Into Dust

I'm on the train again,
My arms are shrivelled -
Ground up into dust
and twisted metal, twisted lies
Despised & shallow

Tell me its weird, tell me its stupid
Tell me a tale Ive shot down cupid,
After all the lies hes taught me about love.
Ive broken every arrow ever thrown &
Ground up into dust

I'm on the streets again,
A strange bedfellow - Swear Ive seen your face before
Through twisted teeth & screwed up metal
Ive set this trap before you, I know.
I can see it all now,
Crashing down.

Ground up into dust that never settles
Bent and broken poison arrow
That seeps into your veins will never
see your darkened doorway again

Tell me its weird, tell me its stupid
Tell me a tale Ive shot down cupid,
After all the lies hes taught me about love.
Ive broken every arrow ever thrown &
Ground up into dust

My Corona - The Original Lyrics

Ooh, my little pretty one, pretty one -
When you gonna give me some time Corona!
Ooh you make my motor run, my motor run -
Gun it coming off of the line Corona!
Never gonna stop, give you up - such a dirty mind,
Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind
My, my, my, my oh Woo!
Ma ma ma ma Carona!

Come a little closer huh, ah will ya huh.
Close enough to look in my eyes, Corona.
Keeping it a mystery gets to me
Running down the length of my thighs, Corona
Never gonna stop, give it up. Such a dirty mind.
Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Corona...

When you gonna give it to me, give it to me.
It is just a matter of time Corona
Is it just destiny, destiny?
Or is it just a game in my mind, Corona?
Never gonna stop, give it up.
Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch
of the younger kind. My my my i yi woo. M M M My Corona...

Dream Theater - A Nightmare To Remember (Part II)

As the curtain dropped, there stood the band. Random securtity people dragged handheld cameras along the barrier as the crowd began to frenzy & by the time that Portnoy first hit the skins from 6 o'clock the croud was already surging. For me there couldnt have been a better picked opening track either. The Awake album was my first run in with Dream Theater & when I heard it I was immediately in loathe again, hard up against the barrier & fired up to go mental.


Petrucci was on fine form all night & he made an effort to get in close to the crowd. Guy really knows what he is doing & it shows. He also looks like he genuinely still enjoys playing the music for the crowd, even though I dare say that he's played these same tracks a million times before.


La Brie made sure that the bleachers were involved from the get go & throughout the night continued to draw them in each time he took to the stage. When he was on stage (he had a tendancy to walk off for the instrumental bits which irritated me), he made great use of it - Strutting up & down, swinging his mic stand about. At one point he missed a security guy by about an inch without even flinching. Im not even sure if the security man realised how close it went, but the collective gasp from the pit was audiable. There was 1 note that he missed the whole night, no mean feat given the range he uses.


What really impressed me throughout the whole gig though was the quality play that they gave for each song. Its rare to find a band who can duplicate what they lay down in a studio for a live gig, but Dream Theater have this filed down to a fine art. With such techinical phrasing, I only caught about 2 deviations from what I would be listening to from one of their pressings if I were sitting at home. That being said, it was still well worth making it out to the gig because it was a thousand times more potent.


Most importantly, this gig gave me the opportunity to actually watch Mike Portnoy play. For those who havent had the chance, I highly recommend that you do. I assure you that all the YouTube you could possibly eat does not do any sort of justice to the pure skill & ease that he owns on a kit. To give you an inkling, at one stage he was standing at the kit drumming one handed, still owning the double kick. He has thrown out his stick to the crowd, asked them to throw it back (They threw a horrible shot which didnt even get back to him) so picks up a new stick, same thing, thrown back & he's caught it & kept drumming. Timing perfect & play was still crisp.


Myung also surprised me with just how easy he finds some of the phrase that he plays. He almost looked bored while pulling out some of his more complex parts especially during some of the older tracks. None the less, his skill was most impressive.


With all this going on, Rudless remained relatively in the background. For Dream Theater he plays one of the more important elements because of the diverse way they play. His solo was exceptional. Most other players would be layering their tracks to come up with half the shit he does. When he finally cracked on his keytar, he finally got a chance to interact with the audience & actually made it look cool. No small feat.


Again it was a perfectly selected track when they encored with The Count of Tuscany and by the time the band took their final bows, the crowd was absolutely spent.


