Friday 8 December 2017

10 most astounding songs I've ever heard


These are not "the best" songs, although not far away from that term. These are the songs that absolutely blew my mind the first time I heard them. With one exception these were not the first song I've heard from that artist, so most of the time I knew what I was listening and I knew what to expect from the song.
But then the expectations were shattered, the song overwhelming me, stoping my life for those few minutes and leaving me speechless afterwards. Those are 10 songs that I recall that totally blew me away, often leaving me in tears and begging hard for relistens, despite being dangerous to my heart rate.

For the sake of this little fan article perhaps I should order them from 10 to 1, from the least shocking to the most but it's like comparing heart attacks. So maybe I'll order them from the first to the most recent instead.


10. Stratovarius- Elysium

Yes, let's start with the monster. After hearing multiple long, epic, everchanging power ballads from Sonata Arctica I thought in 2011 that no other long power metal track can blow me away, especially from Stratovarius, a band I believed back then was learning how to walk again after good but not amazing Polaris album. And then this happened, a three part monster that took a dump on everything Sonata made to this point and then added some more so that no other band could ever hope to match this song when it comes to power metal. Sadness, unsureness and hope presented by masterwork lyrics and Kotipelto's top vocals with several amazing solos here and there and the best outro ever recorded.

9. Litvintroll - Lipka

I ate my teeth on folk metal before 2013. Tons of Korpiklaani, Alestorm, Finntroll, Moonsorrow and Trollfest, Turisas and Wintersun to that point in time made me believe that I've heard the best there is in that subgenre of metal. Then comes a small, barely known band from Belarus and sings old folk song in Polish (I don't know the origins of the source song), blowing me away in the first 90 seconds with sad as fuck adaptation of that song, the bagpipes only adding a ton of sorrow to the already sad song sung by Andrei with sudden growl scream accompanied by a powerful guitar and keyboard solo closing the song. It was rare for keyboard solos to appear in folk metal and the mellow mood it set while closing the song was an absolute treat and perfection, making me tear up easily.
There are more bombastic folk metal songs than this one, but literally no one saw that coming from a little unknown band back then, and even though they disbanded it's still the best damn folk metal song I know, perfectly capturing that raw folk metal can be serious and powerful.

8. Dreamshade- Consumed Future

When I heard about Dreamshade for the first time I was at the age where I believed anything with -core in it's name can't be any good. I heard some metalcore and deathcore bands to this point, so when I heard  that there's a melodic metalcore/deathcore band from Switzerland that mixes some melodic death metal into their music I was VERY negative towards them when I looked them up on Youtube. And the first 13 seconds almost made me turn it off. "oh what a meaningful guitar intro, sooooo compleex, girls must be creaming themselves where listening to tha-......" and the moment I lost my voice was at the 14 second mark when the drums hit in heavily with a wall of sound made of perfectly in sync lead and rhythm guitar. Every transition bringing something new to the mix, changing the tempo and blowing me away even more. The build, the drums and the pure FURY in vocals made me an instant fan, ashamed as fuck of being negative towards it in the beginning. The slower and calmer outro felt like sloppy seconds after an intense orgasm. Afterwards I never judged a song just because of it's genre, I think. Except for thrash metal, but it's trash, huehueh.

7. Tuomas Holopainen - A Lifetime of Adventure

The only slow song on that list, it was magical when I heard it for the first time. Back then I still had somewhat mixed feelings towards Nightwish. I didn't hate them anymore, but sure as hell I thought they were heavily overrated. But when I heard my favourite finnish female vocalist was singing it I checked it out. And oh boy. I had the sweetest dreams for a week after hearing this song for the first time. I've never heard Johanna sing that softly before, the songwriting beats any movie score I've heard before, same with orchestrations. The lyrics capture perfectly the spirit of the Don Rosa's best comic and since I have treasured the The Life and Times of Scrooge McDuck comic with an eleven bags of respect towards it's creator it truly felt like fiction coming to life, making it possible to feel it with other senses than sight. Absolutely wonderful.

6. Babymetal - Akatsuki

2014, a year when if You wanted to have more metalhead friends than before you just had to scream "I hate Babymetal". I've never hated them, since the beginning they were a fresh idea in a metal world, and their contribution to power metal was a very welcome surprise. But before buying the album I still thought of them as more of a gimmick than a real band. All of their songs were very silly, over the top and the vocal talent of Suzuka Nakamoto was still hidden behind 2 other girls. A sixteen years old girl, totally blowing me (away. Not talking about blowjobs from my 16yo ex girlfriend). Damn my jokes on this blog are hitting the rock bottom. Anyway, Akatsuki is the most serious song on the album, with beautiful and poetic-as-fuck lyrics and Su-metal is singing solo, sending shivers down my spine in the intro, just before the guitars enter the scene. When the chorus hits with that hellish drum warmachine and orchestrations and "even after thousand nights this love shall survive..." it broke me. And it only gets better after that, the vocals keep making my nerves thrash from orgasmic spams and the song tricks me with the slower parts making me think "oh, I think it's over.." and then going fast again and again. As expected from that band the outro is powerful and sudden, not giving a fuck about your heart rate.

me during Akatsuki


5. Stratovarius- My Eternal Dream

Oh look, a Strato fanboy that throws 2 songs of theirs on the list and not a single Galneryus song.. The truth is after the amazing Nemesis album I did not expect Stratovarius to top it with Eternal. And they didn't, actually. But the single to promote the Eternal album took me by surprise, I did not expect to hear one of the best power metal songs after like 12 years of daily doses of power metal. It's three times shorter than Elysium, goes straight to the point and the perfectly directed visuals of the music video make it ten times more meaningful and powerful. Fast tempo, the most extreme keyboard solo I've ever heard and the picture of the dying solider, spewing blood and a kid trying to save him with his own shirt hits hard as fuck. The last image and sound of hope perfectly close the song and the video. If You ever want to introduce someone to Stratovarius music then this song is the perfect choice.

4. Omnium Gatherum- Frontiers

The holy grail of 2016. Finally a song that captures everything that's beautiful in melodic death metal. Their previous album Beyond had a huge impact on my life as it was my crutch in the hard times in 2013-2014 and I was honestly scared that I'll be disappointed with the next Omnium Gatherum release. This song made the fear go away, and for those few minutes made my life right. Everything I did to that point in my life felt like the right choice. Me being a fan of this band made me feel for those few minutes complete, something not a single exgirlfriend of mine made me feel. It's the absolutely perfect melodic death metal song. We have a warmup, the heavy and fast juice with growls, headbanging, slower and instrumental bridge, singalong and softer chorus with absolutely outstanding keyboard background, an easy to follow structure that after second chorus goes to clean vocals, soft parts with keys and tears in eyes, goes back to a chorus and leaves the outro to a lead guitar and the solo. The solo that shuts mouths. So you can listen to the choir "Frontiers..." one last time. This is beyond mastery, it's virtuosity of melodic death metal.

