Ok kids. As late night boredom ensues, I decide to pass the time and present to you, a rambling, partial list of my top favorite albums that stand the test of time, albums that have influenced or impacted me in some way, or albums that are personal favorites of mine.

Some of you that know me are aware that my metal roots are embedded in the old school. Hell, that's a result of having a cool dad who exposed me to all the stuff that he listened to, and it's where I got my start, as well as doing some exploring on my own, whether it was raiding my dad's CD and tape collection when I was a kid, hanging out with my dad's friends when I was a kid, or simply checking out bands out of pure curiosity and becoming a fan of their music.

I might be 22 years young, but to tell you the truth, I'm pretty old school and non-mainstream when it comes to metal if you break it down. Some people are just completely floored when I start naming off bands and albums that I'm into and they turn around and tell me "Dude, I was listening to that stuff when I was your age, like 15-20 years ago!" Well, like I said, I was raised on some good shit when I was a kid and my musical background is part of the reason why I have the opinions I have on today's metal scene.

Now, I do follow the metal scene of today and I can also name alot of current bands that I'm into, who are popular nowadays. But on the other hand, there's alot of current bands out there in the metal scene who are just complete horseshit, as far as I'm concerned. To prevent people from getting jacked out of shape because I insulted their "favorite horseshit band", I won't mention names. I know how people get, here in the internet world these days, and to tell you the truth, some people need to get a fucking life and grow up. Seriously, the amount of YouTube comment wars and internet pissing matches that I've seen over music and bands, proves to me that alot of people today are below 70 IQ, Grade A, USDA certified morons, and furthermore, proves to me that society is indeed, tumbling ass over tea kettle down a twirly slide into the depths of hell.

OK, I'm getting sidetracked.....back to the topic at hand.

There are some truly badass bands out there that I'm into who are current. Granted some of them have been at it for years, but never got worldwide recognition until within the past 7 years or so. I'm into bands like Divine Heresy, Lamb of God, Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage. Opeth is fuckin incredible! Machine Head, Arch Enemy, 5FDP, In Flames, Black fuckin Label Society. (SDMF), Sevendust, Nevermore, Devildriver, hell, I could go on and on. And I'm also embedded in the old school.

So without further adue, enough rambling and onto the list!

Death - "Individual Thought Patterns" (1993)
Three words; Gene fuckin Hoglan! That guy is a mindblowing drummer. I've been foaming at the mouth for some time when I got wind that Gene was putting out a drum DVD. Last I heard, it was done and Gene has been trying to find time to put it out.

 "Individual Thought Patterns" is the album that got me into Death back in 9th grade. I consider this album to be one of Death's masterpieces, and contains probably the best lineup that Chuck Schuldiner ever had, if you ask me. Chuck was a brilliant musician, it's too bad that his life was cut short due to cancer. Chuck was very particular about who he played with and he wanted top notch musicians to play in his band. And the lineup for this album was indeed badass.
Chuck Schuldiner: Vocals/guitars
Andy LaRoque: (of King Diamond) Guitars
Steve DiGiorgio: Bass (yes, he played a fretless bass. Badass bass player)
Gene Hoglan: Drums

Slayer - "Seasons In The Abyss" (1990)
I know some people will pick Reign In Blood, and yes, Reign In Blood was a badass album that also stands the test of time. But Seasons was a great album, one of my favorites. Dave Lombardo's drumming is superb on this album. There was a point in time, when I was younger, where I actually knew every single drum fill in the title track, from playing to this album so much in my garage......well, when I had a garage. I'd come home from school everyday, drop my shit in my room, eat and then shack up in my garage behind my kit, playing to CD's all day.

Carcass - "Heartwork" (1993)
I didn't get into Carcass until a couple years ago, thanks to Chuck, my lead guitar player in Ballz Deluxe. Sometimes you can see him wearing a Carcass t-shirt onstage at our shows. Ballz Deluxe may be a dynamic heavy rock band with a mainstream esque sound, but if we were to give you a list of all the musical backgrounds that we all come from, it would blow your mind and you might have a hard time believing that we write and play the music that we do, because the backgrounds we come from are so different from one another, almost opposite ends of the spectrum.

Heartwork is a classic album, a cult classic to some, but nonetheless, a badass album with superb musicianship. Also features Michael Amott on guitar, who would later go on to form Arch Enemy. I got the chance to see Carcass, live this past year on their reunion tour and it was badass.

Fight - "War of Words" (1993)
This album will totally change your perspective on Rob Halford. (Judas Priest vocalist) Judas Priest is great, I like Priest, but Fight is just downright heavy. Heavy grooves, reminiscent of Pantera, with Halford's classic vocals. Fight was a great band. They were heavy and they had attitude. It's too bad that they broke up after doing 2 albums. War of Words is a top favorite of mine.

Meshuggah - "Destroy Erase Improve" (1995)
Two words to describe my reaction when I first heard this album: HOLY FUCK! (with a pause between both words)

My dad rented this CD from the local library (Looking back, I'm surprised they had this CD there!) and brought it home one day, when I was in 7th grade. He pops it in the CD player, turns on the stereo and goes "Check this out. I got this from the library today. These guys are called Meshuggah."

"Future Breed Machine", first track, came blasting through the speakers and knocked me on my ass, figuratively speaking. I had heard nothing like it before. It was so heavy, extreme, odd, and intelligent. To this day, Destroy Erase Improve is a classic in my book, and Meshuggah's best album, if you ask me.

Megadeth - "Rust In Peace" (1990) and "Countdown to Extinction" (1992)
Both these albums have been in my ear since I was a kid, and to me, the lineup on those two albums is the Megadeth lineup that I grew up on. (Mustaine, Ellefson, Menza, Friedman). Because of that, that lineup is Megadeth to me and means more to me than the other lineups. Both albums are masterpieces.

Metallica - "...And Justice For All" (1988)
This album has been in my ear since I was a kid as well. Metallica was my first musical love, and as you all know, that's been well documented. Lars Ulrich was the reason I started playing drums when I was 3 years old. The guy was my main inspiration, and still is my hero because of that.  The Justice album turned me on to that slappy, punchy kick drum sound as well. Danmar plastic slam pads, kids.

What can I say about Justice? Some of Metallica's best work and by far, one, if not, my ultimate favorite, Metallica album. Technical, heavy, progressive, intelligent. Master of Puppets is another favorite as well, right up there with Justice. And, even the Black album. Come on, I know it's not "classic Metallica" and to some people, Metallica "sold out" with the Black album, but if ya ask me, the Black album was a good fucking album and it was heavy. Seriously, tunes off that album like "Of Wolf and Man", "Through The Never", "Struggle Within", "Sad But True" aren't heavy to you? What the fuck are you smoking, pal?

King Diamond - "Abigail" (1987)
King Diamond is an acquired taste for some people. I dig it because I grew up on it, specifically the albums "Abigail," "Them" and "Conspiracy", I also dig the King because the great musicianship in the band and music is superb, aside from the fact that his albums are well crafted, creepy stories that are cool to follow along with as you listen to the album. If King Diamond wasn't a vocalist, he'd do well as a horror book author.
Yea, I've gotten shit for being into King Diamond. "Oh, that shit's gay, he sings all high and wears that stupid makeup and it's totally 80's." Yea, the vocals are an acquired taste, but I don't give a fuck what anybody says. If you can't at least appreciate/acknowledge the musicianship in King Diamond's music, then you fucking suck. Don't be a close minded idiot.

But, all that aside, Abigail is one my favorites, with "Them" and "Conspiracy" following closely behind.

Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From A Memory (1999)
Scenes was a mindblowing album, at least to me. Not only was the music incredible, but it was a concept album as well, with a story.

I've always been into Dream Theater since I was a kid. "Images and Words" and "Awake" were albums that I remember hearing when I was a kid.
Mike Portnoy is one of my absolute favorite drummers and a big influence on my drumming. His playing has influenced my playing in many ways, from fills, to grooves, to ways of approaching drum patterns, playing off of the music and accenting it (also learned from Chris Adler) and other little tricks. Over the years of studying his playing, and listening to Dream Theater, Portnoy's influence rubbed off on me and I learned alot from him. The guy is the king of progressive rock drumming of this generation. Had the pleasure of meeting him once too. Super cool guy, pretty down to earth.

Dream Theater will always remain one of my top favorite bands

Pantera - Vulgar Display of Power (1992)
Once again, with alot of other great metal albums, this album was in my ear when I was a kid as well. Face it, when Pantera put out this album, it changed the face of metal. It was new, it was fresh, and more importantly, it was heavy as fuck. Alot of groove on this album and a classic, groundbreaking album for not only Pantera, but metal in general. I've found that, when it comes to playing drums, alot of my groove is influenced from Vinnie Paul. (As well as Lars Ulrich). Growing up listening to Metallica and Pantera, it attributed to my groove as a drummer and I learned about groove from listening to Metallica, Pantera, and even Guns N Roses when I was a kid.

Black Sabbath - "Dehumanizer" (1992)
My dad used to spin this album in the house when I was a kid. Honestly, it's Sabbath's heaviest, darkest album, if you ask me. I lean towards this lineup of Sabbath, which was when Ronnie James Dio sang for the band, not Ozzy. Ozzy is great, and I dig both eras of Sabbath (Dio and Ozzy) but I lean more towards Dio-era Sabbath. (Heaven and Hell, Mob Rules, Dehumanizer). It's darker and heavier. Honestly, Dehumanizer, to me, projects the whole vibe of Sabbath the most. Dark, heavy, and groove. It's the best I can describe it. When I listen to Dehumanizer, it gives me a vibe that no other Sabbath record gives me. It's strange.

What's cool is that Sabbath reunited with Dio as Heaven and Hell and tour today, playing all the material from the Dio era. Which is cool. Got a chance to see em last year.

Testament - "The New Order" (1988) and "Practice What You Preach" (1989)
Testament kicks ass, still to this day, and I have no shame making it known that I like Testament. It's good music. These two albums, to me, are classic Testament. Their latest album "Formation of Damnation" (2007) is badass as well. To me, they were the 5th pioneer of thrash metal, if you ask me. There was the big 4 (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax, Slayer), but Testament was kind of responsible too, as well as Exodus.

I dig all of Testament's work, everything from "New Order" to "Low" to their latest album.

Lamb of God - "As The Palaces Burn" (2003)
This was the album that got me into Lamb of God. I heard the song "Ruin" somewhere and about fell off my chair when I heard Chris Adler's infamous "falling down the stairs drum fill" that he does in the middle of the song. I immediately knew I had to check these guys out. They were doing something different at the time. They were heavy, progressive and intelligent. I've been following them ever since Palaces. Chris Adler is a badass drummer and I cite him as one of my influences. I've learned some things from his playing.

Machine Head - "Burn My Eyes" (1994)
To tell you the truth, I never got into Machine Head until high school, when I heard "Davidian", from this album, and the "Through The Ashes of Empires" album (2004).

But, Burn My Eyes is considered to be a classic, and I agree. It's a raw, heavy album and Machine Head's debut. This album made a splash when it came out and it's one of my favorites. Machine Head is one of my favorite bands today.

When I was in high school, I was in a band called Through The Ashes. I gave that band it's name and the idea was inspired from Machine Head's album "Through The Ashes of Empires." Also, "Through The Ashes" had a hidden message and some meaning behind it, at least to me. The band was formed through and out of the ashes of my former band "Corpsle", which enjoyed a good 3 years together before breaking up.  Jason Smith, (TTA vocalist) was the vocalist of Corpsle and formed that band with me, as well as TTA. Through The Ashes was formed with 3 members of Corpsle (Me, Jason, and Marc, bassist) along with Brandon Dunn and Ryan Szdyr on guitars.

Arch Enemy - "Wages of Sin" (2001)
This was the album that got me into Arch Enemy, pretty much. Badass album. I've followed Arch Enemy ever since this album.

Opeth - "Watershed" (2008)
It's a fairly new album, but it's fuckin incredible.
I've always been aware of Opeth, for sometime, but never actually got into them until within the past year or so. Granted, it took me awhile to get into Opeth, but once I did, I realized how superb the music and songwriting was, and how unique the band is. I think Opeth may be an acquired taste, something that you really have to listen to a few times to actually like. As I said, the first couple times I actually sat down and listened to an Opeth album, it didn't grab me at first. But the more I listened to them, the more it grew on me and I dig em alot. Incredible band.  When I got into Watershed, I started going back through their catalog and checked out all their albums and it all grew on me. Opeth is so unique to me, that it's kind of hard to classify them into one genre. Though they're rooted in metal, they utilize so many different elements of different music. Acoustic singer/songwriter, psychedelic, folk, classical guitar, death metal. Truly talented band.

Faith No More - "The Real Thing" (1989) and "Angeldust" (1992)

Both great albums by Faith No More, and two albums I remember hearing when I was a kid. Faith No More is truely unique and original. Patton's got a great voice and is quite a character. Everytime I hear "Epic", it's a throwback to my childhood. Chuck, my lead guitar player in Ballz Deluxe, is a big Faith No More fan, and sometimes you can spot him sporting a Faith No More shirt onstage with us.

Patton's other band "Mr. Bungle" is a trip too. Check that out.

Fear Factory - "Archetype" (2004) and "Demanufacture" (1994)
My two favorite Fear Factory albums. Archetype was what got me into Fear Factory heavily. I was always aware of Fear Factory, knew a few tunes from them but didn't really get into them until I checked out the Archetype album back in 04. I eventually backtracked through their albums and heard Demanufacture, the album that put them on the map and I was blown away. One word comes to mind and that word is "Machine". The rhythms are so tight, clean and precise between the guitars and kick drums and Fear Factory got me into the method/style of locking up my kick drums with the guitars, mocking the rhythms, like Raymond Herrerra does. It makes heavy choppy metal riffs that much more effective and powerful. Definitely takes some skill and precision but when done right, it sounds killer! I've always been a fan of Raymond's kick drum sound, especially on the Archetype album. They're punchy and clean with some attack behind em. Not too slappy, not too clicky.


I could go on for days with more and more albums, and maybe I'll continue this list another time. But for now, these are all albums that have impacted me in some way, and albums that I view as great timeless works of music, and some that are personal favorites of mine.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, pals and chums......
Welcome to the third installment of the Grind My Gears blog, full of more rants, opinions and outlooks for your reading pleasure.

*Roll applause tape, entrance music*

It's been a while since the last Grind My Gears entry, and during that time, I've compiled assloads of things to rant about, some which didn't make it into this installment.
Yes, I said "assloads." It's a form of measurement, ya know,  just like "truckloads" and "boatloads" and "fuckloads" and "cunt hair" and "smidge" and other forms of unconventional, sometimes profane, terms of measurement.

Everything in the Grind My Gears blogs, is derived from personal experiences, observations, lessons learned, experiences, fucked up situations that I've been in or seen......did I mention experiences? If those reading learn a thing or two from these rants or if it sheds some light on some things, that's great, even though that's not the purpose of these blogs. If not....well, it is what it is and at least you've found entertainment. Hell, I know I can't save the world, or be a savior to every single person and it's not my job. The world is fucked three days from a Sunday, sans (without) Astroglide or whatever your preference of lubricant is. Everybody has their problems, even me. Don't leave me out. I'm not a saint. I'm just stating opinions and facts here, exercising my 1st Amendment rights as a United States citizen.

So without further adue, here it is, kids, Grind My Gears 3

The first topic of today is:

Delete Your Ad!!!

The Craigslist classified site seems to attract idiots for some reason. And we all know there's an abundance of those in the world.

If you're gonna post an ad, selling something........DELETE THE FUCKIN AD AFTER IT'S SOLD, DUMBASS!! or at least make a note in the ad that it's gone so that some poor sucker like me doesn't get hyped up about seeing something cool and fire off an email in hopes of snagging it only to get that dreaded email back that reads "It's gone" or "it's sold" Especially when the ad is somewhat old. Common sense.............well, these days, common sense isn't so common.


Shut the fuck up! I'm trying to enjoy the concert!!

Why do people spend money to go to a concert, and sit there with their little group of pals and flap their fuckin gums throughout the whole show, not even paying one bit of attention to the band playing? Especially when I'm trying to pay attention. It's disrespectful.

When I went to go see Opeth a few weeks ago, there was a group of people in front of me, just carrying on and being rude, yapping throughout the whole fucking show. I couldn't hear a fuckin word Mikael Akerfeldt said onstage in between songs.

Hell, if I had money to burn, I would've chucked my beer at the loudmouthed motherfuckers and told them to shut their damn pieholes so I could enjoy the show. It would have been the best $6.00 that I had ever spent! What a fuckin bargain, Charlie Brown!! But I don't believe in alcohol abuse.......or the abuse of such a fine beverage like an ice cold beer.

If you wanna sit there and run your damn mouth throughout a whole concert with your friends, go do that at your house, where it's free. Let me enjoy Opeth without listening to your immature conversation.

By the way, Opeth kicked ass and it was a badass show, and the loudmouths finally left. But still, respect..........

Manipulation

Lemme break this down for ya. I can't stand people who will sit there and try and guilt somebody into something that they don't want to do, sometimes through lies, indoctrination, false motives and intentions, or twisted stories, or distortion of realities, all for personal gain.

Especially when it's something or an unhealthy situation that isn't exactly desirable or correct or something that is degrading and demoralizing, and the antagonist is hellbent on that gain and will stop at nothing, even if it's at the cost of somebody losing something over it.

It's actually a form of using somebody, if you think about it. It makes the manipulator look like an asshole, and makes the manipulatee (if there is such a word) feel like shit and...... it's just not a good, healthy thing and not the right route to go.

I lose all respect for people who do this shit. I've been there, and I've made the mistake of doing that shit before. I learned from it. I've been in situations like this.
I'm not one to force anybody into something that they don't wanna do or force them to put themselves into a bad situation that they don't want to be in. I respect people's boundaries.

It irks me when people pull the manipulation card on my friends and relatives, and people that I care about, especially when the friend or relative has expressed, in my presence, that they don't want to put themselves in that situation, or let alone be in it. Sometimes the antagonist is somebody that I know, sometimes it's somebody that I've never met. I wonder to myself;
"Why do you put yourself in that situation then and how and why do you put up with it?"

But to each is their own, I guess, and it's not up to me to sort out people's problems or make decisions. All I can do is listen, and offer opinion or advice, if it's welcome.

Why does this shit irk me? Why does it grind my gears?
I've lost friends, significant others, and a band because of manipulation through guilt or indoctrination. And that......let's say this all together, boys and girls...... really grinds my fuckin' gears!
And it just bugs me out of general care for those around me.

Man, I should have my own TV show on primetime TV, right after Dr. Ken. AAAYYY!

I've also been a victim of this bullshit. I'm a mentally strong person and I can take alot, but I've had it happen to me before.

I've learned that if you summon the balls and will to say no, you're actually the better person. Sure, some repercussions may occur, but it's worth it. If the other person has a problem with it, that's their problem and they must be so stuck on the need for their personal gain to realize that they're being a selfish prick. It's up to you to get yourself out of that situation and not give in. It's just  a vicious cycle of unnecessary bullshit.

Thus, endeth the sermon on manipulation..

Moving on.....

TV Evangelists

Full blown beaver shit.......
"Give God a seed of your faith and send (insert amount of money) and all kinds of miracles will happen. God spoke to me and told me about the $1000 seed.....Call now and sow your seed of $1000 and recieve a harvest"
That's right, I'm talking about those goofs that you see on late night programming, feeding you bullshit about how God spoke to them to, more or less, solicit money.

Send money and all kinds of crazy shit will happen!!!!!!
Want a new boat? Send your $58. Want your dog to come back home? Send $58. Want to win the lottery? Send your $58. Want your cock to be the size of a telephone pole? Stick around for the Extenze commericals. And don't forget to call in the next 20 minutes to get not one, but two(!) tubs of OxyClean or KaBOOM!

These TV Evangelists are fuckin Looney Tunes! Do people really buy into this horseshit? It's plain as day that it's a scam and some have been proven to be scams.
Then they read "testimonials" from people, saying "I sent my money and wished for (insert wish) and it came true/happened in less than 30 days"

Are you fucking high?

Watch this video. This guy is just absurd............


Separation of Church and State? Bahahahahaha!

Where the fuck does it say in the United States Constitution that it's deemed illegal for same sex couples to marry? Nowhere!
I'm no gay rights activist or anything, or standing up on a soapbox, preaching for gays. In fact, I could give a flying rat's ass less if you're gay or not. Doesn't matter to me. As long as you're cool, I'm cool.

But, as a person who see corruption in our government, who questions our government, who is a free thinker and believes in upholding our rights and the constitution and not fucking with it, I think the whole gay marriage ban is complete, utter bullshit. It's a result of religious dogmas seeping into our government, religious folks lobbying our politicians and sucking them off under the desk, metaphorically, to get what they want. This whole bullshit with the gay marriage thing makes a mockery of the philosophy "Separation of Church and State." There's too much goddamn lobbying and influence from the outside. Alot of politicians these days don't have any balls.

Look at North Korea and the quagmire that's going on over there right now. Yes, I know, it's unrelated to the paragraph above, but in light of the fact that some politicians don't have any balls these days, this is related.

North Korea is launching off nukes, spewing threats and violating sanctions. What the fuck are we doing? Fucking around with our thumbs up our asses, doing nothing, letting them get away with this shit. Too much talk and pussyfooting around, not enough balls and action. Granted, we don't need another war on our hands, as we've got the clusterfuck going on in Afghanistan and Iraq (bless our troops). But think about it. I'm sure the government pulls all kinds of shit that we don't know about. How hard would it be to send in a black ops team of SEALs, Delta Force, Rangers, Green Berets or any other branch of special ops, to sabotage their shit, take that sock puppet of a leader out, and pull out without a trace, with deniability. The government's good at deniablity. And special ops teams are good at fucking some shit up, in a good way.

But ideally, as simple as it sounds, it probably wouldn't that simple, and probably won't happen. But it's a good idea. Maybe it did happen and we don't know about it? Who knows.
Maybe I read too many books...........maybe I should be a politician. Hmmmmm, maybe not.


Rockstar disease

Look pal, we're all in the same boat here, in the same scene, playing the same genre of music. What gives you the right to sit there and act like you have the biggest penis out of all of us? You're not signed to a major label or anything, you're on the same level as the rest of us, so cut the shit, zip up your pants, and come back down to where we're at. The local music scene is a big community, full of some great bands. We gotta stick together and help each other out. There's some great bands that I'm friends with, shared the stage with and support, and in turn, those bands treat me and my band with the same respect. It's unfortunate that there's a few bad apples out there who are spoiling the whole damn orchard with their fuckin ego complexes.
Especially when those bands throw a tantrum when another band on the bill mops the floor with them at the show. Or if the band isn't that great.

Music isn't a competition and I don't respect those who turn it into a competition. There's being aware of how good you are and trying the be the best that you can be, and then there's having a big head about yourself and your band. There's a fine between the two.


Dime Sheep

I miss Dimebag Darrell just as much as everybody else and the man was taken from this earth far too soon under tragic circumstances. I mourned his death, I honor his life and legacy and music every year on December 8th. Dime was an influence on me, musically and he was always one of my favorite guitar players. Pantera has been in my ear since I was a kid. He took metal guitar playing to a new level and his music is timeless.

What grinds my gears is all these people jumping on the Dimebag Darrell bandwagon after he was killed. "Dime Sheep" as Ken calls them.

Dime's death affected alot of people, alot of true fans of Pantera. But there's these people running around going all bonkers over Dime because he's dead now, turning it into a trend. People who didn't give a fuck about the guy until after he was dead and turning his death and the mourning into a trend.
God, that's the last thing Dime would've wanted. Come on, Pantera was all about TRENDKILL and going against the grain, being unique and not following trends, just being themselves.

You've got these people who were never remotely into Pantera running around going "OMG! RIP DIME!! DIME FOREVER" and just overexploiting the whole thing. Give it a fuckin rest, man.

Then you've got these corporate mongers egging the whole thing on, churning out all this bullshit with his name on it, just to make a buck and cash in on his death. Feeding the trend, if you will.

It's one thing to honor the guy, make a few guitars, some shirts or memorabilia, but don't turn into a mass marketing scheme.
I think Vinnie Paul is doing a cool thing by honoring his brother's legacy with DimeVision, and everything else that he does Dime related. Dean Guitars are credible in their own right for putting out the signature guitars. Afterall, Dime played Dean guitars for some time in his early days, and he wanted the Razorback to come to fruition. And Dirtbag and Dime Hardware are clothing lines that Dime started. I've got some Dime memorial stuff myself, because I was a true fan of the guy's music and playing. I never had the chance to meet him, but from what I've heard and seen, he's a genuine, warm hearted dude. I'll collect Dime memorabilia because I'm a fan. Just like Metallica stuff. If you know me, I'm a total freak for anything Metallica related. Hell, I've got an old Metallica skateboard, a 1988 Damaged Justice tour program, every album, just about every video, a few shirts, patches. I collect shit like that because I'm such a huge Metallica fan and have been since I was a kid. Lars was the reason why I started playing drums.

If you're a true fan of Darrell and his music, that's great. No problem with wearing memorial shirts, or collecting memorabilia or anything. But it's the sheep that make us true fans look bad and trying to turn his legacy and memorial into a trend. I'm not sitting here saying that everybody should stop wearing his shirts or playing his guitars or whatever. It's just I don't understand those who do it as a trend.


Dream Killers

If you try and hold somebody back from their dreams and aspirations, it's only gonna make them try that much harder.

It saddens me to see people in situations where somebody in their life is trying to hold them back from pursuing their passion or dream. Especially, when the person distorts the perception of whatever the dream or passion is and stereotypes it, when they have no idea of what it's about, and what it means to somebody.

I'm a musician (stating the obvious). I play in bands, I play gigs. I play in a somewhat successfull rock band.

There's more to rock n' roll than sex, drugs and well, rock n roll........
It's not about partying all the time and doing drugs till you're on the fringes of your sanity. It's not about banging groupies after the show all the time and picking up girls at the bar and sleeping with them or trying to get into every girl's pants that you see. Being a musician/performer is not about living some radical lifestyle. Those who think that it is, are sadly mistaken and to me, seem like they are just close minded, judgemental people. Most of the time, those people who pass judgement, aren't even musicians, so I've noticed.

Playing music and performing is a passion, it's a profession, it's a job. It means something to that person. It does something for that person and other people and it's something enjoyable. It's about getting your music and your message heard, getting up there on that stage and giving 110%, ballz to the wall, letting all hang out, fuckin Van Halen style and working to make something of yourself. It's about emotion, power, energy, putting your soul, emotions and feelings into those songs, getting it out.
Most of all, it's about the love of music.

Some people don't understand that rush that we get when we're up on that stage. Some people don't understand what music and performing means to us musicians. Some people don't understand or realize the time, effort, work, craft, energy and professionalism that we musicians and songwriters put into our music.

I was judged and stereotyped for doing what I do, and still am from time to time, but it gave me even more drive to succeed, so I can show them and throw right back in their face. I don't believe in holding somebody back from their dreams, and I never will. I encourage people to pursue their dreams, especially musically. Music is a beautiful, healthy thing. The way I see it, if somebody is gonna try and hold you back from your aspirations and passions, you're better off without them in your life.

"You're playing for those guys? I can't believe you!"

A few people have told me, upon seeing me play with Ballz Deluxe,
 "Man, your band is good, but what are you doing playing with these guys? I thought you were a metal drummer?"

Ok..........I've heard worse. At least some people had the courtesy to express their opinion constructively, like the above general statement. And I can respect that because it was a logical, constructive opinion. And I will give them a constructive response, as to why I am playing for Ballz Deluxe. I have no problem with it.

But, when somebody says (and has) "Oh, I don't know why he's playing with those guys. They're gay, that's embarrassing, he's supposed to be a metal drummer, they're holding him back, he turned his back on metal, etc etc" in a manner of holding it against me and starts spouting off a bunch of trash talk, that's just ridiculous. Especially when we're doing way more than you are, pal. At least respect the accomplishments that we've made. And don't be so close minded about shit, dickweed.

Let me break it down for ya

I'm a metal drummer by nature and upbringing and I've got a reputation for playing metal.
I was bred and raised on thrash, old school, and progressive metal since I was in diapers and I've got a long list of metal influences, not to mention other stuff outside of metal.

Ballz Deluxe is a groove driven hard rock band with a mainstream sound, influenced by good, dirty, dynamic rock n' roll.

Opposite ends of the spectrum, I know. It's not everyday that you see a metal drummer playing for a mainstream-esque hard rock band. But I like it. It's a different outlet for me and I find it unique. It tests my creativity at times and the abilty to think outside of the box. Which is good.

Ballz Deluxe is a band that's going somewhere, a band that is productive, fun, popular, successful, has a reputation and following, and is making things happen. We just do what we do and try the best we can. It's a great thing. I'm a productive person and I like to work with people who are productive and got their shit together. Ballz is productive and has their shit together, individually and as a band.

Listen kids, where I come from, it's a healthy thing to be open minded about music and all of it's genres. As much as I love playing hard and heavy metal, I can appreciate other forms of music.

I'm not one of those metal elitists that sit there with a mindset of "If it isn't metal, it sucks," because that's a bunch of horseshit as far as I'm concerned and that kind of mentality sucks a hefty bag of dick in Hell.

I can get down on Joe Walsh, Van Morrison, Kiss, Tantric, classical guitar, and Pink Floyd, just as easily as Pantera, Carcass, Devildriver, King Diamond, Meshuggah and Vital Remains.
Playing and listening to other forms of music helps your playing, broadens your horizons and makes you more well rounded. Plus, it makes for some creative stuff in different situations.
I inject my metal elements into Ballz Deluxe, tastefully, to make the music unique and interesting. And I think it probably attributes to the uniqueness of the band (As if having a name like Ballz Deluxe wasn't unique enough, haha) Thinking outside of the box, if you will.

Sometimes, when writing with the guys, I'll think "How can I make this interesting? Where are my kicks and snare going to fall? How can I accent that riff? How can I make this groove work? How can I apply some double kick work into that section?"

It's all how you utilize your skills and influence.

I Hate Everyone Equally

This rant is something that I've touched on, several times in the past in one form or another, and it's nothing really new, just a little more in depth. It's some shit that I've always had a stance on and the causes of my stance, grinds my fucking gears, always has

I've been through too much bullshit in my life, I've had too much shit backfire in my face, I've had too many good things crumble right in front of me for all the wrong reasons. I don't trust a single fucking person anymore, unless they're already in close to me because I've been victim of too many games, deceit, and lies. And even then, I've found that, in the past, sometimes I can't even trust those who are close to me.

Lady Luck has never been too kind to me and has always dealt me a shitty hand of cards on many occassions, and before you know it, I lose my ass and that's the end of that fuckin card game, pal.
It don't matter what the situation is; friendships, relationships, work, or just life in general; something always backfires for either no reason or because of somebody's fucked up decisions or actions.

There's some things required and asked of, in my book, if you want to be in close to me and gain my trust. In turn, these are morals that I stand by.

1. Don't fuck me. As in, don't fuck me over. Be genuine, true and down to earth.

2. If you're serious about something, you better be goddamn serious. Actions speak louder than words. Show me.

3. If you help me, I will help you. Scratch my back and I scratch yours.

4. If I help you or if I am good to you, don't fuck me over.

5. If you make a promise, you better keep it. I hold people to their words.

6. Don't lie to me, or string me along or pull the wool over my eyes, or keep me in the dark. Don't feed me bullshit or false intentions.

7. If you fuck up, take responsibility for your actions. Own up to your mistakes.

8. Respect is a two way street. Don't judge me, I won't judge you.

9. Be loyal. Don't take advantage of me and be two faced

10. Respect those around me, including my friends, family, band and don't cause any shit or fuck with any of those things, as they are things and people that I hold close to me. You don't have to like them, just respect them and be cool. And respect me. You don't step into my world or on my turf with intentions to fuck shit up, because you'll get tossed right the fuck back out.

I'm a pretty easy goin', big hearted person and I'm pretty genuine and good to people. I'm a straight shooter, I don't bullshit anybody. I take care of my own and those I genuinely care for, just out of goodwill and I wear my heart on my sleeve sometimes. I'm good to those around me and those that I care about.
It's just the way I am and the way I've been brought up. I am who I am. I'm just me. I'm not out to be a savior or claimed to be a savior or anything. People can make their own decisions for themselves and people have their own problems. I don't get involved unless I'm involved. I respect people's boundaries, limits and morals. I just try to be the best person I can be. It's just my nature.

But when I get fucked, I write people off and boot em out the door. A person can only take so much until the straw breaks the camel's back.

I try to weed out all the shady motherfuckers in my life with these morals, but unlike Pokemon, I can't catch em all and they breed like goddamn jackrabbits. It's like a real life arcade game of Whack-A-Mole. Those furry fuckin bastards are popping in and out of their holes while I'm trying to bludgeon their heads with the arcade hammer. And then I run out of quarters......great......

Fuckin furry bastards.......

I've seen alot and met alot of different people in my life. Which attributes to the reason of why I can handle alot of shit. I've got pretty thick skin.

In light of that, I hate everyone equally. To elaborate on that philosophy, I don't care if you're black, white, purple, orange, green, tall, short, got problems, gay, straight, bi, or whatever the fuck. If you're an asshole, I'm not gonna like ya. Plain and simple. I hate everyone equally. Get it?

So, in the words of Carcass..........."Welcome.....to a world of hate."

Man, things have been interesting lately. Some things happened for the better, some things happened for the worse, a few surprises and the wake of it all has been pretty crazy in the world of yours truly.

I haven't blogged in a while, I've got some good tunes rockin through the Xbox and I'm in a blogging mood, since alot of shit has happened lately. I'm stoked about some things, concerned and worried about a couple other things, and irked about another thing or two.
I got a good feeling it will all work out, just gotta give it a little bit of time and take some things into my own hands to make things work and prove some things, and let some other things sort themselves out on their own.

For the record, I am due for another Grind My Gears blog as well, and that will be coming soon. There's been more stuff compiled that grinds my gears, since the last one, and I just haven't gotten around to it yet.

So life's been alright. I've been bustin my ballz being a land god and doing the graphic design thing, making some money.  Cash is king, baby!
The Ballz are in full effect, working on the new album and that's coming along pretty fuckin good. Scotty Ballz and I layed some scratch vocals for Rick last week on a new tune that I wrote, to show Rick the vocal and lyric ideas that I had in mind for the song. It was a little awkward for me being in the vocal booth, laying my voice down on a track, but it turned out better than I expected.
I'm not really a singer, I don't think I'm much of a singer, but people tell me I'm a good singer. I'm kind of a wierdo about singing. I haven't done it in a long time, and I'm not very confident or comfortable about it, especially around other people, unless I'm drinking. Liquid courage........

I guess I'm my own worst critic and I hate hearing the sound of my voice when I sing, let alone listening to myself talk sometimes on a recording or video. I dunno, it's wierd. To think that I used to do it alot when I was in Corpsle and Through The Ashes, providing backing vocals and singing like a full chorus or something.......

Well, Scotty Ballz got in the vocal booth after me and layed some shit down over my vocals, harmonies and that fun stuff, and it made me feel a little bit better about it and it turned out pretty good. Threw it down to a CD for Rick, gave him the lyrics to work with and just gotta see what he can do with it.

So, that's one more in the can, just gotta have Chucky Ballz write a badass, face melting guitar solo that will make you choke on your caesar salad in the front row. Hold on to your croutons.......

Are there croutons in Caesar salad? Hmmmm.....

Still trying to get my hands on a second drumkit so Ken, Greg and I can get BioMachine rolling on a steady basis. I've already found a kit, but I'm still trying to come up with the money to get it, and that's been a task and a half lately......see, that's one of the things I'm irked about. I'm not gonna get into it. Waiting on other people to do their job, so I can do my job...............that kinda insults me......AAAY!
Hey, I think I feel another topic coming on for Grind My Gears part 3........

All I know is that I've been in fuckin VVRRRAAAAAAAAYY mode about it for the past 3 weeks or so and it's not cool. Gah, *head desk*

This weekend was full of crazy shit, good times, bad times, and surprises.
My fellow Ballz rhythm section keeper, Zuby, suffered an arm injury over the weekend, which puts him out of commission for a few weeks. Get well soon, brother!

The Captain and Mr. Bill Brown filled in on bass duties for the show that weekend, while Zuby raged in the crowd. And yes, the show was badass, indeed. Thank you, gentlemen, for stepping up to the plate on such short notice and helping us out. The show must go on!

Ah, yes. Here soon, I will be working to mold a youngster into a protoge of yours truly. I'm excited to teach and pass on my musical knowledge and skill to another, wishing to pick up on drums at a young age. It will be a learning experience for both of us.

Holy shit, did anybody go see Opeth a couple weeks ago? Fuckin A, that was badass. Way better than when I seen them on Gigantour in 2006. I had the pleasure of meeting them after the show. Mikael Akerfeldt (frontman) is the same soft spoken guy in person as he is on stage. Very polite and mellow.
I must say, Opeth is one of the most diverse, innovative bands that have graced my ears in the past few years. Great band. The "Ghost Reveries" album hasn't left my MP3 player in at least a couple months or so, and before that, "Watershed" was in there for a long time too. I highly suggest you check out Opeth, if you have never listened to them.

