An instrumental cover of the classic Gorillaz song, off of their second best album. Just a small weekend project I did. Listen now!
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In honor of having seen Iron Maiden this past summer. I wanted to do a review of their 1982 album, The Number Of The Beast! This is the third Iron Maiden album, and the band’s first with their classic lineup including the new vocalist, Bruce Dickinson. This was the first full-length Iron Maiden album I listened to, this entire album screams (literally) early 80s classic metal. Whether its the rasp and melodic voice of Bruce Dickinson with his large vocal register screams at the end of "The Children of the Damned" and the title track "The Number Of The Beast", or its the talented drumming of Clive Burr with his single-handed accented 16th notes at the beginning of "Run To The Hills" this whole record has large amounts of talent within its amazing songwriting. All the songs on this album feature extended guitar solos. This is also the first Iron Maiden album which features spoken-word introductions in several of its songs, notably in The Prisoner which has as well as the title track The Number Of The Beast which opening line is taken from The Book Of Revelation 12:12 and 13:18 and read by Barry Clayton. All of the songs on the album are written by the bassist of the band Steve Harris, all based on either historical or on Steve's own dream. The song after that "Run To The Hills" documents the beginning of settler contact as Europeans began arriving in the US with the first verse told from the point of the natives and the rest of the song being told from the Europeans for the rest of the song. While this album is considered a classic, with almost seven of the nine tracks being Iron Maiden classics, the second half of the album until the final song is sort of forgettable. That being said, the final track on the album, Hallowed By Thy Name, is sometimes considered to be one of the bands best, almost a mainstream fan favorite even though never released as a single. The song title comes directly from the lords' prayer specifically known as "Our Father", the song is a first-person narrative told of a condemned, man awaiting his death by hanging. However, he can't understand why he's scared because he is certain his soul is immortal however in the third verse there are several parts where he is questioning his own believes "If there is a God why doesn't he let me go" with an extended instrumental solo before returning to the form with a variation, a sort of urgency. With the ending of the man screaming the song title "Hallowed Be Thy Name" before cutting to the end of the song. While this entire album is classic track after classic track, the two tracks are thrown in at the end sort of make this album not able to be one of the perfect albums, however, it is almost as close to perfect as 80s heavy metal gets. The Backdrop during Iron Maiden's performance of "The Number Of The Beast". The backdrop during the opening of "Hallowed Be Thy Name" depicting Bruce Dickinson, the singer, as the man who is in prison awaiting his execution. 9/10
My New Remix to the Stranger Things Theme is out now!!!
This week I will be reviewing the second album by the 90s alternative rock band Smashing Pumpkins. This album isn’t my favorite by the band, although it is perceived by fans to be their best. The album, Siamese Dream, was released in July of 1993 and debuted at number 1 on the Billboard eventually selling 6 million albums. This album contains four singles which are by itself amazing songs: Today, Cherub Rock, Disarm, and Rocket. While Siamese Dream is generally labeled under as Alternative, it fuses several different forms of music together like grunge, progressive rock, alternative metal, but also more diverse styles like dream pop (shoegaze) at certain times in the album. As the stories say, the recording for this album was painful as a band, with Billy Corgan becoming the neat freak and perfectionist wanting everything to sound like his vision. Often Billy overdubbing both bass and lead guitar parts just so songs could be completed faster. After many other issues, the album would eventually be out and last year was its 25th anniversary. On a more personal note, when I saw the Smashing Pumpkins back in August of last year, they played several songs of this album, 7 according to my memory (and setlist.fm). The first song on the album is one of their best, Cherub Rock, almost arena rock sounding with its pounding guitars and drums and its thunderous solo, with its bombastic lyrics, its one of the best album openers, instant Smashing Pumpkins classic! The next song, Quiet, is very ironically one of the loudest songs on the album with a guitar slide at the beginning but also showing a bit of the shoegaze feel with the guitar reverb and the different effects displayed on the guitar, it also displays one of the heavier sides of the band with its crunchier side to it. The next song is a much more straight up Smashing Pumpkins song, but its very more toned down than the last one, another 90s classic, Today. One of my favorite Smashing Pumpkins songs with its upbeat, quiet verses and loud choruses represent a very grungy aspect to the very lyrically dark and depressing song about suicide. The next song on the album, Hummer opens with a very shoegaze feel to it, with again great booming guitars and drums, with another awesome solo, while it is not a filler track but it is kind of just kind of one of the less memorable tracks for me personally. The next song, Rocket is one of my favorites on the album, with just an amazing guitar tone introduction and a massive buildup at the end, like a rocket launching, again amazing song. The next song is a huge departure for the band, Disarm, one of the first songs to feature an acoustic guitar, and a whole strings arrangement, showing the band has less of a grunge feel and more of an alternative band feel, more shoegaze. The next song is also a little bit of a non-rocker, Soma for about 4 and a half minutes, there is no heavy guitar and drums and just a very shoegaze feel. The next song, Geek USA is one of the heaviest Pumpkins song with an insane drum introduction with an extremely heavy guitar, straight up 4 minutes of heavy guitars and just amazing softer bridge section building up into another fast solo. The next song is also a huge departure for the band, Mayonaise, and yes it is purposefully spelled with one n for some reason. The intro and outro guitar duo is iconic, the lyrics, while don’t make sense all together make sense line by line, telling its own story, again one of my favorites Smashing Pumpkins songs, period. The next song is very different, featuring Billy Corgan and an acoustic guitar for most of it, building up into a softer part of the song with a simpler drum line and a string ensemble in it, much like one of the massive singles, Disarm. Silverf#ck, is just an amazing back half album song with heavily produced guitars and fuzz, with lots of ringed out guitar tones, it is also the longest song on the album. And so we go from the longest song on the album to the shortest, Sweet Sweet, featuring just Billy Corgan on either a clean electric guitar or an acoustic with some ring on it. The last song on the album, Luna, also features the lesser banger, moving into more of the shoegaze direction with the clean guitar, bass and guitar, a softer way to finish off a very heavier front part of the album. Overall, this album is still ana amazing work of art with every song being amazing, no skippable and no bad songs! Even the singles on the album aren’t too overplayed because they are still amazing songs, even maybe better than some of the other songs!
