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Friday, November 9, 2012

Black Sabbath New Album - A Reunion Album after 34 Long Years

Black Sabbath New Album! This is great news for solid Sabbath followers. After 34 years since they have recorded "Never Say Die" as original line up, finally the father of heavy metal is now working for their new album expected to be released in April 2013. Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, and the prince of darkness Ozzy Osbourne, are working there butt off to make the album as interesting as possible. 

These would be Sabbath's first new studio album as a reunited band since 1978. Actually this is not completely a reunion album because the original drummer Bill Ward has parted paths with the band due to contract issues. But seeing these three legend work together again is a big celebration to all Black Sabbath fans as well as to metalheads all over the world. 

The Legendary Sabbath




Black Sabbath is considered to be one of the founding father of Heavy Metal and was featured on the documentary film Metal Evolution. Though during their early career they were not aware of such kind of music genre (Heavy Metal), most metalheads put the credit on them as pioneers of the genre. Sabbath is one of the most influential heavy metal bands in the history of metal. They have inspired many of the famous acts like: Iron Maiden, Slayer, Metallica, Anthrax, Pantera, Foo Fighters, Korn, Opeth, Lamb of God, and hundreds of other bands.

Black Sabbath was included in the UK Music Hall of Fame last 2005. And in 2006 they were inducted by Metallica’s James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich in the US Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. The band's manager Sharon Osbourne has confirmed that Sabbath will be touring in 2013 in Australia. Aussie fans should be expecting to hear some of the classic hits like "War Pigs", "Paranoid" and of course the tracks from the new Album.



The Black Sabbath New Album has no official name yet and there is no definite list of songs that have been revealed as of this writing. Fortunately, I found one track that leaked from the album, the title is "God is dead". Enjoy the track and let me know what are your thoughts on Black Sabbath's new album by dropping your comment down below.






Photo credit - Tim Whitby, Getty Images


Monday, November 5, 2012

Unionbank Eon - Credit Card and PayPal Alternative

Unionbank EON! You might ask why I am writing about this! What is the relation to rock/metal? Actually nothing :) But I'm thinking that this post may help you somehow, so keep reading :)

In this internet era, most of us buy things or products online. It can be MP3 or CD of your favorite metal bands or perhaps a metal documentary DVD Metal Evolution from amazon. In these two blog posts - How to Download Premium Metal Guitar Lessons For Free?  and Blues Scales: How Can I download Blues Guitar Lessons for Free? I shared a little trick on how to download premium guitar lessons from guitartricks.com without spending any money. On these posts I mentioned that you need a credit card and PayPal for you to be able to sign up and download those guitar lessons. 

However, the problem is that not all of us have a credit card or PayPal. 

In the Philippines, it's not easy to get a credit card unless you have a stable job. With that problem, some of you was not able to grab the opportunity and benefitted from what I've shared. If you are one of those people who are very interested to download those guitar lessons but don't have credit card or PayPal, it's not the end of the world yet because I found four credit card and PayPal alternatives for you.

The four Alternatives

1. Unionbank EON Card
2. BPI My ePrepaid 
3. Payoneer
4. BDO Ko-kard 

Among the four, what I'm currently using is Unionbank EON card and we'll be talking more about this in a short while. I don't have experience using the other three cards so I cannot talk more about them. But they are also good credit card or PayPal alternatives so you might want to ask Mr. Google more about these services.  

What is Unionbank EON?



Union Bank EON Card is a VISA Debit card that would let you do online transactions like money transfer, pay bills, and buy items/products online. It's different from a credit card because you need to deposit some cash on it first, before you can use it. 

I got my Unionbank Eon card for almost 2 years now and so far it really helps me a lot. I use it to buy metal band t-shirts from the US, sign up for guitar lessons, book tickets, pay my bills, and purchase gadgets online.

