Ace Audio: "Symphony of Destruction" - Megadeth

As I said before, it's harder to talk about a song that everybody knows and loves without tying it to a specific theme. I honestly think it's easier for me to talk about songs I hate than songs I like, especially when those songs are loved by lots of other people I know. Sure I could tie this song to the theme of political power especially with the political climate in the U.S. right now (note: I support neither, but then again I don't live there), but I won't because I want to talk about the song, something I have not done properly since I reviewed "The Show Must Go On".

Megadeth is another band that doesn't really need an introduction, they are one of the big four of thrash metal and proof that older is often better. They have been going strong since 1986 and have been going steady since. To me, they hit a similar level of quality with most of their songs, some are better and some are not, but they aren't really like System of a Down or dare I say Metallica, where the songs aren't always of similar quality on the album. I'll admit, I am not too fond of "Bounce" by System of a Down. Even though some songs are better than others, Megadeth never really had that much of a dud, with the exception of "Crush 'Em" and while some may say that makes them a better band, I think that it also works the same backwards as they don't really have many "Amazing" songs, excluding this one maybe.

"Symphony of Destruction" is my favourite Megadeth song, from the opening instrumentals to the ending line it is just a magnificent song. Seriously, the opening guitar is awesome, it's rough, it's rhythmic and it's oh so stylish. Mustaine's opening vocals are gruff and mean business, which is perfect for this kind of song.

The lyrics have a strong opening talking about taking an average person and giving them power, the stanza's are not very long and lead to a few repeats of words and sounds, which is my only problem with the song, well one of two anyway, but thankfully it does serve as a decent bridge to an awesome chorus.

The chorus talks about how the masses are being lead to destruction by the political leaders Pied Piper style, and the simile of comparing the Pied Piper to political leaders is a good simile to have. I also like the line "We dance like Marionettes/Swaying to the symphony of destruction" as it describes the scenario in perfect metaphor, and leaves a nice mental image as well, reminds me a little of the Metallica song, although that was about a different subject matter.

Unfortunately the second stanza is my other minor issue with the song as it has a few kind of strange word choices, but it leads to another chorus line which gets a repeat, and gives us an awesome guitar solo. I find most guitar solos leave me at a loss for words, but this guitar solo kind of shows why Megadeth is a superior band to Metallica.

The song ends after one last verse and chorus, capping off at four minutes and seven seconds. I think if the song was longer it would've over stayed it's welcome a bit. Lyrically the song is basic, but the lyrics are really powerful and are drenched in metaphor and imagery, two things I love in writing.

The song was also a huge hit for Megadeth as well as it was played on the radio and on MTV plenty of times, giving mainstream success to the band, even peaking at number 29 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks. Megadeth released the following album Youthanasia in '94 two years after Countdown to Extinction and it did just as well reached number 4 on the Billboard 200. Megadeth would do a lot in the following years, and their newest album Dystopia sounds pretty good.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time I'll go a bit out of my comfort zone.

Ace Audio: "Black Sabbath" - Black Sabbath

Opinions change overtime. Some people can look back on something they said and consider it a moment in their life that they were being stupid. That is the problem with doing these reviews as well as my opinion may change and something will cease to be an Ace Audio or an Auditory Abomination. Something that was at first hated by many, can soon become one of the best things in that particular medium. The Nostalgia Critic did a video about when critics are wrong, and you should definitely check it out before you read this blog. [Link]

Bands that are some of the biggest names in the world started off as bands that were panned by critics, such as AC/DC, The Sex Pistols and even Led Zeppelin didn't get the best reviews when they released their first albums, and although AC/DC tops my list of bands that critics got wrong initially, Black Sabbath is definitely my second pick.

Now, when I talk about changing opinions, I have to ask one very simple question: Why was this song, and album for that matter, critically panned and a commercial failure?

Remember, this is from 1970, the year that followed the 1960s with the race riots, protest shootings, the summer of love, John's misunderstood quote about Christianity and Rock music, The Vietnam War, the dreadful Altamont Free Concert, Woodstock and plenty of other historical events. This could've been a victim of poor timing, remember this was still at the end of the 1960s. It can also be noted that a band like Black Sabbath just was not ready to really be listened to, remember the earliest form of heavy metal we got before this was "Helter Skelter" and "Born to be Wild", and this was a far cry from both those songs.

This song has tuned down guitars, slow almost moaning vocals and dark lyrics. The tuned down guitars are actually pretty cool, giving the song a horror vibe that makes it more chilling. It did not sound like the upbeat "Born to be Wild". The subject matter itself is also very dark being about a weird figure the band's bassist Geezer Butler saw one night.

