John Terry – Captain, Leader, Hero

Last weekend John Terry made his 400th league appearance for Chelsea and scored his 34th league goal. This took his Chelsea tally up to 594 appearances and 57 goals. In that time he has won 3 EPL titles, 5 FA Cups, 2 League Cups, 2 Community Shields and has played a part, if not actually playing in the final, in a Champions League and a Europa League title. Yet there are still people who would argue with you whether John Terry is a world class player. Do you know why? Because he’s a cunt. There is no denying that fact, history proves it. However, right here right now, I am going to make the case that that doesn’t matter. And John Terry the footballer still deserves your respect and your admiration.

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07/12/2013 0

Dream Theater – Dream Theater

Dream Theater used to be so ingrained with the idea of Mike Portnoy that to have an album that doesn’t incorporate any of his ideas seems strange. However, that’s exactly what they’ve done and they’ve only gone and made it a self-titled release. With Mike Mangini in from the start this is the album that will represent exactly where a Portnoyless Dream Theater will be going in the future and their fans will be desperate for them to smash it out of the park.

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05/12/2013 0

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Image courtesy of Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller is a hard actor to like. When you look back over his filmography there is an awful lot of crap. Even his supposed good films, aren’t really that good. However, his latest effort seems to be outside his normal remit. The Secret Life of Walter Mitty is an adaptation of a short story that was originally made into a film in 1947. In it’s current incarnation it has been around for a long time with it having been in line to be directed by everyone from Spielberg to Ron Howard. While Jim Carrey and Sacha Baron Cohen are just two of the actors who have been in line to play the central character. It has finally come to fruition however, with Stiller fulfilling both roles.

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04/12/2013 0

Children of Bodom – Halo of Blood

It wasn’t that long ago that Children of Bodom were one of the next big things in heavy metal. They perfected a melodic death metal sound that was winning them fans left right and centre. Sadly things begun to go a bit pear shaped, as personal problems and a few dud albums left quite a lot of people scratching their heads wondering what had happened to the Finnish maestro’s. With that in mind latest release Halo of Blood has a lot of pressure on it’s shoulders as it seeks to prove that Alexi Lahio and co still have it.

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02/12/2013 0

Hactivist w/ The Algorithm and Incyte at Electric Circus Edinburgh, 30/11/13

Hacktivist at Electric Circus. Credit: Stuart Iversen

Hacktivist are a band that have thrown themselves into the metal worlds conscience in the last couple of years and made one hell of a bang. Combining the down-tuned eight string guitars of the djent movement with grime and hip hop vocals is something that will make many traditional metal heads grind their teeth in anger and the truth is it appears to either inspire hatred or love from most that hear it.

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02/12/2013 0

Sonisphere announcement

So Sonisphere is back after their forced leave of absence in the last two years. It’s forty years since rock and roll first came to Knebworth and they are obviously pulling out all the stops to make sure this time they stick around. A very average Download line up might help them a little bit too.

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02/12/2013 0

Saving Mr Banks

Going near Mary Poppins should be a kiss of death to any film. Few films are so ingrained into the heart of the world than Robert Stevenson and Walt Disney’s blend of live action and animation. However, not many films can claim to have Emma Thompson and Tom Hanks on board and with John Lee Hancock (The Blind Side) manning the helm it may just be possible for Saving Mr Banks to do the impossible.

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02/12/2013 0

Philomena

Steve Coogan‘s career has always been overshadowed by a huge partridge that stand’s in the background. His most famous character has left everything else he’s done lying in the dust and if you were to question people on the street about his other projects they would probably come up short. Therefore, to see him tied so closely to a film like Philomena, where he both stars alongside the always fabulous Judi Dench and is also responsible alongside Jeff Pope for having written it, is a bit of a surprise. Director Stephen Frears is a more obvious fit with his previous films including the Academy Award nominated The Queen.

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01/12/2013 0

Download Announcement 4

So Download added another group of bands this week and I figured I might as well keep up my evaluation of the line-up as a whole. It’s also become clear that Sonisphere will be returning with an announcement due on Monday! So look forward to hearing me complaining/celebrating that line up as well. Right now however, we’re heading onto Download street where we now have a couple of second stage headliners as well as some bands fleshing out the lower stages.

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01/12/2013 0

Hardcore dancing

This is going to be a rant. Everything I get taught about journalism etc. teaches me not to rant, but I’m still going too because this is a rant about certain types of behaviour at live shows. Said behaviour is the art of hardcore dancing, an example of which can be seen above. Now, hardcore dancing has been going on for a long time but recently it seems to have been making a bit of a comeback with twats in baseball caps or hoodies going into the middle of the pit and fighting thin air like a wally. Now I love a good mosh, I really want to make that clear. If you take moshing out of metal you take out one of the things that makes it so brilliant. However, this practice is the practice of cunts. It’s as simple as that. Even then though, I can accept it if they do it by themselves away from people who don’t wish to be punched in the face. Let the mentally deficient hardcore dance together in a corner and the rest of us can enjoy the show. Recently however, I saw some stuff that was very different and really annoyed me.

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29/11/2013 0