Taken from the medical files of an average Hinder fan.

We’ve made our feelings about Hinder pretty well-known around these parts, but poor Cosmo Lee has somehow just discovered the truly heinous creation that is so beloved by MENSA members the world over. But because Cosmo is apparently a much more even-keeled dude than either of us are, he hasn’t pitched a fit about the fact that this band’s popularity clearly signals the impending Apocalypse – rather, he’s having some fun at the band’s expense by running a pretty sweet contest at Invisible Oranges. Here’s the gist of it, as explained by Cosmo:

Hinder’s music is repulsive yet fascinating. It’s post-grunge like Nickelback and Creed, but with opportunistic feints at glam rock and metal: music-making by focus group. The result isn’t really music. It’s hooks, spiky haircuts, and airtight audio assemblages that embody the principle of “Don’t Bore Us, Get to the Chorus!” I am in awe of its ruthless efficiency.

Some metal bands are, too – namely Edguy and Sentenced, whose later records moved from metal to hard rock. They only wish they could write hits like Hinder. So I’ve put together 10 audio clips from Hinder, Edguy, and Sentenced. Your mission is to guess which band did which ones. DO NOT USE ANY RESOURCES OTHER THAN YOUR BRAIN. Don’t use MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, audio recognition software, or even your own music collection. That’s no fun (not to mention needless work), and it’s cheating.

The winner gets this awesome Pushead book. But even if there weren’t a great prize involved, it is a lot of fun to listen to the samples and try and figure out the answers. To be honest, never having been a fan of any of the bands involved, it all sounds pretty much the same to me… but perhaps some of you will fare better. Give it a shot right here.

-AR

Full confession: Vince and I were not Sentenced fans. Speaking for myself, it’s not even like I hate the band or anything; I honestly don’t know enough about their music to make a judgement one way or the other. Shame on me, I know. There’s only so many hours in the day.

But a lot of you e-mailed us about the news that the band’s guitarist (and, apparently, primary songwriter), Miika Tenkula, has passed away at the age of 34. He obviously meant a lot to you guys and we certainly appreciate that. It’s always a tragedy when someone dies so young, but the fact that we’ve lost a musician whose art obviously touched a lot of people makes the sting that much sharper.

Here’s the band’s video for “Killing Me Killing You.” Hopefully it  provides some catharsis for all the Sentenced fans out there…

-AR

We love Daylight Dies here at the MS Mansion and apparently Cosmo Lee of Invisible Oranges (and several other fine publications) does too:

I put on Lost to the Living (Candlelight, 2008) as Hurricane Hanna hit New York. As rain curtained my windows, my room darkened. It wasn’t just the sky. My thoughts went south to North Carolina, home of Daylight Dies, and where Hanna had just touched down. Few bands change the color of a room so effectively. Outside of metal: Joy Division and The Cure (for me, Disintegration (incidentally, this record was mixed at Fascination Street Studios)). In metal, Daylight Dies’ colleagues: Katatonia, Sentenced, Swallow the Sun, Insomnium. These are soundtracks for rainy days – blankets, hot tea, and metal.

If it’s raining wherever you’re reading this from, crank it up and curl up in front of a fire (or smoke a bowl). If it’s not, you can just pretend.

Daylight Dies – “A Subtle Violence”

Daylight Dies – “Cathedral”

-VN