3. Titanium - Delusive Skies

or as I like to call it The Life and Times of Frania Srania. Karol Mania's best song ever, that made me check again if I listen to the same album and band. I don't like to say "epic" when talking about music but it's just here, the most epic and powerful usage of background choirs in the chorus of this song and Konstantin Naumenko's (Koncio Nomnomko's) absolutely stunning vocal performance blew me away, along with the bells. More bells in power metal, now, please. This song also proved that the change on vocals was neccessary for the band to progress. There's just no way in heaven or hell for the previous vocalist to sing nearly as good as Koncio did here. This song was a ravine that separated a world class vocalist from a mediocre one.
Also not a single previous Titanium song could prepare you for this monster. And the whole song is about a bad weather on a trip.. Sadly it's still not available to the public outside of imported cds from Japan.

2. Insomnium- Winter's Gate

well technically it's a one song. And one album


2016 sure was a fun year. Omnium Gatherum and Whispered released great albums and Insomnium in the meantime was talking with their publisher like:
- hey, our bassist wrote a short novel, we would like to publish it if possible
- hmm, allright, but make some music along with it, ok? Doesn't have to be a lot of songs, like an ep. or something
- sure, I bet we can squeeze at least one song out of this material

que the most absurdly outstanding tracks in the history of melodic death metal. A 40 minute long monster with cold-as-fuck atmosphere that's warmed by a little girl Síne hugging a big viking guy. No one in the world could expect a move like that, especially after the amazing previous album. Insomnium didn't have to do something as  good as this track, but I'm sure glad they did. There's everything in this song, hookers, thai boxing and blackjack. It's been over a year and I still cannot fully comprehend this track, maybe I'm just mentally challenged?

1. Persefone- Living Waves

This one is unique here, as it took me some time to fully understand what's it about. At first it was a extremely solid progressive melodic death song with a long break/build-up in the middle and weird outro. But after reading the lyrics I understood it's some kind of a self-control mantra/prayer, and that repeating the 'chorus' helps me calm myself down. The lack of emotion of the vocals in the beginning and the growls that scream about letting go of anger only add to the otherworldliness of this song.


Breathe every piece of the existence
And feel the entire universe inside of you
Evolution in compassion
Expanding boundaries where there are no more
Giving birth to a new way of being!!

I transcend
I flow
I am the ocean
I vibrate
Behold, the sound of a living
I transcend
I flow
I am the ocean
I vibrate
Behold, the sound of a living wave

I let go of anger
I let go of judgment
I let go of guilt
I let go of fear
I feel I'm nothing but a living wave

Those lyrics, the way they are sung and the very progressive sound all add up into this cosmic feeling that you should change for the better, discover something new, expand your boundaries, be something more. And don't write on your blog at 1 am again, because you start to write weird shit.


No links on the post because music is about exploring, so do some for once you lazy bastard. Also Titanium's song is impossible to find on Youtube. This is most likely my last post in 2017, thank You for another cool year and big, massive thanks to Anette Olzon and Nordheim for sharing their respectable album reviews and bringing more viewers here- it's been awhile since I was ashamed of the stupid shit I post here. Cheers!

Friday 17 November 2017

The Dark Element - "The Dark Element" (The Dark Element): The Dark Element album review


Cool cover art, reminds me of Layers of Fear


There are people that I can trust with my money all the time. My parents, my sister and Jani-motherfucking-Liimatainen. My favourite
guitarist never released a crappy album and when I heard he's going to make a pop music album I dug up my ABBA tshirt that I had when I was 0 years old. Well, ok, it's not entirely pop- some metal got aboard. With his new girlfriend Anette Olzon and some Cain's Offering members: "The other Jani" and one of the Jonas Brothers on board, Liimatainen shows us how well he can write and produce a Nightwish album. Let's dig in.

Titular The Dark Element starts with some industrial motive that soon blends with more pop synths and vocals follow shortly after. A typical hit song to open an album, where vocals are driving the melody, but don't dominate the sound- it's easy to distinguish each element of the music. Some metal purists will shit on the synthetic-sounding mixing on this album just like they did with Cain's Offering, but in my opinion it fits this kind of music like a glove.
Despite being a hit song the structure is surprisingly complex, and I can say it's one of the highlights for the whole album, but for now let's jump into track number 2.

My Sweet Mystery was featured as a music video and I'm glad to finally be able to hear the album version on a cd quality. Anette's vocals sound softer in this song and lack the power/volume to break through the first verse's background, which is audible when played on a surround system. Thankfully the chorus doesn't disappoint. Another hit song with mid-fast tempo and a juicy guitar solo.

Last Good Day is something new, as it wasn't previously featured on Youtube. Starting more aggressively actually goes softer and slower during the verse only to speed up during the chorus. The most interesting part are Anette's vocals here, not only dominating the melody but showing her range and lungs capacity This only makes me wanna hear Mr. Kotipelto in a duet with lovely Anette. Sudden stop of the song only makes me want to listen to it again, what a great surprise this track was.

Here's To You goes back to what we heard on Youtube as an album promo. Another mid-fast tempo, catchy hit song where Anette's vocals are well supported by the drums, bass and guitars. But on the album version I have a hard time hearing the guitar solo during the outro, somehow on Youtube it was more audible?

Someone You Used to Know is another new piece and the slow start is a nice break from all the previous hit songs, allowing us to appreciate Jani's lyrics and blackoustic guitar. Oh, and Anette's vocals, if for some reason You haven't already.

Dead To Me comes back to the usual tempo where Anette yells at her ex boyfriend in a "I don't care about You, You're dead to me so here's a whole song on the subject" fashion, Taylor Swift style. But again- fast, catchy, interesting, begs for relistening. Main guitar motive is funny, sounds like Jani's having some technical difficulties.

Halo is something new again, going slightly slower than usual but still in the same fashion, although it failed to make a bigger impact on me, maybe in time I'll see something more in it.

I Cannot Raise the Dead is thankfully not only new but also has a few surprises. Synths and background are beautifully done here, lyrics also beat Halo by a huge margin. The chorus with guitar mixing with synths works very well with vocals melody, drilling down your brain so You can hum whole day pissing off anyone you are near. Great guitar solo followed by a softer break that descends to near silence before going back to chorus makes it my favourite track on the whole album just after the first listen. Holy fuck.

The Ghost and the Reaper goes faster and was previously shown to us on a second music video (and I'm glad Frontiers invests in another music video with this project, I pray this works in their favor in the future). Previously my favourite track, 9 is fast paced, has a nice complex build, hard headbanging & sing-along potential during the bridge and also a lot of breaks to catch a breath and allow us to appreciate bass guitar some more.

Heaven of Your Heart starts slower again, with weird lyrics. Anette's trying her best to sing them, but I just cannot enjoy myself while listening to this mess. Don't get me wrong- I like to fuck with the melody with some well thought-out lyrics and I love when Devin Townsend is doing the opposite, fucking with the lyrics for melody's sake. But here the chorus is acceptable and the rest is a mess. Me no likey.

