Having recently broken my show-going drought with a steller The Sword/Clutch performance, I was definitely jonesing for some more live music. As fate would have it, just twelve days later Opeth was coming to town along with High On Fire and Baroness. Opeth is one of my favorite bands of all time, I had seen them four times before, and they have always put on a killer show.
Just as importantly, I was definitely looking forward to catching Baroness. They popped up on my radar a few years ago when I randomly caught them opening for either The Sword or Isis. They showed a lot of promise, so I picked up their two EP's. Really good progressive metal type stuff, longer songs with lots of shifts, I was impressed. Then they seemed to disappear, I heard nothing whatsoever about them for years. I figured they must have broken up, which bummed me out. Then, last year, they popped up out of nowhere with another EP and an excellent debut LP. They ended up coming to Emo's in Austin earlier this year, so I was pretty excited and went to catch that show. Unfortunately, while the energy and set were good, the show was held in the small inside area and the sound was absolutely terrible. It was pretty disappointing, so hearing that they were coming to Austin again definitely had me pumped. This current show was to be held at The Monarch, a brand new venue in Austin, so I had my fingers crossed that the sound would be much better. Add that anticipation to the knowledge that Opeth would also be sharing the stage, and I was primed for a kick-ass night of progressive metal!
Last night came, and I was stoked! But then, tragedy struck.
I missed Baroness.
Ahem, let me state that again.
I FRIGGIN' MISSED BARONESS!!!! NO!!!!
The worst part is that, when it comes down to it, its my own fault, albeit there were two things working against me. First of all, the show was advertised as "doors at 7pm, show at 8pm", pretty standard. Typically, this means the show will actually start in the 8:15-8:30 range. Now, normally I still aim to get to shows by the advertised start time, just in case. But this night I happened to be running a little behind, and I ended up rolling in at 8:20. As I approached the venue, I could hear muffled bass and drums, the show had already started! When I actually got up to the place, I ran into my second problem: the slowest will call line I have ever experienced. My guess is that this venue holds about 1500 people, not exactly an arena. The line was long, I guess, maybe 50-75 people or so in front of me, but still that's nothing in the grand scheme of things, this should have taken 10 minutes max. As I was standing there, time slipping away, my only hope was that maybe Baroness had just started when I got there, and that I would only miss a couple songs if the line would hurry up. But 8:30 passed, and then 8:40, and just as I finally got to the box at 8:45, the music stopped. I looked at the sheet taped to the box window and sure enough, "Baroness: 8:00pm". DAMMIT!!! Who actually starts a show on time?? Gah, like I said though, ultimately it was my own fault for not getting there in time. I was bummed to say the least. I made my way inside and to the bar to get myself a beer to cry in.
[Interesting note: While I was in line, I briefly met one of the dudes from Made Out Of Babies. He saw my Red Sparowes shirt and mentioned that he played in a band with a guitarist who plays for Red Sparowes, and we talked for a couple minutes. Seemed like a decent guy, didn't catch his name.]
Anyway, I got into the auditorium, and just a couple minutes later High On Fire took the stage. The main guy came out yelling about "Yeah! Alright Austin! We're High On Fire! Woohoo!". He seemed so pumped, I figured I'd check it out for a bit just for the sheer hilarity. I made it through like their first 3 or 4 songs, and that was about all I could take. They were pretty bad, and not even in a funny entertaining way. Although, the bassist did remind me a bit of Nigel Tufnel (these go to eleven), which I did find hilarious. But overall they did nothing for me, so I ended up wandering out to the parking lot to call a friend from Dallas who had left me a message earlier. Catching up with him was a far better use of my time.
OK, after a supremely disappointing night so far, I was damn sure ready when Opeth took the stage. They came out without a word, launched into their set, and two hours of pure ass-kicking redemption ensued.
The setlist:
01. Heir Apparent
02. The Grand Conjuration
03. Serenity Painted Death
04. Hope Leaves
05. The Lotus Eater
06. Bleak
(A Fair Judgment teaser)
07. Face Of Melinda (first half)
08. The Night And The Silent Water
09. Deliverance
10. Demon Of The Fall
11. The Drapery Falls
Talk about turning a frown upside down, that set absolutely destroys! The new material from Watershed was excellent. "The Lotus Eater" was particularly well done, every odd twist and turn of that song was perfectly replicated. And I must say, "Serenity Painted Death"? Are you kidding me? I never thought I'd see that one live, I was really blown away. The old standbys "Bleak", "Deliverance", and "Demon Of The Fall" were all as crushing as ever, and the pace of the show was nicely tempered with "Hope Leaves" thrown in early, and then later the combination of "Face Of Melinda" (mellow first half only, no rocking ending) and the heavy'ish but slow "The Night And The Silent Water". They also managed to throw a teaser of "A Fair Judgment" in there, playing only the part that starts with "Leave it be..." and ends with "A fair judgment deserved". Although I thought it was pretty cruel of the band to give us that lead-in and NOT bless us with the soaring guitar solo that would normally follow.
Overall, the sound was pretty darn good. It was not perfect, the first couple songs in particular were a little muddled. It sounded as if the guitars were just a little too quiet and the bass was not quite as clean as it should be, so it all got slightly drowned out in a wash of lower frequency stuff. They seemed to get this sorted out fairly quickly though. "Serenity Painted Death" sounded pretty good, the mellow accoustics of "Hope Leaves" were perfect, and when they returned to heavy form on "The Lotus Eater", everything sounded fantastic.
Akerfeldt's mic was perfect from the start, and his vocals were really on. I'm always impressed with how effortlessly he can switch from the rumbling death metal growl to his excellent clean singing voice. He literally makes this shift from one lyric to the next, always staying in tune, never missing a note or stuttering to make it all work. His vocal power and smooth transition are utterly astonishing, as many times as I've seen Opeth, this never ceases to amaze me.
Performance wise, all the guys seemed pretty into it. Strangely enough, I think Per Wiberg was the most insane of all the guys, he was in back thrashing his head around the entire time. Not to diminish his role in the band, the textures he lends to the songs have a profound impact, but I guess when you're only playing about half the time it lends more opportunity to headbang. Mendez seemed like he was in the zone for most of the show, getting into the grooves and keeping time perfectly with Axe. Axe was great, he was an absolute flurry of arms and hair, and never missed a beat. Akesson, even though he felt a bit more like a role player than a core figure in the band, was still pretty active and ripping things up, and even lent some vocals on "The Lotus Eater".
And Akerfeldt, what do you say about this guy. He truly IS Opeth. He gets into every song as if its fresh and new, even the older tunes he still plays with such passion and seems to really enjoy himself. His commentary between songs was hilarious, as always. There was a funny little accoustic ditty about "Welcome to the concert....with Opeth....from Sweden" that he played really quick after "The Grand Conjuration". He spent a couple minutes explaining this t-shirt that the band were all wearing. It was a face apparently created by combining the facial attributes of the five band members. "This is not an ugly dude, this is five ugly dudes". His lead-in to "The Lotus Eater": "we really like this song, because its f****d up". Heh, his dry sense of humor was at its usual best. In his typical Akerfeldt fashion, he always seemed very confident in himself, almost borderline full of himself, but somehow avoided ever falling completely into that pit. He always seems truly gracious and sincere when thanking the crowd, and he clearly loves coming out and busting his butt to put on a good show for the fans. He's just one of those guys that walks the line between cocky and confident, and by putting his energy into showing everyone how great the music can be as opposed to simply how great HE can be, he always seems to fall just on the right side of that line.
