Independent music review website from Luxembourg
Beavis and Butt-head introduced me to this song and I never saw the video again, the fact that I still remember it speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Watch those dance moves lifted straight from a Van Damme flick, the 90s fashion, oh and yeah, the music.
I heard better beats while sitting on the crapper.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nx64_N4AA04]
Troll 2 was released in 1990 by the Italian director Claudio Fragasso and is often described as the worst movie ever, which of course is absolutely bullshit. It seems that a lot of reviewers and so-called journalists have never seen Piratenmassaker, which without any doubt is the worst flick ever made. Piratenmassaker is like Bono from U2 playing Nickelback songs in a duet with Scott Stapp. Troll 2 is completely different and one of my favourite cult comedy movies.
However, in order to understand Troll 2 and its epicness you have to consider some simple “facts”, which I define as The 7 Holy Commandments Always Having In Mind While Watching Troll 2.
All in all Troll 2 is a ridiculous and completely absurd campy movie with a lot of charm. Beside the 7 holy commandments I just explained, the movie also taught me really useful and important lessons which, from now on, I will always consider in real life. So here is the second segment of the movie review called Things I Have Learned From Troll 2.
I rated Troll 2 with a ten out of ten. Ok, it certainly has not turned out how it was supposed to but the flick is hilarious and never gets boring and in the end, that’s the most important thing.
Also check out the documentary about Troll 2: Best Worst Movie.
When I discovered The Intersphere for the first time at this year’s Food For Your Senses Festival, I described their sound as a mixture between softer and harder post-core elements with Muse-ish riffs and clean Fall-Out-Boy-ish vocals. An impression that is confirmed throughout their 2012 release Hold on, Liberty!, combined with a solid touch of pop-rock.
The album, however, takes its time to warm-up and you may get lost a little between Coldplay keyboards and Finnish-like rock vocals; negative appearances that are deceitful until Sleeping God and Hold On, Liberty reveal the true dynamics of this long player. It’s not the presence of any kind of innovation but the playfulness and the catchy post-core grooves that may make you appreciate the German quartet’s work. I know I am using the word “catchy” way to often to describe sounds, but again I can’t prevent myself from doing it.
Still, outbursts like in Capitali just happen too rarely for my taste, but hey, music reviews will never be objective. Unleashing the dogs called drummer and bassist turns out to be a very good idea – this is the essence that creates the groove and makes their live shows so enjoyable.
The girlish, romantic, melodic refrains shouldn’t evoke too much macho behavior, I know, this is not a metal release, but those guys don’t deserve to be characterized too early as a soft-rock band. The album sound, in my eyes, doesn’t do enough justice to their powerful live sound though, although it definitely is a grower. It nevertheless is worth a buy if you like to cool down a bit the violence that the most post-core bands dash out of their amps.
This may not be a continuously compelling album, but a release with many great sounding melodic and rocking parts to discover!
Recommendations: Sleeping God, Hold On, Liberty, Parallel Lines
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZmFLQi2MwM]
Today I’m going to review another CD that will most likely stay in my top 3 of all time forever. Ironically, it features two members from this album…ladies and gentlemen, I give you Stone Sour and their self-titled debut album.
Stone Sour have their roots in 1992, way before Slipknot, but only saw mainstream success in 2002 when they signed to Roadrunner Records. Back then they were considered a mere side-project of Slipknot singer, Corey Taylor, and Slipknot guitarist, Jim Root, but especially in recent times they have evolved into an equally respected band.
But back on topic: this album may sound like a toned down version of any given Slipknot record at first, but you’ll quickly notice that it’s a completely different approach to music. Groovier riffs, more rhythmic drumming and super catchy choruses keep coming at you non-stop.
The guitar parts are filled with little licks that are quite subtle at first but will be stuck in your eardrums after the second listening session at the latest. Even though they are vastly groovier than the usual, they remain heavy where necessary; in perfect harmony. The bass also doesn’t come too short either and delivers some really catchy lines all throughout the fifty-one minutes.
In the drum department you will be looking in vain for any blasting or any super fast double bass action. But trust me when I say that you’ll be tapping along with your fingers in no-time. Plus there are so many little nuances that even after listening to the record for years now, I still find a note or two I never noticed before.
