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MORTAAAAALLLLL KOMBAAAAAAAAAAAATTTT!!!!111!1!

Posted at 5:28pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Metallica: Death Magnetic Review

I'll start of this post and admit that I'm a pretty hardcore Metallica fanboy. These were the guys that really got me into playing the guitar, and they're the ones that got me interested in aggressive rock and metal as a guitarist. Couple that with their guitar arrangements and awesome hooks, and I can pretty much enjoy any Metallica song on some level. That said, like most people, I was disappointed with St. Anger — but I don't have as much disdain for it as some people. I should also say, too, that I'm not such a fanboy as to think Metallica is the be all, end all — I just really like what they do, just like I enjoy Soundgarden, etc. I also don't feel Lars and Hammett are the best in the industry like some MetHeads do.

So, with the above stated, I thought I'd give my 2 cents on Metallica's newest album, Death Magnetic, which will be in stores this Friday (you can pre-order from Amazon for only $8.99)...

The whole album clocks-in at just under 1 hour and 15 minutes, and it sports 10 songs — the longest being the instrumental at 9 min 58 secs. Out of the ten, there's only one I don't really like, but we'll get to that later.

"That Was Just Your Life." This song reminds me of "Jump in the Fire" from Kill 'Em All, mainly because of the guitar riff. I'm somewhat impressed that Hetfield's 45 year old voice can still hit the notes he hits in this song. It's not my favorite track, but a decent first song.

"The End of the Line." This has major ...And Justice For All and Master of Puppets throwbacks for me. This is my favorite track on the album, and I think it does a great job of being "classic" Metallica with awesome guitar hooks and rhythm changes. I'm also enjoying the guitar tone they use on this track, as it's more open and thin as opposed to a deep, metal sound you'd expect. I like the bridge breakdowns and solo section a lot.

"Broken, Beat & Scarred." I'm not a fan of this intro, and I wish they would have just started at 40 seconds. That said, all is forgiven (temporarily) when the main riff begins at 1:00. SWEET! But, I kind of get tired of the song after a while — mainly because of the progression right before (and at the end of) the chorus, and I get tired of the monotonous double-bass. However, the verse guitar/vocal pair is awesome. Still, I can imagine myself skipping this song from time to time.

"The Day That Never Comes." I have mixed feelings about this song, but overall, I think I like it — I just hope it doesn't get overplayed. This track is a great example of a Metallica "ballad," and as formulaic as it is, the melody keeps things really interesting to me. Like many others, I'm no fan of the cliché "love is a four-letter word..." section before the solo, but oh well. The bridge and solo section sort of make up for it, though (think "One") — and it'll be a great section in the live show. I don't think I would have made this one of the singles to garner interest, however.

"All Nightmare Long." This is my third favorite song on the album, and I can't find much fault in it anywhere. I have fond Kill 'Em All flashbacks with this song, and the main rhythm is just fantastic. More classic Metallica — and the chorus is just awesome. This should have been one of the singles, in my opinion. GREAT SONG, all around. If I had to nitpick, I'd say that I'm not a huge fan of the guitar tone on this track, but that's a total nitpick.

"Cyanide." I just really don't like this song. I want to like it, but I just can't get over the cheesy vocals. The music isn't too great in my opinion, either. I DEFINITELY would have kept this under wraps and out of circulation. It's like they thought they had to write a song about death, and this is all they could come up with. Ugh. Skip.

"The Unforgiven III." I was scared to death when I saw this, because I feared it would be too much like the original, or "Unforgiven II." Thankfully, it wasn't. The intro is great (piano, strings, and horns), and sets the mood of the song perfectly. This is one of the better tracks on the album for me, and it has massive Black Album mojo. I particularly like the vocal melody, and how the strings support everything without being cheesy. I also like how they did the build-up to the solo section, which is anticipated based on the previous Unforgiven tracks. Hammett kills this solo, too — a perfect fit for the song.

"The Judas Kiss." This is another cool song. It's more repetitive than most of the tracks, and pretty basic — but the chorus is pretty cool, and reminds me of "Master of Puppets" and little of something you'd hear back in the Ride the Lightning days. I find my enjoyment of this song increases exponentially as I increase my stereo's volume — and it's a great driving song.

"Suicide & Redemption." The much anticipated instrumental, and it delivers to a degree. I hear a lot of Ride the Lightning in this track, and it sports a pretty catchy hook that'll get stuck in your head. There's not as much variety as I'd like, but it makes me curious so see what they'll do with this live — which is exactly what they want me to think. I like how it mellows like the mid section of "Orion," and it even has the harmonized lead-lines I was expecting to hear kick in. I'm not a fan of Hetfield's guitar tone in this track, and I think they could have easily cut some of the repeats to have the track give "more bang for the buck." I have a feeling this will be a great song live, and that it'll be twice as long — but I'm not a total fan of this track, personally.

