Immortal: All Shall Fall

90/100, Immortal treats us to a grim and frostbitten peek of Blashyrkh.

This album is epic, and actually makes the seemingly endless wait worth it. Abbath's vocals and guitar playing are equally excellent. Horgh's drumming is both creative and super precise. The new bassist isn't all that noticeable because he's barely even audible. Demonaz is becoming a better lyricist and it shows.

"All Shall Fall"-Starts off with some ambient noise, but that doesn't last long. Soon you're thrown into an amazing riff that gets quickly followed by another equally amazing riff. The drumming is fantastic on this song, precise and brutal. Abbath's vocals jump in with a quick bark and then come in full fledged. An amazing song and an overall excellent choice as the title track and opener. 9.5/10

"The Rise Of Darkness"-Immortal follows up "All Shall Fall" with another great, albeit softer and slower song. It hints at heaviness early on but doesn't really reach it until about halfway through. There's some really cool drumming on this song and I really like the chorus, but it's just not quite as awesome as the title track. 8.5/10

"Hordes To War"-This song comes out screaming. It's incredibly fast, extremely brutal, very chaotic and just overall very intense. 9/10

"Norden On Fire"-Starts off with the noise of howling wind and some soft guitar playing to set the mood. Then the heavy riffing drops in like a bomb. The song starts out great, and only gets better. The last bit of the song gets really epic with some excellent riffing. 9/10

"Arctic Swarm"-Starts out simple but brutal, and gets more technical and progressive as it goes on. Almost sounds like a death metal song. The song changes in the end and sounds much more like black metal, and Abbath has a cool albeit short solo near the end as well. 8.5/10

"Mount North"-Another very epic sounding song, filled with absolutely great riffs and stellar drumming. It gets heavier and heavier as it goes on, and Abbath's solo is awesome. 9/10

"Unearthly Kingdom"-Starts off with very dark sounding ambient music that really sets the mood, it totally gets you into the song. Then the riffing comes in, mid-paced and trance-like and extremely catchy. Then things heat up and the song gets insanely epic. A battle horn sounds and then the song grows soft while the gates of Blashrykh open. Then drums come in as epic as possible with equally awesome guitar to bring the song through it's final stretch until it's end. The first time I listened to this song I knew it was great, but every time you listen to it, it gets even better. Truly excellent track, it made me sad to hear it fade out. 10/10

My favorite songs are "All Shall Fall", "Hordes To War", and "Unearthly Kingdom". While some bands try as hard as they can to be as "true" or "necro" as possible and others throw in cheesy amounts of keyboards and synthesizers to try and make their music sound more epic or accessible, Immortal is truly evolving black metal in ways no other band has even thought of. This is quite possibly Immortal's best album to date.

81/100, Megadeth finally delivers the goods!

Ever since Megadeth's return after Dave's nerve injury fans have been waiting for a true return to form, well this is probably about as close as they're ever gonna get. If you're expecting nothing but true thrash, you'll end up liking a couple of the songs but will overall be disappointed. However, if you go into just looking for good metal you will be deeply satisfied just like myself. As a hardcore Megadeth fan, I can finally say that I am truly pleased with their new album.

"Dialectic Chaos"-Starts off with a mid paced, simple and catchy rhythm. It pretty much keeps that through the whole song while Dave and Chris trade guitar solos with each other. It really shows off both of their abilities and is surprisingly catchy for an instrumental. Leads right into "This Day We Fight!" making for an awesome one two punch that will knock you out. 9/10

"This Day We Fight!"-Old-school Megadeth through and through. Very thrashy and extremely fast. You can feel some of Dave's old aggression in this song. This song proves that Megadeth is still the true king of thrash, posers beware. 9/10

"44 Minutes"-Simple but catchy main riff with some great vocals on Dave's part. Hints of thrash but the chorus is purely melodic. There's some great soloing as well. 8/10

"1-320"-Great riffing showing off some technical prowess. The drums are a little simple and boring. Very technical soloing at the end makes for a strong finish. 7.5/10

"Bite The Hand"-Good heavy intro riff that leads to an even better technical thrash riff. Those two riffs kinda switch off from there. Lame lyrics, but very solid music. Good duel solos start up around halfway through the song. More solid soloing near the end rounds out another solid track for the album. 7.5/10