Lately, there's been ups and downs, tension, worry, support, new beginnings and situations and it's all been pretty interesting, in good and bad ways. Alot of us are all in a situation that has affected us in one way or another. I'm having hope that it will all work out for the better. There's things and situations that must be handled with patience, ease, time, understanding and care right now, which I understand. There's things that concern me. There's a new situation I'm in that I really hope continues to work out and a situation that I want to do the best I can with, especially in light of some things that are going on right now. And there's sleeping dogs that I'm going to let lay and not disturb. All I can do is see how things unfold.

I'm rolling with the punches, staying neutral and out of the conflict as much as I can, keeping faith that things work out, and trying to let things sort themselves out. All while hoping shit doesn't backfire in my face. Because that, my friends, sucks a hefty bag of dick in Hell, every time. Hefty, hefty, hefty.......

With that, just gotta keep moving forward down the road to a better tomorrow and do the best that I can with my situations, while being aware of others' situations. So fire up the engines and let's roll and see where it takes us.

Forever Stronger Than All.

Ok, pals and chums, a little update in the world of yours truly.

The past couple months have been quite interesting. For starters, I'm a full fledged freelance graphic artist now, in business. (roll the applause tape)
What an ideal job. I get to work from home, and I get paid decent money, doing something I enjoy doing. I chill in my room, throw on some good metal tunes and create cool graphic art for hours, while getting paid for it. Granted, things can get a little hairy sometimes, but it comes with the job and that's just the way it is. I've already racked up some clients and business is doing good.
Out of all this time I've been doing graphic design and artwork for my personal enjoyment and my bands and getting good at it, I got smart and realized I could make some money doing this shit. And thus, JMR Designs was conceived.

So with that, keep on the lookout for Knuckle Incorporated, an up and coming apparel line that I design for. I did the first run of tshirts that are coming out soon and they're pretty cool. If you like skulls, blood, grungy patterns, brass knuckles and stuff like Affliction Clothing, TapouT, and that sort of thing, check out Knuckle Inc. It's kind of in that vein.

On the other side of the coin, I'm doing graphic work for KickPics, a world recognized martial arts photography firm. I design posters, edit photos and things like that. I thought this was a cool thing and I can relate to the nature of the work.
Many of you don't know this, but I was heavily into martial arts and I trained when I was younger.

Ok, music world.......(drum roll)
I've joined up with BioMachine recently as the main skinsman beating on the drums for that project and it's coming along great.
Ken Williams (guitarist) and I go back a couple years, as we used to jam together in Suicide Nation (formerly Acts of Aggression) and Ken was a longtime old friend of Tony Taylor (Suicide Nation/AOA guitarist). Long story short, Suicide Nation broke up and reformed about two-three months later under a different name, but Ken wouldn't be joining us at that time. Meanwhile while I was still jamming in Suicide Nation, Ken was doing his own thing and fast forward through time, BioMachine came to fruition. It actually started as an industrial side project between Ken and Tony, but they eventually parted ways and Ken kept BioMachine on the back burner until resurrecting and revamping it recently.

It's heavy, it's hard hitting, intelligent, progressive, diverse, and it gives me room to utilize my metal elements, as it fits the music and allows me to bring more of my metal writing style to the table. I dig it, and Ken and Greg are superb musicians who are open to being diverse, and easy to work with. I look forward to seeing what the future has in store and the stuff that we come up with. With all our tastes combined, I'm sure it will make for some cool stuff. You can check out a sample of BioMachine at
www.myspace.com/biomachineusa
Just a taste of what we're doing

The track on the page is not my playing, but there will be some stuff up on the page with my playing on it eventually and some video stuff of some jam sessions. Sit tight, kids. We've got some cool ideas we've been working with recently.

At the moment, we're still writing and searching for a good vocalist (and you know how hard that is, these days). Possibly a second guitarist. Hopefully sometime by the summer we'll have at least an EP, a singer and some shows. At least that's our goal. Don't quote me on it because who knows if things will go accordingly to that plan.

And as we all know, most of the time, things never go according to plan.

All we can do is work the best we can and take our time to write some ass kicking tunes. Haste makes waste and we don't want to slop together some halfass bullshit for the sake of getting an EP out or playing a show ASAP. We've all been down that road at least once, and looking back on it, it wasn't such a good idea and could've been better. You live and you learn though.
Moving on......

Ah yes, the Ballz. We're still working on the new album, doing preproduction, and squeezing some shows in between. We're not out of the woods yet, but it's coming along. I'm possibly due for some more drum tracking next week. Playing it by ear at the moment. There's so many good songs ideas in the can right now that we're still yet to get to. I'm excited.

Oooh, did I mention I officially now have a custom Ballz Deluxe front bass drum head? Fuckin A right doggy! It's about time.

Warning! Rant ahead!
I'd like to take a minute or 5 and rant about an experience I had this past Saturday. Seriously, our tax dollars pay for this stupidity?

Check it.
Saturday afternoon, abour 4 pm or so. BioMachine bassist Greg and I are traveling down Sashabaw on the way to practice, in a tan Jimmy (remember that detail, because it comes into play later on in the story.)
Police sirens, we pull off to the side of the road in front of DTE to make way, only to find out that said police cruiser was pulling up right behind us. Wonderful.....
Note, there was nothing wrong with Greg's truck, we obeyed all traffic laws and weren't acting or doing anything out of the ordinary or suspicious. Greg was legal, sober, had no warrants or anything, and his truck was legal. I was sober as well, and I have a clean record. Just two guys going to band practice.
Standard procedure, the female officer comes to the window, requests license and registration and all that fun stuff. Greg obliges. Female officer then answers Greg's question of
"Is there a problem, officer?"
Female officer - "I pulled you over because we had a couple calls come in about a tan Trailblazer (remember that) driving erratically and swerving all over the road."

Then asks Greg to step out of the vehicle, leads him away, and searches him. Few minutes later, a male officer comes to my window, asks me for ID and why Greg was driving like an idiot, only for me to answer
"What? He wasn't driving like an idiot." after informing him that his female counterpart already had my ID.

60 seconds goes by, male officer and female officer come back to my window, ask me to step out, put my hands behind my back and lace my fingers. Great, I'm thinking, I'm getting arrested and I don't even know why. Greg is in the back of one of the police cruisers. Meanwhile, everybody on Sashabaw is gawking at the long haired metal guy wearing camo shorts and spikes in his hat, (me) getting his hands placed behind his back by a Sheriff's deputy.

Only I didn't feel cuffs get slapped on my wrists. They searched me while holding my hands behind my back, stripped me of my hat, wallet and chain and belongings in my pockets then, male officer led me away to his cruiser and stuck me in the back seat, shut the door and walks away.........

Only to stop a half second later and realize he forgot to turn the inside lock on for the doors so I wouldn't be able to get out. Opens the door again, flips the switch, closes door and walks away. Then they searched Greg's truck, naturally, not finding anything.

In the meantime, the following ensued, I guess, while me and Greg were separated. The female officer gave him the typical field sobriety tests (count backwards from 80, ABC's etc) and asked him such questions like "Have you been drinking today?"
No was Greg's answer. She had asked me the same thing when I was getting searched. I had a glass of wine at Zuby's house when we went to go pick up my drums and said so. But still, what does that have to do with anything? I wasn't driving.

Then I guess she asked Greg if he had been smoking marijuana. No, was his reply. Then she says "What about your buddy?" (referring to me)
Greg says "He doesn't even smoke marijuana!"
Female officer - "Well why not?!"
Greg - "I don't know, maybe he's smart! I have no idea."

Female officer further questions Greg's ability to drive and his sobriety. She gave him another test.
"Pick a number between 13 and 15"
Greg, being on edge after getting thrown through the ringer and not in his right mind as a result of it, blurts out; "12"
Female officer - "I said 13 and 15!!!! Are you sure you're ok to drive?"
Greg - "Sorry, 14!"

After much convincing (deemed un-needed in my eyes, because if these cops were smart, they'd realize that Greg was sober plain as day, let alone realize that they had wrong fucking truck and people in the first place!!!,) Greg finally proved to these idiots that he was sober. Meanwhile I'm in the back of the cruiser wondering what the hell is going on. Male officer comes, goes to open the door and realizes that it's locked (doh!!). I see an expression on his face that could be put into these words; "Doh! Damnit!"
Wow, as if this whole situation in general didn't make you look enough like an idiot, you had to go the extra mile and top it off by first; forgetting to lock me in the car, and then; forgetting the fact that I was locked in when you came to let me out!
(roll applause tape) You deserve an award!
Anywho, he circles around the car, sticks the key in the driver's door, opens, flips the switch then comes back around to me and lets me out.
"Go have a seat back in the vehicle"

Greg's out of the car now, still cuffed. Ken's blowing up Greg's phone on the dashboard. I answered and filled him in on what was going on. Greg returns to the truck and drives away......

And they STILL didn't realize that they had the wrong truck!

This is the stupidity that our tax dollars pay for? Seriously! Greg drives a tan Jimmy! Not a Trailblazer! It clearly says Jimmy on the back of his truck. You think they would have seen that when they pulled up behind us, and when they took Greg behind the truck to search him.

Realistically, you might ask... "Why didn't you point out the mistake when they came to the window the first time?"
Well, I'll be honest, it slipped my mind when I first heard it and didn't realize it at first until we were already knee deep in the whole quagmire.
Besides, I was just going with the flow and I didn't wanna challenge em. Some cops have some massive power trip problems and will get shitty if you as so much as point something out to them that's contradictory and reveals a mistake on their part. Then, who knows what will happen. I wasn't in the mood to pick a fight that day. I just wanted it to go as smoothly as possible so I could go beat on some drums, knowing that they're not going to find anything to pin on us and knowing that we're not in any kind of trouble at all.

That's the problem with some officers these days. You give an individual a little bit of authority/power over people, and they let it go to their head and abuse it. Therefore you get warped assholes on power trips. Look buddy, that badge of yours gives you the power to protect and serve the community and enforce the law appropriately. Not harass people and act like a fuckin Nazi. Please, go catch real criminals and leave us law abiding citizens alone.

In closing, the whole thing sucked a hefty bag of dick in Hell. But I made it to practice!

Soooo, that's my rant.
Fuck the system..........

FMD

Continuing from my last installment of shit that just grinds my gears, pisses me off, thoughts, opinions, views and things that I don't see any logic in, and shit that just bugs the fuck out of me.

Craiglist arguments
Like I mentioned in my last installment, I'm a used music gear hound, and I use Ebay and the Craigslist classified ad website to find cool music gear. Quite frankly, sometimes I don't have the cash to buy something brand spanking new and I'd rather find it used and in good working order. Sometimes I find used gear that is no longer in production and is hard to find, things that have been discontinued by manufacturers and companies.
Now, what I want to know is, why do people feel the need to argue through classified ad listings on Craigslist? Why do people feel the need to waste advertisement space and post a listing, just to bitch and whine about somebody's for sale ad? Enlighten yourself and go stick your dick in a light socket, please.

People use Craigslist to sell their shit. If you feel the need to bitch, whine or attack somebody about their ad, respond to the listing and FUCKIN EMAIL EM! Stop wasting advertisement space with your bullshit!

Waitresses who falsely lead you on, for tips
Ok, I've got a problem with this. And it stems from the fact that I do not like fake people at all, nor people who like to pull a charade on me and falsely lead me on a wild goose chase. And waitresses who falsely lead people on and flirt for tips, fall into that category. Sure, she'll flirt with you all night and pay attention to you and make you think that she really likes you, but alot of times, she's doing it just to get more tips out of you.
I had this happen to me once in a bar. A waitress, real young, probably close to my age, and rather attractive, started serving me early in the night. Throughout the night, she flirted with me, paid alot of attention to me, talking to me alot, hitting on me and so on and so forth. Me, being a single guy, it was all fine and dandy. I thought she was cute, she seemed into me (note, the keyword is "seemed"), and I figured, "What the hell, I'll get her digits or email or somethin, keep in touch or hang out with her sometime and see what happens, if she's that into me."
Now, a number of hours and beer pitchers later, after all the flirting and attention, and getting shortstopped on trying to get her number (note, she always came to me often throughout the night, flirting and such, but when I tried to catch her at a free moment to swap digits, it was always "Hang on, I'll be right back, I'll catch up with you in a minute") I eventually put two and two together and figured out that she was only flirting with me and acting interested, just to get more money out of me. So I said fuck it, I'm not waiting around for this chick, and I left.
Look man, I'm not stupid, I usually read people pretty well. It just so happened that several pitchers of beer clouded my judgement of that situation.
I've been led astray too many fuckin times in my life by alot of people, including people I held close to me, or were romantically linked to, as in relationship wise, friends, bandmates, people in general, etc. I fell prey to diversion and two faced motives and words. I've bought into people's words, only to find out that they weren't true. In light of all that, I trust people as far as I can throw em nowadays. To lead me on with some sort of charade, or tell me things that you don't really mean, or won't follow through with, depreciates your value to me as a person, and I lose respect for you. I'm a straight shooter and I don't bullshit anybody. It's a two way street with me. I won't bullshit you, so don't bullshit me. Most importantly, don't be fake. Seriously.

