Corey_Lazarus

Coincidental that you say that, as I popped in a random unlabeled tape last night, and that episode is one of the events on it (cage match just finished now as a matter of fact). I've been contemplating which shows to convert to DVD, so this one may be the first. I'd say convert everything from Russo's TNA debut (Truth vs. Jarrett in November '02) until Super X. It's all pretty interesting stuff in there, with Kid Kash's rise as one of TNA's top heels (though he became, IMO, their top heel during Dirty Dutch's period of booking) being a huge highlight, as well as all of the "XXX vs. X-Division" madness that was had between XXX/AMW matches and feuds. And yes, I remember the first TNA cage match. That's a fucking classic. I don't remember any of the Sabin/Kazarian matches being that good, but I dislike Kazarian anyway. And something has to be said for the short Kid Kash/Amazing Red feud. The matches weren't amazing, none reaching over ***1/2 I'd say, but they're worth watching to see just how great of a pure prick heel Kid Kash can be. One of my favorite heels ever.

It still is to me. I'd rather watch Awesome/Tanaka from Heat Wave '98 than ANYTHING out of XPW, and most from CZW. Why? Because the fucking PASSION was always there in ECW. It didn't matter that the two guys in the ring hitting each other with chairs and putting each other through tables had just met for the first time: it was intense. It was built-up so much through word-of-mouth and Joey's commentary and the heat from the fans that what you were watching - be it Balls Mahoney vs. Steve Corino from Living Dangerously '99, or a classic like Tommy Dreamer vs. CW Anderson from Guilty As Charged '01 - was special. EVERYTHING meant something in ECW. EVERYBODY meant something in ECW. There's so few promotions that can say that, but it's extremely true (no pun intended) in ECW's case. I can't think of one full-time ECW wrestler that wasn't, at the very least, respected by the fans. Only one that the fans didn't love, really, was Justin Credible, and that's mostly due to his Kliq affiliation.

You think V's are hard to keep steady? Try playing with a clear-body Warlock. I had to borrow my buddy Jason's once for a month or two because my Strat was in the shop for a saudering (which, in hindsight, I could've done myself) and I didn't have enough money to get my Explorer yet, and that motherfucker prolly is the biggest reason my back hurts all the time. It weighed, like, 40 pounds or so, and always sounded like shit. That said...Guitar Center is having a pretty huge sale today (it's been going on for a month or so, but I'm heading there today), and I'm probably getting a BC Rich Son of the Beast. Lightweight, decent sound, and pretty cheap.

Eh...it's a different approach. Seger's original is downbeat and depressing, his version saying that touring makes him sad. Metallica's is aggressive, their version saying that they turn their depression into anger on the road. Both good versions, and I don't think I could choose one over the other in terms of actual quality, but I must say that I'd rather listen to the Metallica cover than the Seger original. One thing they can't touch, though, is The Misfits. Their covers of Misfits songs are good, damn good, and Metallica sure did help boost the fanbase of The Misfits after the initial breakup, but you just can't fuck with the originals. That's similar to Sick of it All's cover of "All Hell Breaks Loose," which is essentially how the song would've sounded had the band written it today (a little heavier, and slightly faster), but again: you just can't fuck with the original Misfits.

Children of Bodom. I'm not a fan, but like I said in that "best concerts" thread a little while back, seeing them live at Lupo's Heartbreak Hotel in Providence was one of my favorite concerts ever. Alexi has a lot of stage presence (when he's not COMPLETELY drunk, as I believe was the case at the Unholy Alliance Tour), and the guitar solo's he does while singing are pretty damn impressive. Mastodon sounds PERFECT live. The only minor changes will be that they'll play a song a little bit shorter or longer than it is on an album, but that's nothing major. I'd have to say the band that was great live that I never would have expected to be was Sevendust. I don't care at all for anything released by them after their s/t debut, but seeing them live a few years ago nearly made me a fan. So much energy in the whole band that it just translated so well to the stage.

No, it's really not. I had to listen to it constantly while working at Bob's Store, and I can't say I find anything remotely positive about that song. Half of the rhyme scheme is thrown out the window because she changed every "girl" to "boy."

