Just a quick thought on BabyMetal after hearing the new song, Karate.
I'll get this out the way right now ... I love BabyMetal! I do. "Head Bangya!!", "Doki Doki ☆ Morning", "Onedari Daisakusen" ... they live in my car. Metal and heavy music can get stale quite quickly and this just worked for me in a refreshing kind of way.
Is is manufactured? Yeah. Is it a gimmick? Totally. Is it fun metal? Hell yes!
In saying that, have you heard the new track, Karate? If you haven't, go and listen to it. Go on. I'll wait .....
Things just got serious. What do I mean by that? Listen to it! Put Karate up next to "Give Me Chocolate!!" or any other track on the first album. This is metal!! From the opening phased intro into that riff! That riff! The the "Oh ooh, oh ooh, oh ooooh" in the choruses? ... it's just brilliant. Some people will dismiss this outright because of the singers and premise, but unlike the last album you can NOT argue with the music in this song.
The music in the first album was good but nothing to write home about. It all worked in the same way Austrian Death Machine does. It's standard or generic riffs and beats but with a gimmicky twist. The first BabyMetal album didn't know what it wanted to be so it had almost generic elements of different music styles mashed together. Listen to "Line!" and you'll see, well hear, what I mean. That's the extreme example, but you could feel that kind of insecurity through most of the album.
This tracks seems a lot more focused. It may be because they've got a steady touring line up of a live band instead of the band recorded track playing, or maybe it's just how much metal fans gravitated towards BabyMetal that focused things somewhat. I don't know. I don't know if the touring band recorded this or ... whatever. The point is, this is sonically and musically leaps and bounds ahead of the debut album.
Yeah, they could be talking absolute nonsense, or absolute filth and you'd never know (unless you speak Japanese ... I'm working on it ;) ) but the sound of the lyrics fit perfectly. It still amazes me how much that language and style works with this brand of metal. Look at a band like Lady Baby. The whole premise sounds utterly mental, but it works. On a side note, if you haven't checked out Lady Baby, do :) Thanks me later ;)
It's strange to think how much BabyMetal did on the back of that one album. Seriously, they sold out the standing area of Wembley Arena before the new album was even announced. If this track is any indication of where the new album may land quality wise ... wow. There's no saying how far this 'gimmick' may run, or how big it may get.
So yeah, just a brain dump after listening to Karate. I have high (pre-ordered) hopes for the new album. I'll ignore any suspicion of the April 1st release date being a joke and hope for the best.
With the new album about to drop I thought I'd put a wee think up about why you should consider catching Trivium live on this touring run.
The reason why Trivium are one of the best live acts around is simple ... they can do it live and they do it better than most!
It really is that simple. You just have to look at the band to understand and believe.
Why
Let's start with the songs. They are brilliant. There are some complex arrangements along with some simple mechanics. At the end of the day they write great tunes and perform them flawlessly live just as much as on record. Where Trivium can take a step above the rest is when it comes to translating that to a live performance they have the dynamic live performance while having it sound like the recorded version.
Whereas you get some bands that have harmony parts and counter melody parts that just don't translate to the live environment, Trivium can. They have the mix of people to do it. Matt sings while Paolo does the "nice" vocal backing and Corey does the growling backing. Simple. Works. And to keep them in time? A machine .... a dynamic machine called Nick!
The band:
Nick, the newest member. He's as tight as it comes when you talk about drummers. He comes across as a quiet humble person, but put him behind a drum kit and a beast is unleashed. He's added a new fire to the band seems to have been missing since just before the Crusade run. In the post-Crusade days (before Nick), the band seemed to have become too comfortable. Shogun is my favourite Trivium album, but listening to In Waves, I can only imagine what Shogun might have been like if Nick had been in the chair.
