2008 was a great year for music. A number of popular 80′s metal bands released new records. New music from Dokken and Whitesnake and White Lion and King’s X and Def Leppard! I wrote about these albums in a blog post you can find here. Could life get any better?
It sure can! 2009 and 2010 have seen some incredible releases from veteran rockers from the 80′s as well.
Europe’s Last Look At Eden was released in 2009 and instantly became one of my favorite albums of the year. The music is hard and driving and these guys bring the melody!
The new Scorpions album, Sting In The Tail, is the band’s farewell record. What a way to retire! Apart from the 3 ballads, this album rocks from start to finish. Definitely a must buy for any hard rock fan!
I’ve always been a big fan of Winger. Their blend of hard rock and sugary pop metal is just something I love to listen to. In Karma, Winger pulls out all the stops and gives us fan some terrific songs.
I can’t say that I was a fan of Krokus back in the 80′s, but their new album, Hoodoo, is a great slab of rock. Definitely leans towards the AC/DC sound, but fun to listen to none-the-less.
Sonic Boom made it in my top 5 albums of 2009 for a good reason! It is so much fun to listen to! Kiss brings the funk and the hard rock in a big way with this album. I totally believe Gene Simmons when he sings “Yes I know, nobody’s perfect, but baby I come awfully close”.
Treat is new band to me, although they’ve been around since the early 80′s. I downloaded a “best of” disc and was instantly hooked. Now the rockers bring us Coup De Grace and it is an instant hard rock classic.
Of all the 80′s metal bands, I’d have to say that Ratt was one of my favorite. I had their posters in my room as a teen and was constantly listening to Out Of The Cellar or Invasion Of Your Privacy. I was quite excited to hear they were releasing new material in the form of Infestation. I have to admit, I didn’t like the new album so much, but with multiple listens, it has grown on me.
Woohoo! Stryper’s release, Murder By Pride, was my favorite album of 2009. I’m glad to say that it was the music that put it in that position, and not just because Stryper is one of my all time favorite bands. Everything about this record is awesome, from the beefy bass lines to Michael Sweet’s soaring vocals to Oz Fox’s amazing guitar licks.
Ok, Slash isn’t exactly an “80′s band” but he was a founding member of Guns ‘n Roses, and he is covering one of their best songs from Appetite for Destruction. I still have mixed feelings about the entire album. Most of it is good, but some it is pretty mellow. I will say, that if Fergie got herself a metal band, I’d buy that record!
Never heard of Crazy Lixx? That’s because these guys were probably still in diapers in the 80′s. I added them because they play hair metal so well! If Poison and Def Leppard had a child together, they would have named him Crazy Lixx!
Reckless Love is another “new” band that plays 80′s glam metal perfectly. Listen to the above song and tell me that would not have been a #1 hit in 1984! The entire album is great and I highly recommend it.
War Of Ages was one of the first introductions to a musical genre called “metalcore” that I actually loved. I’ve been a huge metal and thrash fan since I was a teen-ager, but metalcore was a different beast. The drum beat was fast, and there was lots of screaming, but the music was made of dissonance and melancholy, with no melody or guitar solos!
Enter War of Ages. My first listen was 2006′s Pride Of The Wicked, which to this day, is still in my top 10 best albums ever made.
Then came Fire From The Tomb, which was a re-recording of WOA’s first self titled album. It was good, but no where near the caliber of Pride of the Wicked. 2008 saw the release of Arise And Conquer. A fine musical piece, but still not as good as Pride of the Wicked.
Last week, WOA released Eternal, a brand new album! How does it stack up to the fabled Pride of the Wicked? Let us take a listen and compare notes.
01 Collapse
Pretty good song. Starts out with the strong “dirty vocal” contrasted by the cleaner singing from As I Lay Dying’s lead singer. Good fast pace…the guitar work is pretty good.
02 Desire
This song starts off like it is from Pride of the Wicked. I gotta say that the growling vocal kind of grates on my ears…but wait, there’s the chorus with a nice change up. Again, the melodic guitar is very good.
