Within Temptation had been a very influential symphonic metal band with intriguing folk and new-age elements in the first years of its career with records such as Enter and Mother Earth. The group shifted towards a more commercial sound on The Silent Force and especially The Heart of Everything but the song material was still catchy, diversified and memorable enough to be considered relevant. Things went downhill with the mellow conceptual symphonic rock effort The Unforgiving two years prior to this release. The Q-Music Sessions might however be the band's nadir. The band covered fifteen popular rock and pop songs for a Belgian radio station and decided to release eleven of these tracks on this album. Why did the band not release all fifteen tracks? It might be because the band doesn't want to offer as much as fifty-five minutes of music but only forty-two minutes of music for twenty dollars to exploit its new radio pop fan base. It's also possible that the band realized that some of its cover songs were quite unspectacular. Maybe there are also copyright issues related to the chosen song material. In the end, it doesn't matter if you listen to eleven or fifteen boring pop songs because that's exactly what you get here.

Now, don't get me wrong, I don't mind occasional cover songs if they add something new to the original tracks and fit the band's own style. Within Temptation have covered Kate Bush's Running Up That Hill about a decade ago and have managed to transform a mythic new wave track into an atmospheric symphonic metal epic. None of the songs from the Q-Music Sessions comes even remotely close to this successful experiment nine years ago. The band covered bland radio rock and pop artists such as David Guetta and One Republic. Within Temptation covered these shallow songs in an uninspired way, offering fluffy pop sounds that might not even qualify as appropriate elevator music. Sharon den Adel's soothing vocals are enjoyable to listen to from time to time but the instrumental work is shallow. Keyboards are domineering the sound, the guitar work sounds toothless, the bass guitar is almost inaudible and the drums lack dynamics.

The worst thing is that Within Temptation somehow managed to make several smooth songs even mellower which is truly sleep-inducing. Gnarls Barkley's 'Crazy'' is a quite rhythmic and danceable track but Within Temptation transformed it into an exchangeable piano ballad with fragile vocals that make me think of a thirteen-year old girl at a karaoke party rather than of a thirty-eight year old frontwoman of a symphonic metal band. The Who's ''Behind Blue Eyes'' suffers a similar fate and misses the desperate atmosphere of the original song. It's harsh to realize that nu metal outfit Limp Bizkit did a much better job covering this song because the band seemed to have understood the essence of this dramatic track much better. A song with such inspired lyrics doesn't deserve to be reduced to a shallow pop song that one could hear at any commercial talent show.

The only reasons why this release doesn't get a worse rating are the fact that the mellow production fits the smooth pop stylistics and Sharon den Adel's vocals that work in a few tracks when she doesn't sound too quiet, fragile and exchangeable. Don't expect anything remotely related to symphonic rock or even metal music on this release. Even as a pop record, this album disappoints since the original tracks are performed with much more energy and inspiration. The Q-Music Sessions is the worst thing Within Temptation has ever released and represents the moment when I decided to give up on a once promising band.

Final rating: 6%

Ichi the Killer is a brutal yakuza movie by renowned director Takashi Miike. If you haven't watched any of his movies yet, let me tell you that this film isn't for lighthearted audiences. In the first five minutes alone, we see illegal gambling in a shady bar, a yakuza boss beating up and raping a prostitute and a voyeur masturbating to this instead of helping the poor woman. You will see prolonged torture sessions, people taking drugs and blood-red rooms filled with guts after intense massacres. Anyone who criticizes this movie for these elements or calls the viewers of it sick clearly didn't inform himself what kind of movie he was about to watch. Japanese yakuza movies are usually over-the-top, graphic and for mature audiences only. This is what makes them stand out.

Ichi the Killer tells the story of a mentally unstable killer who seems to be manipulated via hypnosis and psychological torture by a lowly yakuza named Jijii who orders him to take out two rival yakuza gangs. Sadomasochistic hitman Kakihara wants to avenge his deceased boss but also desires meeting the killer in order to be domineered and tortured by him.

If you think that this movie is only filled with perverted brutality, you've got it all wrong. The film features a lot of cultural elements related to yakuza traditions such as yubitsume, a ritual to atone for offenses by performing self-mutilation. The filming techniques are very experimental, working with unusual camera angles and stop-and-go technology. The authentic settings in form of dirty back alleys, small apartments and shady bars clash with flashy costumes as the sadomasochistic hitman walks around in colorful suits while the unstable killer wears a costume with special hidden weapons. The film works a lot with colors and their symbolism with white standing for the loss of childish innocence, black for darkness and red for violence. The experimental and vivid soundtrack blends in perfectly.

The greatest element about this movie might be its stunning finale that actually offers some food for thought. It isn't immediately obvious what actually happens, how it occurs and what the consequences are. Personally, I believe Ichi the Killer, lowly yakuza Jijii and prostitute Karen are one and the same person with multiple-personality disorder since they share the same memories at times but there are many possible theories. No matter how you think about the film's outcome, it's something you will still be thinking about long after you have actually watched the movie.

In the end, I can recommend the movie if you are equally interested in Japanese culture, brutal gangster films and intellectual film-making. Ichi the Killer stimulates your brain, your guts and your heart. It's an unforgettable experience based upon a unique manga and directed by one of the best directors of all times.

From a technical point of view, Augury is one of the best metal bands in the world. The four musicians are experts of their respective instruments. The complex drum patterns never cease to change, rolling thunderously at one moment, to evoke elaborate rhythms in the next moment, just to slow things down by creating mysterious anticipation. The bass guitar play is out of this world as the rhythms are highly complex since they aren't just backing the drums but often dueling the guitars with jazz and progressive rock stylistics. The guitar play is just as brilliant, evoking smooth progressive melodies in one moment to unchain rapid yet complex extreme metal patterns in the next. The cold and fierce riffs are just as brilliant as the otherworldly melodic guitar solos. The brilliant musicianship of the four musicians is kept together by a destructive and dystopian science-fiction atmosphere that evokes a multitude of thoughts, images and ideas which are supported by the imaginative cover artwork.

The extreme vocals meanders between shrieks, shouts and grunts and turn out being as diversified as the band's stunning technical musicianship. However, the vocals aren't even necessary and the band actually convinces most in its long instrumental passages and songs as the musicianship offers enough details to discover. The harsh vocals are often rather a distraction from than a clever contribution to the musicianship. A few mellower vocal lines here and there would have made the listening experience a little bit easier to digest as well.

This is in fact the only element one could criticize related to the brilliant musicianship. The songs are at times hard to digest because the band tries to put too many sounds, ideas and changes into one single song. This isn't always a matter of length. The closing ''Anchorite'' is by far the longest track with a running time above eight minutes but is the most organized, fluid and fleshed out track on the album. The brilliant instrumental ''Message Sonore'' is the shortest track with three and a half minutes but comes as a welcome break without being less creative than the other tunes. Overall, the record's second half is clearly superior to the first half. If the band had opted for a few more instrumental songs and longer tracks taking their time to unfold, the listening experience of this record could have been much better than it turned out to be.

Still, fans of progressive extreme metal and technical death metal must check this stunning output out and might even consider it an early highlight of the year. Almost nine years after its last studio record, Augury doesn't disappoint and seems to be back for good. Let's hope the next album comes around a little bit quicker than this one.

Final rating: 75%