Tag: review

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The Sickness – Disturbed

OK, now this is a great album. I don’t know the individual songs and I can’t put the correct names to the correct rhythm but I can tell you that this album ROCKS. The signer’s voice really adds to the overall theme and you can tell that if he wasn’t there it would be mediocre. I’d be interested to see this band live and I nearly did but the tickets were too expensive for a trip to Wembley Arena where this band were the support. It would be nice to see them at a festival, when festivals are happening again. Go and get this album, you’ll love it.

This is communication number 1907, so as with my recent trend here are some things that happened in 1907. Clearly, these aren’t the most important things to happen but they are things that stand out to me:

  • The “mud march” takes place in London with women fighting for the right to vote.
  • 19 women are elected to the assembly in Finland.
  • A peace conference happens in the Hague.
  • A mining explosion kills 362 in West Virginia.
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The Shadowthrone – Satyricon

I got this album when Satyricon were meant to play Alt-Fest in 2014. I have to say I listened to some bits of some songs and pretty much hated it.

As this is communication 1906 here are some of the things that happened that year [common era]:

  • The pope didn’t like France’s law declaring a separation of church and state, but fuck the pope.
  • A mine explosion in France kills 1060.
  • Women get the vote in Finland.
  • The BCG vaccine is developed.
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The Second Annual Report Of Throbbing Gristle – Throbbing Gristle

This album, this debut album is shocking. It’s a collection of noises from the collective called Throbbing Gristle. This album was so influential with artists producing electronic music along with the rest of their back catalogue. When you listen this album you become hypnotised by the noise and curiosity of what is going to happen. The track listing is as follows:

  • Industrial Introduction
  • Slug Bait
  • Slug Bait
  • Slug Bait
  • Maggot Death
  • Maggot Death
  • Maggot Death

There’s an utter fascination that draws over me whenever I listen to this band. I think a part of it is the horror of the sounds. Then there’s the wondering what’s going to come next and finally there’s the intrigue of who and what created these sounds. When you listen to Throbbing Gristle you might not enjoy it [I do] but you end up knowing you have experienced. If you can, it’s worth the listen, but be warned.

This is number 1904 and so here’re a few things that happened in the year 1904 when the year 1 is what some people consider to be when JC was born but it wasn’t and that kinda messes everything up:

  • Roger Casement publishes an account of Belgian atrocities in the Congo.
  • The British defeat Tibetan troops.
  • The SS Norge sinks killing 635.
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The Resistance – Muse

I have tried with Muse. I have tried to listen to it and feel good things about the music. But I have failed every time. I can’t stand it. I think it’s the singer voice. I’m not really sure. It just leaves me cold.

So, this is communication 1902. So, what happened in that year of the common era?

  • A snowstorm in Japan kills 199 during a military training exercise.
  • A stampede at the Shiloh Baptist Church in Birmingham Alabama, kills 115.
  • The first Borstal opens in Borstal, Kent, UK.
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Old

After a long day of building stuff I had booked to go to the cinema to make sure that I had a definite end in sight. I didn’t want to be working into the evening always trying to do “one more thing”. As it is the progress is good and I got to where I wanted to be. Still plenty to do though. The only film I could be bothered to go and watch was Old by Michael Night Shyamalan. I’ve looked at what’s on later today and can’t see anything other than a Purge film – which I couldn’t care about – although maybe I should check out a different cinema and see what they’ve got. Watch this space to see if I write another review.

The tide was low this time as I approached the car park. I could see the edge of the mud banks so I’m not sure how much lower it can get, it’s been quite a while since I regularly went this way. When I saw F9 plenty of people were wearing masks but this time there were a lot who were not. It’s very clear that the government [BJ] wants to shed the responsibility and pass it on to individuals [a classic right wing manoeuvre] but in the broadest sense people are stupid. We rules and laws in place to ensure that people don’t make their own choices on many things. If we didn’t have speed limits there would be many many more deaths on the roads than we face now. After the film I thought about what rating to give it and they are explained here.

What did I think of the film? I hated some of the acting and I hated some of the cinemaphotography. I guess M K was heading for a style but it is one I didn’t enjoy. Overall the film was kinda OK but really I just hung around as I wanted to know what the resolution was going to be. I’m not going to give that away here as that wouldn’t be fair but I was hoping for an explanation of why the beach existed rather than what use it has been put to. I guess I can’t have everything.

Oh, there were too many codas. I don’t think any were needed. It could have ended at the point where the people are swimming in fish. That would have been enough for me. It would have meant there were loads of questions that were unanswered but I think it would have made a better film overall. Please remember that I am not a film maker and so I know nothing about these things.

