Album Review: Fallujah-Nomadic

Few bands make as strong of a first impression as Fallujah did with their 2011 debut The Harvest Wombs.   I was struck immediately by the incredible musicianship and songwriting in their brand of progressive/technical death metal and they instantly became one of the best up-and-coming bands in the whole metal scene. With their new EP, Nomadic, Fallujah has cemented themselves as not only one of the best up-and-coming bands in all of metal, but one of the best bands in metal period.

Nomadic takes the sound Fallujah established on The Harvest Wombs to the next level. The music is a lot more moody and atmospheric this time around while not loosing any of the extreme-metal edge they had in the past. Nomadic may only be 3 tracks, but it packs more of a punch than 95% of the full-length records I've heard in the past years. Aside from the second track, "Silent", which is a low-key, droney instrumental track, Nomadic makes full use of Fallujah's incredible talent. Opening track "The Dead Sea" took my breath away. The riffing is absolutely incredible with a beautiful mid-section and jaw-dropping technical proficiency in the beginning and end of the song. Vocalist Alex Hoffmann improves on his vocals from the previous release with more of an emphasis on his black metal-influenced high screams, which are absolutely killer throughout this record. While not quite as impressive as "The Dead Sea", the EP's final track, Venom Upon the Blade", still kicks a lot of ass. There is once again more exciting guitarwork, punishing blast beats, and of course, the chilling progressive sections that Fallujah has become known for.

Nomadic is absolutely fantastic stuff. Fallujah improves on their already excellent debut in every possible way. The progressive sections are even more well-crafted and ethereal while the heavy sections are just as chaotic and ferocious. Even with only one full-length record and two EP's under their belt, I can already tell this band has exactly it takes to become the next icons in the extreme metal scene. Nomadic is a godlike technical/progressive death metal hybrid and I urge all fans of the genre to pay $3 to download this record and support this incredible upstart band.

4.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
All of it

2013 NFL Mock Draft (Updated)

With only 2 weeks until the NFL Draft, I figured I would do an updated mock draft (Here is the link to my first one from last month http://maitlandsmadness.blogspot.com/2013/03/2013-nfl-mock-draft.html) I am going to do an update for the next 2 weeks as well before the draft on April 25th. Here is my latest mock draft.

1.Kansas City Chiefs: Luke Jockel, tackle (Texas A&M)
2.Jacksonville Jaguars: Dion Jordan, outside linebacker/defensive end (Oregon)
3.Oakland Raiders: Sharrif Floyd, defensive tackle (Flordia)
4.Philladelphia Eagles: Eric Fisher, tackle (Central Michigan)
5.Detroit Lions: Ezikel "Ziggy" Anzah, defensive end/outside linebacker (BYU)
6.Cleveland Browns: Dee Millner, cornerback (Alabama)
7.Arizona Cardinals: Lane Johnson, tackle (Oklahoma)
8.Buffalo Bills: Geno Smith, quarterback (West Virginia)
9.New York Jets: Bjoern Werner, defensive end (Florida State)
10.Tennesee Titans: Chance Warmack, guard (Alabama)
11.San Diego Chargers: Jonathan Cooper, guard (North Carolina)
12.Miami Dolphins: Xavier Rhodes, cornerback (Florida State)
13.Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Star Lotulelei, defensive end/tackle (Utah)
14.Carolina Panthers: Sheldon Richardson, defensive tackle (Missouri)
15.New Orleans Saints: Barkevious Mingo, defensive end/outside linebacker (LSU)
16.St. Louis Rams: Tavon Austin, wide receiver (West Virginia)
17.Pittsburgh Steelers: Jarvis Jones, outside linebacker (Georgia)
18.Dallas Cowboys: D.J Fluker, tackle (Alabama)
19.New York Giants: Alec Ogletree, inside linebacker (Georgia)
20.Chicago Bears: Arthur Brown, outside/inside linebacker (Kansas State)
21.Cincinnati Bengals: Kenny Vaccaro, safety (Texas)
22.St. Louis Rams: Matt Elam, safety (Florida)
23.Minnesota Vikings: Cordarrelle Patterson, wide receiver (Tennessee)
24.Indianpolis Colts: Datone Jones, defensive end/tackle (UCLA)
25.Minnesota Vikings: Sylvester Williams, defensive tackle (North Carolina)
26.Green Bay Packers: Menelik Watson, tackle (Florida State)
27.Houston Texans: DeAndre Hopkins, wide receiver (Clemson)
28.Denver Broncos: Manti Te'o, inside linebacker (Notre Dame)
29.New England Patriots: Jonathan Hankins, defensive tackle (Ohio State)
30.Atlanta Falcons: Tyler Eifert, tight end (Notre Dame)
31.San Fransisco 49ers: Eric Reid, safety (LSU)
32.Baltimore Ravens: Kevin Minter, inside linebacker (LSU) 

Are There Any Quarterbacks in the 2013 NFL Draft Class Worthy of a 1st Round Pick?