However, I must admit, even in the midst of such a gloriously executed show, a twinge of sadness would still periodically hit me. This was not the same Opeth I was used to seeing, faces had changed, it felt a little different. The last two times I had seen them, Lopez had been out for health reasons, the first time replaced by Gene Hoglan and the second time by the now-permanent Axenrot. It didn't bother me at the time, it was "temporary". Seeing him on the drums this time, knowing that Lopez was gone, it just felt weird at first. It took some getting used to. Throughout the course of the show, though, it all kind of sunk in and settled. And when it did, it felt just fine. Lopez may have been a madman, but no one should underestimate Axenrot. This guy is good, really good.
Fredrik Akesson, on the other hand, still feels a bit strange to me, in some undefinable way. Technically he is good, he can play, and he seems to enjoy it, I guess. There is just something a little weird about it, he doesn't seem connected to the music like Peter Lindgren did. Maybe its just because most of the material is Lindgren's, or at least from a time when Akerfeldt's writing was influenced by Lindgren, and not by him. I will say, I was really bummed when I heard that Lindgren was leaving the band, much more so than when they lost Lopez. I felt that Lindgren was a bit of a counter balance to Akerfeldt, that his influence on the sound was always more than what it was made to be. I always thought he was more than just some stooge who would play what Akerfeldt told him to play, that he had ideas and influences of his own, and that Akerfeldt respected him enough to work with him and listen to him. I sort of get the impression that Akesson is simply a talented guitarist who does what he is told. I hope I'm wrong, its just the feeling I have. Only time will tell, I guess.
Despite that occasional odd feeling that would creep in here and there, it was an absolutely stellar show through and through. The last thing I'll talk about is my personal highlight of the show, which to me perfectly illustrates why Opeth is so great, and it involves the manner in which they closed the show. It never would have occurred to me on my own, but "The Drapery Falls" is an absolutely amazing song to close on. When the song culminates in the very restrained mellow verse "spiralling to the ground below...", where the intensely built up potential energy is held and held and held, and then furiously unleashed in an explosion of guitar and drum roll, only to be just as quickly reeled back in to repeat the restraint/furious release dynamic, that is exactly what the pinnacle of a live show should be. It makes you hold your breath with the anticipation of the climax you known is about to come, and you somehow seem to linger there in total awareness and clarity for an immeasurable moment, and then it knocks the breath from you with full force. The soaring sustained note and the flowing lead-out that follows perfectly rides the residual adrenaline rush, gradually transitioning the song from the power of the climax to its final logical conclusion. Its long enough to bring you down gracefully, but not so long as to drag. When the song finishes, and you know the show is over, its not a letdown. It feels good, it feels like everything has been taken care of. Its satisfying.
Ah, another amazing Opeth show in the books. They haven't failed me yet.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Clutch + The Sword @ Stubb's, Austin (10.04.2008)
Good god I needed this show. In the six months since my daughter's arrival robbed me of catching Ministry and Meshuggah in Austin (on Ministry's last tour ever, no less!), I've hit the worst concert-going dry spell I've had in years. The last band I caught was The Mars Volta on April 10th, five days before the aforementioned robbery, so to say that I was in need of a show would be a bit of an understatement. Luckily for me, Clutch was coming to my rescue, and as if to ensure that the live music resuscitation was complete, they were bringing hometown favorites The Sword along with them. I couldn't wait!
This past Saturday, the two bands rolled into Stubb's on a perfect early-Autumn Texas night. The temperature was in the high 60's, a nice breeze was flowing through the place, the High Life was nicely chilled....it was the makings for a great night. And oh my did they light the place up!
The Sword went on about 8:15pm, after Graveyard had done an opening set (I know nothing of Graveyard, and did not catch their set). J.D. Conrise greeted the crowd with "We're The Sword, and we're from HERE!", to which the crowd went nuts. They then wasted no time launching into a steller set:
01. Celestial Crown/Barael's Blade
02. The Frost Giant's Daughter
03. How Heavy This Axe
04. Iron Swan
05. Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians
06. Maiden, Mother & Crone
07. To Take The Black
08. ? (Some Kiss cover)
09. Freya
10. The Horned Goddess
11. The Black River
12. Winter's Wolves
Clearly, this was no warm-up band routine, this was double-bill material. I've literally seen The Sword more times than I can remember, and I'm almost positive that this is the longest set I've seen them play. Nicely rounded off with five songs from Age Of Winters, six from Gods Of The Earth, and a random cover thrown in there. I would have rather seen another of their own songs instead of the cover, but hey whatever, it was still rocking.
It was so great to see The Sword playing a venue like Stubb's, the sound was spectacular! Every other time I've seen them (save one) its been in a small packed venue, where the sound can be very hit or miss. The last couple times were mostly miss, with the guitars cranked so loud and distorted that everything pretty much just got lost in a wall of noise. Not so on this night, the sound was immaculate. The drums and bass were clean and rumbling, and both guitars were nicely balanced, with the higher lead stuff coming through clearly over the monolithic crunchy rhythm. Conrise's vocals were a little off here and there, as usual, but were within the mix enough that they weren't a distraction. Visually, for the first time that I've ever seen, they actually had a light show going on. Nothing too extravagant, mind you, but some basic swirling and strobing lights appropriately placed to lend a bit more texture to the medieval metal ass-kicking. I thought it was well done. And as far as energy goes, it seemed like the guys in the band were really excited to be playing back in Austin again. Their rise over the past couple years has been nothing short of meteoric, traveling all over the world with some pretty big bands, so seeing them reconnect with such an obviously appreciative Austin crowd was great to see. Overall, a mighty fine performance.
Next up, Clutch! Fallon et al came on a little after 10pm, and played until 11:45pm. Here is the setlist:
01. Small Upsetters
02. Ship Of Gold
03. The Elephant Riders
04. You Can't Stop Progress
05. Power Player
06. The Devil & Me
07. The Great Outdoors
08. Smoke Banshee
09. ? (Something instrumental I didn't recognize)
10. Basket Of Eggs
11. Eight Times Over Miss October
12. Burning Beard
13. Child Of The City
14. ? (Another instrumental number I didn't recognize)
15. The Swollen Goat
16. White's Ferry
17. La Curandera
(break)
18. Texan Book Of The Dead
19. Cypress Grove
Definitely a short set, by Clutch's standards. The two other times I've seen them were of the "An Evening With Clutch" ilk, where they play two full sets in one night for a total of 25-30 songs. Being that this was a three band night, it made sense that they would have to cut it back to a more earthly set. Aside from the length, I will also mention that it would have been nice to have more material from Robot Hive/Exodus, which is my favorite Clutch album. But I knew that they had kicked out their apparent drunkard of a organist, and aside from a couple dates where they borrowed Per Wiberg from Opeth (!), I hadn't heard of any replacement yet, so I figured the RH/E material may be limited a bit.
But no matter, those minor details aside, I thought the set they put together was fantastic. They definitely hit my personal favorites from the latest album (From Beale Street To Oblivion), particularly with the fun rocking of "Power Player" and some awesome jamming on "White's Ferry". From their back catalog it was a great mixture of solid standby's ("Texan Book Of The Dead", "The Elephant Riders", "Burning Beard") and nice surprises ("La Curandera", "Smoke Banshee", and "Basket Of Eggs", hell yeah!). The pace of the set was great, excellent energy paced by a nice constant groove. They jammed out on a few tracks, in true Clutch fashion, but never wandered too far out into the weeds.
