Pandabear

Yeah I didn't like Pins and Needles right away. Which was weird since I loved all their early work on the first listen. It took a few listens, but I have grown to love it. There's definitely a better sound production, and a lot more heavier songs than on any other album they have ever done. Awesome for headbanging.

I liked that their underground but the downside of that is they're music may not be as appreciated by as many people. Also, it's a bitch to find their albums in actual stores. I can only get my hands on their stuff by ordering it online, and even then it's a bit more expensive than your average Cd.

Worth it though.

Bullet for My Valentine are a Welsh heavy metal band from Bridgend, formed in 1998. The band is composed of Matt Tuck (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Mike Paget (lead guitar), Jay James (bass, backing vocals), and Michael Thomas (drums). In 2002, the band secured a five-album deal with Sony BMG. The band has stated that their music is influenced by classic heavy metal acts such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Slayer. The band is part of the Cardiff music scene.?The band has sold over one million albums in the United States and two million albums worldwide and are the most-successful act in the Kerrang! Awards category of "Best British Band" with three wins.

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Bullet For My Valentine - Waking The Demon

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Bullet For My Valentine - Your Betrayal

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I first heard a couple of songs from these guys from The Posion, but I didn't actually listen to an album of theirs till Scream, Aim, Fire, which was a great metal album. Loved every song on there. I ended up buying Fever, which wasn't as guitar crazy as SAF, but still awesome.

I thought it would be interesting to see what kinda of musical talent the users have here. And for the record, the ability to sing counts.

I grew up playing the violin, took lessons for it at school, and played in a orchestra. It was my first musical instrument and it's still my favorite. I can also play the recorder, piano, and guitar (which is by far one of the most challenging instruments I have ever played.) I recently learned bass, which is hella fun.

Instruments I'd liked to know how to play:

Cello

Marimba

Madelin

12 string guitar

Yeah, youtube sucks now. It's definitely not what it used to be. I've all ready had warnings on some of my videos. Both for jrock videos and my AMV"S. I'm one one warning away from getting deleted. I'm kinda reluctant to post anything else.

I've also had the same issue with other sites. I really got into making anime music videos five years ago. I sucked at it at first, but I've spent quite some time perfecting my editing process, and I'm quite good at it now. I spend hours, days, weeks, and in some cases months creating them. It really sucks that I can barely upload any of my works and share them with people. Usually my account or video will get deleted for copyright reasons either due to the anime or song, sometimes both.

So just wondering, what does everybody use to listen to their tunes? I mostly listen to them on my computer at home through awesome bose computer speakers. I've had those speakers for five years and they're clear, loud and very powerful. Especially for computer speakers.

On the go, I use to listen to music on my ipod nano, till it broke.

I'm planning on buying a 160 GB classic Ipod this coming month, but I'm not quite sure. I've had friends who have the same ipod and have lots of problems with them. Like the ipod will freeze , restart itself, and you'll have to restore to factory setting for it to work again. And that means losing all your music on it. Or you'll transfer new music on to it, but it won't show up at all. I'm still not sure if it's the actually ipod, or itunes software.

Lastly, I still use my old school boombox and cdplayer.

Yeah, CN isn't what it used to be, but its been improving. I really like stuff like Regular Show, Flapjack, Adventure Time, or Mad. I also rather enjoy their other series like Generator Rex or Sym-Bionic Titan, and miss the grim adventures of billy and mandy.

Anyway before this turns into a CN thread, back to Outlaw star. After last nights episode I've concluded that the space dog battles in the show are pretty badass. And surprisingly, the show has a good deal of swearing, and sexual references.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

One of my all time favorite books.

Mastodon is an American metal band from Atlanta, Georgia, formed in 1999. The band comprises bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders, guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and drummer Brann Dailor. They have released four full-length albums to date, expanding their musical borders from early raw sludge riffs to later psychedelic multi-layered songs, yet maintaining progressive style with unusual time signatures and odd instrumentation.

Mastodon - Oblivion

(Linked because record companies are being bitches and won't allow embedding of their artists music videos, or their playback on sites other than youtube.)

The definition of an EPIC band in my opinion. I highly recommend Crack The Skye. It was one of the best progressive metal/album of 09, and now one of my fav albums of all times. When I first listened to it, it totally blew my mind away. The technicality, and instrumental arrangement of the songs are godly. Their early work is just as awesome.

So what guitar strings do you guys favor, or recommend?

For the most part I stick to D'addario guitar strings. Generally EXP bronze medium gauge 0.013 - 0.056, and light gauge 0.012-0.053, if I'm going for a more brighter, silky tone. They have such incredible resonance, projection, and their loud. Hands down one of my favorite brand of strings to use(especially on a acoustic). I also use them on my electric. In addition I use dunlop, medium, and heavy gauge strings. Recently I've been wanting to try out Elixir's nanoweb Polyweb antirust coating strings.

Just found out today, I'm going to see them again in May at the nokia theater. They're headlining and the Dillinger Escape Plan is opening so it will surely be awesome.

