Richard Cheese and Lounge Against the Machine

I'm going to take a break from metal today, and bring you.....swing. Well, sorta. Richard Cheese plays lounge, swing, big band, and most recently, tiki versions of rock, rap and pop songs. I'll also bet that most of you have heard his music, even if you've never heard his name. He did the cover of Disturbed's Down With the Sickness that was featured in the 2004 remake of Dawn of the Dead.

I don't know how well I'm going to succeed in trying to keep myself from posting every track from his as-of-now ten albums, but I'm going to try not to go overboard. I will say that while I'm posting more songs than normal, they are much shorter than what I typically post. Also, these songs are about a million times better if you know the originals. I won't be posting those though.

War Ensemble (original by Slayer)


Closer (original by Nine Inch Nails) [Yeah...This one is super NSFW.]


Just Dance (original by Lady Gaga)


Stronger (original by Kanye West)


Lollipop (original by Lil' Wayne)


And last, but not least......Michal Jackson's Beat it.

Turisas

I was planning on seeing this group on Sunday, but I had held off on purchasing the tickets. Now I'm glad I did as they're only a support act on the tour, and as such, they're just playing five songs. Not really worth $30 + travel expenses & a shirt. Especially considering that for some reason, they're not playing any songs from their new album, and I've already seen them open for DragonForce a few years ago.

Anywho, Turisas is a Finnish folk metal band that like many folk metal bands, sing primarily about fighting and drinking. Not only that, but they also sport a violin, and a rockccordion. Also, if you've ever heard the term "battle metal", it was started by these guys. If you haven't, then don't feel bad. It's not an official sub-genre, or anything.

First up, is  Cursed Be Iron, from their freshman album, The Varangian Way. I guess I should say that this is one of their heavier songs. I know a few of you don't like screaming, so you might want to skip it. Personally, it's one of my favorite songs by them though.

Next, I'm going to post a cover that they released on one of their singles, Rasputin. Typically, I leave singles alone, but they only have three albums, and I really like this track.

For a sample from Battle Metal, I better post the title track. I think I prefer a couple others on the album, but it has become one of their signature songs.

Finally, The March of the Varangian Guard from their newest album, Stand Up And Fight, which they added an orchestra for.

Edit: I forgot that I had the 2008 re-release of Battle Metal. As such, I accidentally swapped the order of their first two albums. Since I'm feeling lazy, I'm going to leave it. But I thought I would point this error out since one of the reasons I post a track from each album is so people that are interested can see just how a band evolves over the years.

Fear Itself: Deadpool

So, for anyone that doesn't know, I'm a bit of a Deadpool fanboy. I've been reading the various Deadpool comics for years, and since I'm a broke college student I can't say that I have all the physical issues, but I DO have everything he's apeared in in .CBR format. (.CBR is a file extion for digital comic books....You can read CBR and CBZ files with a number of programs. Personally, I use ComicRack.)

Another comic that I enjoy reading is the webcomic The Adventures of Dr. McNinja. As if the name didn't give it away, the main character is both a doctor, and a ninja. There's also a gorilla secretary, raptors, giant lumberjacks, chainsaw-nunchucks, zombies, a robotic Dracula, et cetera, et cetera. Oh, and if you're keeping track of all the awesome, for a while, at least, the woman that does the coloring for The Venture Brothers also colored Dr. McNinja.

Well, Marvel announced today that Christopher Hastings (The writer of Dr. Mcninja.) will be writing a new Deadpool limited series called Fear Itself. While I have mixed feelings about 9,001 different Deadpool series being launched in the past couple of years, this is one that I simply can't wait for.

ProgPower XII

Before I go on, if you missed my last two posts, it was because the feedburner that Google uses messed up and stopped linking my updates. This should be fixed now.

Well, I mentioned ProgPower yesterday, so I figured I would talk about this year's show. If there's any chance you want to attend, I would recommend buying tickets soon as less than 300 (of 900) tickets remain.