03 Failure
Starts with that layered melodic guitar, and the galloping fast drums are great. A very good WOA song.
04 My Resting Place
War of Ages does doom metal? oh wait, there’s the pickup. Man, Leroy Hamp’s vocals are just a one note show. I’d like just a little variety. The guitar really shreds around the 1:41 mark!
05 Eternal
What? Is that Sonny from P.O.D.? Yep, sure is! Very cool. Sounds like a very heavy P.O.D. song. Five songs into the album, and it all is starting to sound the same. Not a good sign.
06 Indecision
There we go…some heavy chugga chugga chugga of the guitars sounds good to my ears. Unfortunately, Leroy Hamp can only scream in one note. As a stand alone song, this is probably the best song on the record so far.
07 Lack Of Clarity
Huh? Is this Dokken? Gone is the ultra-heavy sound of guitar from the previous song. If you listen to just the guitar, it doesn’t fit with the hardcore vocal. I don’t like the sound of the chorus either.
08 The Fallen
I’m not sure what kind of song this is supposed to be. Starts out super fast thrashy, then devolves into a very slow, sludgy doom metal beat. The juxtaposition isn’t a good one.
09 Your Betrayal
These vocals are really starting to get on my nerves. I hate to say it, but I’m not digging this album so much!
10 Instrumental
A soft instrumental ballad? It’s good as far as instrumental songs go, but instantly forgettable as soon as the record is done.
Over all, I’d say that Eternal falls a long way short of Pride of the Wicked. I honestly feel no compunction to listen to this album so much. The vocals are all the same, even though there are two guest vocalists on the album.
“The Last Recruit” is the 13th episode in Season 6 of Lost and the 116th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was broadcast on April 20, 2010. As Jack and Locke’s camps merge, alliances are forged and broken. (Lostpedia.com)
Christian in “White Rabbit” was actually Smokey. However, we don’t have an explanation for who Christian was in the hospital, since Smokey can’t travel off the island. Was it the same guy? What about the other dead people? Ilana said that Smokey can only look like one person at a time so was he able to also be Yemi, or was he only able to be Christian? What allows him to slough off one body for the other?
Sun recognizes Smokey in the SW… how did she recognize him? Was the gunshot a jolt? If it was, why didn’t she see the life she had with Jin in the other world, too?
Interesting that Zoe gives Smokey until nightfall to turn over Des, just as he gave everyone in the Temple until nightfall to get out.
I was convinced the lawyer would be Ana Lucia. Didn’t see Ilana coming. She did look rather, ahem, dynamite, though, didn’t she? Ha. Ha. I mean, she really… blew them away with her, erm, explosive beauty? OK. I’ll stop now.
“He’s the only one that didn’t abandon me.” No, he’s just the one who drew you away from everyone else so they wouldn’t know where you’d gotten to, and completely brainwashed you into thinking it was totally awesome that Aaron was with them and not her, and then they were forced to leave without her because they couldn’t find her. Of course, Claire presumably doesn’t remember any of this; I’m thinking it’s part of Smokey’s mindwipe of her. I felt terrible as she stood by the tree and watched them abandon her… again. Poor Claire.
WHO IS DAVID’S MOM?! Possibles that are left: Sarah again. Juliet. Kate’s twin sister she never knew about (Skaters and Jaters are both happy in the end!). Cassidy. Ana Lucia (1-6 from Nik at Nite)
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As crazy as Jack was for turning back and going to the Island, I think he was right. It’s not that I have any reason for thinking he’s right, I just can’t imagine how Sawyer’s plan could be right. So anything against his plan must be in the general direction of rightness.
I wish Jack had had a talk with Hurley before he went back. Hurley and Jack should probably stay together, I like that dynamic they were developing.
”Locke” and Jack’s conversation in the jungle is very similar to the one back in White Rabbit. Except last time Locke was trying to inspire Jack’s faith in the Island, this time “Locke”’s trying to destroy Jack’s faith.
