In case you haven’t already guessed, hardcore sports blogging topics in Canada have been slim pickin’s the last few weeks. That’s right, blogging about belt buckles doesn’t constitute hardcore sports journalism. Then again, blogging isn’t journalism.
NHL training camps open later this week and that should help ease the pain, so I figured I would ram in once last garbage topic before the real fun begins. Well, two topics: The legitimate return of Metallica to my life, and the office Wii.
Five years ago, James Hetfield and his cronies reached into my back pocket, lifted $170 and made off like bandits. Twenty bucks for a garbage album, $50 more for a garbage DVD about four washed-up metal gods griping at a cardigan-wearing shrink representing 86 minutes of my life that I will never get back. Then the real kick in the groin: the blind faith that forced me to drop a c-note on a tour stop that was, in a word, average. Never again, I said, metal horns raised passionately to the sky in disgust.
The only things I wanted to break after the St. Anger ordeal were the necks of all four members of the band. But five years later, Metallica’s new release, Death Magnetic, makes me want to break EVERYTHING. If you’re not a fan of heavy metal, I’ll translate that for you: getting the undeniable and uncontrollable urge to break everything around you when you hit play means it’s good. Very good. In writing Death Magnetic, Metallica tried to make an album that sounded like the Master of Puppets glory days and 22 years after the original release, consider it mission accomplished.
The Wii, on the other hand, doesn’t make you "want" to break valuable personal belongings, but you might. Remember when this thing first came out and people were complaining that they were breaking their plasma screens and injuring themselves playing Wii in their living rooms? A little advice for those folks: grab some peripheral vision and hit the gym, dude. It’s not that tough.
Good for 2K Sports for filling a massive void in the Wii marketplace this week when they released the first hockey game ever designed for the system – 2K9. Smart move. It’s not going have me mothballing my 360 any time soon, but if I was a Wii guy, I’d be doing cartwheels right now that I was finally in on the hockey action. Just don’t go breaking your plasma screen when you do.
Save that for your Death Magnetic listening party.
Rock on.