Wpnfire

So, this is my journal. I plan to talk about... well, whatever I feel like honestly.

Exhibit 1!

Jeff Beck - Who Else!

With Who Else! the guitar wizard starts a fling with electronica that would continue through his next two albums.

Of course there are still many non-electronica tracks such as the classic slow blues jam of "Brush With The Blues," the Eastern infusions on "Blast From The East, or the tearful "Declan," but it is the interweaving of electronica elements with Beck's playing on "Even Odds," the synthesized beat of "Thx138," and the fast techno components on "Psycho Sam" that really show the true finesse of Beck's craft, and make Who Else! one of the most considerably varied albums I've listened to.









Exhibit 2!

Jeff Beck - You Had It Coming

This is Jeff Beck's second album where he experiments (heavily) with electronica, and is my personal favorite of his entire discography (so far), in addition to it ranking high on my list of favorite albums.
The material on this album is considerably more intense and Beck's playing in particular is more aggressive than his prior album.

"Earthquake," "Roy's Toy," "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "Nadia," "Loose Cannon," "Rosebud," and "Left Hook" all utilize various forms of electronica and are all top-notch songs from this album, with "Roy's Toy" being my personal favorite.

"Left Hook" sounds like good fight music, maybe in a video game perhaps?

Aside from those, "Blackbird" is arguably one of the best examples of the utter mastery Jeff Beck displays playing the electric guitar, using extremely high notes to echo the chirping of a bird.

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Trollheart

Welcome to Journaltown! About time you started a journal too; you certainly seem to know your stuff. Looking forward to this one.

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Wpnfire

Haha, that's funny.

Some classic rock

Have to say I'm disappointed by this album as I can only get into "Maybe I'm a Leo," (by the way, WTF does that mean??) "Lazy," and of course that one other track that needs no introduction. "Leo," and "Smoke" are easily among the greatest songs I've ever heard though and I'm not exaggerating with that statement.

6/10 for me, and I'm being generous with that.

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Trollheart

I would assume he's talking about Zodiac signs? Maybe I'm a Leo, you're a Taurus or whatever?

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Wpnfire

Hmmmm, maybe, I still don't understand it fully. Anyway...

Wpnfire Presents
....Major Journal Review #1

It's 1994. In the United States, rock n' roll was a distant memory by this point, and thrash metal had seen its last days.
Overseas and elsewhere, EBM was a growing force, and the late 80s and 90s saw the birth of a melding of heavy metal of old with electronic music, leading to the inception of industrial music.

Nine Inch Nails of course is what everybody naturally thinks of with industrial, but Front Line Assembly did something truly unique with Millennium: sampling notable riffs from the likes of Metallica, Pantera, and others, and melding it with their own electronic constructions.


This album has everything. <- Read this first sentence again. I can not emphasize what this album has to offer any listener.

It's got sampling, heavy metal guitar riffs, distorted vocals, techno beats, drum beats, breakdowns, and tons and tons of experimentation.

The guitar riffs on "Millennium" are notable for their brutal intensity when combined with the screamed-yet-notably-mellow, ambient vocals. Aside from "Millennium" there is one song that clearly separates itself from the rest....
As if there was not enough variety in the music already, "Victim of a Criminal" adds rap to it's brutal and heavy formula, and hoh hoh my God, is it just.......awe inspiring.

overall rating: 9/10

As of right now it stands to be one of my favorite albums of all time, as well as being my favorite EBM album. "Victim of a Criminal" is easily my favorite rap song.


As an added bonus here's a music video for "Millennium". It's dated as all hell and extremely funny because of it, but it's still a great song if you look past the fact that you're watching an original MTV music video lol.

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Wpnfire

I've heard a lot of guitar solos over the years, and I thought that every Sunday I could share one of my favorites here.


In addition to being one of my favorite Beatles songs, this song also contains one of my top 10 guitar solos. I'm sure most people have heard this song so I don't think I need to give a description of it. There's nothing fancy about this solo, just a fuzzbox turned up to the max, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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Plankton

When my daughter was 5 or 6, her favorite song was "Space For The Papa". Wonder how that happened?

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Wpnfire

I'm working on making a list of my favorite guitar riffs from all genres, but I thought I would list my favorite heavy metal riffs by band. The songs are not in any particular order.

Since I’m just talking about the riffs in songs here, you may notice a few songs on this list that I’ve stated I dislike, but I’m only referring to the riff in the song. If there’s a glaring song you think should be on this list that I left out, it’s safe to assume I simply haven’t heard it.

Songs in bold are among my favorite all-time guitar riffs.

