The point I am trying to make is that I have been following Korn since the beginning. I follow the offshoots, too. The SFA’s, Fear and the Nervous System, Head… I will admit that newer Korn stuff doesn’t appeal to me as much as Head (no innuendo intended).

The evolution of Korn has been one of innovation and refinement over the years, with production values and writing getting better and better, until its peak at Issues. Since then, my opinion of Korn has started to lessen, their stock has fallen quite a bit. Maybe it is because I am tired of John Davis’ pain and suffering, maybe it is because it feels like he’s not really trying much any more, I don’t know. Maybe they just don’t feel right without the Head/Munky duo, I don’t know. Maybe it’s because they’re fat and rich now and don’t actually have to try. Point here is basically, aside from a few songs here and again, the real Korn stopped putting out songs after Issues, and the crappy Korn took their place.

Another thing that bothered me about Korn is the John Davis says one thing, then does another, for instance, saying he would never mix rap and pop and such in his music again, then he goes off and does something like Totality… it’s just irritating.

Keeping all that in mind, I came in to Path of Totality several weeks ago fully expecting to hate it, having heard Get Up a dozen times on the radio. I completely expected to hear just a bunch of club music with some growls added on for the next numetal…. clubmetal. Dubmetal? The first time I listened to the album, I couldn’t even finish it. I guess I just wasn’t ready to make the effort.

Then, I decided to just listen to it while I was driving across Texas. Then I listened to it again. And again. I listened to it probably twenty times in a row, and I came to this conclusion: I like it.

Look at how bored Fieldy is... I see him hit the B string like twice in this song.

There are a few things that need to be said about this music. It is most definitely Korn, but not the old Korn or Take a Look in the Mirror era music. It feels a lot like Untouchables era music, which I admittedly didn’t care much for, but it is most definitely a better brand of music than Korn III music, which aside from a pair of songs, was a wasted copycatting of their old style, which actually failed in every facet.

Some songs in PoT are very catchy and worth listening to on their own, such as Get Up, Chaos Lives in Everything, Narcissistic Cannibal, Fuels the Comedy, and Tension. The album as a whole though, is hardly mosh worthy, and when played end to end is great for background music, but little else.

As far as John Davis’ vocals and lyrics, there doesn’t seem to be any real evolution from his earlier work. He’s still the same old guy, so don’t expect any innovation, though there is a slick bagpipe solo/breakdown in Bleeding Out that is worth catching, and really could afford to be fleshed out into its own song. The guitars are ok, but underwhelming in the face of the dub sampling, and the drums and bass are pretty much overlooked throughout the whole album. Fieldy must have just kicked back and drank smoothies the whole time they were recording.


1. “Chaos Lives In Everything” (feat. Skrillex)
2. “Kill Mercy Within” (feat. Noisia)
3. “My Wall” (feat. Excision)
4. “Narcissistic Cannibal” (feat. Skrillex & Kill The Noise)
5. “Illuminati” (feat. Excision & Downlink)
6. “Burn The Obedient” (feat. Noisia)
7. “Sanctuary” (feat. Downlink)
8. “Let’s Go” (feat. Noisia)
9. “Get Up!” (feat. Skrillex)
10. “Way Too Far” (feat. 12th Planet)
11. “Bleeding Out” (feat. Feed Me)
12. “Fuels The Comedy” (feat. Kill The Noise)
13. “Tension” (feat. Excision, Datsik & Downlink)


Overall Opinion:

4 Skullies

That being said, there is no denying that the influence of hip-hop is spreading, not just in locales across the world, not just from the ghetto to spoiled rich white boys, and not just from one musical genre to another. There is little doubt that a lot of performers in the genre are talented, and it is no surprise, given how rock and roll became mainstream in America and worldwide, that rap is being transformed and made universal. On of my guilty pleasures still is nu-metal music and bands that use fusions of the genres of metal and hip-hop. Some notable bands that spring to mind are Maximize the Hormone, Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and others.

Despite my personal feelings about the genre and subculture as a whole, there are absolutely some notable individuals who I am impressed with as artists, in terms of performance or songwriting, or in just their specific subtleties. These are those artists:

1) EMINEM – Marshal Mathers, or Eminem, as he goes by on stage, or when rolling with his crew in Shady Records (or whoever he plays out with these days), impresses me. Not because he is a white rapper, plenty before and since have been. Not because he writes silly songs and has funny videos, you get that all over the place. Not because he is particularly fast, or even great as a rapper – don’t get me wrong, he IS good, but I wouldn’t count him as a great. He impresses me because he is one thing: An incredible storyteller. Listen to some of his older stuff, like off of the 8 Mile soundtrack (he’s an awful actor), particularly Rabbit Run or Lose Yourself. In those three to four minute pieces, he manages to tell whole stories, about successes and failures and trials and triumphs. Good stories, good messages, in meaningful and moving songs. In Stan, he tells the story of a sick and obsessive fan, portraying both himself and the titular character. This guy is just plain good.

