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Album Review: Snovonne The Nightmare Bride

Posted by on Feb 15, 2012 in Raves | 0 comments


Snovonne is an interesting creature in my opinion. She’s hot…that’s a given…she has a metal look but the album is a bit deeper than straight heavy metal. She’s got this “vegas” thing about her. Can’t put my finger on it but I can see a show of this album in Vegas at the Hard Rock with crazy stage sets and tons of lights and lasers and fire and ….

the album The Nightmare Bride is big…and when i hear it I think of this lavish show because i’ve also watched the videos and can see what’s going on in her head.

Its a mess in there. This lady Snovonne has issues and she has no quarms about letting you into her fucked head to see them…matter of fact, she’s hoping for it. For you see The Nightmare Bride is her concept album about her inner demons and finally submitting to them and “marrying” the darkness …the “nightmare” if you will…forever. and that to me is pretty fucking cool.

From the opener Bedtime (a creepy interlude unlocking the whole story) to the closer The Nightmare Bride, Sno’s telling you a story that I think a few folks have been thru themselves. its this familiarity to the whole epic adventure that keeps you listening…most of the album makes me think that through her entire career as an artist she’s been used and shit on. Again I can relate…and I’m thinking more than a few people can put the lyrics into their own perspecitive.

In as far as the music, its heavy metal with a more theatrical edge…again man I can see this on stage someplace as a big play or show…its epic…it smells epic…it oozes epic. You need to see the characters in the lyrics and in the accompanying what looks like Satan’s Wedding Book booklet (with iTunes purchase and its worth it) to really get this whole album. Otherwise you are selling yourself short.

Tracks like Snow White, Toys, Never Thought and Masquerade Waltz start off gentle but build into an apocalyptic moment before breaking down completely.

Take Snow white for example the song builds up into a crescendo before crashing down leaving Sno whimpering “You’d have to be me…to know what I mean”  or in Toys, when she softly sings “I trip over toys, and fall back into my world”right before the song sweeps you up and dances you thru its chrous.Songs like this build off this albums story of a womens slow decent into what she fears the most, embracing it, opening herself to it and letting it devour her….tracks like Puppets Lyric, The Difference, Ill Will (with the awesome Bjorn Strid of Soilwork fame) and Breathe are killer and bring the albums point into your face…pushing itself under your nose so you look at all the ugliness this broad has been thru.

Sure in some parts she sounds like Katherine Hepburn in On Golden Pond…but this is PAIN man…this is real fucking pain…and i get that and respect that. Anyone with balls enough to throw their personal lives in front of us all and say “look at the fucking mess I am ” (like my last review The Omega Experiment.) gets kudos on my part.

So who would like this album?
Definitely not the hard metal heads. This is classic Heavy Metal and it makes sense given where Sno is from and where she’s lived, she has been surrounded by it her whole life (Slovak, Germany among others). I’d say anyone who listens to new Metallica or more commercial heavy metal will dig it. I also think people who listen to pop 40 music radio ya know the stations, they play Foo Fighters and Nicki Minaj back to back…its got enough commerical appeal for it.

The album comes with 17 songs, Puppet Lyric Video and a 18 page full color PDF booklet with lyrics and more (Video and booklet iTunes only) and is a good deal for 9.99. Shit she even covers a Sick of it All track “Evil Schemer” and its dark and brooding just like the album….cool stuff Snovonne..I wanna see her live now.

and for all this pain kid…I give you a 4 out of 5.

Tracks of Note:
Snow White
Puppet’s Lyric
The Difference
Toys
Ill Will
Breathe 

 

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Album Review: The Omega Experiment

Posted by on Feb 15, 2012 in Raves | 0 comments


Is it crazy to call “Indie Album of the Year” when its just Feb?

I dunno but i’m callin it…I really can’t see anyone else putting anything out that will best this….there are a lot of bands that i’ve hoped for but they have all fallen short (with exception to Sithu Aye another artist you probably never heard of, which I will get to  this week) but this article isn’t about them…..

…..Its about Dan and Ryan and their project The Omega Experiment. I’ve been watching this band since their EP Karma was released in Jan last year…this is a band that if the main partner (Dan) can keep the momentum…will be legendary one day in metal. Most people focus just on Dan cause the album is a loose tale about his addiction and what followed..but Ryan plays a BIG fucking part of this brilliance in my opinion…so let’s talk on why.

With their new release The Omega Experiment, the duo has expanded on the greatness of KARMA by adding more tunes, better production and a story that is really deep. You see Dan had issues ..we all do but Dan put them to music and with this kind of demon on your back…if you have musical ability (which Dan clearly does) you go on to make what they call in the biz as “the definitive album” all the great’s have done it…Metallica had Master of Puppets, Slayer had Reign in Blood, Iron Maiden had Number of the Beast, Amy Whinehouse did it with Black…its the one album that defines the band or Artist and puts them on the map…this may be that album for the team…

The album is deep… like I said,
it starts off with GIFT which is about Dan’s inherited gift of artistic expression and musical ability and from there moves into his addiction with booze and drugs with Motion, Karma…twisting and turning thru his really FUCKED up life before pulling us out and into the glory of Terminus which honestly crushed my heart when I heard it.
The beauty alone that is in the beginning of this song when Dan sings “We’re Running away…together” just…wow….the layers put on that last word….say so much by saying so little.