This is communication 1901 and so in line with recent practice I mention below some aspects of the year 1901 – and yes, I am aware that for a lot of people this isn’t even the correct calendar to use but it’s the most common.

  • The UK and Germany agree on how to carve up some of Africa.
  • Boer concentration camps run by the UK are reported to be cruel and have a high mortality rate.
  • Alabama requires voters to have passed a literacy test – and yet modern day republicans are outlawing critical race theory.
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The Real Thing – Faith No More

I bought this because a big part of me wants to really like Faith No More. But, it doesn’t quite do it for me. I’m not sure why. This is a solid album but not one I would play too often. I’m not even sure if I’ve played past the first two songs, I’m writing this review on reputation alone!

As this is the 1898 communication here’s a few things that happened in 1898:

  • Henry Lindfield is the world’s first automobile fatality on a public highway in Purley.
  • Bava Baccaris massacre.
  • The Curies discover radium.
  • Establishment of the Republic of Negros.
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The Razor’s Edge – AC/DC

Blow Up Your Video came along as my awareness of AC/DC grew and I really liked the album. I seem to remember being in Jersey and having it on tape although I mostly bought records, music cassettes were a popular portable method for listening to music. The Razor’s Edge was the second album released by AC/DC after my consciousness was raised. It’s an excellent album and has a number of great songs.

  • Thunderstruck – everyone knows this song. It’s a great song. The video is excellent. A great opener and worth the hype.
  • Fire You Guns – another high speed brilliant song.
  • Moneytalks – It does doesn’t it, but also another single and a great song.
  • The Razor’s Edge – brilliant, well crafted.
  • Mistress For Christmas – a fucking terrible song made for the xmas market but it’s kinda cheeky also and makes me laugh. I suppose you have to be good at song writing to be able to write this stuff.
  • Rock You heart Out – proper high speed rock.
  • Are You Ready – a live classic and classic AC/DC. I’m running out of superlatives.
  • Got You By The Balls – not the best AC/DC song with balls in the title but still a great song.
  • Shot Of Love – not sure about this one.
  • Let’s Make It – AC/DC songs are pretty much all about sex. All of them.
  • Goodbye and Good Riddance to Bad Luck – it’s ok.
  • If You Dare – fantastic riff work.

There’s an awful lot of good on this album and not a lot of shit. It’s well worth owning and playing. Everyone sings along with AC/DC right?

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The Number Of The Beast – Iron Maiden

666. An obscure reference from the drug induced writings of a crazy man and two thousand years later we have people concerned about a number causing bad shit. I know the religious have issues with reality but it makes me laugh just how much they think writing a particular thing or saying a thing can affect the physical world. It’s a bit like them believing that wishing really hard actually does anything.

I’ve had this album since I first got into metal all those years ago. I didn’t get it when it came out, my development occurred a few years after that but by 1988 I was a fully fledged member of the Maiden fandom and totally loved everything they did. This album with Clive Burr on drums is still amazing and something that stands up to time. I know I’m going to be slightly controversial when I say there isn’t a duff song on here as I know there are friends of mine who feel quite strongly about some of them:

  • Invaders – As an opener I’ve always liked this song. I sort of consider it a follow up to Invasion. Close friends of mine disagree with its greatness.
  • Children Of The Damned – is a fucking masterpiece and I recently played it to get the guitar solos out of my head as they were ear-worming. Bloody marvellous.
  • The Prisoner – this song made me seek out the TV show and both are great. Personally I’ve always been slightly irritated that the start-stop gives way to full-blown rampage a bit too quick.
  • 22 Acacia Avenue – the follow up to Charlotte The Harlot and possibly my least favourite song on the album. I don’t know why.
  • The Number Of The Beast – a song about the beast. Brilliant. I guess it worked into the Satanic Panic of the later 1980s.
  • Run To The Hills – a social commentary on the genocide of the native Americans if a bit gimicky.
  • Gangland – I really live this. I like the speed and the beat.
  • Hallowed Be Thy Name – shiver down my spine. Simple.
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The Lost Children – Disturbed

Now, I know that The Sickness is an awesome album, and it’ll be reviewed later in this series. This particular album I am less sure of. I don’t think I’ve played it that much. The best thing about Disturbed is the singers voice. It’s very distinctive and really makes every song much better than it actually is.

