Happy Cinco De Moes - TOM

Hell yeah

Cloverfield - Neill

Last summer, I went to the movies to see Transformers with a couple of friends. One of them, Joe, was talking about a trailer that was supposedly fantastic. He said I'd know what he was talking about once I saw it. So as said by Joe, the interesting yet ambiguous trailer was shown, leaving the viewers wanting much more. All the information given about the movie was the date of its release; "1-18-08"

Needless to say, I saw it when it came out, and it was SICK! I was obsessed with it for a bit. After some time, I forgot about it, and went back to leading already extraordinary life.

Until today...
Me and my brodude from Fordham, Tom H. (different Tom from the regular contributor), went to go get some Moe's. After we went to the mall to try and get some longboard wheels for me. Whilst gallivanting around, Tom bought Cloverfield. After unsuccessful searches for wheels, we went back to watch the movie at his house with his sister.

AND AGAIN IT WAS AWESOME.
I don't really want to give anything away, but it is kind of like Blair Witch Project meets Godzilla. It is kind of cool, because usually big monster movies are looked at on a grand scale, and people die like crazy, but you aren't really supposed to care or anything about it. However in this film, you see everything from the eyes of the victims. You go through the same thought process as the characters, because you only see and know what they know. It is done pretty realistically--as realistic as any monster movie can get. This is probably how the city would act, if there were attacks like this. There are some images reminiscent of 9/11, so if you're into that...

There are some pretty cool parts to the movie, and despite it being pretty serious, there are some funny parts. There are many little details that you should look out for to learn more about everything. The first time I saw it, I paid no attention to these details, and still found it awesome, so it doesn't really matter too much.

My school is right next door to a major scene in the movie (Beth's apartment). My schoolmates and I make jokes. They are hilarious.

Probably the best part of the movie is also the most frustrating: the vagueness of everything! You never are really given any back story. The movie prompts extreme fans (nerds) like me to look online for any back story. If you actually do the research, you find out some stuff through viral videos and forms of media like Myspace, but never really the things you want to know most. On the DVD, it gives you all the information, so there really isn't a point of looking it up anymore.

After it came out, everybody wanted to know if there was going to be a sequel. Supposedly, according to producer J.J. Abrams, there will be. I really hope that it is done as well as the first one, but I don't want a clone of the first movie. I'd like a whole new premise of the same idea. Hopefully some back story will be given as well. Whatever, I'll see it (and probably love it) no matter what.

Also...the actresses are really hot.

Overall, I give the Cloverfield phenomena a 41 out of 42. Not a perfect score, because it is kind of slow in the beginning and I felt compelled to do unnecessary work in order to understand the movie better.

If you like awesomeness and are quite bored (or even excited) with life, SEE THIS MOVIE!

Rockville State Hospital - TOM

My first RAW image, I love the way it came out. By the way, the bum is a punk rocker and his favorite band is DOA. He's also down for restoring the building into apartments.

PANDA ATTACK - TOM

Neill getting attacked by a panda at the local trashed aircraft factory. Mini review: I just started listening to TYR's Eric The Red (2003), pretty lame viking metal with clean vocals. I only tried these guys out because I saw they're on Paganfest with the amazing ENSIFERUM and TURISAS, I think it's too late to get tickets though. Judging from the first song, this album is pretty much forgettable I think.

La dia

-Neill

P.S. I am practically done with my freshmen year of college. There is no way sophomore year can possibly be worse than this one, so I'm looking forward to it.

Rhapsody - Tales From The Emerald Sword Saga

So, we decided to get this thing going early since we don't want this great idea to fizzle out.



For quite a few years now, I have been experimenting with all different forms of punk and metal music. This was an album I bought a couple of years ago when I was first getting into my power/cheese metal phase. These guys are a pretty big band from Italy, combining traditional European power metal with classical styled passages. Current members are: Fabio Lione (vocals), Luca Turilli (Guitars), Alex Staropoli (Keyboards), Patrice Guers (Bass), and Alex Holzwarth (Drums).
When I first got it, I gave it a few spins and that was that. Driving to school the other day, I wanted to hear something new so I threw it on and now I've been lsitening to it constantly. Sure, there's plenty of high speed power metal thrown around here, along with the generic (but really well done) vocals. But the best part about this album are the epic classical passages and guitar soloing added into the songs.

