Taster Session #1

After last week's trilogy of video game posts, I decided to go back to album reviews but after checking online to see if there were any albums that caught my eye, I couldn't find any worth reviewing or listening to. What I did discover was a series of upcoming albums from bands I like listening to.
Now I understand this flies in the face of being open minded and I wouldn't recommend avoiding bands just because you've never heard them before (otherwise nobody would have a career) but the simple truth is no new albums or bands have made me think I should listen to their material.
When I hear a single on the radio and like it, I'll give the album a try. If I hear good things about a band, I'm more likely to try them out than if I hear nothing about them. Either way, I was left in a bit of a situation as I didn't want to go back to another opinion post or Tenology. So here's ANOTHER NEW IDEA!

As there are several upcoming albums from bands I'm aware of hitting the shelves in a few months, there are also quite a few singles from these albums online already. I'll be talking about some of those singles in this post and will discuss my experience with the band in the past as well as giving my expectations for the respective album, just in case I end up reviewing them.
Right then, let's get started!

"High Country" - The Sword         (listen here)
From the album High Country (21/8/15)

I should start off by saying that I love The Sword. They're like everything awesome about Black Sabbath mixed with everything awesome about Slayer. Heavy riffs and explosive drums all combined to make a musical score suitable for Ragnarok. Their first album starts off OK with some great standalone tracks and their second album packs a necessarily hefty punch, as any good Metal follow-up album should. The third album was perhaps a bit prematurely experimental but luckily the fourth album returned to apocalyptic riffing.
This song kind of makes me wonder where the 5th album will go. It's heavy, sure, but it also sounds very different to The Sword that sung about "Fire Lances Of The Ancient Hyperzephyrians" or "The Black River". In fact, it sounds a bit like "Believe" - The Bravery spiced up with some reworked riffs from "Gasoline" - Audioslave (this song definitely has a bit of cheeky riff pinching from "Gasoline"). However, I highly doubt this means The Sword have gone uber-commercial and morphed from Heavy Metal to Hard Rock like Megadeth did with Super Collider.
What it probably means is The Sword want to release a well received album and maybe get a bit of radio play with this single. I could be dead wrong as I haven't heard as much buzz about it as, say, Last Of Our Kind - The Darkness when the first singles were being released for that. I'm a little worried that this is the title track as it lacks the same wallop that title tracks are supposed to provide. Either way, it's made me excited to listen to High Country as I really enjoyed the song and I trust The Sword will give Rock and Metal fans an excellent album.


"The Vengeful One" - Disturbed          (listen here)
From the album Immortalized (21/8/15)

I'm familiar with Disturbed and some of their more popular hits ("Down With The Sickness", "Inside The Fire", etc) but I wouldn't call myself a massive fan. I like their sound to a passable degree although unlike some of the other Metal bands I generally favour, Disturbed tend to rely on that sound a little too much. I'm not saying they can only play one song with different lyrics over and over again (like another band we'll be looking at shortly) but whenever a new Disturbed single is released, it always has the same staples of their music.
This track is no different and sounds just like their "best" material so if you were a fan of Disturbed during the Indestructible period and are hoping they haven't lost their way, fear not! If this single is anything to go by, you're probably in for another album of similar material. I tend to be OK with this if the material is good and yeah, in Disturbed's case it often is. I might check this album out as Disturbed have surprised me with a couple of awesome songs ("The Infection" springs straight to mind) but I don't know if I'll review it here.


"Thunder & Lightning" - Motorhead          (listen here)
From the album Bad Magic (28/8/15)

Another band who are overly-reliant on the sound of one song. Motorhead have the same problem as AC/DC, something I refer to as 'The Simpsons Syndrome'. They've been consistently making music for such a long time that it's hard to imagine a world where there isn't a Motorhead release every other year. I think the main reason people still listen to this band is because Lemmy IS the band and you can't dislike Lemmy. He's like a pirate that quantum leapt into the Rock and Metal scene.
Anyway, "Thunder & Lightning" is not a Thin Lizzy cover (although there is a cover of "Sympathy For The Devil" on the upcoming album, which I'm keen to hear). It's a typical Motorhead track with thrashing drums, thunderous bass and gravelly vocals. I've often found that Motorhead are capable of putting together a really cohesive album that works from start to finish. You may not like all the songs but they belong on the album, if that makes sense.
Plus, contrary to popular belief, a Motorhead album isn't just the same track recycled ten times. There are bound to be slower songs on Bad Magic that still hit hard and it'll probably be another decent effort. Unlike AC/DC, Motorhead have yet to show signs of aging or creative rot. Their music is still fast, furious and full of energy and for that reason, I have no problem with them still producing albums.


"Complexity" - Eagles Of Death Metal          (listen here)
From the album Zipper Down (2/10/15)

There are two things I need to lay out in the open before I talk about this song. Firstly, these guys aren't Metal. Their name is based around someone comparing their music to the equivalent of the band The Eagles but of the Death Metal genre. Anyone who hasn't heard their music should kill that expectation immediately. Secondly, they're not Mock Rock like Tenacious D or Steel Panther. They're a Hard Rock side-project from Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) who have decided to change their name to EODM for some stupid reason.
Whilst I like quite a few of their songs ("Wannabe In L.A.", "Miss Alissa", "Speaking In Tongues"...), I don't really have any fondness towards these guys in the same way I care about The Answer or maybe some older bands. I wouldn't have lost any sleep if these guys never went back into the studio but I'll definitely listen to the album when it comes out. For an album opener heralding the return of this wacky outfit after seven years of absence, "Complexity" is pretty generic. I doubt this band are smart enough to ironically write a bland track called "Complexity" but it sounds like it could easily be a filler track from any of their previous albums.
There's bound to be great material on Zipper Down but I'm in no hurry for October to roll around, nor am I desperate to listen to this song again any time soon. However, if you're a fan of these guys then do check the single out. As I said, it sounds like it could easily blend in with their previous works so I guess that's a good sign for EODM purists.


