Bon Jovi "This House Is Not For Sale" - record review

"The Band you love(d) the most is back". With this slogan Bon Jovi announced their new record this summer. For this occasion, I thought it would be nice to make a little review about the latest work of Bon Jovi. But before getting even started, you need to have some background information about my story with Bon Jovi.

Since a little boy of four years old, Jon Bon Jovi was my idol and still is. Not only his music with the band is fantastic, even more impressionable is his character (still married to the same wife, no heavy scandals, does charity, is humble, etc.). Bon Jovi also affected our music a lot.

Probably you think how I might write an objective review about the new record. Easy. Since the record "The Circle", Bon Jovi missed in my opinion the point to change their music. Because all of them are getting older, it was at least clear to me that they couldn't hold their high level of perfection in music. Still the world tour in 2010/2011 was perfectly played when Richie came out of rehab again. The record "What About Now" in turn, was a solid record with good stuff on it. But the live show I saw in 2013 at Bern was not good. Jon didn't have the energy to sing all songs right. I was actually really disappointed. At this point, I felt confirmed in my opinion. So when I heard that Bon Jovi came back again with a new record, I wasn't psyched about it. I was afraid that my idol would break and loos all the credibility and integrity they've held up for so long.

So with a pessimistic attitude I bought the single "This House Is Not For Sale". And I had to confess, the more I listened to it the more I started to like it very much. Kind of a typical Bon Jovi thing though. But then came the record. Right away I have to tell you, Bon Jovi turned it around!

Heavy drums, hard guitars coupled with nice melodies, beautiful keys, smooth bright bass, typical choir and a lower adapted voice of Jon which sounds mature and fit. Besides the technical parts, most of all songs are arranged differently and vary in the style of sound (e.g. "Come On Up To Our House" and "The Devil's In The Temple"), even though the record has a clear structure (find out about these terms more on my section "how to write a good rock song"). The lyrics of the songs seem to reflect their souls and seem honest. Proof it with songs like "Scars On This Guitar" for example.

A big credit for the turning point goes in my opinion to Phil X. As the new guitarist he fits in the band perfectly which you hear on the album. He brings in fresh and bold diversity in the guitar sound, almost as Richie did in the early years, but isn't overloading the songs with too much guitars. Same for the solos, Phil brings in perfection without pushing it too hard. 

With this fresh wind of Phil X, songs like "Roller Coaster" or "New Years Day" bring Bon Jovi definitely back. And of course the rock ballads aren't missing. Bon Jovi show again with "Labor Of Love" or "Real Love" that they are kings in this category.

In sum, the record puts Bon Jovi back on top, where they belong!

Congratulations to this fantastic work!

Enjoy Seasplash

Second Release "Black n' Red"

Like I have announced earlierer in September 2016, our second album "Black n' Red" is out now. Besides the background story of the record and the single version of the song "The Crying Train" we will do a little making of video of the song "Heroin". Though the video is still in production, you will be informed over all plattforms of our social network. 

click here to listen to the single version of "The Crying Train"

In the meantime, check out some other songs we have on the new record (click on the link below).

Black n' Red
 

We are especially proud of our cover song! Share your opinion about this cover on social media!

Thanks for your support and enjoy Seasplash!

Story behind the record "Black n' Red"

As you already know, we produced our second record called “Black n’ Red” in 2012. This September the record will be released online. For this occasion we want to take you on the journey behind the scenes. This post starts the journey by explaining what the story behind “Black n’ Red” is. Besides this post, we’ll release a making of video of the song “Heroin” and do more stuff. 

Unlike the first record, which was basically a compilation of our best songs at the time, the album “Black n’ Red” has a certain complexity in it. This complexity is the frame of the painting and represents simply contradistinction or if you will contrasts.

As you could imagine the color black itself stands for dark, unpleasant, scary, or shocky scenes where the color red stands for warm, carrying, committing, or lightened scenes. The contrast line starts with the titel itself. The contrast of black and red comes from the ancient Greece with their mythology where they considered black and red as contradistinction. They thought that red (Eros) stood for love and life, and black (Tanatos) for death. These two symbols are placed in the whole record and appear in different forms. As already mentioned, the first form is the titel of the record itself.