Debuting in Japan on January 8, 1998, the pulse-pounding anime series Outlaw Star was set in the future, when to be a space outlaw was considered the ne plus ultra of prestige. Earthbound mechanic Gene Starwind got his chance to be such an outlaw when he was assigned to commandeer the high-tech space vessel Outlaw Star. Unfortunately, the vessel was stolen by space pirates, who were anxious to ascertain the contents of a mysterious box secreted somewhere on the ship. Partnered with fellow mechanic Jim Hawking and the beauteous Melfina, Gene endeavored to recapture the Outlaw Star and locate the all-important box before the pirates could get their hands on it.

I loved this show, Or from what I can remember. I used to watch it as a kid on cartoon network, back when they had toonami and showed stuff like gundum wing, DBZ and tenchi muyo at 5:00 in the afternoon. I guess its pretty old school. However I can't really recall what happens and never got the chance to fully watch it. I recently bought the entire season on DVD and it's pretty awesome so far(up to episode seven tonight). It's got great action, cool animation, and comedy. Loved the endiing theme too.

Standard tuning is well...my standard tuning. I usually stick to this for the majority of the time, but do switch between a variation of dropped D or C.

I used to hate playing in a tuning other than standard, mostly because I started out on an acoustic, and it was just a bitch to switch back and forth between songs. But I've found it's totally worth it for finding that "right" sound you may be looking for. Also I have a awesome spider capo for my electric when I'm to lazy to manually re-tune.

Their albums are among the releases I expect the most every year - and it only helps to the fact that they always deliver and that for some reason, their stuff does not seem to get old at all.

I totally feel the same way. I think this is true of any great band. The ones whose music you never get tired of listening, despite the number of times you play them, or how much time passes. I think another great characteristic of a great band like pura, are the feelings they evoke. IMO all great music stirs something deep inside us.

Speaking of which, I haven't heard their new albums or recent releases, except moonlight - which I loved. Rusty was pure awesomeness.

An Xbox 360 Holiday bundle!

EASY!

All of the Ghost in the Shell: SAC OSTs are fantastic beyond belief! Yoko Kanno is amazing by default, but she REALLY outdid her self with these!

Agreed.

I don't own many OST's but I have all the Ghost in the shells ones. They are just pure awesomeness.

My other faves would have to be the Cowboy Bebop, and Wolf's Rain OST.

I never count calories. In the long run, I believe people shouldn't either. It's more about the quality of the food you eat then how much of it. You can consume lots of veggies, fruits, healthy meats, and mix it up with some legumes, teas, naturally squeezed juices, and lots of other tasty meals and you shouldn't gain any weight. As long as your eating healthy, and not over gorging.

You can't say the same with unhealthy packaged or canned food, TV dinners, fast food, and crap-in-a-box with tons of added preservatives/synthetic chemicals. Same goes with any liquids. Consume stuff like this on a daily basis and your health will go to hell in like a week. Your metabolism slows down, your immune system weakens, your liver and kidneys go into shock(which is what happens when you drink a single bottle of soda), your entire digestive tracts slows down and gets loaded with toxins from attempting to digest unnatural factory made food with no real nutrition; you gain weight, may get skin rashes, and lots of other horrible stuff. Long term effects of course are really serious issues like diabetes. heart disease, stroke, bone loss, obesity, cancer, damaged brain cells, decline in quality of vision...The list is endless.

I workout everyday, drink filtered water(non of that fluoride or chloride laden tap water for me), and eat natural food. Which is really not easy since I live in the U.S and the food industry here is well...crap. Everything in a regular supermarket or food store has some form of high fructose syrup, preservative, pesticide or is pasteurized and stripped of all its natural minerals and vitamins. I try to eat fruits and vegetable that haven't been irradiated, genetically grown or have pesticides. Same thing with meats. I also take whole food supplements, not vitamins, there a big difference here. And of course gets lots of fiber in my diet.

Needles to say, I stay away from all junk food, soda's, energy drinks, etc, etc... Also it's not a good idea to try and gain weight by eating unhealthy snacks for anyone out there with this in mind. You do want to increase your calorie intake but with healthy protein(fish, legumes, poultry, stay away from pork.) I would also advise to stay away from protein shakes since they'll do long term internal damage to your body despite the added muscle gain. In addition to this, do some form of physical activity. For guys it's usually some weight lifting. Simple, and gets the job done. For females who don't want to look "bodybuilders" you can do some light weight lifting or even some type of aerobic or cardiovascular exercise i. Running, or doing any sport that involves running works wonder. You'll burn unwanted fat, gain toned, not bulky muscle, and hence gain weight. Plus you'll be healthier overall. Stuff like yoga or palette's is also great.

Like losing weight healthy, gaining weight healthy will take a while, and won't happen overnight. Have patience, fun, and just see it through.

And for anyone who hasn't figured it out, Yes, I'm a health freak!!

I was actually considering going into the medical field a while back.

It's creepy how Ryutarou never seems to age though. He still looks in his twenties :s

True Facts. He must have some super youth cream or something.

