Hey guys, the Entity of Darkness here, I decided that album reviews would be too time consuming considering school, but I still wanted to look at music. So I decided to look at songs, one group of posts for songs I hate (Auditory Abominations) and the other for songs I like (Ace Audio).
This should be fun.
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!
Well, 'tis the time of year for pop stars to sing the time-tested carols for the consumers to eat up. The vast majority of Christmas music is mostly just covers of classic Christmas songs, not that any of them are bad, in fact with the right people, you can make a really good version of the classic. As much as I would love to cover one of the classics on this blog, I actually want to start with one of my personal favourite Christmas tunes. A popular gem from the 1980s known as "Fairy Tale of New York".
This is not my favourite Christmas song because it hasn't been covered by thousands of people, this is my favourite because it is not all "happy, joyous, and all that stuff." It starts off with a slow piano and a droning singer, and when I say droning, I mean he extends most of his lines, like "It was CHIIISTMAAS EEEVE BAAAABE." as a fair example. This is not a hindrance to the song though, as it helps establish the mood and tone of the song pretty much as the song starts, which means the rest of the song can be dedicated to the events of the song.
The song tells a story, and I love it when a song does this. This particular story is about an Irish immigrant couple, whose lives are ruined by addictions and bickering.
The opening does start off slow and somber, but after a little bit (about a minute in) the song adds some string instruments and Kristy MacColl offers her vocal talents. The sound is a good juxtaposition to the kind of depressing lyrics, although the first verse and chorus are pretty happy. I mean, the two reminisce about meeting, saying "You were handsome/ You were pretty, queen of New York City." and "We kissed on the corner, then danced through the night". It is a pretty joyous part of the song.
However, after that the song becomes pretty depressing. Now the two are throwing insults at each other, and wishing this was their last Christmas together. This portion of the song caused a little bit of controversy, although I think censoring the lyrics kind of ruins the portion. Also keep in mind that the particular word they use, has a different meaning in different places, especially in the U.K. where the band is from. This is also made a bit more clear by adding the words "Cheap, lousy" at the beginning, implying uselessness, which is generally what you would not want in a small bundle of sticks or a cigarette. Although, yeah it could be a slur, I wasn't a British person in 1980's I was barely even a sperm cell.
The final portion of the song is slower than the others, it is probably where the guy is trying to get the girl back, but it is not made very clear because of the length before the chorus. Seriously, there are like three of four lines and then BAM, "The boys of the NYPD Choir were singing Galway Bay," and then instrumentals. It still is a nice part of the song, but maybe one of two more lyrics could have made it stronger, or maybe made the song worse I don't know, I did not write it.
While I am on the subject, I do love the chorus, it is short, but gives a nice image, and I love the lines "And the bells were ringing out, for Christmas day." it just makes me feel good.
If you're tired of the usual Christmas carols and want something less like "It's Beginning to look a lot like Christmas" than I would recommend this one. It sounds like no other holiday song I've ever heard, and does not use the holiday as an excuse to make a happy song. A lot can happen on Christmas, lots of good and lots of bad, and this song perfectly shows that.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and Happy Holidays to everyone, and I wish you a grand new year, hopefully it will turn out better than this.
I have a pretty big project coming up that may take me quite a while to actually do, so I'm just going to do whatever I want to do until then, but I should have a holiday themed blog next time.
The 1990s was a strange era for music. At the beginning of the decade it was the Grunge scene that dominated, than it was the alternative rock scene, and then it was boybands. Really, no one sound defined the nineties, maybe a specific year, but not the whole decade. The nineties is not like the Two-thousands where dance pop and alternative rock were the definitive music genres of that year, nor the seventies where it was mostly disco and rock, and Elton John. However, the nineties are a fascinating little blip in music history, giving us plenty of oddities that we somehow still remember, yet completely forgot about at the same time. Anybody remember "No Rain"? "Semi-Charmed Life"? "Bittersweet Symphony"? You do, but not until I brought them up, either that or you are a real big music nerd like myself.
Oasis definitely falls within the category of a 90s oddity hit, but people really remember them. You know, people like "Wonderwall" and that seems to be it, nobody really seems to remember "Morning Glory" or "Don't Look Back in Anger", which both came off the same album, but people also seem to remember this song. "Wonderwall" I get, it's an acoustic ballad, which every teenager will just eat up, but "Champagne Supernova"? Why? This is not really a song that I can see mixed in with one of those "nineties classics" CDs you see at the check out aisle in Wal-Mart. But maybe that is the reason people remember it, because it doesn't sound like a song from the nineties, more like a song from the sixties.
You can definitely hear the psychedelic influences in the opening instrumentals, beginning with the sound of waves and then following with this guitar sound that sounds as though Noel Gallagher is drowning a slide guitar, I mean whatever sounds cool I guess. But seriously, the opening instrumentals are awesome, and immediately take me into the song, and get me into a psychedelic feeling. I would say more so than a band like early Pink Floyd, and I'm talking like Piper at the Gates of Dawn Pink Floyd, where they actually tried to be a psychedelic band.