"Bodies"-Starts out simple but still heavy and has a melodic chorus. Honestly it gets a little boring until a little past halfway when it goes into guitar solo mode, and that sounds just flat out fantastic. I can hear Chris Broderick's influence heavily here as the latter part could easily be from Nevermore. First half of the song is passable, second half is fantastic. 7.5/10

"Endgame"-The title track for the album and an instant ****c. Stats out mid-paced and very heavy while Dave's vocals sing out over everything. A very progressive song that continuously speeds up and has some great solos. Excellent track. 9/10

"The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss"-Starts off slow and quite frankly beautiful with some symphonic elements. Dave's vocal delivery on this song is amazing, but quite frankly the lyrics themselves are lame. Then the song progresses into heavy mode and gets some seriously great riffing done. When the songs gets heavier it sounds like old-school Megadeth. Excellent song, would be mind blowing if it had better lyrics, although they do get better as the song goes on. 9/10

"Head Crusher"-A big loud wake up call after "The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss". Fast, brutal, and thrashy. Comes across to me as "Sleepwalker 2.0" and that's not in any way a bad thing folks. 9/10

"How The Story Ends"-Interestingly enough despite the title this is not the last song on the album, which makes no sense if you ask me. Sounds very much like a song off of Youthanasia. Probably my least favorite on the album. 6.5/10

"The Right To Go Insane"-Some of the better lyrics on the album. Starts a little boring but gets better as it goes on. Cool riffing at the end with some good soloing. Not the song I would have chosen to end the album on. 7/10

My favorite three songs on the album are "Dialectic Chaos", "This Day We Fight!", and Endgame" with "The Hardest Part of Letting Go…Sealed With A Kiss" as a close runner up. The two songs at the end bring down the average but the album is still amazing. There's something here for every Megadeth fan, and if you don't like some of the song you either don't like Megadeth or you don't like metal, it's as simple as that. If you're a true Megadeth fan go out and buy this right now.

So on July 11th I went with my girlfriend and two friends (nimatoad2000 and kurisu18) to the Shoreline Ampitheatre in Mountainview to see Mayhem Fest 2009. It was so awesome. Right when we got there we were met by protestors outside telling us to give our lives over to Jesus and giving us "Get Out of Hell Free" cards. I thought it was pretty funny, nimatoad2000 yelled "give you lives over to satan!" and I screamed in a black metal voice "satan!". Pretty stupid I know but i couldn't help myself. We went in and nimatoad2000 got a slayer shirt and kurisu18 got a cool white mayhem fest shirt. I wanted this gray mayhem fest shirt but all of the stands were out fo it so we wasted time by searching for it. I was lucky enough to find one in my size which made me pretty happy. Then we went over and waited in line for the Cannibal Corpse signing. When it came for my turn I got the mayhem fest magazine signed by them. Pat was really shy it seemed, Rob was just kinda there, Alex was sick and we talked about Blotted Science for a few seconds before I had to move on, Paul seemed very appreciative when I told him how much I liked his drumming, and Corpsegrinder was nice and talked about his pose in the picture in the magazine. They were all really nice and down to Earth guys. It's always great when a band actually cares about it's fans. Then I walked over to the Behemoth tent and bought one of their tour shirts. Then we caught the last three songs of Behemoth's act. They were awesome but I wish I could have seen then whole thing. Meeting Cannibal Corpse was worth it though. Then Kurisu18 wanted to see All That Remains, and as he went to mosh the rest of us got tired of the band (Kurisu18 was the only one of us that liked them) and went around looking at tents and entering contests. Then we found out we had missed a Behemoth signing, which was disappointing but oh well. While we were waiting for All That Remains to finish up we rain into this guy. Here's another video of him for those of you interested :P. I asked him if I could get a picture and he said sure and then asked if I wanted him to puke to which I obviously responded no thanks. Here's the picture:

Yeah I wasn't expecting that interesting encounter. Then Kurisu18 dragged us to My Bloody Valentine at the main stage which we only stayed two songs for before we couldn't take it anymore.It was pretty watching the guy in charge of the lights show rocking out to the music as he pressed buttons though. So then I finally got to see Cannibal Corpse live for the first time. They didn't disappoint in the least. They played absolutely perfectly,sounding just like they do in the studio. Right when they started up with Evisceration Plague the crowd went nuts and pits erupted everywhere, including right next to us. There were tons of people crowd surfing and a trash can was being thrown around. Nimatoad2000 said he saw someone throw a jug of milk. After they finished their set people were still being thrown over the barrier even though there wasn't any music. Here's what I remember of the setlist for those of you who care: Evisceration Plague, The Time To Kill Is Now, F***** With A Knife, Priests of Sodom, Unleashing The Bloodthirsty, Make Them Suffer, Hammer Smashed Face, and Stripped R**** and Strangled. don;t know if that is completely the right order but it's close, and I may be missing a song or two. Then we hung around until Slayer. It was cool being able to see them and they played very well but to be honest they were disappointing. Out of their short set only around half were actual goods songs. The rest were from their newer albums that nobody cares about and wouldn't evens stand up as filler on their older stuff. The good songs they played were War Ensemble, Mandatory Suicide, Chemical Warfare, Dead Skin Mask, Hell Awaits, Angel of Death, South of Heaven, and of course Raining Blood. Psychopathy Red wasn't bad, but the whole song was essentially one riff. As good as that one riff was, it is just one riff for a roughly 3 minute song. Simply not good enough. Anyway I got to hear some truly ****c songs live and can now say I've seen Slayer. We got out of there before Marilyn Manson, none of us listen to him.

Overall it was the most fun I've had in years and easily the best concert I've been to. It was a truly great experience and I recommend metalheads every go if they get the chance.

This is my list of top 20 metal albums (personal favorites, no other criteria matters to me), from any subgenre. If your favorite isn't on here, tough luck. If you see a band/album you hate, keep it to yourself.

1. Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?

2. Rust In Peace

3. Infinity

4. This Godless Endeavor

5. Accelerated Evolution

6. Dreaming Neon Black

7. Powerslave

8. Dead Heart In A Dead World

9. Black Sabbath

10. The Bleeding

11. Coma of Souls

12. Pleasure To Kill

13. Killing Is My Business...And Business Is Good!

14. City

15. Human

16. Synchestra

17. Don't Break The Oath

18. Tomb of the Mutilated

19. Ride The Lightning

20. Countdown To Extinction

Mayhem Fest is soon!

So as most of you know I mostly listen to metal, but that's not all. My second most listended to genre would be rock. So here I am, listing all the rock bands I listen to, every subgenre included, and in order of who I consider the best to who i consider to still be worth listening to but not great either :P. I may do a top twenty metal bands somewhere down the line, but who knows.

Rush

Rainbow

Led Zeppelin

Cream

Pink Floyd

Simon & Garfunkel (If you consider them rock, I know some don't)

Muse

The Doors

Van Halen

The Beatles

Jimi Hendrix

AC/DC

Guns & Roses

The Who

Creedence Clearwater Revival

The Eagles

Deep Purple

The Smashing Pumpkins

Velvet Revolver

Foo Fighters

ZZ Top

U2 (So what if they're commercial? I'm not afraid to say I like their early stuff and the new album.)

Carlos Santana

The Shins

The Killers (They're arrgogant, but their music has some good atmosphere to it.)

Wolfmother

Death Cab For Cutie (Despite the absolutely stupid name, they do have some solid stuff.)

The Rolling Stones

Coldplay (Admit it guys, they have a few good songs)

Now commence the whining complaining, and ridiculing on the order of the bands, the bands I listen to, and the bands I don't listen to.

There is always debate on what decade was the best for what genre of music, but the one I feel most strongly about is that the 1980's was without a dbout the best decade for heavy metal. It gave birth to badass bands like: Autopsy, Bathory, Blind Guardian, Cacophony, Cannibal Corpse, Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Coroner, Dark Angel, Death, Destruction, Dio, Exodus, Guns N Roses, Helloween, Immortal, King Diamond, Kreator, Mayhem, Megadeth, Mercyful Fate, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Rigor Mortis, Sacred Oath, Sanctuary, Savatage, Sepultura, Slayer, Sodom, Testament, and Vader. Plus, it still had great bands like Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and Motörhead that started before the 1980's but were still producing great metal at the time.

