Tag: review

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Mechanical Animals – Marylin Manson

You know what? Marylin Manson makes some pretty good rock music and I’d be keen to see him play somewhere.

I’ve been aware of Manson for quite a while but he came to the forefront when his music was blamed for the massacre at Columbine High School. He wasn’t at all to blame but the people wanted an easy answer, they wanted a quick thing to blame. He copped the worst of it and struggled after that. His name is still associated with the massacre and I guess I am perpetuating the myth here just by mentioning it.

There are always going to be people who don’t fit into the societal norms. People who need help and protection for themselves and to protect others from them. It’s how society copes with that which is important. I remember two massacres when I was young, Hungerford and Dumblane. The governments of the time banned certain types of guns. This seemed to be a perfectly rational response because it’s easier to get rid of guns than it is to psychologically screen everyone who wants to buy guns.

Just because I’m fine today doesn’t mean I could be fucked in the nut tomorrow and become completely unhinged from what is considered normalcy. Remove the guns from society. This is why modern terrorism tends to be other methods of mass murder. Ramming crowds with trucks and using knives. These methods require very little training and you can pretty much get anyone motivated enough to use them. Bombs are hard work and guns hard to get. What’s important is how the government and therefore society reacts to these attacks and how we go about trying to stop them in the future.

I suspect there are always going to be people unhappy with the current format of society and so there will always be threats to the “state”. The vast majority of people will act on their displeasure when they come to vote next time or join a march for some reason. There will always be a few people who think they can force change, for what they think is the better, using violent means. I also suspect they are largely correct. Violence tends to work in the long run as it forces governments to listen and change, but shhhhh, don’t say that loudly.

This album is playing right now as I type and I’m reminded that I was going to write about how I first heard Manson stuff. It was the Resident Evil soundtrack that allowed me to hear this chap for the first time and it was good. This album is perfectly acceptable rock.

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Master Of The Rings – Helloween

I don’t remember getting this but I did listen to it the other day and it’s pretty good German speedmetal. It’s not one that’s stuck in my head because I prefer Keeper Of The Seven Keys. I am an old man and new songs just don’t stick like they used to. Memory cares less about new things as you get older and I don’t have the time to invest in learning new words and songs.

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Under Siege

I found this communication in my drafts and I hadn’t written any of the text in it, however you can see it was drafted in January 2017.

[Correction – WordPress has published this as 2019, however when I found it in my drafts it was listed in the 2017 section of the website

Under Siege Revisions
Under Siege Revisions

The picture shows that my first draft was January 6th 2017]

I seem to remember wanting to write a film review about the film Under Siege when I watched it in 2017 but I never did. It is now April 2019 and I have just re-discovered this draft.

I’m curious because two days ago I watched Under Siege again and I still thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. So much so that I write about it in a film review I did for Pet Sematary. When I publish this communication I think it will appear in the Jan 2017 block. This means that I am writing this in April 2019 as though I had traveled back in time to 2017 whereas in reality the time travel has been the other way around!

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Master Of Puppets – Metallica

It’s hard to write about an album which affected me so much. There are a few that have had that effect and the first three Metallica albums definitely gave me something new from music. This was a new style for me, I expect I listened to this in the late 80s after getting into Iron Maiden and AC/DC. The sounds of this album and the thematic experience were beyond my then understanding of what heavy metal was.

I used to think that Metallica took the “chug” sound and made it into a note. They took melody and turned that into rhythm. It felt like a whole new way of writing music and it shook me [but not all night long].

For music to be where it is today you have to have all the bands who now bore me. You have to have the big four. Without them music would be different. Although someone else would have got there, I’m not obsessive enough to think that the creativity of humans is so poor that only a few people are capable of changing the world. If not Metallica then another band. If not Picasso then another artist. That seems quite logical to me.

Every song on this album is an artwork. It is a classic. This is an album that should be owned and played by all. It’s stunning. Yet, now, it bores me. My music has moved on and while I can appreciate this album for the genius that it is I rarely play it and consider it almost a part of history. I would rarely seek this album out. I still play AC/DC and some other bands so I’m not sure what it is about this that does that.

If you asked me to list the top ten metal albums I don’t think this one would make it for me. I’d rather have the first Metallica album. I understand that is a controversial choice and I also understand why but the first album is raw. This album is somewhat polished and I’m not so keen on that sound. Which is ironic given my current propensity for electronic industrial music!

Go listen to this. It’s a classic. It’s just history now.

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Pet Sematary

I’m having a cup of Earl Grey tea as I write this because for some reason I want Earl Grey tea. I’m not sure why but I had to go and buy a box of tea bags just to satisfy this craving.

