TEKNIK / TIPS SKOR PEPERIKSAAN CEMERLANG / TEKNIK UBAH MALAS BELAJAR

Mengimbau kembali kenangan 7 tahun lalu selepas dinobatkan sebagai Tokoh Pelajar dan Pelajar Cemerlang SMK Hillcrest, memang ia kenangan yang manis.

Namun, perjalanannya tu tidaklah semudah disangka.

Yang sukarnya, saya ini bukanlah seorang pelajar yang rajin dan ‘top scorer’, maka teknik saya skor peperiksaan mungkin agak berbeza skit daripada teknik pelajar-pelajar yang lain.

Biar saya brief skit crita saya, memang pada mulanya saya Top Scorer dari Tahun 1-5 – memang confirm nama tu naik nombor 1 larh dalam kelas dan keseluruhan darjah (boleh tanya geng2 cikgu di Sekolah Kebangsaan Tunku Mahmood 2 Kluang Johor & Sekolah Kebangsaan Taman Seri Gombak 1). Tapi start je Tahun 6, almaklumlah, dah membesar nak meningkat umur ke remaja, saya pun menjadi ler seorang yang agak nakal dan pemalas sewaktu Form 1 sampailah Form 3 – dan markah pun tidak kurang teruknya.

Namun, ada beberapa perkara yang berlaku kepada saya yang buat saya berubah menjadi seorang pelajar yang rajin by the time saya masuk Form 4.

a) Member2 kelas, jangan citer ar, kerja nak bahan je bila kita ni ‘kurang bijak’ – layan kita pun tidak – mcm acuh tak acuh – maklumlah, dulu pun masuk geng2 kelas ‘A’ – apatah lagi cikgu2, bila tengok kita malas study skit, mula la membebel kata kita ni tak pk masa depan ke and so on. So bole kata 90% member tu hipokrit – smua pandang kepandaian or status.

b) Kesusahan yang melanda keluarga tu makin perit – dan benda ni pun member buat bahan jugak sampai kata apa la sangat hang duduk kat rumah kecik, kereta buruk..(ada ke patut, ada sorang member ni bahan kata, “Eh, orang Kelantan memang camni yer?” – Mak aih…berderau 'kawe' mendengarnya. Ada ke patut dia kaitkan dengan Kelantan plak. Racist ke apa.

Anyway, kedua2 faktor ni buat saya banyak termenung setiap kali saya tengok kertas result (yang slalu korang dapat lepas Hari Terbuka tu - perasan muka ayah mak cam sedeyh tengok result tu) – tapi adui, diri ni rasa malas sangat nak belajar – bukak buku je mula lah ‘syaitan’ datang bagi salam – bagi ngantuk kepala rasa nak tidur. Terbaik.

But somehow, dua2 faktor tadi tu betul2 buat saya rasa bengang dan rasa ingin buktikan yang saya ni tidaklah se’bodoh’ yang disangka. Maka, saya pun tekad, masuk Form 4, nak stop ‘fooling around’ and start making me and my family proud. Itu je nawaitu yang saya letakkan pada diri.

Alhamdulillah, lepas je start nawaitu mcm tu, minda tu automatic menjadi terbuka menerima pelajaran. The rest is then history.

So tips2 nak skor peperiksaan / mudah belajar / ubah dari malas ke rajin belajar adalah:

a) TETAPKAN DULU NIAT BELAJAR - MENGAPA PERLU BELAJAR?

Mcm kes saya, tujuannya adalah hanya untuk membuktikan walaupun saya dari keluarga yang serba kekurangan, tapi saya masih boleh capai setaraf dengan orang yang serba ada kesemuanya. Kita mungkin tiada wang, tapi kita kaya ilmu. Saya ingin buktikan yang ibubapa kita ni telah mendidik kita sebaik mungkin untuk kita ni dipandang dan direspect oleh masyarakat sekeliling kita. Bukan menjadi hantu atau buaya.

b) BILA RASA MENGANTUK LEPAS BUKA BUKU, PASANG LAGU YANG KORANG SUKA DI HEADPHONE WAKTU BELAJAR

Masa time belajar dulu, memang favourite ler pasang lagu Rock cam lagu Search/Wings ke Linkin Park ke Avenged Sevenfold ke..pergh..layan beb...tapi jangan terlampau layan sampai tak belajar plak. Kenapa saya kata teknik ni menjadi? Sebenarnya, bila korang mix benda yang korang x ske dgn benda yg korang ske, contohnya mix kan subjek Sejarah dengan lagu fav korang, you are associating your brain with a motivation factor - making yourself unconsciously wanting to learn and absorb the stuff that you are learning. 

c) BILA RASA MALAS NAK STUDY LAMA2, BUAT A SHORT BREAK DI ANTARA TEMPOH BELAJAR TU

Sebagai contoh, korang kena study sampai berjam2 lamanya (agaknya ni jenis yang study last minute sampai tengah malam - pastu mula la esok mata lebam masuk periksa) - elakkan study terus-menerus - beku beb, otak tepu abis - esok pandang paper nangis pasal blank kepala. Jangan ambil risiko macam tu - try your best to create a short 5-10 min break in between your study time to do something that you like. Mungkin korang boleh gi tengok TV jap ke, main game jap ke, anything...sama macam poin (b), let's do our best to associate brain with motivation factors - bagi semangat pada brain untuk menerima benda yang korang paling tak suka (iaitu belajar) 

d) KALAU KORANG SUSAH NAK MENGHAFAL (cth: Agama Islam, Sejarah, Biologi, Sains), GUNAKAN TEKNIK BERCAKAP DENGAN DIRI SENDIRI

Jangan terkejut. Teknik ni memang menjadi. Cuba try baca kepada diri sendiri mana2 satu perenggan dalam buku teks. Then, ulang beberapa kali. Lepas tu, try baca balik pada diri sendiri tanpa tengok buku. Anggap la korang ni konon2 pembaca berita Sejarah - nak bagitau satu dunia pasal Sejarah Malaysia. Masa tu mula ler terkial2 nk ingat apa yang korang baca tadi - tapi bagus bila korang nervous nak ingat sebab masa tu korang paksa otak korang utk ingat - secara x langsung, tuptap2 dah ingat dah dalam kpala.

e) KALAU KORANG ADA PROBLEM DENGAN MATHS/ADD MATHS, YANG NI TAKDE CHOICE, KENA BANYAK PRACTICE (ULANG2 KALI)

Kalau boleh, untuk method ni, korang kena start dari basic - try faham konsep permasalahan Matematik tu. Tujuan praktis banyak kali ni pun utk bantu korang faham the entire concept of the question. Saya dulu pun blur2 je tengok buku Add Math tu tapi because kat belakang ada jalan kerja complete dengan solution, saya just study tengok jalan kerja tu je and praktis sampai dapat hafal mcm mana nak solve. 

Ada banyak lagi tips yang saya boleh share pada korang.

And if you guys berminat maybe ingin membuat home tuisyen bersama saya on weekend basis (preferably area Taman Melati/Wangsa Maju/Setapak/Gombak/Melawati), boleh je hantar inquiry ke nharith_linkinshinod@hotmail.com dengan tajuk: Berminat Ingin Membuat Home Tuition

Alternatively, saya juga turut membuat ceramah di sekolah2 untuk membantu para pelajar mengatasi masalah belajar dan cara teknik skor - dan kepada mana-mana sekolah yang berminat, boleh menghubungi saya di talian nharith_linkinshinod@hotmail.com dengan tajuk emel: Berminat Ingin Menjemput untuk Sesi Ceramah Pelajar.

About the author:

Nik Harith, Community Marketing/Analyst/Digital Content, Ebizu Sdn Bhd – A person who constantly strives to be bold and different than anybody else, married and Kelantan-borne, he aimed to follow the footsteps of Michael Kenji Shinoda, a technopreneur from Linkin Park – which is to be one of the top recognized technopreneurs in Asian region by 2018 – with the aim to join the technopreneurs’ league such as Facebook, Intel, Microsoft, Apple and many others. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicmrayce

The writer, Nic M Rayce or Nik Harith is the main vocal/rapper, an aspiring Malaysian artist for his own band, Nic M Rayce Musics, and is basically the principal producer for the all the songs from scratch till its very completion. Inspired by bands like Linkin Park, Blue Stahli and Within Temptation, Nic M Rayce Music aims to create a genre of their own - venturing wide from the range of alternative, rock, hip hop, electronica, ambient soundtrack to trip-hop - hunting for a sound on its own. His vocal style is mostly influenced by Chester Bennington, Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Adam Levine and Adam Young. Meanwhile, his rapping style is influenced by Rakim, Eminem, Mike Shinoda, Ryu of SOB, B.o.B. and Shawn Chrystopher. His musical style ranges from electronica with the likes of Pink Floyd and Depeche Mode, hip-hop like Fort Minor and Styles of Beyond, to modern rock like Blue Stahli, Linkin Park, Apoptygma Berzerk and Within Temptation. Hear his music here: Nic M Rayce Musics

Nic M Rayce basically owns a startup design agency back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - and has been a website/multimedia designer since 2008 - serving both the government clients and the private sector's corporations - building collateral for their marketing campaigns on TV, radio and the social media. He aims to produce his own production studio & marketing agency by 2018 which helps bands both artistically and musically. Check his artwork out here: http://nikharith.deviantart.com

Finding the Point of Balance between Good Art, Good Music and Good Marketing

This article was written in response after reading a post by Joseph Becker, Esq.entitled "For success, is the business plan more important than the music?" Here, not only I respond to the post, but I even add my insights based on my 6 years (3 years of design + 3 years of marketing) of experience being a marketer, a musician and a designer myself.

Here goes the article:

Designers speak their artistic lingo.

Marketers speak their marketing lingo.

Musicians speak their musical lingo.

What makes a successful artwork or music or a business as a whole?

It is definitely by finding that point of balance between creating a good artwork, a good music to merge with the marketing/business plan that will generate a symbiosis connection between the three.

For example, I've been running successful Facebook posts for a client of mine where the post engagement rate over a period of 2 months was almost 4,000 conversations across the social media. But before that can happen, I did quarrel with the creative team (I used to be a designer myself, but due to my tendency towards marketing, I am now a passionate marketer).

The argument:

The creatives: I don't like the idea of having CTA texts on the picture as it will only make the posts ugly.

Me: But pictures without CTA will not be successful as there won't be any CTA at all from the public.

Now, I understand where the creatives are coming from - where they are talking in their artistic lingo - they are more concerned about the typography, the 2:8 text-picture ratio, the resolution of the picture used and so on. So a picture that has CTA texts will only make the picture seems 'crowded' and it will reduce the artistic branding.

Unfortunately, being a designer who has transformed myself into a marketer after a few years doing door-to-door sales, telemarketing, SMS marketing, eDM and doing MLM, I found to realize that that was not the case at all. A successful design is not because it is just beautiful, but it must be commercial on the same time. The CTA text is important as the customers won't know the meaning of the design or what do they have to do with the design upon seeing it. So what's the point of having an artwork if it's not meaningful enough to get customer-conversion in return?

The same case if it was to be a music - a successful music must not only be artistic, but it must also be commercial on the same time. An abstract artwork/music will only be understandable by the niche, but in order to approach the mass market, designers/musicians must think in the perspective of an entrepreneur/marketer. The crafting of the music/artwork must comply with the idea of stuffs that sell.

As a musician myself, I tend to ask my band to be creative but also on the same time, commercial as well. What are commercial musics? Definitely, pop, of course. Because the structure of the song would be the usual verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus. And if you realized almost all the songs on the Billboard Top 100, they are basically using this same format for all their songs - no matter what genre they are; rock, country, nu-metal, hip-hop and many others.

Why the verse-chorus-verse format? By far, this has been the most acceptable music format that will make song more organized and more memorable in the ears of the listeners. Instead of ramming through the solos, the riffs, the drums, the synthesizer too much until it's 5 minutes long, bear in mind that the songs will only be appreciated by the substream niche instead of the mainstream niche. Creative is good. If a band should publish an album, their songs must be well-balanced of what should be in the mainstream and what should be in the substream.

The substream is mostly the fanbase - the ones who appreciate the creativity of the band and would love to hear all those 5-minutes long of the crunching of the guitars, synthesizers, keyboards and many others. But remember this. Fanbase will never be as much as the mass market out there. If the mass market is 2 billion on the planet, your fan base may be up to 10-20% out of that number. As a musician, you still need that money for your wife, your kids, your parents and yourself! To survive. That is why the best way to make it work out there is to have something like a 4 mainstream:6 substream ratio for an album compilation.

So that the mainstream songs can be playable as singles on the radio - reaching that mass market to reach that targeted fanbase or niche you want to buy the whole album to hear the creativity of the band as a whole.

Now, this is also the same case for creating artworks. That is why in my definition, there are 2 types of artworks:

a) The abstract artwork - the artwork that mainly focuses on artistic value as a whole. the type that may not get the interest of the mass market - but it will certainly be ideal to the lovers of art and creativity

b) The commercial artwork - the artwork that has that point of balance between keeping the artistic value as meaningful so that to get the message across the targeted audience in which in return, it will bring commercial value (the ones that lead to sales generation)

In case you think I'm not walking the talk, you can search 'Nic M Rayce' on Google to find out more about my musics and my artworks. I wouldn't want to give you the link here myself as I'm not trying to convey a message as if I'm promoting my music/designs. But if you seek proof, Google can be your friend. :-)

Is Graphic Design Marketing? [RESPONSE POST]

This is a response article to "Is Graphic Design Marketing?" by Bryan Lindenberger on LinkedIn.

As a person who was previously a designer until I got exposed and professionally trained by qualified business trainers into business and entrepreneurship discipline including getting out there applying those knowledges successfully for the past 3 years (door-to-door sales, telemarketing, SMS marketing, email marketing (eDM), multi-level marketing and internet marketing), I will have to say graphic designers are only a piece of the whole marketing puzzle.

Designers speak their visual lingo.
Copywriters speak their literature-ish lingo.
Marketers, on the other hand, like an entrepreneur or a business founder: cover everything right from the acquiring business accounts, market research, SWOT analysis, project implementation calendar, setting up the goal of the marketing techniques, identifying the communication channels, strategic planning, and so many others.

As the marketers identify the right communication channels and the potential audience of that channels, this is where a point of balance needed to be present between a good marketing element and a good visual artistry within the design that serves as the execution mean of transporting the message across the public.

When making the final call on what works, copywriters will speak the benefits of their copywriting, designers will speak the strength of their visuals, while in the end, marketers will have to ensure the copywriting and the design meets the targeted end-goal : which is a CTA that serves as a definitive answer of a design that works.

In reference to my article that I wrote about, "How to Find that Point of Balance Between A Good Design, A Good Music and A Good Marketing" (http://linkd.in/1okqwN6) I stated that there are two types of designs out there:
a) The abstract artwork - the artwork that mainly focuses on artistic value as a whole. the type that may not get the interest of the mass market - but it will certainly be ideal to the lovers of art and creativity

b) The commercial artwork - the artwork that has that point of balance between keeping the artistic value as meaningful so that to get the message across the targeted audience in which in return, it will bring commercial value (the ones that lead to sales generation)

In conclusion, is graphic design marketing? Yes, graphic design is an integral part of marketing from the whole 360 communication plan. With the condition that the implementation of the graphic design must be well-balanced between a good art and a good marketing. In short, a graphic designer must acquire a certain level of marketing basics in order to execute a design in the perspective of a business founder/marketer. Should the designer does not have the marketing basics, it is the responsibility of the managers/directors to brief the designers with a proper guideline, a goal of the design and a rational behind the design so that the designers can create something that is both visually attractive and in line with the marketing goal.

A Lifetime Contract If You Treat Clients as Friends and Vice Versa

Many have thought to start a business is hard. But why is it hard? What makes it so hard that only a minority 10% who made the cut? The utmost importance of establishing a business is to have a sufficient of time invested to establish a sufficient amount of friendship with a sufficient amount of clients. And why did I say friendship?

Because this is where 90% of the typical salespersons fail. (I know I used to fail too, countless of times - tell me about the rejection I faced every single time they shut down on me) They thought most of the time, it’s all about getting new deals closed every single day. No, it isn’t. It’s not the quantity that sustain a business – it’s the quality of each deal closed. And to ensure a quality of a deal closed really depends on how strong and well-connected you are with your clients. Have you ever heard of a company’s CEO who actually has friends everywhere throughout the industry and of the same level and position? Have you ever heard of your Sales Leader or your Sales Director actually knows all his or her clients very well? Is it a coincidence that these people actually know each other that much?

Yes, we have business events, networking, conferencing etc. etc. where all these places are typically the best platform to leverage on to expand your network and know people. But then again, how many business cards did you actually manage to contact and follow-up by the end of the day? And how much percentage of closing the deal happen from just meeting an acquaintance during events? Very unlikely you will need a period of 3-6 months to scout your client before that moment of truth can happen especially if the deal you're scouting for, involves such a big amount of money.

So, back to the question above, how did the CEOs and Sales Directors know people that much very well? Simple answer. Those people are their friends. At some point of life, they may have met either in school, college or university and be close to each other. A natural intervention without any strings attached. Just a casual talk which happened to be pre-destined of what's bigger to come - and by the time each of them decided to venture the business of their own or perhaps, work towards the top of the management hierarchy, eventually, both of them grow together - and this bond is an unshakable bond where no man can step in between. It is what I called 'ideal client/partner relationship'. This case happens rarely in our current era (especially with a current ongoing depleting economy and high cost of living) - but when it happens, businesses are likely becoming joint-ventures, corporations or sometimes even something that is larger than themselves. Even if no partnership did occur, businesses can also happen like a trade barter - exchange of services.

So, what's the lesson learn here? Make friends. And when I say make friends, you need to start this from a very young age. I was unfortunate that I didn’t learn these very keys (see below) towards a successful business back then. It is important to start your networking right from the start – by conveying a strong, leadership personality among your friends to earn their respect – and from this respect, a mutual bond towards business can easily be established due to that trust and respect from knowing you and what you are good at. Two examples I can give here are:

a) REAL LIFE EXAMPLE 1: Someone who was an all-rounder and respected back in high school, someone who was constantly there for any high school events, someone who can claim himself/herself to be the 'cool kid on the block' - now becoming a Top Sales Leader (a self-made millionaire) just by selling insurance. Remember, it is not insurance that made her the money - but it is the network and its quality that helped her climbed the ladder.

b) REAL LIFE EXAMPLE 2: Another person who actually was the Student's Council President. Due to his strong voice towards the university community, he became rich himself due to leveraging that voice by making each student his downline for his Multi-Level Marketing that he was into. Again, remember, it is not the MLM or the system that makes him rich - it is the network and its quality that helped him (the MLM structured commission scheme just made him even easier money) - same case as Example 1.

Okay, so what’s the equation again?

• Successful business = (First key) Amount of time + (Second key) Amount of friendship + (Third key) Amount of clients = Lifetime Contract. Simple. It’s not even a rocket science. 
• And when you combine friendship and clients, what will you get?Friends. What happens when all friends are your clients?

'Contract' is a business layman's term. To sustain a contract is all what it takes to sustain your business. Try to reimagine the words: Having multiple lifetime friends who are devoted to your business are the same as having successful multiple contracts due to having devoted clients. You get to hinder your competition because your friends will definitely back you up just like how real friends do - you get to entertain your own friends (because why? Because you are happy and honest doing it! Not for the sake of money, but because you know them very well and in account management, we definitely call this client’s entertainment!) So, you can see - the higher the amount of organic and authenticity in your marketing, the higher the potential of winning the deal and keeping the business. Say no to fake (for the sake of keeping the contract) account/client management as the account deals will never be sustainable due to its high tendency and sensitivity to collapse should any external party choose to interfere. A successful account/client management is when you convert that client who was just an acquaintance into a friend of yours.

This is the main reason how a CEO knows the other CEOs of the same industry very well and so as your best Sales Rep of the Team tends to sustain his reputation. It’s because it doesn’t even take spammy techniques (the door-to-door sales, constant push notifications on your app, random daily email newsletter you receive on your inbox, a constant follow-up call right after your first sales pitch appointment) – No, it’s not even that. It’s just that natural technique of closing your deal by having that network of
clients friends where it makes your daily business very seamless and doesn’t even feel like it’s a business. The moment when you play golf with your ‘friend’ while talking about the business that both of you are passionate about, you can talk with ease because that mutual bond of trust and respect is already there.

