Primus and The Chocolate Factory

In an attempt to change things up I am going to begin to deliberately vary the length of my articles, this is going to be an example of a shorter piece and there shall be longer ones down the road. I assume no one shall have any complaints about this.

Some ideas are just so incredibly insane that you couldn’t make them up. Primus covering the soundtrack of 1971’s Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, is one of them. You would have had to have taken a lot of drugs to stumble on that idea before it came about and yet here it is, Les Claypool and gangs interpretation of classic movie fare like “Candy Man” and yes all those oompa loompa bits too.

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26/11/2014 0

Black Veil Brides

Black Veil Brides have been called a lot of things in their career. Widely derided for being all style no substance, the band have risen up to be the latest whipping boy of the heavy metal community due to a perceived notion that their over the top rock and roll is a bit shit, most of which people on the internet have probably decided because of how they look. The truth is that Black Veil Brides have never been as offensive as people like to believe they are. They play pretty simple rock and roll, inspired by the likes of Guns ‘N’ Roses, but instead of sex, drugs and rock and roll, they instead embrace being different and how being so doesn’t make you alone. Much like other bands who have embraced that message, My Chemical Romance being the most obvious recent example, it has led to them amassing a huge teen audience (something else people seem to think is a bad thing) and they look well on their way to being this generations gateway band into the world of rock and metal.

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14/11/2014 0

Playing the Blues

If you ask most people to describe what they consider the standard blues guitarist, they would probably go down the old, craggy man route. Someone who can damn well play, but is not exactly one of the hip young people the modern music world seem to have such an obsession with. However, if you dig below the surface, times are a changing and two albums I’ve checked out in the last week or so, are the perfect proof of that.

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29/10/2014 1

Slash – World on Fire

Introducing Slash feels a bit pointless. If you don’t know who the top hat wearing guitarist is, then you are probably on the wrong blog. He’s recently released his third solo album, at least his third solo album that just goes under the name, Slash, once again teaming up with Myles Kennedy and The Conspirators, to give us, World on Fire.

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17/10/2014 0

Weezer in 2014

A new Weezer album is a strange proposition in 2014. While there is no denying Rivers Cuomo and co can still bring it on occasion, you can’t hide from the factThe Blue Album feels a long time ago and while those songs still kick ass live, they were recorded twenty years ago. While that was followed by another two amazing albums and a few less amazing but strong in their own way releases, they have also released some trash. With their last few failing to hit the mark. Therefore, Everything Will Be Alright in the End has a bit of pressure on its shoulders, the question has to stand as to whether Weezer still have it?

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07/10/2014 0

Generic Music

Sometimes you listen to a band and you want to tell the world. You are desperate to have everyone know about them and cannot understand why people greet the mention of their name with blank faces. Other times you hear a band and wonder who actually cares? Who is spending their time and money supporting a band who while maybe not bad, are just so generic, that they are almost inventive through complete lack of invention. A band that very much invoke that feeling inside of me is Godsmack, who this year released 1000hp.

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03/10/2014 0

Marmozets

Marmozets seem to be the latest buzz word on everyone’s lips and with their debut album, The Weird and Wonderful Marmozets, dropping this week, it looks likely that they are here to stay. Formed of two sets of siblings, Becca, Sam and Josh MacIntyre and Will and Jack Bottomley, Marmozets have been on the live scene for a while. I saw them supporting Feed the Rhino a while back and they impressed me then with their energetic show. Back then their sound was also a lot more mathcore, something that they have by no means lost on this release, but which they have honed and in many ways perfected into some cracking tunes.

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30/09/2014 0

Gerard Way

I have little shame in admitting that I, like a lot of other people that grew up in the years I did, first got fully immersed in music through listening to so called, emo. Therefore, it is maybe no surprise that I spent quite a lot of time listening to My Chemical Romance, in fact my first ever gig was to see that very band. Of course to actually call My Chemical Romance emo was always a bit of a stretch, they popularised the visual style that became common with that movement, but their early work had more roots in punk, while later on they moved onto a style that was more reminiscent of Queen than EMBRACE. I can’t say much about the work they did post Black Parade, which is when my own interest faded, but it seemed to mainly be a bit shit.

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29/09/2014 0

Sounding like your heroes

It is common in music to have a band ape the sound of those that came before. A lot of debut albums can become a game of spot the influences, as elements of a bands heroes sap into their music. However, there is always a difference between being influenced by and copying and you can spot the bands that are going to be special by the ones that take parts of these legendary bands and make them their own. However, there is another problem with this method. That being, when you take influence from those around you, you often end up with an album that is disjointed and sounds like the work of several bands rather than one. Avenged Sevenfolds’ number one album Hail to the King, is the prime example of this. There are some great tracks on that album, but when you take it as an actual album, it doesn’t hang together.

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23/09/2014 0

Empress AD

If you are a regular on the live circuit, there is a good chance you have caught Empress AD. Recent years has seen them support everyone from Cancer Bats to Kvelertak to Bring Me the Horizon, while also changing their name from just Empress and being signed to Roadrunner. It’s gained them a reputation as a promising band, their heavy progressive sound insuring that they weren’t easy to forget, but it can be hard to truly love a band until you own their album, which is no longer a problem with the release of their debut Still Life Moving Fast.

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09/09/2014 0