LET THEM EAT METAL #12: Toys in the Attic by Aerosmith

In the days of yore, when pop music meant something, it was filled with nourishing musical ideas and showed the tides of progress.  But then something happened, the ability for it to fill our soul has nearly vanished, and the masses are starved on good music.  There’s the occasional quality track that stays good after multiple spins, but it has gotten to the moment where even good pop music gets stale.  We live in a white-bread world in mainstream music.  However, there’s salvation from the drek that the masses need to know about.  In the words of Marie Antoinette, or more accurately The Rods quoting her: “LET THEM EAT METAL!”

Hello degenerates, heathens, weirdos, and deviants.  I am the Rock Otaku, and I’m here to show you worlds such as hard rock, metal, punk, alternative rock, movies, TV, anime, video games, and anything that makes us scream, shout, and walk this way.

This series is dedicated to the best that heavy metal can offer.  As you will read, I will take you on a journey though the annals of heavy metal’s storied history from its beginning in early 70s, its crystallization in the late 70s and early 80s, its breakthrough into mainstream conscience in the early to mid-80s, its maturation in the late 80s and 90s, its dominance (sort of) in the 2000s and even today, and the rare moments that very few talk about unless in the company of like-minded fans.  Not in that order, but I’ll be looking at the footnotes of metal history in the order I desire.  In short, this series is about metal, plain and simple.

But why stop at the more aggressive side of metal.  Why not discuss bands and artists that definitely had a major impact on not just heavy metal but got listeners into listening into heavier bands and artists.  If there was a few bands that shaped my views on rock in my earlier years and set my standards, you’d expect artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, R.E.M., AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Led Zeppelin, The Ramones, Rage Against the Machine, Muse, The Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Who, and even The Beatles to set them.  But they were partially responsible, as the band that has the claim for that distinction is: AEROSMITH.

The Bad Boys from Boston.  The Toxic Twins and the LIT (Less Important Three) together.  The Greatest American Rock N’ Roll Band.  They can be considered to be my gateway drug into harder rock, and I was 8, about to be 9, when I became a fan.  As I’ve mentioned in the previous countdown before I embarrassed myself about my musical tastes last week, I became a fan after riding the Rock N’ Roller Coaster at Disney World (which also shaped my standards in how good a roller coaster can be), and I am still a fan to this very day.  Yes, the list to my favorite bands of all time will change as things get more rocking and so on, but I can safely say that Aerosmith will always be on there and towards the top.  Why?  Because, as I’ve stated, they are the band that got me into hard rock and helped shaped my life whether I knew it or not.  That and Queen, Van Halen, The Scorpions, and KISS were there as well.  And in tribute, I’ve decided to talk about what is considered to be their best album of all time (one of them, to be exact) and the one that mad them superstars here on this blog: Toys in the Attic.

To a certain degree, this is definitely a nostalgia trip for yours truly, as I’ve not just listened to this album and even its deep cuts a lot, but I’ve even owned it on CD at one point, and now, it’s among the first few entries into my vinyl collection (one that will grow in due time, including the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack and Screaming for Vengeance).  And as a result, I have a strong attachment to this album like how some fans would have with albums like Abbey Road, Nevermind, Appetite for Destruction, Disintegration, Back In Black, Master of Puppets, Led Zeppelin IV, the Top Gun soundtrack, Van Halen, Destroyer, Texas Flood, and even Thriller.  Yes, this album, the third in their first deal with Columbia Records, inked by Clive Davis at Max’s Kansas City in ’71, their second with legendary producer Jack Douglas, and featuring some of their most iconic songs of all time, “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion.”  This album.  And now I’m going track by track to not just showcase what I like about it, still like about it, and give it recognition but see if I can both check for if it’s still fresh today while incorporating my sense of humor in my prose.  Alright, let’s go:

1.         Toys in the Attic:

So to start this legendary album, we get arguably one of the fastest songs ever recorded by the band, with its fast rhythms, heavy guitars, thick bass, and interesting lyrics.  Starting out is a fast riff based around descending notes and chords, fast drumming and basslines, and a sense of heaviness that ties the band with the heavy metal scene as it does the hard rock scene, with a ferocity that would be seen more in the world of punk rock.  And after that comes the lyrics, where Steven Tyler sings about toys in attics coming to life or something (which is making me consider the fact that Aerosmith are probably behind the idea of Toy Story).  After the first vocal line, which may cause lapses in sanity in the listener, we get vague lyrics matched with furious drums, a bluesy guitar line, and other crazy moments, before the pre-chorus re-uses the “Voices scream” part and launches into the chorus, where they redo the intro with the inclusion of Steven Tyler and Joe Perry singing the title of the song.  Then we get a fast, furious, and bluesy solo after that.  If I can describe how the album starts, psychedelic, drug-infused speed metal might be a good way of putting it.  And plus, it’s a good sign that the album will pack a punch when the album starts with one of the album’s heaviest tracks sonically.

2.         Uncle Salty:

However, there is a difference between heavy sonically and heavy lyrically, and this fits the latter as I’ll explain.  But before that, we get a light, bluesy guitar part which gives the impression that the song will be slightly lighter and bluesier in the music, but then the lyrics give off a sense that something isn’t right.  More likely, something REALLY isn’t right.  They deal with a young girl having to be raised by a relative who turns out to be the unsavory type, abusing her in more ways than one.

And the song deals with the psychological trauma of this girl as she’s being raised and abused by this very skeezy, sleazy monster.  While the song isn’t super-heavy, it does have a driving beat, causing the listener to listen carefully to the lyrics Steven Tyler are singing.  And the guitar parts here are very good, adding to the musical bleakness with minor key arpeggios, dark licks, and an appropriately bluesy solo.  And the part where it gets really heavy is the chorus where Steven sings “And when she cried at night, no one came./And when she cried at night, she went insane.”  This song is that bleak.  Plus, I have to give credit to Tom and Joey for keeping the rhythm in check for this bleak as hell track.  Great track, but I’m bummed out, and I need something fun.

3.         Adam’s Apple:

So what would happen if the raunchy nature of the Adam and Eve story was ratcheted up to 11 and more satisfying than the gay reveal in the Beauty and the Beast remake?  You’d get this heavy, bluesy rocker from probably the only good thing to come from Boston, though Extreme does kick some serious ass when not playing acoustic ballads.  Plus the band that named themselves after the city is pretty good.  Plus Godsmack were one of the more-interesting, melodic, and listenable nu metal bands of the time, and they came from the area.  And I’m not sure if Springfield, Massachusetts counts, but the state did give us Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall, bridging together metalheads and hardcore fans during the 00s.  So those are a few things that are from Massachusetts that don’t suck, but I’m still mad that the Patriots won over the Falcons.

