Tuesday, 7 September 2010

Stone Sour - Audio Secrecy

It’s been eight years since the release of debut album ‘Stone Sour’ was released and Stone Sour began to tear up the metal scene. With the release of second album ‘Come What(Ever) May’ the band are more than mask less rip offs of front man Cory Taylor and lead guitarist Jim Root’s Slipknot.

‘Audio Secrecy’ is the band’s third instalment. The album kicks off with piano intro ‘Audio Secrecy’ (For those who have seen the video for ‘Say You’ll Haunt Me’ will have heard it already) then tears into second track ‘Mission Statement’ which leaves you feeling like the band have picked up from where they left off.

As the album proceeds the feeling stays the same with gritty, thrashy tracks the likes of first single from the album ‘Say You’ll Haunt Me’ and ‘The Bitter End’. On ‘Come What(Ever) May’ the band showed a more melodic side with single ‘Through The Glass’. It is apparent from ‘Audio Secrecy’ that the band are out to prove that they not only can play loud angry songs but also have that more melodic side with songs the likes of ‘Hesitate’ and ‘Miracles’.

‘Audio Secrecy’ shows the band has a bundle of different talents, whether it is from making hard-hitting tracks to softer, easy listening tunes. Stone Sour never disappoint and ‘Audio Secrecy’ is no different. The only problem with the album is that riffs for songs tend to sound a lot the same to others and from albums before.

3/5

Cheapdog

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

BBC Radio 1


Last night before bed I decided that I wanted to read my new copy of Big Cheese Magazine. I was sat in the lounge and decided that some music in the background but the stuff you get on the likes of Scuzz and Lava at 2am tend to be proper naff, luckily for me I remembered that Tuesday mornings mean a bit of the Punk Rock sow with Mike Davies.

I started listening to the Mike Davies show about a year ago. The fact that there's a radio one DJ that actually plays the music I love is great but that's not just the only reason I think his show is so great. It's the passion that he puts across.

When I was in secondary school I remember listening to Radio 1 in art classes and I hated it. All this crappy music and the DJs seemed like morons. They just sat there talking rubbish and having phone in competitions. If I'm going to listen to the radio I want the station to be all about the music.

It's a shame that Mike Davies lives in LA and only has a weekly two hour spot in the early hours of a Tuesday morning. This is a man that clearly knows what he is talking about. He has blatantly grown up with the music and knows the best of the big, small, old and new. His show is all about the music which is what I love.

So Mike Davies for this I salute you!! And for those of you yet to take the time and tune in it's BBC Radio 1 at 2am-4am Tuesday mornings or head over to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006wq52 where you can catch the show anytime for the next seven days.

Cheapdog

Friday, 30 July 2010

Street Wars

OK, so lately Bizarre magazine has covered some of the most random but fun sounding events that I have heard of. Yesterday I was reading the latest issue (issue 166) when I came across a piece about a city wide water fight.

Liking the sound of such an epic event, I was forced to do my homework and and find out what it was all about. So I went over to the website (www.streetwars.net) where i was blown away from what I read and watched.

So the idea is that for 30 days and nights, entrants take to the streets of the hosting cities in search of a target to assassinate using water guns and water balloons, but at the same time the hunter is always the hunted. At the start of the event you are given a portfolio on a target with details on where they live and work and stuff like that. Once you've got your target then you take over the hunt for theirs. The winner is the person with the most kills.

This all sounds fun but if it's for 30 days straight then how does it fit around work schedules? This was the thing that puzzled me but after watching a couple of videos on the competition it became clear that even at work a strike could be coming. Seemly if you're a dedicated player then it's likely that your work will suffer but o'well in the end there might be a cash prize in it.



Cheapdog

Friday, 23 July 2010

These should have been up a long time ago: Interview

Here I interviewed a sailor friend and presented it in a spread along with a mock up front cover for the magazine.

These should have been up a long time ago: Travel mag

For this magazine i worked as editor of the group for putting together a travel magazine suitable for over the Christmas period i designed the front cover, contents and editors page then once i ad all the work in then began making the changes needed on everyone's pages.




These should have been up a long time ago: Sport Magazine

This layout was done for a sports magazine. The topic of this spread was this years Six Nations.

These should have been up a long time ago: Health magazine

So this spread was done for an alternative health magazine. The topic covered is caring for tattoos.