I've spent the previous year mostly neglecting the genre, instead courting black metal. My taste for black metal altered my perception of the other genres a little, and most of the death metal that I was used to seemed weaker for its insincerity. The polished, overtly technical modern death metal just couldn't match the raw passion of black metal.
Funebrarum was largely single handedly holding my interest in death metal, amongst a couple of classics (Obituary, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower). After buying only black metal for months, I decided to make an effort to keep my death metal collection expanding too. In hindsight, it's surprising that I waited so long to investigate underground bands, similar to Funebrarum. Earlier this year I discovered Dead Congregation, an utterly crushing Greek band, and now I have my eyes set on more vicious death metal than I can afford.
I've also just bought a vinyl player. I've wanted one for a bit so I can get some of the more limited black metal releases (Peste Noire, Amesoeurs) and stuff like the Hail Of Bullets EP.
But right now, I'm craving some Portal. I'm looking forward to my grant coming in a couple of weeks...
Current Music:Dead Congregation - Purifying Consecrated Ground
Cardinal Sin Went to the Paganfest the other night in London. It was fun.
But here's the rub - the drinks are expensive and mostly shit. Whilst trying to avoid paying £3.80 for a can, I spied the friendly, smiling face of a bottle of 10 year old Laphroaig. The barman seemed to have never heard of the drink, and when he located it, automatically slammed a handful of ice in the glass. "No ice", I said with a stern look. Laphroaig is a single malt whisky after all, it has a distinct flavour, the chemical tasting ice cubes would naturally ruin it. Just as I'm reaching up for the glass, the cretin is too swift for me - he's already spraying coke in to the cup. Coke. In a single malt whisky. I drank it, out of pity for the Laphroaig.
What sort of cunt works behind a bar and puts coke into a single malt?
Chinese Democracy, at last! I know when I have work to. That's when I find excuses to do other things, like posting in my Live Journal for the first time in over a year.
Ironically, my thoughts at the moment are of a similar vein to my last post - bitching about festivals. Whilst last year I did eventually eat my words and go to Wacken, I won't be this year. My current feelings towards the festival are somewhat bitter. Even so, I think I would miss not going to a festival this year. I considered Party San for a long time this year, possibly too long, since flights are now proving a bastard to find. Even so, I wish the lineup was that of last year's. Hole In The Sky has recently caught my eye, with a chance to catch Asphyx, Primordial, Inquisition and several others. It certainly seems to be the finest lineup that I've seen this year. The downside is that I'd have to go to Norway on my own, and then have to rent a room for about five days. It would not be cheap, and my grasp of Norwegian language is limited to saying 'good day to you', and screaming 'Winter forest!'
The other alternative is that I save the money, or most of it. I almost bought a vinyl player in January and I'm still tempted to. Having found so many good vinyl mail order distros recently, I wouldn't have to look far to start a collection. I would be bitter about missing this Heresi set, though: http://www.metal-archives.com/release.php?id=189062
Perhaps I really should go and do some revision. Those exams in eight weeks are not looking friendly.
Fucken Wacken? I have alot of love for the Wacken festival, anyone who knows me will tell you that. But I am now considering how it is slowly degrading into a pop metal festival.
Bullet For My Valentine have been booked to play next year ("finally!!" so the Wacken crew tell us).
Ok, Wacken always has some dubious (read: shit) German bands playing, and has had Machine Head, Soulfly and (this year) In Flames booked. A sign of decline to be sure, but fucking Bullet For My Valentine? An emo band? In Flames haven't written anything great for near a decade, but atleast they did, once! Hell, I might even headbang to 'Only For The Weak' after enough mead. But BFMV seem so woefully distant from even them, and mallcore Machine Head.
I wonder what the organisers were thinking when they booked Bullet? Do they want to swap their standard metal loving fans with trend kids? Maybe they thought that they could sell more tickets? (presumably not more than selling out after Emperor, this year) I think it's most likely that the Wacken crew wanted to book a 'hot new metal act', and somehow missed the fucking mark, in that Bullet aren't a metal band (regardless of whatever their myspace says). I guess they believed the band's press (which I read on the Wacken site) where frontman Matt Tuck compares Trivium to Metallica (yes, they're both shit now) and BFMV to Iron Maiden (uh, maybe not). Apparently comparing yourself to a seminal metal band and then selling a shitload of albums to infants is enough to be considered a real metal band. As Tyler Durden said, "Sticking feathers up your ass does not make you a chicken."