Only One Who Knows Me closes the album with a mid tempo softer track. "On your shore just like I did before" sounds like a bow to Cain's Offering's "Stormcrow" outro track "On the Shore" but maybe I'm looking into it too much. Just like Halo before this song lacks something to hook me up for good. The verses are fine but chorus doesn't work for me, even though the guitar riff on the outro sounds great and the solo closes the whole album perfectly with a Galneryus-like fade out.

side note- the more badass Jani looks the more pop music he makes

Well, this album definitely is a trip, reminds me greatly of the debut Babymetal album, where about 85% of the songs were hit songs and the album felt more like a "best of" compilation than a standalone album. Is it bad? No, for a debut album it's a perfectly valid idea to throw all the catchy melodies you have- some will stick, some won't. As Jani stated during the "making of" video- it's catchy, more poppy and simple than a Cain's Offering and he delivers what he stated perfectly, implementing a lot of ideas that are too soft for Cain's Offering, perhaps some Sydanpuu leftover ideas? He wanted to make something with female vocals and Anette sure gave her best with her performance- so many similar songs and she somehows can sing each one differently enough that we listeners are not bored. The other Jani and Jonas brother were also able to bring some good qualities to the album. Drum patterns are simple but enjoyable, there's a ton of fun transitions and the bass accompanies the melody very well, breaking on the foreground only when it's necessary. Almost every track has a instrumental pause, that allows the listener to catch a breath between all those hit songs and there are a few slower pieces to diversify the tempo on the album a bit.
Even though I didn't like each song on the record it spins very well and one can lose a track of time while listening to it.

 What I would like to hear once in a future (aside of Kotipelto-Olzon lovely vocal duet) is a longer track, with different moods and maybe a story to tell. But now only a quick summary before I jump back into listening to I Cannot Raise the Dead again.

Summary and points that totally matter:

Vocals:  10+/10 (Anette has a new fan in me)
Guitars: 10-/10 (surprised for the minus? More solos, damn it! This is supposed to be a debut album! Tons of solos are perfectly ok on debuts, stop being a mature musician, Jani!)
Bass:     9/10
Drums:  9/10

Additional bonuses:
+ Complex (as far as symphonic metal goes) songwriting, nice song structures
+ catchy as fuck
+ Cool lyrics, basically reading alone builds a melody in your head
+ great mixing
+ song placement on the album. Most artists don't give a fuck about that but I do

Final score: 107,5%. I want more already, Frontiers please invest in those 3 finns and a proud swedish woman :)


Sunday 24 September 2017

Nordheim: RapThor album review


A typical personal intro story that doesn't mean shit for the review, so if You like being bored then read this shit, if not then skip for the main juice. Or just fuck this review, listen to the awesome music instead and do something better with Your life.
A decade ago I was a dedicated Finntroll fan, the first folk metal band I heard. After Ur Jordens Up I didn't really like the darker tone of the album and longed for less serious, more energetic folk metal.

Then the Trollfest came up, with drunk as fuck albums that didn't take anything seriously, with low quality production that fits extreme folk bands as much as it fits classic black metal stuff. And I loved it, they were instantly in my top 5 bands and I was their fan for 10 years before during Masters of Rock 2017 I parted ways with them. The last 2 Trollfest albums were definitely not for me, not  goofy enough, not extreme enough, not badly produced enough.

But just as Trollfest came to me as a messiah when Fintroll wasn't good enough for me this time Nordheim came up with their second album Refill, literally refilling my life with joy and raw, extreme pagan/folk music about drinking beer and fucking whores. The best part? These guys ain't even from Norway or Finland, these are Canadians. Canadians playing a better extreme folk metal than many other groups, the apocalypse is near!

This is their newest shit, RapThor, with an amazing cover art showing goblins and hoes drinking with guns while riding a dinosaur. We're in for a ride with this one.

Troll Riding a Raptor is straight to the point with the song title and the intro. Roll the dice and relax with the extreme tempo, brain bashing drums and classic "1997 Finntroll" guitars. I'm worried about other songs, because everything Nordheim is known for is already here, no healthy dosage just a supersize meal composed of alcohol, whores, goblins, guns and dinosaurs. What's left?
Shivering fear until the break od dawn
Cause the warrior's heart is as black as a moonless night
Ending on a such poetic note <3

Boobs and Bacon , YES! This is what I wanted to see after getting a taste from the album opener. Tempo doesn't slow down but the guitars leave some room for headbanging and the choir bridge gives some sing-along potential for future shows. Second song and I haven't heard even a bit of bass guitar, that means the wall of sound is so overwhelming or the production so raw that I'm going deaf, exactly what I wanted to hear from this band.
No need to be afraid
Fueled by bacon we can't die

Scroll of the Lightning Bolt sounds way more serious not only in the title but..
To kill a beast with claws bigger than a monster cock
ok, maybe not way more serious, but it's a slightly longer piece with more orchestrations, slower parts to catch a breath and an epic story about a group of adventurers facing a dragonlord, with their hopes put in a scroll of the lightning bolt. There's even a guitar solo in there somewhere and some choirs, so we're very close to power metal here, minus all the gay of course, this is music for manly men, rolling dices and talking about their elf warriors..Wait.

Black Witch Rises is next, starting slower but soon coming back into standard tempo, and here we abandon all the power metal stuff to focus on something more fitting the extreme tempo and growls- a horror story of the witch plans, cutting off limbs, spreading suffering and diseases to the world. A serious piece to show the world that Nordheim might be fun, but they are still capable of writing some darker and more serious stuff.
Thrills and chills to the sound of pain, none shall witness joy UNDER MY REIGN

I Wish You Were Beer on the other hand.. The title says it all. Nothing I can add to a hymn of folk metal. Reminded me of a conversation I had long ago.
- ... but  she doesn't like folk metal much.
- does she drink alcohol?
- no.
- then I'm not surprised.
Fighting naked while we pee, throwing bitches in the sea 
Cheering, laighing endlessly, that's a life for me

Strenght Became The Storm (love the error in a song title, these are rare) is similar to the Scroll of Lightning Bolt but sadly doesn't show anything new to the mix, it's mostly "more of the same", the lyrics also are a bit generic with a champion of light fighting a demon, I only like the ending part:
In the name of those who will fall
We drink to remember them all
Raise your horn and your sword
Among the stars they will hear our call

Blood's Shade is more interesting starting with a guitar solo, reminding me of the great Soulblood. The song definitely has a similar horror feel to the Black Witch Rises, but it's more powerful and has more tempo changes and guitar solos with a calm outro. Definitely the most melodic death-ish song on the album, serious in tone but interesting. Would be a great album outro, but we still have one more left.
Blood's shade now wakes up the past I long forgot
Blood's shade now devours and leaves the rest to rot

Dragonthorn is the longest on the album, but the major tempo and mood change in the middle doesn't make it feel as long. Serious again with one funny and stressed line:
A magical steel made by frozen flames
FROZEN FLAMES

it tells a story of a dragon and a hero fighting and so on. While the song isn't bad I was hoping for a story including the dinosaur riding goblins with guys, especially when the tone of the song changed. A missed opportunity.


