Aly & AJ released a relaxed Pop single last week, while Jerry Cantrell and Duff McKagan collaborated on the single "Atone" from Cantrell's "Brighten" album, due out at the end of October. Black Stone Cherry singer Chris Robertson's collaboration with The Picturebooks, "Catch Me If You Can" was also released recently, putting both him and Halestorm's Lzzy Hale on the same album with the same backing band for the first time, though they have sung a duet version of the Black Stone Cherry song "Peace Is Free" on tour. Tina Guo also had a solid version of Bach's "Toccata and Fugue."
Tonight, we get a new album from 80s rock band Night Ranger, as well as the first album by Long Shadows Dawn, a project of Doogie White, a former singer for Rainbow and Michael Schenker. This is one of two albums he's lead singing this year, the other being Alcatrazz's "V," where he takes over the role as Alcatrazz's lead singer from Graham Bonnet, who also sung lead for Rainbow and Michael Schenker. A 50th anniversary deluxe edition of "All Things Must Pass" by George Harrison is also due out, as is a Deluxe Edition of Brian May's "Back To The Light," featuring a live performance of Queen's "Tie Your Mother Down" featuring Slash lending his guitar talents.
Tomorrow is the 35th anniversary of the original release of the first Metroid game on the NES, and later this year Samus' adventure continues with Metroid Dread on the Switch, in which she has a new sleek white and blue power suit and her opponents are killer robots named EMMI. The new game has a bit of a horror vibe, which makes sense because Metroid's genesis was inspired from the Alien and Aliens horror films by Ridley Scott (also the namesake for one of Metroid's most popular characters/recurring bosses) and James Cameron, though this is the first time I've seen horror emphasized in the trailer for the game. My biggest hope for the game is a continued return to focus on Samus Aran and her adventure, rather than showcasing other human characters interacting with this world and forcing a love interest into the game series, which was done in Metroid; Other M, the Wii entry in the series. I honestly want to play it for how exciting it looks regardless, but I am hoping the plot is fairly straightforward and the focus is mainly, if not solely, on Samus, like in Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and the Metroid Prime trilogy, the highlights of the series.
I have also heard rumors that an updated version of Persona 4 Arena Ultimax may be released on the Switch next year. I am hopeful this is true, the game has many of my favorites from the series in action and rather than being a long JRPG that requires 40-100 hours of gameplay to complete, this is a fighting game that has a story mode that probably could be done in an afternoon, or at least, significantly less time. I typed in "Persona 4 Arena Ultimax Switch" in YouTube to see if I could find anything further, but while there was a video of someone wanting to hashtag the re-release into existence, there was no further news. There was, however, a clip from the game where Rise Kujikawa, a J-Pop star from Persona 4, awakens to her Persona's offensive powers after encountering Elizabeth, the mysterious Velvet Room Attendant from Persona 3. Both of these characters are among my favorites from the series; Elizabeth even being one of my mains in the crossover Blazblue; Crosstag Battle, and this was the first time I can recall a conversation between a Laura Bailey-voiced character and a Tara Platt-voiced character. As such, I shared the video on Facebook and Twitter with the caption "Jester meets Edelgard," referencing Bailey's Critical Role character and Platt's most popular Fire Emblem character. I hope my brother appreciates that.
I also heard BabyMetal has posted on their Twitter that they will disappear come mid-September, given the fact that the band presents much of themselves in Kitsune/fox god mythology, it's not too clear what this means, a hiatus, a breakup, or a rebirth into a new band to debut later, but it's hopeful that their music will continue in some form and they will return to the public eye with both recordings and performances some time in the future. I have always found backing-singer/dancer Moametal adorable, even buying a Funko Pop of her some years ago, and would hate for her to vanish forever unless it is necessary for her mental health (I read some stuff about Britney Spears' trial in June and it made me wish she could retire to some form of normalcy, no control from restrictive outsiders or objectification from fame). But we'll see what it all means and what the future holds as it arrives, we can only speculate the exact meaning of this and the above paragraphs for now. I know a lot of people's patience has worn thin, including mine, but we also have no control over these situations and it's not wise to attempt to have control by carrying out magical thinking activities, they just produce stress and they likely will not "work."
The most inappropriate thing I might've done this week is post a question on Facebook and Twitter that we should arrest three severely partisan politicians, but I am honestly tired of living in fear of lectures or violence from my Republican neighbors and family members. I am 32 years old and I don't need people telling me how to believe in Jesus when I have a Christian church I attend online regularly that fills me with peace and contentment rather than contempt, anger and sadness. I am not sorry for suggesting these people should be arrested, as I feel they deserve to be handcuffed for threatening the safety of my Church, my family there and my means of entertainment on a regular basis and viewing me as a Biblically illiterate imbecile who just needs a "damn good lecture/spanking" into their carbon copy. If someone taped a note to my door that said "I'm gonna kill you, you Nazi, because Nazis were gay and pagan, which you are!" I would call the police and be upset that the lie claiming their was no fanatic legalism or acts of dragging Jesus into the mud in the Nazi party, which I have found, when I look at history, was what they were all about. This Stalinist style of rewritten history to remove all your blemishes and make you look better has no place in this country and it never did.
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