THIS BLOG POST CONTAINS AN INSPIRATIONAL IMAGE

It's camera time. Yay.

As promised, here are the photos on my Flikr account. Enjoy...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/matt-j-c/sets/72157625401885076/

Sonisphere 2010 - Part 3

Line up (In order of appearance)
Iron Maiden
Pendulum
Alice in Chains
Slayer
Skindred
Karnivool
Madina Lake
Iggy and the Stooges
The Cult
Bring Me The Horizon
Dir En Grey
The Fab Beatles
CKY

Notable bands over in Bohemia were Funeral For A Friend and Fightstar, as well as Rise To Remain and Converge.

Sunday.
The final day of Sonisphere 2010 began at the donut stall, where I bought my incredibly healthy breakfast of freshly prepared donuts, more or less identical to the ones I used to get at carboot sales when I was younger and believe me, it was great being leant against a rail, eating donuts for breakfast whilst watching Karnivool rocking out on stage. James was pretty impressed with them, and so was I, I had listened to them briefly before but seeing them live was cool - And it was something I would have originally missed as the band were previously billed to perform in Bohemia but obviously moved up at the last minute.
As they were only opening the festival, it was obvious that they wouldn't be on for long - I believe they had as little as 30 minutes on stage before Saturn openers CKY came on. They were okay, James appreciated them more than I did but then they were around when he was proper into this genre years ago and I wasn't - Sadly, I didn't get to see much of them as I spent most of their set waiting to be served with an Iron Maiden t-shirt at the official merch stall, and you know you're being ripped off when you've spent nearly £50 in one weekend just buying three t-shirts.

I believe the next band we saw was Skindred. Having seen them during Sonisphere 2009, I wasn't overly fussed about seeing them again but I'm glad I did - Out of all the bands that weekend, I think Skindred had the best crowd interaction, with Benji Webbe trying to launch some crowd reaction competitiveness betwen the right and left hand sides of the audience.
I personally don't rate Skindred much but in terms of bringing something new to the table, I do - Who'd have thought of blending metal with reggae? Two completely different genres.

When they had finished, we decided to head back to the camp for a bit as there wasn't many good bands coming on in the mean time. I admit I don't really like Slayer, I don't like Dir En Grey and I certainly don't like Bring Me The Horizon and all three bands were booked to play in the next few slots.

We went to the camp to chill before emerging again to try and get into the Bohemia tent to see comedian Sean Hughes - but it being completely packed and the increased aroma of unwashed metal festival participator filling the air, we decided to duck out which was a shame - This was one of the last times he would perform in such an intimate environment as he was about to hit the big time. We then had a browse around the stalls and went back to the camp for a sit down. It was nearly for the highlight of James' weekend - Alice In Chains.

When they came on, Alice In Chains were great from the word go. They'd really advanced in such a short space of time; having seen them back at Sonisphere 2009 when they were about to release their first album with new frontman William Duvalle, filling in for the late Layne Stayley. It was great to see them again, and I imagine it must have been great for James. He'd grown up listening to bands like Faith No More and Alice In Chains, and he'd always wanted to see them, and to be a part of that was awesome. He's a great guy.

When Alice finished their set, we had a change of plan. We had a good spot, and we didn't want to give it up. It would be extremely hard to regain if we left it to see The Cult, so I had to sacrifice an opportunity to see them live in order to watch Iron Maiden. It was a hard decision as I'd just got into The Cult, but with Maiden being one of my all time favourites and the big headliners of Sonisphere 2010 - I had to see them. I couldn't pass them up. So we stayed there waiting until Pendulum made an appearance.



When they finally came on, Pendulum really got the crowd going. It was non-stop, people were actually dancing to their songs which was surprising for a metal festival - Sure, Pendulum are influenced by metal, but they're more DnB than anything else. A lot of their music is played on Radio One. I've only heard two metal songs on that, and that's Chop Suey! by System of a Down and Begging For Mercy by Bullet For My Valentine.

