Cold Blooded Theory-Insight

Cold Blooded Theory is a pretty nifty metalcore band from Glendale. Their music, while very much within metalcores maxims, is also not typical of the genre. In many ways they are similar to bands like August Burns Red. However, the general approach is a lot more rhythm centric and breakdown heavy than on most metalcore records. I think this really emphasizes the hardcore feel. That is not to say that there are no melodic lines, they are just not the prime focus of the music, at least to my ear. Being the mosher that I am I have to say that I do think the emphasized hardcore feel is pretty great. It does not descend to neanderthal-like moshcore, but its definitely something that you're expected to thrash too. The lyrics are not christ-core but they are still morally positive and stuff that most metalheads could agree with. It especially reassuring to see stuff like this in light of the whole For Today fiasco. One of my favorite lines is "Its safe to say,/No matter your faith,/Believe in a life without hate /For the sake of being free" All in all, Insight is a very solid release from Cold Blooded Theory, it should impress most fans of modern metalcore, it has all of the prime tenets of the genre yet it still incorporates outside influences.

https://www.facebook.com/coldbloodedtheory/app_178091127385

Over Under Sideways Down (Roger the Engineer)-The Yardbirds

 So today I'm covering the classic Yardbirds album Over Under Sideways Down, which in some places known as Roger the Engineer. This album is more of a precursor to heavy emtal and pretty much the hardest album that had come out until that time. There are some Yardbirds classicss on this album most notably the title track Over Under Sideways Down. There are awesome guitar parts, the lead guitar is awesome, courtesy of Jeff Beck who is a master of the distortion. Then there is Chris Dreja who stands in the background providing excellent rhythm guitar. The bass has a lot of nice fills, especially at the beginning of Lost Woman. The drums are very 60s in style, nothing to heavy or fast yet still very good.

The guitar is buzzing with raw power and energy. Jeff Beck is a master of the instrument forcing out distortion and creating sounds that were heavier than anything previously heard, on any Western recording ever. Yet the heaviness is not extreme, it dances across your ears producing a series of nice tones. The solos of Beck are simply spectacular providing a really nice feel to the album. They fly across the fretboard create sounds, that I can confidently say had never before been created with a guitar. He creates sounds that just make you smile at their sheer beauty. The rhythm guitar of Chris Dreja is nothing special, it provides chords to add a fullness to the music, and it does end up sounding very nice. The bass has a lot of 'walking bass' lines which add a real bluesy feel to the music. The drums are light and dance around the set. The bass drum is rarely used to add a heavy effect.

The lyrics are usually bluesy, but on some tracks they are nonsensical. The majority of the time the lyrics are very bluesy, talking all about blues sorts of stuff, showing no special creativity. They are high powered and do capture a good blues feel though and show the bands main influences. So while nothing special they add a good feel to the music. The singing of Keith Relf is also usually bluesy, but at times it is lighter and tenny bopperish, like in the awesome song Over Under Sideways Down. Typically though Relf offers some very good bluesy moans. It is the instruments that make this album awesome and not so much the lyrics or the vocals.

Overall this is an awesome album that was one of the heaviest things to ever come out of the 60s. The heaviness is awesome, because it is not headbanging, but rather light and dancing across your ears. It is rather inspiring for anybody into early heavy metal. There are a couple key elements that make this album great. The lead guitar has some awesome solos that create sound unheard of before this record. The rhythm guitar also contributes nicely, the bass has a lot of good lines and the drums dance lightly across the songs. The lyrics, while not creative, add a really good feel to the music and add a bluesy vibe. The voice of Relf provides an excellent blues feel as well. This album would be liked by all who appreciate 60s music and early heavy metal bands and bands like The Who and the Stones. This album rocks on and on and on.

OVERALL 9/10

Led Zeppelin Band Profile

Well this is the first in what I call band profiles. It is a collection of profiles of bands and their famous works as well as influences and some people they influenced.

