Archive for November, 2014

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REVIEW: Bloodbound – Stormborn

Posted in CDs, Music, Uncategorized on November 30, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

It’s been two years since we last heard of Swedish Powermetallers in Bloodbound and finally they are back with new material. According to the pressrelease, the band have taken their HammerFall/Iron Maiden inspired sound with touches of Sabaton and Powerwolf but taken to next level.

And that is pretty much exactly what the album is. I’m going to be honest with you – when the album first popped into my mailbox, I wasn’t familiar with Bloodbound at all, which is why the review is a little delayed. But – the first thing that popped into my mind when listening to the album was precisely what they said above – HammerFall with Bruce Dickinson on vocals, with elements of Sabaton.

However, it might at times be a little too Sabaton-y. I recognize a lot of the material off the album from Sabaton songs, and I even found myself singing the pre-chorus to “Gott Mit Uns” in one of the songs, and I hear “Konungens Likfärd” in the chorus in the same song and I’m not sure what to make of that. I do like the childrens choir though.

Aside these things – I do like the album a whole lot. I love the bombastic elements, the speed in the verses and the themes of the lyrics. The epicness in the arrangements and writings satisfy me a lot. Especially songs as “Stormborn”, “When All Lights Fail” and “When the Kingdom will Fall”. The strong content of the rest of the album makes it easier to overlook the almost-plagiarism song. Good job!

If you, like me, like bombastic epic powermetal, this album should be right down your alley.

BD_S-C_1500x1500
(Label: AFM Records)

// Sara

 

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GF Challenge – Day 4:Favorite Fan Theory or Headcannon

Posted in 20 Days Gravity Falls Challenge, Gravity Falls, Uncategorized on November 29, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

Hmm. This one got me thinking for a little while. I think I like the idea of Stanford’s twin though.

stanfordtwins

Just as Dipper and Mabel are twins, the theory is about Stanford having a twin as well, called Stanley. If you look at the numberplate of Stan’s car, you can see it says “STNLYMBL” rather than “STNFD”, which is one of many, many reasons the theory has started. The theory and it’s “evidence” are explain pretty good in _THIS_ Tumblr post, so go check it out!

It seems pretty reasonable to me, considering that he’s Mabel’s and Dipper’s GRANDUNCLE it only makes sense he’d have a brother, and since the two young ones are twins, why couldn’t Stan and Stanley? I hope this is something Hirsch is truly working on, so we don’t end up with nothing. God, I wish Seasons 2 of Gravity Falls could just start here in Sweden!

// Sara

 

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GF Challenge Day 3: Favorite Creature / Monster

Posted in 20 Days Gravity Falls Challenge, Uncategorized on November 28, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

Initially, I thought of Bill Cipher, but I sort of realized he may not count. I don’t know really – I cound him more as a character than a monster, so I don’t know. So okay – I’ll mention Bill Cipher here, as an honorable mention, and instead say

manotaurs

The Manotaurs.
“Half man – Half taur”

These are spotted in “Manliness vs Dipper” and they are determined to make Dipper a man. They name him “The Destroyer” and they pull him through all sorts of tests in order to be a man – such as sticking his hand down a hole and getting a beer-stomach. The last task he’s given by the leader is the kill the Multibear, which he decides against and with that learning from Grunkle Stan that what really makes a man is to stand up for himself and what he believes in.

These creatures always makes me laugh for some reason. Maybe it’s because I can hear the voice of the first one going “Destroyeeeer” when Dipper goes up against the leader and also the fact that all of these manotaurs are basically within the male stereotype, love how Hirsch is mocking with the whole concept of this. But yes. The Manotaurs. Best creatures.

// Sara

 

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Olly Murs to Sweden!

Posted in Uncategorized on November 27, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

Guys! I got some amazing news today scrolling through Facebook.

My loveydovet artist Olly Murs is hitting up Sweden next year, May 22nd to be more exact and he’ll play at Gröna Lund. This is perfect for so many reasons. 1st, I have no gigs planned beside this in May and 2, I won’t have to pay for a hotel or anything since he plays Gröna Lund. I was so bummed when I saw his tourschedule for next year and saw it was ALL Britishdates. Little did I know he was heading our direction!

