• 6Feb 09

  Closure

  It's been quite awhile since I've made a blog post. I more or less have stopped blogging, but recently I've had a nagging feeling that I should have a final word and bring this blog to an official close.

  It's been nearly two years since I joined GameSpot and started this blog. I've made lots of friends over the course of these two years, and was getting more and more involved with the GameSpot community. But somewhere after the beginning of GiantBomb, the blog started falling apart, and I became less and less involved. Not that I ever got into Giant Bomb (I haven't logged in there in quite awhile). I think it was more about the familiar faces I knew from shows like On the Spot, Tournament TV, and even simple video reviews slowly fading away, leaving a staff nearly completely comprised of unfamiliar faces, people that, despite their efforts, could not save the GameSpot I knew and loved, and just couldn't stack up to the standard set by their predecessors. Some of the guys from the past remain, specifically Justin Calvert and KVO, but they alone simply serve as a reminder of what GameSpot used to be.

  In other words, I've lost interest in being deeply involved in the GameSpot community. And with that, this blog has met it's end. It's not that I'm leaving the site entirely, though. I have been consistently checking news and reviews, and you'll probably find me posting my personal opinions in the comments. I'll still be checking out the forums once in awhile, and maybe I'll comment on a blog or two sometime. I'll be around, just not always actively participating.

  Thanks to all of my friends and all those who've commented, read my blog, or even simply glanced at my profile, and thanks to all those who have helped improve the quality of my GameSpot experience. Maybe someday I'll return to blogging, but until then, goodbye and God bless.

  -infect999

  SONG OF THE POST: Demon Hunter - The Tide Began To Rise

  • Posted Feb 6, 2009 5:47 pm PT
  • Category: Other
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• 17Oct 08

  New Music Reviewed: Innerpartysystem's "Innerpartysystem"

  Artwork:
  

  Genre(s):
  Industrial
  Electronica
  Dance

  Track Listing:
  1. "Die Tonight Live Forever" - 4:41
  2. "Last Night In Brooklyn" - 4:21
  3. "Don't Stop" - 4:19
  4. "Structure" - 3:58
  5. "Everyone Is The Same" - 3:51
  6. "Obsession" - 4:20
  7. "This Empty Love" - 4:49
  8. "New Poetry" - 4:02
  9. "This Town, Your Grave" - 4:55
  10. "Heart Of Fire" - 4:20
  11. "What We Will Never Know" - 4:15
  12. "Home" (hidden track) - 2:54

  Length:
  51:11

  Released:
  September 29, 2008 (UK)
  Setpember 30, 2008 (US)

  The Review:
  My knowledge of this band was based on a stroke of luck. One day a few months ago, I received a rock newsletter email from Island/Def Jam. I rarely bother to read these, since Island's lineup can be summed up as a mountain of crap, save a few decent bands. But something caught my eye: they stated something about a new music video for a song by some band called Innerpartysystem, and that your ears will bleed. Naturally, I had to see this. I watched the video and listened to the song, and I was...amazed. I became an instant fan. This album surprisingly became one of my most anticipated of the year; a debut for a no-name band. But this band is something incredible.

  It's hard to confine Innerpartysystem to a specific subgenre, since they gather inspiration from everywhere. You can hear the grinding heaviness and intricacy of an industrial act like Nine Inch Nails, the sampling and synth of electronica or techno, and rhythms like that of dance that make you want to move. The vocals, similarily, gather inspiration from multiple genres, at times clean like pop, dance, and sometimes emo, masked electronically like techno or industrial, or even rough and gritty like hard rock or metal.

  What's more amazing is that the band manages to pull all of this together while retaining an organic sound, a sound that most anyone could enjoy, fans of pop or rock. Everything just blends seamlessly. It's difficult to describe the sound; it's something that needs to be heard to understand.

  So, we've established that the band has pulled off a sound that is fantastic and unique, but how well do they execute it? Quite well, given that they are a young band, but the album still suffers from a few flaws.

  Many of the tracks, such as "Structure" and "Everyone Is The Same" lean more towards the dance side of things. This isn't the problem; the tracks still retain the other properties that make the sound so great. The problem with these tracks is they, and they alone, just sound too much alike. Sure, there's noticeably differences, but you can't help but feel that these tracks are all-too similar, and that hurts them. It's also in these tracks that the band's writing is the weakest. In the end these tracks end up feeling close to filler, and average to slightly-better-than-average.

  The band almost makes up for it with incredible design in its other tracks. The opening track, "Die Tonight Live Forever", is a prime example of the mix for everone. It's clean and bouncy enough for the dance and pop listeners, while gritty and pounding enough for the rock listeners. "This Empty Love" is a quieter piece that features intricate sampling and sound design that make it feel like it almost came straight out of a Nine Inch Nails album, which is quite an achievement. If you've played Madden '09, you've probably heard the band's lead single (and song that got me hooked) "Don't Stop", one of the faster-paced, rockier songs on the album, and definitely one of the best. It's catchy, fun, and an incredibly well-crafted too.