Personally, my favorite TNA match to date (besides Joe/Styles) has been Elix Skipper/Christopher Daniels vs. Jerry Lynn/The Amazing Red vs. Chris Sabin/Jonny Storm vs. Shark Boy/Jason Cross. None - NONE - of the falls are clean in this match, but it's notable for two things: the first being Sabin's debut to TNA, and the other being the first real blow to Sports Entertainment Xtreme.

It was a comedic take on the story behind King in the Tekken games. I dug it. And, again...THE TWO DEMON MIDGETS WERE AWESOME! Seeing the bio's on everybody involved in the battle royale to see who'd fight Ramses for the belt was GREAT. "Signature move: chair shots."

I like the Zombie Apocalypse cover of "Welcome to the Jungle" more than GNR's original. It's a fucking horrid cover musically, but there's more danger and aggression in ZA's cover than in GNR's. Plus, it's still funny to hear their take on the whole "Do you know where you are? / You're in the jungle, baby! / You're gonna die!" bit during the build to the last chorus. It is this: Sure, it's cheesy, but I like it. Overall, the album it's off of (Bring You To Your Knees, which is nothing but hardcore and metalcore bands covering GNR tunes...and Every Time I Die goes acoustic to cover "I Used To Love Her," which is somewhat disappointing) is pure shit, but it's a nice cover in the sense that ZA took it and gave it their own style.

I can't really get into Peace Sells that much. Outside of the title track and the music to "Wake Up Dead," I just don't care for it. The cover of "I Ain't Superstitious" is a nice little diddy...but I don't listen to Megadeth to hear blues rock, I listen to Megadeth to hear Dave trade shreds with the other guitarist and just go nuts. Which is odd, because some of their best full albums (as was noted by tominator) are their 90's albums.

The only Will Ferrell movie I absolutely, 100% downright HATE is Bewitched. That and that stupid-ass soccer movie he did. Anchorman was genius, though, and his cameo in Wedding Crashers is the best part of the movie. Ditto his cameo in Starsky & Hutch.

A hammer-on is when you have your finger on one note and strum it, and then press down on a higher note (usually no greater than 3 or 4 frets higher on the same string) and push down on it with another finger. You get the two notes with the one strum, which can build up the speed of what you are playing. Most metal and 80's hair band solo's are based off of hammer-on's and two-finger tapping (which are based on hammer-on's), and the main melody to Iron Maiden's classic "Hallowed be thy Name" is filled with hammer-on's. A pull-off is, essentially, the exact opposite. Rather than starting off at a lower note and then hitting a higher note without strumming, you start at a higher note with one finger (usually either the middle or ring) and then quickly pull off as you slam another finger (usually the index) down on a lower note. It gives the same feeling as a pull-off, but backwards. And "Raining Blood" has a shitload of hammer-on's and pull-off's in it's intro? Hrmmm...I've never seen a single tab for it with hammer-on's and pull-off's outside of the riff beneath the lyrics "pierced from below, a soul from a treacherous past."

Black Lushus: See, that's why I like the s/t and Renegades. The s/t actually had SONGS, and aside from parts of them that were just noise (like the "solo's," if you can call them that), they were actually good hard rock tunes for the most part. I can still pop it in and listen to it all the way through, only cringing during "Settle For Nothing" (my least favorite RATM song, oddly enough, is on my favorite of their albums). Renegades worked because it was a bunch of covers, many of which were superb. I don't care for Empire or Battle of LA beyond 2 or 3 songs per album, if even. And as far as KoRn...they've never really tried to do much besides write awful-sounding music with whiny lyrics. Okay, Jon, you had a fucked-up childhood...you're in your late 30's now, so get the fuck over it. Tominator: I would...but outside of Countdown and Rust In Peace, I can't really listen to a full Megadeth album. Not even Peace Sells. I can tell you, though, that Rust would be #1 and Risk would be at the bottom...with Killing is our Business just above it, prolly.

Wow...my list is pretty much the exact opposite. I'd have Renegades at 2, s/t at 1, Battle of LA at 3, and Evil Empire at 4. I can't stand Empire since it's pretty much all Tom doing noise while Zach screams about more things he wants to be militant about...but doesn't really take any action towards. KORN CHANGED?! Also, I don't see what's special at all about the s/t or Life is Peachy. I hear bad music that's just noise thrown together with some decent drumming and Jon pissing and moaning about how he got beat up in high school for being a fucking tool. Only album I can listen to and not feel 100% irritated (and not even irritated in the good way) during is Follow The Leader since they at least took some time to make sure the songs had some flow to them. Something has to be said for their damned decent attempt at covering all three parts of "Another Brick in the Wall," though.

