World War Z premiered over this past weekend and as I mentioned in my review the film was better than expected and showed something which previous zombie films have never truly shown and that’s the epic nature of just how a zombie apocalypse would look. While the film probably has disappointed fans of the novel for it’s massive and major deviations of the novel it was adapted from it was still a fun film.
It was from the opening title sequence of World War Z that I was first introduced to the song that comes in as the latest “Song of the Day”.
The song “Isolated System” from Muse’s latest album, The 2nd Law, really comes off as a nice precursor to what will be an apocalyptic event just around the corner. The whole song is an instrumental piece that’s interspersed with voice clippings from news reports that just have a hint of something ominous about to happen. The song looks to have have been influenced, whether by accident or on purpose, by another song which works well as a soundtrack to the apocalypse: Godspeend Ye! Black Emperor’s “East Hastings”.
Even if one didn’t like the film World War Z, this song was at least a nice find for those who haven’t been introduced to it.
My love for metal continues to grow with each new recommendation and post made by site music writer necromoonyeti. I will admit that outside of thrash I do gravitate towards the more power and symphonic subgenre of metal. This is why for the latest “Song of the Day” to end the day and usher in Sunday I’ve picked my favorite song from Dutch symphonic/gothic metal band Within Temptation’s latest album, The Unforgiving, which also was used by AMV creator Chiikaboom for her AMV, Devil’s Game. This song is “A Demon’s Fate”.
This song just comes at you right from the beginning like a soundtrack to some fantasy or urban gothic film. This is an appropriate response since the album was created as if the band was composing a soundtrack for a film. This album is a concept one and while it doesn’t hit and win big with every track in the end they’re all worth listening to and my ears leaned towards “A Demon’s Fate” the moment I heard it.
The gothic sound of the band in past album’s has been tempered somewhat to make way for an even more symphonic metal sound. In this song, frontwoman Sharon den Adel (she definitely blows up the misconception that women who front metal bands are not hot) just sings her heart out. Sharon definitely has some impressive vocals and lungs with some of the chorus she had to belt out. At times, her vocals almost overpower the power of the music behind her but luckily she never crosses that line.
While Within Temptation doesn’t have fantasy themes of Blind Guardian or the speed and rough edge of thrash bands like Metallica and Slayer, they do seem to be making their stand as symphonic metal’s premiere group and all thanks due to Sharon den Adel.
A Demon’s Fate
Too many times Seeing the violence It’s feeding my mind No one is saving you How can you find A heaven in this hell?
Leave it behind Hearing your silence It screams our goodbye Cannot believe it’s an eye for an eye Love is gone to waste
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world And this playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness he’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
What have you done? Is this what you wanted? What have you become? His soul’s not forsaken You’re walking alone From heaven into hell Now that you know Your way in this madness Your powers are gone Your chains have been broken You’ve suffered so long You will never change.
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world I’m not playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness He’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
Angels have faith I don’t want to be a part of his sin I don’t want to get lost in his world I’m not playing this game
When the shadows remain in the light of day On the wings of darkness He’ll retaliate He’ll be falling from grace Till the end of all his days
From the ashes of hate It’s a cruel demon’s fate On the wings of darkness He’s returned to stay There will be no escape Cause he’s fallen far from grace
The latest “AMV of the Day” is another one which is based on the mahou shoujo series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica. It’s become one of my favorite anime series of late and with each repeat viewing just increases my love for it. This latest anime music video takes that “magical girl” anime series and combines it with a symphonic rock song to create an AMV titled, “Devil’s Game”.
“Devil’s Game” is not just my latest pick for “AMV of the Day” but also the latest from AMV creator-extraordinaire Chiikaboom whose anime music video creations have always become instant favorites of mine. This latest really highlights the darkness that permeates throughout the anime series. For a mahou shoujo series, Puella Magi Madoka Magica get pretty dark and the subgenre as a whole uses themes of darkness to balance out the cute magical girl art design.
Within Temptation’s “A Demon’s Fate” is quite an appropriate song to use for this video. The series is all about Magi (magically-enhanced teen girls) fighting evil Witches to save the innocent people and the world. The series also includes Kyubey whose extremely cute appearance hides a secret that the song’s lyrics and title really meshes well with.
Chiikaboom’s editing of the video was not as extensive as some past ones which really comes and goes in rapid-fire fashion. For this video the editing and scene transitions matches very well with the bass drum sections in the song that it’s not noticeable at first glance, but really shows after repeat viewings. And it’s well-made AMV’s like this using scenes from this series that really should help sell Puella Magi Madoka Magica to the uninitiated whose experience with anime is from Adult Swim showings on Cartoon Network.