Anyway, back to the song.  If you’d compare Aerosmith to both Led Zeppelin and The Rolling Stones, you’d be right on the money for the feel of this particular track, having the raw, heavy edge of Zeppelin and the bluesy, raunchy feel of the Stones.  I’d say that it sounds a lot like if the lyrics of “Houses of the Holy” were written by Space Dandy after he went to church, and they read about Adam and Eve that day.  From the heavy riffs, the bluesy licks, and even bluesy solos to the skeezy lyrics, everything about this song screams sacrilegious enough to scare Westboro but dangerous enough that it could open a Catholic Schoolgirl to sexual ecstasy.  The opening riff is bluesy and sleazy, before the choruses come in with thumping bass and palm-muted guitars that anchor the lyrics dealing with a woman, likely Eve, eating the fruit of knowledge as a result of, in this interpretation, Adam telling her about it.  And somehow it made Adam the serpent rather than a hapless idiot this time, as if the whole sexist attitude of the church was solved by having man be responsible for us being kicked out of Eden.  Despite the fact that Eve was as guilty due to pushing Adam’s sexual urges to, how much Vegeta?

Wow, who knew Adam and Eve was the first ever porno Aerosmith got their hands on.  But if you are of the Christian faith, please don’t throw heresy claims at me.

Damnit!

4.         Walk This Way:

I have to get this off my chest.  Did you know that this song’s title was inspired by Young Frankenstein?  If not, it was due to this scene:

But for the song, the opening drum beat is a great way to get the song started as well as being a great drum beat in general.  During that, you get a bluesy guitar lick that is as iconic as it is genius in its execution.  After all that, you start to get into the verses, where Joe and Brad play a palm-muted guitar riff that’s as simple to understand in its feel as it is surprisingly hard to play unless you have the finger dexterity.  Plus it does punch up a strong bass line from Tom Hamilton, who anchors the song to the sleazy side as Steven Tyler speak-sings about the experiences of a high school boy about to lose his virginity at the dance with a wild girl that has two signs of care about her purity: Jack and shit, and Jack left town a few days ago.  And with three words, which the chorus is made of (alongside a variation), she takes this dweeb past third base.  And the chorus is as catchy as it is iconic, being the title sung rather than speak-sung.  And after each chorus, you get a short, melodic, and bluesy guitar solo from Joe Perry that segues into the opening riff.  With the second one leading into a wild, bluesy, and surprisingly tricky to play ending solo that has the right buildup of bends going up the guitar before it strikes like a viper.  However, if there’s a gripe I have with it, it’s A) Rocksmith 2014 cuts out playing it too early, and B) the song fades while Joe is setting his guitar on fire figuratively.  Talk about giving him blue balls in case the song’s solo goes even crazier and shows more of his guitar wizardry, but this is the 70s, and I’m sure shredding only existed in jazz fusion and live performances at the time, but at least you could have let us hear the rest of his face-melting solo.  Overall, this is a guaranteed classic, no frills about it, and punchy as hell.  As punchy as another song here, but we’ll get to that one soon enough.

5.         Big Ten Inch Record:

As you should guess, this has more of a 50s-based bluesy style with its groove, tempo, playing style, and class.  It’s a great way to set up a song where Steven Tyler sings about how this girl loves it when he whips out his big ten inch…

…record and plays the blues on it.  Yeah, it’s not as if this was MEANT to be about his manly assets, using references to records in saying how big it is when erect.  And he can deny it for so long.

And on the right would be Steven Tyler if singing this today.

However, just because the song’s as dirty as the rest of the band’s 70s material (and a little more cheeky about it) doesn’t mean the 50s-style musicianship doesn’t mess with the sleaze and tone of the track.  While you can say that this is slightly more of a bluesy style, I keep saying 50s because Aerosmith-style bluesy conjures up “Same Old Song and Dance” for me, this has a lot of rockabilly swing to it.  That and the solos, guitars and horns, show a lot of skill in the musicians here, including Joe Perry and Brad Wittford.  Plus it’s great to hear Tom Hamilton and Joey Kramer still be excellent musicians while playing with a different style they’re used to.  But the thing that stands out and almost ruins the retro vibe is Steven Tyler singing, right down to his higher notes toward the song’s end and singing about whipping out his big ten inch…

…record and putting on the blues.  Seriously, there’s no denying it this time, but I’m sure this was intended to fly over the minds of the innocent.  However, this is a fun song to listen to and a great way to end side one.

6.         Sweet Emotion:

So here’s a weird story for this one.  For some reason on my vinyl copy, there’s a part where the song skips a good chunk of the song.  And it’s this song in particular.  I’m not sure if it’s the player, or because this has a scratch from being a (most likely) fresh record, but it skips on this track.  But let’s get to why this side two opener rocks regardless.

First, the opening is pretty awesome.  With Tom Hamilton’s bassline and Joe Perry’s use of the talk box, we get an atmospheric opening that sets up something, well, sweet.  And after that, with Joey Kramer kicking in, we get to the chorus, which is only anchored by the rhythm section the first time, where Steven and Joey sing the title of the song in perfect harmony.  There’s a reason why they’re called the Toxic Twins, outside of the rampant drug use they were both notorious for.  Then you get the riff from Joe and Brad Whitford, which is as simple as it is heavy as hell, causing this classic rock staple to border, if you haven’t considered it, on heavy metal.  During this time, Steven is talk-singing about the sleazy life and being a hedonist, and each of the two parts of the verses are bridged by one hell of a guitar riff starting high, then going up, which is then harmonized into a slab of Aerosmith’s bluesy brand of rockin’ proto-glam metal (I’ll get to that later, but expect elements that’ll appear later in glam metal throughout side B).  And when the chorus repeats, Joe and Brad come in, playing a guitar version of Tom’s bassline, creating a sense of spiritual harmony within the band that’s hard to find in most.  Then after the fourth of these post-verse licks, we get to a drum fill by Joey that brings in the outro, with a wild guitar solo by Brad Whitford, more talk box from Joe Perry, and a kickass riff.  And in some mixes, including the Guitar Hero Aerosmith mix, we get a big rock ending to conclude the song.  Overall this is an amazing track, and it deserves the accolades and notoriety it has.  Hell, I’d consider this one of Aerosmith’s heaviest hit singles (including the hits from the follow-up to this, which deserves an entry on its own merits), and one of their best.  If this is one of the songs the band is famous for, the above prose is why.

7.         No More, No More:

With it’s opening clean guitar arpeggios, I get the feeling that there is a strong element of flair and commerciality to this rocker that would permeate the glam metal scene of the 80s.  Yes, alongside KISS and Van Halen, Aerosmith would be considered a strong influence on the Los Angeles metal scene that would dominate 80s rock until flannel became fashionable.  And the following riff adds to this, anchoring a song dealing with the pains of fame and fortune as well as going out on the road.  Such examples would include long nights, lousy corporate figures micro-managing your life, a lot of poontang, heavy drug abuse, and probably fights with rival bands or dealing with your fanbase bashing the KISS fanbase for petty reasons.  As a result, you end up with a lot of desires to just quit while you’re ahead and live a normal life, but considering the success of this album, normal isn’t a word that can describe the life of the band members.  But if there’s a silver lining, I don’t get the sense that this album is filler in any way or shape.  But to add to this song, there’s definitely a driving sound to this, with the pulse-pounding riff, the quick-tempo bass and drums, and the usage of pianos, giving off a bluesy vibe to this.  I can see where Cinderella got all their musical ideas from, especially on Long Cold Winter onwards.  And the song starts to build up a massive climax that ends with the opening arpeggios transitioning to a bluesy, fiery guitar solo that loaded with a lot of great playing by Joe Perry and Brad Whitford, which ultimately carries the song to the end.  Overall, this isn’t the best song here, but it’s a damn fine bluesy hard rock number with elements that will ultimately be a part of glam metal years after the album came out and enough to keep you wanting more.