Fallon was his typical preaching self, continually walking back and forth across the front of the stage as if giving a sermon, stopping regularly to properly punctuate his points. I gotta say the first time I saw him with the beard I thought it looked pretty nappy, but it definitely lends some kind of undefinable awesome character to his stage presence. Not that he needs it, but it somehow lends some additional credibility to his wit. Sult, as usual, was an immovable object at the side of the stage, even while continually tearing the entire Stubb's audience a new one with his guitar. Gaster was pretty animated on the drums, granted in a very controlled fashion for the most part. He did get a couple short drum solo opportunities, which were just long enough to be cool but not so long that it got boring. As with The Sword, the sound was tip-top, with every instrument and the mic perfectly balanced. I couldn't find one fault with the sound, gotta love Stubb's!!
The crowd was loving it, the vibe was electric all night. Seeing as there is a definite stylistic difference between The Sword and Clutch, I kind of expected that there would be some people only interested in one band, who would go nuts for one half of the show but be fairly unenthusiastic for the other half. Nope, no way, not even close. The entire audience, which was at least as large as any I've ever seen at Stubb's, was rocking the whole time. Everywhere I looked, people were jumping and singing along, pumping their fists and beers in the air. Both bands clearly fed off that energy, kicking it up a notch every chance they got. As Fallon said at one point "Everybody havin' a good time? If not, its your own damn fault." Amen, brotherman.
Six months without a show. This was easily worth it....
This past Saturday, the two bands rolled into Stubb's on a perfect early-Autumn Texas night. The temperature was in the high 60's, a nice breeze was flowing through the place, the High Life was nicely chilled....it was the makings for a great night. And oh my did they light the place up!
The Sword went on about 8:15pm, after Graveyard had done an opening set (I know nothing of Graveyard, and did not catch their set). J.D. Conrise greeted the crowd with "We're The Sword, and we're from HERE!", to which the crowd went nuts. They then wasted no time launching into a steller set:
01. Celestial Crown/Barael's Blade
02. The Frost Giant's Daughter
03. How Heavy This Axe
04. Iron Swan
05. Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians
06. Maiden, Mother & Crone
07. To Take The Black
08. ? (Some Kiss cover)
09. Freya
10. The Horned Goddess
11. The Black River
12. Winter's Wolves
Clearly, this was no warm-up band routine, this was double-bill material. I've literally seen The Sword more times than I can remember, and I'm almost positive that this is the longest set I've seen them play. Nicely rounded off with five songs from Age Of Winters, six from Gods Of The Earth, and a random cover thrown in there. I would have rather seen another of their own songs instead of the cover, but hey whatever, it was still rocking.
It was so great to see The Sword playing a venue like Stubb's, the sound was spectacular! Every other time I've seen them (save one) its been in a small packed venue, where the sound can be very hit or miss. The last couple times were mostly miss, with the guitars cranked so loud and distorted that everything pretty much just got lost in a wall of noise. Not so on this night, the sound was immaculate. The drums and bass were clean and rumbling, and both guitars were nicely balanced, with the higher lead stuff coming through clearly over the monolithic crunchy rhythm. Conrise's vocals were a little off here and there, as usual, but were within the mix enough that they weren't a distraction. Visually, for the first time that I've ever seen, they actually had a light show going on. Nothing too extravagant, mind you, but some basic swirling and strobing lights appropriately placed to lend a bit more texture to the medieval metal ass-kicking. I thought it was well done. And as far as energy goes, it seemed like the guys in the band were really excited to be playing back in Austin again. Their rise over the past couple years has been nothing short of meteoric, traveling all over the world with some pretty big bands, so seeing them reconnect with such an obviously appreciative Austin crowd was great to see. Overall, a mighty fine performance.
Next up, Clutch! Fallon et al came on a little after 10pm, and played until 11:45pm. Here is the setlist:
01. Small Upsetters
02. Ship Of Gold
03. The Elephant Riders
04. You Can't Stop Progress
05. Power Player
06. The Devil & Me
07. The Great Outdoors
08. Smoke Banshee
09. ? (Something instrumental I didn't recognize)
10. Basket Of Eggs
11. Eight Times Over Miss October
12. Burning Beard
13. Child Of The City
14. ? (Another instrumental number I didn't recognize)
15. The Swollen Goat
16. White's Ferry
17. La Curandera
(break)
18. Texan Book Of The Dead
19. Cypress Grove
Definitely a short set, by Clutch's standards. The two other times I've seen them were of the "An Evening With Clutch" ilk, where they play two full sets in one night for a total of 25-30 songs. Being that this was a three band night, it made sense that they would have to cut it back to a more earthly set. Aside from the length, I will also mention that it would have been nice to have more material from Robot Hive/Exodus, which is my favorite Clutch album. But I knew that they had kicked out their apparent drunkard of a organist, and aside from a couple dates where they borrowed Per Wiberg from Opeth (!), I hadn't heard of any replacement yet, so I figured the RH/E material may be limited a bit.
But no matter, those minor details aside, I thought the set they put together was fantastic. They definitely hit my personal favorites from the latest album (From Beale Street To Oblivion), particularly with the fun rocking of "Power Player" and some awesome jamming on "White's Ferry". From their back catalog it was a great mixture of solid standby's ("Texan Book Of The Dead", "The Elephant Riders", "Burning Beard") and nice surprises ("La Curandera", "Smoke Banshee", and "Basket Of Eggs", hell yeah!). The pace of the set was great, excellent energy paced by a nice constant groove. They jammed out on a few tracks, in true Clutch fashion, but never wandered too far out into the weeds.
Fallon was his typical preaching self, continually walking back and forth across the front of the stage as if giving a sermon, stopping regularly to properly punctuate his points. I gotta say the first time I saw him with the beard I thought it looked pretty nappy, but it definitely lends some kind of undefinable awesome character to his stage presence. Not that he needs it, but it somehow lends some additional credibility to his wit. Sult, as usual, was an immovable object at the side of the stage, even while continually tearing the entire Stubb's audience a new one with his guitar. Gaster was pretty animated on the drums, granted in a very controlled fashion for the most part. He did get a couple short drum solo opportunities, which were just long enough to be cool but not so long that it got boring. As with The Sword, the sound was tip-top, with every instrument and the mic perfectly balanced. I couldn't find one fault with the sound, gotta love Stubb's!!
The crowd was loving it, the vibe was electric all night. Seeing as there is a definite stylistic difference between The Sword and Clutch, I kind of expected that there would be some people only interested in one band, who would go nuts for one half of the show but be fairly unenthusiastic for the other half. Nope, no way, not even close. The entire audience, which was at least as large as any I've ever seen at Stubb's, was rocking the whole time. Everywhere I looked, people were jumping and singing along, pumping their fists and beers in the air. Both bands clearly fed off that energy, kicking it up a notch every chance they got. As Fallon said at one point "Everybody havin' a good time? If not, its your own damn fault." Amen, brotherman.
Six months without a show. This was easily worth it....
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Death Magnetic
OK, here we go. I've been wanting to post about this for a while, but this particular topic comes with a lot of baggage, and I'm a bit unsure how exactly to tackle it all. Let's just let it rip and see where it all ends up.
