The Path To Certainty, off their upcoming album The Life I Know, is up for you to listen to on Gwen Stacy’s myspace profile. Watch for the new album February 5th of 2008.

Paramore’s redesigned website is up at paramore.net

If you’re a fan of Jars of Clay, you can download a few of the tracks off of their Christmas album by clicking here and going to download.com.

As I Lay Dying has started their own fan community which they call The Forsaken. You can check it out here.

Family Force 5 has for another year posted up their version of Grandma Got Run Over to their myspace.

Here’s a message from Ben of The Glorious Unseen about how amazing the album sales are still after weeks of being out (bandsonfire.com):

Hey everyone - just got some good news… After 5 weeks the Tonight the Stars Speak is still in the top 10 most downloaded Christian albums off ITUNES… It is THE top selling digital Tooth and Nail album for the month - ahead of Demon Hunter, Thousand Foot Krutch, and Emery…

This is great news as when we started this project - there were many questions as to how we would market this - since it’s a totally new form of worship - and in some ways does not fit in to the general christian market - but also doesn’t really fit in to the mainstream market - so it kinda lies in between which makes it hard to market - but really what we’ve seen happen is it being marketed word of mouth by you guys - and by the many bands that have been using this record as their personal worship time…

It’s been a total blessing for me to be able to be used by God in this way… Hope you are having a great holiday season…

Ben

The Rocket Summer is going to be on tour in the UK this coming January. If you live over there, be watching for the tour on the following dates (absolutepunk.net):

Jan 27th, 2008 - WOLVERHAMPTON @ Wolves Little Civic
Jan 28th, 2008 - BIRMINGHAM @ Birmingham Bar Academy
Jan 29th, 2008 - LIVERPOOL @ Liverpool Barfly
Jan 31st, 2008 - GLASGOW @ King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
Feb 2, 2008 – MANCHESTER @ Mancester Club Academy
Feb 3, 2008 – STOKE @ Stoke Sugarmill
Feb 4, 2008 – CARDIFF @ Clwb IFor Bach
Feb 6, 2008 – OXFORD @ Oxford Zodiac
Feb 7,2008 - SOUTHAMPTON @ Southhampton Joiners
Feb 8, 2008 – LONDON @ London Barfly – SOLD OUT
Feb 9, 2008 - LONDON @ London Kings College KCLSU

…and with that, you are a bit more up to date with whats going on in the world of music then you were a few minutes ago.  Have a great night!

Check out The Showdown’s myspace site here where they’ve posted up When It All Comes Down which is off of their iTunes-only EP called Feel Like Hell.  A European bonus track from Temptation Come My Way called Give Us This Day is also up on their site.  (bandsonfire.com)

Check it out our first ever videogame review.

Click here, its cool I promise

Game: The Orange Box
Developer: Valve
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Genre: First Person Shooter
Rating: “M” for Mature- Blood and Gore, Violence, and Some Language

Website

This is our first video game review here at IVM and what better way to kick it off than to review the best video game deal in history. The Orange Box is actually five complete games put into one compilation. It contains Half Life 2 and its sequels Episode One and Episode Two; it also contains a first person puzzle game called Portal which ties into the Half Life universe; and finally the multiplayer slug-fest Team Fortress 2. I’m going to break this review down into five smaller reviews, critiquing each game, and then I’ll sum it all up at the end.

Half Life 2

            While the game itself is three years old, it is still a blast to play. The Half Life series has one of the most engrossing and engaging storylines in any first person shooter I’ve ever played. You’re dropped into this dystopia where a mysterious alien race rules over the remaining human population. Your character is thrusted into leading a rebellion against the aliens in a rundown Eastern European city. The atmosphere throughout the entire game is depressing and lonely. Sometimes the game can be downright creepy as you face overwhelming odds against creatures that want nothing more than to bite your head off.
            The game play is different than most first person shooters. The physics engine is a big deal in this game, as your main weapon the “Gravity Gun” takes any reasonably sized object and makes it a deadly projectile, basically making the environment your weapon. The developers did a good job of breaking up combat with interesting and sometimes challenging physics puzzles.

Score: 5/5

Half Life 2 Episode: One
            The sequel to Half Life 2 sees you fleeing the city and regrouping with your allies. This game updates the graphics and provides a more developed AI companion for you throughout the game. The character will actually respond to what you do in-game and will interact with you in other ways outside of combat. For instance, there is a point in the game where you have to traverse an area that is in a complete blackout. She’ll make creepy noises when she stands behind you until you turn around and shine your flash light on her.
            While this game is a great add on to the series I was kind of mad that the improved graphics slowed the game down, and they didn’t seem to agree with my graphics card all that much because I had a few crashes happen while playing. Some of that is of course my fault using a computer that’s not designed for gaming.

