Ace Audio: The Songs from "My Little Pony: The Movie" (2017)

Woah, been way too long since I done one of these. Yeah, this blog has been on hiatus for a while, I felt as though I was working to much at this and needed some time off. Of course, in the mean time I have still been writing my Creepypasta reviews on DeviantArt, and have started some cartoon reviews on my YouTube channel, links will be at the end.

So anyway, the My Little Pony movie has been released and I gotta say, it was awesome! If you have kids, are a fan of MLP or just love 2D animation, watch it now! It isn't perfect and it's not for everyone, but their is way too much about the movie that I loved, not the least of which is the soundtrack.

Now I've done one of these kinds of reviews before, only instead of looking at a feature length film, I looked at Dorbees, but thankfully, this one won't be so bad as, even though the soundtrack has thirteen songs, the film itself only has about six before the credits, so I'll talk about them.

Now, I think the only way I can properly talk about these songs is by going through them from my least favourite, to my favourite, and I will say right now that my least favourite song is only that because of plot reasons.

This song is really cheerful and goes to show why Pinkie Pie is one of the best characters in the series. The song itself has nice instrumentals, they don't sound like The Little Mermaid calypso, but they do have a similar feel, even without looking at the clip I can tell that this song takes place under the sea. I also really like the message of this song, one small thing can have a large impact, so I still think this is a pretty good song. The problem of it lies within the movie itself, and honestly, the whole underwater scene may be my least favourite scene of the movie.

Really, all this song is, is a distraction, literally. Twilight uses this song as a distraction to steal a magical object, and that was a major distraction for me throughout the song sequence. I didn't feel like smiling alongside Pinkie and the others, I felt like hiding my head in preparation for the awkward moment where Twilight gets caught. I still think the song is good, but it's not my overall favourite.

Now this song is, okay. This song reveals the villain's backstory and basically just exists so the villain can say "Friendship is stupid, I am evil!". Lyrically this song struggles for that reason, it's the villain taunting Twilight and basically being the antithesis of the entire moral of the movie and show. So, what keeps this one from being my least favourite? That backing score, oh sweet Luna, the only reason this song isn't my least favourite is just because of that backing score, it just oozes evil. Something about orchestral music can really emphasize the mood of any given scene, which is probably why my favourite instrumental piece is an orchestral track. The song is okay, but the instrumental score is amazing.

So, this song literally came out of nowhere. This track is also fairly forgettable. It starts off a bit slow and kind of dull honestly, but this song does indeed pick up. The instrumentals that kick in once the song picks up are also kind of nice, kind of giving off a sort of Mexican sound with the acoustic guitar. All in all, this isn't a bad song by any means, but nothing is really the memorable about it, not even in a negative way.

This is the opening song and I do have to say, under most circumstances, this would have been my least favourite song in the movie. It sounds like it came from the show, which is not a bad thing, the show does have some good songs, but I don't think they are really amazing. However, a bit of that may have actually worked in this songs favour as not only did it really get into the spirit of the MLP world, but it also shows off the incredible talents of the main character's voices. I honestly also like the chorus singing "We got this", it jut sounds so, happy and celebratory, which makes sense as they are setting up a celebration. It serves as a good contrast to the rest of the film.

Also, this doesn't add anything to the song, but there were a lot of cameos in this sequence, from loved characters like Cheese Sandwich, to worst pony ever, Trixie.

Yeah this one is also pretty great. I do kind of like the beat to this one, the drumming is nice and solid, to the point they actually had to animate it in the film. I do kind of have a pet peeve with the lyrics, I don't know, "awesome" always seemed like one of those lingo words that would become outdated, you know similar to "Radical" or "Tubular". Although I do have to say this song just sounds awesome, and really does pick up towards the late-middle. Probably the first song I actually really liked in the film, although, like this review, the best song was save for last.

It is funny because I am not a Sia fan, but I would be lying if I said that this song didn't get stuck in my head. Especially that chorus, oh man I will be humming that chorus for a good long while now. This song is energized, and Sia definitely sounds really good. It's strange that my favourite song in the movie is the pop song instead of any of the orchestral backed songs, but you know, this song is amazing. It's just a burst of joy by the movie's end and it is, without any doubt, my favourite song in the movie.

And that's not all, the background music at some scenes was pretty good too, but as I can't find footage of them, and I'm just lazy, you're either going to have to see the movie, or trust me on that fact alone.

So yeah, I enjoyed these songs, even the ones that had some serious flaws I don't think I'll mind putting on every now and again. While I doubt that these songs will really hole the attention of anyone who isn't in the right mood for songs from My Little Pony, if you give them a chance, I think you'll enjoy them. I'm the Entity of Darkness, Fare-thee-well!

Oh yeah, before I forget:
Link to my DeviantArt: https://fanis01.deviantart.com/
And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSIOHCz8-YLW-9a1tIqa-TQ?view_as=subscriber

Ace Audio: "Upside Down & Inside Out" - OK Go

Or, why OK Go is more than just a group that makes awesome music videos.

Yeah, anybody who knows OK Go most likely knows them for they're utterly amazing music videos. I mean, when I eventually do my best music videos list, it will be a damn near impossible task to select one of their videos, and you can damn sure it will be top five. However, that is not the point of this review, I want to showcase why they are more than just guys who make amazing music videos, and are also good musicians.

Picking one of their songs was itself a challenge, I could've gone with "Here it Goes Again" as that was the video that got them famous. I could have picked "This Too Shall Pass", and I even thought about doing "Needing/Getting", but then there was this song, which was attached to one of the best music videos I've ever seen, and I thought that the video might be overshadowing the song.

So, I think the first thing I should say is that, the instrumentals are a weird techno-rock kind of style. I'm not talking about Daft Punk's Human After All where they included more rock elements, this is something entirely different and quite honestly, I like it. The opening instrumentals are very energetic and upbeat which is an immediate hook to any good song, really if you are bad at making an impression with your opening, or you completely change styles from your opening your song won't really go far, and this opening makes a nice impression.

The instrumentals do shift into a less energetic sound at some points in the song, but it's welcomed because the instrumentals themselves are always loud and upbeat. I think this is a good song to highlight something I don't like about a lot of songs, when they mistake being loud and obnoxious for being loud and upbeat. "Call on Me" had this very same issue, so what is the main difference? Something that is loud and obnoxious is just that, annoying and sometimes painful, and even though some upbeat songs can be annoying, it's never to the point where it physically hurts to listen to a song, "Call on Me" gives me a headache after just thirty seconds, "Mr. Blobby" and "Bananaphone" were both just annoying, with the latter song also being repetitive, and "Hello Kitty" was actually very close to giving me a headache with it's dubstep wub-noxious beat that took over the whole song.

"Upside Down & Inside Out" does not have either of those problems, even though, in some cases, it really should. Why does this song not give me a headache? Maybe because it doesn't sound like a drill going through my head nor like the song is causing my brain to vibrate uncomfortably. Why is this song not annoying? because, unlike "Mr. Blobby" or "Starships" when it does shift it's tempo and tone, it doesn't come out of nowhere and is actually a very welcomed change, the other two songs almost randomly switched into a completely different genre which makes it harder to really attach myself to those songs. Then we have the harder question to answer, why is this song not repetitive? Well, I think it is because, although the chorus is repeated a lot, each one is usually different from the last, take the ending part as an example, it begins slowly and then ends like any good upbeat song should, with a bang! Whereas in a song like "Bananaphone" the only change we got was changing a couple letters in the verse, which lost it's charm quickly.

I'd also like to talk about the lyrics, but I can't really find anything about this song. Wikipedia only has information about the music video, you know how I said the video was overshadowing the song? So, I'm going to give you what I think the song is, and honestly, it's not very easy to decide. A part of me thinks it's a break up song, maybe it's about making a personal change, maybe it's about being confused, or maybe it's about nothing at all. I don't really have much of a starting point to jump off from here. Although despite this, I do like some of the lyrics, especially this verse: "So when you met the new you/Were you scared?/Were you cold?/Were you kind?/Yeah when you met the new you/Did someone die inside?"

I wouldn't say this is my favourite OK Go song, it does lack some of the lyrical quality of a song like "Skyscrapers" or "The Writing's on the Wall", but I would say it's up there. It does a lot of things that usually annoy me in music, but in this case it actually does them correctly and not as badly as the songs I cover on the other part of my blog. I know that in the end OK Go is going to be known for their amazing music videos, but once the novelty of those fade, it's nice to know we're going to have good songs to go with them.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time is another look at the pop punk scene... hooray...