The vocals…where do I begin? Well, to be fair, I’m a huge fan of Corey’s voice and lyrics, so I’ll try to keep as objective as possible. Nah…fuck that. To me, he delivers his best performance on this album for several reasons: first of all, this was during the down time between IOWA and Vol. 3 (by Slipknot) and his voice was the ideal mix between his early aggressiveness and his later cleanliness. Secondly, he sings his first ballad which was a big “whoa” moment at the time. On top of that it features his probably best lyrical work so far, but you should be your own judge there. I for one identify with a lot of the lines and this record has helped through some self-finding periods on many occasions.
This is definitely their strongest album for me even though the other two had a lot of highlights as well. Maybe their new release in October will change that, but to be quite frank: I doubt it since this album and I have such a long history. If you can, I strongly recommend getting the limited edition since it adds five really good songs to the already thirteen song strong work.
Check their Facebook page if you want to keep up to date and be sure to listen to the song below; even though it’s not the ballad I mentioned earlier, which is called Bother by the way, it might just give you a similar effect.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NHz3Koj7o0]
Back when I first saw this music video, I remember bugging my mom about having a pea truck…needless to say she never gave in.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfN-pXD5MDw]
Hello world. It is Friday again and this time I really had my difficulties to choose a movie in order not to stick to these weird Japanese flicks I reviewed so often in the last weeks. While browsing through the internet I came across a very interesting movie title and auspicious trailer. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any further information or even the whole movie (yeah I download/stream stuff and if I like it I buy it). But as I said I couldn’t find anything but the director’s email address. What can I say? Well I think that I rarely have met such a straightforward dude on a “semi-professional” basis and that’s also why I wanted to try something new in order to not only do a review but combine it with an interview (which I feel needs to be extended).
After I saw Baby-Sitting for the first time there was one name which immediately came to my mind: Roald Dahl. I am not talking about Charlie and the Chocolate Factory or even Matilda, no I am talking about the wonderfully weird and macabre stuff he did. Comparing one’s work to Roald Dahl should, in the majority of cases, fulfill the idea of reviewing a flick but limiting Baby-Sitting to this fact just wouldn’t be fair because there is a bit more to talk about. First, Lucas Masson did an absolutely fantastic music selection, especially Freak In The City by Never Been is ear candy. Furthermore the actors, mainly the children, did an outstanding job with being very authentic, believable and completely nuts. At some point in the movie I was wondering if the boy could in anyway be distantly related to Paul from the original Funny Games. Masson so to say plays a lot with psycho horror movie elements but does it in a nice and fresh way. The psychological elements, being stronger in the first part, are than exchanged for a nice touch of gore and black humor in the second part. To conclude I have to admit that this guy has an extremely good sense of mixing all kinds of different horror elements in a very interesting manner.
Of course you should always have in mind that Baby-Sitting is a low-budget flick but considering the budget (with approximately 1600 euros) and the time (8 days with only filming during weekends) these guys invested, the result is even more surprising and it is no surprise that this movie already has been selected for 8 film festivals. Coming up next are a few questions I wanted Lucas Masson to answer, so keep on reading and tell us what you think about it.
El Gore: Something I really do appreciate is when a director decides to let people speak in their mother tongue. Personally I think that emotions are better put across and I always watch movies in the original language. Is this something you care about too?
Lucas Masson: Absolutely. I also only watch movies in the original language. I cannot stand the dubbed version as it takes away a big part of the actors’ performances.
For Baby-Sitting the choice was risky. Even though it is a complete French production, I knew that it would find better audiences in countries like England or the United states, where there’s a whole crowd of horror aficionados (of course we have a few over here, but French festivals aren’t big fans of splatter cinema). However the story took place in France so there was no point in making french actors speak English. It just made no sense. In the end I’m glad we shot it in French. And most of the festivals that selected it are from English-speaking countries.
EG: Do you plan on releasing Baby-Sitting on DVD and will we be able to see the full-length movie with 23 minutes running time?
LM: We’d love to but want to wait and see how it does in festivals and various competitions first. It will indeed probably include the uncut version since the 20 minute was made because of some festivals requirements regarding length. We also have quite a few behind the scenes videos which I feel are always interesting to watch when it comes to very small productions like Baby-Sitting so I’d love to put those in there too.
EG: You describe Baby–Sitting as a full dedication to the horror genre. What are your personal and professional inspirations?
