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Saturday Night Wrist – Review October 28, 2006

Posted by el fuser in Album Review, deftones, saturday night wrist.
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You will have read all about the trials and tribulations that the Deftones suffered while making this record so I won’t bother repeating them. This album is beautiful because it represents life-long friends being able to see past their differences and collectively produce something that is greater than the sum of it’s parts.

Honestly, lead musicians Steph Carpenter and Chino Moreno could not have grown apart further in terms of musical taste. Chino wants to be in Depeche Mode. Steph would make Deftones a Meshuggah cover band if he could get away with it. Yet their over-riding love for the band forces them to work together, rather than in opposition, preventing this album from sounding compromised.

Song Breakdown:

Hole in the earth

I would class this track as a gift to their record label. It is good, don’t get me wrong, but I find the lyrics are fairly vague, and it all a bit too easy. That said, the rif leading out of the song is awesome.

Rapture

Depending on what mood i’m in, I have to skip past Elite on the White Pony LP, as I find it repetitive and not as intelligently crated as the rest of the album. I thought rapture was going to be similar, but the unexpected addition of synths towards the end of the song saves it for me.

Beware

Another potential single. Great song, with another crushingly heavy outro riff .

Cherry Waves

Follows the Change formula, with a moody/etheral feel cut up by a rocky riff that is more Chino than Stef (i.e it’s not fighting Chi’s bass for control of the bottom end). One of the standout tracks.

Mein

Simply the best song on the album. Great lyrics, great voices (it’s not really a duet, but Serj from SOD is there) and great riffage.

Contra

Whoah…huh? eh? cool!

Xerces

No Deftones song before this has ever hinted at so much their admiration for Weezer. The song structure is definitely there, and it sounds great. Takes a while to get going though.

Rats!

Steph: Check out my sweet riffs! Look I can work a black metal riff in there!

Pink Cell Phone

PCP indeed… crazy trippy electronica that is totally inappropriate for this album, but is a great song. I love Annie (who was already a strange choice even for a duet on a regular Deftones song) and she is hilariously twisted as usual.

Combat

This songs opening riff hints at Fugazi for me. The most post punk Deftones have ever sounded.

Kimdracula

Yet another radio friendly tune. They must have saved them all up from the self titled album.

Riviere

Great outro track.

More when the album drops 31/10/06

New Deftones Songs September 30, 2006

Posted by el fuser in deftones, metal, music, saturday night wrist.
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Here is Rapture

Here is the vid for hole in the earth


Here is a crappy quality version of beware the water

Inspiration September 27, 2006

Posted by el fuser in Book Review, Che Guevara, Inspiration.
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Reading Jon Anderson’s Che tome ‘A Revolutionary Life’ has inspired me and made me enthusiastic about chasing a career for the first time in my life.
I have had a very privileged education, Grammar School and University, but only stayed with it because I didn’t know what else to do. My university course in hindsight was a terrible waste of time and points me in a career direction that I know I would hate. Working has always been an inevitable but feared and loathed part of life for me.
My desire to be a writer has always been there, but was almost extinguished during university. A science based course penalises writing that contains emotion and views and has no room for passion. After reading this book I am inspired not only by Che, but equally by Jon Anderson. A master researcher, he retells the Che story as accurately as possible but rarely loses the readers interest. I suppose it’s easy when you are writing about Che, a man who led his life as if he knew someone was going to write about him one day.
Last night I decided to apply for several courses that would put take this inspiration and make it burn brightly. No more messing around.

In one of my applications I was required to write a book review of 250 words, guess what I chose?