Paolo, the bands dark horse and hidden gem. He writes more than people realise and is the fan contact of the band. He's a talented little bugger who deserves more recognition than I think he gets. On stage, he's flawless. Hits his mark playing and singing wise every time I've seen the band live ... and trust me, that's a lot. Also, would give a fan off the street the time of day and then some. On stage ... looks like he is loving every minute of it.
Corey. Not much to say about Corey that isn't obvious. He can shred with the best of them. He can play a soulful solo that get right to you. He looks like he's having fun, which seems lost in a lot of bands these days. An under respected guitarist in my opinion, but I dare say that that wouldn't phase him in the slightest as he just gets on with getting the job done. HE is his own person. Look at the band through the years and evolution of how they look. Corey still looks like Corey. He's the Joey Belladonna of Trivium :)
Matt, the front and center spokesman of one of the most exciting bands around. Not an easy place to be, but he carries it with a maturity that you wouldn't see from more seasoned front-men. Again, hits his mark every time. His ability to go straight from strong clean vocals to aggressive growling vocals in beyond belief at times. To sing with the intensity that he has and play guitar takes a lot of talent that I think a lot of fans, metal and non-metal, take for granted with artists. Also a brilliant guitarist that, again, seems so overlooked. Watch the "making of" documentary for the Roadrunner United album. He was even younger then!
Add it all together and you get a band that deserve to be MASSIVE. They have the songs and they have the performance.
Take a track like In Waves. The band are tight and can play it flawlessly. When it comes to the clean "nice" backing vocals Paolo is there and sounding great. For the growling guttural backings Corey steps up. You will NEVER hear a metal band sound so close to a recorded album than Trivium. Ever! And not just sound like the record, but make it sound even more alive and dynamic. They could cover Mad World note for note and make it sound like the best metal track around.
Summary
Not the best argument ever, but just wanted to give my wee input about one of my favourite bands who are still young and can only get better! Metal is in very good hands with these guys in the go.
I know I've strayed off point and just said how much I love the band but I don't care. They are that good a band. I wish I was able to write this better.
Trivium had an impact on me personally like you wouldn't believe. I was stuck in my little Classic Metal bubble, discounting bands with singers who growled more than sang. When I first heard Trivium it gave me the same feeling I had when I first heard Iron Maiden .... and they've stuck with me the same since! Since then, it's opened up a whole new world of appreciation for other styles of metal. Killswitch Engage, Children Of Bodom and Lamb Of God ... I would have written them off as soon as the singer started before I heard Trivium.
I've had the chance to thank them for "saving my love of music" (although I worded it a damn site better than that!) but they probably hear that kind of thing every day.
Even their "miss" album has GREAT tracks, including one of my favourite Trivium tracks (Becoming The Dragon). If that was their miss, it still stands above a lot of bands "hit" albums. The album was taken the wrong way in my opinion. If that had been there debut it would have been taken like a fresh light.
Anyway ... give 'em a shot :)
Here's the track from The Crusade that it in my top Trivum tracks ( Watch this then a newer one and see my point about how Corey, Paolo and Matt have changed looks ;) )
So, I'm going to build a guitar. I might as well blog about it.
For the start I might as well go over the starting point .... what arrived in the box.
I decided to do this for three reasons. The first is because it's be a good project to keep me away from my PS3 and computer. The second is because the young boy my wife and I are hoping to adopt would be really interested on how the guitar would be put together and how it works. Hopefully it will be a bonding thing. Thirdly ...... I WANT A TWIN NECK GUITAR!
So what's in the box?
The Two Necks
My comments would be the same for both the 6 and 12 string necks. They are very surprisingly nice. They have what seems like really playable surfaces. They are really good, apart from the Nut. Obviously very cheap and set WAY too high.
The edge of the neck at the nut is a bit rough, but I'll smooth that out when I replace the nut.
It may be that I end up replacing the necks, but they seem good enough for me :0)
12 String Neck
6 String Neck
The Body
One word: stunning!
