Change in the House of Flies

Something I wonder all the time: why don’t I know more people that like The Deftones?

I know one other person, and I’m the reason she likes them. So, that doesn’t count.

The Deftones have six albums under their belt; two of them gone Platinum and two of them gone Gold. The latest, Diamond Eyes, was released in the spring of 2010. Their musical style has greatly branched out over the course of their career. The sound of The Deftones has been categorized as so many different things: from progressive rock to rap-metal, to post-grunge to experimental/art rock to shoegaze metal. Wait, shoegaze metal? I’ve never heard of such a thing but I know already that I love it, and I think if I had to pick one genre for the Deftones, that would be it. Unless “amazing” and “breath-taking” could be genres. I would even go so far to say that The Deftones are one of the greatest rock bands of all time.  It’s crazy that despite selling millions of albums worldwide, they still remain to be invisible to the mainstream. But why would we want the mainstream to ruin such a good thing like it always does?

Their songs have sent shivers throughout my whole body, made me have beautiful nightmares, made me want to knock someone’s head in until my fist disintegrates and last but not least, made me feel like I was falling in love or at least reminded me what that is like. Those are all descriptions of what some of the perfect listening experiences are to me.

The story behind The Deftones is a little funny: during the 80’s, they had formed in Sacramento, California. They were only finally able to acquire high quality instruments after guitarist Stephen Carpenter got a cash settlement from being hit by a car.

That’s one accident that was meant to happen. That’s one accident that should not have been avoided, if it meant Deftones or no Deftones.

On that note, I really shouldn’t be praising car accidents. The bass guitarist, Chi Cheng, was very seriously injured in one in 2008. It left him in a coma and although he has shown significant signs of improvement, he is still in a coma-like state. With the help of donations, his family will be paying a doctor experienced with coma and trauma patients to try an experimental medicine which has an 84% success rate.

I really hope that 84% is on his side. It’s clear to see that his fans are.

http://oneloveforchi.com/



Everything is Automatic

I was at the drag strip in Lucksville, sitting on the bleachers as I heard “Hello Time Bomb” soar through the speakers. I knew it was Matthew Good by his distinctive voice, but I don’t think I ever realized how much I liked that song. Thus, it was stuck in my head for the whole weekend until I got home where I would immediately hunt down the title so I could listen to it over and over.

Click to read more ...

It's Not What You Sing, It's The Way You Sing It

Watching a band perform live can be an entertaining and reflective experience at the same time. You could be spending your time dancing around to the rhythm, or perhaps you are listening attentively to the words being sung and finding that they strike a personal chord with you. Or maybe you are listening to those words and wondering what the heck it is they are trying to say. Something that a lot of music listeners would find hard to comprehend is that they might not be trying to say anything at all.

Click to read more ...

Shelter Me

Video games have always been a great source for me to find music. I’ve always been fond of the Tony Hawk game soundtracks, but I also have enjoyed songs from sports games as well as WWE: Smackdown VS Raw. The ladder is the reason I have discovered Project 86. They play some sharp heavy rock tunes. If you look them up, they are defined as either “alternative metal”, “nu metal” or “post-hardcore”. Not to mention “Christian rock”.

Click to read more ...

Fiction: Insect Kin

The music coming at me through my little head phones was a soft and slow ballad. It made me picture myself in that moment as if I were in a music video. There I was, staring out the window longingly in an almost empty city bus. Surely the image was lovely yet sad.

Click to read more ...

Love Rhymes with Hideous Car Wrecks

The Blood Brothers formed in the Eastside suburbs of Seattle, Washington in 1997. They lasted 10 years and spawned five beautiful and inspiring albums. I really wish these five guys were still making music together. The Blood Brothers were like a band from my dreams. It was as if my love for The Rocky Horror Picture Show, morbid and theatrical lyrics, and hardcore music all came together as a music group who made nothing but amazing songs.

Click to read more ...

Spun Like a Kite

Thinking of all the females in music who can really rock, Kat Bjelland of the 90's all-girl band Babes in Toyland would definitely be at least in my top five. Most people don’t have a clue who she is, and I do know that most people probably wouldn’t go for her music. They were categorized as a punk rock band, but that’s not what comes to my mind first. These girls (especially Kat) took it to the extreme; I know a lot would turn away and would dub it “just a bunch of noise”. However, I find the noise that the Babes produced to be just the thing I need sometimes.

Click to read more ...

Review: Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa

Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa by Cradle of Filth is the latest and ninth studio album by heavy metal band Cradle of Filth. I find it to be quite the breath of fresh air when comparing it to the one that came before, Godspeed on the Devil’s Thunder. Although I won’t say that I hated that album, I do think it was much too generic and it just didn’t feel like they were trying at all. And to think that maybe they were, I thought that I was potentially losing interest altogether in this band or maybe their musical genius was fading away. But Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa breathed life back into my love for Cradle of Filth and made me disappointed that I did not hear it sooner.

Click to read more ...

May the Old Haunts R.I.P

A lot of my favourite music comes from rock bands that are now defunct. That’s why I was terribly disappointed when I learned that The Old Haunts had broken up two years ago. I knew it was too good to be true that music like this was coming from a band that I could potentially see perform live.

Click to read more ...