LM: I’ve been a big horror fan ever since I was a child. My father showed me a lot of Horror and Sci-fi movies, so I grew up with them. I love all kind because I think the genre offers multiple storytelling possibilities. You can either tackle serious issues and develop very strong characters by confronting them with extraordinary events or having fun doing something completely over the top that people can watch for fun and guilty pleasure. For Baby-Sitting it was definitely the second option. As it was meant to be short and with a more than tiny budget, we wanted to make something simple, unpretentious with extreme dark humor and gory sequences. I was of course thinking of Bad Taste or Evil Dead in a way but with a more mysterious atmosphere like the ones you can find in old days Argento’s movies. I also adore other different great filmmakers like John Carpenter, Rob Zombie or also Robert Rodriguez.
EG: I didn’t know any of the actors in the first place, but they all, and especially Vasco Bailly Gentaud, did a really good job. How difficult was the filming especially for the children staying “paralyzed” during nearly the whole movie?
LM: Actually that part wasn’t difficult at all. Both the children already had shooting experience and were extremely patient. The difficult part was every gory scene that included Prune Richard (the little girl). It turned out she couldn’t stand the sight of blood. So we had to find a way to shoot every bloody effects without her in the room and clean everything before she could enter the set again. It was quite tricky and some scenes had to be rewritten. With Vasco it was a complete different story though. Despite his young age, he was very professional and more importantly he already loved horror movies. This was a great asset since he made the distinction between special effects and reality instantly and we had an amazing time shooting his horror sequences. He is a talented actor for his age and he exceeded all my expectations. I think he looks genuinely evil in those sequences.
EG: What can we expect from you and especially the Panic Attack (click me) Organization?
LM: We have a very short film about animal rights coming up. It’s something I feel very dedicated to and I’m anxious to do it right. I also really want to make a longer film. I like short films but I always feel frustrated in the end because I feel like I don’t have enough time to work on character development as I wish I could and I’d like to make stories more suspenseful with greater twists and turns. We first thought of a web-series and even wrote an entire script but we needed too much time and money so we had to postpone it for a while. Instead, I’m thinking of a short film trilogy, which could be a good alternative. We’d also like to organize a Horror Festival, but that’s just a project for now.
EG: How does it feel doing a trailer for the great David Cronenberg?
LM: It was really awesome. I mean it’s not as if he came directly to me and asked me for a trailer. I’m lucky enough to work for a French agency that makes all kind of international teasers and trailers named Sonia Tout Court. In this case it was one disturbing movie. But it was really interesting working on the promotion and there were enough twisted dialogues in it to do something fun.
EG: Thanks for the flick and the interview man. I wish you all the best for the future!
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryx82Pq4n9I]
It’s time for another well-known Luxembourgish band: Abstract Rapture. These guys have been around for close to ten years and in 2011 they released the long-awaited follow-up to their 2008 album Democadencia. The rather fitting title they chose: Earthcrush. Please note that because of scheduling problems the release party for the album was only in early 2012, so to most people it’s still rather fresh.
The reason why the title is fitting can be noticed right after the intro: everything is even bigger, faster and most of all more aggressive than before. Instead of starting a bit on the groovy side like the opener of the predecessor, this first song just blows your face off right off the bat. This goes on for quite some time until the forth song where the clean vocals start appearing, but just in small doses unlike on the previous record.
In the guitar department you can definitely notice a more mature style of writing with more complex structures and cleaner execution. The same goes for the sound which, at least in my ears, sounds a bit stronger and more tight. The melodic department doesn’t come too short either, even though it seems to have been toned down a bit. This sadly contributes to the fact that the album has less easily recognizable riffs.
The drums are almost not worth talking about since they’re at their usual very high standard throughout the 11 songs…people who know who’s drumming know the reason for that. However, similar to the guitars the speed has gone up another level and you’re treated to tinnitus-inducing beats; but in the good way.
As I mentioned a bit earlier, the vocals are a lot more aggressive and feature less melodic singing than what returning listeners are used to. This is however not a bad thing since the vocalist has a very powerful and charismatic voice that will stay imprinted in your ears for a while after listening to these 40 minutes of music.
To wrap things up I can only say that, while I’m sure newcomers to the band will surely enjoy this record since it’s filled with cool songs, I think it’s too straight forward. The previous album was criticized for having a few too many melodious parts; Abstract took that critique to heart and went balls to the walls with this attempt…however I prefer their debut Dead End Entry since it’s the perfect mix of both elements in my ears. I’m looking forward to their next release and I recommend you check this one out in the meantime.
