Maybe next video will be the V-Cube 6… or the Mirror Blocks… or maybe I’ll just jump to the V-Cube 7. Meh. You’ll find out soon enough!

Ok, I remember some time ago that I talked about Theocracy’s self-titled debut album. I was so impressed with that album and the genius behind it, Matt Smith, that it was one of the very few physical CD’s that I ordered that year. (Most of the time, I buy downloads) What was so impressive was the quality of songwriting, instrumental ability, vocals and recording that was done by just one man. Later on, Matt kept his fans in the loop on album number two’s progress and gained a few talented bandmates. I thought, “If he was able to do the first album by himself, imagine what would happen if he had a complete band!”

Well, last October, I didn’t have to wonder any longer. Before vacation, I got the leaked version of Mirror Of Souls from a torrent site. That put some icing on my vacation, especially when, listening to it on the plane, my jaw dropped a few times. Most new pieces of music don’t elicit that kind of reaction from me. Yes, it’s that good!! Matt certainly learned a lot from the first album (kick ass as it was) and thoughtfully applied that knowledge to this one. I’m telling all dear readers, if you’re into some hard-hitting, yet progressive, epic-sounding fresh and exciting metal… then look no further. I’ve bought/downloaded albums and songs from many artists last year, and this is the one that most impressed me.

Before I break down the tracks, I’ll tell you why I waited so long to write this (besides the fact that I was lazy. Still am!). I wanted to buy the album and give the band full due; I even went so far as to buy the Japanese import for the bonus track. A consumer review is worthless if the product isn’t bought, ya know!

Tower Of Ashes – Much like the last album, this song starts Mirror Of Souls off with a small, majestic keyboard passage that transforms, first into acoustic guitar, and then into crunching riffs with bass and drums. Then they go into double-time with the main theme, breaking afterwards with a very original-sounding vocal opening and way-cool accompanying riff. You’ll have to hear it to understand. The rest of the song gives you a hint of the complexity you’ll find throughout the rest of the album. The ending is a bit cheesy with the instrument crescendo, though the song itself is an awesome start to the album!

On Eagle’s Wings – This is the first song the band featured on its MySpace page. Probably the one song that would be the most “listener-friendly”. Interesting use of a talk box in the beginning but, when I heard the early version of the song, I liked that one better without the talk box. Sounded cleaner. Nonetheless, this song has some soaring moments and, all throughout, the pace doesn’t let up one bit.

Lay The Demon To Rest – If you want a song with face-ripping crunch, then listen to this! This is the closest that Theocracy has come to a thrash metal song, complete with blast-beat drumming from Shawn Benson and a awesome beginning scream from Matt Smith. I don’t know how he held the opening note for so long! There’s a part of the song where the band does gang vocals to complement Matt’s distorted bridge vocals, and it sounds fantastic.

Bethlehem – After the fury of the last song, we’re brought to the one true ballad on the album. If you couldn’t figure out that this is a Christian Metal band by now, then this song should be a dead giveaway. That being said, this is a beautiful song/hymn, perfect for Christmas or after (or even during) church service. The sing-along chorus and majestic choir vocals (and lyrics!) are what make this song so special. The change in style from the last song proves how versatile the band is in their songwriting and instrumental talent.

Absolution Day – Back to full-on ramming speed. This is one of the songs that I can’t get enough of. There’s simply too many good musical moments in this track; some of them were the ones that made my jaw drop! Simply an Epic / Progressive Metal song worthy of the genres. I love the power of one line towards the end, “Absolution for all who believe!!”. The ending is cool too .

Writings In The Sand – I only give this four stars because it didn’t quite grab me like the rest of the song do. It does deserve an extra half-star for continuing the fine musical standards that the rest of the album holds. It has a nice groove to it; a very progressive rock feel to the whole song in general, rounding out the album.

Martyr – I had to resist putting the title in caps. That’s how much I love this song. From beginning to end, this track just… flat… out… ROCKS!! I can’t emphasize it any more than that! Even the spanish guitar interlude near the ending chorus rocks. The only thing that takes away from the awesome feel (IMHO) is the repeating sweep-pick line towards the end. Otherwise, pure awesome!

Mirror Of Souls – This song clocks in at over 22 minutes long, but don’t let this deter you from listening. Think of it as three songs, since there are three distinct parts to it. The whole song is a story about the main character’s search for the truth about his existence. That’s all I’ll say, as I don’t want to spoil it. I will say that the ending of the story made me cry. That’s how good it is. As for the music, there’s so much good songwriting packed into this tour-de-force that it makes my head spin thinking about it too much. Even though it’s a long track, the music constantly evolves and shifts and there’s so many good moments… again, as with many other songs on the album, this is one you’ll have to hear for yourself instead of taking my word for it. As I said, the ending made me cry, as it has a beautiful ending and perfect finish to an awesome album.

