I want it, I need it, revenge is dripping from my teeth

There is no way i would believe you at all if you were to tell me five years ago that i would like Avenged Sevenfold, let alone turn into my favorite band. That's sort of the conundrum that i've put myself into and always feel sort of guilty when it comes to A7X because of it. Don't get me wrong, i'm extremely glad that i like them as much as i do, but i feel bad that i once used to hate them and think they were crappy.

Surprisingly to me though, City of Evil is the only album from any band or artist that i can think of that has both pushed me away from them, and made me love them later on. When i first heard stuff from City of Evil it was the three singles Beast and the Harlot, Bat Country, and Seize the Day, all from the radio and i thought they were alright; Seize the Day was pretty catchy and would get stuck in my head often. I decided to give the full album a listen and i vividly remember laying on my bed listening to it, and after a little bit of Blinded in Chains i turned it off. I didn't really like any else of what i had heard and thought it was boring. After that i never really came back to it until about two years later when A7X's self-titled album was released in '07. I can't explain what happened, or what changed in my mind, but all of a sudden when i listened back to it, it sounded amazing. There are a couple things about it that i don't really like, but the good far outweighs the bad and it's now one of my favorite albums of all time.

1. Beast and the Harlot. It was very first song I heard from these guys and it's a good one. It's one of their more poppy songs, but that's not a bad thing at all. Can't help but get cheered up from the chorus whenever I listen to it, and can't help but headband during the bridge.

2. Burn it Down and Blinded in Chains - They aren't bad songs by any means, but nothing in them really stand out to me besides a few cool riffs and melodies. Besides that though, the main problem i have with these two songs is they don't seem to have much focus to them. There are parts to them where i feel they should end, but they go on to a different part.

3. Bat Country - It's always been a favorite of mine but the soft part always sounded weird to me. Really nice solo though; one of my favorites.

4. Trashed and Scattered - it's always felt like another filler song like Burn it Down and Blinded in Chains, but better because it actually has some memorable parts to it.

5. Seize the Day - The ballad of the album and it's a good one. It's always been one of my favorite song of Avenged Sevenfold's period lyrically and the solo is one of my favorites by Synyster Gates.

6. Sidewinder - This is where the album gets really good and epic. This song also has a couple solos that are a favorite of mine on the album, the first being the one at about 3:30 and the second being the dual flamenco style solo with Synyster's dad Papa Gates at the end of the song.

7. The Wicked End - The best song vocally by Matt Shadows i think. I've always loved how he sang "As if we haven't swam enough in this life of misery."

8. Strength of the World - one of the best songs on City of Evil, and one of the best Avenged Sevenfold songs period. I love how they incorporated orchestra into it and did it extremely well. the song is a little more than 9 minutes but feels a lot shorter than that.

9. Betrayed - a very groovy song, which makes sense seeing as it's dedicated to Dimebag Darrel. I can appreciate this song, and it is good, but it's never been a favorite of mine.

10. M.I.A. - The last song and it goes out with a bang. This is one of my favorite songs of their ever. Just about everything about it is good; the chorus is awesome, so are the riffs, and the solo is just mind blowing. The only thing that brings it down is Matt's vocals at the end, but that isn't that big of a problem. The acoustic solo to end the song and album is a nice touch.

There are a couple negative things that keep this album from being perfect. The production isn't the best, mainly the drums, and is my main complaint about City of Evil. I like my drums to song big and beat your head in, but on here they sound sort of thin. Another thing is the vocals. They aren't they best, but they're no where near as bad as people make them out to be. I can cut Matt some slack though because this is his first album of only singing, and he has gotten a lot better since. He's actually now one of my favorite vocalists. Other than those two things this album is absolutely amazing. Any guitarist should love it, there's tons of riffs, fills, and harmonies, which i'm a sucker for.

Here's hoping they go back to this sort of style of writing a bit on their new album Nightmare, which comes out July 27th!

We're Going Down, In A Spiral To The Ground

I owe a lot to System of a Down. I've always liked hard rock and heavier stuff, but I put the blame on them for leading me down the road to metal. Even before I liked metal there was just something about System of a Down that drew me in, regardless of how heavy they got. It's a shame that they went on, and still are, on hiatus now because they were, and still are unfortunately one of the most unique bands the have come out in recent years. And even more unfortunate, I think they released their best CD yet in Hypnotize.

