Album Review: SUMO CYCO - Initiation

 

01. Love You Wrong
02. Bystander
03. Vertigo
04. Bad News
05. No Surrender
06. M.I.A.
07. Cyclone
08. Run With The Giants
09. Overdrive
10. Power & Control
11. The Dance Is Doomed
12. Awakened (Bonus track)

Album Review: HERMAN FRANK - Two For A Lie

 

01. Teutonic Order
02. Venom
03. Hate
04. Eye Of The Storm
05. Liar
06. Hail The New Kings
07. Just A Second To Lose
08. Danger
09. Stand Up And Fight
10. Open Your Mind

Album Review: DIAMANTE - American Dream

 

01. American Dream
02. Ghost Myself
03. Serves You Right
04. Obvious
05. Unlovable
06. Wake Up Call
07. UnFuCk YoU
08. I Love Myself For Hating You
09. Iris (Feat. Breaking Benjamin) [Goo Goo Dolls cover]
10. Hopeless
11. Obvious (Acoustic)

Movie Review: ARMY OF THE DEAD (2021)

 

OK, so I submitted to the hype and watched Army Of The Dead on Netflix last night. I'd seen mixed reviews online from people I know, so I went in with low-to-middle expectations, especially as I've been disappointed with most of director Zack Snyder's recent DC movies (bar the new cut of Justice League- I haven't seen that yet. I'm). 

I'm going to put my head above the parapet and let you all know that I loved it. I'm a big fan of zombie films, dystopias, and heist movies too, so this, being a mish-mash of those genres, really appealed to me. I felt that the mix and the execution was spot on, making this a roller-coaster of action, horror, comedy, thinly veiled socio-political commentary. 

Spoilers head.

The story starts with the military transporting an unknown 'thing' in convoy. After a road accident, the 'thing' is released and is revealed to be a humanoid-zombie type creature who kills the soldiers, instantly bringing them back to life as his undead crew, and then heads off to nearby Las Vegas where chaos ensues. 

Las Vegas, now over-run with zombies, has been sealed off and survivors who aren't showing symptoms are being kept in a refugee camp just outside of the city walls. Muscleman Dave Bautista's character, who was a zombie-killing badass in the fist part of the movie, is now flipping burgers for a living in another city (not sure why he wasn't kept in the refugee camp, but let's just go with it). He's approached by a Japanese business man / gangster who offers him a load of money to assemble a team to break into Las Vegas, raid a safe full of cash, and escape via helicopter before the city is nuked.

Army Of The Dead clocks in at nearly two and a half hours, but thanks to the quick pacing, doesn't feel anything like as long as that. There's plenty of welcome character development, so I actually felt something for the team as opposed to watching under-developed nobodies in peril, where it's more interesting to watch them get torn apart than survive. There's also an interesting take on the core of 'alpha zombies' who are fast, show intelligence, and present as much more deadly adversaries than the generic moaning slow corpses we're used to. This provided a subtle Mad Max vibe which I though was fun.

As with any Horror movie, there will always be countless people who hate it or are overly critical. Army Of The Dead isn't Shakespeare. It's not supposed to be. OK, so there are a few plot holes. So what? It has an awesome undead tiger! I thought it was great fun and a fresh spin on the zombie genre which has been mostly done to death.

Album Review: TETRARCH - Unstable

 

01. I'm Not Right
02. Negative Noise
03. Unstable
04. You Never Listen
05. Sick Of You
06. Take A Look Inside
07. Stitch Me Up
08. Addicted
09. Pushed Down
10. Trust Me

Album review: GOJIRA - Fortitude

 

01. Born For One Thing
02. Amazonia
03. Another World
04. Hold On
05. New Found
06. Fortitude
07. The Chant
08. Sphinx
09. Into The Storm
10. The Trails
11. Grind

Album Review: THE OFFSPRING - Let The Bad Times Roll

 

01. This Is Not Utopia
02. Let The Bad Times Roll
03. Behind Your Walls
04. Army Of One
05. Breaking These Bones
06. Coming For You
07. We Never Have Sex Anymore
08. In The Hall Of The Mountain King
09. The Opioid Diaries
10. Hassan Chop
11. Gone Away
12. Lullaby

Album Review: BLUTENGEL - Fountain Of Destiny

01. The Wild Boys [Duran Duran cover]
02. Forever Young [Alphaville cover]
03. Hymn [Ultravox cover]
04. Down in the Park [Tubeway Army cover]
05. Alone [Heart cover]
06. Silent Running [Mike & The Mechanics cover]
07. Nobody’s Diary [Yazoo cover]
08. Dr. Mabuse [Propaganda cover]
09. The Sun Always Shines on TV (Blutengel Version) [A-Ha cover]
10. Ship of Fools [Erasure cover]
11. Unsere Zeit
12. Journey To The Edge Of The Night