Wages Of Sin (Japan edition bonus track) – The shortest song, at three and a half minutes, but very cool. Even though the band was rushed to record this, the same high standards were applied, and you can hear it well. The “The payment is made!!” chant somehow doesn’t get boring or tiresome, the way it’s done here!

Throughout the track review, I didn’t say much about the singing. That’s because the lead singing, choruses, choir vocals and even the gang vocals are immaculate. I’m not exaggerating. Matt Smith is not only the driving force of the band, he’s also the singer and a perfectionist in the studio. His vocal style is clean, with just a hint of grit, but very powerful and controlled. Most of the vocals are done by him, and he does a fantastic job. Below is a video he made in the studio detailing the process behind his choir vocal tracking for the song “Martyr”. What you hear towards the end is a taste of how meticulously the entire album is made.

Matt, Shawn, Jon and the others who made Mirror Of Souls possible, my congratulations to you. This album is pure awesome, I’ll enjoy it for years to come (just like the first album) and I can’t wait to hear the next album. By the way, Shawn’s drumming is excellent throughout the album; I wouldn’t be surprised if he gets the “Best New Drummer” award in a few publications! To those reading this review, if you like metal… even if you’re not a Christian, you definitely should pick this one up. Don’t complain, just do it. Cheers!

Last night, Christine and I had the good fortune to catch the premier of SciFi Channel’s new show, Sanctuary. Though it was only the two-hour pilot, the show looks to be very promising. It started out slow, but I think that’s to be expected, as the characters are very deep. Because of this, the main premise of Sanctuary virtually necessitates some good character exposition since the overall plot wouldn’t make sense without it. However, the story’s pace moved very smoothly even while giving us good insight into the characters. Still, the writers and series creator gave the characters a lot of room for growth. The show itself is somewhat of a cross between The X-files, Torchwood and a healthy dollop of X-Men for genetic abilities abounding in some of the characters.

Below, I’ll embed a clip I’ve snipped from Hulu.com. I was very surprised to see Sanctuary on there after it just airing last night. Due to the content provider’s whims, it may be on the site for a while, or maybe not for long at all… so if you like the clip, you can just point the mouse onto the embed’s progress bar and rewind it to view the show from the beginning (You can also head to Hulu.com and view the whole enchilada, with the option for fullscreen!). The first part of the pilot is, like I said, a good story but mainly expository. The second part has some good action and did a bit of further character development. Some of the cast are very intriguing: I loved Dr. Magnus, and Amanda Tapping did a great job with that character. The real pleasure was watching Christopher Heyerdahl play the main heavy, John Druitt. His character is just awesomely twisted abounding with maniacal intelligence. The only weakness is Dr. Will Zimmerman, but hopefully that character will be fleshed out more with the next episodes.

Well, this is the first time I’ve reviewed a TV show. Let me know how you, the reader, liked what I did here, and also if you liked my show recommendation! Cheers!

Well, that multi-cultural and hyperkinetic extreme power metal band is back to have a go at kicking the tar out of our ears again. It seems like I just recovered from their last album, Inhuman Rampage, only to get a new aural assault when I least expect it.

This time around, I’ll have to compare Ultra Beatdown to their previous albums, since they’ve obviously grown by increments, if not leaps and bounds. If you haven’t heard anything by this band, I’d suggest one of their few anthemic ballads to start, as their speed in any other songs can be quite overwhelming when not expected. If you want, you can read my other reviews of their albums, Sonic Firestorm and Inhuman Rampage, to get an idea of what they sound like. This band plays fast, and even that is an understatement sometimes. One may wonder if they’re not going to be content until they break the land-speed record with their instruments! However, it’s not just speed for speed’s sake; they infuse that speed with their own style, and almost every song has a anthemic, over-the-top and epic feel to them. Because of that, many of their songs can sound the same… but only if you’re listening with half an ear! When you really listen, you can hear a complexity in their compositions that most listeners would ignore.

As I’ve stated, with this new album, the band does some more musical exploration and experimentation. Some of the songs have more of a progressive element, and they use changing tempos even more than ever. However, while I have no problem with softer interludes to make things more interesting, their use of interludes in a few of the songs was quite jarring and left me scratching my head. Otherwise, they’re definitely flexing some serious musical muscle, even compared to the last album…

Heroes Of Our Time – Starting off with a bang, as per usual. A good, catchy beat makes up a song for their first single and video. I like the change-up at :29! Very good opening showcasing what we can expect on the album.

The Fire Still Burns – I love the epic way this starts; I caught myself playing the intro over and over again. The bridge before the chorus just grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The chorus is especially catchy. The interlude at 4:27 is good, but it almost threatens to derail the feel of the song because of how long it goes on. Thankfully, the band picks up the pace before it becomes unrecoverable. After the solo, there’s that cool “who-oh-ah-oh!” chant that the band is most famous for in quite a few of their songs. Only they can pull it off that well… and get away with doing it multiple times!