Hypnotize came out in late 2005 and has since gotten a lot of negative responses from fans, but i'm of the opposing side and think it's one of their strongest albums. It has the quirkiness, the chaos, the deep and thoughful lyrics, and the beautiful melodies and harmonies that you'd come to expect from System of a Down, and sometimes combined them all in one.

1. Attack - Pretty basic System of a Down song all in all. Soft verses that burst into fast heavy choruses. Nothing really stands out in this song, but it's still a solid song.

2. Dreaming - One of the highlights of Hypnotize and is System of a down at their best. The verses are what I mean about them being chaotic, yet it all somehow works and sounds great. One of my favorite tracks vocally; the harmonies between Daron Malakian and Serj Tankian are so simple yet so effective, especially the end "Dreaming of Screaming/Someone kick me out of my mind/I hate these thoughts I can't deny" part.

3. Kill Rock & Roll - The one thing you can expect from System of a Down are Serj and Daron's vocal harmonies and they save this song. This song is another basic System of a Down song, but the vocals make it memorable.

4. Hypnotize - The title track and a very good one. Very simple, and it doesn't stray much, but it's still very memorable somehow.

5. Stealing Society - Things get kind of weird with this song, especially the bridge, but overall this is good song.

6. Tentative - The closest song resembling System of a Down's Toxicity days. Serj takes over singing on this song mostly, and reminds us why he is such a good singer. Very eerie song coupled with the lyrics "We're going down/In a spiral to the ground/No one, no one's going to save us now/Not even God.

7. U-Fig - Another weird and quirky song that has always been a favorite of mine. Gets kind of repetitive after awhile, but ultimately gets easily stuck in your head.

8. Holy Mountains - The second best song on the whole CD. I can't say how good this song is apparently about the Armenian genocide, and this song conveys the sadness, and anger towards it perfectly. Great song all around.

9. Vicinity of Obscenity - Things get really weird now with this song and the next one. This song is okay, but i can never take it seriously. Starts off System of a Down-like, but cuts into an almost smooth jazz section. If i didn't know them better, i'd think they really like their banana terracotta pie, but the song is a bit different than that...

10. She's Like Heroin - Equally weird, apparently Daron wrote this song, and wasn't that great of a decision. This song isn't anything but weird.
11. Lonely Day - Another song wrote by Daron, and it contains one the worst, and laughable lyrics grammatically in the chorus with "The most loneliest day of my life." The vocals and their harmonies absolutely save this song.

12. Soldier Side - First hearing a little bit of this song in the intro to Mesmerize, this is easily the best song ever written by System of a Down, and makes listening to the last three songs worth it. Just listen to the vocals! The Harmonies! The guitars! This song is perfect, yet very depressing.

While this album does contain some questionable filler, it more than makes up for it with the good songs. The best songs on Hypnotize all happen to be the more serious ones, which I don't think is a coincidence, so if System of a Down does ever come back from their hiatus, I will definitely be looking forward to hearing more songs like those because they write them beautifully.

Taste Me You Will See; More Is All You Need

Is music really addictive? I've been led to believe that it's nothing more than a myth but i've found there some studies that say otherwise, where music could really be addictive.

In an article by Rick Nauert, Emotional Music Triggers Addictive Brain Activity, it was found by a Canadian research group that the "the pleasure centers in the brain that respond to drug craving are also active when we listen to emotionally powerful music that gives us 'chills' or 'shivers-down-the-spine.'" They also found that the music that caused chills "led to a release of dopamine in the reward centers of the brain," the same thing that happens when you smoke cocaine.

There was also a study by Northeastern University back in 1999 testing if people really could be addictive to music. They took 90 people and asked them questions similar to the ones asked to people with alcohol, like instead of "Do you feel you are a normal drinker?" they asked "Do you feel you listen to music at normal levels?" Eight out of the 90 people were found to suffer from an addiction, but many of the participants were recruited at a record store, so that whole study seems invalid to me.

I am not one to argue against music not being addictive. I wouldn't go as far as to say it's as addicting as cocaine, though i'm sure in some cases people could be, but if i hear a song that i really like, or is stuck in my head, i'll want to listen to it. Heck, i was listening to my iPod while writing this.

Does that make me an addict?

"Hello, I'm Lucas...and i'm addicted to music..."