It’s layers like that last part that are peppered in other songs the phone calls, the screams in the distance, the synth overtones that Ryan layers in every single song….that really help deliver the power of these songs. The choruses are big and layered with thick and meaty fatness of just GOOD…there really is no other way to explain it. and as I say Ryan blends it all together or adds that needed synth moment that inches the hurt a little more in your face with its minor angelic whims and ambiance.

This album WASHES  you in its sound from start to end…and yes….you hear the Styx influence you hear Devin Townsend, Queensryche, Pink Floyd and newer bands like Tesseract and Uneven Structures (who oddly enough worked on the album with Dan showing he already has cred with successful artists…INCLUDING Townsend) but it still all sounds fresh…it still comes across as original even though you can sorta pick off the 70′s / 80′s songs they have borrowed from.

hang on a second….I’m thinking but not sure that the phone call at the end of bliss is Dan in an interview…I dunno…if its not…its damn creepy that he found a sample online that literally sums up the latter part of the album.

Karma is by far the most powerful track on here in my opinion. I can see a kick ass video and also if the duo get the cash from early sales (which judging by the number one spot on bandcamp for a whole day they may have already)…needs a PR company to push it hard.

This could literally be the track that propels them into stardom / arena status…its that fucking solid. This song has Styx written all over it with the 80′s style of flanged choruses big…bold …powerful…the opening Riff makes Devin T proud i’m sure but its that damn chorus man…WOWIE. thinking about it again…the backing vocals pretty much on every track just kill it.  They are so well done and produced that they give life where otherwise there may be holes..

In short…if you don’t like this album, you don’t like music and you are simple minded and foolish and I feel sorry for you and your children and their children. Its not the hands down best album i’ve ever heard …that goes to Sleepmakeswaves…but that’s not important right now…what is is that you support this artist and you buy the album. Because we need to hear if Dan and Ryan can knock this album on its ass or if I am thinking…they are a one trick pony and the next album will suck my balls.

either way…this one gets a 5 out of 5.

Tracks of Note:
The entire fucking album…seriously.
ok ok if I had to pick…its Karma.

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Greatest TV show ever

Posted by on Aug 2, 2011 in Raves | 0 comments

I swear to god, I just came across this in the craziest way. I was online looking for BBC Tv shows, its a bit of an issue to stream BBC from here in the US because of rights. I typed in UK TV to see if I can find something streaming and found UKTV.com…so I went.

it had this show which I thought when looking at the picture above it was British…its not. It was on VH1 here in the states and I fucking love this show.

Watching rich spoiled bitches fight with each other and have to work for a living makes me giggle like a mother fucker. So I suggest if you’ve never watched it…to watch it.

Here are some links to download some episodes, find the rest yourself like I had to.

Season 1

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

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Simple Starters – Open Faced Egg Sandwich

Posted by on Jul 14, 2011 in Raves | 0 comments

A simple starter for the day, under 400 calories and under 5.00 to make.

You are going to need:

2 Eggs (you can use 1 if you want less calories)
1/4 cup shredded Monterrey jack cheese (lite if you are watching your weight)
2 strips of Cherry Smoked bacon (I get mine from Whole Foods)
1 Trader Joe’s Tandoori Naan bread
1 Tablespoon Trader Joe’s Tomato and Basil Hummus.
1 Teaspoon of butter
1 Tablespoon of Olive Oil

I did this on a grill that covered both burners , if you don’t have one…read the recipe but cook the bacon first, then eggs, then tandoori..make sure you clean the pan each time before cooking the next item, it should come out the same.

The first thing you want to do before you even start to cook is temper the eggs by putting them in hot water, not super hot water just a bit above warm for 2 minutes.
this will thicken them up a bit and make them easier to handle when cooking. Its especially great to do this before making an omelette, which we are not doing today BUT…you can replace with our over easy eggs.

Once the 2 minutes are up drain the water and grease up your skillet or flat grill with a tablespoon of olive oil, i usually put it on a paper towel and rub down the grill.
Turn the front burner on to medium high and the back burner covering the back part of the skillet on medium low and once ready (warmed up) place the Tandoori Naan on the back burner end of the grill or skillet and crack both eggs and place them on the front or larger burner of the skillet.

The Tandoori Naan i am talking about btw is the small sorta oval Naan that Trader Joe’s sells…if you get em when they are fresh…they are killer.

Salt and pepper the eggs while they cook up and then place the 2 strips of bacon between the tandoori and the eggs…if your skillet takes up both burners like mine, you will have plenty of room and these things won’t touch.

when the eggs are just about ready to be flipped you want to spin the skillet around (its easier than moving the food) so the eggs are on the back or lower burner and the tandoori is on the front. Its here you want grab a teaspoon of butter, take the tandoori off the grill for a second, place down the butter covering the area the bread was on…then place the bread BACK on. You want the bread to soak up the butter and get nice and toasty on the bottom.

about 1 minute into this you want to remove the bread and plate it then push the bacon to where the bread was and then flip the eggs. at this point i had to turn my bacon over so you might want to do the same. If your griddle, skillet or grill gets hotter than mine faster you may want to monitor the bacon.

the eggs after the flipping need a bit of cheese love, take the shredded cheese now and sprinkle it over the eggs, once the cheese starts to melt a bit, flip one of the eggs over onto the other and shut off the back burner.

Go back to your bread now and take the tablespoon of Hummus and spread it on the bread.
Place the eggs on the bread.
The bacon should be nice and crispy now…if so pull it off and place it on paper towels to blot off the grease. place these on the eggs.

boom…yer done…now enjoy this with a nice black tea or dark roast coffee and you are SO SET to start your day.

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