Ellie Goulding (Debut album LIGHTS)

Hailing from England, new face Ellie Goulding is a young, fast-rising star in the music industry. The lyrics for the songs on her album are clever and catchy,with cool electro-pop background music to back them up.
Ellie's smooth vocals and fresh new sound also keeps the listener interested. A new face on the music scene, she is one to look out for. Her song "Everytime you go" was featured on the season one finale of The Vampire Diaries.
Ellie is (in my opinion) an extremely talented singer who can sing and play the guitar. Her live performances have been known to be described as "autotune without autotune". As quoted by the telegraph, "Goulding at her best is nothing less than pop dynamite," and i have to agree.
Ellie topped the BBC Sound Of 2010 Poll, and won the critic's choice award at the 2010 BRIT awards, proving her talent.
I personally love her album LIGHTS as a whole and i would rate it as 4 stars out of five. I do suggest that you get her album if you're looking for something new or if you like catchy, poppy tunes or acoustic-pop. ;D


Note: We are not paid to write reviews, no copyright intended ever, and our reviews are purely in our opinion (sometimes with qouted sources). (:

Avenged Sevenfold - Nightmare

5 months following the death of founding member Jimmy "the Rev" Sullivan, A7X have refused to sit at home and weep, instead recuiting Jimmy's all-time favorite drummer, Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater), to drum with them on their new album, titled Nightmare.

Quick, rythmic tempo aside, Portnoy has done an incredible job of replicating the Rev's style, which has always been an essential part of A7X's iconic sound. Constant double bass also makes it distinctly Portnoy, although overall Portnoy has indeed stayed true to Jimmy's drum parts, thus it is almost as if Jimmy himself was sitting at the kit.

A sinister piano "solo" opens the song, before the guitars and drums come crashing in, mirroring the initial piano melody. The result? Pure, unadulterated awesomeness that takes the piano to whole new different level.

Throughout the song, the drums are fast and furious, complementing Synyster Gates' raging guitar solos as well as M Shadows' screaming and singing. The song also never tires despite its colossal length of 6:16, as the style of the song constantly switches, from pounding intro to melodious choruses and of course, Gates' awesome guitar work while the rythm guitar backs the song alongside the drums.

The chorus is also distinctly Avenged, with a piano line providing a subtle, but still distinct melody that was recorded by the Rev, just days before he died. In fact, Nightmare was one of the last songs the Rev wrote
before he died.

All in all, Nighmare is a wonderful piece of work, and I can't find many negative attributes to the song, but I would have liked to hear a more predominant bass line from Johnny Christ. Nonetheless, A7X is still one of my favorite bands. A7X foREVer. R.I.P Jimmy "the Rev" Sullivan (1981 - 2009).

We Are The Ocean - These Days I Have Nothing

We Are The Ocean - These Days I Have Nothing
Cutting Our Teeth

Personally, this is one of my favourite songs ever.  We Are The Ocean may be really young (guitarist Alfie Scully is only 17) but this song is energetic, youthful, and shows that the band has a prominent future ahead of them.
The introduction is epic, and sets the rythm and pace for the rest of the song.  The lead guitar is prominent in the chorus of the song, and not sloppy either.  While the guitar line may consist of only a handful of notes with a simple and regular beat (ie. no blistering guitar melodies; its not rock, its post-hardcore), it is nonetheless powerful and easily overshadows the lyrics.
During the first two lines of each of the two verses, the guitar/bass line provides background accompaniment, allowing the listener to focus on the lyrics, before the band "powers up" for the second half the verse.  A nice drum roll provides an instrumental bridge that links the verse to the chorus.  The bridge has deep lyrics, and a powerful accompaniment from the band in the background, although the drum roll that links the bridge to the chorus is done in the same style as the verse-chorus drum roll link, which makes the song somewhat monotonus after awhile.
All in all, the lyrics are deep and meaningful, and the singer and screamer have good chemistry, but the instrumentals can get rather repetitive.  Although the precise rythms fit the song and thus work to its advantage, I would like to see more instrumental variation, especially in the verse/bridge-chorus dum roll.