Trollheart

Hey! Welcome back, man!

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Tristan_Geoff

^^^

Missed you man

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YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

The Batlord

Trollheart's been back for a while tho...

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The Identity Matrix

Well I’m an idiot and can’t remember anything. I missed one more video from Good Apollo Part 1. The final track on the record, it culminates all of the hate and anger seething through some of the tracks. Storywise, the writer (the one telling the story) decides the best way to end it is by killing off the Prise Amberlina a representation of his cheating girlfriend in his life. What ends up happening in the world of the Amory Wars, is that the army of the tri-mage Ryan Wilhelm and Claudio’s rebel forces clash with the climax being the death of Amberlina. Songwise it is a pretty typical piece of prog rock from these guys. Lyrics are different, instrumentation is spaced out, and the track pleases because of this. I dig the solo and the vocal delivery I feel is on point. I do feel it could have been a bit shorter by a hair, but it’s not that big of a deal.

The video however, NSFW. Watch it and you will see what I mean. It is a representation of the writer killing his girlfriend for cheating on him. It’s actually related to the story this time so that’s good on them. The quality of the video and audio is crap, but it was self produced so I guess it was expected. The track fits well with the video, but the effect is sort of lost due to the garbage quality. If it were redone with a better production budget it might be better, but in its current state it has a hard time presenting the message effectively.


The Willing Well IV: The Final Cut gets a like while the video is a meh.

Listen to it yourself and give me your opinions. Like it? Dislike it? Why?

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What is infinite yet always equal to one?

Enter the Domain - The Identity Matrix Domain

"I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on." - David Bowie

The Identity Matrix

After much thought and time, I have come to the conclusion that this is most likely the worst Coheed and Cambria song. It embodies everything I hate about this genre of alt rock. It gives off such a distasteful sense of bravado that does not sit well with me. I am all for being loud and obnoxious and using profanity. However, this songs lyrics sound like they were written by a child. It’s disappointing though. The riffs are there but feel uninspired. Not a lot of progression in this song at all. The drums are ok at times but all of these bits and pieces do not make up a good song. Storywise this song is more of a tribute to the Dark Tower series by Stephen King, and relates to the main character Claudio in his journey to understand more about the crowing. It does have a cool concept behind it but musically it just falls flat.

The video doesn’t help it either. It is directed by Claudio and really is just a bunch of footage of the band. It’s not well cut either, so it can be a chore to watch. It’s meant to be fun and laid back but it isn’t easy on the eyes. There was some potential for a really cool video here too with the concept behind the track, but it’s not there. Disappointed in this production overall. I am glad to say that the worse of it is behind us and we can all look forward to much greener pastures for the next album.

Gravemakers and Gunslingers the song and the video get dislikes from me.

Listen to it yourself and give me your opinions. Like it? Dislike it? Why?

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What is infinite yet always equal to one?

Enter the Domain - The Identity Matrix Domain

"I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on." - David Bowie

The Identity Matrix

Risen from the ashes...

Year of the Black Rainbow - (2010)

Album by Coheed and Cambria

Here we go, first album review in a long time. I'm going to change up my review style a little bit. I hope you like it. Last time we looked at No World for Tomorrow. That one was a disappointment. Year of the Black Rainbow however makes up for the sins of the past. It provides plenty of wonderful things that fans of the band had come to love, while still experimenting and keeping things fresh. Storywise this album is actually a prequel to the first record, The Second Stage Turbine Blade, and supposedly completes the originally planned tetralogy of albums. Here is a quick synopsis of the story taken from the novel the album is based on (the novel is written by Claudio Sanchez and Peter David).

"Welcome to the world of Heaven's Fence, where a lattice of mysterious energy known as the Keywork binds and sustains life on a triangular network of planets--from the bleak and hellish Howling Earth to the sparse beauty of Bendelesh. Beneath the Keywork's glow, under the governance of the twelve grey-skinned Mages and the watchful gaze of the winged Prise, humanity goes about its daily life unaffected by the goings-on of the higher powers at work in the universe. Until the day when the ambitious Wilhelm Ryan, newest member to the brotherhood of Mages, acts on his growing discontent at being branded another ordinary Mage, ruling over one lowly Sector. Shrewd and silver-tongued, Ryan launches the Mage Wars: a devastating campaign to win control of the entire Fence and take on the legendary mantle of Supreme Tri-Mage, a position likened to God himself."

