fun about ten minutes ago".

I must also give credit for how different the game manages to make Munch and Abe, as much as I don't like playing Munch much from a player's perspective. Each character has their own strengths which make them good for doing certain things, which means that it's very rare when you'll find yourself completing a level (once you have both of them together) without using the other one to do so. This actually has me wondering why two player wasn't implemented into the game, as I think it is a game which could have done it rather well!

Unfortunately, there are several flaws in the game which make it a noticeably weaker game than any other game in the series. Most of them aren't serious issues, but I do feel that this issues are enough to make this my least favourite game that Oddworld Inhabitants have made stuff far.

The first one is the story. Now, I'll be fair, the story is fairly good (for a video game: we're not exactly expecting a game to match the complexity of The Lord Of The Rings here!) in the cutscenes, but it's really, REALLY repetitive for the actual gaming parts. After you rescue Munch and take him back to the Almighty Raisin (yes, that's really his name), the whole game pretty much descends into simply getting Abe and Munch into a facility, rescuing the Mudokons and Fuzzles scattered around the place, possessing Glukkon's to make them donate to Lulu's Fund and...um, that's pretty much it. The game keeps feeling like it's building towards something, but it doesn't really pay off when you do get to the end of the game, which is a huge shame. I know I shouldn't say something like "I expected a better ending for this game", as the ending we do get is not necessarily bad by any measure, but what ending we do get just doesn't feel like it's worth the build up...and, bear in mind, I got the good ending (not the perfect one, but that's not hugely different from the good one, from what I've heard) and I'm still saying this! If I had got the bad ending, I would be able to understand getting a less than satisfying ending, as it would genuinely be all my fault that I got an ending I'm not satisfied with due to me being an asshole to the people who I should be rescuing, but, when I put in the effort to try to get a good ending, I would kind of like to get an ending that I feel was worth putting the effort in to get!

The second (as vaguely mentioned earlier) are the controls. I wouldn't say they are awful, as they are generally fine and feel fairly receptive, but walking in really narrow spaces and jumping require some getting used to for you to judge accurately. When walking in really narrow spaces, you'll nearly always find yourself having to move REALLY slowly and only running when you have to jump over a gap in the really narrow space because, if you run in a really narrow space, you'll nearly always end up falling off due to just how awkward the movement is in those moments. Most of them are over places which are easy to get back to and don't kill you if you fall off, at least, but, if you haven't got completely used to the controls, expect to fall off these places more than you want to. This isn't helped by the fact that, if you are standing on the edge of something like a cliff, Abe will literally stand on the edge at an 45 degree angle, which will screw you over if you're not used to the controls. For the jumping, the issue is that it's hard to control your jump once you're actually in the air: if you were moving at a noticeable speed when you jumped, you'll keep moving at that speed and in that direction, but, if you weren't moving, you'll find that trying to make Abe or Munch move in any direction results in minor adjustments at most. While you could argue that the company were going for realism, it makes jumping up to some platforms rather difficult. Easily the most aggravating is in one level where you have to jump up to the top of a circular tower that is mostly over water via tiny platforms that are very easy to miss and, if you try to do it at speed, you'll nearly always end up falling into the water. And you have to do this TWICE in the same level (via two different towers). Even if it weren't for the fact that this level has a suspiciously small number of respawn points and, if you're unlucky, will need to collect Abe from the respawn point at the start of the level when you're more than halfway through it, this would easily rank as the most annoying level in the game by a rather good measure.

The third is that, by having Abe and Munch able to respawn infinitely so long as one of them stays alive, a lot of challenge is lost from the earlier games, especially because defeated enemies do not respawn if only one character dies. While I can get what they were going for and I know that they couldn't cut out Abe's ability to respawn due to having established it in Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus, I feel that this means a lot of potentially really challenging moments are noticeably less difficult that they might have been had there been an in-game explanation for why you can't get a character back in the middle of a level (or even having the death of one character result in you having to restart the whole level again), as it's very easy to use the infinite respawns to brute force your way through challenging moments. It also takes away a lot of the tension from the game, as it means that having Abe or Munch die is an inconvenience at worst: you'll rarely find yourself unable to get back to a checkpoint and, if you play the game smartly, you'll nearly always leave the character who you aren't currently playing as near a respawn point anyway, so a lot of the tension that should make you want to avoid letting characters die disappears very quickly when you realise this.

The fourth issue is that I feel that the Mudokons, when you use them to attack, could have done with some more variety. I know this is going to sound like a really odd complaint, but I feel that the ability to upgrade Mudokons to become close combat experts and then ranged weapon experts is actually not a good idea, as there's an obvious preference to just making Mudokons able to shoot because nothing can then touch them unless it can shoot back! I kind of feel that there should have been a negative side to upgrading a Mudokon and make you only able to chose one upgrade or the other, but make you able to do it for free if you find an upgrade point so that you have to think about whether you want to make the upgrade or not: maybe make the close combat experts have less health compared to normal Mudokons and make the long range shooters cause little actual damage? That's just an idea and is probably not what Oddworld would have wanted to add to their game due to it adding tactical elements to the game that probably don't need to be there, but having an obvious choice of what to upgrade Mudokons to become feels kind of unnecessary. Luckily, it's not something that crops up a huge amount, but I still feel that having this variety and tough questions to think about would have made the game a lot more interesting.