ECW fans will cheer Angle so long as he is entertaining. Which he usually is. Don't worry about Angle being cheered, but I think a decent little feud would be Sandman/Angle (if Angle's neck can sustain a Singapore Cane to the head, that is). Why? Sandman was crucified while Angle sat there and complained about his character being defamed. Sandman needed help, and his friends were beaten while Angle took the attention away from Sandman and put it onto himself. Done and done.

Nah, I never picked it up. The "Classic Albums" ep, I mean. Never really interested me too much. Now it sorta does. But I remember hearing Jason's bass solo that lead to the "My Friend Of Misery" intro on Live Shit: Binge & Purge, and being floored by just how good it was. It wasn't Cliff Burton "Anesthesia - (Pulling Teeth)," but it wasn't lame. Newstead should have had a HELL of a lot more input into the music, considering how much Burton had and how in the 90's it seemed the only one doing more than collecting a paycheck WAS Jason (ie. he seemed to actually enjoy himself during performances).

Something that'd be great for discussion in a thread all of its own (and Lord knows it's been done on every messageboard that has a music forum), so here goes... METALLICA 1. Master of Puppets I can't find too many flaws in this album. Every song has something going for it. The two filler tracks, "The Thing That Should Not Be" and "Leper Messiah," are both redeeming lyrically (especially "The Thing...", which is obviously about Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos) and have their memorable musical moments. There's three of Metallica's classics off of this album alone ("Battery," "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)," and the title track), and was the last album that the late great Cliff Burton appeared on. It was the height of Metallica's underground career: virtually no radio airplay, very few TV spots (and, even then, they were latenight and usually interviews on syndicated programming), and the album preceded their last tour as anything other than a headlining act (opening for Ozzy). The pinnacle of their career, hands-down. 2. Ride the Lightning Here is where we saw James, Cliff, Lars, and Kirk really come into their own as something other than your generic underground metal band from the early 80's. While most of their scene was still writing songs all about being "caught in a mosh" or screeching aloud about how metal is the best music alive, they were talking about political topics (the title track has a pretty obvious anti-death penalty message), suicide, the ever-present metal theme of global doom, Biblical passages, and classic works of American literature. The music was heavy, moderately fast, and catchy enough for anybody to really get into. Two classic songs that most every rock fan knows, one classic Metallica song, and the best instrumental they've ever written. 3. Kill 'Em All The debut was a solid punch in the face considering that most of the "metal" world in 1983 was all about spandex, AquaNet, and getting laid. The foursome were heavy drinkers, huge fans of underground European metal, and they were angry. And the music showed it. It was fast, simple, and had an undeniable punk edge that few bands of the same era could match. Two classics in "The Four Horsemen" and "Seek And Destroy," and it was basically the start of American metal as more than just a way to get some trashy bleached-blonde hussy to give you head. 4. Load Ya-ha, controversy! Sure, this was their "sell-out" (and I'm stressing the quotation marks) album. But you know what? A lot of Metallica fans actually love Load and just wish it wasn't by Metallica. It's a very solid hard rock album that has a nice flow to it, a killer opener, and the two epics ("Bleeding Me" and "The Outlaw Torn") are just that: epic. If you get into them in the least, you feel a small sense of catharsis when the songs come to their conclusion (something Metallica were once masters of). You have the radio hits in "Until It Sleeps" and "King Nothing," and Metallica going country with "Mama Said" where James' voice truly shines. 5. ...And Justice For All The convo skullman and I had in the "new Metallica song" thread is actually what inspired me to post these. I don't feel that Justice is that good of an album. It has a few good songs, and all of them are listenable, but...the flow is terrible. James and Kirk just riff for the sake of riffing, the search for a new bassist (concluding with Jason Newstead) was all for nought as no basslines can even be heard on this album (which is funny, since most Metallica fans say that Justice was the last time you even heard basslines in a Metallica song), and the whole album came out exactly like it was recorded: a release of anger from pent-up frustrations over Cliff's demise. It was James, Lars, and Kirk venting, and that's it. Sure, it's their true breakthrough album, but that doesn't mean that the title track needed to be nearly 10 minutes long when every riff when played twice in a row instead of four times would make it a much tighter, stronger song and cut the time in half. 6. Metallica, better known as The Black Album This is the one Metallica album that I can listen to fully, enjoy most of the songs, but loathe as a whole. The flow is much better than Justice, the songs are good hard rock, but there's something missing. That something is the emotion that poured out from the first three albums from a band that was trying to make it huge on their own terms. They didn't want it as much as they did just 4 years prior. They already had fame and fortune, so what is there to be angry about? They were all getting married or partying constantly, and besides "Enter Sandman" and "The Unforgiven," what songs that are well-known from this album even stand up for a full listen? "Nothing Else Matters" is overplayed and too redundant to even truly be considered a good song, "Sad But True" is decent lyrically but mediocre musically, and the only remotely speed/thrash metal-y songs on it, "Through The Never" and "The Struggle Within" (the latter of which I will always feel as though it was written for Justice and just kept in the vault to be used on this album), are so overproduced that it takes away any true feeling from them. That was always a strongpoint of Metallica, and good metal in general: it was produced just enough to give it a raw edge, not overproduced to sound like a Bon Jovi or a Whitesnake record. Fuck Bob Rock. The only song I even really like from this album anymore is "My Friend Of Misery," which stands out because it doesn't really sound a whole lot like the rest of the album. 7. ReLoad A bunch of songs recorded during the Load sessions that didn't make the cut, so instead of writing entirely new tunes, Metallica just released these. Sure, "Fuel" is a good bloodpumper, as is "The Memory Remains," and "The Unforgiven II" isn't that bad of a song-sequel, but...the album is completely dead after the fourth song. "Fixxxer" and "Low Man's Lyric" are decent but come off as retreads of "The Outlaw Torn" and "Mama Said" respectively. At least the album sounds good, which is something I can't say for the next one. 8. St. Anger It's a steaming pile of shit. The same problems with Justice are true with Anger, only even more so. The songs go on for FARRRR too long with no change in them, whereas at least the songs on Justice had solo's to make the songs seem more interesting. What we got was a collection of songs, the majority of which are over 7 minutes in length, that are jams done by the band simply to try to write new songs. Instead of writing a plethora of terrible lengthy songs, the boys really should have seen what was good in each song and accentuated those parts while working on things to cover for the negatives. I even believe in the documentary about Anger's recording, Some Kind Of Monster, Kirk gets into a pretty heated argument with Lars and James over the lack of solo's in the songs. He brought up how it would date the record and make it so that it didn't sound like a Metallica album. Which was entirely true. I spit on the early previews of the album that compared its sound to that of Max-era Sepultura and Justice (which was right in a weird sense).

