Well I just watched the new robin hood starring Russell Crowe, and I have seen a bit of controversy on what people think of the movie. I myself thought it was great. I thought the story was very believable and the characters were well played. I found myself actually feeling for the victims of the Tyranny, and getting a little pissed at the lies of the king. As I watched the movie it made me see some if the parrallels to the real world. Where men will follow orders often putting their job first before what they know to be right. I have seen this many times in my own life, and just as the sheriff of Nottingham in the movie was no great man, and knew what Robin had done for the village that he was a part of, he let his jealousy, and his job title steer him to become a villain. I see this happen many times in our very own police force. Men who may join for honorable reasons soon become brainwashed into the status quo of their job, and see people as guilty first. They stop treating men and women as citizens of this country, and look at them only has criminals and cattle to be herded. They stereo type men like bikers, and the like will do anything they can do to destroy their lives, and it truly doesn't matter if they are guilty of anything or not. So far in my short life I have seen already what damage an overzealous and unchecked police force can do. In the death of a friends brother, and the death of an aquaintance, both killed by police, both died in vain, and both families were given no justice, and the victims were painted in ways I know neither of them to be. I have also had two brothers of mine, arrested, one of thems life is ruined losing family, friends, career, all for nothing. All to justify a paycheck by our wonderful government, and the other is awaiting trial. The victim of a police force who has made a personal pledge to destroy this man, and his friends lives for no other reason than he wears a patch on his back. This man faces two felony charges for a fist fight in which no one went to the hospital. This man will be banned from factories, and government installations where he works as an electrician severely limiting his ability to support his family. He will be denied the right to vote, and his firearms privileges will be revoked all for a fist fight where no one was seriously injured, that was started by the people who are witnessing against him. Why? You might ask. Because he wears a patch and the guys who started the fight and picked it do not. They were questioned only as witnesses, and he was railroaded and judged guilty immediately while they went home. I know this is not much of a movie review, but it was a good movie, and I think that if a movie is good it will cause you to have feeling and emotion and this definitely has. I do not say fuck the cops because I do not believe we need a peace keeping force, or someone to protect the people. I say fuck the cops because while not everyone of them are bad, the system itself is corrupt, and they are the happy foot soldiers who never stop to think that what they are done is in opposition to the freedom that this country garauntees from the founding.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Integrity
Ok I want to talk about the band integrity. Integrity has to be one of my most influential hardcore bands, not necessarily because I ever tried to emulate their style like some bands have in the past, but because they never seemes to care what was cool or popular at the time. I know that their singer did has been somewhat of a controversial figure in the hardcore scene in the past, but integrity was always a very original band, both in sound, and lyrical content. To this day few things will get me as stoked as hearing the opening bass line of hollow or the first few bars of systems overloaded. I know most people who might stumble upon this blog at some point in the future probably long after I have stopped contributing to it, will cite a variety of other bands to fill the slot that I have put this band in, and I have already heard people who want to give a band like cursed or some other band that is just not the same some kind of on the same level description but to me, integrity will always stay in a sub genre all it's own as one of the last hardcore bands to ever have a real mystique about them, and for that I am eternally greatful. One of the best and worst things about hardcore to me is bringing the band down to the level of the audience. When I was a kid I loved that aspect of punk, but as I became an adult and all my dreams of bands, and what they were doing and the lives they were leading were shattered by the truths of what band life was really like. I remember loving the stories that as I got older I realized how naive they were that bands were out there doing all these insane things, and I wish they all still had that level of mystique about them, but somehow a few bands were able to maintain a little bit even if not to the extent that they used to and for bands like integrity, neurosis, etc I will be eternally grateful for if nothing else that fact.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Just checking
Sent from my iPad
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Another day another radar dish
60% of its capabilities we have to break down and move 10 feet over to pick up the next one. Which will cost the government close to 5 hours of crane time, drivers to transport the loads and man hours just to move it ten feet. the radar weighs 61,000lbs and the crane is good for 97,000 lbs where it is sitting and they say that is not safe enough. At what point does safety become such a hinderance on production that it is not worth doing. Then I hear on the news that manufacturing has been moved because it is cheaper and the American worker wants to much. That's ridiculous the beuracrats have destroyed manufacturing in this country and the corporations have put greed over their own people. It would seem to me that our priorities were off.
