Metallica-Through the Never MOVIE REVIEW

So, I saw Through the Never yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised, however, I have a few complaints. Watch the above vid of me rambling about it and tell me what you think below. Keep it heavy guys!

KVLTWALTER NOW ON YOUTUBE!

 

 Yes! I am now on youtube! Because of all school, work, and volunteer work I'm doing, it's become very difficult to keep uploading articles and lengthy album reviews to this page :( until I have more free time (probably in December at this rate) I'll be doing vlogs on youtube. Just search Anthony Showalter, and you'll find me, then feel free to rate, comment, and subscribe! Here's a few others that I've done:

Yes, I finally watched the atrocity that is "Forced Gender Reassignment" Here's my reaction :)

I've kinda re-discovered video games as of late. I used to play a lot before I started high school, but once that started I gradually began drifting away from that particular passtime. Anyway, I'm a Nintendo loyal and here's what I have to say about their current systems and games

Here's one addressing a question someone asked me recently regarding metal music. I hope you find it insightful.

So that's what I have so far! I hope you guys like it.

Free Verse Poem 2

Hello everyone! Here's another poem for you to enjoy. This one came out a lot better and more poetic than the last one, so I hope you like it given that this is, like, my third or fourth poem.


They approach hungrily like sharks to helpless minnows.

The smiles on their smug faces radiate anticipation

I sheepishly look downward, the logo emblazoned on my chest

A mess of lines more like a spider’s web than words

“Faggot” they say.

“Where’d you get that ugly rag?”

My reserve of defense bankrupt and empty, cobwebs forming, rot impending

“I bought it” I utter, aggression absent and elsewhere

Barely a pause before the can of sugary liquid renders the logo a sticky, putrid mess

Forced laughter thrown on top, obscuring

Soon, Wolves in the Throne Room are buried like the famished dogs they are

  

Thanks for reading! New poems will be posted every Sunday or Monday.

Earl Sweatshirt-Doris ALBUM REVIEW

 

(So, I wrote this review for Sputnik music several weeks ago but never posted it here! Oops. Anyway, here it is)

Out of all the young, suburban LA rappers that make up the seemingly ubiquitous Odd Future collective, the teenaged Earl Sweatshirt rises above his peers with his complex rhyme schemes and considerable lyrical prowess that separates him from other OF members that seem content with rapping about bankrolls (Hodgy Beats), bitches (Hodgy Beats again), the miraculous powers of weed (Domo Genesis) and other obviously cliché rap topics that are tired and worn out at this point in hip-hop’s history. Earl’s year-long absence after the release of his acclaimed EARL mixtape garnered considerable of hype for the then-mysterious MC, and after his triumphant return on the track “Oldie” in 2012, expectations for Sweatshirt reached astronomical heights and demand for another album was feverish. At last, Odd Future fans can finally uncurl themselves from the fetal position in which they are scratching at their open sores and drooling all over themselves and finally get their fix of a new Earl Sweatshirt album, Doris.

What Makes a Metalhead?

 

Ya'know, I have a friend who often refers to himself as a "metal guy" who has "a great taste in music", and if he were to spawn a son, he would also have a great taste in music due to his father. Being a so-called "metal guy", I once went to his house to plug my iPod into his computer to add music to my digital library, thinking I would find some decent stuff (and I actually did) but I was disappointed to find mainly two things: metalcore and deathcore.

Free Verse Poem 1

So, I'm taking a creative writing class in college and I thought my poems and narratives would be a good way to keep this blog active during this semester. Album reviews will still pop up every now and then, but my full attention needs to be on school and work :( Anyway, here's my first free-verse poem which turned out alright considering I've never really wrote poetry before. Enjoy.

I sheepishly walk among others in the outside world, paranoid of all the disapproving eyes that seem to burn holes through my faded, makeshift Morbid Angel shirt; morose, ugly, and target of ridicule.  

Severed from a self-made confinement of sounds frighteningly violent, shockingly dissonant, brimming equally with rage and darkness. A world far scarier is horribly close, separate to mine only by a wall uncomfortably thin. A world that can consume my being like an unrelenting black hole. A world only of disapproval and persecution.

I venture through the brightness wary of all. The drive of morbid curiosity too strong, the need for change too high. Yet, I long for the cell of my own creation. Cannot metallic salvation take me home? 

There you go! More poems and narratives will show up on this page throughout this semester and hopefully I can get back to covering music soon. Keep it heavy \m/

Xibalba, Impale Thy Neighbor, and More: SHOW REVIEW

 (This was originally written for school and has been posted here. Enjoy)

Very rarely am I compelled to spend money to go to a show, even if it’s a band I actually care about to a modest-to-high degree. In fact, it was mainly because of this out-of-class assignment that finally got me to get out of my house and go to this show in the first place, even though the venue (The Epicentre) is located only 15 minutes away from my house on bicycle. Furthermore, out of the several bands on the bill, only two of them I actually wanted to see; my buddy’s “beatdown hardcore” band Impale Thy Neighbor, and Pamona’s sludgecore band Xibalba (who also fit under the beatdown banner.) And if we’re being honest, the live metal/hardcore show is really a flawed proposition to begin with (which I've mentioned here before). Metal bands are almost always better in the studio (to say the least) and most metal bands I've seen live, while somewhat enjoyable, just don't deliver their best. Regardless, this out-of-class assignment gave me an excuse to emerge from my hermit den and attempt to have a good time being a scrawny, bespectacled metal nerd surrounded by beefy straightedge hardcore dudes who could kick me across the parking lot for wearing the “wrong” band’s shirt, which I was.