Derdian

Happy Halloween you guys, hope it's a great one :D

I recieved a friend invite on YouTube from a Symphonic Metal band from Italy today, I approved of course since I'm always looking for new bands to listen to. Anyways listening to their song Battleplan sounded like Manowar clashing with Sonata Arctica....it was very 80s metal with a hint of symphonicness and I liked that very very much. Right now having listened to their ballad Forevermore, which I am so so touched by with a piano/guitar solo also vocalists Joe and Elisa Lisy Stefanoni duetting just bought a tear to my eye :') That's enough evidence to me that this band are also very versitile with their music, their songs don't sound the same and I love bands who can be versatile.

For fans of Sonata Arctica, Manowar and Rhapsody of Fire

The link to their YouTube page is below

 http://www.youtube.com/user/derdianmetal#p/a/u/1/JiIncWMC1IU

Dead By Dawn

Today I recieved a MySpace invite from Dave Cook, the vocalist for an unsigned alternative metal band from Bournemouth called Dead By Dawn, looking for fans in the local area. Despite only having listened to only a couple of songs by them, hopefully I'll get to listen to more, I reckon they could be supporting bands like Killswitch Engage, Machine Head etc. soon. I'm not too familiar with those bands but I'm sure friends of mine who are into that kind of metal will give them a listen :)

For fans of: Machine Head, Lamb of God and Killswitch Engage :)

http://www.myspace.com/deadbydawnband

That time of year again

Well guys, it's that time of year so that means deciding what song you want to see as Christmas Number 1, I personally try not to get mixed up in this business but sometimes you just can't help getting involved to make sure your favourite song goes to number one before Christmas Day. At the moment the popular nominee at the moment is The Bird is the Word by The Trashmen, the original 1960s hit which was recently made famous by Peter Griffin from Family Guy as he sings the song throughout one episode then a slower more romantic version of the same song appears again in Family Guy. It already has it's own Facebook group which you can join, more and more people have been trying to knock X Factor off the top spot since for the past few recent years it has always been an X Factor contestant at Christmas number 1. 

Last year broke the chain of X Factor victories seeing Rage Against The Machine's Killing In The Name as Christmas number 1, my younger sister and I had a gut feeling this would be number one; it happened in dream my sister had and I felt it because it was the thing that would cause an uproar in the Media since it's not your 'conventional' number, I didn't care what was number one as long as it wasn't X Factor :P

It would be very very amusing to see The Bird Is The Word at Christmas Number one since so many of us love the show Family Guy and I think there will be heated competition between that and X Factor :)

Sabaton

This post is all about Swedish power metal heads Sabaton, I found the name of this band from the Poets of the Fall forum and thought about giving them a listen since I love Scandinavian power metal. The first few bars of the song Masters of The World sounded exactly like a classic Manowar hit from the 80s and it had me hooked, the lead vocalist sounds exactly like Mr Lordi. I loved that. This music also had a Final Fanstasy vibe behind it, I like those kind of bands where you can just imagine in your head what could be going on and imagine some sort of story line. I need this kind of influence for my Writing Fiction workshop, I am to come up with a story for a short film. Sabaton may be a great influence :)

Download : Master of The World, Ghost Division and Purple Heart

Phoenix Effect

I found a link to this band's MySpace page on the Poets of the Fall official forum and I am highly impressed. I like their smooth guitar riffs and unique vocal style in the songs. Also seeing this band are from Finland is an added bonus; I absoulutely adore music from Finland, it's a breeding ground for rock and metal bands. Nightwish, HIM, Lordi, Poets of the Fall and now these guys.....Finland definately deserve the positive rock and metal reputation it has.

Open mic nights are absoulutely wicked

Hey peeps, hows things? Last night I went to an open mic night for the first time, so far any gig like event has been mental and brutal...well with the mosh pits and all. Anyways I entered The Orange Rooms in Southampton to meet some friends and well, I love the fact you could just chill out and relax on big comfy sofas rather than being forced to dance because of the drum 'n' bass blaring out the speakers or getting beaten up in a mosh pit to a thrash metal band playing.

Once the musicians were kitted up and sound checked the night was well underway with up coming musicians playing acoustic covers of well known songs such as Naive - The Kooks, ABC -The Jackson 5 and even Pendulum. I imagined doing an acoustic cover of Propane Nightmares would be virtually impossible but last night I was proved wrong; these musicians pulled it off very well. I even liked an acoustic cover of Justin Bieber's song and usually I can't stand Justin Bieber.......I still don't like him but then acoustic cover of his song I did like :P

Overall, a chilled out evening it was the very thing I needed, just chilling out with my friends as the sweet acoustic music played in the background.

