I'm quite happy about my purchase of French conspiracy thriller "I as in Icarus" as Christmas gift for my mother and a limited special edition of South Korean pop band T-ara's single "Roly-Poly in Copacabana" for myself (Yes, I do listen to something else than metal from time to time).  

My friend Charles makes it clear that he won't support the Liberal Party's candidate for the next elections. Just don't ask me why!

I like to take random pictures like these with my friends from time to time. Don't forget to have some fun in your lives as well!

Merry Christmas and a happy New Year 2017!

Sebastian Kluth

 

1. The Wailing

Once again, it's a Korean movie that saves a rather shallow cinematic year dominated by sequels and remakes in Hollywood and depressive dramas in Europe. "The Wailing" is an atmospheric, dramatic and unpredictable horror movie with an epic length of more than two and a half hours that convinces with a mysterious story, creepy settings and superb acting performances. The movie is available on BluRay and DVD in North America, so go and get it!

2. Hacksaw Ridge

"Hacksaw Ridge" is an unusual anti-war movie portraying a charismatic war hero who refuses to carry weapons for religious beliefs yet manages to save the lives of his fellow soldiers during the unusually brutal Pacific War. Despite being overly melodramatic at times, the movie has a peaceful message and shows us the horrors of war from a completely new point of view.

3. Chasse-Galerie

This French-Canadian fantasy film tells a famous tale of the Ottawa region where a group of woodcutters working in a remote forest make a deal with the devil in order to see their families back home during winter time. The film convinces with gorgeous settings, a tense plot and a frosty atmosphere.

4. Arrival

This intellectual science-fiction movie stands out due to a philosophical story focused on linguistic analysis instead of the usual invasion scenarios. The clever story line comes around with an intelligent twist where the limits of space and time vanish.

5. Don't Breathe

This horror movie doesn't need any supernatural elements or gore effects to convince and focuses on a tense atmosphere and unusual story about three thieves who make the mistake to try to rob out a blind war veteran who has turned into a twisted psychopath. The roles of perpetrators and victims are questioned and reversed multiple times as the movie comes around with a serious surprise in the second half. The creepy settings in the desolate city of Detroit only enhance this film's gripping atmosphere.

6. Allied

This spy thriller in the key of "Casablanca" and "Shiri" convinces with great settings in multiple countries that show us diversified facets of the Second World War. Despite a predictable twist, the superb acting performances by Marion Cotillard and Brad Pitt make this movie more entertaining and emotional than your average dramatic action-thriller.

7. Yoga Hosers

This film is probably the most remarkable movie on my list. Most critics and viewers really despise this flick but I really enjoy it and believe that this has the potential to become a comedy-horror cult film in the key of the "Evil Dead" series in a few decades. Kevin Smith's second instalment in his trilogy about Canadian culture after the gripping body horror movie "Tusk" is much more light-hearted and amusing. It tells the story of two bored female teenage clerks who fight against an army of miniature Nazi soldiers made of sausage and sauerkraut hiding under their trashy convenience store. This movie is a geeky over-the-top fun ride you won't forget anytime soon.

8. The Purge: Election Year 

The third part of the dystopian science-fiction series adds even more social criticism to the franchise and fits the actual nasty Election Year dominated by emotional debates between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump unsettingly well. This realistic touch rates this movie up while the rest is dominated by enjoyably fast-paced action sequences but average acting performances.

9. The Magnificent Seven

This kind of movie wouldn't have made it onto my top ten list in the past few years which speaks volumes about an overall disappointing cinematic year. This film is a remake of the great western "The Magnificent Seven" with top class actors like Yul Brynner and Eli Wallach back in 1960. Even that movie was already a remake of the epic Kurosawa Akira classic "Seven Samurai" in 1954. This remake features international stars of diversified backgrounds. The new verison convinces with intense and orignal action scenes. Even though it doesn't have the intellectual depth of its predecessors, it's an entertaining movie for western fans. 

10. Jason Bourne

Matt Damon is back as CIA's most dangerous former operative "Jason Bourne". In this weakest part of the franchise so far, the main character tries once more to find out more about his past. This film feels like a weak summary of the previous four instalments and I'm surprised to say that I would have prefered another movie with Jeremy Renner in the key of "The Bourne Legacy" than this rather uninspired reboot of the franchise. This film is only interesting for die-hard fans of the franchise.

Honorable mentions: 11. The Age of Shadows, 12. Girl on the Train, 13. The Forest, 14. Inferno, 15. Ride Along: Next Level Miami.

Movies I'm looking forward to in 2017: Before I Fall, Dunkirk, Geostorm, Ghost in the Shell, Keep Watching, Kong: Skull Island, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Life, Murder on the Orient Express, Patient Zero, Split, The Great Wall, The Lost City of Z,  The Mummy, Tulip Fever, Underworld: Blood Wars.

"The Age of Shadows" is a historically inspired dramatic action-thriller about a group of Korean resistance fighters who are opposing the peninsula's Japanese occupation. Directed and written by creative mastermind Kim Jee-won and starring South Korean top actors like Lee Byung-hun, this epic film became South Korea's official submission for the "Best Foreign Language Film" category of the 89th Academy Awards in 2017. While the premises seemed to be very positive, I was slightly disappointed by the movie.