When we ask why the song was hated at first, we can not say for sure, although I myself guess that 1970 was not the year to introduce a genre like Heavy Metal.

However, we also have to ask the question: What changed? Why did a song that was originally hated, become not only recognizable, but celebrated? It's hard to say because people often praise the band's second album Paranoid on bringing heavy metal to a mainstream audience. The times have changed and with it our ideas of what is acceptable in music. From Black Sabbath we got amazing bands and songs from the thrash metal scene to the grindcore scene, so in some respects it can be said that Black Sabbath doesn't qualify as heavy metal anymore.

I guess it wasn't the attitude towards the song that changed, but the times that have, because there is always going to be somebody discovering this song for the first time, and whether they like the song or not is their own choice.

When I'm talking about a highly important or well known song it's hard for me to talk about the song itself, because many people have heard it before, so it's hard to say something that other people don't know, so I often have to tie Ace Audio posts to a single theme. However, I know that there is somebody out there who has never heard these songs before and makes their own judgment themselves.

Black Sabbath helped create a genre that brought many of us together, and we have all heard their influence, from the tuned down doom metal to the fantastical power metal. Times are different from 1970, and some people enjoyed this song at the time, and some people enjoy it today. It makes me wonder how many songs I liked or disliked at one point ended up being a song I loved or hated, I guess it can be the same with bands as well.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I have nothing to say here so, Happy Halloween.

Auditory Abominations: "Everything I do (I Do it For You)" - Bryan Adams

Continuing on the theme of love songs that are not romantic in the very least, this song also allows me to explain why something being popular does not give it any form of quality. This was not just a number one of 1991, it was the number one of 1991, and this was the year that gave us Nevermind, Metallica, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and Out of Time. 1991 was not a horrible year for music, in fact it may have been one of the best, but every year has its shovel ware.

Before I get into the big problem with this song, I want to discuss some of the minor issues with the song. Such as the horrible combination of the slow melody and Bryan Adam's voice which sounds as though he ate a sandpaper and staple salad with battery acid dressing. At the very least when other musicians that don't have the greatest voices sing, they sing in genres that compliment their vocals, Bob Dylan sang folk, Bruce Springsteen sang rock and Peter Cetera sang soft rock. When I compliment Peter Cetera, you know you've made an abomination.

Really the song at its core is a slow, dull song that tries to have dreamlike instrumentals and romantic lyrics, nothing I can fault the song over, except for one thing. Much like the previously reviewed "I Want to Know What Love is" by Foreigner, it is the fact that this was as successful as it was that makes it an abomination.

To put it into a perspective that I think some of you may understand, the fact that the song reached number one shows that people found this romantic, and those people have clearly never seen Casablanca.

"Everything I do I do it for you" is a meaningless statement, because the majority of people's life is doing something mundane, eating breakfast, reading a book, taking a walk, and they do all that mundane stuff that everybody does for you. I want people to remember that words like "Everything" and "All" are broad reaching terms, if I was to drink all the water on the planet, that would also mean that I would drink the polar ice caps, the clouds, the water in plants, the water in animals and the contaminated water in hazardous areas.

"Everything" does not mean the important stuff, or the noteworthy stuff, it means "Everything", meaning sneezing, being sick, calling his mother, watching TV, crying, doing his job, sitting in the dark, driving and all of that stuff is done for you. That is not romantic, that is obsession and an unhealthy one at that.

If somebody says they do everything for you and mean it, get them help because that is not a healthy thing. Somethings it is okay to do for other people, fighting, getting help, going to higher education you know things that can benefit other people. Saying you'll do everything for another person is almost as creepy and admitting to being a stalker.

This was the number one song of 1991, meaning that this proved empty, shallow, meaningless love songs had a place on the pop charts. It isn't the fact that the song is dull that makes it an abomination, but the fact that people thought it was romantic that makes it an abomination.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and don't forget, "Everything" is a broad-reaching word.

Auditory Abominations: "I Want to Know What Love Is" - Foreigner

You know, I want to take this series out of the modern age, not because I think music from the previous generation is worse, but mostly because it is giving me nothing to talk about. I mean what can I really say about a song like "All About That Bass" that I can't say about any other over-produced, substance lacking, obnoxious trite? Granted there are still plenty of songs that I want to cover, and there will be a time I'll talk about those songs in the future, but when looking at the worst of things, you can't stick with one generation, because that is a form of conformation bias. Even though I stated that the 2010s, as a whole are a great decade for music, I can't deny that I am kind of confirming to myself that the decade has no chances of improving by just looking at the crap of this decade.

