Music Review: Newsted "Heavy Metal Music"

I had the pleasure of seeing Jason Newsted perform as part of the Gigantour last month and he was incredible and I have been eagerly awaiting his full album release since I heard the 4 track EP this past spring. If you don't know who Newsted is, then stop reading this for a second, go google his name and when you realize who he is come back, I'll wait. Back? Good, now I'll get on with it.

The album released on Aug. 6 on iTunes (and probably other places too, I just don't get my music anywhere else honestly) and I immediately sat and listened to the whole thing all the way through. Overall it's a very good album. Not great, but very good. There are some skip-able songs on the cd, mainly on the slower ones where his limited vocal range seems to show itself more clearly. Now, I know that sounds harsh to say, but it is true. This is his first time being the front man and lead vocals for a group. He did perform lead vocals on Metallica songs occasionally, but that was only one or two songs. He did almost no vocal work with Echobrain that I can tell and I haven't listened to Voivod during his time with them to know what he did or didn't do. My point in all of this (yes, I do have one) is that despite his many years in the music industry this is a new experience for him and I'm willing to give him a lot of credit for that. He is still (and will always be) in my top 5 bass players and one of the reasons I picked up a bass for the first time.

So what are the highlights of the album? Well, the two songs from the EP that made it in are two of my favorites "Soldierhead" and "King of the Underdogs" are both really good, solid songs both lyrically and musically. I would also place "Heroic Dose" and "The Differents" in that top tier as well. "The Differents" has this kind of bluesy feel to it and is one of the "slow" songs to actually sound good. With the exception of "Nocturnus" and "Futureality" the rest of the album is really good. Those two songs though are pretty much an instant skip IMHO, I just don't like them at all.

Overall I'd give this album a B+. It's good, it's got the ground work though to be even better. I just hope this brings him better fortune than his last couple of endeavors so that we can have more music from a very talented artist. 

You can accesorize it!

Got the other weapons done for the Wraith Knight. I have to say, I really, really love this model. Everything painted up well and when a model goes smooth it seems to trigger me to more creativity (see the Crimson Hunter pics for one that didn't go smooth). I probably will never use either of these options as the warp cannons just don't put out enough damage and the sword, while very cool, just isn't where I want my Knight to be. Now all I need is a Malibu Dream house for him and he'll be complete lol.  Pics after the break, as usual.

Airborne reinforcements and a cautionary tale

Since every codex is getting its new hotness in flyers, Eldar are no different, and yes, I had to buy one. Of course though, like everything else I put together, I had to put my personal stamp on it. I do not like the way the crimson hunter has the more forward wings on it but, if you try to use the Hemlock wraithfighter part, there is a slot in it. So, what to do. Simple. Fill it with green stuff and sand it down. Easy, right? Well it would have been if my primer had not sucked totally.

Here we come to the cautionary portion of my tale. After much finishing and prepping, I hurried down to my "paint room" with a can of primer that looked like the one I had always used. I didn't spray a test spray on the box like I usually do and that would prove disastrous. The paint came out almost like powder and didn't even make the model black. I thought that maybe I just needed more coats, nope, same results. At the end of it all I had a 65 dollar model that looked like it was wearing a fuzzy sweater. I was pissed. If my wife hadn't been there to calm me down I probably would have seen just how far the plane could have flown. So, what did I learn from this? Well, always, ALWAYS test your paint on a piece of cardboard or something before spraying. Had I done that it would have saved me a ton of time and effort and the final product would have looked much better. As it was, I had to soak the plane in simple green for a week. That took care of most of the fuzzyness and also destroyed my green stuff plug. I had to sand the entire surface of the plane and re-prime it. The end result? Well, I'll let you guys be the judge. I'm not happy with it at all. It didn't take paint as well as it should and the replacement plug I made didn't fill in all the way so you can still see some of the slot. I will be buying another one and trying again. Here ya go, enjoy the pics.