And that's Nordheim's RapThor, Thor not included (sadly). It's a good album to listen to while drunk, but I expected way more goofyness from it. There is some of course, but it's more like "hey, boobs and bacon! Do we have Your attention? Ok, now listen to a story about dragons". Nordheim can do serious songs well but I love them the most in the less serious songs. 
I want more of this ^. I want Josephine next to Thor riding a dinosaur fighting a dragon with a blade made by frozen flames. FROZEN FLAMES. Is it a sin to want more?

But I'll give them that- the lyrics are good, the music is flawless old school pagan/folk extreme metal with great high pitched and low growls, cool guitar solos and no signs of bass guitar. Basically I have to love it by default. Also some melodic death metal added to the mix, always cool.

There is one thing that makes it ten thousand times better than the last Wintersun album- energy. This album makes you so pumped that You want to punch the wall or tear your neck while headbanging. And if you don't like extreme folk metal then this "noise" makes you angry, so also full of energy - point proven. In that regard these guys are Kalmah of the folk metal world.

Check this out if You like boobs, dinosaurs and dungeons and dragons and power metal just doesn't do it for You anymore.

Summary:

Vocals: 10/10
Guitars: 9/10
Bass: Josephine/10
Drums: 8/10
Keyboards: wait, there are keyboards in it?

Additional:
Wonderful cover art
Very cool lyrics
+ Boobs
+ Bacon
+ Dinosaurs
- Not enough boobs
- Not enough bacon (NEVER enough)
- Not enough dinosaurs
- Josephine ;__; Where is she?

Total score that totally matters: 93% 
Please add more stupid shit next time, it's the most fun

Friday 21 July 2017

Fucking boring. Wintersun "Forest Seasons" review

better than the original artwork.


A new Wintersun album, band that started legendary and then fell into the dark slumber. Will this album be able to get them back to Melodic death metal world? Or just kill the whole thing before Time II will be finished?

Shitty, plastic artwork and the fact that unlike Time II we didn't hear about this album being made until late this year are worrying, it looks like something Jari did in his free time in his basement that they have to sell to Nuclear Blast so NB won't kick their asses out. But open-minded and with tiny bit of hope I sit down with best quality master wav files and good headphones, let's take a look.

Awaken From The Dark Slumber

It starts with some atmospherical intro with candy-like  Time 1 soft orchestrations

then drums hit it along with some really crappy black metal guitars with various synths in the background. It stays for a long time, too long for me and I like to watch or listen to some 10 hour version videos so it says a lot.
Vocals hit it with decent power and spelling, Jari got even better than on Time 1.
The background for vocals is much richer with guitars.
Considering how long and boring this song it's definitely black metal done wrong.

IT'S SO FUCKING BORING.

After a while it sounds like the background on equilibrium live shows with bad audio setting: plastic, loud and out of place.

And now more distorted black metal guitar, great.
And now a long, boring part where nothing interesting happens.

WHY SO LONG, WHY SO BORING? Were You ever bored on the first album?
Or Time 1? Yes Jari, play live a song where part 1 and 2 of the song are divided by boring instrumental part that last hours.
At least the vocals are good.

Overall not much happens, the guitars and drums are boring, Jari tries to tell the story and add some typical live sing along stuff and it doesn't really work, they come around 9th minute and the audience should already be asleep at this point.

Some of it reminds me of Winter's Gate, so if You somehow like this track please check out last Insomnium's album if You havent.

The song is Starchild with less fancy build, add the boring, stretched parts of Beautiful Death to it and copy paste instrumental parts to fill 12 minutes with it.

The vocals are great, lyrics are some pointless crap like on Sons of Winter and Stars, but there are no fancy drums or guitars or bass. It's all closer to black metal than ever before which I guess justifies why this music is so fucking long, boring and nothing memorable happens. The melody's pretty dull too.

The Forest That Weeps

"I am the worms in the dirt"
...You mean Wintersun fans?

Intro slightly more interesting than in the previous song but also stretched to the point of yawning.
Guitars still sound like black metal rhythm guitar with broken amplifier and a few strings missing
And vocals fail to appear in over 2 minutes.

After a verse of again good vocals the "epic riff" happens and still sounds fucking dull, just as on the video. Thankfully the choirs with Jari that follow are pretty good.
Lyrics are also a bit more interesting than before, maybe because the whole music has a much better melody than the previous track.
I wonder if Kai didn't asleep when recording drums, this sounds really boring. Maybe playing in Nightwish helps to cope with boring drum parts.

Uh oh, I thought that the song ended and it's around half. Boring instrumental part time!

At least after some repeating of some melody the guitars hit it hard and finally doesn't sound like shit.
But no solo happens, fuck solos. It's only Jari Maenpaa, one of previously best guitarists I knew.
And now you made me hate that guitars joined the instrumental part, because it's wide, it's stretched, it got boring after 30 seconds.
Some turisas-ish outro joins with badly mixed volume (way too loud than the rest) and good choirs that follow.

Why does it have to be that long? Sons of Winter and Stars were long, but they were packed with lyrics, memorable moments, walls of sound. This just doesn't work, the song is as long but has around 2 times less lyrics so it has to either repeat some parts to the point where the listener is bored or stretch out every element adding some extra seconds to parts that start good and interesting, but then get fucking boring.
Unlike the previous song this one has some more redeeming parts, it could be a good song if it was max 8 minutes long..
I bet there is nothing to discover here after multiple listens, on the first listen You can see the whole image and structure.

Eternal Darkness

Another stretched intro, this time less interesting with even more obnoxious black metal guitar
 (amps on fire, amps on fire, hurting ears with desire!)

I think Jukka is snoring or burping on the intro, not surprising

Enter the washing machine drums, later lyrics and some sounds in the background that are barely audible.
Remember when we all said that Time 1 needs more solos? Jari didn't, there are no solos so far and close to no riffs.
BORING AND STRETCHED, BORING AND STRETCHED. I'M DONE

Vocals: 10/10
Guitars: 2/10
Bass:   -1/10
Drums:   2/10

Additional score:
+ Choirs and vocal mixing is good
- style shift to boring as fuck black metal
- I didn't pay for it and I feel robbed, mostly of time
= I had low expectations from a rushed album like that but it's worse than I thought. I thought
a perfectionist like Jari wouldn't release something that fucking boring.
Wanna do atmospherical metal? Check out Swallow The Sun. Check out Insomnium. Wanna add some good black metal stuff to melodic death? Check out Whispered.
- overhyped beyond reason by both the band and the fans.

Total score: 25%. I wasn't able to finish listening it, I was bored beyond reason. Wintersun can always make me feel something new and unexpected and they didn't fail. It was the first time I got so bored while listening to something Jari made.

This review was crap, but You know what? Listening to low quality music doesn't make me wanna try hard and be a good reviewer.