"My Apocalypse." Another single, and a good choice at that. This is another classic Metallica song, and it's another favorite. The pre-chorus and chorus are great, and feel like Kill 'Em All and Master of Puppets. The bridge breakdown is dadgum AWESOME, and jumps into ...And Justice for All territory for a bit. All in all, this just an awesome song, and my second favorite. Plenty of guitar hooks, the vocals match perfectly, plenty of "aggression" in the mix. Rhythm twists only Metallica would come up with.

So there's my brief 2 cents on the new album, which I have a feeling will probably become one of my all-time favorite Metallica releases. Quirks? I liked both Load and ReLoad, and I was surprised that I didn't hear any influence from either album on Death Magnetic. I also didn't hear as much Black Album vibe as I expected, which is neither good nor bad. I think what I like so much about this release, is that it's just good old fashioned in-your-face Metallica. Almost every song is a punch in the face, kidney, or throat — and that's what Metallica meant when they said they were going back to their roots with this release.

Not too many albums come out that actually make me want to go see the band live, but this release has me counting down the days to the November show — and I have a feeling this tour will be one of the best (even though the guys average out to be 44.5 years old). Now go and pre-order this puppy.

Posted at 12:28pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (5)

Yes, Another TUA Clip

Guitar: Les Paul, bridge pickup, tone at 50%. The TUA's settings are as follows: Presence 8 o'clock, Bass 3 o'clock, Mid 11 o'clock, Treble 12 o'clock, Gain 1 o'clock. This is an example of getting a really fat, chunky, rich distortion.

http://www.railheadeffects.com/sounds/RHFX-TUA-Sample-02.mp3

Posted at 10:11pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Another TUA Clip

Here's another clip of my metalcore distortion effect, the RAILhead Effects TUA (Total, Utter Annihilation). This clip is with the TUA set to be pretty dadgum nasty: my Les Paul's tone is at 50%, and the TUA's controls are set to Presence at 11 o'clock, the Bass around 5 o'clock, Mid around 11 o'clock, Treble around 1 o'clock, and Gain at just 2 o'clock. After recording, I realized I had moved the mic — so there's more bass in the mix than I'd prefer, but you'll get the idea...

http://www.railheadeffects.com/sounds/RHFX-TUA-002.mp3

Aren't you glad you never had to play drums to this little song, Jim?

Posted at 6:41pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

TUA Sound Snippet

I made an über-dirty sound sample of my metalcore distortion effect, the RAILhead Effects TUA (Total, Utter Annihilation) this morning, so I thought I'd share. This was recorded with my Les Paul, and I have its tone really thin because I wanted some nice twang on the open notes. I have the TUA set really nice and fat, with the Presence at 12 o'clock, the Bass around 3 o'clock, Mid around 12 o'clock, Treble around 2 o'clock, and Gain at just 2 o'clock. JUST 2 O'CLOCK! Here it is...

http://www.railheadeffects.com/sounds/RHFX-TUA-001.mp3

Posted at 8:26am CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Random Tuesdayness

Since I missed Ozzfest, thus missing Metallica, I talked the guys into doing a summer tour — and they'll be coming to Houston in November (I didn't really talk to them, but that would have been cool). Anyway, we snagged our pre-sale tickets yesterday, and we got great seats:

We're on the 8th row, seats 1 through 4 — so we can more easily flee if need be. =)

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I'm addicted to the games Hanoi and Air Hockey on my iPhone.

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Prison Break has been one of the most consistently good shows on TV, but I wasn't too impressed with last night's premier. It was too rushed, and there were too many hokey happenings.

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I'm about to head into Phase II of my Jeep's sound system upgrades, and thanks to the LockPick install I just did, I now have preamp outputs that I can use with a second amp for the interior speakers. Sure, speaker-level is doable — but preamp outputs make for cleaner work. I'm thinking of using Apline's MRP-F250 to run the front and overhead speakers.

For speakers, I'm currently considering an Infinity Reference 6020cs and 6022si combo.

We shall see...

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We had Dad's third chemo cycle last week, and he's still doing well as far as how he feels. The main problem we're having is with his breathing — he has massive shortness of breath on exertion. The more we research online, the more we find case after case of people having his exact symptoms while taking Rituxan. Since he's already predisposed to pulmonary issues die to his asbestosis scarring, it seems more and more likely that his current issues are Rituxan-related. The good news is that the effects go away after treatment. The bad is that we don't know for sure that this is what's happening — but we'll be working on that this week.

