Black Mask - Lost Below 7" (2014)

Black Mask is from Pennsylvania, and they're not happy.

Artwork: The graphics offered here are much more complex than their previous release (self-titled 7"). Where the first release's artwork was simple in its ferocity - a pretty gnarly wolf/hound, angry past the point of reason - this one is much deeper and requires at least a few more seconds to take in. The sadder, grimmer feel represents perfectly the progression of the sound of the band from their first release to this one.

Structure: Each of the seven songs deals with a different subject, and while Lost Below is not quite in concept album territory, there is a strong theme of struggle throughout. The songs are easily identifiable by as individual songs. Oh, and if the end of Torment doesn't make you want to stomp a hole through a cement wall, check your pulse.

Sound: This is where Black Mask shines through - or rather, envelopes all light in a poisonous shroud of blinding darkness. I have heard more discussions about this band's guitar tone than about any other band, ever. The wall of high-gain distortion ripping through every song is enough in itself to gain a listener's full attention, but that combined with breakneck drumming and nasty vocals spewing every hatred and insecurity a modern hardcore kid could have, and it's all over. The incredible speed of their self-titled is still present, but the overall tone of the album is much more ominous, more brooding, and somehow more vicious than before. Each song taps into a vein that every person listening to it would identify with - and then digs in hard. The sadness is real, the struggle is real, and this is the album to let it out to. The tightness of their self-titled is also still present. Every transition, every passage, every thrashing beat is dead-on, straight-ahead, no apologies whatsoever. This thing starts, and it goes straight through anything in front of it, because it is simply pissed. Overall sound gets an A+.

Significant Facts: PRE-ORDER ENDS FEB. 4TH! That is three (3) days and there are not many left. Link is at the bottom. You're welcome.

For Fans Of: Narratives, Axis, Nails, Full of Hell

Favorite Lyrics: I let my anguish devour me
My way out
Forsaken, forgotten, this cannot be true
I'll let my hatred devour you
I am digging my own grave

Favorite Track: Tormented

1. Extinction
2. Tormented
3. Loss
4. Hollow Soul
5. Judgement
6. Profound Illusion

Rating: 7 / 10

Pre-Order (ENDS FEB. 4TH): Cold Cuts Merch
Merch: StoreEnvy
Listen: Get This Right Records /// bandcamp
Follow: facebook

-Brian

Interview with Black Mask

- How long has Black Mask been a band? Have any of you played together in previous bands?

Black Mask formed in April 2012, but we've all come from previous bands. Tyler, Mike and Justin all played in the band Deadhorse at one point or another, and Matt came from Indiana where he played in the band Chin Up. Mike and Justin we're also in STS and Tyler played in xRepresentx for a while.

- It seems like the self-titled 7" you put out in 2012 was very successful. How do you feel it was received? Were you satisfied with it?

We really had no expectations when we put that record out. We recorded it basically as a demo and didn't know how far we would even take this band. But Get This Right showed interest in the album and decided to put it out on a 7" in October 2012 and we think it did really well for being a relatively unknown band. We're almost sold out of our second pressing of it, and that exceeded all our expectations by far.

- I noticed that the 7" doesn't include a lyrics sheet. Was that an artistic or financial decision?

At the time we didn't really think about including a lyric sheet with the record, we were just excited to put the record out.

- Do you feel like that 7" is still a good representation of Black Mask, as you prepare to release Lost Below?

Yeah, I think the 7" is a solid beginning for us, we still play almost that whole record in our set. Lost Below picks up where the self titled left off, but we tried to add some more elements and make a more diverse record this time. But we all still love those songs and they seem to be received well when we play them.

- How excited are you guys for the East Coast tour you have planned?

We always love touring the east coast, we get to play a lot of our favorite towns and see some good friends that we've made. We made this tour a little longer than we usually do on the east coast to try to play some new places. Also it's always good to get out of the winter weather back in Pennsylvania.

- Reflections Records put out an LP for Black Mask in Europe. How did that come about?

Reflections came to us right as we were planning our European tour and offered to put a record out for us over there. Initially we just wanted them to put out the 7 inch for us but since we didn't have very much distro over there we decided to combine the first record and the second as a Euro exclusive full length.

- I looked at buying one but they are very expensive to ship to America. Do you have any plans to release the LP stateside or is it a European exclusive?

Yeah, Get This Right Records is planning on having a limited amount of those records available in the states on their webstore in the near future.

