Sebastian Kluth - Discover the world of arts!

Predictions for the 2014-15 NHL season

Par kluseba dans Accueil le 9 Octobre 2014 à 00:31

Tonight is the beginning of the 2014-15 NHL season! Here are my personal predictions:

Atlantic Division

1. Tampa Bay Lightning 109

2. Boston Bruins 106

3. Montreal Canadiens 100

4. Toronto Maple Leafs 98

5. Detroit Red Wings 96

6. Buffalo Sabres 89

7. Florida Panthers 73

8. Ottawa Senators 64

Metropolitan Division

1. New York Rangers 112

2. Pittsburgh Penguins 107

3. Columbus Blue Jackets 95

4. Carolina Hurricanes 92

5. Washington Capitals 90

6. Philadelphia Flyers 86

7. New York Islanders 72

8. New Jersey Devils 66

Central Division

1. Colorado Avalanche 105

2. Chicago Blackhawks 102

3. Dallas Stars 101

4. St. Louis Blues 97

5. Minnesota Wild 86

6. Nashville Predators 78

7. Winnipeg Jets 60

Pacific Division

1. San Jose Sharks 108

2. Los Angeles Kings 101

3. Anaheim Ducks 98

4. Edmonton Oilers 89

5. Vancouver Canucks 87

6. Phoenix Coyotes 81

Calgary Flames 57

Eastern Conference Champions: Tampa Bay Lightning

Western Conference Champions: Colorado Avalanche

Stanley Cup Champions: Colorado Avalanche

Calder Memorial Trophy: Jonathan Drouin, Tampa Bay Lightning

Hart Memorial Trophy: Martin St. Louis, New York Rangers

James Norris Memorial Trophy: P.K. Subban, Montreal Canadiens

Vezina Trophy: Sergei Bobrovsky, Columbus Blue Jackets

Jack Adams Award: Patrick Roy, Colorado Avalanche

Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy: Tomas Hertl, San Jose Sharks
Cult US television series "Twin Peaks" set to make nine-episode comeback in 2016

Par kluseba dans Accueil le 7 Octobre 2014 à 09:14

Dear readers of my blog,

I just read that my very favourite television series "Twin Peaks" is set to make a comeback in 2016, including many of the legendary original cast members as well as the driving creative forces behind the original project who were Mark Frost and David Lynch. The second and until now final season of the series left many intriguing questions unanswered. It's hard to put into words how excited I am about this project. Anybody who hasn't seen the original series as well as the feature film that were produced and broadcasted between 1989 and 1992 or who hasn't watched the episodes for quite some time should absolutely do so and (re)visit this historical series. In my humble opinion, this is by far the best television show of all times.

You can find more details here:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-07/twin-peaks-set-to-make-comeback/5795590
Rain / 小雨 reviews

Par kluseba dans Rain / 小雨 le 5 Octobre 2014 à 10:01

Xiaoyu – Downtown Fall Border

October 2, 2014 in Reviews by Sebastian Kluth

Rain - Downtown Fall Border (2013)

Reviewed by Sebastian Kluth

Xiaoyu (or Rain, in English) is a promising symphonic power metal quintet from Guangzhou in the People’s Republic of China. Founded back in 2005, the band released its first full length record in 2008 which can be loosely translated asForest Pavilion, and delivered a strong follow-up by the end of 2013. This album is a little bit tougher to translate, but the term Downtown Fall Border sounds the best to me. The four young men on bass, drums, guitar, and keyboard, as well as the female singer bring forth a diverse batch of song writing which includes calm, sometimes neo-folky passages in the key of Empyrium, great melodic guitar solos, and an almost ambient use of keyboards which places them closer to bands like Edenbridge. Finally, Rain throws in a few gothic metal passages in certain songs, where the gracious female vocalist gets the support of some hoarse and rather unique male growls in a style very familiar for fans of groups like Epica.

After a great, quick introduction, the quintet from Guangzhou immediately delivers in form of the gracious “Silence”, which unites all the different elements cited above in one single song with gripping songwriting. Calm moments carried by decent atmospheric keyboard parts, occasional acoustic guitar passages, and angelic vocals meet fast power metal and well-executed guitar solos. The song has a running time of seven minutes and a half, but it neither gets redundant nor loses its clear guiding line.

“Warriors Underneath The Sun” is more of an overall up-tempo track with gripping riffs, fast power metal solos, and organs, while the hoarse male vocals are used more and better to contrast the elegant female singing. The great middle part of the song that gives us a short break introduces a folky section with powerful gang chants that I could hear coming from a Gwyllion release. Moving along, the almost medieval flute sounds in the laid back “La Porta Di Luce” pull on the laid-back elements even further. The calm tribal drumming and dominating bass guitar also shine in this track, while the touching soft vocals reach out to caress the listener. Old Nightwish fans should dig this track, as well as the similar and maybe slightly catchier album closer “The Path To Paradise”.