Tone deaf musicians
REEEAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!!!
Oh my god, please, TUNE YOUR FUCKING GUITAR! There is not one sound in the world that says "tone deaf, idiot musician" than an out of tune guitar throughout a whole set. I understand, as I am also a guitar player, that guitars do go out of tune sometimes, attributed to climate, temperature, or other factors. But to sit there and play out of tune for 45 minutes and think that you're in tune and that it sounds ok, is not only atrocious on people's ears, but also says that you're not a serious musician, or a musician who knows what the fuck you're doing.
I've watched guitar players tune up with their other guitarist in the band (as in "Hey, Joe, give me an A" Joe plays his A string and other guitarist tunes his A string to the exact pitch of Joe's. And so on with the other strings. Or they use a tuner)
Ok, I got side tracked. As I was saying, I've seen situations where two guitar players try to tune to each other and one guy isn't even close, but thinks he's in tune. Then proceeds to play the songs in his setlist for 45 minute to an hour, and it just sounds atrocious!
How can people take you seriously as a musician if you can't even tune your fucking instrument? Buy a tuner, dammit! I mean, you can't blame it on the guitar if you're playing something kickass like an ESP or an Ibanez or a quality guitar. Learn to tune, or hit your bypass switch to use your tuner, and save our ears alot of trouble.
I once saw a band play, local band, somewhere once some years back, and they made a very good statement onstage when they were tuning in between songs. That statement was:
"We tune because we care."

That statement makes total sense. I can't remember the name of that band for the life of me though.

Also, if you're gonna play in low tunings, get the proper strings for it. I've seen guys tune guitars down way low, using standard light strings and all you hear is Boiiingooohwoiiiinggoooohhwoing when the guitar player hits an open chord, because those light strings cannot handle your drop B or A or G sharp tuning. The chord bounces and shifts back and forth in pitch, not heavily but just enough that you can hear it, and it sounds like hell!
 My guitar player and I in a previous band used to refer to a terrible local band that we saw on several occasions who had the same problem, when discussing guitar strings and tunings, guitar sounds, tones and such amongst each other. That band will be unnamed, for the record. My guitar player would say, "Yea, I need heavier gauge strings to play in our tuning because I don't want no (insert terrible local band's name) sound goin on. Bowwwwohhhhwowwwohhhhwowwww."

Slap 5 layers of duct tape on your drumheads and deaden the fuck out of them! They'll sound absofuckinglutely wonderful!
Ok, ok, ok, ok. I was there once too. I used to put tape on my heads to make them sound better when I was young. It's a beginner thing, everybody did it when they started playing because we didn't quite have a handle on the tuning thing just yet. It comes with time and experience.
But this is for the people who tape their heads all to hell and try and present themselves as a somebody, or as an experienced drummer, or come off as bigger than what they really are. Once again, tone deaf idiots. A drum has to resonate. If your drumhead looks like my pack rat aunt got ahold of it, you're better off beating on cardboard boxes, because it's gonna sound the exact same. (Believe me, my pack rat aunt uses duct tape for things that you wouldn't even imagine, and lots of it!)
I see drum heads with loads of tape on them and I go "Dude, what's with all the tape? You plan on dropping that off to UPS or something?"

I cringe at the sight of tape on drums, lots of tape, that is. I've seen guys with tape on their bottom heads of their toms. I cringe! And it sounds like hell! Your resonant head is important to your sound! Don't deaden it! Please, learn to tune and when you do learn to tune, your kit will sound 10 times better and you can get rid of that roll of duct tape.

Wiggercore
Since when did wiggers start playing in death metal bands? Dude, being a white guy, sagging your pants, wearing those flat brimmed, fitted hats and looking like a hip hop star, isn't metal! Well, where I come from, that isn't metal. But I'm me and I must have been living under a rock. It seems like it's the new trend to dress like a hip hop star and play extreme metal and that's what's cool. God forbid you have long hair, circle spin your hair, wear camo shorts and combat boots or other usual attire in a death metal band nowadays. That's just not cool anymore.(sarcasm)
No, you gotta dress like a wigger, act like a wigger, or look like 15 year old little girly boys wearing their sister's pants and shit, and be carbon copies of Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, Cryptopsy or other pioneers of extreme music and be totally oblivious to the fact that those bands were doing the same shit 10-15 years ago. Where have I been?
Another bandwagon for people to jump on, another trend. That's all it is. There was a little band called Pantera from Texas, you might of heard of em, and they were all about TRENDKILL! Anti-trends, totally against that shit. I hate trends. What happened to originality?
Oh, I forgot, it doesn't exist anymore.........(sarcasm)

Over-rated bands and musicians
It bugs me when people hold bands to such a high regard or god-like status when it's obvious that they're not that good, local and national.
Example: Nirvana
I don't get what the big deal was about Nirvana. There's some people who hold them to god-like status and think they were greatest fucking band since sliced bread and I don't understand it. Moreso, I don't understand how somebody can idolize a heroin addict who blew his own head off with a 12 gauge and only played 3 chord progressions in every song. Nice fuckin hero, bub. That's great!(sarcasm)
I never cared for Nirvana. In fact, personally, I thought they were fuckin terrible. But of course this is coming from somebody who was raised on intelligent music and remarkable musicianship within that music. Put it this way, when Nirvana broke onto the scene, I was probably 5, maybe 6 years old, maybe 7, listening to old Metallica, Pantera, Guns and Roses, Joe Satriani, Megadeth, Dream Theater, King Diamond, Black Sabbath, Armored Saint and whatever else was in my dad's enormo-CD collection.


And to think that Hollywood was going to make a movie about Cobain and Nirvana? There were so many better bands and vocalists and musicians from that whole movement than Nirvana. Stone Temple Pilots, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains. My god, if anything, Hollywood should make a movie about Layne Staley of Alice in Chains, if they're gonna make a movie about a musician from that time era. Layne was a far better vocalist than Cobain, and Alice in Chains was a far bettter band than Nirvana, at least in my opinion. But of course AiC was never really grunge, though they were classified as grunge because they became popular during that whole movement. I look at AiC as a heavy rock band, hard rock with a heavy, dark, dynamic edge. Great band and Layne was a hell of a vocalist. I realize that he too, succumbed to drug addiction and met the ultimate fate of those activities. Nonetheless, he actually did something for music, in my eyes and was talented, which makes it credible for people to idolize him. Cobain and Staley both were drug addicts, I know I might sound like a hypocrite after saying I don't understand how someone can idolize Cobain, a heroin addict who killed himself, and then turn around and say that it's ok for people to idolize Layne. But the only difference is, Layne could fucking sing and actually contributed something worthy to music. And he didn't blow his head off with a 12 gauge.

Gear moshers on the dance floor
Hey, hey you,! Yea! You, dickhead! If you start moshing with your buddies and shove them into my equipment again, I'm gonna stomp your ass!

Yes, I'm talking about idiots who have no regard or respect for a band's equipment stored on the dance floor. This has happened to me a few times. I show up to a venue, and there's really no where to pre set up my kit, or store our gear until we hit the stage. In the event of this, we usually push our stuff off to the side wall in front of the stage, on the dance floor, out of the way and not obstructing people's standing space.
Then some toolbag gets the idea into his head that moshing to the band's music sounds like fun, and invokes a pit on the dance floor. Before you know it, you've got Mr. Toolbag and his merry band of dumbfucks moshing, shoving each other, and crashing into my equipment.
My rack leg poles would come in handy for times like that. 3 foot long aluminum poles are great for crowd control.
Then somebody has to go break it up, while I stand there with the "Motherfucker, I'm gonna kill you" look in my eyes, resisting from shoving one of those rack poles down the prick's throat.
No, seriously, that shit pisses me off and shows that people these days have no respect for anybody's musical equipment or belongings. We musicians invest alot of money into our equipment, and our equipment is vital to what we do, which is, play music! Even when the shit is in plain sight, idiots still think it's okay to body slam each other into it.
When I go to shows, I like to find my own little personal space for myself and my equipment so I can do a preliminary set up of my equipment, just to get things prepared and make sure everything is kosher and do any needed maintenance well before I hit the stage. I have a rack system, I have alot of shit that goes onto that rack system. I pre-set up my kit so it's ready to go and setup time on stage is minimized. If you start moshing and shoving each other into my area where I'm setting up or storing my equipment, knockin shit over or crashing into something, I'm gonna have your fuckin head. There will be consequences. I won't exactly be a happy camper. Things will get ugly.

Sometimes I think I should go get some caution tape and rope off my little area, maybe put my own little sign or something........"Property of the Full Metal Drummer. Please Refrain From Moshing Near This Area If You Value Your Life."

Seriously folks, have some respect for other people's shit and don't be a toolbag and think it's ok to start a pit on the dance floor when there's musical equipment there. Common courtesy, people.

Thoughts, opinions, views, things that I just don't see any logic in, and shit that just really bugs the fuck out of me.
Let's begin, shall we?

MTV
What a fucking oxymoron. The acronym stands for Music Television, correct? There's nothing musical about it anymore. All I ever see is a bunch of reality shows that have nothing to do with music. In turn, it's poisoning our society and indoctrinating our population into being consumed and influenced by such mindless, superficial, materialistic garbage. Therefore, you get materialistic, superficial people.

YouTube comment arguments
When I watch videos on YouTube, I don't want to look at a bunch of idiots arguing like ignorant, immature children in the comments. What does arguing over the internet solve? Just watch the damn video! YouTube arguments are ridiculous. Even if you win the argument, you still look like an immature fool. What good does it do to sit there and fire salvos of insults back and forth to somebody from a computer, childish insults, at that? Get a grip and get out more!
Every drum video I watch, there's always idiots bickering about "how much better Joey Jordison is than this guy" and arguing about Joey Jordison, or Lars.
Ridiculous.

Pointless Myspace bulletins
Why do people feel the need to post 1 sentence bulletins? Such as "I need something." or "Goodnight everybody" or "I have to work today."
If you're gonna post a bulletin, make it worth reading, please.

Spamming of bullshit on my page
Look, if you're gonna post something on my page in a comment, make it worth my while. Whether it's a picture, a video, making conversation or just saying hey, or whatever else.
I don't wanna see a flyer in my comments from your band who is nowhere remotely near my city, advertising your next show taking place somewhere not even remotely close to my state. Especially if you're a band on a local level that I've never heard of, from some state or even some country that is nowhere near me. I'm not gonna travel 3000 miles across the country to see you play. If you want me to see you play that bad, send me a video. If you're a local band from Michigan and you post a flyer on my page, I'll keep it, seeing as I support the local scene and as I am a part of the local scene. I may or may not make it to your show and thanks for inviting me, but I'll keep the flyer visible in my comments for others to see.

Preselling tickets to local shows/buying tickets to a local show
Listen, as I said, I support the local scene and I'm part of the local scene. I'm friends with alot of bands on the local scene. We're a big community and we gotta stick together and support each other. But, as a musician who's been around and has learned some lessons (sometimes the hard way) in the trade, I don't believe in preselling tickets for local shows, as it's a fucked up pay structure and it only fills a promoter's pockets, leaving bands with no compensation, and it's not a sensible way of doing business. I'm sorry, as much as I like your band, or as good of friends I am with your band and as much as I'd like to come support you like a good friend should, I don't believe in preselling tickets for local shows, and I won't buy tickets from you, as I'd be betraying my belief and only contributing to this bad business practice that is poisoning our local music scene. I don't wanna help fill some schmuck's pockets, or contribute to you guys getting shafted. If I'm friends with you and you want me to go to the show, put me on the guest list or something, or hell, I'll be a roadie for a night and help you guys hump some gear. I won't buy tickets for $12 a piece to see you guys play with 8 other local bands. It's nothing against your band or you as a friend or person. It's a matter of I don't support the idea and ethic of preselling tickets for a local show. If you guys are opening for a national act and selling tickets, by all means, I have no problem with buying/selling tickets.