Score: 4/5

Half Life 2 Episode: Two
            The latest update to the Half Life series introduces wide open environments and HDR lighting which is the pretty lighting effects you might have seen in the game The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion. The wide open environments provide for some frantic game play as more enemies are capable of coming at you from multiple directions. The Gravity Gun is always a major game play element and it is even more so in this sequel. A new style of bomb has been made to take out the armored vehicles that your enemies use. You use the Gravity Gun to launch the explosive so it will stick to the vehicle then you detonate it with a shot from your pistol.
            I had issues with this game as well. This time it wasn’t my fault. Apparently, an update for one of the games on The Orange Box created an error for some people while playing Episode Two. I just so happen to be one of those lucky people. An error message pops up and the game exits out to the desktop. Luckily, there are ways around the error, but you may miss some of the side conversations and immersion into the story line because of it.

Score: 4/5

Portal
            Portal is a cool little game that ties into the Half Life 2 storyline. This game has a very twisted sense of humor as you interact with the only other character in the game, a super computer who is overseeing your progress. Basically, you are a lab rat for a corporation’s new project. You have a gun that can create two portals at any one time, and you must use the gun to get around to each of the different rooms. Sounds easy? Think again. There are automated gun turrets shooting at you, balls of energy bouncing around the rooms, doors that are set to close on a timer, pits full of radioactive waste to get in your way. The portal gun was such a good idea though and makes for awesome ways to get around the obstacles.
            While solving the puzzles with the portal gun is fun it can be a little nauseating at first. As you pop out of the portal your perspective could completely flip upside down. But once you get over it the game turns out to be a solid gem.

Score: 5/5

Team Fortress 2
            Team Fortress 2 is the one multiplayer game on the compilation. It takes class based multiplayer and turns it upside down. Each class has a unique weapon and ability. For example, the scout class is extremely fast and carries a shotgun, while the medic has an energy weapon. Valve used cell shaded graphics for this game, making it a cartoonish, vibrant blood bath. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten to spend much time with this game yet, but what I’ve seen so far has been pretty entertaining.

Score: 3/5

The Orange Box is definitely for the mature audience though. With cursing found in most of the games as well as graphic violence; I wouldn’t recommend this game for younger kids. Overall though, this a great deal for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 or the computer. You get over $120 worth of games for just $59.99 for consoles and $49.99 for PC’s. Each game is a blast to play and will keep you happily occupied for hours during the holiday break. I highly suggest this game.
Overall Score: 9/10
 

Quick and the Dead have broken up. Their last show will be tomorrow night.

There is just one hour left on my auction. Please check it out here and place your bid.

Wow, there has been absolutely no news posts today. That’s like a record for us. lol. If I find something of interest to you readers, I’ll try to post it later. Maybe some of our other staff will pick up the slack

Ryan Clark has been interviewed nonstop lately! Metal Underground’s interview with him can be read here.

AbsolutePunk has a video of Ed’s (Thrice) birthday party, right here.

You can watch T-Bone’s Name Droppin video right here on his Youtube Channel.  There are guest appearances on the video from alot of artists including Audio Adrenaline, Jeremy Camp and Tobymac.

Stephen Christian has posted the first chapter of his coming book, “The Orphaned Anythings”, to his blog.

Go to blessthefall’s myspace to read an interesting blog entry from their Europe tour,complete with pics.

Head over to their myspace to hear the new Pilgrims song, “Career Is the End of Dreams.”

Click here to be taken to the Gilead Media webstore, where you can pre-order new vinyl releases of mewithoutYou’s first two T&N albums, [A-->B] Life, and Catch for Us the Foxes. If you go for the package deal, you will be entered into a contest to win the test-pressing.

According to JFH, Falling Up has two tours planned for next year. One with Family Force 5, one with The Afters. As of yet, no dates have been made public.

According to JFH, Red was involved in a serious car accident. There were no serious injuries, but their trailer and van took substantial damage. They would like your prayers at this time.

JFH has a new interview with Ryan Clark right here.