The fifth issue I have to bring up is that the A.I. can be kind of dumb at points. For the most part, it's fine, but it's really easy to abuse it into making dumb decisions (enemies will try to follow you in a straight line if they can see you, so it's VERY possible to trick enemies into walking into waste recyclers by angling yourself so they will run into the entrance of it, as they won't try to run around it) and it also appears to have enemies who, when hit with an explosive, will return back to where they were previously standing if they don't see you, meaning that it's really easy to cheat when you have explosives by just sneaking towards them with an explosive and then making sure you duck behind something so they don't see you. Since most enemies won't actively look for you if you disappear from their sight AND won't react to seeing either Abe's possession orb come near them or a companion getting picked up by a crane, this means that I have to question just how intelligent the A.I. really is, as it will have everyone return to where they were previously rather than continue searching for the obviously dangerous enemy who they've seen. For a game in a series legendary for the high difficulty of instalments, this is something that I would have expected them to do.

I also have to admit that I'm not fond of how Munch controls as a character. He can't attack without a temporary power up (although, to be fair, he is basically a fish with a huge head and tiny hands), he can barely jump without a temporary power up (although, again, basically a fish with a huge head and tiny hands) and his movement speed is really too slow to make him effective on land without a wheelchair. I'll be fair, he's not useless, but it's fair to say that he is a character who really is kind of weak on his own. Maybe that was the point of the character, but there's a difference between "weak enough to need support" and "mostly useless" and Munch leans a BIT too close to the latter for my liking. Let me give you two examples of characters so you can spot the difference between the characters to help you spot why I feel he leans a bit too closer to the latter than the former: a mage who specialises in healing and has poor combat skills in a RPG is a character who you would expect to be useless in combat, but they're still a useful character in their own right due to their healing magic and no doubt have their own strong defensive magic which means that they won't win a fight on their own, but they would be very good at surviving fights and their healing magic would make them and their team hard to kill if they can get away from the encounter alive. That is a character who I would say is weak enough to need support: they won't do well on their own, but, as part of a team, they are invaluable. By contrast, a character who literally cannot attack and has no advantages to make up for that without some sort of magically ability bestowed upon them by another character is a character who is a HUGE drag on the team they are part of, as the only way they'll be useful at all is as a human shield. Munch isn't QUITE as bad as the second example due to the fact that he is the only player character who can swim and he is the only character who can communicate with Fuzzles, but he's still not a character who is especially useful on his own and I feel he drags the game down a bit. Maybe Oddworld Inhabitants were going to correct this in later games in the series of games, but, as he stands in this game, I just find playing as Munch to be a chore. If Oddworld Inhabitants and Just Add Water correct this in later games (or even take on board all that I've said and use that to improve their future games to make them into the classics that I hope all of them will be...although I have a strong suspicion neither of them will even find this, let alone read it, so I'm not holding my breath on that one!), then that's great!

So, overall, what do I think of this game? Well, there's some really good stuff about it, but I feel there's maybe a few too many issues that drag the whole experience down for me to really recommend this game. If you like the Oddworld games (like I do), then you'll find this an essential experience to play because, well, it's Oddworld, but, if you're not familiar with the Oddworld series (for some reason), then you might want to go for either the first two games with Abe in them (Abe's Oddysee and Abe's Exoddus) if you like playing nostalgic old games from the glorious 2D gaming days of the PS1 (and the Game Boy Colour), Stranger's Wrath if you want a more modern gaming experience (if you want to read my review of the game, you can find it here) or New 'n' Tasty if you want to see what the first game would look like if made today (hint: it looks BEAUTIFUL, from what I've seen of it) and have a PS4. I wouldn't say Munch's Oddysee is for die hard Oddworld fans only, as it is still an enjoyable game and, when you get it as part of the Oddboxx, you'll almost certainly not be complaining about the price of it, but I wouldn't recommend starting with this game if you're not familiar with Oddworld already.

Also, a small thing for you guys to note: I'm still giving this a fairly decent rating, despite saying that it's my least favourite game by Oddworld Inhabitants. If that doesn't say a lot about how good these guys are, I don't know what does!

Final Rating: 6 Out Of 10

An enjoyable game that, unfortunately, doesn't live up to the standards of excellence that the other games by the company have. If you've not already got this, then you're not missing a huge amount if you don't pick it up, but it's definitely not a bad game, just not up to the standards set by Oddworld Inhabitants with their other three (or four, depending on how you count New 'n' Tasty) games. I would personally recommend getting it as part of the Oddboxx, as you'll at least have the rest of Oddworld Inhabitants' games to fall back upon if you don't like this, but it's still a decent enough game that it might be worth picking up on its own if you're really curious about it!