8/10 With the release of Endgame, the second part to Infinity War, it sort of bringing some closure to the third phase of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. While the universe is by no means ending, with the release of Endgame it brings the conclusion of a few of the main characters over the course of the last ten years of Marvel films. And so I will be ranking all of the films released to this date, all twenty two of them, excluding the new Spiderman film which won't be released until July of 2019. And just as a warning now End-Game Spoilers! 22. Thor: The Dark WorldWhile I did see this in theaters. I ended up falling asleep during some of this movie. It is a very dull but also somewhat important movie, introducing the Aether on screen for the first time. 21. The Incredible HulkSo yeah, this movie. It's really bad. While I have only seen this once, I think I have seen it enough. The CGI doesn't age well, as well as it just seems like a throwaway movie that most people forget about. 20. ThorThis film isn't bad, its just that there are so many better ones. 19. Iron Man 2This was the second MCU movie that I saw in theaters, after seeing the first Iron Man film, I was very disappointed with this film. It just didn't seem to fairly portray what I thought a great sequel would be to an amazing first film. It just failed to live up to expectations. 18. Ant-man and The WaspWhile I really enjoyed this film, I just don't see it having any substance to it. The power dynamic between the "good guy" and "bad guy" which I don't even know if I can call it that, in this movie the whole plot is just very weak and all a misunderstanding, personal for me it just sounds like plot convenience inorder for Marvel to work time traveling into the MCU. 17. Captain MarvelI was only able to see this online a few nights ago, and I am very happy I did not watch it in theaters. Uhh, I didn't like the acting it seemed just like a subpar marvel movie, but it is doing well in the box office so what can I say... 16. Black PantherWhile I did enjoy watching this movie, I just thought some of it seemed very rushed. And some of the CGI was very cliche for a very large budget production Marvel movie. At the same time it wasn't bad.... 15. Captain America First AvengerI hadn't seen this movie when it first came out. I actually did not see it for a few years later. However, I thought it was a great opening to the character of Captain America. A very good way to tell the origin story and the self sacrifice. But the ending is probably the funniest, with Captain America waking up in modern day times square and just mad about the date he missed. 14. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2I loved the first Guardians of the Galaxy film, it is one of my favorite films. This one is also an awesome film not only with the awesome soundtrack of all kinds of amazing songs but its also just a great story expanding on the first guardians film and diving more into the magic of the MCU. 13. Captain America Winer Soldier12. Ant-manI thought it was a decent origin story to the film, I didn't like how similar it was to the Iron Man film but it was still a great film! 11. Avengers: Age of UltronI know a lot of people hate this film, but I rather enjoy it a lot. It was more of a fun film to see some of the characters joking around for some of it but also it was a fun action packed adventure, and yes the villain was very cliche but it was still a great film . 10. Spiderman HomecomingJust a great film. I didn't really like the Andrew Garfield films but this film with Tom Holland its just awesome, he acts very naturally in comparison to Garfield, like a kid. It was a great way to tell a superhero movie but also show that its still a kid in highschool behind all of it. It reminded me of the first series though, the first trilogy of films with toby mcguire, still one of my favorite trilogies. 9. Doctor StrangeI loved this film, one of the greatest marvel origin story films they have made. I think they did an amazing job introducing magic into the Marvel Universe! And Benedict Cumberbatch acting is just spot on in this film. 8. Iron ManTalking about origin stories, the first film that started it all, the first Iron Man film. Such a great way for a franchise to kick things off, also establishing its, I hate to say formula but yes a formula for how they would tell the basics of the arc of most of their stories. 7. Thor RagnorakThis film, I think its the greatest redemption film especially about the character Thor, who definitely needed it. 6. Iron Man 3While I loved that film 5. Captain America - Civil WarIt could be pretty hard to .... figure out the best thing to say about this film.... Like its really hard to decide.... Airport Scene!! 4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1This film is just so well built. 3. AvengersThe first film that started the rest of the avenger films. One of the most successful marvel film. 2. Avengers - EndgameThe greatest hits of the past ten years. 1. Avengers - Infinity WarWhile I do think of Endgame and Infinity War as one film. It is Infinity War which takes the top spot for me.
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Cameron E. Narimanian
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April 2020
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