Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Movie Review (Minor Spoilers)

*Note: 'Minor Spoilers' refers to basic plot detail, and information revealed in trailers and other publicly available knowledge, but no actual plot specifics. Continue reading at your own risk.*

It's time for us to take a deep breath and a step back and consider that perhaps bringing Star Wars back wasn't a good idea.

Spotify Playlists

Just a heads up that over on Spotify I have two playlists setup. One for all the music I've been listening to over the course of 2017, and one from last year that I use to catalog all the music I'm interested in. There's tons of rock, punk, metal, jazz, etc, and it's all good/bad/whatever. Point is, I'm interested in it, and it's there. It would be cool if you or someone you know followed it and told me if there was anything else I could add to it.

Anyways, that's all. See ya.

2017


2016

Dr. Living Dead - Cosmic Conqueror: Quick Album Review

You should go listen to Crush The Sublime Gods.

GWAR - The Blood of Gods: Album Review

 

This was never going to be easy…

Primus - The Desaturating Seven: Album Review

So the weird thing about Primus is… [laugh track]

Kingsman: The Golden Circle: Quick Movie Review [Minor Spoilers]

Note: “Minor Spoilers” refers to information revealed in trailers, basic plot points and other publicly available knowledge to be used as talking points. Continue reading at your own risk.

Well… all those Men in Black 2 comparisons were right weren’t they?

IT (2017): Movie Review [Minor Spoilers]

Note: “minor spoilers” refers to basic plot details that may or may not include specific events and features to use as talking points. Continue reading at your own risk.

The old “IT” was terrible and that’s OK.

Doyle - Doyle II: As We Die: Album Review

Is Doyle’s new release a mosh amongst the dead, or is it pushing up daisies?

Alestorm - No Grave But The Sea: Quick Album Review

Well who saw this one coming?

DragonForce - Reaching Into Infinity: Album Review

Reaching for infinity and grabbing it.

The Worst of American Thrash Metal Vol. 2: Exodus - Force of Habit

Today we’re looking at the controversial “Force of Habit”. An album that split Exodus’s fan base in two.

Doctor Who Over Analysis: From 9 to 12 [Part 1]

Note: I will be going into detail about the entirety of the Doctor Who revival series that began in 2005. This particular piece will be discussing plot details from Season 1. READ AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In January of this year, I returned to another semester at college to find my roommate excitedly carrying several DVD box sets. Those box sets: seasons 1-5 of Doctor Who, that series that Tumblr will not shut up about. His mission: marathon the entire series with me. So over the course of 4 months, I have completely caught up on Doctor Who. Every season, every special, every doctor.

So you know what that means: it’s time to over analyze and discuss the quality of a show about a British man who travels through time and picks up random women… to travel with.

Pig Destroyer - Prowler In The Yard: Classic Album Review

No, no, no, this is beautiful. This is art. 

Record Store/Fair Update (3/10/17-4/9/17)

Way back in early March, I visited my local record store, and forgot to do a "Record Store Update". I then recently visited my local record fair and now an article that should have been 1 page long is now almost 3. Enjoy.

Deep Purple - inFinite: Album Review

Deep Purple gives us another helping of hard rock.

Lich King - The Omniclasm: Album Review

Lich King's newest release has finally arrived; was it worth the wait?
Of course it was.

13 Reasons Why: A Critical Nitpick

I have nowhere near enough time to do a full review of Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, but I do have time to be overly critical over a handful of plot points in this depressing drama.

Now before I go any further I should mention 2 things. The first is that I legitimately enjoyed the series, and even though I’m going to be spending the next hundred thousand words or so explaining the things I didn’t like about it, you should definitely watch it. The second being, I’m about to SPOIL major plot points from the entire series, so if you want to go in dry, read at your own risk.

Warbringer - Woe To The Vanquished: Album Review

Warbringer’s grand return.

Logan: Movie Review (Minor Spoilers)

Note: “minor spoilers” includes things such as basic plot details, discussion of reveals in trailers and public media, and basic contextual knowledge, that is to say, stuff we’ve seen in the comics/books/whatever. Read at your own risk.

This turned out to be much better than I expected.

Kong: Skull Island: Movie Review

Minor Spoilers

A B-Movie revival.

*NSFW* Bottom of The Bandcamp (3/29/2017)

Let’s take a look at our old pal Bandcamp and give a shoutout to all those weirdos who put all their heart and soul into a record, then sell it for $5 on the internet.

FYPM - Dumbed Down: Album Review

F.Y.P.M: Fuck You, Pay Me.

I can tell I’m gonna like these guys. 

Get Out: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

“Social horror” is officially something I can get behind.

Havok - Conformicide: Album Review

Havok makes their grand return, but was it worth the wait?