Redundancy in the music scene
I've already ranted all about that a couple blogs ago. No need to repeat myself. Go read it for yourself.

Obama-mania and the effect it's had on the black population
Ok, big deal, Obama is an African American. He's still an American like the rest of us, still has the same equal rights that we do and still does everyday normal things that we do.
What bugs me, is that I noticed alot of black people suddenly underwent this whole mindset of "We're special because we've got one of our own in office. We're no longer oppressed because we've got one of our own in office.We're free, we get special treatment, etc etc."
Ok bub, I'm gonna bring it down to size. Just because you're black, and Barack Obama is a black president, does not mean you're special. It does not mean that you've been oppressed up until this point and you're "finally free." It does not mean he's gonna grant special rights for black people and put you guys on a higher pedestal than everyone else and favor you people. It does not mean that you have to be treated any differently because there's a black man in office. Quit your bitching, shut up and drink a beer! You people are no different than white people, yellow people, purple people, orange people, or whoever in this country. Last time I checked, we all had equal constitutional rights, you people have had the same constitutional rights as the rest of us since segregation ended.
What I don't understand is why people got under the mindset of "this is such a wonderful day for African Americans" when Obama got elected. Sure, it's a big thing because he's the first black president, but people and groups made it out to be this historic "victory" for blacks, like they won some sort of struggle or battle and are no longer oppressed or something, and started playing the race card and blowing it out of proportion. Get over yourselves, seriously.

Double standards in race and heritage
I don't understand the double standards in races and heritage. Example: We have Black History Month. Why can't we have White History Month? Because that would be viewed as discriminatory and racist. We have the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People). Why can't white people have a similar group? Because that would be considered racist, and it would be senseless anyway(more on that later). Sure, all kinds of people can have their groups and holidays and months, but when it comes to white people, god forbid we have something like that.
All kinds of other people can flaunt their heritage and nationality and race and be proud of where they come, and that's okay. But when white people start doing the same thing, we get ridiculed, people of other races start pulling the race card and accusing us of being racist.
Check it. When I was in middle school, I went to school with alot of people from different ethnicities, mostly hispanics, blacks and Asians. White kids were not the majority of the school's student body, put it that way. Now, there were alot of hispanics who would flaunt their heritage pride and really make the fact that they were Mexican or Puerto Rican known. Whether it was verbally, stating it in conversation or talking about their heritage or visually, possessing items or clothing with Mexican or Puerto Rican flags on them, Spanish words or what not.
Sure, that's great. Nothing wrong with being proud of where you come from.
Now, when I, a white boy, coming from a German and Southern bloodline, started flying German flags, iron crosses, or Confederate flags on my things, speaking what little German I knew at the time, or simply making my heritage known in some sort of public manner, all the other ethnicities in the school started giving me shit and fucking with me. They pulled the Nazi card on me, they pulled the KKK card on me, and I was deemed a racist or a neo-Nazi or Adolf Hitler sympathizer or whatever. See what I mean?
It's ok for all the hispanic kids to fly their Mexican or Puerto Rican flags on things and make it known that they're proud of their heritage, but when I made my heritage known and made it known that I was proud of where I came from, it wasn't ok.
Its pure fact right there, that it's a double standard, and also, alot of people are just ignorant.
Back to the NAACP thing, and saying it was senseless. Think about it. It stands for National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Key words are "Advancement of Colored People." Think about that and put that idea together with the fact that everybody in this country has equal constitutional rights. Does it make sense? No. In fact, it's an oxymoron. That phrase itself implies the idea that colored people are oppressed and they're a civil rights group for colored/ethnic minorities to help those people become unoppressed and equal and they fight for civil rights for ethnic people. How can there be an advancement of colored people when everybody in this country is equal?! How can they advance? There's nowhere to advance to because everybody is equal! Everybody has civil rights!
If you ask me, the NAACP and it's idea/belief is an oxymoron.

Also, what I don't get is that black people can call each other "niggers" and have no problem with it. But when somebody who isn't black uses the same term, blacks get offended and react. Double standard.

Religious kooks
Look, I could give a fuck less about what religion you follow. It's not gonna be a factor in whether I like you or not. But when you start pushing it on me, then I've got a problem with you.
Point, if you're religious, more power to ya, I don't have a problem with it. Just don't push it on me, don't sit there and try to convert me, don't sit there and criticize me and the way I live, basing your criticism on your religious values. I don't follow a creed or religion or a religious book that dictates how I should live my life and how I should be as a person and the way I live. Don't criticize me just because the way I do things is not right in your eyes because of what your religion says. It's disrepectful.

Solve everything with a pill!
Ah yes, the pharmeceutical phenomenon of solving every emotional and psychological problem with a pill. Feeling sad? Take a pill. Fucked up in the head? Take a pill. Suicidal thoughts? Take a pill. Can't get your dick hard? Take a pill. Feeling angry? Shut up and drink a fuckin beer.

How does a pill solve those problems? It doesn't. It just keeps them at bay, and creates a dependence on a pill, thus making the pharmeceutical companies money, and making things easier for head doctors, in the area of psychological problems. You see, if you're fucked in the head, or you're depressed or suicidal or something psychological, it makes more sense to get to the root of the problem, instead of masking it with a pill. Besides the fact, antidepressants make people fucking loopy, neurotic and they fuck with your head and thought process. It makes people just not right and people get fucking wierd on ya. It's not good. Trust me, I know this shit first hand from experience because of somebody I once knew, or thought I knew.

Rather than putting a band aid on the problem by telling somebody to take a pill, it's much more efficient to figure out why the person is depressed, or suicidal or traumatized. There's a reason behind it. There's a reason behind everything and it can be solved in many ways, for good. Not with a pill. A pill doesn't eliminate the problem.

Poor rationalization/priortizing
What gets me is that somebody will bitch about not having money, or being broke, but will go spend money on useless shit that won't benefit them in the long run, nor solve help their financial dilemma.
Example: You're broke and struggling to make ends meet and can't pay your bills, but you'll go blow money on a bag of weed, pills, alcohol or something else unneccesary that you can't afford to buy at a time of financial struggle, and party frequently, when realistically, you should save that money to put towards your bills. It adds up and when it's time to pay your bills, you say to yourself, "Fuck, I don't have enough money." Well, that's your own fault because you drank, snorted, smoked or partied it all away.

Addiction/Denial
It pains me to see people around me succumb to substance addiction, and not be aware of it. It also pisses me off, because it's clear that your addiction is draining your wallet and is detrimental to your health and you choose not to prioritize, or do anything about it.
If you feel the need to get hammered or fucked up or under the influence of a substance almost every day or every single day of the week and proceed to do so, you have a problem. Not only is it a problem for yourself, it's a problem for others around you and you're just killing yourself faster and creating more problems for yourself.
I like my beer and Jagermeister, don't get me wrong, but I indulge in moderation. Not only because I can't afford to do it everyday, but also I simply don't feel the need to get lit every single day. I just don't, it's not my thing and it's something I don't feel like doing everyday. It's one thing to have a beer or two often, but if you're getting slammed everyday, you've got a problem.

Hip Hop/Rappers
Ok, I'm a musician, I appreciate most music and musicians. What I don't get is why do rappers have to have 50 fucking people onstage, waving their arms like monkeys (no racial pun intended), standing around, moving to the music and doing absolutely nothing to contribute to the performance while one guy is on the mic, doing his thing? Ya know, that's great, you've got friends.....why can't they watch from the floor, where spectators usually watch performances. If you're gonna be onstage, do something to contribute to the music, musically.
Ya know, when I was in previous metal bands, we'd have a couple of our friends come up on stage with us sometimes, but they'd rock out with us, and provide backing vocals. Not just stand there.

Also, alot of these hip hop artists seem to glorify gang violence, doing drugs, gang activity and what not. Yea, nice message.

I just don't understand hip hop and I think the whole thing is ridiculous. The culture, speaking ghetto/ebonics, the music. But if that's your bag, more power to ya.
Personally I think speaking lazy english, wearing your pants halfway down to your knees and letting your ass hang out, wearing a tshirt that looks like it would fit the Jolly Green fuckin Giant, untied and or unlaced shoes and a crooked hat barely on your head, makes you look lazy and projects the idea that you're a lazy slob who doesn't spend any time on your appearance.

Musicians who cannot take care of their instrument!
I'm a Craigslist and Ebay junkie when it comes to music gear. I'm a used gear hound and most of my shit is used, but still in great condition.
I've seen and bought some beautiful, quality instruments (or what used to be beautiful and quality) and it's horrifying that people spend money on an instrument and don't take care of it or carelessly maintain it. It's people like that who don't deserve to have an instrument. I bought my current drumkit, used for 350 bucks about a year ago. It's a $900 kit, just the shells alone, or at least that's the range it went for when it was manifactured. Granted it's a great kit and I like it, but it's got a few battle scars on it that are just horrid, it was missing a couple things when I bought it and depreciates the value of the kit. The kid didn't take care of the drums and was careless in maintaining them. That's more money out of my pocket to fix somebody else's careless mistakes.

Women
I've got a problem with ignorance and stupidity. It just annoys me. There women out there who are smoking hot, but they haven't a brain in their head, or common sense. Please, psychologically stimulate me, be intelligent and be able to hold an intelligent conversation. Don't be so plastic and materialistic and have the IQ level of a jar of mayonaisse. It's a turn off.

There's alot of women out there who are way too high maintenance, stuck up and prissy, caught up in glamour and Hollywood culture, and have ridiculously high standards that make them look even more like a prissy bitch on a high horse. They're attractive and they know it and flaunt it, but they convey that they're too good for you. They could give a fuck less about anybody normal. It's actually a turn off and it makes them look like a stuck up bitch. Look honey, money ain't gonna buy ya happiness, this isn't Hollywood, get off your trip and come back to reality and actually get to know somebody, not their money.  That's a example of pop culture poisoning our society and clearly says that if you don't have money and high class status, you're not attractive. And it's sad that alot of women have that mindset these days. See why I don't have a girlfriend?

It's a rarity to find a down to earth chick that doesn't care about any of that shit and doesn't use that shit as a factor in judging somebody.
 I don't care how much money you have, as long as I like you as a person, that's what matters, at least to me. Then again, I'm somewhat of a rarity in today's society, from what I've witnessed.

That's enough for now. Maybe I'll continue this another time with more shit that grinds my gears.

It's true.


I think he created that malicious loophole in Internet Explorer so people will have to spend money on his products to fix the damage done to their computers by that loophole. Another Microsoft money making scheme.


Think about it. Alot of shit that Microsoft releases for computers, like operating systems, programs and such, are compartmented. God forbid Bill Gates gives you the whole 9 yards, one complete package. No, he's gotta separate it into 7 different limited packages, so in order to upgrade to the full potential and capability of the product, you have to buy it, instead of having it in the first place.


Windows 7 has like 4 different editions. If you get the basic edition, you're only limited to certain things. In order to do more with it, things that are needed, you have to buy all the other shit. It's limited for a reason........to spend more money on Microsoft and make Bill Gates even richer. If there's one person in the world who doesn't need any more money, it's him. He's got enough of it.


The guy is fuckin looney tunes. A couple days ago, he released a bunch of mosquitos into an auditorium full of people and claimed that the mosquitos were all carrying malaria, to prove a point, thus sending everybody into a panic. What a kook! or as my buddy Ken would say ......
"What a wieeeeerdo!"
Who the fuck does that? Seriously. That kind of shit gets you arrested. It's no different than calling a bomb threat on an airplane or public place.


To top it all off, he gives you shoddy programs like Internet Explorer, that are unstable, so you have to buy his products to fix the problems it causes.

If you are smart, don't use Internet Explorer. It's fucking crap, unstable, causes problems and alot of times, it's the root of your computer problems. Is your computer fucked up? A good place to start fora solution, would be to stop using Internet Explorer. There's way better browsers out there that you can download for free from their websites. Like Mozilla Firefox, or Opera.

And on top of that, he outsources all his work to Indian programmers in India, Bangledesh and wherever else outside of this country. God forbid I speak to somebody who speaks ENGLISH when I call to register my Windows operating system every time I have to reinstall XP after a horrid meltdown from a virus.