So, Metallica recently released their new album, entitled Death Magnetic. I love the cover, shown below, for the sole reason that as a EE it kills me that they included the flux lines flowing to and from the coffin/grave. It cracks me up every time.
Tracklist:
01. That Was Just Your Life (7:08)
02. The End Of The Line (7:52)
03. Broken, Beat, & Scarred (6:25)
04. The Day That Never Comes (7:56)
05. All Nightmare Long (7:57)
06. Cyanide (6:39)
07. The Unforgiven III (7:46)
08. The Judas Kiss (8:00)
09. Suicide & Redemption (9:57)
10. My Apocalypse (5:01)
As I was listening to this album, the first Metallica effort that has piqued my interest since 1996's predominantly abysmal Load (very appropriately titled), I found myself facing the same quandary that practically every old-school Metallica fan faces: the near complete inability to judge this album on its own merit, without mentally alluding back to the glory of the 80's, the disappointment of the 90's, or the utter PR nightmare and subsequent mockery of the early 2000's. Of all the bands I've followed, none have gone through such a huge change in public perception. Their fall from the heavy metal throne has been historic: they've been deified, vilified, and crucified, all with good reason. They defined and perfected a genre with sweat, drive, and uncompromising will, only to abandon it in favor of a few lucrative years with a business model where marketing and mass appeal outranked any kind of creative progression. And at the end of their day in the sun, as public interest predictably shifted towards younger, more highly advertised acts, they spurned the opportunity to rekindle that fire, lesson learned, and instead chose to play victim and lash out. The result was a muddled mess of a record and a disgraced reputation, which nearly caused the band to implode completely and seemed to finally mark their tragic end. It all sounds so melodramatic, I know, but the magnitude of their original greatness combined with the significant bitterness from this eventual fallout is exactly what defines the core of The Metallica Problem.
So, Metallica recently released their new album, entitled Death Magnetic. I love the cover, shown below, for the sole reason that as a EE it kills me that they included the flux lines flowing to and from the coffin/grave. It cracks me up every time.
Tracklist:
01. That Was Just Your Life (7:08)
02. The End Of The Line (7:52)
03. Broken, Beat, & Scarred (6:25)
04. The Day That Never Comes (7:56)
05. All Nightmare Long (7:57)
06. Cyanide (6:39)
07. The Unforgiven III (7:46)
08. The Judas Kiss (8:00)
09. Suicide & Redemption (9:57)
10. My Apocalypse (5:01)
The Metallica Problem: The History
As I was listening to this album, the first Metallica effort that has piqued my interest since 1996's predominantly abysmal Load (very appropriately titled), I found myself facing the same quandary that practically every old-school Metallica fan faces: the near complete inability to judge this album on its own merit, without mentally alluding back to the glory of the 80's, the disappointment of the 90's, or the utter PR nightmare and subsequent mockery of the early 2000's. Of all the bands I've followed, none have gone through such a huge change in public perception. Their fall from the heavy metal throne has been historic: they've been deified, vilified, and crucified, all with good reason. They defined and perfected a genre with sweat, drive, and uncompromising will, only to abandon it in favor of a few lucrative years with a business model where marketing and mass appeal outranked any kind of creative progression. And at the end of their day in the sun, as public interest predictably shifted towards younger, more highly advertised acts, they spurned the opportunity to rekindle that fire, lesson learned, and instead chose to play victim and lash out. The result was a muddled mess of a record and a disgraced reputation, which nearly caused the band to implode completely and seemed to finally mark their tragic end. It all sounds so melodramatic, I know, but the magnitude of their original greatness combined with the significant bitterness from this eventual fallout is exactly what defines the core of The Metallica Problem.
For fans such as myself, The Metallica Problem ultimately manifests as the inability to define exactly how we feel about the band. We can't hate them for what they've become, their early greatness and profound effect on the metal genre is far too great to deny; but we can't unconditionally love them as we once did, they've put themselves on a golden pedestal and have become far too detached from what originally made them so great. We can't automatically give their new attempts the benefit of the doubt, the disappointments of their blatantly watered down commercial ventures are too fresh in our memories; yet we find ourselves unable to give up hope that maybe, just maybe, they will come to their senses and return to their devastating form. We find it difficult to listen to their golden era material without feeling a sting of regret; and what little decent material they have managed to put out in recent years is tainted by the belief that, had the band simply chosen to do so, it could have been so much better. This kind of emotional baggage is exhausting. Its enough to make me want to grab the band by the throat and throttle some sense into them. "Dammit guys, what the hell are you doing?? STOP BEING LAME! JUST.......BE COOL! GAH!!"
So what does this have to do with anything? Well, mainly this historically-skewed and factually-biased rant serves to clear my own head before any kind of objective-ish assessment can be made of any new Metallica material these days (and I suspect this kind of continual catharsis is necessary for many old Metallica fans). I perpetually hope that their new stuff will be as good as I know Metallica can be, while simultaneously fearing that it will be as bad as I also know Metallica can be.
That being said, what do I make of Death Magnetic? Being as objective as I can be, I will say this: it is good. In some places its damn good, in some its damn bad, but overall I would say that the album is solid. Naturally, it doesn't come anywhere near the first four albums, but its certainly better than Load/Reload and St. Anger. I'm not sure where it stands in comparison to the black album, its better in some ways but a little worse in others.
Sonically, the album is the best Metallica has done since ...And Justice For All. Most songs are pretty fast with a good amount of prolonged thrashing. Hetfield's rhythm guitar riffage is pretty satisfying and Hammett is finally let off his leash to go completely shred it. There aren't a ton of progressions within the songs, but when there is a bit of a riff or tempo change the transitions do tend to be nicely executed. There are a couple moments where Trujillo's bass comes in as a bit of a lead for a transition or an intro, and when these happen they are pretty cool. Mostly, though, the bass doesn't really stand out, and instead just plays a supporting role for the rhythm guitar. The drums are energetic, and punctuate the heavy rhythm nicely. Metallica has never been much into odd time signatures or anything, so the drumming has never been a defining element to their sound, but Ulrich keeps time well enough and sufficiently maintains the energy of the songs.
I would say that the only slight downside to the sound of this album is that they still don't have that serious, menacing tone that they had on the 80's albums. They're rocking hard, they're tearing things up, but the music doesn't have that intense sense of purpose and drive like it had before. It sounds more like they are just rocking for rock's sake, kind of a looser cowboy'ish "woo-hoo yeah lets rock" type attitude as opposed to the "we're angry, we're going to unleash the fury and you're going to feel it" type of attitude like what they originally had. I won't necessarily ding them completely for this difference in feel, I just mention it because it is one tangible difference that does remain. (The tone is still much better than the watered down "pop metal" attitude of the 90's stuff, though).
Vocally, the album is OK. Hetfield approaches the vocals the same way he did on the 90's albums, mainly a barking style that in some undefined way is not quite as good as on the 80's albums, with a few attempts at singing completely cleanly in there. The vocals don't really bother me much, he doesn't have an awesome voice, but I don't find it to be terrible either. However, while the vocals themselves aren't horrible, they do open the door for the major fault of this album, which leads me to my next point.