This afternoon I went to the cinema at Rochester, the Cineworld one, the one I always go to, and I watched another horror film. I’ve a number of things I want to talk about here but first there are some formalities to get through. The tide was quite low and I did’t take a photograph this time but I did look at the lovely murky water as it journeyed past to the Thames Estuary.

I also rated this film on IMDB. I then used the app feature to share my opinion with the world because I know the world wants to know what I think.

So, the things I want to say are in broadly two themes. The first is what I thought of the film the other is why I think I dislike horror movies.

I haven’t read the book and I haven’t seen any other film version. So, this film was a bit shit. But that might because of what I write in the next paragraph. My issues are the following:

  • IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH A PET CEMETERY. A cat nearly gets buried there. That’s it. All the rest of the action happens upon a special fucking hill which people only go and visit when it’s night time because otherwise they’d see it’s just a hill. WITH STEPS. This place you aren’t meant to go has STEPS.
  • This is surely a love story? The ending seemed perfect for a sort of “let’s get together” type of film. I’m not sure I was meant to empathise with  anyone, I didn’t really. I did like John Lithgow though, it’s hard not to.
  • A cat being evil isn’t a surprise. We all know they can be evil fuckers. It didn’t really seem that evil in the end. It just scratched someone.
  • They did kill a kid and well done to the film makers.
  • Trees aren’t scary.

While I was watching this film I was trying to work out why I don’t enjoy horror movies. It’s not like when I was a young teenager and I saw loads of classics and each one affected me quite a bit back then:

  • The Omen (all parts)
  • Poltergeist
  • Amityville
  • And probably a few others

I think I struggle with these themes now because I don’t believe in any form of soul or afterlife. I don’t believe in anything after death. There’s no evidence and all religions which offer the afterlife are cons.

I am subject to jumps and foreboding but I think in horror films it’s not done subtly enough for me. It’s obvious when there’s going to be a pop-scare. The music seems too leading, I guess these slasher flicks seem to grate rather than entertain. I mean, if you lived in this sort of universe you’d fix up all lights and basement rooms during the day time and make sure everything worked well in the house. Who’d walk around a house in the dark when they hear the noises of the undead?

Do you know what I watched last night that was better than the last two films I saw at the cinema:

UNDER SIEGE

It was amazing. I enjoyed every minute of it and I have every time I’ve watched it since seeing it at the cinema in 1992. There might be too many bullets in each magazine but as films go it is great fun. Well done to those who made it. It still works well twenty seven years later [it hurt writing those numbers]. Except Steven Seagal is clearly a nutter now.

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Master Of Confusion – Gamma Ray

In reality this is a Helloween album. I think it’s Kai Hansen playing guitars and then the sound is more “Helloween”.

So, I’ve just been over to Wikipedia and I’m not sure what’s going on. This album is named for Gamma Ray on my music collection but it isn’t in the list of titles by Gamma Ray on their Wikipedia page. This means it might really be by Helloween [which is almost the same thing].

Fuck. It’s not on the Helloween Wikipedia page either. That’s me a bit bollocksed there then. Now the next thing is to search for the title rather than the band name. Perhaps I’ll try Kai Hansen.

Now I’m lost. It’s not on his page either.

The album is playing as I write this and bugger me if they haven’t covered “Death Or Glory” by a NWOBHM band which I’ve heard many times on a album collated by Lars Ulrich. However, the search isn’t going well to figure out this album because now I’ve search for “Death Or Glory” and all I’m getting is a song by The Clash and it’s NOT THAT ONE.

The next song has started and it’s a ballad bullshit thing. It’s called Lost Angels and sounds like it too.

Right, I’ve solved the Death Or Glory problem, it#s by a band called Holocaust, of course it is.

Back to searching for the album artist that I’m listening to at the moment. This review is causing pain and effort. Originally I was just going to write:

It’s typical Helloween and I haven’t listened to it much.

Jesus! That took some time. But now I’ve found it. The album is actually an EP with only a couple of new songs and some live versions of other songs. Here’s the Wikipedia page. Oh, it has three sides to the EP. Because, of course it does.

My next challenge is to try and find the NWOBHM compilation that Lars Ulrich put together as there’s a load of great songs on it.

MasterOfConfusioCover.jpg
By Source, Fair use, Link

On my previous communication I forgot to mention that I have finally completed the L section of the reviews and now I’m on the M bit, I mean I know it’s obvious but it feels like an achievement.

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Maiden England ’88 – Iron Maiden

Honestly, I bought this a few years back because it’s a recording of the first concert I went to. Except it isn’t. I saw Maiden on 10th December 1988 at Wembley Arena and it was spectacular. This recording is them at the NEC in Birmingham. I think I’ve played it once.