Ehhhhh...depends who by. I think they're pretty lame for the most part, personally.

Assuming this was geared towards me, I bought it from Guitar Center...4 or 5 years ago. So I'm going to assume it's standard. I'm contemplating either getting a PA system, replacing the tubes in my amp (haven't changed them since I bought it 3 or 4 years ago), or maybe getting a new guitar (I'm thinking a BC Rich Beast II, since I dislike Warlocks, aren't a fan of BC Rich's Flying-V model, and I got some good sounds out of the Beast II that I played at Guitar Center a few months back; that, and it's pretty cheap at around $250 or so). I should prolly just replace the tubes, since I notice my amp has some good days of bone-crushing sound and some days where it sounds like it's muffled with a few layers of comforters. And I'd say some FX pedals, Rend. My buddy Crawford has a Line 6, and I just hate the fucking sound that comes out of it. But hey, that's my own opinion.

But the Nick of now and the Nick of the early-to-mid 90's is drastically different. The Nick of now doesn't have any of the subtle adult jokes in it like Ren & Stimpy and Rocko's Modern Life did. The Nick of now is all about pretty white kids in middle and high school, and some lame cartoons that are either retreads of classic Nicktoons (though All Grown Up is a decent continuation of Rugrats, I must say) or flat-out lame. My sister used to watch Nick with me when I was 9 or 10. She's 7 years older than me. I struggle to find something watchable other thank Drake & Josh and All Grown Up on Nick these days. Spongebob has its moments but is entirely overrated, and really: Drake & Josh should just be titled "Cool Kid & The Jew." Re: the movie Saw it tonight. Laughed a few times at it, especially the whole "I hate ALL of the orphans in the world" bit. The match with the two midgets was more entertaining than anything I've seen on WWE television besides the various Edge/Foley interactions in a decent while, and I actually got into Nacho's quest to rise to the top not only for himself but for the kids he looks after.

