Update to break the silence/Taking a break from album reviewing

'Lo. Been a while - over a month - but I've been occupied with PC gaming and spending time with friends who have recently gone away to college (I commute to my college from home). I also just haven't really felt like doing album reviews. I think the track-by-track approach may not be the best, and if I pick up album reviewing again, which I probably will at some point, I will instead focus on each album as a whole. I feel bad about not completing the Katatonia and Testament discography reviews in time for their newest albums, but if I pick up album reviewing again I will resume those, since Katatonia and Testament are two of my favorite bands anyway. All that said, I have, of course, still been exploring a good amount of metal and some rock, so here I am to share some of that.

Concert Review - System of a Down at PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, NJ 8/4/2012

As I said in my introduction post, System of a Down were one of the first, if not the very first, band my friend and I ever got into. As I grew into other types of metal, SoaD were the only band from that period that I held onto and still listened to, if only occasionally. I thought it was really cool that they got back together somewhat recently, and when I saw that they were going to tour the States (with Deftones), I thought it would definitely be really cool to see them. My aforementioned friend and my main concert-buddy was more than willing to see to go to this concert with me, and another friend joined us as well.

NEW Album Review: Testament - Dark Roots of Earth (track-by-track including bonus covers and overview)

My CD of Testament's "Dark Roots of Earth" came today, so I decided to review it today after a couple of listens rather than wait until I've done the rest of Testament's discography. I will still finish Testament's discography reviews as tribute to pretty much my favorite band.

Testament had a nine-year break between albums after 1999's thrash masterpiece "The Gathering", but came back in 2008 with "The Formation of Damnation", which I still believe to be one of the greatest metal comeback albums ever. With one of their strongest line-ups they've ever had, Testament have been going strong since "Formation", and the time had finally come for them to follow up that album. Could they continue the momentum they had from "Formation" with their new album "Dark Roots of Earth"?

Dethklok/Lamb of God/Gojira TOUR CANCELLED, otherwise mostly another update

'Lo. I finally decided today to go ahead and buy tickets for the upcoming Lamb of God/Dethklok/Gojira and Katatonia/Devin Townsend/Paradise Lost shows... only to find that the former of these tours was completely cancelled...

Album Review: Testament - Practice What You Preach (overview and track-by-track); Testament Discography Part 3 of 10

The third entry in Testament's discography review leading up to their release of "Dark Roots of Earth" at the end of this month. After Testament had created a thrash masterpiece with "The New Order" following their debut classic "The Legacy", where could they go from there?

Random pointless update/what's been going on

'Lo. It's been well over a week since my last entry in Testament or Katatonia's discography reviews, and Testament's "Dark Roots of Earth" is around the corner, but I'm going to get to reviews of "Practice What You Preach" and "Souls of Black" soon! I will admit, though, that those are my least favorite Testament albums despite containing some great songs.

(Another) new amp with (sloppy) playthrough, otherwise just an update

'Lo. Yesterday I went to Guitar Center to try out a used Peavey JSX amp head that I knew they had, and loved the metal tones on the "ultra" channel, so decided to buy it for a very reasonable price. I know I got my Jet City head very recently, and the Jet City is great for 80s thrash/"heavy" metal tones, but I was looking for more of a modern heavy tone, which the JSX had and more.

Album Review: Katatonia - Brave Murder Day (personal history, overview and track-by-track); Katatonia Discography Part 2 of 9

The second entry in Katatonia's discography review leading up to their release of "Dead End Kings" next month. Three years after "Dance of December Souls", Swedish lords of darkness Katatonia got Mikael Akerfeldt from Opeth to do the death vocals on their next album. They ended up changing their style significantly, but how is the result?

Album Review: Katatonia - Dance of December Souls (overview and track-by-track); Katatonia Discography Part 1 of 9

The first entry in Katatonia's discography review leading up to their release of "Dead End Kings" next month. Katatonia started off as a prog/death/black/doom metal band, but shifted away from this extreme of that style as soon as with their second album three years after "Dance of December Souls" and mostly dropped it with the album after that. Did they have to make this move? How well did they do their brand of doom metal?

Album Review: Testament - The New Order (personal history, overview and track-by-track); Testament Discography Part 2 of 10

The second entry in Testament's discography review leading up to their release of "Dark Roots of Earth" at the end of this month. After Testament had set the bar very high with their debut "The Legacy", could they possibly live up to their own name?

Album Review: Testament - The Legacy (personal history, overview and track-by-track); Testament Discography Part 1 of 10

The first entry in Testament's discography review leading up to their release of "Dark Roots of Earth" at the end of this month.

