Video's of the week #34

It's time for this week's VOTW, this time with 5 new(ish) video's and 3 classic, one (or two) of them with cheesefactor, or..?

1. THE NEW BLACK

- THE KING I WAS
"The King I Was" comes from the german band, The New Black's second album "II Better In Black", released on january 21st, 2011.

2. I AM EMPIRE - BRAIN DAMAGE

This is a Christian (I think) heavy rock band out of San José'. This song is from their new album, "Kings", released on january 25th, 2011.

3. ELVENKING - YOUR HEROES ARE DEAD

Now this is a Folk/Power Metal band from Italy. They have so far released 6 studio-albums, and this is from the latest one called, "Red Silent Tides" (I think).

4. TEN - ENDLESS SYMPHONY

A british hard rock/melodic rock band, formed in 1995 by vocalist/songwriter Gary Hughes and guitarist Vinny Burns. From their brand-new album "Stormwarning", released in january 2011.

5. NEW DEVICE - TAKIN' OVER

New Device is a UK based rock band established in late 2007. They are influenced by Aerosmith, Skid Row, Metallica and Guns'N'Roses. This is from their 2009-album "Takin' Over".

6. ACE FREHLEY - ROCK SOLDIERS

The first time I saw Ace without his make-up, was in an add in the british magazine KERRANG! around 1987. It's been a while, since I saw this video. 2 point's from RJhog, or what?

7. GARY MOORE - ALLWAYS GONNA LOVE YOU

I came as a shock, when I saw Gary Moore was dead. Apparently it was a stroke. This is from way before, he played the blues, and I prefer that time.

8. SAXON - BROKEN HEROES

I love Saxon's 2 classic album's from 1980, and some of the 1981-album "Denim and Leather", but that's about it. This is from their, kind of comeback-album "Innosence is no escuse" from 1985, that I mostly bought because of the hot girl on the album-cover. Any cheese-factor?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on February 9, 2011 at 1:22pm

I thought you had a theme going at first:

The King I Was

I Am Empire

Elevenking

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on February 9, 2011 at 2:25pm

Yeah, I know. A theme would be cool, but a bit difficult, when I try to get the newest video's. I was in fact also thinking about a theme, when I saw "Broken Heroes" and "Your heroes are dead". Ah, well, some other time.

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Permalink Reply by Niels (Mod) on February 10, 2011 at 5:54am

Even the album from "I Am Empire" is called "Kings"!!

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Permalink Reply by Scott on February 10, 2011 at 3:53pm

THE NEW BLACK ... .25 points
eh... not bad, not good and definitely not enough to hold my interest. For whatever reason this style is wearing thin on me, time to up-tune the guitars and get back to creative rock and roll. I liked the video though, the backdrop of the playings cards with the silhouettes was pretty cool. Nothing for the song, and .25 for the vid

I AM EMPIRE ... 0 points
Well its easy to see how they wrote a song titled "Brain Damage", it must be about the singer! And this is what I think about the tune.. YAWN! hehe... I got nothing for this one.

ELVENKING ... .5 points
The Red and Black attack? Kind of like the animated spots in the video, and I even kind of dug the Kansas influence in spots. Problem is the spots of brilliance were too few and far between. The song just falls short. 0.25 on the song and .25 on the vid.

TEN ... 0 points
This songs reminds me of Kevin Cronin. Why you ask? In 1976 he wrote one of my favorite lyrics and I've quoted it on this site a few times, it will sum this one up perfectly... "Some songs have no meaning, and some songs try too hard, try to say it all, and end up saying nothing". Zeroes all the way around.

NEW DEVICE ... 1 point
Not too bad of a start, liked the video effect of that scrolling. They should have used more of that in the video. The singer dudes arm movements became more annoying as the video moved along, but the song wasn't bad. Not great, but not bad. I didn't really care for the lyrics, they made it sound more like a theme song for the band. If they're gonna sing that lyric (We're the New Device and were taking over) then it seems like the song needed to be stronger. Not really sure what that means, it just came to mind. .5 for the song, .5 for the video.

ACE FREHLEY ... 1 point
Its always fun to watch him play, such a distinctive style and manner about him. But this isn't his best song effort and as such I have to dock points for that alone. .5 points for the song, and .5 points for an average performance video.

GARY MOORE ... 2 respectful points
Last time you posted a Gary Moore video, I panned it pretty good! Now I feel bad, so this video has to get points for mourning and condolences. Ive never really listened to any of his solo stuff, so its all new to me, and really this is just an ok song, kind of cheesy in a cookie-cutter kind of way. But out of respect he's gonna get full points.

