My top albums of 2012

Hello everyone!!! I'm sorry I haven't posted for a while, I am now in my final year at university so I have been very busy with uni assignments and my reviews for Loud Stuff.com which is still going incredibly well. Without further a do I will list you my top five albums from the previous year!

5) We Are The Others - Delain

Get The Devil Out Of Me was the first song I heard from this album. I thought it was haunting and powerful like most of Delain's tracks usually are, it was a great album to relieve stress and calm me down as this was the album I listened to when I had finished my second year at university early last year.

4) Weapons - Lostprophets

I went to the album launch for this and rather enjoyed it. The album itself was rather good in places, considering I felt their previous album The Betrayed was quite weak compared to Liberation Transmission. So this album really suprised in terms of how anthemic some of the songs were such as We Bring An Arsenal and Better Off Dead.

3) Imaginareum (Score) - Nightwish

Alongside the release of the film a lot of Nightwish fans had the eagerly awaited the release of the score to go with it. I like how this album takes the songs from Imaginareum released a year before and made into beautiful soundtrack pieces that you just imagine what could be happening in the film. 

2) Amaryllis - Shinedown

An album that took me by absoulute surprise in 2012. I had booked a ticket to see them locally and was intrigued as I hadn't really heard them before until recently. I loved this album from beggining to end as it consists of a great collection of songs and a lot of these sounded great live. From the energy fuelled Enemies to the heartfelt I'll Follow You this album has a great package to it and it was definitely a favourite of mine in 2012.

1) Raining Rock - Jettblack

'I hear the drumming of thunder and the running of rain' is the very anthemic song lyric that will be remembered for years to come. This legendary song comes from Wycombe, hard rockers Jettblack in the for of their second album Raining Rock. I actually went to the launch for this in London and loved every minute of their show. So much in fact it made me look forward to the release a lot more. With an eccletic selection of music from the thunderous title track Raining Rock to the beautiful ballad Black Gold, Jettblack have certainly come back and they mean business. I leave you with a video of my favourite song on the album Prison Of Love.

Hi

Hello, I know it has been a while. I am now in my final year at university so the workload is huge. Alongside my work at Loud Stuff, it's been great. I would like to share with you some reviews I have written also an interview with Liv Kristine from Leaves' Eyes, Loud Stuff has been great so far. This week I have an interview set up with WOLF who are currently supporting Evile, I am looking forward to this very muchly; I saw Evile at Bloodstock and they were fantastic. It will be interesting to see them in a smaller venue.

In other news I saw Shinedown at The Guildhall too and they were amazing. They definitely became a new favourite live band.

That's all for now, I leave you with my work with Loud Stuff so far.

http://www.loud-stuff.com/liv-kristine.html
http://www.loud-stuff.com/the-watermelons.html
http://www.loud-stuff.com/leaves-eyes-live.html
http://www.loud-stuff.com/light-you-up.html

Work with Loud Stuff

Hello everyone, I hope you are all well. I have been busy reviewing new bands for website Loud Stuff, I have review many great bands so far such as Sonburst, Bankrupt and Perfect Khaos. It has been a great experience to work with them so far, it's fantastic to hear new sounds and write for somebody else other than myself has proved very challenging but fantastic so far. I will be off to Paris tomorrow morning but I shall be back with more reviews as I'll be attending Firewind's Paris show that I do plan to review, also I shall post interviews with Dendera and Liv Kristine from Leave's Eyes. Here are my reviews I have done for Loud Stuff so far:

Perfect Khaos - http://www.loud-stuff.com/perfect-khaos.html
Bankrupt - http://www.loud-stuff.com/bankrupt.html
Sonburst - http://www.loud-stuff.com/sonburst.html
Possibly Intoxicated Gents - http://www.loud-stuff.com/possibly-intoxicated-gents.html

I do hope you read them and I shall be reviewing more when I am back from Paris. I have got plenty of gigs planned and hope to be interviewing a lot more musicians in the next coming months!!

