The Devil Wears Prada - Zombie E.P.

As anyone who really knows me and they will tell you...Shawn Loves Zombies. So when I went record shopping and noticed that The Devil Wears Prada put out an E.P. simply called Zombie I was a bit more than excited.

First, let me say that I am a sucker for free bonus stuff with music and this E.P. provided another little trinket for my amusement; The Devil Wears Prada in a Zombie comic book. It's nothing groundbreaking, the plot revolves around the band attempting to upload their E.P. to a computer and the only thing standing between them and that are a few hundred zombies. Not going to win many awards but, hey it was free, so kudos for that.

As far as the record its self goes something caught my eye...no silly song titles. The Devil Wears Prada is know for silly song titles (I Hate Buffering and Dogs Can Grow Beards All Over to just name a couple) but all the song titles on Zombie are words like Escape and Outbreak...and then I realized that this was a concept E.P. documenting a full zombie apocalypse. Awesome Idea...my second Kudos to the band.

The music is exactly what you would expect from The Devil Wears Prada, hard, fast and abrasive metal. In all honesty this E.P. has some of their hardest hitting songs to date. One thing I love about these songs are the samples. A lot of bands attempt to be hip and use samples in their records but some bands just don"t know when to stop....The Devil Wears Prada is NOT one of those bands. The sampling is near perfect; the gun shots at the end of Revive are a great touch.


If you like metal and you like zombies this E.P. Is a no brainier, get it now. The only fault I can find with the Zombie E.P. is that it is way to short. You really start getting into this world they have created for you and your suddenly jerked out (By an INTENSE breakdown...so I guess getting jerked out isn't all that bad)

Where Saints Roam/Cheap Thrills Cost the Most 7" - Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster

For thoes of you that don't know Maylene & The Sons Of Disaster...shame on you. The band is fronted by Dallas Taylor, who was the original singer for the Christian metal-core band Underoath. Before I get into this review I want to point out that this 7 inch is on a limited hand numbered run (I own #973) so get it while you can.

Ill do a track by track break down (There are only 2, I figure I'm not that lazy)

Side A is a track called "Where Saints Roam" When I first listened to this track I was reminded of home. I went to party before I went back to college this year and the night ended with a bunch of my friends out on a porch, drunk at 2 in the morning singing to an acoustic guitar. That's what this song is. No, drums, no bass, no over production. Just an acoustic guitar and gang vocals. It is honestly beautiful.

The B-side is "Cheap Thrills Cost the Most " and is a straight up, driving, southern metal song. It honestly sounds like the soundtrack to a bar fight. If you cant bob your head to the groove of this track you better be dead, because this song is hooky as all get out.


Guys if you can find a copy of this 7 inch, buy it. The tracks are exclusive to the single. Your not going to find them on an album and they are more than worth it.


(Yeah, the pic isn't of my record. Its 3 am and I dont want to dig out my camera. Deal with it)

Trash Talk - Eyes & Nines

To be honest I bought Trash Talk's "Eyes & Nines" on vinyl based solely on the art work...and it wasn't a bad buy at all. I really do enjoy hardcore punk but a lot of it coming out today is pretty weak. Everyone wants to have the most brutal breakdown or best gang vocals, but not trash talk. From start to Finnish the album gives legit blast beats and crunching guitar riffs. The only exception being the track "Hash Wednesday" which sounded like Black Sabbath if they had grown up in D.C. in the 80s. For as good as this album is I don't recommend it for people just getting into hardcore punk. Most of the tracks do start to blend together after a while and the fact that they are short hardcore tracks may turn off a new listener. But over all if you really do enjoy hardcoe punk and want to expand your collection I highly recommend Eyes and Nines by Trash Talk.

Tri-Awesome!

No beating around the bush on this one. Sick Puppies new album, Tri-Polar is freaking amazing!
Bands are always pressured to top their last album, which the Puppies were going to have a hard time of doing after the success of their album, Dressed Up As Life...but they did it. This album rocks so much harder than Dressed Up As Life, literally. The rock tracks on this album are a lot harder than their previous work. Tri-polar is very reminiscent of their first album, Welcome to the Real world. Tracks like Should Have Known Better and I Hate You are so intense. And on the other side of the coin you have songs like White Balloons which, in my opinion could have been an Iron & Wine song. Over all this album is some of the best work the Sick Puppies have put out so far. Its an amazing album to get hooked to the Puppies on and if your already a fan run, don't walk, to get a copy of this cd.

Shine On...Forever More

The world needs another Syd Barrett! I was listing to his solo work today and realized just how amazingly brilliant he was. Every song was so simple, Innocent and in an odd way fragile. It feels like every chord, every drum beat, every lyric is barley connected by a thin gossamer thread that could snap at any point. It made the music fun, you waited for the train wreck that just never came. Syd took lyrics that, through any other mouth, would have rung hollow and gave them a very unique life. Even though his songs have that youthful innocence to them they also have an ominous feel to them. You can actually hear a man going mad in certain songs, "Dark Globe" specifically. On the surface it almost feels like a love song, but when one looks into Syd's history its easy to see that the song is purely about his progression into madness. I don't know who could ever step up and fill his shoes but the world needs another Syd Barrett.

28 Days...

All right. I know I mainly focus on music here but this warranted a sidetracking. DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT EVERYONE SAYS!!! Now that that's out of the way: Watch S. Darko. It was an amazing movie. I know the reviews all bash it but ignore them. If you were a fan of Donnie Darko and have a brain in your head you need to watch this movie. Does it compare to the original? Absolutely not. Is it still amazing? YES! It follows Sam Darko (Donnie's little sister) and her misadventure in a tangent universe. It builds on the original Donnie Darko storyline of time travel with new info and still keeps that creepy feel. There are plenty of references to the first movie including The Philosophy of Time Travel and a reappearance by "Frank". Over all this movie was exquisitely acted, filed and directed. I would recommend it to any one who loved the original.

Foiled Again...

Blue October re-relesed their album Foiled. And to be honest...I have no idea what to think about it. The original release was amazing and they didn't do too much to it this time around. They added a rerecording of "Calling You" (Which I find to be inferior to the original) and two remixes of "X Amount of Words" Any one who knows me would expect me to be uber excited about this. I'm a huge remix nerd and "X Amount of Words" is one of my favorite Blue October songs. But both remixes (one by the legendary Paul Oakenfold) fall short of the original. So is there any reason to consider buying the re-release if you already own the original. Yes, there is one. They included a disk called "Teach Your Baby Well Live" which documents the Blue October experience live. Now this disk will not turn the music world on its ear but it does showcase of well Blue October performs live. If you don't own Foiled already this is a great purchase. If your already lucky enough to own a copy save your cash and get a copy of their new album Approaching Normal