Pendulum were very good. They were perhaps one of the better bands at the festival, and I am so happy I got an opportunity to see them, but what amazed me the most about them was the fact that, not only did they have such a good set, and the crowd were surprisingly very good, but the band actually made something happen that none of us were expecting. It's strange really, what one man can do at a special appearence to a live gig, especially if your name is Anders Friden. Yes. THE Anders Friden, the same frontman from In Flames was present, and appeared on stage to help Pendulum perform Self vs Self. I am telling you now, when this man got started, the crowd went crazy. His singing is very intense, maybe moreso live than on recorded CD, and during the introduction to Self Vs Self, Friden held a scream for what felt like 10 seconds. The man is an animal, I swear to god. I am a huge fan of both Pendulum and In Flames, and seeing them both together... It was fantastic. It was just a huge shame about the large amount of flags that not only were blocking the view of the stage, but the screens as well so it was very difficult to get a glimpse of what was happening, let alone take pics - Otherwise I would have done this.

Anyway - On with the show... When Pendulum finished up, we waited at the same spot for a while, had a sit down next to the railing. It was nearly time for Iron Maiden to make their Sonisphere UK debut, and I was excited. I had heard rumours, that 'Maiden were going to be playing alot of their newer songs, which had me a bit worried, with it being my first time seeing the band, I would have liked to hear a lot of their classics which, I'm sure I'm not alone with, but we'd just have to wait and see. The sky was growing darker, the gathering crowd getting restless and for those who had camped at the front of the Apollo all day, so they could be just that little bit closer to the heavy metal legends themselves, it was about to pay off. The curtain that had fallen some while earlier on-stage lifted, and we were greeted by an eclectic lightshow, with dramatic music, reminescent of something from the original Star Wars films, with a hint of Masters Of The Universe beginning to play on the stage speakers as the crowd went nuts. The screens were showing star constellations, nebulas, gas clouds, anything space related and as the stars on the screen wheeled forward, the flashing red lights lights got faster as the intro music reached it's climax, and ended.

We were met with a very brief silence before the opening to The Wickerman sounded, reminding us that Iron Maiden had landed at Sonisphere. The guitarists wandered onto the stage, before frontman Bruce Dickinson legged it on there, leaping at a height which you wouldn't expect for a man his age to even come close to. Here he was, a man of 52 years of age, running and jumping around the stage like a man of half his years. Don't believe me? Here's the video which was kindly uploaded by a user named "EroticSludge" on Youtube.




So yeah, I think that video sums their intro up rather nicely. You may remember me typing earlier that I was worried about the band playing a lot of their newer songs rather than the older, more well known tracks. Sadly, this was the case, but Dickinson later spoke to the crowd, announcing that the festival was completely sold out, not a single ticket was left and that we were "All packed together like sardines". He also addressed the crowd regarding the kind of songs they would perform for us tonight, and due to them wanting to promote their more recent work rather play the same old songs, they were going to play songs from albums such as Brave New World, A Matter of Life And Death, Dance Of Death and The Final Frontier before delving into a few classics at the end.

Sadly, with this being one of the legs on their Final Frontier World Tour, you would expect them to play a few more songs off the album itself but this was not the case - At around the third or fourth song, we were treated to a live version of El Dorado, which was a single the band had given away for free in order to promote the then-yet-to-be-released album, The Final Frontier.

The full setlisft for their Sonisphere slot is as follows:

The Wicker Man
Ghost Of The Navigator
Wrathchild
El Dorado
Dance Of Death
The Reincarnation Of Benjamin Breeg
These Colours Don't Run
Blood Brothers (This was dedicated to the late Ronnie James Dio)
Wildest Dreams
No More Lies
Brave New World
Fear Of The Dark
Iron Maiden

Encore:
The Number Of The Beast
Hallowed Be Thy Name
Running Free


Very good setlist, actually. I was worried that they would play their new stuff but actually hearing it, it wasn't that bad. It's certainly made me appreciate their efforts in more recent years which I suppose was their intention, and I agree with them where they say its boring having to play the same old songs every chance they get to play. Why would they still make new material if they don't play it?

Iron Maiden took Knebworth out of this world, and I would love an opportunity to see them again soon.