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Lovesexy – Prince

Wow, two albums in the “L” section of this as I trawl through my stuff alphabetically. The main this I remember about this album is that it was recorded on a tape which had Bon Jovi and then went straight into this. I’m not sure they go together but that tape was a product of its time, around 1990 in my lifescale.

There are two songs which strike me as best on this album and they would be: Alphabet St and Lovesexy. I don’t listen to this album often, it is however most definitely a summer sound. It’s worth a listen.

As I had a taped copy of this originally from SR I didn’t know the format of the album and when I got the CD version I was annoyed that the whole album is listed as a single track. I spent quite a while finding software to break the album into individual tracks but I go there in the end. I now have this as a digital copy on the NAS. It’s there forever. Unless there’s an EMP, in which case we are all fucked.

I can remember this tape playing as I drove cadets to a band competition in the late 1990s. I had this playing in the minibus and we were all singing along to Bon Jovi and then Prince started playing. I quite liked the contrast but it was not universal!

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Loveless – My Bloody Valentine

I got this after a friend recommended it as a highly rated album. I knew it wasn’t metal but I wasn’t sure what it was. I can tell you that I would describe it as haunting blurry music with distortion. I can’t decide if it’s actually any good. It sounds like it comes from the early 90s and they are a band trying to make a name for themselves as being different and not the usual Manchester lot.

I guess that first paragraph is rather vague but I have listened to this quite a bit and it might possibly be summer music but it’s not one I rush to. I also haven’t looked up anything on Wikipedia [which I will do after publishing this] so I can’t be held accountable for anything I’ve said which accidentally is true.

It’s worth a listen but probably best while high?

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Love Symbol – Prince

I don’t thin that as a metal head it’s wrong to really like Prince. This album comes after Diamond and Pearls and was when he changed his named to a squiggle.

There is a level of funk in this album which is delightful. I don’t listen to this album as much as Diamonds and I think that’s because the latter has more of a personal connection, I did see Prince on tour at Earls Court.

Turn the bass up and play this loud on a sunny day and it can’t do anything but brighten your life.

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Look What The Cat Dragged In – Poison

I can remember a poster of the singer of Poison on the wall in our sixth form centre at school and I couldn’t tell if he was a he or a she. It’s good that these things matter less these days and most people don’t really care, be what you want to be. I haven’t seen Poison and that may be a good thing, I dread to think what the audience would be like.

This is classic terrible 80s rock and it’s brilliant. This is an horrific look at the culture of cock-rock and what it does to a generation. I love this stuff but at the same time I can inform you that it is terrible [sorry Pom].

This album has some classic songs on it and everyone would be singing along.

My problem now is trying to imagine four chaps in their sixties with balding heads running around in drag-queen make up singing these songs. It was and is a product of its time and is a bloody good examples of that time.

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Lodestar – Lodestar

This band was a spin-off from Senser. The singer and a couple of others created this album and toured for a while in 1996 or so. I can’t remember when I bought this album. The wiki page for them seems to indicate they are a prog-rock band but it’s not as boring as prog rock and quite upbeat. I enjoy it and some of the songs run through my head now and then, the sign of a good album. It’s worth a listen.

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Us

Yesterday I drove to the western half of Kent to see the film Us. I had to cross the Medway, much like the Romans about two thousand years ago but without the battle and invasion part. The cinema I went to is the Cineworld at Rochester. I picked the film Us because it was lowest on the list of films I’d least like to see that were being shown.

M2 Eastbound Medway Bridge
M2 Eastbound Medway Bridge

If you look carefully at the picture of the bridge you can see the work done to strengthen it. It has been reduced from four lanes to three due to the increased sizes of lorries allowed on UK roads by previous governments leading to a drop in rail freight and an increase in traffic. You can see the tide was middling.

As is custom I rated the film on IMDB and tweeted the result, this communication deals with the rating system:

I rarely go to see horror films because most of the time they are stupid. Once you accept that supernatural stuff is just that – outside of natural and therefore doesn’t exist – you find ghost stories quite terrible. I’m still working through what I thought about certain aspects of this film, I guess it has got me thinking.

This film crossed many genres and I was surprised by that. But overall I found it a little boring and tired. Maybe I’ve seen too many of these types. Maybe I haven’t seen anything new for a long time. The reason I went to see this was I had heard it was meant to be pretty good. Shortly I am going to read some proper reviews to see what they say, to gain some insight into why other people thought the film really good. I can’t write too much here without spoilers.