First of all, a much better movie with a very similar story line called "Assassination" was released only one year earlier and it beats this flick in terms of acting, pace, settings and story. It's quite difficult to identify with the main character in "The Age of Shadow" who constantly changes sides and doesn't seem to know what he believes in. Instead of portraying a man torn between two choices, the movie focuses on a rather antipathic and egoistic character who is thinking about his own advantage at all times. Even an outstanding actor like Song Kang-ho can't make this dull main character any more exciting.

"The Age of Shadow" starts with an explosive opening scene only to lead towards a lengthy introduction with endless dialogues and numerous characters. It takes close to one hour before the pace quickens up again. The first half of the movie is definitely too long and often lost my interest.

While the settings of the movie are very realistic and bring to life a genuine depiction of the Korean peninsula in the forties, the costumes and locations aren't as detailed and memorable as in many other South Korean high-quality productions.

The story remains somewhat shallow in my opinion. It's obvious that the members of the resistance are trying to attack the Japanese occupants but the film never really explains what they are organizing precisely. It's quite unsatisfying to realize that the resistance's charismatic leader is taking many risks by trusting a highly unreliable main character and personally organizing an attack against the enemy that is never ever specified. The ending also leaves many questions open and feels unfinished to me.

Despite these flaws, the movie also has many strong points. The side characters are portrayed excellently and add some depth to the movie. Especially the clever villain portrayed by Um Tae-goo is very creepy. The movie also convinces in its more intense passages. The opening scene is both dynamic and memorable. The climax on the train is very tense and will get you on the edge of your seat. The last thirty minutes of the film have a welcome dramatic and emotional touch. The settings are authentic and especially the scenes on the train, in different torture chambers and in the prison are beautifully crafted and provide a gripping and sinister atmosphere. While the story is maybe the movie's biggest flaw, it still requests some thinking from the audience and includes a few minor twists in the second half of the film that save this movie for me.

Maybe my rating would be slightly more generous if the excellent "Assassination" hadn't been released a year earlier. That film's excellent execution from any point of view makes "The Age of Shadows" look quite predictable, redundant and even unnecessary. Faithful fans of contemporary South Korean cinema should still watch both movies but I would only recommend "Assassination" to occasional international audiences. "The Age of Shadows" really pales in comparison to Choi Dong-hoon's "Assassination". On a closing note, South Korea should have chosen the outstanding horror film "The Wailing" as official submission for the "Best Foreign Language Film" category of the 89th Academy Awards in 2017.

Dear readers of my blog!

Today is the day where I would like to share a list of my twenty favourite records of the year 2016 with you. I will also talk about recommendable songs, live albums and compilations that were released this year. I will end this post with a list of upcoming releases I'm looking forward to next year.

1. Unbeing - Ceres

The Canadian instrumental progressive metal quintet takes the crown with an absolutely mindblowing narrative track that tells a gripping science-fiction story over twenty-nine stunning minutes that should please to those who like movies such as ''Alien'', ''The Martian'' and ''Passengers''. Instrumentally, the group manages to take us on a journey through space thanks to a numbing rhythm section, atmospheric and majestic keyboard passages and a technically impressive guitar play. Listening to this masterpiece is an absolutely unique experience.

 2. Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage

Avenged Sevenfold deliver an outstanding progressive metal record that varies from sinister metalcore over traditional heavy metal with classic progressive rock influences to intellectual masterpieces that fusion a multitude of genres and styles in a surprisingly coherent and fluid way. The musicians aren't only outstanding from a technical point of view but manage to write a whole album of cinematic grandeur that proves all the naysayers wrong.

3. Arkan - Kelem

This album is an absolutely stunning progressive gothic metal release with vivid Middle Eastern folk passages and profound lyrics about contemporary conflicts. New singer Manuel Munoz adds many new dimensions to the band sound with his sorrowful vocals and collaborates with his former bandmate Foued Moukid nine years after the last The Old Dead Tree record. Welcome back to the metal scene, Manuel Munoz!

4.  Screaming Savior - Semblances of the Void

Originally titled ''千面无容'', Screaming Savior's ''Semblances of the Void'' mixes majestic symphonic black metal with inspired Asian neofolk sounds. The Chinese sextet finds the right balance between atmospheric and calm songs with exotic instrumentation, melodic symphonic gothic metal and unchained black metal parts with cold riffs and pitiless blastbeats. The groups sucks you into a liberating yet sinister atmosphere right from the start and never lets you go until the very end after a majestic journey of almost forty-five minutes.

5. Babymetal - Metal Resistance

The revolutionary Japanese idol band release a superb sophomore studio album that focuses mainly on the band's liberating metal style with a handful of carefully chosen and perfectly integrated soundscapes. The band delivers this year's best power metal song with ''The One'' and this year's best folk metal tune with ''Meta Taro'' on one single output. The three singers sound much more mature and skilled than on the predecessor and prove all the naysayers wrong who were expecting this group to be an artificial one-hit wonder. If the future of metal music sounds like this, I'm all in!

