Review: Dream Theater - A Dramatic Turn of Events

 Picture the scene: You've had a horrible day at school, everyone around you just wants to bring you down, they take joy from your misfortune and offer no help when you desperately need it. At home, you're brought down some more because your family want to tell you of the horrible times they have had at work. After being left alone with your bad thoughts of the day and crappy music playing on the radio, you are simply left with a dull and bleak feeling of isolation. All you want is to be away from it all. To be transported to a new world where you can lose yourself, in a realm of adventure and majesty, where anything is possible and no one can bring you down. With this being my state of mind for a large portion of the day, I found my gateway to a new and better world, in the form of A Dramatic Turn of Events, the eleventh release from prog metal heroes, Dream Theater.
 It's possible that the albums title may refer to the dramatic turn of events that occurred earlier this year, following drummer and founding member, Mike Portnoy's decision to leave the band after finding better company and hoping to spend more time in Avenged Sevenfold, for whom he filled in as drummer for their their 2010 release, Nightmare and for the Huntington Beach rockers remaining tour dates, as well as facing rejection from the rest of his group following a request for a five-year break. I'm not too sure of Portnoy's current situation, as he was rejected from becoming a full time member of A7X, and Dream Theater wouldn't take him back after recruiting new sticksman, Mike Mangini. It's actually a very sad story for Portnoy, and for one thing, it was certainly a dramatic turn of events.
 This seems more likely, as the music produced on the album does not suggest a dramatic turn of events. A Dramatic Turn of Events sees a further collection of epic dreamy, complex, often emotional, oddly structured and hard hitting prog metal, bursting with spellbinding guitar solos, complex basslines, and frequent usage of of atmospheric keyboards, synthesizers and samples. Did you expect anything more though? The work is absolutely captivating and marvelous in every sense. Dream Theater mange to do exactly as one would hope. Transport listeners into a new world where one can get lost in a realm of adventure and majesty.
 And having to leave that world at the end of the album is a little sad. A Dramatic Turn of Events manages to create an epic and majestic atmosphere into which one can escape from the burdens of everyday life. And on days like today, that makes it a winner.

 Dream Theater's A Dramatic Turn of Events is out on the 13th of September via Roadrunner. The band will tour the UK in February.

Review: Blink-182 - After Midnight

 Blink-182 just seem to keep popping up here don't they? Wether you like them or not, it's become pretty clear that the Californian pop punk trio's sixth studio release Neighborhoods will be the most anticipated rock release of the year when it comes out on the 27th. After everything, from the 8 years without hearing anything new, to the three years spent recording and the mass pullouts of UK tours to complete the making of the album. So far the tracks revealed from the album have kept to frontman Tom DeLonge's promise that Neighborhoods will combine elements from all of Blink's previous work and has increased the anticipation toward the album, so we have more to keep fans on their toes in the form of the second single released from the album After Midnight.
 After Midnight, is much closer to the work produced on 2003's self-titled album than the other track thus far, as it much slower and less hard hitting, with more of an emotional centre, but more catchy than the kind of slow emotional tracks found on 2003's album.
 All there is to say is that alongside the two other tracks released from Neighborhoods so far, Up All Night and Heart's All Gone, After Midnight manages to show that Blink-182 have been hard at work during their time away, and have made some catchy, well thought through and overall enjoyable rock music that has put even the cruelest of cynics (me) in their place. I can't wait to hear Neighborhoods in full.

Review: Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds - AKA... What a Life!

 The rapid rise of popularity towards the solo career of former Oasis guitarist and vocalist, Noel Gallagher, is something I've not covered on this blog yet, and it's really time I did because, really over the past two decades, he has become a rock and roll star, no matter how annoying that seems. I suppose the horrendous attitude that he displays in interviews has always been a turn off point, but I realize that one should focus more on the art than the artist. Also, it's probably a good thing I wasn't writing when Beady Eye first emerged to popularity, I'd probably give them a bad review based solely upon the personality of Liam Gallagher. Honestly, how can anyone stand the Gallagher brothers? They truly do belong to each other, but hey, they don't want anything to do with one another.
 Anyway, I can't judge a musician on how they act now, otherwise I'd never be able to appreciate Guns N' Roses, so I can't judge Noel Gallagher's music on Gallagher himself, so it's time to have a listen to new single from his solo project Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds, AKA... What a Life!
 Of course due to a general dislike for the guy, I was kind of hoping for the song to be shit, but it's not even that. It's just bland, uninspired and sounds like it was made for the purpose of serving as pleasant background music. It's very radio-friendly and run of the mill and very hard to get excited over. Unlike a lot of decent radio-rock, this also has the problem that it's not even catchy. I couldn't picture anyone jumping around having fun to this. I just picture it playing on the radio while a middle class family is eating dinner, and coming from the guy who brought inspiring rock anthems filled with soul to represent the working-class of the north of England, really seems quite embarrassing.
 Actually, it feels more like Noel is trying to make a Coldplay song, which will put off some, but even if you like Coldplay, this song has a complete lack of charm and occasional dynamism that Chris Martin's alt rock crew manage to stir up.