SAXON ... .1 points with a cheese factor of 7
Wife beater with holes warrants cheese factor points. Fan blowing the hair of the singer also get them some cheese. I'm confused over this bands stage image. We got wife beaters, captain jackets, biker jackets and a drummer that looks like he robbed the closet of Loverboy's Mike Reno. Looks like an identity crisis on stage! Oh yeah, and the song is just barely passable as decent. .1 points with a cheese factor of 7.

Thanks Niels enjoyed every second of it as usual!!!!

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Permalink Reply by RJhog (Admin) on February 10, 2011 at 8:40pm

The New Black (1.75 points)

I like this a lot. I like the degree of heaviness, if that makes sense. The drums and guitars sound great, as do the majority of the vocals. The only drawback is when the vocalist tries to go to high. If he keeps it in his normal register, I'd like to hear more. As a matter of fact, I just added the cd to my wishlist on amazon, but it's still an import, so it will be a while. I like the style of the video and the chick shadow dancing didn't hurt anything.

I Am Empire (-1 point)

Nice driving beat, but that's it. The singer is extra-annoying.

Elevenking (0 points)

I'm just rather indifferent to this one. Don't hate it but don't love it. Sometimes I like the guitars. I like the violin (fiddle) breakdown at around the 1:30 mark, but the guy looks totally out of place playing it.

Ten (0 points)

The song isn't bad (it's not great either). But, having said that, the video kills this one. The band is so stiff it's ridiculous, and the lead singer's swaying to the song totally blows.

New Device (2 points)

That's a really cool song. Maybe not so much lyrically, but the melody and song structure are very good. The guitar tone and playing is good. I like the video, but the band probably needs to work on their charisma a little bit. Everybody but the singer looks really new to this, but that's okay. The singer has a very good voice. He's got tons of potentially, just work on those moves a little bit.

Ace Frehley (2 points)

I'm cheating on this one. I agree with Scott, it's not the Spaceman's best effort, but to me, it's still Ace. I'd probably strongly dislike the song if it were by some other band, and I don't like his dialogue towards the end, but he's still Ace, and sometimes I do wish he'd have never left my band.

Gary Moore (2 points)

I'm cheating again, but as one of the fallen, I'll give him the two full points. I actually really like the song. Was that a broken guitar string at the end of the solo? How cool is that. RIP Gary.

Saxon (1.25 points / Cheese Factor 2)

That's a terrific song. The video is nothing special. I'm giving it .25 points because of the black and white war footage. I love videos like that. It's not particularly cheesy other that the singer's hair blowing and the god-awful stage outfits.

Good choices Niels.

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Permalink Reply by Jon on February 13, 2011 at 12:59pm

The New Black--1.50 points

Nice, heavy stuff. Docking 1/2 point because the singer sounds like, well, other singers out there. I'm not a perv like Rjhog, but dancing girl was neat-o. Like the melting film background, didn't care too much about the cards probably because Scott liked it.

I Am Empire--1 point

When the song started out, I got a King's X vibe and then the singer sang and it went downhill. I really believe if I didn't see this video, especially the singer, I would have really liked it. The background singing was awesome, but watching the lead singer spasticating just took too much away.

Elvenking--1 point

Typical Euro power metal, but the violin adds a little something extra. Wish there was more cartoon mayhem, that was kind of nifty. Sometimes the singer was buried beneath the mix, and his voice didn't bug me too much as a lot of the power metal vocalists do. Might check out these guys some more, might not. Now you need to break out the Korpiklaani!

Ten--1.50 points

I liked this a lot. The only problem I had was that I couldn't understand what the singer was saying during some points, it's like a bunch of word were thrown together making too many words, so many word that I just couldn't understand. Understand? Video was simple. I like ferris wheels.

Maybe this will change some people's minds?

New Device--1 point

Song wasn't anything special, video wasn't anything special. However the singer was decent (just listening, not watching. again.) and the geetarists were playing the geetars the old school way, the way they are meant to be played. You have to look cool when paying that geetar and they looked really cool during the solo. Geetar!

Ace Frehley--.5 points

Actually bought this album when it first came out. Don't know why, but was buying everything that came out during that time. Always though the lyrics to this were kind of trite, but.......the rest of the song was cool. Video is kind of lame. Guess I won't be invited to join the Kiss Army, eh?

Gary Moore--2 points out of respect

Decent song, but great guitarist taken away too soon.

Saxon--1 point (Cheeziness 8)

Heard the song many times before, it's not bad. I'm echoing Scott on the cheeziness but also adding hoop earrings and ummmm....leg warmers???