8.         Round and Round:

This is not to be confused with the Ratt classic of the same name.  But I can see where they got some of their influences outside of sunny California and cloudy Britain.  But Ratt this isn’t, as the opening is significantly heavier, nastier, and meaner than the famous anthem of the same name, being raw, sleazy, high sexual violence perfected as an art form.  And that’s from a biased Aerosmith fanboy, but what about a critic?  I’d say that objectively this song is great.  The riffs are biting and mean, full of sleaze and muscle, capturing the feelings of the song.  The rhythm section is equally aggressive, providing the necessary punch that this song needs.  If I have to nitpick, Steven Tyler decided to sing from a vocoder here, and it’s noticeable, despite giving the vocals an otherworldly quality to them.  And the licks and solos here are some of the most biting and heavy Joe and Brad have ever played, proving their heavy metal credibility even if they don’t care about it, preferring to be categorized as rock ‘n’ roll.  As for the lyrics, I’m not sure of what to make of them, but they do fit the spiraling, drug-induced feel of the track.  More accurately, you can make the assumption that this song is more about being in a massive state of lust, wanting to make out with anything and everything until you’re dizzy from the desire.  It’s weird, but it’s a fun song to headbang to, overall.

9.         You See Me Crying:

For this song, we get the main ballad for this album, and similar to a band called Winger, they put it at the very end of the album, as if they want the listener to decompress after the onslaught of the triple attack of “Sweet Emotion,” “No More, No More,” and “Round and Round.”  And for causal listeners, this might be a good idea.  And it does remind me of the thinking behind the end of Iwasawa's arc in Angel Beats!  The worst part?  This has a similar feel to the moment I just compared it to, as in you might cry hearing this.  From the opening piano melody to Steven Tyler’s emotional singing, punctuated by the instrumentation, from the traditional rock instruments (Electric guitar, bass, and drums) to even an orchestra, this song can be considered a tear jerker.  The song deals with the stresses and pains of romance that Steven Tyler is dealing with, with him singing about how he doesn’t want this girl he’s in love with (or broken up with) seeing him broken the way he is right now.  That and something involving Joe Perry’s love life?  I don’t know, I need to read the autobiography to understand that.  Regardless, it’s still a very sweet, sad song that does involve heartbreak in some way, shape or form.  But if there’s a silver lining musically, the piano and orchestra do add to the melancholy of the track and offer a softer tone that’ll probably result in needing a few tissues, and the guitars, especially the solo by Joe Perry, are excellent.  Plus, while the rhythm section doesn’t get to do anything special here, they do their parts well.  And boy, does Steven hit those high notes toward the middle of the song.  If this is where Tom Keifer got his singing style from, I’d say that he has some fine taste, that and the vocal delivery is similar to “Nobody’s Fool” despite being over a decade older.  In spite of that, the song is great, a very underrated ballad in their massive collection of great ballads, and a more-than-stellar way to end the album.

So what are my overall thoughts on this drug-infused, sex-crazed ride of debauchery and sleaze?  I think it’s excellent, and it has surprisingly aged well for an album from the mid-70s.  Not to say that the 70s sucked, but it was a weird decade for rock overall (not as weird as the 90s, though), where commercial rock had some serious bite, the overall effects of the hippie movement and the Vietnam War caused rock and metal to be either biting, flamboyant, or both, and this album came out before rock went from an angry beast to a commercial force that led to arena rock and commercialized progressive rock, offset by the rise of punk rock, pub rock, and more aggressive strands of heavy rock.  In short, Aerosmith were among the bands that probably stood their ground, took the whole sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll ideology to the extreme while paving the way for heavier, sleazier, and more dangerous rock, punk, and metal bands to rise in the late 70s and early 80s.  And this album, their breakthrough smash hit, made most of that possible with some of their most accessible and dangerous songs at the time after their self-titled debut and Get Your Wings started the charge.  The guitars by Joe Perry and Brad Whitford slay and wail, the bass by Tom Hamilton is thick and funky, the drums by Joey Kramer have strong swing, the vocals by Steven Tyler are biting and catchy, and Jack Douglas’ production ensures that every nasty note and drum beat is heard and impregnated on your feeble little minds.  This is hard rock for the wild, crazy, debauched, and sleazy, with enough bite to get everyone involved while appealing to all ages, races, genders, sexual orientations, identities, cultures, and so on and so forth.  If there’s a weak track, I’d vote “No More, No More” but every track, including that one, has something great on it, and even the overplayed “Walk This Way” and “Sweet Emotion” deserve their overplayed status.  “You See Me Crying” is a great ballad, despite not being as much of a revelation as “Dream On” while “Toys in the Attic” and “Round and Round” prove their status as heavy metal.  That and “Uncle Salty,” “Adam’s Apple,” and “Big Ten Inch Record” are fun as well, despite their blatant sleaze.  But in today’s PC environment, a little sleaze is good for our physical and emotional balance, because rid a person, young or old, of sleaze, the discovery of it will lead to self-destruction *cough*Miley Cyrus*cough*Disney Channel Idol Machine*cough cough*, man these allergies are killing me.  Anyway, what isn’t killing me is giving this album high marks.  Depending on what you’re opinion of Aerosmith is today, we can agree that this album can kick ass (if not, leave a comment below explaining why you think this album is overrated outside of saying Rocks is the better album, which is fine in my book).  Do I consider this essential for metalheads, yes, but it’s definitely essential for ALL fans of rock music.  I feel that this is one of those albums you have to listen to at least once in your lifetime.  And that’s saying something.

Final Rating: 9.5/10 (essential hard rock mastery from one of America’s greatest bands!)

If you agree or disagree, feel free to leave a comment below telling me what you think.  Also, make sure to like my Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/RockOtaku92/.  Be sure to follow me on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/RockOtaku92, my Instagram page is here: https://www.instagram.com/rockotaku92/, and my Tumblr is at this link: https://rockotaku92.tumblr.com/.  That and be sure to follow my blog.  The way to do so is to the right of this page.

Next Time on Let Them Eat Metal: The word of God meets the molten guitars of two eras of rock in the Metallic Ring of Rock ‘N’ Roll Hellfire!  The two albums will be revealed on Palm Sunday.

Until next time, this is the Rock Otaku.  Live Loud, Play Hard, and Eat Metal.

All used references are done under the rules of fair use and are owned by their original creators.

New Series Coming Soon: The Rock Otaku’s Crazy Idears

Hello degenerates, heathens, weirdos, and deviants.  I am the Rock Otaku, and I’m here to show you worlds such as hard rock, metal, punk, alternative rock, movies, TV, anime, video games, and anything that makes us scream, shout, and use our imaginations.

Hey, I got an idear.  I should record several of my idears and see if my small-as-crap fanbase (in comparison with the global population of the world), despite its global reach, all think that they are good idears.