This finally concludes the review of Sonisphere 2010, and I currently look forward to the next festival. An announcement appears to be incoming shortly, as the official website has updated for 2011 but does not have the headliners announced. Here's hoping for Foo Fighters, Muse and maybe a bit of Ozzy Osbourne, who knows... Watch this space.

For now, I will simply leave you all with this video - A teaser for the festival highlights show that was on TV recently, it contains pro-shot clips of videos I would have included in here if I was able to but sadly, there aren't many. Worth a look :)

Sonisphere 2010 - Part 2

Following on from where we left off from Part One of my pilgrimage to Knebworth, we begin Part Two with Saturday, and this was when the fun really started. Today's line up featured, in order of appearance on the line up...

Rammstein
Placebo
Good Charlotte
Papa Roach
Anthrax
Lacuna Coil
Family Force 5
Motley Crue
Skunk Anansie
Apocalyptica
Fear Factory
Soulfly
Sabaton

Along with some other guys playing in the Bohemia tent and the smaller stages - Most notable in Bohemia were Gallows and Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour fame performing an acoustic set. As we didn't spend much time in Bohemia, I won't go into this stage in too much detail only that it was always packed, smelt of sweaty metal heads, and it was very hot.

Kicking off the Saturday was Lacuna Coil, a band not unlike Evanescence, except probably better live... I've heard horror stories about THAT time Evanescence played Download a few years back... Oh dear. But back on topic, Lacuna Coil were about average, they didn't stand out to me but they got the ball rolling for the festival and they seemed to get the crowd going, so... All's good.
Afterwards, we went to pay Soulfly a visit over at the Saturn Stage, which is the second mainstage - Basically Sonisphere operates on three major stages: Apollo, which is where all the main headliners play, Saturn, which is about the same and Bohemia, which is a huge tent for a more intimate performance. The rest of the stages are the sponsors, and you get local bands playing.
Anyway, Soulfly were decent, the guitarist was really getting into it. He was leaping all over the stage, spinning the guitar... Something tells me he liked playing live. I also found it pretty funny that we were stood next to a guy wearing an "I Love Justin Bieber" t-shirt. The man had some guts.

When Soulfly had finished destroying Saturn, it was decided that we would return to the camp and chill a bit. Me and James decided we didn't want to do it like I did last year, which was when I saw pretty much EVERY band on the mainstages on both days - Starting from the morning all the way up to the headliners which trust me, if you're standing from 10:15 AM to 11:30 PM for two days, does a number on your feet.

When we had chilled, we went off to see Papa Roach. I'm not a HUGE fan but he gave a better-than-expected set, and his crowd interaction was great - Although I'm not sure what the point of slagging off "Shitney Spears" was, although I found it amusing to hear Jacoby Shaddix comment on the amount of girls flashing for the cameras recording the video shown on the big screens, even showing off HIS chest - And I guess the guy from Soulfly was at the front of the crowd, as Shaddix randomly told someone to take his shirt off before he went off on a rant about the musical abortion that is Justin Bieber.

And then we had a bit of a wander around the site, hit the merch stalls. Bought me an event t-shirt for a grand total of £20. Such a rip off, but you can't put a price on good memories, I guess.

The next band we had a nose at was Motley Crue - They were okay, was a bit disappointed as I expected a bit better. They were late on stage and they just didn't seem to put much effort in - And yes, I am talking about Motley Crue here, not Axel Rose. We left the set about 10-15 minutes early in order to get a good spot for the highlight of the Saturday...

Rammstein.

Now, Rammstein are a weird band for me. I really enjoy their music even though I can't understand a word they're saying, but it proves that it doesn't matter, as they made up for their German lyrics with an absolutely fantastic stage show which really pushed the outdoor venue to the limits. They had fireworks being shot AT the crowd and being shot back at the stage, we had foam sprayed all over us from a phallic-shaped cannon which lead singer Til Lindemann sat upon. They had a keyboardist burnt alive, we had a great time, and with songs like Du Hast, Rammlied among others being played, it was very hard not to.

