.:Confessions of An Information Junkie:.

I've been listening to two bands a lot quite a lot for the past two weeks, which lead me to write this post. All those who have been following metal for the past decade have been patiently waiting for some band to take over the reigns of the likes of Metallica and Iron Maiden. The onslaught of nu-metal had brought creativity,guitar solos and riffs to a complete halt. Alright, the nu-metal revolution did bring some good music along with it provided by the likes of KoRn, Papa Roach and later on at the start of the new millenium, Linkin Park. The latter has now lost its dedicated fan following of troubled youth who embraced their music as a source of relief. Linkin Park achieved what every other metal band had failed to do :

Making a successful crossover to the pop genre but still managing to maintain their fast decaying metal roots.

Everyone in the music industry knows that commercial success is what eludes any metal band. Of course, the pioneers in each of the hundred metal sub genres would have had their 15 minutes of fame and got their fair share of the dough that came along with it. But, is the world paying any heed to what metal reallllly has to offer?

The degradation of the genre had resulted in old-generation metalheads raising their arms in protest at the formula driven music being dished out to cater to the the zillions of Brtitney loving MTV a**holes. After much trying, the devoted metalheads couldn't embrace the nu-metal sound and were poppin Sabbath and Maiden classics in their cd changers once again. Year 2002, and metal was witnessing a change in order. The metalcore sound was slowly beginning to find a liking among the quality-starved metalheads. Thus, began the NWOAHM(New Wave Of American Heavy Metal) revolution which initially served the purpose of cleansing the metal airwaves of all the nu-metal garbage. Two years on, the revolution has not only ceased to stop but also now enjoys an ever-widening fan base. A fan base, that can filter the good metal from the bad - the time had finally arrived for the true metalheads to once again rebuild the remains of the devastated metal empire.

This post will be a four part series featuring my opinions on four of the bands who I personally feel are single handedly fighting the fight to save the face of metal. These bands have the talent and potential to reclaim metal from the hands of wretched music corporate big wigs. I am going to review one of the big metal bands across the Atlantic who are spearheading the NWOAHM(New Wave Of American Heavy Metal) charge. So without further adieu, I bring to you Melodic Deathcore giants Lamb Of God.

LAMB OF GOD

The name of the band in no way reflects the kind of music or the message their lyrics drives through your concrete brain. This severely underrated, politically charged quintuplet from Richmond are ruling the radiowaves with their simple yet in-your-face metal.

The band in its early days featured the trio of Mark Morton, Chris Adler and John Campbell who were strumming away at their guitars in Virginia Commonwealth University, making instrumentals but with no vocals to back up the blistering riffs and heavy basslines. Adler moved to Chicago and later Randy Blythe was brought on board to lend his choking vocals into this frenzy. The seeds of Lamb of God were ready to sprout but with a different name. The quartet decided to call themselves Burn The Priest. The band's live performances were getting rave reviews and in no time were the biggest metal act in Richmond. This doesn't come as a surprise though as the band exercised (and still continues to do so!) a rigorous work ethic of practising five days a week to 'keep up with the pace' of other metal acts in the Richmond area.

Mark Morton returned to the band after the completion of his post graduation and after playing together for a year, Abe decided to quit the band. Abe's exit opened the door for Willie Adler, younger brother of drummer, Chris. After a year playing together, they band deciced to call themselves Lamb Of God!! They finally landed a record deal in the year 2000 with Prosthetic Records and released their first album New American Gospel. After heavily touring to support their debut release, the band finally released their sophomore effort As The Palaces Burn. ATPM was critically acclaimed with prominent rock magazines claiming it to be the best release of 2003. Lamb Of God's third installment Ashes Of The Wake was released in mid 2004 with Epic Records and helped add some credibility to the dwindling talent-starving metal scene. Ashes Of The Wake with its crisp production, was immediately declared a metal masterpiece.

Lamb Of God are now hailed as the saviours of the American Metal scene and being constantly stated over and over in the media to be playing Pure American Metal. You might finally find a classification which can modestly define the kind of music they play. But Lamb Of God is the only band in the scene offering raw, gut wrenching, complex metal. Lamb Of God embodies everything that metal is about. They have stomped the point across that being on a huge record label need not deter a band from making quality music.