Ace Audio: "Stronger Than You" from Steven Universe

This is going to be tricky, Steven Universe is currently my favourite show of all time. I love it's characters, animation, music, even many of the arcs are interesting, but that is not what will make this tricky. You see, when I reviewed that awful SpongeBob song, the largest problem with that song was that it took away from the episode, things that could have made the episode stronger. This song is almost the exact opposite of that, it adds to the episode and adds to the character that is singing it. So, here is my compromise, I will first discuss the song on it's own merits, since this is a song review blog, however, I will also talk about what makes this song work within the episode after all of that, so if you have not seen Steven Universe and you are so interested in it, then let that be your spoiler warning, if you are curious but not to much, well I will still ruin a lot of the surprise of this episode, but hopefully I'll get you interested. Although this is no longer my favourite song from Steven Universe, I may get to my favourite eventually, this was my favourite for the longest time, and I want to do it proper justice.

A large chunk of what makes this song awesome is Garnet, I just love her character in the show, and her awesomeness can be heard in quite honestly, the first line of the song, it shows her determination where the animation alongside the song can show her overall attitude.

I think there is one thing that makes this song work is also Garnet's singing voice, this may be because Estelle does her voice, oh who am I kidding? It is because Estelle does her voice, and I just love her voice.

The instrumental accompaniment is very nice, Steven Universe uses music quite strongly in the series and it can really show-off the best in a musical segment, this is the reason this is not my favourite song in the show, that would be "Here Comes a Thought" because it's music and vocal work were honestly stronger, but in this song, the music itself surprisingly works. I say that because it is not a track you would consider putting on to fight, it begins softly and escalates, but it uses strings rather than full club/house beats or rock, and it sounds nice and different.

The lyrics are going to be tricky to talk about because a lot of them work when you consider the rest of the show and episode, on it's own the song might give you some idea of what happened, but it really becomes stronger when you watch the whole episode. However, there are some lines that are just awesome on their own as well, including the sickest of sick burns "But I think you're just mad 'cuz you're single".

Yeah, but to really elaborate, this song really works because of what happened preceding it. In other words, this is where the spoilers start.

Garnet is not really one person, she is a fusion of two other gems, and this kind of fusion on the gem homeworld is not accepted. Essentially, the lyrics are Garnet saying to Jasper (the orange one), this is who I am, and you can't change me. That is basically said in the song as well, although only half of it was said directly.

I think my only major complaint about this song is that, it technically is an entire episode sub-plot, as you also see Steven save Amethyst and Pearl and have their own confrontation with Peridot. Although this doesn't interrupt the "funky flow" of the song itself, but if you're listening to this song on it's own it does kind of become a little annoying.

Honestly though, that is an issue that can be easily fixed by getting the song from somewhere other than the show, and it is a problem that a lot of music videos have as well. Overall, there really is not that much of an issue with this song, and it goes to show not only how well music can be implemented in any show, not just a cartoon, but it also gives no excuse to people who think they don't need to try because they're writing for a TV Show, much less a cartoon.

I honestly wish I could say more about the song, but this is what it is, a simple song. It is not as lyrically complex as "Take Me to Church", musically interesting as "Road of Resistance", nor as iconic as "Take on Me", but if you're expecting any of that, you are going to be let down. For what this song is, it is pretty amazing, and I may get to "Here Comes a Thought" some other time.

Steven Universe is my favourite show for many reasons, not the least of which is the music, and this song is a good example as to why.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I am so sorry this one was late, I'll make it up by doing a mini Ace Audio marathon, with my next song being a lot of scat... That did not sound right, it's "Scatman" next.

Auditory Abominations: "Chained to the Rhythm" - Katy Perry ft. Skip Marley

You want my opinion on this song? It sucks, there, that is it. No, this isn't going to be so much of a song review, more a sudden realization of what I hated the most about this artist thanks to listening to this song. However, I will be fair and mention this song here and there, after all this is a song review blog. Besides, I needed to do at least one more Katy Perry song before I dropped her from my list entirely, unless she comes out with something that is actually an interesting level of bad.

You see, when it comes to Katy Perry, I always expect each song to annoy me to no end that I start questioning why I even enjoy music in the first place. I was expecting this song to be annoying, loud, obnoxious and so much more and it just wasn't.

Which made me realize what truly made Katy Perry my least favourite music artist, even more so than Limp Bizkit, Peter Cetera, Creed and Simple Plan. This is the one thing that made Katy Perry stand out as my least favourite more than any other band and musician I've covered on this blog thus far. To be clear, there is a strong difference between a musician being my least favourite and my most hated, least favourite, in this context, means I like it the least and that is Katy Perry through and through, whereas most hated, means that it fills me with such strong feelings of anger and loathing that any chance of me liking it has sunk lower than Marianas Trench. Thus far, very few artists have reached my level of most hated, but right now that is being occupied by Lil' Wayne.

Basically, what I'm saying is that, Katy Perry is not my most hated, because she doesn't really deserve being my most hated music artist, she is my least favourite because as her career went on, she became less interesting. I also would like to mention that everything that makes her stand out has been done by other music artists. The genre she is a part of has been defined by the likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna before hand, her outfits have been done by Bjork, Marilyn Manson, David Bowie, Prince, Liberace, Elton John, Michael Jackson again. Nothing about Katy Perry is natural, and her music just isn't that interesting, although "Ur So Gay" and "Dark Horse" are on my future to do list.

If you don't believe that her career became less interesting, I think I can devote a couple paragraphs to this song.

Honestly, everything about the opening bit is boring. The beat sounds boring, Katy sounds boring, not even the lyrics sound interesting. Some bits of it remind of other Katy Perry songs to, and quite frankly, this may just be the most boring song I have ever heard. I mean, "Glory of Love" at least had an interesting history, This song doesn't even have that.

The music video is more interesting than the song, all though that mostly is just because of how damn weird it is, why everybody is wearing 1950s style apparel is beyond me.

Skip Marley has a guest verse, it's pretty short and honestly not that interesting. Just like the rest of the song. Overall, this song wears it's welcome out quickly, and just doesn't give a whole lot, I don't think it's worth listening to, but then again you'll probably forget that you heard it after you listened to it.

You see what I mean? This song had so little to talk about, that I used this time to talk about what I disliked about Katy Perry. This song may have made my list for worst Katy Perry songs, but all in all I don't think it's really worth any of my emotions.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time will be something truly interesting.

Auditory Abominations: "Jar of Hearts" - Christina Perri

You know, I really should have dealt with all of these songs in February, but then again, it's better I get them off my plate now so I can cover more interesting things later. yeah this is another one where one of the largest problems with the song is how uninterested it is in itself, but alas, that is not the biggest problem with the song. Shall we do another lyrical analysis?

Before we get into lyrics, let's discuss the song. The opening is soft piano and a pitiful attempt at singing, I think she's trying to convey feelings of pain, loss and stuff, but she ends up sing-speaking instead. Also, I think that this may be, one of the worst piano songs I have ever heard in my life, "I Hate U, I Love U" is thus far the worst, but this comes close. The piano is just so soft and it tugs at your heart-strings and it is such a god damn tool. It is so much a tool that it just fades into the background, in fact I think that is actually what they did, they just faded the piano into the background a bit just so we can hear the singer.

The singer by the way does this song no favours. She sounds like she wants sympathy but all I hear is "I went through this, feel sorry for me". Honestly, I think it's really staying when "Detroit Rock City" is a more depressing song than this, and that song was by KISS!

But honestly, none of that really matters, well it does, but it's nothing compared to this songs biggest problem. The lyrics, oh sweet Dio on a throne of fire, these lyrics are sad. Not sad as in they make me cry, but actually knowing that somebody wrote these lyrics makes me sad.

Honestly, the first set of lyrics are, passable. I do like the line "I'm not your ghost anymore" which brings a pretty good metaphor. Then we get the line "I learned to live, half alive" which makes it sound this was a horrible ordeal. This is a break-up song, and we get a line that would sound right at home in "To Hell and Back", which you know had the line "Let them fall face down if they must die/Making it easier to say goodbye".