What else could adorn the front cover of what could well be the definitive guide to Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara than the picture that was described by The Maryland Institute College of Art as “the most famous photograph in the world and a symbol of the 20th century”. You know which one. To most people, that picture represents only rebellion. You only have to visit your local city centre to see Mummy’s little anarchists – ‘rebels’ sporting a Che t-shirt or patch that they thought would make a bold statement and gain kudos amongst their peers. To say that the photograph is of a man who was a rebel is about as useful as saying the Mona Lisa is a painting of a woman smiling. Che was undoubtedly a first class rebel, but he was human (and not necessarily a very likable one) – one who suffered chronically from asthma, one who at various points womanised, teased, is as racist and arrogant as his peers , argued for the sake of argument and threw around his temper without real cause. He was also, perhaps surprisingly for most, a reasonably privileged man who could have easily settled for a quiet life as a doctor. Jon Anderson fills in the details of that famous photograph and leaves us admiring it as not just an icon of rebellion, but of drive, ambition, a sense of justice, adventure and not settling for the ‘easy life’. You may not like Che or his politics after this reading this book, but you cannot fail to be inspired by the way he lived his life.

~El Fuser

Roskilde 06 – Late Review September 27, 2006

Posted by el fuser in European Music Festivals, metal, music, music festival.
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This year’s festival in the twee little town of Roskilde, Denmark provided me with a number of ‘firsts’

* first ever proper festival
* first time I drank a box of wine to myself
* first time I almost wet myself from the amount of outstanding music I was going to see.

No, the camping wasn’t any more fun than you would expect it to be, but from the horror stories i’ve heard about Leeds festival, the camp was incredibly chilled out, friendly and non-violent. Was a lack of English people the reason? Unfortunately, probably so. You could even forgive the fact that they let everyone piss all over the place, adding stale urine to the bouquet of the festival which also included the stench of the unwashed, booze stained festival goers and a cheeky hint of portaloo. Plus the sheer amount of things to do (if you could be bothered) was great compensation, and included a massive skatepark complete with screens showing the world cup, food from all over the world (reasonably priced) and a massive (sub zero) lake to swim in. Awesome.

On to the music, I picked out a few I can remember best/enjoyed the most:

Guns N Roses
Amazing when you are amazingly drunk. Forget that Axel is an idiot, forget that the band isn’t the same, forget that they opened an hour late (thanks to booze, I did) Just remember that Appetite for Destruction was the best ever comprimise between the raw anger of youth and brilliant song writing. Except Sweet Child.

Opeth
These guys were good. They come on looking like they are about to perform speed metal covers of ABBA standards, but straight blew my head off. Their song writing has been described as beautiful and there is no doubt in my mind that their latest album, Ghost Reveries, is exactly that. Not only that but they clearly don’t take themselves too seriously despite their ’scary black metal’ roots, with the lead singer cracking jokes the whole way through. Future kings of metal.

Tool
What can you say about TOOL but, holy crap they are good. Some of the best song writers and musicians out there. The only thing I don’t like about them is there clinical approach to their stage show, they sounded literally 99% the same as you would hear on your CD player. Still, not to be missed.

Amplifier
I told them that I’d followed them all the way from their hometown of Manchester to see them. That was at least 90% a filthy lie. But I was defintely pleased to see them on the bill, as they are amazing live. The new songs are great, the show was great, and I sincerely hope these guys hit the big time.

Deftones
Lets get this over with, the Deftones are fat. Frank looks like David Blaine after he bulked up to go in the box and Chino has been expanding for a while. Who cares, they kicked ass at the festival, digging out the old favourites and playing a number of new ones. Deftones are a ‘long haul’ band unlike their peers, you might look back at Korn and Limp Bizkit and cringe, but honest, clever and uncomprimising music never gets old. By the way check out the new songs floating around the internet, they are excellent.

George Clinton
I love Funkadelic (Maggot Brain is a favourite album) and enjoyed the show but George Clinton took very little part in it.

Arctic Monkeys
I was ‘meh’ about Artic Monkeys, then I started to enjoy them, and at the time of the festival I was back to ‘meh’ again. Hence why I wasn’t queuing up for a place in the tent for hours before and had to listen from from a long way outside of the tent. Hard to judge but they obviously entertain alot of people.