In a blatant attempt to avoid being removed from the staff of this website –

No, seriously, having finally overcome the writer’s block and heavy schoolwork load that have plagued me for the past two weeks, I have finally posted a new review, one of Gorilla Warfare’s The Battlefields. Regrettably, I’m not a huge fan, but you may be. Read the review here and check the band out.

Artist: Gorilla Warfare
Album: The Battlefields
Label: Wounded Records
Buy: Gorilla Warfare’s Myspace

1. Awaken
2. Another Day
3. Crusade
4. The Great Depression
5. Working Class
6. Pack of Wolves
7. No Way Out
8. Our War
9. The Truth
10. Two Faces
11. Line of Respect
12. When The Good Times Are Over (Bonus Track)

While perusing Gorilla Warfare’s MySpace, pursuant to the writing of this review, I saw that they tend to post reviews in their blog. I rather hope they don’t post this one there. While Gorilla Warfare have some potential to be a modern Spirit-filled hardcore force, that potential is often lost underneath sub-par lyrics and somewhat cookie-cutter musicianship.

Gorilla Warfare are a Spirit-filled hardcore band out of Nashville, Tennessee, and their approach to the genre would be flatteringly described as “minimalist.” Vocalist Matt Wade’s weapons of choice are gruff, hardcore barks — no clean vocals here. The drumming centers on the bass (though there’s not as much heavy double-bass as perhaps there should have been), with some tom-work thrown in to switch things up. Brett Wade plays his chords (generally of the “power” variety) loud, proud, generally in D minor, and sometimes palm-muted. Nate Hartley played lead guitar at the time of this recording. He has since left due to creative differences. I don’t know exactly what this entails, but if I had been in his shoes, I would probably have had creative differences too; the lead guitar generally serves only to extend the rhythm chords, sometimes not even being allowed to break out that much (some breakdowns stick only with the tried-and-true palm-muted power chords you know and love). In places where Hartley does play something really cool, as in the breakdown at the end of “The Great Depression,” it stands out miles from the rest of the CD, suggesting that the lack of memorability of most of the songs and breakdowns here is something that could have been avoided. If this musical description sounds somewhat less than exciting, it is. You’ve probably heard this all before by whatever local hardcore band opened for whatever better local band at that show last Saturday.

I assume Matt Wade writes Gorilla Warfare’s lyrics (it didn’t credit anyone in the liner notes). If so, he has some work to do. His lyrics are very sincere and upfront, sometimes even worshipful, but his surprising lack of tact and insistence upon trudging through hardcore cliches hurt him in this area. “Awaken” is a pretty driving song with a relatively memorable (though somewhat monotonous) lead guitar line, but it is hampered by its, to put it bluntly, sophomoric lyrics: “Salvation doesn’t come cheap. I pray my soul to keep. I trust in God’s Son. He is the only one.” Alright, it’s an okay sentiment. But just because it’s true doesn’t mean it’s said well, and when considering the rhyme scheme, the whole chorus seems rather dumb. “Crusade” ventures past the kitschy into the realm of the alarming. To be sure, songs denouncing abortion are refreshing. The sanctity of life is an awesome topic about which to write, especially from a Christian perspective. But the message suffers when lyrics like “Send me in now; I’m ready to destroy. I want to watch the foundation burn to ashes…You say you weren’t ready; well, you should have thought twice” are penned, the song comes off as sanctioning acts of terrorism while also failing to show God’s mercy to those who have sinned by aborting unborn children. Other lines are just cliche: Do you feel like you’ve heard “I’ve gotta break these chains that are holding me down” or “Work hard and fight everyday! We’re never gonna give this up” before? Strong lyrics would have quite possibly made up for the generic musicianship, but that’s not how it ended up. Matt should take note of lyrics penned by modern Spirit-filled hardcore forces (I highly recommend those of Pistis In Him Alone) and hone his skills in this area a little more.

It’s kind of a shame that The Battlefields winds up being unsatisfactory. Gorilla Warfare shows flashes of talent. Simply steering away from overused D-minor makes a lot of difference, as on “Awaken,” which is a pretty cool song overall. Bonus track “When the Good Times are Over” shows that the higher tempo moments enable the guys to exude their energy better, not to mention the fact that it has the best lyrics by far of the eight sets in the liner notes. And album highlight “Our War,” with its intro dedicated to members of the military, its driving lead guitar sadly buried in the mix, its gang vocals (which along with cut time and 2-steps, Gorilla Warfare should consider incorporating on a larger scale) and its positively blistering outro will not fail to stir up the fire in circle pits everywhere. If Gorilla Warfare can capitalize on this potential, they could fill a spot sadly left open in a genre sadly forgotten by most bands on labels other than Facedown.

