There are many things that could be discussed regarding Avenged Sevenfold's seventh studio record The Stage. I might mention that the band released this record without any big announcements and promotions and kept their upcoming release a well-kept secret in times of social media when everyone wants to know everything. I should probably say that the band had gone through a nasty split with its former label Warner Brothers that was focusing on financial exploitation instead of artistic expression according to the band which was soon proven true when the label quickly released a lazy greatest hits compilation to confuse new fans that might confound the new studio album with the new compilation. I could mention that despite lower sales figures due to the unusual release strategy, the record received universal acclaim from critics and fans alike.

What matters after all is the final product and I can tell you that The Stage is not only by far the greatest album in Avenged Sevenfold's impressive career but one of the best ten records of the decade. The Stage is a thought-provoking conceptual record dealing with the past, present and future of our planet which is actually the stage for all the themes and events presented in the intellectual lyrics. While most bands would fail with such an ambitious and complicated concept, Avenged Sevenfold manages to deal with diversified topics such as artificial intelligence, nuclear warfare and space exploration on a very intellectual yet never overambitious level. Inspired by the writings of cosmologists such as Giordano Bruno, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Carl Sagan, the group delivers lyrics that are easy to understand, educative and entertaining all at once.

The high quality of the lyrics also has a significant impact on the musicianship of this release. The band almost completely moves away from its metalcore roots and offers progressive metal epics that even surpass what Nightwish, Iron Maiden and Dream Thater had been trying to accomplish with their last respective records. I don't say this lightly since I'm a big fan of all these bands but what Avenged Sevenfold offers here is on a whole new level and at the very least an astonishing progressive metal masterpiece, if not an intellectual revolution for the entire metal scene. Any upcoming progressive metal record has to be compared and measured to this milestone. This album has the same impact as Pink Floyd's The Dark Side of the Moon. The emotional and technical guitar work is absolutely incredible since the band pulls off thrash metal riffs, extended melodic guitar solos but also smooth acoustic guitar interludes. The bass guitar is the driving rhythm force supported by superb and complex drum patterns which were splendidly performed by new band member Brooks Wackerman whose style already reaches the technical level of genre legends like Mike Portnoy. Many songs feature additional instrumental performances such as atmospheric keyboard layers, elegant string ensembles and soulful brass band sections but all these diverse influences blend in perfectly with the band's energizing and inspiring metal sound. Additional spoken word performances in certain songs add a theatrical approach on an elevated level that was last witnessed on Queensryche's groundbreaking Operation Mindcrime release. Despite this conceptual approach, the eleven songs on this record work both as a whole and independently.

It's hard or even unfair to point out particular songs on this release but there are two tracks I personally feel the need to mention. First of all, there is the album opener, title song and first single ''The Stage'' which immediately sets the right tone for the upcoming seventy-three minutes. The song opens with mysterious organ sounds recalling progressive rock bands like Pink Floyd before a melodic guitar solo in the key of Iron Maiden kicks in. The band's own contemporary style becomes obvious when vivid drum beats and powerful riff push the track forward until the vocals start. They offer a balanced mixture between raw energy and memorable melodic vocal lines and lead solidly through an extraordinary song that is crowned by a dramatic and almost operatic chorus that will haunt you forever. Towards the end, the band gradually takes away the intensity but not the creativity since the song ends with enchanting folk-inspired acoustic guitar sounds that give the listener a welcome break at the end of eight and a half stunning minutes that will change progressive metal forever.

The second song that needs to be pointed out is the larger-than-life album closer ''Exist'' that clocks in at more than fifteen and a half minutes. Moody keyboard passages, vivid instrumental progressive metal passages and melancholic violin melodies evoke the creation of our universe until dreamy and harmonious vocals kick in after half of the track is already over to smoothly lead us beyond the known and towards the unknown. The track ends with a meaningful and extended spoken word passage by Neil deGrasse Tyson while the band plays its collective heart out in the background with powerful drum patterns, bumblebee bass guitar passages and one orgasmic guitar melody after the other. Despite its epic length, the band manages to find the appropriate moment to conclude the song in a concise way inspired by classic heavy metal but with a clever gloomy undertone that grabs the listener one last time before living her or him with a multitude of inspired afterthoughts.

The Stage is more than just an outstanding album, it's a magificent experience for your ears, emotions and mind that convinces on a technical, intellectual and emotive level. Anybody that cares for creative rock or metal music of any kind, must experience this masterpiece at least once in a lifetime. A self-declared intellectual rock music afficionado who hasn't listened to this record can't be taken serious at all. Do yourself a favor, forget whatever you are doing right now and discover Avenged Sevenfold's The Stage.

Final rating: 10/10

Tengger Cavalry once was a quite intriguing Chinese folk metal band inspired by traditional Mongolian folk sounds and tales. Along with Nine Treasures, the band started a trend that went viral with many international acts copying this particular sound and the bands getting international recognition. While Nine Treasures remained modest and faithful to their sound, Tengger Cavalry’s founder Zhang Tianran decided to sell out. The artist parted ways with the initial line-up, moved to the United States and gathered a completely new line-up around him. This line-up unnecessarily re-recorded numerous records from the past, delivered shallow alternative acoustic versions of several songs and released several short live records. In certain cases, there exist half a dozen different versions of the same song and instead of improving on the original versions, the new takes sound much less inspired and original than what the band did in its early years. Since Ancient Call three years earlier, Tengger Cavalry has only released disappointing records that seem to have no other reason to be than to grab some cash from international fans.