Some seriously awesome dude

I was doing my usual browsing on YouTube and was listening to a new favourite band Poets of the Fall; I clicked on the video of a guy covering my favourtie POTF song Lift, I was blown away. His piano skills were enough to upstage Finnish muscial genius Tuomas Holopainen from Nightwish and his voice sounded exactly like the POTF's lead singer.

Here's a link to the video :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qnPVoguhOYs

Here's the link to his YouTube channel, he's got some seriously awesome covers here. I'm listening to his piano cover of Micheal Jackson's Beat It and it's awesome :D 

http://www.youtube.com/user/Karabuja25 

Montage Populaire @ The Unit; Southampton 21/10/10

Yesterday after an tiring but great climbing session I headed next door to The Unit as I knew a band will be playing there. I had never been to The Unit before so as I am entering new venues I'm often apprehensive and a little nervous, especially when you're there on your own. As the band were performing sound checks, I looked around at this student friendly venue; friendly staff, a lively upbeat atmosphere everything you could want in for a night life venue in a student community.

When the band started to play I was highly impressed with their unique sound, keeping up Southampton's great reputation of young fresh bands that is has offered so many times in the past in the form of bands such as Statement Code, TenFourAndOut! and The Light Divided. I had huge respect for this band in front of me last night with their catchy riffs and choruses in every one of their songs, particularly for the keyboard player who could play the trumpet at the same time....that's what I call multi-tasking :) I love rock bands that use instruments that aren't considered 'rock' instruments such as violin, trumpet and saxophone. This bought the biggest grin on my face, I hope to see more of these guys in the future :D

Roc Party 18/10/10

Entering The Cube in Southampton last night was a whole new experience for me last night, I can honestly say it was pretty darn good and also student friendly...well it was on the University of Southampton's campus so it had to be :P Anyways this was a different kind of party, instead of cheesy disco music or drum 'n' bass blaring out the speakers you had the likes of anything from Black Sabbath to Slipknot, from this I knew it was going to be a great night. 

Next door the first band This Manhattan were due to play, after being enticed in by Comedy Soc, the band were well underway. I liked their bouncy punk pop Green Day like sound and played an enjoyable set, despite the lead singer being tired and all being it was Monday. They also kept up Southampton's great music reputation.

Birmingham rockers Gundogs were next to play, I could tell they were quite popular amongst the people there that night since the cheers got loud as they started to play and the room was getting full of rockers. They definately deserved the positive reception they got that evening, both girls were talented singers, guitarists and songwriters. I shall look forward to seeing them again very soon :D I saw a lot of long glossy hair waving in the air that would make Pantene proud

Babeshadow bought a more relaxed vibe to the mental tone of the evening with their mellow, chilled out, funky melodys.

Jettblack - Get Your Hands Dirty

I came across this band when I found they are to be the main support band for Dear Superstar at The Joiners in December so I thought I'd check out this band. I'm glad I did, at the moment I'm really into bands that are influenced by 80s rock giants so I was blown away by this band. The signiture songs Get Your Hands Dirty and Two Hot Girls have all the elements of a class 80s rock song, catchy riffs, choruses that you can sing a long to, husky male vocals and the most crucial element........(drum roll).............ENERGY. There are even strong elements of a powerful 80s ballad on songs Not Even Love and War Between Us with strong heartfelt lyrics, soft guitar melodies and powerful vocal work. Strongly recommended for fans of New Device, Dear Superstar, Heaven's Basements and 80s rock giants such Bon Jovi, Guns 'N' Roses etc.

Stand out tracks:  Get Your Hands Dirty, Two Hot Girls and Chasing Love 

The Light Divided - Who We Are EP

This band supported New Device on their southern tour recently and I loved their performance. When I heard they were from Southampton that explained a lot of things, Southampton is well known for their reputation for good young fresh rock bands and these guys keep this reputation up. I was excited when I recieved their EP and was not dissapointed, their catchy melodys and riffs kept my ears pricked at all times. I also loved Dave Whiteman's clear vocals throughout, sounding like Ian Watkins duetting with Patrick Stump. I'll shall be seeing these guys live at one of my favourite music venues The Joiners which I can't wait for

Invisible Idols

A very good friend of mine sent me a link to a band's Facebook page so I thought I'd go check it out, I read that their influences were bands such as Whitesnake, AC/DC etc. Alot of brilliant inflences, I found their MySpace page where I could listen to their songs and I was blown away. They sounded very much like Whitesnake jamming with Van Halen, I recommend this band to fans of New Device, Heaven's Basement, Dear Superstar and all the stadium rock giants such as Guns 'N' Roses, Aerosmith, Whitesnake etc

