Pokemon

Pokemon may seem like an innocent children's television show but it has many subliminal messages which I shall talk about. First of all the basic idea of the show is immoral, it is about capturing animals and forcing them to fight each other for the owners satisfaction and financial gain. In real life this is illegal and you can be fined and incarcerated for doing it. This is not a message that should be given to young and impressionable youth. Also the living conditions the pokemon are forced to live in are unacceptable. They are forced to live inside of devices called "Poke Balls" which are smaller then the pokemon themselves, I would imagine this to be incredibly uncomfortable.

Although my above paragraph makes pokemon seem like an abomination it does have it's benefits too. In the show Pokemon have the ability to evolve after a certain amount of time which makes them stronger. How is this useful you ask? It gives children the basic concept of evolution so when they're learning about Darwin's theory of evolution in school it gives them something they can relate it to.

The Floyd Effect

Well, this will definately be an odd read for whoever DOES read this. (Other than my teacher of course)

Me and my friend Ed who are really up on Pink Floyd were lounging around one day watching The Wall, probably my all time favorite movie when all of a sudden...

Comfortably Numb. The solo just blows me away, I hear this piece and I suddenly relax and I get shivers in my spine and all thought is just released. Maybe this is just an amazing stress reliever or maybe it is just a mental thing but the solo does weird things to me.

My friend says he gets it too and yeah, we just zone out which is quite hilarious. We go around asking all other classic rock/floyd fans if they have experiences this and about 1 in 2 actually say yes whether they are lieing or not which is neat. We coined it the floyd effect for obvious reasons and is sort of an inside joke for us.

Something Other Than Music... A Rant!

The media! Argh, I hate how the media focuses on things that are NOT important.

When I think of the media, I think of Paris Hilton and those drama queens that can't get enough attention for whatever reason. Why do people focus on fashion through media? Anyways, there has been civil war in Africa for how many years now, growing up through my childhood I thought it was as peaceful as Windsor was over there and boy was I ever wrong? I wouldn't be surprised if half of the American people wouldn't have even guessed a war in Africa since there is no attention. How come they have been in war longer than I have been alive and there has been no resolve. Sure things take time but what is the excuse for 20+ years. I guess most must be quite desensitized to death if they don't care that much about others not on the same continent.

The media need to focus on more important topics at hand to make the world a better place.

Heaven and Hell (Black Sabbath + Dio), Megadeth and Down!

Now for my most important concert to date. BLACK SABBATH.




Now as you can see in this video, the crowd was MONSTROUS. Other than the new cloud of marijuana above your head every minute and people passing you crap every other second. This concert was AMAZING. Down opened up for 45 minutes since Phil Anselmo (Former Pantera singer) had strep throat and couldn't sing. They were ok, weren't my cup of tea but really riled the crowd up and got people moshing. Next came Megadeth! One of my favorite bands. They opened up with the new song off their album Sleepwalker. The crowd went INSANE, the whole front row started to pit and next thing I know i'm running in a circle with the crowd and when that was done, I miraculously ended up front row in front of James Lomenzo their bassist. I almost crapped myself.

Jeeze, if anyone has stage prescence it's Megadeth. They had more attention than Black Sabbath! That may have been that everyone was tired 2 hours after though.

What made me shed a tear.. After this concert... I caught Geezer Butlers PICK. Yes.. I finally own a piece of Black Sabbath history. The bassist's pick is now mine and framed next to my window. Maybe it will be worth something in many years to come.

Black Sabbath was excellent, I couldn't really give the band the attention they deserved but at this point my back was killing me. I just stood and enjoyed the music.

Queensryche

Queensryche, my favorite progressive metal band and the band that took my concert virginity. They did two albums back to back. They did Operation Mindcrime 1 + 2 together and also 3 encore songs afterwards. Operation Mindcrime was successful in the 1980's/90's, this album was a concept album about a person named Nikki and how he can't remember his past other than being disillusioned by American society and joining a terrorist organization in an attempt to destroy corrupt world leaders.

The video is one of the songs from OM1 which in my opinion is the more successful, as I did not really enjoy OM2 and much as the first. To this day, most believe this is the most crucial progressive metal recording in existance.

The most successful release by Queensryche was Empire. If you do not care much for metal, I am sure you would let easy and enjoy this album granted you listen to rock.

The concert I went to was amazing. It was a small venue, same as the Dream Theater one and the sound echoed and was very clear. The band had magnificent stage prescence and not one error in their musical pieces.

