Magnum Carnage is an American black metal band from Honolulu, Hawaii. Originally formed in 1996, the band has gone through a number lineup changes all of which have been led and assembled by band leader Kai Laigo.

Now the review. Overall the album is hot, fast and (did I mention this?) heavy metal. It thrashes about like a crocodile chowing down a guy who didn’t read the warning message. Furthermore, like the croc’s lunch this band is very tasty and it’s hour-plus length cannot be devoured in a single bite. I found the first time I listened took a day as the tracks just overwhelmed me with the intensity of the music. Spinal Tap’s amps might go to 11, but these guys kept on cranking their amps to jet engine! Really, this music is really strong stuff and once you’ve got through it you’ll find yourself more than satisfied with the sound.

The album starts with the metal anthemesque head pumping Titanium Apocalypse, interspersed with speech during the track. It plays pretty hard, but this is just the start of a CD of madness. Track 2, Drowning in Feces/Death (The Slow Process), starts as a much more fierce track with machine-gun drums and ax-work slowing down midway to a heavy stomping vocalized tune.

Suitcase Nuke is a heavy, slow beating ensemble including a pepped up interlude, with the screamer giving a nice touch to the ax-oriented work. Following Suitcase Nuke is the raucous Night of the Chupacabra with spiced speed metal, strong screaming vocals and a quiet finishing flourish.

Divine Comedy Pt. 1 – Damn this Age plays like a metal version of a Mike Oldfield (Tubular Bells) tracks. This is a multi-layered track that I particularly enjoy. Demon City Honolulu is a neat piece of thrash metal including Spanish guitar riffs during and fine, quieter drum- and guitar-led pieces. The quieter ax-work seems to almost sing. The song also includes some great vocals and scream-work.

The Wolf starts off as a slower track with goth-metal ove, before moving onto more higher-tempo metals midway during the song. The Ballad of Brian Well is a heavy rock piece that plays well with distorted guitars throughout the track.

Platinum Hell Tour is a short track that screams at you with every piece of equipment the band has to through at you! Temple of Doom starts pepped up on strong guitars and drums. The track mixes hard guitars and slower vocals. Depraved Fantasy is a straight hard rock/metal track with the screamer plying the song with his voice. There are some parts to this track that are reminiscent of other metal artists – though my knowledge of who is what in the metal would is very limited!

No Fear Pt. 2 Speed vs. Stupidity starts stomping away before guitar and vocals take over. As with other songs in this album it intersperses the metal with more melodious and ambient tunes to take the pressure down midway in the song. No Fear Pt. 3 Xmas Fight Song is a calmer song letting the song’s vocals clearly cut through the noise as the ax volume turns itself up to dominate later in the song. A fine drum-supported guitar solo kicks in later in the track.

Gold is a short heavy rock song with more straight-laced sounds coming from the band. Bronze plays along edgier lines with pumped up drums and guitars from the start and has a catchy beat and vocals. Silver is another catchy heavy rock song that plays easily to a rock/pop crowd.

Plutonium (Awesome Song II) is head-pumping and foot-stomping from the start. The music plays towards the vocals allowing you to hear the story of the song. It’s rocky style with twists and turns make this one of my favorite tunes on the disk.

Buick ’88 starts off with melancholic guitars, slowly building in intensity to heady rock before cranking into metal with screamer vocals.

Video Games of the Gods is short track featuring of epic metal from the 70s & 80s. Grain Reaper is a hot piece of metal with clear vocals ruling over the instrumentals. Again the Mike Oldfield influence can be heard in the second half of the track.

2012 is a psychedelic pop-rock piece reflecting the subject – the insane world in the near future.

The final song, Nightmarish Full-Scale War, starts hard and heady and just keeps on rocking the whole way with epic-styled metal.

At the end of the day, all I can say is “Wow” – this is the only response I can come up with. To listen to it takes you on an hour-long hell of a sound ride. What I would do if I heard it live is stomp till my feet dropped off and scream at them until my head explodes. The only down side I found was that it the vocals were hard to pick up, a small thing, but a bit more clarity of the voices would have made the experience a bit better. Yes, this is good with innovative solid sounds that should grab you by the shoulders and scream at you!

