As I Lay Dying Tease New Material

As we all know, Tim Lambesis is in jail and out of As I Lay Dying. The band posted videos over their Instagram accounts of them playing some material, but the vocals don't belong to Tim. They, in fact, belong to their bass player, Josh.

Final Fantasy 14 Trial for PS4 Owners

If you own a PS4 (if you don't, you're missing out!), you can try out Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn as part of the game's open beta test from now until April 7th.

The test, which started this morning and runs until April 7, will allow anyone who owns a PS4 to jump into the MMO without needing to register beforehand. Additionally, the test makes use of the live servers, meaning you'll be playing alongside both PS3 and PC players and, if you decide to buy the game when it releases, the character you make this weekend will be carried over for you to use.

Bryan Cranston to Release Memoir

Bryan Cranston will be releasing a memoir in 2015,  in which he plans to “tell the stories of my life and reveal the secrets and lies that I lived with for six years shooting ‘Breaking Bad’.”

Interview: Bert McCracken - The Used (SXSW)

Our friends over at Vinyl Mag did an interview with Bert McCracken from The Used at SXSW

VM: How do you feel like you have evolved as a band and stayed relevant since starting out 13 years ago?

BM: I think the relevance is in part to do with our passion, and also directly a product of honest, pure love of music…there are a lot of bands out there like The Used that are just truly passionate about what they do, because they love music. And I think that is the most important thing for us – status aside, money aside, attention aside, everything else aside – other than this unadulterated love for music.

Show Review: The American Dream Tour (Portland, OR)

I started this show with high expectations hoping that every band would hit it off. I felt there were more emotion from the crowd then the bands themselves. Even though it was the last few days of the tour, they should still have some energy to put on the same performance as the first few shows. I have seen all of these bands before and it just was not the same this time.

Letlive was the opening band and I had really high expectations for them for seeing them at Vans Warped Tour 2013. Quite disappointing. I paid to see a show not some monkey jumping around for a half an hour. Letlive will be coming back to Portland in May with Architects in a smaller venue and maybe Jason will feel the need to actually perform.  Letlive is a humble band, but the performance was poor and the crowd was not happy with them during the show. On another note Jason does NOT care about the venues rules or anything. Jumping on PA systems and the venues sound equipment isn’t just unsafe, but can damage them. I will be surprised if letlive in a few years can even get shows in a decent venue since venues will be put up with his shit.

Issues was the only band on this tour that actually put in energy to their show and made it entertaining. I was not a huge fan of Issues until after they played. They put on an awesome show while entertaining the fans. The crowd had more of an reaction towards them compared to the other bands. They put in the same energy compared to the show they played in November with Sleeping with Sirens and Our Last Night. Issues will never let down their fans.

This was the fourth time I have seen Of Mice & Men. Since I have seen their stage performance before I had REALLY high expectations for their set. Disappointed. Since they have got their new vocalist, Aaron Pauley they have only played new songs off Restoring Force. The new album does not have the heart and the backbone of old Of Mice. It makes you wonder if another band got suckered in the music industry and will slowly deplete their talent. Why is Of mice & men using 7 strings when they are still an over rated Post hardcore band. If they wanted to become a heavy metal band, get rid of the cleans and up those screams Carlile. There is NO reason for a band like this to use 7 strings. The show they put on was disappointing.

The headliner, Bring me the horizon actually surprised me. Not with their stage presence but with the stage effects. They made use of the stage with a second stage set up for their keyboardist and Drummer. They interacted with the fans and Oliver Sykes actually didn’t sound like shit with his vocals this time. I only stayed for four songs but the crowd was enjoying them and they put on a hell of a show. Their setlist was disappointing with mostly only playing their new stuff. The actually show performance from them was disappointing only because I saw the crowd singing more then Oliver Sykes himself.

Adam Sessler leaves Rev3 Games

Adam Sessler, former host of X-Play on G4TV back in the day, announced he's leaving Rev3 Games to "explore new avenues inside of gaming..."

After some incredible achievements over the last year and a half, I am announcing my departure from Rev3 Games and Discovery Digital Networks. Sixteen years in front of the camera covering the video game industry has brought me to a point where I am ready and desiring to explore new opportunities. While I would never say no to doing one more review, interview or opinion piece, the time feels right to explore new avenues inside of gaming that help further the medium. The audience, my wonderful and talented co-workers and the last year at Rev3 Games will forever be appreciated for what was accomplished. There never is a right time to part ways with something that has become as natural as breathing, but things do end and now feels right.

Emery Crowd funding Campaign

Emery as we all know has left Tooth & Nail Records and have started up their own company called Bad Christian Records. Now, on the Bad Christian website there's a campaign to help Emery raise money to support their new album, "You Were Never Alone". 

There are various packages that can be purchased to help support the album, which can be found here: http://badchristian.com/campaign/newemery/