Zardonic is at the very least in my top 5 pump up artists. His aggressive noise he puts out it just straight amazing. The energy he brings is always top notch and I'm really happy I stumbled across his stuff. Metal and Electronic anything seems to blend surprisingly well.
So yo, the A to Z starts tomorrow and I'm hella hyped. There's gonna be a load of great music throughout the week and the month will end with an album review. Realistically, what's better than that? Probably a lot of stuff, but in the music department we're basically top shelf right now, so think of it that way. It's gonna be lit.
Band: System Of A Down feat. RZA of Wu-Tang Clan
Album: Vicinity of Obscenity (Promotional Single)
Genre: Avant-Garde Metal
Language: Strong
You never find songs like this covered, like, ever. Nobody would cover Wu-Tang's Shame On A N*gga because firstly, it's an iconic song that's heavily associated with the group. In addition to that, there's the content of the song. Nobody covers rap music, and nobody covers one with a heavy reputation.
It's amazing though, like any of their other covers they've done System straight up murders this track. And the fact that they got RZA on it too just makes it better in my opinion.
Band: Gideon
Album: Pulling Teeth (Single)
Genre: Alternative Metal
I really really love a catchy Hardcore song, especially one with a really catchy chorus.
I was looking for some Christian music that wasn't Metal type stuff a week or so ago, but nobody on Facebook understood my question. They instead of sending me non-tacky modern Christian Music they sent me a pile of Christian Hardcore. The plus side is that we got some really solid recommendations out of it, so go us?
Artist: Lil Yachty feat. Quavo, Skippa Da Flippa, Young Thug
Album: Lil Boat
Genre: Trap, Rap
Language: Strong
As somebody who isn't a really big fan of Lil Yachty, I didn't know this song existed. I had only heard it in that freaking Sprite commercial he's in. I thought "oh shoot, I bet somebody remixed this commercial into a full song of some sort. Well I sure felt dumb when I found that they just remixed a song for the commercial.
Outside of the fact that I hate Yachty's voice I really can't deny that this is a fun song. Even Thug's part isn't bad, and that dude's hard to listen to sometimes too, haha
Band: Stone Temple Pilots
Album: Purple
Genre: Grunge
I tend to ignore most of the bands that came out of the Grunge era as a general rule of thumb. They aren't usually too great, and searching through them to find the good stuff is a pain.
Looking for one of the bigger ones is a generally good bet though, which is mostly how I'm familiar with these guys. I've heard my dad playing their music around for a little while so I thought I may as well intersperse my usually undesirable to many people choice of music with stuff a lot more people enjoy.
Band: Lindemann
Album: Skills In Pills
Genre: Industrial Metal
Language: Strong
I feel like I always post some weird songs on Sunday.
Probably my favorite thing to come out of 2015 was Lindemann, the joint efforts of Till Lindemann of Rammstein and Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy and PAIN.
I listened through most of the album, but I never got past Yukon, which was the track right before this majestic tune. On an impulse in like, the beginning on January, I decided to finally give this song a listen. I had heard it had a really solid music video and since it was like, 1 am, I figured it was a good time to check it out.
Whoa.
I feel I should clarify, this song is meant as a parody. Till has said that in interviews it's a joke song about a friend of his with too many kids.
Now this video. My goodness it's a well done video. The main section is in that all white stage and I really feel like that just helps everything stand in a really cool contrast. The stage has this borderline cheesy Broadway vibe to it that I really love. The second verse is a little weird as it delves into Till venturing into the homosexual spectrum to avoid having more kids instead of, you know, just being a little more careful than he apparently had been in the past.
The pig visual of him with all these parasitic entities is solid though if you want to rep kids being nothing more than money pits.
All in all while I may not agree with the message of the song (or at least the perceived message), I can't deny that the art of the video is solid. If you wanna see the making of video here's the link. It's a fun watch and explains the thinking behind the video pretty well.
Artist: Eminem
Album: Curtain Call
Genre: Rap, Hip Hop
Language: Strong, Brief
This was a song I was originally going to put in the "sad week" and I'm really bummed I didn't add it in. I feel like the video really helped make the whole emotional trip fall together.
I can never decide if I like Eminem's more angry music or his more emotional, both of the sides are so good that it's hard to pick a favorite. For now though I'll have to side with emotional Eminem for pulling at my heart with a sad video.