Here's the link to their MySpace page incase you're interested

http://www.myspace.com/invisibleidols

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The Wind Up Birds - Courage, For Tomorrow Will Be Worse EP

Being part of the radio team at my university, one of my jobs is to review new EPs that will be released in a couple of months time so this is my first one. I started to listen, I liked the bounciness of the guitar riff but for me the punkish vocals didn't work. I have to say I liked the lyrics in each and every one of the songs. I noticed very strong views against society and that's what punk rock was all about back in the day.....rebelling against society. Eventhough this EP wasn't my cup of tea, I think this is evidence that punk rock will be making a come back anytime soon.

In Darklight @ The Hobbit; Southampton 8/10/10

Yesterday I went to The Hobbit, somewhere I had never been before until yesterday, I can honestly say I loved the warm lively atmosphere of the venue.....I'm a Southampton Solent student so I'm interested in getting to know all the student friendly pubs and music venues in Southampton since I love gigs.

Anyway after a 15 min wait for a drink, the queue at the bar was manic, I headed downstairs to where the band were playing that evening. This was my third time seeing them and I was waiting paitiently as they were doing sound checks before they started.

Once they had done soundcheck In Darklight were well under way beginning with a very studio like performance of In Control (Of Not Being In Control) only a bit louder giving off the fresh indie rock band vibe with indie boy vocals and catchy guitar riffs that you could be humming all day long. Along with ones off their debut album Dying To Confess (which is avaliable to download or buy now) they performed some new ones of their upcoming album, some of which I recognised from previous gigs. Particulalrly one song (I think it was Quickfire) where lead vocalist Ben Sellers got the audience to sing back, which I unfortunately couldn't due to a bad throat. I got particularly excited when they performed my personal favourite What's Happening?, the opening track of the album. 



The guys also signed my album which I was very pleased with and well let's just say it has a special place in my bedroom :D

Overall the guys performed a great show and I'm hoping to see them again soon......maybe at Reading Festival who knows?

New Device @ The Edge of the Wedge, Portsmouth 15/9/10

This is my first gig review, I want to be a music journalist when I'm older so I writing these for practise. Any hints and tips will be great  

Energy, passion and perfection are THE three words that sum up a mind blowingly awesome performance from every single band that performed tonight. Particularly headliners New Device who recently supported Bon Jovi on their 20 day residency tour at The 02 Arena, London to 23,000 people. 

The night kicked off with Bournemouth rockers MG and the Juggernaut, I personally really enjoyed their performance with Led Zeppelin like guitar solos, the bounciness in their songs and clear vocals from the boys. Their unique approach to music also got my attention, can definitely see a bright future for these guys.

Next up to play were local boys Toxic Shock playing their debut gig. They did a wonderful job getting the crowd hyped up with their energetic and passionate performance, they definitely deserved the positive reception they got that evening and did very well at their first gig.

Southampton rockers The Light Divided were the last support band to play an enjoyable set. I have seen some talented upcoming bands from Southampton such as Statement Code, TenFourAndOut! and Chromatones, these guys kept up Southampton’s great music reputation with bouncy songs that made you want to dance and head bang.

Last but not least, New Device. I’d seen them once before in Southampton and I thought they were so good that I’d come see them again at another local venue in Portsmouth. They kicked off with the ever energetic songs Make My Day, Never Say Never and On Fire, which definitely warmed up the crowd for some good old classic rock. The tone of evening smoothly transformed into a calmer atmosphere with the power ballad In the Fading Light, I find this is a great song to chill out too and it makes you smile at the same time, those are the key elements for a great classic rock ballad. Their new single Seven Nights, Seven Bodies was played to perfection with its catchy chorus and the fans singing back, I had recently seen a preview of the video and liked what I saw so I was looking forward to this song being played. It was nice surprise to see that they performed You’ve Got It Coming, which they had never done before, so I was very excited since it is my personal favourite on the album and I loved dancing to it live as well as in my bedroom. Finishing with show stopper and crowd pleaser Takin Over which describes the band perfectly...they are definitely Takin Over, I can definitely see these guys headlining a stadium concert at The 02 Arena or a big festival such as Sonisphere in a few years time since for every single song they showed so much passion and energy, which I personally really admire. After the show I watched and smiled as they were more than happy to sign things from tickets to t-shirts, pose for photos and talk to fans, I spent quite a bit of time with them too and can honestly say they are the nicest, most down to earth guys you could ever meet. I am so so glad I came to see them again this year; their performance blew me away once again and I look forward to seeing them soon.