You can follow the band on their Facebook page and check out the live video below, which Bördi kindly allowed me to use.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrWetQjJyVU]
This time around I decided to review an album I hold dear as I discovered it at the right time and connected with Pete(r) Steele and his vocals/lyrics instantly. So I apologize for the long emotional diarrhoea that is to follow.
Type O Negative are a band that I first heard back in 1995. I already knew the band because of my older siblings but did not know what they sounded like. Back in 1995 they played Black No 1 live on the set of a French show called Nulle Part Ailleurs and not much of a fuck was given by 10 year old me. October Rust came out in 1996 and my sister played it to death and I have to admit I thought it was OK (I was moving from a Heavy/Thrash Metal to a Death/Black Metal direction back then and thought it was too soft).
And that was it for me. I had written down Type O Negative as a Gothic Poprock band and it would take me a couple years to finally realize my mistake.
Fast forward to 2001 and the Carnivore re-releases. I fell in love with the first Carnivore album, which was Pete Steeles’ second band and the one prior to Type O Negative (abbreviated TON from now on). It was a nice slab of 80s midpaced Speed Metal, not too far removed from very early Overkill or Manowar. The second Carnivore album, although nowhere near as good due to a musical change to a less interesting hardcore/crossover direction, made me question my childhood judgement. My sister, no longer listening to music left me her October Rust and World Coming Down CDs, which I still did not listen to. Being able to surf online in those early internet days I came across statements like “The first TON album was supposed to be the third Carnivore album” and so my interest was reignited.
Now of course, I could not find the damn record so I forgot about it again. A couple years later (again) I find myself at home on a Saturday night, 4 a.m. and some German channel is broadcasting a festival. The band that was on was of course TON and their rendition of the unedited Black No 1 was both fun and catchy and had me hooked. Sadly it was the last song but the band was about to release Dead Again, which I downloaded. Dead Again showed me that the band still knew how to sound menacing and speed things up while adding some Black Sabbath and some Beatles to their sound. I was positively surprised and decided to get their other Stuff.
Which brings us to the actual album, Slow Deep and Hard.
I had recently split up with my GF and went to Germany to meet with friends living there. Before catching the train back to Luxembourg I had some time to kill in a store and ended up buying Slow, Deep and Hard along with the original Bloody Kisses CD. At this point I had already heard a couple more TON songs and knew I would like those albums (though I had no clue just how much). Needless to say, Slow, Deep and Hard (now abbreviated SDAH) became the soundtrack of that time for various reasons. The most important, and also the most obvious one for those who know the album, were the lyrics. SDAH can be considered a concept album about a break up. Out of the 7 songs, at least 5 fit the theme. You have the ridiculously titled Unsuccessfully Coping with the Natural Beauty of Infidelity, with the now infamous chorus I Know You’re Fucking Someone Else (which has become the unofficial new title of the song).Pete is self-loathing his way through the lyrics while dirges of doomy riffs, eerie keyboards and Hardcore outbursts build up this nearly 13 minutes song until it explodes and Pete is yelling at his ex-GF and calling her every name there is while detailing what occurred during their doomed relationship. “The prophets preach to forgive and forget, I am sorry but I am unable”, well put Pete.
Der Untermensch is the only song that feels out of place lyrically and has more to do with a typical Carnivore song, however if you do not listen to the lyrics it does not break the flow. It is one of those songs I like to show to easily-offended people just to piss them off because the lyrics are beyond racist. However, if you do not get that they are meant as a joke then you might be one of those who rant about Spongebob being a gay rolemodel for the next generation. Might as well join the Westboro Baptist Church then.
Up next is Xero Tolerance, a song about stalking your ex-GF until you find her making out with her new beau and decide to take your axe out of the trunk of your car and become an “equal opportunity destroyer”. Now don’t be stuck up, who doesn’t fantasize about killing people that annoy or hurt you? Get off your high horse and be human and show some sense of humor, will ya?! All in good fun, besides, she had it coming, didn’t she? Harhar This song is also one of the darker ones on the album, along with Prelude to Agony. Very doomy with Sabbath-like riffs, keyboards, chanting, Industrial noise and a nice acoustic outro.
Prelude to Agony is about raping the girl. Like all the songs on this album it is split into different sections, my favourite being aptly titled “Jackhammer rape”, ‘nuff said! Similar to Xero Tolerance, very dark and broody, but also fast towards the second half of the song. Might have the fastest part on the whole album. The rape being described in the lyrics is so tongue-in-cheek that at the end of the day, you ask yourself if he is referring to the speed of the penetration (jackhammer rape) or actually using a jackhammer on her. Very childish, yet depicted in a very poetic and intelligent way.
