So yesterday the Daily Mail once again ran an idiotic article about the suicide of a young teenage boy, I’m not even going to bother linking to it, because they don’t deserve the one click that would get them. That story is obviously tragic and I don’t want to belittle that. However, the Daily Mail chose to focus on the fact the young man was listening to Slipknot and was a ‘hardcore rock’ fan. Now quite frankly, I am fed up of this kind of shit. I think we all are. However, I have written about these problems before, more times than I count. So, rather than focusing on calling the Daily Mail cunts, which they are, I have decided instead to write about 5 ways that heavy metal is awesome. Because in shit times, we should focus on the positives.
Paddington
The film industry is not against destroying childhood loves. This years Postman Pat Movie, saw Pat replaced by an army of Terminators and the Transformers series is so far removed from its toy based past, that it may as well be a different concept entirely. Therefore, it is no surprise that a few people were a bit worried about Paddington. Paddington Bear has played a part in nearly every British child’s life at some point and the idea of a soulless Hollywood take on the marmalade loving fellow is heartbreaking. Thankfully, this is far from that.
Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
It has become Hollywood’s signature move to split the final film of a franchise into two parts. It has become as predictable as a Hulk Hogan hulk up and frankly, it has begun to wear a bit thin. However, it is still no surprise that The Hunger Games part 3, better known as The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1, is actually the first half of the final book in The Hunger Games series. Unfortunately, it is also widely considered the weakest book in the trilogy, making the decision to split it into two seem even more baffling.
The Metallica Question
So Metallica will once again make their way over to our shores in the summer of 2015. This time they will grace Reading with their presence and as usual there is a lot of people very happy about it, but a more vocal group of people pissed off. Why? Because of the feeling that Metallica have over saturated the UK with festival headline slots. In the last four years they have played Download, Sonisphere and Glastonbury, all with only one new song and the pile of steaming shite that was Lulu. People are apparently fed up of Metallica and want someone new to take the spot.
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.
What We Do In The Shadows
To say vampires have been popular in recent years is a bit of an understatement. The success of franchises like Twilight, have seen our pointy toothed friends reappear on the big screen with a vengeance, although many would argue they lack the bite of old. Of course, cinema has always faced these trends, whether it be zombies, werewolves or vampires, it always feels like one mythical beastie is on the top of the pile. However, vampires seem to have been a bit under served in their current ascent of the mountain. While I don’t harbour the dislike for Twilight that many others have, there is no denying Edward Cullen was hardly scary. They have also yet to be spoofed in a successful way. While zombies have been parodied so well that the RomZomCom is a recognised genre, vampires have seen themselves taken the mick out of in incredibly unimaginative ways, that were more likely to induce groans than laughter. That is until What We Do in the Shadows came along.
Hacktivist w/ Dead Harts and The One Hundred
Hacktivist are beginning to make a habit of coming to Electric Circus, with this being their second performance here within a year. Therefore, it’s kind of strange that tonight seems to actually see a smaller crowd come out for the Milton Keynes band. Although the lack of new material and the fact it’s a Wednesday night might have also played into that.
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Mr Turner
Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner tells the story, perhaps unsurprisingly, of the life and career of J.M.W. Turner, the British painter, whom many consider as the man who elevated landscape painting to previously unseen heights. I should say from the outset that I have little knowledge of Turner, I could not tell you of his life and only know the most basic of facts about his body of work. However, I still went along to the film with great expectations. It has been critically praised and Timothy Spall took the prize for Best Actor at Cannes.
Festival Season
So Download announcement’s have started and as usual the internet is all excited. It’s become a worrying part of our festival culture, that the announcements now seem to actually get more hype than any of the bands themselves and personally I’d love Download to follow the model that Hellfest does, where it just released the majority of its bands in one go (check out that line up by the way!) That’s not what I’m going to discuss here however, but rather an interesting divide I have begun to see in festival announcement reactions. It’s one that to be honest confuses me and while this isn’t the first time I have noticed, it is becoming more and more common.
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.
Ramblings About Wrestling 