Jettblack - Prison Of Love video and Aerosmith's new single

Jettblack have released a second single from their latest album Raining Rock accompanied with a very artistic video. It's for personal favourite song on the album Prison Of Love, the mixture of animations and live actions blended together very nicely. Of course the theme of the video fitted with the concept of the song, being in a prison. This is in my opinion the best video from Jettblack so far; it is different to what their previous videos have consisted of so far. A top notch video, Jettblack never fail to disappoint. 

Head over to Metal Hammer now to check out their brand new video.

Find Jettblack on Facebook

In other news, looking on Spotify this morning I realise Boston rock legends Aerosmith have a brand new single. Listening to What Could Have Been Love this morning I was very uplifted by the single, if I didn't know it was a new single I would have assumed it was one of their classics. It reminded me of their wonderful I Don't Wanna Miss A Thing and I think it's still great to see that Aerosmith still have the power in their music after many years performing. It's a single from their upcoming album that due for release in November this year.

Find Aerosmith on Facebook, Twitter and their official website

Joining Loud-Stuff.com and music from Brave

Hello everyone, hope you are all well. I have some news, I recently joined the team at Loud-Stuff.com. I now will be writing reviews for them as well as my blog so I am incredibly happy with that. It is one step further into the world of music journalling and I am happy to know that I will be gaining experience writing for someone else other than myself. To view my profile on the website click here. 
Also if you want a review than you can contact me on this address charlotte@loud-stuff.com.

I recently watched Disney's latest film Brave with my sister at the cinema. I thought the film was spectacular, there was so much hype around when I was in the States earlier this year since it had already been released so I was curious to find out more. It takes place in the Scottish highlands where young free-spirited princess and skilled archer Merida is set to marry one of the neighbouring clan's first born sons, Merida however isn't happy with this arrangement set by her mother Elenor so visits a witch to find a spell that will change her mother. This spell releases a curse on the family and Merida has to find a way to reverse the curse to avoid the kingdom descending into chaos. One of the things that made the film more spectacular was the soundtrack, I love how composer Patrick Doyle used elements of Scottish music such as bagpipes, acoustic guitars, pan flutes and fiddles in the tracks. 

I got goosebumps listening to the song Touch The Sky by Julie Fowlis in the cinema as Merida rides her horse Angus through the forest whilst embarking on different adventures through the Scottish highlands; shooting arrows at targets on trees and climbing rocky mountains, as you listen to the song you feel as free as Merida does in that film sequence.

My first festival - Bloodstock 2012 (Festival Survival Guide)

As you well know from the previous post I experienced my first proper festival including weekend camping.  Thanks to my boyfriend and other friends who have a lot of experience with festivals I got some hints and tips from them and I also learnt a few myself. I welcome you to my festival survival guide.

Festival Survival Guide

1. Valuables

Keeping valuables safe is very important to everyone - money, keys, phone etc. Although there were lockers on the site to keep things in but I much prefer to keep things close to me. If you're like me and like to keep things in a bag, make sure you keep it with you at ALL times; I also found it reassuring to check my bag every time I'm somewhere new so I know I haven't dropped anything on the site. 

At night back in my tent before I went to sleep; I placed them at the bottom of my sleeping bag. Whether it's your sleeping bag or under your pillow always be sure to place valuables somewhere you know nobody can take them without your knowledge.

One more thing; NEVER put your valuables in open pockets, if you do keep checking constantly.

2. Hygiene

In some people's eyes that word seems non-existent at festivals; but there are other ways of keeping refreshed if you don't feel like standing in a long queue for the shower block. I found dry shampoo and wet wipes were the key things that kept me refreshed all weekend; I used wet wipes for my face and hands. I found it was quite fun not having to worry about a shower; I appreciated the shower much more when I came home after the weekend.

Nine times out of ten the portaloos on site aren't likely to have loo roll so make sure you have packets of tissue or loo roll when going to the toilet; I personally preferred packets of tissue because they are small enough to fit in your bag and take them everywhere you go.

3. Food and Drink

A lot of the food and drink at festivals can end up emptying your purse/wallet because it costs a lot of money; you can't take your own food into the arena but you can bring your own food onto your campsite so stock up snacks from shops near by to avoid getting caught out on high prices for food. I brought croissants and small cartons of juice for breakfast so I only really had to worry about lunch and dinner.   If you do need to buy food make you have enough money to cover it. I would say twenty pounds a day for lunch and dinner, perhaps a bit more for breakfast.

