Scorpions’ Final Foray Into The World of Rock

In an industry where success is a fleeting notion, a career spanning over forty years is a marvelous and incredulous feat, something that Germany’s own hard-rock band Scorpions can show off with much pride. Through the highs, lows, and changing times, the band has always managed to produce wisely crafted songs that are instantly classified as theme songs for generations. The group, who are best known for anthems such as “Rock You Like a Hurricane,” “Wind of Change,” and “Still Loving You,” return to the scene after a three year absence to deliver their final effort before retirement.

Cover of Sting in the Tail

Entitled “Sting in the Tail,” the 17^th studio album is an obvious return to what the band has come to be known for over the span of their careers and clearly honors the legacy and fan-base that Scorpions have established.

The album begins with the reflective and appropriately titled “Raised on Rock.” From the opening note, the lead guitarist hits every rock note known in history, to give off the 80s feel that fans of the genre are all too familiar with. The opening lyric “I was born in a hurricane” seemingly alludes to the band’s signature song “Rock You like a Hurricane.” With the addition of the talk-box and consecutive drum beats, the song becomes instantly catchy and starts off the farewell party with a bang.

The title track, though not as attractive as its predecessor, is given credit for the hard-rock musical arrangement that almost all rock bands of today seem to lack. The guitar solo is the best of the whole album. Thematically, the song is about a budding rock star on the road, chasing after his dream.

“Slave Me,” yet another rock song, deals with lust and the overall effect is established due to lead singer Klaus Meine’s distinct vocal and heavy accent. “Let’s Rock,” follows a similar effect.

The first power ballad is track number four, “The Good Die Young,” featuring Finnish singer Tarja Turunen on background vocals. Beginning as a slow ballad, the music slowly ascends to become a powerful rock melody that catches on immediately. The lyrics are reminiscent of Aerosmith’s “Dream On” as they deal with making the most out of life.

“No Limit” is perhaps the best hard-hitting song, musically, lyrically, and vocally. On this track, listeners are given the sense of accomplishing anything while the music is bound to make anyone get up and play air-guitar.

FIBA World Championhips: Day 10: Team USA Start and Finish Strong, Russia Delivers Killer

Day 3 of the second round of the FIBA World Cup in Turkey was somewhat similar to the day before it, with the winners somewhat to be known before even the games began, and the question to be asked was: “By how much?”

Team USA started off Day 10 in style, by disrupting the Angolan offense and scoring 3-pointers in return, creating a 20 point lead by the end of the first quarter thanks to Chauncey Billups and Kevin Durant. All 12 players on Team USA scored, and the deficit just kept on getting bigger and bigger for the Americans, who won the game by a large 55 points, 121-66, bringing back memories of not the 2008 Olympics team that beat Angola by 21, but the 1992 Dream Team that defeated the Angolans by 68 points.  Team USA knocked down an amazing EIGHTEEN 3-pointers, including Billups going 5 for 7, Eric Gordon 5 for 6, and Derrick Rose 3 for 4 and won the last quarter 30-10. Chauncey Billups had 19 points, while Durant, Rudy Gay and Gordon had 17 points apiece. Joaquim Gomez had a game high 21 points for Angola.

Not as one sided as the game preceding it, Russia took on New Zealand to determine who will face Team USA on Thursday. After a slow start by the Russians ( 9-2 New Zealand’s way), they managed to end the first quarter close and went on a 13-0 run, breaking the game wide open with Kirk Penney picking up 3 fouls in the first half and his fourth mid third quarter, for the Russians to set up a rematch of the infamous 1972 Olympics with a 78-56 win. Russia was led by Andrey Vorontsevich’s 18 points and 11 rebounds and got help from NBA rookie  Timofey Mozgov (16 points, 7 rebounds). Despite the horrible foul trouble he got held in, Penney managed to score 21 points for New Zealand.

FIBA World Championships: Day 9: Slovenia, Turkey Cruise to Set up Clash

The second day of the Round of 16 wasn’t  as exciting as the first, with both games being one sided  from start to end.

The day started off with Slovenia playing Australia, and once again, the European basketball showed its dominanace over the rest (well, not the North American just yet) andas the Slovenians bombed away for 16 3-pointers out of 33 tries and created a huge deficit in the first half that the Australians could never recover from, after an all around performance from the Slovenian team, led by Jaka Lakovic (19 points), Primoz Brezec (12 points) and Goran Dragic (10 points, 8 assists). Patrick Mills had 13 points for Australia.

In the late night game, the hosts Turkey welcomed the French team and overcame an all around game delivered by Boris Diaw (21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists) and set up a clash with earlier winners Slovenia by beating France 95-77. Dominating the second and third quarters, Turkey left no hope for France to come back, despite the French trying to come back into the game by winning the 4th quarter. Hedo Turkoglu was Turkey’s star with 20 points, helped by Sunan Guler’s 17 points.