The chorus is also pitifully weak, I mean "Who do you think you are?/Runnin' 'round leaving scars/Collecting your jar of hearts/And tearing love apart" will not go down in history as one of the best insults in music. Then again, neither will "You're gonna catch a cold/From the ice inside your soul". Like, that isn't even worth a burn joke, that is just straight up pathetic. Honestly, I'm not really one for the insulting kind of break up songs either, I talked abut why in my "Addicted" review, but comparing this song to "Addicted" makes me shudder because it forces me to say the words "Simple Plan is better", I feel dirty, but it's true, Simple Plan at the very least was memorable for a better reason than having a truly weak insult.

She then goes on to sing the lines "But I have grown too strong/To ever fall back in your arms", and honestly, I don't buy it. She sounds like she wants to go back to him, and forget all the bad things that ever happened. We've all been there, but we've had friends to help us through the confused emotions, this honestly sounds like she was trying to work through these feelings on her own, which doesn't make one strong, it just makes you look like a loner.

Also, a minor nitpick, but one lyric that drives me nuts is this: "You don't get to get me back", it just doesn't sound or look right, and a better way to write it would replace the second "get" with "have" or "take" or any other synonym for "get". I understand what she is trying to do here, but it just doesn't work.

This is also another one of those songs where the majority of lyrical content is mostly just chorus. You know, I hate songs that are so proud of their chorus that they don't bother having more than four lines in their verses. I'm not expecting lyrics from System of a Down, but I am at least expecting you to put more effort into your lyrics. Metal and rock can get away with this because they often give a lot of time to instrumentals, but even then metal tries harder with it's lyrics.

This may be the worst break-up song I have ever heard. The piano is stock, Christina's performance is poor and the lyrics are weak. Nothing about this song works, and it just sounds like a ploy that screams "feel sorry for me!".

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and one more thing to get off of my chest before I can go back to interesting things.

Auditory Abominations: "Fight Song" - Rachel Platten

Music has many double edged swords, becoming more mainstream, making a charity single, becoming twenty-seven, but I think the biggest of these is making a self-empowerment anthem. This may not be the last song in that category that I review, but note that the majority of these songs are awful, it really says something when the best self-empowerment songs are not even self-empowerment songs. I mean seriously, this is why we have the Heavy Metal genre, is it not? However, I'm getting ahead of myself, so let's review "Fight Song" and wish that the only fight song we had was the Marilyn Manson song.

This song starts with a light piano. Honestly, I don't know whether I like it or not, it fits the mood, but it just doesn't sound that... good really. I mean, the piano seems simple enough, but at the very least "Walking in Memphis" and "Don't Stop Believin'" which also have simple piano, have great performances. So how is this performance? Weak as water, actually on second thought, water made the Grand Canyon, so weak as... I don't know, something has to be invented with the sole purpose of being weaker than the opening performance of this song. But hey, this is only the opening, the performance will get better right?

Honestly, Rachel Platten's voice just does nothing for me. Where is it written that every female pop star has to sound the exact goddamn same? I mean, come on, tell me the difference between Katy Perry, Ke$ha, Karmin, Rachel Platten, Kelly Clarkson and Carly Rae Jepsen, just to name a few. Actually, why is this a problem only with pop music? I mean, no women in metal sound the same, Doro Pesch, Brittney Slayes, Lzzy Hale, Joan Jett, they all have distinct voices. In fact, there are some pop artists who do have amazing voice talents like Lady Gaga, but no, what we get is another pop artist who sounds the same as every other wannabe pop artist.

Even in the chorus she sounds bland, like making a self-empowerment song was not enough to actually sound self-empowering. The beat itself tries to sound energetic, but what we really get is a watered down dubstep beat that tries in vain to make the artist sound interesting. It's Katy Perry all over again, but hey at least I could actually believe the message in "Firework", here all I get is, this is the lamest self-empowerment song in the world.

Lyrically this song offers little as well. The first verse is literally just simile about how small things can have large consequences. Which, if you want to write metaphors, first off do not use "like" or "as" those words make them similes and those are the easiest to write, this is something a third grader could do. Also, a better metaphor would actually compare you to a small thing that can actually DO something impressive, like an ant, seriously if you called yourself an ant, I would be invested because Ants are actually some of the most impressive creatures on this planet, but I'm getting side-tracked. But can you blame me? Ants, one of my least favourite animals on the planet, have become one-thousand times more interesting than music, something that I love with all my heart.

The chorus is really lame though, "This is my fight song", lady, I hate to break this to ya, but if this is your fight song, you are gonna lose! I can name you five other songs that are better fight songs than this, should I prove it?

1. "Through the Fire and Flames" by DragonForce
2. "The Pre-Fox for Death" by Necro
3. "Bodies" by Drowning Pool (Obvs)
4. "Aces High" by Iron Maiden
5. "Seek and Destroy" by Metallica

Isn't this why we have the whole power metal genre? So we can have fight songs without explicitly being about fighting?

"Starting now I'll be strong", start by putting some effort into your performance. Do I really need to go on? This is one of the most uninterested songs I've ever heard, no I did not mistype, I do in fact mean that I think that this song is so uninterested in itself that it could drop off the face of the Earth and I doubt anybody would notice.

Nothing about this song is interesting, and this is what I spend my time doing, listening to songs like this, with their dull music, dull lyrics and dull vocal performances that makes these songs so uninteresting to talk about that if it wasn't a self-empowerment song, than I probably would have skipped over it.

People, if this is your self-empowerment anthem, listen to some power/fantasy metal, it will probably make you a lot happier too.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and there are two more of these kind of songs that I have to scrape off my plate. No, not self-empowerment songs, but trust me they are just as bad.

Ace Audio: "General of the Dark Army" - Unleash the Archers

I find that Heavy Metal is one of the most divisive genres of music ever, maybe more so than Nightcore and Dubstep, but it is often times an acquired taste, and some times it's a taste you actually can acquire on your own. I remember the song that made me a metal head, which was "Enter Sandman", and since then I have been listening to lots of metal bands, Even some of obscurer metal bands, such as Dir en Grey. Although I would not really say Unleash the Archers is really obscure, I don't hear many talk about them. I'm going to take a look at one of their songs, and hope this gets some people to listen to their other stuff.

I think the first thing I should mention is that this is a power metal group leaning more on the fantasy /medieval metal side, which should be obvious by the band name. However, the soft opening should also be obvious to this. It actually sounds nice, a touch cliché for power metal, but it still sounds nice, especially when the electric guitar kicks in. Then of course, the harsher instrumentals kick in, but it doesn't sound jarring like it did with "Doris", it actually sounds natural. Although I can't help but feel like I've heard this opening bit in other songs, maybe by Helloween or Iced Earth or something I don't know, but then again it may be power metals equivalent of the Gallop.

Then we get the opening vocals, which are gorgeous. Seriously, Brittney Slayes has an amazing voice, and the way she sings "Beware the general" is just gorgeous. While I am on compliments, Scott Buchanan does amazing work on those drums, and the unclean vocals from Brayden Dyczkowski and Grant Truesdell mesh perfectly with the music and clean vocals. Unleash the Archers may have some of the best mix of clean and unclean vocals I've ever heard.

The lyrics are, fantasy metal, I can't describe them in anyway because there is no clear answer to what this song is about. The heretic executions of the dark ages, witch huntings, or maybe it is just about this badass general of a dark and damned army, or the Grim Reaper. The lyrics do set the song up for that interpretation, but then goes into "Stone the innocents/ Know they deserve it". Despite this, the lyrics are pretty cool, describing this general as a badass.

In fact, let's talk about that bit, because it's quite different from the rest of the song. The song itself transitions into that part so well that it doesn't bother to change notes or tempo, which is something that a lot of songs do when they change the way they sing the lyrics. That isn't a bad thing, but that just makes it more impressive when it can be done without changing anything major about the instrumentals.

The only time the instrumentals really change after the song begins is before the last chorus, where it goes softer again, but it is welcomed. It offers a brief (And I do mean brief), pause before you get another full blast of pure energy.

I think that is the perfect way to describe this song, a full blast of energy. Very little about this song takes a break, the instrumentals, singing even the ending goes on to hit that perfect note. I find that metal often tries to end with a perfect note and will go on indefinitely to reach it, this song does it well, but others do it poorly. Essentially, doing that is a gamble if it will work or not, but this definitely worked.