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Sepultura 'Chaos AD'
Refuse/Resist
Territory
Slave New World
Amen
Kaiowas
Propaganda
Biotech Is Godzilla
Nomad
We Who Are Not as Others
Manifest
The Hunt
Clenched Fist
Wow talk about a musical life changer. This album litterally turned me from a Kirk Hammet wanna be into a Andreas Kisser worshiping nerd. From beginning to end this album absolutely destroyed everything that was out at the time, and from the sound of bands like Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, and the like this album in my opinion created the style of music that I would spend the better part of my teenage and adult life thus far trying to emulate. The combination of slower guitars, and political lyrics coupled with tribal drumming and insane breakdowns makes this one of my top two metal or hardcore albums of all time. My favorite song on the record was undoubtedly "Nomad" unfortunately they never made a video for this song that I can remember, but I do remember being young as hell and staying up late as shit to watch the propaganda and territory videos on headbangers ball (short haired Ricky
rachtman days). The tone that Andreas pulls off on the solos is a sound that I have never heard before or since, but gives the record a vine that is just unmatched. I seriously can't sing the praises of this album enough and if they still made metal like this (instead of the total garbage can't figure out if its death metal or some wierdo effeminate version of hardcore crap that is coming out on a regular now) then I would still be at every show, horns in the air screaming every word and shoulder bumping along with all the other grits with their battle axe, spencers bought earings and death dealer all over print shirts, and ripped up jeans, tryin to grow our hair long, but still have the hair wings like I was when this album came out. While the album after this "roots" had some good songs they were definitely trying to go the way of the while nu metal thing even though most people to
this day won't admit it. Everything past that was and is total garbage including soulfly, sepulotherguy, and even most of the songs on the cavalera conspiracy. None of them stand up to the absolute sheer brutality and dominance of this record, and I highly doubt we will ever see it again. So alas I will be forver relugated to rehashing it in my mind while I crank the IPOd and blast this record from my car as loud as I possibly can.
Civil Rights and everything nice!
has increased the speed with which it has headed toward complete collapse of freedom. Now this might sound like a bunch of nonsense political ranting, but it has its purpose and motive I promise. I am forever reading and witnessing and may even be taking part in the biker community, and if anyone has been following what is going on in that sub culture as of late then they have probably witnessed an exteme amount of absolute civil rights violations being done by our fine government on any and all motorcycle clubs that they can. Now I know what some of you must be thinking, "who cares their criminals, I saw it on the history channel." yeah yeah yeah I'm sure That the history channel and shows like Sons of Anarchy are perfectly accurate portrayals of motorcycle club life, however no matter what you believe these clubs to be doing it certainly is not all clubs or all members of clubs, and
what is done to the least of us is done to all of us. What would be the reaction if you went to your locally owned grocery one day and it was boarded up? Not only was it boarded up, but there was a sign from the police on the front saying this property, buisness, goods, and profits are all now property of the U.S government? Then you find out that the senior citizen owners who watched you grow up your entire life along with every other employee is now locked in federal prison, and their income is now gone so that means their homes are gone, their families have been taken from them, all their stuff has been siezed as well? Then after that you find out their doors were all kicked in at dawn by stormtrooper ss style shock troops with lazer sights pointed at every man, woman, child, and pet in the home and their entire home and their belongings were destroyed in front of their very eyes?
Then as if all that wasn't enough you find out that the grocery has been deemed a criminal enterprise because two of the emloyees stole a couple cars and got into a bar fight the weekend before. How would you feel about all that? Well that is exactly what is happening at this moment to one motorcycle club in this country right now. This club had not only their personal bought and paid for legally property stolen, the intellectual right to their logo and name were siezed by federal agents. I'm sorry folks but this is not freedom...
Crowbar 'Odd Fellows Rest'
Tracklisting:
Intro
Planets Collide
...And Suffer as One
1,000 Year Internal War
To Carry the Load
December's Spawn
It's All in the Gravity
Behind the Black Horizon
New Man Born
Scattered Pieces Lay
Odd Fellows Rest
On Frozen Ground

Remember Tomorrow - (bonus track)
This album is one of those wierd albums that when you first hear it, it isn't what you are expecting so you don't really know what to think. At least it was that way for me. I kept looking for that "all I had I gave" or "existence is punishment", but it didn't have one so I was kinda lost at first. I think I listened to it three times, and then settled in on the song "planets collide" and for a while when speaking about this record that was really the only song I was into. After a while though I picked the record up again, and for some reason this record hit me so hard after the break from hearing it, and all of a sudden all th complex guitar harmonies and the intricate touch of somber melody that is the vein that runs through this entire record just leapt out at me. Kurts voice on this record is very typical Crowbar, but the lyrics and the tortured "fat guy on the toilet after getting his heartbroken and his whole family dying" thing he has going on coupled the definite slow down as far as tempo and the afformentioned guitar work create such a somber and sorrowful atmosphere on this record that I have to say is nothing short of a masterpiece. This record creates a sound that I truly believe can never be duplicated outside of this band, and if you are in anyway a fan of original, heavy, and dark metal do not wait, go out and buy this immediately. I had the pleasure of seeing Crowbar perform at a very small upstairs venue in Norfolk, Virginia about ten years ago, and to this day it was one of the most impressive shows I have ever seen. Their sound onstage was just absolutely massive and flawless. The way they seemlessly blended the songs together made you feel as if you were watching them pour their heart and soul out through their instruments. They did all my favorite songs off all the old records and when they did "December Spawn" live I litterally wanted to slice my wrists open, drink the blood, vomit it back up onto a piece of canvas just to be apart in some way to the art that was being realized in that room that evening. To say that my life was changed by this band that night would be a little much, but the things that I valued musically definitely were