Sunday 11 June 2017

List of albums I have, 2017 version


I need a list so I remember what I have and some of my friends need this to know what can they buy me as a gift

Aephanemer- Know Thyself (EP, signed)
Aephanemer- Memento Mori (digipack)
Alestorm- Captain's Morgan Revenge (jewelcase, my sister's actually)
Alestorm- Leviathan (EP, jewelcase)
Alestorm- Black Sails At Midnight (digipack)
Alestorm- Back Through Time (digipack)
Alestorm- Live At The End Of The World (live dvd, signed)
Alestorm- Sunset On The Golden Age (digipack)
Alestorm- No Grave But The Sea (digipack)
Amon Amarth- With Oden On Our Side (jewelcase, signed)
Apocalyptica- 7th Symphony (digipack)
Avatar- Feathers & Flesh (digipack)

Babymetal- Babymetal (limited japanese version, jewelcase)
Babymetal- Metal resistance (european version, jewelcase)
Battle Beast- Unholy Savior (digipack, signed)
Behemoth- Evangelion (digipack)
Black Sabbath- Never Say Die (live dvd)
Blind Guardian- Somewhere Far Beyond (jewelcase)
Blind Guardian- Beyond The Red Mirror (jewelcase)

Cain's Offering- Gather The Faithful (European Version, jewelcase)
Cain's Offering- Gather The Faithful (Japanese Version, jewelcase)
Cain's Offering- Stormcrow (Japanese Version, signed jewelcase)
Charon- Sorrowburn (jewelcase)
Children of Boredom- Halo Of Blood (digipack)

Delain- Lucidity (jewelcase)
Delain- Lucidity (10th anniversary digipack)
Delain- April Rain (digipack)
Delain- Get The Devil Out Of Me (single)
Delain- We Are The Others (digipack)
Delain- Interlude (EP, digipack)
Delain- The Human Contradiction (digipack, signed)
Delain- Lunar Prelude (EP, digipack, signed)
Delain- Moonbathers (digipack, signed)
Dio- Holy Diver (jewelcase)
Dio- The Last In Line (jewelcase)
Dio- Sacred Heart (jewelcase)
Dio- Dream Evil (jewelcase)
Dio- Lock Up The Wolves (jewelcase)
Dio- Evil or Devine (live dvd)
Dio- Angry Machines (russian pirated copy with Elf album, jewelcase)
Dio- Killing The Dragon (2 in 1 jewelcase)
Dio- Magicka (2 i 1 jewelcase)
Dio- Master Of The Moon (jewelcase)
Dreamshade- The Gift Of Life (jewelcase, signed)
Dreamshade- Vibrant (jewelcase)
Dragonforce- The Power Within (jewelcase, signed)
Dragonforce- Maximum Overload (digipack)
Dragonforce- In The Line Of Fire (digipack, live cd&dvd)
Dragonforce- In The Line Of Fire (dvd, live dvd. Bought it twice because I'm retarded)
Dragonforce- Reaching Into Infinity (digipack)

Edguy- Tinnitus Sanctus (jewelcase)
Enceladus- Time In A Dream (single, signed)
Enceladus- Journey To Enlightenment (jewelcase, signed)
Epica- Requiem For The Indifferent (digipack)
Equilibrium- Armageddon (digipack)

Finntroll- Blodsvept (digipack)
Freedom Call- Eternity (digipack)

Galneryus- The Flag Of Punishment (slipcase)
Galneryus- Advance To The Fall (slipcase)
Galneryus- Live For Rebirth (live dvd)
Galneryus- Alsatia (single)
Galneryus- Kizuna (EP)
Galneryus- Hunting For Your Dream (Type B, single)
Galneryus- Attitude To Life (single)
Gamma Ray- Empire Of The Undead (jewelcase)
Gloryhammer- Tales From The Kingdom Of Fife (digipack)
Gloryhammer- Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards (digipack, signed)
Grai- Warmot the Bitter Glass (digipack)
Grai- O Zemle Rodnoy (digipack)
Grai- Mlada (digipack)
Gunsen- Adventure On The Devil's Note (digipack, signed)

Hammerfall- Threshold (digipack)
Hammerfall- Steel Meets Steel (compilation, digipack)
Hammerfall- Infected (digipack)
Hammerfall- Gates Of Dalhalla (live bluray&cd)
Hammerfall- (r)Evolution (digipack)
Heaven & Hell- The Devil You Know (jewelcase)
Heaven & Hell- Radio City Live Music Hall (live dvd)
Helloween- Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part I (digipack)
Helloween- Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part II (digipack)
Helloween- 7 Sinners (digipack)
Helloween- Unarmed (jewelcase)
Helloween- Straight Out Of Hell (digipack)
Helloween- My God Given Right (digipack)

Insomnium- One For Sorrow (slipcase, signed)
Insomnium- Shadows Of The Dying Sun (digipack)

Kabanos- Na Pudle (digipack, signed)
Kalmah- Swamplord (2 in 1 jewelcase)
Kalmah- They Will Return (2 in 1 jewelcase)
Kalmah- Seventh Swamphony (digipack)
King Diamond- Abigail II: The Revenge (jewelcase)
King Diamond- Fatal Portrait (5 in 1 digipack)
King Diamond- Abigail (5 in 1 digipack)
King Diamond- Them (5 in 1 digipack)
King Diamond- Conspiracy (5 in 1 digipack)
King Diamond- The Eye (5 in 1 digipack)
Korpiklaani- Manala (digipack, signed)
Korpiklaani- Noita  (digipack)
Kotipelto- Serenity (Digipack)
Kotipelto&Liimatainen- Blackoustic (Digipack, signed)

Led Zeppelin- The Song Remains The Same (live dvd)
Lux Perpetua- The Curse Of The Iron King (digipack, signed)

Nightwish- Elan (single, digipack)
Nightwish- Imaginaerum (digipack)
Nightwish- Endless Forms Most Beautiful (digipack)
Nordheim- Refill (jewelcase)
Norther- Circle Regenerated (digipack)

Omnium Gatherum- Steal The Light (demo ep, 2 in 1 digipack)
Omnium Gatherum- Spirits And August Light (2 in 1 digipack)
Omnium Gatherum- Beyond (jewelcase)
Omnium Gatherum- Grey Heavens (jewelcase, signed)
One Punch Man- One Take Man (original soundtrack, jewelcase)
Orca- Aquarium (single)
Orca- Amber (single)
Orca- Universe (digipack, signed)
Ozzy Osbourne- Speak Of The Devil (live cd, jewelcase)
Ozzy Osbourne- Scream (eco digipack)

Pathfinder- Demo 2008 The Beginning (need to return it)
Pathfinder- Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time (jewelcase)
Pathfinder- Fifth Element (Japanese version, jewelcase)
Pathfinder- Fifth Element (European version, digipack)
Percival Schuttenbach- Svantevit (digipack, signed)
Percival Schuttenbach- Mniejsze Zło (digipack)
Persefone- Shin-Ken (jewelcase)
Persefone- Aathma (digipack)
Powerwolf- Return In Bloodred (jewelcase)
Powerwolf- Lupus Dei (jewelcase)
Powerwolf- Blood Of The Saints (jewelcase)
Powerwolf- Wolfsnachte 2015 Tour EP (jewelcase)
Powerwolf- Preachers of The Night (digipack, signed)
Powerwolf- Blessed&Possessed (jewelcase)
Powerwolf- The Metal Mass Live (live bluray & cd)

