I watched recently: CHANNEL ZERO:NO END HOUSE/THE STRAIN/47 METERS DOWN/THE LURE

Last year I watched season 1 of tv series called Channel Zero, which was quite good considering that it was done by SyFy Channel which usually puts out a lot of crap.

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This year, season two was just released and boy it was a good one. First of all, I must clear one thing. You can watch season one or season two separately, meaning they are two separate stories and they are not linked with one another whatsoever. This second season is called No End House based on an urban legend of a house which appears in various parts of the world and has six rooms one scarier than the other, made to make those who visit the house crazy. As it usual is, a group of troubled teenagers with issues enters the house and steps in the crazy limbo of reality and fantasy. The acting is the average for SyFy Channel releases, meaning nothing special, but the screenplay is actually good, having a lot of bizarre and scary scenes. This season is six episode long, so you can watch it in one night.

As long as we are writing about series, here is another gem. The Strain just finished wrapping the story up with its fourth and last season. I really enjoyed this series being one of my favourite tv vampire shows besides True Blood.

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Based on novels by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan, this apocalyptic story about the fight between strigoi and their wicked Master and a handful of people resisting was a blast. It has everything in it that I desired from a good story, strigoi, Nazis, past, present and future colliding and of course plenty of action and gore for your entertainment. FX did a really fine job with these four seasons, so I was actually sorry that it finished but they did a good job with the ending. I read only the first novel in the trilogy so I dont really know if it finished the way it is in the books. In the beginning of the fourth season I was kinda let down first three episodes, but later it gets awesome!

47 Meters Down is an adventure/animal attack horror movie.

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It is about two sisters on a vacation in Mexico and to drown their sorrow because one of them was dumped by her boyfriend, went to dive in a cage with sharks. From then on things get fucked up and the girls, you guessed it, end up in a cage 47 meters under the sea with limited oxygen and surrounded by sharks. I have seen literally tons of movies with sharks, doing this and that and this one is one of the better ones in that subgenre. The underwater camera is nice, the sharks are nicely done, not that poor cgi that usually spoils the whole movie from the beginning. The movie also has enough intensity to make you watch it from the beginning right to the very end.

And, Monty Python would say, now for something completely different. The Lure is a weird movie from Poland.

the lure

It is a mixture of comedy, drama and horror movie. The story revolves around two mermaid sisters, namely Golden and Silver who are adopted into cabaret in Warsaw. One sister socializes and enjoys human company, while other wants to eat people up and kill everyone. The movie is weird in many ways. It is filled with dancing and singing the weird songs so it almost borders with musical. The gore scenes are few and not too bloody. I dont really know what to think about this movie. Some parts are utterly stupid and some are touching and funny. Weird European movie indeed!

 

(record review)COMEBACK KID-“Outsider”(Nuclear Blast)

This is the brand new studio album number six by this Canadian hardcore punk champions! A lot of hardcore kids I know nowadays in the scene go to sleep and wake up with the Comeback Kid lyrics and music, so I was eager to check on the new album!

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The opener, title track is typical modern hardcore songs with straightforward rythm and shouted angry vocals and to be honest, it did not leave some effect on me. But the second song “Surrender Control” is a real hit, mixing angry groovy openings and anthemic melodic chorus.

Thrash metal influences are very visible in “Absolute” which features guest performance by none other than Dewin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad and of course it is an energetic in your face song with lots of gang back vocals.  “Hell of a Scene” is a mixture of angry fast hardcore and more emotional melodies. Of course, still is yet to come, so one of the best songs on the album is for sure “Consumed the Vision” featuring guest performance by Chris Cresswell of The Flatliners and I must also mention “Ill be that” as one of my top songs.

All the hardcore and punk kids out there will just love this record and get it because it is an example how modern and energetic hardcore should sound like.

9/10

https://www.facebook.com/Comeback.Kid

Nuclear Blast: http://nblast.de/ComebackKidOutsiderNB

 

(record review)AKERCOCKE-“Renaissance in Extremis”(Peaceville)

Its been exactly ten years since the last album and Akercocke just released a new album. What does the new album hold? Well,  the Brits got us exactly nine new songs, about 55 minutes long album.

Akercocke-RenaissanceCD

There are some albums that work fine for me, but there are also those that make me nervous and this one was one of such albums. In general, the problem with this album is that it is too progressive even for and the old scene purist in me just woke up from the deep slumber and made me dislike this record. Dont get me wrong, the musicianship on this album is superb, but there is just too much guitar solos and they continue for too long in some songs. Lyrics are great, I think the band kept their Satanic edge through all these years. You cant go wrong with song titles such as “First to Leave the Funeral”. Jason Mendonca provides vocals that are sometimes blackish, sometimes death growl and a lot of times clean with additional help of female vocals here and there. The song structures vary from aggressive blast beats to moody atmospheric parts, but there is just too many things in one song to make me like it. There are some nice parts, but too few for me. This one was just too prog for me!

4,5/10

https://www.facebook.com/akercockeofficial/

http://peaceville.com/bands/akercocke/