Oh, Green Day. Where did it all go so wrong? On American Idiot that snotty punk band that sang about wanking grew up into a political powerhouse. If we’d known then that it would start them on a path that ended at Revolution Radio, I could have done without it.
Creeper
In a world where most of musical history is at our fingertips via Spotify or YouTube, standing out takes something special. Every week tens of albums are released and deciding where to start isn’t easy. One band that make that simplifies that decision is Creeper.
Metallica – Moth Into Flame
I can count on one hand the bands that mean more to me than Metallica. Which is hardly rare, if you were to ask a hundred heavy metal fans they would probably say the same. In fact, ask a thousand, they’ll still be up there. And yet recent years haven’t been too kind to ‘Tallica. The whole Lulu debacle came after two average at best and downright bad at worst albums. While ‘Lords of Summer’ and some sloppy live shows didn’t exactly set the bar high for what was to come in the future. That was until they dropped ‘Moth Into Flame’.
The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)
Calling the zombie movie genre oversaturated was right about five years ago. Today, it’s gone far past that. We’ve had classic zombie movies, we’ve had running zombies, we’ve had zomromcoms, and we’ve had Arnie looking sad zombie movies. You name it; they’ve done it. So unless you have something new to bring to the table, then you are better off staying at home.
Love Zombies – Passionfruit
There’s a pretty good chance that one day I will look back and split my life into two distinct sections. Pre and post ‘Robots & Aliens’. The stupidly infectious song from Love Zombies has been running through my head ever since I first put on Passionfruit and I’m genuinely not sure it will ever leave. To be honest, I might even be okay with that.
Blair Witch (2016)
Despite the claims of those who are either lacking in imagination or presumably spent the entire time with their eyes focused on a phone, The Blair Witch Project is a scary film. It builds its tension to an unbearable level and reveals nothing but hints as to what is happening to its audience. Because of that, it has a mythology that is ripe for exploring and which seventeen years after the original Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett are returning to.
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Stop-motion genuinely baffles me. Whether it’s Wallace & Gromit or Coraline, it almost doesn’t matter how good the film is, I am in awe that it exists at all. Which you could maybe say gives Laika Studios a bit of a free pass. Much like Aardman they are a group dedicated to stop-motion releases but they also happen to be brilliant.
Doom (2016)
In the opening seconds of Doom, a nice lady who is voicing some sort of alarm system warns you that a demonic invasion is imminent. From there on in you can pretty much relax. You’ve got this.
Don’t Breathe (2016)
Fede Alvarez’s attempt to tackle an Evil Dead remake/sequel/whatever it was intended to be, didn’t quite take off. It lost that spark which made the original the enduring classic it is today and replaced it with a nastiness. However, nasty doesn’t necessarily mean bad and in that nastiness, there was something that made you want to keep an eye on what would come next.
Black Peaks & Heck w/ Bad Sign
Edinburgh can be a notoriously tough city to tour. That famous Scottish crowd doesn’t always emerge, and I have seen bands like Bring Me The Horizon (on Sempiternal) struggle to sell out supposedly small venues. So standing in Electric Circus and seeing a nearly sold-out crowd appreciate two of the best young bands the UK has to offer. Well, it’s one hell of a feeling.
Ramblings About Wrestling 