ProgPower is a festival that is put on in Atlanta, GA every year. There are two official days of prog and power metal, and then two more unofficial days before the show. This year, the show is on 9/16 - 9/17, and has the following line up:

PROGPOWER USA XII DAY 1 -
Friday September 16, 2011

Creation's End - (USA) - 2:30-3:15
Darkwater - (Sweden) - 3:45-4:30
Voyager - (Australia) - 5:00-6:00
Eldritch - (Italy) - 6:30-7:30
Mob Rules - (Germany) - 8:00-9:00
Arcturus - (Norway) - 9:30-10:45
Sanctuary - (USA) - 11:30-close

- PROGPOWER USA XII DAY 2 -
Saturday September 17, 2011

Haken - (UK) - 3:00-4:00
While Heaven Wept - (USA) - 4:30-5:30
Red Circuit - (Germany) - 6:00-7:00
Labyrinth - (Italy) - 7:30-8:30
Dream Evil - (Sweden) - 9:00-10:15
Therion - (Sweden) - 11:00-close

- PROGPOWER USA MIDWEEK MAYHEM -
Wednesday September 14, 2011

Evergrey (Acoustic Show)
Metal Karaoke

- PROGPOWER USA KICK-OFF -
Thursday September 15, 2011

An Evening With - Vanden Plas
An Evening With - Evergrey

Since there are so many bands playing, I'm not going to post a sample for each one, but I will post the announcement video. It may be a little long, but it has samples of each band that's performing the main two nights.

EDIT: I apparently posted last year's videos. Oops! There should be the correct videos now.

Friday Night:


Saturday night:


And I was able to find a video for the Kick Off show. Still nothing for Midweek Mayhem.

Kamelot

Kamelot is an American power metal band from Florida. As with a lot of power metal, the vocals are typically clean, and a lot of the lyrics tell stories. In fact, two of their albums, Epica and The Black Halo are about Geoth's Faust.

Because Kamelot have released nine studio albums, (plus a re-release, live albums, ect) I'm only going to cover their latest four albums. This also keeps me from covering their first three albums, which had a different singer, and in my opinion, are inferior to their work with Kahn. And speaking of Kahn, he has apparently gotten sick and/or found religion, and as such hasn't toured with the band since this past summer. Which not only wasn't the best timing with a new album that had just dropped, and tour dates that had been scheduled. Including, but not limited to ProgPower XI, a two-day festival that a friend and I got gold badges (one step below VIP tickets) for, primarily because they were headlining the first night. Fortunately, the band did play the show, and Michael Eriksen from Circus Maximus sung that night.

And since Center of the Universe was the song that I was going to post from Epica, and that is the one video that is on the interwebz from ProgPower XI, I might as well post that version. (Extra tidbit: Eriksen only had three days to rehearse with the band for this show.)

Next, is The Haunting, from the album The Black Halo. Not only is The Black Halo a squeal to Epica, but Simone Simmons from the band Epica performs some guest vocals in this song.

This next song is the title track from Ghost Opera. If anyone wants to go out and pick this album up, I suggest getting Ghost Opera (The Second Coming) instead. It's a re-issue with a live bonus disc.

And finally, we have The Great Pandemonium, which is the opening track on their latest, and darkest, release, Poetry for the Poisoned.

Kamelot tour dates

Since many of you said that you liked Alestorm, I thought I would post this. American power metal group, Kamelot has announced dates for a North America tour. Guess who's opening for them? None other than Alestorm. (Along with Blackguard--Another pirate themed metal group-- and The Agonist, whom I've never heard of.)

Also, for those of you that are already familiar with Kamelot, I'm sure you know that their lead singer isn't doing any tours right now. (He might leave the band.) For those that AREN'T familiar with them, I'll write up a proper post for them tomorrow. In either case, however, Kamelot has been replacing their singer with various other power metal singers on tour. For their NA tour, Fabio, the lead singer from Rhapsody (of Fire) is performing with them. Which, while I love me some Kamelot, and I do really enjoy Rhapsody (of Fire), I don't know if that's really the best fit.

Here's a list of tour dates, as seen at their official website:

Date City Venue Country Tour: Pandemonium Over South America 2011 Thu, Apr 7th, 2011 SANTIAGO Teatro Teleton Chile Add Address: Mario Kreutzberger #1531.BUY TICKETS Fri, Apr 8th, 2011 BUENOS AIRES Vélez Sarsfield Stadium Argentina Add Address: Av. Juan B. Justo 9200, CP 1408, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires. Venue phone: (54-11) 4641-5663/5763/4014. special guest act for Iron MaidenBUY TICKETS Sat, Apr 9th, 2011 SAO PAULO Espaço Lux Brazil Add Address: Rua Antonio Luiz Valerio, 93 – Centro São Bernardo do Campo. Venue phone: 11 4339.4903.BUY TICKETS Sun, Apr 10th, 2011 PORTO ALEGRE Opinião Bar Brazil Add Address: Rua José do Patrocínio, nº 834 – Bairro Cidade Baixa. Venue phone: [00xx51] 3211.2838.BUY TICKETS Tue, Apr 12th, 2011 BOGOTÁ Teatro Metropol Colombia Add Address: Calle 24 No 6 – 31 Bogotá. Venue phone: (1) 5627978 – 3163327503.BUY TICKETS Thu, Apr 14th, 2011 MEXICO CITY Circo Volador Mexico Add Address: Calzada de la Viga 146, Venustiano Carranza, 15800 Ciudad de México, Distrito Federal, México. Venue phone: +52 55 5740 0226.BUY TICKETS Tour: Pandemonium Over Europe 2011 Fri, Apr 22nd, 2011 PARIS Elysee Montmartre France Add Address: 72, boulevard de Rochechouart 75018 Paris Métro Anvers. Venue phone: 01 44 92 45 36. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sat, Apr 23rd, 2011 AMSTERDAM Paradiso Netherlands Add Address: Weteringschans 6-8, 1017 SG. Venue phone: 020- 626 45 21. Ticketmaster.nl special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sun, Apr 24th, 2011 ANTWERP Trix Belgium Add Address: Noordersingel 28 2140 Antwerpen. Venue phone: 03/670.09.00. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Wed, Apr 27th, 2011 SHEFFIELD Corporation United Kingdom Add Address: Trafalgar Court, 2 Milton Street, South Yorkshire S1 4JU. Venue phone: 0114 276 0262. Tickets also available from: SeeTickets.com and TicketWeb special guests: Evergrey + AmarantheBUY TICKETS Thu, Apr 28th, 2011 LONDON KoKo United Kingdom Add Address: 1A Camden High Street NW1 7JE. Venue phone: 0844 847 2258. special guests: Evergrey + AmarantheBUY TICKETS Fri, Apr 29th, 2011 LUXEMBURG Den Atelier Luxembourg Add Address: 54, Rue de Hollerich L-1013. Ticketmaster.de special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sat, Apr 30th, 2011 LUZERN Schüür Switzerland Add Address: Tribschenstrasse 1 6005. Venue phone: 41 41 368 10 30. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sun, May 1st, 2011 MILANO Magazzini Generali Italy Add Address: Via Pietrasanta 14 20124. Venue phone: 39 02 5393948. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Tue, May 3rd, 2011 BUDAPEST Petöfi Hall Hungary Add Address: 1146 Budapest, XIV. kerület, Zichy Mihály út 14. Tickets also available from: www.eventim.hu www.ticketportal.hu and www.concerto.hu special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of Seasons Thu, May 5th, 2011 BRATISLAVA Majestic Music Club Slovakia Add Address: Karpatská 2. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Fri, May 6th, 2011 KRAKOW Klub Studio Poland Add Address: ul. Budryka 4 30-072 Kraków. Venue phone: (0-12) 617-45-45. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sat, May 7th, 2011 BERLIN C-Club Germany Add Address: Columbiadamm 9-11, 10965. Venue phone: +49 (0) 30 780 99 810. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Sun, May 8th, 2011 STUTTGART Longhorn / LKA Germany Add Address: Heiligenwiesen 6, 70327. Venue phone: +49 711 4098290. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Tue, May 10th, 2011 KÖLN Live Music Hall Germany Add Address: Lichtstr. 30, 50825. Venue phone: 0221.954299-10. special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Wed, May 11th, 2011 HAMBURG Markthalle Germany Add Address: Klosterwall 11, 20095. Venue phone: 43 040-339491. Ticketmaster.de special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Sons of SeasonsBUY TICKETS Thu, May 12th, 2011 GOTHENBURG Trädgårn Sweden Add Address: Nya Allén 11 411 38. Venue phone: +46 (0)31 10 20 80. special guests: Evergrey + AmarantheBUY TICKETS Sat, May 14th, 2011 OSLO Sentrum Scene Norway Add Address: Torggata 16, 0181. Venue phone: 22 20 32 32. Tickets for -18 ages special guests: Evergrey + Amaranthe + Circus MaximusBUY TICKETS Sun, May 15th, 2011 COPENHAGEN Amager Bio Denmark Add Address: Øresundsvej 6 – 2300 København S.. Venue phone: 32860200. Billetnet.dk special guests: Evergrey + AmarantheBUY TICKETS Tour: Pandemonium Over North America 2011 Fri, Aug 26th, 2011 ATLANTA, GA The Masquerade United States Add Address: 695 North Ave NE Atlanta GA 30308. Venue phone: 404 577 8178. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sat, Aug 27th, 2011 WEST SPRINGFIELD, VA Jaxx Nightclub United States Add Address: 6355 Rolling Road Springfield, VA 22152. Venue phone: 703 569 5940. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sun, Aug 28th, 2011 PHILADELPHIA, PA The Trocadero United States Add Address: 1003 Arch Street . Philadelphia, PA 19107. Venue phone: 215.922.6888. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Tue, Aug 30th, 2011 NEW YORK CITY, NY Gramercy Theatre United States Add Age restrictions: All Ages. Address: 127 East 23rd Street, New York, NY 10010-4525. Venue phone: 212 777 6800. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Wed, Aug 31st, 2011 WORCESTER, MA The Palladium United States Add Address: 261 Main Street, Worcester, MA 01608. Venue phone: 508-797-9696. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Fri, Sep 2nd, 2011 MONTRÉAL, QUE Club Soda Canada Add Age restrictions: All Ages. Address: 1225 St Laurent, Montréal, QC H2X 2S6. Venue phone: 514 286 1010. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sat, Sep 3rd, 2011 QUÉBEC, QUE Impérial Canada Add Address: 252 Saint Joseph Est Québec QUE. Venue phone: 1 877 523 3131. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sun, Sep 4th, 2011 TORONTO, ON Mod Club Canada Add Address: 727 College St Toronto ON M6G1C4. Venue phone: 416 588 4MOD. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Tue, Sep 6th, 2011 CLEVELAND, OH Peabody’s United States Add Address: 2045 East 21st Street Cleveland, OH 44115. Venue phone: 216-776-9999. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Wed, Sep 7th, 2011 DETROIT, MI Blondie’s United States Add Address: 2281 West Fort St Detroit MI 48216. Venue phone: 313 964 1000. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Thu, Sep 8th, 2011 CHICAGO, IL Bottom Lounge United States Add Address: 1375 Lake St Chicago IL 60607. Venue phone: 312 666 6775. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Fri, Sep 9th, 2011 ST. PAUL, MN Station 4 United States Add Address: 201 East 4th Street Saint Paul MN 55101. Venue phone: 651 224 6372. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Mon, Sep 12th, 2011 SEATTLE, WA El Corazón United States Add Address: 109 Eastlake Ave. East Seattle WA 98109. Venue phone: 206 262 0482. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Tue, Sep 13th, 2011 PORTLAND, OR Peter’s Room United States Add Address: 10 NW 6th Ave Portland OR 97209. Venue phone: 503 219 9929. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Wed, Sep 14th, 2011 SAN FRANCISCO, CA Slim’s United States Add Address: 333 11th St San Francisco CA 94103. Venue phone: 415 255 0333. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Thu, Sep 15th, 2011 WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA House of Blues United States Add Address: 8430 Sunset Blvd West Hollywood CA 90069. Venue phone: 323 848 5100. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Fri, Sep 16th, 2011 TEMPE, AZ The Clubhouse United States Add Address: 1320 E. Broadway Rd. Tempe AZ 85282. Venue phone: 480 784 4444. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sat, Sep 17th, 2011 SALT LAKE CITY, UT The Complex United States Add Address: 536 West 100 South Salt Lake City UT 84101. Venue phone: 801 660 2295. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Sun, Sep 18th, 2011 DENVER, CO Bluebird Theater United States Add Address: 3317 E. Colfax Ave Denver CO 80206. Venue phone: 303 377 1666. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Tue, Sep 20th, 2011 DALLAS, TX Trees United States Add Address: 2709 Elm Street Dallas TX 75226. Venue phone: 214 741 1122. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Wed, Sep 21st, 2011 HOUSTON, TX Scout Bar United States Add Address: 18307 Egret Bay Blvd Houston TX 77058. Venue phone: 281 335 0002. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS Fri, Sep 23rd, 2011 ORLANDO, FL The Club at Firestone United States Add Address: 578 N. Orange Ave Orlando FL 32801. Venue phone: 407 872 0066. special guests: Alestorm + Blackguard + The AgonistBUY TICKETS

And to wrap up this post, I'll give you a little teaser of Kamelot, and also a sample of Fabio's voice.

Kamelot - March of Maphisto, from their album, The Black Halo

And here is The Mystic Prophecy of the Demon Knight by Rhapsody (of Fire). Yes, this is a LOOOONG song. Personally, it's one of my favorites though.