Radogost- Dark Side Of The Forest (digipack, signed)

Silent Hell- Drama (digibook, signed)
Sinatra Frank- Best Of (jewelcase)
Skalmold- Baldur (jewelcase)
Skalmold- Born Loka (digipack, signed)
Skalmold & Sinfoniu-Hljomsveit Islands (live dvd)
Skalmold- Med Vaetum (digipack, signed)
Skalmold- Vogguvisur Yggdrasils (digipack)
Sonata Arctica- Ecliptica (jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Silence (jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Songs of Silence Live in Tokyo (live cd, jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Winterheart's Guild (Japanese version, jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Takatalvi (EP, jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Don't Say A Word (single, jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Reckoning Night (jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- For The Sake of Revenge (live dvd/cd, jewelcase)
Sonata Arctica- Unia (European Digipack)
Sonata Arctica- The Days of Grays (European Digipack, signed)
Sonata Arctica- Live in Finland (live dvd)
Sonata Arctica- I Have A Right (single, signed digipack)
Sonata Arctica- Stones Grow Her Name (European Digibook)
Sonata Arctica- Pariah Child (European Digipack)
Sonata Arctica- Ecliptica Revisited (European Digipack)
Sonata Arctica- The Ninth Hour (European Digipack)
Sonus Vena- Sonus Vena (?, signed)
Starkill- Fires Of Life (jewelcase, signed)
Stratovarius- Infinite (2 in 1 digipack)
Stratovarius- Intermission (EP, 2 in 1 digipack)
Stratovarius- Elements Part I  (Digipack)
Stratovarius- Elements Part II (Digipack)
Stratovarius- Polaris (Limited Digipack)
Stratovarius- Elysium (Holo Digipack)
Stratovarius- Under Flaming Winter Skies (live bluray)
Stratovarius- Unbreakable (EP, digipack)
Stratovarius- Nemesis (Digipack)
Stratovarius- Eternal (Digipack, signed)
Sunrise- Through The Eyes Of Infinity (live dvd)
Swallow The Sun- Emerald Forest And The Blackbird (jewelcase)
Swallow The Sun- Songs From The North Part I (3 in 1 digipack)
Swallow The Sun- Songs From The North Part II (3 in 1 digipack)
Swallow The Sun- Songs From The North Part III (3 in 1 digipack)

Tarot- The Spell Of Iron MMXI (slipcase)
Tenacious D- Tenacious D (jewelcase, co-owned)
Tenacious D- The Pick Of Destiny (jewelcase, co-owned)
Tenacious D- Rize Of The Phoenix (digipack, co-owned)
Therion- Theli (jewelcase)
Therion- Garden Of Evil (live dvd, digipack, signed)
Thermit- Saints (digishit, signed, I can give this shit away)
Titanium- Titanium (Japanese version, jewelcase)
Titanium- Atomic Number 22 (Japanese version, jewelcase)
Trollfest- Willkommen Folk Tell Drekka Fest (jewelcase)
Trollfest- Brakebein (digipack)
Trollfest- Uraltes Elemente (EP, jewelcase)
Trollfest- Villanden (jewelcase)
Trollfest- En Kvest For Den Hellige Gral (digipack, signed)
Trollfest- Brumblebassen (digipack)
Trollfest- Kaptein Kaos (digipack)
Trollfest- Helluva (digipack)
Turisas- Battle Metal (jewelcase)
Turisas- Stand Up And Fight (digipack)
Turisas- A Finnish Summer With Turisas (live dvd)
Turisas- Turisas2013 (digipack)
Twilight Force- Tales Of Ancient Prophecies (jewelcase, signed)

Unisonic- Ignition (EP, digipack)
Unisonic- Light Of Dawn (jewelcase)

Whispered- Thousand Swords (jewelcase)
Whispered- Shogunate Macabre (jewelcase)
Whispered- Metsutan (jewelcase)
Wintersun- Wintersun (jewelcase)
Wintersun- Time I (digipack, signed)
Wolf Spider- It's Your Time (single/EP, signed)

Summary: 203 albums total, about 50 less than I thought I have (well, I gave away over 50)

Others:

Downloaded for money:
TrollfesT- Villanden (before I bought a physical cd)
Enceladus- Time In A Dream (single, bought a physical signed copy too)
Sydanpuu- Majla single (single, download only)

given away:
multiple Aephanemer, Titanium, Pathfinder, Enceladus and Gunsen albums
Rhapsody Of Fire- The Frozen Tears Of Angels (digipack)
Rhapsody Of Fire- From Chaos To Eternity (digipack)
Korpiklaani- Ukon Wacka (jewelcase)
Apocalyptica- 7th Symphony (eco digipack)
Pathfinder- Beyond The Space, Beyond The Time (digipack)
Nine Inch Nails- WITH_TEETH (digipack)
Dio- Dream Evil (limited jewelcase)
Behemoth- Evangelion (digipack)
Insomnium- The Shadows Of The Dying Sun (jewelcase)
Insomnium- Winter's Gate (limited audiobook version)
Internal Quiet- When The Rain Comes Down (slipcase, horrible piece of shit)

Thrown away or destroyed because they suck ass:

Bartosz Ogrodowicz- Forsaken (jewelcase piece of shit)
Amon Sethis- The Legend Of The Seventh Dynasty (EP, jewelcase piece of shit, signed)
Wolf Spider- V (digipack piece of shit)

Wednesday 24 May 2017

Typical oldschool blog post about life, death, universe and the meaning of burrito

Everytime someone wants to talk to me about the meaning of life, death, god or something about the understanding of the universe in general I feel really tired.

We've all been there, we questioned stuff, we wondered, we had our theories, our brain produced some illusions like people seeing stuff that most probably wasn't there. Can science prove that God doesn't exist? No. Does it mean that the God exists? Also no. Can science prove that holy books were wrong in many aspects? Yes. Can we prove everything with science? Most probably not. There will always be stuff like Eridanus Supervoid, that we not only don't know what's it's purpose in the universe, but also what exactly is that stuff and how the stuff we know would react to it.

I spent too much time looking for some answers, to the point where I got angry. Angry that I spent so much time getting no answers, angry that I was too stupid to understand that I can spend a lifetime and not get any answers. I chose Apatheism as the only logical choice when it comes to faith, and decided to focus on doing something more valuable in my life than wondering about life greatest mysteries.

Some trippy, random thoughts I have after a bit of my research, basically my favourite wonders and stuff that keeps me up at night:

- we have no idea why we sleep. What is the purpose of our conscious control turning off. I'd say it's for the body and stamina to regenerate, since our brain is still active, probably in a different 'mode', sending us dreams and other visuals to keep us busy until we wake up. All we know for sure is that if we try not to sleep we eventually die. And I believe something like this  happens when we die- shit just turns off completely and we don't wake up. Grasping that concept is also fucking scary- You perceive nothing, feel nothing, remember nothing and basically every aspect of You id, ego, superego is nothing. From a programming point of view is like filling all the column in Your table with null values and then deleting the table itself.

