Album Review: “Gloria Regali” by Tommee Profitt x Fleurie

At this time, we usually get another collection of epic songs by Tommee Profitt, and I guess you would say that this would fit but the album has a very specific theme and features only one artist. So, it’s something completely different, but yet it isn’t. I think with the release of the previous volumes in the last two years, I think they were the “calm before storm” if you will; allowing our ears to hear something new to get us in the groove of a project like this to take over.

This project “Gloria Regali” was inspired by the new and unfortunately final season of Game Of Thrones. Last year, I started watching the series and instantly enjoyed it too, but since DISH does not carry HBO anymore, I am not able to watch the season along with everybody. Honestly, I should have expected this. I wasn’t really surprised when they made the announcement that it would be their last season but for some odd reason this wasn’t on my radar! Anyways, I was really excited to see Tommee Profitt using the show and maybe even the books for something like this anyways. I think Fleurie’s voice is incredible so the fact that she’s the only main vocalist on the album is really exciting to me!

Check out my review of Tommee Profitt’s album Cinematic Songs, Volume 3  here.

Let’s start off with the first track of the album, which is the title track “Gloria Regali”. I like the fact that they start it off kind of quiet. The beat itself is intense from the moment it begins but Fleurie’s voice has this soft quality to it and as the song progresses the song just explodes with those loud drums and choir. It is a great beginning into this journey and if you have watched Game Of Thrones, it also gives you this nice image of the great war brewing and who might sit in the iron throne. The second song is “Onward & Upward” and I thought the sound was more grittier, kind of gave me the vibe of being Cersei’s theme song maybe? The reason why I say that is because Cersei is such a sly, malevolent character and between this hard-hitting beat and Fleurie’s dark emotions coming out in this. It just reassured me that this was her song, but of course I could be wrong too!

Next is “Noble Blood” and at first, I thought I would regret my original statement above, but then the more I thought about it. This could be for Queen Daenarys, Mother Of Dragons. Can you guess which team I root for? I feel like this one had a more sensual sound to it, which really led to my decision to think this could fit her in the end. I think Daenarys is a very strong character, she’s had to sacrifice a lot to get to where she is right now in the story, everytime she gives away a part of herself as far as love goes, it always seems to be taken away or used against her in some way. So she’s had to learn quick and fight within her own terms. After that, we finally have our instrumental and that is “Desolation” and the first person that popped into my head was Arya. She’s like Daenarys in a way that she’s had to grow up quick, but she’s just powerful and honestly I won’t want to cross either one of them. Your death will not be peaceful and I think that’s what this sound brings out, is this fire (no pun intended) and fierce pace fit for two strong women.

The fifth song is “Winter’s Song” of course. This brought me back to Jon Snow’s time at and beyond The Wall. I also think it’s beautiful funeral track to all of the characters we’ve lost throughout the series too. It’s just gorgeous! It is in your face, but it is very gentle. Next we have “Undone” and it also has another slow start, but I have learned to love these types of songs because they are usually the best, and I was right; the sound just continues to grow and grow and you just wonder how it will all end. The drop itself was mighty and even it had a bit of a hip hop sound towards the ending, but I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Our seventh track is “Premonition” and this instantly gave me Brann vibes. It’s the one song that I didn’t have to guess who it was for, because of the title! I do appreciate the fact that it is another instrumental. I like the change of sound with this one. It has a ton of different elements incorporated within it and I thought it had some depth to it compared to the others. We move onto “Midnight Oil” and it has this mysterious introduction that I really enjoyed, but I actually ended up loving the whole song. I instantly got this powerful feeling come around me the longer it went on! I really loved the fierce but gentle sound of the beginning but the end was monstrous and I couldn’t get enough of it really! Four minutes and five seconds was apparently NOT long enough for me!

I thought “Remembrance” was our only “real” ballad off the album. The usage of the piano was beautiful! I feel like it would fit every “Saying Goodbye To ‘Game Of Thrones'” videos on YouTube we will see just before the last episode premieres because it just has that kind of quality to it. However, I quickly realized that the melody itself is the same of another one of Tommee’s songs. “Tomorrow We Fight” and another thing they share is Fleurie herself too! I knew once I found the other one, my original thoughts would disappear, because I generally dislike hearing same lyrics and/or melody shared with multiple songs. It’s still good but I would have liked to hear something that wouldn’t have me so easily distracted in this way. The final song is “Sound Of War” and personally I hoped for a banger, between the title and being the last of anything GoT in general, you’re kind of expected it to end with a big bang. I did like the quirky sounds in the introduction and the intense banging was a kicker. I really enjoy hearing epic songs about wars. I know it’s weird as crap but there’s something with the raw emotions of the singer and the rush of everything going on in the sound behind them is so exciting! They make you feel invincible and powerful at the same time and I’m thankful that this gave me all of those feelings at the end. It was perfect!

I thought this was a fantastic lineup of music for not only GoT fans will enjoy but anybody that loves cinematic music in general. I also think that quite a few of them might end up on some people’s workout or motivational playlist. I don’t really have any bad notes to add-on because I included what I really wanted to say in each section.