What can I say about this song? It's badass, it kicks ass and it showcases some real talent. The guitar work and drums are just plain jaw dropping, but the vocal work is what steals the show. It's really all of that stuff that makes this song truly admirable, and definitely one of the best metal songs of the decade, yes this is recent, the album this song is on was released in 2011. Whoever said metal was dead is clearly listening to too much Limp Bizkit.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, rock on! \m/

Auditory Abominations: "Hotline Bling" - Drake

I originally thought there was not a whole lot to talk about with music from the 2010s, especially since most songs follow a trend that is popular during the year or decade. However, what surprises me the most about this decade is not that there are few songs that fit this mould, but that there are many songs that do and still have a lot to talk about, case in point "Hotline Bling".

I have kind of a meter for songs I can cover on this blog, on the low end are the songs that seem to be simply outdated, at the very far end are the songs that full on offend me. I try to avoid both extremes if possible, even the worst songs I have covered don't go to far as to offend me, this song doesn't either, but mostly because the music is to mellow and clean to mask what is really wrong with this song. Yeah, this is going to be another lyrical analysis review, much like the atrocities of "Bawitdaba" and "Swalla".

Before I get into any of that though, let's talk about the other aspects of the song. Such as the opening beat, which is four drum machine beats played like it's an actual rhythm. Honestly though, it's not to annoying, but Drake's auto-tune is, I mean what even is that point of the auto-tune here? Seriously, what is the point of it?

When we the actual beat and music of the song, it's not terrible, although it sounds way to much like the Nintendo eShop's theme. Drake's voice also doesn't sound as entirely auto-tuned as the intro, although I would not be surprised if he still used auto-tune. Remind me to go on a large rant about this when I talk about Cher's "Believe", I've just to pick my battles at this point.

Well, it's lyric time, and the first problematic lyric is more of a nitpick than anything else, but I don't think Drake knows what a hotline is. He's using hotline as in ringtone and I can only assume the reason he used that word is because it sounded cooler. He also says that he knows "It can only mean one thing." Granted that one thing is fairly freaking obvious but just because you know what it is, does not mean somebody else knows what it is. A life rule to live by, nothing is immediately obvious.

I don't think this song knows what it wants to be, because it sounds and is sung like it wants to be a sympathetic break-up song, but at no point in the lyrics is there any indication that anybody broke up with anybody. All he says is, "Ever since I left the city" and we have to assume that at that moment she broke up with him and shake our fist saying "Doh, you broke his heart you evil person!" Which is not something I can do at the best of times, but certainly not when Drake is involved, or anybody associated with Lil' Wayne for that matter.

Some other lyrics of note are "You make me feel like I did you wrong/Going places where you don't belong" which makes me wonder, because there are places people don't belong like, the dumpster, the Sahara desert, The Sun, Encyclopedia Dramatica you know those places, but I have doubts that this woman is going to any of those places, so quite honestly, unless she is a goddamn child, she can go anywhere she damn well chooses.

Another large problem is that Drake never specifies how long he was gone, all he says is "Ever since I left the city", which, okay if he was gone for a couple days then maybe he would have the right to be angry, but as far as I know he could have been gone for half a decade, (Five years). In fact, the song becomes worse if you listen to it with that mindset because it makes Drake look so desperate that it almost comes off as abusive, I mean "Going places where you don't belong", "You don't need no one else", "Used to always stay at home, be a good girl", "Right now, you're someone else". You know what time period people would have said this to women? The 1930s, when women still had societal expectations placed upon them that are bullshit. Stay married to one man, bullshit!

Also, the last time I ever called anything a "Good Girl" was when I was comparing one of my cats to her brother, and how by comparison she was a good girl. Only by comparison though.

Break-up songs are everywhere, but I don't even think this qualifies as a break-up song. If it does, than "Breakfast at Tiffany's" also qualifies, and that is literally about two people who work through their relationship because they both kind of liked this movie from the early 1960s.

Looking at the lyrics, I feel like Drake should take OK Go's advice. "Aw, and it ain't real forgiving, it ain't real forgiving sitting here picturing someone else living". Link to that song here!

Honestly, it may have been a good thing this song's lyrics were like this because the song itself is just so dull. If it wasn't for the lyrics this would have been any other hack R&B song by Drake, but this has some of the worst lyrical content I've seen on this blog, not the worst, I still think "Swalla" has the worst, but this is currently in my top three.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I need an Ace after this... What do I have lined up? Power Metal? Alright...

Auditory Abominations: "Swalla" - Jason DeRulo ft. Nicki Minaj and Ty Dolla $ign

You know, despite what many people may think, it is not impossible to form an opinion on a song just by listening to one clip of it, in fact that is how many of us find songs we like. When ever we hear a song play in the background of something, or a clip of it played in a video, or as an ad in this song's case, we form an opinion on that small bit, if the opinion is a positive one, we go check out the song, if not, well that is why we have free will. This is part of the reason I have the songs up there if you guys want to listen to it, so if you haven't heard this song before and want to form your own opinion, you can do that.

A Jason DeRulo song has been on my list since I began, and originally I was going to look at "Whatcha Say", and I still might, but I think this takes a bit of priority because, even in 2017, mainstream hip-hop doesn't seem to understand that being obnoxious is not the same as being upbeat. So, here is "Swalla", really? This is going to be like "Bawitdaba" again isn't it?

This begins with a distorted ice cream truck jingle... Okay, that is one of the most random ways to start a song ever, but if it wasn't clear from the title, this lets you know exactly what the song is going to be about. WE ARE NOT STUPID!

The actual song begins with distorted vocals and the most generic beat I have ever heard. Then it gets worse, DeRulo opens his mouth. Jason DeRulo has had some okay tracks, I personally don't hate "The Other Side", but his voice just doesn't work for me on this track, it sounds like he is just doing the song for his next paycheck.

The opening lyrics don't help this song at all, "Love in a thousand different flavors/I wish that I could taste them all tonight", yeah, this is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, incidentally, that song is far more subtle despite being the louder song! Alright, trying to keep my comparisons until the song actually gets going. What's next?
"So you should bring all your friends/I swear that to all y'all my type". Oh goody, one of these songs, mindless background noise about no strings attached sex. Because we don't have enough of these. The bridge before the first chorus has the most annoying voice I have heard yet, DeRulo sounds like he is trying to mix The Weekend with Tiny Tim.

Well, let's look at the chorus, "Shimmy shimmy yay, shimmy yay, shimmy ya/Swalla-la-la (drank)/Swalla-la-la (swalla-la-la)/Swalla-la-la". Seriously, did you not have better lyrics than "Swalla-la-la"? Did that make more sense than "Swallow-low-low"? I mean, seriously, what the actual Hell? This is almost exactly like "Bawitdaba" except it makes even less sense, at least that song was purposefully trying to not make any sense, I hope. I mean, I haven't even gotten half-way through the song and I've already talked about the biggest problem, but I'll humour you, let's see if the song gets at better.

Our next rapper is Ty Dolla $ign, whom I have never heard a single song from, I just kind of assume that the majority of his career is featuring credits. Actually, I assume that about most mainstream rappers and hip-hop artists. He honestly sounds like Lil' Wayne finally finished going through puberty, complete with the voice sounding like auto-tune.

As for his actual verse, well, "Bust down on my wrist in this b*tch/My pinky-ring bigger than his" So, are they now throwing in women who are cheating on their boyfriends or husbands? Or is "pinky-ring" something entirely different? Suddenly, I miss "Afternoon Delight", that song was awful, but at least it's metaphors made some kind of sense, and yeah, it's not very subtle and still tries to be subtle, but you know, it at the very, VERY least sounds tolerable.

Dolla here also mumbles a lot of his lines, so even while I'm following alongside with the lyrics, it's actually very hard to understand him. Either, my theory that most modern pop artists perform while drunk is valid, or this guy is just an awful rapper.

After one more chorus, we get to Nicki Minaj, who I have talked about before. I'll keep this one brief, but her rapping style is speedy, and not in a good way. The speed doesn't sound natural, and doesn't work with her voice.

Anyway, her verse, "Bad gyal no swalla nuttin', word to the Dalai Lama/He know I'm a fashion killa, word to John Galliano".

