The red eyes of the hero.

Recently Black Tide released an animated mini-series.The mini-series is called Bastard Vs.Bots. The series is composed of six,thirty second animated clips, that are sequenced to the song, Warriors of Time. Instead of the usual live music video, Black Tide took a different approach. In episode one, as the song, Warriors of Time begins to play, the powerful-soothing sound of the flamenco guitar is heard. To me, there is no better intro to a song than that of ,Warriors of Time. As the song begins, a man dressed as a viking stands atop a cliff, looking down at an oncoming army of robots. This man is the Bastard. He is designed as my kind of hero: buff,evil-looking, cloaked , and carries an axe.The man’s peircing red eyes glow, as he takes his mighty battle axe, and jumps into the sea of robots((I would have done the same).The robots don’t have time to respond as the man cuts down fifteen robots with one mighty swing. The man continues to salsh through the robots as they shoot laser beams at him. Just as he is slashing the last robot, the song starts to get heavier  and shoots to episode two.

Episode two begins as a tumbleweed rolls through a deserted town. A brief shot of a robot head next to a cattle skull is shown. As the shot enters a bar, the Bastard is now a cowboy. He tries to take a sip of whisky, but a robot shoots  the glass out of his hand. The Bastard isn’t pleased and goes outside to find twenty robots waiting for him.  I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes.He draws the six shooter at his side, and begins shooting the robots. They try in vain to kill him, but it is useless as he blows the robots to smitherines. Then episode three begins, which will be dicussed in next weeks blog.

Who wouldn't to learn from this guy?

This month Black Tide released the music video for Shout. As if releasing a new music video wasn’t enough, the boys from Black Tide released a guitar and bass lesson for the song. The guitar lesson was released on April 3, 2009 and the bass lesson was released on April 23, 2009. The videos can be seen on youtube.com or ultimate-guitar.com. Being a huge Black Tide, fan I went to Ultimate-guitar.com a decided to check out the video. In the guitar lesson, Gabriel Garcia appears to have just played a show, and he is sitting on a crate. He starts off saying that this is the video for Shout, and then says, “Here we go.” As the song begins, he plays the intro at regular speed. After he plays through it once, he goes through it again. Then Gabriel slows it down and shows you each individual movement and note.This was really helpful. The video demonstrates the whole song, each part at a time, by playing it through, then breaking it down. The whole time he plays the song the tabs are flashing on the bottom of the screen. Tabs show you which note to play and how many times to play each note.The combination of the tabs and Gabriel’s demonstrations makes it easy for any Black Tide fan to learn how to play the song. This is a great and very informative video.I myself learned to play the song from this video. The bass lesson is very much the same. The only difference is that Zach Sandler teaches you to play the song on a bass instead of guitar, but the notes and learning style are the exact same.

Garcia plays a solo atop a bus.

On January 26, 2008, Black Tide released the music video for its new single, Shout. Shout is track No.2 on their debut album, Light From Above .This is the second video release for the band. Having seen the previous music for Shock Wave, I was eager to see their new work. As i expected, I was blown away by the new video.

As the video begins, a plain looking white bus pulls in to a parking lot. Then members of Black Tide board the bus one by one.As the bus pulls away, the camera shoots to the side of the bus. On the bus, in big, bold lettering are the words Black Tide. Soon after leaving the lot, the bus speeds ahead and Black Tide begins to play. The whole inside of the bus has been converted into a stage for Black Tide to play. Approaching a school gate, the bus doesn’t seem to slow down, but rather speed up. Then Boom! the bus crashes through the gate and into the school. The students standing outside the bus realize its Black Tide and swarm the bus. The band is now outside the bus and playing to all their fans. Just when you think it can’t get any wilder, Gabriel Garcia gets on top of the bus and goes into a heavy guitar solo. This was the best scene of the whole video because nothing says rock and roll more than a guitar solo on top of a bus. Just as the solo winds up, a teacher comes to stop the show. That is a big mistake on his behalf . Before he can stop it, he’s thrown in the crowd and the party continues until the song ends. This music video was great. It encompassed all the great qualities of Black Tide video: playing to fans,destruction, disregard for laws, and of course an amazing guitar solo. Black Tide made an amazing video for an amazing song and I, for one, hope they continue to make more.

Beginning of Shock Wave video

In February 2008, Black Tide released their music video for Shock Wave. Shock Wave is the first song from their debut album, Light From Above. The song reached No. 25 on United States charts, making it an obvious choice for their first music video.Two music videos were made for the song. The first video made, was the official video by Black Tide’s record label. The music video opens with Black Tide on stage. The stage is outdoors and rite in front of 4000 screaming Black Tide fans. Much like the song Shock Wave, the music video starts off hard and heavy and continues that way through the whole song. The video is mostly composed of live clips, the band skateboarding, and video of the band hanging out with their fans.

The second music video for Shock Wave, was made by the band itself. This video is much more appealing and flows with the song alot more. I am personally a fan of the band-made music video. The video opens with the band standing in a house with their instruments in hand. Just then, a crowd of people breaks down the door and the band begins to play. During the course of the video the band destroys the house. They build skate ramps in the house,destroy a piano, and reek havoc on their nieghbors with their antics. As the band is grafiting the walls of the house, the cops bust down the door and the party is over. All the guest and the band manage to escape. Both music videos are great, but this video appeals to every teenager’s(and my own) fantasy of throwing an insane house-party,breaking the law, and not getting caught for any of it. Also there is nothing more rock and roll than destroying a house, while playing to fans.

Black Tide guitarist

Recently Black Tide finished the No Fear Music Tour. The band along side Bleeding Through and head-liners Bullet for My Valentine, toured the United States playing to sold out clubs and other venues. Having heard that Bullet for My Valentine was in town my friends and I decided to go to Coyotes in Louisville to see them. While waiting for the show to begin my friends and I were talking, as I looked over I saw two kids around are age just standing there. Little did I know that these two kids were guitarist/vocalist Gabriel Garcia and guitarist Austin Diaz from Black Tide.

A few minutes later these two “kids” were up on stage and announced that they were the band Black Tide. Having never seen or heard of Black Tide at the time I couldn’t have known who they were. The Band opened up with the song, Shock wave. Shock Wave was the perfect song to open the show because of it s hard sound and its ability to move the crowd.l at first the crowd wouldn’t move, but Shock Wave got the better of some people, and soon people started to move. At the end of their set the band played Warriors of Time. This song made me a Black Tide fan the instant I heard it. The song began with a flamenco-style intro and then got heavier as the song proceeded. When Black Tide played at Coyotes they were awesome. Having never heard or seen the band before I became an instant fan of their style of music.