The Poseur Cave
 

So I decided to make a journal. That way I can write whatever I want to, when I want to. I might review some crap, I might not, we'll see. Maybe I'll take requests, too.

http://xza.us/dio/photos/dio01.jpg

Anyway...

Always glad to see a new journal spring up, specially in these lean times! Though I think The Batlord might have a problem with RJD being on a journal entitled "The Poseur Cave"! :laughing:

Welcome! I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
:clap:

Some of you cool people may have noticed that I changed my profile picture to a tarantula. Why? Well, I was just browsing my Facebook wall with nothing better to do, and BOOM! Suddenly, a blue tarantula! And it was called a poecilotheria metallica. Metallica fans might get something more out of it, but dude. It's got "metallica" in its name, and everyone should be able to appreciate that. Oh, did I mention it's blue?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...tallica%29.jpg

Not gonna lie I want this to succeed and you seem cool but I really hate spiders and dont think I will be coming back if picture of the things are everywhere.

Don't worry. The Poseur Cave is poseur friendly and will not contain many more spiders.

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...N%2BB%2BcL.jpg

You know what that is? That's the Keeper of the Seven Keys Parts I & II Deluxe Expanded Edition. Awesome. Bought it yesterday, just in time for halloween. Haven't got time to listen to it yet, but my expectations are very high. I'm actually scared to listen to it, due to what is called the goatpenis phenomena. What I want to b*tch about is the cover art. I'd be fine with it if they had included the originals in the booklet or on the inside of the cover, but no. Also, the booklet has no lyrics. That makes me a sad poseur.

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...px-Sad-pug.jpg

Some of the best power metal albums ever recorded, especially pt.2

Yeah, unlike Goatpenis (I assume) Helloween will not disappoint you. Those two albums are fantastic.

Paranoid vs Master of Reality

http://imageshack.com/a/img801/5451/wv9q.png

The big question in metal's now 43 year old history is “what is the finest album by Black Sabbath, the band who started it all?” I thought “hey, that's a perfect entry for the Poseur Cave journal”, and decided to bitch about it. Now, I must confess to only having heard these two albums, and merely bits of the others. That's cool though, since these two seem to be everyone's favourites, and therefore the ones most suitable for comparison.


Here goes...

They both have eight tracks, and that's perfect, because then I can do a side-by-side-ish comparison, starting at...


Track 1
“Boom!” goes the guitar in War Pigs opening riff, the start of an amazing song, one of the best on the album IMO. It's counterpart, Sweet Leaf is dedicated to marijuana. Well, it was 1971, what can you expect? Paranoid wins this one. Clearly.

Track 2
I'm not saying Paranoid is a bad song, but I do think it's a bad follow-up to War Pigs. It's pretty dull in comparison. Master of Reality wins this one just by keeping on track.

Track 3
Planet Caravan, and now we can't even see the track (you know, the one they went off) anymore. This would fit on a Pink Floyd album or something. Embryo is not much better, but I view it as an introduction of sorts to the next track, they're even merged together on the Live at Last album. Anyway, it's a tie, since none of the tracks fit in particularly well.

Track 4
Hard one. These are maybe the best tracks from each album (alright, War Pigs and Fairies Wear Boots are great competition). I choose Children of the Grave, it's my favourite Black Sabbath song and very powerful.

Track 5
I really want to give Orchid this one, but it's counterpart is Electric Funeral. Electric Funeral is so doomy it'd kill any flower, orchids included. Orchid could easily win against many other tracks, but it's not metal, for those who care.

Track 6
A standout track versus a not-so-outstanding track? Hmm, yeah. Lord of this World, definitely. Heavy and bluesy. Me like.

Track 7
Here's that space rock thing again. And an instrumental, but that's fine, because it wins. It's pretty cool, despite having no vocals. That drum solo or whatever it is really shouldn't be there, though.

Track 8
Oh. Uuuhm, yeah. Hard one. Fairies Wear Boots is one of my favourites, and so is Into the Void, yet the drug-trip thing can't beat the thick doom thing. That means Into the Void wins.


Paranoid gets three points, Master of Reality gets four. That means the latter wins, but only just (though it should get bonus points for the album cover).