By the end of the gig, I had moshed my way through 6 o'clock, In the name of God, half of their newest album Black Clouds & Silver linings, as well as a smattering of their older tracks. As each new song began, it was as if the others had never existed.



Definately one of the best live acts Ive seen and well worth your money if you ever get the chance.

Dream Theater - A Nightmare to Remember (Part II)

Dream Theater - A Nightmare To Remember (Part I)

Ahh, Dream Theater... A band I have loved for very ever, and which by my standard are unrivalled in sheer technical ability & scope. Last night, and for the first time it seems, I really understood what that meant. First, however, let me set the scene...

I arrived at the gig 4 hours early to find a miriad of fans already lined up. In the background, Pain Of Salvation were completing their final checks & the air was thick with anticipation. For myself, this was the first time I had the opportunity to see them live & so I too took great pleasure soaking in the scene.

Pain Of Salvation were a well picked opener & kicked off really well with some awesome Prog Metal. Lead singer & guitarist Daniel Gildenlow first entered stage solo & from silence spewed out some amazing riffage to get the crowd going. Throughout the gig his witty interactions and dynamic vocals had the crowd eating out of his hand and wanting more.

Bass player Per Schelander threw down some really gritty lines & kicked it with some major tap bass throughout the set, while guitarist Johan Hallgren practically owned the croud from the moment he leapt onstage and strapped on his guitar. Token Frenchman Leo Margarit played hard & kept it tight throughout with some really crisp drumming, and Synth player Fredrik Hermansson completed the set with some complex musical phrase.

Overall you could tell that the band had some amazing synergy & were genuinely enjoying themselves on the stage. The final Song "Disco Queen", was almost pop metal, but none the less, had the crowd going off of their own accord, bated & ready for the main act to follow...

Alice IIII

Fuck.

Concert was absolutely brutal... For those of you who have never had the pleasure of going to an Alice concert I have nothing for you but pity. If any band in the world could put on a show like this then Alice wouldnt be Alice. & I would die. Because truth is you will not see such an epic show after seeing Alice. Theatrics that are in my humble opinion unrivalled. Lyrics that are as perinent now as when he first tipped pen to paper. & every last silver tipped breath that you take as you watch the drama unfold is bated.

Alice IV will be coming soon enough & then the house of cards will fall almost complete.

[Spesh mention to Electric Mary. For an opener band these guys sure did rock hard. I wouldnt think twice before downing $50 bucks to see these guys. Lead singer needs to ditch the cowboy hat & maybe less repeditive lyrics. Otherwise mass props.]

Metal is the new Metal

Okay, realising that Ive been really slack with the blogs of late. What I have posted has been a bit shit & brief to boot. (Prolly explains why there are no fans yet...) No longer.

Not entirely sure what I wish to ramble on today, except to sat that the time is ticking down until I see Alice Cooper live again. Last show was brilliant. We saw him in Canberra & unlike the Sydney show we saw him at we were allowed to take photos during the concert. I was in the front of the front rows & ended up with a fistful of Alice money & some signed shit... Also bought a T-Shirt [as you do]

On the flip side, Sydney show was good because I spent it with his sound engineer who let me fiddle about with the levels during 'Woman of Mass Destruction". He was actually a pretty funny guy & the board he was running was off the fucking charts. Wonder if he's doing this tour as well?

Anyway, besides that Im hanging for the Dream Theater tour coming down to Aus this year [finally] so as soon as tix are on sale I will be there with a credit card awaiting. Slayer & Megadeth are also going to be in town soon which Im pretty pumped about. Its good that we're finally getting some real good acts down here, some of them for the first time.

Will prolly be back with further ramblings later. Its too early in the day for me to go on a proper rant.

Cohort 1

Ep 1 of the Cohort 1 podcast is almost ready. If you have any Ideas as to what you want to hear, post it into @brutalplanett on twitter.

We've decided that we want to do some more recording before we roll this one out so stay tuned.

Tell us your top 5 things you hate list.

Green Lantern

Apparently Ryan Reynolds is going to be the new Green Lantern.

1. Thank christ that they didnt pick timberlake
2. I am totally excited.

Please, please, please - Dont let this movie be shit.