Independent music review website from Luxembourg
I sat down and tried to think of the gayest video I saw in recent times and this popped up and mindraped me (yet again).
Somehow, although it is known that he is gay…he still has to have a female. But the irony lies in the line “I wanna be with you and make believe with you”. Yeah…cos we didn’t already figure it out 😉
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWqJTKdznaM]
In the early nineties there were two major fighting game series: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. And as you know, whenever a game is successful, Hollywood wants to make a movie out of it. Since Street Fighter got one in 1994, the Mortal Kombat faction soon followed in 1995, and to be honest: it’s not even bad!
The story is quickly summed up: Shang Tsung, an evil magician, hosts a tournament which will decide the faith of the Earthrealm and he is opposed by Raiden, the God of Thunder, who is played by Christopher Lambert and his chosen fighters: Liu Kang, Sonya Blade and Johnny Cage. Pretty standard story, but what can you expect from a fighting game? Then again, if you’re watching stuff like this for the story you must be a pretty confused person.
The fighting sequences are rare, not very long and not super impressive either. Not meaning that they’re terrible but I guess I was expecting more brutality…similar to the video games. The dialogue is average at best as well, with so many corny lines that it almost hurts. The acting is generally speaking decent but some of the actors just make you cringe.
You might ask yourself how I can say that this flick isn’t bad when all I do is criticize it. Easy answer: I grew up with the games and therefore I don’t care about all of the above negative points. There are many subtle and not so subtle references to them that make every fan happy; whenever Shang Tsung says the magic words “Finish him!” I see the blood-red writing in my mind and I have to smile. Plus there’s the characters’ special moves that are added in a few scenes; yet another wink to the fans.
Especially the villains are really well done in my opinion. Amongst them are the three ninjas Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Reptile as well as Goro, who is a four-armed giant. Even though pretty poor CGI is used for Scorpion’s trademark move “Get over here!” I’m still impressed by the Scorpion fight, mainly the fact that they travel into hell to finish the fight and Scorpion takes off his mask to reveal his skull. Goro also looks pretty much the way he does in the games, and as far as I can tell is done completely without CGI.
The main reason why I think this movie is worth watching however is the music, or more precisely the main theme. Every time you hear the famous voice scream “Mortal Kombat!” you know that shit is going to hit the fan. The rest of the soundtrack also has some other cool songs by bands like Fear Factory and Type O Negative.
To sum it up: check out this movie, especially if you’ve seen it as a kid and haven’t seen it in ages…nostalgia guaranteed!
Before I start, let me just say upfront that this is probably going to be the shortest review I’ve written so far; not because I’m lazy but simply because there’s no point in over-analyzing this record. Nevertheless I want to express my thoughts on Isles And Glaciers and their 2010 album The Hearts Of Lonely People.
Even though the seven songs only amount to twenty-seven minutes in total, it’s one of my biggest “discoveries” this year since it’s a supergroup comprised, amongst others, of members from three bands I enjoy a lot: Emarosa, Chiodos and Pierce The Veil. There are also other musicians but to be quite honest…they’re not the centerpiece of this collaboration so I won’t talk about them.
Instrumentally there’s not much to say either, it’s very enjoyable but no real highlight. However, there’s no need for any highlights on the instruments because what this record, at least to me, is all about are the vocals. Jonny Craig of Emarosa, Craig Owens of Chiodos and Vic Fuentes of Pierce The Veil take you on a, for lack of a better word, beautiful journey with their amazing voices. Lyrically it’s very cheesy but not to a point where it’s annoying…I definitely love them.
To sum it up I can only say that if you’re into any of the bands I mentioned…you need to check this out, no questions asked. If you’re not, but you’re not averse to higher pitched vocals, I strongly recommend that you give this a shot. Sadly, the band is on an indefinite hiatus and there are no real plans of releasing any new material in the near future. But that’s OK, since they’ve left a mark in my memory with this debut. Check out the song below if you’re curious.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXxeev6kczE]
A few weeks ago Frantz from the desert rock band Dirty Crows, Denis and I decided, quite spontaneously, to go and see our friends from The Majestic Unicorns From Hell who were playing a gig in the centre of Luxembourg. I didn’t know anything about the other bands playing and to be honest, I also didn’t expect anything “good”. This may be due to the fact that they were supposed to be hardcore bands. Don’t get me wrong: I do not hate this genre, it simply doesn’t mean anything to me, although I think it has a quite unique and honest scene. So, the first band playing that night was a quite young Austrian hardcore band which flashed me from the first moment on and that’s why I have their new EP Holy in Hell rotating in my CD Player for days and I now try to write a few lines about the record.
