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Last weekend we moved to our own self hosting to http://www.beyondmediaonline.com. Please visit us at the new URL as we continue to grow.

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Propogation of our main URL

We are currently changing URL registars… if you see this page off and on for the next 48hrs no need to worry we’ll be back online ASAP.

-Ted and George

Sean Martella Cancer Fundraiser

One of the mods over at Teamxbox.com Sean Martella (Aiel) has been battling cancer over the last year. His medical bills have gotten to the point where they have become unaffordable. Over at Teamxbox.com, they have raised a total of $1200 to help pay for the medical bills.

Teamxbox Fundraiser

To read Sean’s story and the ordeal he has gone through over the last 12 months, please visit his blog:

http://seanmartella.blogspot.com/

I don’t know Sean, but I have visited TXB for years and I saw this message over at OperationSports.com which I have been a member at for the last 6+ years. I think that anything that we can donate and help him through these tough times may also help him fight off this nasty cancer which has taken so many lives.

We wish you Best of Luck

‘Hannah Montana and High School Musical’ DVD Games Review

Hannah Montana DVD Game Review
The ‘Hannah Montana’ DVD Game is rather interesting as many DVD games bring a lot of fun and joy for the entire family. What Disney has done is take the television show and placed it at your finger tips using your DVD remote. You get to play as any of your favorite characters from the ‘Hannah Montana’ television show.

There are over 12 interactive games that can be enjoyed at a fingers moment. This is rather simple since all you need is a television, DVD player, and the DVD remote control. There is no other hardware needed.

High School Musical DVD Game Review
The ‘High School Musical’ DVD Game is very similar to the ‘Hannah Montana’ DVD game, except now you are the star on stage in a musical setting. Again, you get to choose from the cast of ‘High School Musical’. It is very cool, you can do several different activities such as karaoke or even play a game of ball.

Quizzes make a return here and the one that was enjoyable is the ‘Take The Career Finder’ Quiz’ which helps you find the correct career path for yourself. In a way this is nice as it can help younger kids start thinking of what they want to do later on in life.

‘Unforgotten: Twenty-five Years after Willowbrook’ DVD Review

Geraldo Rivera is one of the most popular investigative reporters of our time and even entering the talk show host arena in his later years. It took one story dating back to 1972 that actually paved the way for Geraldo to national exposure. The story unfolds in ‘Unforgotten:  Twenty-five Years after Willowbrook’ as a young Geraldo enters Willowbrook State School for the mentally handicapped in New York to unearth the horrible findings that he would uncover. The facts that Geraldo uncovered only makes you anguish and even more upset that people get treated in the manner that they do in monitored hospitals and homes. It is even worse that the conditions the disabled children were living in at this school; it just crushes your heart.

Danny Aiello narrates the documentary ‘Unforgotten:  Twenty-five Years after Willowbrook’ and is directed by Jack Fischer. Fischer really helps bring this story back into the fold here in 2008 as a way of also educating the younger generations on mistakes of the past.

Geraldo was able to find children days and days in their own fecal matter without even being cleaned up. This helped because even more disease to the residents/children than it would normally at an even quicker rate. As Geraldo snooped around the school, there wasn’t a staff member in sight to check on any of the residents. It was to a point where there was a 30:1 child/staff ratio and even worse when there are 5,300 residents living at this school. In this documentary, we see a lot of interviews from the family members of the residents and they talk about the issues that their loved ones faced and the after affects.

This documentary takes you through one wild ride and shows as to how society has treated the mentally handicapped over the years. It has been brutal back in the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s when compared as to how things have evolved to this day and age. It is always how you treat others to be treated the same in return, but at this school, the residents were treated like horrible garbage with so much disrespect.

‘Unforgotten:  Twenty-five Years after Willowbrook’ is a very powerful film going places where it shows more than just how people and humankind deal with other that have disabilities. This is a film that would teach people a thing or two on how mentally handicapped people should be treated. As I stated earlier, some of the stories broke my heart hearing what the staff were doing to the residents. I highly recommend checking out this DVD release as it is a very good educational piece.

List Price: $24.99 Buy It Amazon and Save

Animal Abuse (Humans Should Be More Responsible)

It’s amazing how many people here in America and around the world view Animal Abuse.

Humans are the Dominate species. We have a thinking capacity and morale capacity that no other species has. It should be OUR DUTY as the superior specie to watch out for the other Animals and Mother Nature.

The thinking is, “They’re just a dumb animal.”

Here’s a good question then… If we’re so damn smart as a species then why don’t we act like it??? Everything from Wars, too senseless killing, too depleting our natural resources, to the need for “more more more.” Animals try and live their life to survive. It’s not about excess (like the American culture is).

If we’re going to kill animals on farms for consumption than we should do what we can to make sure these animals are treated fairly and with kindness before they are sent off to die.

As for domestic pets. What the hell is wrong with people beating and killing them just because they get mad??? It’s not like these animals can rightfully fight back like some humans can.

For every human that abuses another animal or person should get back exactly what they put in.

It would be nice to say, “I hope we can change this,” but that won’t happen with the majority of people we have on this planet.