So to do this, I am creating ANOTHER new series that thankfully won’t have a set schedule, only getting new entries when I feel like it.  That’s the key: when I feel like it.  While some may accuse me of being predictable, despite repetition until perfection is a desired ability to have, I tend to prefer being out of the blue and slightly more unpredictable, keeping you on your toes.  As a result, expect a lot of very, very weird entries that will come out and make you think “Wha?” while, hopefully, making you think, “Holy crap, that’s a great idea!”

For my first entry, when I feel like it and make it sound interesting, I will discuss something that’s dear to my heart while nagging at me, as if I need to do something about it.  It will come out hopefully next week and knock your socks off.  Hell, it might come sooner.

As for the way I’m saying “idear,” if you’ve been following comedy musician and theme park reviewer Tony Goldmark’s twitter, he’s been having some really crazy ones that might have inspired this series.

Anyway, This is the Rock Otaku.  Live Loud, Play Hard, yada yada yada.

RockOtaku Reviews: Beauty And The Beast (2017)

Hello degenerates, heathens, weirdos, deviants, rebels, and defected Imperial officers.  I am the Rock Otaku, and I’m here to show you worlds such as hard rock, metal, punk, alternative rock, movies, TV, anime, video games, and anything that makes us scream, shout, and want adventure in the great white somewhere.

Today, I review a movie that I’ve recently seen that both fits my interests alongside my standards of high-octane, high-caliber blockbusters: Beauty and the Beast (2017)

But before I dig in, let me tell a story.

Once upon a time, there was an animation studio that lived in Burbank, California.  They were once a floundering shell of the same studio that advanced the medium of animation and brought cutting-edge technology to the art to tell timeless stories for all audiences.  But like the sands of time, the man that lead their glories died and left the studio to an uncertain future.  To ensure their livelihood, the men that stood by this legend’s side brought in several new apprentices to learn the art of animation from the masters, become masters themselves, and continue the legacy of this one man while adapting to the times and pushing the boundaries of storytelling themselves.  After a long grueling process, where some of the apprentices left this quest to attain glory for themselves, the art they developed, with the help of outside resources that pushed their work to the masses, started to go from mediocre or below the desired standards to outright masterpieces, launching a Renaissance that began with a mermaid.  From this story came various groups of people, some masters of art, others storytelling, others music, and everyone passionate, who went to work on another project that would SURPASS their previous achievement.  With guidance from Don Hahn, direction by Kirk Wise and Gary Trousdale, animation that included the talents of everyone from Glen Keane and Andreas Deja, and music and lyrics by Alan Menken and the late Howard Ashman, who put his all into what would be his final project, the Walt Disney Studio would bring to the world Beauty and the Beast, a cinematic landmark that pushed the limits of animation further back, appealed to all audiences young and old, captured their hearts as well, and was nominated for the Academy Award of Best Picture.

And now we have a remake from the director of Twilight: Breaking Dawn Parts 1 and 2 in theaters with an all-star cast of Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Josh Gad, Kevin Kline, Ewan McGregor, Ian McKellan, Emma Thompson, Stanley Tucci, and several other well-known actors and actresses, and the same composer from the animated classic.  The immediate question is: Why?

Why remake something that established Disney as THE studio for animated masterpieces, that touched audiences when it came out, touches today’s generation and will touch future generations, and was NOMINATED FOR BEST PICTURE!?  The first animated feature to do so, to be exact.  Why redo what can be considered perfection?

The answer?  Uh… You get a decent movie, to be honest.

There are some issues here that I’ll get to, but let me discuss the positives first.  First, the acting is definitely good, not great, but good.  There’s a sense that these actors were chosen because of their iconography and star power rather than if they fit the character, even weirder when a good chunk of the main cast is covered in massive amounts of CGI.  But most of them, with a few notable exceptions, do a good job here, with Kevin Kline and Josh Gad being among the better actors, both due to their performances and how they both take the characters they’re playing, Maurice and LeFou, in new directions that allow them to show their acting chops while giving strong arcs in character development, especially the latter, which I’ll get to in the spoiler section.  The colors are also strong here, being vibrant when needed, like with the village and in several key scenes, and muted and dark to set an eerie atmosphere around the Beast’s castle after the curse is put on it.  Plus the plot does fill in a few plot holes from the original to ensure that things flow better, despite the animated movie having easy reasons for some of them. 

As for the bad, there’s an issue with two characters, Belle and the Beast.  Not to say that these are bad characters, but they are nowhere near as strong as they should be, especially when you make comparisons to the original film.  For the former, it really does feel Emma Watson was cast due to her star power thanks to her role as Hermione Granger and her appeal as a feminist icon.  Not to say that making Belle even more of a feminist icon than the original is a good idea, but they almost hit the mark.  Too bad some of her actions aren’t convincing, the performance feels like Hermione Granger in France, and her singing voice (with or without AutoTune) is nowhere near as fitting to the character as Paige O’Hara’s excellent performance.  The Beast is slightly better in the acting department by Dan Stevens, who could make for a much bigger star after this, but the CGI is surprisingly unneeded, due to his design, as proven by the mini-series of the same name with Ron Pearlman and Linda Hamilton and the works of Guillermo Del Toro in regards to creature design and makeup, being a little too human-looking.  It’s as if that to ensure there is an illusion of an actor playing a CGI character, they gave the beast a more human face and moé girl fangs rather than go all the way with the CGI and recreate the animated beast in a live action environment.  But the CG issues don’t end there.

There is a lot of CGI here, making good chunks of the movie look like a video game.  I should not be complaining about that for action movies, but this is a fairy tale romance, and in a vain effort to top the impressive visuals of the original, they do so much that it looks very, very fake and obvious.  And the worst part, some of the designs, while okay, really push it in regards to how out of place they look when next to any of the live action actors.  Said designs range from believable in that situation, really altered to fit the whole live-action aspect of this film, and others outright discomforting and unappealing, ranging from how stiff Coggsworth, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and a few others look to Lumiere being reimagined from a bouncing candelabra to a little golden man with candle-holders on his head and replacing his hands.  And for the CG sets, sometimes they’re unnoticeable and mesh with any practical sets used in this movie (which is pretty strong), sometimes they really do stick out like a sore thumb.  If you told me that the movie was loaded with CGI and it’s VERY easy to spot, I would have stuck with the ’91 original animated classic, especially if it were an exact remake of it.

While not exact, this movie’s plot points are so slavishly close to the original’s that it really makes this movie feel almost unnecessary if it wasn’t as good.  In reality, it’s obviously not as good as the original, but when it tries to add backstory to them, there are moments where I’m like “well that’s alright, I guess?” “I really did not need that, but it’s alright,” or (Spoilers) “did they pull the Martha thing from BVS again?”  Along with that, there are a few alterations to the characters that may work with some and may derail the movie for others.  In this version, Belle is the inventor who’s seen as the complete kook (instead of Maurice in the total weirdo department), the Beast is said to have transformed as an adult and the castle was frozen in time, with all memories of it and his servants removed from the townsfolk (which is important for the ending), Gaston is a war veteran and a more sinister than his animated counterpart, LeFou is smarter, has more common sense, and questions his loyalty to Gaston while keeping him controlled (and something else for the big spoiler section, but it’s not as important to the movie as you’d think, it’s a side thing), Maurice being played as a much more tragic figure than his animated counterpart (and less likely to be played weirder in YouTube Poops than in canon, despite being played by Otto from A Fish Called Wanda), and being amazing, and there’s a new character that gives some backstory to the Dresser here.  Does this fundamentally change the main plot?  The truth is, it doesn’t.  And that really hampers the two leads, who’s roles were done to perfection in the original, but here, the glaring problems causes them to feel a lot weaker and grow in friendship rather than romance, despite the movie telling me that they’re in love at the end.  I’ll get to the other characters, but I’ll need a rundown of everything else.