There was a bible passage mentioned a few times throughout this film, it was Jeremiah 11:11. This is what it says:

Therefore this is what the Lord says: ‘I will bring on them a disaster they cannot escape. Although they cry out to me, I will not listen to them.

Not sure what it’s about but it does seem that the Lord is being a bit of a malicious prick.

I suspect this film is full of metaphor and I’m just missing the point.

 

I have just been and read the review of this film written in The Guardian. I don’t think there’s a great deal of insight in the review. It got 4 stars and I’m not really sure why.

UPDATE: I found someone who’s better at metaphor than me so if you want please read Eli Bosnik’s blog post.

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Lving Proof – Live In Chicago – Wishbone Ash

I bought this album because I heard somewhere that the lead singer of Iron Maiden said that this band were one of his influences.  I have listened to it and quite enjoyed it, but it is generally slow and not metal. It’s good for having on in the background on a summer’s evening while sitting outside.

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Nachtmahr – Electrowerkz

Last night was a chance to listen to some classic Austrian Industrial music at Electrowerkz. It’s in Torrens Street, Angel, which is a tiny little cul-de-sac with a smart pub at its entrance and an Alien-themed industrial-alternative club for other people at the other end.

I think last night was the forth time I’ve got clothes on and ready in another person’s driveway. I park in spaces that people don’t use, but I’m not a thief, I pay for the privilege to keep my car there.

First band on at Electrowerkz was Dunkelsucht. This probably translates to either dark thoughts or depression. I’m not sure and in this day and age it’s terrible that I haven’t looked up which it is. Maybe I’m too lazy. OK, I just went and did it and it apparently means Dark Investigated. I suspect not!

Dunkelsucht
Dunkelsucht

This band comprised a male singer and a female computer controller type person. They are from Switzerland and I quite enjoyed them. It seemed quite pop-like to me, but I suspect that in reality it’s quite heavy stuff? I’m never sure and I hate the fact that it’s all so subjective. I wrote in my notes that it was OK, they had good beats and I enjoyed it overall. I did find that in the middle of a few songs it suddenly went strange with melodies that seemed out of place.

The next band on were DKAG and I’ve seen them before a number of times. Smith and I stayed in the bar. I spent thirty seconds watching them, just to check they were the same. There’s a limit to how much I can take. I’ve kinda come to the conclusion that I really enjoy about forty five minutes of any band and show but after that I start to get bored because all the songs sound the same. I think that’s either because I enjoy M’era Luna and the shorter sets that I generally see there or the causation is the other way around and I just find shorter sets more interesting.

The headliners were Nachtmahr. As with the last time I saw them here there were only two of them. The singer, Thomas Rainer, and the computer controller were all by themselves. I know there were about five people on stage at M’era Luna although two of those were female stage show actors.

Nachtmahr - March 19
Nachtmahr – March 19

Nachtmahr played for a solid ninety minutes and if I’m honest I only started to struggle in the last fifteen or so, even given my rant a couple of paragraphs ago. They were pretty good, but I don’t think Rainer is a natural frontman. To me he looks like he’s playing an act, which all singers are to an extent, but he seems uncomfortable with it. I don’t mind that though. I’ve paid to see a show and I don’t want my musicians to look like they aren’t enjoying it.

Hello Crowd
Hello Crowd

This set had a load of classic songs you would expect to hear. I enjoyed it a lot.

What I found most interesting at the venue was that I would say it was easily a 50-50 split in the sexes of those attending. There was also a wide age spread from around 18 to around 65 from the looks of the people I saw. It was quite probably the most diverse audience I have seen yet for a gig. It was such a nice atmosphere, really enjoyable. A good night.

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Live In The Raw – W.A.S.P.

Ah, when I was young W.A.S.P. were seen as a dangerous band. They were edgy and scary. We heard rumours they threw raw meat into the crowd and they swore a lot. Nowadays I look at things like that and yawn. I mean, it’s all been done hasn’t it? Every generation has to find their edge and music performances get reinvented all the time.

When I saw Slipknot at Download in 2013 I thought it was going to be an edgy show, because Slipknot had that same feeling as W.A.S.P. – a band on the edge trying to go further than others and trying to make a statement. Now, their performance at Download was excellent and I was certainly made a stronger fan but was it edgy? Not really. The next morning in the B&B, I’m old and camping seemed a bad idea, there was a young couple talking about the performance and they were really impressed with the percussionists kit going into the air and turning while the guy played. This impressed me not as I saw Tommy Lee do that with the Motley Crue back in 1991 or so when they played Wembley Arena, but then, I reminded myself, I’m old.

