Beat Uncharted: Drake's Fortune today. So I'll be returning it to my friend and you guys can expect a review soon.

Call the police!!!

Album: Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!

Artist: Megadeth

Dave Mustaine was kicked out of Metallica, and he was pissed. So what did he do? What anyone in his position would have done of course, release an album of his own that would be faster, heavier, and more deadly to the ears than Metallica's, that not only directly attacks Metallica's first release (Kill 'Em All) with the name of the title track and album, but also takes one of the songs on Kill 'Em All that Dave Mustaine helped to write, "The Four Horsemen", changes the lyrics, speeds it up and calls it "Mechanix". It also turns out to be some of the best thrash metal I've had the pleasure of listening to. Dave's vocals are awesome in my opinion and very unique compared to other singers in the genre at the time. The relentless guitarists tear through song after song and never slow down. The drummer tries his best to keep up and does a pretty good job overall. My favorite tracks on the album are "Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good", "Rattlehead" and "Last Rites - Loved To Death". It's a great album for any thrash metal fan, I highly recommend it.

Bottom Line: A great begining to my favorite thrash metal band, 5/5 :D.

Album: Thrash Metal

Artist: Blood Tsunami

Blood Tsunami is a hardcore thrash metal band in the vein of Slayer with (and I know many people will hate me for saying this) distinct metalcore and black metal influences. The lead singer is where you can really hear the black metal influnce the most, but luckily it's not too similar to black metal lyrically, and he can hold some genuinely cool long notes. The guitar work is pretty darn catchy and relatively fast paced. Having said that, it's also very simple and it probably didn't take them all that long to come up with and master, showing the metalcore influence. The drummer is actually pretty good and genuinely talented. The guitarists don't comeclose to the caliber of those they compete with like Slayer and Kreator. My favorite tracks on the album are "Infernal Final Carnage", "Devoured By Flames", and "Torn Apart". A pretty good thrash album that I enjoy listening to from time to time, but it's nothing original or groundbreaking and a bit too simple for my tastes at times.

Bottom Line: Old-school thrash metal-modernized, 3/5 :?.

So yea, it was my birthday back on monday the 16th and now I'm 19. I got Mirror's Edge and Folklore on the Playstation 3 along with non-gaming related gifts. I hung out with friends and such. I'm also borrowing Uncharted: Drake's Fortune from my friend and in exchange I let him borrow Gears of War for his new Xbox 360, although I would have let him borrow it anyway.

So first impressions of Uncharted is that it's pretty, but not nearly as pretty as most Playstation fanboys would have you believe, I can easily say that Metal Gear Solid 4, Gears of War and Gears of War 2 look much better overall. The two things that stand out graphically are the shadow and water effects. The voice acting is pretty well done. It's also pretty unrealistic because Drake can jump like 20 feet easily and has the upper body strength of a gorilla. The combat is fun, but doesn't quite feel right, same goes for the platforming which is strange because I loved Jak & Daxter. I'm only about two hours into the game so we'll see.

I saw two movies recently, which was nice because I rarely make it to the theater nowadays. I saw Coraline which was pretty darn cool, 8/10 in my opinion. Then I saw Friday The 13th which was amateurish and disappointing, 5/10.

Concerts are starting to pop up that I'm going to try to go to. First up is Kreator/Exodus/Belphegor/Warbringer in late April. Then Opeth and Enslaved are playing in May. Finally in July Mayhem Fest will be coming to town with a ton of bands but I'll be there mostly for Slayer and Cannibal Corpse. I've already seen Powerglove (lame), Turisas, Dragonforce, The Absence, Belphegor (meh), Ensiferum and Amon Amarth live, what shows have you guys been to?