So I'm going to take a break from my usual 2010s crap and take a look at a band that I hate more than I really should. Foreigner is one of my most hated bands ever, up there with Chicago, and for pretty much the same reasons. Of course this one has an even bigger issue than "If You Leave Me Now" which was mostly just ungodly dull.

The opening instrumentals set the mood perfectly that this is going to be one of the most generic and dullest songs in the world. It sounds like that preset Casio beat that accompanies every soap opera and nature documentary. It's that slow kind of droning keyboard sound that never really changes tone, and holds on itself while it is accompanied by that synthetic sounding drum beat that sounds right at home in the worlds slowest disco dance song rather than any love song as it never keeps rhythm and is mostly there because it compliments the droning keyboard. It's what sound designers use when they can't afford proper scene music.

The song itself sounds right at home introducing a cheap soap opera to the few TV screens turned on at four in the morning to unamused people. The lyrics are even more generic break-up song than "If You Leave Me Now" which I thought was the king of generic break-up song lyrics. It's made worse with the singer forcing an impression of Bruce Springsteen eating the frontman of Whitesnake.

And while I'm on the subject, what is with these break-up songs with generic lyrics? I mean, where are the lyrics like "You'll never find gold on a sandy beach"? Just a thought.

But what really irks me about this song is only partly the song's fault, another part of it has a little bit to do with the success of the song. The song topped not only the Hot 100, but also the Mainstream Rock Charts, which means that people were wanting to hear this song on not only Pop stations or Soft Rock stations, but regular Rock Stations too. However, that isn't what irks me the most, it's the fact that the people think that "I want to know what love is" is a romantic set of lyrics. That is the kind of whiny stuff a band like Simple Plan would sing, something that drunks are to ashamed to use at the lowest end of low-end bars.

What is so romantic about "I want to know what love is"? that is like textbook "I just want to get in your pants" douche bad right there, and people bought it up. Sure, it was the 80s but that excuse does not hold up, because I've heard love songs from the 1950s that put this one to shame, seriously "Blueberry Hill" is a great song and "Ring of Fire" puts every love song to shame.

The takeaway from this blog is that, love songs are not the easiest songs to make properly, as we can see the next time I do an abomination. Love songs deserve respect and when it isn't respected, we get garbage like this.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time, a song that also proves my point further, and that popularity does not mean quality.

P.S. I have made a Facebook page if you want to keep up to date with everything.

Auditory Abominations: "She's a Beauty" - The Tubes

The 80s is a strange decade for music, for the rock and metal scene there is very little better than the 80s, giving us many masterpieces of rock and metal from "Master of Puppets" to "Tom Sawyer". This decade also gave us the Mainstream Rock Charts so now there was a way to keep track of the popular rock songs. This is where it gets weird, as on these charts, not every song that topped it was a rock song. I already talked about "We Built This City" and the dated keyboard dominated sound of the 1980s, but there was also "Down Under" and "Twilight Zone". In short, the 80s was an amazing decade for the rock and metal scene, but there was still a lot of crap, and here is another one.

The Tubes were a rock band that formed in the 1970s with their first single dropping in 1976 and they have been going steady since. Now I said rock band and for a while The Tubes were, but the 1980s was the decade of selling out, I mean a lot of bands pretty much gave up what they were and tried to become mainstream successes. The rock charts were impressive but AC/DC wasn't topping the charts, so a lot of it was that keyboard dominated rock. I guess a lot of it had to do with the success of synth pop at the time with Genesis and Eurythmics, and music always followed the popular styles, hence a lot of the pop-tronic music nowadays. Of course, I wasn't there so I can't say I'm an expert, but I do have a good idea.

So I can't really blame the band, this was just the soundscape of the time, and for opening instrumentals, I have heard much worse. The synth is a little annoying, but the drums and guitar aren't bad. The opening vocals aren't terrible either.

So if I think that the instruments and vocals aren't bad, why is this song an auditory abomination? Mostly it's the lyrics, they're just confusing. I mean, they say that the women you see are from your dreams, but you shouldn't fall in love with them. Is this song a cautionary tune about giving your heart up to fast? Well, at one point the lead singer says "Don't touch the merchandise" so is this about a brothel? Is the song trying to give confidence to a kid? I have no clue what these lyrics say, if it is a song about not giving your heart away too quickly, than it's basically saying, don't fall in love with that pretty woman there because she is a beauty.