2) Outkast – I may have mentioned these fine fellows before. Truth is, I only actually like half of Outkast, mostly, Andre Benjamin. His partner is generally one of the sorts i would lump into the degenerate rapper category, but Benjamin on his own, or with his partner, as a unit, is one of my favorite performers. The songs performed and written by Benjamin are interesting. Fun to listen to, filled with energy, the videos are filled with flashy imagery, and rarely is there too much of a ganstalicious type reference. B.O.B. is one of my favorite songs of all time. Hey Ya is a fun song that makes me feel good when I listen to it, and I’m Sorry Miss Jackson brings me back to my years as a youth back in North Florida, wondering why my dad wasn’t as good to me as he swore to Miss Jackson he was gonna be to his kid.  Then there’s the fact that this guy dresses pretty slick, or silly, as the mood fits him. And while he is not much of a better actor than Eminem, Andre Benjamin does have the distinction of acting in a film I actually like – with fellow rapper, Marky Mark Wahlburg…

3) Weird Al Yankovic – Yea, yea. He’s not a rapper. Not really. Well, not specifically. But his parodies, and his handful of original rap songs actually are very good. Amish Paradise started probably his only big rapper ‘beef’ with original song progenitor Coolio, his White & Nerdy is much more fun to listen to than Ridin’ Dirty, Trapped in the Drive Thru is just absolutely classic. All about the Pentiums…. well, really, everybody knows Al and his band are pretty shit hot, and to be parodied by him means you made it, really.  Al is pure talent. His originals to me aren’t all that funny, but whenever you mix nerdy white boy stuff into gangsta rap sounds, you get comedy gold… and the music isn’t bad, either.

4) Macy Gray – I’ve been forced to listen to R&B artists before, artists like R. Kelly and Usher, and really didn’t care for them much. Their stuff bored me (R, Kelly’s 12 Play disgusted me). I’ve been forced to listen to female artists, like Janet Jackson and Cher and others, and I didn’t really care for their stuff much either. It also bored me. So, what is it about Macy Gray, who is both an R&B artist and a female artist, that makes me like her so much? Well, I don’t know for sure. Her voice is unique amongst female singers, and I like it. Her songs are well written, her music sounds good, the songs soulful and full of emotion, she’s a very pretty woman, and to top it all off, she was in Spider-Man. Help Me is a great song, and it got picked for a promo for my favorite dramedy, House M.D.. Everybody remembers I Try from the mid ninties, and Time of My Life makes me feel good when I hear it.

5) Mac Lethal – It’s hard to say what I like about this guy. He’s not huge, as far as I know, he isn’t signed to any major labels, but he has a couple albums out, and like most rappers, a million and one demos, EPs, and mix tapes released. About a quarter of his songs are in the trash bin as far as I am concerned, but the rest are great. His skill is amazing, very talented as a lyricist and rapper, and what he writes about tends to strike a chord with me. His biggest boost in popularity came relatively recently, when a YouTube video of his went viral. He has posted a ton of videos to YouTube. Most of them are home filmed type stuff, a lot of them are barely blog-worthy in quality, but some – some are really high quality productions. I recommend that you take a look at some of his portfolio which I personally am a big fan of: Happy to Be Living, Something I Can Heart, and quite possibly my favorite, Calm Down Baby. He has many more, and I recommend checking them all out… you can spend hours digging through his videos… I have. Enjoy your fucking breakfast, I’ll whoop your mama’s ass.

The truth is, though, I came into their music late, around their eighth and ninth albums, Come Clarity and A Sense of Purpose. So, of course, I expected their music to all sound the same. To my surprise, as I went back through their catalog, their evolution as a band seemed to be similar to that of All That Remains; they went from being super growly and brutal to being more melodic and lyrics-oriented.

To me, that’s not a bad thing, I like to have the mix of brutal music with melodic elements, accompanied by thoughtful lyrics which can be understood – and having growls and screams used mainly for emphasis, not as a crutch for talentless vocals.

