Entertainment

Andrew’s Judgmental Album Reviews: Phantom Spell – Immortal’s Requiem (2022)

Spin the wheel and decide what album goes in the JAR this week! It’s Phantom Spell – Immortal’s Requiem!

Published

2 years ago

August 21, 2022

Here’s one of those week’s where I started looking around, threw some names on the dart board and let fate decide! We landed on, Phantom Spell: Immortal’s Requiem!

What I know isn’t much. This band is a side project of Seven Sisters frontman Kyle McNeil, oh – and they’re based out of Manchester, UK. I could look around for more notes, but that’s really all I can glean. Never hearing this project before I think the Facebook page says they’re style is somewhere between Prog Rock and Classic Metal. So…there A LOT of gray area in between there. So let’s just dive in!

Phantom Spell is: Apparently Kyle McNeil does everything, so there we go!

Artist: Phantom Spell
Album: Immortal’s Requiem (2022)
Label: Independent
Total Track Time: 31:59

Immortal’s Requiem is the song that kicks off the album, with a very church choir hymnal feel. A little echoed out 70s influence on the guitar as well. Very simple clean vocals about praying on the altar of time, as we get a bit of a tempo rise going right into the next song as a seamless segue with more prog elements. Dawn of Mind has a very Iron Maiden 7th Son of a 7th Son feeling to me, mixed with a lot more psychedelic 70s inspired prog. There’s a great gallop riff keeping the song moving forward, hence the Iron Maiden vibes, but this is really interesting. Vocally and instrumentally it reminds me more of Kansas, but musically it lives nicely in that psychedelic prog vein right now. The song also speaks of some kind of magical sentience in the blade. So the dawning of the mind, is more of a powerful awakening. So it’s hitting those cool Lord of the Rings fantasy story elements that good prog and power metal tend to work with. Especially when the song is sung from the perspective of the newly sentient sword.

Seven Sided Mirror starts off with a little bit of that crazy prog keyboard playing. I’m either waiting for a full Iron Butterfly moment or things to calm down. Okay, they calm down a little. This has a really cool breakdown in the chorus that makes it easy to sing along with the, “Ooh, seven sided mirror” – then we get some light harpsichord. So being a song which you can only assume takes place in a castle, about reflecting his fears and the mirror manifests them, probably a reference to like ‘seven deadly sins’ since it’s a seven sided mirror. But it’s still very cool. A lot of feelings of Helloween, Iron Maiden, and a little Blind Guardian. It’s still just a very cool little song, evoking imagination and the fantasy aspects that certain types of metal go down. Up the Tower is a little quicker and stays in more of a classic rock/metal approach like Dio or Black Sabbath. Lyrically this is a lot of loose imagery about keys, locks and having to go up the tower to solve the puzzle. So the song has a generally persevering tone about it, but the lyrics don’t seem to every evoke an answer, so the song is just the trip up the tower. Some successes, some failures.

Black Spire Curse is an instrumental that starts with harpsichord and then a signature jazz drum beat. So it’s this weird amalgam of medieval Jazz before we hit the first drum fill that transitions to more of this transcendental psychedelic vibe with that ever present harpsichord. I haven’t heard this much harpsichord since the last Emilie Autumn album I listened to. Not a complaint, just more a statement that it’s been years, but I do tend to enjoy the archaic instrument. Blood Becomes Sand very somber, sparse arrangement early; but when things cut in, they cut deep and help to set the atmosphere. My dorkiness comes to a head when the lyrics remind me of Final Fantasy XIV, which isn’t a bad thing, just not a thought I expected to correlate in any of these album reviews. After a little bit, the music ramps back up and we go into that Maiden-esque gallop as well as little Dr. Dog flairs, and really have a nice rocking flourish to the finish of the song. Similar to Keeper of the Seven Keys the story starts somber, punctuates the victory and celebrates the breaking of the cycle; while emphasizing a cost. So it’s just a solid fantasy rock/metal song.

I had no clue what to expect since it was one of those weeks where I wasn’t really feeling any release in particular. Since I went in relatively blind, I’ll say that I’m not upset. It mostly stays in a psychedelic prog vein, and that whole stoner/groove genre is picking up some steam from what I can tell lately. Should be cool to see if this becomes a full time band, or was this just an independent side project one and done.