 AKA... What a Life! does not make me feel optimistic about the release of the self titled debut of Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds. It shows he's lost his sense of uniqueness, dynamism and overall passion for making music. But then, the launch of his solo career is probably just a way to try and gain more popularity than Liam in Beady Eye. The song is simply unsatisfying and the idea of a whole album of songs like it fills me with dread.

Review: Anthrax cover New Noise

 Figured today would be a good opportunity to see if any new tracks from Worship Music, the upcoming album from New York thrash legends, Anthrax. Only one new track has surface though and believe me, when I saw this was on the album, I was excited. The album features a bonus track, which is a cover of what else, but New Noise, the standout track from one of the most influential albums on modern rock, The Shape of Punk to Come, by Refused.
 In essence, Anthrax keep to the structure and rhythm of the original, apart from a change of key. However, Anthrax maintain a sense of uniqueness, by keeping to their heavy and thrashy style while performing as well as bringing in an arguably greater sense of passion, best demonstrated through the sheer power of Joey Belladonna's melodic vocals, used as a way to create a similar force to the screams of Dennis Lyxzén, and of course Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano keep the guitar work pounding and blistering rather than the more straightforward punk riffs in the original.
 So, Anthrax perform this song really well, and they do make it their own in the way that they pack more of a punch of thrash and energy. I wouldn't say it's better than the original though. There was a real charm in the laid back and effortlessness of the original. However, it's great to see the song finally being paid homage to, especially when it's by such legendary figures as Anthrax.

Rise to Remain - City of Vultures

 The story of London based metalcore group, Rise to Remain is one that is phenomenal, inspiring and shows a sense of determination and patience, as the group rose to success the old fashioned hard way when a much easier solution is more practical. This, as it has been stated countless amount of times, that lead singer Austin Dickinson is the son of none other than Bruce of Iron Maiden. While Bruce could have easily produced their album and instantly sell the group out to the world of metal, allowing their cause of fame and popularity purely to derive from the fact that he's the father of the frontman, instead he allowed Austin to make his own journey through the world of the music industry, as he played in several other bands, played tiny venues and positioned the band in masses of support slots for bigger groups. But now, Rise to Remain have finally come to the forefront of modern metal, gaining mass amounts of popularity on Kerrang!, Scuzz even on Radio 1, all leading up the release of their debut, City of Vultures.
 And sadly, the album is really quite underwhelming. I mean, they're a talented bunch of guys. They can play some fine metalcore with much ferocity and brutality in nature of creating frantic breakdowns and relentlessly hardcore barrage of riffs, plus the tendancy for Austin to use his melodic vocals much more than his screaming shows that they aren't too reliant on regular metalcore techniques and that combined with some awesome widdly solos from Ben Tovey, paricularly on Power Through Fear, actually shows something of a Maiden influence which is pretty cool to hear, however it still fails to leave much of a lasting impact, and fails to hit listners as hard as it could. Really, at best the album makes Rise to Remain sound like a watered down As I Lay Dying.
 Which is actually another important point to make about this album. City of Vulures shows that many bands who released their debut albums in the 2000's have now reached a point where they can be seen as influencial, on listening to this album, one can hear various styles reminiscent of groups like As I Lay Dying, Bullet for my Valentine, Trivium, Funeral for a Friend, Lostprophets and even some early Bring Me the Horizon can be heard on one or two tracks. However, hearing this ultimately makes one think of these groups and pine for hearing them play the music better.
 City of Vultures, though shows a sense of talent and ability of the group, is simply lacking in a certain spark of uniqueness and speciality. However, a debut album can often be a difficult place for a band to start. Perhaps we'l hearing something from them on a later album that is truly amazing, until then we'll just have to wait.

Marilyn Manson - Born Villain

 This is just massive news for me. Infamous shock rocker and all round Godly figure, Marilyn Manson has to be one of my favourite musicians ever. I've been waiting for ages for a chance to discuss him and his music on this blog and now, I finally have the chance. See, Manson has been a huge influence on me and was really what first got me into heavier music, I own every Manson album and recognize and listen every song contained with upmost joy and overall love. And finally after more than two years, we finally have a new single! Taken from his still-untitled-ninth album, I've been presented with a new video, directed by Hollywood star Shia LaBeouf for new song, Born Villain.

