Blackbear - Help (REVIEW)

2015 has been a busy year for Blackbear, he released his debut album Dead Roses, the Dead EP and his sophomore album Help. I was instantly hooked to Blackbear's music after hearing his Teenage Waste EP in 2012 and I have since purchased everything else he has released. "Help" came as a surprise when it was announced a few prior to its release and as a huge fan I instantly pre-ordered it. After giving the album a good listen, here is my honest opinion.

The lyrics consisted of catchy one-liners but they paled in comparison to Blackbear's earlier work. They were not memorable and were easily forgotten after a few listens. I can't help but feel he catered to the typical pop fans who listen to singles and not albums.

The beats were incredibly repetitive and did not go anywhere at all. I was disappointed as Bear has always made amazing instrumentals but this release is a complete let down. Often songs would start off with a looping beat which would not change at all. 

The album has its moments of standout tracks but as a whole It has too many fillers. Standout songs were Oh Lord, Where Was U, Help and Different Ho's. The rest just blended in and had no replay value at all. I'm not sure if he has ran out of ideas from releasing too much material this year or if he simply rushed this album but I think If Blackbear took the 5 strongest songs and rather put them into an EP then it would of been a much stronger release. This is the weakest Blackbear release to date.

Is Post Hardcore Dead?

The late 2000's and early 2010's saw a massive Post-Hardcore movement with bands such as The Used, Underoath, Asking Alexandria and more leading the pack. Most of the Post-Hardcore bands went on to release career and genre defining albums but that did not last long.

We saw Attack Attack!, Abandon All Ships, Confide, Underoath and Woe, Is Me call it quits. These bands all released great albums but each following album saw a major shift in band members and sound. What caused this.. fame? money? personal differences? I can't say for sure but many bands expressed how tough the touring life was and how little profit was actually made after recording and tours. We all know the impact of piracy and how artists and labels suffer but surely someone has to have made money off touring or merch, maybe the label?

Our favorite acts like Bring Me The Horizon, Of Mice & Men, The Devil Wears Prada, We Came As Romans changed their sound drastically to the point where they did not even sound like the same band we first heard. Many people lost interest but the bands gained new mainstream fans who wanted hit after hit. The biggest offender here would be Bring Me The Horizon as they no longer play heavy music, instead they have moved onto pop rock, electronic and easy going metal and also completely alienated their core fans and are now the poster boys for pop rock.
More recently these bands have opted out of heavy chugging and breakdowns choosing to rather fill songs with 2000 era "Nu Metal" riffs and grooves, I can't help but feel like we've all heard this too much before and that the bands should definitely not be bringing it back at this point in time.

While most of the bands we used to like are no longer on our playlists due to musical changes we have to thank A Day To Remember, August Burns Red, Dance Gavin Dance and I See Stars for sticking to their guns. Is Post-Hardcore dead? What will the next bandwagon be? You be the judge.

Dell Latitude 3550 Laptop Review & Video

Dell Latitude 3550 is small business and home user laptop released in 2015. This particular model sports a i5 5200U CPU, 8GB DDR3 Ram, 1TB Hard Drive and a Nvidia Geforce 820M Graphics Card. Let's have a look at the Pros and Cons,

Pros:

• Full HD 1920 x 1080 Display
• Fast i5 CPU
• Slim Design
• Fairly lightweight
• Well built and comfortable keyboard

Cons:

• Matte Design gathers fingerprints easily
• Poor Battery Life
• Cheap trackpad design
• No SSD Hard Drive.

Overall it is a good laptop and not bad for the price. The system is capable of some light gaming with newer games but can cause the system to get very hot. Recommend this for home users who use web browsing, media and light gaming.

Watch the Review Below:

A$AP Rocky - At.Long.Last.A$AP (REVIEW)

A$AP Rocky is a Harlem rapper and member of the A$AP Mob group.
To date he has released two full length albums, mixtape and has had a large number of features on other rappers songs. Rocky decided to drop his new album titled At.Long.Last.A$AP early, which seems to be the "In Thing" these days. He has definitely turned down a bit more on this one and gone for a more trippy sound.

Things I liked:

• Wide vocabulary when it came to lyrics.
• Clean and crisp production.
• Variety of instrumentals crossing many genres, not just rap.
• Good flow of songs and tracks fitted in the right places.
• Impressive list of features.
• Great artwork (Tribute to A$AP Yams)

Things I didn't like:

• Repetitive beats/instrumentals.
• Repetitive lyrics 
• Songs were too long and could have been cut shorter.
• Kanye West feature was pointless and featured really terrible lyrics that did not fit with the song theme.
• Too many songs: while it was good to see 18 songs, at least 5 felt like pointless fillers. If Rocky cut out those fillers it would be a better listen.

Final Thoughts

Do I like the album? Yes, its a good follow up to Long.Live.A$AP.

Would I listen to the full album again? No, but I do have a handful of songs that will be on repeat (the first half of the album). Fans will be impressed and will most likely enjoy the songs. I feel that Rocky should have made more "Bangers" because that is where he shines, there are just too many chilled songs which end up leaving you bored.

From First To Last - Dead Trees: Comeback or not?

When From First To Last announced they were making a comeback and recording a new EP I was beyond excited. I first started listening to the band in 2005 when I heard their debut album "Dear Diary, My Teen Angst has a Body Count" and even though they underwent many line-up changes I still remained a loyal fan.