Back in that original scene Jack asks Locke what would happen when he caught up with Christian. Now we know.
Our theory about “Locke”’s cadaver rule was right. “Locke” needs an actual body in order to possess them. It was really obvious, but at least it was said out loud.
Wait a second. “Locke” tells Jack that he was trapped on this Island because Jacob chose him. Then he continues on, “But now Jacob’s dead. We don’t have to be trapped anymore.” It was pretty subtle but he implies, slightly, that he was trapped on the Island just like Jack, so that might mean that he was chosen by Jacob too. Maybe “Locke”, or rather Esau, was the first Candidate.
…Or perhaps “Locke” is Cain! oh yeah, I just brought Adam and Eve back into the discussion.
This refers more to the last episode, but whatever. Desmond was more than willing to talk to Ben and then hit Locke. I think he has nothing to lose. He must have a deadline or something that really matters.
Has anyone not talked to “Locke” yet? Maybe Miles. I don’t know if “Locke” has ever directly talked to Frank, but he’s been around when he’s talked. The overwhelming theory is that if you talk to “Locke” then you’re powerless against him. If that’s right then we need to find a loophole. That loophole could be someone he’s never talked to, or maybe there’s some other way. So far all we have to go on is the no talking rule. But everyone’s talked to him except Miles. Maybe that’s why he’s survived for so long, to take “Locke” down… that would be weird. (7-12 from Not Confused Just Lost)
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To me this episode felt like The End, Part I of VI. It moved things along, got a lot of pieces into place (especially in the Alt, which I really dug) and set things up for the final stretch. Despite this (or perhaps because of it), it felt kinda slow to me. Yeah, a lot of stuff happened, but the end result was just to shuffle a bunch of people around. Not a whole lot of big reveals and the ones we got (like Smokey finally admitting to Jack he was one impersonating Christian) weren’t really earth-shattering.
As far as the Alt goes, Desmond is acting as chessmaster, setting up the board for some grand design. I loved every moment of the Alt and now we have a plan to get just about everyone together at the same time. Jack’s at the hospital with Locke, Ben, Sun and Jin. Presumably Miles and Sawyer will be coming to interview Jin (and Ben for that matter, since he saw Desmond). Sayid and Kate will probably be sharing a jail cell at some point and Claire and Ilana will have at least one more meeting with Jack. It’s all coming together, the only question now is “For what?”
If they really are both (Claire and Sayid) dead and resurrected by Smokey’s black magic, they’re probably not getting off the Island. But perhaps their souls can be redeemed by sacrificing themselves for the others. I’m guessing Sayid in particular is going to sacrifice himself to save Jack or one of the other candidates at some point.
Locke’s going to walk again, for certain. And now it seems that the sole purpose of Desmond running Locke over was so that Jack could operate on him. Will this merely help both Jack and Locke remember or is it something more powerful than that. In the first few seasons, Locke’s wheelchair came to represent everything that was pathetic and futile about his life. Does it also carry a greater significance here?
But all of these “don’t talk to him” instances seem to indicate it might be something more. Can Smokey plant the seeds of infection through his voice? Is that how the evil spreads throughout the world? If so, Jack might be in a world of trouble if he’s going to be buddy-buddy with Smokey for the rest of the show.
Judging from Tina Fey’s actions this episode, Widmore seems just a wee bit desperate to get Desmond back. Now this implies either 1) that Widmore doesn’t think Desmond knows what he has to do yet or 2) Widmore thinks he has no chance of stopping Smokey without Desmond.
And I think we’re going to see a Smokey rampage in an episode or two. But ironically, there is someone on Hydra Island with a weapon that might be able to hold Smokey at bay: Hurley, and his pouch of Jacob’s ashes. Widmore might have been unwittingly handed the best weapon remaining on the Island… if he doesn’t shoot Hurley first.
he real question is where did Desmond go, since I imagine Sayid also helped him out of the well.Presuming he knows what Widmore needs him to do, I imagine he’s heading towards one of the pockets of EM on the Island. If he doesn’t know, he heading back to Widmore… on Hydra Island… where Smokey’s heading. That would be bad. Methinks Desmond knows better than that. I expect to see Desmond at a new DHARMA station in an episode or two and I’m guessing Charles is going to try and meet him there.