This is perfect. Ahh. Can’t wait to see the man again! I was so thrilled when I saw him last time at Fryshuset.

DSC_0872

This is going to be great. Anyone else planning on going?

// Sara

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Annika Herlitz and Elize Ryd in Melodifestivalen!

Posted in Music, Uncategorized with tags , , on November 26, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, by this time these are a bit old news (1 and 2 days old, respectively) BUT STILL.

A couple of days ago SVT revealed the acts for Melodifestivalen 2015, and after Christer Björkman saying that had something really good from the metalcamp, I immediatley started to think about the possibilities of Amaranthe being in. And well – ALMOST!

On Monday it was revealed that Elize Ryd, singer in Amaranthe you know, will indeed be in Melodifestivalen together with opera singer Rickard Söderberg! This peope this is great news! I was getting so excited for Melodifestivalen upon hearing this.

ElizeESCToday

But then – the next set of acts were revealed yesterday, and that’s when I learned that one of my BIGGEST idols when it comes to voice acting are going to be in – Annika Herlitz. Annika was the Swedish voice of Elsa, as most of you may know, and hearing she was going to be in Melodifestivalen made my jaw DROP LIKE CRAZY and I almost squealed! Not only did I get Elize, but I’m also getting ANNIKA HERLITZ. For the first time EVER I actually have two favorites already before hearing any of the songs.

annikaESCToday
(Pictures from ESCTODAY.com)

Annika will be in the semifinal in Örebro (YAY! THE ONE CLOSEST TO WHERE I LIVE!) and Elize will be in the one in Gothenburg. I’m getting so excited, and I might even have to attend Mello for the first time in a long time. I hope it goes really well for both of them. You all know which ones I’ll be voting for.

// Sara

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Gravity Falls: Day 2: Least Favorite Character

Posted in 20 Days Gravity Falls Challenge, Uncategorized on November 25, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

This one is fairly easy. Maybe too easy.

pacifica

 

Pacifica Northwest. I guess, after Lil Gid’s and Bill, she comes fairly close as a villain. She’s the town’s popular girl, the IT girl if you like and she seems to get off by bullying Mabel, Grenda and Candy. And as you guys probably know, I don’t really like bullies (Don’t think anyone does, haha) So yeah. There isn’t really much to add to this. She’s a bully, and apparently, she’s a bit fake too as we could see in “Irrational Treasure”.

Ahh Pacifica…

// Sara

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Once Around The Ride

Posted in Uncategorized on November 24, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

Peoples! Guess what? Today Michelle and I took a bit of a roadtrip out to Ingesund to do something very, very exctiting, and something I’ve been dying to start getting into: Voice acting.

I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned it enough on this blog before, but as you probably already now, I’m very much into voice acting and voice actors, and its somewhat of a dream for me to at some point have some sort of part in a production sometime. But before that can happen, practice is needed. And where’s a better place to practice than in an actual studio?

We arrived at Ingesund at about 12, and we spent the first hour or two trying to set up the whole thing. At first, we had planned to be in one of the smaller studios, but since we couldn’t get the TV inside, we decided to be in the big studio after all. First we tried to get the DM2000 to work, but gave up shortly after realising we wouldn’t really NEED a mixertable for this test set up. So then we set up a temporary station in the middle of the studio…

Only to realize we couldn’t get the audiocard to synchronize with my computer. So in the end, what we ended up doing, is placing the TV, microphone and manuscript right outside the small studio and connecting everything to the computer in there. And the blonde moment of the day where when we were gonna get ourselves a microphone and ran around for an HOUR looking for a key to unlock the shelf with the microphones, only to realize they were never locked in the first place, only very stuck. Damn it.

BUT! We could finally proceed with the original plan. Just to be safe from people running in, we decided to set up a little sign…

Dubbis 007

After this we transcribed the whole “The Best Lazy Day Ever” and started getting at it… Hahaha. Oh my god. It started off rather shaky, trying to get into it, but after a while we started getting at it as there were no tomorrow. It was a bit tricky, we didn’t really do it the proper way with pauses and times, but we had A LOT of fun trying it out, and considering we only originally planned to set up the thing and take it down we did do a little more.

One things certain: We sure as hell will continue to do it. We even have a few small things planned. Haehehehehe.