Preface to DISCOGRAPHY REVIEWS: Testament and Katatonia

'Lo. I've been mentioning in my updates here that I am anticipating Testament and Katatonia's new albums coming out later this summer, so I decided that I would lead up to reviews of these new albums with reviews of these bands' entire discographies, one at a time with track-by-tracks and overviews.

Random, Pointless, Probably-too-long Update, and random track review: Triptykon - Goetia

'Lo. Just felt like giving an update on my listening, album acquisitions, anticipations, and guitar playing as of last night and today.

Rock/Non-Metal Album Review: Foo Fighters - Wasting Light (overview and track-by-track)

PREFACE: This may be a metal-focused blog, but I'm still allowed to do other reviews! Besides, when it comes down to it, metal is a sub-group of rock, and this is definitely a rock album.

First I will say that I, along with many I've talked to, believe the Grammys to be a joke and a popularity contest. That said, the very-respectable Dave Grohl and the Foo Fighters absolutely pillaged the rock-focused Grammy awards - surprisingly, and perhaps unfairly, including the hard rock/metal award - with their latest release, "Wasting Light". Even though a lot of people seem to think the way I do about the Grammys, obviously it still gives the album some prestige. Do I think this album deserves this prestige?

OLD Concert Review - Dream Theater and Periphery, Merriam Theater, Philadelphia PA, 10/16/2011

 PREFACE: I wrote this review for a class when I was a "Music Industry" major (I've since gone undecided, but that's another story). For what it's worth I got an A+!

OLD Album Review - Machine Head - Unto the Locust (Track by track and overview)

PREFACE: I wrote this review for a class when I was a "Music Industry" major (I've since gone undecided, but that's another story). For what it's worth I got an A!

Attempted Concert Review - Death to All (with Gorguts) at Irving Plaza, New York City, 6/28/2012

I always felt bad that I could never see bands like Death or Pantera, for the worst of reasons, because of my youth at the time of these bands' careers sadly ending. While, as a reunion Pantera would never be the same without Dimebag Darrell, a reunion of Death would never be the same without the great Chuck Schuldiner, I was ecstatic to see Death's official Facebook page report that many of the surviving former members of Death would be playing classic Death songs touring together, and hitting New York while they were at it. I woke up early (for me..) on the day tickets went on sale to secure tickets for two friends and myself.

Concert Review - Iron Maiden and Alice Cooper at Prudential Center in Newark, NJ 7/2/2012

First attempt at a concert review here.

Classic Album Review: Megadeth - Rust in Peace (personal history, overview, and track-by-track)

First attempt at an album review, so I will start with my absolute favorite: Megadeth's Rust in Peace. Going to have comments disabled at first but may open them up eventually. While I know I'm probably a terrible reviewer I'm not really looking for suggestions as much at this point as I am just expressing my opinion about this album.

Introduction, more about me and recent listening

'Lo. I was posting some long posts on Facebook on my opinions and discoveries of metal music knowing that it wasn't really the place for such, so I decided to start up this blog where I plan to shift all of my posts on my opinions of metal music and such to. I know posting here is equally as pointless for now, but at least it won't clog up my Facebook friends' news feeds or anything. I'm going to (try to) have comments disabled at first but may open them up later.

It should be known that I am not a fan of most things _core, be it metalcore, deathcore, etc. Not a huge fan of nu metal these days either, but nu metal was my gateway to the rest of what I listen to, so I have some respect for it. Most "djent" I've heard sounded a lot like more progressive metalcore, so not a huge fan of that either. I also have trouble listening to anything that is by nature not very melodic, like grindcore or a lot of non-melodic death metal. I'm not trying to be a purist or anything, I've just never found anything to love about _core that I have found in a lot of other types of metal. Don't get me wrong, though; a lot of bands that I don't like the music of are very, very talented.

Now for some personal history. I didn't listen to or like much music at all until 7th grade, when a friend and I discovered System of a Down. From there, we explored nu metal such as Korn and Soil. By mid 9th grade, he got into Megadeth and Metallica while I got into In Flames (who remained one of my only melodeath bands for a while), though he also introduced me to Metallica and Megadeth. We both started to play the electric guitar around then as well. I steadily started to listen to more thrash and "heavy" (ie Iron Maiden) metal and until around 11th grade that was it, but then I decided to try Death, whose The Sound of Perseverance caught me instantly. Death and Chuck's harsh vocals opened up worlds for me, and from there I got into Opeth and since then have steadily been trying more and more melodic and progressive death metal. I also tried a few songs by less melodic, heavier bands like Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Dying Fetus, and Nile, but had trouble getting into them aside from a few more memorable songs. Nothing against those bands, I personally just need some more melody in my music. Recently I've been listening to a good amount of gothic/death-doom like Katatonia, as well as melodic and progressive death like (pre-Heritage, despite that Heritage was okay) Opeth and Edge of Sanity.