Jack is now a full-on island convert. In a conversation with Sawyer, Jack whips out all of Locke’s old talking points: “the island isn’t done with us” and “we have a purpose” and destiny and fate and “hey, those Apollo Bars aren’t so bad,” etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. And, most interesting, Jack also understand that Flocke should not leave the island. I imagine that’ll hinder their budding bromance.
Last week it seemed, at least for a moment, that Desmond actually thought he was talking to John Locke. But when he asks Sayid in this episode what he was offered in return for being Flocke’s wet work guy, it was clear to me that Des is fully aware Locke isn’t Locke anymore. And that casts some interesting perspective on Desmond’s alternate universe actions. I’m guessing vengeance was not his motivation for running down Alt Locke
The alternate timeline was labyrinthine in this episode, but the chess pieces are clearly moving into place for some sort of cross-timeline reveal. Here’s where the players currently stand:Jack and Claire — He briefly crossed paths with Claire at Ilana’s law office, but he had to run off to repair Locke’s dural sac. And we know Jack’s a dural sac master thanks to his history of nicking and fixing those buggers.Locke — On the operating table with Jack hovering over him.
Sun and Jin — When Sun was closest to death (thanks to the bullet in her gut) she actually recognized Locke. But now that she and her unborn child are both safe, her knowledge of the alternate timeline appears to have subsided. But if she follows the trajectory established with Alt Charlie, Alt Desmond, Alt Hurley and Alt Libby, she’ll have residual memories of the island. Jin, on the other hand, doesn’t appear to have any island knowledge at this point.
Sawyer, Miles and Sayid — The grisly doings in that restaurant kitchen catch the attention of Sawyer and Miles. They track down Sayid and use guns and a garden hose to snatch him.
Kate — Sawyer arrested her, then he flirted with her, then he left her handcuffed to a chair in the police station.
Desmond — His cupid act is getting a little creepy, now. He somehow lures Claire to his attorney’s office, which is super convenient because Ilana (Des’ lawyer) was looking for her. I’m not sure what Desmond’s next move will be, but he might want to tone the act down a bit.
Missing / unaccounted for — Charlie, Faraday, Charlotte, Penny, Minkowski, Boone, Hurley and Libby aren’t seen in this episode’s alt-timeline scenes. Ben makes a brief cameo in Locke’s ambulance, and it would seem he’s at or near the hospital where Locke was taken.
The mystery of Juliet’s outrigger victim remains unsolved. It initially seemed like someone on Sawyer’s crew would take a time bullet en route to Hydra island, but that theory fizzled when the sailboat came into play. Now, I’m concerned we’ll never know who was firing / fired upon or we’ll see Bernard take one right between the eyes. (22-25 from the Lost Blog)
“Everybody Loves Hugo” is the 12th episode in Season 6 of Lost and the 115th produced hour of the series as a whole. It was originally broadcast on April 13, 2010. Hurley agonizes over what the group’s next move should be, while Locke deals with a new arrival in his camp.
So the BIG reveal of the episode was that the whispers are actually the ghosts of people who are stuck on the island and are unable to move on to Heaven because of something they did. Which means… THE ISLAND IS A PURGATORY. Not for those on the plane, but it’s a purgatory nonetheless.
I posted something last night about how so much of Lost comes down to love, but I also believe that entwined with the notion of love is the idea of connection, as I said in that post. Connections are so vital to Lost – the connections people had before they go on the plane; connections to each other on the island that they created there; connections that they failed to actually make because they didn’t talk to one another; connections that were lost when the groups split up – and it’s when these four men have a real, definite connection to the other person that they’re able to break through.