Now it’s your turn, what did you think of Tommee Profitt and Fleurie’s little creation? Do you have any favorites on the album?

REVIEW | Andre The Giant Documentary

Howdy!

Last month, HBO really decided that the month of April would be about documentaries, so at the end of March, they played Judd Apatlow’s two part film about Garry Shandling, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I don’t remember him or any of his work, but I did think it was a very educational and funny film dedicated to this comic legend. After that, they aired another one that I had my eye on for a while and we’re going to talk about it on this post: Andre The Giant. And finally the last documentary was about Elvis Presley,  I did try to watch it but I didn’t really like the format of the people were interviewed, so I never finished it.

I’ve always heard about Andre The Giant, through my dad. While I sat in my room, trying to watch the film, I told him about it and he said to me that he saw or met him while in Louisville. Yes, I believed him. My dad at a younger age probably liked wrestling, I mean, he still likes to arm wrestle! The only thing I know about him that I didn’t get from my dad was the fact that he was the inspiration for Shrek.

When I started watching it, I didn’t exactly know what I was getting myself into. I just thought it would be a regular documentary about a fairly large legend of the wrestling world. Honestly, I was right on a certain level, but there were parts in it that I absolutely hated about it.

As somebody who doesn’t know really anything about Andre Roussimoff, as a person, I thought we’d get to know more about him and more of his condition: acronmegaly. They interviewed his family and they did talk about how he was as a young lad, even showed us a handmade wooden chair that his mother had made for him, but they didn’t really explain more about this condition, they just showed us the affects of it. I wish his family were a little bit more open about how Andre himself felt about this when he was younger. They just rushed into the wrestling.

In the beginning of every film, they gave the different production companies that helped get it out to people. One of these companies was in fact WWE. At first, I thought this was a nice gesture because he did a lot to make wrestling a lot more interesting. Although, I felt being called “the eighth wonder of the world” is a little mean; it gave me a sense to the circus people with their disabilities on display, and it made me sad, but I also had to keep an open mind at the same time, because sometimes people will do anything to get work. Some people strip, others will do bodily harm.

Anyways, back to what I saying before. I really thought WWE’s big boss Vince McMahon Jr. basically called the shots for this documentary because for some odd reason, we stopped talking about Andre’s life in the middle to discuss about the rising of Hulk Hogan’s career. Yes, I realize there’s a part of it that needs to be talked about because he and Andre hashed it out before Andre retired from the sport itself, but there was a large amount of information about the start of how wrestling in general became a big thing to cable TV that took over the documentary, and a part of me was really mad about this, because first I thought people were treating him like a freak of nature and now I really got the sense that they were using his name to showcase the WWE name.

Overall, the film was pretty good. It gave me a better sense of this gentle giant. I did feel bad for him later on in life because of his sheer size and amount of fights he’d do in the wrestling world, that people would stare at him in joy, horror, and pity. It was a very enlightening documentary to watch as somebody who doesn’t really like MMA, which considering my story I’m writing, does contain a bit of it.

Did you watch Andre The Giant yet? What did you think about it? What were some of your thoughts?

Movies I Want To See In 2016 | First Half

One of the things I mostly get excited for is the new movies that are coming out! I usually never go out to the theaters or anything, but it’s the build-up of these new films and your favorite actors/actresses playing these characters that really excite me! After 2014’s flop of new movies I had seen, I really wanted to watch as many as I could in 2015, plus any specials like Flesh And Bone on Starz and documentaries like Sinatra: All Or Nothing and Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck on HBO. I was pretty proud on what I allowed myself to watch and be dedicated for a couple of hours.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get to watch all of the movies I looked forward to seeing in 2015. I still like to hold out and maybe they’ll turn up on some of our movie channels. I finally got to watch The Avengers: Age Of Ultorn on Starz. They premiered it on January 22nd! I’m hoping Starz or HBO airs Age Of Adaline so I don’t have to ask anybody to rent it out for me. What am I doing? This post is supposed to be about the films coming out this year! Since I loved doing these posts last year, I’ve decided to separate them out in equal parts. This will be for the ones being released in January to June 2016!

Dirty Grandpa (January 22nd) starring Robert De Niro, Zac Efron, and Julienne Hough

I don’t know how my sister would be so lucky to get a Zac Efron movie to come out on her birthday, but oh well! I saw a picture advertising this new film on Facebook. Julienne Hough had posted a picture and a little bit about her character. It wasn’t until like two days later that I found the trailer while on YouTube and I realized how bad I wanted to see this! I think it’s going to be very strange Robert De Niro playing such a flirt with Zac Efron, but that’s just me!

The Choice (February 5th) starring Benjamin Walker and Teresa Palmer

I’ll be honest, I watched the trailer for this and I was really turned off by the concept of this story. Maybe it’s because I don’t believe in love at first sight. I think I’ve also watched my fair share of Nicholas Sparks inspired films that I’m just over it. I just want to watch it because it has Teresa Palmer in it!