Actually, that is something I wanted to comment on. "Gyal"? was "Gal" not enough so you had to throw in a completely pointless "Y" in there? Also, what does the Dalai Lama have to do with this? And I don't even know who John Galliano is, hold on let's see... Hmm... A fashion designer, I took Fashion Design in High School why didn't I learn about this? Most of Nicki's lines are just painfully awful metaphors that work about as well as, name dropping a religious figure in a song about sex.

Really, this song has more lyrical problems than that though, and I don't have the time to go into each awful lyric. Aside from that the beat is generic, the singers are all crap and I don't even think there is any hope for this song beyond 2017. If this song is remembered for anything, it will probably be for how awful it is.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and...

I'm burnt out.

Ace Audio: "Take Me to Church" - Hozier

If you were to ask me what my favourite song of the decade is so far, I would probably choose "Eyes Wide Open" or one of Aurelio Voltaire's songs. Yet, at the same time I could very well place this song up there as well. Back in my review of "I Hate U, I Love U" or as I call it, "Drone on and on the song", I called this song "Drone on the song done right". Well, the more I thought about the more I thought that this would be a good review to do, because in a decade that gives us so many amazing gems, it's always fascinating how we focus on one gem over many others.

This is going to be a difficult song to talk about because, I know that some people don't like this song, and that it can make some people uncomfortable, and yeah, it does make me a bit uncomfortable too, although I think it is more the music video rather than the actual song. Yeah, if I do a list on the best music videos, telling you right now I'm not going to be talking about this one. However, to me the feeling of discomfort is not a strong one, and dare I say, it is an interesting one.

The sound of this song is very depressing, and that makes sense, as the song came from a place of anger and frustration, with the Catholic Church specifically. This isn't the first song I've talked about with religious themes, I did a review on the musical atrocity "Dorbees - Making Decisions" a while ago, and I've done "Hero" by Skillet as well. However, those were both abominations, as they were both songs I took a dislike towards. The songs from Dorbees were annoying and poorly done, Skillet is bland and dull. Notice how neither of those criticisms were based around the fact that they were religious songs. However, this is my first Ace review where I talk about a song that is against the Catholic Church.

The lyrical content is not entirely based around this though, and if it was then it would most likely be an Abomination. It actually uses clever metaphor of comparing somebody's lover to religion, and when you analyze the lyrics, you see how demanding the lover can be. Lines like "To keep the goddess on my side/ She demands a sacrifice/ Drain the whole sea/ Get something shiny..." are all things people have said they would do for their loved ones, you know "Grenade" by Bruno Mars, but that song tried to use that in earnest, and this song more uses it to show the compassionless lover, or the demanding nature of religion. This is one of those lyrics over music songs like "Innocent".

The great thing about lyrics over music songs is that they are essentially poetry put to music, or maybe even poetry made for music. The problem is that they can usually be either too simple, or too complex, which is tricky to gage because everybody understands things differently. Have any of you read the poem "Introduction to Poetry"? I'm not going to give away what it's about, but it took me until I was eighteen to understand what it actually was about, and I read it while in middle school. It's not that it's a difficult poem to understand, but I can be a bit slow on the uptake. On the flipside, some songs and poems, and even movies get a little too close to home with their metaphors, symbols, and personifications. See the Nostalgia Critic's review of The Matrix to truly understand. I think this song strikes a middle ground, once you get the main idea of the song, the metaphor and meaning come easily.

Since I'm talking about a song and not poetry, I should mention the musical aspect itself, because in honesty, this is the part that really ties it together. I know I criticized the piano in "I Hate U, I Love U", and although it is kind similar here, it works because 1). It is not just one key left to drone, 2). It fits with the mood of the song and 3). importantly, it isn't the only instrument in the song. The piano only opens the song, and then before the chorus, we get some nice drums that come into full swing by the chorus. There is also some kind of droning "Ooh!" in the background, but it adds to the song instead of detracts from it. Letting sounds drone on is not immediately a bad idea, much like how using all your speed boosts at the beginning of a Time Trial is not immediately a bad idea, but it can become one if you don't know what you're doing.

Hozier's voice is very nice on this song, I can't really explain it, his voice just sounds nice on this song. It's also much more different than some of the whispery or whiny male voices we have in pop like Ed Sheeran, Passenger and Lukas Graham.

Although this is not in my top 10, I do think that it's in my personal top 20. If you want to make a song that sounds like it's droning on, this may be a good place to start. On the other hand, if you want a song that has strong lyrical content and some really good instrumentals, than you may want to add this song to your collection, but then again with all the success it has gotten, I think you already have.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I'm feeling in a bit of an 80's mood next time.

Auditory Abominations: "Doris" - Suicide Silence

So, how about that new Suicide Silence huh? Yeah, as I can definitely say that I don't think the band thought this one through that much. I mean, if it was just the fans who despised the album, that would be one thing because, fans often give knee-jerk reactions that are often unfair, but give them time and they often warm up to the product, see The Legend of Zelda Wind Waker for example. No, when everyone hates your new direction, that is another thing, and I don't think I have found a single person who actually likes their new album. Granted I don't like them that much because I hate the genre they're a part of, so I don't really care. However, I chose one of their newer songs because, one; it seems like some of the fans won't insult me over it, two; I'm always willing to cover more current songs, and three; gotta ride the wave when it's high man, although I may be a bit late to the party though. Oh well, let's talk about "Doris".

So, how about this song eh? it is not an easy beast to slay that is without question, because I don't like Grindcore I doubt I can remove a lot of bias, but I understand that it is such an acquired taste. So here is my compromise, I'll talk about the Grindcore elements, but I'll more focus on the song as a whole.

The song itself though is, not really good. The opening riff begins, kind of like a Hair Metal Ballad, Then transitions into a more hard rock sound, before finishing with heavy distortion. If this is what we are in for than I think I can end the review here. Almost sporadically does the song actually begin, like those songs that don't have fade ins or build ups and just dive straight into harsh instrumentals or vocals, except this did have some kind of build up, and if it didn't, what was the point of that bit in the opening?

OK, so my distaste for Grindcore. Overall, my biggest problem with it is that is sounds similar to me. I could exchange one Suicide Silence song for a F*ck the Facts song and I wouldn't tell the difference. The vocals often make the lyrics very muddled and confused and the instrumentals follow no real rhythm. Over all the genre to me sounds like what happens when you throw death metal into a blender and chose to record the sound. I am glad that the genre appeals to some people, but it just isn't my thing. So it's a good thing that they don't focus on the style for very long.

The opening bit barely even sounds like Grindcore, there is a rhythm I can follow, and I don't even know if that is a positive because the vocalist still sounds like a goat suffering from laryngitis while being mutilated and gutted alive. It also doesn't help that the song shifts into a different style, sort of. The vocals change pitch and there is a different style for some of the instrumentals, but the drums barely sound like they changed, they may have but they sound the exact same.

I don't get why they keep shifting from style to style, I understand they wanted to try new things, but the styles aren't explored in this song, like what Between the Buried and Me does with a song like "Telos", or like with what Tool does with a song like "Lateralus", I mean we get a slower instrumental piece, for less than half a minute, I'm not expecting them to give me five minutes with this slow piece, but at least thirty seconds, and for a four minute song I think you can expend at least eight more seconds in this part before you go back to you loud style.

About now what we should have as a good solo, ends up being a solo that has some kind of sound over it, I want to say it's feedback, but whatever it is, it's just as annoying. It also doesn't last, and then goes into another slow part, each of these pieces could serve as the end of the song and I doubt anybody would care, but we are only three and a half minutes in. Where is the Aspirin?

This slow part has frontman Hernan "Eddie" Hermida growling into the microphone, and then goes back to the Grindcore-light stuff. I don't think Suicide Silence really wanted to expand a bit more, because every time they do, they just go back to their sound before they have any chance to explore the new direction they're taking.

Wikipedia labels this album as Nu Metal and Alternative Metal, which I would never categorize Suicide Silence as, but you know what? Whatever you want to label this as, it's a mess. It's to afraid to try a new genre and still tries to step outside with slower segments that don't last very long, a vocalist who sounds awful and the strangest opening instrumental ever.

If they wanted to make a Grindcore album, they could have and I probably would have let it be, but what they gave us was, messy and not in a good way. Be a fan of what you like and keep yourself open to the opinions of others, if you like this song, that is fine. However, I think that this song could have used a few more rewrites and play tests to get it right.

Actually it's like Metallica's "St. Anger". Oh no! this is the "St. Anger" of the decade, a big name band releasing something that should have been one of the best things the band released, but ended up being one of the most hated.