Keeper of the Seven Keys

As the introduction track in Part I slowly built up tension, so did my heartbeat. It had very high promises about what would come next. “Boom!” it said, and a magic harmonized riff possessed me, leaving me in a trance one only can experience from listening to True Metal at the correct volume. Awesome. Rockin' on to track four, and it takes off completely. Dude. That's one happy opening riff. And dude. The rest of the song. The pre-chorus, the chorus, everything is so... perfect. But then there is one problem. Not about the song. That song is pretty great. But the song that follows it... it's a ballad, and it's in the middle of my metal! It's not bad. It just... doesn't belong, you know? Well, never mind. "Future World" kind of makes up for it. It was one of the first Helloween songs I heard, and one of the first power metal tracks I heard, too. There should be more of the like. I wouldn't mind if every song on an album sounded like "Future World", or even if every song on an album was "Future World". I would mind every song sounding like "Halloween", though. It's just too long. I'm glad there's Part II too, because "Follow the Sign" is pretty much nothing but a transition between the parts.


Moving on to Part II, and man, I love this intro. It's so happy, there's an eagle in it, and it fades perfectly into... "Eagle Fly Free". It seems to really strengthen the impact of it. And "Eagle Fly Free" is an amazing song. Shame on you if you haven't heard it. You should put your head in a public toilet. Yes, now. And then go listen to it. But take a shower first. Wouldn't want to pollute the Metal with your poop stench, huh? Then move on to the next song. It's pretty good too. Well, not as good as "Eagle Fly Free", but it gets the job done, you know? At least it's better then the one that follows. I think it's a filler, and it's not very funny either. It should learn from "Dr. Stein", that's a pretty good song, but almost every song is good on this album, in my opinion. Except for "Rise and Fall". I like "March of Time", but I'm a little embarrassed to say that, since it utilizes an overused chord progression in the chorus, though I guess I shouldn't care, I'm too young. Besides, it's power metal, cheesiness is included. The epic on this part ("Keeper of the Seven Keys") is much better than "Halloween" from Part I. It has the storyline of the albums, I like the intro, and I don't really know what else.


The Batlord and Unknown Soldier were right, these albums are truly amazing, but Part II is slightly better. I want to hear more like this, but I'm afraid that their other albums aren't as good... how can you follow up this?

...and then God made metal

Before I even mention the music, I'm asking you to look at the album cover. “Again? Do I have to?” Yes, again. Just do it. Please don't tell me you aren't filled with a sense of doom and despair, along with a mild heat spreading from your heart and all the way to your fingertips? Now, put on the album. The rain, the thunder, and the bells. Before the music has even started, you already know this is going to be some heavy sh!t. I hope you like the blues, though. The rest of the album is dominated by it. The next track even has harmonica in it, but that's alright. Right? If you don't like polka tulk blues, just wait until the fourth track, “N.I.B.”. That one is ultra-heavy. It's also told from the view of Satan. “But why does it have to be so dark?” you ask while peeing your pants. I'll tell you, it's because Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple had already tried to spread the word of Metal before, but not succeeded, so in order for it to work, Sabbath had to make everything so damn heavy as humanly possible, and it did succeed, they just needed a strong enough dose. That's why. They could have spread it out on the tracklisting a little more though, since the rest of the album isn't even close to touching the first half in terms of heaviness. Not that it's all that matters, but some people just don't seem to treat their missions seriously. Also, it has two blues rock covers, one of which is ten and a half minutes long without really needing to be. But I guess that's just the kind of thing that makes you appreciate the gift of Metal even more. Especially track one and four.

That's my big problem with Paranoid. It's a great album, but the song flow on the A-Side is terrible. Why would you follow such a heavy track on such a monumentally heavy album with a great, but still normal, not-at-all heavy rocker, and then further the not-at-all heaviness with "Planet Caravan"? They should have followed "War Pigs" with "Iron Man" to give you a one-two knock-out punch of monumental heaviness. Then put on "Paranoid" to change things up, and stick "Planet Caravan" near the end of the B-Side.

"Keeper of the Seven Keys" better than "Halloween"? Blasphemy. "Keeper of the Seven Keys" is "Halloween"'s lame, inferior little brother. Like Charlie Sheen is to Emilio Estevez, except in reverse. I can't listen to that song enough. The only problem is that it's not long enough. It always seems like it's over even though it only started like eight minutes ago.

Maybe I'll grow on it, but for now, I'll stick to what I wrote. By the way, totally agree on what you said about the Paranoid tracklisting. Planet Caravan sounds like an ending track, IMO.