- the fact that our eyes see shit in 2 dimensions and our brains construct that image into a 3d one. This for me was always extremely scary, because brains can be damaged and then we have no idea at what are we looking at. Try to imagine the visuals you might have when that part of our brains get broken. Blind spots in your eyesight are also scary, since our brains fill the lost information with something that can be bullshit

- if something is extremely distant then we don't see it as a 3d object. Just look at the moon sometimes. Moon is also a good example that we have no idea what are we looking at, since when it appears in our vision larger when it's position is low on the horizon we're seeing. It was a serious mindfuck for a teenage me when I learned that the moon being "bigger" on the sky doesn't mean it's closer.

- if we think about it a little bit we are all the jelly stuck in our skulls. All we remember, know, understand is stuck there in our brain. Brain, that can be damaged. It's not just the part of our bodies being damaged, like a broken arm, it's us personally. And it's fucking scary. It's scary that we just cannot put ourselves in the place of someone who has a Retrograde or Anterograde Amnesia. Their brains simply lose the ability to store neural information- it's sad and scary as fuck. When I grow very old I can be stuck on a wheelchair for what I care, but when these serious parts of my brain are damaged then just kill me, my existence will be shit at that point anyway.

- I'm thankful as fuck that negative mass is so far a purely theoretical concept, I think I would go insane if at one point it started to make "sense" in my brain

- even though we are all jelly, there is no way to know someone else's thoughts. Even the weird-ass shit books I read about misticism are only focused about predicting someone's bahavior, not understanding on the deeper level what the other person is thinking. Based on our experience and social interactions with that person we might predict some behaviors, but when we get to the core there is basically no way to know what that person would do in our place. They have their own view on morality, truth, fairness and so on. This is why "tell me what You think about is" is such an important question when someone asks you that, you just can't answer "isnt that obvious?".

And to end this post on something trippy, but not written by me (if we consider time the fourth dimension):

"If you could see yourself in the fourth dimension, you'd look like a huge worm made of every single version of yourself from every moment across your entire life. There would be your embryo at one end and your deceased self at the other. And all of this is without getting into the idea of branching pathways."

This post wasn't inspired by Expanding Brain Meme, but since it's an awesome meme I'll share one of my favourites:


Sunday 9 April 2017

Lux Perpetua "The Curse Of The Iron King" album review




A few words upfront, because it's not gonna be easy.

As of writing these words I haven't touched the album yet. It's been 5 months since I reviewed an album, and the last review was the fantastic Titanium II album, also a power metal cd and also from Poland. I'm not gonna lie that I won't compare both albums in this review.

To add even more difficulty I will add the fact that I read a few reviews of this album, and they were very highly rated (8/10 and 9/10 reviews), this also makes my expectations much higher. And it's a debut, so I will be even more harsh on it, especially that it took so much time to release it (last time I heard from Lux Perpetua was in 2014).

With that said, let us begin. From the touchy-touchy side the album is solid- digipack has a nice artwork, there is a fancy booklet and the band managed to get me a signed one which is always a personal plus.

The music starts with Celebration , an instrumental short intro to the album with a very medival touch before guitars enter and add the heavier than usual (as far as power metal goes) oomph. The transition into the title track The Curse of the Iron King is very smooth. Vocals enter with much lower voice than the usual power metal bands go for. Mixing is ok, with vocals pushed nicely upfront, but the orchestrations are left too far behind for my taste. The tempo is fast, drums and guitar solo are juicy and I would only ask for some more vocal power during the chorus.
I talked to the band about it before, and they told me they went for more organic sound "we sound on the album just like we do live". Thankfully near the end vocals show much more power before the headbanging short outro. Overall a very solid track.

They don't slow down and go straight to The Legend , the track from a few years ago, finally recorded in a great quality with different vocals. It shows that they worked with this material carefully in this time, it's way more polished than the previous track. But the asshole lives in me, just like the legend lives in them - rhyming "us" with "us" is a shitty move in my book, even if the track is pretty much perfect beside that.

Army of Salvation is next with a little spoken part before a typical audience-sing-along "hey!" moment, awesome keyboards and basically another hit song. Good lyrics, awesome catchy and easy rhymes in the chorus are basically the quintessence of power metal.

Let me stop here for a moment- we are rating a debut here and so far I can totally understand why other reviews were so highly rated- we have a very solid intro-first track flow with something more ambitious and complex opening the album and then 2 killer hit songs. If debuts are about making the impact then Lux Perpetua totally understands that, and how important is a good track placement on the album.

An Old Bard is slower and allows the orchestrations to show their good side. And the verse goes weird, with vocals being as loud as orchestrations, and drums in the back going wild before the song goes faster. A bit distracting, slightly irritating, but moves fast to another segment of the song so I'm not gonna write more about it. I hoped for a ballad after two killer tracks, but the slower intro of that song can kinda count as that. But the next song is one, Eversong .


Very soothing piece of music, nice and loud bass and well mixed vocals, but guitars are slightly too loud and sting the ears a bit. Not a huge flaw, might be the matter of taste.

Riders of the Dead brings back the speed, vocals go back a bit and I can't hear the lyrics as much as I would like to. The choirs in the chorus are barely heard and since they try to fill the lead vocals it barely works. There are a few ideas here and there but it doesn't really stick together to be as entertaining as previous songs.

Rebellion is up next and has simillar problems, post-verse part that should open the chorus isn't impressive and the chorus is straight Hammerfall with repeating the song title a few times and adding short, simple rhymes. This is the moment where I wouldn't mind to hear a song like that, but when I see reviews giving 9/10 I expect much, much more than that. Maybe I should mention here that guitar work on the last 2 tracks is amazing and the background is rich and juicy, so these are not failures, just "not as good as the rest" songs.

Werewolf hopefully is more interesting, with the Powerwolf-ish organs in the intro. And it is, the pre verse ends with a lot of power. And just like Powerwolf they prove that you can record ten thousand songs about werewolfs and they will usually work very well. Maybe I should write the first werewolf track that will truly suck?
There are many ideas in this song, just like there were in Riders of the Dead, but here it all sticks and works together very well and in Riders it didn't. I'm a shitty musician and a shitty reviewer, I can't tell the band why it works here and doesn't there, but maybe they can figure it out. Maybe it's having a catchy-as-fuck main riff that makes You headbang even when writing at the same time this very sentence? And repeating it during the spoken outro a few times to leave a much better impact holy shit it's so good, You guys were brilliant to repeat it a few times. Uhm, but the fade is too short and sudden, so not the perfect last 3 seconds of the outro but still a very good song.

^ This shit is why the album is worth checking out, the outro of this rather complex monster (literally) song was very unexpected- we have some tempo changes, nice build of the song, almost progressive elements and then we end on a repeated line with a catchy riff and awesome lyrics? Brilliant, I think it's the first time I heard such an amazing example of that idea.