I didn't drink alcohol at the festival but a tip from the Bloodstock guide stated drink responsibly and don't drink too much; you want to be able to remember your festival experience and since too much alcohol is bad for your memory don't drink too much. 

Drink plenty of water; especially on hot days, keep your water bottle topped up. There were water taps on site where you can do so.

4. Most importantly

When you first enter the festival they usually do a bag search so anyone with bags should be ready. 

DO NOT FORGET YOUR TICKET; it grants you access to the festival so no ticket no entry.

Relax and enjoy yourself; just remember these tips and hints either from this guide, from elsewhere or what you know already and your weekend should run smoothly without glitches

Well that's my guide to surviving a festival; whether you're a first timer like me or experienced all the festivals I hope you enjoy reading this.

My first festival - Bloodstock 2012 (Bands)

I am back from a fantastic weekend at Bloodstock Festival; here I want to share the experience of the festival, what bands I saw and some hints and tips I have learnt along the way. I had been to Reading Festival before but for the day; since then I have always wanted to experience a full weekend including camping. Up until now I didn't have the time or money to do so. I was very nervous packing my stuff ready to go; I had hints and tips from my friends who have experienced festivals on what to bring and to expect that helped. I wanted be sure I had everything I was going to need; tent, sleeping bag, food, drink and most importantly your ticket so once I had everything prepared I was on my way.

Arriving at the site at about ten; my boyfriend and I picked the camp site Hel, a more than perfect spot and set our tent up. We then headed to the main arena since my boyfriend wanted to watch the band Malefice; from what I heard they didn't sound bad at all, would have paid more attention if I hadn't been spaced out and tired since we left very early that morning. The main stage saw some very big names in metal on stage such as Iced Earth, Dimmu Borgir, Dio Disciples, Testament and many others. The bands I enjoyed the most this weekend were Pythia, Behemoth, Hatebreed, Rising Dream, Kobra and the Lotus, Dimmu Borgir and Alice Cooper; I loved how theatrical Alice Cooper and Behemoth were.

Behemoth's opening was very haunting and atmospheric with the band members appearing from out of the blue, one minute there was an empty drum kit, the next there was the band's drummer Inferno; along with a passionate performance and incredible stage props that gave an indication of what they were about. This performance was particularly important to Behemoth; they were due to play a couple of years ago unfortunately had to pull out since frontman Nergal was in hospital receiving treatment for leukaemia at that time. Luckily he is clear; so it was a touching moment when he shouted out to the crowd 'It's fantastic to be alive'. 

Saturday's headliners Machine Head just didn't quite do it for me; compared to Behemoth's performance the previous night I found the performance from Machine Head to be quite bland. It may have also been to do with all the hype and suspension around the fact they were the mysterious headliner that weren't revealed until June. I think they are fantastic musically; but their live performance wasn't quite what I expected it to be. 

I had seen Alice Cooper before and remember his theatrical stage tactics; he first appears on a huge tower with a jacket on that had six metallic arms attached to the sleeves as he performs The Black Widow. It was great that he performed a varied collection of songs; the setlist included brand new ones such as I'll Bite Your Face Off and classic anthems such as No More Mr. Nice Guy, School's Out and my personal favourite Poison. Definitely the perfect end to a great weekend and well worth waiting for. If you missed his spectacular performance at Bloodstock then you do not have to worry as he will be back in the UK for a tour in October.

Other great stand out performances for me came from Pythia, Hatebreed and Rising Dream. Pythia's admiration for gothic literature really was reflected through their medieval costumes and very well scripted passages in between, Emily Alice Ovenden's vocals were so powerful and clear that made their set more magical. I loved how Hatebreed got all the crowds pumping and showed so much energy. Rising Dream's style of music was very unique to me; the front woman Ines Tancheva sang the verses in harsh growls and the chorus's in clean vocals that took me by surprise. I also enjoyed Dimmu Borgir and Kobra and the Lotus.

Well that was my experience of the bands; in my next post I shall share some hints and tips that I have learnt about festival survival that made my first festival experience generally fantastic.

Photos:  Peter Russell