I liked the song for song contrast idea that you did, I don't think I've ever seen it done before on MB, which is surprising really for what seems like an easy idea and great idea.;)

The problem with the Black Sabbath debut is that the b-side contains too much filler, apart from that the rest is a classic though.

The Helloween albums that you've listened to are the tip of the iceberg when it comes to power metal. You now have the European or American styles to enjoy. As for Helloween the only other album that comes near this in quality is Better Than Raw.

For some reason I thought it would be Time of the Oath, but I haven't heard either, so I guess that doesn't matter. I most certainly WILL check out Helloween further, keeping Better than Raw in mind, of course.

By the way, I'm writing for my schools online newspaper, and last monday I published an artist spotlight for Black Sabbath. At one certain middle school, posters featuring members of Black Sabbath are now lighting up the otherwise depressing (and filthy) halls.

The Lonesome Crowded West sounds like something MacGyver would throw together with duct tape in his confused teenage years. That's why I like it. I think I'll review it sometime after the weekend.

It kicks off with “Teeth Like God's Shoeshine”, a dissonant rocker hitting you not with clean notes, but pure, honest energy. “Heart Cooks Brain” is the follow-up, and it features lyrics such as “my brain's the burger and my heart's the coal”. Like it or love it. I think the album is kind of lyrically repetitive at moments, especially in the song “Convenient Parking”, but I like it. I think it contributes to building up the energy, at least in this case. The fifth track, “Jesus Christ was an Only Child” doesn't sound at all like the first four. It's driven by violin and acoustic guitar, and features some haunting noise in the background sounding kind of like Donald Duck getting strangled by a bear. Rad. I think my personal favourite from the album is “Cowboy Dan”. It has a tense, pounding rhythm section that leads the song until it changes into a mellow mid-part, then it gets back to normal. Another favourite is “Sh!t Luck”, the song with the most raw energy on the entire album. It has very few sung lines, or maybe I should say shouted? “Truckers Atlas” is for you guys who like long songs. Note that it's not very complex, and that about five minutes of it is... well, nothing much but filler.

This album has something for everyone. Weird lyrics, violin, a dying Donald Duck, mellow parts, long songs, (non-)religious views, punk and US state references. Recommended for emos, nerds, hipsters, Norwegians, the rest of the world and Disney-haters.

Dude, I've said it elsewhere and I will repeat myself, but I just can not get into Modest Mouse at all. When I heard Float On years ago, I thought it was awesome. So I went back a few years later and listened to more Modest Mouse and just wasn't feeling it. The vocals are just so weird to me. I went back again recently and I just felt nothing for them besides Float On which I still consider amazing.

I've just never liked any of The Smiths. Morrissey is such a flamboyant weirdo. I will keep an eye on the Poseur Cave though.

First of all, congrats on discovering Bauhaus, they're one of my favorite bands. :)

If you're looking for some other good music in a similar vein, for one thing, you should definitely check out Love & Rockets, who are what Bauhaus turned into after singer Peter Murphy left the band.




I'd also highly recommend checking out Sisters of Mercy:




And Siouxsie & The Banshees:

Also, thanks, Janszoon ;)

In other words, I didn't have any preferences because everything was so good.

Don't worry about it. It's just Dave Mustaine that cocked up his remasters. On another note, I hear there's a new, 25th anniversary remaster of Peace Sells that's got some good reviews. Tempted...

The album opener, “Needle in the Hay”, is one of the better tracks on the album, and as far as I can tell from the Spotify top 10 and rateyourmusic.com, it's one of his most popular songs overall (apparently Pitchfork loves it, too). Track three, “Clementine”, is a bit different, the guitar is more melodic than on the previous ones, which both feature a “down-down pattern” as far as I can tell. It's one of my favourites, along with “Needle in the Hay” (and a couple of songs from the other albums, like “Angeles and “Say Yes”). Though all the tracks on the album sound quite similar because of the instrumentation, there are some small differences. “Southern Belle”, for instance, sounds more aggressive, especially at the ending, than the rest of the album, and the intro on “Satellite” is a bit classical-sounding, at least to me who haven't heard a lot of classical music (especially not guitar works). The album has a very bittersweet mood, I think that's what the cover art is suggesting, since it is, depressingly, featuring two persons jumping off of a building as if commiting suicide.