Fanboy Review: "And We'll Sing" by Runrig

This is far, FAR too late to do a Singles Collection article on (this song came out as a single on the 28th of April 2013), but, well, Runrig are working on their fourteenth album at the moment and the only other stuff that I have by Runrig is their albums from 1987 to 1995 (The Cutter And The Clan, Searchlight, Big Wheel, Amazing Things and Mara), so this is about the most recent thing by the band that I can talk about short of ordering their most recent live DVD, which I can't do due to not having the money to do so before I have to go to Scotland for a week (so yes, you'll almost certainly be reading this as something that I've scheduled to be posted, not posted directly by myself!) and not being that familiar with the band's material outside of those albums.

So, with that said, I should answer the burning question most of you are no doubt asking: "Who the fuck are Runrig?"

Well, Runrig are a Celtic rock band from the Isle Of Skye that formed in 1973 (then under the name The Run Rig Dance Band). They were originally a three piece dance band (think ceilidh dancing and you're probably not too far from the mark) before switching to Celtic rock (although not before releasing their first album, Play Gaelic, in 1978 under their old sound: their second album, 1979's The Highland Connection, is apparently a transition between their old sound and their more well known sound) and they've pretty much stuck with that since then. Two of the band's founding members, brothers Rory Macdonald (the band's bassist) and Calum Macdonald (one of the band's drummers), are the band's main songwriters and also have a solo project (or a duo project, if you want to be technical) called The Band From Rockall (...go look up Rockall if you've not heard of it, I am not going to be a geography teacher for this one due to the fact I don't have as much time to write this as I'd like!) which has an album out. I'm not entirely sure why they have a solo project, since the music they had done for it is apparently pretty much the same as what the band have done with Runrig, but, as I've not actually heard the album and I'm going purely off of guesswork here, I'll not complain!

Anyway, moving back to Runrig, the band got big when they released their fifth album, The Cutter And The Clan, and pretty much have remained fairly popular among fans of Celtic rock in the UK, Denmark and Germany. They have an established fanbase in Canada as well thanks to them adding current vocalist Bruce Guthro to the band in 1999. Yet their albums with Guthro (all of the ones after Mara) haven't exactly caught on, which I feel is a real shame due to Guthro actually being a pretty good vocalist in his own right!

Yet 2013 was a special year for the band, as it marked their 40th year as a band. And so, to celebrate, the band released this single on the same date that they had played their first ever concert (in Glasgow...so I'm surprised that wasn't their only concert, considering how tough a place Glasgow can be!).

And...I only learnt about it a few months ago.

No, seriously: I had heard a bit of stuff by Runrig growing up due to my stepmother having a CD of their greatest hits, but I'd not bothered to look deeper into their history up until about February or March this year. When I found out more about them, though, I was hooked! Maybe it's because I grew up loving folk music (and still love the music now, I just tend to stick with metal these days), but, every time I hear Runrig, I just feel like I've found the perfect fusion between what I like now and what I loved as a kid. Runrig, to me, are a band who understand folk music so well that they can add rock elements to it and know how to strike the perfect balance between the two sounds: they can make even their heaviest songs have noticeable folk roots while avoiding the trap of making the rock elements feel like they were just added for the sake of adding a rock edge. I suppose my only real complaint is that Runrig doesn't really have guitar solos for their music, but hey, folk music doesn't have instrumental solos much, so I'm not going to complain about them taking their roots from folk over rock on that aspect!

So yeah, this review is likely to not be especially neutral. Fanboy alert!

Anyway, before you get bored by me talking about the ins and outs of folk music, let's get started with this! I sadly cannot provide a official video for the single, as no official release of it was made for YouTube and I don't think it's available to stream online. That said, there IS a video which has the song as part of it, so, if you want to hear the song, you can listen to it via the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eOiCRA--Bq8

With that done, let's talk about the song!

One of the things that I really like about this track is that it's one of those songs that works on so many levels. Since I'm sure most people won't want me to rave about this song for a long period of time, let me break down every way in which this song works:

1. There's an atmosphere in this track through some more subtle instrumentation that brings this song to life in a way that just screams of the beauty of Scotland. I'm not saying every good song has to have an atmosphere, but, when you do styles of music with connections to folk music, you will earn a lot of praise for making a song atmospheric in a way that brings the song to lift in a way that you couldn't do without it. Runrig manages this nicely with this track: it has a somewhat mystical edge that shows just how magical good folk rock (and, in this case, Celtic rock) can be.
2. The instrumentation across the whole track, while fairly simple, has a restrained edge to it that shows the band is restraining themselves because they know the song calls for simplicity. While I did tear Sixx:A.M.'s new single a new one for doing the same thing (which I reviewed here, if you would like to read it), the difference between the two is that the simplicity here isn't a case of only being there to give Bruce Guthro something to sing over: it's supporting the song by providing a memorable listening experience in and of itself, but still letting Guthro take up his place in the spotlight and doesn't try to upstage him while doing it. If you were to take Guthro out of this song, it would still be a good listen, while "Gotta Get It Right" would have been forgotten even as it was playing.
3. The vocal line and lyrics of this song are so strong that you could perform this song unaccompanied if you wished and it would still be an enjoyable song. This is one of the strengths of good folk music, so I'll admit that Runrig probably have an advantage over a lot of bands in this regard, but, for the benefit of those who are wondering what makes folk one of my favourite styles of music even now, it's the fact that you can take a folk song and perform it in any way you want to. You can make it a sprawling epic with instrumental battles that would make Dream Theater blush, you can sing it over a loud heavy metal soundtrack, you can sing it unaccompanied...you get the point, I'm sure! Folk music is strong music because you can take any folk song and perform it in whatever way you wish, because that's what folk asks for: a strong melody line and lyrics that appeal to people who did those tough jobs that most people nowadays know nothing about or lived those lifestyles that most of us today simply couldn't do. A good folk song can be taken out of an accompanied music style and performed unaccompanied without losing anything, and this song is honestly pretty good for that!

Now I've finished gushing about this song on how it works on the levels it does, let's start looking at the performances. Well, none of the members are really doing anything that complex musically, but I feel it's a case of them knowing that the song doesn't need anything especially complex and are running with that fact rather than playing slowly because they weren't up to playing it faster.

Huh...that was short.

Bruce Guthro, as I mentioned earlier, is a pretty good vocalist in his own right, managing to replace Donnie Munro very nicely. I don't know whether long time fans of Runrig would rate Guthro over Munro by any measure and I will admit that I feel Guthro lacks a certain something that Munro could pull off flawlessly, but he does a fine job here! I guess I'm missing the Scottish accent in the singing a bit here as well, but it's nothing major and Guthro's voice is still pretty good here! The guy has an active solo career when he isn't singing for Runrig, but I unfortunately know nothing about his solo material beyond a quick glance at the genres it is under in wikipedia (country/folk for his first two albums, pop/folk for his later ones), so I'm going to have to defer to anyone with more knowledge about Guthro if they're willing to get in touch when I'm back from my time in Scotland.

So...actually, do you really need me at this point? This is just a brilliant song and is one that, to me, shows that Runrig still have some gas left in the tank. Even when I look at this critically, my complaints are minor at worst. If Runrig's next album has songs that are on this level at average, I imagine Runrig's next album will be really good, so, if you've never heard of Runrig before now...go pick up The Cutter & The Clan, as it's one of my favourite albums of all time. Then go pick this up and enjoy what I consider to be one of the finest Celtic rock bands in the world.

Final Rating: 9 Out Of 10

An outstanding track that is really worth a listen if you have any interest in folk music or rock music. If you don't like either of those styles, I'd still give it a listen, as it's just a brilliant track on so many levels that I'm sure you'll really enjoy it.

The Singles Collection: Sixx:A.M. "Gotta Get It Right" Review

Well, this is marvellous.

I woke up this morning thinking I can quickly film a VLOG and have a quiet night before heading off to Scotland tomorrow...and then I end up having to put it off to later due to insufficient time because I overslept, so I start talking about Runrig instead so that I can have something to cover myself while I'm up in the land that forgot the sun.

Then I go to have a contact lenses lesson and go to to my local radio...whereupon I find myself doing an interview at the last minute despite having no interview experience and having not heard of the artist I'm interviewing before then which means I get back home nearly an hour after I should have done.

And then, just when I think I can finally go film my VLOG in peace, I find this and realise that I really have to talk about this before I disappear for a week, as I'm not going to be able to talk about it when I get back and I know that people will want to hear what I have to say about this song.

...Fuck it, I don't need sleep, do I? It's not like I'm doing anything important tomorrow...and I can pack at the last minute if necessary!