Roger Waters
Legend. A great show with great musicians, if you missed Dark Side being played the whole way through I feel sorry for you.

Bob Dylan
Dylan is a legend too, but one i’ve never held too much interest in. What a shame that my lasting impression of the man will be of one who can barely sing or play anymore, and who insists on carving up his standards into virtually unrecognisable takes on their brilliant originals.

Matisyahu
I feel bad because I was incredibly intrigued by Matisyahu being a Hassidic Jew (complete with beard and dress) who’s style is primarily reggae. If he was a Christian, No doubt I would I would have laughed him off, because my experience of Christian music is, well, not good. Matisyahu is amazing live. His band were on fire, the drummer adding so much to the performance with his use of the double kick drum (usually reserved high tempo metal) and guitarist blasting out solos like they were going out of fashion. I don’t care what he sings about and will retain this attitude when it comes to other openly religious bands in the future.

Kanye West

I only saw a bit of Kanye but he was good. I like him because he is arrogant to the point where you believe he must be putting it on (Up until this point I despise arrogance, but afterwards it’s endearing!), and because his songs are normally really interesting to listen to.

Other bands I saw: Damien Marley, Strokes, Wolfmother.

Ghost Reveries – Opeth (Review) September 27, 2006

Posted by el fuser in Album Review, metal, music, opeth.
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In a way it is a crying shame that ‘Ghost Reveries’ will never be appreciated by more than those who are not scared off by singer Mikael Åkerfeldt’s fantastically gutteral black metal growl (believe me, thats alot of people).
Like their fellow Scandinavian Edvard Munch ( the artist who painted The Scream), with ‘Ghost Reveries’ Opeth have produced a work of art that is simultaneously both disturbing and fascinating. The Scandinavian metal scene is somewhat of a breeding ground for similarly ‘darkly beautiful’ music but rarely is the musicianship so top-drawer and songwriting so epic. The band are immense no doubt but for me the highlight is Åkerfeldt’s voice. If you listened to the first minute or so of opener ‘Ghosts of Peridition’ only, you may assume that his talents consist of bark,growl, repeat. But listen a little further (with the track clocking in at 11 mins 20 seconds, you’ve got time to sit back and relax) and you quickly realise that he can change things up to a silky smooth but still powerful singing voice with incredible ease. ‘Ghosts of Peridition’ is the stand out track on the album along with brilliant instrumental ‘Atonement’ and single (ish) ‘Grand Conjuration’. With four tracks lasting over ten minutes, be prepared to put some time into this album before you can fully appreciate it. But hey it’s art, that’s what you’re supposed to do.

Deftones Manchester Academy (Gig Review) September 27, 2006

Posted by el fuser in deftones, metal, music, saturday night wrist.
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The Deftones gig was a strange one for me. It had a real ‘old school’ vibe to it for a start. Lots of people in their mid 20’s burning off the weeks aggression in a highly charged pit. It reminded me of the crowd i’d expect to see at a Fear Factory or Sepultura gig. In a way it was disturbing, how can Deftones be old school? That would make me… yikes!
I’ve been a huge Deftones fan for a long time now and including Roskilde i’ve seen them four times. Every time i’ve been impressed although i’ve heard they can be hit and miss. Guess i’m lucky. Part of the reason I enjoy their shows so much is because they have such a varied and interesting range of songs to choose from. Yes it’s all metal, but there is a very different sound for each album and each one has a special place in my heart.
Their last eponymously titled album was not particularly well received because of it was perceived to be a step back from the majestic ‘White Pony’. I loved it though and it was great to see that they havn’t abandoned it for the live set. White Pony is full of immensley enjoyable songs and the songs always make up the highlights of the show. Around the Fur and Adrenaline of course feature and whipped up the Deftones faithful into quite a frenzy.
The guys did not disappoint me on that night and I don’t think they ever could. A classic band that i am proud to have supported over all these years.