I actually have run out of stuff to read right now so I thought I'd spend sometime on this so as to englighten the rest of you 'unaware' b*tt holes... ;) ..
I came across this in a forum a couple of months back and well thought it could be used as a good basis to ease the transition to the "larger picture" I shall be shortly discussing.


The picture above features a very ugly model but some stunning sunglasses. So, what makes these sunglasses so special that they were "post-worthy"? Well its Oakley's new line of sunglasses which have an inbuilt MP3 player. Digital music eyewear???!!! Alright, so these sunglasses could serve as a good example for someone majoring in VLSI but is it necessary?? I guess its time for the millions of iPod owners(who own "conventional" sunglasses) to bow down their heads in shame. Seriously???? Is this the sign of things to come?.
It's undeniably a market where the power struggle has clearly tilted in favour of the consumer. This financial coup can lead to disastrous consequences. Alright so the Nokias and the Ericssons are conjuring up something new constantly in their laboratories. Now, does anyone of us ever stop and think how 'huge' the difference between a K500 and a K505 is??. Your loving trustworthy "brand" decides to fightback. Release a new product, hype it up and then produce a minimum of 10 models each having a slightly different variation from the other. These sunglasses are a testament to the indiscretion of the modern day consumer.
The most disgruntled sect of consumers are the tech-savvy ones. This can't be attributed to 'rapid' growth alone. Consumers are subjected to vehement and massive advertising campaigns. Slowly making us feel slightly obliged to buy the product. These sunglasses are a testament to the increasing indiscretion on the part of the consumer.
These issues would definitely have been addressed before and I'm no Amartya Sen who made some statements that is going to re-define the way the economy works. But I thought I should chip in my two cents.In my defense, firstly I would like to state that I am not some conservative hippy on some power trip who listens to Kurt Cobain's moans for morning "bhajans". My friends are going to verbally molest me if they stumble upon this post as they would find it very hard to believe that their materialistic friend really does give two sh**ts about the direction in which the global economy is heading. Well, I don't care if all the economies in the world entered recession but I do believe that the consumer should not be duped out of their hard earned money by misconstrued marketing campaigns.

"Confessions of an Information Junkie"... Why?

I have come to realise that many netizens see blogs as alternative journalism. Many can look at it this way, but blogs cannot always be legit. None the less, undeniably this will stay for quite some time to come. I really don't know what satisfaction people gain from going on ranting about thier personal lives and letting other people read their views on certain albums, movies, etc. This blog itself is just like the other million blogs that get a max of 1-3 page loads a day. But, we still keep writing. I feel that deep down inside of us, we all want to be heard. I know that's a very retarded comment to make but it seriously makes sense. Being a self proclaimed "Information Junkie", it's tough to contain your thoughts especially when not a single imbicile from your immediate environment refuses to listen to you. Anyways here are some more links regarding blogging and some more tips to help the noob blogger.

How To Write Killer Blogs And More Compelling Comments

Blogging... Blah, Blah, Blah

Russell Peters : Good Stand-Up Comedy

Another week and another downloading spree ends. I came across this interesting 45 mintue clip among one of the videos. It was this stand up comedian based in Canada of Indian origin whose name is Russell Peters. This guy's simply amazing. He rips apart at different communities with no shred of compassion. The guy's a hoot when he starts with his "motherland". Here's a link to the 45 minute clip I was talking about. Its nice to see there are some Indians who actually do have a decent sense of humour.


Russell Peters 45 minute clip

Oh yeah, I noticed that I mentioned the word "hippy" earlier in my post which lead me to do some research on hippy culture and here's a good link to explain what the hell these crazy people do and why they do it.

The Way Of The Hippy



State of Mind :Exhausted from the lack of sleep due to the enormously long process involved in moving all my music and music videos to my friend's laptop and then formatting and re-installing all essential software. I have to manage a 40 gb hard disk with a music playlist that consumes 16 GB alone.

Currently Downloading: 10th season episodes of The Simpsons
6th spisode of the first season Sex and The City.