Ironic Nickname

So much to catch up still. Well, I did some! Beastie Boys: 6/10. Huh. Rap/rock/punk-ish music. Very different from what I'd usually listen to, but it has some good qualities. The Sword: 7/10. Some pretty nice hard rock (it is hard rock, right?). Gary Moore: 10/10. A classic. Gnaw Their Tongues: Subjective: 3/10. Objective: ?/10. ”That heavy metal music is just noise”. This is closer to ”just noise”, but I can still hear some musical qualities in this. This very much seems like an aquired taste, one that I have not aquired, so I don't like it. As for an objective score... Um, I don't really know which criteria I would use to judge it. Dance Gavin Dance: 4/10. The singer sounds whiny. This is like, happy punk music that tries to be energetic but fails? The drumming is not too bad, but the guitars are meh and the vocals are bad, and the atmosphere is weirdly happy, which doesn't really work for this song. Sabaton: 5/10. Metal balads rarely work, and this is no exception. A lot of what makes metal good is gone in many metal balads. This one is too simple, lacks power, and lacks energy. It might not be bad, but it's not really good either. Vintage Trouble: 6/10. It's okay, I suppose. Black Sabbath: 8/10. You can really feel the blues influences in this song. Sophia Anne Caruso: 6/10. The arrangement is good, although it's very focused on the vocals. The singer clearly has some skill, yet she sounds rather young... She has great potential, and in a few years I'd be interested in seeing her sing this song (or, well, hearing her). Overall, good song, but the singer is a bit too young (for now). Rainbow: 8/10. Dio! Good energy and overall enjoyable song. Hunchback of Notre Dame (Swedish): 8/10. The English version is better. Lucky Star the Trooper: 2/10. Sacrilege? Maybe. Bloodborne: 8/10. It's nice. Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: 4/10. It had potential but ended up being somewhat annoying. Dio: 8/10 or 9/10. Dio! 2CELLOS: 6/10. The ”Whole Lotta Love” rendition doesn't reall work. The Beethoven parts are pretty good though (though it lacks power, which is a shame, since it's his 5th Symphony, one of the most powerful pieces of classical music). Iron Maiden Banjo: 5/10. The banjo is ap retty cool instrument. Unfortunately, it doesn't really work for this cover. The flute (or whichever instrument that is) didn't work either.. Russkaja: 7/10 or 8/10. It's interesting. Lots of melodies, energy, folk, and ska influences. Steve'n'Seagulls: 6/10. Great song performed without much energy or power. It gets a bit better near the end. Rednex: 6/10. Disregarding the lyrics the actual music isn't too bad. The instrumental music is better than the singing. Touhou: 4/10. It's slightly annoying. Shame, since the original music it's based on is great. Death Devil Maddy Candy: 3/10. Sounds dirty, and not in a good way. Mediocre singing (and kind of whiny at times), guitars that mostly sound loud without adding too much energy or interesting melodies. Final Fantasy: Matoya's Cave: 6/10. Wow, that's a poor remix... The original is much better. This has a very ”midi” sound. Unfortunate. The original is a 9. Fire Emblem: 8/10. Not the best rendition of the music, but still really good. Bendy och Bläckmaskinen: 7/10. The piano is nice and overall the song is pretty fun. Demon's Souls: 8/10. Atmospheric and emotional. Lordi: Beast Loose In Paradise: 6/10. Generic Lordi song. Catchy, but not much else. Helloween: 7/10. It's pretty good. Lordi: Kita: 7/10. It's Lordi. Catchy, but not terribly varied, original, or technical. Nichijou: 4/10. It's kind of annoying. Seagulls: 5/10. Kind of repetitive, the singing isn't very good, and it almost gets annoying. Okay, that's enough for now. One final review: K-ON!: 4/10. I find it slightly annoying.

Time to catch up a bit! Bad Sounds: Subjective: 6/10. Objective: 7/10. This song is kind of amusing. The style doesn't appeal too much to me, so I doubt I'd really listen to it much, but I would be okay with listening to this. Gammar Ray: 7/10. It's good, but it doesn't really stand out too much. Sex Pistols: 4/10. I think they were trying to play and sing badly on purpose, so, good job? Foo Fighters: 5/10. It's kind of whiny and some of the vocals are nu-metally. There is some variation and qualities that makes me still give it a pass. Lordi: Scare Force One: 7/10 or 8/10. Bit heavier than I would expect from Lordi, and the cheese is tuned down a bit. Interesting. Some of the guitars are interesting too. Grim Reaper: 8/10. Nice old school heavy metal. A Plea For Purging: Song not available. Iron Maiden: 10/10. Amazing song. Kamelot: 6/10. It tries to be edgy and dark, but fails. Some of it is fairly original/non-standard, but it takes more than that to create a truly good song. One of their weaker songs, in my opinion. Undead Corporation: 6/10. The song would have been better if it had skipped the ”heavy” guitars and gon e for a more traditional sound. The singing is not too bad, and some of the folksy instruments are quite nice. Unfortunately, the mix between this and a heavier sound doesn't really work. The guitars, in particular, weaken the song. Hammerfall: 6/10 or 7/10. The verses are pretty nice, but overall it seems like a rather generic Hammerfall song. They've done similar songs before and better, and other bands have done a better job as well. The Philosopher Song: 5/10. The vocals leave a lot to be desired. Ataraxia: 8/10. It's quite nice. It probably works better as background music than for active listening, though. Time to take a break for now, so one final song (the latest one): Grave Digger: 7/10 or 8/10. Quite fun song, with a catchy chorus that avoids being overtly cheesy. There's some power behind this song, and the singing is good. Unfortunatelly, the bagpipes don't quite work. So... Old school melodic death metal, anyone?

So much catch up to do... I'll do some of it now. Racer X: 8/10. Nice stuff. Priestess: 7/10. I'm not a big fan of the chorus, but the rest of the song works fairly well. YOB: 6/10 or /10. It sounds... Kind of dirty, at times, and not in a good way. Some of the vocals remind me of Come Clarity-In Flames, which (in my opinion) is not a good thing. At times it reminds me of nu-metal too (although it's not actually nu-metal). I'm not a super-fan of it, but it does have some merits, especially if you're in the mood for some darker and more atmospheric stuff. The end guitars are quite nice. Testament: Live 6/10, original 8/10. The song has good energy and works well as a thrash metal song, but the live version leaves much to be desired, like many live versions of metal songs do (for some reason). The recording quality is probably a big factor (this was recorded from a phone, wasn't it?). Siamés: 5/10. Easy-to-digest pop music. Not bad, but still oversimplified without really making up for it in other ways. Generic. Gallowbraid: 8/10. Sounds evil, dark, and atmospheric, but also fairly melodic. I'd imagine black metal purists would hate this for being ”commercial” and ”pop music”. I like it. Exodus: 7/10. Some pretty good, but not great, thrash metal. Sigur Rós: 7/10. Some parts of it are super nice and quite emotional and beautiful. Some parts are slow and boring. This makes it hard to rate. Some parts are pretty much 5/10 or 6/10, while others are 9/10 or 10/10. The low sound quality brings the score down a bit (this isn't black metal). As a whole, the song is enjoyable, although some parts are significantly better than other parts. The Sword: 7/10. So... Do they want to sound tough or like The Beatles? The voices don't quite fit the music, unfortunately. Still, the instrumental music is some nice hard rock music, even if the vocals don't quite fit. Judas Priest: 8/10. Judas Priest is a band that, in my opinion, made one amazingly awesome album (Painkiller) and then a bunch of good and great albums (and a few bad and mediocre albums). Defenders of the Faith falls under ”great”, in my opinion, and so does this song. With that being said, I prefer every single song on Painkiller over this one (aside from maybe Battle Hymn, which is more like an intro). Lordi: 7/10. Some more really catchy and cheesy heavy metal/power metal-inspired hard rock. It's fun, though not all that deep or complex. Perhaps a bit too pop-influenced for it's own good. Strengths: Good singer, super-catchy chorus. Weaknesses: Guitars and drums aren't super-impressive (though they're not bad). Accept: 8/10 or 9/10. Heavy, powerful, good instrumentation. Jojo's: 6/10. The song had potential until the guy started singing. K-on: 6/10. If you can get past the vocals the song is pretty good. I don't think I can get past the vocals though. Wagakki Band: 6/10. Would've been good with better vocals. Okay, and the last one for now will be the latest song, as per the rules. Bruce Dickinson: 7/10. Good stuff, though the singing seems stronger than the instruments. And now, it's time... For some rag time!

