The News Review:

- What would Jesus listen to? A Catholic looks at Christian rock.
- >> Isis are humble about leading
- Textiles class links pop culture clothing
- MLG launches Game Room web site for your game videos
- Dreams Nightmares and Sonata Arctica
- Music Review | No Fun Fest
- Analysts help prop up volatile miners

What would Jesus listen to? A Catholic looks at Christian rock.
Free with registration – America – AccessMyLibrary.com – May 21, 2007
Their music was heavy and loud and the beat was inviting the kind of music you could pump your fist to. The year was 1987 and the band was Stryper a heavy metal band to be sure but one that identified itself as “Christian. ” As a teenager I was intrigued by Stryper’s image and its music which sounded quite similar to many other mainstream “hair metal” bands of the day. But after listening to their songs I understood why they were different from other rock bands. They did not sing about sex or the occult nor did they guzzle booze or bite the heads off bats like zzy sbourne. Their message was clearly very different from their more worldly musical peers. In the 20 years since Stryper helped to popularize “Christian Rock” the genre has grown substantially and several contemporary groups have enjoyed a level of success their predecessors could not have imagined.

>> Isis are humble about leading
Montreal Mirror – May 21, 2007
The band’s innovative sound has placed them in unfamiliar territory for most underground metal bands but Isis has risen to the challenge by playing comfortably in arenas when last year they were hand-picked as Tool’s tour openers further swelling their fan base. Isis also challenged metal’s confines with a series of remix records drawn from ceanic as well as collaboration with noise artist Tim Hecker and a free concert at the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art. “We definitely come from a metal background but even I will admit that when people mention aggressive music or whatever I think of meatheads moshing around to Slayer or Pantera or something. What a lot of metal is now is not what people equate with metal 20 years ago. You can’t really say one band in particular is responsible for what’s happening right now but people from metal backgrounds are definitely incorporating different styles into what they do now. You have bands like the Swans that influenced bands like Neurosis and Godflesh who in turn influenced bands like Pelican or us or even Mogwai to some degree. Isis are continuously heralded as the forefathers and innovators of post-metal psych-metal avant-garde metal or whatever you want to call it but the band insist they are just trying to evolve and won’t get bogged down in people’s definitions of what they do.

Textiles class links pop culture clothing
thelantern.com – May 21, 2007
She said it is supposed to be a lecture class but she has turned it into a discussion. “I don’t want them (students) to just regurgitate facts but actually learn something” Strubel said. Ben lson who was also a guest speaker for the class exposed students to black metal music. He explained to students how Satanism plays an important role in this kind of music and how the musicians express it through their lyrics and dress. “I really enjoyed when we talked about music’s influence on fashion and how artists are coming out with their own fashion lines” said Angelique Benton a freshman in art. Brittany Crowder a senior in political science said she loves the diversity of the topics and although it is just an elective for her she wishes she was a fashion major or minor. “It’s interesting to learn about the clothes people wear and the meanings behind them” Crowder said.

MLG launches Game Room web site for your game videos
Gadgetell – May 21, 2007
com and the beta version of MLG’s Game Room site. (MLG is one of the few professional gaming leagues in the world hiring gamers and sponsoring them in tournaments – yep they get paid to play). MLG’s Game Room also has the usual tags so you can embed a video into your site use a URL for emailing and some BBCode. Below is the most popular video so far set to some lovely metal music.

Dreams Nightmares and Sonata Arctica
PopMatters – May 21, 2007
“I think it’s because the melodies there are kind of sad often beautiful in a way” he says. “And we are this sad Slavic country and the culture is from that side so the most popular music in Finland is generally kind of sad. So it’s kind of easy for us to make this sad beautiful music and then when you apply the whole metal thing you have that melodic metal sound. There are many different musical cultures layered in Finland but metal is a really big thing at the moment. ”Kakko is in New York City doing promotional work for Unia Sonata Arctica’s fifth studio album. Formed in 1996 the band displayed extraordinary skill at relentlessly contagious power metal from day one and over the last eight years have amassed a very impressive back catalogue highlighted by such gems as “Fullmoon” “8th Commandment” “Black Sheep” “San Sebastian” “Victoria’s Secret” and “The Cage” with 2004’s Reckoning Night selling especially well in Europe and Japan and topping the charts in their home country.

Music Review | No Fun Fest
New York Times – May 21, 2007
There was a metallic threshing sound then something that resembled the roar of pummeling surf from an underwater perspective. The overall effect was visceral as well as artful and the crowd responded with some scattered moshing. Catharsis has become a mandate of this wing of experimental music partly as a result of its association with doom metal and other sludgy variations. Masochism can quickly become part of the deal. During an abrasive set by the electronic artists Tom Recchion blivia and Ju Suk Reet Meate this point was crystallized by the appearance of a stage crasher who somberly removed his shirt and then toppled to the stage like felled timber. Sickness and Slogun playing consecutive sets attacked the audience with derision as if antagonism were the only reception they could withstand. Chris Goudreau who performs as Sickness paced and sulked for a while before cutting his performance short; John Balistreri who goes by Slogun spent a few minutes glowering with his arms crossed.

Analysts help prop up volatile miners
guardian.co.uk – May 21, 2007
D&G added 80p to £13. 34 valuing it at nearly £500m. And music group EMI soared 23p to 271p. The shares were strong on talk that private equity firm Terra Firma could bid and remained strong as the company issued a poor set of results unexpectedly at around 4. 15 in the afternoon. That was soon explained as Terra Firma did indeed make a 265p a share recommended bid for EMI which has also been courted by Warner Music. Analysts said the EMI share price rise suggested that investors believed the story was far from over.