I'm the Dark Entity, and if you excuse me, I have to go listen to something easier to wrap my brain around.

Auditory Abominations: "I Hate U, I Love U" - Gnash ft. Olivia O'Brien

As much as I don't like covering music from this decade on Auditory Abominations, I figure I should at least mention what I thought of the Hot 100 last year. Okay, first off Justin Bieber made Number 1, immediate problem there. Next, The Chainsmokers, can't stand them, and of course we get the usual crap from our pop idols, talentless new comers and Vine anthems. 2016 is no different in the pop charts than any other year in the mid-2010s, so I kind of just picked a song at random, so I guess I should go through with it.

The song begins with the most boring piano and female singer combination ever. I mean seriously, within ten seconds I wanted to throw on a more interesting song. I mean I'll give "Mr. Blobby" credit, that song may be worse but at the very least it's an interesting specimen, I'm only ten seconds in I can tell this is going to be one of the most boring songs I've ever heard. Getting back to the song itself, the female singer sings with the most uninteresting voice in the world, and she just drones on and on through the beginning of the song, and then there are the drums and snaps that, may have been used before "Royals" but that was the song that popularized them. I haven't even made it to the main part of the song, and I already want to end this review.

Gnash is no better, he also begins the song by droning on and on, because it worked for Drake right? Although considering his style, I think he wants to be a Macklemore, if the only Macklemore song he heard was "Same Love". He does sound like Drake, but has nothing Drake has, essentially he is Drake zero. The piano is also getting on my nerves, it is literally press a key and let it drone, and that is what this song is, drone on the song.

You know what this song reminds me of? "If You Leave Me Now" by Chicago, another song I can't stand for the exact same reason, it is boring, boring enough to put me to sleep. Gnash throws no emotion into his performance, like even some of my most hated vocalists like Austin Josh and Scott Stapp put emotion into their vocals. This is the equivalent of the acting in The Room.

I dislike the lyrics too, although not the extent of the performance, but they do this song no favours. It is some girl stating that she hates and loves our main singer here and that he misses her, and not "Her" as in the female singer, no he is talking about a completely different character in the song. That just makes everything much more confusing. Seriously, the chorus is girl singing "I hate that I love you and I know that you want another girl that I'll never be", and then Gnash sing-speaking "I miss you" to a completely different girl, and I thought "Lips of an Angel" was bad with this kind of relationship song writing, at least that song was clear in who was talking to who.

Olivia O'Brien also has more than the chorus in this song, but she sings with the same amount of charisma and emotion, i.e. NONE. I'll give her this though, at the very least she is actually singing, unlike Gnash who is sing-speaking. This part of the song is also awful, as it is her just saying, "I love you and I watch you watch this other girl and-" seriously? Move on, I understand it can be hard, but if he isn't interested or if he is spending to much time thinking of another girl than you should not be interested in him.

And this song, a song that has no emotion in any of the vocal performances, a Drake wannabe that only sing-speaks, a droning piano and messy lyrics, reached as high as Number 10 on the Hot 100, which means it actually charted, at Number 38 sure, but it still charted. Meanwhile in "Sweater Weather" peaked at Number 14 in 2013 and didn't chart until 2014 at Number 75.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and if you excuse me, I'm going to listen to "Take Me to Church", or as I should call it, Drone-on the song done right.

Ace Audio: "Innocent" - Aurelio Voltaire

The internet is simultaneously the best and worst thing to happen to the music industry. I mean, thanks to stream sites like YouTube and the like, we can literally find any music we want and anyone can share their own music. This is where we get artists like Gotye, and although this does mean that there will be plenty of talentless folks trying to get famous online, there are still a number of talented musicians on the internet that often get overlooked, such as Aurelio Voltaire.

If you know any Voltaire, you will know that two of his songs were bumpers for the Nostalgia Critic, those are "When You're Evil" and "Death, death (Devil, devil, devil, devil, evil, evil, evil, evil song)" or for any fans of Mr. Enter you may know "The Dirtiest Song that Ain't", well that's how I was introduced to him anyway. You may have also heard the song "BRAINS" if you grew up with The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but I never saw that episode. I would've done any of those songs and any of his others songs, but I chose lyrical content over personal preference this time. I can't say that this is my favourite Aurelio Voltaire song, that would probably be "Raised by Bats" or "Straight Razor Cabaret", but the lyrical content makes this song stand out.

Unlike most of my blogs, I'm not really going to go into the actual music, although whenever I do this, you can pretty much assume that the music itself if really good, since I am much more of a music guy before a lyrics guy. If I don't like the way the song sounds, I will dislike the song as a whole, even if the lyrics aren't to bad, and even then I can stomach some pretty bad lyrics or even a lack of lyrics if the music itself is good. This is what made "She's a Beauty" a song I didn't like as the lyrics mostly just passed my limit of bad lyrics I can tolerate. I will talk about the music and vocals briefly, but the focus of this review is going to be the lyrics, and oh boy what lyrics they are.

This song is about bullying, like the poem "To This Day", which is one of my favourite poems of all time, up there with "The Raven" and "In Flanders Fields". Although this isn't a subject I know well, it's not a subject that is foreign to me, and not just from media portrayals.

The song's opening lyrics set the tone nicely, by describing bullying as evil pushing down on you, and that is actually cutting most of the opening lyrics off. However, I would say that it's the third verse that really gets the ball rolling so to speak. "And all the venom in their words" describing the pure vitriol some bullies spew out, often times going beyond name calling. Aurelio Voltaire then goes further asking "What kind of ignorance/ Causes them to be so, / So sick and vile and evil?" which is a question lots of people ask, and although the song doesn't really delve into this, it isn't a song that analyzes bullying, but more a song that tries to inspire and encourage the victims of bullying.

The chorus of the song is nice, it's nice for people to hear that it is not their fault that they are being bullied, and I feel like this is something that people need to believe, it is never the victim's fault. He goes on to add "It's the world that's wrong" to the chorus, which is a lyric I both like and dislike. On one hand, sometimes yes, the system a lot of countries, especiallyAmerica, use often encouraged people to think they are better than another because of class and wealth mostly, but on the other hand, I don't think it's fair to exactly blame the world as a whole. I don't know, see what you think about it. The second and third chorus add some more lyrics, stating that "Someday the world will belong/ To the innocent", which adds a bit of hope to the song, that someday everything will be alright.

Although, I think my favourite part of the song lyrically is the part after the second chorus. Since Voltaire is a part of the goth scene, he mostly wrote this song with gothic interests in mind and goes on to name a few, wearing black, listening to The Cure and Siouxie Sioux and The Rocky Horror Picture Show. As someone who isn't a goth but loves the gothic culture, I love hearing tiny references like these, and it also let's others know that it's okay to like what you like and be yourself. If you want proof, you can easily replace each of those things with stuff you like, such as Great Big Sea or Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter. The song basically still works, whatever you put in there, whether it's your biggest guilty pleasures (for me that would be Aqua) or a song that you legitimately love, I know people who love songs I hate, and I let them know that it's okay because it makes them who they are, and a lot of them, I like as people.

But as I said, I am a music guy before a lyrics guy, let's actually talk about the music because it is beautiful. Voltaire himself is a guitarist and mostly plays acoustic on this track, but the band behind him does and amazing job, especially the violinist. The violin just makes the tone of song and no instrument ever feels out of place, nor sticks out in a negative way. Voltaire himself is a talented singer as well, and he is one of very few singers who can make the "moaning over a microphone" sound actually not sound like utter shite.

As I said, I'm more of a music guy before a lyrics guy, but some songs do have lyrics that really resonate with me, and although this isn't in my list of songs with favourite lyrics, they really did strike a chord with me, pun intended. If all you know from Voltaire is the music you heard from Nostalgia Critic, Mr. Enter, or Billy and Mandy, I must insist you check out more of his work, he is a talent and hosts a pretty cool web series on YouTube as well.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and being serious again, if you see somebody getting bullied, tell somebody because bullying is wrong and should not be tolerated by anyone.

Auditory Abominations: "Heart of Fire" - Black Veil Brides

I wanted a good song from you guys, and what I got was Skillet.

I like the Black Veil Brides, they have made some great songs like "Perfect Weapon" and "Knives and Pens", but even they were not immune to making a really crap song.