If you think you have those 3 elements of the equation in your life, you can jump into any business right now without having to worry too much of having sufficient technical knowledge (well, I should advise you should do a business that you are passionate about and at the very least, have a bit of technical knowledge). But let me tell you this, technical knowledge is limitless – the more you spend time to be expert in one particular skill, the more you will likely waste your time as they evolve so fast and you may have a hard time catching up with the pace. The moment you thought you have mastered one skill, the education industry will evolve that skill to another thing in few years and you are back to square one. So, just know the groundwork and leverage your own hired staffs to do the flattery, flowery toppings. 

Let me requote what Dale Carnegie used to say, “85% of your financial success is due to your personality and ability to communicate, negotiate and lead. Shockingly, only 15% is due to technical knowledge.” Therefore, balancing your interpersonal relationship skills and technical skills are important to excel in any endeavour. Too much of technical, you risk losing the trust and respect and the very cause of why people should listen to you on the first place. Too much of interpersonal, then you risk of looking like an empty can (someone who babble with no substance inside).

Same thing if you are a marketer, by having these ground rules in your equation, eventually, all your future sales or marketing campaigns will tend to be natural instead of being too 'forced' - when you are trying to tap the market as if they are already your friends, you will definitely channel the message in a right tone and manner - a message with an attitude - where you will eventually create a pulling effect from the market to you - just like how you want to gain respect from your friends - in branding, we call that the brand's pride in the market. Moreover, you will never see sales pitching the same way again - you will never be too scared or nervous to see new clients - because you are already visioning it in your head. It's not only about winning the contract with all your excellent skills and all those fancy points in your sales deck, but it is also about how good you can nurture a strong, long-term relationship with your client - and treating them as if they are already your friends.

Same thing goes when you want to carry out any campaign whether it is a newsletter, or an app push notification, or a YouTube/Facebook campaign, or when you want to push for an ATL advertising to launch a product; the very same rule applies - when you treat the market in a way that you are not too desperate to get them into making your customers - when you treat the market as if you are the market leader, you are the pioneer, the customers need you, not you need them - there goes the power of attraction.

Clients must be treated like how you will treat your friends because both of them have one thing in common; they are humans - they eat, they play, they socialize, they convey emotions, they want to be pampered, they seek social confirmation and validity among their community, they want to be heard, they constantly crave for financial freedom, they want to be recognized. These are the common traits that most CEOs and best Sales Leader recognize and they leverage based on these little things to win a contract deal.

And that carries the vision, "Client = Friends = Lifetime Contract."

Original post here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/3-secret-keys-unlock-your-businesss-success-nik-m-harith

The writer, Nic M Rayce or Nik Harith is the main vocal/rapper, an aspiring Malaysian artist for his own band, Nic M Rayce Musics, and is basically the principal producer for the all the songs from scratch till its very completion. Inspired by bands like Linkin Park, Blue Stahli and Within Temptation, Nic M Rayce Music aims to create a genre of their own - venturing wide from the range of alternative, rock, hip hop, electronica, ambient soundtrack to trip-hop - hunting for a sound on its own. His vocal style is mostly influenced by Chester Bennington, Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Adam Levine and Adam Young. Meanwhile, his rapping style is influenced by Rakim, Eminem, Mike Shinoda, Ryu of SOB, B.o.B. and Shawn Chrystopher. His musical style ranges from electronica with the likes of Pink Floyd and Depeche Mode, hip-hop like Fort Minor and Styles of Beyond, to modern rock like Blue Stahli, Linkin Park, Apoptygma Berzerk and Within Temptation. Hear his music here: Nic M Rayce Musics

Nic M Rayce basically owns a startup design agency back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - and has been a website/multimedia designer since 2008 - serving both the government clients and the private sector's corporations - building collateral for their marketing campaigns on TV, radio and the social media. He aims to produce his own production studio & marketing agency by 2018 which helps bands both artistically and musically. Check his artwork out here: http://nikharith.deviantart.com

Linkin Park gone Carnivores on "The Hunting Party" : Read the Full Album Review

Back by popular demand, Linkin Park is finally about to make a tremendous mark after 14 years since they first rose in 2000 for their release of Hybrid Theory. Unlike their 3 previous albums, their upcoming record, "The Hunting Party" is definitely a huge change in their musical direction from their poppy-electronica-chunk to their early nu-metal sound; but this time, it’s more towards heavy metal sound fused with punk rock.

As usual, Linkin Park is always well-known for pushing their limits and innovating something both new and unexpected each time their album is released. Known for creating quite a stir in their fan base since the birth of Minutes to Midnight till the Living Things era, the stir unintentionally splits Linkin Park's fan base into the "old" fans, the "new" fans and the "hardcore" fans. The "new" fans are the ones post-Minutes-to-Midnight who appreciate the more alternative, pop-ish, sonic, futuristic sounds side of Linkin Park where the band feels like putting the techno or electronica side of them into the frontline instead of their heavy, nu-metal side. On the other hand, we have the "old" fans, the ones during the Hybrid Theory and Meteora era, who appreciates the heavier side of Linkin Park in terms of their drums and guitar works, and because of the fact that they love Linkin Park for being nu-metal! (although Linkin Park members once stated in their early days that they are not really fond with the idea of the industry categorizing them into nu-metal). And last but not least, we have the true "hardcore" fans, who nevertheless love Linkin Park, no matter what direction they choose, and being very flexible and supportive in whatever the band is doing.

Well, apparently, this album is damn good news to those “old" fans or perhaps, the "hardcore" fans as well! Imagine the four-chord progression of Linkin Park’s heavy guitar works of Hybrid Theory extended into more and longer guitar solos by Brad Delson (yes, more amazing solo pieces by him rather than the simple “Little Things Give You Away” or “No More Sorrow” guitar works) – the repetitive drum pattern extended into a very fast and a more longer pattern by Rob Bourdon (unleashing the best of him yet!), a faster rap tempo with more aggressive rap tone by the multi-talented rap genius, Mike Shinoda, and more rarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr by Chester! And another two good things; Linkin Park doesn’t seem to use their verse-chorus-verse formula too frequent anymore – so you can always expect unexpected things from the songs and this makes the listening adventure more exciting and full of surprises; you'll be like, "The F**k, I didn't expect that one coming." – and secondly, less instrumentals – they only have two instrumentals in this album, “The Summoning” – which is 1 minute long, rather forgettable instrumental – unlike their previous good instrumentals such as Session and Tinfoil – and the second instrumental would be “Drawbar feat. Tom Morello”. The instrumental has that ambient of dark, eerie which kinda gives the feeling of someone who is full of regret and feeling a total loneliness in a dangerous war field – not knowing whether will Death invite?

“Keys to the Kingdom” starts with a distorted, robotic scream-ish chorus by Chester (what a way to start an album! Combining technology and heavy rock at its best without being too poppy or electronic like “Lost in the Echo” or “Wake” or “The Requiem”). Both “Keys to the Kingdom” and “All for Nothing” have awesome guitar solos. “War” sounds like a punk rock sound mixed with heavy metal elements - due to the fact that the speed of the drum is extremely fast and not mentioning the guitar solo here as well! Just as f**king fast as Brad could be! Yes, this album will really serve the guitar fans well. There are moments where “Mark the Graves” sounds like a bit like the end-chorus of “Blackout” – try singing “Come down, far below” while listening to in between chorus anthem. “Final Masquerade” has that ballad feeling, similar to “Until It’ Gone” – and perhaps, stands a chance being played in the mainstream rock radio – except this time, it has that hard rock feeling rather than being like an alternative pop rock. “A Line in the Sand” – the last song of the album, kinda have that moments which have the riffs and the drums sound like the ones they used in "Victimized" and “Guilty All the Same” – I can’t help but feeling the obviousness of the similarities.