The reader may say to me, “Headless, are you sure you’re even a hardcore fan? You sound like you’re ripping on breakdowns, power chords and ‘we shall overcome’ lyrics, which are pretty much what make the genre.” He may have a point. That was the first thing I thought after I realized I don’t care for The Battlefields. I don’t own Double Nickels on the Dime, Damaged, or anything by Minor Threat. Heck, I don’t even have any Unashamed or Strongarm. So I pulled out my collection to check. I pulled out CDs by Focused, Few Left Standing, Comeback Kid, Madball, Stretch Arm Strong, No Innocent Victim, Six Feet Deep and others. And I realized that I think hardcore can be pretty sweet. But it needs to be memorable, it needs to be energetic as anything, it doesn’t hurt to be fairly technical or intelligent, and it needs to have heart. Gorilla Warfare have the last down to a T. Hopefully on their next release the other qualities will shine through as well.

2.5/10

Standout Tracks: Our War, When the Good Times are Over
RIYL: No Innocent Victim, Alove For Enemies, Seventh Star

Listen to “Awaken,” “Another Day,” “Crusade” and “Our War” here.

- The Headless Horseman

I got in a shipment of Quick and the Dead “Consider Your Options” Cds today. For the unaware, that is their FIRST album before Indie Vision Music. Pick it up from us for only $9.99 right here.

Josh Moore has some new(er) music posted up. I’m not sure when he put it on his myspace, but it sounds really good so you should give it a listen.

This is game related and I enjoy those so naturally I had to post about this. There is an Orchestra group going by the name of “Video Games Live” that I read about in the latest issue of Wired that peforms sounds of your favorite video games in a live concert with dazzling effects. Click here to check out their site and to see dates in your area. I know it sounds geeky but a part of me thinks it’s cool too.

Thrice has again posted their version of Carol of the Bells on their myspace page. Unfortunately, it isn’t for download this time. Maybe eventually it will be.

You can watch this very entertaining video on Youtube. As I said, it’s very entertaining.

Credential Recordings wants your demos:
Credential Recordings
ATTN: Vinyl Couch
101 Winners Circle
Brentwood, TN 37027

myspace

Check out the album cover for the coming record by The Afters, entitled “Never Going Back to OK”, right here.

As previously noted….I am selling a BUNCH of cds and a Creative Zen Micro 5gig mp3 player. I am selling such cds as Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Plus 44, Evergreen Terrace(3 releases), Hopesfall(3 releases including the Takehold version), Dropkick Murphys (2 releases), House of Heroes, Quick and the Dead, A Wilhelm Scream, The Starting Line, and so many more. The cool thing about the Creative Mp3 Player is that the software it uses burns your cds directly into mp3s of which are stored in your music folder. I am trying to get an Ipod which is why I am getting rid of it. The only downside to the mp3 player is that I can’t seem to get it to work with a Windows Vista computer. Sucks. Oh well. Please bid on my stuff if you could. There is only 1 other bid and the auction ends on Friday. 

Click here for the auction

I found this car dealer on Ebay today and they’re selling a bunch of classic cars for prices that are seemingly low (for classics). There is a Chevelle I really like, does anyone want to buy it for me? Lol. Click here for the auctions.

Avery Pkwy has posted up a Christmas song to his myspace page. Check it out!

Okay I took down the “Classic” albums poll of 90s bands. We had interesting results. ZAO and Mxpx were tied with 20 votes, Five Iron Frenzy was in close second with 18 votes, Project 86 was in third with 16 votes, Living Sacrifice came up fourth with 14 votes and finally Strongarm finished out the top five with 11 votes. I guess those early albums were pretty influential.

I just posted our best of year end poll. Let your voices be heard and vote for any album you feel like, Christian or not. Just please make sure that the vote is for an album that actually released in 2007 and not 2006! Have fun people.

Part 1 of CMCentral’s phone interview with Charlie Peacock (who has worked with popular musicians, including Switchfoot) has been posted here.

JFH also has a review of the new Jon Foreman EP over here.

JFH has a review of the new Project 86 “Kane Mutiny” EP right here.

Go here to see what Ryan and Don Clark’s top picks for ‘07.

Flynn have opened up demos of “I am Leonidas” and “Another Disguise” for download on MySpace.

Vanessa, of One Star Story fame, is selling her guitar amp here.