The main problem with this album is that lameness just seems to somehow creep in at times. Almost every song has one lame moment or characteristic that keeps the song from kicking ass from start to finish. For the most part, the lameness in question presents itself in one of two forms:
So what does this have to do with anything? Well, mainly this historically-skewed and factually-biased rant serves to clear my own head before any kind of objective-ish assessment can be made of any new Metallica material these days (and I suspect this kind of continual catharsis is necessary for many old Metallica fans). I perpetually hope that their new stuff will be as good as I know Metallica can be, while simultaneously fearing that it will be as bad as I also know Metallica can be.
Death Magnetic: The Review
That being said, what do I make of Death Magnetic? Being as objective as I can be, I will say this: it is good. In some places its damn good, in some its damn bad, but overall I would say that the album is solid. Naturally, it doesn't come anywhere near the first four albums, but its certainly better than Load/Reload and St. Anger. I'm not sure where it stands in comparison to the black album, its better in some ways but a little worse in others.
Sonically, the album is the best Metallica has done since ...And Justice For All. Most songs are pretty fast with a good amount of prolonged thrashing. Hetfield's rhythm guitar riffage is pretty satisfying and Hammett is finally let off his leash to go completely shred it. There aren't a ton of progressions within the songs, but when there is a bit of a riff or tempo change the transitions do tend to be nicely executed. There are a couple moments where Trujillo's bass comes in as a bit of a lead for a transition or an intro, and when these happen they are pretty cool. Mostly, though, the bass doesn't really stand out, and instead just plays a supporting role for the rhythm guitar. The drums are energetic, and punctuate the heavy rhythm nicely. Metallica has never been much into odd time signatures or anything, so the drumming has never been a defining element to their sound, but Ulrich keeps time well enough and sufficiently maintains the energy of the songs.
I would say that the only slight downside to the sound of this album is that they still don't have that serious, menacing tone that they had on the 80's albums. They're rocking hard, they're tearing things up, but the music doesn't have that intense sense of purpose and drive like it had before. It sounds more like they are just rocking for rock's sake, kind of a looser cowboy'ish "woo-hoo yeah lets rock" type attitude as opposed to the "we're angry, we're going to unleash the fury and you're going to feel it" type of attitude like what they originally had. I won't necessarily ding them completely for this difference in feel, I just mention it because it is one tangible difference that does remain. (The tone is still much better than the watered down "pop metal" attitude of the 90's stuff, though).
Vocally, the album is OK. Hetfield approaches the vocals the same way he did on the 90's albums, mainly a barking style that in some undefined way is not quite as good as on the 80's albums, with a few attempts at singing completely cleanly in there. The vocals don't really bother me much, he doesn't have an awesome voice, but I don't find it to be terrible either. However, while the vocals themselves aren't horrible, they do open the door for the major fault of this album, which leads me to my next point.
The main problem with this album is that lameness just seems to somehow creep in at times. Almost every song has one lame moment or characteristic that keeps the song from kicking ass from start to finish. For the most part, the lameness in question presents itself in one of two forms:
- Lame lyrics: sometimes the lyrics do reach a level of cheese that is hard to ignore. The lyrics are by no means all bad all the time, there are just moments where you think "that's really the best Hetfield could come up with?" Not to say he's ever been a master poet, but in the hey-day his lyrics were at least relevant to the topic at hand and nearly always clever. He always at least sounded like he was a pretty intelligent guy. He wouldn't ruin a perfectly good rocking moment by bellowing some cheesy cliche.
- Lame chorus/verse melody: there are times where a song will have a decent intro, and some really strong riffage and solo'ing, but the melody during the verse/chorus "core" of the song is just super weak. "The Day That Never Comes" is a good example of this. I like the lighter intro well enough, and the last few minutes of the song absolutely destroy, but I cannot stand the core of the song. ("The Day That Never Comes" is also a good example of Lame Form #1, Lame Lyrics. Just listen to the part that starts with "love is a four letter word", you'll see what I mean. Good grief.)
- Death Magnetic: The Lyrically Erroneous
- Death Magnetic: Hetfield's Guitar (Yes!) vs. Hetfield's Mouth (No!)
- Death Magnetic: Pin The Tail (Lame Chorus) On The Donkey (Otherwise Ass-kicking Song)
- Death Magnetic: God, Kicking Ass Feels Good, But We Don't Wanna Lose All Those Reload Fans, Do We?
- Death Magnetic: The Amazing Instrumental Album That Wasn't
- 01. That Was Just Your Life: Good intro, good and thrashy rhythm, barking style vocals for the most part. Chorus is nothing special, but it doesn't stand out and ruin the song. Guitar solo is fairly short, and pretty much keeps with the rhythm and pace of the song. No surprises here, but a solid start to the album. Solid song overall.
- 02. The End Of The Line: Intro is a little choppy. Rhythm during the choruses is nothing special, but the choppy guitar at the end of each verse is cool. Vocals are a little more drawn out than the first track, the chorus is maybe a little dumber, but nothing too bad. The stuttering guitar work leading into the solo is cool, and the solo progresses pretty nicely a few times before returning to the stuttering guitar. Song gets mellow for a moment and the vocals get a bit dumb here, with something about the "slave becomes the master." Grrr, they kinda killed their own momentum with that. Returns to the rhythm of the song and would end strongly if only Hetfield would stop yelling "end of the line." Decently solid song overall, though.
- 03. Broken, Beat, & Scarred: Another choppy intro, with a pretty nice slippery rhythm leading into the verses, and good crunchy rhythm during the verses. Unfortunately, the dumb lyrics kick in pretty quick, "what don't kill ya, make ya more strong." Nice rocking during the chorus, but again the dumb lyrics "show your scars, we die hard." Good crunchy rhythm leads into the solo. Solo is pretty damn cool, pretty straightforward ripping by Hammett, interrupted a couple times by the whole thing quickly deconstructing and then resuming. Rhythm actually progresses a little here, with a slight key change thrown in. Actually feels for a moment like an old-school 80's Metallica moment. Returns to the chorus and ends on a strong rocking rampage. Solid song, would be really good if it was instrumental.
- 04. The Day That Never Comes: Lighter intro, don't mind it so much, but it leads into extremely lame verses and chorus, of the power-ballady variety. Lots of the famous grunty Hetfield "-AHH!" appended to the end of each verse. Through the core of the song, this sounds just like what a Metallica parody would sound like. Halfway through the song, the rocking starts to kick in, giving hope, but then leads into really lame lyrics about "love is a four letter word". After some nearly intolerable yelling about "this I swear!", the song jumps into a jackhammer rhythm, following by some dual guitar stuff, then alternates between higher solo stuff and good crunchy rhythm, all at a pretty fast pace. If the whole song was like this last couple minutes it would be cool, but unfortunately more than half of the song is really lame, so I'll most likely usually skip this track. Another good instrumental candidate.
- 05. All Nightmare Long: Lame title, but good bass intro, jumping directly into really fast thrashy guitar stuff. Reminds me a bit of something from ...And Justice For All for a bit. Vocals during the verses are good, reminiscent of old stuff. Vocals during the chorus are a little more annoying, but don't completely kill it for me. Guitar solo winds around a bit and back into the rhythm, which progresses a little bit before jumping into some good jack-hammering guitar. Big pause, then back into the chorus. A little lame for a brief moment, but whatever, it passes and gets back to some good thrashy stuff and winding guitar before ending. Solid song.
