Christian Metal: Oxymoronic?

Just like the seasons, my music tastes tend to go in cycles. During the spring and the fall I like to jam out to a little classic rock via Led Zeppelin, and during the summer I like to jam to a little Kanye West and some hip-hop, but it is during the winter months I love to listen to metal.

Recently released album, Dreamer, by Christian Metalcore band Haste the Day has got my attention for this winter, and the gettin' is good. Most people don't look at Christianity and immediately think Metallica or the ironically named metal group Lamb of God, but a majority of bands are breaking into this genre of "Christian Metal."

Haste the Day, Norma Jean and As I Lay Dying are just a few of the many bands in this genre. These bands are reaching out to a niche of people that was previously left untapped by the metal market, and kudos to them.

But back to just the metal aspect. Dreamer, by Haste the Day, is a good album, I'm not going to say it is the pinnacle of metal or anything, but it has been keeping my attention for the past week, (It was released a week ago). My favorite track from this album is "Invoke Reform."

So now that I am back in the groove of metal, I had to find more albums, and in my search I did find an excellent metal album that I recommend everyone should check out, and just a disclaimer, this is not a Christian album.

All That Remains' Overcome was released over a month ago, so I know I'm pretty late getting to it, but better late than ever. This album has a great mesh of heavy and light metal that I crave. Being a former piano player, I was taught that the differences between sound volumes in a song allow people to tell the really good parts from the ones that are just leading up to those parts, and this album features that heavily.

The album has great guitar solos and melodic rhythms that have other commuters on the highway wondering why my head is jerking in such a weird manner. The best track on this album, to me, is "A Song for the Hopeless," and is worth a download for any yearning metal fan out there.

VG1: Fallout 3

The last major game released by Bethesda Softworks was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and that game, released for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, went on to win several game of the year awards in 2004.

Four years later Bethesda is being talked about again as their highly anticipated action role-playing game Fallout 3 will hit shelves on the 28th. Its preview at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo, or E3, as most people know it, garnered several awards that mostly consisted of "Best of Show". The game took home both Gamespot and IGN's "Best Of" awards.

Fallout 3 takes place in a post-apocalyptic United States in the year 2277. Your character will be assembled from the ground up through the use of several different in game mechanics (ie. as a child you will receive a "You're Special Book" that will let you determine your skill set). After creating your character, you are put into the story of the game.

The story goes as follows: Your (characters) father, voiced by Liam Neeson, wanders out of Vault 101, which is a nuclear fallout shelter that serves Washington D.C., into the vass wasteland that was previously the US. Your job as this character, is to find your father, and meet several different organizations and other interesting characters throughout the course of the game.

This game, which will be released for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC, is the first game in the Fallout game in the series NOT to be released exclusively for a PC. I am not going to say check this one out or anything like that, because any game I talk about in this list is worth checking out and from this point on, will just be implied! Make sure you check out the feature video I included below (acquired from YouTube).

(Next up....... PS3 exclusive, Little Big Planet)

Fall Video Game Lineup Special

Continuing on with the "Year of the Video Game" theme, I will be releasing a feature about an upcoming or recently released video game every other day for the next two weeks or so, (Other features will be included, but this is one you can count on). No video game will be featured today, because I need time to gather information, but starting tomorrow, with Fallout 3, the features will keep-a-flowing. Hopefully you'll enjoy reading this as much as I will enjoy doing the information, so be ready tomorrow, when the first feature hits.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Movie

Recently Spider-Man film director Sam Raimi has expressed interest in transforming the World of Warcraft video game into a big screen production. Sam Raimi, who is signed on to simultaneously direct the 4th and 5th Spider-Man movies, was quoted with the following.

"In the world of video games, it's usually more of an environment or a scenario, not character-based ... but they certainly could [be better]. There's 'World of Warcraft' -- what an awesome video game! It has such great, adventurous characters in it and such fantastic landscapes and rules. ... You could make a brilliant 'World of Warcraft' movie -- as fine as any of the best superhero movies -- if you had the right writers and directors."

Nothing has been confirmed about the movie, this is all just hype coming from the quote of Sam Raimi. So for those of you who think a WoW movie is on the horizon,

Year of the Video Game

Recently my blog focus has been primarily on video games, but unfortunately, or fortunately I should be saying, this week is no different.

12:01 a.m. on Oct. 21, 2008, marked the release of a long awaited title for nerds like me, Fable II. This action role-playing game places you in the foots of a character I have come to know as Sparrow, and in this game you control everything he does.

Fable II gives you the ability to make life decisions, be they good or evil, and on my first play through of this game, I am going to be the evil person, and will give one example of a "life changing decision". After clearing the road of Thag the Bandit, you receive a key to free two people who have been taken captive by Thag. You have the decision to either fight off another bandit and free the slaves, or hand over the key to the bandit and take your first steps towards evildom.

I'm sure in the coming week this game will take up much of my time, and for any of you XBox 360( sorry PS3 owners) this is one you should pick up.

Shocktober, The End

I just completed Dead Space, and man was it a game. It only took about 12 hours to complete, so renting it may be the better option for some people. Great story, great combat, great "atmosphere". It's just a good game. So if you own a PS3 or Xbox 360, playing this game is a must!

Shocktober, The Beginning.

I am not a fan of the survival/horror genre, I'm a scardie pants. So call it a miracle or something that I have been so intrigued by latest survival/horror game, Dead Space.

Dead Space places you in the shoes of Isaac, a engineer for a futuristic society that is a sent on mission to discover what happened to the non-communicative, "planet cracking" space ship, the Ishimura. Whooo, that was a mouthful. Now, a little backstory.

In this futuristic society, earth has exhausted all of its resources, so it has turned to the stars by cracking apart planets and harvesting the non-renewable resources waiting inside. Well, on this routine mission, all communications are stopped with the most successful of these planet cracking space ships. So there you go, you've got the back story.

Now, for the story itself. Apparently, there is an alien race buried deep within the earth that is using some kind of "marker" to alter peoples minds and make them go crazy and kill each other. Then they take over their dead bodies, and are turned into what Isaac knows as, the Necromorphs. The Necromorphs are the primary antagonist throughout the game.

Well, this game is good at being scary. Isaac is on a dark powered down ship in the middle of space with horribly mutated dead bodies waiting around every corner, fun fun. And that isn't sarcasm, this game is loaded with fun. Isaac isn't a soldier, so he doesn't use guns, instead he uses engineering equipment to plow his way through any unlucky necromorph, but that isn't as easy as it sounds.

The Necromorphs are impervious to shots in the head and torso, so you've got to use what Electronic Arts (the developer of the game) are calling "strategic dismemberment". So you have to shoot off these aliens appendages, limb by limb, until they lay at your feet in a bloody heap.

I have played through the first three chapters of the game, and the story is great, I'm not going to give away in a big spoilers, but I will update in Shocktober: The End, after I finish this game. The game is available on PS3 and Xbox 360 and is rated M for mature, please also note, this game might make you soil yourself. Depends are handy. AND MAKE SURE YOU CHECK OUT THE TRAILER I HAVE POSTED BELOW!