Obsession in the Theater Of Dreams

So I'm a big fan of Iced Earth, okay? So, when I heard "Stu Block of Into Eternity will be replacing Matt Barlow on Iced Earth's 2011 album" I was interested to hear what this "Stu Block" character sounded like, and if he'd be any good a replacement for Barlow. Well the 2011 re-recording of Dante's Inferno came out before I had a chance to actually check out this band, and by the time I was 4 minutes into that song, I was sold.

Anyway, Iced Earth's 2011 album "Dystopia"...

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A REVIEW OF AN ALBUM THAT MAY BE TOO BRUTAL FOR SOME USERS TO HANDLE, THIS REVIEW AND THE MUSIC CONTAINED THEREIN MAY NOT BE FOR THE FAINT OF HEART. KOTATSU LOUNGE DOES NOT TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY INJURIES THAT MAY BE CAUSED BY THIS REVIEW. READER DISCRETION IS ADVISED.



So, I'm pretty sure you remember my ravings about this band's 2010 album Paradogma, aka one...

Ah Mercenary, never in my life have I had such a big love/hate relationship with any band in my entire life like I do with them.


While they’ve released two of my favorite albums ever in 11 Dreams and The Hours That Remain, they’ve also released some of the most unforgivably generic melodic death metal in the form of their album Metamorphosis and a good portion of their album Architect of Lies. Now while both of those albums had their share of good songs (Bloodsong, Public Failure #1 and New Desire in the case of Architect, and Through The Eyes of the Devil and In Bloodred Shades...

Hello everyone, it’s MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE-er I mean, it’s me BanksD and I’m going to be reviewing an album today. “What album is that?” you may ask, well none other than Masterplan’s 2003 self-titled debut album, but that’s not all my friends. Today we have a very VERY special guest, and his name is DOUG-KUN ^______^


Doug: Wh-what the fuck is going on here..... I was out drinking and the next thing I know.... where the hell am I?!

Banks: I PUT SOMETHING IN YOUR DRINK DOUG-KUN, IN ORDER...

Hello again all 3 people who read these, it’s time to see me make an ass out of myself once again and what better way to do that than to talk about one of my favorite genres of metal, that genre being Death Metal.

Now death metal wasn’t a genre I fell in love with easily, but as of late I’ve been getting into it more and more, and I’ve grown to love it (it’s probably my 2nd favorite sub-genre of metal right below Melodic Death Metal), and so what I decided to do is list off my favorite albums in the genre. Oddly enough starting with the very first one I ever heard

HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK HOLY FUCK...

Well everyone since BillyMorshu posted his top anime of the year, I decided I’d post my top albums from the year

( know we have a thread for this fuck you I don’t care)


#5. Iron Savior – The Landing



Absolutely kickass album. Once again Iron Savior shows off their badass blend of power and classic...

If you know me well you will know that I hate Metallica with a passion. I think they are truly the worst band ever, but I won’t get into that just yet, I will likely make an article on that later.


Today I will be talking about the new song they released as a collaboration they are doing this year with Lou Reed (an album entitled Lulu).

Gee it sure has been some time since anyone posted a column here, but never fear I BanksD am here to remedy that by bringing you a review of a band I’ve been getting into over the past month or so (though I’ve known them for much longer).

That band is Denmark’s very own industrial/metalcore/melodic death metal band Mnemic, and what better way to kick off a review series of them than to review their very first album, 2003’s Mechanical Spin Phenomena



This album starts out right away with one of the most kickass opening...

So since Doug posted a review of a really badass album (which can be found here) I decided I would do the same, today I’ll be taking a look at the 2010 Iconoclast III - Invictus album by German Melodic Death Metal/Metalcore band Heaven Shall Burn.





Now when I first heard the name Heaven Shall Burn, I didn’t know what to expect, but I knew one thing, whatever I was in for was going to be fucking awesome, I had expected to hear a lot of “evil” lyrics (of the anti-religious type because I myself am...

Since BillyMorshu did something like this for anime characters, I decided I would do this list for musicians. So let’s cut the shit and get started



5. Every Member of Suicide Silence and Bring Me The Horizon





just look at these fuckers, stupid emo pussies that pretty much show every stereotype and misconception about metal, and make me embarrassed at times to tell people I like metal. Plus their music fucking sucks and...

So lately I’ve been falling in love with a band all over again, the same band that blew me away last year when I first listened to them, everyone’s favorite Swedish Melodic Death Metal band SCAR SYMMETRY.

A band that has be combining monstrous growls and angelic singing since their 2005 debut album Symmetric In Design.

In light of the fact that I’m back to completely fapping to this band and I couldn’t stop listening to them if I tried (you’d likely have to take my ability to hear away from me for me to actually even consider stopping) I will be re-visiting their 2008 masterpiece...

So with a lot of my favorite bands releasing new albums this year (Scar Symmetry, Dream Theater, Fleshgod Apocalypse, and more) I decided, “why not review another one”

Today I’ll be reviewing Iced Earth’s latest release Dystpoia.




So this is the second time Iced Earth has had to release an album after having Matt Barlow leave the band (the first being 2004’s The Glorious Burden) and new comer Stu Block (of Into Eternity) had a lot to live up to. So is he a worthy replacement? Well let’s find out.

Hey guys. If you know me you know I’m a big fan of longer songs. I can’t get enough of them really. Why do I enjoy them so much? Fuck I don’t know, but let’s talk about my top 5 favorites. Let’s Get Started.mp3.


5. Holographic Universe – Scar Symmetry

If you know me, you know I’m kind of KL’s biggest fan of Dream Theater (and progressive metal in general but we'll get on that later) So I decided I’d make an article about my top 10 favorite Dream Theater songs (at this time at least because this list changes a lot)


(for more thoughts on the songs from Images And Words check out my review of it)



10.Pull Me Under (Images and Words)

You know what I like in a metal song, when a metal song is so badass it makes me want to get up and destroy almost anything around me. So this entry I will be writing today. The 10 most badass songs in my library. (prepare to see the word badass used a lot in here)


10.First Bite - More than A Thousand

So for once I decided I didn’t want to make an article about nothing but me getting pissed off at shitty music, instead, today I’ll be writing about GOOD music, and to be more specific, I’ll be talking about 5 albums that without them, I wouldn’t be the same person I am now. (note: this list goes in no particular order)


#5. Under The Table and Dreaming – Dave Matthews Band



It’s 2008, I’m digging around in my closet and I find this box with a bunch...

Today, I’d like to talk about Nine Inch Nails. A lot of people seem to love this band, but at the same time a good amount of people seem to hate them as well. I myself have not ever really listened to them in any great lengths, so today I’ll be doing some listening to see what the fuss is all about. So let’s take a look at Nine Inch Nails.

Let’s do some history first.

Nine Inch Nails in an industrial rock band (or project if you don’t like to refer to this as music) founded by Trent Reznor in 1888, and have released seven studio albums up to this point. Reznor is apparently...

Hello everyone it is I, Banks Daniels here to present you the first entry for my column.

Today I’ll be talking about my top 5 favorite songs of all time. So let us cut the crap and begin.

This list really inst as official as I’d like it to be but it is pretty damn close

5. #41 – Dave Matthews Band

Dave Matthews Band was one of the first bands I ever fell in love with, and I fell in love with their music because of their saxophone player. I myself am a sax player (Tenor, since 2008) and when I first listened to this band I was indeed...