That being said, let’s take a look at Sounds of a Playground Fading…

First off, the music sounds very different. It still has a lot of the undertones of their old music, but as one of their founding members, the guitarist and co-writer for most of their material, Jesper Strömblad left the band in early February of last year. The guitar playing is nowhere near as complex or layered as it was in their previous efforts, though in a couple songs, particularly Deliver Us (Track 2), the keys are more prevalent.

Second of all, the lyrics are just as poignant as they always are for In Flames, but they seem fairly uninspired. The vocal range of Anders Friden isn’t really expanded much, though he seems to have greater control than he did in the last outing. This is unfortunate, because the flats and sharps he belted out in A Sense of Purpose gave so much character to his music, and filled it with tons of emotion. He sounds a lot more generic now.

Third of all, gentlemen, I love you, but in some cases… you really do NOT need more cowbell.

Something big that bugs me about this release is that the early songs seem so much weaker than the later tracks. It truly does get better as it goes on, but really, why would they even allow weaker songs to get on the disc to begin with? Seems like a poor decision to me.

Sounds of A Playground Fading
US Release: 21JUN11
Track Listing:
1. Sounds of a Playground Fading 4:44
2. Deliver Us 3:31
3. All for Me 4:31
4. The Puzzle 4:34
5. Fear is the Weakness 4:07
6. Where the Dead Ships Dwell 4:27
7. The Attic 3:18
8. Darker Times 3:25
9. Ropes 3:42
10. Enter Tragedy 3:59
11. Jester’s Door 2:38
12. A New Dawn 5:52
13. Liberation 5:10

Overall Opinion:

4 Skullies

Pick this CD up, if you like metal, In Flames, or just not sucking in general.

The music scene here in this town and the surrounding towns is pretty small, though there are budding ‘rappers’ in the neighboring county trying to make their mark. I may begin scouting the area for music soon, depending on whether or not I can find a job in the area, or I may relocate to north Florida and return to my old, pre-Hono music scene in Gainesville and Jacksonville.

In the meantime, I’ll be making posts along the lines of my ‘Five Songs’ series and will be making post departure reviews of some of the bands in the 808. In that light, I’d also like to write some net-only interviews with a few of the bands out there, so if any of you would like to answer a few questions for my roller-coaster audience, let me know. You all know how to get in touch with me, via Myspace or Facebook.

So here we go, back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Music holds over man a peculiar power to modify moods, feelings, and emotions. Love songs can bring back wistful memories of whirlwind romances of times past. Fight songs can entice a listener to rage and the need to thrash about with large amounts of energy. But some songs, they can come on the radio or enter your playlist rotation and immediately make you want to cry, to curl up in a ball in the dark, in a corner, and start cutting yourself with a jagged spoon. This is a list of such songs, songs which make me want to go all emo kiddy, but in such a manner as to affect me greatly without making me hate them:

1) Blue October – Hate Me: This is a powerful, gripping song, that speaks to the heart about issues that can seriously affect someone’s life. Now, I am not certain that I agree necessarily with the actions of the protagonist in the song, in leaving his beloved after all that she’s gone through with him to help him and salvage their relationship, but there is no doubt in my mind that the song is sincere. The energy and emotion in this song, mixed with the soulful, tearjerking music and hook, cause this to be among the best I have ever heard. Highly recommend you give it a listen. – Listen

2) KoЯn – Tearjerker: For a band like KoЯn, which has gone through genre flips and style changes with just about every album they have ever produced, and with as many songs featuring angsty lyrics as they have, it isn’t surprising to see them putting out a song like this. It’s not only depressing on a whole different level from other angst-ridden songs of the nu-metal movement, but it’s spooky, it’s moving, and it’s something you don’t want to listen to when sittign alone in a room full of cutlery. John Davis is just haunting in this song. – Listen

3) Harry Chapin – Cat’s In the Cradle: I had a poor childhood growing up. It wasn’t because my father was a workaholic, like the father in this historic tearjerker, but because it chronicled the rapid decline in the relationship between a father and a son in a way I never ever want to be with my children. Every single time I hear this song, and every single time I’ve ever heard this song, I get just a little weepy and choked up. Then again… with the job market the way it is these days, one of two things will happen: either daddy will never have a job to neglect his family for, or he’ll have a job that pays next to nothing that he HAS to neglect his family for or risk losing it. Dammit Obama, fix this shit like you said you would, or risk tearing every American family apart! – Listen

4) George Harrison (The Beatles) – While My Guitar Gently Weeps: There isn’t a whole lot to say about this song, and the truth is, I don’t listen to the lyrics when I listen to this song. I listen to the music only, really. And in fact, my favorite version is an acoustic cover played by a South Korean kid, but on the whole, this song is a confusing mish-mash of depressing and uplifting. – Listen