"Coming For You" - The Offspring          (listen here)
From the album ????????? (??/??/??)

I vaguely remember listening to The Offspring's latest album from 2012 (Days Go By) and the only track that stuck in my mind was some piece of shit called "Bumping In My Trunk" or something dumb. Thing is I didn't actually hate the album, it was just that track that stuck in my mind because of how crap it was. I can remember the album being more mature than Ixnay On The Hombre, which was just pure 90's Pop Punk but done in a great way.
Based on this single, it's almost as if the band were going through musical regression but got stuck halfway. It sounds like Oasis trying to cover Green Day or a bunch of thirtysomething adults trying to recapture their youthful rage and passion from twenty years ago. I could be completely wrong but based on this single, I'm guessing fans of The Offspring's earlier material might not be into this. However, fans of Alternative Rock with a tiny bit of a Punk bite will love it.
Despite my earlier criticisms, it strips away the worst elements of Oasis/Green Day whilst blending the best together. Since this track was released as a single without an album, we'll have to wait for more information to come out before forming any solid conclusions on whether that's the direction this band are heading in but as far as speculation goes, they have me intrigued. That is all.

There are more albums coming out this year that I'm bound to check out but at this current point in time, no singles have been released. Perhaps when Megadeth, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Black Sabbath, The Smashing Pumpkins and Iron Maiden give us a sample of their material, I'll come back with Taster Session #2. Also, if there's a single, band or album you think I should listen to, feel free to recommend it/them in the comments. I'm always happy to listen to new Rock/Metal music if you think it's good enough!

Guitar Hero & Rock Band: A History Lesson part 3

I hadn't intended to make these posts so long but it turns out there were more GH/RB games than I originally thought. Part 1 covered 2005-2007, part 2 covered 2008-2009. This final part will cover 2009-2010 which will include the following games:
Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, Guitar Hero: Arcade, Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock, Rock Band 3 and Green Day: Rock Band.
As for other small games released between 2005-2010, they won't be mentioned in this history lesson but I'm sure you'll get over it.

Around the same time as The Beatles: Rock Band was released, Activision had another entry in the main console series to release.

Right bands, wrong songs

Guitar Hero 5 has the feel of a series trying to reinvent itself. In the past, GH has been all about being able to play iconic Rock songs in general video game style. GH5 features more Indie bands with simplistic guitar melodies and songs from classic artists that are generally quite easy to play, almost as if the game was designed for newcomers to the series. It would also explain the addition of modern bands like My Morning Jacket and Brand New, artists who have no place in the series but will likely bring in hip, young kids who were turned off by the idea of "dinosaur Rock" in these games.
Fortunately, the series adds some great ideas which make you wonder how you ever played the games before. For example, the addition of Party Play mode means you can drop in & out of songs whenever you want whilst other bandmates keep on playing. There's also the ability for players to rock the same instruments, so you can have a band consisting entirely of drummers if you really wanted. There are also song specific goals for tracks which make playing them in Career a bit more entertaining, although this could've done with some expansion.
There are also more cameos from artists such as Kurt Cobain so if you want to watch an in-game avatar of him singing "You Give Love A Bad Name" (probably the best thing about GH5), you're in luck. If this game had Guitar Hero: World Tour's soundtrack, I would hate it a little less. Unfortunately, this feels like the hipster of the series and nobody likes hipsters except other bloody hipsters. Still, it could be worse. It could be full of annoying Pop songs...

It genuinely took me a good couple of minutes to pick this game up in stores before I took the plunge and bought it

Band Hero isn't strictly part of the GH series but I'm talking about it as it did have a fairly notable impact on the franchise. For starters, the soundtrack being mostly Pop music meant that Guitar Hero 5, a game designed to have a soundtrack that included something for everyone, would have less shite like Hilary Duff and more from actual Rock bands. However, it also meant that GH5 included Pop music as DLC occasionally, just in case any of the teenage girls who bought the game knew you could buy extra music for a game they were sort of into.
However, when you look at this game from a non-biased standpoint, it's actually quite good. As the "GH of Pop Music", the soundtrack is alright and the engine is based around GH5 with a few extra tweaks like Karaoke mode for vocalists. All in all, it's as faithful to Pop as the original GH games were to Rock. Some may call this series expansion as yet another case of Activision selling out but I can think of a much better example...like Guitar Hero: Arcade.

I feel ashamed at the amount of cash I've put into these machines

Using on-disc and downloadable music from GH3 as the soundtrack, Guitar Hero: Arcade allows you to experience the same fun as GH3 but this time in a public place with teens judging you whilst you try to play a grotty guitar with a chewed up strap and sticky buttons. The songs picked range from the astoundingly easy ("Juke Box Hero") to the immensely difficult ("Surfin' With The Alien"), giving you plenty of choices in between.
Since this is literally designed only to make money, some songs are labelled "Premium" so you have to pay a bit extra for having a slightly less malleable music taste. However, provided you get a machine that works properly, you can still have a lot of fun on these machines although don't expect any features that were added after GH3. Yes, one of you still needs to be bass and no, you can't play Beginner mode. Oh yeah, GH:WT added Beginner mode. Forgot to talk about that in the last part. It's basically just open strums.
I can't call this too much of a sell-out as the GH franchise was inspired by GuitarFreaks arcade machines. What I CAN call a sell-out is charging people extra for songs that aren't particularly long or special, it's almost a random selection of tracks the publishers decided were worth the extra £1. Anyway, during the period that these three Activision titles were put out, Harmonix had a colourful game doing the rounds as well.

"How can we make hammer-ons even harder to read?"

