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.

Book Review: City of the Dead by Brian Keene

**Spoiler - If you haven't read The Rising, don't read this review**

If you follow me on Goodreads.com, I've been reading this book the entire year of 2013. And for the most part, that is the case. Something has always come up or some other book or movie distracted me from finishing this book. Well I finally finished it, and I am glad I had.

Brian Keene is described as the next Stephen King. Quite the bold statement, but Keene has quite the resume. He isn't known in the huge circles of the writing community but is well respected in the horror community. He has won two Bram Stoker Awards, which is the highest award you can receive as a horror writer. Keene has over 100 original works including novels, comics and short story collections.

City of the Dead is the sequel to The Rising. In The Rising, Jim Thurmond starts his journey in a bomb shelter, built for the Y2K scare. Zombies are inhabiting the Earth. These zombies aren't the typical zombies, they are creatures from another dimension, that take over any formerly living organism with a brain. They can take over humans, birds, lions, etc. They are extremely intelligent as well. They are only limited by the decaying bodies they inhibit. Jim's mission is to find his son who is at his ex-wife's house in New Jersey. Along the way he befriends a minister named Martin and a former stripper named Frankie. After some crazy roadblocks and insane enemies, they meet throughout their adventure, they find Danny. Keene left a major cliffhanger at the end of The Rising, so you have to read the City of the Dead to really find out what happens. A genius move by Keene.

City of the Dead picks up at Jim's ex-wife's house with them trying to escape with Danny. They hear rumors that there are a safe haven in a skyscraper in downtown New York, so they set theirs sets to the Big Apple. The building that is supposedly indestructible is Ramsey Towers. Ramsey has holed himself up in the tower and has "saved" the rest of humanity. The tower contains a community of survivors and is heavily armored. In the wake of 9/11, Ramsey didn't spare any expense to make his building impenetrable. Jim and his group eventually make it to the tower and blend in with everyone pretty well. Eventually people start losing their minds, and find the end inevitable. Ramsey himself watches Ob and the army of the dead start to amass a gigantic army.

The Rising was a great start for this two book series, setting the tone and developing the characters perfectly. The massiveness of City of the Dead was unexpected but highly favorable. Keene knows what scares people, and what scared people would do in these extraordinary circumstances. I own 5 other books by Keene and I am excited to see what he can do outside the zombie genre. He has the potential to be the "next" Stephen King, but he has some stiff competition from Joe Hill.

I give City of the Dead 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Movie Review: World War Z

So I finally was able to experience World War Z. I have been a bit reluctant to watch this movie since I'm a big fan of old school low budget zombie flicks. I have read the Max Brooks book of the same name and heard that it had nothing to do with the book. Which is right and wrong at the same time. The book is an oral history of all the events that have taken place throughout "World War Z" and its pretty similar how the story flows. Brad Pitt is finding out information through many different sources and piecing it together. They took the concept from Brooks and put an A-list actor, some gun play and crazy CGI scenes and made it into an action/ horror blockbuster.

To my surprise, I enjoyed the hell out of this movie. Albeit it wasn't a traditional zombie movie, the zombies were fast moving and smart. It felt more like an epidemic type movie more in the style of 28 Days Later. There are many definitions and mythologies connected with the term "zombie" so I can let some of the details fly.

World War Z was gripping from the very first scene. They open it up in Philadelphia, PA on a regular morning at the Lane family household (Brad Pitt's family). On a morning drive, they find themselves in some traffic downtown. All of a sudden chaos breaks loose and people are being attacked by other people. Pitt's character witnesses a man being attacked and bitten, and resurrecting after 12 seconds becoming one of the walking dead. The Lane family escapes to New Jersey. Throughout the madness that ensues, Lane is contacted by some important men and they attempt to extract him and his family to safety. You're not sure why he has such connections until a little bit later in the movie. Eventually they are hauled off to an airship carrier where they discuss the origin of this outbreak.

The army has assembled a team of "experts" and the word zombie is thrown around and no one believes that this is a real possibility. Lane is eventually called into duty to research the origin of this outbreak and find patient zero. This is where the concept of the book comes into play. All these experts have are stories they have heard from other experts in foreign nations and the dailogue of the book is strictly conversations about first hand experiences with the outbreak. South Korea is rumored to be the location of patient zero so Lane and his team sets out. They fly to several other nations in search for answers and hope. The action is well paced and the visuals are pretty stunning. I'm glad they released the un-rated version, because a movie of this type needs a little violence to really accentuate the seriousness of these zombies.

I was very satisfied with World War Z and would recommend it to people who aren't zombie fans. It's not too violent, and has a great story.