Overall, the album's strength is due to the fact that this might be the heaviest record they have done since Hybrid Theory. The band told us they will bring back the guitars or perhaps, the nu-metal sound on Living Things - but didn't quite do so. But with this album, they bring their nu-metal sound to another level with a perfect combination of heavy metal and punk rock.

Drawbacks, it will definitely be the lyrics. There are few songs that felt like the music was overpowering the lyrics or perhaps, the lyrics were too repetitive - so it made the songs less feel-able or felt like, it didn't really resonate personally between the band and the listeners. Linkin Park has definitely made better lyrics during their early days so this may not be their best lyrical works yet so far. Another thing was Chester's voice during the low pitching was not as good as what he used to be during the HT era (well, considering he's already like what, 38) - but he can still scream! And the last drawback would be the overall quality of their songs. There are few moments where it felt like the guitar works or the overall recording did not receive a heavy mixing treatment - as if the band purposely made in such a way that their musics sound like demo recordings - most probably to make the sounds feel fresh and authentic from the heart of Linkin Park, I suppose. 

In conclusion, will Linkin Park continue in this direction for their future albums to come or will they be returning to their electronic, softer music? And how will the "new" fans react to this? Will this alienate them the way how the "old" fans were alienated when Minutes to Midnight or A Thousand Suns came out?

OVERALL RATING: 3.5/5
STANDOUT SONGS: “Final Masquerade”, “Drawbar”, “Wastelands”, “Rebellion”
p.s. If you are a fan of Linkin Park, you may wanna hear our band's music too here: Nic M Rayce Musics

One of his singles, premiering now

The writer, Nic M Rayce or Nik Harith is the main vocal/rapper for his own band, Nic M Rayce Musics, and is basically the principal producer for the all the songs from scratch till its very completion. Inspired by bands like Linkin Park, Blue Stahli and Within Temptation, Nic M Rayce Music aims to create a genre of their own - venturing wide from the range of alternative, rock, hip hop, electronica, ambient soundtrack to trip-hop - hunting for a sound on its own. His vocal style is mostly influenced by Chester Bennington, Bruno Mars, Jason Mraz, Adam Levine and Adam Young. Meanwhile, his rapping style is influenced by Rakim, Eminem, Mike Shinoda, Ryu of SOB, B.o.B. and Shawn Chrystopher. His musical style ranges from electronica with the likes of Pink Floyd and Depeche Mode, hip-hop like Fort Minor and Styles of Beyond, to modern rock like Blue Stahli, Linkin Park, Apoptygma Berzerk and Within Temptation. Hear his music here: Nic M Rayce Musics

Nic M Rayce basically owns a startup design agency back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - and has been a website/multimedia designer since 2008 - serving both the government clients and the private sector's corporations - building collateral for their marketing campaigns on TV, radio and the social media. He aims to produce his own production studio & marketing agency by 2018 which helps bands both artistically and musically. Check his artwork out here: http://nikharith.deviantart.com

Airplanes by B.o.B. feat. Hayley - Nic M Rayce Vocal Cover

Watch me doing vocal/rap cover of a song by B.o.B. featuring Hayley Williams, Airplanes.
Disclaimer : I do not own this song. Please do not delete this video. The video purpose is just for public listening - without any mean of redistributing or selling/trading the audio content of this song in any country all around the world. All copyright goes to the respective artists/owners.

I didn't post a video version for this song cover - due to lack of audio quality if recorded to external camcorder (I don't have the expensive equipments yet) - So, I decided to go with just the audio version using DAW with a still picture design.

Waiting for the End by Linkin Park - Vocal Cover by Nic M Rayce

Watch me doing a vocal cover of the song by Linkin Park, Waiting for the End.
Enjoy!

Disclaimer : I do not own this song. The instrumental is made by someone in Youtube by the nickname of R.A.T. All credit goes to him, of course. The instrumental is derived from the original song in Linkin Park - A Thousand Suns album - therefore, all copyright goes to Linkin Park and its management. Please do not delete this video. The video purpose is just for public listening - without any mean of redistributing or selling/trading the audio content of this song in any country all around the world.

I didn't post a video version for this song cover - due to lack of audio quality if recorded to external camcorder (I don't have the expensive equipments yet) - So, I decided to go with just the audio version using DAW with a still picture design.