If Band Hero was specifically aimed at younger audiences, Lego Rock Band was aimed at the whole family. I don't want to spend too long talking about Lego games in general so I'll leave it at one sentence: they're awesome. This game is no exception and RB2's career mode partnered with adorable yet silly Lego avatars jumping around on-stage to "Ghosbusters" or "The Final Countdown" and the extra additions like the cinematic song challenges make this one special.
There's also the ability to shorten songs so that younger players don't find it too challenging, which is a neat touch. Perhaps one of the most subtle yet ingenious facts about Lego Rock Band is how it feels more like you're developing a sort of Rock empire. You unlock fans and pets that casually walk around your pad whilst you get ready to play a set and in true Lego fashion, it feels more like you're building something awesome than other games in the series.
For seasoned experts, you're unlikely to find too much challenging although some of the solos may take a few tries to nail, especially on the RB engine. Any enough talking about the more creative competitor, TIME FOR ANOTHER GUITAR HERO!

The "Return Of The Jedi" of the handheld trilogy

Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits was the handheld game that nobody asked for. Despite critics praising the soundtrack from the previous game, claiming it got better as you unlocked the older tracks, this game is all about songs released in the early 21st century. But hey, modern songs are cheaper to license and Activision had a lot of games to push out!
It adds very little that's new or fun to the series aside from a slightly revamped career mode similar to RB2's and once again introduces songs that you'll never play on a console title, since Activision didn't learn anything the first two times (they were too busy extrapolating the wrong message from all their market research). This game has its moments but they dwindle in comparison to the ones in previous handheld or rival games.
It was around this time that the consensus was "Ugh, not another one" whenever a new game was announced. What Activision needed to release was an instantly popular title that would sell like hot cakes and justify the growing number of SKUs being produced. Instead, what they made was Guitar Hero: Van Halen.

The "Back To The Future Part 3" of the trilogy

I hesitate to say "when this game was first released" as the first iteration of this expansion wasn't actually sold in shops. It was given away with copies of Guitar Hero 5 in America. Many critics brought up the likelihood of Activision knowing they had a mediocre game on their hands, but what exactly made this game lacklustre? The soundtrack is alright, even if the guest acts were picked by Eddie Van Halen's son. Plus, the Van Halen songs are all picked from the David Lee Roth era so there are plenty of great "filler" tracks from the original albums that introduce people to songs they probably wouldn't be aware of.
However, there's a small issue with some of the charts, namely the one for "Painkiller". Apparently, there was some sort of licensing issue so the guitar chart has been butchered to the point where it's no longer challenging. The game reeks of these kind of corner cuts, factors such as the recycled GH:WT engine as opposed to the current GH5 one and the mixed tone of the soundtrack that was assembled by a kid who probably enjoys playing Rock Band more.
The game could've been amazing and I guess it's not really bad, although it was enough to help hammer in a nail on the franchise's coffin at the end of 2009/start of 2010, as was the next game to be released (even though again, it's one of my all-time favourites).

Not too little but definitely too late

Similar to how bands would seek their older material for inspiration after their experimental phase, Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock is full of songs chosen due to how fun they are on guitar, although there are still several picks that are fun for vocalists ("Bohemian Rhapsody"), drummers ("Aqualung") and newcomers that joined at GH5 ("I Know What I Am"). There's also a brand new career mode that involves powers influencing gameplay, although for expert players who can FC the majority of tracks, these add practically nothing to the game.
There are also more song challenges for each instrument, meaning that there are many challenges in Quickplay mode (retitled Quickplay+ because rebranding equals something else to advertise) and the entire feel of the game is more rough-edged, though sadly a bit too serious for its own good. Despite the temptation of a Hard Rock/Metal soundtrack, there are many tracks that feel odd in this title. Fall Out Boy and Tom Petty may be popular artists but you'd have to be short in the skull to call them Warriors Of Rock.
Whilst the game contains some amazing guitar charts and a great selection of tracks, most of the fans this game was aimed at had jumped ship long ago. As a result, GH:WoR wasn't enough to resurrect the dying franchise and a few months into 2011, Activision announced the series would go on hiatus for the indefinite future. GH fans were unhappy but fans of Rock Band had not one but two games to enjoy.

I hear they actually hired a "Trippyness" consultant to make the game extra trippy

Keeping in mind that there wasn't a main series release from the Rock Band franchise during 2009, this game was developed whilst Activision were selling GH5. In other words, Rock Band 3 is the experimental phase of the game's career. It's hard to talk about the "big innovation" Harmonix added to this game as there's honestly quite a few. They've added Keyboard so a fifth player can join in. They also added "Pro Mode" so you can now play six-stringed guitar controllers for a more realistic experience. They included Vocal Harmonies, a feature added in The Beatles: Rock Band that I also forgot to mention. Want me to continue? Alright then!
The soundtrack is more diverse although, much like GH5, pretty rubbish. There's also the ability to rate songs so the ones you prefer show up in random selection more often. Little things like this make the game that bit better and career mode is also more unique with more unlockables for the achievement addict too. The game was made with love, care and the player's entertainment in mind, even if it did feel like it was being pulled in too many different directions for it to truly be the best of its kind. The soundtrack had to have keys and iconic riffs so it meant several odd choices nobody would've requested made the cut.
Overall, it's a great game if you have a large amount of DLC and admire features over general substance. This wasn't the last Rock Band game to come out in 2010, as they had one more slightly questionable band-centric expansion up their sleeve. Nobody knew how they could possibly hope to top The Beatles: Rock Band and between you and me, I don't think Harmonix knew either. That's why we got Green Day: Rock Band.

