Brick By Boring Brick – Part 2
It is brought to my (Brian, that is…in case you forgot I am the one that writes these things) attention in the beginning of this episode that my description of last week’s show may have been a bit harsh. Well, since we both agree that this week is more fitting to Episode 204’s title, I cheated on the name, while simultaneously starting a little episode sub-series. Like last week, though, – or any week for that matter – you might think we are way off base on our lukewarm feelings for some of these album, or even the warmer feelings we have for the others. If you’re going “hey, that’s me he’s talking about” then let us know in the comments!
Reviews:
Battlecross – Rise to Power (Metal Blade)
Rivers of Nihil – Monarchy (Metal Blade)
Hate Eternal – Infernus (Season of Mist)
Wolfheart – Shadow World (Spinefarm)
The Nietzsche – Intro to Advanced Poetry (independent)
Battlecross – Rise To Power
Rivers Of Nihil – Monarchy
Hate Eternal – Infernus
Wolfheart – Shadow World
The Nietzsche – Intro To Advanced Poetry
The Sideshow Podcast 
I’ve been listening to Monarchy by Rivers of Nihil a lot this week. The Fallujah comparisons are very apt, even more so for me than you guys. The Flesh Prevails by Fallujah came out about this time last year. Both The Flesh Prevails and Monarchy got rave reviews from many critics. Heavy Blog Is Heavy gave Monarchy 5 out of 5. Both albums are of a style and genre that I typically like: sort of progressive, somewhat technical death metal. But neither of these two albums really makes a huge impression on me. I know you guys really liked The Flesh Prevails by Fallujah, but it failed to make an impression on me. It just never sank in the way I thought it would or wanted it to based on all the positive reviews of it. Monarchy by Rivers of Nihil is similar for me, and everything you guys said about it is true. I would be curious though why you chose the title track “Monarchy” to play on the podcast. That is one of my least favorite tracks on the album. The instrumental “Terrestria II: Thrive” and the song “Sand Baptism” are the two standout tracks for me, with “Sand Baptism” being my favorite. Having said all that, I now need to go back and listen to The Flesh Prevails.
While I’ve heard it pronounced a few different ways, the most frequent pronunciation of Nietzsche is NEECH-uh. I went though a phase were I read most of Friedrich Nietzsche’s works. Back when people used to go to bookstores to browse the shelves to learn what books were available, I was struck my the proclamation that “God is dead” on this book I saw. The book was Thus Spoke Zarathustra by Friedrich Nietzsche. For a teenager growing up in a predominantly Catholic suburban city, seeing a book publicly say that god is dead was something you didn’t come across every day. I was intrigued enough that someone would actually write a book to utter those words at a time that I was coming to grips with my own atheism that I had to buy the book. I found both the poetic nature of Nietzsche’s writing and his philosophy to be compelling – so much so that it led me to read most of his major works. Nietzsche’s works opened my eyes to the world of philosophy in general and inspired me to read ancient philosophy and discovered Plato and Lucretius (the main writer of Epicureanism). Even though I no longer actively read philosophy (I prefer escapism these days), Nietzsche had a profound influence on my world view.
I agree “Monarchy” is not the best song on the album, but our permission from Metal Blade limits our options to what we can play. We bend it sometimes, but we usually play nice. About the album though – if you weren’t blown over by Flesh Prevails, it makes sense you aren’t by this. That said, if you were (like us), it also makes sense you wouldn’t be won over by Monarchy. So, to me, that seems like a lose/lose situation for them. To be fair to the band, though – they may not have actually been trying to recreate Flesh Prevails. There is a very slight possibility that they are not event hat familiar with it. So, in either of those cases, this is a very solid album that sounds like them trying to transition to something even bigger.
I know little-to-nothing about Nietzsche or his works, let alone anything else you’re talking about. lol. But, uh, good for you?
I knew about the limits of the agreements with labels to only play certain songs, but I thought that was with Century Media (who just got bought by Sony). But I guess the policy can apply to other labels as well, such as Metal Blade.