I kid you not, the pyro was so immense that we could feel the heat from the halfway point in the crowd - and this is a festival with a capacity of some 60,000-65,000 people at a time. It was absolutely immense and they were on top form. This was their first UK festival appearance ever, and apparently a huge slap in the face to Download Festival, who have, according to forum posts on both the Sonisphere and Download forums, been trying to get Rammstein to play for a very long time.



Our time spent with Rammstein went very quickly and it looked as though they finished early, but apparently they started earlier than they were supposed to, or something, and... yeah. Point is, they absolutely fantastic.

So after another day of metal-related carnage, we headed back to the campsite, ready for Sunday, and perhaps one of my favourite bands of all time.

Part Three coming soon.

Sonisphere 2010 - Part 1

AHOY THERE MATIES!

Decided to come back for another blog post. I'm on a roll today!

Okay, so this article is going to be about my experiences of Sonisphere 2010, and a brief detailing of my hopes for 2011.

As you can see from the carnage in the picture on the left, I had a great time. The headliners for 2010 were Alice Cooper, Rammstein and Iron Maiden, with other performances from bands like Pendulum, Placebo, Europe, Alice in Chains and more.

It was absolutely fantastic being at Knebworth again. I went in 2009 and as soon as I got there, it was like a continuation of where things left off last year, like a sequel to a film that desperately needed one - Different way of describing it, but there you go.

Although me and James got there on the Thursday, the events didn't really kick off until the Friday evening - After, 5:00 PM the festival kicked off with openers Delain, who are like a gothic female-fronted rock band. Think a cross between Within Temptation and Nightwish. We didn't really fancy seeing them, so we had a wonder around the festival site, getting aquainted with what was what and where to find things. I managed to get a Trivium t-shirt from a stall for £5... Absolute bargain because it would have sold online for about £18 if I got it from their online shop.
Had a little wander around, and then we decided to see our first band of the festival - Turisas, a kind of viking/battle metal band. To be perfectly honest with you, their crowd interactions were good but the music itself wasn't. Not my thing. Going back to the crowd interactions though, it was obvious the fact someone had brought a sex doll and put it on a flag pole was going to get noticed by the band, and they subsequently asked if they could bring it back stage with them for the "after party".
Fun fun fun.

Next up, it was Europe. Now, I'd listened to these guys briefly before and when I heard they were playing new stuff at the festival I thought... Better look into it. I listened to their new album, which is called "Last Look At Eden". It is now sitting on my shelf in CD form, suffice to say. They're a great band and they've really moved on from their golden days from singing The Final Countdown - But they still have the grace to play it in the encore, for which the crowd went absolutely crazy.



After this, we saw someone who I personally did not expect to be any good, let alone be at this festival. He's been cited as a main source of inspiration for Trent Reznor, the frontman for Nine Inch Nails and a legend in the synthesised music genre. I thought he was one of those relics from the 80's, who had a one hit wonder and then his musical career ceased to exist.
And he's called Gary Numan.

Gary Numan appeared on stage in a very heavy and industrial set up. Lots of smoke effects, heavy tunings on the guitars and he brought his blend of very dark and bleak music to the festival. He went into some of his newer songs, but the song that stood out to me the most had to be Cars; the song that put his name on the map back in the 80's. He was very good and I can't wait to see if he does any more tours.

After Gary Numan, we went back to the camp for a bit. Sadly, that was it for the Friday as my stomach decided to start playing up right before Alice Cooper came on. Tried to watch him but I couldn't do it. It was either me just adapting to the festival or I ate something bad when we got there, but I would like to see Alice Cooper again properly soon.

The first evening of the festival came to a close and I was feeling tired. I had a very rough night's sleep ahead of me, as I was in a tent next to a busy road where all the lorries and tour busses drove past. We also got a lot of drunk metalheads staggering past making as much noise as possible, OH and the Bohemia tent decided to have a early hours disco rave. Fun. Roll on Saturday!

Part two coming soon, watch this space.

As Promised...

I recorded some footage with my new camera. Enjoy :)

My New Toy

Just got a new toy, and decided to tell the world (Or whoever comes across my blog) what it is.

*Drumroll*

Canon SX210 IS - And it is amazing. With a 14x optical zoom 14 megapixel thingie. I don't really understand cameras and their technicalities so I won't really pretend here but I know its a damn good camera. The pictures I took speak for themselves.