Liam Gallagher does have vocals that split some people, personally I don't mind them too much. I mean, yeah they are pretty much is Bob Dylan had a colonoscopy, but still Bob Dylan has a decent voice and for the style of rock that Liam sings, his vocals match well. Plus, Liam begins with a much more somber tone in his voice, and slowly graduates to his usual level towards the end.
The lyrics are strange, but they are supposed to be. I especially love the line "Slowly walking down the hall/faster than a cannonball" just for how odd the line is. Personally, I think this is another song about nothing like "Loser" or "Bohemian Rhapsody", but everybody has their own interpretations of this song. I like a song that is not directly about anything, it is kind of a nice break to listen to a song like it, considering I listen to a lot of metal, which can get very political, putting it very lightly.
I also love the guitar solos, being pretty reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix but still distinct on it's own. I can't help but think of floating aimlessly on an ocean whenever I hear the song, it's pretty amazing.
The 1990s was an odd time for music, but we got plenty of gems from the rough, and many of those gems were rough. It was a fascinating time that gave us a song that was very reminiscent of the psychedelic era, but still felt right at home in the Alternative scene of the mid to late 90s. Considering plenty of other songs like this have essentially become novelties at this point, it's nice to see that there is still an audience of a song like this.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I would comment on the Gallagher brothers, but you know what? It's December, let's just leave it for now.
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.
How did it take me this long to get to my favourite band? Not even looking at my Auditory Abominations, this is my thirteenth Ace Audio, and the first one I did was of one of my favourite songs, but not my favourite. Also, while I'm on the subject, I did do my first Auditory Abomination on a song by my most hated music artist, so in all fairness, this was a bit overdue.
System of a Down is my favourite band, they are rough, political and oh so blunt, that is the best way I can describe them, although they have polished their sound quite a bit, especially for songs like "Chop Suey!" and "Soldier Side", which is a contrast to a song like "BYOB" or "Sugar". The song I'm looking at is one of these polished songs, but it is my favourite System of a Down song, although I may do one of their rougher songs in the future.
The song begins with a slow, orchestral build up, followed by a simple but melodic guitar riff. After a heavy drum beat, the vocals kick in loudly. This is the moment the song really kicks up, as the electric guitars and drums kick in and Serj's vocals burst in with some amazing opening lyrics. Not as good as "The Sound of Silence", but it still has a nice simile, and is followed by some incredible guitar work by Daron Malakian.
What makes this my favourite System of a Down song though? It is simple really. The guitar work is rough, but very smooth, Serj has quite clean vocals, but they match the instrumentals perfectly. I also love the lyrics, they are drenched in beautiful simile and feature plenty of good metaphors and images. The lines "We drink from the river, than we turn around and put up our walls." Which could mean so many things. It could be a metaphor for segregation or even something as easy as country borders.
I also love the lyrics "We are the ones that want to choose/Always want to play, but you never want to lose", which could refer to war, riots, or again, even something as simple as getting placed in prison.
Although, I am not sure what the chorus is more or less about, it does sound really good though. The entire song sounds really nice, something like a traditional rhythm, although I myself am not particularly versed in traditional music of any culture, aside from folk music of Ireland and Eastern Canada, so I am not an expert. But the instrumentals just make this song, and there is an odd keyboard sound in the second chorus, but it also sounds really nice.
And speaking of traditional songs, the album version of this song has a bonus addition, an instrumental known as "Arto". It sounds nice, but I am kind of annoyed at how it is sort of tacked on at the end of the song. When My Chemical Romance had a bonus track in "Blood", they had it play as it's own song, instead of tacking it on at the end of "Famous Last Words". So, what I'm saying is, that a band I don't like a whole lot, actually did something better than my favourite band.
But as a whole, the song is beautiful. "Chop Suey!" may be a close second for my favourite SOAD song, but this one outshines it by a lot. It was not only an amazing song, but a great way to end the album on. Songs like this and "Question!" are the reasons System of a Down is my favourite band, and I loved looking at this song.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and next time will be something fun.
When you think of rock in the 2000s what do you think? Gorillaz, The White Stripes, Modest Mouse, Arcade Fire and The Killers. But the 2000s was also the decade that rock got whiney with groups like My Chemical Romance, Linkin Park, Hinder and Simple Plan, because this was the decade teenage angst made good song tones. Not that every whiney group was bad, My Chemical Romance has some good songs, Linkin Park was an awesome band, and some of the modern rock today like Imagine Dragons aren't too bad. The reason that a whiny song like this is bad is simple, it sounds awful.
The opening piano is alright, an easily spotted emotional ploy to get you into the mood of a depressing song, but not too bad. The orchestral backing though is a bit generic, it just sounds like the exact same orchestral backing that accompanies every other sappy and or depressing song from the late 1990s up to now.
