I PRESENT: WITHIN TEMPTATION'S THE UNFORGIVING REVIEW

(SUMMON MOVIE PREVIEW GUY VOICE)

IN A WORLD WHERE SYMPHONIC METAL IS DOMINATED BY FEMALE LEAD SINGERS…
ONE BAND DARES TO DO THE EXACT SAME THING…
WHO CAN POSSIBLY SURVIVE THIS NON-CLASH OF IDEALS?

First of all, let me just present the award for "album cover that makes me think there has been some kind of massive change to the band, or I had a stroke" to Within Temptation, for the cover of The Unforgiving (so that's already like ten times I've put The Unforgiven instead the first time). Saying it's…

Salutations, fellow mortals.

TL;DR: I am some jerk from the internet, here to tell you who was better than me, you, and the rest of the world in 2010.

Now, uh, actually remembering what happened this year is a test of my mental powers, and will thus likely be an exercise in futility, so don't be surprised if I include things that didn't happen this year, then proceed to delete it and/or change it and deny that it ever happened. If you don't think I'll do it, TEST ME.

Oh yeah, and many of these awards may actually have…

holy fuck this turned out way longer than I intended, so for your convenience…

TL;DR: KAMELOT > TARJA >>>>>>>> TRISTANIA.

Those who feel like wading through my drunken ramblings, read on!

This journal is brought to you by Ennio Morricone's Il Triello, the best duel song ever. If you disagree, you are wrong.

In a ridiculous occurence, we have three leaks within a matter of a week, and they just happen to be three of the more anticipated (lol) albums of the year…to some people. I'm just gonna compare them song by song…because I'm too lazy to do…

I felt like posting something while I listened to this for the first time. I don't really know what to expect, but first indications aren't promising.

Year of the Rat - First of all, this really isn't Tristania anymore. In the first minute and a half, they sound completely different…and it's not just Mary's voice. I mean, the song is decent enough, but it really just sounds weird to me. The chorus is catchy as hell, but as far as the entire catalogue of the band goes, it falls far short of their best songs. (6/10)

Protection - I think…

Here is the definitive list of most popular topics in the Nightbox, as calculated by our supercomputer over here at Jerk Jones Industries. Now, we here in the lab are going to keep our data compilation short and sweet, due to it being early in the morning here in the future, and we have to go to work on the moon in about five hours. Good luck out there, soldiers.

In case it wasn't painfully obvious to you already by the format below, and you had to look back up to the top for more information like a jackass, this…

Forget March Madness…Here's NIGHTWISH MADNESS! After I finished Muse Madness last summer, I started pondering which band I should do next. I finally settled on Nightwish. I figure, due to the highly devoted and/or disgruntled fanbase, it should be a good time. Let's hope for lots of upsets!

Now, in the last installment of Madness, I basically just ranked the songs based on which ones I thought were better. This time, it is based on the number of listeners of that specific song . In the tournament, we've got the #1 overall seed, Nemo, with a total of 190,653…

Okay, I figured I'd do another one of these, but this time it has a slight twist. I used my most played artists over the last 6 months, but removed all of the bands with more than 25,000,000 plays on last.fm, so hopefully it'll be a little more competitive. So, without further ado, here's the lineup. Just nominate a first place and second place for each group.

Group A:
Flogging Molly
Wolfmother
Eagles of Death Metal
The Bravery

Group B
Ennio Morricone
James Newton Howard
Hans Zimmer
Tyler Bates

Group C
Killswitch Engage
Damone
Dropkick Murphys
Kasabian

Group D…

Well, my music taste changes randomly…it seems to change completely every 3 days or so. I figured I'd run through this before I end up never listening to any of these songs again. I also haven't done a journal in a while…so it works out well.

1. Ayreon - Ride The Comet (36 Plays)
This also ends up being my top played track for 6 months as well…4th for the last year. I originally listened to this track only because I heard Magali Luyten did some of the vocals, and I hadn't heard anything from here since the Beautiful Sin…

Well, it's been a while, but here's the finals of Muse Madness. Lots of surprises along the way, but I can't say i'm too surprised with the last two songs left in the tournament. With no further ado…here's the matchup.

Finals

Stockholm Syndrome vs. New Born

Stockholm Syndrome (Absolution):
1st Round - Defeated Eternally Missed 6-0
2nd Round - Defeated Apocalypse Please 4-2
Sweet 16 - Defeated The Small Print 5-2
Elite 8 - Defeated Hysteria 6-5
Final Four - Defeated Muscle Museum 7-2
Total Record: 28-11

New Born (Origin of Symmetry):
1st Round - Defeated Shrinking Universe 6-0
2nd…

It's finally time for the Muse Madness Final Four, after I disappear for two weeks. We had two ties in the last round including my votes(SS v Hysteria and New Born v Citizen Erased), so I decided not to include my own votes to break the tie, thus CE and Hysteria were sent packing. Let's take a look at the final four and how the four songs got to this point.

First Match

Muscle Museum vs. Stockholm Syndrome

Muscle Museum (2 seed in Showbiz Bracket):
1st Round - Defeated Yes Please 6-0
2nd Round - Defeated Escape 6-0
Sweet 16…