5) Rammstein – Ohne Dich: A song of love and loss, not even in a language understood by the majority of the fans and listeners of this band. The song’s lyrics are more of a love song, but the video is about a struggle and the loss of a friend and compatriot. Either way, the vocalist is putting it all out on the line, and the musical backup is just gorgeous. Like the previous song in the list, this song is a mix of both beauty and depression. This is once again a song I highly recommend you check out. – Listen

In a lot of cases, interest in an instrument stems from watching other people play, be they really cool people on tv or an older sibling or parent. A young kid wanting to be just like daddy, wailing on that really cool vintage Stratocaster, or watching big brother play loud and obnoxious music on a beat to shit pawn shop guitar with all his punk friends. And what about that kid who just freaks out every time he sees Ace Frehley all painted up and rocking out hard with KISS on some huge stage, surrounded by adoring fans? The fireworks, the roar of the crowd… it’s just so fucking COOL. Who wouldn’t want to try to be just like that? Well, I did. But that’s not what got me into music…

But that’s mainly for the younger kids. What happens if somehow you don’t pick up an instrument when you were young? What if your family couldn’t afford to get you one to learn on, or you just lost interest? What could bring you back to the idea? Well, from what I’ve seen, the driving force behind teen music is angst, depression, a false sense of not belonging, and the overwhelming marketing to kids of emo and screamo, hardcore and punk brings out that sense of rebellion in the youth. Now at this point, it isn’t about how cool the instrument is any more. It isn’t about the music either… it’s about letting your feelings out, letting the whole world know just how much the world hates you, how you have no friends, or how angry you are. Your message is so fucking important, you’ll just DIE if you can’t get that release. But that’s not what got me in to music…

But again, you might have been too messed up or something to pick up an instrument then, and even if you did, you’re too damned whiny for anybody to have really given a damn either way, except for all the other whiny little brats who had absolutely no reason to be all depressed either. At this point, you’re a young adult. Maybe you’re in college, or maybe you’re under the thumb of blue collar service industry work, but somehow, you realize the plight of the common man. You’re OUTRAGED at the abuses suffered by the masses at the hand of THE MAN. Congress is full of fat cats, the President is a Neo-Nazi scumbag who hates blacks, jews, catholics, asians, hispanics, and any white man who makes less than $500,000 a year. You have to let the world in on the truth man, you have to expose their conspiracies, you have to erase their propaganda. Your intuitive thoughts are just so fucking liberating that the world must hear you, the wool must be stripped from their eyes before more damage to the social order can be caused by those hypocritical suits, and we stray further from the utopian nation that our forefathers foretold in the sixties. But that’s not what got me in to music…

Then, the idealism fades, and you realize that music doesn’t have to be about your feelings, or looking cool, or saving the world. In some cases, you just play for fun, you play for the music, to be creative, or hell – Guitar Hero got you interested and made you think you could do it. You attend classes and meet people, or you get a tutor or have friends teach you to play. You pick up a bass because your friend plays guitar, you start to play the drums because you like the stress relief and cardio. You join a band for the fun, the camraderie. You play talent shows and open mikes, you take free gigs with your band to get on stage and experience the rush, the thrill and excitement of baring your soul on stage, to have fun and play for your friends, your fans. Maybe you can make some money, maybe you can get some free drinks or a buffet dinner. Maybe you feel the need to boost your self confidence by baring your soul to a group of strangers.

The truth is….

We do it for the chicks.

Promoters, bookers, agents, managers, and the venues themselves all try to take a piece of your pie. Even when you are playing free shows, the venue is trying to make money from your appearance. For example, say the venue is a bar. On top of its normal drinks and sundries, they hope that your playing will attract further customers. When a show is being run by a promoter, they often also charge the promoter for the use of the venue – then the promoter gets his cut for organizing the show. Occasionally the promoter will then pay one or more bands a small portion of the remainder of the profit, and the money dwindles. This causes door fees to rise, and with the economy being as tough as it is, it lowers attendance. Some door fees are even larger for minors, since they can’t buy drinks in a number of these venues.

But that’s not what plagues local scenes, especially one which is as topographically tightly packed and polarized as the Honolulu scene. In almost every show I have been to since I began playing and attending shows a couple years ago, I have observed a number of things which have remained the same from show to show. The remainder of this entry is going to be a list of things which I see which I believe are causing the downfall of the music scene in Honolulu.