Despite their CGI designs, the castle servants are done okay here, and some of the casting is surprisingly great.  For Lumiere, I did catch on that it was Evan McGregor playing him, but his French accent was pretty impressive (better than his American accent, to say the least *cough*Robots was alright, ERod*cough*).  I really did think that it was actually pretty funny to have Ian McKellan play Coggsworth and actually be pretty funny at points while giving him the right amount of class and dignity, plus having Gandalf against Hermione is enough to drive early 00s fantasy film fans nuts.  Plus Emma Thompson really knocked it out of the park as Mrs. Potts, nailing Angela Lansbury’s Cockney accent and motherly tone, and at least they got a British boy to play Chip rather than some American boy like in the original, so that’s a minor improvement.  Everyone else was pretty good, even Stanley Tucci, with all of them having to play the characters with their voices, with Plumette and the Dresser giving some nice ladies much needed exposure in the Hollywood circuit.  And is it weird that there are a lot of extras and actors of a more diverse makeup than the original, or even 18^th century France?  I might have to look into the latter.

Plus the set design, when not drenched in CGI is fantastic, the colors are extremely well done, and the cinematography is beautiful at points, even when some of the scenes were better shot in the animated original.  And the music, yes the music is decent here.  The good is that Alan Menken is back to score the feature, and he’s on a role in recapturing the music of the original, and rescoring the musical numbers to give them a more live-action, Broadway feel at points.  However, some of the cues did come from the original, as if Disney is trying to saying “Remember the original film?”  That and the new songs range from unneeded to surprisingly good, as I feel “Forevermore” could have worked in the original, despite it being more straightforward in the Beast’s love in Belle there.  But there is one major point to note about the songs from the original here.

Some of the actors aren’t as strong as their animated counterparts while Josh Gad is excellent here.  While Dan Stevens is no Robby Benson, he does give a slight air of dignity to the musical numbers while having some good pipes.  If the only issue with Luke Evans is that his singing voice isn’t as deep as Richard White’s, then it’s clear he did a good job as Gaston in the singing department while exuding arrogance and vanity.  The actors playing the servants also do a good job, some of them better than others, while Emma Thompson does a pretty good job at here singing.  The weak link?  Emma Watson.  She sounds like she’s doing karaoke versions of these songs at best and filtered with a lot of AutoTune at worst, and we can agree that the original actor, Paige O’Hara trumps Ms. Watson in this department.  Apparently Hogwarts doesn’t have singing classes.  The choreography is pretty good here, giving it a Broadway feel at times while going overboard with the CGI to top the original’s visuals.

But before I get to the end, I have to bring this up.  With all the ornate visuals of the castle, the costume design, the casting, the setting, the props, and some of the effects work, does anyone get a certain vibe from this movie?  If you do, then I can tell you that this movie’s visual look reminds me a lot of the visual kei subculture in Japan.  Why?  Well, the 18^th century French designs and ornaments are so gaudy and makeup laden that the opening itself, which deviates from the original, reminded me of the visual appearances of bands like Malice Mizer, L’Arc-en-Ciel, and Versailles (Philharmonic Quintet) based on their attire and makeup.  Which becomes even weirder since they casted actors and actresses of ethic descents rather than white to play many roles here, some of them major, and a big part of the appeal of modern visual kei is the idea of Japanese men (and sometimes women) dressing as European noblemen of the 18^th and 19^th centuries while playing rock, punk, metal, pop, alternative rock, electronic, and other genres of music with a classical flair.  If this movie gets fans for its visuals, I’d recommend that if you are one of these fans, search for a visual kei playlist on YouTube and admire the costumes while getting your face melted.

So before I get into a few spoilers, let me get this out of the way and reveal the score first.  This movie is fine, it isn’t the 91 original classic, and it’s trying to be.  Where it works is when it captures what worked about the original in the story department and translating it to live action while giving us new versions of certain characters that probably work as well, if not better than, their original counterparts some of the time.  The visuals are fittingly gaudy, but impressive, despite the use of CGI.  The music and songs are good here.  But Emma Watson is clearly miscast while the CG budget either needed a boost or a decrease to feed the practical effects and makeup effects budget for a certain character due to the direction they went.  In all, it’s not an awards winner, nor is it a complete disaster, but it’s definitely a crowd pleaser.

Final Rating (Spoilers below included): 6/10 (good on its own, but meh compared to the original that it’s trying to be)

Now for the spoilers.  Apparently the Beast was once a kind, selfless, charitable kid before his mother passed away, then his father corrupted him.  As for Belle, we learn that she was born in Paris, and she and Maurice moved out when her mother died from the Plague, with the mask-wearing doctor in check to verify it for historical nerds.  And yes, I could say that this is a decent idea, especially since the servants tell Belle of the first thing I’ve mentioned (with a new musical number thrown in for good measure), but after Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice, having the two leads bond over their mothers may have to wait a while before coming back.  Plus we learn that the unnamed war in the movie really put a toll on Gaston psychologically, causing him to be significantly crueler and more bloodthirsty than his animated counterpart.  Whereas in the original, Gaston is a jerk, but a lovable one, whose tendencies got worse after being rejected by Belle and STILL trying to get her in his arms, right down to having Maurice institutionalized, this version is a bigger asshole while using hunting references to explain why he’d prefer Belle.  That and he uses guns a lot more here, using a pistol rather than a bow, arrows, and a dagger against the Beast.  For Maurice, he’s significantly played to be more fatherly and tragic, considering that Belle’s mother died in her infancy and she never got to know her.  As for how Belle learns, we learn that the Enchantress gave Beast a book that allowed him to travel to any place in the world he desires, and Belle uses it to go to where she was born, learning the truth there.  That and the Enchantress is seen a lot more here, first as a beggar in the village Belle lives in, then helps Maurice after Gaston tried to kill him, then came along with the villagers when they went with Gaston to “kill the Beast” in the final act.  And she reverses the curse (and brings everyone back to life from death or complete transformation into knick knacks, and interesting change from the original) when she stumbles on the West Wing, seeing a crying Belle over the Beast.  And her role creates some plot holes that I’ll discuss at a later time.  As for the ending, I did get a laugh out of Coggsworth revealed to be unhappily married after he returned to normal while Mrs. Potts did have a husband here (both of them villagers).