So these pictures were taken on its first field test (...Literally) and they turned out pretty well.

I'mma need to go off and do some zoom testing on this... I'll be back with VIDEO. Ohhhh, yes. Video... Until next time, true believers!

The Karate Kid (2010)

Hey guys, another delayed blog post. Need to post more here :\

Anyhow, the latest instalment to Cynical Images is perhaps a surprising one... I certainly wasn't planning on it any time soon. I am, of course, talking about the Karate Kid remake.

Hands up if you thought it was a bad idea.

Yeah, me too.

Hands up if Jackie Chan and Jaden Smith were the worst choices for the main roles.

Oh, funnily enough I thought that too.

What if I told you that it was, in a way, as good as the original?

That's right.

I, along with the rest of the Internet, was proven wrong and I am happy to admit it... This is perhaps one of the best remakes I have seen in a very, very long time and it is definitely up there with the first Halloween remake ( Which I enjoyed. Sue me.) in my best recent remakes of all time list... Sure there's only two on it, but y'know.

The story begins with Dre Parker, played by Jaden Smith (Yes, that is Will Smith's son) moving out of their Detroit home with his mother to begin a new life in China. As Dre struggles with his surroundings, notably the new language, his attention is soon caught by a young girl, named Meiying. As they talk, Dre is targeted by bullies, and before you know it Dre tries to fight them without knowing that the leader of the pack is skilled in Kung Fu - And discovers the hard way when he gets his ass kicked and humiliated in front of Mei Ying.

Before going onto the rest of the story, I'd like to point out a little peeve with the film, mainly surrounding the title: The film is called "The Karate Kid", however the fighting style that it revolves around is Kung Fu....
Now, unless I'm totally mistaken, what relation does Karate have with Kung Fu? Aren't they totally different fighting styles? Why not call it The Kung Fu Kid?

Anyway, back to the plot.

After his rather public beating, Dre returns to his apartment where he is told to find the establishment's maintenance man, Mr Han, who is essentially the same character as Pat Morita's Mr. Miyagi from the original, but this time the character has a different name and is played by Jackie Chan, who might I add that, after seeing him in a fair amount of non-serious action comedies and kids films for quite a while now, plays the role very well and proves that the man does have some decent acting ability when the need arises. He's no Pat Morita, but he does a fine job.

What I liked considerably about Chan's portrayal is the emphasis on the tragic and tortured history that Mr Han embodies which was only hinted at with Morita towards the end of the original Karate Kid.
Mr. Han is a tortured soul. He is who he is today because of his bad history, he has no children or wife and, like Mr Miyagi of old, he still resents violence and those who would abuse any martial art for that purpose.

When Dre first meets Mr. Han, he's trying to get him to fix the hot water for the shower, but Han blanks him - Instead, he is focusing on trying to catch a fly using chopsticks - Which is oddly familiar, until he decides to give up and just swat the fly - Mr Miyagi wouldn't even swat the fly, Mr. Han is slightly more aggressive in his actions and so killed it, a scene which I believe is completely out of character, a risky move for the purpose of a nod to the original.

After this scene, it's mainly filler which sets the scene for later on, such as Dre literally hiding away from his bullies and his disapproval of moving to China in the first place, as well as Mei-Ying's violin practice.

Eventually, the filler takes a step back when we get to one of the most memorable scenes in the movie - The scene where Dre provokes the bullies into chasing him. This time, they get doused in mud and they chase Dre through the streets of China back to his apartment. It's a fairly intense parkour-style chase which is weird to see when you have children who aren't even 13 doing it, but it's well shot.
Dre is lead into a dead end at his apartment, and soon the bullies catch up and lay into him before Mr. Han intervenes. As mentioned earlier, this bit is one of the most memorable scenes because this is where we see the fighting, this is the bit which decides Chan's credibility as Mr Miyagi/Han, and he nails it.
The camera work is quick and well-done, it's well choreographed and Chan is giving the bullies the beating of their life - Yet he's holding back! It's really one of those moments which either make you feel uncomfortable, as a grown man is beating up children, or make you yell "HELL YEAH!" if you're morally undecided like me.