We all know what happens when we outsource our shit to foreigners. We get shit products, we lose our jobs, our economy suffers, we lose quality, and we get problems. It seems like anybody who isn't remotely American, can't build, program or manufacture or do anything right and with quality, except for the Germans, Brits, and Japanese. Look at the Chinese. It seems like everything coming out of that country, into America is tainted with lead, or something is wrong with it or it's poor quality.


I think the problem with these corporations is that they don't understand the old saying "You get what you pay for.
" How hard is that to understand? Is it a requirement to be thick headed and so oblivious to common sense when you're a money hungry, greedy corporate CEO of some giant conglomerate corporation?
You get what you pay for. You pay cheap shit wages to make production "more cost efficient and cheaper," you get shit products, you get shit service and you get shit quality. You gotta spend money to make money. If you wanna make money off your product, you gotta spend money to make sure it's quality and good so people will buy it. Basic fucking economics, people.


So here's to you Bill Gates and every other thick headed corporate CEO who outsources manufacturing of products for American consumers. Here's to you for being a money hungry, greedy schmuck. Here's to you for creating the reason behind shitty products with your company name on them. Here's to you for attributing to our failing economy. Here's to you for causing hard working AMERICANS to lose their jobs to some foreign fucks who can't program or build something right, nor speak english on the customer service hotline. Here's to you for fucking up my computer. Here's to you for fucking up my day, dick face!
Here's to you, a nice, tall, hearty glass of FUCK YOU VERY MUCH!

Thank you, I have ranted.


FMD

As a seasoned (yet young, but seasoned) vet of the local metal scene, and the observant person I am, I have one question...... or three or four.

What the fuck happened to good metal? What happened to good heavy music? What happened to intelligent heavy music? What happened to diversity?

Listen, I may be young, but I've been making racket on the local scene with numerous bands of mine for a good 6-7 years now, since I was a pup. In those 7 years, I've encountered a great number of acts who are exceptional at what they do, a great number of musicians who are exceptional at what they do and a great number of musical situations. On the other side of the coin, I've encountered a great number of musicians and groups who aren't anything special, but are kings in their own minds.

I've noticed alot of redundancy in the scene and it turns me off. Coming across a good local metal band or local metal musicians that really grabs me is becoming a rarity. There's no hooks, no killer grooves, no versatility. What happened to originality? What happened to talent?

It seems like everybody wants to do the same thing. Everywhere I look, there's a truckload of bands that sound exactly the same. It's redundant, with a capital fucking "R!"

Getting somewhere in the local metal scene is an uphill battle, a steep one at that. That is the only thing that turned and turns me off about playing in a metal band and trying to go somewhere with it. There's so many carbon copies of bands, it makes it that more difficult.

When forming a metal band, as I've done in the past, I've always strived to help make it original, unique and the best that we could be. Not necessarily in an egotistical, competitive sense, but more in a pride, dedication, being the best we can be for ourselves, getting the most out of what we can do kind of sense. Taking the redundancy of the scene into consideration, we wanted to be unique and stand out with our music, so we wouldn't get shoved aside and passed off as "just another metal band" that sounds like everybody else. Most of all, we wanted to make music that grabbed us by the balls and caught our attention and sounded unique to ourselves. Finding musicians to complete the lineups was slim pickings. But we managed to get those we deemed worthy and compatible. I've worked with some great people in past projects and we made some killer music together. I wouldn't have had it any other way, and I'm grateful for it.
 I want to play intelligent metal. I like to hear intelligent metal. I want to hear guitars player rip, I want to hear versatile vocalists who aren't monotone screamers every living second of the music while the guitar player is chugging on the low string throughout the whole song. I want to hear killer grooves and hooks. I want to hear intelligent song structures. I want to hear metal that makes sense and doesn't sound like a bunch of obnoxious noise. I want to hear metal that is heavy, but versatile. Vocalists with articulation and diversity. Something that will keep me on my toes. I want to play metal with all those qualities mentioned.

The next time I build a metal band from the ground up, whether it's a full on band or even just a recording project,  I want it to be unique. I want to take the best parts of acts such as Lamb of God, Testament, Arch Enemy, Shadows Fall, Machine Head, Fight, Opeth, Nevermore, Halford, Meshuggah, Fear Factory, and Death, and combine them all intelligently and find musicians who are influenced by those acts and are capable of playing music influenced by those acts. I don't hear anything out there locally like that. When I build another metal band is unknown, unless I win the lottery and buy a second drumkit. All I know is my committments with my current projects are my main focus right now, and when/if I have the means to build a good metal band outside of those projects, I'll pursue it without it interfering with my committments to my other bands.

I just have a problem with the redundancy in the metal scene. Maybe it's just me and all this is just my view. Maybe others don't see it, or maybe others have a different view on it. Maybe my taste differs from the majority of people. Maybe I have high standards. Maybe it's because I don't want to settle for crap. It's no fun playing crap, and it bores me.

I'm friends with several bands in the local metal scene and I support several local metal bands, as I think they are unique and great bands. There's other bands in the scene who aren't unique at all and sound just like everyone else. A few of those bands I can name off the top of my head, but I won't.

Trying to find unique musicians to form a good metal band is becoming something similar to trying to find a needle in a haystack. Either all of em are already in bands or they simply don't exist. It seems to be the case.

In previous projects, I had this problem, especially with vocalists, and they proved that people don't pay attention to the criteria in the ad, and that they wanna be just like everybody else and do the same thing the rest of the peanut gallery is doing. They prove that fact when they come out to the audition or forward a link to their music on the internet.

Our criteria, for example, would entail a potential candidate who is capable and possesses the quality/style similar to Rob Flynn(Machine Head), Kirk Windstein (Crowbar), Burton C. Bell (Fear Factory), Ivan Moody (5FDP/Motograter), Phil Anselmo (Pantera/Down) Brian Fair(Shadows Fall), Chuck Billy (Testament), hell even Russell from Symphony X who's got a killer vocal style in my opinion. All vocalists and styles that are articulate, aggressive yet clear, and versatile. Articulate, aggressive, clear vocals was what was stated.

Candidates responded and most of em were nothing like the criteria. It's like "Dude, did you even read the ad? You sound nothing like the criteria. We're not looking for carbon copies of what everybody else is doing." Redundancy, people! How hard is it to understand and comprehend the idea behind "unique" and "versatility?" If you want to be noticed, you have to stand out from the crowd.

The thing I like about playing with Ballz Deluxe, is that we make good, intelligent music together and we play good intelligent music and everybody in the band, I consider high caliber, talented musicians. Our music is intelligent, it has hooks, it's original. Everybody in the band comes from different backgrounds of music. It's not everyday you see a hard rock band fusing all the elements we come from, into the music, tastefully and intelligently, making those influences heard in the music. Sure, it's not progressive metal, but I enjoy it alot. I'm not limited to just metal, ya know. The fact that our music has hooks and it's original and intelligent, makes us stand out, and makes us a good band, at least in my eyes. I tend to look at the band with an outsider's point of view sometimes.

AKA, the music grooves, you can feel it, it's aggressive but it grooves and it's easy to latch onto and get into.

I'm just frustrated with redundancy and this whole thing of everybody trying to do what everyone else is doing. I'm a person who believes in originality and uniqueness and individuality. Those qualities possessed in something or someone, makes that thing or person special.
If you wanna stand out, be original! Don't think of yourself higher than what you really are. Because nobody will take you seriously if it's clear that you suck.

I'm in a drumming mood. That can be attributed to watching drum videos currently for the past half hour.

So I figured I'd share some drumming goals I'd like to achieve this year.

Amidst my late night hours spent browsing the internet, whether it's job hunting, maintaining the custom Myspace pages that I designed for Ballz Deluxe, AKA and Dragonfire Studios, educating myself, ripping on my guitar, chit chatting with people, and other activities, simply because I have nothing better to do as a night owl, I like to YouTube surf.

The past few weeks I've been YouTubing, primarily drum related videos,(Geee...I wonder what that reason could be?) and I'm really starting to get into players like Tony Royster Jr. and Johnny Rabb and drummers of the like. Not neccesarily metal drummers, (I've been watching some killer videos of metal drummers like Marthus from Cradle of Filth recently and also found long awaited YouTube footage of Mr. Gene Hoglan shredding on the skins) but rather from the jazz/funk/fusion realm of drumming. Some of this stuff is mind blowing, and when I watch these videos, I tend to analyze my own playing and feel that I'm kind of stuck in one box, creatively and drumming wise. Afterall, I tend to be my own worst critic when it comes to drumming and I'll nit pick the living hell out of my playing and chops until it drives me (or somebody else) completely bonkers. It's a bad habit.

I love and appreciate most types of music, excluding hip hop/rap, emo/pop punk, indie/scene or pop culture crap like boy bands, Britney Spears, American Idol stars, Miley Cyrus and all those charades. That stuff is just not my cup of tea and crumpets, thank you.

I guess I never really got into the whole fusion/jazz stuff before. I've always appreciated it and dug it, but I never really got "into" it, ya know and started checking out more of it until Chuck turned me on to some of it. Guys like Dennis Chambers and Dave Weckl and stuff, guys who would play on these crazy fusion, super progressive albums that Chuck listens to sometimes. I'd listen to some of this shit and turn around, throw my hands up in mock surrender and say "..I can't play drums...." haha.

I've always had alot of respect and admiration for guys like Dave Weckl and Johnny Rabb and others within that ball park of playing style, because one; they could probably mop the floor with me, and two; their playing styles and genres are a completely different world.

As far as I can remember, I've always pushed myself to be better than what I am. I've always pushed myself to step to that next level, as a drummer and a musician, learn new things and be more versatile and be the best that I can be. It's like having a competition with myself or something. Sometimes I push myself too hard and I get burnt out and frustrated. I'm always searching for something new to be inspired by and searching for new "tools" for my "toolbox" to apply to my playing, and improve my playing, thus making me more well rounded. It makes it fun for me and keeps me on my toes. I don't like redundancy.

People tell me that I'm great and such, and honestly, it means something to me that somebody enjoys my playing and what I do behind the kit. Humbly, I know what I'm capable of, and I just do the best I can.

So with the New Year upon us, and seeing as that always forces a sense of improvement and resolution on everybody, I've decided that I'm going to devote 2009 to improving my playing and really working on new things, as well as acheiving other non drum related goals. After watching these YouTube videos, it's inspired me to work harder and break out of my box, and learn some of these cool things. Such as:

Johnny Rabb's Freehand Technique, or "one handed drum roll." Kind of like the "gravity blast." or hyperblasting.
I'm already starting to get the hang of this, and it's pretty cool. Perfect for hyperblasting, basically a blast beat on steroids, going 100 miles an hour. Think about doing a single stroke drum roll with two hands, and picture doing it with one hand, at the same speed. That will be a nice tool in the box to apply to my playing.

Double bass work.
I'd like to improve my speed. I go through periods of where I can totally rip and times where I feel I'm kind of sluggish. Might have something to do with the change in setup over the years and the change in settings on my pedals and my batter head tension changes. I'm gonna get to the root of that problem, and also start practicing more. Back when I was younger, I played drums at least 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, in my garage after school by myself, not counting the time spent playing with my band. Nowadays, I only get to play drums twice a week, for maybe 3 hours or so, each band practice, and that time is usually spent playing with the bands, not devoting time to myself behind the kit like I used to. Granted, it keeps the rust off, and keeps me up to par, but I think if I devote a little more time to myself behind the kit every so often, I can make some improvements and figure out my problem areas. I don't have a garage anymore so it's not like I can jam here at home. I have to resort to a practice pad.

Creativity in general
I want to be more creative and pick up some new things. Watching these videos of Tony Royster Jr. and Marthus and such, it's inspired me to learn some new things and some aspects of their styles, in turn, creatively applying some of those things to my playing. I dig alot of the stuff that these guys do, and I think if I picked up on a little bit of it, it would help my playing and make my box bigger. I'd have more tools in the toolbox and options to choose from for different fills, grooves, accents and such, instead of doing renditions of the same ol' same ol'.

Finesse/dexterity
Ghost notes and fluidness and all that shit. Playing all that subtle stuff that really makes a difference. Cleaning up the sloppiness in some things and tightening up those areas of my playing

My left hand
I definitely want to work on my left hand. I'm right handed, so naturally my right hand is going to be my strong hand and my main hand. I think if I work on independence with both hands, it will open up some doors for different techniques. Playing open handed, utilizing the left hand alot in quick stuff and other things.

Stick tricks and stuff.
If you know me and have seen me play live, you know I like to be visual. I wanna improve on that aspect as well. I've been watching videos of drumline stick tricks and stuff and some of it looks pretty interesting. Something to learn, just for the hell of it.