Rated: Un-rated
Run time: 123 Minutes

I give World War Z 4 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book Review: Zombie, Illinois by Scott Kenemore

Zombie, Illinois isn't your typical zombie novel. It's more of a crossover that involves a mystery that just so happens to occur during the zombie apocalypse. There are three main characters: Maria Ramirez, Ben Bennington and Pastor Leopold Mack. The chapters are written in first person perspectives switching between the three. Maria Ramirez is the drummer for Chicago's premiere punk rock band Strawberry Brite Vagina Dentata. Ben is a reporter for Brain's Chicago Business newspaper. Finally, Leopold Mack is the pastor of the Church Heaven's God in Christ Lord Jesus. The character's start off pretty strong and their identities are pretty well known, but somewhere in the middle they stray from I believe their morals are and make really stupid, pointless decisions. They don't progress throughout the story, if anything they regress at some points. Ben is the cowardly lion of the bunch, eventually becoming a hero, kind of. Maria is the tough chick who swoons when she sees a hot guy. Pastor Mack is a powerful leader in the black community and has a deep, dark secret. I could tell you that secret, but I want you to read this book and be as disappointed as I was, when it was revealed. I wish Ben sacrificed himself for the group, Maria would soften up and take kindly to Ben's nerdiness and I wish pastor Mack would become the leader he was born to be. Kenemore gave us a tiny glance at that, but fell short. But you can't always get what you want.

The horror aspect of this book started off pretty well. First hand encounters of the dead rising from Lake Michigan. People digging up graves to prevent them from attacking. The coolest part of this book is when the Mayor's face was bitten off by Al Capone's corpse. Far fetched but still pretty cool. It never felt like the characters actually feared for their lives. There wasn't a moment that really affected their psyche. In most horror books there is a moment where you're not really sure if good could overcome evil. There was no such peak, no sense of impending doom. Close calls yes, but not much more than that.

I like that fact that Scott Kenemore, the author, did his research on Chicago geography and its neighborhood history. I don't know if it's all true, but he sure convinced me that it was all right. Apparently he did some research in Chicago politics as well, because Zombie, Illinois turned from a zombie book into a political satire about Chicago's corrupt government. I know that Chicago has a storied past with politics, and it was a nice back story at first, but then the entire book was about Chicago politics.

Zombie, Illinois was well written and the story is decently developed. However the horror aspect was extremely lacking. The zombies became an after thought. It's a good book for anyone who doesn't like gruesome books but is looking for a different type of mystery book. Not really my cup of tea though.

I give Zombie, Illinois by Scott Kenemore 3 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Book cover provided by goodreads.com.

Movie Review: Zombie Hunter

I am a huge zombie fan. I've seen all of Romero's and O'Bannon's zombie flicks, I've read all of the issues of the Walking Dead and have collected all of Marvel's zombie comics. I guess I have high expectations when it comes to new zombie movies. I've been reluctant to watch World War Z because I loved Max Brooks' book and I'm afraid what Hollywood would do to it. I will watch World War Z sometime soon and give you the review on that one.

But in the meantime let's focus on Zombie Hunter. This was a straight to Blu-Ray release "starring" Danny Trejo. I put starring in quotes because he is the main draw for this movie. I love the guy but he was only on screen for about 10 minutes total. Trejo's parts were definitely the best part of this movie and I wish there was more Trejo action.

Here's a quick synopsis of the movie. There is a drug going around called "Natas" which is Satan backwards. Pretty clever there. This drug looks like Pepto Bismo and is supposedly the most addictive drug in the world. Somehow is turns people into killer zombies. The movie starts after the drug and zombies have ravaged the world. I really enjoyed the concept and easily over saw the cheesiness of the opening sequence because I was ready for Trejo tear apart zombies left and right. Instead we meet Hunter, who is the zombie hunter. He lost his family and was a former user of the drug. His only goal in life is to hunt and kill zombies. I'm assuming every actor/ actress was told to cheese it up for their roles. At least I hope so because I've seen way better acting on SyFy original movies.

With all the zombie options out there, I would definitely skip Zombie Hunter. The story is decent, the acting is miserable, the CGI is pretty horrendous, and the amount of Danny Trejo on-screen time really disappointed me. The only saving grace was the sequence with the "Funnyman." He is a killer with a chainsaw in a clown mask. Not sure why they included him since it's a zombie movie, but it was enjoyable nonetheless. By the time you reach this scene it's too little, too late.

I give Zombie Hunter 1 out of 5 Burning Lariats.

Rated: Not-rated
Run-time: 93 Minutes

Movie poster provided by amazon.com.

Welcome, my lords, to Isengard!

Hello internet! I know we've known each other for a very long time. It's been a wild fourteen years and I always appreciate the humor and happiness you bring me every time I open a web browser. It's about time I did something to contribute to the wackiness. As I mentioned in the introduction of my Blog, it won't be about anything specific. I have a varying range of hobbies/ interests. I will try to avoid social issues and such for the most part, because I don't want to rant about something that I clearly haven't done enough research about.

I should probably explain the name of my Blog. Burning Lariat 101. The burning lariat is a professional wrestling move performed by legendary Japanese wrestler Kenta Kobashi. Take a look here and admire the shear intensity of this move. My Blog won't be that intense, but it will be awesome just like that move. I am a huge wrestling fan along with many other of the finer things in life. This Blog is not solely based on wrestling, but sometimes I will make stupid wrestling references.

I have a few ideas in the old noggin and hope they translate well into the Blog format.

Here's a little taste of what to look forward too.
"Building the proper heavy metal collection: The 25 albums that are always on my iPod" series
Weekly excerpts from my zombie book. (This one will take a little time to get going, I'm not finished with the book itself.)
Movie reviews, book reviews, beer reviews, wrestling reviews, and whatever catches my fancy that day.

I hope you enjoy the ride!

P.S. if you have any movie, book, music or anything suggestions, hit me up and I will put it up on the Blog!