My Unionbank Eon card is a great credit card and PayPal alternative. It totally replaced the purpose of my credit card so I decided of cutting off my HSBC and Citibank credit cards. I feel worry free using Union Bank eon because it's a debit card and it's a wise strategy from keeping you away from DEBT trap.

It's also much easier to apply for a Unionbank Eon card compare to credit card. They are not that strict on requirements and there's a greater chance that you'll be accepted even if you don't have a high paying job.

How to apply?

You have two options. One is to apply online by following these 4 easy steps down below:
Fill out.Fill out the necessary information in EON’s online application found Union Bank’s website: www.unionbankph.com. After filling out the application, you will be receiving an SMS and email notification of your reference number and selected UnionBank pick-up branch. Please take note of this information.  
Visit.
After receiving your SMS and email notification, you may immediately visit and present your reference number to your selected UnionBank pick-up branch. (Link for list of current pick-up branches)
EON Visa Debit Cards that were applied through the online application are initially available at the following branches. More UnionBank pick-up branches will be available soon for your convenience.   
Submit.
Please prepare and submit the following account opening requirements: P350 for your first annual fee, the original and photocopy of one (1) valid photo-bearing ID (list of IDs  
Enjoy!
Receive your EON Visa Debit Card in a single branch visit. Now you’re ready to start enjoying the many benefits your EON Visa Debit Card has to offer! Use it for PayPal, online and mobile banking, online shopping and more!  
The second option is to go directly to Unionbank branch near you and follow the instructions found on this page - How to open an EON card?

After you have submitted the necessary documents during your application, wait 1 to 2 weeks then follow up if your card is already available for pick up. Once you have your card, be sure to deposit some cash on it then you are good to go to purchase items online. Hope this article help you and it would be great if you can share this to your friends as well. If you have questions about Unionbank EON that I have not covered here, feel free to put in the comment section below and I'll be happy to help you.



Friday, November 2, 2012

Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker Dead after a Motorcycle Crash

A Halloween that the Metal world would remember forever. 28 year old Mitch Lucker, singer for Suicide Silence passed away yesterday Thursday at 6:17 am, November 1, 2012. According to the police report, the young front man was driving a Harley Davidson motorcycle in Huntington Beach on Wednesday at around 8:55PM. 

Without luck Lucker lost control with his motorcycle and crashed against a light pole. He was thrown away from his motorcycle and the bike kept moving until it hit a Nissan Titan pickup. There were no injuries reported with the occupants of the pickup. 

Suicide Silence frontman Mitch Lucker 
Mitch Lucker was tremendously injured and was treated right on the scene by paramedics. Afterwards he was rushed to UCI Medical Center in Orange County and was treated with intensive care. However due to severe injuries he did not make it and take his last breathe Thursday morning.

As of the moment there's no final statement of the cause of his death since the police is still under investigation and the autopsy has yet to be conducted. The police are also looking for possibility if Lucker was under the influence of Alcohol.

Suicide Silence is a Deathcore band from Riverside, California. They've been active in the Metal scene since 2002 and was awarded with the Revolver Golden God award for "Best New Talent". The band was scheduled supposed to be to perform this coming November 24 at the California Metalfest VI in San Bernardino.



Below is the statement from Suicide Silence Official Facebook page:
There's no easy way to say this. Mitch passed away earlier this morning from injuries sustained during a motorcycle accident. This is completely devastating to all of us and we offer our deepest condolences to his family. He will be forever in our hearts. 
R.I.P. Mitchell Adam Lucker - We Love You Brother
Here's a good memory that Mitch Lucker left us.



RIP brotha Mitch Lucker! 

Topic: suicide silence Mitch Lucker death

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Why Do We Have Different Tastes In Music?

Have you ever wonder why your taste in music is so different from other people? Why there are songs that you love but others hate them? Or bands that sucks but to your friends they’re awesome. 