If we want to see the proper shockers then I think we need to look at the generation before mine. Alice Cooper scared the world with his stage magic shows and ritual beheading. Throbbing Gristle combined music and performance art in the 70s with overtly sexual body mutilation. All this stuff is nothing new it’s just that every generation has to find their own way I guess.

I now inhabit a world of people who would be called freaks and perverts but I don’t really see it that way. It’s just people who dress a little differently and enjoy different things. What you may think as strange and shocking is just another person’s every Saturday night out. What I can say is that the community and safety in these environments is better than just walking down the high street on a Saturday afternoon. People’s inability for empathy and tolerance saddens me.

Long Beach Arena, for the final night of their 1986 87 world tour the most outrageous band in the world – W.A.S.P.

I’ve been told that this album was recorded while W.A.S.P. supported Iron Maiden on their world tour and I haven’t checked it but it sounds legit. What a gig that would have been! I first saw Maiden in 1988 and it was good but two years earlier and I would have seen W.A.S.P. rather than White Dwarf!!

W.A.S.P. were most famous to me as a teenager for two main things and they are both song based. One was the song officially called “Animal” but really it’s called “Fuck Like A Beast”, what an outrageous title! The song is so-so but it’s good fun. They also had a song called D-B Blues and while I have no idea what that is there was a line about pussy juice. I mean, how bad do you want to be? [It’s probably best to not mention the cover art for the song Animal].

I love that whole trashy 80s metal sound. I can’t help it. It does something to me. This live album has it in buckets. Plenty of simple chugging and gang vocals. I love it. I have played this album over and over and I definitely have it in different formats. I think it’s amazing.

You should get this album and play it loud while drunk on JD. It’ll really take you back to the 80s. As a native bass guitar player I like the steady combo of a bass and drums and this album has plenty of that. It works really well from a song construction point of view. I love rolling bass lines with drums blatting away being the force behind the main song. It almost doesn’t matter to me what the guitars do. It’s probably why I love AC/DC so much.

I’m not going to do a song by song breakdown of this album. There are some bad songs but mostly they are great and this has such a summer feel it’s good for playing in the garden while you relax on a nice summer’s day drinking Pimms or a bottle.

Now, W.A.S.P. have been accused of being named after a selection of religious idiots who are White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Now, there may be a selection of people out there who would happily wear this label it’s quite likely they are racist pricks. This band can’t be accused of being like that, their singer is a native american FFS. The mainstream likes to pick on all of that which comes across as a little different and demonise it because it’s a good feeling to be outraged by something and when you get to middle age you can’t stand the fun that the youth have.

Go and stream this album or even better buy the damn thing and make sure that the artist gets a fair reward for causing you some moments of joy.

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Live MCMXCIII – Velvet Underground

I’m pretty sure a friend gave me this album after he tried to clear away some of his music. I have listened to the whole thing a few times and it is quite nice. It’s a live album recorded in 1993 which I think was long after the Velvet Underground had exploded. This is an album of early rock music recorded in the 90s and is pretty good. You can see how this band influenced an entire generation of music makers. It’s worth getting.

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Captain Marvel

This afternoon, St Patrick’s Day, I went to the cinema to see the latest Marvel super hero offering – Captain Marvel. I noted the state of the tide and it was low, but there was also a new area of the mud bank that had been dredged and two barges were anchored in there properly afloat. I rated this film on IMDB and there’s a communication dealing with how the system works here.

I note that the poster for this film outside the cinema had an F-15 Strike Eagel based at RAF Lakenheath on it and this excited me, I thought I might get to see some decent military flying by the USAF but there wasn’t really any. Also, all the flying action took place in sandy places, even when returning from space because it would be impossible to associate any other kind of land type with aliens.

I really enjoyed this film. The first thirty seemed a little slow and I did think about having a nap but I didn’t want my head to lay on either person at my side so I forced myself to stay awake. I’m glad I did because I really enjoyed this film. Well worth watching.

The best thing about this movie was the positive and strong female role models within. Most of the soundtrack was by female artists and the whole thing effused oestrogen. This is how films should be. Strong positive female role models. Women should be doing these roles and they will kick your butt. Such a force for good in society.

Obviously there’s still all those issues about winning by hitting someone until they don’t get up. I’m not keen on those messages. I think we see enough of that from the G5 in the world. Oh, there was Jude Fucking Law, yeaugh.

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Live At The Underworld – Senser

I saw Senser at the Underworld when they supported the mixer chap from Slipknot. That was the first gig I ever took my niece to. I think she enjoyed it. I’m not sure where this CD comes from, it might be an extra as part of a DVD I bought. I’ve not really listened to it. I like the studio stuff very much.

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