Another Rocky Mountain Update.

Brandon here, just checking in. Here's a little update on what's going on in my neck of the woods.

Ok, settling in has been hectic, but I'm slowly getting there. When you have to move your entire house 1100 miles in a hurry, it can be a bit exhausting. Because of this we're taking our time getting settled. I've still got boxes going up the wall in the den and bedroom, but I'm slowly getting there.

The Plan:

Ok, so out here in the greater Denver Metro area, I plan to piece together a recording studio. I'm working out names and other details for it now, but it'll likely take a year or so before I'll be up and running. I've got other expenses right now, but hopefully I can devote some dough to the studio soon. Another hurdle will be to find a location for the studio once I've got enough equipment to operate on a bare bones level. I'm considering government grants and/or small business loans, so keep your fingers crossed.

I'm loving the Rockies. In fact, it's inspired me to discover the theme of the studio once I get it off the ground. I don't have a solid name for it yet, I'm throwing ideas around though. But the theme will have something to do with mountains most likely. Name ideas include "Rocky Audio", "Rocky Studio's", "Mountain's Of Sound Studios", ect. I know, the names are cheesy, but I don't wanna just cater to rock and metal musicians so I'm keeping it genre neutral. Feel free to comment and let me know what you think of the names, or to suggest one!

My Thoughts on the new Metallica:

Ok, being the big metallica fan that I am, I'm sure you're all wondering what my first impressions are of "The Day That Never Comes". I've listened to it a total of 1 time. Here's my thoughts.

Does it seem to anyone else that they are trying to highlight their entire career with this one? The beginning is very long, which is classic Metallica. But the slower cleaner first half of the song reminds me a lot of The Unforgiven mixed with Bleeding Me (at least in it's overall feel). But then they start injecting these riff-o-rama parts that takes the song in a whole different direction, and feels a lot like a combination of their first 4 albums put together. The riffs in the second half of the song didn't feel like they belonged together in my opinion, and they changed so often that it was like I was listening to a Kill/Ride/Master medley. But the riffs were so different from one another that it seemed like the Kill/Ride/Master medley was recorded during the Justice sessions.

Now maybe this is the producer in me talking. Maybe I am at a point where I can't listen to riffs that don't make sense together anymore without questioning why they were put there. Maybe I'm just getting old! lol! But the riffs just didn't seem to fit together that well to me. Maybe once I've had time to digest it after a few listens, it won't be such a big deal. After all, The Memory Remains took me a few listens before I started liking it. So we'll see.

And now to my worry about Rick Ruben producing it rather than Bob Rock. I feel that he let Metallica brew this album up themselves in an organic way, and that's fine. My beef is with the way it sounds. It doesn't have that larger than life, bombs dropping 10 feet away, explosive.........bigness (I guess that works) that the Bob Rock era of Metallica had. I don't think I'm a big fan of the Rick Ruben sound. I hear that same thing missing from the two S.O.A.D. albums he did, and I hate those albums for both their songwriting and their sound overall. I can't tell yet, but based on the online stream of "The Day That Never Comes" as well as the myspace mp3 of the Iron Maiden song they covered, I just don't think I like the sound as much as I did on the Bob Rock albums. That's my opinion. Take it or leave it.

Anyway, I'm starting to get to the point where I wanna decide what topic to cover on my next show when I come back to The Metal Shop. So the gears will be turning again very soon. Neil assures me that even though he's been held up a little, episode 21 will be out a.s.a.p. In the mean time, keep it metal.