1) Not enough legitimate fans attend shows. In the majority of shows I’ve been to, the audience has overwhelmingly consisted of bands who have already played, or who are waiting to play. I’m not sure what it is that prevents more people from coming, but I have a few a few ideas which I will extrapolate in further detail shortly. With the lack of non-participants viewing sets, bands get less exposure to potential fans, the door collects less cash, which results in lesser pay for the bands and all, and the overall energy of the show generally declines. After several shows with minimal viewers, a lot of bands lose motivation or interest in playing, and the bands slip away over time. Much like the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise (GO JAGS!), the fate of a band’s future is directly tied to fan turnout.

2) This fan hates that fan, this band hates that band, and Jawaiian sucks. The scene out here is polarized as hell. In the red corner, you have the reggae, island music, jawaiian, easy listening fans and musicians. In the blue corner, you have rock, metal, hardcore, emo, and punk guys. In another corner you have rap, and in another, country, in another… The Craigslist battles between these people are enormous, heated, and normally a mix of hilarious and disgusting. What nobody seems to realize is that every band has its niche, and every fan of local music should buckle down and support ‘enemy’ fans and bands alike. Without that support, the love disappears, the hate grows, and bands start to fade away until the next ridiculous whiney kid radio genre comes into popularity and inspires two or three dozen people to make copycat music who then fall victim to the same issues. Mudslinging is crap, be it between fans or bands or mixtures of. Without mutual respect and support, the scene is bound to collapse into rubble.

3) Local radio sucks, and local bands don’t get their due and proper five minutes of fame. The same new crap, the same old crap, over and over and over, until it makes your ears bleed and your sanity bust out in tears. This isn’t unique to Hawaii, but the lack of spread in population causes more and more people to flock to copycat bands, which ushers in an era lacking in originality or creativity. Imagine, if you will, a freshly waxed car when it is raining lightly, and you’ll see how the water drops coming down grow in size as they hit the hood and merge with one another. This is how bad radio makes fan bases of a single genre or band, and ruins them to other styles of music. Now, not all radio stations are evil. Some have small segments of the day, or at least specials regularly which feature local music, and not all bands take everything from one other group or lack creativity, but the radio has way too much influence.

4) There are too many battles of the bands, and all of them are fixed to a degree. This is a hard one to prove or disprove, however, the battles are almost always won by the same group of bands who are very friendly with one another or have strong ties to the promotional circuit. Be it a regular battle for bragging rights, one for prizes, or one to determine who’ll open for a large national act, it’s all the same. As for the opener battles, I know for a fact that those are often negotiated months in advance. Without battles on the up and up, it’s hard to take local ‘fame’ seriously.

5) There are too many shows, with too many genres at once. Every week, you can expect a show on this day at this venue, with no idea what eclectic mix of music will show this time. Having concurrent shows is cool, so long as they are all compelling, and of completely different genres, so that the fans and profits aren’t split. The jump from folk to death metal is pretty extreme in one show, and it absolutely does happen. Not to mention the repeated performances of the exact same band – whether a good band or not – causes them to grow stale quickly.

More to come later…

1) Nickleback – Rock Star: Now really, I don’t want to sound all preachy and conservative and crap, but some of the songs that just piss me off do so because of the obscene subject matter. This song only contains a little of that, but what it lacks in obscenity, it makes up for in shallow idiocy. First of all, Nickleback has (somehow) managed to make it into a somewhat large national act. They’re all in their late twenties or early thirties, and are most likely already swimming in pools filled with cash… so why the hell are they going to write a song like this? Now some bands, like the smaller, and considerably younger Crooked X, do write songs about their goals and aspirations, and as indy, unsigned artists, I can respect that, but why sing about it when you already have it? The music is repetitive and annoying, the low tone secondary vocals are annoying, and the song is just…. so…. shallow… It’s so incredibly hard to find any facet of this band to respect as musicians or even just a pop rock act already, this song doesn’t help AT ALL.

2) Pepper – Dirty Hot Sex: The are SO many things about this song that piss me off. Number one, the subject matter is obscene as all get out. All it is is a guy trying to get his girlfriend to fellate him, followed by him walking in on his dad doing her, then still continuing to try to convince her to sleep with him, only not in such family-friendly terms. First of all, that song plays on rock and alt stations, the kind that is usually being played in places like Subway and in barber shops and music stores and stuff. I tend to dislike rap and R&B stations being played in public establishments for the very same reason why I don’t want THIS song to be played: my kids go almost everywhere with me. I don’t need my young, impressionable toddlers singing “baby get on your kneeeeees” after hearing this drivel. And on top of that, the dad speaks in pidgin, which is one of the most disgusting and annoying dialects I have ever heard. I’d almost rather inject myself with a potion made of the shredded pages of books written completely in ebonics than ever, ever hear that crap again.