“Devil’s Game” is the best Puella Magi Madoka Magica AMV I’ve seen, so far, hand’s down.
After having just seen Zack Snyder’s latest visual extravaganza with Sucker Punch my next pick for “song of the day” comes courtesy of that film’s eclectic soundtrack. The one song which stood out the most and set the tone of the film for me has to be the one which starts the film: “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of These)” covered by the film’s lead, Emily Browning.
“Sweet Dreams” was an instant classic when Eurthymics first unleashed it upon the music world and it continues to do so even after countless bands and artists covering the song. One cover which seems to get the most press has been Marilyn Manson’s version which helped propel the shock rocker into prominence (and helped launch an uncounted number of “goths” to the world). In Sucker Punch the song once again gets covered but this time by Emily Browning. This English actress’ haunting and ethereal rendition of the song with a symphonic rock tempo and melody to match her voice has made this cover of the song my favorite.
This cover opens up the film and almost gives the opening scene a silent film quality as the song plays over a dialogue-free sequence. It also gives the whole proceeding a dream-like quality that helped set the tone of the film. The song pretty much said that what one was about to see may or may not be real. The rest of the film’s soundtrack just got better as the film went forward, but it was the strong beginning with this song that turned a very good soundtrack into a great one.
Since I had already chosen the latest AMV of the Day to feature the Finnish rock band, Poets of the Fall, I thought it only appropriate that the latest Song of the Day make it a double-billing. This latest chosen song for this music feature is “War” by Poets of the Fall.
The song features heavily in the psychological-thriller game, Alan Wake, on the Xbox 360. It’s not surprising to find Poets of the Fall as part of this game’s soundtrack since the groups past relationship with Remedy who developed the game and who also happen to be Finnish themselves. “War” was used as the score for the end of Episode Five in the game. Even the official music video shot by the band used the basic plot of the game for it’s visuals.
In years past the band’s albums were typically labeled as alternative rock which is probably why I never really heard about them until I heard them on Alan Wake. This particular song is the second track on their latest album, Twilight Theater, and moves the band from their alternative roots to a more symphonic rock sound. This symphonic sound actually gives the band a much more classic hard rock vibe than their previous albums and is probably why I’ve finally gotten into their music. And I shall continue to listen to them and their future musical endeavors if they continue on this new musical style.
War
Do you remember standing on a broken field White crippled wings beating the sky The harbingers of war with their nature revealed And our chances flowing by?
If I can let the memory heal I will remember you with me on that field
When I thought that I fought this war alone You were there by my side on the frontline When I thought that I fought without a cause You gave me a reason to try
Turn the page I need to see something new For now my innocence is torn We cannot linger on this stunted view Like rabid dogs of war
I will let the memory heal I will remember you with me on that field
When I thought that I fought this war alone You were there by my side on the front line And we fought to believe the impossible When I thought that I fought this war alone We were one with our destinies entwined When I thought that I fought without a cause You gave me the reason why
With no-one wearing their real face It’s a whiteout of emotion And I’ve only got my brittle bones to break the fall
When the love in letters fade It’s like moving in slow motion And we’re already too late if we arrive at all
And then we’re caught up in the arms race An involuntary addiction And we’re shedding every value our mothers taught
So will you please show me your real face Draw the line in the horizon ‘Cause I only need your name to call the reasons why I fought
When I thought that I fought this war alone You were there by my side on the front line And we fought to believe the impossible When I thought that I fought this war alone We were one with our destinies entwined When I thought that I fought without a cause You gave me the reason why
Halloween is less than a week away and for the next few days there’ll be more song of the day choices and this time around it will all be centered on horror. To start things off I chose the theme from George A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead which was composed by the Italian prog-rock band Goblin.
The theme’s titled “L’alba Dei Morti Viventi” and it definitely creates a dissonant tone which just creeps along and makes one feel more than just a bit uncomfortable. Goblin used a lot of their electronic music background to make this such a signature and iconic horror theme. Anyone who has seen the original Dawn of the Dead will automatically recognize this theme and the feeling it brings up. A feeling of dread and of creeping horror which perfectly describes the zombies from Romero’s grand opus.
Horror fans everywhere have Italian horror maestro Dario Argento for having gotten Goblin to create the score for Romero’s film (Argento was one of the key producers for the film and even re-cut it for the European market). Goblin had already worked with Argento on previous films with their best early work with the filmmaker being the score for ProfondoRosso (known as Deep Red in the US and English market). But no matter how many other Italian horror scores the band has made since Dawn of the Dead (and the ones after have been great in their own right) it will be their score for that film which will indelibly link the band in film music history.
PS: as an added bonus below is the band’s theme for Argento’s Profondo Rosso.
Through the Shattered Lens 