It may be just because it't the body of a twin neck V, but the body just works for me. There are a couple of small issues with it. The cavities for the electrics seem pretty snug. Also, the neck inserts are at an angle, so I'll need to level them out. No biggie. Was going to extend one of the cavities to put in a third switch anyway.
The Metal Bits
The metal/chrome parts are surprisingly better than expected.
The bridges are actually pretty good. They'll do the job. I expected light tinny bit's of crap, but no ... they're OK.
The machine heads are OK. No better. They seem OK enough. Again .. they'll do the job for now.
The strap nuts seem too small. They will definitely be getting replaced! I don't trust 'em.
The neck plates come with rubber backings, which is great for such a soft wood. The actual plates are quite light and tinny. Will probably be replaced by custom jobs.
Electrics
Yeah ... the electrics ... m'eh.
The pickups will NEVER get anywhere near my new guitar.
The pots MIGHT be OK, but I'll see. The capacitors will be replaced by Orange drops. The switches seem good, so will put them in and see how they go. They are very tights and should work well.
The jack sockets looks like it's OK.
Other Bits
The pack came with a few other bits. There's an audio cable; will never be used. There's cavity covers; may be used. There's strings; will be used for setting up. There's rod covers; probably replaced.
So ....
There we go. That's what's in the box. There's everything you need to build a working guitar. Needs tweaked a bit, bit hopefully will turn out OK.
The next part will be marking out any changes needed to the woodwork,
OK, this may surprise some of you, but I love more kinds of music than just metal. For others this will will be no shocker. It will shock most though some of the music I would say I like....and I'm not talking B*Witched!
At the end of the day, yes, Metal is my favourite style of music. I won't go in to specific sub-genres ... there's a rant coming about that at a later date. For me, metal is metal. Done.
The point I want to make is that I would never judge a song on it's source, believe it or not. There are songs/tunes I like for different reasons, but they all boil down to music and the sound of the music. I'll bet no one can guess my number one favourite musical moment, which will be the last thing in this post.
For one thing, if it has a great harmony sound then I'm hooked straight away. Bring that with a beautiful melody and I'm having it played at my funeral. The masters of this? The Bee Gees. No question. The first time I heard them do Massachusetts I was stunned and in awe. I'm sure more than one person would be surprised this is one of my all time favourite songs. The video below doesn't demonstrate what I just said the best, but I remember the first time I saw it and it's still my favourite version ....
Something else that always grabs me is a hook, or just a moment that gives a special moment or sound. Another track that I wouldn't turn off or skip is Voodoo Child by Rogue Traders. I'm not joking. There are some moments in there that just GRAB me! Right from the start, there are some great sounds in there. The vocal effect on "Baby, Baby, Baby" and the slight vocoder on the second "my voodoo child" ... it's a great sound. Yeah I know that it's a lot of production, but who cares! It sound great. When you hit the chorus section it works for me. The "Here come the drums here come the drums", the vocoder stuff, the "oooweee-ooo" bit.....it's all just sonically interesting an makes me listen. I can't get enough of the vocoder part that says "It's supernatural, coming undone". Then you get the Wah guitar part that just talks to the tune. You get the idea.
Another thing I love is counter points / counter melodies / counter singing. Seriously, I am constantly amazed when someone can have two different vocal lines that should clash, but work. The best example for me is Warren Zevon's Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner. Listen to the song/video below. At 1:39 is exactly what I'm talking about. The strong bass behind a main vocal with a counter melody vocal that harmonises at the end .... just wow. If I could be even a quarter musically clever as Warren Zevon was I'd be loaded ... or an obscure artist watching X-Factor thinking "F*** you!".
I'm guessing you can see where I'm coming from. I like a lot f music. I love music. I could put up videos from Queen to Stevie Ray Vaughan, to ZZ Top via Testament and Napalm Death. Then you could come see me and I'll be listening to Classical music or Native American chants.