2012 was a monumental season for rookie quarterbacks. The first two overall picks in the 2012 draft, Andrew Luck (Indianapolis Colts) and Robert Griffin III (Washington Redskins), made an instant impact and lead their respective teams to surprising playoff berths. Given the success of Luck, Griffin III, and Russell Wilson (Seattle Seahawks) last season, teams that are in need of a quarterback are hoping that there is someone of their caliber in the 2013 draft. Unfortunately for these teams in need of a quarterback, there doesn't appear to be any franchise quarterbacks in this draft.

With the outstanding play of rookie quarterbacks last season, teams are going to naturally overvalue quarterbacks in this draft. These teams that are lacking a quarterback saw what the Colts, Redskins and Seahawks and want a young, incendiary quarterback to turn their struggling team around immediately. On paper at least, There is no Luck, RG3 or Wilson, but these teams with quarterback trouble are more than likely going to cross their fingers and draft a quarterback way ahead of where they should go and hope one of these middling prospects ends up blossoming into a superstar.

Take this year's top-rated prospect Geno Smith (West Virginia) for example. In most years, he probably wouldn't be on the radar as a first-round pick, but in this draft class he is being touted as a top 10 pick. Even with quarterback-needy teams such as the Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, and Buffalo Bills picking up veteran options (Matt Flynn, Carson Palmer and Kevin Kolb respectively) last week, the top 10 speculation for Smith hasn't wavered. Smith has even been seen as a potential first round pickup for the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles, who both selected quarterbacks in the first three rounds last season and neither Brandon Weeden nor Nick Foles played poorly during their rookie year. This hype on Smith doesn't really make a whole lot of sense since the teams the were most interested in him either went out and got quarterbacks last week (Raiders, Cardinals and Bills) or already have a combination of young guys with potential and serviceable veterans on the roster (Eagles and Browns.)  If these five teams all pass on him, he should slide all the way to the second round, which is a far more reasonable landing spot for a player of Smith's ability. Smith has a slew of question marks surrounding his work ethic, ability to throw in weather conditions and his overall decision-making skills. Teams like the Raiders, Eagles, Browns, Cardinals, and Bills can't afford to gamble a first round pick on Smith when they have so many other needs that can be filled at the top of the draft.

This year's other top prospects are just as cloudy as Geno Smith. Matt Barkley (USC) has suspect arm strength, forces a lot of throws and is coming off a major shoulder injury. Mike Glennon (NC State) has plenty of arm strength, but also tends to force a lot of throws. E.J Manuel (Flordia State) and Ryan Nassib (Syracuse) have potential, but they are both too much of a project to take in the first round. The other guys available like Tyler Bray (Tennessee), Landry Jones (Oklahoma), Tyler Wilson (Arkansas) and Matt Scott (Arizona) don't seem like they will be drafted before the fourth or fifth round and appear to be nothing more than minimal impact guys and after these guys go it doesn't seem like there will be more than one or two other quarterbacks selected for the rest of the draft.

As much as poor teams would like to think otherwise, there does not appear to be a top-notch talent at quarterback in this year's draft class. Teams that are in need of a quarterback are going to have to realize that 2012 was a talent anomaly and there is rarely that level of talent or depth on display in a singular draft class. The NFL is notorious for having a win-now mentality, but these struggling teams are going to need to be patient instead of gambling first round picks on unproven quarterback prospects and risking staying at the bottom of the league for years to come. Time will tell clearly and I could end up being dead wrong, but 2013 has plenty of guys with second or third round talent but no one who is worthy of a first round selection.



 

Movie Review: Evil Dead

The poster for Evil Dead hails it as the most terrifying film you will ever experience. The only thing terrifying about Evil Dead is that someone at Columbia Pictures gave the filmmakers millions of dollars to produce this abomination of a movie.