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Wpnfire

I've been struggling to think of ideas for this thread, so I guess I'll just do a bunch of album reviews today.






Genre: ?
My genres for the album: post-metal, noise rock, proto-alternative metal

Tracklist & Ratings:

1. "In the Meantime" - 5/5
2. "Ironhead" - 2/5
3. "Give It" - 2/5
4. "Unsung" - 5/5
5. "Turned Out" - 3/5
6. "He Feels Bad" - 4/5
7. "Better" - 4/5
8. "You Borrowed" - 2/5
9. "Fbla li" - 2/5
10. "Role Model" - 4/5

Overall: 3/5


Although the album has two of my favorite songs in all of metal/alternative, it suffers from a lack of variety/staleness at times. There are attempts at variety, but some of the elements, like the guitar solos, just don't work on this kind of album. It all sounds the same.
"In the Meantime" and "Unsung" though, certainly help to alleviate some of the staleness of many of the songs simply with their noisy, bone-crushing riffs and beat.
That being said, there are other tracks I enjoyed, like "He Feels Bad," "Better," and "Role Model."




















Genre: Thrash metal, groove metal
My genres for the album: death thrash, groove metal, thrash metal, death metal

Tracklist & Ratings:

1. "Death In Vain" - 5/5
2. "Homicide" - 4/5
3. "Desecrator" - 4/5
4. "Exhorder" - 5/5
5. "The Tragic Period" - 4/5
6. "Legions of Death" - 4/5
7. "Anal Lust" - 4/5
8. "Slaughter In The Vatican" - 3/5

Overall: 4/5


This album is one of the best death thrash albums in existence in my opinion. "Desecrator," "Death In Vain," and "Exhorder" are some of the most well-constructed thrash/death thrash songs I've ever heard. The tempo of this album goes all over the place, but it does it without sacrificing intensity in any way.

Highlight songs:

"Death In Vain": The first minute of this song after the atmospheric intro, is one of the greatest moments in the history of metal in my humble opinion.

"Exhorder": EXHOOOORRDDDEERRRRRR!! Everything about this song is perfect: Those first 10 seconds, all of the solos, the last minute. It's all fantastic.




















Genre: thrash metal
My genres for the album: speed metal, proto-thrash, straight-edge punk/hardcore punk

Tracklist & Ratings:

1. "Hit the Lights" - 5/5
2. "The Four Horsemen" - 5/5
3. "Motorbreath" - 4/5
4. "Jump in the Fire" - 4/5
5. "(Anesthesia) - Pulling Teeth" - 5/5
6. "Whiplash" - 4/5
7. "Phantom Lord" - 5/5
8. "No Remorse" - 3/5
9. "Seek & Destroy" - 5/5
10. "Metal Militia" - 4/5

Overall: 5/5


Highlight songs:

“Seek & Destroy” was an instantly lovable track for me with that edgy riff, and it remains a favorite of mine. Those last 40 seconds where the riff turns 20x heavier are awe-inspiring.

“Phantom Lord”: Everything about this song is excellent. Some of the parts of the song aren’t perfectly executed, (like wtf is that weird spacey intro doing in this song?? That entire intro can be removed as far as I’m concerned.) but ALL of the riffs are excellent, Hetfield’s singing is top-notch, that bizarre breakdown section in the middle is addicting as hell, and the lyrics are fantastic (literally)

Quote:

Hear the cry of War Louder than before With his sword in hand to control the land Crushing metal strikes on this frightening night Fall onto your knees For the Phantom Lord

"Hit the Lights” is one of my favorite Metallica songs…sort of. I love the first part of the song that has lyrics, but once that close-to-2-minute-solo rolls around, my interest in the song starts to wane considerably. Still, the energy “Hit the Lights" provides is unmatched in Metallica’s discography, even on this album. Hetfield also does a fantastic job singing the song.

“The Four Horsemen” is one of the first thrash metal Metallica songs I ever heard, and the first time I listened to this album, it was, along with “Seek & Destroy” the only song I liked from the album. That bridge in the middle of the song is by far my favorite part of the song, aside from the “OH YEAH YEAH!!” from Hetfield after the chorus.

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The Batlord

If you've never heard their Nordland I album, then "Nordland"'s main riff is required listening for any fan of slower riffs.


Nice. "Last Rites/Loved to Deth" is quite possibly the highlight of Mustaine's career for me. Nothing he's done since is so pissed off, not even on the same album, and being pissed off is what Dave Mustaine is about. Even the piano is hateful. I also love that they lyrics are a thinly veiled, and rather threatening, attack at his former band.

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