Igor scores it 8/10 – very hot

Fashion Bomb

Hailing from Chicago, Fashion Bomb delivers an infectious mix of hard industrial, laced heavily with rock and metal in “Devils to Some, Angels to Others.” Indeed, the metal plays such a significant role that it could be considered a dark metal album with Gothic overtones. Either way, this is an exciting work that should satisfy those who like some bite in their music. Weighing in at 14 songs plus one remix, this is one powerful CD.

Out of the gate with a jet engine intro is “SS” which plays hard throughout with the anthemesque question “When will we all be free.”

Nothing is a catchy hard rock song being ridden with strong vocals.

The next track, “Low,” starts off with a single guitar and builds up slowly until it cuts a less violent sound, but maintains the wrath of the first song.

“Avarice” works all soundscapes with industrial, hard rock and metal. The lyrics are an important part of this song about avarice and some suicidal undercurrents.

Another anthemesque sound makes up the background of “Rant,” while “God Drug” is a hot piece of thrash metal.

“The Line” is harsh rock/metal-laced industrial with a dose of screamo thrown in for good measure.

“Ascend This Day” tends more towards industrial and is another powerful track.

The track, “Drugpool,” delivers some dark speed metal along with lighter industrial tone for the verses.

“Skin” is unashamedly heavy rock doused with fine vocals.

“Over It” continues the band’s addictive sounds and the music powers through the song.

“Christ Puncher,” focuses on the vocals with the guitar work more in the background.

“Mold” is a quieter piece again focusing on the vocals with guitars and drums following the vocalists’ lead.

“Looks That Kill” is a cool piece of work about a femme fatale.

The final track is a remix of the “Low (Asrok’s High Mix)” provides a slower more mellow version of the track.

In summary, this album is full of top-notch hard industrial/rock/metal music with a powerful voice riding over the heavy music. The production values are high for this album without a glitch noticed.

All tracks on Fashion Bomb’s “Devils To Some, Angels to Others” could be played at the start of a gig and have you rushing to the stage with an extreme rush of adrenaline! For a 15-track CD with no misses, this is one high-value CD!

Devils to Some, Angels to Others tracklist
1. SS
2. Nothing
3. Low
4. Avarice
5. Rant
6. God Drug
7. The Line
8. Ascend This Day
9. Drugpool
10. Skin
11. Over It
12. Christ Puncher
13. Mind
14. Looks that Kill
15. Low (Asrock’s High Mix)

For more information and extra sound tracks etc. Visit the band at:
FashionBomb.net, or visit them on MySpace.com

When you register you will find a lot of different tattoo chat rooms including video chat rooms allowing you to show off your tattoos and see other skin-canvases of other users. All chat rooms are 100% free allowing users the chance to chat on tattoos and other subjects that they love.

Registration is simple only requiring you to include your Username, password, e-mail address, age gender and agree with the terms and conditions of the site. Once you have completed this simple form you will have access to the chatrooms.

While not having a tatt myself, I am interested about them and those who have decorated their body with this unique art and (time-permitting) would enjoy joining up to this site.

For those with tattoos or an interest in tattoos and the stories behind them, Tattoo Chat City offers a unique experience to mix and exchange stories with like-minded individuals.

So, if you have an interest in tattoos and related body art, this free tattoo chat site could be just what you are looking for.

Here is where European Body Art, formed in 2001, comes in. EBA specializes in Airbrush Tattoo Supplies – temporary tattoos using air-brushed designs. The company produces high-quality airbrushed tattoos that take a couple of minutes to apply and last up to a week or so. The tattoos offer a realistic look, painless temporary expression of the user’s individuality. This is the kind of experience I am looking for, before committing my body as a permanent canvas.

The company also offers help to potential airbrush tattooists with training and the right Airbrush Tattoo Supplies to set up an airbrushed tattoo business. Through the company’s innovative development, airbrushed tattoos have become a multimillion dollar business. There are a number success stories including a number of operators making over $60,000 per year.