War From a Harlots Mouth: 6/10. Not bad. The drumming is kind of interesting, although it feels somewhat unsatisfying overall. Jason Becker: 8/10 or 9/10. For some reason, I get a ”Lion King”-ish vibe. The guitar is really nice, and the other instruments help create an interesting atmosphere. Really nice music overall. Yngwie J. Malmsteen: 7/10. The guitar is nice, though the other instruments are lacking. Be'lakor: 8/10. The song creates a fairly dark atmosphere without being depressing, and it's overall a really good song. The Heavy: 6/10. Nice groove, but it gets repetitive after a while. Gamma Ray: 8/10. Fun. Van Halen: 7/10. It's nice. Dio: 8/10. Great stuff. Super Mario World: Athletic (Vector U Remix): 6/10 or 7/10. The original was awesome. This is a step down, which annoys me. Still, it does make use of the original melody, so I do enjoy parts of it... Iron Maiden: 10/10. Didn't I post this already? In fact, it was the very first song I posted. Such an underrated song (well, as far as Iron Maiden songs can be underrated, I suppose). Bendy: 6/10. Bit repetitive. Black Sabbath: 8/10. Dio is still a great singer. The English Beat: 6/10 or 7/10. Reminds me of ”Under the Sea”. Happy and all, probably works better as background music than primary music. Across the Universe: 7/10. Super-catchy, kind of like some sweet candy. Too much is probably bad for you, but it's kind of fun in small doses. Dio – We Rock: 9/10. Dio sure rocked. Metal Squad: 8/10 or 9/10. Instrumental metal is underused. Edit: I suppose I should review the latest song now rather than later. So, Breakfast Burrito: 2/10. It gets annoying really quickly, and it didn't get better the second time I listened to it. I'd swap radio channels if this were on. It's also lacking in instruments. I didn't find the humor very funny either. I'll catch up with the rest later. Now, let's go with a cover of an Iron Maiden song:

Thoughts on scores: 10/10: S/A+ (Above and beyond the best grade!) 9/10: A (Best grade, awesome!) 8/10: B (Now we're talking!) 7/10: C (Pretty good grade, but not exactly outstanding.) 6/10: D (Still not a good grade, but not exactly bad either.) 5/10: E (Barely pass, not exactly a good grade but it's a pass still.) Anything lower: F (Didn't pass, should really try to improve). Time to catch up, this might take a while. Sleep: 7/10. Nice groove, decent vocals (though I'm not a fan, feels like Black Sabbath-lite). Accept: 8/10. Nice guitars. Suicidal Tencencies: 8/10. Punk music with clear trash metal influence, without being whiny. Savage Circus: 9/10. I should check out that band! Nice synergy between the drums and guitars, somewhat heavy power metal while still being fairly catchy, nice chorus, and I quite like the singer's voice (sounds a lot like Hansi Kürsch from Blind Guardian). Dozer: 8/10. Feels very old school while still having a good audio quality. Hammerfall: 8/10. Ham on cheese. Nice drumming, and the guitars work fine. I'm not a super fan of Cans' singing personally, but that might be subjective. Catchy chorus. God Macabre: 8/10. Nice variety, good level of technical skill, good synergy between the instruments. Overall, a good death metal song. Annihilator: 5/10. The guitar solo is pretty awesome, and the guitars aren't bad overall. The verses are a bit slow and I dislike the chorus, though (makes me think of nu-metal/rap metal). Vinesauce Joel: 7/10. Disregarding the lyrics and that awful ”clean” singing, the song is pretty good. Yohioloid: 7/10. Interesting. It gets a bit repetitive at times though. Iron Maiden: Still Life: 8/10. Piece of Mind is an awesome album, and this song has a lot going for it as well. With that being said, I personally would settle for 8/10 rather than 9/10. The guitar solo is awesome, but the rest of the song ranges from good to great, giving it an overall score of ”Great”. Probably one of the ”weaker” songs on the album, but it's still great. I'm skipping the anime stuff since I find it hard to rate it somewhat objectively since I dislike the vocals too much. Iron Maiden: Moon Child: 9/10. At this point I don't really think there's much need to motivate why Iron Maiden made some really awesome songs. Dead Girl Walking: 8/10. I quite like this. Kind of like a musical with some rock flavor from the singing. Black Sabbath: Electric Funeral: 8/10. Black Sabbath really knew how to create a groovy sound sometimes. Imagine Dragons: 6/10. They're balancing on the line between ”enjoyable” and ”over the top alternative-rock yelling for no good reason”. The song has a lot of merit, though it also has a lot of issues. Still, if it played on the radio I'd probably not switch channel. The guitar solo is nice. Metallica: 6/10. Mediocre drumming, lack of tempo and energy. Not one of their best songs. Pokémon: Subjective: Objective: ?. Helloween: Lost in America: 7/10 or 8/10. Fun power metal, catchy chorus, but does it have enough depth for 8/10? Time will tell, I suppose. Judas Priest: 10/10. One of their best songs, and one of the best traditional heavy metal songs of all time (in my opinion). Asia: 7/10. At first, I wasn't a big fan, but it grew on me on relistenings. It's kind of whacky, but chill and retro at the same time. Hoth: 9/10. Bit surprised how catchy it ended up being, I expected something more like atmospheric black metal or dark folky melodic death metal. Still, nothing wrong with happy music, and the intro is superb. It's super catchy too. The string instrument (violin?) is subtle but adds to the atmosphere. The music manages to sound happy and cold at the same time. Helloween: The Saints: 8/10. Catchy power metal is... not hard to come by, at all. Still, this song is a lot of fun. Rick and Morty: 7/10. The Morty impression is really good! Rick and Morty is an amazing show too. Kiss: 8/10. This song is a lot of fun. Hammer Horde: 8/10. I'm not personally a fan of genre names based mostly on lyrics (like viking metal and pirate metal). I guess I'd call that Melodic Death Metal and probably Folk Metal as well. Anyway, very catchy and enjoyable. Black Sabbath: 8/10. Dio was such an amazing singer.