Band: Fit For An Autopsy
Album: The Great Collapse
Genre: Deathcore
Language: Strong
I'm aware that since this album came out on the 17th I'm a little behind to really be reviewing it, but screw that. I wanted to take the time to listen to the album and since I'm not paid to blog that went a little on the back burner.
I'm really bummed that I took so long to really check this album out though, as it really adds a really strong entry to their catalogue.
I wasn't super excited about these guys when I first saw them. I remember when they hit the stage I just assumed they were gonna be another generic Deathcore band. To be totally honest, I wasn't wrong. They are mostly what you'd assume your standard issue Deathcore band would sound. The issue is that not many bands of the genre manage to meet the bare minimum of what they need to do. Fit For An Autopsy manages to not only meet this level, but surpass it.
There's some tracks on this album really stand out to me. Heads Will Hang, which was their big reveal song that I featured here before, is just good. I love the riff that goes through the song, it makes me really happy.
And Iron Moon. Freaking Iron Moon man, that song is so fantastic. When I heard it start I immediately saved it. So freaking good.
Yo, the chorus on Black Mammoth? That gang vocal choir thing? I can have more of that in my Metal anytime you wanna give it to me. It wasn't overused in the song or anything, it was there just enough to add a really awesome element to the song. It lifted it up from a good song to a great song.
Then there's Empty Still. It's all chill and ambient for a lot of it, but the vocals stay harsh. They don't make the mistake of trying to sneak a clean singing song into what they do because they know that's not what their fans are after. Especially after the fiasco that was the Suicide Silence fanbase reaction.
All in all I rate this album a really solid 8/10. I've been really bummed out recently with the fact that none of my favorite artists have been releasing anything much, but then this gets dropped straight on my head. Really good Deathcore guys, props to you. It's only 40 minutes to listen through it, so do yourself a favor and check it out.
Band: Disturbed
Album: The Sickness
Genre: Alternative Metal, Nu-Metal
Language: Strong
Without a doubt the best album Disturbed put out would be The Sickness. Believe was a solid album, and the others have all had their hits in them, but nothing quite brings it home like all the songs on The Sickness.
There were a lot of songs on the album that were really musically solid. It's one of the few albums where I think I can honestly say I like every song on it, and it's definitely the only Disturbed album that I feel that way about.
To rep the album though here's The Game. It's a fun little ditty.
If you want you can check out this live version from a few months ago. Draiman's harsh vocals aren't really that great for the parts that are supposed to be screamed, but the rest is fantastic. Their new (2003 till now) bassist really tears the song up during the chorus.
Artist: Childish Gambino
Genre: Rap, Hip Hop
Language: Strong
Since my last post about Gambino I've learned an awful lot more about him than I did before. Mostly though I heard some new songs that I love a lot.
First things first, the album that Bonfire is on, Camp, is amazing. It's so freaking good, like, yo.
Secondly, Bonfire is a straight fire track. I really love that term honestly, it's a really solid description for certain Rap tracks. There are some things and phrases from the Rap community that I don't care for, but this is a pretty good one.
Aight, so Donald Glover is gonna be the new Lando in Star Wars, and his most recent album was pretty good. All in all, he's doing pretty well in the world right now. I'm looking forward to seeing if he does anything new this year.
A mildly embarrassing story for you guys today. Back when I used to work in "the hood" I met a lot of interesting people. There was this one dude who, when I told him I wasn't able to give him any water, had his kid pee on our doorstep. Good times.
This is a better story though, this is about how I met the singer for War Of Ages and I didn't actually know it at the time. See, I had just started listening to these guys at the time and wasn't super familiar with what they looked like. Then these 3 guys walk into the shop, the drummer, guitarist, and singer, and one of them compliments my Skillet shirt. I proceeded to say I wasn't the biggest fan of them and I prefered heavier stuff. When they asked who I responded with Demon Hunter or War Of Ages cause I thought the dude was the singer for one of them. Well Leroy, the singer, proceeded to tell me to swing by Creation (big Christian music fest) that year and see them, and after checking the lineup I managed to figure out who they were. Good times.
These guys have some sick harmonized leads though and were really impactful to a lot of kids during the time when the Hardcore scene reigned supreme.