- 06. Cyanide: Intro is OK, nothing special, leads into some pretty generic rhythm stuff. Verses are pretty lame, guitar is nothing special. Chorus is annoying, guitar riff during it is OK but doesn't last long. Major 90's Metallica moment in the middle where the guitars mostly melt away and its just a mellow bass line with Hetfield singing. I can't get into this song, the guitars are sometimes cool-ish, but choppy and brief. The solo rocks out a little more for a short bit, but doesn't really seem to have anything to do with the rest of the song. Then back into the core rhythm and more vocals. Meh, this song does nothing for me. It doesn't even have the over-compensation ass-kicking at the end like "The Day That Never Comes" does. I'll end up usually skipping this one.
- 07. The Unforgiven III: Given the title of this one, I fully expect it to be terrible, but I actually end up liking it. The intro is atrocious, a very generic string arrangement with some piano, and a horribly misplaced horn actually coming in at about 40 seconds. However, the bass comes in nicely at about a minute, and leads into the first verse. The vocals of the verses are a bit of 90's Metallica-ish, but the guitar riff during it absolutely rips, it really hits me the right way. The chorus is mellow, and a little contrived. Some people will definitely dislike this song and identify it with some of their 90's watered down stuff, but it actually works OK for me between the ripping during the verses. A little bit of cheesy "forgive me, forgive me not" lyrics, but that leads into some absolute shredding by Hammett with the same kickass rhythm rip going on. Back into the mellower vocals before ending the song, but it doesn't bother me. The lyrics are not too bad, the melody is slightly on the cheesy side, but I find it tolerable. Overall, I surprisingly really like this song, although I'm sure a lot of people will not.
- 08. The Judas Kiss: Good intro, reminds me a bit of their earlier stuff. A bit stuttery, reminds me a little of "Leper Messiah". Decent rhythm, barking vocals for the most part, with a little melody going on at the end of each verse that I actually like. Stuttery guitar leads into some good thrashy rhythm during the chorus, which stutters again and goes back to the core rhythm. Solo starts with some sweet isolated guitar, joined shortly by some solid stuttery rhythm, and then everything launches into some fast-paced rocking. Brief interruption by Hetfield yelling something a little cheesy about "I'm your new god now", and then back into the rocking solo stuff. The sonic tone of this song reminds me quite a bit of ...And Justice For All. Good song, I like this one quite a bit too.
- 09. Suicide & Redemption: Hey now, an instrumental song! I'm glad that they've gone back to including an instrumental song, and as I've mentioned above I think they would have done well to include more. This song has some good solid riffage, although its a bit disjointed for the first couple minutes and its unclear whether the song is actually going anywhere. Slides into a mellow bit towards the middle, with some nice solo stuff going on over lightly accoustic-ish rhythm, then into some nicely building harmonizing guitar work. Builds nicely up and then drops into some pretty mean grindy rhythm guitar with some slightly eerie toned solo guitar with moments of feedback for a bit. For a moment it sounds vaguely Tool-ish, then into some good wailing guitar. This is some really good stuff here, progressing through different rhythms punctuated by double-kick drums and lead guitar popping in and out, then back to the original crunchy rhythm. Nice. Song kind of gets choppy and deconstructed, then back into the original crunchy rhythm again on the way out. Excellent song, once it really got started. I really really like this one.
- 10. My Apocalypse: Nice powerful intro, leading into some good thrashy rhythm. Good barking vocals, chorus is short and sweet, no issues. After a couple quick verses, rhythm continues at good pace, with some nice winding guitar woven in there. Some quick good vocals, then a good solid solo with the same break-neck rhythm going. Goes into some nice stuttery guitar, followed by alternating vocals and winding guitar. Back to the normal verse-chorus structure at the end, with more ass-kicking rhythm. Song finishes off with some nice jackhammer guitar going on. This is a good solid end-of-the-album rocker, much in the spirit of "Damage, Inc." or "Dyer's Eve", I really like this track.
Dare I say my faith in Metallica may be a bit restored, however slightly? Hmmm..... I am optimistic. Very cautiously optimistic, but optimistic nonetheless.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Caribbean Queen
Well, to my utter shock, I apparently know every damn note to the saxophone solo in "Caribbean Queen" by Billy Ocean. I was cruising through the condiment aisle of my local HEB last night, and found myself subconsciously putting on a dazzling whistling display as the tune pumped through the store's PA. And I mean dazzling, I would have impressed even myself if I hadn't been so surprised.
Ah, the '80's, how infectious.....
Ah, the '80's, how infectious.....
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
Playstation 3: Blu-Ray, Media Server, And Legos, Oh My!
OK, so I'm not exactly what anyone would call a "gamer". I've got nothing against video games, I'm fairly partial to a good hockey or racing game, but the last game console I owned was the original NES back in like 1988. And even then, I think I only ever amassed a whopping 4 games for it.
Imagine Sara's surprise, then, a couple months ago, when I mentioned that I might be interested in "saving up my allowance" (I'm not sure why I'm using quotes, that's literally what it was. Yes, I have an "allowance", no laughing.) to buy a Playstation 3. My rationale was that since Blu-Ray had finally won the HD format war, converting over to Blu-Ray for movie purchases from here on out should be fairly safe, and since the Playstation 3 costs the same as the cheapest standalone Blu-Ray players, why not go ahead and buy the one that can also provide gaming ability. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 has already gone through a couple generations of design tweaks and bug fixes, and already had the infrastructure in place to provide automatic firmware updates, should they be necessary. Rock solid argument, if you ask me. Sara seemed fine with it, neither really put off nor excited, which I took as a landslide victory for team Tedo!
(Note: my actual motivation for wanting a Blu-Ray player so soon was simply because I refuse to own Ironman in anything less than Blu-Ray. That movie was so friggin' awesome, anything less than 1080p would be a travesty.)
So, after waffling a couple months over whether or not I really needed a PS3, last week I finally decided what the heck, lets give it a go, and ran over to Best Buy and snagged one of these bad boys. I got it home, got it set up in about 2 seconds (gotta love HDMI and wi-fi!), and then sat there for about 10 minutes reveling in the absolute beauty of this machine. As an EE, I have a particular affinity for solid, well-built hardware. Even Sara displayed some interest for a few moments, which became fleeting, however, as she realized that she "can't play Mario games on it." Apparently if you can't role-play as a plumber running around squeezing coins from bricks, its not worth the time of day!
First, I had to try out the obvious, the reason I had bought thing in the first place: a full-blown high definition movie. Along with my purchase, I had bought Harry Potter 5 on Blu-Ray. I had already owned this movie on DVD, but found the DVD transfer to be absolutely horrid, so I had this unofficially penciled in as a prime candidate for Blu-Ray purchase should I ever get a player. As expected, the picture was INCREDIBLE. I've had cable HD programming for the past year and a half or so, and the picture has always been outstanding, particularly for sports, but this was still noticeably better. I never wanted to see that much detail of Dudley Dursley's ugly mug. My decision to get this over a standalone Blu-Ray player was looking pretty good!