Diamond Eyes was a great album. I loved every song off of that album. Rocket Skates was flat out raw heaviness, and power. But I'm kinda interested to see what Eros sounds like. I hope they release that album sometime in the future. Hopefully Chi will be out of his coma by then.

I saw them live in NYC at Madison square garden along with Mastodon, and Alice in Chains(EPIC concert BTW). They totally rocked! They were so intense, and started a gigantic mosh pit. They finished off with 7 words, and it was quite brutal.

From Last F.M

Plastic Tree is an alternative rock band from Japan that was formed in December 1993 by Arimura Ryutaro and Hasegawa Tadashi. Since then, the line-up has changed a few times before settling on Ryutaro on vocals, Tadashi on bass, Nakayama Akira on guitar and Satou Kenken on drums.

Ryutaro and Tadashi wanted to combine two words to form the band name; something artificial and something natural. After trying a few combinations, they decided on ‘Plastic Tree’.

In the beginning, Plastic Tree were influenced greatly by The Cure. There was also a large britrock influence. Plastic Tree played a mix of indie rock, punk, and heavier grunge, characterized by Ryutaro’s generic Visual Kei voice and gloomy lyrics. They went through a period where they played more pop-rock and radio-style rock music, although they have recently returned from lighter music to their original roots.

One of my all time favorite J-rock Bands. Nega to Poji, Parade, Chandelier, and Shiro Chronicle are my fav albums of theirs. And just to add, I disagree with the whole Ryutaro having a generic Vk vocal style from the quote. I believe it's unique and far better. It really suits their musical style.

I didn't really like A Thousands Suns when I first listened to it., but I love it now. It is definitely more Artsy, and I can see a lot of people not liking it. It's great to listen while doing your own artsy stuff, or to just listen to. The first song I remember really liking was Burning In The Sky. I loved the lyrics, melody, and verses. The lyrics have gotten better, which had been improving since Minutes To Midnight(which everyone didn't seem to like except me.) On MM though, they tried to refrain from too much sampling or shinoda's rapping except for like one song. On A Thousands, they've brought back a ton of sampling, and the rapping, yet it's totally different from their past albums.

I liked both of her albums. They are pretty catchy but I think I enjoyed the fame monster better. I'm a sucker for electro pop.

Fear Factory is an American heavy metal band. Formed in 1989, they have released seven full-length albums and a number of singles and remixes. Over the course of their career they have evolved from a succession of styles, as well as steadily pioneered a combination of styles of death metal, groove metal, thrash metal and industrial metal. The resultant sound proved to be enormously influential on the metal scene from the mid-90s and onwards.The band has performed at three Ozzfests as well as the inaugural Gigantour and has had singles in the US Mainstream Rock Top 40 and albums in the Billboard Top 40, 100 and 200. Prior to 2001 they have toured around 2000 shows. They have sold over 1 million albums in the U.S. alone

Fear Factory’s innovative approach towards, and hybridization of the genres of industrial metal, death metal and alternative metal has had a lasting impact on metal music ever since the release of their first album in 1992. Fear Factory is noteworthy among contemporaries for their lyrical focus on science fiction, with much of their music telling a single story spanning several concept albums.

The band has often been called a "stepping stone" leading mainstream listeners to venture into less-known/more extreme bands, and are consistently appreciated.

Machine Head vocalist Robert Flynn, Chimaira vocalist Mark Hunter and Spineshank guitarist Mike Sarkisyan have cited Fear Factory as an influence. Robert Flynn stated his vocal style was influenced by Burton Bell's vocals and that Machine Head have been wrongly credited for the vocal style. Mark Hunter stated that Chimaira's drumming was heavily influenced by Raymond Herrera. Other bands that have Fear Factory in their liner notes include Disturbed, Static-X & Coal Chamber.

Modern bands such as Mnemic, Scarve, Sybreed, Threat Signal, and Last Scene Ends contain significant influences of the band’s technique and have also credited a substantial debt of gratitude to the band. Peter Tägtgren of Hypocrisy has said that “Fear Factory are close to our hearts?? and that “Soul of a New Machine was the influence for me to start my other project, 'Pain'??.

Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad stated his main influences for Heavy as a Really Heavy Thing were Fear Factory and Napalm Death. In an interview on That Metal Show, Black Sabbath drummer Bill Ward stated that Fear Factory is one of the bands he wishes he could play with.

Fear Campaign

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Powershifter

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I F*cking love this band. Not only are they brutally heavy, but I love Burton's powerful melodic clean singing, and his awesome death growls. I highly recommend their last album - Mechanize. In my opinion it's one of their best albums, and was easily one of the best metal albums of 2010.

Hello all. It's been well over a year since I've been here. I've missed the site moving, and not to mention all the new Japanese releases. I have a lot of catching up to do.

Anyway it's good to back. Some of you may remember me, and I certainly remember some of you. I look forward to getting acquainted with all the new members as well.

Indeed welcome, And you and I are in the same boat. It's been well over a year since I know anything of the J-rock Scene.

I 'm in a sneaky ninja mood :ph43r: