The Identity Matrix

Welcome everyone to The Identity Matrix’ Music Journal. A place where I will be constantly giving out album reviews, track reviews, music based rants, non-music based rants, and other little surprise projects that I am working on. This is a place where I am able to get my writings out into the public so that I can get feedback and get people to listen (or not listen) to some albums that I review. There will be discussion topics thrown in here once in awhile so I can keep all of those under one thread for now. Anyway I hope you enjoy your stay in this domain, as well as find something new.







A few rules that only pertain to me…

1. I will be color coding the titles of each main post of this journal. Red means album reviews or track reviews, Blue means rant regarding music, Purple means rant not regarding music, Green means announcement of a project (i.e discography reviews, focus on certain time periods or genres), and finally Black means standard discussion topic.

2. I am very accepting of any positive or negative feedback to help improve the journal and my writing skills. So please critique away!

3. Finally, I am certainly not expecting this to take off considering I am fairly new to this forum. This was the major reason I wanted to join. To create a journal to allow me to write down my musical opinions, with a few non-musical, and share them with others. Thus I will be spending a lot of time and effort on here so I won’t be just quitting if I don’t get a single response on this thread in a week. I promise to keep at it no matter what.

4. I will be following a set guideline for the way I score albums. I will be running a 100 point system in the case of each Point being worth .1 of the final score for each album reviewed. Track reviews will be done without a score only a like, dislike, and why the case is.

A quick breakdown for scoring purposes
9.1-10 A fantastic record that I would recommend to anyone regardless of preference for genres
8.1-9.0 A great record that has few to quite a few nit picky details that turn me off but otherwise a rec to anyone into the genre or band
7.1-8.0 a good record that has something glaring at me and saying "I'm not perfect" it may be a specific song or two or an overarching issue that hurts all the songs just a little bit
6.1-7.0 an ok record that failed to hit a home run. Very few standout tracks but filled with passable to mediocre ones. A skip for most people but not a waste of time.
5.1-6.0 an average record that feels like it had some potential but wasted it on a few bad tracks. Maybe deserves a listen if you are curious but other than that I wouldn't recommend it.
4.1-5.0 a bad record that is a waste of time. It might have one or two good tracks to pick out but otherwise leave it where it lies.
3.1-4.0 a terrible record that may have one to two passable tracks but that's it. Not worth a full listen ever.
2.1-3.0 a horrible record that makes my ears bleed or causes me to throw up. Take your pick. It won't matter because this album is just bad.
1.1-2.0 just no. Don't even bother asking me why I didn't like it because I'll be too busy trying to forget about the whole thing.
0.0-1.0 I don't think I will ever reach rock bottom, but if I do, this is it. Lock it in a box and throw it into a volcano.

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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

grindy

Looking forward to reading your journal. Good luck!

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A smell of petroleum prevails throughout.

Tristan_Geoff

Welcome to music banter! Excited to see where this goes... didn't you say something about reviewing the Coheed and Cambria discography? You should do the complete discog then, like even singles, DVD releases, and EPs, as well as reading Armory Wars and giving a review per chapter. That'd be sweet.

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YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

The Identity Matrix

I present my first project, the complete review of the band Coheed and Cambria. I talked about this yesterday in CoNtrivedNiHilism's review of the Color Before the Sun. When I say complete review I mean I will be looking at the band's studio albums, live albums, any singles and EPs that have come out thus far. I will also be discussing the Amory Wars story that is told through the studio records as well as the books, comics, and website. I will start with the studio albums and then branch off into the other items. I am excited to share this project with everyone. I will be giving brief overviews of how each album is incorporated into the story, and after all of the albums are finished I will give a full reviews on each part of the story. Hope everyone is willing to jump aboard this ambitious voyage of mine. First review should be up tomorrow.

A checklist of the items to review (Red denotes incomplete)

Studio Records: I will be posting Singles, and Music Video reviews after their respective albums' review has been finished.

-The Second Stage Turbine Blade (2002)
-In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 (2003)
-Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume One: From Fear Through the Eyes of Madness (2005)
-Good Apollo, I'm Burning Star IV, Volume Two: No World for Tomorrow (2007)
-Year of the Black Rainbow (2010)
-The Afterman: Ascension (2012)
-The Afterman: Descension (2013)
-The Color Before the Sun (2015)

Live Albums

-Live at La Zona Rosa (2004)
-Live at the Avalon (2005)
-Live at the Starland Ballroom (2005)
-Kerrang!/XFM UK Acoustic Sessions (2006)
-The Afterman (Live Edition) (2013)

EPs (the first three were released under the bands prior name Shabutie)

-Plan to Take Over the World (1999)
-The Penelope EP (1999)
-Delirium Trigger (2000)
-Neverender 12% (2009)

Video Albums

-Live at the Starland Ballroom (2005)
-The Last Supper: Live at Hammerstein Ballroom (2006)
-Neverender: Children of The Fence Edition (2009)

I am super excited to get started with this, and I hope everyone else enjoys my first journal project. Oh and feel free to throw out your own opinions of the band and their music as well.

__________________
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

I think that's the biggest thing people need to keep in mind about journals. Even aside from all the work involved in keeping one up regularly and with quality entries, it can be kind of discouraging when you pour your heart and soul into a post, only to get zero responses. You'll be lucky to get one response for every five entries, and this applies to just about everyone's journals, no matter how established the member or how good the journal.