A great song to highlight a lot going on in a track that grabs me is a Weird Al track. There are so many Weird Al tracks I could have picked, but this one is just phenomenal. From the first chorus part (at (0:54) to the vocal crescendo (2:30 - 3:01). That vocal harmony alone is worth listening to the whole track!
I used to hear a guy in the village I grew up in playing a dance/rave tune that had this Amazon type flute part that made me want to listen to the whole thing. This is someone I would never talk to or want anything to do with, but I went and asked him about it. I wish I could remember what it was.
One thing I'm going to throw in because I can't hear enough of it is Con Te Partirò done by Andrea Bocelli.
I'm not going to explain it or why I love it. Here it is. And it doesn't get better than this!
Like I said, I will never say anything sucks just because of where it comes from. I will always judge any song or tune on it's own merits, even if it comes from an artist/band I really don't like.
I'll bet a years wages that my iPod/iPhone has more divers tunes than yours!
I have to give mention to another thing that gets me going ... live music! I don't mind the use of post production and auto-tune in places, but I really love to see it live. Some bands over complicate things in the studio, which ends up with the live show seeming a bit flat. Others keep it simple in the studio then go hell bent for leather live which makes it seem too much live and it doesn't work.
Other bands get it spot on. Noteable mentions go to Oasis, KISS, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Metallica, Paul Weller....even Chas 'n' Dave. For me though, top drawer and gold star go to Trivium. The band consistently knock it out the park in the studio. The amazing thing is the quality of their live performances. The have the main front man, Matt, who sings growls and plays. The you've got Paulo, the bass player, who can sing the nice parts/harmonies. You then have Corey, the leas guitarist who can growl with the best of them. This vocal cross over gives you the best live representation of some great great songs.
Trivium had to get a mention as they were the first band in years to get me excited about new music. For a while I was very much stuck within the circle of a few bands, but when I heard Trivium it made me sit up and listen again. They opened me up to cool new things in metal.
Right, my all time favourite/top piece of music is below. For me the Bagpipes are so limited that it forces people to be creative and I get goosebumps every time I hear this!
Please note: this ISN'T The version I wanted to put up, but I couldn't find a streaming link for the one I wanted to use.
Was just listening to the always awesome Metal Hammer podcast. This week the three hosts Amit Sharma, Merlin Alderslade (THAT is a metal name!) and Stephen Hill were talking about one of my favourite subjects.....Cover Versions!! I love a good cover. Whether it's straight covers or a cover that you didn't see coming ... I love it. For those of you that listen but couldn't be bothered to find/listen to the covers, here they are. You can either listen to the podcast again or look up who the original artist is! I've done enough pulling these together for you. They each did their Top 5 (sorry, High 5) cover songs. There were a few honourable mentions and some hates too. I've added a link to 5 of the honourable mentions at the end. There were a few surprising noticeable exemptions, but they aren't my lists :0) (All videos are from 5 to 1)
Amit's High 5
Racer-X - Godzilla
System Of A Down - Snowblind
Tool - No Quarter
Van Halen - You Really Got Me
KISS - God Gave Rocn And Roll To You II
Steve's High 5
NOFX - Radio
Hell Songs - Symphony Of Destruction
Machine Head - Negative Creep
Deftones - Savoury
Henry Rollins Band featuring a load of folk -
(Picked the whole album "Rise Above", but singled this song to have one.)
I know the last couple of posts have been video posts and not the rants I intended, but there are a couple coming; My opinion on Trivium as a live force and a rant about the over genrefication of heavy metal.
For this though, I was having a bad diabetic day ... always a good start. Anyway, I was looking on-line at a few diabetic sites and kept getting lists of famous Diabetics. It may sound kind of twee or cheesy, but it's inspirational to see some of the names up there.
So, here's some of my favourite songs by diabetic musicians. Some I had no idea that they were diabetic. It's been eye opening to see just how many Diabetic musicians, actors, etc. are out there. And not just type 2 either. I don't know why it was so surprising, but it was. It helps you see that if they can do what they do while living with Diabetes, you really have very little excuse for letting it control you.
