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Say what you want about Hot Topic stores and mall metal and
hardcore. Truth of the matter is such emporium has played an
important role in the frenetic growth of hard music’s market
share in the last few years. Not sure if they should be thanked
for the whole nu metal debacle (we sure have to thank someone
for that) but the chain has surely played an important part in
the commercialization and perhaps bastardization of extreme
music. Because of that, loyalists who’d like their shit to
remain underground and among the loyal few will puke at the mere
sight of this three disc (2CD/1DVD) compilation but we have to
see the other side; with growing sales numbers come greater
opportunities for underground bands and small independent labels
willing to get their acts and arts out there.
Available exclusively through Hot Topic, Metal = Life 2
features some of the best and worst metal and hardcore acts of
today. The two CD’s pack a bulky thirty-eight tracks and
run from the ultra lame (Escape The Fate), and the quasi
horrible (Calico System), to the obvious (In Flames), the
blackened (Dissection, Goatwhore), the plain ordinary (Underoath,
The Devil Wears Prada), the influential (Converge), the
outstanding (The Jonbenet) the funny haha (Everytime I Die), the
interesting Burst), the dull (Misery Index, This Is Hell), the copycats (Demiricous,
Nights Like These) and the typical (God Forbid, The Autumn
Offering).
The same can be said about the DVD; compressing eighteen
videos we get a wide range of hard acts, each displaying a wide
array of quirks, looks and sounds of the day. God Forbid are up
first with the patriotic we love our troops video for the anthemic
cut “To the Fallen Hero”, followed by The Hhuman
Abstract, who make the best of a very low budget with a very
interesting blend of math metal and prog rock. Up next are
Bleeding Through whose Saw-inspired video of their metalcore
meets gothic theme “Love in Slow Motion” achieved mixed results
at its best, In Flames who present us a really cool video of one
of their worst cuts the ultra boring “Come Clarity”, 3 who are musicwise featherweight with their proggy take on sci fi rock
(“Alien Angel”), everyone’s favorite jokesters Everytime I Die,
the undeniably influential Converge with an absolutely pummeling
cut of their mighty new album Heroes (“Eagles Become
Vultures”), Texas’ underrated sludge dudes The Jonbenet who not
only drop one of the most interesting takes on whatever core but
also like The Human Abstract show that you do not need a big
budget to offer quality product. The worst comes
from Calico System whose music is as typical and tedious as a third
generation metalcore emo cocktail.
Needless to say there is a little bit of something for
everyone here. There is indeed so much music crammed into such
little space not one hard music fan is left out. With 5% of the
retail price list heading to the Hot Topic Foundation (no, they
don’t manufacture fishnet stocking but support youth education
in art and music) we might now have another excuse to head to
the local shopping mall.
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