Building a Solid Heavy Metal Collection: Part 10 of 25

My buddy Stephen described this CD as, "Metallica with a real singer." With that description, I had to check these guys out. In 2002, the renaissance of my metal youth, Shadows Fall was as integral as Metallica was in years past. They were the next evolution of heavy metal and revived thrash metal to its former glory. Many thrash bands followed suit and some classic thrash bands got back together. It has been a glorious ten plus years of thrash.

The Art of Balance was Shadows Fall's second major release. Of One Blood was a great record, but was lacking the variety and intensity that The Art of Balance brings. Balance is definitely a theme throughout the record. Aggression, inner peace, brutality and meditation are contributing elements to the music that make this album whole.

Idle Hands lures you in with its intense inception and sets the mood for the rest of the album. Thoughts without Words enters the mind of Brian Fair and the way he questions life, always looking for answers. Destroyer of Senses is a short, anthem dedicated to sorrow and dependence on alcohol, and how easily you can fall into its traps. There are two acoustic interludes on this album, Casting Shade and Prelude to Disaster, which are absolutely beautiful, but serve a purpose as well. They balance the heavy and the melodic concocting a perfect potion of heavy metal.

The Art of Balance officially ends with A Fire in Babylon, a seven and a half minute piece of perfection. The musicianship is top notch, solos are perfectly paced and placed, and the message is meaningful.

As a bonus, Shadows Fall includes a Pink Floyd cover of Welcome to the Machine. Sometimes I wish they didn't put this on the album, but its a great cover. Listen to the album all the way through to A Fire in Babylon and press stop. After some thought, listen to the Pink Floyd cover. It has a much better flow that way.

Mechanical Bull

Kings of Leon were pretty cool in 2008. It was something different, and indie music was definitely on the rise at the point. I completely skipped the following album, not because of disinterest, I just didn't know they had put out a new album. So I decided to check out Mechanical Bull from my local library and gave it a listen.

I'm not gonna lie, I wasn't very impressed at first. Supersoaker and Rocky City didn't get me excited to listen to the rest of the album. I stuck it out and continued to listen to the Virginia "rockers." A few tracks caught me off guard and rewarded my time.

Tonight, Beautiful War and especially Last Mile Home are worth listening to. Lyrically they are the best. The guitar is simple but it is effective and gets to the point. Track 8, The Comeback Story,  has the potential to be a karaoke staple with the clever chorus: "I walk a mile in your shoes, Now I'm a mile away, And I've got your shoes."

All in all, this album wasn't the best. It had some highs, but a lot more lows.

I give Mechanical Bull by the Kings of Leon 2.5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Talk is Jericho

Tallllllkkk isssssss Jerichooooooo

A lot of wrestling Podcasts have hit the scene lately. I think people are finally realizing the potential of this format. Colt Cabana has mastered the art form over the last couple years. Stone Cold Steve Austin has jumped on board and created a very entertaining show. There are talks that WWE just started their own podcast as well. Now my ears will be flooded with more wrestling talk, which is cool in my book, with the addition of Chris Jericho.

Y2J has always been one of my favorites, even his days with Ralphus as his bodyguard. He's always been a natural one the mic, and it really translates well onto the podcast. He doesn't have the energy of a Colt Cabana or has the intensity of Stone Cold, but he can deliver a good interview. I think the quality of his first few guests have really attributed to that. I've listened to the Stone Cold two parter along with Edge's two part interview. Edge is a guy that doesn't really get talked about a lot, but he was fantastic. He made John Cena matches worth watching back in the early Cena days. His story is pretty unique and his "retired" life is very interesting as well. Jericho's third guest was Bret the Hitman Hart, and I can't wait to get that one started.

Jericho's podcast is a little different because it doesn't always focus on wrestling. One of his guests was his father Ted Irvine. His father was a pro hockey player and has a huge influence on Chris' life. The most recent episodes feature members of the bands Anthrax and Dream Theater, so the topics vary. If you can fit another podcast into your schedule, Talk is Jericho is definitely worth checking out.

You can listen to it here: http://podcastone.com/Talk-Is-Jericho

All New X-Men Vol. 1

The X-Men have always been my favorite Marvel comic characters to follow. They've had some great stories over the years: Deadly Genesis, Days of Future Past, Age of Apocalypse, Phoenix, etc. The more recent stories have included a struggle against extinction starting with the Avengers Disassembled arc in 2005. I would highly recommend reading the Marvel events following Disassembled up to and including the Civil War.

This book is a perfect place to start if you haven't read an X-Men book in a long time or would like to start reading X-Men stories. All New X-Men Vol. 1: Yesterday's X-Men follows the epic Marvel event, Avengers vs X-Men. Some truly devastating events happened in that story and this book is the aftermath.

Scott Summers aka Cyclops has become this generation's Magneto. He has disbanded from the X-Men and started his own group. New mutants are popping up once again and he's made it his mission to recruit them. Beast, on the verge of death, travels back in time to visit the original X-Men. He brings them to the present to show them what Cyclops has become.

Michael Bendis as the author and Stuart Immonen as the illustrator make a hell of a team and have really knocked it out of the park with his one.

I give All New X-Men 5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Plagues of Babylon

I'm going to start with a bold yet very true statement. Iced Earth is my favorite band of all time. I've been listening to them since 2001, I have every album, EP, live album and DVD they have ever released. I've seen them live 3 times with a different singer each time. I've never been disappointed in what they've released and Plagues of Babylon is no exception.

Plagues of Babylon was released exactly a week ago and I've listened to it 6 times since its release. I will probably listen to it another 10 - 15 times before the month of February is over.

If you aren't familiar with Iced Earth, they are a progressive thrash/ power metal band. Their instrumentation is very heavy and fast, but slow it down for ballads and well crafted choruses. Their singer has always been the focal point. They've have some amazing talent leading their charge. Matt Barlow, Tim "Ripper" Owens and now Stu Block. Block's range is quite dynamic and gives this album some depth. It's his second album with the band so you can tell he finally feels comfortable as their front man. Their last effort, Dystopia, was a triumph in of itself.

Plagues of Babylon is definitely their most unique sounding album. Iced Earth usually puts out concept album that revolve around a certain topic. Some songs on Plagues fall into that category, but as a whole its just a plain old awesome heavy metal album.

The album starts with the title track and in epic Iced Earth fashion. The first three tracks are definitely the heaviest of the bunch. Democide and The Culling are a throw back to old Iced Earth fans, especially fans of the very underrated Burnt Offerings. Among the Living Dead is a very cool track about zombies and I'm a sucker for zombies. Track number six, The End? is where the album really took off in another direction. Its the first sign of slowing down, but don't get too comfortable because there is some killer guitar work going on in this tune. If I Could See you Now, sounds like your traditional Iced Earth ballad but adds to that lighter side of the album. Peacemaker is one of my favorite songs on the album and it sounds like nothing Iced Earth has put out before. It sounds like a song that Bon Jovi would put out if they had some brass, but they don't so Iced Earth wrote it.

The album concludes with a cover of Highwayman. It was originally written by Jimmy Webb who was an american song writer. They Highwaymen, consisting of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings, made the song popular. Iced Earth's version actually contains four different singers on it from the metal genre. Stu Block (Into Eternity, Iced Earth), Russell Allen from Symphony X, Jon Schaffer from Iced Earth and Michael Poulson from Volbeat. The song isn't very metal, but the talent involved makes it a very unmissable song.

Give Plagues of Babylon a listen. Its a damn good album. I'm so glad that Iced Earth continues to make the music they want to make.

I give Plagues of Babylon by Iced Earth 5 out of 5 Burning Lariats.