3) Buckcherry – Crazy Bitch: This song is just like the last one in that it’s the subject matter pisses me off. While I most certainly do like me a crazy bitch from time to time, this is the sort of song which again is played on alt and rock stations that get played commonly in public places. While it might be a cool Youtube video to have a toddler singing lyrics like, “Hey, you’re a crazy bitch, but you fuck so good I’m on top of it, when I dream, I’m doing you all night…”, it’s not the sort of thing I want my kids belting out in polite society (or what remains of it). That and the music is pretty damn plebian.

4) The Black Eyed Peas – My Humps: There are several songs that fought hard for this spot, songs which should never have been written, performed, or in any way ever presented to the public for consumption. Most of these songs were written by BEP (mostly performed by Fergie), Gwen Stefani, and Brittany Spears. Like the songs by the other competitors, it struck me as being not a way to showcase talent, but rather a way to flaunt sexuality while taking a monster dump on musicality. If I had my choice, I’d take Fergie, Gwen, Brit, and a couple other talentless hacks of the female persuasion, toss them in the coliseum in Rome, and make them fight some lions with only a can of blue play-doh and some pistachios. This song has absolutely no merit. The (alleged) lyrics are banal, and with no redeeming quality. The music is repetitive, and there is no real danceable beat. BEP has an awesome collection of songs which are hip, trendy, and non-genre bound, and if they have any sense, they’ll never, ever, ever, play this one again.

5) Ludacris – Area Codes – This song is the embodiment of just about every reason why I hate rap in general. First of all, its whole purpose is to demonstrate that one Ludacris allegedly has ‘hoes’ in different area codes across the country, which insinuates that said hoes are either a) his property, or b) targets of his sexual conquest. I generally believe it’s the latter, since as far as I am aware, Ludacris doesn’t have the same ‘I’m a pimp’ character that Snoop Dogg has. Second of all, it preaches to excess. Almost every single rap song out there has to do with excess in one degree or another, which is, in my opinion, detrimental to society as a whole, and is one of the main detractors of the subculture to which rap is marketed. Then you add that songs like this are lauded on the radio and MTV (Music TV my ass), and are blasted through ‘pimped out’ cars, or nasty ass beaters with rims worth more than the car, or in Honolulu, rice racers with over tinted windows and spoilers as tall as my ceiling. This song sucks. A LOT. The video was mildly amusing, but there are many better lyricists out there, and better rappers. Try Andre Benjamin from Outkast, for example. That guy’s a genius. Ludacris is a choob.

1) KoRn – Falling Away From Me: I had a ton of KoRn songs which helped me out, their thrashy numetal sound with their powerful lyrics did a lot for me. It was tough to chose which song did the most for me, but when things were at their worst, and times their darkest, this one served the purpose of helping me to let out all sorts of pent up frustration. With its powerful roller coaster chord progression lending to thrash dancing and headbanging in spades, and its (generic) topical lyrics discussing depression and suicide, it meant soooooo much to my little ‘oh woe is me’ tenny brain.

2) The Cranberries – Daffodil Lament: This is another one of those bands where pretty much every song they had (that I knew about) did a lot for me. Now first of all, I totally dug the singer’s voice. Despite the fact that I thought some of her vocal gymnastics were silly, they were sort of soothing in a way. I liked their slower songs, and they almost worked like lullabies for me, helping me sleep when I was feeling like an insomniac from hell. Everything after this album (No Need To Argue), however,was too happy for me. The only newer song of The Cranberries that had any effect on me was ‘New New York.’

3) Metallica – Whiskey In The Jar: Not a whole lot to say about this song, other than that for some reason, it just really made me feel good. Being of Irish decent, hearing a popular band take an Irish pub song and popularize it as they did felt really good. Plus, I had no choice but to hear at least a half dozen Metallica songs a day on my local station. They really slobbered over them, like they were the only rock band out there anywhere.

4) The Goo Goo Dolls – Iris: This song was one of several which always managed to bring tears to my eyes. When listened to alone, or heard while watching ‘City Of Angels’, it always worked. Not sure why, but it always made me feel all whimsical and lonely and sad. It’s a very, very powerful song. Wasn’t the best song to listen to when you’re all sad and depressed to begin with, but hey, when you’re a mopey ass little kid, you don’t think logically about things. Especially when you just KNOW that everybody hates you, the world doesn’t understand you, and you’re all alone.

