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Sometimes the formation of a band can be compared to the aligning of the stars in heaven. When the members of Black Sabbath came together, it was the beginning of musical history. With their combined musical and songwriting talents, Bill Ward, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, and Geezer Butler created deep and powerful music that broke new boundaries in terms of musicianship and song-writing, helping open the musical spectrum to a new level of heaviness.
After the success of their first two albums Black Sabbath and Paranoid, the band came back stronger than ever with Master of Reality, an album brimming with classic songs from front to back. There is one heavy riff after another on this record, each one as memorable as the last. Looking at the track listing one can easily recognize many of Sabbath's most well known tunes such as Children of the Grave, Into the Void, and Sweet Leaf. This is an essential addition to any heavy metal fan's music library.
In the early 70's Black Sabbath were at their prime in terms of musicianship and chemistry as a band. Bill Ward is one hell of a heavy and powerful drummer with an incredible feel as jazzy as it is driving. The riffmaster Tony Iommi is at his best here, especially on the masterful track Lord of this World. Ozzy Osbourne is obviously a legend with a highly distinguishable voice that gives the songs a lot of energy and personality.
Master of Reality is one of the greatest rock albums to come out of the 70's. It features some of the greatest performances ever captured on tape, and listening to it provides an experience like no other. Black Sabbath are legends for a reason, and its because of albums like this. Get it already!
This album changed my life. That might seem like an exaggeration, but believe me, it's the absolute truth! Municipal Waste introduced me to the outrageously awesome world of old-school thrash metal. They are the ultimate purveyors of the party vibe that defines a lot of old school thrash, and luckily they are young enough to still be active! Finally, a good heavy metal band my Dad didn't grow up listening to.
The songs are very fast and very catchy. The riffs are quick fire and scientifically designed to drive people crazy. Municipal Waste are notorious for their rabid live shows, and its no wonder considering how unforgivingly manic their music is. From the very beginning the album kicks you in the face and grabs you by the throat with the intro. As the drum rolls thunder into Deathripper, you can't help but start banging your head uncontrollably and banging your arms into anything that might be in your immediate vicinity.
There ar many great songs on the albums that have since become all time favorites of mine. Unleash the Bastards is an obvious highlight as it is probably the band most well known song. Another great track off the album is Mind Eraser and the tongue in cheek numbers Thrashin of the Christ and Terror Shark.
Hazardous Mutation is a very fun record. If you want to kick a party up a notch, put this baby on right as people are starting to get really drunk. I guarantee things will get wild quick!
I can't even begin to imagine how many hours I've spent playing Crash Bandicoot 2 throughout my lifetime. Ever since the game came out I've been addicted to it, playing through every level over and over again like a crack fiend trying to smoke every last bit of resin out of their pipe. Truth be told this is one of the funnest games I've ever played. No matter how many times I've beaten the levels, I can never resist popping the disc in a few years later and getting into another phase of Crash madness!
I think one of the reasons I loved Crash Bandicoot so much is that out of all the video game heroes he was the most cartoonish and funny. It was fun as all hell to jump on those cute little animals that wanted to kill you, or to spin attack a pile of boxes into smithereens. The villains in the game are so over-the-top and silly that it becomes a delight to take them down one by one.
In terms of gameplay, Crash 2 gets it right in almost every area. Crash is easy to control and moves at a cool, quick pace. It is easy to take out enemies, but at the same time its easy for them to take you out as well! The levels are consistently challenging without ever being frustrating (well, maybe except for those dang bees!). The graphics are very cartoonish and the level designs are awesome. As a kid I was blown away by the amount of details in some of the levels such as on 'Ruination', where you can see characters moving in the background that are only accessible through an alternate route in the game. Graphics like that are great for a PS1 title.
I could never get tired of playing Crash Bandicoot 2: The Wrath of Cortex. Collecting all of the items was a challenge that took me many years. Eventually I mastered the game and got every crystal and gem. I highly recommend this game to gamers of all ages, but especially to kids. If there's a way to download this game, or even if you want to but it on ps1 and play it on a PS3, I highly recommend doing so.
I first discovered Blood In, Blood Out in the bargain bin at Best Buy. It looked like a generic gangster movie without much appeal, but I decided to give it a shot anyway since it was so cheap. I had no idea it would become one of my all-time favorite films. Watching it for the first time was an incredibly epic experience. I found myself completely enamored in the story from the very beginning and my attention did not stray in the entire 3 hour runtime. The film builds and builds into an intense climax that chilled me to the bone.
