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Well, I have a shiny new pc. of course I get to do all the fun installation work, creating cookies, yadayadayada that I have not been forced to do in probably 4 years.

But isn't that half the fun? perhaps

So, Muse leaked, finally. And rather predictably, but still entertainingly, some of the critical reviews on rateyourmusic are worth a read, or 2, 3, 12.

..

This is the sound of a band that doesn't know what they want to do. Parts of this album, such as Uprising and Undisclosed Desires, sound like pop music written for all of their new pre-teen Twilight-loving fans. Other songs like Resistance and Unnatural Selection are banal offerings of the same stadium friendly alternative rock Muse has been pumping out since Showbiz only with a bit more Freddie Mercury worship and weird "pseudo-prog" sounds. Then there's the complete mess United States of Eurasia, a song with so many ideas thrown together that I just want to throw up my hands in frustration when I get to the Chopin piece accompanied by field recordings. Finally the album ends with the three part Exogenesis boasting a full orchestra. It sounded like a great idea. Personally I love string arrangements, but Muse just waste the orchestra. It just sounds like simple stock orchestra music playing before or in the background of a generic Muse song. This album is simply a half-baked attempt from Matt & co at becoming more experimental without alienating their fanbase. I guess in the end it doesn't matter because the kids will still jump around and have fun at a sold-out Wembley to crap like MK ULTRA.

P.S. - LOVE IS OUR RESISTANCE <3 YEAH, THEY GOT BRIAN MAY AND TIMBALAND TO DO SOME COLLABS AND SHIT

so, having only heard the 2 leaked songs previously, these comments among many others have given me more curiosity. is this going to finally be the record they step up to the plate and be the statement album they have needed to make since, well, they existed? or are these reviews more accurate and we'll have another 3 or 4 years to wait until they finally live up to their potential?...

Mr.Owl how many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie-pop?..ah 1, ah 2, ah tree..ahh tree...doo doo doo doo doo..how-many-licks-does-it-take-to-get-to-the-center-of-a-tootsie-pop..The World, may never know.

Baroness new album also leaked over my home-pc vacation. Some reviews suggest it's a step-up..more proggy. Could they be this year's Burst?..I wouldn't be shocked. I'll know soon.

Ramona Falls tomorrow night at the cave/entry. I should have won free tix from Radio Kah this afternoon. I dialed the wrong number damnit. My budget is taking a hit of late you could say. Saving $12 on a ticket would have been nice. Damn.

ProgPowerUSA in a few days. Enchant plays Thursday night. I arrive Friday afternoon. Hopefully I'll be able to talk to the guys on Friday or Saturday at least. Afterall, i should have a fair amount of free time given I really only am coming for 2 or maybe 3 bands. I may checkout Diablo Swing Orchestra and Royal Hunt. Diablo though, the opera singing may have to be more stomach-able live. Nightwish never worked for me. I dunno. And Royal Hunt I do like, but would prefer DC Cooper singing. I like 1 of their albums "Paradox" with Cooper singing. He won't be there as far as I know.

Crimson Glory I will watch. I was into them for a brief period in the mid 90's. "Transcendence" I still have nostalgia for. I was sad about Midnight passing.

But the real meat of this festival is Fates Warning and Orphaned Land, with Andre Matos gone. So, more or less among the 10 bands on both days, i am seeing 2 as a priority. 1 as a likely, and maybe 2 others. I'll likely have my share of free time telling tons of power and progmetal fans how alternative/indie prog and technical death metal is more my scene now. Why I've been gone for 5 years. And even that if they want to actually hear music that is doing different things, they need to stop getting force-fed the genre-specific music that the bands at the festival are doing year-after-year. And perhaps even tell them how prog metal was a lot better in the 90's and early 2000's anyway, lol. But we'll see. They're nice folks no matter, which hopefully will be another benefit for this return attendance for me after 5 years. Even if the price was $140, lol.

9



Somewhat Tim Burton ANBC-ish, and not that far from a Pixar-style (and quality). Given I received a free-pass for this thing at the last minute (and actually would have been up for seeing "Extract" instead, but no means to theater-jump), I can't say I was disappointed in it.

the story, really not all that different than your hollywood-animated protagonist/coming-of-age deal. The origin of the 9 robots? parts of their creator souls? or whatver, I found probably the most interesting. But this could have used more perhaps. Kind of a Lost-like style backstories. But if the audience is more for kids, kids don't need tons of backstory.

Animation-wise, yeah it was quite impressive visually, albeit rather dark and gothic, but it's Tim Burton, go figure.

If you're into Animated movies, go see it. If you like man vs machine stories, go see it. If you want another Wall-E or UP, rent/wait-for-tv/skip-it.