While the first few songs on the album will immediately appeal to a wider audience, the second part of the album is not only calmer overall, but also more progressive, with songs reaching running times of above ten minutes. The emotional violin, gloomy piano, and chilling extensive neoclassical guitar solos in the mysterious title song meet what is probably the most outstanding vocal performance on this release. Pang Yuet, also called Xiao Xiao, reaches her highest vocal ranges and performs as fantastically as a professional opera singer without ever sounding annoying. This track really lives due to her effortless performance, and I can’t but fall in love with her voice. If you like laid back classical music or symphonic metal, this is the kind of song that is a little bit more challenging at first, but will turn out to be an outstanding highlight on this release. If you had to listen to only one song on this whole album, this is it.

Apart from the slightly redundant transitional instrumental “Twilight Flowers By A Rainy Night” and a well done short introduction, Xiaoyu’s second output includes seven creative and touching high-quality symphonic metal tracks that ought to grow on you with each spin. Along with the latest releases by Epica and Xandria, Xiaoyu’s record is easily among the very best symphonic metal releases of this decade. Among many promising obscure Chinese metal bands, Xiaoyu, is one that should be kept on your radar for more obscure metal endeavors. I highly recommend you to listen to Xiaoyu’s release for free now.

4.5 // 5
Show report: Over Kill, Prong and A Darker Day in Ottawa

Par kluseba dans Accueil le 28 Septembre 2014 à 06:12

Concert review: Over Kill, Prong & A Darker Day live at Mavericks, Ottawa (25/09/14)

It was a beautiful sunny autumn day on Thursday, September 25, 2014 when I decided once again to see an energizing show in the small metal pub Mavericks in downtown Ottawa. New Jersey thrash metal legends Over Kill played for the very first time in the Canadian capital and were supported by crossover thrash and groove metal veterans Prong from New Jersey as well as by a local crossover thrash metal band A Darker Day.

Around 7:35 PM, A Darker Day hit the stage and delivered a truly energizing set around thirty minutes despite the fact that there was a considerable lack of space on stage due to the giant stage structures of the main act tonight. Still, the four men tried to move as much as they possibly could and interacted in a joyous way with the steadily growing crowd. Especially the sympathetic bassist and the vivid drummer who would also perform most of the vocals conquered the stage and the crowd by storm. They felt visibly at ease with what they described as a big honour and one of the greatest moments in their career to open for their own personal idols. Some people in the crowd already started to bang their heads, raise their fists up in the air and sing a long to a few pitiless thrash metal anthems. This opening act was so enthusiastic that I’m already looking forward to see them again. I also hope that the quartet will come around with a first physical release anytime soon. These future local legends are definitely worth your attention and support.

Only twenty minutes later, the trio Prong went on stage to deliver a forty-five minute set of their greatest hits plus a few new songs from the last record ‘’Runing Lives’’. Prong were even more energizing than the excellent opening act. Guitarist and singer Tommy Victor interacted well with the crowd and motivated a few dozen people to start a few energizing circle and mosh pits. New drummer Arturo Cruz fits well to the other two members and had a lot of fun on stage. He was almost constantly smiling or making funny faces, got up after almost each song to motivate the crowd to get in action and threw a few drum sticks into the crowd as well. Bassist Jason Christopher simply looked cool and mean on stage and had a truly wild appearance. His bass play was just as tight and vivid. Especially the last few songs of the set such as ‘’Another Worldly Device’’, ‘’Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Necks’’ and ‘’Power Of The Damager’’ made the crowd go wild. I definitely wouldn’y have minded the band to play a couple more tunes. Prong surely are one of these bands that are much better on stage than on a regular studio record and I would really like to see them again. On a sidenote, the merchandise section sold the recent and hard to find live in studio record ‘’Unleashed In The West’’ which portrays the unchained live spirit of the band very well. You can also listen to this official bootleg on the band’s Bandcamp presence.

After a break around twenty-five minutes, the first notes of ‘’XDᵐ’’ announced the arrival of Over Kill in front of a crowd of several hundred fans in a packed metal pub. Hell definitely broke loose with the pitiless opener ‘’Armorist’ where the crowd already started to yell along. When the band then went on to deliver the band hymn ‘’Overkill’’, the whole place went mad including ferocious headbanging, fast moving mosh pits and even some occasional stage diving that had to be intercepted by the security even though the fans really tried to respect and help each other as much as possible. Over Kill seemed to be deeply impressed by the enthusiastic fan reactions and so was I. After having seen quite a few shows at Mavericks, I must admit that this concert had by far the most vivid ambience. The entire crowd cheered the band’s name after every song, no matter if the band played more recent stuff like “Pig”, ‘’Electric Rattlesnake’’ and “Bring Me the Night” or classic tunes like “Rotten to the Core”, “Wrecking Crew” or the energizing closer and The Subhumans cover “Fuck You”. At a certain point, even singer Bobby “Blitz” Ellsworth needed a break and admitted that he would have a heart attack if he continued to perform at the pace of the unchained crowd that was constantly asking for more. From time to time, the singer even left the stage to take some short breaks during a few longer instrumental passages as in “Ironbound”. On the other side, there was nearly no break between the regular set and the three heavily celebrated encores and the singer’s angry, hoarse and raw vocals remained in top shape until the end of the show after a set of sixteen tunes in around ninety-five minutes. At this point, the band had not only managed to exceed the great performances by the two opening acts and to conquer the crowd by storm but to deliver one of the most memorable performances ever at Mavericks. Most of the band members are already in their mid-fifties but their performance had been at least as energizing as a show given by some unchained teenagers. After this show, I was bathed in sweat, had lost my voice and was also physically tired but I felt liberated as if I had fallen head-first into the Fountain of Youth. I decided to grab a limited and exclusive Canada Tour shirt, went back home by bus and couldn’t stop listening to the band’s latest killer album “White Devil Armory” even hours after this incredible show.
In Flames reviews