- I hear people talk about your guitar tone, and how you supposedly use Sunn amps. Most pictures I see of you live, though, you're playing Marshall amps. Care to end the confusion?

We've used a few different guitar set ups since we started the band so I can see why there would be some confusion. But we have a pretty consistent set up now that we're played on the past few tours. The heads we use now are a Peavey VTM 120 and a Marshall JCM 900.

- Are there any particular bands that you take influence from individually or as a band?

The only band that consistently influences us is Tegan and Sara.

- How do the four of you typically write songs?

At the time we wrote the last record we didn't have a full line up so it made the writing process a lot more difficult. And we were in a bit of a time crunch to record so Justin ended up writing most of the record. A few of us live many hours apart so getting to sit down and write together can be a little challenging, but we're looking forward to being able to write together for the next release.

- I read somewhere that you may have gotten your name from a Batman villain . . . ?

Yes, we're all nerds.

- Before we wrap up, are there any bands local to you that you want to give some recognition to?

There are a lot of young bands coming up out of our area, and we are excited to see what they will do in the future. The band Killing Thing out of Pittsburgh has been consistently awesome every time we've seen them, and hope that they keep doing what they're doing.

--

Be sure to catch Black Mask on their East Coast tour.

-Brian

"Loser" - Jerry Spinelli (2002)

I play in a band called Loser, so when I saw this at a local bookstore it caught my attention. Being a children/teen book, it was only 120 or so pages, and my first thought, "Why would you read a kid's book?" was overridden by a second, "How long could it take?" So I sat down one rainy afternoon and read it, enjoying page after page of Mr. Spinelli's simple yet poignant writing.

Loser is a short novel about Donald Zinkoff, a strange boy who just never fits in, beginning in kindergarten and continuing through middle school. Anyone reading this blog would probably identify with him. A combination of his behaviors and character traits led me to believe that his character may have suffered from a form of Autism, but that aside, he tries for eight years to make friends, having a blast the entire time, never realizing that most of his peers don't like him. He rarely understands that he is being made fun of. A lot of inspiration lies in the ways he responds to negative situations, though - he never gets angry, he never loses his temper. He simply glides through life in a way that I wish I could. Donald bumbles and stumbles through the first 80 pages, embarrassing himself and others, but when a crisis comes, he spends the remainder of the book proving himself an absolute hero with no regard for himself.

This book is absolutely worth the time and modicum of money that it requires to enjoy. Jerry Spinelli has written many children/teen books, some bearing titles such as Who Ran My Underwear Up The Flag Pole? and Tooter Pepperday, but this one, I believe to be one of his most mature works, because it speaks both to the level of a grade school kid and to an adult, like the Looney Toons episodes that contain adult references that kids don't understand while still enjoying the show. Loser sticks out in a weird way, just like Donald Zinkoff did, and ends with its head held high, just like Donald Zinkoff did.

Favorite Quote: "As with all discoveries, it is the eye and not the object that changes."

Rating: 4 out of 5 patches

Buy: BAM! /// Kindle /// Your local bookstore!

-Brian

Why "Willow" Is Better Than "The Legend of Zelda"

Put your head back together and consider: 

The Legend of Zelda series is considered one of the greatest video game series of all time, but how many of the internet's die-hard Zelda fanatics have actually played the original, and underneath the fan-worship of today, how does it actually stand up to the competitors of its time?

To put things in perspective, in 1989 there was no PlayStation or N64, or even Super Nintendo. There was no internet, so TV ads and word of mouth were the only ways an average gamer could hear about how good or bad a game was. Nintendo was putting loads of money into advertising for big name games like Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, but this meant that armloads of wonderful games went largely unnoticed during the NES's heyday. Today, I am giving an overlooked gem of a game its moment in the limelight. Or drab-greenlight, whatever the background of this blog is.

The Legend of Zelda (further referred to as "Zelda") came pre-packaged with a large map and enemy guide, along with the standard instruction booklet. Some of the first cartridges made were shiny gold (not the actual element Au), and in the game's advertisements, much was made of the intrepid adventurer, Link, who would restore peace to Hyrule through his feats of bravery in perilous lands and dark dungeons. The game featured hum-able tunes to accompany its simple but representative graphics. There were heart pieces scattered across the land to increase the hero's health capacity, and certain weapons could be found throughout the game that would make him more formidable in the face of Gannon, the game's frightful antagonist. Zelda came early in the NES's lifespan, and the beginning of the NES-era marked a shift from the earlier Atari-era, where games typically consisted of one screen and were not meant to be "beaten" but to be played until a high score was achieved. Zelda came heavy and hard with several hours of gameplay for new players, a sizable map to unlock and not one but two items that could be carried simultaneously. Given all of this grandeur and wonder, what more could a kid want?

