25 Days of Metal Day 2: Single of the Year Nominations #2: Sabaton - "Resist and Bite"

Rating: 8/10 And we run with a lonely heart And we run for this killing love This song was one of the songs off this album that immediately caught my attention when I first heard this album, the guitar riff playing throughout this song is so amazing. As with all Sabaton songs, this song is about a historical person, group, or battle. This one is about NChasseurs Ardennais, a battalion that fought at the Battle of Belgium in World War II.

25 Days of Metal Day 1: Single of the Year Nominations #1: Within Temptation - "And We Run" ft. Xzibit

Rating: 8/10 And we run with a lonely heart And we run for this killing love I'm back with 25 days of metal counting down to Christmas and doing awards in five categories. Best single, best non-single track, best music video, best album, and finally best song. The first 16 days I will announce and review the my four nominations for the first four categories, days 21-24 I will announce the winners for the first four categories, the 17th to the 20th I will announce the winners for those categories and on the last five days I will count down my top 5 songs of the year. I will keep the scores hidden for these songs until I announce the winners so I don't spoil the results early. Enjoy 25 days of NOTHING BUT METAL!!! Anyways, on to the review. The singles for this album are a bit awkward since half of them were released before the album at the end of 2013, and the other half were released after the album in 2014, of the 2014 singles, musically this one is my favorite. The contrast between Within Temptation's vocalist Sharon den Adel and American rapper Xzibit make a unique symphonic metal track that I find amazing.

Download Festival - Friday: June 13, 2014

Back in June this year, I went to Download Festival (one of the largest and best rock/metal festivals in the U.K.) as my graduation present. And I thought I might do a review of my experience by day, with some of my favorite performances*. I know it was months ago, but I'm slow at getting things done.
*full lineup.
On Friday of the festival I looked around at the different stages and was at the main stage for Black Label Society, Within Temptation, Rob Zombie, and Avenged Sevenfold.

Within Temptation

This is the first band I really knew before attending and so obviously one that would peak my interest. They were the second to last band on the main stage before the headliner, and played set that lasted around an hour. I only knew one song by this Dutch metal band, but after seeing them, I would really like to get to know them better. While vocalist, Sharon den Adel did not have quite as much energy as the frontmen of some of my favorite live acts, she did have a powerful voice, which is definitely something to appreciate from a female in rock. The song "Our Solemn Hour" was one that stayed in my mind long after the show (probably has something to the Latin chant). It's a really neat symphonic metal track off the band's fourth album The Heart of Everything, and has a full, steady beat.

The main stage headliner the first night was American metal band A7X who are not new to this blog. Now, I am not usually the one to review their stuff, but I have enjoyed listening to them since even before the festival. I was quite excited to see this group, and I was not disappointed. The played a set that lasted about two hours (including the encore) that was full of fire (literally) and heavy metal. Their new drummer (RIP the Rev) Arin Ilejay did a pretty darn good job, even with the old songs' complicated and epic beats. Synyster Gates had some beautiful guitar solos that night, along with his song "So Far Away" that vocalist M. Shadows dedicated to their fallen bandmate and friend. The songs I have here are the first single and title song of their newest album Hail to the King (one I think encompasses the album pretty well), as well as "This Means War" also from that album (this song was stuck in my head for days after). Their sixth studio release came out August 2013, and was the first with Ilejay on the drums. Although he is capable of tougher beats, the band wanted to strip down music some, but it still sounds fantastically epic.

Avenged Sevenfold

Man with a Mission ft. Takuma - "Database"

Rating: 8/10 With the second season beginning and keeping this epic OP I thought now would be a good time to post this song. Log Horizon is one of my favorite anime and this song is certainly part of the reason why. An interesting rock song combining some hip-hop elements along with combining English and Japanese makes a really interesting song and I love it. Interestingly the OP version has different singing that the full version. Also unfortunately the normal version of the second OP version isn't on youtube so I included the preview for it which is still excellent. Hype song, hype anime, looking forward to the rest of Log Horizon and this song every week.

Nightwish - "The Kinslayer"

Rating: 7/10 This is one of my favorite examples of classic Nightwish from Wishmaster which was their heaviest album, this a great example of that style with the power metalesque instrumentation but given the symphonic twist with the keyboard and Tarja's vocals. A really interesting example, quite possibly the song that best exemplifies symphonic power metal as a genre. This is definitely one a song that I didn't like as much when I first heard it but it has grown on me a lot over time.

Mom's All Star Spaghetti (Smash Mouth x Eminem)

Rating: 8/10 This mashup is one of the strangest things I have ever, but I love it! Eminem with the beat of All Star by Smash Mouth with spaghetti thrown in very cleverly to completely change the meaning of the original song. A really hilarious concept executed excellently, probably my favorite mashup. Anyways, after today, back to normal songs, which probably means more drop the vocaloid unless anyone else decides to post since that is what I've been listing to recently.