To be fair, Booker was using the Urinagi (spelled differently everytime I see it, and this is the one I like best) spinebuster before The Rock was even wrestling. Ditto DDP. Ditto Bryan "Wrath" Clarke. See, I don't think Booker was undeserving of being WCW World champ. I think he deserved a lengthy reign, but it was just how Russo handled him that sucked. I liked the build to the final Nitro where Booker won the US title from Rick Steiner and then pinned Scott later on to win the World title. Booker dropped the belt to Steiner, and then regained it a few months later after Steiner obliterated the other four main event faces (Goldberg, Sid, DDP, and Nash) that were still active. Plus, Nash jobbed CLEAN to Booker...so that really has to say something. I mean, Booker pulled an enjoyable match out of Shawn Stasiak. SHAWN. FUCKING. STASIAK. That speaks wonders, fellas, about why he deserved the main event push. But yeah, I'm still going with Mike Awesome. At least Masato Tanaka was in ECW often enough to be considered a true FMW/ECW crossover star. That, and Tanaka had some solid matches with people other than Awesome (Balls Mahoney and Justin Credible, to name two), whereas Awesome's only notable work in ECW is against Tanaka.

Make the hums black and that's my guitar to a tee. Paintjob and everything. Marshall AVT150 combo, no FX pedals (since FX are included in the amp), Dunlop .3 picks, GHS boomers 010.

4. Fallout From the War Now, it's a good album. Doesn't have a lot of the dull moments that Balance had, and the production's just as good as War Within...but it's basically a bunch of b-sides. Half of the album is either a cover song or a song they released earlier in their career and re-recorded because they added some new tricks to it (unfortunately, none of them are from Somber, which is terrible since I'd like to see how they'd so "Somber Angel" now). The few originals on here aren't too bad, and some of them are actually really good songs, but they're more or less just a collection of riffs that Jon and Matt wrote while on tour and passing the time. When you open the liner booklet, the very first thing you read is a note from Brian explaining the album and how it's a bunch of b-sides, re-do's, and covers. It's basically a nice little demo EP that's been given the LP treatment. It doesn't feel like a complete album, which is why it's down here. Still better than Art of Balance, though.

While I agree with you, K, Megadeth did have a bit more impact on metal, and are one of the most popular bands of the style. When reciting great speed/thrash metal bands of the 80's, nobody EVER misses out on Megadeth. Exodus and Testament? Yeah, people forget about them. But not Megadeth.

...no, it really doesn't. JBL's one of the most over heels on the entire roster, and Bradshaw really kicked it up a big notch with the gimmick change to become somebody that was **GASP** entertaining. His matches may be pretty shitty, but he has complete control over the gimmick, and his heel antics have made me a fan. Orton was somebody that was getting over and would have greatly benefitted from a slow build to the World title, but he was one of the few workers on the roster at the time that was over enough to even be considered upper-mid. He didn't deserve it right away, but I won't say he was the most UNDESERVING. You know who came to mind right away? Justin Credible. I'm in the vast minority that enjoyed his run with the ECW World title, mostly because of how Dreamer and Storm tried to get the belt off of him but failed and how it took the man who he tore the house down with in '98, Lynn, to do it, but I never thought Justin Credible was as awful a champ as others have made him out to be. Fuck, Mike Awesome was a less-deserving champion than Credible, since at least Credible was there for more than a paycheck. But, then again, Awesome had an awesome (no pun intended) feud with Masato Tanaka over the title, and his mini-feud with Spike Dudley was mildly entertaining. So yeah...my vote for least-deserving champion (ECW, WCW, WWF/E) would have to be...Jeff Jarrett. He didn't deserve the belt in WCW, he didn't deserve to keep the belt as long as he did in TNA, and he doesn't deserve any belt he may get in the future with TNA.