Dubbis 013

Dubbis 016

// Sara

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20 Days Gravity Falls Challenge: Day 01: Favorite Character

Posted in 20 Days Gravity Falls Challenge, Gravity Falls, Uncategorized on November 23, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

So, since I only have a few extra bonus days left on my 30 Days Song Challenge, I’ll start another challenge. This time we’ll focus on one of my favorite Disney Channel series – Gravity Falls. Nerdfactor 1000, but who cares.

20daygravity

Day 1 – Favorite Character.

I’ll be honest about this one. I actually turned to Michelle and asked HER if she knew who my favorite character was. At first I spontaneously thought Mabel, but then I came to think about Dipper. But do I love Dipper or do I love his voice actors? Then I cam to think about the epicness that is Bill Cipher, and the viciousness that is Gideon Gleeful, or the characters that are Wendy and Stanford.

That’s when we came to the conclusion that pretty much ALL Characters on Gravity Falls are so lovable it’s hard to choose one.

But, I have to, and therefore I’ll go with this one.

MabelPines

Mabel Pines.

Mabel… what can we say about her. She’s basically my spiritanimal. Despite her being like, 12, I still relate to her so much on a personality level. I tend, A LOT, to do things the goofy way and more often than not do people get fed up with it. Fed up with my childish behaviour in the sense of making stupid voices to animals or being playful at a concert and doing things like hanging upside down during “It Snows In Hell” or screaming “DET FINNS INGET SKROT – ALLT SKROT ÄR BARA GAMLA MOLEJOKSER OCH MOJÄNGER” on a German train in the middle of the night to shut up the angry german or to just run around and love myself, or at least try to.

Mabel Pines is the exact kind of character that kids need to see featured in television today. A girl who is nothing but herself, who’s witty and smart without compromising other interests. Alex Hirsch, I salute you. You sure know how to properly write a good, female lead character. Thank you, Thank you.

// Sara

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Father’s Day

Posted in Phineas&Ferb, Uncategorized on November 22, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

*SPOILER ALERT*

Saturday means new Phineas&Ferb episode! At least for a while now. Today it was time for “Father’s Day“.

As the title suggest, they celebrated Fathers day. It started with Lawrence and Reggie playing some sort of simulator on the computer where they are flying planes, which inspired the boys to build the real deal AND go get Reggie from the UK. In the mean time, Dr Doof and Perry flew back to Drusselstein to get back the long lost garden gnome in order to return it to his father.

Of course, as he’s about to give the gnome to his father he trips on the carpet and breaks it. Gladly, his father didn’t freak out or anything. And as Doof and Perry had left for home, his father realized it was the old garden gnome and probably for the first time ever he was proud and happy about Heinz. He even glued it together and started yelling “BEWEGEN SIE NICHT!” to it. Love it.

I liked the episode. At first I was a little worried if it was gonna be as slow as “The Flying Fishmonger”, but the Doofenshmirtz sidestory saved the whole thing. It warmed my metalheart to finally see Dr D get the appriciation from his father that he longs for.

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(Source: phineasandferb.wikia.com )

// Sara

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Olly Murs – Never Been Better

Posted in CDs, Uncategorized on November 21, 2014 by Sara Hammerzmith

Today is the day people! Olly Murs third album is finally hitting the shelves, and I’ve finally got it here! Ok, technically it came yesterday, but I had some other things to talk about. What am I even going to say guys, I’ve waited for this album so long I mean, sure, it wasn’t longer than I waited for the stupid fanbox, but long enough since I pre-ordered it… a while ago.

mursan 017

First of all, the cover of the album is similar to Sabaton’s most recent albums. A book. I was quite surprised to find that he’d make a book, but you know, why not!

Well, what can I say about the album? It’s very Olly. A good mixture of both previous albums elevated to the next level, essentially. Tons of feel good songs such as “Did you Miss me?”, “Up” and the single “Wrapped Up”, the more big epic love song such as “Beautiful To Me”, the more serene slower songs such as “Nothing without You”. Light, cheerful melodies cut off with some deeper and slower ones. The songs are well arranged and the writing is just perfect. This is pretty much everything I’d ever expect in an Olly record.

God, I love this album. But then again, I love all of Olly’s albums, interestingly enough. This will be blasted  A LOT here at home. This was well worth the wait.

// Sara

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