Next up, some video games. As mentioned above, I'm not a huge video game fan, but I do like me a good NHL game. So, along with the unit, I picked up EA's NHL 2008. I had played EA's line of NHL games throughout the 90's for the Sega Genesis and for PC, and they had always been regarded as the best hockey video game out there, so I figured why stray from what I know. Holy frijoles, this game rocks. Its hard as hell at first to figure out their new "skill stick" feature, with which you use the right joystick entirely for deking, handling the puck side to side, and taking various styles of shot, all while using the left joystick for directional skating and shot placement. My brain just about seceded from the Union Of Tedo's Head while trying to sort out simultaneously controlling two joysticks, not to mention the other buttons that are used for poke-checking, changing lines, and 2 different types of passes. Luckily, though, one of the coolest features of this game is that it has a practice mode, under which you can select all different types of drills to run: team practices (5-on-5, 5-on-0), skating drills, shooting drills, all types of odd-man and even-man rushes, etc. I spent a couple days working in this area, slowly figuring out how to set up one-timers, deke the goalie, line up a guy on defense and throw a check (this sounds easy but is actually tough to do without overskating your guy!), etc. Anyway, after these practice sessions, I'm proud to say that playing as the Red Wings against the Blackhawks in Rookie mode, I can totally kick the computer's ass : - )
In addition to the NHL game, I also picked up the Lego Indiana Jones adventure game. I'm not really into shoot 'em up or super serious games, I'm more interested in stuff that's more along the "fun" line, and I had heard good things about this one. Plus, I knew Sara's penchant for bashing things in the eternal hope of collection coins, so I figured this might fit the bill. As it turns out, this game is pretty fun! It seemed fairly aimless for the first level or two, as Sara and I felt it out and tried to figure out exactly what was going on and what was the point. But after playing it a few times now, and more importantly after Sara now diligently reading through the instructions, I fully expect this game to provide a lot of pretty fun game play. As you pass through each level, there is a LOT that you simply cannot do yet, you have to continue on and accomplish certain things first. As you continue on and fulfill the stages of the 3 Indiana Jones adventures (we're not speaking of the 4th), you can accrew whatever abilities, tools, or personnel you need for going back and revisiting the things you had to pass over before. This is probably a fundamental characteristic of these adventure type games, but being one who has simply not cared about video games for the past 20 years, I find this pretty cool. And, the REAL surprise of this whole little experiment is the shocking discovery that Sara is far more prone to video game addiction than anyone could have possibly predicted. Needless to say, she has found bashing Lego structures/people/plants with a shovel has proven to be just as worthy a method of collecting coins as bashing bricks with your head : - )
I was thoroughly pleased with the performance of the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and a video game console, and thus felt that the choice to get this over a standalone player was already justified, regardless of how much use I got from the PS3's other features. One of those features, however, is actually pretty cool and might get a fair amount of use, and that's the ability to stream content from a "media server". There are many programs out there, free and not free, that can be used to stream files from your PC. You load this program, you point it at a directory where you happen to store video, audio, pictures, whatever, and then other devices such as a PS3 have this media available to them. I personally tried 3 different programs: SimpleServer (free), Nero Media Home (technically not free), and TVersity (free). Here is what I found:
OK, well I've sung the praises enough. There must be something to complain about! Well, OK, there are a couple things I will mention:
So when does Ironman come out???
Imagine Sara's surprise, then, a couple months ago, when I mentioned that I might be interested in "saving up my allowance" (I'm not sure why I'm using quotes, that's literally what it was. Yes, I have an "allowance", no laughing.) to buy a Playstation 3. My rationale was that since Blu-Ray had finally won the HD format war, converting over to Blu-Ray for movie purchases from here on out should be fairly safe, and since the Playstation 3 costs the same as the cheapest standalone Blu-Ray players, why not go ahead and buy the one that can also provide gaming ability. Not to mention the fact that the PS3 has already gone through a couple generations of design tweaks and bug fixes, and already had the infrastructure in place to provide automatic firmware updates, should they be necessary. Rock solid argument, if you ask me. Sara seemed fine with it, neither really put off nor excited, which I took as a landslide victory for team Tedo!
(Note: my actual motivation for wanting a Blu-Ray player so soon was simply because I refuse to own Ironman in anything less than Blu-Ray. That movie was so friggin' awesome, anything less than 1080p would be a travesty.)
So, after waffling a couple months over whether or not I really needed a PS3, last week I finally decided what the heck, lets give it a go, and ran over to Best Buy and snagged one of these bad boys. I got it home, got it set up in about 2 seconds (gotta love HDMI and wi-fi!), and then sat there for about 10 minutes reveling in the absolute beauty of this machine. As an EE, I have a particular affinity for solid, well-built hardware. Even Sara displayed some interest for a few moments, which became fleeting, however, as she realized that she "can't play Mario games on it." Apparently if you can't role-play as a plumber running around squeezing coins from bricks, its not worth the time of day!
First, I had to try out the obvious, the reason I had bought thing in the first place: a full-blown high definition movie. Along with my purchase, I had bought Harry Potter 5 on Blu-Ray. I had already owned this movie on DVD, but found the DVD transfer to be absolutely horrid, so I had this unofficially penciled in as a prime candidate for Blu-Ray purchase should I ever get a player. As expected, the picture was INCREDIBLE. I've had cable HD programming for the past year and a half or so, and the picture has always been outstanding, particularly for sports, but this was still noticeably better. I never wanted to see that much detail of Dudley Dursley's ugly mug. My decision to get this over a standalone Blu-Ray player was looking pretty good!
Next up, some video games. As mentioned above, I'm not a huge video game fan, but I do like me a good NHL game. So, along with the unit, I picked up EA's NHL 2008. I had played EA's line of NHL games throughout the 90's for the Sega Genesis and for PC, and they had always been regarded as the best hockey video game out there, so I figured why stray from what I know. Holy frijoles, this game rocks. Its hard as hell at first to figure out their new "skill stick" feature, with which you use the right joystick entirely for deking, handling the puck side to side, and taking various styles of shot, all while using the left joystick for directional skating and shot placement. My brain just about seceded from the Union Of Tedo's Head while trying to sort out simultaneously controlling two joysticks, not to mention the other buttons that are used for poke-checking, changing lines, and 2 different types of passes. Luckily, though, one of the coolest features of this game is that it has a practice mode, under which you can select all different types of drills to run: team practices (5-on-5, 5-on-0), skating drills, shooting drills, all types of odd-man and even-man rushes, etc. I spent a couple days working in this area, slowly figuring out how to set up one-timers, deke the goalie, line up a guy on defense and throw a check (this sounds easy but is actually tough to do without overskating your guy!), etc. Anyway, after these practice sessions, I'm proud to say that playing as the Red Wings against the Blackhawks in Rookie mode, I can totally kick the computer's ass : - )
In addition to the NHL game, I also picked up the Lego Indiana Jones adventure game. I'm not really into shoot 'em up or super serious games, I'm more interested in stuff that's more along the "fun" line, and I had heard good things about this one. Plus, I knew Sara's penchant for bashing things in the eternal hope of collection coins, so I figured this might fit the bill. As it turns out, this game is pretty fun! It seemed fairly aimless for the first level or two, as Sara and I felt it out and tried to figure out exactly what was going on and what was the point. But after playing it a few times now, and more importantly after Sara now diligently reading through the instructions, I fully expect this game to provide a lot of pretty fun game play. As you pass through each level, there is a LOT that you simply cannot do yet, you have to continue on and accomplish certain things first. As you continue on and fulfill the stages of the 3 Indiana Jones adventures (we're not speaking of the 4th), you can accrew whatever abilities, tools, or personnel you need for going back and revisiting the things you had to pass over before. This is probably a fundamental characteristic of these adventure type games, but being one who has simply not cared about video games for the past 20 years, I find this pretty cool. And, the REAL surprise of this whole little experiment is the shocking discovery that Sara is far more prone to video game addiction than anyone could have possibly predicted. Needless to say, she has found bashing Lego structures/people/plants with a shovel has proven to be just as worthy a method of collecting coins as bashing bricks with your head : - )
I was thoroughly pleased with the performance of the PS3 as a Blu-Ray player and a video game console, and thus felt that the choice to get this over a standalone player was already justified, regardless of how much use I got from the PS3's other features. One of those features, however, is actually pretty cool and might get a fair amount of use, and that's the ability to stream content from a "media server". There are many programs out there, free and not free, that can be used to stream files from your PC. You load this program, you point it at a directory where you happen to store video, audio, pictures, whatever, and then other devices such as a PS3 have this media available to them. I personally tried 3 different programs: SimpleServer (free), Nero Media Home (technically not free), and TVersity (free). Here is what I found:
- SimpleServer: Well, it lives up to its name, its very very simple. Just add the files, give the share a name, and go. The PS3 had no problems finding the share or playing the files, it was pretty painless. The SimpleServer GUI was incredibly slow, though. First, it took several hours for the program to initially process my music directory (6900+ songs). Plus, once it was added, the interface would lag insufferably anytime I tried to select a song to do anything. Also, I believe this program was lacking any kind of auto-update, so if I added any new music to the repository, I would have to manually add it to SimpleServer. This is not cool. (I must admit I do not know for sure that this was the case, as the interface was far to slow for me to deal with. But from what I saw, I believe this is the case).
