metalmaniac777

SCORPIONS: "Humanity Hour 1" One of my faves of 2007, packing an aggressive punch without ever once losing sight of those all-important catchy melodies. Desmond Child is the motherf*cking man, giving the songs some killer hooks and giving the production that big-budget, bass-heavy gloss. This one will be spending a lot of hours in my stereo in the weeks to come. Maybe not quite the #1 album of the year, but it's up there.

Just to echo what others have already said, CD Baby is a great place to buy CDs. Friendly service, quick shipping, reasonable prices...the works. Just double-check before ordering to make sure you're not getting a band-released CDR (if that sort of thing bothers you). For what it's worth, I've probably ordered from CD Baby 20 times in the last couple of years and only one time received a CDR. Try placing 20 orders with Retrospect Records and see if you can say the same thing. (Sorry, I probably shouldn't pick on Retrospect since he's no longer here to defend himself... )

Yeah, decent disc that one. Not exactly "Vulgar Display of Power", & too many annoying slow tunes, but better than the reviews it got. It was slated over here in all the Metal Mags... I avoided it for so long due to all the abysmal reviews, but I had some credit at my local music store and picked it up on a whim. You'll have to pardon my blasphemy, but I actually like it better than "Vulgar Display of Power," which for reason just never did much for me (then again, given my newfound proclivity for heavy metal, perhaps it's time to revisit that CD). If I had to complain about something, it would be the over-use of juvenile profanity (how many f-bombs does this album have, anyway?) which means in another year or so, I won't be able to crank it around my daughter. I'm pretty sure that if the first words out of my daughter's mouth are "Fuck you, motherfucker," I will be getting a divorce...

Latest acquisitions... HELLYEAH: s/t--enjoyed the hell out of this, a real ass-kicker! SCORPIONS: "Humanity Hour 1"--right up there with their best...heavy, melodic, catchy...loved it!!

Well, the problem is fixed, but I remain suspicious of your explanation and therefore will continue to cling pointlessly to my conspiracy theory...

You should be able to click the following path: My Controls------> Edit Profile Information: Favorite Band & Favorite CD sections should be at the bottom of this page "Should be" and "are" are 2 different things, my good man. I have the same problem Mr. Tequila is having--there's a place to add Favorite Band, but no place to add Favorite CD. I can only assume there is a conspiracy occuring 'round these parts against myself & Blue Tequila and that the moderators of Heavy Harmonies do not wish the rest of the members to know what our favorite CDs are for fear that our selections would be so crushingly brilliant that all others would pale in comparison. Or, uh, maybe there's just a glitch somewhere...

"The Rift Between" ~ Sanctity

Great buy. I hear the Testament too, & it's similar to the latest Shadows Fall. I was going to after I saw you post about it...I think SANCTITY is better than SHADOWS FALL...just a touch...I can't stop playing it. Other way around for me. I think Shadows Fall is better than Sanctity, but just a touch, and they're both excellent metal albums.

I kept (burned) a couple songs from London Calling ("Supernatural Girl" and another one I can't recall right now), but I'm getting to the point where I only want top-notch CDs in my collection, not just a bunch of "it's-OK-so-I'll-keep-it" crap sitting on my shelves gathering dust. Nothing particularly wrong with London Calling, but if I want to hear Jamie Rowe sing, I'll pull out Guardian or Adriangale, not his nubreed/pop-punk side project. I do still have SR-71 and Hedley, but to me they have a little more of a rock edge than the typical pop-punk formula, so I've allowed them to stay around. Who knows how long the stay of execution will be though...

Latest acquisitions... SHAKRA: "Infected" (Thanks, Mike!) ANTHRAX: "We've Come For You All" (Thanks to Tim(2) for the recommendation!)

I was a fan, but I stress was. Not anymore. Not just Bowling For Soup, though, but all the pop-punk bands. I enjoyed 'em for a little while, but for me, that nu-breed sound wore out its welcome fairly quickly. Bowling For Soup, Lit, Yellowcard, London Calling, Good Charlotte, etc....they've all been jettisoned from my collection and I haven't missed them one iota.

Latest acquisition... SANCTITY: "Road to Bloodshed"

Four of my favorite "steals"... 1. HEARTLESS: s/t ($1) 2. KK WILDE: "Rock-N-Roll" ($7) 3. HURRICANE: "Take What You Want" ($3) 4. DE JA VU: "One Size Fits All" ($4) The pawn shop owners always looked at me funny when I walked out of the store cackling. Or maybe it wasn't the cackling, but the strange way I kept muttering, "My precioussssssssssssss."

"Sick Little Twisted Mind" ~ Danger Danger

SHADOWS FALL: "Threads of Life" Now this was the kind of stuff I was hoping to discover when I asked for heavy/thrash metal recommendations over in the Heavy Metal section. Crisp, clean, big-budget production, heavy-met-melodic, cool riffs, memorable choruses, etc. Vocalist could sing a little clearer for my tastes, but he doesn't bother me and he's not so screamcore/guttural that I can't understand him...well, at least 50% of the time. Seriously, if this is representative of modern thrash, then methinks I will be a most happy metalmaniac. Thanks to Tim(2) for all the help in turning me into a thrasher and pointing me in this band's direction.

"Afraid of Love" for me. Not only one of my favorite D2 tunes, but one of my favorite sogns, period. But really, you could pick pretty much any track from this CD and you've got yourself melodic rock gold. Still, the over-the-top, sticks-in-your-ear-like-wet-taffy nature of "Afraid of Love" just makes it rise above the rest. The term "cream of the crop" was invented for songs like this...

Latest acquisition... SHADOWS FALL: "Threads of Life"

Jim, have I ever mentioned how much I admire your subtlety?

THE PROTECTOR This brutally-stylish Thai martial arts action movie was released on DVD as a 2-disc set, one containing the original international cut, which runs 20 min. longer, and the trimmed, dubbed version which was released in U.S. theaters. Do yourself a favor and watch the international version. Sure, it's subtitled, not dubbed, but this is a bone-crunching martial arts film, so it's not like there's much dialogue anyway. The fight scenes (of which there are plenty, and which are all jaw-droppingly awesome) were altered, sometimes subtly, sometimes not so subtly, in the American version. The best example of this would be during one of the climatic fight sequences when the hero's pet baby elephant is picked up and thrown--in slow-motion--through a plate glass window. It's a great scene, hysterical & cool all at the same time, but it's only present in its entirety in the international version. I could ramble on, but I'll wrap it up by saying any martial arts/action junkie who hasn't seen this film needs to do so immediately, but don't waste your time with the hacked-up U.S. version; stick with the uncut international edition.

Upon waking up this morning, I went to prison. Worse, I have to be here for 16 hours. Damn double-shifts.

I thought there was something to look at here, but apparently I was mistaken, so.........nevermind.

Xenophobic Abomination B Y

BARREN CROSS: "Atomic Arena"

"Fire to my Soul" ~ Demon Hunter

Holy fucking shit, is there no end to the fucking madness? Where does it fucking stop? Next thing you know they'll lower it to 4.7% and then you're well & truly fucked...might as well be drinking warm donkey piss.