Pretty solid, no real complaints as long as you like 70s psychedelic rock with a fantasy story.

Final Judgment: 7.9/10

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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Entertainment

Mitchell’s Hyrule Puro-Resu News Report! (5/1/24)

The Gerudo Sisterhood is (not) fine.

Published

16 hours ago

May 1, 2024

Steven Mitchell

Mayday! Mayday!

The Triforce Anniversary did not go their way, and now The Gerudo Sisterhood sits down to talk it out. Will things (not) be okay again?

The Gerudo Sisterhood meet up.

In Gerudo Town, Riju sits in the throne room, Buliara by her side. Aveil, Nabooru and Urbosa arrive together. Riju asks where Tali and Shabonne are, and Aveil says she has no idea. Nabooru and Urbosa also don’t know, no one’s heard from either all month. Did she go back to sand seal racing? Nabooru checked around the track, checked the Great Dunes, no one there had seen her, either. Is Tali feeling that guilty about the spear? Everyone watched the tape back, it was by accident, she has nothing to feel bad about.

The group argues about that a bit. Tali went out there when she wasn’t supposed to. And even if it was an accident, she should still apologize, shouldn’t she? That’s a good point. Well, for now, they’ll just have to wait until Tali comes to them. For now, everyone needs to turn their attention to what’s coming: ThunderStruck.

The Gerudo Sisterhood double check the match card.

An Open Challenge for the Death Mountain Championship starts things off. Nabooru and Aveil tried to get that spot, but it seems someone already called their shot. Who do they think it was? Urbosa says, “Does it really matter? The Sisterhood will be right on the heels of the winner either way.” The others are all for that. Then The Dark Forces seem to be making moves. Cia has Ganon by her side, but who will Ruto have? Between Fin Balure and Bad Croc Scaly, she’s got strong choices, and Arrow Club could even parlay this tag match into a shot at the Termina Championship.

How’d Arrow Club figure out how to avoid Blood & Thunder this year? That’s anyone’s guess, but watching the UnderWorld Order battle it out with the rest of the Dark Forces will be just as much fun for the Sisterhood as it will be for the HPW Trios Champs. Kevin Gibdo, Volga, Zant and Wizzro aren’t exactly the friendliest bunch, but hopefully they give ReDead, Scaldera, Gomess & Death Sword the beating they deserve for all their underhanded moves. And it’d keep them from getting another chance at the HPW Trios titles at that.

The sore spot is the Triforce World Championship match. Yunobo has his shot at the title, and again Tali’s involvement in the Triple Threat cost the Sisterhood. But Link’s a three-time HPW Triforce Champion for a reason. For one, he won the Hyrule Warriors match, and he won the Eventide Challenge. Buliara points out that the other reason is that he lost the title along the way. If things come in threes, then will he lose a third time? Personally, Riju hopes not. She only survived that Beat the Clock Challenge against Link, and wants to settle things in a proper match. That’s also something the Sisterhood can get behind.

There’s thunder in the distance and they all look out the window to see a storm rolling across the desert. Thundra Plateau awaits, but who will rumble their way to victory?

My Thoughts:

Hooray for a hype article! Just imagine this as a really cool vignette video you’d see a major company put out. Also, I did need to keep the story of the Gerudo Sisterhood going, don’t want that slipping through the cracks. I’m feeling some intrigue as we move deeper into the Spring, this should be fun.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Entertainment

Hockey Talk- Power Players [043024]

Hockey Talk reviews the action from the first round of the 2024 NHL Playoffs and looks forward to some intriguing matchups looming in the second round.

Published

2 days ago

April 30, 2024

David Ungar

On this week’s edition of Hockey Talk, the guys take a look at the first round of the 2024 NHL Playoffs. The best teams and highest seeds flexed their muscle during the opening round of the playoffs. Out East, it was Chalk City as the Rangers, Hurricanes, Bruins, and Panthers took firm control of their respective series. The West, on the other hand, was far less certain as most of those series were shaping up to be tough, hard-fought, battles to the very end. Which teams impressed the guys the most and which likely second round series are they most excited about? Tune in and find out!

Today’s hosts: Dave Ungar (@AttitudeAgg) and Patrick O’Dowd (@WrestlngRealist)

2024 NHL 1st Round Playoff Recap
The East goes according to form
The West is wild

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