Archive for September, 2008

I’m listening to the New METALLICA record right now in Toronto. Just got it at HMV at 12:01 AM Sept 12th.

TRACK ONE - That was Just Your Life
it’s long and gets awesomer and awesome as it goes

TRACK 2 - The end of the line.
much shorter. called the end of the line. Kinda classic filler..its okay.

TRACK 3 -broken, beat & scarred
- has a good Frayed ends of sanity feel. so far i love it. hope it doesn’t have shitty vocals. great grooving riff. classic badass great guitars. I’ve been waiting for this!

Its gonna pave the way for shit like our new KRONiS record because we grew up on this shit and have evolved but enjoy the same guitar sound they started. Things are looking up. i hope it doesn’t tank.

here come the vocals… kinda ‘black album,’ which is okay. But sometimes the vocals may sound like reload or load which sucks…i heard that on their single a little bit - but not anywhere on this album yet.

On the way some girls asked me to take their picture while I was filming I said - it’s video..

TRACK 4 - The day that never comes. - kinda like the riff that never comes.. i don’t really like it but know I’ll hear it from now on and start to ‘not mind it’. always great guitar parts in there somewhere.

TRACK5 - ALL NIGHTMARE LONG
- kinda and justice for all sounding. they really went back to that type of sound. rick rubin did a fantastic job of recapturing that classic sound while maintaining slick production.

There was no lineup at the HMV on Yonge at 12:01 am. the employees looked annoyed. the dude i got the album from said the store is limited open to just the cashier and front. he seemed non-enthused and almost confused to why there were all up so late to sell albums to a few old rocker dudes.

TRACK 6 - Pretty good until the quiet part where hetfield sings quietly…its okay otherwise a pretty interesting song. i’ll have to hear it a lot to like it, but i generally like this type of song after several listens first.

I went to the cashier…

Walking up Yonge St. to buy New Metallica at HMV

(videos currently being processed by youtube)

The Unforgiven III
- I’ll get back to this one… starts out orchestrated with piano….drawn out and very musical with a sad harmonic minor sounding feel……the intro is getting long. i’m sure they’ll use it as some massive encore or show intro… then bust into like fucking whiplash or something. here it comes… sounds like one’s intro guitar tone but THERE IS BASS. My friend steve thompson told me how they (lars) said to pull the bass back 6 DB on justice so HIS DRUMS would be louder. hahahah. fuck. but it did give metallica’s justice album it’s sound. This is like that WITH proper bass. I think Rick Rubin should remix ONE with bass - that would be badass.
Sounds nothing like the unforgiven. actually i think it sounds like MEGADETH hahah. seriously.
it has some annoying hetfield singing parts (i like what he does but not in this style…it just isn’t right). so it has a bit of a reload st anger vocal problem going on. I think i’d like this song if mustaine’s whiny voice was over it instead.

(Megadeth fans see my post about dave mustaine’s live guitar interview at Guitar Center in Hollywood).

I went in, there were 6 or 7 Metallica fans outside the store. I heard one guy go ‘whooo’ and the i went in and saw the dude stacking the CDs and asked what I can get - he said they have it all at the cashier….

This is pretty uneventful, nevertheless I was briefly reminded of the ‘a year and a half in the life of Metallica’ scenes from HMV that were nutty.

So I walked back to write this post and listen. so far so good guys. I think the metallica we learned from and were inspired by have refound their original sound. I’m loving it so far - finally.

The Judas Kiss (Track -
Not quite sad but true, sounds like a version of sad but true if it were recording during ride the lightning.
gets into a deep group quick, lots of great guitar chordial harmony.

Suicide and Redemption
Strange fade in. weird to do live…likely will tie into their live show…starts with a bass groove while guitars and drums fade in (kinda like to live is to die but less gradually and with more space between the hits).

There’s a pretty rocking metal groove… this is the type of shit I like to play. Not sure where the vocals will be going….

Damns it slows down….so far no country vocals…
yep instrumental….

sound satrianiesq a bit in the middle…then rocks back out again…. cool track. They will definitely play this live to rest singing and to ‘get back to the old ways’.

My Apocalypse… i heard this pre-album… it’s okay, had a BIT too much ‘Load ish’ singing in my mind but solid nevertheless. All the playing is solid.

I give this an 7 out of 10 on a metallica scale where Justice would be a 9 black album 6.5 puppets 9.3 lightning 9.2

Well it looks like the Smashing Pumpkins will be back in the public eye, as I have heard some astonishing stats lately about things like Aerosmith’s 40% increase in sales after being part of a Guitar Hero release featuring their music.

According to KROQ radio this morning, and also reported in the Chicago Tribune, the Smashing Pumpkins will be heavily involved in the latest Guitar Hero release and you will be able to ‘play as Billy Corgan’ if you so desire to. Songs included in this promotion (I believe some of this will be VIA Download from the internet if it is not included in a new Guitar Hero IV package) include:

GLOW * new song
Everlasting Gaze

Billy Corgan Guitar Hero IV

The game has now become a cooperative ‘band’-like experience - I guess they had to really drum up to compete with Rockband’s releases - Featuring advanced wireless controllers / instruments? with new online as well as offline modes of playing this game. There is a new Band Career section that has 8 player Battles of the Bands. For the first time ever, two full bands can now go head-to-head to compete together

SO WHAT DOES THIS HAVE TO DO WITH GUITAR TECHNICIAN STUFF?
Nothing. but you bastards all play and hate/love Guitar Hero and are expected to be better than non-musicians who study this game just to beat you. So I figured why not tell you about it. Plus we have a lot of Billy Corgan inside guitar information as Vegas was his Tech for a long time. When Billy’s in the news, so should we be. At least reporting it. It will be an interesting discussion topic to see if these alt rock 90s bands along with Aerosmith and Guitar Hero can bring the guitar back to the forefront of the new music scene of 2009.

So the new controllers for Guitar Hero IV include a redesigned guitar controller, a microphone (This is new!), a special drum kit controller and a microphone.
Guitar Hero IV now comes with (finally something to get kids creative and away from dance dance Revolution or whatever crap they pump out) a new Music Studio Music Creator which allows for composing, recording, editing and sharing of their music. This could create a whole new type of ‘computer game generated music’. Its not super fantastic but it could lead to cause younger players to eventually or shortly pick UP a GUITAR and learn how to play it. THAT is hella cool. yea I said Hella Cool. Maybe I shoulda said Hella Sweet or ‘Really?’…..Anyway.

So as an Artist what the hell does this mean? - It means I have to make guitar hero IV versions of all my music and use that to inspire kids to learn my songs the real way. Wish me luck. As I learn to do this I’ll write about it and post some comparisons of how to play our songs (from my band KRONiS) for Real as well as in video games.

Till next time, I’m off to Toronto.
Aaron Kronis