The fact that Zhang Tianran exchanged artistic creativity for financial strategies even had an impact on the band’s live shows. I went to see the band in concert not long ago and was very disappointed. Instead of the regular line-up consisting of five musicians, only three were actually on stage. Aside of Zhang Tianran, there were a bassist and a drummer on stage while the musicians performing the traditional folk instruments that make this group stand out weren’t there at all. The band delivered faceless heavy rock with some throat singing and Zhang Tianran would only play a traditional instrument in a handful of songs during the concert. What the band offered didn’t have much to do with what Tengger Cavalry once stood for and most people in the audience felt cheated.

kAAn is now the first EP featuring only new material in almost three years. You can buy this release on Bandcamp for eleven bucks and get eighteen minutes of new music, including an unnecessary intro and a short outro as well as a vapid demo version of one of the new songs. This means that you actually only get about thirteen minutes of music and that you are encouraged to pay almost one dollar for each minute of new music. If a band like Dream Theater had the same attitude, you would have to pay one hundred thirty bucks for their last record, just to give you an idea how incredibly ridiculous Tengger Cavalry’s present marketing strategy is. Zhang Tianran’s aggressive capitalism makes Jari Mäenpää almost look like Mother Teresa in comparison.

That whole dishonest attitude would still be tolerable if the thirteen minutes of new material were at least convincing but even that isn’t the case anymore. The only positive parts of the music are the use of exotic instruments such as igil and molin khuur that add the longing and melancholic soundscapes the band was once known for. The rest however stands for everything that is wrong about the band these days. The bland fast drum patterns and the one-dimensional electric guitar riffs don’t fit with the folk instrumentation at all. They remind me of an untalented death or thrash metal band playing in a garage at best. Several songs sound unfinished and end with uninspired fade-outs after less than three minutes that prove that the band’s song writing was so weak that they didn’t even know how to accurately finish their songs. The worst thing are though the vocals that were once the band’s most charismatic strength. Even though Zhang Tianran still performs throat singing, his vocals are lacking diversity and power. They sound strangely monotonous and tame throughout the record and every single song is performed in the very same style. This repetitive pattern is so uninspired that one could actually copy the vocal lines from one song and paste them onto another track and one wouldn’t even hear any difference.

Don’t get fooled by the band’s fake cultivated and intellectual image. The only thing this so-called band is interested in nowadays is to make a maximum of profit with a minimum of effort. If you are genuinely interested in Mongolian folk metal, go grab the original Blood Sacrifice Shaman, the double-album Cavalry Folk and the band’s final tolerable release Ancient Call. Every other record consists partially or completely of shallow re-recordings or uninspired new tunes from the exchangeable present line-up. kAAn is as close to Asian folk metal as a cheeseburger with some soy sauce poured on it is to Asian food. The only thing you will get from both is stomach pain. Avoid it at all costs.

Final rating: 0.5/10

This record doesn't deserve a video clip.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Miura Kazuyoshi has officially become the oldest player ever to feature in a professional soccer game when he started in the 1-1 draw between his team Yokohama FC and V-Varen Nagasaki in the J2 League, Japan's second-tier professional association football league. At the age of fifty years and seven days, he surpassed the previous record held by English legend Sir Stanley Matthews from 1965 by two days.

Miura Kazuyoshi's career is quite impressive. He went to Brazil at the age of fifteen in 1982 to become a professional soccer player which wasn't possible in Japan at that time and played for eight differents clubs over there, including legendary teams such as Santos and Palmeiras. He also played for Genoa in 1994 and 1995 and Zagreb in 1999 in Europe. Miura was named the first J. League Most Valuable Player in 1993 and became the first Japanese Asian Footballer of the Year in 1993. He represented the Japanese national team eighty-nine times between 1990 and 2000 and scored an impressive fifty-five goals. In 1997, he scored an incredible eighteen goals in nineteen games for the national squad. Since 2005, Miura plays for Yokohama FC.

Miura won numerous individual, club and international awards and titles. Among his biggest successes are the 1992 AFC Asian Cup with the Japanese national team, four consecutive J League Cup titles from 1991 to 1994 with Tokyo Verdy and the Croatian Prva HNL league title in 1998-1999 with Dinamo Zagreb, then called Croatia Zagreb.

I think being a professional sportsman at such an age is an absolutely impressive accomplishment. Miura Kazuyoshi deserves our attention and praise and he can be seen as a role model for his unique perseverance and strength.

Here is a link to the holy grail of information: 

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E

The population of the province of Quebec has risen by 3.3% in the past five years and has now a population of 8,164,361. Canada's population has even risen by 5.0% to reach 35,151,728. If you're interested in statistics like these, you will enjoy the results published last month!