The film tells the saga of the three men you see on the cover. Miklo is a half-white half-hispanic young man who has been struggling with his racial identity his entire life. He moves back to East L.A and gets involved with his two cousins in local gang turf wars. We follow the stories of these three men across the decades as they face struggles and hardships on their journey through life.
The film is dense with heavy themes of death, pride, sacrifice and redemption. Not only is it entertaining, but also thought-provoking and deals with very controversial subject matter. You will have a lot to think about in the days after watching this film, and believe me it will stay with you that long.
Since this is an Amazon review I won't go into any further detail of the plot or themes of the film. All I can say is that it is a monumental achievement in cinematic story-telling and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Goodfellas or even The Godfather.
I won't go into the politics behind this record. I won't dwell on the fact that Geoff Tate has been dragging the Queensryche name through the mud for years, but I will point out that not only is Frequency Unknown a continuation of that tradition, it exceeds all previous efforts by a mile in tarnishing their once-great reputation.
Frequency Unknown is a disaster. From the lousy songwriting and bored performances to the piss-poor production and cover art, the record is an uninspired and contrived piece of garbage not even worthy of the plastic that holds the cd. It lacks any semblance of musical or creative ability, and displays a huge error of judgement on the part of everyone involved from Geoff Tate and the hired guns he passes off for Queensryche, to the record execs too blinded by their own greed to see how big of a mistake releasing this album was.
They rushed through this album in order to give Geoff Tate leverage in court over his former bandmates. they knew that by releasing their album first they would sell more copies, giving Tate a reason to retain rights to the name. This is a shrewd business tactic that resulted an album that sounds thrown together. The production of this album is absolutely horrendous, with the mixing in particular being one of the worst in the history of recorded sound. There are points in the album where the guitars are so loud and distorted it becomes impossible to listen to. Your ears get bombarded with an undecipherable wall of sound intermittedly throughout almost every song. They could have fixed this issue, but they had to rush the album out as quickly as possible. Why would I care to listen to something when the people who made it didn't care about it themselves?
The songs themselves sound cut-and-pasted together. They are structured around Tate's vocal performance, which is unfortunate considering he gives the worst performance on the album. He has absolutely no musical range and lacks any trace of emotion or conviction in his voice. They tried to make up for this fact by piling every effect in the pro tools repertoire onto his vocal track, but in the end it comes out sounding more lifeless than ever. If you still aren't convinced Geoff Tate lost his soul, look no further than the song Weight of the World where Tate sounds like he's singing through the drive-thru microphone at McDonalds. I didn't know if it was Geoff Tate singing or if it was my computer asking me to put it out of its misery. And If you have any faith in Tate as a lyricist, or if you want to have yourself a good laugh, listen to the song Dare.
Geoff Tate deserves most of the blame for this turd of an album, but the musicians attached to it didn't help matters whatsoever. Simon Wright was a horrible choice for a drummer. He plays a more straight-forward, rock n' roll style which he displayed in AC/DC, but that playing style does not fit at ALL with Queensryche, who have traditionally leaned more progressively. Scott Rockenfeld was a great drummer who constantly kept things interesting with his innovative playing, but Wright simply plays the same beat throughout the entire song regardless of what the guitarists are doing (not that they are doing much anyway). This makes for a very disjointed and confusing listening experience that suggests they didn't take enough time to rehearse as a band before going into the studio.
In terms of song structure, this offers absolutely no variety or innovation. A lot of the songs sound like b-sides to Dedicated to Chaos, while the rest sound like a rip off of Jet City Woman. They didn't care about writing good songs for this crap. Don't get me started on the re-recordings, they are just depressing to listen to.
Cleopatra records should be ashamed of themselves for releasing this train wreck. It is an unfinished product. The songs are not mixed properly whatsoever. You'd think they would have some standards of quality, but apparently not considering they released the album even though they knew it wasn't mixed correctly. They knew that fans would be ripped off, which is why they are now offering replacement copies for any fans dissatisfied with the sound. How about getting it right the first time?
In this day and age this behavior from a record company is abhorrent. it is exactly the reason why the record industry is dying, because of the irresponsible people at companies like Cleopatra records who have no problem shoveling this horrible product out to the buying audience. Disgusting.