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The Last Sucker – Ministry

I really like the music of Ministry since I first heard “Jesus Built My Hotrod”. There’s a great element of chaos in the songs which I enjoy. They are pretty damn good live too. This album is the third in the series of Uncle Al Hates GW Bush. Quite a few musicians are on the left of politics and Al is there too. Maybe it comes from accepting the strange and odd, accepting those who are different, being more tolerant and having an education? I don’t know. I suspect there are definitely right wing musicians out there, much as there are right wing people in society at large. I think my view is mostly that those on the right are distrusting of difference and broadly selfish – they expect that people should be able to sort themselves out. My view is that I’m trusting and accepting of differences along with understanding that people need help and I’m happy to do my bit.

Can you imagine what Uncle Al has thought about the Trump years? I mean, it is arguable that GW was the worst president ever and entirely useless and thick. Then, Trump came along and makes GW look like a fucking saint. Can you imagine how shit you have to be to make GW look good? Bush Jr was fucking terrible. An absolute shit president. New levels of shitness have to be used when describing Trump. If you want to elevate Trump to some level exceeding “really shit” then I think the education system has failed. It’s like thinking that Johnson in the UK is a trustworthy sensible bloke. We are in the same situation this side of the pond.

I’m not sure of any song particularly sticking out on this album but I do like the sound of Watch Yourself. I’ve been listening to Ministry while playing Minecraft as the both go together. I do wish that Uncle Al would keep going but everyone dies at some point.

See if you can spot me in the crowd.

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The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

I had some time and so I decided to go to the cinema. I almost feel guilty if I don’t go enough as I pay money each month to see as many films as I like and it also gives me something to write here, these are a regular feature of this unvisited site. When looking at the list of films playing there wasn’t a great choice and so I plumped for The Conjuring 3. I haven’t seen any of the other Conjurings but figured it won’t matter a huge amount. I don’t like horror films generally but my reasoning was: why not go?

While driving the approach to the cinema I noticed the state of the tide and it was almost at max height. Whether it was ebbing or flowing was something I would have to wait to find out when I left the cinema – it was flowing. Most of the mud bank was hidden and I couldn’t see any of the channels produced by surface off-run. The weather at the time was low clouds hanging over the top of the Downs with plenty of rain during the day, it had been raining for two complete days, but this was welcome.

After watching this film I rated it on IMDB and there’s a complete guide to my rating system within this communication from a few years ago. I eventually shared the score on Twitter but I need access to my PC for that as I removed Twitter from my phone a long time ago because it doesn’t matter.

I gave this film a 4/10 and I think that was quite generous really. This film does not make it into the good-bad film. It is just a bad-bad film. This film is shit. Makes no logical sense. Has no plot that fits together. Is largely bad publicity for a misguided couple of “paranormal” investigators.

I wonder weather there’s too much in this film. Does the body-breaking look stupid and unrealistic? Do the tunnels seem excessive and un-scary? I wonder if more menace could have been put into this film by cutting out a lot of the “scary” stuff. I used to be terrified by horror films when I was younger. The Omen still makes me shiver – although I haven’t watched it for years and I ponder whether that seems shit now. I have “grown up” in then sense that I understand the reality of the world and don’t believe in god, the devil, demons or supernatural things. It’s funny how most famous ghost cases end up being shown for fraud by the conspirators when they confess but the news rarely gets out. Amityville had the protagonists admit they made it up, that famous Nessie photo was called out by one of the pranksters etc.

I get that people like being scared and I would imagine that if you believed in spirits or ghosts or god or souls or the devil or witches or any of the super-natural then this film would bother you. But the reality is that this film had a poor script, a poor plot and poor logic. A man died in reality and his murderer went to prison. This film is horror glorified wank.

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The Headless Children – W.A.S.P.

As I wait for the hottest day of the year, so far there will be warmer I think, I ponder the human experience of enjoying music and sounds. How is it that certain sounds or combinations there of can affect us emotionally? How is it that I like the music I do and not anything else? I have very little brain-time for other forms of music and as much as I know they exist I care not. I think this should be left for another day, there’s music to discuss:

W.A.S.P. were one of those bands that always seemed scary and on the edge of what was acceptable. I felt that they pushed the boundaries of acceptability and purposely went out to shock. I’ve never seen W.A.S.P. live and I should have last October but – Covid – and I still want to see them. I thin it’d be great. Their music has a proper 80s L.A. feel to it. And it also has swear words. Plenty of swear words that offend the older generation. Songs like Animal, Mean Man, DB Blues these are all great if a little immature.

The Headless Children was the first studio album by W.A.S.P. that I bought. It’s also the best studio album by them. Clearly Live . . .In The Raw is the best album. The Headless Children was the result of what happens when you quit drugs but still write good songs. It’s an amazing album.

I can even cope with Forever Free which came on while I was in the car the other day and I didn’t skip it as I would with most ballads.