Naturally, after this scene, Dre asks Mr Han to train him. Han is hesitant at first, refusing to get involved but eventually caves and takes Dre to the dojo in which the bullies train. It was disappointing for me that the dojo wasn't called Cobra Kai, it had a different name which eludes me, but Han signs Dre up for the upcoming martial arts tournament so that a deal can come into place - Dre will train, and the bullies will leave him while he does so, in order for their dispute to be settled in tournament.

That's the basic plot, obviously there's more going on but to detail the rest would be going into spoiler territory which I don't want to do.

All in all, the film is pretty damn decent, with a few niggles here and there, but Jaden Smith proves he has an acting career ahead of him. It won't be his best role, but it's a good start. I found him to actually be held back, as though he was playing a character that just wasn't him. Dre's character played on his race a bit to the point where he was very stereotypical in places, but look past that and you'll have no problem.

There wasn't much chemistry between Dre and Mei-Ying, the love story was better in the original but that's fine also, there wasn't much focus on it so much as before.

One thing which got me was the fight scenes. A 12A certificate here, yet you see intense fight scenes with one involving a kid getting dropkicked in the face off a fighting stage. HELL YEAH!

Drawing this one to an end here, getting tired so I'll give the Karate Kid (2010) a good 7.5/10, or 3.5/5 stars.

A good film, but flawed in places, but all the same worth a watch.

Recommended.

Kick Ass Kicked Ass!

First post in a while, I kinda forgot... Not just to update my blog, but the fact I even had one... Oh well. Anyway, following my review of Death Note episode 1, I decided I would write a bit about Kick Ass.

First off, what is Kick Ass?

Kick Ass is, technically I suppose, a superhero comedy, although it isn't as straight forward as that, in the sense that it has more story to it than comedy... A risky move. A comedy without comedy?! Did Hollywood not learn that sort of thing does not work when Disaster Movie came out?!
Fear not, however, because this film ticks all the right boxes and delivers a punch that would put an incredibly pissed off Hulk to shame. It's about time we had a good non-serious superhero film, and I'm glad to say that this one is the one we needed, but not the one we deserve right now.

Okay, so moving on from Gary Oldman's "The Dark Knight" speech and onto the plot...

You have this less than average weedy guy (Wonderfully played by Aaron Johnson) as your main character who, frankly, could out-geek Peter Parker in the nerd olympics. Dave Lizewski is the name and he is obsessed with superheroes, comics, the lot. He fantasises about real life crimefighters and he one day decides that he's going to become one, so he orders a wetsuit and some kitchen gloves, and then takes on the mantle of Kick Ass. As you do.

Before you know it, Kick Ass is the next big Internet sensation, with millions of views on Youtube along with comic shops and parent's basements worldwide leaping onto the crimefighting bandwagon... But they aren't the only ones. Introduce Nicholas Cage and new-comer Chloe Moretz into the mix as Big Daddy and Hit Girl, two heroes who deliver their own brand of justice against the evil mob boss, Frank D'Amico (Mark Strong).

Each cast member does their job well. There isn't a single weak actor in this film, because they all delivered... But perhaps the most surprising act in this film was Chloe Moretz, who took a bit of a backseat throughout the film but became her own in two long scenes of ass kicking at the end. I cannot say enough about how well Chloe Moretz acted in this film. She could be the big star of tomorrow... But this blogger is hoping she doesn't fall down the same spiral that most Disney stars have as of late. Fame at a young age is a recipe for disaster.

As for the rest of the cast, Nicolas Cage was... Well, Nicolas Cage with a moustache. A decent performance, but horribly underused - But he does serve his part, its just from personal preference I would have liked to see more scenes with Cage and Moretz.
Mark Strong played a decent villain, as always. He was great in Sherlock Holmes, and he was great in this. This man will go far.
Aaron Johnson was also pretty decent, with a performance that was more Spiderman-like than Toby McGuire's performance in all 3 films - But don't get me started on that, I can rant for hours about how much I disliked those films.

