Scar Symmetry – “The Kaleidoscope God “
From the album: Pitch Black Progress

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
When it comes to the death/clean combo singing style that accompanies many melodic death metal bands, few vocalist can hold a candle to Scar Symmetry’s Christian Älvestam. Though his band’s style and sound are quite reminiscent of Soilwork and many other melodeath bands past and present, in this metalhead’s humble opinion, Christian’s range of clean singing and death metal growling brings Scar Symmetry front and center. It’s almost hard to wrap your mind around the fact that it’s the same person producing the vocals on these songs. Plus the fact that they can write a heavy, catchy tune with the best of them doesn’t hurt either. My first taste of Scar Symmetry was with this album, their 2006 release Pitch Black Progress. Though it was the opening track, “The Illusionist“, that initially and almost instantly addicted me to these guys, I felt like posting something some may not have heard just yet…

Amorphis – “Towards and Against “
From the album: Silent Waters

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Why this song doesn’t suck:
“Towards and Against” from Amorphis’ 2007 album Silent Waters is undoubtedly one badass, rocking track. Starting slow and with lead singer Tomi Joutsen’s soothing vocals, the full-fledged kick in the nuts when the song starts cranking just moments later is a pleasant, headbang-inducing surprise. Jousten provides some seriously vicious death metal growls as the rest of the Amorphis crew provides a good dose of heavy fucking metal.

Last Summer when I hit up Metal Masters Tour at Pine Knob* I was pumped as hell to get my first live taste of Ronnie James Dio rocking it out with the Black Sabbath boys, or Heaven and Hell, as they call themselves these days (I was not disappointed in the least). I was also pumped to learn that after 16 years, Ronnie, Tony & Geezer would be laying down tracks for a whole new Heaven and Hell album, set for release in 2009.

Well, the time is upon us. “The Devil You Know” is set to hit retail shelves April 28th and we now have our first look at the album cover, which is over to the left burning a hole through your monitor with it’s heavyFUCKINGmetalness.

Holy hell! Look at that fucking thing! An eyeless, tri-tongued demon triumphantly holding some poor fuck who’s not only been crucified, but from the looks of it, was the victim of an executioner with terrible fucking aim. He’s been nailed more times than Lindsay Lohan! ZING! This cover couldn’t be any more metal if it were stamped in blood while fully engulfed in flames.

Click the image to view a slightly embiggened version. Don’t stare too long or your eyeballs will implode from an overload of awesome.

Directed by: Zack Snyder
Starring: Jeffrey Dean Morgan, Jackie Earle Haley, Billy Crudup, Patrick Wilson, Malin Akerman, Matthew Goode
Released: March 6, 2009

When it comes to comic book royalty, nothing can surpass Alan Moore & David Gibbons’ 1986 masterpiece Watchmen. As the quintessential graphic novel to fans and critics worldwide, it’s been in print for more than 20 years, and is the only comic book to appear on Time Magazine’s list of “the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to the present”. Watchmen fans are hardcore. The are dedicated, bordering on obsessed. And when they heard that Zack Snyder, the man behind the 2004 ‘Dawn of the Dead’ remake and 2006’s grandiose ‘300′, was going to make a film based on their beloved classic, there was an almost equal mix of intense excitement and apprehension. Could Snyder take Moore & Gibbon’s dark, twisted tale of murder, suspense & humanity and translate it to the big screen?

On March 6th, we all found out… continue reading to see my enormously long take on the issue.

With the 4th season of Sci-Fi Channel’s reboot of the television classic Battlestar Galactica coming to a close next Friday, and the first part of the series finale premiering tomorrow night, most Battlestar fans are pondering how the show’s creators plan to wrap up the critically-acclaimed series. There are a hell of a lot of mysteries and questions floating around that have yet to be answered… will the final 3 hours be enough to adequately explain everything and give the show the proper sendoff it rightly deserves?

While mindlessly searching the webs as usual, I came across an interesting post on Topless Robot listing out “20 Possible Battlestar Galactica Endings, All of Them Hideously Depressing“. I found it to be a humorous read, so I’m hoping if you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll enjoy it. I’m of course hoping that what we witness in these upcoming episodes doesn’t resemble anything on this list, though I’m pretty confident it will be just as depressing… I’m getting the sinking feeling many members of the Galactica crew won’t be making it to the final fade to black. I’ll be sure to post my thoughts once the final credits roll, but until then, let me know what you think.

What are your thoughts? Do you think Battlestar will get a proper sendoff, or will we all be hugely disappointed when next weekend rolls around? Sound off in the comments.

I’m not sure if this is fake or not, considering the Sun is such a reliable source of news and events, but either way it made me laugh. The article reads:

All I could think about after reading that was this… though this would be the opposite of the “kiss of life” I suppose:

Oh, or this…