Saturday 28 September 2013

Rise Against "Long Forgotten Songs: B-Sides & Covers (2000-2013)

Rise Against has climbed the ranks to being one of the biggest bands of the modern day. It wasn’t an easy road to get here, at least compared to some other of today’s biggest rock acts. Success wasn’t, and still isn’t, handed to the band on a silver platter; in fact, they still have a long way to go. They started off, as most bands, an independent who gathered enough of their own money to go and record a full length debut album The Unraveling, as well as a second album, Revolutions Per Minute.

Wednesday 25 September 2013

Brothers of North "Stolen Cars"

One genre of music I don’t quite understand is “Indie” rock. Don’t misread that, I’m not saying I don’t like it, I just don’t understand it. “Indie”, of course, stands for “independent”, and started a few decades ago by bands, well, basically being independent. They recorded the music themselves, distributed it themselves, etc. The part that confuses me is; if, say a heavy metal band, like the next Metallica, were to record and distribute music independently, they still wouldn’t be considered “indie” because they don’t have that sound that “indie” bands have; a sound that isn’t harsh and requires the main instruments of a rock band; guitar, drum, bass and vocals, maybe keyboards and other instruments if wanted. These bands don’t sound similar to each other, but they have something in common with their sound that keeps them indie. I guess a better way to describe my confusion is, when did “indie” become an actual sub-genre rather than just a title, and why when a band, such as Metric, becomes big and no longer distributes their own music, are they still considered “indie rock”?

Saturday 21 September 2013

The Rides "Can't Get Enough"

For the past few months, on every Tuesday (new music day) I’ve been checking out any and every new rock album that comes out to see if it’s worth a listen. I usually hope these albums aren’t too hard to get my hands on, because I, of course, would like to write about them. A few weeks ago, I came across The Rides. I was impressed, on the short clips that I heard of a couple of their songs, at how they sounded; blues-rock but more on the blues side, something I didn’t think modern rock bands were capable of. I had only listened to bits of two songs before I saw, right on the album cover, it showed the name Stephen Stills.

Saturday 14 September 2013

Avenged Sevenfold "Hail to the King"

 
I don’t think I know a rock band that is disliked more than Avenged Sevenfold. The most amazing thing is that none of these “haters” have any credible reason to dislike the band. It appears that ever since the turn of the millennium, any hard rock/metal band that gains popularity of any kind gets a lashing; it’s impossible to win. But at the end of the day I’ve never met any of these seemingly professional music analysts in person, they prefer to remain hidden, while in reality (you know, that world beyond the computer screen) I meet more and more fans of the band as they become among this generations biggest hard rock acts.

Wednesday 11 September 2013

Pantera "Cowboys From Hell"

I’m going to take the time to write an article on another not-new album. This time I’m going to go back to the summer of 1990, when heavy metal would forever change. Many who know Pantera (and let’s face it, there are MANY) know the band to have been the band to create the “groove” metal genre, though I’ve never truly understood, beyond the music of Pantera, what classifies as a “groove metal” band. The band didn’t truly break ground on this new genre until their 1992 album Vulgar Display of Power, but before that, the world got a glimpse of what was to come with Cowboys From Hell.

Saturday 7 September 2013

Soil "Whole"

Alternative metal band Soil never did break out in to rock stardom. Likely because there was never much differentiating them from fellow contemporaries that were on a slow rise at the time such as Puddle of Mudd, Seether and Drowning Pool. Albeit, all three of these mentioned bands are mainly just known for just one song each; with a slight exception going to Seether.