As a potential temporary tattoo customer this sounds like a great system to get a taste of what a real tattoo can deliver.

Thirty-five percent of the online communities studied have less than 100 members; less than 25% have more than 1,000 members – despite the fact that close to 60% of these businesses have spent over $1 million on their community projects. “A disturbingly high number of these sites fail,” Moran tells us. Full article (subscription required)

A million dollar uber-flop with less than 100 users – sheesh. Meanwhile I’m just letting the old Gothers.com site slowly tick up to 1000. It is only a matter of time and patience and only cost a few hundred plus some amateurish coding to string together.

I guess I am not tied to satisfying customer (company) needs and dreams, just to what I think the user/member may like.  No need for fancy logos or company colors, just what I think or can do. But at a million dollars even a failure would need to pull in 1000 surely? Maybe not.

Aside from Number 23 the band serves out a number gamboling vitriolic selection of songs.

The second track Absolution is a speedballing riot of a song, while Prison G starts as a slower somber track which explodes into a heavy rock part-way through. The forth track, Breaking Point, a quality hard electro piece, is followed by straight hard rock in Subsonic. The final song, Suck, is a fun speed rock piece.

Overall, I found this EP quite enjoyable and quite refreshing with tongue-in-cheek songs like Number 23 and Suck. The other songs also go down well on my iPod. Just don’t mention the number 23 around these guys.

Check them out at Stiff Valentine or on Myspace.

Loveless Tracks
1. Number 23
2. Absolution
3. Prison G
4. Breaking Point
5. Subsonic
6. Suck

You will find there are many familiar hard-edged riffs dropped throughout that will remind you that this is indeed the band that wanted to fulaa.

By the third track on Ghosts I the music starts industrializing and the build up continues slowly increases tempo and hardness throughout the series.

I have to admit that tracks one and two threw me, but by track three I could start to see where they were going and that this was definitely a NIN-as-you-know-it product.

It has a lot of subtlety that you would not usually pick up in a vocal record and I have become quite fond of the variations of music in Ghosts I-IV. In many ways it is how I feel about the original Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield – something that can be played over and over without becoming boring.

Five bucks for the full set is a bargain and I am sure that serious NIN-lovers would go for the more expensive versions CDs, vinyl, etc. If you are too cheap to cough up the five dollars, you can get the first of the four albums absolutely free.

To find more just go to http://ghosts.nin.com/.

I originally discovered Sigler’s work buried deep inside podiobooks.com which features a wide variety of genres among the audiobooks on display of varying levels of quality. However, it is a free service unless you make a donation for a particular audiobook you like.
So, I was scanning through the site for sci-fi and found Scott Sigler’s first book Earthcore and proceeded to download all the files via Apple’s iTunes Music Store (in the podcast section). You can find his offerings pretty quickly by searching for Scott Sigler.

Earthcore is about a desolate mountain which happens to be sitting on top of a massive platinum deposit three miles below the surface. The company, Earthcore, embarks upon the gargantuan project. However, something evil has been lurking below for centuries. When the company reaches the depth of the deposit, then the fun, blood and gore begins! Its a massive work in itself, and Sigler’s finesse in story making and story telling put him at the top of the pile. There are other awesome audiobook podcasters out there, but Sigler’s work is one the best you will find.

The second book I listened to, Infected (now available in hard cover), was a lot more gruesome, not to mention totally engaging at the same time. At the core of this work a microscopic parasite attaches itself to human hosts and progressively grows throughout the system to take over the host, often resulting in tragic, gory results. It also gives a whole new meaning to eyeballs as the parasite makes the mistake of infecting a one-time pro-footballer whose dark childhood helps him battle the infection.

The latest book I’ve listened to is Ancestor which involved genetic experiments designed to create an animal with human internal organs for the medical transplant market. Things go extraordinarily right before going extraordinarily wrong leading to lots and lots of blood, gore and violence.

He has other stories out there or in production, and you can find a lot more information on Scott Sigler’s site, or you can pick up the podbook via iTunes. Either way, I think Sigler’s work should slake your blood thirst for a while!