I don't get the point of this song, nor why it was a hit on the rock charts. It really does show that even with some good aspects, one bad apple spoils the whole patch. even if the lyrics weren't confusing I think the song would still be a bit dated, but I wouldn't be talking about it then. I try not to review songs that are only outdated, because they really do require me to have been there for me to really consider it. I'd say this and "We Built This City" came close to breaking that rule.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and I think I need to pick a more interesting level of bad next time.

Ace Audio: "Lights" - Ellie Goulding

A lot of my Auditory Abominations are often about pop songs, mostly because a lot of pop songs are just fluff, which is a term of many definitions, but it generally means that the product is really nothing but sugar and air, giving it very little substance to it in the end, but sometimes a fluff product can work. Fluff is not really accepted overall by most people because after a while when whatever fad it is a part of dies off there really isn't any thing to hold on to. A lot of the songs I talk about have many things that fail on their own merits, such as "This is How We Do" (You know, I really need to stop picking on Katy Perry so much), that is a song that has horrid lyrics, awful music and a dreadful theme all of it sung by someone who can't sing. The song on it's own is awful, but when I compare it to a song that has good beats and tempos, good lyrics and a good theme by singers that can sing, it becomes even more unbearable, and that's not even comparing it to heavy metal music I'm just in my head comparing that song to "Face to face" by Daft Punk.

Pop music is going to be a regular on that series, but sometimes there is a good pop song, and for those of you who have been reading my previous posts, you'll know that I have been praising this song pretty much since the beginning. But I don't think that is really enough to describe my thoughts about this song, so I'll say this; this song is in my top 15, on the same list as "Chlorine and Wine" and "Octavarium". That means that I put this song higher on my favourite songs list than most of the other songs I'll cover here.

I'm not saying this song is better than most of the stuff I'm covering, in fact it may be one of the weakest songs I'm covering, but I say you should recognize failures, but you also have to recognize successes. Often because the failures allow you to appreciate some of the lesser successes.

What makes this song different from most pop songs is that unlike most other pop songs like "Starships", I actually understand the appeal. The song has a bouncy beat that is easy to groove and dance to, and Ellie's voice is just beautiful. Even the song's theme is easy to identify with, it's about the fear of the dark, something plenty of us had and have.

A lot of issues I have with pop music is that it is often beyond basic, I mean repeat four chords and sing some song about being famous, in a break-up or just some generic dance song that doesn't hold up after the next big single comes out. This song actually gives me something to hold onto after all this time, allowing me to enjoy it much more than something like "I Knew You Were Trouble".

Is this a good song, or is it just a victim of what some people call the frozen effect? You know where a lot of the other stuff is crap making whatever isn't really bad sounds so much better. I do have to say that around this time I never really heard a lot of music on the radio, most of what I listened to was modern rock so I can say that this is a good song on it's own, and not just because everything else was crap.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and always keep an open mind, you may find something new to enjoy.

Auditory Abominations: "Mama" - My Chemical Romance

Most of the songs I talk about on Auditory Abominations are singles, the songs that were released on their own to promote the album and to showcase the best it has to offer. I do this because those are often the songs that people recognize more and are more likely to acknowledge are good or bad. Barring that they should be recognized by both fans and casual listeners alike or at the very least have some kind of music video. This is quite possibly the only time I'm breaking that rule, because this song was not a single, and I am not really sure is anybody outside of the Chemical Romantics, which I will use as a collective term for MCR fans, really knows or even likes this song.

So this may be a stretch, but as I said, you have to be able to recognize failure just as much as you should recognize success. I actually think it's a good idea to recognize failure more than success because it not only gives us a better understanding of what we don't like to listen to, it also helps us analyze other songs to figure out the kind of songs we like. Aside from whatever is on the Pop Charts, there are plenty of songs I don't like that other people do and the same in reverse. I am not a big fan of groups like The Rolling Stones and Rod Stewart, but at the same time I also like groups like Black Veil Brides and Nickelback, so I can't really say my taste in music is really better than anybody else's.

But why this song in particular? Well, barring the fact that I am not as well versed in My Chemical Romance songs, I also picked something up about this song when I first heard it, and anybody who has read my album review of The Black Parade would definitely know why.

The song starts with a familiar guitar riff. How familiar? Gogol Bordello familiar, because this riff sounds almost exactly the same as "Start Wearing Purple", which was originally recorded in 1999. This album came out in 2006, and honestly this is a gripe I have with plenty of songs. Not when they borrow stuff from other songs, because let's face it we got a lot of good remixes and covers from just that, but when I feel as though it could have been done at least a bit less transparently, because if I noticed this, how can somebody else not?