Thursday, August 19, 2010
Hatebreed - Under The Knife
Smash Your Enemies 2:12
Kill An Addict 1:02
Under The Knife 1:33
Filth 1:42
Not One Truth 2:09
Severed 2:40
Puritan 3:07
Ok so here it goes. I have no idea how to review this record objectively so I am not going to try. This record was one of the greatest influences on my musical life. The production is terrible, but in all honesty it makes this record one of the most powerful hardcore records of all time in my personal opinion. That may have something to do with the time period that I heard this band and this album. When I was very much a young teenager I was very much into hardcore punk. As I got a bit older (14 or so) that branched more and more into the metal hardcore crossover bands of the time. Bands like Earth Crisis, Deadguy, Strife, Unbroken, Converge, Turmoil, etc. Well at the time hardcore was starting to move in a different direction and a lot of post hardcore bands were gaining a lot of attention and the mood of things started to shift. Hardcore was getting softer and more artistically
oriented (not a bad thing). Then out of no where a friend of mine came over with the Hatebreed split with Neglect. He told me I had to check it out and I did. It was amazing, brutally heavy. The vocals were unlike anything I'd heard, deep and tough as hell, but crystal clear. The lyrics wereuncompromising and brutal and they seemed to be something anyone could relate to. Anyway I was sold I immediately recorded it to tape and Hatebreed became my favorite band. A few months later after sufficiently wearing out the tape I heard a 7 inch comp that had another Hatebreed song "Mark My Words" on it and was just absolutely hooked. Then snapcase came to town and were selling this ep. On their merch table and I instantly bought it. This ep. Changed everything from the very first sound (the feedback and panned guitar that starts this record off) this album blew my mind. It was a continuation of
everything I had heard up until that point and then some. I couldn't get enough of it. It was everything I wanted in a heavy band. About a month later a friend came to me and said he had booked hatebreed at the local skatepark and knew I was way into them and wanted to know if my band would want to open. needless to say I was freakin out man. About a week before the show the venue got shut down and instead of cancelling I went to a friend of mine who had a big backyard and asked him if we could do the show. He was cool with it so the morning of the show I cut the grass and me and that friend stole a bunch of wood and nails from a construction site and built a stage. at show time kids were coming out from all over, we played (and sucked), longshot from Maryland played and killed it, Despair (Scott vogel who later went on to buried alive and then terror) played and everyone went crazy,
and then when the sun went down and we hung a single light bulb from he attic window Hatebreed took the stage. What occured that night was absolute insanity. While I am sure that the guys in Hatebreed probably don't even remember that show it is forever etched in my mind. Kids went absolutely insane and their set was completely unbelievable. I heard every song off this ep. Including filth which had the heaviest breakdown I had ever heard and even included some new songs that I hadn't heard before. Anyway this "review" isn't really a review but I just wanted to emphasize the impact this album and band had on me at such a young age. I have had the privelage of seeing them perform in every single stage of their career and none of those performances will beat the first one for me. The albums that followed are all good so far, but that first record to me is still the one that scorched the
earth.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
All Out War - For those who were crucified
This album was huge to me. At the time it came out I had been into hardcore and metal for quite some time, and I really like the first record "Truth in the age of lies". I was constantly on the hunt for bands that really impressed me, and I knew that All Out War would not let me down. A lot of people were hating on Victory Records at the time, but you couldn't deny the recording quality that they were putting out, and I knew that with that kind of production All Out War would be amazing. They redid A few tracks from "truth in the age of lies" but there were enough new songs to make it a completely independent record. Every single review I have seen about this band says they are a mixture of the Cro Mags and Slayer and I don't know it that is because that was what it said in the press kit that victory sent out or what, but I don't see it at all. All out War to me have always had their own sound it is very metal influenced with bits and pieces of hardcore thrown in, but the focus is totally on the vocals for me. Most bands in this genre are climactic only during the breakdown and most people just sit around and wait for that to kick in but not All Out War you can literally dance to just about every second of this record. The Vocals I mentioned before are high pitched and tortured but not in the cliche' black metal wanna be screech that every jack off band in the world after them started doing. Mike Score is hands down one of the best metal/hardcore vocalists of all time. The Re Recording of "redemption for the innocent" just took an amazing song and made it better, and to this day I still can't stop screaming All Out War when the breakdown does kick in.