Anyway, Sixx:A.M., as you might have guessed from the name, is a band which formed in 2007 and has Nikki Sixx as part of it, in his ever dependable role (and not especially technically demanding) role as bassist. Making up the rest of the members of the band are lead guitarist DJ Ashba (who you're most likely to know for also being part of Guns N Roses at the minute (or Axl Rose's solo project which is pretending to be Guns N Roses, if you want to be completely accurate), although he's also been part of BulletBoys and Beautiful Creatures and is also a solo artist) and rhythm guitarist, vocalist and drum programmer James Michael (who is mostly known for being a record producer and songwriter, although he has done a solo album). There are some sources which say there is a drummer on this track, but I'm in a bit of a hurry at the minute with writing this, so I'm going to assume the drums are programmed for now and apologise to whoever did the drumming on this track for not crediting them and mentioning where they came from if there is an actual drummer on this track. The band originally came together to record the album The Heroin Diaries Soundtrack, which is connected to Nikki Sixx's autobiography titled The Heroin Diaries: A Year In The Life Of A Shattered Rock Star and is clearly intended to musically represent the same thing that the book covers. You could argue that Motley Crue's 2008 album Saints Of Los Angeles is pretty much a Sixx:A.M. in all but name, as just about every track was written by everyone in Sixx:A.M. (and Marti Frederiksen), but that's probably not the point of what they were going for, so I'm going to move on. Sixx:A.M.'s second album was 2011's This Is Gonna Hurt and the band have since then been rather quiet apart from an acoustic EP, 2011's 7 (presumably because some genius could count and thought it would be clever to name the EP after how many tracks were on it), due to everyone else focusing on their main projects.

So this single being the first new song by the band would be absolutely brilliant news if it weren't for the fact that I've never listened to Sixx:A.M. before now. Just never bothered to hunt their stuff down, sorry!

So, what do I think of this track? Well, let's find out.

If you want to listen to the track, you'll have to stream it from the link below: there's been no official YouTube release of the song yet. There are YouTube videos up with the song, but I think I should stick with official channels due to the fact that those can't be taken down very easily.

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/sixx-a-m-new-single-gotta-get-it-right-available-for-streaming/

So, my first thoughts can be pretty much summed up as this: "I didn't know fun. had a new single out!"

...Well, OK, that wasn't actually my first thoughts, but you get the point, I'm sure: this sounds like it could have come off of fun.'s 2012 album Some Nights...which, because fun. sound so much like Queen, means that Sixx:A.M. sounds a bit too much like Queen for my liking. It's not so much the vocals (which don't sound like Freddie Mercury, Brian May or Roger Taylor: bizarrely, my best comparison is actually of a lower voiced (and nowhere near as gifted with falsetto) Justin Hawkins), but the music just makes me have to double check that I've not put the wrong band on by mistake. I don't necessarily have a problem with the Queen worship (I actually rather liked fun.'s Some Nights), but I can't say that I would like a lot of bands trying to sound like Queen because, well, Queen had a versatility to their songwriting that I don't think most bands could pull off properly. Sixx:A.M. is pretty much a shining example of why sounding like Queen isn't a sign of quality: the overall music is actually not especially memorable, as the whole song is basically supporting James Michael's (admittedly, very good, for the most part) voice. The melody line that Michael is singing is fairly memorable, but it feels like the only thing in the song that is aiming to be really memorable.

And that's really the big problem. The only performance that is really worth writing home about is the vocals, as nothing is especially complex on the performance front and nothing is especially memorable due to playing support for the vocals. Heck, I'll go further: the only thing that's really worth paying attention to IS the vocals. You could feasibly do this song completely a cappella and I don't think most people would think the song had lost anything through you doing that because there pretty much IS nothing else to the song.

So, after ranting about how this is only supporting the vocals, do I think this is a bad song? Well...not really, no. The performances, despite not being memorable or complex, are at least controlled in this fact: you're not feeling like the members are only playing their instruments to a fairly basic level because they can only play to this level, you feel like they are consciously playing fairly simply because it's what the song calls for and could easily step it up if they wanted to. Personally, I like artists who recognise that a song doesn't need to be complex and let the song be only as complex as it needs to be, so I don't really have a huge problem with the band doing this, but I still can't shake off the feeling that it's a bit TOO simple, even by the standards of letting a song be as complex as it needs to be. I'm not asking for the band to suddenly throw in a Joe Satriani influenced guitar solo or anything like that, but I feel like most songwriters could write a song like this without too much difficulty. The vocal line and the lyrics, maybe not, but the rest of the music is definitely simple enough that I imagine most people who have songwriting experience will be going "I could have written that in my sleep!"

So, overall, what do I think of this song? Well, the big issue for me is the fact that the only thing that's worth paying attention to is the vocals: if there was anything else to the song, I'd be OK with having the vocals be the predominant thing on it, but there's just not enough there for me to really want to give this a free pass. The vocals, to the band's credit, are very good and, if you like a catchy single, this should be fine with you, but I feel that the only thing which had any real effort put into it was the vocal line for the song, with the rest just being what the rest of the members threw together to not do an a cappella track. On that basis alone, I feel like this song is musically pretty weak. It's an enjoyable song, don't get me wrong, but, being critical, there's very, VERY little to it that's really worth bringing up and getting given a whole lot of nothing is just not really acceptable from a bunch of professional musicians. So, while I do like this song, I feel I have to give this song a negative score just because there's so little substance to it. It's definitely not a bad song, but, for the standards of the style of music the band are playing, there's so little to it that I almost feel offended, as a fan of this style of music, that the band think they can get away with releasing something with less substance than a prawn cracker. You can't do that guys, you just can't!

