Slipknot Continue to Release Great Songs with Messed Up Videos…

I’ve liked Slipknot’s music since the beginning, really. I was going through my angry teen phase when their eponymous album was released (although, without the “angry” side – I was always more curmudgeonly than angry). Their musical aggression and interesting interviews always kept them on my playlists. As new albums were released, and the band evolved, they remained there. Side-projects emerged – Stone Sour the best by miles. But always Slipknot remained waiting in the wings to drop a new album just when fans were starting to get impatient.

Their fifth album, The Gray Chapter will be released on October 21st by Roadrunner Records. Two singles have already been released: “The Devil In I” and “The Negative One”. Both, naturally, have really messed-up, horror-influenced music videos. And may even one-up Marilyn Manson, this time around. Here they are:

THE DEVIL IN I (the better of the two, in my opinion)

THE NEGATIVE ONE

I must confess, also, to still not really understanding the value that Clown adds to the songs. Every so often, he hits a bit drum. In previous songs, it was with a baseball bat. He never seems to add much to the groove or overall quality of the song. It seems he is just an angry dude in a clown mask, who sometimes helps out with the artwork and “artistic direction”.

New Asking Alexandria Music Video…

… shows the band’s ‘softer’ side. Unlike “The Death of Me”, which is one of the best hard rock/metal songs ever written, “Moving On” has a bit more of an ’80s ballad vibe, with an added modern sheen. The song is also from From Death to Destiny, and is one of my favourites from the album. Here’s the video:

Guest Post: “Where Writers Get Their Groove” by Sebastien de Castell

By far the most common question you get asked as an author is, “Where do your ideas come from?” Of course, my ideas come from the same places as yours do: the crazy parts of your brain intersecting with the crazy parts of the world around you. Human brains are hard-wired to find patterns even when there are none and those little synaptic misfires are part of what makes us creative beings.

Now, the question I never get asked is, “Where do you get your groove from?” Maybe this sounds like a silly question. After all, books don’t have a groove, do they?

Think about those big moments in a story when your eyes are racing across the page to find out what comes next. If the author is doing their job every line should be moving the story along at the perfect speed for the action taking place. Remember back to one of those heart-rending passages where your eyes suddenly freeze on the last three words of a sentence as the implications of an emotional turnaround hits you. That strange, almost magical timing is pacing. It’s rhythm. It’s groove. My first experiences with storytelling were as a touring musician, so I often go back to music for the inspiration in finding the right pacing for key scenes in the books I write. Here’s a few that helped put Traitor’s Blade onto the page.

Two New In Flames Music Videos

In Flames have long been one of my favourite metal bands (ever since Reroute to Remain came out), and I’ve been enjoying the band’s evolution over the years. For the most part, anyway – there have been some albums that past me by without leaving much of a footprint (Sounds of a Playground Fading, for example – an album that I have found utterly forgettable). In September, the band will release their latest album, Siren Charms. Two music videos have already surfaced for the first two singles: “Rusted Nail” and “Through Oblivion”. They’re both good songs, as well as being surprising. They’re more rock than metal, and are more melodic offerings than I’ve come to expect from early-for-an-album In Flames singles. Check them out…

RUSTED NAIL

THROUGH OBLIVION

Music Saturday: HEARTIST and ASKING ALEXANDRIA (a bit of a rambling piece…)

As I’ve mentioned in the past on here, one of my other passions is music (in fact, this is a passion that has dominated far more of my life than books and reading). I used to spend hours each day investigating new bands, albums, songs – subscribing to multiple magazines (even importing them from the US). I even ran a little fanzine, “MWRI” – a Terry Pratchett reference, “Music With Rocks In” (even then, I was a SFF fan). Recently, however, I’ve been listening to less new music.

Partly, this grew from an impression that things were starting to stagnate a little in the rock and metal communities. “Heavier and Louder” were the order of the decade, it seemed. I like plenty of groove and melody, though, so when ever some of my favourite bands started to conform to the “bludgeon thy listener unto death” gospel of rock, I lost ever-more interest, narrowing the number of bands I followed religiously. True, this is just a personal impression resulting from exposure to what felt like endless hardcore clones. Nevertheless, I felt slightly disillusioned with the scene I had called home since I bought Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Use Your Illusion I and Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark as a kid (I should thank Chris Green, a school friend, for lending me his discman and these two albums when I was ill – eternal gratitude). Although, I think Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA was the first album I loved (not as “hard” rock, but still part of the same larger community, I’ve always thought).

Over the past couple of years, though, melody and groove seem to be making a massive come-back, as bands and fans remember that it’s rock and roll, and that there’s nothing wrong with writing hooks. One of my favourite bands, Five Finger Death Punch, have been releasing consistently excellent (and progressively better) albums each year. Trivium rediscovered their love of classic, Metallica-esque metal, and released a stunning album. And so on. Recently, I finally discovered to new (for me) bands that write in the bounds of my tastes: HEARTIST and ASKING ALEXANDRIA.

Dead Cat Bounce… [Musical Interlude]

DEAD CAT BOUNCE – I learned about this band today. I went to school with the lead singer. Haven’t spoken to him since school (too many years ago to admit to…). This is kinda surreal. But they’re funny, and actually talented… So check ’em out.

First, a song for Movember…

And second, the perils of ‘Being on the Road’…

And finally, a mini-film/music-video…

Watch more of their videos over on their YouTube channel.