The Breakdown:

1. Warrior of Ice - Great, fast song right from the start. Huge chunk of the middle is a classical passage with come vocal highlights followed by a shredding solo, then back to more speed.

2. Rage of the Winter - Another fast one, more on the power metal side. Great chorus.

3. Forest of Unicorns - Slow, folky tune, with some female vocals thrown in.

4. Land of Immortals - Best song on the album - listen to it.

5. Emerald Song - Epic and fast song here, another great chorus.

You can skip till 10. Holy Thunderforce - This one is actually as heavy as fuck! As badass as this band could possibly sound, killer song.

This album is pretty sweet, gets a little boring during those middle tracks though. Then again, someone new to the genre will find this album incredible, so I definitely recommend it to anyone who hasn't heard it yet. I like to keep these things short.

LISTEN TO IT ALREADY!!

Toms Test

Hi, Im going to do record reviews and stuff, as well as post interesting websites.

Neill's first review

Since late 2004, The Mars Volta has been one of my favorite bands. And even though they have been fading away as a top spot on my favorite lists, it is only because their early stuff is just so much better than their newer releases. And how can you get more early than their first release as a full force? Correct, you cannot get any earlier (unless you count At the Drive-In or De Facto).

Tremulant EP was recorded less than a year after At the Drive-In broke up, and unlike in any other release by The Mars Volta, you can still hear some ATDI sounding-ness left in the songs.

The EP starts off with what else but the sound of weirdness. It almost sounds like aliens have some weird tribal conga thing. But yes, it is the classic Mars Volta noise to begin the track for a minute and 56 seconds. But once it hits 1:57...BAM! The band is on a rampage! Cut That City unveils Cedric and Omar's new line up for their then new band. Ikey Owens on keyboard, a very good-looking and talented Eva Gardner on bass, the master Jon Theodore on drums (I wish he was still with the band), and the now deceased Jeremy Ward sound manipulating.

The EP goes from the fast paced, kinda latin sounding "Cut that City" to the slow, more haunting "Concertina." I personally enjoy the live version of the song a little bit better, because it is slightly faster. But this is still a great tune.

Next and finally is "Eunuch Provocateur." This is probably my favorite song on the EP. It starts out with a mysterious sounding guitar part. My friend, David, said the beginning sounds like a chase seen in a Steven Segal movie. I have to agree with him, but I still like it a lot. Then it moves in to craziness like the first song. At about five and half minutes into the song, you reach weird noise and weird drums again with some skewed vocals in the back. This lets me know the song and EP is done despite there being over three minutes left on the track. Some people are so bothered by the weird noises The Mars Volta puts on their CDs, they don't even give the actual music a chance. I am not one of them, I don't see why people just don't skip the weird noise parts to it.

Anywho! This is a wonderful recording. It is a great way for a great band to start off. Of course this would be outdone by the group's first full length, but they don't have any other recordings like this, so this is why I hold this in such high regard.

Overall, I give Tremulant EP a 9 out of 10.

Until next time, this has been Neill.
Fo' real

FIRST!

Coming from the small town of Merrick, New York, two ridiculously bored college students strive to be ridiculously un-bored. Some time ago, an idea of a dual blog sprung up. This "dual blog" seemed very interesting between the two homies, for they have very different opinions on many different subjects. This blog will have a variety of different stories, reviews, and other fun goodies for the readers. It will look like someone with multiple personality disorder writes it. But no worry, it is only the fine work of master genius, Neill, and Tom.

And with that, so concludes the first post. I don't want to say expect many posts, because I don't want to regret those words, but visit often; you never know what might be said next with these krazy katz!