Perhaps one thing that let me down was how so much focus was put on the title character. Aaron Johnson is a fine up and coming actor, but I feel that his character was fairly weak compared to others - Sure he's a normal guy with no training, but I would atleast like to have seen more scenes of him actually beating the crap out of people, not the other way around.

In conclusion, Kick Ass is definately a watchable film. It's a rare film, the kind you expect to be an average film that you rent and forget about but is actually another reason why superhero movies are so well liked. It's different, it's quirky and it works - My only complaint is the depiction of the title character as mentioned earlier but it's still a great film and very enjoyable.

4/5 stars.

Death Note Episode 1 - A Review/Interpretation

For quite a while now, I've been told to look at an anime series called "Death Note". I'm not one to watch much anime since I'm simply not a fan of it but having liked another show called "Neon Genesis Evangelion" or "Evangelion" for short, I thought I would have a butchers at this show.

*** Arrr, thar be spoilers ahead me hearties... ***

I found the first episode and started watching it, and within 5 minutes I was hit with a very dark and desolate view of a world where the crimes and evil of modern society reigns supreme, with seemingly no sight of anything good or morally just.
In terms of theme and tone, I found it was quite similar to Gotham City from the Batman comics and film universe, however this time there is no dark knight around to bring fear into the hearts of the wicked and hope to the innocent.
This is a world which has given up all hope, a world which knows that fighting back is pointless. And in this world inhabits the main character, a young but brilliant college student simply named Light.
While in class one day, Light happens to look out of an adjacent window and notices that a little black notebook is falling out of the sky and onto the grass below. Come the end of lesson, Light goes outside to discover that what he's found and is now holding is a book titled "Death Note", a morbid notepad that will cause anyone who's name is written inside to suddenly die of a heart attack regardless of their health.

The book essentially makes the owner God. He alone chooses who lives and who dies but it does not come without rules, which are as follows:

1. Whoever's name is written in this book shall die.

2. This note will not take effect unless the writer has the person's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.

3. If the cause of death is specified within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, it will happen.

4. If the cause of death is not specified within 40 seconds of writing the person's name, the person will simply die of a heart attack.

5. After writing, details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Of course, this new found power has all kinds of effects on Light, as he discovers throughout the episode. Just because he has this ability to kill whoever he doesn't like, does it mean he should? Towards the end of the episode, we see Light becoming obsessed with the Death Note, being drawn into its power much like Gollum from Tolkien's Lord Of The Rings, and using it to end the lives of those who would make the world a misery for others.
He first uses it on a man holding women and children hostage. Light then uses it on the ring leader of a biker gang who is about to rape a woman, and later countless names have been scribbled into the Death Note as Light becomes corrupted by this book, and so catches the attention of the Shinigami (God) of Death, Ryuk who just so happens to be the previous owner of the Death Note, and was the one who dropped it into the mortal realm.
Ryuk tracks down Light, and tells him that the Death Note is now his to keep, and that while there is no price to pay for using the Note as a shinigami, the ultimate price is the morality and guilt of your actions and your soul being damned to neither Heaven nor Hell, but rather a purgatory-like state which will last for eternity. Nice.

In case you hadn't already guessed, Death Note is NOT for kids. It's not the sort of cartoon you'd expect to see on a Saturday morning. It's very adult in both content and theme, which is the sort of thing I like. In case the previous reference to Batman didn't totally give it away, I am a huge fan of the character and the symbolism he represents, and Death Note is, again, similar in style.

So that was just episode 1 of this anime, I'm not entirely sure how long it goes on for having only been told that its a little bit shorter than Evangelion, but I thought this episode was a very, very good start to what's becoming an increasingly popular anime show. It certainly got me hooked, and I will be looking forward to watching the second episode!

So basically, I would completely recommend this show, just from episode 1. It had a great start and I am excited to see how things develop further along the line.

Oh wow, would you look at that...

Sonisphere 2010. I can't wait.

Last year was something a bit different for me. I went to a music festival with a very good friend of mine whom I knew back at school... Now, this was my very first music event. I'd never been to a concert, let alone a full on festival, so obviously I was quite wary/nervous/whathaveyou.