As I already noted I was quite a virgin when it comes to Hardcore but Wrath of God have created something which transformed me from an abstinent priest into a promiscuous admirer. Holy in Hell consists of 6 simply-constructed songs with only one passing the three minute line and with the last one called nearly five seconds which is standing on its own. Wrath of God is a live and surprisingly also a record band which usually is very hard to find. There is often a loss of abrasiveness, harshness when a band tries to put its music on a record, especially in the “extreme” genres. With the Holy in Hell EP this is not the case as the music is still intense and aggressive, in a very positive way, which is also due to the DIY sound of the EP. I really love this oldschool sound as this is an important personal identifying feature for some honest uncompromising, dedicated and high principled stuff.
You should give these guys a try, they really blew my mind! Excellent stuff. Check them out on Facebook.
I actually love the band since they have extremely funny lyrics and catchy songs…but this video is just amazingly trashy.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2a4gyJsY0mc]
When I was still a child, me and my family quite often visited my mother’s aunt and uncle. Even though the latter one had a hard shell, he always had a soft heart towards my brothers and me and I always felt a certain warmth when I entered their house. My mother’s aunt who was some kind of a grandmother to us and still is, is one of the nicest and most supportive women I have ever known. But it was my mother’s uncle who peaked my interest in movies.
I remember him as a grumpy man sitting on his sofa, smoking cigarettes, watching old spaghetti western and pirate movies, telling the grown-ups to shut up, so that he can watch his movies quietly.
One evening, we were invited over the house again and I immediately entered the living room to check out which movie was running. “Something with pirates” the old man said and I hoped very sincerely that it wasn’t Cutthroat Island because I had already seen this one a hundred times before. Well, it turned out that it wasn’t a pirate movie. It was something I never had seen before and it captivated me for the next 104 minutes and in some kind influenced my way affection for monster movies and the love for hand-made special effects. The movie I was watching was the incredible Jason and the Argonauts.
I never was into the Greek mythology, its themes, or interpretations, but Jason’s adventure always got me and still does. So, let’s start with a short summary.
Jason decides to go on a quest for the “Gift of the Gods”, more precisely a golden fleece in order to claim his family’s throne. On the one hand he denies Zeus’ offer to help him with a ship and a crew but on the other hand he accepts Hera’s help (screw you Zeus!). After building his own ship and assembling his own crew with amongst others Hercules and Acastus (sent by his father Pelias in order to sabotage Jason’s attempt), they start the journey. Hera guides Jason to the Isle of Bronze where they can find some supplies but shouldn’t take anything else with them. It is Hercules who fucks everything up and makes Talos, the keeper of a treasure chamber, really angry. Talos comes to life and attacks the crew. This is the first time when Ray Harryhausen’s absolute brilliancy is shown.
After having killed Talos but lost Hercules and Hylas, Hera guides the rest of the crew to the blind Phineas who, punished by Zeus, has to constantly fight two Harpies tormenting him. Jason and the Argonauts help Phineas to catch the Harpies who in return give Jason further details and an amulet. To reach the land of Colchis (where the fleece is supposed to be found) the ship has to sail through the clashing rocks which “kill” everyone who dares to pass them. The ship of course gets trapped in the wild sea and Jason seems to be that fucked-up that he claims the end of the gods and throws the amulet into the water. All of a sudden Triton, the messenger of the big sea appears and holds the rocks back long enough for Jason to pass them.
After Jason and the Argonauts passed the rocks they find three survivors of another ship, with Medea among them. When they altogether arrive at Colchis they immediately get captured by the King Aeëtes who doesn’t want Jason to find the Fleece. Shortly after, Medea already fallen in love with the latter one, helps him and his men to escape the dungeon and Jason has to fight the seven-headed Hydra which is the keeper of the fleece.
Still pursuing Jason and his men, King Aeëtes creates an army of skeletons out of the Hydras teeth which attack the men. Unfortunately not all of them survive this epic battle. Jason is able to escape to his ship where his companions and Medea start their return. In the end, Zeus is telling Hera that he let them rest for a while but will call upon Jason and his Argonauts again in the future.
So far for the storyline, which in itself is epic enough and accompanied with a timeless score by Bernard Herrmann but to be honest it is Harryhausen’s work which makes this movie so special for me. Nearly twenty years after I saw that flick for the first time I am still stunned by his spectacular and amazing stop-motion work. I nearly pissed my pants back in the days when I saw Talos coming to life. The monsters really got me but I hadn’t any idea of how much time and sweat Harryhausen put into this flick. The skeleton scene for example only lasts for a couple of minutes but he worked several months on it. If you ever have done some clay animations you know what I mean. I highly respect Ray’s work and especially his full dedication to (this) film. This movie is more sincere than most of today’s CGI infected bullshit movies à la Transformers. Jason and the Argonauts is a monumental flick in the history of cinema!