Slamifinal Episode (Quad City DJs x Pokemon Colosseum x Snoop Dogg)

Rating: 8/10 I did a post on the original song from Pokemon colosseum and it just so happens we have it here again in my favorite space jam remix! Not only does this mashup manage to mash up three very different songs, it does so extremely well and seamlessly. Quite excellent. Makes sure to come back tomorrow for the finale of my week of mashups!

Weed Circulation (Monogatari Series x Snoop Dogg)

Rating: 8/10 Whoops, I appear to have been caught up in a temporal paradox, and missed posting for a week, well mashup week resumes now. This song is what when you take one of the best anime OPs of all time and add Snoop Dogg. It's surprisingly good and the surprisingly high quality video really makes this mashup come together for me. I was originally going to save this mashup for April 20th, but since I'm doing a week of mashups, here it is now. Also before I go, have a bonus Renai Circulation mashup that I'm also quite fond of.

Slam of the North Star (Fist of the North Star x Quad City DJs)

Rating: 8/10 As I said yesterday, I've been to a lot of interesting parts of the internet, another one of my favorites is dedicated to mashing up various songs with quite possibly the dumbest song I have ever listened to. The theme song for 1996 movie Space Jam. This song has become somewhat of a meme inspiring many mashups and the indie RPG Barkley, Shut Up & Jam: Gaiden. This particular mashup is one of my personal favorites mashing up the Space Jam with the OP for the anime Fist of the North Star. If you look around, you can probably find this song mashed up with just about anything. If you thought this was weird, the next three days will be my top 3 weirdest mashups that are actually good, look forward to it!

Not a Train (Eminem x Thomas the Tank Engine)

Rating: 6/10 I've been to a lot of interested parts of the internet, but quite possibly the weirdest one I have run into is a community dedicated to mashing up rap songs with the Thomas the Tank engine theme, and surprisingly it actually works really well. Not much else to say, just this is a thing that exists, and there is plenty more if you look around.

Thunder Busters (AC/DC x Ghostbusters)

Rating: 7/10 Waxaudio is one of biggest rock/metal mashup artist that I know of, some of his stuff is really interesting and this is definitely one of those. It works surprisingly well and if you like this I would highly recommend checking out some of his other stuff on his youtube channel, soundcloud stream, and his website.

In the Darkness (Fall Out Boy x Imagine Dragons)

Rating: 8/10 Starting of my week of mashups, probably my favorite mashup of normal music, My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark by Fall Out Boy mashed up with Radioactive by Imagine Dragons. It probably helps that I already love both of these songs, but they fit excellently and the mashup artist did a great job putting this together. Just a fair warning, this is as normal as it's going to get, each song this week will be weirder and weirder until we get to some, admittedly hilarious, but weird stuff.

GUMI - "The Trooper" (Iron Maider cover)

Rating: 8/10 We hurdle bodies that lay on the ground, and the Russians fire another round, we get so near yet so far away, we won't live to fight another day. From that song yesterday I ended up finding more Vocaloid covers of other genres and this one it great. It's so silly hearing Vocaloids singing metal about battle and war, but it works surprisingly well. I would totally recommend checking out the other covers by these guys too, they are also excellent. Anyways, after this I'll leave off the Vocaloid stuff for a bit and leave it to gwr. Next week I'm going to be doing a series of mashups, one for each day next week, varying from serious awesome mashups to silly, really dumb ones. Look forward to it!

Megurine Luka - "Boyz n the Hood" (Eazy-E cover)

Rating: 6/10 Knowin' Nutin In Life But To Be Legit', Dont Quote Me Boy Coz I Aint Said Shit Vocaloid raps are not particularly common, let alone Vocaloid covers of gangsta raps. This is one of the songs for the WTF did I just listen to list, however it is extremely hilarious. One of my friends shared this with me and I just had to pass it on. Seriously, who thinks, you know I need to hear my Vocaloids sing? Gangsta rap. Well, someone did it and this is the result, honestly it's not bad, but really weird and funny.

Kagamine Rin & Len - "Remote Control"

Rating: 8/10 L R L R STOP & Dash & UP & TALK B B A B S(tart) This is one of my favorite vocaloid songs, it's a bit of an interesting song, but it works. Honestly I don't find the lyrics that interesting, but that's ok because they are in Japanese and I love the instrumentation, rhythm, and use of the duet vocals and this is a song that really makes me want to jump up and dance. It's a bit hard to define a genre for this song, it's got elements of electronic and pop among other things. I don't really have a lot to say about it, but I really like this song. Finally, have a bonus hilarious and awesome project Diva music video.