Evil Dead is essentially a 90-minute master thesis on everything that's wrong with the horror genre. The characters are idiotic and unlikable (I know this is a horror movie and the characters are bound to make some stupid choices, but the choices the characters make in this movie are just ridiculous) the acting and script are abysmal and it's not even close to scary, creepy, suspenseful or most importantly, entertaining. The filmmakers mistake jump scares and cheap gore as "terrifying" and leave everything else criminally underdeveloped. The beginning of the film tries to establish some type of feeble emotional backstory with the heroin-addicted heroine Mia (Jane Levy) and her brother David (Shiloh Hernandez), who wasn't there for when their mom died in a psych ward, but these "emotional" scenes are so poorly acted and conceived that its just laughable. After this relatively weak opening,  the film just spirals further and further down the tubes once it delves into the main storyline. Basically these 5 kids vacationing in a cabin summon a demon (who looks like the possessed girl in The Exorcist spoof in Scary Movie 2)  from a satanic book (which is bound in human flesh and filled with random evil images and warnings to not read, write or say any of the passages in it, but these meddling kids do it anyways!) they find in the basement of the cabin (which is riddled with an astronomical amount of dead cats hanging from the ceiling mind you) and it starts picking them off one by one. Despite all the stupidity that is present, there is not even a second that this film doesn't take itself extremely seriously. The filmmakers think if they shower blood at the screen (ironically during the finale it is literally raining blood,) it will excuse the moronic plot and unfathomable series of choices all of the characters make. If this film went in a more intentionally comedic a la The Cabin in the Woods or Drag Me to Hell, we could've been looking at a fucking great B-movie that was a whole lot of fun to watch. But instead of loading the film with a sense of self-aware badness and dark humor, we get a witless, stone-serious film that strives to be horrifying and just falls flat on its face. The only moment of the entire film that is effective is when at one point one of the main characters screams  "It was horrible, It was so horrible". That line of dialogue accurately sums up what I felt during the entire duration of the film so bravo to the screenwriters for at least getting about five seconds of this otherwise painful movie right. Evil Dead is amongst the worst movies I've ever had the misfortune of seeing in my life and it makes other recent horror remakes like A Nightmare on Elm Street and The Thing look like genre-defining masterpieces. It's nothing more than a cheap attempt to shock the audience by displaying as much spraying blood and severed limbs on screen as humanly possible without establishing any type of legitimate story, entertainment value or characters that you actually give two shits about.  Garbage like this all but ensures that the horror genre is going from being on life support to completely flatlining.

1/5 Stars

Album Review: Tyler, The Creator-Wolf

It's been quite the whirlwind for Tyler, The Creator the past couple years. The 22-year old went from hip-hop unknown to VMA-winner with his own TV show on Adult Swim after the release of his 2011 record Goblin. His third full-length effort, Wolf, sees Odd Future's ringleader going in a more mature direction without losing a grip on the savage material he explored on his first two records.

Wolf sees Tyler, The Creator growing up in a sense. He wanted to take some risks and shed his image as the guy who only raps about murder, rape and other violent/immature things and he definitely succeeds in changing things up a bit. I really dug the honesty in which he raps about his poor relationship with his father on "Answer" and his struggles with newfound fame/bandwagon fans on "Colossus". They provide a nice contrast to the more abrasive material that dominated most of Bastard and Goblin. As much as I like his hardcore edge, he needed to break out of being strictly the dude who raps about chopping bitches up and putting them in the garbage disposal. The serious songs on this record also see Tyler using more laid-back, jazz-inspired beats which I found work better than his more hardcore beats. I've always liked Tyler more as a rapper than a producer, but he's starting to find his niche with the more calm, soulful beats found on certain songs on this record.

Of course it wouldn't be a Tyler, The Creator record without humor and hardcore hip-hop. The first half is mostly the more serious stuff except for the banger "Jamba" with a excellent guest spot from Hodgy Beats and the hilarious trap rap parody "Domo23" which sees Tyler calling out the posers amongst his fans. The second half is primarily focused on the more hardcore material and this is where the album shines. "Rusty" sees Tyler spitting venom for over two minutes on one of the most best verses of his career with impressive guest stints from his Odd Future cohorts Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt while "Tamale" is quick, clever and amusing with a ton of great wordplay. Tyler does some good work on Wolf that's out of his wheelhouse, but he is clearly at his peak when dropping intense verses that are heavy on wit and rage.

Wolf is another solid effort from Tyler, The Creator. He successfully implements a more conscious, reserved style without losing his trademark hardcore bite. While there are a few misfires ("Awkward", "Trashwang" and the ambitious, but just too weird for my taste "Treehome95",) Wolf doesn't suffer from the same inconsistency issues that Goblin did. Tyler, The Creator is still the same pissed-off, funny, smart rapper he's been since Bastard came out, he just has grown up a little bit and thrown in some more serious, personal subject matter to balance out his signature maniacal material. Wolf will probably weed out the bandwagon fans Tyler and the rest of Odd Future has gained over the past couple years while making something more refined yet still true to his hardcore roots for his real, dedicated fans to appreciate.