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Land

I went to the cinema. Again. Not really a surprise I guess but given the recent Covid-times I think that maybe sitting in a room with other people isn’t a good idea. But then, I think that the cinema needs money to survive and so far there haven’t been more than 20 people in the films I’ve seen and the distancing is quite good. It’s nice to be back [I’m not counting this film].

I went to see Land and it was in screen 8 of the Cineworld cinema in Rochester. I do like screen 8, it was meant to be the “posh” one many years ago but now it’s just slightly more comfortable than all the others with its better chairs and fewer seats. I’m reasonably sure I’ve seen films in there just because it was in screen 8 and not for any other reason.

As I drove along the riverside towards the cinema I noted the state of the tide and it was low. I could see all of the mudbanks and only the central channel was buoyancy-providable. The weather was actually quite nice given the previous day where it rained the whole day and I was silly enough to go for a walk to see the Medway Megaliths, my shoes were soaked but the sun dried them nicely. After I’ve seen a film I rate it on IMDB and there’s a guide to the rating system within this communication. Normally I would then tweet the result from my phone but I removed Twitter a long time ago so the tweets have to wait for the next opportunity when I’m on my home PC.

So, I had to reread my IMDB communication to remind myself of the scoring system. Then I rated this as a 6. It was a perfectly fine film but not one I’d watch again. I booked whatever film I thought looked most interesting. I had slight pangs of concern when I entered the theatre as all the people in there were women and I ended up being the only man in the room. All the trailers were for what I would call “emotional” films – as stereotypical it is I like space films and then thrillers and action films I guess although most action films are stupid. These are not my usual style of film to watch but I was here now and so it was time to soak up what was on offer.

For me the star of the film was the Wyoming countryside. It looks just absolutely gorgeous. It made me think of doing the same and abandoning all of the trappings of modern life and to head off and lead what would feel like a simpler life. When I say get rid of modern life this woman still have tinned food, knives and a rifle. I wonder if everyone feels that they would like to survive by their “wits” rather than our current world system?

The film was broadly speaking enjoyable and told a nice story, one of emotional recovery and trying to learn to live again after tragedy. I know it was for the purposes of the film for the main character to survive after the midpoint of the film but I’m not sure she would. You end up wondering “what are the odds” but it is dealt with very well although all films suffer survivor bias.

The only part of this film that irritated me slightly was that it made shooting things look really simple and easy. I’m not talking about the pulling of the trigger or the moral problems of killing life but I am talking about how hard it is to hit a target with a rifle. Films make this look much simpler and easier than it really is. The funny thing is I actually know what I’m talking about here – I’m a weapons instructor, coach and a range officer – hilarious I know but I do have those qualifications and use them regularly. Me, having official qualifications in something extreme, I find it a curiosity.

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The Golden Age Of Grotesque – Marilyn Manson

I quite like the music of Manson. That’s Manson with an M rather than Hanson with an H. I think this chap’s real name is Brian and he sure knows how to write a good song. Can I tell you the name of a single track on this album? Nope. I can tell you that it’s likely I wouldn’t skip a song if it came on. But this isn’t a band I seek out to play.

I’ve just had a look at the track listing and “This Is The New Shit” is a song I know along with Mobscene. Other than that I couldn’t tell you how these tunes go. I get what Manson is doing. He’s being provocative and pushing boundaries and anything that scares the boomers or adult generation is fine by me – yes I know I’m old but I’m still a rebel at heart. I have heard that recently Manson has been accused of being a dick and while I hope he hasn’t behaved like that – because it is wrong – I don’t think I hold up anyone to hero status because they pretty much always end up letting you down or become dicks.

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The Downward Spiral – Nine Inch Nails

I’m not sure when I first heard this or when I bought it or how I got into Nine Inch Nails. I do know that this album is really important to Smith because of when it came out and what he was listening to in those days. It has less importance for me. That said this is an album of industrial metal that is well worth getting and absorbing. All the songs are multi-layered and every one has a hook for you.

All tortured souls need to have this album. As do all normal folk.

While writing this I’ve been listening to the album and it’s got me thinking why songs are three minutes long. Not all the songs on this album are that long but, in general, why are songs 3 minutes long? Is it that for some deep psychological reason that is the music average of humans? Is it because that’s where the technology was limited in the early days? Films are kinda ninety minutes long. Is that because of technological limitations or is it because that’s a bladder length? I wonder if it’s to do with the standard reel length of old cinema projection systems? We know that CDs hold the amount of data that they do because of how long one of Beethoven’s things is [could be Mozart]. There are too many things that seem to be standardised and the reasons could be lost in history. I think it’s time for me to do some research.

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