NOFX - LIberal Animation: Classic Album Review

What with me being pleasantly surprised by NOFX’s latest release, I decided to look back on their debut record and see if it holds up at all. Hell, half the fun of celebrating a good album is laughing at past failures, and NOFX is no different.

Six Feet Under - Torment: Album Review

I fucking hate it when plans fall apart.

The Worst of American Thrash Metal Vol. 1: Anthrax - Stomp 442

Welcome to “The Worst of American Thrash Metal” were I comb the catalogs of thrash’s biggest acts and dissect their worst album. Is it worth the hate? Is it overlooked? Let’s find out.

This week we dive in with what's been called “the worst Anthrax album ever”, the long forgotten Stomp 442.

Overkill - The Grinding Wheel: Album Review

If you’re looking for an unbiased review of Overkill material, you have come to the wrong place.

Record Store Haul (1/13/17)

Time to take a look in my bag of goodies and see what we got at the record store.

The Art of The Opening Scene

In film, there is perhaps no more important story device than the opening shot. The first visual, the first lines of dialogue, it can establish so much in so little, and get the audience excited for what they are about to see. Let’s discuss the importance of the opening shot and why it can harm or help your film. 

Kreator - Gods of Violence: Album Review

Kreator releases another album. 

Slayer - South of Heaven: Underrated Album Review

Welcome to “Underrated Album Reviews” were we switch it up a bit by talking positively about an album that doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.

In the metal community, Slayer is just one of those bands were everyone just agrees that they’re good. Slayer being good is in the public conscious like Star Wars is a good movie, no matter how you may end up feeling about it personally. But at their core, I’ve never gotten the excitement about Slayer. Sure, back in high school, when I first discovered Slayer, I thought nothing could be better. Reign In Blood’s energy and speed blew me away upon first listen (even if it doesn’t really hold up today), the speed and technical power of War Ensamble was one of the reasons I picked up a guitar, and South of Heaven is the reason why Slayer still makes sense to me today.

A Series of Unfortunate Events: Season 1 Review

I read “A Series of Unfortunate Events” when I was about 11 years old and at the time I was convinced it was one of the best series I have ever read. Thinking back on it now, I’m positive that if I went back and read all 13 books again, I’d probably be right.

2016 Music Catch Up

Today, we are going to catch up on some of the past LPs and EPs and discuss them in as short of a manor as possible, because I missed a bunch of stuff last year.

Posting Schedule Update

Over the past few months, this blog has run pretty well on one post a week on Fridays. After doing some thinking, I've decided this schedule could use a change.

You see, a common release day for movies, shows, and music is Friday. What that means for this blog is, if it's an article day, I'll already have something prepared and write the review for whatever just came out during the following week. Then there is the more recent reality which is, something comes out, I need a review, then struggle to come up with something competent within 1 day becomes, at best, a rush job and at worst, highly biased and poorly thought out as even the best of us suffer from hype culture.

So to reconcile some of this, posts are now going to released on Mondays. Same time as before, (1 PM) and following the same article/review/article pattern as we've been doing previously. This does mean, the next few posts are going to be a little weird as we transition to a new schedule, but everything will be squared up within a week or so.

So the next few posts will be:

1/20  -  2016 Catch Up
1/27  -  Classic Review
1/30  -  New Review
2/6    -  The Art Of The Opening Scene
2/13  -  New review

So that's the plan for the next few weeks. Hopefully this means my quality of work will increase, I'll post a Record Store Update every now and again, and hopefully this works out for everyone.

See you later and take it easy.

-Eric

The Flaming Lips - Oczy Mlody: Album Review

Pronounced “Ox-ie Mel-o-die”. I had to google it.

Krampus: Quick Review

A movie I missed in 2015, but will now be in my Christmas movie rotation forever.

Dropkick Murphys - 11 Short Stories of Pain & Glory: Album Review

The Dropkick Murphys make an O.K. album.
And that's O.K.
O.K.?

The Great Big Best and Worst Albums of 2016 List

Another year, another wave of music from new bands, old, those we can’t get enough of, and those we wish would stop. So let’s discuss the best and worst albums of 2016. But first, a couple of rules.

Rule 1: Only full original material from 2016, no re-releases or demos. This means all EPs, Singles and LPs from this year are fair game, but not singles for upcoming releases in 2017. This also means no Live albums or Cover albums. Those just don’t count.

Rule 2: An album cannot end up on the “best” list for being just ok, it has to be great or near-perfect. Likewise, albums cannot end up on the “worst” list just for being mediocre. If you are on the “worst” list, you deserve it.

Rule 3: Don’t get hung up on the ranking. All music on the “best” list is good, so do yourself a favor and check everyone out.

OK, let’s begin. 

Record Store Haul: 12/28/2016

So I visited a record store recently (specifically The Sound Garden in Syracuse, NY; give it a look if you're in the area) so why not go over what I picked up?