Saturday 6 September 2008

Rainy day .. go away!

Today felt like the wettest day of the year & of course there were hints of winter setting in, so how to deal with this beautiful Irish weather? Well if you were a fish it would be great but then obviously if you were a fish you couldn’t read this so I’m going to assume there are no fish with reading skills, back to the rain dilemma.. The first and obvious solution is to not just go outside.. That works if you don’t have a schedule but unlucky for me I had to brave the torrential showers umbrella less! Where was my umbrella? In my friends car or course! The best place for it ..but in fairness to me I did tell them at least 5 times to give me back the damn thing! Sooo I ran down to my local pharmacy & quickly acquired a nice little popup umbrella ..success! Or was it because once I tried out my new umbrella the wind caught it & turned it inside out! So ok I did manage to fix it but only after I got back indoors, about two hours later I found myself stick in traffic for three hours! Ugh! Its amazing how much the weather can mess with your plans.. That same shower of rain managed to wash me half way down the street on the evening of my birthday.. Oh how I looked soaked head to toe in my birthday clothes (no I wasn’t naked) now I know living in Ireland we are supposed to expect rain but why is it that when I have no plans there is not a cloud in sky then once something pops up out comes the rain clouds, it could be a global conspiracy.. Anyways I’m done ranting about the rain & luckily I have no major plans tomorrow so let it rain let it rain ..let it rain

"Life is not about waiting the storm out..its about dancing in the rain"

Friday 5 September 2008

Metallica & Slipknot Return!

Metallica "Death Magnetic"

Its rare that an album release gets me this excited! But Metallica truly are the kings of metal! Ok…so St Anger was a huge letdown and its time for people to forget about it and to move on because Metallica are back & angrier than ever!. Where to start? I got my first taste of their latest work when they played Dublin on the 20th of August last, “Cyanide” was played live to an audience of 55,000 diehard fans & upon hearing it no one was disappointed.. Including me! After listening to the whole album “cyanide” still remains my favourite! I have always been a fan of theirs & they are the first band to get me interested in metal, thankfully their newer album sounds less Mtv than St Anger & is more like their earlier work “black album” - good news for sure! The riffs & hooks & indeed the lyrics all seem to have more structure & its clear there is a lot of jamming session influences. Songs like “all nightmare long” “that was just your life” have distinct master of puppets sound going for them while others sound more like load/re-load, as much as I want to go deeper into the new album I’m going to stop here because I don’t want to spoil any of it for the true fans.. After all it really has been a long wait! What I will say is you wont be disappointed & its clear Metallica rock even harder than ever - run out & buy it on September 12th!

Slipknot "All Hope Is Gone"

I was never a hardcore slipknot fan but one or two of their songs did appeal to me so of course I wasn’t sure what to expect from their latest album, first off I have to say it made a huge impression on me! Its true they have already sold over 5 million albums so they must be doing something right. The single “psychosocial” is currently dominating the charts and the music video for the single is nothing short of brilliant. My favourite tracks off the album have to be “snuff” & “psychosocial”, “Gematria - the killing name” "Butcher's Hook" & “All Hope Is Gone” are all your standard slipknot soundtracks with lashings of thundering beats & riffs that will satisfy any true fan while the more mellow Stone Sour sounding “Snuff” & Dead Memories” will really appeal to anyone who likes good music. Overall the album seems very solidly written and mixed, slipknot have indeed achieved a heavier and more mature sound - one of the best albums of the year.