6. Black Crown Initiate - Selves We Cannot Forgive

Progressive extreme metal band Black Crown Initiate releases a strong sophomore studio record that focuses much more on the group's atmospheric, calm and intellectual soundscapes where the group unfolds its true magic. This album is an impressive and surprising step forward after a strong but much more extreme debut record.

7. Myrath - Legacy / ميراث

Myrath offer a series of memorable anthems that are much easier to digest than anything the band has released before without losing its charismatic mixture of thoughtful power metal, impressive progressive metal and vivid folk influences. 

   8. Anthrax - For All Kings 

Anthrax proves that its stunning comeback effort ''Worship Music'' was more than an exceptional effort because ''For All Kings'' keeps the impressive level of the liberating predecessor. The band comes around with sorrowful and mellow anthems like ''Breathing Lightning'', more complex and progressive tunes like ''Suzerain'' and pitiless thrash metal as in the youthful ''Zero Tolerance''. This is a perfect record for metal parties that only features killers and no fillers.

9. Voivod - Post Society 

Voivod offers this impressive EP consisting of four new songs and a brilliant cover version of Hawkwind's ''Silver Machine'' to introduce its new line-up featuring bassist Rocky whose performance is technically appealing and refreshingly powerful. The new songs are dystopian progressive metal masterpieces that need some time to grow but turn out to be among the band's very best songs since the new millennium. 

 10. In Extremo - Quid pro Quo 

In Extremo manages to release one of its heaviest and yet one of its most folk-influenced records in recent memory. The melancholic and progressive epic ''Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein'' is among the very best songs the band has ever written while the metalcore tune ''Flaschengeist'' and the traditional folk rock anthem ''Piske Palve'' represent the band's enormous creativity and diversity on this highly entertaining best German album of the year 2016.

11. Megadeth - Dystopia 

Megadeth delivers its best album in more than two decades with this sinister and slightly progressive conceptual thrash metal record that tells sorrowful tales of a dystopian world. Especially the more experimental middle section around tracks like ''Post American World'' and ''Poisonous Shadows'' hits really hard but the album also has a few catchier tracks like ''The Threat Is Real'' and ''Dystopia'' that can really convince. While this output doesn't beat Anthrax's new record due to a few fillers, Megadeth easily beats its other colleagues from the Big Four who released weaker efforts this and last year.

12. Master's Hammer - Formulæ 

Master's Hammer's new output is my greatest new discovery this year since I wasn't familiar with this band before. The Czech experimental extreme metal trio offers extremely creative tracks that only have their mysterious and sinister atmosphere in common. Some tracks use danceable darkwave sounds, other tunes use exotic instruments such as dobros and xylophones while other songs are supported by choirs or a female guest vocalist. This highly entertaining and inspired extreme metal release offers a myriad of unusual soundscapes and should be experienced over and over again to discover its plentiful potential.   

Other great studio albums that didn't make it into my personal top twelve are:  13. Trees of Eternity - Hour of the Nightingale, 14. Masquerader - Vortex Day Zero, 15. Equilibrium - Armageddon, 16. Mercy Isle - Undying Fire, 17. The Vision Bleak - The Unknown, 18. Rob Zombie - The Electric Warlock Acid Witch Satanic Orgy Celebration Dispenser, 19. David Bowie - Blackstar, 20. Ewigheim - Schlaflieder.

Here are my favourite live albums, DVDs and Blu-rays of the year: 1. Babymetal - Live at Wembley, 2. In Extremo - Quid pro Quo Live, 3. In Flames - Sounds from the Heart of Gothenburg, 4. Metallica - Liberté, Égalité, Fraternité, Metallica!, 5. Disturbed - Live at Red Rocks.

My favourite compilation album of the year 2016 was: The Vision Bleak - Timeline - An Introduction to The Vision Bleak

These are my favorite songs of 2016:

1. Unbeing - Ceres

2. Vektor - Recharging the Void

3. Arkan - Just a Lie

4. Myrath - Believer

5. In Extremo - Lieb Vaterland, magst ruhig sein

6. Anthrax - Breathing Lightning

7. Avenged Sevenfold - The Stage

8. Equilibrium - Eternal Destination

9. Babymetal - Meta Taro 

10. Anvil - Daggers and Rum

11. Avantasia - Draconian Love

12. Metallica - Moth Into Flame

13. The Vision Bleak - The Kindred of the Sunset

14. In Flames - The Truth

15. Gojira - Stranded 

16. Trick or Treat - United

17. Megadeth - Poisonous Shadows

18. Black Sabbath - Isolated Man

19. Blind Guardian - Children of the Smith

20. The 69 Eyes - Miss Pastis 

 

Best video clip: Tainted DickMen - Don't Be Afraid

 

These are the records I'm looking forward to in 2017:

Edenbridge - The Great Momentum / Grave Digger - Healed by Metal / Iron Reagan - Crossover Ministry / Kreator - Gods of Violence / Over Kill - The Grinding Wheel / Seven Kingdoms - Decennium / Trollwar - The Traveler's Path / Xandria - Theater of Dimensions