So a few weeks after the announcement they decided to recruit Spencer Sotelo from Periphery as the vocalist for the EP, I must admit I mixed feelings since I love both Spencer and Matt's vocals, in fact I think Matt Good is the best vocalist that FFTL has ever had. With my mixed feelings in hand I was still optimistic as this could potentially bring a new fresh sound to the band. In November 2014 the band announced the new album would be called Dead Trees and that it would be a full length album instead of a EP. I Finally managed to get my hands on the album in April 2015 and these are my thoughts...

The album starts off with a rather unnecessary intro which leads into a heavy track called "Straight to the Face". Both of these tracks sound nothing like FFTL and combined last just shy of two and a half minutes. Next is a track called "M8 Meh", this sounds more like a FFTL song with some heavier elements. The album Title track "Dead Trees" is an instant classic with a memorable sing-a-long chorus, I can see this being played in their future live sets. "Black and White" tries quite hard to be catchy with its predictable sappy lyrics but it does offer a great instrumental. The album slows down with "Back to Hannalei" and really showcases Spencer's superb vocals, its one of the better tracks on the album in my opinion. Things get heavy with "Never in Reverie" and "2 11" but these tracks don't really offer anything memorable and forgotten when the next track starts. "Electrified" comes through with a pop-metal sound and even some Slipknot influences, I really liked this bouncy track. The final song " I Don't Wanna Live in the Real World" reminds me of The Used with their usual pop acoustic sound but does contain come comedic catchy lyrics. As a added bonus FFTL re-recorded "Note To Self", "Ride the Wings of Pestilence" and "The Latest Plague" with Spencer on vocals and Wow, I was impressed. Spencer nailed the songs and brought a fresh sound to them.

Overall I found the album to be average at best. It had its moments but I don't see myself revisiting this album as a whole like I would with Dear Diary or Heroine. I can however say that I will definitely have a few of these tracks on repeat. Spencer does a great job on vocals but I honestly feel the album would of sounded more like a FFTL album with Matt Good on vocals. To me this does not really sound like a FFTL record, in fact it sounds more like a side project. A lot of the songs on here fall short of being memorable and often sound the same. I really hoped for a great comeback record but unfortunately it did not live up to all the hype.

If I had to put a rating on this album it would be a 4/10.

Dell Inspiron 5548 Laptop Review

The Inspiron 5548 laptop is one of the newest mid-range releases from Dell and replaces the 2014 Inspiron 5547. It sports a slimmer design compared to the previous Inspirons as well as some impressive specs. If you are looking for a well built laptop with great overall performance then you have found the right system.

Under the hood

• Intel i5 5200U 2.2GHz CPU (2 Cores with Hyper Threading)
• 8GB DDR3 1600MHz RAM
• 1 Terabyte Western Digital Blue Hard Drive (5400RPM) 
• ATI 2GB R7 M265 Graphics Card
• High Definition 15.6" Non-Touch LED Screen (1366x768)
• Full Numerical Keyboard
• MaxxAudio Speakers
• Multi Gesture Touchpad
• 1 USB 2.0, 2x USB 3.0, SDCard slot , LAN, Audio Jack and HDMI Connection.

The laptop is sturdy and well built, the screen lid is covered with brushed silver aluminium while the rest of the body is covered in hard matte plastic. Even though it is covered in plastic it does not feel cheap, it is definitely built to last. This system falls inbetween the Regular and Ultrabook range.

I really enjoyed typing on the keyboard as it fell solid and comfortable. My favorite thing about this keyboard is that it is very spacious and gives you plenty of room to type. Another great addition is the new Multi Gesture touchpad which is a first for Dell, it closely resembles the touchpads on Apple Macbooks. It does however not come close to Apple's as it can be unresponsive and sticky at times.

I was completely taken back by the performance of this system, it handled all the games I threw at it and effortlessly handled daily tasks like Word processing, internet browsing and watching movies. I found the battery life to be average at best - it lasted 2 hours when gaming and about 6 hours when performing my daily tasks. If you want great off charge battery time you will need to enable all power saving settings and stay away from the games. If you are going to play games make sure you have the charger plugged in to allow maximum performance.

Hard drive performance is average and is nothing to boast about, but what else would you expect from a 5400RPM drive? I purchased a Samsung EVO 256GB SSD and cloned the system, the difference was night and day. The laptop took 30 seconds to boot with the stock hard drive and only 5 seconds with the SSD. If you want to improve this systems performance by 50% I highly recommend ditching the stock hard drive and installing a SSD.

Windows 8.1 Single Language (64 bit) comes pre-installed as the operating system and supports a upgrade to Windows 8.1 Professional if you purchase a upgrade key. You can compare versions here. Microsoft Office 2013 and McAfee trial software comes re-installed but can be removed or purchased. You will be happy to know that there is no annoying bloatware besides the regular Dell Backup and Registration software.

Good for Gaming?
Being a avid gamer I just had to add this section in. The ATI R7 M265 may be a mobile graphics card but it sure packs some serious punch. I played Battlefield 4, Counter Strike Go, GTA IV, Watch Dogs and Fifa 14 at Medium to High settings with no problems at all.
I have to mention that the laptop did get quite hot after an hour of gameplay, it reached 60-75 Degrees Celcius which according to Dell is safe. I would highly recommend purchasing a cooling pad to provide some extra cooling and ventilation.

Pros	Cons
Great gaming performance	Average Battery Life
Lightweight and Portable	No DVD Writer
Comfortable Keyboard	LED Screen could be better
Solid design	No SSD Hard Drive

I give this laptop a 7/10.

What do you think of laptop? do you like it do you hate it? Leave your comments in the section below.