Par kluseba dans In Flames le 26 Septembre 2014 à 22:31

In Flames – Siren Charms

September 26, 2014 in Reviews by Sebastian Kluth

In Flames- Siren Charms (2014)

Reviewed by Sebastian Kluth

For the last fourteen years it has been a popular trend in the metal scene to bash any new In Flames release because many closed-minded old-school metal heads are still living in the previous millennium, unable to turn the page and accept that In Flames has been willing to experiment and play a more alternative metal style with a certain mainstream touch. Instead of giving up on the band, these self-declared “true fans” still expect the band to return to a genre it pioneered and improved during the first ten years of its career. I’m completely on In Flames’ side here because it’s useless to keep on reproducing music that the band already played in such a great manner on its debut record Lunar Strain. Instead of becoming an irrelevant copy of its former years, the band has experimented for the majority of its career over the past fourteen years. In Flames continues to do so, and the new album is another big slap in the face of those grown-old nostalgics. And that’s the way it has to be.

Enter Siren Charms. This record is as experimental as A Sense Of Purpose…, but less accessible. It continues the style of Sounds Of A Playground Fading with a few electronic and modern alt-rock touches influenced by Soundtrack To Your Escape. The great thing is that the band continues its very own sound without copying any particular record to any extent. This record includes quite a few surprises. The dirty, fast, and misanthropic “Everything’s Gone” could have come straight from a Marilyn Manson record and is definitely one of the best songs here, while the slow and plodding “Through Oblivion” has a modern gothic rock style I would expect from a band like HIM. Once again, if you like this kind of music as much as I do, you are going to thoroughly enjoy this song.

The melancholic and floating “With Eyes Wide Open”, with its crystal clear fragile vocals and its catchy chorus, reminds me of Thirty Seconds To Mars. “Dead Eyes” hits a very similar vein and comes around with convincingly beautiful guitar and keyboard melodies that make it an instant standout. In this song, In Flames sings: “This is my world now”, and singer Anders Friden, as well as the whole band, performs with as much conviction as Metallica did on the song “My World” from the controversial St. Anger. Many people are calling Siren Charms In Flames’ personal version of St. Anger because of this. Even though these two records are miles away from each other stylistically, this comparison is not completely wrong. Both bands did what they wanted with passionate authenticity and unbowed power, and didn’t care about being popular or pleasing their fans at the time. That’s why I like both records quite a lot. Some will call the two aforementioned tracks emo rock, but they’re performed with such conviction that it doesn’t bother me in the least.

“When The World Explodes” starts like a mixture of a metalcore and a melodic death metal song that could have appeased the old fan base. But In Flames wouldn’t be In Flames if it didn’t include a couple of controversial elements. Just thinking of the looks on the faces of the extreme metal “elite” makes me enjoy this track. Its second part features soft and enchanting female vocals and floating electronic elements. In Flames really shows off its creative song writing capacity in this track.

The first single, “Rusted Nail”, has it all. Longing guitar solos, fragile clean vocals (that sound better on each album), depressive lyrics, and an extremely liberating, majestic, and melodic chorus you won’t get out of your mind. This is the kind of song that continues the style of the previous record. Imagine a mixture of the tracks “Sounds Of A Playground Fading” and “Liberation”. This is where In Flames shows its consistency and how its past albums logically build upon each other.

Album closer “Filtered Truth” features mechanical vocal effects and opening guitar riffs that make me think of Billy Talent (how cool is that?). The short passionate chorus simply blows me away once again. This consistent song without one unnecessary second is crowned by a melodic but twisted instrumental bridge. The track ends a very good album on a high note. Hello, third single, I like you!

In the beginning, I thought a couple of songs on this album were a little hard to digest or unspectacular at certain moments, such as the short title song “Siren Charms” and “Monsters In The Ballroom”, which recalls several modern melodic death metal songs from the past three In Flames releases. Even these rather average tracks have grown on me after several spins. It’s hard to tell if I like this record as much as Sounds Of A Playground Fading, but my first impressions are pretty much as positive as they were with that album three years earlier. So please don’t give a damn about rude comments on social media or average scores on the Metal Archives. If you liked In Flames’ previous records and don’t mind the experiments described above, you have to purchase this album. By the way, the two bonus tracks “The Chase” and “Become The Sky” are excellent modern melodic death metal songs that should do well with fans that liked A Sense Of Purpose but none of the other recent releases, so be sure to look out for them. Be courageous and check this out. In Flames we trust.

4.0 // 5

 

... 794 795 796 797 798 799 800 801 802 803 804 ...