Now to look into the controversy that flared up.  A couple of weeks ago, Bill Condon revealed that there was a big “gay scene” involving LeFou and confirming that he was gay in this version.  As a result, some of the scenes in the movie where he’s trying to keep Gaston in check come off as… not really as off putting as expected and closer to the new characterization of him being SMARTER than Gaston and concerned about the town’s war hero’s decreasing sanity.  Hell, the “gay scene” is just a shot of him dancing with another man in the final moments of the movie, with no cheeky “are we doing this?” look in the both of them.  They just continue dancing merrily.  Short, sweet, and not mocking them both for it.  And it’s so quick that I’m sure that gay-rights activists are going to feel blue-balled unless they looked between the lines beforehand (and even in the original, where you can make the case where the dumber version of LeFou is gayer than the new version).  Even more surprising is that there’s a scene where the Dresser does her work on three thugs, and while two of them freak out when they end up in women’s clothes, one looks as if he enjoys the change in dress.  And guess which two characters end up dancing together in that “gay shot” because saying “gay scene” is really overselling what amounts to nothing plot-relevant anyway.  At least LeFou’s a better character in this version than in the original, though.

Jeez, I hope the next movie I review isn't loaded with controversy about one's sexuality.  Though I am interested in checking out Power Rangers.

Until next time, this is the Rock Otaku.  Live Loud, Play Hard, and Be Out Guest.

All used references are done under the rules of fair use and are owned by their original creators. 

Countdowns with The Rock Otaku 04: Top Ten musical genres that helped develop my musical tastes.

Hello degenerates, heathens, weirdos, and deviants.  I am the Rock Otaku, and I’m here to show you worlds such as hard rock, metal, punk, alternative rock, movies, TV, anime, video games, and anything that makes us scream, shout, and let it all out.

As some of you may have noticed, I tend to have that opening slogan in my blogs when I do something big or based on a series, but I seem to only discuss the first two (and three after that when the opportunity arises) in my blog overall.  As for the others, they end up serving as times to make references or jokes in my main series.  And this is the main reason why I am now going to try to fit in more anime reviews, news, and countdowns into my blog.

You know what, I’ll use the extra week I’ve added to my time to make my LET THEM EAT METAL series bi-weekly to create a series of countdowns.  And they don’t have to be just about anime.  I can use this to mention movies, TV shows, episodes of shows, news, games, and even other musical artists I want to talk about but aren’t able to usually thanks to my current load.  But today, we’re talking musical genres.

As you have noticed, I seem to be biased to not just certain types of rock and metal, or music in general, but I also tend to have certain melody patterns, musical styles, styles of singing, languages sung, and so on that I gravitate to, regardless of genre.  The first being that unless the first few hooks or movements of a song are amazing, regardless of length, I have a desire to change it, may it be an opening riff or the first chorus, or even the first use of anything.  I’m not sure why, but this leads me into liking longer songs that are effectively pop metal or metallic pop in the long run.  Second, I am a huge sucker for epic, emotional, heartstring-pulling, optimistic-yet-pessimistic melodies, may it be due to my fandom of film scores, anime music, or extreme, neo-classical or power metal.  Said melodies have to get a rise out of me emotionally, and I will give your song props if the keys and strings pull me in and feel fresh.  The third, and arguably the most important, is that I prefer songs driven by guitars.  There are ways of putting me off when you go the guitar-driven route rather than driven by synths or sampling which depend on the genre.  It may be because I play guitar myself, or because I prefer songs that have a sense that they were played with actual instruments rather than programmed with accessible software.  And that’s probably also why, along with the other two things I’ve mentioned, I tend to listen to more rock, punk, alternative, metal, blues, j-rock, and even j-pop than American pop, R&B, hip hop, and country.  Yes, I’ll listen to anything new if you ask me (and when an entry gets a bunch of views), but I tend to avoid genres that I’m sick of, and those are mostly what’s on Top 40 radio (post-grunge, nu metal, and emo are more listenable to me than what’s considered mainstream today with the exception of the awesome rock-crossover hit.  POST-GRUNGE, NU METAL, and EMO!).  But you’re probably thinking why?

Why is this the case?  How did I get here?  What informed my musical tastes in middle school, high school and college, may it be full jumps into them or flirtations with them, which led to my current musical tastes?  And what are they?  That, my dear reader, is the subject for today’s list.  Today, I’ll discuss the styles that grew on me, made me tick, led me to abandon the concept of mainstream unless I’m forced into it, have a more interesting musical palette than the rest of my family, and probably helped inspire this blog, my social media presence, and my overall personality in general.  As a result, I will offer the musical styles and genres that led to my development as a rock music fan, a metalhead, a shred-guitarist aficionado and practitioner, and probably an otaku.  These are my top 10 musical genres, because I want to say this before getting into certain styles on my LTEM series and because the Q&A isn’t in reach yet before I can explain some of my LTEM-decision making.

10.       Nu Metal/Alternative Metal:

Yes, nu metal had an impact on me as a music fan and probably, and subconsciously helped me get into heavier music.  So how did this happen?  There are probably three answers for that: my dad, radio rock, and professional wrestling.  Before I get to my first answer, let me discuss the joys, tribulations, and frustrations of radio rock.  Specifically the 90s worship and “hard, manly” approach of it.  While I’m not sure if I’d be on the same level of manliness as a member of the Joestar bloodline, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger, or Bruce Campbell, I can safely way that either due to frustrations with society or daily life, this crap does get me in a mood to fight off the pain and keep on doing that voodoo that I do so well.  And plus, probably because most active rock stations wouldn’t be caught dead playing Fall Out Boy, All-American Rejects, Panic! At The Disco, Metro Station, or (shudder) the Jonas Brothers, they tended to go back in the well of Korn, Slipknot, Godsmack, Disturbed, Papa Roach, P.O.D., System of a Down, Deftones, Sevendust, Tool, Drowning Pool, Tantric, Taproot, Staind, Nonpoint, Mudvayne, Static-X some shit band called Limp Bizkit, and other bands that’d be considered post-grunge (later on that) while keeping their careers alive and promoting like-minded bands and artists like Egypt Central, Rev Theory, HellYeah, and even Five Finger Death Punch.  For professional wrestling, name a song from the late-90s, early-00s era of WWE other than The Rock’s and Triple H’s theme that didn’t use nu metal and/or nu metal-inspired music for the wrestlers.  For my dad?  He was very much into this style, which I’m not sure is because of a frustrating job he had at the time, what the radio was playing, or if the Matrix soundtrack refined his tastes in music (seriously, that movie is around 18 years old, and we’re still debating if we live in The Matrix).  How did this affect my tastes?  Well, it gave me a loving for hard, energetic rock in the new style while also causing me to seek out and show a love for older bands that led to these artists like Rage Against the Machine, Pantera, White Zombie, Rob Zombie, Marilyn Manson, and even most thrash and death metal bands.  Yes, this led to my interest in lower-register, down-tuned rock and metal, which is probably more important since djent doesn’t completely sound like shit to me and most progressive metal also goes for the gut rather than the heart and brain while using the latter.