Reasons To Live – Here’s where the band shines! The beginning started off weird, but the band gets it back together early on. Right when the “Hold me, save me!” pre-chorus kicks is, they had me chanting along. The kickdown to half speed at 2:50 was rather jarring, but I can understand why they did it. There’s a brilliant part from 3:36 to 5:06 that they wanted to transition to, but did they have to suddenly drop the tempo to get to that point? The little touches that make many of their songs so special are evident, with an example being the wolf-whistling guitar at 5:06!

Heartbreak Armageddon – This is a track that I found myself playing the most so far. The chorus is just too catchy not to sing along! Dragonforce packs so much power in this song that I seriously believe they could light up a city the size of Chicago with this song. However, the interlude at 3:50 does the same thing as the one in The Fire Still Burns; it derails the overall feeling of the song and it takes a severe jolt from the band to get back up to speed. The rest of the song is just as brilliant as the beginning, and the ending made me forget about any previous musical transgressions!

The Last Journey Home – And now for something somewhat different! Dragonforce proves they can do… not just fast… not just slow… but an actual mid-tempo song! This is actually an enjoyable effort from them. Listening to it, for some reason, made me think of all the cool anime movies and shows I’ve ever seen. It just has that kind of feel to it. Of all the songs so far, this one has them flexing the most new musical muscles. (I’m not making a deal of the interlude in this song because it fits very well.)

A Flame For Freedom – And now we have the “typical” anthemic power ballad that Dragonforce has done something similar to on every album. Yes, nice break from the rest of the album. Yes, it’s beautiful sounding and makes you wanna hug your neighbor and hold a lighter in the air for all the fallen heroes. Nothing wrong with that. However… move along now, nothing interesting to see here.

Inside The Winter Storm – Back up to their usual speed now, this song just sounds so urgent and so much fire is poured into it and then, at 2:36… POW! What the heck happened?! This is the musical equivalent of, as Douglas Adams put it, “going from fourth gear to first, thus making your engine leap out of the hood in a rather ugly mess.” They pull out of it at around 3:16 and proceed to make the rest of the 8:12 song enjoyable. This is the one song, though, that a interlude like that just didn’t need to be there.

The Warrior Inside – An excellent song overall, with all the power, complexity, speed and conviction that only Dragonforce can throw together in their own patented formula. The piano at 3:46 is a nice touch and really doesn’t take away from the song, especially whey they can hold my interest with everything else going on. It wasn’t as abrupt as the interludes in the other songs I perhaps complained about. The chorus is especially catchy! They slow it down abruptly at 5:55, but this offers a nice closing to the song.

Bonus song – Strike Of The Ninja – Here, they do a bit of experimentation with their overall sound and song tempo/feel. The result is very enjoyable in this, compared to the rest of their songs, very short song!

Bonus song – Scars Of Yesterday – Here’s some more experimentation for us. They do some different things in this track, most notably an interlude that has a kind of new age-ish southwestern feel to it, along with a healthy dose of video game influence to keep the gamers in the audience happy.

All in all, I think this is still a great album to own. Not as awesome as Inhuman Rampage, but it still rates as an enjoyable listen for most metalheads with a thirst for power, speed, melody and style. I have this album and their two last albums in a playlist on my iPod, and it mixes so well with their other songs. I sometimes need a good Dragonforce marathon!

Cheers!

On Friday, July 28th, I walked into an AT&T store to pick up my iPhone!

It really is… just a phone. That is, of course, its main function. Of that, I won’t kid myself. However, I’ve been exposed to the vaunted Blackberry phones and, knowing full well their capabilities, I have to say that my new phone really is a Blackberry on major steroids! In fact, I’m writing this entry on the phone itself using the Wordpress iPhone app. It’s true what others have said about typing on it; you have to get used to the on-screen touch keyboard and the auto correction feature. Once you get past that, typing on it is awesome!

In fact, it’s the apps for the phone that make the iPhone so special and a pleasure to use. It comes with the standard smartphone apps such as mail, contacts, calendar, notepad, camera with photo app, calculator, world clock and maps (yes, it has GPS, too!). From there, though, you can also add apps from Apple’s App Store, most of which are free! I now have enough productivity apps (and productivity-killing!) apps to let me do whatever I want when I’m not near a computer.

The sheer usability of this phone is amazing. Trying to do the same things with my old phone was either a headache (or impossible) compared to the iPhone. Typing out this much so far has taken 30 minutes, and that was with a few interruptions! The Mobile Safari browser looks and acts like a real desktop browser. I’ve tried the “push” email feature and it does work (my Cox email), but I put it back to hourly checks to conserve power.

All in all, that is the only disappointment about the iPhone, which is battery life. You simply have to be conservative about how you use the features. However, I estimated that, from full charge to 10% juice, I did about four hours of mixed 3G and Wi-fi internet browsing, and I still had power to play music! (Yes, the iPhone hasn’t forgotten its iPod roots!)

So, yes, I’m very happy with the iPhone. I will endeavor to post screen shots of some of the features, with explanations. My new phone, part two?

I’ll have to post this entry now to final draft and finesse it before publishing. Cheers!