As much as I've loved every era of metal, I gotta say that the 1980's was by fat the best decade to be a metalhead, even if a couple of my favorite bands like Nevermore, Devin Townsend/Strapping Young Lad, Opeth, Amon Amarth, and Nile weren't around yet.

On a side not, my one year anniversery with my girlfriend will be coming up on June 6th. Also, I'm officially going to Testament on June 12th now thanks to Nimatoad2000, and as I'm sure most of you already know I'll be attending Mayhem Fest on July 11th. Should be two great shows. You guys should also be sure to check out my Spore review and let me know what you think. Hopefully everything is going well for all of you, peace out!

I got modded and suspended again, for calling someone out as a troll. I had no idea you weren't allowed to do that, what and idiotic rule. The guy wasa total troll too, he wasn't contributing anything at all. It was a thread about what bands you thought were bad. He said that he didn't agree with any of my selections and therfore refused to contribute. I responded by asking him why he even made that post in the first place thena nd to stop trolling. Oh, and apparently all opinions you have are wrong now if someone doesn't agree with you. The thread wasn't evena bout my personal opinion, it was supposed to be about everyone's, and it's sad how few people could understand that.

Last night I saw Angels and Demons and then snuck into Star Trek. I didn't really want to see either but my friends did so whatever. Angels and Demons was alright, it was a step up from Da Vinci Code at least. It stuck a lot closer to the book, which I certainly appreciated considering that the only thing Da Vinci Code shared with the book was the same characters and basic plot. The cinematography and directing were mediocre at best and the acting was alright, with Tom Hanks being the highlight even if it was far from his best performance. Overall I would give it a generous 6/10. Star Trek was horrendous. I actually had a little higher hopes for Star Trek because it looked like it could be fun at the very least, but it actually turned out to be one of the worst movies I've seen in a long time. I mean, if Star Wars fans were disappointed with the prequels, I can't imagine how pissed off Star Trek fans must be with this steaming pile of crap. The acting is unanimously terrible with the exception of Scottie who provided some much needed comic relief. The script is one of the worst I've seen in years, the dialogue alone is cringe worthy at best. The movie just goes through action movie cliche after action movie cliche as it proves to you time and time again, just how bad it really is. Even the plot, which is no doubt what trekkies will care most about, is just plain terrible. All Star Trek has going for it are it's special effects, which are still not even as good as Star Wars Episode III and that was released years ago. It's always funny when a movie that takes itself so seriously is so incredibly bad. I would give Star Trek a 2/10.

Back on Thrusday night I went to the Opeth/Enslaved cocnert. Enslaved performed great, but it's too bad they focused mostly on the newer albums, with only one song from pre-Ruun I believe. They need to get a new road crew though, because their equipment was having a lot of problems and the road crew kept going on stage to fi it and obviously had no idea what they were doing. Then Opeth came on and were better than I could have imagined them being. I already enjoyed their music a great deal, but my respect for them shot up even more after that performance. They play on an entirely different level than most other bands around these days. They even did a cool improv section, which would ahve been way better if it wasn't so damn hot in there. Mikael was also incredibly funny and laid back, he has his own style and personality amd is an excellent frontman. It was a really great show.

I hope everyone has had an excellent week as well, and I'm sorry if i haven't commented on your blogs much, I;ve been really busy with finals but tomorrow is my alst day for the semester. Peace out guys!

I now have three stitches in my middle knuckle on my right hand, a tetnis shot, a whooping cough vaccination, and a sweet orange wristband all courtesy of Peet's Coffee's Workman's Comp Fund, score!

Today I got a brand new arctic white Gameboy Advance sealed and everything in the mail along with a brand new sealed copy of Pokemon Leaf Green. Call m weird if you want, but these games are fun as hell. Gave my old Glcier GBA to my girlfriend, she's been wanting one for a little while now. Playing it right now!!!

This is the first review I've done in a while so I hope you guys like it. It's an arcade rhythm game called Percusion Master, here's my review.

Gamespot has little to no info on the game, so here's where you can see the game being played: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h2syWpcn_QA

Although i don't agree with him about the drums being unresponsive, I found it to be quite the opposite actually.