9.         Grunge/Post-Grunge/Alternative Rock:

Probably because, like I’ve mentioned, rock radio got the shaft from the masses due to crunk, snap, EDM, and bro country, it seems as if the scene is stuck in the 90s.  And taking from it a lot.  As a result, I was exposed (outside of rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band) to artists like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Bush, Candlebox, Silverchair, Collective Soul, Red Hot Chili Peppers, R.E.M., Foo Fighters, and yes, even Creed and Nickelback.  The reason for this being low is the same as with nu metal, despite all the great alternative rock and metal bands: some of these acts either do not suit me in certain moods or have aged poorly, so poorly that I endorse Rocked’s Regretting the Past series.  But I do have some nostalgia for that sound, and it did lead to some amazing bands to come out of it like Alter Bridge and some of the more metallic bands in the post-grunge movement, like Breaking Benjamin, Egypt Central/Devour The Day, and Starset.  And yes, blame my dad for this.  I could say more, but I felt that I’ve went into enough detail with the nu metal entry.  Just replace “metal” with “rock” and the heavier bands with lighter ones, and you’ll get the same story.

8.         Metalcore:

Now to anger a lot of people.  Before I broke from the mainstream and said adieu to most of it (except for the stuff to make my blog relevant, which I need to get back into that), I did have a strong understanding and interest in this genre.  Whereas nu metal and alternative metal were based in grunge angst, simple rhythms and riffs, and more about the brain, this style of hardcore punk-tinged heavy metal went straight for the gut and sometimes the heart, delivering some of the heaviest stuff I can play to close family members, sane people, and those who weren’t versed in death metal and black metal, and my extreme metal interests, outside of Cannibal Corpse’s “Hammer Smashed Face” thanks to Ace Ventura, went only to Metallica and Slayer (wasn’t too sure of power metal at the time).  And if you’re wondering, this was entirely in high school, especially in my later stages, and what made me a metalhead was music played by musicians with poofy hair, so I did seek out more aggressive metallic music that I could talk with someone about, despite me being painfully socially awkward.  And thus, I ended up having a fandom of Killswitch Engage, Bullet For My Valentine, Avenged Sevenfold, Lamb of God (one of the better bands of the movement), Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Trivium, and others, and enough understanding of “screamo” that bands like Chimaira, Escape The Fate, and yes, Black Veil Brides were listenable to me.  But like any other metalhead, college got in the way, and my metalcore interest waned unless I decided to listen to it.  But it did lead me into showing enjoyment in genres like death metal, melodic death metal, black metal, and even djent at points.  But don’t expect me to give the genre good praise when I have to cover a metalcore band in any future reviews.

7.         Film music/Classical/Video Game Soundtrack Music/Broadway:

If you need to know something about me, I am a huge fan of old-school musical scores in movies (I’m not sure why I haven’t heard the great new scores yet).  Guys like Alan Menkin, Alan Silvestri, James Horner, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Thomas Newman, Michael Giacchino, Alexandre Desplat, Patrick Doyle, Howard Shore, James Newton Howard, Joe Hisashi, and my personal favorite, John Williams, are all composers that I have serious affection for due to having written scores that I absolutely adore.  And thanks to their contributions to my musical language, I even got into classical, ranging from Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, and even Stravinsky, and my interest in classically tinged metal (which I’ll get to later) even helped with that matter.  But I also got my musical tastes from video game music, with composers like Koji Kondo being masters in my eyes, Jun Senoue helping me get my rock wings, and others providing some great music, with the songs from Rareware games being instant nostalgia-creators in my eyes.  And probably because of Disney, I don’t despise musicals, and I do have an affection for Broadway-style musicals and musical movies, and I’m man enough to listen to anything from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera.  That and Sound of Music and I do dig Rogers and Hammerstein works.  Overall, how did this all affect my musical tastes?  I’m still wondering if the last two great musical scores are ultimately going to be from TheDark Knight and The Avengers due to how bland they’ve gotten over the years.  Even when you got considerable talent doing them.  Does that suck?  I think so, but at the same time, I am also digging stuff like synthwave and neo-classical thanks to the combined efforts of those artists, and broadway-tinged AMVs always put a smile on my face.  Now to find a theater playing Avenue Q.

6.         Classic Rock:

But if my love of Aerosmith and Van Halen does say something about me, I listen to a lot of classic rock.  Heck, I’ve evened listened to classic rock back in high school and college.  May it be because of rock radio in Atlanta being weird, active rock stations playing AC/DC and Guns N’ Roses alongside the two bands I’ve mentioned, but I have a lot of mad respect for bands like Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Boston, Queen, Joan Jett, Journey, Foreigner, Free, Bad Company, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Steve Miller Band, Pat Benatar, Blonde, David Bowie, Doobie Brothers, Styx, REO Speedwagon, KISS, Foghat, Sweet, and so many, many other bands.  As a result, I dig the heck out of stadium rock and AOR-style bands that come out today.  So yeah, if you catch me listening to melodic arena rock with some sort of shred solo and catchy hook, blame my love of this and a few others that are coming up.  For this genre, don’t blame just my dad for this one, but definitely blame my mom for this one.

5.         Hard Rock/Traditional Heavy Metal:

But if there’s a bedrock for my musical tastes, it’s Aerosmith, Judas Priest, KISS, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Motorhead, AC/DC, Accept, Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, and other, so many other like-sounding bands and artists.  Thanks to the Rock N’ Roller Coaster, time with my dad outside of butt rock, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and Sonic Adventure, I am a massive hard rock fan and metalhead.  For these, the former got me into Aerosmith, the listed rhythm games gave me a sense that I would enjoy the concept of playing on stage with a rockin’ band, and the latter has one of the most influential soundtracks on my musical tastes, and I can still listen to and enjoy it every time I listen to it.  And that’s probably where my musical development practically started.  And that was the first couple of things that, more importantly, convinced me that I should probably learn how to play the guitar.  After that, and through some troubles, I’ve managed to get to a point where I can play songs by Aeromsith, Judas Priest, KISS, Iron Maiden, Van Halen, Motorhead, AC/DC, Accept, Guns N’ Roses, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Deep Purple, Def Leppard, Led Zeppelin, and others, and that was the push.  And while certain aspects about those musical choices might have been informed by other genres entering my life and making me see more to the music, I’d have to say that if it wasn’t for bands like Aerosmith, KISS, and Van Halen, there might have not been a Rock Otaku writing to you guys and gals out there needing a rock n’ roll savior.

4.         Thrash Metal:

For this one, I’d give thanks to Guitar Hero for getting me started on this journey, but I’d have to say that if it wasn’t for bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer, Testament, Lamb of God, Pantera, Exodus, Overkill, and even Tankard, then I wouldn’t be into much heavier, faster, and more aggressive genres like death metal, black metal, and even power metal.  With its straightforward ethos, wild aggression, crazy moments, intense virtuosity, and harsh singing, thrash metal’s sound and fury made me realize that I was not just losing my tastes for super-sappy pop music, blah country music, and a declining rap scene, but that I was getting into something darker, scarier, edgier, more intense, thoughtful, and angrier than what would be considered normal music.  And Metallica’s current forays into their classic thrash sound and their classic thrash sound itself, the attempts at trying to nail “Raining Blood” in Guitar Hero, my admiration for Slipknot for their thrashier moments, being the first and probably only person in my immediate family to find Lamb of God interesting, the added interest in its emo-tinged offshoot, melodic metalcore, buying Five Finger Death Punch’s first album (and arguably their heaviest), looking into Mastodon, and playing the hell out of Bullet for my Valentine’s thrash-tinged “Scream Aim Fire” in Guitar Hero World Tour were steps into me becoming more of a thrash fan.  Is thrash metal my favorite subgenre of metal currently?  I’ll answer that once I turn down the Sabaton and Powerwolf, but it’s definitely up there.  Overall, you may see me as more of a liberal at this point, due to thrash’s mostly left-wing politics (until Dave Mustaine went nuts), but don’t let that worry you as I have a very weird sense of humor and don’t get offended by certain jokes aimed at certain groups of people (though if your autism jokes suck, then you’re not funny).  Plus I can probably play some thrash on my guitar, so don’t you worry.