So today we start out band profiles with what is in my honest (and correct) opinion the best band ever. That band, as those of you who were not to lazy to read the title will know is Led Zeppelin. Also known as Led Zep, Zeppelin or simply Zep this is a legendary band that has sold millions of records and is loved (or at least appreciated) by every single sane human being. They have countless classics and brilliant band members and their influence has made rock what it is. These guys made STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN the best song EVER. These guys made Whole Lotta Love, these guys made kids want to grow up to be rock stars and some of them (read Jack White and Cobain among others) actually became amazing cool guitar gods.

The most notable part of Zep is the fact that they are composed of 4 of the greatest musicians who have ever lived all of whom regularly make the lists of top 10 musicians of whatever instrument they played. There was Jimmy Page who is in my opinion the best guitar player ever, but I will allow Hendrix to enter the debate His solos are legendary and spectacular. There was John Bonham, whose heavy drumming and powerful arms made him a drum legend, second only to Keith Moon. There was John Paul Jones (that was his stage name) crafter of great bass lines and good in numerous other instruments that made him invaluable to any Zeppelin album or song. Then there was Robert Plant (who I have tickets to see October 24^th!!!) one of the best vocalists of all time and possibly the one with the greatest vocal range. Together these men grew their hair out, smoked, and rocked their way into godhood.

They formed up in 1968 having to do a Scandinavian tour for the Yarbirds a band containing Jimmy Page who had just broken up. Page was assigned the task by the ex-Yardbirds members to make a line up for this tour. He found Plant, Bonham and Jones and a legend was born. They liked their sound so much they decided to stay together after the tour and formed Led Zep. Their first album came out in 1969 and started with the hard and formidable Good Times Bad Times and it just stayed hard from there.

Overall this is the best band ever. A combination of hard rock and metal and also blues influences they showed great musicianship and skill. I like all other good Zep fans wish daily for the Great Return, when Plant, Page, Bonham's son Jason (John Bonhams son, Bonham died in an alchohol related incident in 1980 but Jason is a skilled drummer.) and Jones join up and tour again.

OVERALL 10/10

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Iron Butterfly- In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Yes that's right. 3 BLOG POSTS IN ONE DAY! That is how dedicated I am right now, later on I'll push some off so savor it while you can. This is a continuation on my series on the origins of metal. Today we are visiting another album which is among the very first in metal. It is not that hard and it almost feels as if the Beatles turned on the distortion. Overall though this is a pretty sick album. There is almost, I guess one might say... a metal pop feel if you know what I mean. When I say pop I mean Beatles style pop FYI. If you listen to the album you'll know what I mean it works for this album I think but it does not seem to show a lot of technical skill.

The genre of this album is very difficult to place but you can definitely get an early metal feel from it. Listening to it you get an idea that Iron Butterfly was like “Well we want to be popular like The Beatles but we also want like to try out this new metal stuff, lets like combine the the two!” High fives all around and this album happened. It works okay but it is not great. The music is very upbeat for metal and gives me the tinglies on the inside just like Maiden's Dance of Death! (Yes Dance of Death gives me the tinglies.) I like it but the musicianship is more of the level of the Beatles (Middlyish) than like Zep or Sabbath.

The musicianship is ok, slightly above average but nothing truly special. The solos are rather weak and show no incredible skill. The upbeatness manages to compensate for some of this. The lyrics are pretty good, but again Beatles-like in tone. It actually fits to a degree, it is very interesting really how this works and so I am wishy-washy about this album. There are no power chords as far as I can tell. The album is not very powerful actually it comes off as rather weak, notice that I said weak not limp. It is not pathetic it just is not very hard. All in all it comes out reasonably well.

This is a reasonable album. It has an interesting sound and is like a harder version of the Beatles. While instrumentation is only slightly above average the lyrics are also kind of meh. It is a good listen though, the brightness of the album gives it a good feel and I like it for that. There is less of the darkness so present in most metal and with kinda happy tones it turns out to be kind of cool. I like it but I don't think it is that good so it does not get to high of a rating. Overall it is a good listen when curious about the origins of metal. It is almost hard to believe that such extremely hard stuff could come from... this.

OVERALL 6.5/10

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