3.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Rusty ft. Domo Genesis and Earl Sweatshirt
2.Colossus 
3.Tamale 

Album Review: Killswitch Engage-Disarm the Descent

As a longtime fan of Killswitch Engage, The departure of vocalist Howard Jones in early 2012 was unfortunate. He had been the vocalist ever since I started listening to them back in 2006 and End of Heartache was one of the key albums that got me into metal when I was 14 so naturally I was pretty bummed when he announced he was leaving the band. There was only one person that could fill the void after Howard left: original vocalist Jesse Leach and that's exactly who Killswitch tapped as their "new" frontman. There was a considerable amount of hype surrounding Leach's return to the band and I can safely say that Disarm the Descent does not disappoint in the slightest.

Disarm the Descent picks up right where Leach left off with the band 11 years ago. You wouldn't know by listening to this record that there was such a long gap where he wasn't in the band due to how seamlessly organic the material sounds. Leach's return to Killswitch seems to have revitalized the band. The energy that their last record sorely lacked is back in full force and you can tell the band hasn't been this happy making music in years. It almost seems like they were waiting for Leach to return to make another kickass record. Leach is the undisputed star of the record. His vocal performance on this record is nothing short of remarkable. His range and harmony work is better than ever and like his previous studio effort on Hymn of a Broken Man by Times of Grace, there were many times during this album where my jaw was on the floor at some of the notes he was able to hit. Vocalists as well-rounded and talented as Jesse Leach don't come around often in the world of metal and Killswitch is clearly thrilled to have him back in the band. Supporting Leach's outstanding vocal work is some great music being laid down by the whole band. Guitarists Adam D and Joel Strozel have a barrage of catchy heavy and melodic riffs to drive home the power of Leach's vocal performance (the riffs/hooks on "The Hell in Me", "Beyond the Flames", "A Tribute to The Fallen", "Always" and "Time Will Not Remain" have been stuck in my head for the past week) and Justin Foley gives his best drum performance in years. It was also great to see Adam D soloing again. He is one of my favorite soloists of all-time and the last couple records have been painfully short on solos, but thankfully this record fixes that injustice and he gets ample time to just let loose on this record.

Disarm the Descent is a glorious comeback album for Killswitch Engage. Jesse Leach has coming roaring back into the fold bringing the band a level of energy and enthusiasm they haven't had in years. This isn't a record that will sway any of their previous detractors, but fans of Killswitch will be pleased to see their old-school sound of incredibly catchy yet heavy riffs and amazing hooks fully back in play after their disappointing 2009 self-titled album. While it's not quite Alive or Just Breathing (nor was I expecting to be. If I had went with such lofty expectations, There is no way that I would've enjoyed this record,) Disarm the Descent is easily the best album they've released since End of Heartache. Welcome back to Killswitch Engage Jesse Leach and hopefully you're here to stay this time.

4.5/5 Stars
Standout Tracks
1.Beyond the Flames
2.The Hell in Me
3.A Tribute to the Fallen

April in Film

April is the last month before the summer movie season and this April is particularly scare with only 6 wide releases hitting theaters (excluding the 3D re-release of Jurassic Park.) Despite the small number of releases, there are a few intriguing releases on the schedule. Here are my thoughts on the entire crop of April films.

Films I want to see:
3.Oblivion (4/19): Though I'm not entirely sure what it's about, Oblivion is intriguing to me. The effects looks stunning and the presence of Tom Cruise and Morgan Freeman in the cast is promising for its quality.

2.Pain and Gain (4/26): The pairing of Dwayne "The Rock Johnson" and Mark Wahlberg in an action-comedy alone is enough to get me to see this. I'm also excited to see Michael Bay make his first non-big budget film in an almost a decade and the supporting cast including Anthony Mackie, Tony Shaloub, Rebel Wilson, Ed Harris and Ken Jeong is excellent. An added bonus is that the release of a red band trailer last week confirms this is rated R.

1.42 (4/12): I pretty much always love sports movies and the story of an icon like Jackie Robinson, who broke open racial barriers in baseball is a fascinating subject matter for a movie. The trailer makes it look like a triumphant celebration of Jackie Robinson's life and impact on baseball so hopefully the film delivers good on that promise.

Films I'm not sure about:
Evil Dead (4/5):This movie looks sufficiently screwed up and could be legitimately scary. The one thing that's preventing me from being completely sold on it is hit-or-miss screenwriter Diablo Cody being behind it. The reception has been solid so far though so I'm probably going to take the risk on it.

Films I have zero interest seeing in:
Scary Movie 5 (4/12): I liked all previous four Scary Movies. They were stupid, but they were all funny and were fun parody movies. Scary Movie 5 look neither funny nor fun and appears to be nothing more than a cheap cash-in to continue the series.

The Big Wedding (4/26): It does have a large and talented cast, but it's a really pedestrian-looking romantic comedies.