 A good way to describe the track is to say it takes the depth and complexity of 2009's The High End of Low, the ferocity and viciousness of 1994's Portrait of an American Family, which is played with the kind of sleekness and industrial beauty heard on 2003's The Golden Age of Grotesque. In that sense it is a sinister and powerful examination of Manson over the ages, combining various styles of various albums. It's simply spellbinding as you just get lost in the world of industrial grisliness.

 And then there's the video. Wow. The video... LaBeouf is much darker than I had imagined him to be. He pointed out in interviews regarding the video, Born Villain "has all these references to Macbeth and all this Shakespeare and heavy theology, so we tried to make Manson's Un Chien Andalou macabre Macbeth - that's sort of what that [video] became." With various interludes in the video featuring recitals of lines from Macbeth, this statement manages to come through, the rest of the video... leaves me speechless, a surrealist fans dream come true. Just don't watch if epileptic, or easily offended, or squirm at the sight of blood. There's a good chance my blog could be removed if I post this video, but it's so worth it.

 Overall, Born Villain shows various elements of Mansons life in music all combined to create something of a gothic masterpiece and shows signs for a truly glorious new album.

Allowing a quiz to determine what kind of Rock fan I am...

 Okay, so what do we have in this weeks Kerrang!? One of those cool little quiz things where you answer multiple choice questions to get to some kind of result which determines in this quiz what type of Rock fan you are. Well, this blog is all about me being a rock fan so I'd better give it a go. Basically, I haven't looked at it so far, so as I write this I'm reading the questions so I can be really excited whilst blogging, a rarity, as excitement and blogging are generally not concepts that mix well together. Anyway, here goes...

 You wake up at 8 A.M. How do you feel?
 If I've woken up at 8 A.M, that means I've overslept. Seriously, I get up around 6: 45 A.M. to get ready for school, and on weekends I'm up at 6:30 A.M. to have a morning run. So if I'm up at 8.A.M. then I've had some extra sleep, so I'll go with "Pumped, bro!" as my answer.

 Keeping fit: weight lifting or FIFA?
 I'm gonna have to go with weight lifting. I'll have a session at my school gym whenever possible so I delve into that kind of activity. Plus I'd prefer that to FIFA anyday. The only thing I can think of that's duller than football are football video games. Next!

 Is music best when it's quick and unfussy, or proggy and long?
 Woah, that's difficult now. I enjoy a good mixture of both. I like Led Zeppelin just as much as I like The Ramones, it's a little confusing as, so far this quiz has caused me to think about running and working out in the gym and in that case I'd rather have a quick paced and heavy song rather than a dwindling 20 minute epic. Too difficult to decide but I'll look at it this way. I prefer Zeppelin to The Ramones, so we'll go with the long option.

 Do you feel weird having the same hair colour two days running?
 I really wish I could say yes to that question, that would be awesome, however saying yes to that would probably result in suspension from school and I'm in my last year I may as well finish it. So I will remain fine with having the same hair colour for months on end. No.

 Would you rather be in Beverly Hills or Surrey Hills?
 If I choose the first option I get the feeling I'm going to become a fan of Weezer. I should say at the point of writing this I still haven't peeked at all the possible results. Difficult, difficult indeed. Do I want the sunshine, glory, glamour and celebrity and joy of living in L.A. by residing in Beverly Hills, or do I want Surrey,  a place I don't even know a whole lot about other than that it's the hometown of the band I'm likely to become a band of if I choose Surrey. Well, a tough choice but I'll have to go with Beverly Hills.

Bump fists or bro hugs?
 The whole bro culture that is more popular in the U.S. has never been something I've found very attractive. I'd rather just give normal hugs, without being one of those freaky festival goers who offer free hugs. Creepy. I'll go with the fist bump. That can be pretty cool sometimes.

 Widdly solos?
 "Fuck yeah!"

 So, having done the quiz, the result I've been given is... Oh thank god! I'm an Avenger. That's made me incredibly happy, with Avenged Sevenfold being one of my favourite bands ever and all. And I suppose a lot of the choices are kind of typical of the lifestyles of the band. M. Shadows clearly stays in shape and has been seen in the past to do some weightlifting. Synyster Gates has created some of the most extreme widdly solos ever, and they all kind of have the glitzy Beverly Hills lifestyle. That's awesome. I'm totally satisfied now, what a great end to a great day.