The above description of Zelda describes what the game was advertised to be, but it fails to denote the game's flaws. While playing the game, the first thing I noticed, which continued until the end of the game, was the oversimplified instruction given to the player. Not one sequence of dialogue in the game goes over two lines, and each line contains less than 30 characters. After each instruction, I thought, "Why am I doing this? Why do I need to get the flute? Could you not at least make up a reason?" The game feels like the most fun busywork assignment you ever got in school - no matter how fun it is, it's still just busywork.

Willow, on the other hand, came out without much ado. There was little advertising and the game simply came in a box with an instruction manual, no frills or send-away offers. Immediately after inserting the game and turning the console on, though, the trickle of emotion began that the game would continue to pull from me, with its rich dialogue, multi-layered characters, detailed environments, and action-packed gameplay, all backed by one of the best soundtracks on the NES. The music of Willow is sweet and nostalgic, where the music of Zelda is action-RPG fare, for sure, but annoying after an hour of play, and after I put ten non-consecutive hours into the game, it sounded rudimentary to the point of being childish.

Willow is fairly standard action-RPG material; a lone hero equipped with sword and shield sets out on an adventure to restore peace to the fantastic land he lives in. He gains experience for each enemy killed and levels up on a challenging but reasonable basis. The game combines elements of Final Fantasy with oddities like StarTropics and The Battle of Olympus, with smooth animation and swordplay that make Zelda feel choppy and clunky.

The most important part of any game is how it plays, and this is where the two games stand most certainly apart. In Zelda, the player is given brutishly simple instructions and guided exactly where they need to go. In Willow, the player is guided through intelligent level design, landscaping, and only very general advice by the characters Willow (main character) talks to. The game guides you in a hands-off fashion, allowing for much exploring and adventuring. I could talk about this for several more hours, but let me wrap things up here:

1. Willow's music is far superior to Zelda's.
2. Willow controls much smoother than Zelda.
3. Willow does not hand-hold the player like Zelda does.
4. Willow's characters have depth and interest, where Zelda's do not.
5. Willow's map design allows for exploration and adventure that is rewarded by leveling up, where exploration in Zelda only results in gaining money.
6. Willow is considerably cheaper to purchase as a used game than Zelda.

The lesson here, kids, is that companies can brag on their games all they want, but the proof is in the pixels.

-Brian

"Angle of Repose" - Wallace Stegner (1971)

I found this book during my weekly perusal of the John Steinbeck section of 2nd & Charles in Augusta. I had flipped through Crossing To Safety, the book referenced on the cover, at my old job and was impressed, so I decided to invest a few dollars in a new literary adventure. For the price of a fast food meal, I purchased what turned out to be the most immersive and all-around impressive literary work I have ever taken the time to read.

The entire story is told through the eyes and mind of Lyman Ward, a wheelchair-bound grandson of a pioneer of the Western US. Confined mostly to the house that his grandmother lived in, he spends his days reading through the hundreds of letters and documents pertaining to his grandparents, Susan and Oliver Ward, and the text of this novel is made of the tape-recorded dictations of his findings. Lyman Ward doesn't just read the letters, though - he constructs an entire world for his grandparents based on the contents of the letters, and the characters, situations and locales he creates are so intimate and engaging that the reader becomes emotionally invested in each one.

Two plots co-exist in Angle of Repose, one inside the other, and Wallace Stegner's rich prose uses each to deepen and give greater meaning to the other. Lyman, so debilitated that he cannot even turn his head, shows himself to be a true descendant of his grandfather in his actions and his thoughts - if nothing else, him retrofitting his grandmother's two-story house to accommodate his wheelchair shows the tenacity and industriousness possessed by his grandfather, pioneer and mine-surveyor of the newly-founded West. The two characters are much alike but in reading the novel, the reader will find the differences between them to be a much more interesting endeavor than it might seem.

