WagooMusic

Black Ambient is rooted in black metal. Black metal bands are inspired a lot by horror movie soundtracks, and darker classical music. Black Ambient takes elements of both and adds some metal sensibilities. Groups like Cradle of Filth usually have at least one instrumental track on their albums that can be called Black ambient.

Dark ambient music is similar to black ambient music, however it is older and less about guitars. Basically it is ambient music, made with dark tones and themes in mind. Horror movie music, particularly build up scenes are a very good example. again ambient music would lack the ‘in your face’ qualities of most movie soundtracks, but the comparison works.

For creating either you should focus on the bass. it should make use of deep slowly shifting tones that make your insides shiver. Chanting, low mumbling, dissonant singing at low volume are all things that can add a dark and sinister character to your songs.

Typically any dark sounding loops/recodings you have will work, just slow everything down. Remember the idea is to create atmosphere for the listener.

A simple style, with a long history.

Since the core of drone music is simply the use of long notes and/or sounds, with slight variations in tone, it is very simple to create drone music. any loops/sounds can be used as long as they are more of a droning sound, than melody or beat based.

Try using a drum loops, and cutting it so you have three drum hits.

Make it so you have a loop of each drum hitting constantly.

Lower the volume, and maybe add distortion. This gives you three distinct drones.

Arrange the three drones in whatever pattern sounds good to you.

You can also try duplicating the drones and using the Pitch shift tool, to make your three drones, as many as you want. by Shifting a Pitch level or two, up and down the scale.

If you wanted to you could use just one drone, and duplicate it out a bunch of time altering the pitch by one level for each.

For ideas with Drone, I suggest finding some BagPipe music, since that is where it’s origins lay.

Sure, it’s Rocky with robots, but that doesn’t make it a bad thing.

The first clue that Real Steel may not be just a rollicking big screen take on Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots (which actually may have its own adaptation coming soon) comes in the opening sequence, as Charlie Kenton (Hugh Jackman) travels to a backwater Texas town with the soft stylings of Alexi Murdoch’s “All my Days” playing on the soundtrack. That’s not exactly the type of music you’d expect to hear in a film that’s features behemoth robots pounding each other into oblivion sometime in the near future.

Of course, that’s not ALL that Real Steel is about. as with any good sports film, the sport itself is just a conduit into a hopefully richer story. Here Charlie, a down-on-his-luck-yet-still-cocky former boxer agrees to look after his son, Max (Dakota Goyo), following the death of Max’s mother. Charlie all but abandoned Max after his birth, and is only now taking him on due to a complicated custody agreement between Charlie and Max’s aunt and uncle.

Despite a rocky reunion, Max soon becomes entranced with Charlie’s current job, which is to control boxing robots. the sport has a legitimate agency, but Charlie mostly deals with the underground version, a good match for this oft-shady character. After losing a series of robots due to poor planning and over-confidence, Max finds what at first appears to be a broken-down sparring robot named Atom. but it’s soon obvious that this robot has more to offer than meets the eye, and Max and Charlie do their best to get his talents noticed.

As the Bible says, “There’s nothing new under the sun,” and that goes double for the vast majority of sports movies. So it is with Real Steel, which, under the direction of Shawn Levy and writing of John Gatins, is as predictable as any movie in the history of cinema – if you’ve seen Rocky, then you’ve seen this movie. however, predictability and entertainment are not necessarily mutually exclusive, and Levy and Gatins come through with the latter trait in spite of the former. the CGI of the robots is top notch, and the boxing matches are as brutal and thrilling as any human ones. Atom comes to have somewhat of a personality, even if it/he isn’t a sentient being, which makes its/his journey all the more poignant.

However, the relationship between Charlie and Max is what truly drives the film. thanks to his multiple turns as Wolverine in the X-Men films, Jackman has perfected the lovable lout, so playing Charlie is right up his alley. You know you should dislike him for all the uncaring, selfish things he’s done with his life, but Jackman’s charisma draws you in every time. Goyo, who’s a dead ringer for Jake Lloyd from the Phantom Menace, goes toe-to-toe with Jackman and often comes out the winner. Max has good reason to be bitter with the cards life has dealt him, but Goyo never plays him one-dimensionally. he manages to show Max’s anger, fear, and joy with equal effectiveness.

Other elements of the film, such as Charlie’s pseudo-platonic relationship with boxing gym owner Bailey (Evangeline Lilly) and a running feud between Charlie and a Texas hick, are hit-and-miss. There’s no inherent drama with either of those two side stories since, in fitting with the rest of the film, their endings are preordained. but Lilly, partly thanks to her role as Kate on the TV series Lost, brings a nice mix of sexiness and toughness to Bailey, and a role that could have been lost in the shuffle ends up making an impact.

Real Steel never wavers in its straightforward, crowd-pleasing storytelling. that might be a detriment in some other films, but it actually bolsters this one. Some good old-fashioned father-son bonding mixed with crunching metal makes for a surprisingly good time.

