Like most guys who grew up listening to metal I towed the line and totes hated on BMTH for being stylish emo pretty boys and not real, ugly, hairy metal dudes. Then I saw them support Killswitch Engage in 2007 and holy shiz they could bring it live. I didn't have an epiphany and fall in love with them or anything, I just realised that it didn't matter what they looked like, they could bring the mosh. Soon after they released Suicide Season but it wasn't until a year or so after this that I got into that album. In many ways it is the perfect scene mosh album and if you haven't given it a fair shot I think you should. Especially if you're into working out and being angry at the world in 30 minute outbursts. There are breakdowns all over the gaf and his range of vocals is great.
Lol, U MAD? 'The Lord of Sorrow'
After that they brought out There Is A Hell... but I was let down a little by it. Maybe it was because I went from not caring about the band to being interested and now had great expectations, maybe because the sound quality on the torrent I got wasn't up to scratch, I don't know, either way I figured Suicide Season was a great album and that was that.
But then, out of nowhere (to me at least, I wasn't paying attention to them) comes Shadow Moses! My goth, that perfect for arena mosh chorus, the breakdowns, the vaguely (gasp) punk verse, the slipknot-esque parts, and of course THIS IS SEMPITERNAL! This rules, more like.
What's funny is that regular metal dudes seem to like this song and in doing so hate themselves for it! Win!
This was a s1-3 boxset with Mandarin (I'm guessing) also on the box. Some weird woman got up in my face because she wanted to buy it for her son so I couldn't take any extra photos.
Despite the abundance of evidence to the contrary, it seems that some metalheads do actually have a sense of humour! The story goes like this; one fateful night, the singer of Give Zombies The Vote got smashed (alone it seems) and decided to make a video to his own music, whilst dancing with his cat. His friends band-mates then found said video and posted it on that mecca for the socially incompetent, Reddit. (Then much, much later, I showed up to this party/found the video.) Oh and the cat is called BILL MURRAY.
While some cynical creatures that dwell in metal sub-forums seem to think this was all done as a viral marketing move, I DGAF! It is one of the simple joys in life to watch a hairy dude lip sync his way through a heavy song, as he holds a bewildered cat, and makes the facial expressions that every metal/scene/hardcore fan makes in the privacy of their own house or vehicle.
And if it IS a calculated marketing move then I say congratulations sir.
Like any heterosexual man over the age of 21, I spend much of my time on the internet looking up cute animals doing funny things. I'm hoping to make this a regular thing, there should be enough material out there!
To start we have a dog (the superior pet) going batshit crazy welcoming his owner back from Afghanistan after almost a year.
Everyone knows that blink-182 hit their peak of awesomeness just after Travis joined the band and just before Tom turned into a douchelord. While their lyrics were still about being fuckups, girls and generally not wanting to grow up, their songs matured greatly thanks to Mr Barker and the structured flair he brought to proceedings.
That's not to say that Dude Ranch isn't a great album, or that the self-titled album doesn't have some good songs. Anyway, Blink went on hiatus, came back, released an okay album that I hungrily reviewed at the time but haven't listened to since, and now they have a (relatively) new EP out called Dogs Eating Dogs.
My first thought was HOLY CRAP HOW SWEET DOES THAT COVER LOOK, THIS IS GONNA RULE, IT'S SO BADASS.
I calmed myself down by remembering one of the guys behind this was the guy behind Angels and Airwaves and their 8 minute 18 second music videos. Then I remembered how The Offspring have gotten old and put out some curious music lately. But then I thought about how an EP is a pretty cool idea for a band like blink who have three members pulling in different directions. I thought that maybe an EP would trim the fat and leave nothing but sweet jams!
And it doesn't start off that badly. Opening song When I was Young is a typical TomSong circa TOYPAJ, the verse is stripped down and then the chorus goes big. (These are real terms, y'all). *disclaimer* Tom does whine on about random metaphoric crap, the chorus isn't amazingly catchy or anything and it does stray into weird electronica. Having said all that, the song is okay and I might listen to it on a bus ride, maybe.
Next up is Dogs Eating Dogs a MarkSong, as the 2nd song for a blink release usually is. This is very like modern blink by Mark or in other words Plus 44. I think I'm more disappointed by Mark songs because I <3 him and feel he's being held back by Tom singing about a 'crippellling feeer uv hiiites'. Another trend I've noticed is that Mark sings a lot higher than he used to and added to the underpowered (self) production, it all sounds a bit weak.
From a none to inspiring start, things start to go downhill quickly with Disaster, which is basically an Angels and Airwaves song. Maybe when I'm old and need music that doesn't cause any type of emotional reaction in me I will understand Angels and Airwaves. I'm going to stop posting the videos now, they're online if you want them.. Boxing Day is a Christmas song of sorts. It's the musical equivalent of an endless plate of plain spaghetti, if you just get through it without paying too much attention you'll survive, if you concentrate on what you're doing, you'll slowly lose the will to live.
Tom makes me sad with the last song, Pretty Little Girl. This is 4.20 long and has a rapper towards the end. Not that I'm against rappers but, yeah.
Closing thoughts
The EP was a good idea (as opposed to a full album of this mediocrity)
They should get someone else to produce their music
Dogs Eating Dogs = DED
Going back to pretending they were DED after the self titled.
Piranhawas the original Dodgy Film Club outing and one that set the gory ball rolling over a year ago. The Club has been on hiatus for the most part but when the chance came to watch just one film it made sense to get back into the water with Piranha DD (or 3DD, whatevs).
If you liked the first film (I thought it was okay tbh, even in terms of watching it for the dodgy elements) then you will probably think this one is, well, pretty good I suppose. It has many key elements of the first including:
Piranhas, lots of them.
Water, lots of it.
Women/poor models/pornstars with Barbie-doll figures, lots of them.
A strange amount of relatively famous actors who really should know better.
So you basically take ingredient 1 and 2 and add 3, repeat. The action takes place in a water park this time and there's some vague storyline about the daughter wanting to stay true to the ideals of a real park, and the dad (stepdad?) basically flooding the place with attractive, scantily-clad ladies. But really, who gives a shit?
We're here to watch the lolgore (of which there is very little) -
But end up drowning in average (not truly lolworthy bad) acting and boobs (of which there are plenty) -
That's not to say that it's void of lolgore shenanigans! The highlights are actually pretty good and there's some solid gimmicks and wtf moments. It's just that you could enjoy these gifs/images and not have to sit through the other hour and 25 minutes or whatever it runs to. Gimmicks include -
All in all this was maybe a 6/10 at best though if sandwiched between 2 better dodgy films and a lot of alcohol it could be enjoyable with a group of depraved individuals.
Holy yes, this tour! While I have stated that I thought Pennywise were better without Jim, and I'm bemused by him pulling a prodigal son on it, I'm really excited for this tour. WITH LAGWAGON.
