Rambles about the wonderful world of wrestling.
Wes Anderson returns to our screens with his latest effort The Grand Budapest Hotel, which he both wrote and directed, although based it off the works of Stefan Zweig.  It’s being described by many as the most Wes Anderson, Wes Anderson movie yet and if you go and see it you might quickly understand why.
I have never hidden the fact that the recent Metallica output leaves me cold.  From the total non-entity that is Death Magnetic back to St. Anger and lets not even talk about Lulu, the band that played as big a part as any in getting me into heavy music have continually disappointed when it comes to studio releases.  So why then do I instantly get super excited when I hear that there’s a new Metallica song out in the world?  Why do I keep going back for more pain?  Why do I let myself be continually hurt by a band I truly love.
It’s easy to forget that Of Mice and Men are still relatively young in their career. It feels like you have been hearing about them for years, yet in reality they are barely five years old and Restoring Force is only their third album.  It’s the album they will be hoping pushes them away from their peers, with a bit of change in sound away from their metalcore roots and an embracing of the chunky bouncy riffs that we all associate with that brand of metal we describe as nu.
Lamb of God are one of the biggest bands on the planet that most of the planet hasn’t heard of.  They’ve sold nearly two million albums in their home country, the USA, been nominated for Grammy’s and their last album shot to number 3 in the US Billboard charts and made the top twenty in the UK.  Yet this isn’t a music review, but rather a look at their recent documentary, As the Palaces Burn, which was directed by Don Argott.
Vampires have taken a bit of a kicking in the last few years, going from dreaded creatures of the night to sparkly things that fall in love.  Therefore, it’s refreshing to see Jim Jarmusch remind us just how cool vampires can be in his latest movie Only Lovers Left Alive.
In the last few years The Gaslight Anthem have been wheedling their way into people’s hearts with their big choruses and Springsteen tinged rock and roll.  Therefore, it’s not really a surprise that there has been a slight cash in on this popularity with the release of The B Sides a collection of, unsurprisingly, B sides.  The question then has to be asked whether this is worthy of inclusion in the Gaslight discography, or like many before them should this be a collection of B side that should have stayed in the vault.
The idea of humans falling in love with machines is not a new one in cinema, it’s a common trope of the sci-fi genre, but if anything the last few years have led to it hitting closer and closer to home. Â Advances in technology like the Iphone suggest a future where, while our computers may not get to think for themselves, they may well be able to trick you into believing they can.
Nick Frost has spent his career in the shadow of Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg. Â However, to purely consider him as a stooge to their talents is to give the guy a lot less credit that he deserves. Â Underneath that overweight outward appearance is an incredibly talented physical comedian and therefore it’s not surprising that the idea of him doing a comedy based around the idea of salsa dancing is on paper a recipe for success.
There is a track on Ghost Empire, German metalcore mob Caliban’s 9th album, called “I Am Rebellion”.  It starts slowly before delivering some chunky metalcore riffs and a big melodic chorus.  In other words, it’s about the least rebellious metalcore track you will hear this year.  Is that a bad thing?  Not necessarily.  If you take a stroll through the music section of this website you will find a lot of articles about metalcore bands, it’s a genre I have a lot of time for.  However, it’s also a genre that can hit it’s saturation point quite easily and there are a lot of Killswitch Engage clones out their.  Not all of them can claim to have been going as long as Caliban though, who actually formed in 1997 two years before Killswitch.
Skindred should be the biggest band on the planet.  I know I started my live review in the exact same way, but I’m going to keep saying it until it’s true.  With the release of their 5th album, Kill the Power, Skindred look to continue proving me right (spoiler: they have) and continue their quest to try and capture their live energy on record, with their supposed failure to do so the one criticism that tends to be launched their way.
Ramblings About Wrestling 