Final Rating: 3 Out Of 10

While definitely an enjoyable song when viewed from a listener's perspective only and with no frame of reference on what Sixx:A.M. usually sound like, so little is on offer here when looked at critically that it's almost insulting. A good vocal line and a strong vocal performance stops this song from being a throwaway, but, for everything else, you might as well not bother.

Also, give Queen their sound back: they need it for their upcoming compilation record thing!

The Singles Collection: Slipknot "The Negative One" Review

Let me make one thing very, VERY clear: I am not a nu-metal fan. When I was getting into metal, there was maybe FOUR songs I knew from growing up that could be placed in the metal genre, none of which were by Slipknot. I also did not bother to look into nu-metal because, well, I didn't pay a lot of attention to popular music as a kid and, as such, managed to miss the rise and fall of the genre in the popular eye. When I did try to check out nu-metal, though, my overall thoughts were "boring" and "overly depressing", so I didn't bother to check it out further. Throughout my time being a metal fan, this has not changed and, though my initial distaste of metalcore has been worn down enough for me to accept it, me and nu-metal have remained at great odds with each other, but peacefully so: I have let nu-metal be and, in exchange, I've only let nu-metal cross my path when it comes to stuff I actually like from it.

And then Slipknot announced their return with a new album and put out a new single.

...Well, I never bothered with Slipknot in the first place, so who knows, maybe this might be the thing which makes me like nu-metal?

...Yeah, I suspect Israel and Hamas will have peace before I become a nu-metal fan.

...Huh, topical reference. That isn't going to date this article in the slightest, is it?

...Actually, considering who I'm talking about, I have a horrible feeling this article will not be dated for a LONG time. God, that's depressing...

Anyway, let's start with...actually, do I even NEED to give Slipknot's history? They're one of the most well known nu-metal bands, for goodness sake!

...I do? Ugh, fine.

The roots of Slipknot were formed in the town of Des Moines in Iowa in September 1995, when then-drummer Shawn Crahan and bassist Paul Gray formed a band together called The Pale Ones, along with vocalist Anders Colsefni and guitarist Donnie Steele. Joey Jordison joined the band as their drummer (Shawn Crahan moved to percussion) very soon after their foundation and the band mostly jammed together under that name until late 1995, where they changed their name to Slipknot. They started to record their first demo in December of the same year, but lost Donnie Steele in February 1996. He was originally replaced on guitar by Craig Jones, but the band realised that they couldn't replicate the samples they had added to their sound, so he moved to being the band's sampler and Mick Thomson became the band's guitarist. The band's first demo, Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat., was finally released on Halloween 1996 and...um, went nowhere in terms of record label interest, so the band decided to add melodic vocals to their sound by add Stone Sour (heard of them?) vocalist Corey Taylor to the band. This pushed Colsefni to backing vocals and percussion (which leaves me wondering just how much percussion and samples Slipknot need...), who eventually decided to leave the band in September 1997. He was replaced by Greg Welts (only on percussion). The band's second album was released in early 1998 and was far more popular among record labels. Ross Robinson (who is a very well known producer in the nu-metal scene) offered to produce the band's debut album in February 1998, the band added DJ Sid Wilson to the band soon after that, the band received a $500,000 seven album contract from Roadrunner Records (a label who you should know for being big on metalcore and nu-metal in the 90's and a fair bit of the 2000's) in late 1998, the band fired Greg Welts for undisclosed reasons on the 6th of July and publicly signed their deal with Roadrunner on the 8th of July.

The band brought in Chris Fehn to fill in the percussion gap left by Welts and went to California in September to record their debut album. Part of the way through the recording process, the band went back to Iowa for the Christmas period, during which guitarist Josh Brainard decided to quit the band and he was replaced by Jim Root. The band's self-titled debut was released in late June 1999 and was rather popular, which meant that expectations for their follow up was rather large. This follow up, Iowa, came out in late August 2001 (distressingly, about a fortnight before 9/11 occurred) and is regarded by many as a masterpiece of nu-metal (let's ignore the obvious snarky remark of "There's a nu-metal album that's even good?" for a second). However, tensions within the band caused the band to go on hiatus in mid-2002. The members of the band were not quiet, however: Corey Taylor and Jim Root revived Stone Sour (releasing their self-titled debut album in late August 2002), Jordison formed The Murderdolls (which released their debut album, Beyond The Valley Of The Murderdolls, a week before Stone Sour released their debut album, interestingly enough, Crahan formed To My Surprise (which released their debut album in October 2003) and Sid Wilson went solo under the name DJ Starscream.