Just stick with it and assume that with quality of posts comes quantity of readers.

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The Identity Matrix

Appreciate the advice Batlord. I will keep at it, its just something thats been a part of my personality for awhile now.

__________________
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

Tristan_Geoff

Yes! Excited to see how your complete discog plays out and you definitely have a regular reader with me.

__________________
YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

The Identity Matrix

The Second Stage Turbine Blade - (2002)

Album by Coheed and Cambria

The studio debut of Nyack, New York Prog Rock outfit Coheed and Cambria. Previously known as Shabutie, Coheed and Cambria formed in 1995 under the Shabutie Moniker until changing their name to Coheed and Cambria. Named after main characters from lead singer/guitarist Claudio Sanchez's Amory Wars story line. A space fantasy epic similar in scope to Star Wars or Star Trek. The band is working with multiple genre influences to create a style that is unique to Coheed. Post-hardcore, progressive rock/metal, and pop influences are all seen throughout this record. Coheed and Cambria generally do a good job in not overstaying there welcome by avoiding any prog jams in the longer tracks and in fact every moment is well spent on these longer tracks. Time Consumer and Junesong Provision both provide substance without sacrificing the creative flexibility of having longer tracks. Coheed also successfully create some much more direct tracks in 33, Delirium Trigger, and Devil in Jersey City that involve more of the post-hardcore and pop rock elements that are catchy but also provide some weighty lyrical contents. In fact the biggest irony of the whole album is that the upbeat tempo and style that is used throughout the tracks are combined with very heavy lyrics about depression, suicide, death, and other negative ideas. It works. Which is what makes the album so enjoyable. It keeps you from spacing out while listening, it keeps you engaged. Something I love about the album.

Now its not all thumbs up for this record as there are a couple of major issues that stand out. First of these is the production quality. It can get to be very raw, especially when this band needs the production to really bolster their sound rather than take away from it. In their later albums (which are not being considered with the scoring of this record) they use production effects to their advantage to create walls of sound that bolster the sound of the band. Certain songs on the record just doesn't sound good when played at a lower quality. The production does not hurt all of the songs as Time Consumer, Delirium Trigger, and 33 all are not affected by the production quality at all and in fact sound great. The songs that are hampered by the production are Junesong Provision, Hearshot Kid Disaster, and Neverender. My other issue with the album is that I feel that the story is much better told in the front half of the album than the latter half. You are able to digest it a little easier in songs like Everything Evil where some of the big events in the story, the Monstar virus is introduced which is the virus I mentioned earlier, unfold in a way that allows the story to be told. But in the end God Send Conspirator does not really rap up the whole project. It instead leaves one hanging with more questions, and not the intriguing ones either.

The album is not perfect, but it is one of the better concept albums released in the 2000s, (soon to be beaten by its own sequel). The tracks themselves, for the most part, stand on their own. All of the tracks remain in rotation hear in the Domain, my main playlist, and are hardly skipped. But the production on the album is the overriding issue that keeps me from giving this album a top tier rating.

The Second Stage Turbine Blade gets a 7.6/10

Positives:
-Songs are engaging with lyrical content
-Tracks stand on their own
-Sets up the story well

Negatives:
-Rough production quality
-Latter half of the album isn't great in telling the story

Standout Tracks: Time Consumer, Everything Evil, 33, Devil in Jersey City

Weaker Tracks: Neverender, God Send Conspirator

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

Thanks for reading!

__________________
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

Tristan_Geoff

Good review, I've heard a few songs off this album but I'll probably listen to the rest soon. Out of curiousity, why do you think rawer production takes away from the music?

__________________
YW Fam: All MB Music Projects Under One Roof

Emo/Pop Punk Journal

Techno Journal

The Identity Matrix

Quick Note: Before the review begins I want to let everyone know that I am not confining myself to the current project listed on the OP. I want to be able to review or talk about other things outside the current main project. Thus I will be doing other reviews when albums or tracks I wish to review come out.

Take a moment and thank your lucky stars that the men behind 2009's excellent Cosmic Egg are back after the misstep they took with 2014's New Crown. No longer do they feel held back by their influences like on New Crown. No longer do they feel outdated and boring like on New Crown. No longer do Wolfmother have to worry about cleaning out that bad taste left in my mouth from New Crown. I think you get the picture. I wasn't the biggest fan of New Crown. It was very disappointing to say the least. For now at least it seems the old Wolfmother is back. The lead single, off their upcoming album, transitions from a very 70s hard rock sound to a much more Black Sabbath styled heavy metal sound. Something that fits the band much more. The track opens up with an epic sounding Sabbathian riff that fuels the head banger within. Right as Andrew Stockdale's vocals crash into the song in full force, you realize this single knows how to rock. The continuation of the riff with a little variation when it comes to the soaring chorus does get a bit old after a few listens but can bounce back after the break/bridge. Lyrically the track isn't anything special but it definitely doesn't need to be considering the absolute sheer power the guitar riffing has. The lyrics simply ride the track out in epic fashion. Wolfmother has finally delivered a song after almost 7 years that will be sure to hit rotation in the Domain for a long long time.

This track earns a definite like.

All I can say is that my excitement for this record is through the roof right now and probably one of my most anticipated records of Q1 2016.

Expect a review for the new record Victorious, out February, 19th of next year.

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

__________________
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