A problem I also have with the band in particular is that I am not a huge fan of Gerard Way's voice when he uses it in softer songs. There is a list of vocalists who can not pull off softer tempo songs and topping that list is Chad Kroeger, but Gerard Way is on that list. The opening verses to me sound like typical slow emo rock, which irritates me because I know the band can do much better with this kind of tempo, I mean listen to "Welcome to the Black Parade" and tell me it doesn't sound better than this.

Also, is it me or does Gerard kind of sound like what would happen if Alice Cooper got his DNA mixed with Squidward? Just a minor complaint, but it really does bother me a bit.

You know the "4-chord pop song"? I'm fairly certain that this is using that kind of song structure, because for the life of me I can't count past four before the chords repeat themselves. Actually I take that back, I can't count past two before the chords repeat themselves.

Thankfully the chorus isn't too bad, in fact it is kind of a saving grace. I'd say this song almost borders on the edge of being an Auditory Abomination. It really is not a good song in my opinion, but there are some good elements in it, and the chorus' instrumentals are definitely one of them.

The lyrics are kind of both, I never was a big fan of these really hopeless kind of songs, with some exceptions they never really gave me the idea of why the singer sounds so hopeless, I mean with lyrics like "Mama, we all go to Hell" I have a good idea of what should sound hopeless, but I kind of feel like it's just being negative just because, which I could totally understand if it wasn't, but with these lyrics I really feel like there is heart behind them, but no real substance.

Really I think this song may have been one of the weaker songs on the album and is honestly my least favourite My Chemical Romance song, because it has all of these components and it still has very little flavour to it. It has similar chords to "Start Wearing Purple", a nostril as a singer and no real flavour to it, and I think I dislike flavourless songs more than anything.

I don't hate My Chemical Romance, but I'm not a huge fan either, they just don't appeal to me as much as a band like Vampire Weekend does. That doesn't however mean that I can't like or dislike any of there songs, there are My Chemical Romance songs I do enjoy. This was however, just an odd little distraction from the rest of the album.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and my friends, start wearing purple.

Ace Audio: "Eyes Wide Open" - Gotye

When an artist is only recognized for just one song, it often overshadows a bunch of the artist's other stuff, even if the other stuff are a lot better. This is most commonly seen in the category known as "One-hit wonders", music artists that have one large hit (often one that reaches number one) and just all of a sudden drop off the charts altogether. There are many artists who have just barely escaped the one hit wonder branding like Mike Posner and Jeremih, but those are not the kind of artists I'm talking about. There are also those kinds of artists who you kind of worry will stay a one hit wonder, and for a while, I never had that kind of worry, because a lot of the music I listened to was rock and metal, and when I did listen to something popular, the artist often seemed to have a second or third hit, or was already a one-hit wonder. That was however, until I listened to Gotye, who you might know because of this one little known song called "Somebody That I Used to Know".

You see, I'm not worried about this guy becoming unsuccessful, because he really seems the kind of person who enjoys making music, no I'm worried that "Somebody That I Used to Know" will be the only song he is recognized for in the coming years. Not because it's a bad song, but because it is not his best song. In my opinion his best song is "Eyes Wide Open" from the same album, for multiple reasons I'm going to get into during this review, but let me state this upfront right now, I understand why this wasn't a big pop hit.

Like I said when I reviewed "Royals" a lot of these non-pop pop songs were making the charts and "Somebody That I Used to Know" fits right up there. These kinds of songs are pop enough to appeal to mass audiences, but not pop enough to have much staying power on the charts. "Eyes Wide Open" may have been too weird for the charts, in fact it may have even been a victim of being too rock for the pop charts and too pop for the rock charts.

But that doesn't mean the song itself is bad, in fact quite the contrary. As much as I understand why this wasn't popular, it doesn't mean I don't think it should be popular. So why is this better than "Somebody That I Used to Know"?

Well for starters, those instrumentals. God damn those instrumentals are amazing. Those drum beats set the perfect beat and rhythm to the song and the bass really compliments it. but what really steals the show is that slide guitar which really does give the song a very desolate, hopeless sound to it all.

That also isn't a complaint as this song is actually about an apocalypse, this is highly complimented by not only the instrumentals but also the lyrics. This song may have my favourite lyrics in any song, I won't spoil them for new listeners, but I will say that my favourite lines really hit hard, which the best lyrics should do.

Gotye may stay in the one-hit wonder world that the pop scene pushes plenty of artists into. However, I think it would be a massive shame if we at least didn't listen to more of his music. He is a talented musician and has made some really good songs from this to other stuff like "Bronte".

I'm the Entity of Darkness and always give things a chance, you may like it more than you think.