Queensryche's debut EP was a stunningly accomplished slab of pure, heard-hitting heavy metal that impressed both fans and critics alike. Metal maniacs the world over were instantly drawn to the precise riffage and complex time changes that define Queensryche's unique sound. The EP also gave fans what is perhaps the greatest performance ever captured from singer Geoff Tate, whose crisp, powerful voice and grandiose style perfectly compliments Queensryche's epic heavy metal assault. The world waited in hot anticipation for the full length debut of this promising new band, but many feared it wouldn't live up to the expectations set by the phenomenal EP.
In 1984 Queensryche finally released The Warning to a hungry public, but the initial reaction was lukewarm. It was viewed as a slight departure from the straight forward, Maiden-esque heavy metal of the EP and into a more progressive sound offering a wider variety of musical styles. The band's progressive tendencies would grow more apparent with each successive album, culminating in the band's magnum opus 'Operation Mindcrime'.
In terms of musicianship, The Warning proves Queensryche were some of the most talented players the heavy metal genre had to offer. Drummer Scott Rockenfeld takes a page out of Neil Peart's book with his complex fills, patterns, and time changes. His brilliant playing adds a whole new dimension to the music, simultaneously keeping it heavy and precise. Eddie Jackson does a great job laying down the hard and stomping baselines that drive the songs forward like a freight train.
Chris DeGarmo was a masterful guitarist and songwriter whose heartfelt music and accomplished ability defined the band's early sound. Some of the best examples of his songwriting can be found on the album, including one of the most epically powerful heavy metal song ever put to tape, the masterfully executed En Force. DeGarmo contributed a lot of material to the album, but an equal amount is credited to the band's other guitarist, Michael Wilton, who wrote another one of my favorites off the album, the fast and heavy hitting Deliverance, the only track I would have expected to find on the debut EP.
Perhaps the most famous quality of Queensryche's music is the phenomenal vocal performance of Geoff Tate. His voice is so unique and iconic that it's hard to imagine Queensryche's music without it. Tate's thought-provoking lyrical concepts, highly emotional deliveries, and massive banshee screams are the highlights of the album. There was simply no other voice like his in metal. There's really no good way to describe why his voice works so well, all you have to do is listen then you'll know.
This album inspires my imagination like no other. The lyrics are so descriptive and the music so majestic that its hard not to get caught up in the intense emotions coming out of the speakers. The story-telling element is an important component to Queensryche's appeal, and that started on The Warning with experimental songs like NM 156, which was a precursor to the style the band would adopt with their next album, Rage For Order.
Every track on this album is like its own separate adventure. The opening title track features a larger than life riff with thrilling gang vocals. It is an incredibly exciting beginning to the album. After the heavy metal assault of En Force and Deliverance, the band cools down for a slower song named No Sanctuary, which could be equated to Iron Maiden's 'Remember Tomorrow'. NM 156 and Take Hold of the Flame are fan favorites, the latter being the ultimate example of Queensryche's unmatched power and competency as a heavy metal band. Child of Fire is a heavy metal song typical of the galloping style popular at the time, and Roads to Madness serves an an epic closer.
The Warning helped make Queensryche one of the frontrunners of the heavy metal scene and established themselves as some of the best musicians in the genre. The bands fortunes would only grow with Operation Mindcrime and Empire, but for me the classic period of Queensryche will always be the very early days of the EP and The Warning. Back then, Queensryche was a hungry new band waiting to prove themselves worthy of heavy metal stardom. They certainly proved themselves with The Warning, and it remains a classic to this day.
Zodiac by Robert Graysmith
Fans of true crime books know how to appreciate a creative serial killer, and the Zodiac was most certainly that. The truth proved to be stranger than fiction when the elusive Zodiac killer first started taunting the public with his infamous coded messages intended to inspire confusion and fear. He was a brutal and ruthless yet intelligent killer who remains at large to this day.
This book was written by a man who was in the thick of the Zodiac investigation from the very start. Through his eyes the reader sees the mystery unravel one grisly murder at a time. The descriptions of violence in the book is the stuff of nightmares. It's really incredible when the description in the book effects you more than seeing the murder actually acted out in the film adaptation. The book does a perfect job of combining its investigation story with detailed and vivid descriptions of the Zodiac's various crimes and the many people involved.
I picked this book up at a Goodwill store, and once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. I literally read it in one day, and believe me that makes it something special. I highly recommend any fan of crime novels reality or fiction to check this book out.