  Sadly, all these amazing songs create the second major flaw: the band neglects their strengths in many of the songs. The band is at it's best when they're fast and full of energy, but they just seem to want to slow down, and that's when they write their weaker songs mentioned before. It's really depressing to see them regress at points within the album. One minor flaw is that the bands lyricism isn't as amazing as their songwriting, but it's still passable. Most songs are about love and love lost, but break the mold enough to escape being standard-issue. What's nice is when they change focus to other, more cryptic messages.

  Despite it's flaws, this is an album you should definitely give a listen if you're a fan of pop, dance, rock, or industrial. Innerpartysystem has created a unique sound for themselves, and shown that it has great potential. It's an incredible achievement for a debut album. I have a feeling Innerpartysystem is going to be massive.

  Score:
  8.5/10

  Top Tracks:
  "Die Tonight Live Forever", "Don't Stop", "This Empty Love", "This Town, Your Grave", "Heart Of Fire"

  -infect999

  SONG OF THE POST: Innerpartysystem - Don't Stop

  • Posted Oct 17, 2008 1:35 pm PT
  • Category: Music
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• 4Oct 08

  Two Months Later

  Long time no see guys.

  I haven't bothered to update this in a long time. Quite a bit has been going on in my life lately, and its been difficult to find time for this site. God has been good to me, and he's been working in my life a lot in the last two months. I took a huge step forward in my relationship with Him at camp last August, and a lot has happened since. At the current time, I have left my school's football program and I find myself learning how to play bass so I can play on my youth group's worship team. God has also blessed me with the opprotunity to get a great deal for a good bass plus a practice amp and tuner.

  I've recovered from my surgery and everything is in working order, but I went and got myself a concussion during football practice about three-and-a-half weeks ago. I missed a couple days of school thanks to nasty headaches, but I'm doing a lot better now, and I'll be able to get cleared as long as I make it through today without getting any headaches (I have to go 72 hours without meds without getting a headache). Then I can stop being bored in gym class.

  Also in the recent weeks, I've found myself gaming a lot less, almost completely bored with the activity. Part of it is the wait for the big new titles on their way, but I've just been bored ever since I quit WoW. Not that WoW was exciting, part of the reason I quit was because I was bored, but I just haven't been playing much since. I don't have a reason to be as hardcore as I used to be.

  Despite this, I have had some gaming activity. My friend and I completed Halo 3 on Legendary, and I know hate the game's single player with all my heart and soul. It's one of the worst gaming experiences I've ever had. Thanks to downtime with my concussion, I decided to plow through GRAW2 in a single day, since I hadn't touched it since basically the day after I got my 360. It was a solid game, with a few minor issues, but I was kind of depressed that the whole game ended up being the same thing as the first act of Call of Duty 4. It makes me worried that we'll end up replacing WWII shooters with games set in modern times involving third-world nations in desert locations in the process of civil war with a nuclear threat tossed in for good measure. I also purchased Geometry Wars 2, which is fun, and Halo 2, which has better multiplayer than Halo 3 imo. I also intend to purchase Dead Space for my 360 this month, assuming i have the $$.

  Also, I had promised quite a few music reviews, and I haven't gotten to listening to most of the albums I intended to review, nor do I have the time to write full reviews for all of them. So here's some brief reviews for a few new albums you might care about:

  "All Hope Is Gone" by Slipknot
  It's a solid effort from the band, though it doesn't really try anything new. It boasts the band's cl@ssic intensity, plus some of the creativity found in Volume 3, and some much better guitar parts, and manages to not sound the same as it's predecessor. "Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses" is still the band's best, though, while "All Hope Is Gone" somehow manages to sound like neither progression nor regression.

  SCORE: 8.5/10
  TOP TRACKS: "Gematria (The Killing Name)", "Sulfur", "All Hope Is Gone"

  "Death Magnetic" by Metallica
  Post black album, Metallica gave into greed and popularity, and stopped making music that didn't suck. It's as simple as that. While "St. Anger" was definitely an improvement, it still had major flaws that held it back from being a revitalization of the band. Metallica promised with "Death Magnetic" (lame title, by the way, but the cover art isn't half bad) that they'd return to their old ways of thrash. And they delivered. "Death Magnetic" is a satisfying album that sounds like it could've fit in their catalog back in the '80s. Worth a look.

  SCORE: 9.0/10
  TOP TRACKS: "That Was Just Your Life", "The Day That Never Comes", "All Nightmare Long", "My Apocalypse"

  "Scars On Broadway" by Scars On Broadway
  System of a Down guitarist/vocalist Daron Malakian and drummer John Dolmayan started this band as a side project for System's off-time. It features the quirky lyrics and songwriting you'd expect from Daron, but the band also takes a shift from a metal focus to more hard rock. What we end up with is an interesting album that SOAD fans would do well to check out, but may not appeal to most others.

  SCORE: 7.0/10
  TOP TRACKS: "Stoner-Hate", "Kill Each Other/Live Forever", "They Say"

  That's all for today. Hopefully I'll be posting more often again. Thanks for reading.

  -infect999

  SONG OF THE POST: Metallica - The Day That Never Comes

  • Posted Oct 4, 2008 11:17 am PT
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