Immortal: All shall fall

This is perhaps the most anticipated release this year after knowing the band has resurrected its form & ready to release new music. Note the new member in the line-up; Aura Noir's Apollyon.

All Shall Fall saw the return of Immortal. The band went on where Sons of Northern Darkness left off, so there's nothing new, really. If you enjoyed the aforementioned prior release, All Shall Fall would be an extension of your enjoyment. The music presented here is very palatable, even non-black metal fans would have no qualms listening to this album & ignoring the vocals, deeming it as superb after the initial spin. The hardest number here would be Hordes to War, a blast from start to finish quite close to some of the most aggressive materials offered in Blizzard Beasts. We can all agree that Abbath & Horgh are two of the most capable players in this music genre & this album proves just that. Abbath's guitar works in particular are attuned to hooks; he's one of those players who would carefully churn out materials which are tasteful in context. It had been so since At the Heart of Winter, all very impressive to say the least.

Nevertheless, the purists would resign in the acknowledgment that the palatable music offered here would attract pretenders of the genre.

But music is for general enjoyment, we all know that.

Hey, dad! (Part 9)

Hey, dad! If you are about to discard your dilapidated Gibson hard case, it'd make a great bed for me...

Vesica guitar

This is quite beyond peculiar, abnormal more like it... but that's what the folks at Vesica guitars have in store for us bored dweebs.

The guitar above, as evident, features an expanded fretboard beyond the 9th fret. According to the manufacturer, it promotes upper frets manoeuverability. Also, one would no longer be limited to the inward movements of the treble-side strings (meaning: you can bend out, towards the neck edge rather than inwards towards the bass strings).

I am not bent to agree with the Vesica people but having owned/ played a 7/8-string guitar, it seems that (psychologically) the fretting hand is opiated to believe that the more neck material available is an assurance that things won't go wrong when you speed up. Strange but true; I keep going back to my Ibanez RG7/ RG8 for this very reason...

Looks-wise, it's not that refreshing, haven't we seen some of those quirks with Parker & Tyler instruments? Hmmm...

Suffocation: Blood Oath

This was one of my anticipated releases this 2009; their come-back album in 2007 was fantastic. In general, Blood Oath was rated by many fans a step below the said come-back, self-titled, release. After hearing Blood Oath many times, I feel there's nothing averse, just that the band slowed down on some tracks; maybe this was a little off-tangent to many followers hence breeding rejection. I personally think the slower paced material are some of the heaviest Suffocation has to offer & it's rather addictive.

Guitar dweebs in particular, will appreciate Suffocation's twin guitar attack; each guitarist varies his verses & we don't hear the same riffs repeated in the left/ right channel all the time.

Starter amp

Are you in need of a starter amp? Or a back-up, even? The Ibanez IBZ10 is clearing for $80 at Swee Lee. It's not a fantastic amplifier to pair with your $5,000++ guitar but it gets the job done. More importantly, it has a 3-band EQ section for you to mess with, unlike many of its peers in this price bracket.

Goodbye Jackson

Ex-Emperor mainman, Ihsahn, is auctioning off his Jackson- reason being: His guitar collection is growing since he's in the Ibanez camp...