I personally blame whoever woke them up in October

I won't spend too much time talking about this as I didn't actually buy or play it. What I can tell you is that it contains a fairly handsome collection of Green Day songs, all of which became available via DLC. After these two games were released, Harmonix kept putting out DLC for a few years to come. They also created another expansion called Rock Band Blitz but that came out in 2012.
Whilst Activision may have been responsible for the series blasting in and out of the mainstream, Harmonix did their part to keep the series alive and whether you're into Green Day or not, I'm sure the title had the same care put into it as all their other products. So here are my ratings for each title I actually bought/spent money on:

Guitar Hero 5 - Excellent additions to gameplay ruined by a pretty pathetic soundtrack. 5/10.
Band Hero - A solid expansion pack aimed at a new audience with a few diamonds in the rough. 6/10.
Guitar Hero: Arcade - Obvious cash in, presumably to make back money on failed GH games. 5/10.
Lego Rock Band - Another hit to add to the growing collection of awesome Lego games. 8/10.
Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits - Completely unnecessary and almost entirely lacking in fun. 3/10.
Guitar Hero: Van Halen - Needed a lot more work on it to truly be considered great but luckily, it's still good. 6/10.
Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock - This game got a bit of an unfair grilling by rubbish critics, definitely a series highlight if you're a fan of the series/Rock music. 9/10.
Rock Band 3 - With GH:WoR's soundtrack and engine, this probably would've been the perfect game. Sadly, it's got the same problems as GH5. 7/10.

As for the future of these games? Well, Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero: Live are coming out later this year. I have my opinions on both games already but chances are you've read them on Twitter already. Maybe I'll do a special blog post about them when they actually come out in October but I will say this about both games now.
Rock Band 4 looks like it'll only be worth getting if you have a shitload of DLC, which is not something I can back as a gamer.
Guitar Hero: Live looks like it was inspired by Freemium games and will probably ruin every other music game after you play it for too long.
That's this three-part series of posts over! No idea what I'll review next week but hopefully it can be contained to one entry. If you have any suggestions, definitely let me know! I still enjoy a challenge and still enjoy reviewing or talking about albums/setlists/things involving music.

Guitar Hero & Rock Band: A History Lesson part 2

In part 1, I talked about all the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games that came out between 2005 and 2007. I had originally intended to cover everything from 2008 to 2010 in this part but since there were a whopping 18 games in that time period, I'm going to have to split it into ANOTHER part that deals with the last 9.
So for part 2, we'll be looking at a selection of games released from 2008 to the first half of 2009, which are as follows:
Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, Guitar Hero: On Tour, Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades, Guitar Hero: Metallica, Rock Band Unplugged, Guitar Hero: Smash Hits and The Beatles: Rock Band.
That means part 3 will cover Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero, Guitar Hero: Arcade, Lego Rock Band, Guitar Hero: On Tour Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Guitar Hero: Warriors Of Rock, Rock Band 3 and Green Day: Rock Band.

Quite a fucking mouthful right there and that's not even every game from GH/RB that was released! I'm not counting ones like the iOS games or DJ Hero as a) I didn't play them and b) they're not part of the GH/RB series.
Buckle up!

To this day, I still ask myself "why Aerosmith?"

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith was the first in a trilogy of band-centric games to be released over consecutive years (depending on which region you're from). Modelled around the GH3 design, the game contained a setlist roughly the size of GH1 and contained not only a decent selection of Aerosmith tunes but also "warm-up" acts consisting of songs and bands hand-picked by Aerosmith, such as The Cult, Joan Jett and Lenny Kravitz.
It goes without saying that this game isn't going to be for everyone, hence its smaller size. On top of an overall easier difficulty and a weird cameo from Run D.M.C, the game has plenty of downsides. Despite this, it's still quite fun and offers some decent guitar charts ("Toys In The Attic", "Walk This Way") as well as some great covers ("All The Young Dudes", "All Day And All Of The Night"). I would recommend it to people who perhaps don't know many Aerosmith songs but have heard one or two and enjoyed them.
There's always the possibility of games like these introducing you to your new favourite band so it's worth picking up if you can find a cheap enough copy. Around the time of this game's release, there was also another GH title available in shops except this one had a twist; it was for handheld consoles.

The best way to fuck your touchscreen up!

Guitar Hero: On Tour utilised the Nintendo DS's touchscreen and additional cartridge slot to bring GH gameplay to fans of portable gaming. It contained a setlist featuring old ("Hit Me With Your Best Shot") and new ("Youth Gone Wild") songs to the series. Sadly, whilst it was a great idea, the execution contained many problems. For starters, if the fret pad became dislodged from the cartridge slot ever so slightly, you'd have to restart the entire game.
Also, whilst the soundtrack was generally great, many of these songs never made it to a full console GH title so you could never truly appreciate a significant portion of the setlist through tinny DS speaker quality. Much like the first Guitar Hero game, it was a winning formula that needed some work before it could truly be called great. Whilst that work was being done, the next entry in the main series was released.
Guitar Hero: World Tour.

The game's tagline should've been "Great Artists Steal"

Taking a page out of the Rock Band book, Guitar Hero: World Tour introduced drums and vocals to the mix, as well as adding open notes to bass guitar and tap/slide notes to guitar in order to differentiate playing styles. The game marks the first title that used 100% master recordings as opposed to covers so there are quite a few Live songs or alternate recordings in the game. Fortunately, many of these contain even better charts than the originals would ever have ("Sweet Home Alabama").
On top of this, the new GH drumkit came with three pads and two cymbals, making it more "realistic" drum-based gameplay than Rock Band's four pad kit. Continuing Activision's decision to rely on "star power" to push the game, there are many cameos from popular musicians such as Ozzy Osbourne, Jimi Hendrix, Sting and Ted Nugent. The main downside to this game from a soundtrack perspective is the same as Rock Band's.
With the new focus on band gameplay, there are many songs that are just plain boring to play on guitar. Consequently, fans who joined the series early on began to abandon the franchise for being "too easy". So whilst the fans were unsure about whether they still loved Guitar Hero, what was happening with Rock Band?

Rock Band 2: Rock Bander

If you look at Rock Band 2 videos online, you'll probably find very little in the way of innovation. Still the same instruments, still the same soundtrack focus, still the same gameplay. The main differences between this title and the first come in small tweaks. For example, the career mode is less linear than previous games in either franchise and allows the player slightly more freedom in which songs they choose to play in order to progress further and unlock more tracks/get more stars.
There's also the addition of chord hammer-ons on guitar, new online features and a soundtrack full of master recordings too. However, unlike GH:WT, the majority of the game is the same as the predecessor but with slight improvements and there's absolutely nothing wrong with this when there are only two games in the series. For that reason, I easily preferred Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades to GH: OT.

Still reading this blog post? Cool, then I'll continue!

Whilst the main console games dealt with a full band, the DS titles still kept it to the stringed instruments. In Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades, you can progress through a strict chronologically ordered career mode on either Guitar or Bass with an extra option to play Guitar Duels against a CPU, a feature that would've been great in GH3 with the Battle Mode on songs other than the three boss battle tracks.
Starting off easy, the first tier consists of modern tracks ("The Pretender", "Crushcrushcrush") and as you advance through the game, you unlock more difficult and more enjoyable songs from previous decades ("No Rain", "Any Way You Want It") until finishing at the 70's. As far as career progression, soundtrack and gameplay additions go, this game is fantastic for fans of portable gaming and easily a series highlight in the same league as GH3.
Some problems still remained such as the game restarting easily and the songs that never made it outside of this game. Fortunately, these were easily forgivable when the rest of the game was so good. The Guitar Hero series and, hell, music games in general were in a good place by the end of 2008. Looking back with hindsight, it's easy to say that Activision drained the cash cow dry although I imagine it'd take a pretty shitty farmer to stop squeezing the udders when milk is still gushing from the teets.
Anyway, before I get too carried away milking this bovine metaphor, let's move onto the first & arguably best music game of 2009; Guitar Hero: Metallica.

METALLICUUHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

Say what you like about these games, they know how to land strongly on the 2nd attempt. GH:M improves the best aspects from Guitar Hero: Aerosmith whilst shedding the worst ones too. The soundtrack is more appropriate for fans of Metallica, mixing well known hits from the band ("Master Of Puppets", "Nothing Else Matters") with bands and songs they've covered ("Tuesday's Gone", "Am I Evil?"). It also keeps the drums and vocals so you can argue with three of your friends about who has to be Lars.
There are also modes that show you song lyrics and allow you to just listen to the songs whilst trivia about the band/track appears on screen, a great feature that sadly only appears in two games. Everything about this game has had time and effort put into it, including the band's motion capture which doesn't come across as stiff and robotic like the Aerosmith ones. There's a lot to love about this game if you like the soundtrack, a statement that can also be applied to Harmonix's first portable title from the Rock Band series.

I still haven't fully mastered Expert on this!

Available exclusively on the PSP, Rock Band Unplugged gives solo players the full band experience as you're tasked with essentially juggling riffs and rhythms for each of the four band members throughout the entire song. During a track, certain phrases of notes will appear for an instrument. They'll only appear on one instrument at a time UNLESS you mess up and fluff some of the notes.
If this happens, more phrases will appear and you'll be at risk of failing the song due to missing oncoming notes on a different instrument. Gradually, you'll get back on track by hitting lots of notes in a single streak whilst your avatars play along to Boston or Tenacious D. Unlike the GH:OT series, you don't need a clunky fretboard to play this. Thanks to the easy button configuration, all you need is a PSP and game.
Perhaps the best thing about this game is not just that the new songs added to the series via RBU were later added as DLC to the console games but also other songs playable in RB1 or 2 were added to this expansion via DLC too. However, the major drawback with this game is that it's entirely single player. Even the GH:OT series had multiplayer modes over WiFi so it seems odd that RBU lacked them entirely. It's likely that Harmonix wanted a small expansion to tide people over until the next big RB release. Meanwhile, Activision had another GH title to pump out!

Are these pictures starting to look a little 'samey' to you yet?

Guitar Hero: Smash/Greatest Hits is an expansion disc that contains songs from the five GH games lacking drums and vocals, all in original master recording form and playable for the entire band. There's also a loose storyline involving visiting the seven wonders of the world but let's face it, nobody gave a fuck about the plot of these games by that point.
There was a good balance of songs from each of the original games (although there could've been a few more from GH3) and despite not being charted by Neversoft, most of them were incredibly fun to play with the improved engine and graphics. However, with Harmonix releasing large track packs full of new content as DLC each week, perhaps this title would've been more suitable as a month's worth of DLC.
I'm not sure if Activision would've made more money that way but it definitely would've softened the over-saturation this genre was going through. At this time, gamers and gaming journalists began to call for less rhythm music games but what they probably should've asked for was less from Activision, as Harmonix were ready to release one of the other top music games from 2009.

Still angers me that they never released 'Help!' album DLC

If you know anything about music licensing, you'll know that creating a game consisting ENTIRELY of Beatles songs would cost a metric fuckton of cash and require a busted nut's worth of hard work to pull off without feeling tacky. Luckily, this game was made by a team who care about the band, the music and the art of creating a game. The amount of detail put into this game, whether it's through the dreamy background sequences of certain songs or the unreleased studio chatter played before each song, is astounding.
The only major downside is a setlist which probably isn't the best selection of tracks they could've chosen. There are some glaring omissions and only a few of those were added via DLC. Yes, about 90% of the songs on-disc belonged there but a couple had no place in the game over some of their classics ("I Want You (She's So Heavy)" was a fucking arseache to play). However, it's a hugely enjoyable game that's suitable for anyone who can play these games on Easy or above and likes The Beatles.
So here's another rundown of my personal scores for all of the above:

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith - Definitely not the strongest band choice for a game that lacks band gameplay but plenty of fun charts to keep guitarists entertained. 6/10.
Guitar Hero: On Tour - Solid soundtrack, decent gameplay and strong potential. 6/10.
Guitar Hero: World Tour - A much needed innovation might turn off some of the purists but if you give it a chance, you'll get hours of fun and maybe even find some more songs to pop on your iPod. 7/10.
Rock Band 2 - More of the same but polished and (more or less) perfected. 8/10.
Guitar Hero: On Tour Decades - Again, not a huge amount of change here but enough to make it more fun and a necessary game to play for fans. 8/10.
Guitar Hero: Metallica - Excellent soundtrack and a surprising amount of care for the team that published Guitar Hero: Aerosmith. 9/10.
Rock Band Unplugged - A refreshing mix-up on how you play these games but maybe not as fun as the standard instrument based gameplay. 7/10.
Guitar Hero: Smash Hits - A game that should've been several weeks of awesome DLC but definitely not a bad expansion disc. 7/10.
The Beatles: Rock Band - Personal taste regarding the soundtrack aside, this is the best possible game casual or hardcore Beatles/music game fans could've asked for. 9/10.

I apologise if these posts are boring to those who aren't into video games but don't worry, only one more left!

Guitar Hero & Rock Band: A History Lesson part 1

Well this is a new one! I've had a request!
Fortunately, I'm a big fan of the Guitar Hero & Rock Band series and can talk about them for bloody hours. However, since they've been around for nearly ten years each, I'm splitting this retrospective look at the series into two parts.
Part One will look at the following games: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80's, Guitar Hero 3: Legends Of Rock, Guitar Hero Mobile, Guitar Hero Carabiner, Rock Band.
For all the others, check out Part Two.

Guitar Hero started off as a simple PS2 title with an even simpler premise developed by Harmonix and published by RedOctane. Inspired by Guitar Freaks, the game contained over 30 popular Rock songs ranging from iconic riffs of the 70's (e.g. "Smoke On The Water", "Iron Man", "Frankenstein") to popular songs for fans of contemporary Rock (e.g. "Fat Lip", "Take Me Out", "Cochise") that you would play with a five fretted plastic guitar. Notes would travel down a fretboard on screen and the aim is to hold the appropriate coloured fret down whilst hitting the strum bar as the note crosses the strike line in time to the music.

In the early days, this was considered challenging

At the time (2005), it was a fantastic game. A relatively diverse soundtrack for a debut title, easy to learn yet hard to master gameplay and clear sequel potential. Of course, now we've got dozens of games that have been refined and perfected, we can look back on this one and say "Christ, it was terrible".
Between the arguably dodgy covers of Rock and Metal hits like "Bark At The Moon" or "Godzilla" and the absolutely terrible game-engine that made it incredibly difficult to play in-game hammer-ons without strumming, Guitar Hero was a bad game with amazing potential.
It was a game that caught on pretty damn quickly though and introduced new generations to fantastic music. It just needed a bit of fine tuning. Enter Guitar Hero 2.

A new way to piss off your experienced gamer friend

Guitar Hero 2 hit the shelves the next year and landed with a power chord...sorry, let me have another go at that sentence...

Guitar Hero 2 arrived a year later with a confident bang, boasting more Rock anthems ("Sweet Child O' Mine", "Carry On Wayward Son", "Message In A Bottle") and fairly modern hits ("Beast And The Harlot", "Woman", "Monkey Wrench") for the same audience...but this time, plus one! One of many additions to the series was the ability to have someone rocking either rhythm or bass guitar along with you.
This allowed for the addition of competitive and co-op game modes, along with a slightly more diverse soundtrack that didn't require bass to be rewritten and recorded by WaveGroup Sound. More importantly, the game was a lot easier to play but Harmonix accounted for this by adding songs with even more furious solos and introduced future GH fans to insane staples of the series ("Hangar 18", "Free Bird", "Jordan").
The series was also expanding beyond PS2 and an XBox 360 port was released that allowed players to download not only new material but also the tracks from the original GH, albeit on the superior game engine. However, it was at this point that some would say the series began to descend into mediocrity as Activision took over as publisher and the lawsuits arrived in their plenty. Cut to 2007 and the series' first expansion disc, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80's.

Hope you like Hair Metal!

Aside from a title with bizarrely incorrect grammar, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80's features a soundtrack with a slightly reduced quantity and, depending on personal taste, quality. The setlist boils down to Hair Metal ("Metal Health (Bang Your Head)", "I Wanna Rock", "Round And Round"), Pop Rock ("We Got The Beat", "I Ran (So Far Away)", "Turning Japanese") and awesome Metal ("Wrathchild", "Caught In A Mosh", "Electric Eye") so if you're not into any of that, this game would be one to avoid as it doesn't add anything new to the series except music and snazzy outfits.
This was the last game in the Guitar Hero series that was developed by Harmonix and many fans jumped ship at this point. Personally, the next game to be released is one of my personal favourites although this might be because it was the first GH title I bought. Either way, Guitar Hero 3: Legends Of Rock shot the series into the mainstream.

Confession time: South Park got me into this

Released in the same year, GH3 returned some of the glory back to the series thanks to years of popularity and Neversoft taking over as developers. On top of an enhanced soundtrack aimed to gently introduce newbies and relentlessly challenge seasoned pros, this title also introduced online play, battle modes, monthly DLC (unless you owned a Wii), multi-console availability, improved graphics, more master recordings instead of WaveGroup covers and playable avatars of Slash and Tom Morello. If you ignore all of those features, the game is technically not as good although in doing that, you'd be a complete fucking idiot.
These are things that Activision could actually advertise but beneath the surface layer, the notes were also slightly easier to hit and the charts for songs were considered pretty damn fun, even if some of them were a bit power-chord heavy (looking at you, "Before I Forget"!). I would say that this game contained songs that were fucking amazing to play for the HOPO sequences alone ("My Name Is Jonas", "Cities On Flame With Rock And Roll", "The Metal") and after years of practising until I was good enough to easily five star the top tier tracks ("Cult Of Personality", "Cliffs Of Dover", "Knights Of Cydonia"), the title earned a top spot in my all-time favourite GH games list...yes, I have a list. I'm a fan.
Around the time of this game's release, two things were happening. The first was that Activision essentially started to whore out the series with releases like Guitar Hero Mobile, a portable expansion so players could experience GH away from homes and annoy the shit out of commuters simultaneously, and Guitar Hero Carabiner, a toy for the uber fan and casual plonker. The second was that Harmonix teamed up with the other evil games company, EA (also MTV Games), to create a contender in the rhythm music game genre. This new IP was given the simplistic yet easily memorable name Rock Band.

