Black Tide: Light from Above

I've been listening to Avenged Sevenfold's (A7X) latest album (self-titled)for a while now. "A little piece of heaven" being my favorite song on the album, by far. I like to describe the sound of the song as if Tim Burton had a theme song for his own twisted carnival.

But this entry is not about A7X, this is about another band.

I just purchased the best metal CD that I've heard in years. These guys opened for Avenged Sevenfold on tour this past year and their debut album was released last week.

Enter Black Tide.


"Shockwave" was the download of the week on iTunes about 2 months ago. Typically, the free downloads on iTunes are songs from a bunch of whiny mid-twenties, too-artsy-for-their-own-good, one hit wonders. The kinds of bands where you download the free song and then never come across it, or the band, ever again.

This one was different. I was itching to hear more since January.

Black Tide's album, Light from Above, is incredible. Crisp vocals (not all that weird screaming crap like other "popular" metal bands), the drums are insane, and the guitars are blazing.
Think Metallica with a mix of Pantera and a splash of Motley Crue.
They also do a cover of Metallica's "Hit the Lights", which is spot-on.

Oh, and did I mention that the average age of the band members is 17? Holy crap.

Here's a video.
(I wanted to embed it, but "embedding was disabled by request" on youtube.)

"Shockwave", the song in the video, is also available to download for Rock Band for Xbox 360 or PS3.

Whether you like metal or not, you've got to appreciate the fact that a 14 year old kid is the lead singer/guitarist of a band that toured with Avenged Sevenfold and the band's first single can be downloaded for one of the most popular video games worldwide.

I wish my resume looked that good before I was 20.
Hell, I wish my resume looked that good now.

The History of Video Game Consoles

I thought I'd heard of many of the video game consoles that had come around. I'd even heard of some of the obscure ones that were around when the Atari was released. I had no idea.
Check it out.

Frickin' sweet.

A ball pit in your home





or office.



Nice.

I remember when my friend Chris and I "aquired" a blue and yellow
ball for our fraternity years ago. I wonder where those ended up?

Crap eggs with bamboo flavor

Sounds delicious. Ah, those crazy Chinese. Lost in translation once again.

What did I miss?

After reading a review for No Country for Old Men, I figured I'd give it a shot. It had been hailed as an "Instant Classic".
What did I miss?
Really.
I don't get it.
Creepy guy goes around killing people to try to get his money back, and then, the end. Which, in my opinion, was less than thrilling.
I must have missed a critical line of dialogue, or turning point in the movie or something.
I'd love to say that it was one of those movies that I'd get more out of if I watched it a second time, but I don't want to take the time to do that.
Disappointing to say the least.

'Change' is a two-way street

A recent discussion with my brother about his wanting to purchase an Xbox 360 prompted me to recall an SNL skit from years ago.

My brother Dave was saying how he's been putting off the purchase, because for that $$, he said that he could buy: 6 Nintendo Wii games, or 8 DS games, or 30 CD's, and so forth.

This breakdown of math made me laugh, and I said "ChangeBank, we deal in volume". If you know the skit, you'll get it, if not, here it is:

Yeah, I know.

It's been a while since I've posted anything. So, over the next week or so, I've made it my goal to add some new posts. Hope you like them. If not, oh well.