Sonisphere was the name of this festival. It offered a great line up, quality over quantity and not as many clashes. The stages operated in a 'flip flop' system... Now I'm not going to attempt to start a Sonisphere vs Download argument, but from what I heard this is something the latter had been missing for some time. Plus with the solid line up... Wait, what was the line up? Hold on, let me think.

...

Okay, so the main stage line up from what I remember was as follows:

Saturday:
Linkin Park
Heaven And Hell
Coheed And Cambria
Anthrax
Taking Back Sunday
Bullet For My Valentine
Airbourne
The Used
Skindred

Sunday:
Metallica
Nine Inch Nails
Limp Bizkit
Machine Head
Lamb Of God
Killing Joke
Avenged Sevenfold
Alice In Chains
Feeder
Mastodon

The line up as you can see was pretty decent over the two days, and I know I missed some bands. I know Alien Ant Farm and Soil were in there somewhere, I just can't remember which days.
In the festival, I saw many bands I'd wanted to see for a while, especially Metallica, Machine Head, Linkin Park, Heaven And Hell (Dio and the key members of Black Sabbath), Limp Bizkit, Alice In Chains... It was absolutely awesome. My only complaint was that I didn't get to see Avenged Sevenfold, which sadly was The Rev's last show before he died. RIP.

Certainly, going to this festival made me want more. After going to this festival I went off to London to see Muse play at the London O2 in November, which was great in its own right. But I want another festival. I want to have a full festival experience, since last year we stayed in my friend's campervan which, admittedly, is absolute luxury compared to camping it out in a muddy field... And the camping is exactly what I'll be doing this year, having already bought tickets for Sonisphere 2010.

End of July is when it starts, and I'm really looking forward to it. The line up for this year currently is as follows:

Iron Maiden
Rammstein
Pendulum
Alice Cooper
Placebo
Motley Crue
Alice In Chains
Iggy And The Stooges
Slayer
Skunk Anansie
The Cult
Papa Roach
Apocalyptica
Anthrax
Bring Me The Horizon
Europe
Madina Lake
Dir En Grey
Soulfly
Fear Factory
Lacuna Coil
Family Force 5
Sabaton
CKY
Turisas
Delain

---Bohemia---

Bigelf
Evile
The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster
Fightstar
Heaven's Basement
Karnivool
Katatonia
Municipal Waste
Polar Bear Club
Renegades
Rise To Remain
Rollins (Spoken Word)
Sick Of It All
Terrorvision
Therapy?
The Union

---Comedy---
Andrew O'Neill
Sean Hughes
Tim Minchin
Jarred Christmas

---Bowtime Bar ---
And So I Watch You From Afar
All Forgotten
The Bendal Interlude
Bow And Arrow
Bury Tomorrow
Chickenhawk
Deaf Havana
Failsafe
Firebug
The Ghost Of A Thousand
InMe
Inner City Dwellers
Kellermensch
Me Vs Hero
Rinoa
Tek One
While She Sleeps
The WorldOnFire


I've never heard of these bands but I will definately be seeing a lot of them, having listened to their stuff after their announcement. Of course, the bands I'm looking forward to seeing the most are Iron Maiden and Rammstein. It's going to be so good... I will be keeping this blog updated with stuff before and after I've been. Watch this space...

Genesis (Or, in simple terms, how I started a blog)

'Evening.

So, I've been thinking about blogs for a while now... Just something to do I suppose, plus it'll give me a reason to talk about stuff that nobody's probably interested in... But thats a blog for you!

Oh, I was meant to introduce myself? Fine, have it your way.

My name's Matt, I'm 19... I live in England and I love computers, films, books... Games, photography... All sorts, really. I like going to concerts, especially metal shows. I have seen Metallica, Linkin Park, Nine Inch Nails and Machine Head among others, so I kinda like metal.

I like to think I'm quite a friendly person, I'm happy to talk to whoever so feel free to message me, comment on anything... What's the worst that could happen?

So yeah, it's late and I'm tired... So I'll end this introduction fairly briefly. I'll try to update this blog with things tomorrow...