The second appearance makes the track list. This list begins with dark songs and ends up with light and warmer songs. Though the album is in our opinion a classic heavy metal album, the contrast is marked by the melodies and arrangements of the songs. For instance, some songs content both symbols in the lyrics like the song Heroin, Goodbye or 666. Other songs only symbolize black (Tanatos) like Forsaken, the rest only symbolizes red (Eros), like “The Crying Train” or “What it’s worth for”. Also the dark songs are played in minor, where the love songs are played in major. There you have the second contrast.

The third appearance of the contrast makes the lyrics of each song. “Heroin” for example paints a scene where people get bound to drugs. The craving for it or the love they get of the sugar stands for the red.The sad end by the last shot stands of course for black. The contrast lives in this bizzar coexistance. Another contrast appears in the song “Goodbye". Though the song itself is played in D major the story is about a man who loses the fight against cancer. One contrast there. The second in this song is this. The man does not regret what happens in his life and thanks to his wife. This is red. After he died (black), he waits at the gates for her which is red again, though he stands on the dark side. Considering the ancient Greece again, this is about the river "stycs" where the dead stand on one side and the living on the other side. But it is possible to wait at the border for the living and watch them.

You see that this record is all about these two symbols, black and red. But why?

The point is that death is for certain and bad things can happen anytime. And still, if I didn't fear these things to happen I would be ready to receive the good and positive things like love. Death means here more than just the end of a humanbeing. It also means in a metaphoric way a loss of something. To me, love and death are the two dominant but subconscious motivators in human lifes. Most of us search for the one love. Having found it, the next station for both would be death. Maybe they stay together until the end of their lifes or maybe their love falls appart (metaphorical death) and the new search for someone or something to love starts all over again. We can not escape nor controll both things. They just happen because we are humanbeings. Though this view seems to be fatalistic, it also means you should not be afraid of dying because it happens normally in a natural way. However, what I want to say is that: What ever happens in life, it is heavier to keep on carying for something you love than throwing it away or letting it dying.

In sum, the record makes you think about the mentioned issue and takes you on an emotional ride with ups and downs. Don't miss it out!

Stay tuned for more information.

Enjoy Seasplash!

How to write a good rock song - Part 3

The "wake up session" 

This is the last section of three in which I give you some advices about writing a good rock song. In the first two sections, I showed two options of composing a song in a processing and successful way. In this post, I'm going to present the last and the most efficient way to write a good song. I call it the "wake up session".

First of all, this way is something that happens by occasion. You can't train this. Here is why:

The "wake up session" means simply that a story or melody pops right away into your head. The result is a clear sound picture in mind. I happened to have one of these when I was dreaming.  I dreamed about a melody then woke up and just wrote these lyrics and/or melody down. You see this happens suddenly and you can't plan it.  It can happen anytime.  However, if that happens, be ready and write it immediately down. In sum, this option of song writing gives you right away a complete structure with content of a song. But what makes this option the best way of writing a good rock song?

Like I have already pointed out, a clear sound picture is the key to a good rock song. Sure, also the arrangement of the instruments needs to be done great. But that is why the sound picture draws you the structure of the whole song including lyrics, melody, the story or message, and the arrangement of it. Our song "You and Me" happened like that. I woke up and just remembered the dream I had about the last crusade and that Christianity's values of altruism is to care and love what you've got in your life. Nowadays we are still fighting each other for such values. Besides this story, I dreamed about this melody which sounded like a middle aged aria. By the way, that's why at the last chorus of this song I try to sing like an opera singer to put in some dramatic effect. At the moment I wrote down the melody and lyrics, I imagined right away the arrangement of the song with the heavy guitars at the end. 

Though it's not the issue about discussing whether "You and Me" is a good rock song or not, but this option of writing a song is the easiest and most successful way. And still it happens by occasion. So keep your mind sharp and creative for such chances, and don't drink too much because you don’t want to miss out on these dreams. I know of what I'm talking about ;)

I hope you enjoyed these sections about writing a good rock song and you may use a couple of advices for your songwriting. But remember, songwriting should besides all technics and strategies still be a thing that comes from your heart!

The next post takes place in August. Till then, take care and stay tuned for more information.

Enjoy Seasplash!

https://play.google.com/store/music/album?id=By7si7lr33lrw3qmtbb77553e6e&tid=song-T5nm3nvgbidua2avz2bl4roudai&hl=de