Artwork: Queens of the Stone Age, “… Like Clockwork”

So, a break from book covers and comic artwork, but I first saw this at London Bridge tube station, and it really caught my eye…

No idea what the album’s like, and I have to admit they are not a favourite band of mine (in fact, I’ve never liked any of their stuff enough to keep an album…). Just thought I’d share the image, which was done by someone known as “Boneface”.

Here’s the title-track’s music video…

Fall Out Boy went away, got better, then came back…

I was never really exposed to my of Fall Out Boy’s back-catalogue. I think I only heard the two main singles from Infinity on High (2007) – “This Ain’t A Love Scene, It’s An Arms Race” and “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs”. Anything else I heard by them was accidental or unacknowledged. They always struck me as a curiosity, and nothing really more than that, despite so many of the music magazines I read devoting pages and pages of space to writing about them.

Then again, I’ve never been someone who listened to the radio, so I often missed things. At the same time, I never really got tired of songs, either. (Maybe that’s why I’m one of the few people who will admit to liking Nickelback songs…?)*

Anyway, that was a bit of a tangent… I have periodic Music Videos on YouTube Binges, and I stumbled across Fall Out Boy’s latest single. And it’s actually rather good. So here’s the video for your enjoyment…

The song is taken from Save Rock and Roll, the band’s latest album – out now.

Here’s a bonus video, from another Save Rock and Roll single, the brilliantly named “My Song Knows What You Did In The Dark (Light Em Up)”…

* I say “admit”, because despite the fact that everyone I know readily, gleefully mocking the band, they are consistently one of the highest selling bands on either side of the Atlantic. And that’s not including illegal downloads. Millions of people are actually buying their albums. Who are these seemingly-mythical buyers…?

Two (Actually Three) Amusing Musical Interludes for the Weekend…

Here are two of my favorite humorous music videos from recent years. Because it’s the weekend, and I don’t feel like catching up on the reviews I have to write…

First up, Lonely Island’s “I’m On A Boat”:

And secondly, Kyle Kaplan and Nick Braun’s “That Gotye Song”, which Gawker referred to as “A Disturbingly Accurate Portrayal of What Happens Every Time ‘That Gotye Song’ Starts Playing in the Car” (or, really, any massively popular song that worms its way into our heads…):

This video was the first time I heard the Gotye song, actually. It’s the only way I can imagine it, now, and I do exactly the same thing when it plays. I would also recommend the “The Star Wars That I Used To Know”, which brings this back to SFF:

A Musical Diversion… ESO

Discovering ESO was an absolute accident – a Facebook ad had been appearing in my timeline for a while, and I finally decided to click through to it. And I’ve now listened/watched this video countless times. I really like the band’s sound, and can’t wait for the album – Nothing Left To Lose, which is out on October 1st in the UK and (hopefully) MP3 retailers in the US.

Music: “Living Things” by Linkin Park

Ho-hum, a long-time fan grumbles

I originally had very high hopes for Living Things. I had even been prepared to write a long review, believing this may be the return of the band that dominated my stereo, and later MP3 player, for most of the early 2000s. Sadly, this album is, effectively, the Linkin Park equivalent of elevator music.

Music Video: “Burn It Down” by Linkin Park (Warner Bros.)

I’m having a rather Linkin Park-themed day, with their music videos playing in the background on repeat, and thanks to IceBergInk’s Scott, I discovered that the video for their latest single, “Burn It Down” has finally been released! The song’s from their upcoming album, Living Things (released end of June), which I’m very much looking forward to.

Music Review: “Post Mortem” by Black Tide

Black Tide are a band I missed completely when they released their debut album, Light From Above (2008). At the time, I wasn’t following the scene as much as I had before, and tended to focus on the bands I already knew, who have released a slew of amazing albums in recent years. I only learned of them when YouTube threw up “That Fire” as a recommendation for a video playlist I’d been putting together. And I quite liked it. So off I went to get the album.

I’m not entirely sure which genre or sub-genre of rock they belong in, if I’m perfectly honest. I suppose the best place to put them would be “neo-thrash”, seeing as they blend some of the best elements of thrash, while also bringing a more modern pop-sheen. Really, this is pretty light metal, and purists will sneer at it (as they are wont to do at almost anything), but I think it’s a pretty great album. And it’s criminal how young the band members are…

Music Video for Fantasy/Sci-Fi Fans

Is this a band who like their genre or what?

“Warriors of Time” by Black Tide

I’ve actually got an album review for the band’s second album, Post Mortem, in the works at the moment. It was while checking out their other work that I stumbled across this, and thought it was (somewhat) relevant to the rest of the content of the blog. The album review will go live in the next couple of days.

“American Capitalist” by Five Finger Death Punch

I started my reviewing ‘career’ (for want of a better word) with music – rock and metal, to be exact. It is my other passion alongside reading, but after a few years of reviewing albums that progressively started sounding ever-more like cookie-cutter bands, one day I just decided to shut it all down. Record labels were informed that I would no longer accept review copies, and after catching up on what I’d already received, I would simply stop.

Roll on a couple years, and I find myself toying with the idea of getting back into it a little bit. There are fewer bands who come close to exciting my musical tastes, but 2011 proved to be a pretty stellar year for rock and metal music. Sure, the trend remains “heavier is better and hang the melody”, but there are a few bands still waving the standard for blending technical skill, melody, heaviness and originality.

So, I offer a rare, short music review, if you’ll indulge me…

Five Finger Death Punch (5FDP) are an American hard rock-metal band, and with their third album, American Capitalist, they have hit their stride. The album’s an absolute beast! The band’s sound is muscular, polished, confident, and has a superb mix of melody and brutality.