Those two things being an album and a restaurant.<\/p>\n
First, I’d like to take a moment to talk about Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic. Maybe I should wait a few weeks for the album to settle in and for those songs that tend to grow on you to work their magic, but what the heck, might as well see what my jerky knee has to say about it.<\/p>\n
My immediate reaction to this outing so far is “Hey, this sounds a bit like old-school Metallica.” Granted, it’s cleaner, and there are plenty of examples of the band’s growth in there, but there is a definite hearkening back to the old days of the group. There’s even an instrumental track, Suicide & Redemption, just like there was on the …And Justice for All album. I’m sure this will please many people. Many are the fan who dropped off after The Black Album, claiming that Metallica had sold out or many other claims that I find ridiculous. This new collection of songs should go a long way towards winning back those folks.<\/p>\n
I have a dirty confession to make here, and it’s this: back when Load originally came out, I was one of those people who stopped liking Metallica because they had cut their hair and refused to just keeping repeating themselves over and over ad infinitum just to please people like me, the jerks. What can I say, I was sixteen at the time and prone to be a drone. But something magical happened; I grew the fuck up. Not about everything (that will ever be an on-going process), but about figuring stuff out for myself instead of shaping my reality to fit those of my peers. And by the time Reload had a few singles on the waves, I had gotten over myself and given it and Load serious listens. And surprise surprise, they were really good. As were all the albums that followed. Metallica had become to metal what Scorsese is to film: this total bad-ass that comes along every couple years and shows all the assholes out there how it’s done, regardless of what they’re doing. Hell, look at Saint Anger, an album unlike any other Metallica release, but it completely blew away anything else released within it’s timeframe with its speed\/thrash focus and raw power.<\/p>\n
That said, if you’re like me and happened to be fond of the newer Metallica works, you will probably still like this album very much. Why? Because I have yet to meet the person who says that new Metallica is great while old Metallica sucks. Yes, there are people who prefer the new stuff, but my point still stands: you cannot go wrong with Metallica, no matter what era.<\/p>\n
So my instant favorites are the first single, The Day That Never Comes, the third installment of The Unforgiven and the track Broken, Beat & Scarred. But again, we’ll see how I feel in a few weeks time once I’m used to everything.<\/p>\n
One final note and I’m done. There is not a single song on this disc that clocks in at less than five minutes, with seven out of ten passing the seven minute mark. That right there is a lot of metal, motherfucker.<\/p>\n
Knee-jerk grade: B+, only because I get the feeling that the main reason the album sounds the way it does is because they want to win back those people who are still mentally stuck in the eighties.<\/p>\n
Okay, that review took longer than I planned so let’s see if I can keep this one to less than eight pages…<\/strong><\/p>\n I usually wouldn’t review a restaurant, because I’m really easy-going when it comes to food. I don’t notice ninety-five percent of it because I mainly eat for fuel, not enjoyment. However, if something is absolutely fabulous or complete garbage I will take note. There is also the case of that prompted me to write this: the place with food that is over-priced.<\/p>\n Up until recently at 7450 W. Cheyenne Ave, Suite 108 there was a restaurant called Joey’s Only Seafood that I was fond of because they had generous portions of fish and chips at a very decent price, but no more. Sadly, they must have been bought out or had some other tragedy befall them, because now the location is occupied by a restaurant called Sato that has an Asian bent to it.<\/p>\n I decided to give it a try and order dinner to go for my grandmother and myself. She wanted the shrimp and fries with a full-size greek salad to save for the next day’s lunch while I opted for the grilled herb chicken breast. It was clear once I’d gotten home that something was terribly amiss. The salad was about the size of one of those Wendy’s ninety-nine cent menu house salads and had almost none of the ingredients promised on the menu (I only now realize that this is because what they had given me was supposed to come with my meal and they had simply forgotten her salad altogether), and the main courses were puny given their prices. The shrimp consisted of eight medium sized shrimp and a handful of french fries for thirteen dollars while my solitary chicken breast, with its swallows-worth of miso soup, cost seventeen. So we called to complain about the salad, and the lady apologized, offering to replace it with a larger salad that was made to specification. When I went to pick up the replacement, she slipped me five dollars and apologized again. I think that’s a classy move, considering we didn’t make it seem like we wanted any sort of refund.<\/p>\n Overall, I thought the chicken tasted great despite there not being much of it and my grandma said the shrimp did little for her while the fries seemed like they’d been sitting under a heat lamp. Either way, we didn’t feel like we got our money’s worth, especially considering the large number of restaurants in my area with better priced menus.<\/p>\n So maybe if they change their prices (they’re a new business, so maybe they just need time to adjust), I’ll give them a better rating than the C- they’re getting now.<\/p>\n