5 Reasons Why Streaming Sucks

Satyricon Rant

The artwork in question

Boo hoo, people don't like our new album cover

Satyricon recently posted a sort of passive aggressive rant on their Facebook, where Satyr and Frost are visiting the official Edvard Munch Museum. In their own words they are "proud and happy to hear how pleased the Munch Museum was with the way we have used his art on our cover," and that they (the Munch Museum) were "a little bit surprised to hear about the banal reactions of a sorry and weak minority," referring of course to the relatively large amount of people who think the cover looks lame as hell.

Disco Rundown: Blind Guardian

Blind Guardian - A Tale of Power and Speed

Evolving from the speed metal band Lucifer's Heritage in 1986, Blind Guardian have been turning heads on the international power metal scene ever since. With ten full length albums and a slew of other releases in their back catalogue, by 2015 they're a heavy metal mainstay. Almost universally acclaimed, every album shows a band still ready for more with fresh ideas and hard-hitting compositions.

The Living Dead of Film Scores

The Living Dead of Film Scores

or: The Lasting Appeal and Influence of Horror Film Soundtracks

There is no way around it. The soundtracks and scores for films are among the most powerful pop-cultural rallying points, and have remained so for quite some time. In many ways they help define generations, while in other cases they transcend age groups. John Williams' Star Wars theme seems to be the prime example - Literally anyone knows it right off the bat. Let It Go from 2013’s smash hit Frozen lingers too, and will in all likelihood be this generation's Circle of Life (from The Lion King, duh).

Second Chance - Part 2: Perturbator "Dangerous Days"

Continuing in the series of returning to albums that didn't originally strike a fancy, we return now with Perturbator's fourth album, Dangerous Days from 2014.

James Kent, aka Perturbator

The Frenchman James Kent, to most probably better known as Perturbator, is by now a mainstay in the synthwave scene. His shadowy cyberpunk sound has captivated many, and he has more or less become the epitome of the darkest variety of synthwave music. At the very least he forms a crystal clear vision of the potential within the scene, both sonically and commercially.

Rise of the Synths

"The Old Soundtrack of a New Generation"

It goes by many names. Retrowave, Vintagewave, Synthwave, whatever you want to call it. With musical roots stretching as far back as the late 70s, it's a far-reaching style. Musicians like Edgar Froese, Giorgio Moroder and others pioneered the electronic music genre in the 70s, and it exploded as part of modern culture in the 80s. Later French House musicians like Daft Punk and Kavinsky revived the genre and perfected the style, mixing it with modern sound engineering and newer elements. In 2011 Nicolas Winding Refn's film "Drive" reacquainted many with the sound we today call "Synthwave".

Second Chance - Part 1: Bombs of Hades "Atomic Temples"

Inspired by the "Giving it a second chance!" thread on the Metal Archives forum by user droneriot, who also writes at http://droneriot.blogspot.de/

Some albums just don't do it for you when you first listen to them. It can potentially ruin your enthusiasm for a band if you were really riled up over a new release. Seeing the band perform the songs live can sometimes sway you, I know it did for me when Symphony X released Iconoclast. Then there are those that don't click right away but just needs to sit for a while. Maybe even for years. There are albums that never click, usually the ones which are too different from what you'd expect.