"I actually think the rectangular notes are easier to read" said the Fool

Whilst GH3 was enticing people who sort of knew who Slash was, Rock Band went in a different direction and focused on the music aspect of the gameplay. Harmonix achieved this by adding two new instruments, drums and vocals. As well as this, they adjusted several smaller aspects about the gameplay in order to clearly set it apart from Guitar Hero such as special solo sections that allowed for extra points, character customisation, a star gauge and a soundtrack that was aimed for a full band instead of just one instrument.
The setlist is focused less on action-packed music like the GH series and more on all-round great Rock ("Blitzkrieg Bop", "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", "Here It Goes Again"). For fans of guitar-based gameplay, you're more likely to enjoy GH3 as it offers more of a challenge with fun charts (unless you prefer the soundtrack for RB, as music taste pretty much always governs your opinion on the game). If you've been dying for drums or enjoy karaoke games, the new instruments will help you fall in love with the series. Luckily, the series also has fantastic DLC with plenty of variety for everyone.
Overall, Rock Band is definitely more of a mature game but that doesn't mean it's not as good, nor does it mean it takes itself completely seriously. I also hesitate to call it "realistic" as there's still so much about it which is completely different to actually playing music. However, despite all the differences I've highlighted, there are similarities between the games too. Both have a good difficulty progression, both feature of mix of master recordings and WaveGroup covers, both end on an epic Southern-based note ("The Devil Went Down To Georgia" and "Green Grass And High Tides") and both are well crafted titles that earned their place in living rooms across the world.

So in the tweet requesting this post, I was asked to review the games even though I review albums instead of games on this blog, so here are my basic verdicts on each of the titles that I actually played.
Guitar Hero: Good idea with a great soundtrack but needed a bit more work in order to make it actually playable. 4/10.
Guitar Hero 2: Excellent sequel that fixed the worst issues with the first game & improved things you didn't know needed improving. 8/10.
Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks The 80's: Decent expansion pack but not to everyone's taste. 6/10.
Guitar Hero 3: Legends Of Rock: Personal bias aside, this is both a perfect introduction and continuation of the series. 9/10.
Rock Band: Definitely more of a multiplayer experience but still fun for the single player and/or gamer who has money to throw about on plastic instruments. 7/10.

Next time, I'll be covering 2008-2010.

Rock Productions presents...

A while ago, I wrote a blog post about various popular genres of Rock as if they were members of a family, picking similar aspects from both parties and comparing them for shits and giggles. I enjoyed writing it and had a think about similar posts I could write with a familiar theme without just relying on the same observations from the first post.
In the end, I decided to move from using Rock genres to actual Rock bands. However, I won't be comparing bands to family members. Nope, I'll be turning well known bands into films! Not specific films, though. Rather official and unofficial film genres that I would list to give you some examples of what I mean but that'd be silly, considering I have the content underneath this paragraph.
So without further waffling, here's another attempt at music humour that you shouldn't take too seriously (especially the last one, even I know I'm pushing an analogy a bit too far there)!


COMING SOON!

AC/DC
From the makers of "Action Films"

A guns-blazing production with plenty to keep men and young adults entertained. There are plenty of scenes that are memorable and a talented cast who know how to deliver an explosive bundle of action. However, whilst they know how to write a solid fight scene or car chase, you'd be hard pressed to find a fan of their recent work over their classics from the 80's and early 90's. Sure, the new films have their moments but nowadays the majority of their material feels repetitive. With so many other directors making action-packed movies that challenge the viewer with new stunts and visual effects, perhaps it's time for these films to reach their conclusion...especially since the key actor integral to the band's popularity has quit due to age-related poor health and their latest picture is dull as fuck.


Uriah Heep
From the makers of "Sci-Fi Films"

A bizarre genre with stories that might turn the casual cinema-goer off with all the strange creatures on the poster but if you like complexity in your art, these are the movies for you. That being said, there are more complex films from that time and genre that more passionate fans will most likely prefer. Over time, they've become a bit more mainstream and the improved budget has allowed for a stronger quality of production, even if the script has suffered slightly. At the end of the day, both the perplexing films from the 70's and the simpler movies from the 10's are entertaining in their own ways, even if they're not as popular as other flicks.


Foo Fighters
From the makers of "Comedy Films"

Everyone loves a good comedy and time after time, these filmmakers have created a solid hit with lots of quotable moments. It's hard to name the most iconic comedy as there are plenty of contenders for the title but everyone has their own personal favourite which they'll treasure over someone else's. However, for every laugh out loud scene, there's usually a dud moment that will be easily forgotten. There are also comedies that have been repeated in the media too much and are starting to bore viewers...well, most viewers. There'll always be people laughing at the same mediocre jokes out there. Sadly, their latest movie reeks of self-indulgence and whilst it is well made and clearly inspired by early material, I doubt there'll be many more films like this one. I hope not, anyway.


Aerosmith
From the makers of "Romantic Comedy Films"

The wussiest, softest, most wimpy yet simultaneously popular genre of film out there. OK, there are some great ones out there. Ones with balls that aren't all about romantic platitudes but there are way too many soft movies out there to ever consider this an aggressive, cool or even rebellious type of film. To clarify, this isn't a bad genre nor is there anything wrong with liking this genre or enjoying one of these films. They're great filmmakers and all but they also seem like the kind of artists who'd cry during sex or send roses on Valentine's Day. There's just so much that makes you groan with these films that whenever I see a trailer for a new one (or any movie news to do with the individual filmmakers), my mind automatically conjures feelings of fatigue and irritation.