5) Matchbox Twenty – Real World: When ‘Iris’ messed me up, ‘Real World’ brought me back again. Its nonsensical and completely whimsical lyrics helped to tease my mood away from the dark side, and the uber-complex one note guitar solo blew my mind.

* When reading through this blog, you’ll notice that there are a number of recurring segments which I’ll revisit every so often, and one of them is ‘Five Songs’. The basic idea for this segment is simple. I take five songs, and describe what they’ve done to be relevant to me or my community or the scene, or whatever. For example, ‘Five Songs (That Make Me Angry)’ or ‘Five Songs (That Influenced My Music)’. I’ll probably make this one weekly segment, since it’s pretty easy to find relevance in songs, and people might or might not agree with me.

I’ve been playing and spectating and promoting in the Honolulu scene for a couple years now, and there are only a few bands that come to my mind when someone uses words like ‘brutal’ or ‘metal.’ Foremost among those bands is Before Fire.

Before Fire’s music is HEAVY. Heavy, and LOUD. It’s the kind of music that makes you want to jump in a pit and just fuck somebody up or knock over expensive PA gear. But despite the loudness of their music, underneath lies a bed of prog rock, almost math metal. Instead of some of the same tired old chorus/verse/chorus/verse/bridge song structures you see in most of the publicly lauded bands out there, their music comes off as a story, with a beginning, middle, and end. I generally don’t know what that story is, because the growls of their vocalist are so beefy that I can’t say as I have ever understood a single word he has ever said – but that doesn’t detract from the enjoyability of their performance.

There is one downside to having the pseudo complicated music – Before Fire has gone through a half dozen members since the first time I saw them play some time ago. Their vocalist has changed (the first vocalist they had became the singer for a hardcore band, then subbed for another metal act) to their current vox, their lead guitarist left to go to college, causing their bassist to have to move to guitar, they’ve gone through a few rhythm guitarists (also playing sans second guitar), and their bass was replaced with a four-banger when taken over by the new bassist. There have been temp drummers here and again, also. With all this change in the lineup, it always seems as though someone is having to learn or relearn something, and their syncopation can be off during a performance. While the vocalist tends to run away with the show anyhow, if your attention wanders to the other members, you can often glimpse their few downsides.

It helps when a band has members who are real people, not suffering from the ‘rock star’ attitude disorder, and these guys are quite possibly the most approachable metal band I have ever come across. Each of the members are friendly and are generally willing to talk with you after a set. Their vocalist is a player in the local promotions, and is one of the funniest guys I know – if you like submarine humor. Their lead guitarist (former bassist) and their bassist have been together since birth, and if anybody is going to come off as the antisocial one, it’d be the drummer. But then again, drummers are weird anyhow, so it’s not a big deal.

Every time I see these guys play, it seems like they’ve gotten just a smidge better than they were last time. Of course, the skill of the guitarist improves as time goes on – remember, he was a bassist before he was a guitarist. The low end seems to be a little stronger each time, and all members seem to add just a little more energy and excitement than they did the last time. This always translates well to the crowd, which is almost always the easiest way to tell whether a band is putting it all out there or not. On a good night, with the crowd really showing up in force, you can be sure that there is a mosh breaking faces somewhere in the crowd when Before Fire plays.

Before Fire currently consists of five members:

Lowell – Vocals: Lowell is a damned BEAST. He’s got a powerful voice that makes me think of a bear who’d gargled with porcupine piss and swallowed sandpaper before bellowing out his nightly lyrical blasts. And he has a cool beard. Of all the indy metals acts I’ve seen and played with, Lowell has some of the most expressive body language and energy among comparable vocalists. His stage presence is enormous.

It’s important to note that if you’re easily offended or even remotely homophobic, you should consider not listening to a word this guy says either on or off stage. If you are and do… well, you’ll have a shitty night.

In fact, I have only ever seen one vocalist with a better grasp of Death Metal vocals than him, as evidenced HERE.

Travis – Lead Guitar: The first thing to say about Travis is this – he has good hair. His guitar playing isn’t flawless, yet, but it improves with every performance. His stage presence is improving also, whereas once he was merely a statue with a guitar, now he’s a wacky inflatable arm flailing tube man with a guitar.

Sam – Rhythm Guitar: Not even sure if this guy’s still in the band. Saw him play with them once, then not again. Not a lot to say about this guy, except that he has an unhealthy obsession with Alexi Laiho.

Katelyn – Bass: Only thing to say about her is this: Katelyn is the sexiest bassist alive, and one of the sweetest chicks on the planet. And don’t let her try to fool you with the date on her drivers license, she’s only like 12 years old.