Rudiments.
After reading countless things about how much they help and seeing them in action when applied to the kit, it's pretty nifty. I never learned rudiments. I never learned how to play drums out of a book. I can read sheet music and notation and note values, thanks to almost 5 years of school band. But working out of book never did it for me. I learn things visually and audibly. And 10 to 1, I'm probably playing rudiments at various points in time and don't even realize it, because I never learned em.

Odd time signatures/polyrhythms.
Just for the hell of it, so I can master my Dream Theater cds and Meshuggah cds. haha. Polyrhythms are confusing as all hell, but it might be something I'll attempt this year. Odd time signatures/arrangements, well, I'd like to improve on that for the hell of it.

And if there's other stuff that comes to mind, I'm sure I'll see to it that I work on it.

I'm not out to be the greatest drummer in the universe or anything, and I don't plan on becoming a full on jazz/fusion drummer and completely overhauling my style. I just want to improve on some things and learn some new things to help improve my playing.

If you've made it this far, thanks for reading. I'm sure it was probably boring to you if you weren't a drummer, because you probably didn't understand half of the drummer lingo.

Don't do anything I wouldn't do, kids.

FMD

Metallica.........a household name.......a band that broke many barriers and set standards.........a band who revolutionized and influenced metal in a way.......perhaps the biggest metal band in the world.........a band that inspired me at an early age.........and my first musical love......

If you're not familiar with Metallica, you better do some quick research because you're gonna need to know alot of shit to understand half of this stuff that I'm gonna be talking about. And the whole point of this is to validate my stance and reasons of why they are my heroes, and why they are at the top of my list of favorite bands.

Metallica seems to get alot of shit these days and get thrown into a negative light, and some of those people who do those things or don't neccesarily like Metallica, probably want to know why I hold Metallica in such a high regard, if they "suck" and if they're so called "sell-outs" or any other label that's put on them these days by people. I don't care if I get shit for this, and I'm expecting some anti-Metallica related responses because it seems to happen alot everywhere when somebody mentions Metallica. I quite frankly don't give a rat's ass and I'm not afraid to voice my opinions and views and debate in a logical, constructive, open minded manner. And I expect the same in return with responses. Unfortunately some people these days, do not possess that kind of mentality and they fly off the handle and end up making fools of themselves and show very clearly that they can't comprehend the terms "logical and constructive and open minded" and come off as ignorant, biased, and close minded with their statements and responses. Saying "Metallica sucks, they're sell-outs" is a perfect example. Yes it's an opinion, but an ignorant opinion. Validate your point with facts. That's what I'm doing with this. I'm validating my opinion of holding them in high regard.

So as I was saying, Metallica was my first musical love. "Ride The Lightning, Master of Puppets, ...And Justice For All and the Black album" have been in my ear since I was the wee age of 3, thanks to my dad. I grew up on those 4 albums, among many other great metal records that I was exposed to. (Megadeth's "Rust in Peace" and "Countdown to Extinction," King Diamond's "Them," "Conspiracy," and "Abigail." Black Sabbath's "Dehumanizer." Ozzy "Speak of The Devil." Dream Theater "Images and Words" and "Awake" and tons of other stuff.)

I always came back to those 4 Metallica albums. Tracks like "One", "Creeping Death," "Master of Puppets," "Wherever I May Roam", "Battery", hell every single song on all four of those records changed my life. Those 4 records alone changed my life. Once Metallica bit me in the ass, it was all over and my fate as a metal head was sealed. My first concert was Metallica with Suicidal Tendencies and Danzig in the summer of 1994 in Columbus, Ohio at Polaris (now called Germain) Amphitheater, when Metallica were still touring behind the Black album. Polaris was just like Pine Knob here in Michigan. It was the Pine Knob/DTE of Ohio. I was 7 years old, me and my old man and his buddy Scott, went to the show. I still have the tickets somewhere in one of my dad's cigar boxes, I do believe.

That was a life changing experience in itself that booted my 7 year old ass full tilt boogie into the metal world, even further. It was a life changing experience not only to see my heroes live in concert, up on my dad's shoulders on the lawn, rockin out, wearing my Ride The Lightning tshirt, but also, the environment. I was a 7 year old kid, I had never been to a metal concert, let alone a Metallica show and at that point in time, Metallica shows were fuckin nuts! So as my old man deflected chunks of sod and flying bodies from the pits, protecting his young metal offspring from potential injury, all I could do was watch in awe from Scott's shoulders, splitting my attention between the stage and the insanity that was occuring on the lawn. It was mindblowing.

Everytime James Hetfield's face or Lars appeared on the jumbo screens on the amphitheater, to me, it was like looking into the face of God, (or gods, if you will.)

I'll never forget that concert and I thank my old man for making my first concert experience life changing, and enjoyable, for taking me to see my heroes, exposing me to that, and most of all, exposing me to great music and inspiring me at an early age..

Heroes, yes, Metallica are my musical heroes. As I said, they were my first musical love, and inspired me to be a musician, as well as my dad. Both Metallica and my father had a great impact on me in that aspect.

Lars Ulrich - To many people, as I've seen and heard, he's "that asshole who sued Napster and ruined the music industry and is a dick about downloading music and sucks at playing drums." See what I was talking about? Ignorant opinions?
A little background on the Napster thing. Somebody got ahold of some unreleased, unfnished Metallica stuff, that wasn't supposed to be released at all and started spreading it on Napster, false advertising it as new, final mix Metallica music. Lars, being the unofficial spokesperson of the band, sued Napster. Yes, Napster was in the wrong for letting it happen. The individual that got ahold of it and stole it, uploaded it to Napster and spread it, and Napster let it happen. Napster was guilty by association, an accomplice if you will. Kinda of like if your friend murders somebody, and you either helped him, or did nothing to stop it, you get charged also with the crime.

Lars was, and still is my first drum hero. He was the reason why I started playing drums when I was 3. When I was a kid, and I saw Lars in the videos playing drums and on TV playing drums and such, it inspired me. Me being a huge Metallica fan, and a young kid that looked up to them, my mindset was simple;
"I wanna do what Lars does."
Oh there's pictures around here somewhere of me trying to be Lars, playing drums with a headband/sweatband around my head just like he did back in the 80's.
So it was off to the races for me. I aquired a drumkit, my dad gave me a stereo, some Metallica cassettes among many others, a pair of headphones, showed me a simple beat and simple fill, and turned me loose. From that day, I spent hours in my room jamming on my drums to those tapes, learning them; Master of Puppets, Ride The Lightning, Justice, the Black album, Megadeth's "Countdown to Extinction" and Rust in Peace, Guns and Roses, and many more. It's how I learned to play drums. I was young so my mind absorbed shit like a sponge, as with any child, and I had this uncanny ability to pick up on things quick, using my ears and eyes, listening, watching videos of Lars and other drummers, and watching other drummers in person, tagging along with my dad to his band practices and such. Learning how to play alot of Metallica songs had a big part in forming my skill as a drummer early on. Of course as I got older, I discovered all kinds of other stuff and it rubbed off on me and helped shape me as a drummer as well.

But Lars was the first groundbreaking influence on me, as far as drumming goes.
I've been told, and sometimes I hear or see it myself, that there's a little bit of Lars in me. From some of the things I play to some of my onstage personality. It's all influence. Listen to Rock Bottom by my band Ballz Deluxe, it's on our page. My drum patterns have Lars written all over it. The song struck me as having a Metallica, Black album era vibe to it and when I came up with drum parts, the Lars influence kicked in. From the straight ahead, rockin groove with the stutters and accents, to the tom groove in the verses (it sounds like I snaked the Enter Sandman drum beat, and in a way, that's where I got the influence for that part. Fun fact), it's pretty Lars sounding. Rock Bottom had such a Metallica vibe to me, that I couldn't help but put a good ol' Lars-esque driving backbeat on it. It was almost like the song called for it.

Lars may not be the flashiest drummer in the universe, but he's solid, and he can play a solid groove and he plays for the song and what it calls for. That is what matters the most, at least in my book. Sure, you can play a million miles an hour and play triple paradiddle 16ths or whatever the fuck, backwards while standing on your head. That's absofuckinglutey spectacular, Charlie Brown. Good for you! That's great! But the question is, does it fit the song? Is it applied tastefully? Does it compliment the song? And most of all, can you play a solid, rockin' groove that people can feel? That's what matters. Everything has it's time and place. People wanna feel and hear a solid groove, not a bunch of flashy shit every living second of a song. And Lars is a perfect example. You don't have to be super flashy to be a good drummer. The core of it all is laying down that groove and providing a solid backbeat/tempo. Afterall, we drummers are the time keepers.
In light of that, alot of my groove is influenced by Lars, and Vinnie Paul of Pantera. You wanna talk about a king of groove drumming, listen to Vinnie Paul. Like Lars, he may not be flashy, but he lays down some heavy crushing grooves on the skins that you can feel. Lars influenced alot of drummers of today and revolutionized drumming in some form or other.

I realize that Metallica aren't what they used to be. I am aware of this. They're not the metal juggernauts anymore that I knew when I was a kid, loud, angry, in your face and thrashtastic. They've put out some albums that weren't so spectacular, I'll give you that. To be honest with you, I thought St. Anger was downright disappointing and fuckin horrible. It's a chore for me to listen to that album. I wasn't too much of a fan of the 90's, "Load" and "ReLoad," though I still put those albums on every once in a while, there's some tunes on those albums that I dig. But it shows that they weren't afraid to experiment and they wanted to prove that they were more than what they had already accomplished, musically.
As a musician, and as a band, you can't bang your head against the same wall for your whole career and put out an album that sounds just like the last one. One, you get burnt out, and two, it doesn't really make much of a statement. It's redundant.  As a musician, you grow and you explore, creatively. You try different things. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. It happens. It's all a part of the creative process.

I know Hetfield isn't what he used to be, and alot of that is attributed to age, sobriety, blowing out his voice sometime in the mid 90's, thus never sounding the same again, and also a surge in a younger fanbase coming the shows nowadays. James isn't the same raging ball of energy that I remember, but with a surge of young kids coming to the shows, he can't exactly be spouting off "Fuck this, motherfucker, fucking cunt, etc etc" like he used to, with 10 year olds in the crowd who look up to him as a role model and parents who don't want their kids hearing vulgar profanity from their hero (which I don't neccessarily agree with, because the kid's gonna hear far worse things in life anyway and it's not gonna be good to shelter them from all that for such a long time) and having the parents raising all kinds of hell about it. People change also with time.

His voice doesnt have much of that gruff bark quality to it anymore, but like I said, it was attributed to blowing out his voice in the mid 90s, after doing it for so many years, without any formal training on how to do it properly. You try yelling and screaming for years on end, it's gonna take a toll on you at some point.

One thing is for sure is he can still downpick like a motherfucker. Hetfield is an influence on me as a guitar player.

Though he's not the same person he was when I was growing up, and his change in persona wasn't easy for me to accept at first, seeing as I was so used to him being who he was years ago, and the fact that I don't deal with change very easily, he's still a powerful frontman and a hero in my book.

The live shows are still powerful. I saw Metallica in 2004 when they toured with Godsmack. My girlfriend at the time got tickets for me and her to go, since the concert was on our 1 year anniversary and knowing that I was a huge Metallica fan, and I hadn't seen em in 10 years. (Her parents didn't like the idea of her going to a metal concert with her metal boyfriend, so they didn't allow her to go, but that's another story. I still went and just like 1994, it was me and the old man.)

Granted it wasn't like the show I saw when I was 7, but it was still impressive.

With the latest album "Death Magnetic", they're getting back to their glory days and taking on the sound they once had when I was growing up, and I was rather impressed when I heard the album. I've seen footage of the recent show at Joe Louis this past month, and they're definitely back in fine form. I was a little disappointed with them in the St. Anger era, along with alot of other people. I felt they dropped the ball and it's saddening to watch your heroes drop the ball and take a turn for the worse, especially after looking up to them for years. But, as they say, you fall only to get back up and try again. And they came back.

Through the good and bad, Metallica will always be my top favorite. They will always be my heroes. They were my first musical love, they changed my life, they influenced me as a musician, and their music means alot to me for those reasons. This is why I hold them in such regard. You never forget your heroes, and their influence lives on forever. Your roots are what made you who you are. Metallica was my roots, along with my dad, and both made me who I am and inspired me.

Constructive, logical responses are welcome. Or if you have anything to say in response to this, please make it logical and constructive. Thank you.

Long live Metallica!

FMD