3.         J-pop/J-rock/Visual Kei/Anison:

Now for the stuff that REALLY altered my musical tastes.  May it because anime like Pokémon and Dragon Ball were a part of my growing up, may it be due to Japanese-made games from Nintendo, Sega, and others, may it be due to my weird nature, but I’ve always had a weird fascination with anime that I decided to let blossom in college, and several artists helped.  I’m sure that my major influence in giving Japanese rock music a shot was through listening to songs on Groove Shark from an album called Rain Forest by a band called Concerto Moon, and based on the language of the vocals, I knew it was Japanese.  Then I started getting hardcore into anime, with series like Rosario+Vampire, Angel Beats!, Clannad (and After Story *snif*), Elfin Lied, Ouran High School Host Club, School Rumble, and Gurren Lagaan giving me the sense to carry on with my newfound passions in media, and then I started listening to bands and artists from the soundtracks more often alongside giving X Japan a bunch of spins.  Later, that would evolve into not just my interest and fandom of bands like Galneryus, but would lead me into listening to a lot of j-rock and even j-pop.  Other factors made me interested in visual kei as a musical movement, but I can verify that most of my pop music listening, specifically where I don’t want to punch something, comes from the Orient, and that it was a partial catalyst in me trying to learn the Japanese language.  Plus there's the fact that I have EVERY Japanese song that is possible in my Rocksmith DLC collection, including B’z, 9mm Parabellum Bullet, STRAIGHTENER, ACIDMAN, Golden Bomber, ONE OK ROCK, and the Birthday.  And yes, I am considering requesting X Japan, Galneryus, Concerto Moon, Nana Mizuki, Girl Dead Monster, Kotoko, Aya Hirano, FLOW, Stereopony, Mucc, the Gazette, Heidi, Nightmare, Minami Kuribayashi, Band-Maid, BABYMETAL, and Dir En Grey songs for that game as DLC.  And when I use TuneIn, I tend to find Japanese music stations to listen to, all for the pop, rock, metal, and anime tunes of the Land of the Rising Sun.  Yes, there’s a reason why I consider myself an otaku.

2.         Hair/Glam/Sleaze Metal:

Before this, I would not have considered the art of guitar playing or full-on metal fandom.  But after nabbing a compilation CD of hair metal rockers and ballads (one of those from Target that has a bunch of tunes both classic and obscure) with acts like Poison, Twisted Sister, Quiet Riot, Ratt, David Lee Roth, Winger, White Lion, Autograph, Honeymoon Suite, Skid Row, Slaughter, Dokken, Enuff Z’Nuff, and Firehouse, I was more than interested in this style of music.  It made me realize that the 80s were a much more fun time for music as a whole (despite the 90s being more interesting and being like a puzzle).  There was also this sense of grandeur and rebellion that coexisted when hearing these songs and realizing that (as well as hearing stuff like this in Guitar Hero, the Heavy Metal Guy shorts from Mondo Media, the Happy Tree Friends people, The Spongebob Squarepants Movie, and even the ending of The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy Christmas Special, the one where Santa was turned into a vampire and voiced by Gilbert Gottfried) these songs fit my musical tastes to a tee.  Then that expanded to other stuff like other compilations, full Motley Crue albums, and even and album or two by Ratt and Dokken, plus nabbing Skid Row’s debut.  Plus I even own Steel Panther’s Feel the Steel as well as saw them live.  There’s also my interest and infatuation with the whole “nu-glam” scene, where newer bands, mostly from Scandinavia, take elements from 80s glam metal and bring them to the 21^st century.  And if there’s a musical style that serves as the bedrock for my guitar playing, it’s 80s glam metal as well.  I’m actually serious, I tend to think in glam and traditional metal terms when approaching the guitar, from power chords to palm muting to fast, shredding solos with some blues elements.  But if there’s a genre that made me go further into guitar training, it’s the Number 1 entry on this list.  Do you want to know what it is?

1.         Neo-Classical Metal:

Of the genres here I can state, this had probably the biggest impact on me as a person, a musician, a music fan, a music critic, and so on.  Why?  Probably because the moments when I’ve been getting into this, I was A) in college and starting to realize that metal was more than thrash and core genres, that the underground was capable of more beautiful music in the scene, B) I was taking professional guitar lessons, and some of my desires led my teacher to have me hone in my techniques in tapping, sweeping, alternate picking, and, well, shredding, so this genre definitely had examples I can listen to for shred, C) my music fandom was definitely developing to stuff like this due to my love of the guitar solo in rock, even if I originally had issues playing them, and D) because the melodies, techniques, and styles really changed not just how I view music, but even helped me push my guitar playing skills to the next level, try to play it more than rhythm games, and go to tabs to nail the works of Yngwie Malmsteen, specifically the songs I felt I could play.  And as a result, and because of a strong memory and playing on and off again, I could definitely play up to Eddie Van Halen’s level.  Or possibly Randy Rhodes.  And most likely nail Kirk Hammett’s parts before getting up to Marty Friedman and Jason Becker.  Guys like Malmsteen, Paul Gilbert, Becker, Friedman, Vinnie Moore, Tony MacAlpine, James Chastain, Syu, Norifumi Shima, Greg Howe, Bruce Boulliet, Rhodes, Kiko Loureiro, Rusty Cooley, Chris Impellitteri, John Pettruci, and others defined what it meant to be a guitar hero to me.  And I have my gratitude to not just my teacher, but even others within the genre and even internet stars like ERock for getting me into more classically-tinged rock and metal.  Thank you all, and I hope to get to meet you all soon.

For the honorable mentions, there are too many to count.  But they would include everything from punk to blues to emo to progressive to even some electronic.  But overall, what does this mean to all of you.  It means that sometimes, certain musical styles enter your life by accident, how you live, or if you choose to, and they can change how you view music as a whole.  And I do recommend searching out music or using your love of anything from movies to comics, TV and so on to see if you enjoy the notes played.  That and go back to what you listened to in your childhood to see if something did make an impact on you.  I also recommend to not listen to music based on what is popular but based on what you yourself think.  Sometimes you may realize that certain styles and movements of music appeal to you more than what is mainstream, and that you are more unique than you realize.  Yes, there are impulses to stick to certain trends and fads so you can feel like you’re part of the crowd, but what if it isn’t your crowd, what if it’s the smelly, passionate weirdos or nerds trashing the trends you’re strong-armed into supporting that you feel a kinship to.  If you feel that way, feel free to leave in the comments what your musical tastes, both current and past, are and how they define you.  Also feel free to tell me what styles of music and artists had a massive impact on your life, I’d like to know.

And Holy Crap!  30 Entries on this platform?!

Until next time, this is The Rock Otaku.  Love Loud, Play Hard, and Rock On!

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