Erik – Drums: I don’t really say much about drummers. He hits shit with a stick.

8/10

GENRE – Death Metal
LABEL – None
TERRITORY – Honolulu, HI
WEBSITE: http://www.myspace.com/beforefireofficial

Before fire is a good act with a few obstacles to overcome before becoming great. Eight skullies out of ten.

—Individual member photos borrowed from Before Fire’s Myspace profile.

In that light, I’ve decided to compile a list of forums for musicians. This is not a comprehensive list, and I am not a member of all of them, but hey, they may come in handy for some of you.

GUITAR FORUMS:
1) Electric Guitar Forums – This is a British forum, with subforums for guitar, bass, drums, techniques, and other junk. It’s a boring generic baby blue, and judging by the front page, a little slow, with posts being few and far between.
2) Guitar Noise – This is another guitar forum that seems a little generic in its color scheme and layout. It, however, seems a lot more active than EGF. It has forums for all levels of skill, different types of guitars, and even a dedicated subforum for the grrl guitarist. There is also a section for opinions and polls and other things. At first glance, this seems like a pretty good forum.
3) Acoustic Guitar Forum – A forum dedicated to the acoustic side of things. It seems pretty busy, but it’s also pretty small. The site lacks a large assortment of subforums, though what it does have seems pretty general, allowing a wide range of subject matter to be discussed in its current forums.
4) Ultimate Guitar – UG is more than just a forum site, but its ancillary postings are irrelevant to this post. The forums are HUGE and VERY active. There are main sections for music, bands, and whatnot, before ever even touching on the instrument-specific subforums. I don’t personally care for this site, but you might find them right up your alley.
5) Guitar Forums – What this forum’s name lacks in creativity, it makes up for in style. Its layout reminds me of an Irish pub, and although its userbase is small, it seems active enough to be worth a look.
6) Sevenstring.org – This is a really nice site, chock full of good info, articles, and other content. The forums are ancillary, but half the guitar questions I’ve ever asked on google have led to threads in this forum. I am not a member, but I recommend it.

BASS FORUMS:
1) Talkbass – This is my favorite forum, honestly. I’m a member, and have been for a little under a year. It’s extremely active, and nine out of ten users are very friendly and helpful. The layout is easy to read, the ads are not really all that intrusive, and the organization of the forums is pretty intuitive. It has sections for the Contrabass and the Electric Bass Guitar, Sections where people can ask professional players, like Michael Mannring. It even has one very, very amusing off-topic section.
2) Bass Guitar Forum – This is actually more than just a forum site, the forums are ancillary to the main website, which contains articles, videos, and other content created by the members. While the main site looks interesting, if a little busy and cluttered, the forum looks pretty slow and small.
3) Bassdogs – This forum is pretty large, slightly convoluted, and moderately active. I didn’t really look too deeply into it, because the huge number of subforums made it too busy to read.
4) Sputnik Music – This is actually a subforum, but being that there weren’t a lot of dedicated bass forums, I added this one. This one has no subforums, no dedicated sections for anything, just one big gaggle of whatever people want to talk about.

DRUM FORUMS:
1) Drum And Bass Forum – This is the first drum forum I found, but really, I can’t say anything about it since when I found it, they were doing an database cleanup and were temporarily closed.
2) Drum Chat – This forum seems to have everything the aspiring drummer could ever need. Lesson videos, an interesting color scheme, real time shoutbox, tons of subforums, lots of members, and a pretty active community. Check this one out if you’re on the market for a new community to get involved in.
3) Drumforum.org – This is obviously a different forum than Drumchat, but everything I said about that one pretty much applies to this one too. It does seem a great deal more organized though. Check it out.
4) Drumdogs – This one seems to be the sister forum to Bassdogs. It pretty much has the same organization and generic forum look. It also has only moderate activity, but is organized pretty well with several decent subforums.
5) Drums.com – This forum claims to be the best drum forum in the world. I beg to differ – any forum that opens with a popup java advertisement and has such a generic layout is most certainly NOT the best forum in the world, in my opinion. The lack of any recent posts confirms my diagnosis, I think.

And last, but not least, is Musicians Forums, a site with forums and blogs and articles, and all sorts of delicious things to poor over. The only downside is the swath of advertising on their front page.

Like I said before, this is certainly not a comprehensive list, there are dozens of forums out there I didn’t even bother to look at, let alone join. My personal opinions on each forum are just that – personal opinions. I encourage each of you to check out the forums you like and join the ones that suit you best.