CD Review: Power Paladin - With The Magic Of Windfyre Steel

 Genre : Power Metal

Iceland 2022

This band sounds very much how you'd expect a band called Power Paladin and an album called "With The Magic of Windfyre Steel" would sound; catchy,  power metal with big choruses and lots of tempo. 

Having said that, Power Paladin also manage to stick out from the 1001 Rhapsody clones out there by virtue of  having a better vocalist than most, a knack for melody and dynamics,  and remembering to give each song a bit of variation.

Also, being from Iceland. Not somewhere normally associated with Power Metal.   

Stand out track is the opener "Kraven the Hunter"  with it's earworm chorus and strategic "Woah-ohs" but there's no weak tracks here. 

If you like this sort of thing, Power Paladin are worth your time.  If you don't know whether you like this sort of thing, well you might dig it. 

The Saga of The Vouchers Or Why SSE Can Eat All The Dicks.

 Most of the time my blog is about stuff I like; books. music,  videos, models, pictures of women wrestlers. Nothing really serious. Even the odd rants are not exactly heavy going.

Today is different. Today I am in a bad mood and I have been for a while.  

Let me explain.

 Earlier this year the UK Government announced that they would be giving everybody some assistance with the energy bills that suddenly shot up.  Why they shot up is a topic for another day but I'm pretty sure i can blame the Tories for it. 

 Anyway, there would be £400 in assistance spread over the winter months and for those of us who have Pay As You meters, said assistance would come in the form of a £60ish voucher that could be redeemed at the paypoint.  "Neat" I thought then promptly wondered how that would get fucked up. 

 At the start of November I got a letter from SSE Energy reminding me that I needed to redeem my October voucher and this confused me because I had never received one. 

So I rang them. 

"Oh not a problem, we'll send it again and they November voucher should be turning up in a bit too."

"Neat" I thought. "But I wonder if they'll actually arrive."

Which they didn't.

To cut a long story short,  November came and went without any sign of vouchers. Repeated phone calls and online chats did nothing beyond raise my hopes and my blood pressure.  I couldn't help noticing that getting through to customer support was proving difficult, especially if I wanted to talk about PAYG. 

"I wonder if that's deliberate" I thought. "Come to think of it, I wonder if them not sending my vouchers is also deliberate."   SSE had no issues with sending me a twice-monthly leaflet badgering me to get a smart meter but now they keep losing my mail? 

So here I am, sat in my living room with 4 layers of clothing on and in a shitty mood.  December is half over and the voucher I was supposed to get this month never turned up either. Frankly I would be amazed if I ever get any of the Government support I was supposed to have. 

I wish this country wasn't so shit at everything. I also wish that when Santa visits SSE this Xmas Eve, he leaves a big sack of freshly cut, steaming horse dicks and a note that reads "Eat up, motherfuckers"  

That's all folks. 

Cheapo DVD Reviews: Rampage ( 2009)

 

An angry young man goes on a killing spree. 

That's pretty much it. 

My experience with the films of Uwe Boll has been mixed, to put it mildly.  I thought "In the Name of The King" was a perfectly serviceable fantasy film and "Postal" was a wild ride that kept me mostly entertained.  However, "Bloodrayne" made me fall asleep halfway through and "Blubberella" I can best describe as "Utter wank and why the fuck does this even exist"

 So Uwe Boll is not a name I associate with quality film making. He's not even the McDonalds of movies; he's the van you find outside the pub at 1am and you have to take a gamble on whether  you will get a catastrophic case of spraying anus.  

However "Rampage" is a bit different because it's the only Uwe Boll movie I've ever heard positive things about. 

So, when I saw this in CEX I took a gamble. 

"Rampage" is definitely an interesting film: it opens with flash-forwards interspersed with small-town boy Bill Williamson going about his daily, unsatisfying life. There's conflict with his parents, his boss, with people in shops and inevitably he suits up, tools up and starts running amok.  

It's not a comfortable watch. Compare and contrast with "Falling Down" where a lot of people can sympathise with D-Fens even if it's for dubious reasons. Nope. Bill is a murderous psycho and even the odd moments of dark humour don't change that. 

Of course this won't stop certain people from adopting him as their poster-boy. 

"Rampage" has an unpolished, low-fi, indieflick feel to it and that helps with the tone.  The mayhem is ugly and that gives it more impact. The pacing is also well-done.  Just enough set-up to establish and then we get into the rampage itself. 

 Special mention must be made of star Brendan Fletcher because he turns in a helluva performance. The rest of the cast is equally solid. 

To sum up: a director known for half-assing movies turns in something genuinely well done.  

How much did I pay for this; £3

Was it any good:  Actually yes.  Not an easy film to watch but it definitely makes an impact.