Of course in the same vein of Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance, the vocalist is as nasally as, oh boy I need to stop picking on Bob Dylan, so uhh.... Arlo Guthrie I guess, my Dad suggested that one. The lyrics include the obvious "I was blind" line to make the situation sappier or more depressing, as well as the "I can't remember" line, and the "I can't stand the pain" line. All of these generic lines were in the opening, giving you an idea of what we are in for with this particular song.
But the song really becomes an abomination with the chorus. The whiny sing-yelling of "How could this happen to me?" is just unbearable. It's like listening to Twenty One Pilots after they were kicked in their crotches and had stuffy noses. It also has some generic lines, the "I'm fading away" line, the "How could this happen to me?" line, the "I've made my mistakes" line, it's all there.
And the song drones on for three whole minutes, with more generic lines like "Hanging by a thread", "I try to hold on to a time" and "I can't explain what happened". Not only are these generic lines, but also lines that have been written and sung better in different songs, these lyrics are as basic and generic as "The Reason".
The song is unbearable, it is highly annoying with basic lyrics, a singer who sounds like if SpongeBob ate the lead block under his hat, and obvious musical accompaniment that sounds more in tune with a soap opera than a depressing song about someone passing.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I think next time I'll do something a bit special.
I know I said I wanted to take the blog out of the 2010s but I could not resist doing this song because it is quite possibly the worst song of 2013, actually that is not true, as I would personally say "Love Me" by Lil Wayne is a worse song. Yeah, when I say that the 2010s are a great decade for music, I mean it in a sense that a lot of the good stuff is really good, same with the 70s and 80s, the top two greatest decades for music, unrivaled at this point in time. However, that does not mean this decade is devoid of crap, like say the 1970s, I mean that decade had "If You Leave Me Now", "Afternoon Delight", "The Way We Were", and the horror of any music fan, "Disco Duck". Yeah the 70s had a load of crap, and if we got into the 80s, well that could be a whole top fifty. The point is, no decade is immune from having crap, so what really makes this decade special? It seems like the crap from this decade is torn apart even worse than the crap from previous decades, I mean what really is the difference between a lame and boring soft rock song of the 70s and a generic and boring electro-pop dance song of the 2010s? The short answer, the genre and that is it.
However, does the decade have worse music? Well, yes and no, I will say that the worst songs of the 1970s are immensely more listenable than the worst songs of this decade, but the worst of the 70s are just kind of boring which makes them unlistenable in there own right, and I can say what I want about a song like this, but it sure ain't boring, or easily forgettable. Pop music today has become somewhat of an earworm, which to some means the same thing as catchy, but there is a difference, namely that a catchy song is something you hum once or twice during the month instead of the entire day for a week like an earworm. A catchy song like "Wild Child" may pop into your head at really inconvenient times, but not anywhere near as often as an obnoxious earworm like this.
The first sign of the total earworm levels of the song start right from the electro-pop beat, which is to say it has no real beat or rhythm. A five year old banging on pots and pans has better rhythm than whoever assembled the beat to this. It quite frankly sounds like a dentist drill going off in your ear, which is reason enough to have it feature on this blog, but it goes an extra mile. If you thought "I Knew You Were Trouble" had a simple chorus, you will be begging to have a chorus like that after this. It follows the great logic of songs like "All The Small Things", "She Hates Me", "Lovin' You" and the theme song to The Brothers Flub and does not even trying to have lyrics. After the one verse in the entire chorus it just goes into going "Na na na na" because apparently sodium is the most popular of all the elements.
I want to also note the odd intro to the music video as it seems like it's building up this massive operatic song or heavy metal anthem or something that would require the lightning, eagle and "Whooh" sound effects. Then the weird bit with the drumming and chanting that sounds out of place with the rest of the song.
Selena herself does not do this song any favours. She does not sound as invested in singing the song as someone like Lorde, Lady Gaga or even Miley Cyrus, yeah Miley Cyrus sounds more interested in singing than Selena Gomez does. You can pretty much get all the substance you can from the song by the first stanza as well, all though being fair, I find that is the same with most songs about sex.
The song also has a lot of repetition of syllables and verses and a couple echo effects. I can only assume that it is either to make the song sound more artsy, which most likely isn't because this is pop music, or just for the sake of effects, which I've complained about before.
Also the Music Video sucks, not really important, just want to mention that the music video sucks.
I don't want to make it look as though this entire decade is crap, it really is not as we have got a lot of great stuff from this decade, "Swimming Pools (Drank)", "Locked Out of Heaven", "Chlorine and Wine", Disturbed's cover of "Sound of Silence", "Upside Down, Inside Out", this is an amazing decade for music, but so was the 1970s and there was still a large amount of shovel ware in that decade. It's the same with every decade, there is always the stuff that is just crap, this and the other stuff from the 2010s I've done an Auditory Abomination are examples of that, but there is still a lot of really good stuff out there, just dig a bit deeper.
I'm the Entity of Darkness, and I think I'll just do more songs I should have done at the start of this blog.