So for Mankind, us Humans, we deserve something devastating to happen to us for what we’ve done to the earth, other humans, and the rest of the species on this planet.

‘Metallica: Death Magnetic’ Early Impressions

I had the opportunity to listen to ‘Death Magnetic’ a few times tonight, and these are my song by song impressions. ‘Death Magnetic’ will give ‘And Justice For All’ a run for its money in terms of complexity.

1-That Was Just Your Life – if any song on this album comes close to being the missing link between ‘AJFA’ and ‘TBA’ it is this song. The song compares a lot to ‘Blackened’. Hetfield blasts through these vocals and the guy is on fire.

2-The End of the Line – the intro riff kicks major ass and this is Hetfield snarling at his best. This is the intro riff from ‘The New Song’ that they played at concerts a few years back. Reminds me a bit of Fuel in a few places. Hammett continues to blast away as the riffs and solos are insane on this song and goes to show what has been missing the last few years. Things slowdown a bit the last part of the song, but then James will tell you why “The Slave Becomes the Master.” At this point, the shit hits the fan again and the song goes into high gear.

3-Broken, Beat & Scarred – the second best riff of the whole album, and with a few more listens……it may top TEOTL’s intro. Hetfield’s voice is incredible on this song.

4-The Day That Never Comes – We’ve heard this one already, no reason to bother going over how good of a song that it is, but after hearing some of the other tracks this one takes a backseat.

5-All Nightmare Long – starts off rather slow and builds up into a thrash frenzy and then has that signature ‘AJFA’ multiple changes in pace and then hits you back again. This damn song is so damn evil and boy are the headbangers going to have a good time with this one. This is literally 8 minutes of blow your mind metal.

6-Cyanide – sounds so much better in studio than live.

7-Unforgiven III – some may dislike the piano at the beginning, but it is a very nice melody. After the 1 minute mark it picks up getting a bit more harder. Very different from the other two Unforgiven’s. For the Load haters, this song does feel like it came right out of that era but with heavier guitar work and riffs. The last 2 minutes Kirk really goes nuts with the solo. James singing right into Kirk’s solo is the highlight. This is not my favorite Unforgiven…………..but should have been titled something different.

8-The Judas Kiss – Judas Kiss is heavy as hell and the beginning is just kick ass. Very pumping and gut wrenching song which has that Load flavor, but heavy as hell. James singing is some of the best yet on this song, especially when all the instruments drop out for a few seconds.

9-Suicide and Redemption – How much I miss the Metallica instrumentals, but this one is nowhere near the caliber of previous instrumentals. It’s a good instrumental, but felt a bit basic to me.

10-My Apocalypse - We’ve heard this song already and my favorite of the three that were released by Metallica. Very Slayer like sounding throughout the song.

For those in doubt about this album, give it a chance. Now I can’t wait for 9/12 to rush out to the store and
pick up this album. I hope that they continue to write more music with this style, because this Metallica is what some of the older fans will be happy with. St. Anger placed a bitter taste in many fans mouths, I am glad to report that ‘Death Magnetic’ will make that bitter taste disappear. Look for  a much more comprehensive review within the week.

I am a little bit saddened that some of these other songs didn’t get the radio play instead of ‘The Day that Never Comes’ because there are some total badass tunes on Death Magnetic. To me, this album was like an apology to Kirk for no solos in St. Anger, the guy goes to town……………his solos drive this album.

Metallica: Countdown to their Greatest Album #6 – ‘Kill Em’ All’

Metallica’s debut album from 1983 which helped them break onto the scene. ‘KEA’ is a thrash metal fans dream come true with many classic songs that would become even more popular as the band would become popular themselves with later releases. This album was to be labeled ‘Metal Up Your Ass’, but the distributor wouldn’t allow a name like that. Due to the name being to explicit for the early 80’s, the band had to change the name of the album.

Dave Mustaine (Megadeath) was the original guitarist while the album was being written. Mustaine was fired at one point due to his alcoholism and disruptive behavior, but the issue at hand is that he has been bitter with the band for not giving him proper credit on many songs and for not giving him a chance. The band did give Mustaine credit for 4 songs on their debut album.

While the next three albums would slowly be more about war torn society, ‘KEA’ has many apocalyptic epics about the Apocalypse. The guitar work on ‘KEA’ is great and I am truly surprised that Hammet and Burton still had their fingers intact after this album. Some of the rhythm sections of drummer Lars Ulrich and bassist Cliff Burton are just an unbelievable spectacle. If there is one weak point of the album, it would be Hetfield’s vocals due to the poor production value of the album. Out of all their albums, if they could go back and re-record it would be this one with St. Anger coming in a swift second.

Another note of interest is that this album is pure thrash metal and their only album to feature this kind of music. With ‘Ride The Lightning’ the band changed their sound to more of a progressive metal sound. Again, Metallica is a band about change and the music that they want to play which is always a good to keep things fresh.

#7 – ‘Load’. - click here to read

#8 – ‘Garage Inc’. - click here to read

#9 – ‘St. Anger’ – click here to read

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