Desert of Destiny is next and we're nearing the end of the album. Solid intro, some strange whispers during the powerful vocal performance before the chorus kicks in.

It's weird to me how during the chorus power goes away from vocals by a significant amount, we have some supporting choirs but they are not loud enough to make a difference. Lyrics try to save the chorus the best they can but in the end it's very noticable. Consolation ends the album with an instrumental and as usual I won't rate the bonus track.


Ok, so how was the album? It is good. Faced my high expectations and lived up to them while still being able to surprise me. Unusual approach with lower vocals is interesting and well delivered, even if sometimes I would love to hear some more power on the second half of the album.

Choirs don't work too many times, I think the band should really work on them in a studio. I'm aware that this material is more organic and focused on live performances, but adding some more vocal layers in the studio would only benefit the sound, trust me on that.

Lyrics are 95% good, very suitable and long for that style, even if the rhymes are rather simple. They work most of the time and help to make the music very catchy.

Guitars remind me a lot of the second Gloryhammer album, or in a way the first Titanium album. There are a lot of solos, which is perfect for a debut album and they are not repeatable or boring, most of them is really thought out. Riffs are also very solid, so in comparison guitars here totally crush early Sonata Arctica albums, where solos were just as amazing but the riffs sucked balls.

I will need to hear the album more to correctly rate the drums and the bass, but I heard bass in a few tracks (which is a compliment on it's own, because I barely hear bass in most power metal songs) and the drum work is complex. It's not your daily blast-fast power metal drumming, I heard some real power in those hits and I loved it.

Keyboards and orchestrations were nice, they made a real difference in a few tracks (Werewolf intro was amazing).

But let's focus on what doesn't work here, there is not a lot but I really wanna nitpick everything I can.

Mixing is not perfect. It's good, very good even, but I want more than that. This may collide with the whole organic sound idea that band wants to go with, but I would really want to hear how Karol Mania would mix this album. It would take him like 2 years because he works slowly even when encouraged or tortured, but I bet I would love the result 30% more than what I just heard.

Not every track is amazing as noted above. It's not like the last Stratovarius album, where they started with absolutely mindblowing song and then the rest of the album was awful in comparison, but it feels like the second half of the album is worse. Desert of Destiny ends without any fireworks and the chorus also has it's problems, so maybe the tracklist should be slightly modified, with Werewolf ending the album (it would be an amazing outro, without any instrumentals behind it). Still, we have 6 great songs and 3 mediocre/good ones, so the album is very good overall.

This might be nitpicking, but after waiting 3 years for this album I really had some high expectations from it, so I had to mention what doesn't work in my opinion.

As for the band debut- it could hardly be better than that. If listening to one of the killer tracks doesn't make you wanna check the guys out then I'm surprised. There is a lot of potential for future improvements, live shows and style changes. The medival approach of Lux Perpetua can be slightly pushed into folk metal territory (kinda like Elvenking, but the one that doesn't suck).

I was worried before playing this album, because I was afraid to hear Rhapsody of Fire clone (a symphonic power metal approach, which I'm not a big fan of), but thankfully it's something else.

I promised to compare this album to the recent Titanium album. Well, Titanium is better, they have a better vocalist, better guitarist, lyrics are partially written by me so they are naturally better, the mixing is better, there are less solos because Titanium is way more mature and they write about Primoz, Lord of the Night and Day, not some old bards-farts.

On a serious note I don't feel the need to compare the albums, I thought that I would have some comparisons to speak about but in the end it doesn't even matter

Check Lux Perpetua out if You haven't and take care.

Summary:

Vocals:       9-/10
Guitars:     10/10
Bass:        boss/bass
Drums:       9+/10
Keyboards: 9/10

Additional points:
++Werewolf outro
+fine lyrics
+great debut
+good looking artwork&stuff
+medival theme for the whole album, nice touch
-- Rhymming "us" with "us", shame, SHAME!
- kinda 'meh' closing song

Total score that totally matters and is not bullshit whatsoever: 100%

but in the scale 1-10 it's most likely to be a wizzard/10

Monday 6 February 2017

Dragon Ball Super fucking sucks



Yes, we've all seen (dziękuję że mi pokazałaś Madziu) the first episodes with shitty animation, but it's not the point of this post.

The anime is full of inconsistency, bad filler with some copy-vegeta, bad ideas like *10 Kaioken Super Saiyan God (IT ONLY HAS A 10% CHANCE OF WORKING!) and lets stop here for a moment.

Super Saiyan God was supposed to be around 60% of Beerus full power. Beerus is still surprised during the fight by this transformation. Also the red aura symbolizes strength.

Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan is supposed to be stronger than that (cannon), yet all the characters act like Beerus is way stronger. Blue aura often symbolizes weakness, but also control

In my opinion Super Saiyan God can be stronger than SSGSS, or Super Saiyan Blue, but it's shaky, hard to control, Blue is a superior form that can get a serious level of control over that godly power.

All was well in the manga, but anime HAD to introduce Kaioken *10 Super Saiyan Blue. Ten times what? WHAT?  Even if Super Saiyan Blue was 60% of Beerus, times ten would be 600% of Beerus power. yet Beerus is only slightly startled by this form.

Better start making fucking sense.

But as I said- manga played it smart and I enjoyed it a lot. Until today. New chapter of manga introduces us to Future Zamasu and Goku Black, so basically another Zamasu that stole Goku's body.
Focusing on Goku Black now.


Goku Black is strong, SSj2 Trunks is nothing when compared to him, and he is stronger than SSj3 Goku (normal one). SSj2 Vegeta is slightly above SSj2 Goku Black (he is stronger than before, as noted by Trunks), and then goes Blue to finish off Goku Black.

In my opinion Super Saiyan Blue is over 9 times stronger than SSj2, and I think it's a fair number at this point.

Future Zamasu saves Black from near death, and what happens?

Super Saiyan 2 Goku Black is mopping the floor with Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta.

Their explanation? Saiyan that survived a near death experience gets much stronger. Last time we heard about that, called Zenkai, was in Frieza Saga. And it was mostly a plot device for Saiyans to go on par with Frieza's men, after Super Saiyan was introduced Zenkai was not needed, and even if I still think it's working, then not on that fucking scale.

Goku Black has Goku's body, a body that received many zenkai boosts before it was stolen, no fucking way I'll accept a sudden power boost like that and fucking God Vegeta getting wasted by SSj 2.

And then what happens? He goes Super Saiyan Rose, considered his version of Blue. No training needed, just "add more power to get unlock even more power". So what, he is now like 9 times stronger than Super Saiyan Blue Vegeta? Yea, right.


I stopped caring, this post is the last post related to Dragon Ball Super. Dragon Ball GT makes much more sense than this shit. A big fuck you to all people working on Dragon Ball Super.

Seriously, someone remind me what was the biggest bullshit in Dragon Ball GT? Kid Goku going adult when Super Saiyan 4 and? Because this is somewhat easier to swallow than Dragon Ball Super.