Everybody has good and bad days with their control, and indeed their lives, but it just helps show that overall it is ultimately manageable. You control it, or it controls you! It's that simple. Sometimes I forget that.
Anyway. here's the list
First up, Eric Clapton & B.B. King - Riding With The King.
B.B. King is Diabetic. He's been a type 2 diabetic for over 20 years. Still going strong!
Next Up, Poison - Unskinny Bop.
Bret Michaels always comes to mind when I think about this kind of thing. Diagnosed when he was 6, Michaels had to learn to balance being Diabetic while being in one of the biggest rock bands on the planet. No mean feat!
Another legend, Meatloaf - LosAngeloser.
Not an obvious choice of songs, but I like it. Hang Cool Teddy Bear was a criminally overlooked album. Who'd have thunk Meatloaf would have developed Type 2 diabetes.
Penultimate one, Pink Floyd - Bike.
Syd Barret, while dealing with all the issues he had was also a type 2 Diabetic. Here's a great old song which Steph and I names a mouse in the garden after ;)
Last one, Audioslave - Cochise
Drummer Brad Wilk is a type 1 diabetic. He was diagnosed when he was 28. This was in '96, just as Rage were touring Evil Empire. Like Michaels there was a hard balance to strike there. Interestingly, since his diagnosis both his brother and sister have been diagnosed.
I went for this over a Rage song because I just remember how blown away I was when I first heard this.
Instead of flooding my Facebook with YouTube videos, here's the first of a few posts like this ... listing YouTube videos.
I love cover versions! You may or may not know this :) Certainly, if you've heard about my project "Top Secret" then you know that! lol
Anyway, here are some of my favourite metal related cover songs:
Judas Priest - Cover of "The Green Manalishi (with the Two Pronged Crown)". Originally done by Fleetwood Mac.
This is a prime example of when a band takes a song and makes it their own. It keeps the essence of the original while owning it. They had enough respect for where the song was coming from to turn it towards their fans in a way that they would love and accept, so much so that many people don't realise it's a cover and can slip in to a Judas Priest live set at any time.
Please note ... this is a track by Fleetwood Mac when they were an amazing bluesy band and not commercial whores ;0)
Five Finger Death Punch - Cover of "Bad Company". Originally done by Bad Company
This is almost the polar opposite of the Judas Priest cover above, while still sticking to the same reasons I like it. They haven't really changed the arrangement/feel in any great way, but did it in their tone/sounds ... and for this song it works perfectly! It's still very much recognisable and the Bad Company original, but the version just works!
Kurt Nilsen - Cover of "Crazy Crazy Nights". Originally done by KISS
This is one of my all time favourite covers! It takes a great song, turns it on it's head ans makes it sound more than the original composers could have imagined. If I could do a cover half as good as this I wouldn't be sitting here giving my opinion on someone else doing it!
Skindred - Cover of "Electric Avenue". Originally done by Eddy Grant.
One of my newest favourite bands is Skindred! Brilliant stuff coming from them!
I remember growing up and my mum had a 7" of Eddy Grant's "Gimme Hope Jo'anna". I can't remember if the b-side was this or "Say Hello to Fidel", but I just remember loving his voice. "Electric Avenue" has always been one of the songs I can't skip. Again, this is a straight cover but in the style of the covering band. I would love to hear Eddy's opinion on it. Benjis swagger comes though in this so well :0)
Killswitch Engage - Cover of "Holy Diver". Originally done by Dio.
This was a tough one. Not that the cover was tough to put in, but because there is more than one really good cover of this song. With this list I have taken the rule of mix tapes that my mate Wob drilled in to me. No mix tape should have more than one song by the same artist. For me, this list should have no more that one version of the same song. Ryan Adams almost made it, but the Killswitch Engage version just has so many memories for me and had such an immediate impact that I'm sure Ronnie loved it.
There's 5 for you. I'll post more another time :0)