All in all, things are going great, though. His cancer is dying, and if it weren't for the shortness of breath and appetite issues (while taking chemo, after just a few bites of food, you no longer want to eat that food), he'd feel fine. This is a major answer to prayer, and we're thankful God has been merciful and compassionate.

So, please continue to pray for him, but especially for his shortness of breath and appetite issues.

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I want an aquarium again, but my wife won't let me have one.

Posted at 9:33am CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Some Pics

I finalized some of the Jeep mods this afternoon, so I thought I'd post some iPhone pics (thus somewhat poor quality, but you'll get the idea). First off is the backup camera I installed:

I would like for it to be more "installed" into the bumper — and if I end up keeping the factory bumpers (as opposed to replacing them with steel bumpers), that will be a simple modification with a hole saw. We'll see. For now, it's pretty dadgum tough as it's meant to be mounted like you see here.

Here are a couple of shots of the camera at work:

This camera sports a massive 150° viewable angle, and it works as low as .3 lux. I was quite impressed with the great color representation, too!

And lastly, I thought I'd take a shot of my new subwoofer: a 10-inch bass beast that only looks small:

I'm still stunned at how much bass I'm getting out of such a small enclosure, but I can get it so loud and low, you can't even walk behind the Jeep without it hurting your head. Hats off to Rockford Fosgate for yet another awesome speaker.

Posted at 5:07pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

It’s Done, Getting Ready, Etc…

First off, I was able to get my MyGIG LockPick installed into my Jeep today, and it's AWESOME. Just so you know, "MyGIG" is the main radio/head unit in Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep vehicles (more info here). Different vehicles ship with different features enabled, and the LockPick simply opens-up all available features — and this is what allowed me to have voice recognition, Bluetooth connectivity, in-motion navigation searches, a backup camera installed, and more.

Installation was crazy-simple, as the LockPick uses the existing interconnects. The most "difficult" part of the job was running the cable for the backup camera I installed, but that was a simple as pulling up carpet and shoving the cable underneath. I got my iPhone paired to the MyGIG while I was in line for a 44oz Cherry Limeaid, so now I can talk hands-free through my car stereo. The backup camera works flawlessly. The microphone install picks up everything perfectly, etc. Technology is a wonderful thing, no? I think I'm going to go ahead and order me a front camera, too, just for kicks.

All in all, it was well worth the $500 for the full package, and probably one of my all-time favorite vehicle mods!

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I hate hurricanes. One of the worst things about them is what we have to do at work to get ready for the unexpected. We have to find that fine line of not wanting to shut down so that we don't have any downtime — yet we don't want to postpone anyone's departure in case things suddenly head our way. So it is with Gustav, but we're being extra proactive and preparing for the worst. So, rather than be at church tomorrow, playing in the band, I'll be on a conference call planning the next move. For me, it's extra annoying because I'm also the CIS Manager — and that means I'm responsible for shutting down all our servers and transporting a mini-office to our evacuation site. This means all of the other departments have to do what they need to get done so that they don't get too far behind, then I have to come up after and get everything down and loaded — all while hoping I don't need to haul butt out of town. Long story kind of short, since things are still too up in the air — and since it's a holiday weekend — we're planning as though we're evacuating. We would much rather be safe than sorry, since we have a couple thousand employees counting on us for their pay every week.

It'll totally suck to miss church and not play — especially since it seems Gustav isn't heading our way. But, like I said: it's better to be safe than sorry when you're in our position as a company.

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I think I'll go crash now since I have to get up for the 5:00 am hurricane update...

Posted at 10:30pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Taylor’s Automatic Refresher

As I was purging my photo library to make room for new images, I found the following shot I took while on vacation in San Francisco. It's a burger joint named Taylor's Automatic Refresher, and it's one of the more popular destinations in town. Anyway, this photo is a prime example of how cool cross-processing can make a picture look. I uploaded a small version of the original, and the processed version is right below (and can be viewed full size on the linked Flickr page):

Here's the modified version:

Posted at 1:27pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

New Metallica: My Apocalypse

Here's a high quality MP3 of "My Apocalypse" off Metallica's upcoming album, Death Magnetic, made available through Mission: Metallica.

http://www.maurymccown.com/downloads/sounds/My Apocalypse.mp3

You can download the MP3 by following this link.

I know some of the other songs are a bit bad (though I haven't heard the studio versions), but this song is an awesome throwback for us old skool Metallica fans.

Posted at 6:05am CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)