Slipknot
From the makers of "Horror Films"

It'd be very easy to look at trailers for these and think "Ugh, who'd want to see that? Anyone who enjoys this kind of entertainment is stupid" but once you get past all the prosthetic masks and shocking moments, the films are often quite good. The classics are imaginative and well written, occasionally tackling issues other than death in an educated but dynamic manner. Much like other genres, they have scenes that stand out more than others and are renowned in the Horror Film community but these are the kind of movies that you probably need to watch from start to finish to get the most out of. Personally, I'm not into this kind of genre but I have total respect for it and the people who make it...provided they continue to challenge viewers by subverting the tropes surrounding their appearance.


The White Stripes
From the makers of "Buddy Cop Films"

Meet Jack White! He's a stern, serious cop with strong opinions about the justice system and a knack for what he does.
Meet Meg White! She's a lazy, talentless cop who's only there because she has family connections to the station and can just about do what any basic officer would master on day one of training.
Both cops are different...but what happens when you put them both together to solve a series of cases that seem strange on the surface but are actually incredibly basic when you watch them?
Together, these two wild cards will take you on a fun and dynamic journey as one of the officers does all the legwork and the other just shows up.
Jack and Meg star in...White Stripes! Rated PG-13.


Queen
From the makers of "Pixar, Aardman Animations & Occasionally Dreamworks Family Films"

These are your all-round well-made movies that can be enjoyed by pretty much anyone with a brain. There's something for young audiences who like memorable scenes they can tell their friends and repeat to themselves for weeks, there's something for old audiences who want non-aggressive, unoffensive material to sit back and enjoy and there's something for everyone in between who appreciates the occasional mature reference and poignant statement about life or politics without hammering it down their throat. Despite the appearance of some of their most popular pieces, these films are indisputably works of art and deserve all the acclaim they're getting.


My Chemical Romance
From the makers of "Every Other Mainstream Animated Family Film"

These are just aimed at children, overly emotional teens, simpletons or all of the above. This wouldn't be a problem & once in a blue moon there's a decent one of these that breaks the mould but this triumph is often cancelled out by the legion of idiots spouting off about a new movie that's just been/will be released for fucking months. Even if you want to avoid these loud and predictable films, it'll be impossible as everywhere will be playing adverts or rapidly tiresome sound bites from this packaged shite. People might defend these films and try to add intellectual meaning to them, claiming that there's actually more to it than superficial shouting about romance problems but chances are they're the target audience and they'll see whatever they want to see in these, regardless of whether it's there or not.


So that's what's on at the cinema for now. I'm unsure if we'll see another preview of upcoming films (as it took bloody months to put these together) but never say never! After all, if Spider-Man can end up in The Avengers, many other bands can end up on this blog!

Man Of Miracles - Styx

Since I haven't listened to any new albums this week & can't think of an opinion post to write at the moment, it's time to review another old album! This time, I've gone for one that's probably been forgotten by the average fan of this band or genre.

If I asked you to give me a list of songs by Styx, it's unlikely any of your picks would come from the four albums they produced with Wooden Nickel. Many of their big hits such as "Come Sail Away", "Renegade" and "Mr Roboto" were from albums produced with A&M but before they made the big record label switch, Styx gave us one last gift in the form of Man Of Miracles.
Whilst the cover conjures the appearance of a long-winded Prog Opera, the album's content is mostly good old fashioned Rock. In fact, with an upbeat album opener called "Rock & Roll Feeling", you'd be a bit dim not to realise this straight away. From there, the album swings between footstomping guitar driven Rock and mystical, moody Prog. Ultimately, the entire album is one you can listen to from start to finish or pick & choose tracks from after enjoying it the first time, giving it decent repeat value.
Whether you're into your grandiose Uriah Heep Hard Prog material ("A Song For Suzanne", "Man Of Miracles") or your rousing Doobie Brothers Classic Rock ("Havin' A Ball", "A Man Like Me"), this album is one for fans of 70's AOR everywhere, although it's the kind of album that's best enjoyed through headphones instead of speakers. You're more likely to get the best out of it if you're listening to it privately out of social situations like parties, as the material on here isn't quite as accessible as the music of bands such as Queen.

However, that doesn't remove any of this album's value and whilst it hasn't stood the test of time with "Iconic Albums To Listen To Before You Die" lists, Man Of Miracles is an unearthed gem that ranks highly on my personal tier. I love the well-oiled combination of each instrument adding their own touch to all the songs, I love the fact that the album doesn't accidentally use the wrong drumbeat or chord progression in several tracks (which happens surprisingly often in Blues based Rock) and I love the way it not only opens but closes on a perfect note, rather than fading out with a whimper.
Despite my gleaming praise, music journalists from yesteryear didn't quite agree with me. When Man Of Miracles was released in 1974 (and recently reviewed by music websites), critics called out Styx's inability to settle on a style and claimed that the album was bipolar in its sound. I can understand this point but I definitely wouldn't call that a negative observation. Yes, a record should be relatively self-contained within the genre so that it doesn't sound like a band desperately trying to please everyone but this album doesn't spread itself thin, at least not from the perspective of a 21st century listener.
As I mentioned, it covers two distinct sounds but there's an even split between the styles. The record finds the right balance between devoting the first and second halves to the respective subgenres and ricocheting from Rock to Prog like a musical pinball. In the same way a well-written story deals with a plot and subplot before having both come together in a satisfying conclusion, this album takes periodic breaks from one genre by spending a bit of time on a subgenre until the final track where both come together spectacularly.

I'll be the first to admit that tastes change over time and music certainly can grow on you. Music can also lose the magic it first had when you listened to it over the course of months to years (see Ted Nugent's discography or the entire Punk genre) and whilst there are albums I've harshly reviewed on this blog that will probably get a higher score if I revisited them now*, I can't see Man Of Miracles falling far below the 9/10 I'm awarding it on this post.
Styx are a band that have divided the tastes of Rock enthusiasts over time. Some see them as a solid Arena Rock band and some perceive them as a bit of a pompous joke. If everyone who had an opinion on Styx listened to this album, I think the general consensus would change overnight...or maybe I just really like this album. Feel free to listen to it if you haven't already & share your judgement in the comment section!


* Now there's an idea for an anniversary blog post!