Now on to the review. The album is produced by Atticus Ross (Nine Inch Nails, and Jane’s Addiction) and Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age). Obviously this duo has some prowess and I am a huge fan of their work already. I used to not like this record at all. I found it to be on par with No World For Tomorrow. However, after subsequent listens and a couple years to digest, I have come to appreciate this body of work. The prog rock affectations are all there, complex drum patterns (The Flame of Error), excellent guitar work (Here We Come Juggernaut), and fantastic vocal delivery (Guns of Summer) all make up what I believe to be very close to the level of Good Apollo part 1. The record starts off with a string of tracks that ended up as singles or promo tracks later on, The Broken, Guns of Summer, Here We Come Juggernaut, and Far. The Broken is ok, it doesn’t set a good tone for the record as it feels more like something on No World For Tomorrow. I think it fits in the album as a whole though. Guns of Summer is where things really start kicking. A sick prog track that dishes out riffs, and excellent vocals. Combined with some of the better lyrics in a Coheed track and you have a winning formula. That seems to be the theme musically for this whole album. Coheed went to a place that I think they felt comfortable with. Here We Come Juggernaut and other harder songs (World of Lines, Made Out of Nothing, and The Flame of Error) all provide a sense of urgency that I just love. They keep me engaged and leave me with wanting more. Songs like Far and Pearl of the Stars, the ballads on this album, fall a little flat for me. They lack what that sense of urgency this album has pervading throughout. Normally I wouldn’t mind a change of pace in the album, but they had such a great thing going that I did not really want that to stop. The final song, the title track, unfortunately ends the album on kind of a boring end note. I don’t like the way they ended this album. I feel they could have left me with a little more satisfaction. It just isn’t there on this track.

The tracks on their own work well. Lyrically they aren’t too complex by staying clear of any special story elements. I come back to these songs individually quite frequently nowadays. That is a good thing. Being able to stand on your own without the context of an album is important to me personally. The album only improves the tracks, not lessen them. One major criticism that I see brought up for this album is the production by Ross. I love the atmosphere that he managed to build up in these tracks. The arrangements and quality of production really brought out some of the more notable tracks. In my review of Second Stage Turbine Blade I talked poorly of the production quality. I was questioned on that and I replied by stating that better production allows for new horizons to be reached (I didn't actually say that but was trying to get that across). I believe that had I reviewed this record two or three years ago I would have been singing a different tune. A much more negative tune. Instead however, time prevails as the ultimate mediator of conflict.

Year of the Black Rainbow gets a 7.9/10

Positives:
-Great atmosphere.
-Love the production
-Killer guitar work
-Excellent Lyrics

Negatives:
-The ballads leave a little bit to be desired.
-The last track isn't that good.

Standout Tracks: Guns of Summer, Here We Come Juggernaut, World of Lines, In the Flame of error

Weaker Tracks: The Broken, Far, Pearl of the Stars, The Black Rainbow (especially this one)

Does this review make you want to listen to the record? If so how would you rate it?

Thanks for reading!

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What is infinite yet always equal to one?

Enter the Domain - The Identity Matrix Domain

"I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on." - David Bowie

The Identity Matrix

I got obsessed with the topsters website last night and made this....




I am going to post any updates to this with explanations for those updates whenever I feel the need to. I'll also keep the most recent version on the front page of this journal.

Feel free to comment on any albums you find surprising, both in a good way or a bad way. More Coheed and Cambria should be coming today or tomorrow so stay tuned.

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What is infinite yet always equal to one?

Enter the Domain - The Identity Matrix Domain

"I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on." - David Bowie

The Batlord

That Pearl Jam is less sucky than the other Pearl Jam albums, but all are still at least kinda lame, and why THAT Megadeth album?

Oh ****, Spreading the Disease! Awesome!

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Frownland

Coldplay and Linkin Park

Lots of radness on there though, good to see someone who ranks Blood Mountain above Leviathan too.

It beats all of the albums that followed it at least. And no, I will not consider your case for Risk again.

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

The Batlord

I understand that, and **** you, but Rust in Peace, Killing Is My Business, Peace Sells, and even So Far, So Good... So What. Countdown to Extinction has its positives, but... wtf?

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