Yup, you read that correctly. 366 days ago we published our first review and since then we’ve published a total of 41 movie reviews and 53 music reviews. We’ve also reported from the Food For Your Senses festival and the 10th anniversary concert of the EMF. 2012 has also seen the addition of three new members that have helped make our goal of world domination come closer…we’re getting there.
We want to say THANK YOU to you, dear readers, and we promise that we’re far from being done!
As you might have noticed, we have changed our design…which is only half true: we departed from Tumblr and migrated to WordPress. And we hope to bring you an updated, custom design in the near future. So keep an eye out for that.
And last but not least, the winner of our anniversary contest is: Carole. Congratulations!
-El Gore team-
Another chapter in the long book called “Modern bands that sound like old ones”. You may not be the kind of person claiming that everything was better in the past, but this certainly will have the potential to remind you of the good old times. I’ll really try not to make too many allusions to a very well known English band formed in ’68.
It will, however, be inevitable to think of Robert, Jimmy, John Paul and John (especially John!) for the listener of this album (or for the reader of this review). So, since we’re all here: this is the modern version of a certain English band formed in ’68, but this won’t be the end of the song, because Head Down has much more to provide.
Despite the cliché, Rival Sons not only focus on classic riffs but also try to make you put on your dancing shoes after the opener Keep On Swinging, filling the album’s character with funky blues and psychedelic parts, without forgetting the base provided four decades earlier. Another thing to point out would be moments like in the wonderful Jordan, taking just a few seconds to make you feel melancholic like Forrest Gump sitting on a bench in Georgia, or Manifest Destiny parts 1 and 2, trying successfully to tie on epic rock opera songs right from the 70s.
The hardness may be lost sometimes, in case you presuppose a kind of it from classic rock. Head Down is a grower which shouldn’t be classified as another boring homage to a certain English band formed in ’68 – influences from many other artists from that time are unmistakable, but they don’t outshine the very own and authentic groove of this quartet from L.A.
The funny fact that the vocalist sometimes sounds like George Michael shouldn’t prevent anybody from enjoying this perfect soundtrack for a road trip through the Californian summer, or whatever is your favourite part of the states. There’ll be plenty of old school moments to discover, combined with the freshness of four men who enjoy living in the past of rock music.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ijOlAR3zs8]
After an exploration of different musical spheres last week, it’s time to go back to the heavy side. So today I chose to review the debut album Domination of the Luxembourgish band Perish With Pride, which was released in 2010. This young quartet has taken the great ambition of recording twelve songs entirely by themselves, and before I say anything further I’ll just spoil the ending: they mostly succeeded.
Musically they wander the path of melodic death metal (contrary to what I claimed in my live review…shame on me) and the thematic of the songs is mostly sociocritical, safe for one. This means that you won’t get much time to rest, especially at a show, since it’s very straight-forward which isn’t a bad thing to me.
The drum sound is quite enjoyable and actually sounds like a real instrument; so fear not, you won’t be treated to something over-produced. One minor gripe I have though is that they generally lack variation, at least on the hand-level…the footwork therefor impressed me more than once. This however doesn’t really put down the album as a whole but it’s definitely a point that can easily be improved in the future.
The guitar-work on the other hand is more diverse and delivers several neck-breaker riffs, the same goes for the sound which is pretty clean and nice on the ears. Special mention for the mini-solo at the beginning of Pull The Trigger.
The vocals are the one thing where I’m still a bit on the fence: essentially they’re good, but they lack something, which I can’t even put into words, that doesn’t quite convince me. Maybe it’s part of the mixing or because the CD is a bit older, but when I saw them live the voice impressed me more.
Even though there is quite a bit of critique, there are two major selling points for me on this forty-two minute album: the first one is a completely unexpected funk interlude on one of the songs which I won’t name now, as to not ruin the surprise. And the second one is the second-to last song Tribute To Metal: probably the greatest collaboration in the history of the Luxembourgish metal scene, yes…that good. To sum it up, it’s basically a shout-out to the entire metal scene featuring the vocalists from local bands like Arkaeon, Dreadnought, Asathor and Desdemonia, amongst others.
To finish up I can only say that Perish With Pride have made it onto my “list of local bands that I will follow in the future” and that you should absolutely check them out to make up your own mind. Be sure to check out their Facebook page and the video below. Please note that the version below is not the final mix, so it’s not as polished yet.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaB9doOLFpk]
Peter André aka untalented piece of crap!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JqViFmgaHek]