For showtimes for Real Steel, click here.

THE SERIES: so you go to a network with the idea for a television series, a horror themed television series let’s say (they are so popular with the kids these days after all.) you figure if you are lucky it will last five seasons at the outside. to be safe, you map out a three to five season story arc, carefully plotting the key points for each season, building to a fantastic climax and a definitive ending that will blow the socks off whoever is still watching horror themed television series in three to five years (the kids are also so fickle in what they stick with.) Eric Kripke did this back in 2005 and the WB said, “Ok, let’s do it.” Well, five years later (and a network name change to the CW) SUPERNATURAL did something they didn’t quite expect it to. it became a MAJOR cult hit. Its popularity just grew and grew and by the time Season Five started filming, the CW already knew that they weren’t just going to end the adventures of the Winchester Brothers just because the main storyline was going to wrap up. SUPERNATURAL was going to live on as long as the ratings say so.

But Season Five did wrap up the main storyline. Kripke’s job completed he stepped down as the series showrunner (to become a hands-on executive producer) and was replaced by Sera Gamble, one of the shows main writers who has been with the series since Day one. now the question was: where do we go from here? the series’ impending Apocalypse has been averted. Brother Sam (Jared Padalecki) is dead and brother Dean (Jensen Ackles) gets to have a happily ever after life with Lisa (Cindy Sampson). Or does he? Knowing the series would continue past its planned conclusion, seeds were planted back near the end of Season Four and all through Season Five to make sure there were more Big Bads to fight. And if BUFFY THE VAMPIRE THE SLAYER taught us anything, we know there is always another apocalypse just around the corner. Heck, the Slayer died twice in her series and that didn’t stop the Scoobies.

One of the strengths the SUPERNATURAL team had to work with is that they change all the rules every season. Even though there was a solid story through line for those first five seasons, major points that became regular fixtures in a season were usually discarded to keep the next season fresh. for Season six it was decided to give the show a very Film Noir/1940’s mystery style feel. Dead characters are back in the game (and not just Sam); Balthazar (Sebastian Roche) is collecting religious objects; Did Castiel (Misha Collins) make it back to Heaven and why is Crowley (Mark Sheppard) wearing Hell’s crown? Questions need to be answered and how better to seek those answers than as a season long mystery.

While Season six is a rollicking good time, it isn’t as consistently smooth as the previous seasons. there are far more stand alone episodes in this batch that don’t keep the main thread moving. not that a stand alone episode is a bad thing. several of this seasons best episodes didn’t really contribute to the main story, but it give the season as a whole a slower, less confident feeling. It’s as if our new main villain’s story could be told in half a season and they needed to fill the rest rather than building layer upon layer and threat upon threat toward a major climax. But this is Sera Gambles’ first time a showrunner and as such it is expected to have a few hiccups. Overall SUPERNATURAL Season six is a lot of fun filled with the scary, creepy and nightmarish creatures we’ve come to expect and the strong character relationships (well, after the first half of the season at least) that has become the series’ greatest strength. the best aspect of this season is also the best thing any television series can want at seasons’ end: it leaves you completely psyched up for Season Seven.

THE DISC: The quality of the SUPERNATURAL Blu-ray sets has been very consistent and Season six continues that trend. Presented in anamorphic 1.78, the show is very slick looking with extremely impressive detail. Colors are properly dull (as the show intends) but well saturated.

Season six is the first Blu-ray that SUPERNATURAL sports a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack. the very immersive soundscape compliments the excellent picture quality with crystal clarity, soul shaking bass and great directional effects. there is nothing at all to complain about in the technical presentation of this season.

THE EXTRAS: Like previous season sets of SUPERNATURAL, the list of supplements may look mild on paper, but they are very rich with information and completely satisfying in content.

This set’s Supplement Supreme is, as with the previous sets, “the Hunter’s Guide to Season six.” over forty-five featurettes are to be found here, at least two per episode, which cover behind the scenes interviews, photo galleries, examinations of real mythology, etc. the Hunter’s Guide is loads of fun and well worth spending a few hours exploring.

“Jensen Ackles: a Director’s Journey” is a nearly full half hour spent looking at the actor’s first time behind the camera.

“SUPERNATURAL and the Quest for the Soul” has the series’ showrunners and various theologians and experts discussing the human soul, since it is a huge part of this season.

A season “Gag Reel” and a separate section of “Alternate Takes” and “Outtakes” from the episode “the French Mistake” are here.

A pair of audio commentaries for the episodes “Clap Your Hands if you Believe” and “the French Mistake” is well worth a listen.

Finally a pair of episodes from SUPERNATURAL: the Anime Series round out the supplements.

MY SAY: It may have been a bit rocky, but SUPERNATURAL Season six is ultimately a satisfying and fun ride. Fans will need it and newcomers will enjoy it.