Speaking of which, now Miles, Charlotte, and Daniel are all connected to the museum. Will it actually play a role in anything in this sideways world? Will we have an episode where we actually see this museum? Will there be any ancient relics of anything like, oh, I don’t know, a Tawaret statue?
Smokey is becoming more and more like Locke every day. His “oh, this old piece of wood? Why… I’m just a-gonna whittle this baby until it speaks to me and tells me if I need to make a spear or a tiny wooden ornament of an old lady in a rocking chair that I can put on my mantle” was something Locke would have said.
Who was the other boy that Smokey saw in the jungle with Des? It’s interesting that both Sawyer and Desmond have also seen the boys with him. Could THAT one be the Man in Black when he was a kid, and the blonde one was Jacob? Or vice versa? Smokey tried to chase down the blonde one, but just waved this one off with a dismissive flick of his hand, which was interesting. (1-5 from Nik at Nite)
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The ending of the episode totally shocked me. At first I thought Desmond was simply trying to shake Locke’s memory loose, but 1) Desmond hit Locke a wee bit too hard to just be trying to jog his memory and 2) he certainly didn’t have to do that to Hurley to get his brain moving. So why kill Locke?The most obvious answer is that Alt Locke is really Alt Smokey who, like all of the other Losties, has lost his memory in this pocket universe as well. If this is true (which it very well may not be – maybe Locke needs to die to collapse the pocket universe or something)
And Desmond was almost certainly lying when he told Smokey he was “John Locke” – I think Desmond knew exactly what Smokey really was. In fact, since Desmond’s Alt trip, both versions of Desmond seem to have complete awareness of what’s going on, which partially makes me think Desmond wanted to get thrown down the well knowing that 1) he’d survive and 2) there may be a pocket of EM energy down there. Note that the well Smokey threw Locke down was not the Orchid well. There’s no Donkey Wheel down there for Desmond to turn.
Looking back at some of Lostpedia’s whisper transcripts, it does seem that the spirits can interact somewhat, talking to each other while they observe the living people on the Island. But it’s kinda weird that Michael told Hurley to tell Libby he’s sorry if he sees her. After all, if Hurley sees her wouldn’t that suggest she’s trapped on the Island just like Michael?
When Hurley went through Ilana’s belongings, he grabbed a drawstring bag, which is probably the one Ilana filled with Jacob’s ashes back in LA X. Is the reason Hurley suggested that everyone go see Smokey because he’s planning to try and trap him a different way? If so, suddenly Hurley’s decision to travel to Locke makes a lot more sense. I do kinda wish he had said to Jack “I have a plan” or something, but I’m betting we’ll see those ashes in action sometime in the near future. (6-9 from Mistaking Confidence For Fate)
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The whispers are very similar. I think they appear right before the Others and the Smoke Monster because the dead people wish to warn the heroes of the coming danger.
Flocke intended to get rid of Desmond. He recognizes the potential for Mr. Electromagnetism to be a thorn in his side, possibly because MIB has something to do with the electromagnetism. Long have I thought that the Smoke Monster form might be a sort of energy pocket in and of itself. But because Desmond is special, the only way to dispose of him is to throw him into a pocket.
Desmond meets up with Hurley at Mr. Clucks, trying to nudge him to pursue Libby. We of course already know that Desmond has a hidden agenda of getting the 815 passengers to remember their other lives. Wasn’t it funny that he was order number 42? In addition to being one of the numbers, 42 is the answer to “Life, the Universe, and Everything” in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy universe.
I’m assuming John will pull through, and that the accident might trigger John’s other memories, as it did for Charlie and Desmond during near-death experiences. I also wonder if Desmond could have planned the accident enough to know that John would be taken to Jack’s hospital, and that the two of them interacting might bring on the flashes. So I’m excited to see what comes next for John, but come on Desmond, did you have to run him over that hard?