Each chapter heaves new inertia into the narrative, but the beauty of this work of literature is in the way that it combines detail with forward motion. If Charles Dickens scares you with his four-page long descriptions of landscapes, fear not - this novel combines Steinbeck-esque brevity with Stephen King-level emotion, tearing down the rough-and-tumble myths of the Wild West and instilling in their place a sense of dignity and class, blending the adventurous 1800's with the maybe-not-so-sophisticated 1970's in a way that showcases human emotion and character as an enduring, indelible facet of the Ward family tree.

Favorite Quote: "You yearned backward a good part of your life, and that produced another sort of Doppler Effect. Even while you paid attention to what you must do today and tomorrow, you heard the receding sound of what you had relinquished."

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 patches

Buy: BAM! /// Kindle /// Your local bookstore!

-Brian

Admiral Angry - Buster (2008)

Buster is this unique band's debut album, and anyone who picks it up not knowing what to expect will floored by what they find. Admiral Angry's guitarist Daniel Krauss wrote all of the band's music, and tragically after the release of this album, he succumbed to the horrors of cystic fibrosis and died in February of 2009. This obscure gem is an unbelievably punishing exercise in rage and anger, whose sound is unique and immediately recognizable once heard. In an ocean of bands trying to pull this sound off, Admiral Angry headwalks over all competitors, one devastating note at a time.

Artwork: The band has said in interviews that the artwork was meant to confuse the potential listener, giving them no idea what the music would sound like. Hearing the album, the artwork has nothing discernible to do with any aspect of the music. Maybe there is a deliberate contrast here - the mastodon is the band, and the bunny is the listener.

Structure: There isn't an overall concept to the album, and each song stands on its own. Some tracks flow into each other, but Buster is basically nine songs, simple as that.

Sound: If you say the words "Admiral Angry" in the general vicinity of anyone who has ever heard this band, you will almost certainly see them shudder. Imagine a band like Deftones, slowed to half-speed and tuned an octave (yes, a full octave) down, with impossibly thick strings playing through high-gain amplifiers, with Chino Moreno coked out and being shocked at random intervals. The sounds presented here are absolutely crushing, even the many slow single-note riffs on this album, simply due to the never-ceasing wall of sound crashing through your speakers. If you can remember the way you felt when you listened to the heaviest part of that first hardcore or metal CD you bought, the part that you played over and over and thought nothing could be heavier - each passage of this album will give you that feeling, one after another after another. A single listen to a single song will mark you for life, knowing what Admiral Angry sounds like, and give you a reason to hear other similar but lesser bands and say "Admiral Angry did it better" - because chances are, they did. The only drawback to the album is that if a listener dislikes the first two minutes, they will most likely not find anything appealing throughout the rest of it. Admiral Angry falls squarely into the "either love it or hate it" category of heavy music.

Lyrics: Buster's lyrics are printed in all caps for good reason. Each song is a stream-of-consciousness experience that moves you through a distinctly dark and mechanical or even medicinal space. The imagery presented throughout the album is very strong, evoking clear ideas of pent-up rage, some drug/medicinal imagery, and borderline insanity.

Significant Facts: The band donated all album sales and most show cuts to various cystic fibrosis research foundations. Also, they referred to Daniel as "the Admiral."

For Fans Of: Black Sheep Wall, Deftones

Favorite Lyrics: "I BETTER WATCH OUT 'CAUSE I HAVE A GUN
AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW IF I KNOW IT"

"NOBODY TAKES SHELTER UNDER A TREE STRIPPED OF ITS LIMBS"

Favorite Track: Android

1. Sex With A Stranger
2. Circling The Drain
3. Kill Yourself
4. Plastic Bath
5. Blow Down
6. Android
7. Specimen On
8. Bug Vomit
9. The Illusion of Strength

Rating: 9 / 10

Buy: Shels Music
Listen: myspace /// facebook

-Brian

"Tumor" (2012)

I drew this almost two years ago, and while it doesn't require much explanation, I wanted to share it with our readers. It is about carrying baggage; mental, emotional, physical, etc. and the idea is that some things feel like they are so cumbersome and restrictive, I/you/we can't carry on life without being hindered by them.

I wrote and recorded an album that year (HOME) and used this image for the song "Old Boy," which was about feeling like I had accumulated so much stress and disappointment at a relatively young age that I dragged it around behind me everywhere I went. A few months later, I edited the photo to use as a desktop, with surgical incision lines between the person and the tumor, to remind myself that carrying emotional baggage is a choice, and that if I don't want to, I don't have to.

-Brian