It was in mid-2003 that the band reunited and began work on their third album, along with producer Rick Rubin (who is on my blacklist, so I will not say anything more about him for the rest of this article). The result was Volume 3: (The Subliminal Verses), which managed to peak at position 2 on the Billboard 200. That band proceeded to tour for the album, took part in the Roadrunner United project (the album of which, The All-Star Sessions, was released in October 2005 and included members of the band on eight of the tracks on the album: specifically, "The Enemy", "Annihilation By The Hands Of God" (which had Joey Jordison co-writing the music for the song), "Tired 'N Lonely" (which had Joey Jordison writing the music for the song), "The Rich Man" (which had Corey Taylor writing the lyrics for the song), "No Way Out" (which had Joey Jordison co-writing the music for the song), "Baptised In The Redemption", "Constitution Down" (which had Joey Jordison writing the music for the song) and "Enemy Of The State" (which had Joey Jordison co-writing the music for the song)) and...went on hiatus again in the end of 2005 after they had finished touring for it.

Huh...world's shortest reunion ever.

Anyway, the members were, again, not quiet: Stone Sour reunited AGAIN and released their second album, Come What(ever) May, in late July 2006, Jordison toured with several bands and produced 3 Inches Of Blood third album, Fire Up The Blades, Crahan formed Dirty Little Rabbits (which released their debut EP, Breeding, in August 2007) and Wilson became DJ Starscream again.

Slipknot began work on their fourth album in February 2008, finishing work on it in June 2008. The result was All Hope Is Gone, which debuted at the top of the Billboard 100. They then proceeded to tour for the album and...went on hiatus AGAIN on Halloween 2009.

...Seriously, do these guys have a hiatus addiction or something? I've seen bands with FAR more inconsistent line ups go through less hiatuses (or is it "hiati"? I don't know what the proper word for having more than one hiatus is...) than Slipknot have!

Anyway, the band's third hiatus was, again, not spent with the members being quiet: Corey Taylor founded Junk Beer Kidnap Band (which sounds like a lost R.E.M. lyric...) and returned with Jim Root to Stone Sour (which released their third album, Audio Secrecy, in September 2010), Crahan continued work with Dirty Little Rabbits (which had released their second EP, Simon, in January 2009: they released their self-titled first album in July 2010), Jordison returned to The Murderdolls (which released their second album, Women And Children Last, in late August 2010), Fehn joined Will Haven and Sid Wilson formed the band Sid.

Tragically, it was during this hiatus that the band's bassist, Paul Gray, died on the 24th of May 2010. The band remained off of the live stage for the rest of the year, deciding whether they should continue with Gray, before finally deciding that they could carry on...and, in a move that I think is actually kind of sweet, in a way, brought back Donnie Steele (...their founding guitarist? Honestly, do you people even read these things? I've spent over an hour writing and researching this so far, and I still think I've been skimming some of it!) to fill in for Gray on the band's live gigs. It was during 2011 that Will Haven's first album with Fehn on bass, Voir Dire, was released. Slipknot released their first greatest hits album, Antennas To Hell, in July 2010. It was also in 2012 that Stone Sour released House Of Gold & Bones - Part 1 in October 2012. The second part of Stone Sour's album came out in April 2013, which is also the last Stone Sour album to feature Jim Root, who was fired in May 2014 after originally sitting out from the band's tour to help finish writing the Slipknot's fifth album. 2013 was also somewhat controversial among Slipknot fans, as Joey Jordison was fired from the band on the 12th of December...yet, apparently, Jordison was also surprised by the news of his departure from the band, which leads me to suspect that someone in Slipknot has grown an ego or didn't want to speak with Jordison any more.

Oh yeah, and Joey Jordison also formed Scar The Martyr in 2013, which released their self-titled debut in October 2013.

So, as we stand, Slipknot are currently without a drummer (although they have two percussionists, one of whom is a drummer, so I imagine he'll be the band's drummer for this track), have no actual replacement for Paul Gray (but have a live replacement for him), the members have as many side projects between all of them that Mike Portnoy has on his own and they have released a new song.

...You got all of that? Good, because I'm NOT going to refer to this again. I already feel like I've learnt more about Slipknot than I even wanted to know...

So, next up is the track for you guys to listen to...EXCEPT it's not actually got officially released to YouTube by the band yet. FUCK!

Ah well, you can stream the song from their website, so it's not all bad. If you want the link, then click here.

So, before I start talking about this, let me remind you that I am not a fan of nu-metal, nor have I ever listened to Slipknot before now, so my opinion on this is likely to mean nothing to people who are nu-metal fans or Slipknot fans. However, I will do my best to judge this track as fairly as I can, considering my bias against their style of music and my ignorance of the band's typical sound.

So, with that out of the way, let's move on to talk about the song!

First of all, let me admit this: yes, this SOUND like nu-metal. No question about it. However, something I have to point out that I've only just noticed now is how much Corey Taylor sounds like Robb Flynn with his vocals. I actually have no problem with this here, but it does give me another reason to not like Machine Head's The Burning Red and Supercharger, so add that onto the long list of reasons why I am trying not to admit to having heard those albums by the band.

...Wait, did I just say that out loud?