- Nero Media Home: This one had real potential, but for now I will have to throw this one in the "low down damn dirty shame" pile. Nero features a utility called "Nero Scout". You give Scout a list of directories to monitor, and it will periodically recursively scan these looking for added or removed files, so it can update the listing it makes available. OK, one point for Nero. Plus, this program had an option to start the server automatically when the computer is turned on, logging in NOT REQUIRED. Very nice, another point to Nero. However, when I added my music directory, it literally took Scout 18 HOURS to perform its initial scan. Take one point back. From the PS3 side of things, when I browsed through the music, the album art embedded in the mp3's was visible next to each song listing. Nice, one point back to Nero. Actually receiving and displaying the artwork took FOREVER, though, and anytime I chose a song to play, it would literally sit there for about a minute before the song would play. Skip to the next song, and same thing, sit for a minute or so before any audio. This kind of lag is simply atrocious, minus several thousand points from Nero. Maybe there is a setting I had that for some reason was causing this issue (if anyone knows, let me know!), or maybe they'll have a bug fix or something in the future. If so, I would love to give this another go. But until then, this one is just a low down damn dirty shame.
- TVersity: The GUI for this one originally turned me off, but in the end this one seems to perform pretty darn well, and has a fairly easy to use interface. This program also features a setting to start the server automatically when the computer is turned on, again no logging in required. Plus, with TVersity I could specify when and how often to re-scan the directory looking for file changes. Very nice indeed. Also, adding my music repository was MUCH faster with this one. I didn't accurately time it, but I believe it took less than an hour (like maybe 30-45 minutes?) to initially scan and index my entire directory. At the PS3, all music was available immediately when I selected it to play, no lag whatsoever. The only slight downside is that TVersity does not seem to make the album artwork available like Nero did. This would be a nice little feature, but I think I'll live.
OK, well I've sung the praises enough. There must be something to complain about! Well, OK, there are a couple things I will mention:
- No stereo fill: I will admit, I was slightly disappointed that the PS3 does not seem to support any kind of "stereo fill" or "channel fill" function when playing back stereo audio. For those unfamiliar, this means that if you are physically set up for a multi-channel format (such as Dolby 5.1 or 7.1) but are playing a source with only left/right audio (such as a CD or mp3), a device that supports stereo fill will play the left channel through all left speakers (front, surround, and back), the right channel through all right speakers (front, surround, and back), and will mix the two channels for the center channel speaker. This a very nice feature. My stereo receiver does this. If I'm watching a DVD (or now Blu-Ray!) or if the cable content happens to be surround sound, it will play it as such. If I'm playing a CD or if the cable content is stereo only, it will go ahead and play that content through all the surrounding speakers. Its great. The PS3, however, always outputs a multi-channel audio output, so my receiver always sees it as surround data, and plays all channels out their respective speakers. The problem is that if the PS3 is playing stereo audio, it ONLY puts that audio in the left and right channels, and it simply plays silence (or no data at all) through the other channels. My receiver has no way of knowing this, it is simply playing multiple channels like its being told to do. The PS3 itself needs a setting to tell it, "hey, for a stereo source, play left out ALL left channels, play right out ALL right channels, and mix it for the center channel". It has to be done at the PS3. The nice thing is that, if Sony decides to support this, it should simply take a firmware update to add. So there is hope.
- The heat: There is no getting around it, this thing is hot. And I mean physically hot, when the PS3 is on and the fans kick in, the area a few feet in front of the unit is noticeably warmer. Now, how much is still uncertain. The past few days, our A/C unit upstairs has been on the fritz and needs an evaporator coil replacement this week, so it is possible that the PS3 is spitting out a bit more heat than usual due to this unusual circumstance. But, my guess is that the thing will always be a bit warmer than most devices. Nothing a firmware update can do about this. (Keep in mind, I'm comparing to other home theater type equipment. Its still not as hot as a reasonably powerful PC.)
So when does Ironman come out???
Monday, June 16, 2008
Archived Concert Reviews A-finished....
OK, that's the end of my stretch of archived concert reviews. Any posts from here on out should pertain to the here and now.....
Friday, June 13, 2008
Archived Concert Reviews A-comin'....
One of the reasons I thought I might want a blog was so that I had a place to post concert and album reviews, something dumb that I occasionally like to do. Previously, I've always posted this kind of thing to toolarmy.com, which is the fan site for the band Tool. I've been thinking lately that if for some reason I'd like to hang on to these posts, I may want to archive them someplace where I've got a bit more control. I didn't want to muck up our family blog with this kind of stuff, so I figured this may be as good a place as any.
I highly doubt anyone is ever going to want to read this crap, other than myself during my more wistful, reflective moments. Heh. But here we go, anyway.
The next several (like 15-20 or so) posts are going to be re-posts of concert reviews I've done over the past few years, purely for archival purposes. I wish the blogging tool would let me retroactively "post date" the posts, so that they would appear to actually be from that time, but no such luck. Oh well, no biggie.
So, if you happen to read this, and are looking for any kind of new and exciting current event type 411, you may want to skip this upcoming deluge. On the other hand, if you feel like perusing through my concert-going career over the past few years, go for it and enjoy....
I highly doubt anyone is ever going to want to read this crap, other than myself during my more wistful, reflective moments. Heh. But here we go, anyway.
The next several (like 15-20 or so) posts are going to be re-posts of concert reviews I've done over the past few years, purely for archival purposes. I wish the blogging tool would let me retroactively "post date" the posts, so that they would appear to actually be from that time, but no such luck. Oh well, no biggie.
So, if you happen to read this, and are looking for any kind of new and exciting current event type 411, you may want to skip this upcoming deluge. On the other hand, if you feel like perusing through my concert-going career over the past few years, go for it and enjoy....
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