He’ll probably die on the operating table. Or better yet, Jack will revive him just long enough to tell him that his life is a lie. Then the alternate reality will disappear, and John will go back to being a dead failure whose form is possessed by a mocking, evil entity. (10-14 from Robz888 at DarkUFO)
Remember how happy Tom Hanks was in the movie Castaway after he finally made fire on the beach? He pranced around saying “FIRE! I HAVE MADE FIRE!!” You remember, you know you do! That’s how I felt on a cold, rainy, windy Sunday morning after running my first 1/2 marathon! I wanted to prance around yelling “I JUST RAN 13.1 MILES! IN THE WIND! AND IN THE RAIN! ON THE OCEAN!”, but my legs were a little too wobbly to be doing any prancing!
I started seriously running last summer and set the Santa Cruz 1/2 Marathon as my main goal. I can’t believe it has already come and gone! I have to say it was pretty awesome, right up there with climbing Half Dome in Yosemite. The route was AMAZINGLY spectacular. I’d say that about 9 of those 13 miles were right along the coast line, with the ocean right below you, hitting the rocks and spraying you as you ran by. There were some pretty knarly hills as well, but those didn’t dominate the course.
I was a little surprised at how many people were there to run the race! The announcers said that there were over 4600 people registered. I think half of the runners ran the 1/2 marathon and the other half ran the 10K. The start line was right next to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk and then went west towards UC Santa Cruz
The weather was a chilly 40 degrees as the race started at 8am. I quickly warmed up as I started to run. The first 5 miles just flew by, as the scenery was just so beautiful. I didn’t have a camera, so I can’t post any pictures. By miles 6 and 7, I was ready to take off my long sleeve shirt but had a feeling I should just leave it on in case it rained. And rain it did! Right when I hit the 10 mile marker, it started pouring down little tiny drops of water which the wind whipped at a 45 degree angle right into our faces! As you come up the hill at 10.5 miles, you come back to the bluff right by the ocean, where the wind was fierce and of course blowing the opposite way of which I wanted to run.
I don’t think I could have made it to the finish line without having some great music to pump up the adrenaline. Thankfully, I had spent a few hours crafting the perfect 2 gigabyte playlist for my iPod Nano. I love the fact that Survivor’s Eye of the Tiger started playing right at the 6 mile marker! Couldn’t have planned that any better if I had tried!
The last 200 feet or so lead right onto the beach. Those were the best 200 feet I have ever run! I just want to say thank you to my family who stood out in the cold rain waiting for me to finish! I know it couldn’t have been very comfortable!
I didn’t come in last, for which I’m very grateful! Honestly, my goal was just to finish! Finish I did, with about a 12 minute mile average. My total time was 2 hours and 38 minutes from the time I crossed the start line until I crossed the finish line.
My next race is running the first half of the San Francisco Marathon at the end of July. I’m hoping to actually train for this one and get my time down to 2 hours and 15 minutes. I just can’t wait to run across the Golden Gate Bridge!
Again, thanks for all the encouragement, especially from my family. I couldn’t have done it without you!
I was going through my iTunes library trying to mix the perfect playlist for my upcoming first Half Marathon and ran across this song by Christian rockers, Disciple. It is simply entitled, Easter Bunny. It is from their “My Daddy Can Whip Your Daddy” album.
Guess I’m filled with the Christmas spirit
Celebrate a jolly man in red
Hope my kids don’t find out Santa Clause isn’t real
Maybe I should have told them about Jesus instead
Last time I heard about it He didn’t come in a Santa outfit
Santa Clause is dead!
Guess it’s time to thank the easter bunny again
For doing absolutely nothing in my life
What the heck do a bunch of colored eggs
have to do with the Son of God being raised back to life
Last time I heard about it He didn’t rise in an easter outfit
The easter bunny is dead!
Christmas is when I celebrate Jesus’ birth
Easter’s when I celebrate Jesus’ resurrection
Jesus is alive!
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The Scorpion's Sting In The Tail
Krokus' Rock N' Roll Handshake
Kiss' Yes I Know (Nobody's Perfect)
Slash's cover of Paradise City
Crazy Lixx's My Medicine (R.O.C.K)
Reckless Love's Back To Paradise
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