Deadpool (February 12th) starring Ryan Renyolds and Morena Baccarin

Everybody has had this movie on their lists since the beginning of last year. I’m still confused though, I thought Deadpool was a villain. I mean has anybody else seen Wolverine: Origins before? He and Wolverine have at it towards the end… I think this film will be a mixture of funny and lots of action, which I love the most!

Fun fact: If I watch this, it’ll be my first movie I’ve watched with Ryan Reynolds in it! 

Triple 9 (February 26th) starring Aaron Paul, Woody Harrelson, Norman Reedmus, and Kate Winslet

This is another movie I found by chance. I kind of fell in love with the trailer because it’s not about superheros or romance, it’s that “real” action and story line to it. I just want to see a movie with Norman Reedmus in it. I just want to see this guy act without all of the zombies, don’t judge me! It does look really good though!

Zootopia (March 4th) starring Ginnifer Goodwin and Jason Bateman

You can thank my friend Brittany for putting the trailer of this one on my Facebook the other day, I hadn’t even heard of it and of course now I want to see it! It just looks so cute! I’m not a big fan of sloths, but this trailer just cracked me up! I would be acting the same way that little bunny Judy was if somebody talked to me that slow!

Allegiant (March 18th) starring Shailene Woodley, Theo James, and Miles Teller

I’ve officially caught up on these movies! Thank god! I’m really curious about the next stage of the storyline for Four and Tris. I want to know about what’s outside of the Wall and what are Evelyn’s intentions now that Jeannie is gone. I’m hoping this answers some questions for me, but I am super excited for the next installment to come out!

Superman vs. Batman: Dawn of Justice (March 25th) starring Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Even Peters, and Gal Gadot

I feel like I should have ended this list right here, because my excitement for this sucker is bigger than anything else! I honestly haven’t watched Man Of Steel since the end of 2014 because it effected me so much but I am really looking forward to seeing this purely because I want to see Ben Affleck prove EVERYBODY wrong as his role as Batman. Plus, Gal Gadot is playing “Wonder Woman” YES PLEASE! ♥

The Huntsman: Winters War (April 22nd) starring Charlize Theron, Chris Hemsworth, Emily Blunt, and Jessica Chastain

This is another one that has me all confused but apparently not enough that I didn’t leave it off the list! I have to say I loved Snow White and The Huntsman a lot! Mostly because of Charlize Theron playing this dark, evil character. Now I got two of them: Charlize and Emily Blunt. Two of my woman crushes in one movie, and on top of that you got Chris Hemsworth back playing the Huntsman. We finally get to see his character before he was sent off to find Snow White and what happened to his wife in the process. I don’t know if it’s a pre-squeal or not, I’m just excited!

Captain America: Civil War (May 6th) starring Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Anthony Mackie, and Scarlett Johannson

Time for a little Captain America/Iron Man action! I’m so freaking excited to see this movie! I’ll be wearing my Captain America shirt with pride the opening weekend. I can’t say anything else about this one!

X-Men: Apocalypse (May 27th) starring  James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender,  and Jennifer Lawrence

I’m really curious about this installment of the X-Men series! We finally get to see some of our favorites as younger/trying to learn to control their powers like Storm and Jean! I’m really stoked about the fact that Jubilee is being featured in the movie! When I was younger, I used to watch the cartoon episodes on Boomarang and she was my favorite character outside of Charles and Storm!  

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2 (June 3rd) starring Megan Fox, Will Arnett, and Stephan Arnell

The first film was amazingly good, like I’m being serious! It was also the movie my sister and I went to see in theaters. I’m pretty sure this was my choice because if Blondie had chosen it would have been a scary movie and I would have killed it even before the ending! Before this, I hadn’t been out to the movies since 2012. We weren’t raised on X-Men, TMNT, etc growing up. So we weren’t familiar with the franchise as everybody else.

Since we enjoyed the first film so much we’re actually looking forward to this next installment. I’m pretty sure we’ll be adding Brandon into our movie date, but that’s okay with me because he’s the one who sent the trailer to me! I didn’t even know that it was out yet. He sent it to me with a caption saying “The Flash is in it!” And you all think I’m superhero obsessed!!

Finding Dory (June 17th) starring Ellen DeGenres, Diane Keaton, and Ty Burrell

I loved Finding Nemo so much!! It’s such a cute, sad movie. I’ve seen those theories all over Facebook about the backstory of Nemo’s dad and Dory, but nonetheless it’s still adorable! Now that Dory’s getting her own movie, I’m a bit in the middle as I doubt it’ll stand up to Finding Nemo’s success but you never know!

Independence Day: Resurgence (June 24th) starring Jeff Goldblum, Judd Hirsch, and Liam Hemsworth

This is also another film I’m feeling iffy about as I grew up with the original. My mom tried to save herself from what happened when I watched Men In Black the first time. Let’s just say between the both of them, I was not a fan of aliens. I still cringe at certain scenes in both films! I am glad that Jeff and Judd are back in the reboot, but would it better with Will Smith? Absolutely! Can I settle for Liam Hemsworth instead? Why did I just ask myself that question when I already know the answer? 😀

What are some of the movies you’re looking forward to seeing in the first six months of 2016?

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