Iron Maiden in Detroit

Now this was the best night of my life. I was in front of the stage (left speaker) and boy, the sound packed a punch. My hair would fly back and it felt like I was getting my face massaged everytime the double bass lines kicked in. October 17, 2006 and my second concert, I had to sit through Bullet for my Valentine whom I didn't care for much. I had brung a friend who I don't really talk to much and 2 of my best friends. One of those friends caught Dave Murray's (one guitarist) wristband. I was thinking about killing him for it (jokes), but instead I let him have it.

This video I had Bruce Dickinson (frontman) acknowledge me, which is neat. It feels amazing to know you can communicate with your heroes. The video is also funny as he starts picking on the crowd while the drummer was getting his drums fixed.

This was at The Palace in Auburn Hills. I really liked this venue because the sound traveled decently and there were thousands upon thousands of people in there and I really didn't care.

Dream Theater in Detroit

Was a pretty decent show, i'm somewhere in this crowd. There were two opening bands, Into Eternity (Which was AMAZING) and Redemption (Who were mediocre, better in the studio).

Dream Theater's Set List

1. Constant Motion

2. Take the Time

3. Blind Faith

4. The Dark Eternal Night

5. Home

6. Scarred

7. I Walk Beside You

8. In the Presence of Enemies

It was a good few hours. Constant Motion was an amazing opener. The whole place erupted into jumping/headbanging and oddly enough even moshing. Who moshes to DT anyway? This concert took place at the State Theater, a nice little venue for the sound to echo.

I was sad to have been kicked out of the venue for the last half of DT's set. Some idiot started to mosh behind me and the security guard came over and kicked me out. This wrecked my night but the concert was still good.

I was center front next to James Labrie, John Petrucci was to my right and Jordan Rudess/John Myung to my left. I was very close and was a cool memorable moment.

Next On The Review List! Iron Maiden.

What a great band!!!

Always rated next to best for metal bands, Iron Maiden, who have been around since the late 70's have had countless hits and a great lineup are still releasing albums to this date and touring. Hallowed be thy Name, The Trooper, Fear of the Dark, those three songs got me into this band.. They got me into music. I remember back when Mxtabs.net was still around I would use the random tab feature trying to stumble around for some crappy punk rock tabs like Sum 41 or Blind 182. I found Fear of the Dark and I was trying to play it.. It sounded oddly familiar and to this day I don't know why but i'm glad I was open minded because I definately found my place because of it. I later downloaded their discography, then I was so impressed I purchased their discography/dvd's. I own alot of their merch as well.

If you like metal and not heard of Iron Maiden (which I pray to god hasn't ever happened) then check them out, your missing out big time.

On this video, watch 5'38, how does anyone rile a crowd a 70k like that nowadays, top that soulja boy.

Nevermore, Great Band.

I think Nevermore is the greatest band ever. Definately a band that has their own unique sound which lately, I think bands lack. Jeff Loomis the guitarist has a GREAT guitar tone. Smooth and has good low/high ends. His technical writing just blows my mind. I can only wish I can write something like Believe in Nothing, Born, Psalms of Lydia... Such great skill.

Nevermore together have a really cool sound. It sounds like an evil overall vibe which suits Warrel Danes vocals really well but also at the same time, these riffs stick into your mind and just make you sit down and think. I think progressive metal is definately one of my favorite genres because I like to think when I listen to music and listening to everything going on riles me up.

Society and Metalheads.

I listen to a large selection of music, I listen to Jazz and Classical, even all the way to Death Metal. I blame a large portion of that on guitar, ever since I started playing I have grown a fond understanding of my music and the technical aspects of this music. Bands like Nevermore or Dream Theater who have 20 minute songs with tasteful solos and thrashy as hell riffs influence my playing on a large scale.

I guess I look like a typical metalhead, 'used' to have long hair down past my shoulders, blue jeans, band shirt... but what I don't understand is why 'metalheads' are frowned upon in society. I cut my hair, wore some brighter colours and all of a sudden I don't take as much flac from people that I used too. I guess people get angry if everyone else doesn't look like them or maybe they just became 10 years more mature and are examining me for professionalism and how sophisticated I look.

Overall i'm not impressed with how I can't look how I want without somebody telling me it's wrong, dirty, unprofessional to have something as simple as long hair. Women have long hair, I guess that's professional. Comes off to me as sexist, I didn't know there was a rulebook that men had to have short hair. "Jesus" had long hair, did he not?

Anyways, rant over.