Remember George W. Bush? Back then, Anti-Americanism was quite common. Obama's win changed that, and he certainly made the US look better, from an international point of view. Then Donald Trump was elected (and he didn't even get a majority/plurality of the votes). The US is not the worst country in the world, or even bottom 50. It's a first world country, however, and thus is held by higher standards by most. Unfortunately, the US doesn't quite live up to those standards in many cases. The US has significantly flawed environmental policies, causes a lot of wars (including the Iraq war, which Europe had to pay a lot for), only 22nd best in gender equality (which is pretty good, but not good enough to be "The Best Country in the World"), lots of annoying patriotism (you'd think a country like Norway or the Netherlands or Canada would be patriotic, since they legitimately live in some of the best countries in the world, yet they seem to be less patriotic on average compared to the US). Oh, and for some reason conspiracy theories seem more popular in the US (such as anti-vaccination), and belief in science is weaker than most first world countries (See this picture: ) People are also annoyed that the US was a huge factor in the large immigration crisis in Europe and the Middle East, but is barely willing to do anything to help at all. Talks about allowing 10,000 immigrants seem pathetic. Taking responsibility for ones action is a core value for many people, yet the US isn't doing that when it comes to things like war they've caused, or environmental damages it has caused (if you break it, you should pay for it). Does this mean Anti-Americanism is directed towards Americans? Eh, not necessarily. I imagine most people are more concerned with what the US government does than Americans in general. And, after all, different Americans act differently. We can hardly blame environmentally conscious hippies for wars and environmental damages or attitudes towards immigration, for instance.

Trelleborg: 6/10. It has a lot of potential. Nice and varied melodies and overall positive feel. Unfortunately, the singing doesn't work that well, and it would've benefitted from a bit more heaviness in the guitars. Paramore: Subjective: 5/10. Objective: 6/10. The song has several strong points. The drumming is not nearly as generic as it could've been, the song has an overall happy feel, and the singing is decent enough. Personally, the chorus is a bit too cheesy for me, which significantly lowers my enjoyment of the song. Still, the song is decent enough. I would probably be okay with hearing that on the radio. Some of you may wonder "Was Death always a technical death metal band?". The answer is "No". Their first three albums were death metal, not technical death metal. In fact, Death's first album, "Scream Bloody Gore", was, perhaps, the first death metal album ever. Here's a song from their second album:

7/10. Hmm. Interesting. First off, I haven't really explored Djent, at all (more than having some basic knowledge of what the term means). This songs have aspects that I like and aspects that I dislike. The good stuff: The guitars are nice, there is variety, and the drumming is good too. Bad stuff: The singer. Sounds whiny (nearly alt-metal/melodic metalcore levels) to me. With a different singer this could've been 8/10. Let's go with some old school rock music.