The next 2 songs are probably skip material for most people, I do enjoy the instrumental Glass Walls Of Limbo. I believe they used it as an intro before going onstage (at least they used it on the fake live album The Origin Of The Feces). It mainly consists of chanting and some weird noises that remind me of Vikings rowing. The Misinterpretation of Silence and its Disastrous Consequences is 1 minute of silence, plain and simple.
The last song is titled Gravitational Constant: G = 6.67 x 10-8 cm-3 gm-1 sec-2 and, lyrically, results in a suicide or the contemplation with suicide. The song is more lightweight, the main riff always reminds me of grunge bands for some reason, I don’t know why. Lyrically probably the most philosophical song on the album. No more cartoon violence, Pete actually talks about suicide in a very mature way. What adds to the experience is the fact that Pete tried to kill himself before this album, due to the GF. His arguments are not the cheap romantic goth ones but very intelligent points made by a person that made the choice to end its life. One of the last lines is the haunting “The scars on my wrists may seem like a crime. Just wish me better luck next time”. Thank goodness he didn’t add more scars to those mentioned.
The album cover is a picture of a penis penetrating a vagina and the title fits it like a velvet glove, pardon the pun.
Wow, I just spent 4 hours writing this review and am not even getting paid for it, talk about love for the music! Bottom line, if you get easily offended you will not get past the lyrics, TON are masters of sarcasm and black humor and they enjoyed pissing off people. No matter how morbid or tasteless the matter, it is better to joke and have people talk about it than to ignore the subject.
So here we are, a TON that sounds like no other TON, very unique, beautiful in its depiction of rejection, suffering and hatred. Possibly proof of the healing powers of music. Anyways, thanks Pete, your suffering helped others to make it through.
Dedicated to the memory of Pete Steele, none more negative.
The Hero of my youth: Hulk fucking Hogan! Incredibly great stuff and yes I loved wrestling in the good old nineties.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsXNIN-YH7M]
I have to warn you: today’s review is going to be slightly different than the ones you’re used to. First of all, it’s not written by our resident movie junkie but by the “I like metalcore” guy, which means that it’s going to be a rather recent flick. Secondly, it will be rather short in order to avoid spoiling anything about the movie. And last but not least it’s most likely going to be a one time thing, so enjoy this unique opportunity…haha.
The movie I decided to review is Joss Whedon’s The Cabin In The Woods, which was released in cinemas, where I saw it, in April 2012. The release date itself is worth talking about since the film was shot in 2009 but didn’t get any movie theater exposure until 3 years later. This was due to the fact that the studio wanted to convert it into 3D, which, thankfully, never happened. One thing I want to clarify before I start: since the movie is not going to be released on home media until late September I will only talk about plot points that are revealed either in the trailer or in the first five minutes of the movie, so don’t worry about spoilers.
The main cast is comprised of mostly newcomers to the big screen except Chris Hemsworth, who should be known to most people as Thor by now. Interestingly enough this actually was his debut but due to the delayed release he was first seen in Thor. The group of five teenagers decides to go into a cabin located near a lake in order to party and have a good time. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? If now I tell you that only one typical new-age horror cliché is fulfilled, you might not believe it, but it’s true; except the obligatory stoner in the clique, the other four are well-educated people.
One could assume that this fact might turn this movie into a boring ninety-five minute fiasco but everyone who is familiar with Whedon’s TV shows, like Buffy – The Vampire Slayer or Angel, knows that usually nothing is what it seems. The same is the case in this motion picture, since just before the group is arriving at the cabin the viewer can see a hawk fly into some kind of force field…ominous foreshadowing. A bit further into the movie the group is, of course, attacked by something which I will not disclose and the movie goes its way but, again without wanting to reveal anything, with a twist.
The Cabin In The Woods was praised as one of the best horror movies in the past decade by many critics and I can wholeheartedly agree. But then again I’m no horror buff…I do however know a good movie when I see one and this definitely falls into that category. And one more thing I can safely say is that if you liked the two series mentioned above, you will absolutely adore this movie. I strongly recommend that you check it out once it’s out on DVD and BluRay.
All screenshots were taken from the official trailer.