I could tell by the opening riff that this song was going to suck, it's Skillet light, I never thought I'd ever see the day I'd ever have to admit that Skillet is a heavier band than this, and these were the guys who gave us "Knives and Pens", not exactly heavy metal, but still a good song. Hell, the band never struggled with riffs before, especially considering "Perfect Weapon". I swear I could hear this riff from Fall Out Boy, hey at least then we could get something good from them.

Although I can't say that Andy Biersack is an awful singer, on this track he doesn't really sound audible, almost like he's mumbling. Seriously, without looking up the lyrics like I normally do, the only thing I even heard in the opening line was "broken bones", and I get that many bands become much more audible after you learn the lyrics, such as Cradle of Filth, but the Black Veil Brides never really had a problem with that. "Rebel Love Song" is clear in it's vocals, as is "Fallen Angels", this is not. Also, Andy does kind of fall into the trap of being one of those gruff singers that was popular in the 2000s, but he does have a bit of a distinct voice, so I can give it a pass.

The drums are a bit annoying, actually it's mostly just this one drum hit that repeats over and over again, I believe it's a snare, but I could be wrong. It's quite like the each consecutive beat in "Call on Me", it just becomes grating and annoys me a lot, and if only that was the biggest problem to this song.

Remember the Skillet comparison I made earlier? At least one of them? Really, it sounds like Slipknot doing a new song in the style of Skillet, before realising that doing so would be a bad idea and went back to actually recording good music.

The chorus especially gets to me. Andy's voice becomes much more nasally and somehow the song becomes somewhat faster, but doesn't actually change at all, is it me or is that actually the case? And before I forget, let's talk about the lyrics, being honest, they aren't bad. Although, I can't honestly tell if this is a break-up song or a song that is calling somebody to a fight, the chorus makes me point to the former but the actual verses make me think the latter.

After the second chorus, I feel like we could get a really good solo here, but instead we get the same instrumentals underneath Andy moaning, followed by a brief solo that is just alright, but even then it's covered over by more moaning, seriously why?

I don't like this song, considering I actually like the Black Veil Brides I was expecting something better. The song sounds generic, the vocals are messy, the instrumentals are bland, I don't think I recommend this song to anybody. Black Veil Brides fans, if you got into them from their older stuff you are going to be disappointed, and if this is how newer fans are getting introduced, I think they should listen to a song like "The Legacy" instead.

I'm the Entity of Darkness and since we're on the subject of gothic music...

Auditory Abominations: "Tonight, Tonight" - Hot Chelle Rae

Although I love this decade for music, I must admit there is a yin-yang happening. Since a lot of the good stuff is amazing, many of the duds and failures are much more noticeable. This is nowhere more apparent than the pop scene of the 2010s. Sure, we had plenty of good songs from the 2010s, but that doesn't excuse the massive amount of crap we also get, and although I've covered more good songs from this decade on Ace Audio, that doesn't mean that the majority of songs from the decade are good, although that probably is the case but to contrast, Hot Chelle Rae.

you know, the early 2010s were not a bad year for putting a rock song or two on the chart, I mean sure they don't sound as rock as Led Zeppelin, but by that logic Aerosmith isn't a rock band then. The decade had plenty of good rock songs on the charts including "It's Time", ""Pumped Up Kicks" and "Animal", but there is always a dud here and there, and I'm looking at one of them right now, joy bunnies.

This is one of those songs that pretty much just throws you into the water, kind of like "Basket Case", so there is no instrumental build-up to anything and the song just starts. The opening beat follows the frontman's delivery and it, works I guess but the instrumentals don't sound that great. You know how in some songs I complained about a sound where it could be one instrument making but it sounds like another? Well, this song has that problem too, I really don't like it when songs do this, mostly because I like picking out what the instruments are, is this a bass or a keyboard, or a guitar? I have no clue, and it also doesn't help that the beat is just "daa-daa-DA" in the opening. So how does frontman Ryan Follesé sound? The sound of his voice is hard to nail down, it is nasally but not too much. I don't know, but it sounds Meh, I guess.

The opening lyrics describe how the frontman's week has been, "Seven days of torture, seven days of bitter," So, did he spend seven days in a torture dungeon with the world's worst British pub? I know he most likely means his job sucks, but there really is nothing to go off of. You may as well say, "My week sucked, I did seven days of crap." Then of course, we get the perfect lyrics of any song "La la la, whatever, la la la" That isn't even lazy writing, that's just last second writing.

The chorus kicks in and suddenly Ryan's voice sounds auto tuned, it probably isn't because I've heard some bad auto-tune, but it sounds like it. The chorus also tries to make the song sound like a party song, except it sounds like one of the lamest parties ever. I mean even if "Dancing on the edge of the Hollywood sign" sounds awesome, there is no passion behind singing it, so instead of a wild and crazy party with people jumping around and having a good time, I imagine a party where the most dancing you do is like shaking your hips as you move your arms and legs in a circular motion, the dance people do when they don't know how to actually dance.

We also get one of the strangest lyrics I have ever heard, and considering I looked at "Afternoon Delight" previously, that's saying something.
the line is "I woke up with a strange tattoo/ Not sure how I got it, not a dollar in my pocket/ And it kinda looks just like you/ Mixed with Zach Galifianakis." I don't even know what to make of it, it's just so odd.

The chorus also drives me up the wall. It's just so, annoying. I mean, the vocal work mixed with the instrumentals, I can barely even tolerate it, and it's the majority of the song. The song is three minutes and SERIOUSLY! Three minutes and you couldn't write more than a piss poor chorus?

This song is crap, the lyrics suck, the chorus is annoying, the instrumentals blow, the frontman has no passion behind his voice, how this song became a hit I have no goddamn clue. I'm the Entity of Darkness, what's next? Another trip to the 80's alright fine.

Auce Audio: "Lazarus" - David Bowie

I'm gonna be honest, when people tell me to "get over 2016" I will always reply to them, "Sure, let's see you how you handle the loss of one of the people who inspired you." I understand that everybody dies, right now anyway, but that doesn't mean that we can not feel sad about it, especially if that person helped you become who you are, even if indirectly. 2016 stands to me as a year that many of the most iconic musicians died, but the year began with the passing of one of my biggest inspirations, one of my idols and the one artist who kick started my passion for music, I don't think I'll get over David Bowie's passing.

I've wanted to review a song by David Bowie for a while, but the problem was picking the song. Remember, Bowie is often called a 'Musical Chameleon', meaning that he often switched musical styles between albums and songs, we get more pop sounding songs like "Let's Dance", punk with "Rebel, Rebel", funk with "Fame", and a more slower style with "Life on Mars?", all of them amazing tracks. However, Bowie is not the first musical chameleon I've talked about, as by definition, Queen and Pink Floyd are also musical chameleons and I've looked at both of the previously, and that actually helped me decide on a song to talk about.

Previously, I talked about the Queen song "The Show Must Go On", talking about how it was like Freddie Mercury's Epitaph, for although he was dying, he still knocked the ball out of the park with the song, which made it Queen's best song looking at it from a technical point of view. So, I felt that it was fitting to look at one of Bowie's last singles for this blog, which in some ways is similar, but different in the right ways, so let's talk about "Lazarus".

The beat does begin familiar, sounding like "1901", but "1901" had a more electronic beat to it where this is more slow rock, kind of like something from Coldplay's Viva La Vida. The instrumentals at the opening are actually pretty good despite this, and there is some trumpet or something that kind of drones adding a very melancholic sound to it. As for the opening vocals, they sound very much like Johnny Cash's "God's Gonna Cut You Down" in tone, like this guy who lived this full life and is ready to lay down, he may have been ready, but we weren't.

There is this kind of cool, but also kind of distracting electric guitar sound that happens almost every time Bowie sings a verse. I don't know what it is, but it just kind of adds and also takes away from the mood, but that is just one bit. The instrumentals almost entirely make this song by setting the mood and atmosphere of the song nicely. However, the other thing that makes this song are the lyrics. Lyrically, this is more like Johnny Cash's "Hurt", a more depressing look upon life and quite melancholic. The opening lyrics also help with the mood and tone of the song brilliantly, with the line "I've got scars that can't be seen" being one of those lyrics that can mean many things, I feel it more means that he has pains we never focused on, which at the time could have been his cancer, but could go further than that.