4/10. Generic, oversimplified guitars, fairly repetitive drumming, whiny singing. Green Day meets Linkin Park? I could see why some people would like it. Old school melodic death metal:

Manowar: 8/10. Good energy, good vocals. It could've been a 9/10 if the drums and/or guitars were more impressive. The vocals are interesting, it's almost death metal levels of violence. Rancid: Subjective: 7/10. Objective: 8/10. Seems more complex than punk rock usually is. Good energy, though punk rock is far from my favorite genre, so I decided to give it a subjective and objective score. One of the better punk rock songs I've heard though. Cauldron: 7/10. For some reason, the singer seems really... Indifferent. The rest of the song is pretty good though. SNFU: Subjective: 7/10. Objective: 8/10. Hardcore punk, seems like an acquired taste, a taste I personally haven't yet quite acquired. Still, this, too, is a bit more complex from what I would expect from punk. Iced Earth: 8/10. The early part is nice enough, but a bit slow without the music making up for it. The metal parts are pretty good, but not awesome. The chorus is very catchy (and reminds me of Blind Guardian). Satan: 7/10 or 8/10. When I saw the band name I was expecting black metal, not speed/trash metal. It's fun though. There's been a lot of metal and punk lately, eh? Let's go with some soothing music from the 70s... 1874, to be exact.

9/10. Beautiful acoustic guitars, soft drumming that adds to the atmosphere, and overall a very soothing and pleasant atmosphere. The soft singing fits the song, too.

8/10. Great stuff, though not quite at the same level as some of their other stuff. Danish folk music!

9/10 or 10/10. Technical death metal time!

8/10. Good stuff. Some melodic death metal (back when they still played metal music):

Subjective: 6/10. Objective: 8/10. Unfortunately, I do not like that vocal style, which significantly lowers my enjoyment of the song. The guitars are quite nice and blends well with the drumming. Perhaps my score would increase if I listened to it more, but for now I'll leave it at this. Time for some mood whiplash! Massive cheese and overtly "goodness".

To be fair, that's not the easiest piece of technical death metal to enjoy. I imagine it's very much an acquired taste, one would probably have to listen to and enjoy easier types of death metal (such as technical death metal that's more "beginner friendly" than Cryptosy, or beginner friendly melodic death metal, like the album "Claymore" by In Flames. I think some things to focus on in the Cryoptosy song is how the drumming interacts with the guitars, and how often the guitars change. Also, the speed and the energy are two of the strong parts of the song. The vocals are fairly secondary. Billy Joel: 8/10. Clean and solid singing, happy piano, overall pleasant song. Lindsey Stirling: 8/10. The violin is such an underappreciated (and underused) instrument. I prefer her instrumental music though. The vocals are pretty good though, bit more powerful than generic pop vocals. Let's go with some more violin music. Let's say... Vivaldi's Winter from Four Seasons 1: Allegro non molto.

6/10. The violins are cool, but the guitars are oversimplified and generic nu-metal/alternate metal and the vocals are too much like Linkin Park. The piano part is nice though. Anyone who understands these vocals without spending a lot of time deciphering them or reading a lyric sheet is pretty amazing at understanding death metal vocals.

8/10. Sounds more like rock than metal to me. Progressive rock, I guess? Still a lot of fun to listen to. Guess I should check out Dream Theater, perhaps. Here's a band that's not very well-known. Melodic death metal with emphasis on "melodic", at times near classical/symphonic levels.

Hoth: 8/10. The song is overall very good and it does have quite a bit of variety. Unfortunately, some segments repeat for too long. The song would've been better off if it were a bit shorter. Helloween: 8/10. Fun times. Gremlins: 7/10. Fun song, but it gets a bit repetitive after a while, which drops it from 8/10 to 7/10. Demons & Wizards: 8/10. Fun times. Techno Dream Trance: 7/10. It could've been an 8/10, but I found the ”beat” annoying and the melody slightly repetitive at times. Still, the base melody was catchy and the song was fun to listen to. Dio: 9/10. Dio really had an amazing singing voice, didn't he?