I'm sure most of you have heard Daniel Radcliffe rapping this song on Jimmy Kimmel, but I couldn't think of any better song to herald in the A to Z 2K17 than with a rap that literally goes from A to Z.
I am sorry to say that I don't have much of them this year compared to years past. This year my theme is literally just going from A to Z, which while a little weak, is still gonna be a blast.
So yeah, 12 more days and it's gonna start! I have all of my posts scheduled out and ready and I'm hella excited about it. The last 2 years were a time I really enjoyed and I can't imagine this one's gonna be any different, yeah? There's a lot of other really good blogs gonna be floating around that are also following this theme. I'm not even gonna try and make a list for you guys to check of the ones I like the best cause honestly who knows how many I'll get to this time around. Last year was tough for me to get around, but I'll have a lot more time this year in theory.
A hella long time back (like a month or so) I was planning on posting this song. Ended up not cause I posted Psycho Killer instead, so here's this one. I don't listen to these guys for the most part because they're an older band and, not that I have anything against older music, but generally I listen to newer things to try and keep up with what's happening. It's not the best thing, but it's something I'll work on.
Among many other reveals you'll learn that there is water at the bottom of the ocean. It's basically the biggest revelation since ever.
Gonna mention it again (and probably for at least a week), got a totally nifty Patreon for you to check out, it's gonna be great.
You know what's better than a good original? A remix that makes it that much better. I really do love the original of this song, but there's something about the verse Kendrick adds that just makes it better.
Side note, have you heard of Imagine Dragon's new song Believer? They have a music video for it and everything, but they are also running a contest for it. If you have access to Adobe Premiere you get to have access to a pile of raw footage from Imagine Dragons to make your own version of the video. It promises to be a really good time since there's cash prizes. I'm gonna try for it, so we'll see how well I do.
Side note part 2, I have a Patreon account now! It's a way for you to donate toward what I do here. It's not like there's a lot I do here, but it'd be totally great to not have to worry about some things as much, ya feel?
For real though, even if you don't contribute to me you should look into contributing to other great creators, there's a lot of them there and they've got some clutch rewards and way better content than I have.
So I'm not really sure what's drawn me to slayer recently. I used to really not like them since all of their songs are like, the same, but I'm really starting to appreciate them a lot more than I used to.
There's something about the high energy pummeling that the music turns into that just draws you in, ya know? I like it.
I feel like I've probably heard this song forever, but I mostly got kinda connected to it a little recently. You see, Kenny Loggins was totally fine with appearing as a radio DJ in Grand Theft Auto V. They have a pile of stations with their made up people, but the Classic Rock station is run by Kenny. Dude's freaking funny too, so I'm really happy they hired him to do it.
Also this song is referenced to death in Archer, so yeah, haha
Here's the song that made me really want to do this week.
A while ago I had a few people really try to get me to listen to NF for a while, and after people finally got me into I decided to listen to a couple albums. Here's the thing about listening to albums from artists you're unfamiliar with though, you don't always know what's coming.
Eminem? Violence, drugs, alcohol. It's a pretty typical lineup, I know what to expect from that guy, but I've also had a few more years to get used to the guy.
When I shuffled through Therapy Sessions I honestly hadn't expected such a heavy song as this since I didn't really know what direction he was gonna go. Then I get this song dropped on my head out of nowhere. It's a song about his mom and, as basically all music has taught us, nothing makes a more emotion driven song then a song about family. NF has some pretty intense things to say about his mom and her problems.
Honestly I don't think I would have to courage to actually go into a studio and say these things. Like, this is some stuff he clearly has issues with, as shown by his breakdown at the end of the song. It makes the whole song really hit home.
Artist: Future feat. The Weeknd
Genre: Trap, Rap
Language: Strong
Probably the only song to hold the spot of favorite for a solid 3 months, Low Life is a great song. This is one of the two songs that inspired me to do this week at all actually
The song isn't exactly sad so much as just dark. The bass helps bring the whole thing down really hard right from the get go. When it lifts for The Weeknd's verse it's almost like it highlights what he's saying more. The whole song is generally drugged out and sad, hence it's holding place near the end of the list.
I feel like I might have said this about other stuff, but I think this song was the best thing to come out of the Rap scene in 2016 possible.
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