Anyway, the best way to sum this song up (without resorting to the very dismissive and not especially helpful comment of "it sounds like nu-metal") is that it sounds somewhat like a combination of groove metal (with a few hints of thrash metal) drumming, heavily downtuned (as in, "groove metal" levels of downtune) and fairly simplistic guitar riffs, sound effects that give the whole thing a somewhat unsettling air to it (...oh yeah, and turntables. For some reason...) and vocals that are best described as "yelled". It's actually a rather interesting listening experience, coming into this without any real knowledge of nu-metal: I can see how this style of music developed and I can get the appeal behind it. I suppose my big issue is that, without any real knowledge of nu-metal, I can't really fairly say exactly how this sounds compared to most nu-metal because I have no real frame of reference for it. However, comparing this to groove metal, I would say that I still find myself saying that I prefer groove metal over nu-metal, albeit in a "lesser of the two evils" kind of way: the downtuned nature of the guitars seem like they're trying to find the lack of complexity in the riffing while the samples and turntables just add nothing to the style of music for me. That said, what IS here is actually not that bad: the vocals, while not really my cup of tea, are actually rather good if you don't mind what sounds like a person basically yelling angrily, the drumming and percussion is very solid and, if you don't mind the use of turntables and samples, I imagine they would give this a sound which is actually rather interesting to listen to. The guitars are also not badly played, although their simplicity does wind me up a tad. The bass...I can't hear it, so I can't really comment on it.

I know this review is rather short, considering how much history you just had to trek through to get here, but, really, all I can say is that it's not bad. If you don't like nu-metal, this will not do anything to change your opinion, but, if you've not heard nu-metal and have a fondness for alternative rock, less melodic styles of metal and hip hop, I imagine you'll quite like this. As for me...well, I don't HATE it, but I wouldn't say this is my kind of thing either. If this is what Slipknot typically sounds like, you can count me out of liking them in the future, but it's still a decent enough listen, in my book. I wouldn't go search out more stuff like this in the future, but, if someone were to play this near me, my first reaction wouldn't be "TURN THAT FUCKING SHIT OFF!" I can understand why a lot of the die hard metal fans aren't fond of this kind of music and I will admit that I would probably be sick of this kind of music very quickly if I heard it a lot on the radio, but, for the occasional listen which I have willingly subjected myself to, I don't think it's that bad.

So yeah...still not a nu-metal fan, but there's no angrily roasting this song over an open fire because I think it sucks. There's some performances on here that are at least decent and most of what I dislike about it is something I can fairly put down to me having different tastes compared to what the style of music is aiming for. I just don't think it's something I would get hyped up about, personally. If you're a nu-metal fan, I do encourage you to at least check this out, since Slipknot are one of the flagship bands of the nu-metal genre. If you aren't familiar with nu-metal, then I'd suggest you ask a nu-metal fan for a good starting point rather than just going for this, but I don't think this is too bad a representation of the genre. If you don't like nu-metal...yeah, I'm certain this isn't going to change your opinion on it in the slightest, so don't bother with it!

This is a really tough one for me to provide a final score on. On the one hand, I don't really like this song that much and feel that, for my taste in music, it's a bit below what I would hold to be an average song. On the other hand, however, I recognise that, if you don't have the same issues that I do with the this style of music, you will no doubt find that this is actually an above average single. So, for the sake of fairness, I will divide my score up between what I feel I should score the song as, factoring in my dislike of nu-metal, and what I recognise the song to be when I factor out my dislike of nu-metal.

Personal score: 4 Out Of 10

My personal hang ups about nu-metal mean that a lot of what this song does simply does nothing for me because it reminds me too much of what I dislike about what I've heard of this style of music and the fact that the performances don't reach a level where I feel they get beyond merely making the song well played means that, from a personal viewpoint, this is not a song I would want to recommend to anyone who isn't already a die hard nu-metal fan. I don't hate this track by any measure, but it does everything that puts me off this style of music and doesn't do enough to win me back over enough to care about it.

Critical Score: 6 Out Of 10 (only missing out on a 7 Out Of 10 because of the lack of audible bass guitar)

When looked at while ignoring my dislike of nu-metal, the stuff that I don't like about the genre is still fairly well done as part of this song and the performances are strong enough for me to at appreciate that actual effort was put into this. If I look at this critically and push my dislike for the genre aside, I would say this is a fairly solid song that is at least worth checking out if you've got any fondness for nu-metal. People who do not like nu-metal in the slightest should, of course, stay far away from this, but there's enough here that's at least enjoyable that I imagine there are a lot of happy Slipknot fans out there, which I guess is the important thing at the end of the day! If you have avoided nu-metal purely because of the bad reputation it has, you might find this worth a listen and you'll probably find it somewhat enjoyable, but I doubt you'll come away loving this enough to want to become a Slipknot fan and I doubt this will ever be your favourite Slipknot track if you do become a Slipknot fan.