One of the hit songs of 2012 was the song "Call me baby" by Carly Rae Jepsen. For many, this song is a great piece just perfect for disco lights in an overcrowded room. But for headbangers and metalheads, this is one of the most annoying and nonsense songs ever made. You can't complain why people have such bad taste in music because on the other side they might be thinking the same to you. 


Scientist found out that our taste of music is driven by external and internal influences. We will discuss them in details on this post.

External Influences

Our family, friends, peers, media, office mates, band mates, music critics, famous music blog, and the people that surround us can be a big influence on the kind of music that we listen to. Would you believe that you like certain bands because your cool friends tell you that they’re awesome? Well for me, I do. When majority of your friends tells you that a certain band or song is awesome, there is a big possibility that you would also like that band. 

When we hear a certain idea or thought over and over again, later on our brains tends to accept that idea and inject it to our subconscious. Eventually, that idea or thought will become our reality. 

The famous American Author Napoleon Hill calls this phenomenon as Auto-suggestion. If you keeping hearing from the people around you that they like Megadeth because of blah blah blah and whatever reasons, what they’re doing is that they are planting in your subconscious mind the idea that "Megadeth is a great band". 

Sooner or later when you think of bands, your subconscious mind would suggest to your conscious mind that you like Megadeth. Often times we like bands or songs primarily because of cultural influences but not because of the technicality of the music itself.  

Based on my experience this is very true. I grew up surrounded by people who listen to rock/metal so no doubt why I like the same kind of music too. However, this may not be always true to everyone.

What if you ignore your outside influences?

Since our taste in music is somehow dependent on our outside influences, what if we take those influences away? What would be the kind of music that you would like? Would you still like "Laid me to Rest" by Lamb of God or would you prefer listening to Justin Bieber instead?  :)

Pandora, an Internet Radio station aims to provide solution for this problem. They designed a computer algorithm that would help you find the kind of music that you like without the influence of other people. Pandora is a free service that would let you create your own station based on your personal taste of music. I haven't tried their service yet since you can only access their website if you live in the US.

Internal Influences

It includes emotions, feelings, beliefs, dreams, values and other factors that can be found within your inner self. These things define who you are, your character, your personality, and how you deal with people around you. Based on studies, your personality would tend to reflect on the kind of music that you like. Your inner self would resonate to your outside world and that affects your music preference. 

I bump to an article just the other day about Music and Personality by Kendra Cherry. She mentioned there was a research conducted by two psychologists Jason Rentfrow and Sam Gosling. According to Jason and Sam, your top 10 favorite songs are enough to reveal your personality, whether you are an Introvert or an Extrovert. 

Just to give you a little idea about introvert and extrovert. Extroverts tend to enjoy human interactions. They like parties, social gatherings, and community activities. On the other hand, Introverts are likely to enjoy time being alone and are not interested socializing with other people. Most introverts are archetypal artists, writers, sculptors, engineers, composers and inventors.

According to their research, extroverts would tend to like pop music and prefer to listen to top 40 hits. "While pop music lovers are hard-working and have high self-esteem, researchers suggests that they tend to be less creative and more uneasy."

I am an introvert kind of person and I was really amazed how their assessment fitted my personality.

This is their assessment for people who likes Rock / Heavy Metal - "Despite the sometimes aggressive image that rock music and heavy metal project, researchers found that fans of this style of music are usually quite gentle. They tend to be creative, but are often introverted and may suffer from low self-esteem." 

My taste of music revolves around rock/Metal, loud, and aggressive kind of music. But after writing this blog post, I realized that If I take away my outside influences, I will find some new genre that I've never thought that I like. Songs of Jack Johnson, The Black Keys, Coldplay, The Fray, some Blues songs, Lily Allen and some bands that others may call gay would seems pleasing to my ear. 

Now how about you? What if you take away those external influences, what kind of music would you listen to? Write down your answers in the comment box below. Just be honest to yourself, listen to want you really enjoy, and most of all have fun finding your real taste in music.