I also don't know what it is about drums and drum machines, but they somehow add to the really melancholic sound. I mean "The Sound of Silence" and similar songs always somehow seem to benefit from having soft drum beats, I don't know why.

I feel like this was David Bowie's epitaph, similar to "The Show Must Go On", although where that one was more "I accomplished this and I'm not going down easy" tone-wise, this one is more "I'm ready" tone-wise, again similar to Johnny Cash's "Hurt". It's so weird to think that it's already been a full year since his passing, but Major Tom has sadly taken off, and although I wouldn't call "Lazarus" his best song, it was definitely a good song to leave on.

I'll miss ya Bowie. I'm the Entity of Darkness, and my best music memory, is playing "Let's Dance" on DDR.

Auditory Abominations: "Hello Kitty" - Avril Lavigne

You know, sometimes a song is just so bad that even if you never thought you'd talk about it, it immediately jumps to your mind when the subject of terrible music comes up. I thought this was just going to be another dumb pop song that is simply just a generic thing that would be forgotten in time, but no this had to be one of the most obnoxious and annoying pieces of filth I have ever heard in my entire life.

I remember when Avril Lavigne was still a Pop-Punk princess with "Sk8er Boi" which was not a great song, but truth be told it's still on of my guilty pleasure songs, but then the alluring charm of the succubus of success is intoxicating to all mortals, also the pop-punk scene dying out doesn't help either.

You know how this song begins? with "Mina sako arigato, k-k-k-kawaii." I doubt she knows what any of that means. I think she put on a song called "Mr. Roboto" and found that the Japanese word they used was pretty neat so she took that word a put in this sentence. "Arigato"  or "Domo Arigato" is the Japanese way of saying "Thank you" and "Kawaii" is Japanese for "Cute". Aside from that I don't know myself, and Google Translate isn't helping this time. Then it goes into the teen pop style of "I'm an adult but I still make songs about being a teenager" like well, a lot of songs actually. Avril Lavigne was 29 when the album this song was on came out and she's talking about pillow fights and playing Truth or Dare, To give you some perspective Lorde is 20, and Adele is 28, neither of them have had either of those in their lyrics.

But lyrics are one thing, how is the musical aspect of this song? Terrible, the song is dubstep trying to pass itself off as a pop rock song. When I think of pop rock, I think "Beat It", "Jump", anything from Walk the Moon, you know music that fits in with either genre, this is not a rock song, it is a Pop-tronic song. Avril's voice is just, GAH! It's like if, actually no I can not do a comparison for this one, her voice is just annoying and awful, and a huge step down from her pop punk years.

The song is apparently about her love of the Hello Kitty brand and some sexual content... I thought I was finished this with "Afternoon Delight" explicit lyrics are not necessary but they oddly help. The rest of the song is highly childish, and it's really only the chorus that could remotely have any sexual content, "A.D.I.D.A.S." is a sexier song and that song's title means "All Day I Dream About Sex". Even if this isn't  a song with any sexual lyrics, it still has very little to grasp lyrically.

That really is this song's main issue, it's confused, obnoxious, and immature. In interviews she said that the song was supposed to be fun and had the glitchy feel to it, (paraphrasing a lot). But again, that is the problem, just because something is fun doesn't make it good, I find it fun to burn things, but I don't go around setting other people's possessions on fire because I am not crazy. Avril Lavigne needed to either make this song lyrically better, musically better or just scrapped it entirely.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I need an Ace Audio...

Ace Audio: "Road of Resistance" - BABYMETAL

No, I'm not joking, this is a really good song. No, you weren't in a coma that skipped Christmas and went straight to April Fool's Day, or at least not that I know of.

I know people are split on BABYMETAL, but I personally don't mind them, sure not every song is great, but if that was the deciding factor of liking or disliking a band, I think I'd hate every band in the world. Really, they are just a Japanese pop-metal group, not to dissimilar to a band like Def Leppard or KISS, although those bands are better than BABYMETAL. I think what people should remember about the band is that they are both a pop and metal group, and are afraid of being neither. Some songs are more pop than metal, some are more metal and some are both. This song is more of the middle one.

Really, this song sounds like the intro to an epic anime, something like Naruto or Bleach, or maybe even Rurouni Kenshin, lord knows we need something better than it's English theme song (Link). This is because of the instrumentals, the instrumentals on this song are super good. That is something I must admit about any Babymetal song, the instrumentals are usually really good. However, the reason this particular song sounds so good is because of one reason, or two actually, Herman Li and Sam Totman of DragonForce. That's right, DragonForce. It's really the instrumentals that drive this track.

The lyrics are supposed to be positive, but I don't speak fluent Japanese, I mean I speak a little bit, kind of. I know "Old Macdonald Had a Farm", well, I can only say "Old Macdonald had a farm, and on that farm he had a crow", damn I really should have paid attention in Japanese class.

Well, I'm not expecting System of a Down or Led Zeppelin levels of lyrical content, but even if the lyrics are not very good, (Which again, sorry but can't tell) the vocal performance is also pretty solid, say what you want about the group, but they are decent vocalists and have good musicians behind them.

You can see how this became the opening track off of Metal Resistance, which I did a review of here. That is however, the album's biggest weakness, as it starts with its best song, not that the album is bad, but there is no real pay-off for going through the entire thing.

You know, overall this is an awesome song, The vocal work, the instrumentals and the technical are all solid. If you aren't into pop metal, you won't find a whole lot to enjoy about this song, but I say, give it a chance, you may like it.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I think I'll try to post one more thing this year. If I don't, Happy New Year!

Ace Audio: "The Sound of Silence" - Simon and Garfunkel / Disturbed

A good song never ages, it may even get better over time. These are not just good songs, these kinds of songs are masterpieces. Typically, I don't talk about these songs on this blog, because everybody already knows that these songs are amazing and classics, but there is another reason I wish to talk about this particular song. When an amazing song gets covered, the cover runs the risk of being not only inferior, but also really bad, see my Auditory Abominations on both Pat Boone's "Smoke on the Water" and Richer Cheese's "Guerilla Radio" for more proof of that. At the same time, not only could the songs be good, but there are times when they could be better than the original, and I am not talking about songs that are mostly just good or meh, like "Hurt" by Nine Inch Nails. I am talking about songs that are not only unrivaled, but also masterpieces in their own way such as "Bohemian Rhapsody", "More Than a Feeling" and of course "Stairway to Heaven", the songs that very few artists would ever try to cover, yet in 2015 a cover of this song appeared from a heavy metal band no less.

Disturbed not only did a good cover of the song, but they also did a version that was as good, and even debatably better than the original. Personally I like both versions equally, but both versions have their strengths. I'm going to compare both versions to talk about what each version does better over the other.

To begin, let's start with the vocals. There is no doubt that David Draiman has much deeper vocals than Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel, but at the same time they had the voice that worked for the style that the original song was in. It was much softer and lighter, but David's voice works for the heavier cover. Really, the vocals match each song for what they are, the lighter vocals for the acoustic ballad, and the heavier vocals for the heavy metal cover.

Another thing to consider is indeed the instrumentals, as they too play a large roll in both songs. One starts with a nice acoustic guitar strum and the other begins with a heavy piano. The instrumentals in both set the moods for each song perfectly, one being slower, but at the same time it is much more somber and yet has a tone of optimism in it. "The Sound of Silence" is not a happy song at all, but it indeed carries a very pleasant tone with the instrumentals.

Now the cover on the other hand is a lot more somber and at the end, very uplifting. Both versions have this weird feeling by the end where they dispatch the melancholic tone from the beginning and adds a little bit more positive energy by the end, although both with different means. Simon and Garfunkel accomplish this by simply, but effectively raising their voices which, in the 1966 remaster at least, matches perfectly with the instrumentals and creates an interesting experience. The Disturbed cover does this the sae, but differently, as not only does David's voice raise, but towards the end he also starts belting, which gives the song it's own experience.

In the end, I guess it only matters which version of the song you enjoy, the melancholic but hopeful one, or the kind of depressing but strangely uplifting one.

Personally, I love both. Simon and Garfunkel not only made an amazing song, but they mad a masterpiece. However, Disturbed not only made an incredible version of the song, but they also made a masterpiece. It depends on what you yourself prefer, the folk tune or the metal tune.

I'm the Entity of Darkness, and gun to my head I would indeed choose the Disturbed cover, mostly because I like the sound more, but I can not deny that it is only by a very narrow margin.