Album: Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds

Artist: Amon Amarth

Amon Amarth is my favorite viking metal band of all time, same goes for death metal band as well if you consider them death metal. All the tracks on here are surprisingly solid for a debut. The guitar work is great, they shred and keep things interesting throughout the entire EP. There's some really awesome riffs and some great solos as well. The drummer is also great. This album definitely sounds more like traditional death metal than future releases but at the same time's it's more melodic than most traditional death metal. Because of this, the EP is very easy to get headbanging to. My favorite tracks on here are "Sorrow Throughout The Nine Worlds", "Burning Creation" and "The Arrival of the Fimbul Winter". My only two complaints about the EP are that the recording quality is pretty bad, and two songs "The Mighty Door's of the Speargod's Hall" and "Under The Greyclouded Sky" can sound eerily similar at times. Other than those two minor gripes, it's really a great begining to a truly great band.

Bottom Line: Very solid debut by Amon Amarth, 4/5 :).

Album: Refuge Denied

Artist: Sanctuary

Sanctuary is another casualty of the metal scene during the 1980's. So many heavy metal groups were being created that some of the best like Sanctuary and Sacred Oath never got the time of the day from radio shows, MTV, or listeners. Warrel Dane's unique and powerful vocals are what will first grab your attention. He can be very high pitched and borderline screaming one minute just to be normal the next. It's definitely an aquired taste for some, it seems like people either love him or hate him. I personally love his voice and styl*e I think he's a breath of fresh air and genuinely skilled. The guitar and drum work is heavily mixed, so of it is pretty good with some cool ideas, while some of it can also be pretty average and even boring at times, but this is to be expected on most debut albums. You can hear a definite Helloween influence on this album rather than a Megadeth influence despite be produced by Dave Mustaine himself. Wether that's a good or bad thing is soley up to you. My favorite tracks on this album are "Sanctuary", "Ascension To Destiny", and "Veil of Disuise". The cover of "White Rabbit", originally by Jefferson Airplane, is surprisingly great as well and is by far the best cover of that song I've ever heard. The album is really great although a bit hard to find these days, and I highly recommend it.

Bottom Line: A good debut album for an underappreciated band, 4/5 :).

I just got the crazy idea that since I've been doing some music reviews lately, you guys should probably know where I'm coming from musically. I've always been in love with music my entire life. I played Clarinet for a year and Alto Saxaphone for five years, mostly wind ensemble but I played jazz as well for three years. At the moment I'm trying to learn electric six-string guitar. I mostly listened to jazz/alternative rock as a kid but I also listened to a little bit of heavy metal and classic rock. Now I'm a hardcore metalhead through and through, I listen to just about any kind of metal you can think of. On top of this I listen to a little bit of classic rock, symphonic/orchestral, techno/trance/electronica, and alternative rock in that order. My top ten bands in order are:

1. Iron Maiden

2. Megadeth

3. Nevermore

4. Amon Amarth

5. Dragonforce

6. Dethklok (I know they're semi-fictional but so what.)

7. Black Sabbath

8. Metallica (Earlier albums, although Death Magnetic is pretty cool.)

9. Opeth

10. Cannibal Corpse

So hopefully that wasn't too boring and hopefully it gave you a good idea of where I'm coming form in terms of my opinions on music. See you guys around and you can expect the next review on Sunday as usual.

Author's Note: I decided since Cannibal Corpse is coming out with their new album this week on Febuary 3rd it would make sense to do a review on their previous album. Oh, and be sure to check out my Fable II review!!!

Album: KILL

Artist: Cannibal Corpse

This album was somewhat of a disappointment. It's still incredibly brutal, but there's only three songs on there that I would genuinely consider to be good. Those songs would be Make Them Suffer, Necrosadistic Warning, and Purification By Fire. The rest of the tracks on here seem really repetitive and generic. They essentially seem like filler to me. For those of you that play World of Warcraft Corpsegrinder left an entertaining little note in the credits that says "F*** the alliance!" and I whole-heartedly agree with him. Overall I really don't think this stacks up to any of their past albums, let alone the greats such as Butchered At Birth, The Bleeding, Tomb of The Mutilated, or Vile. Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come and was just a temporary creative slump.

Bottom Line: Not as good as past efforts, 3/5 ;).