My opinion? This album was pretty good, and I totally think you should hear it if you haven't already (all the indie nerds have, I bet).

Oh great. I did not know you like Elliot Smith. Don't trust too much in Pitchfork, though. But this is good album anyway.

Also, inconsistency ain't a crime. Don't care about genres, it is better that you write about what you want to. And variety is a spice of life, ain't it?

I don't trust pitchfork either. First thing I saw was that they gave the Get Up Kids some very harsh reviews, and I was like "nope, not for me". And inconsistency is in no way a crime, at least not when it means diversity. Noone should be able to say that my taste isn't diverse (even if it's predictable)..!

Yep, if your able to like so different bands as Beatles, Iron Maiden and Get Up Kids, you have no problems with diversity. And it's good. I know my taste is not that diverse, at least but I'm working on it. And when it comes to Pitchfork the problem is that their reviews are kinda dull. You know, good review is great to read even when you disagree with it.

I shouldn't insult Pitchfork too much, didn't get much further than the Get Up Kids reviews and some top lists I found by accident before losing interest (maybe it happened so quickly because of the magazine's reputation as a hipster phenomena). Also, though my taste is quite diverse, I haven't really gotten largely into too many different bands, except for the Beatles, Queen and maybe also Iron Maiden.

It's better to get slightly into many bands than heavily into one. Though everybody needs one or two bands he/she completely loves. For me they are Beatles, Ramones and Nirvana.

Artist: The Wrens
Album: The Meadowlands
Year: 2003
Genre: Indie rock/pop

1. "The House That Guilt Built"
2. "Happy"
3. "She Sends Kisses"
4. "This Boy Is Exhausted"
5. "Hopeless"
6. "Faster Gun"
7. "Thirteen Grand"
8. "Boys, You Won't"
9. "Ex-Girl Collection"
10. "Per Second Second"
11. "Everyone Choose Sides"
12. "13 Months in 6 Minutes"
13. "This Is Not What You Had Planned"


I liked this album very much, from start to finish. It's filled with sometimes mellow, sometimes distorted, always great pop songs, all written carefully while keeping the charming “rough indie edges”. The album starts off with a short introduction track which fades perfectly into the bass intro of one of the best tracks from the album, “Happy”. The follow-up, “She Sends Kisses”, has been stuck in my head all day; it's definitely my favourite. The tempo is picked up a little on track four, which reminds me of “I'm Gonna Make You Love Me” by the Jayhawks..! Other good tracks include “Hopeless”, “Boys, You Won't” and “Everyone Choose Sides”. One song that annoyed me a little was “Per Second Second”, since everything was so distorted I could neither understand what was being sung nor keep track of it while reading the lyrics.

A fantastic album that you should listen to right now if possible. If not, make it work somehow.

Apparently this January is Trollheart Ripoff Month. Guess what? For me, this is Powerstars Ripoff Month! Or week. Or day. Or four days, whatever.

What the heck *is* Powerstars Ripoff Month, anyway?

It is me ripping off Trollheart's "Classic Albums I Have Never Heard", and blaming Powerstars! ;) Sort of. Yesterday I made a list of albums I hadn't yet heard, some of which had been lying in my collection for a while already, and some others that had be recommended to me, but that I hadn't yet heard (like that Wrens album). I am going to try to work my way through that list, and maybe even write about some of the albums as I go (despite the title I will not rip anyone off any further in the foreseeable future, not even Trollheart or Powerstars).

Oh, and in case anyone's interested, here's a photo of the list (at least some of it), which was written on paper:

I just listened to the Whenever, If Ever album. It's pretty good. Not stand-out-in-a-crowd good, but good. I will also say that Clarity is a really over rated album to me, from the aspect that a lot of people consider Jimmy Eat World to be a staple of late 90s - early '00s emo, and Clarity as their 'classic.' I guess that's arguable since Bleed American catapulted them into the mainstream but I actually prefer their poppy radio hits a lot more than their 'emo' stuff from Clarity. Interested to see what you think. I definitely want to listen to some more Christie Park Drive, and here's a fun fact you might not know: I've yet to listen to them, but there are a few Splits out there with Jimmy Eat World and Christie Park Drive. Might be cool to give them a listen since you seem interested in both bands.

I think I'll start with Clarity. I like Jimmy Eat World's radio hits, but I think I prefer the ones I've heard from Clarity and Static Prevails.