Disbelief aside, I hardly see the promoters pulling Bullet now, despite the general disgust on their forums. So what is likely to happen? Presumably BFMV will get bottled to fuck. Note that I do not say 'hopefully', since I don't really go for that, and moreso that's exactly what I don't want Wacken to be. I suppose a worse alternative is that Bullet go down really well, who knows, Soulfly seemed to have a large crowd this year (during fucking Atheist's set - wankers one and all who missed them). Then Wacken will surely be set for having bands like Trivium and Avenged Sevenfold and other such trend metal tripe. Either way, I can't see it being a fun affair: Bullet have a near-headline slot, so they'll probably be jostled up with Immortal or Blind Guardian. I can see the fans intermixing now, oh fucking yes.
If Wacken didn't already have so many good bands also confirmed, I'd shit-can it right off the bat and go to Metal Camp. But Moonsorrow, Enslaved, Communic, Belphegor, Amorphis and Municipal Waste are all well worth a watch, not to mention the other bands which Metal Camp shares with Wacken.
Current Mood: aggravated Current Music:Moonsorrow - Havitetty (new album, fucking ace)
Update... OR DIE!! No updates in two months. For I have been busy. Here's a 10 second video clip demonstrating what I have been busy doing (it's work safe, yo).
Otherwise I have doing degree based things, and I am now revising for exams (well, not revising right now, you see). I've been to the cinema a couple of times over the last week (shock spending!) and I saw the new Bond flick, which I thought was poor at best, and The Prestige which was marvellous. I may be slightly biased because Christian Bale is the fucking man, but it's still a solidly told story.
I've been to some great gigs since the beginning of October, the best of which is probably Exodus (yes, I know that means I enjoyed it more than Emperor... but it was thrash, after all). Infact, this year has easily been the best for me, what with Bolt Thrower, Carpathian Forest, Clutch, Down, Wacken (from Atheist to Wintersun), Morbid Angel, Emperor, Biomechanical, Exodus and Amon Amarth.
As for new albums, I reckon that Negura Bunget - Om is the best of the year, narrowly besting Arsis - United In Regret.
Current Music:Carpathian Forest - Morbid Fascination of Death
University Well, it seems like fun. Sussex campus is quite suave, and the tutors seem laid back enough. It's almost a slight shame that I don't live on campus, but that's more to do with the hella long 50 minute to an hour walk in, rather than missing out on the social side.
My tutor group is bizarrely composed of long haired rock and metal types, with one guy who has recently discovered such bands as Ensiferum, Wintersun and Amon Amarth. Fun, fun!
We haven't started any proper work yet, but today I got to sign up with a bazillion societies (Aikido, Karate, Fencing, Archery, Kick-boxing, Kung Fu... mostly the combat ones) which I shall try out free tasters of at the weekend. I doubt i'll be able to afford more than one society though, so i'll have to pick a favourite.
Lets see how fun this all is when the lectures have started and I have a fat reading list.
Current Music:Maudlin Of The Well - My Fruit Psychobells
Black metal goodness... I mean, um, evil kvltness Oh yes, I went to some great gigs last week. First was Enslaved/Zyklon/Insomnium/Vreid which was followed by Satyricon/Keep Of Kalessin/Insomnium (again). Both gigs were great, with both headliners performing stupendously, but Satyricon take the honours, with Keep easily being the best support of the bunch (that's because they've written THE ALBUM OF THE YEAR!!11!). Satyricon even performed a little treat for the London crowd, with a second encore announced as a ballad, but the triple base drum intro instantly gave it away as a cover of Raining Blood. So there was some slight thrashing.
It's a good six weeks 'til Emperor, but I understand that Infected Disarray are playing the Engine Rooms before the end of the month, and they're more than worth a fiver.
That curry was so damn filling.
Current Mood: full Current Music:Still SunnO))) & Boris - Altars
I'm not entirely sure why i'm updating, since I haven't been doing alot recently other than adapting to living with my brother, which generally means playing an obscene amount of Dawn Of War and Resident Evil 4. I'm feeling it was a genius idea to share with him though, it's working out well.
It seems that a couple of my friends are having substantially less good times, so I hope that things work out for them.
If folks are going out for a drink in Hove at the weekend, or Hove people are coming to civilisation, do let me know. Haven't seen you lot since the wedding!
I'll probably leave it at that, since SunnO))) and Boris have slowly melted my brain, and thinking is becoming hard. What a great album.
Current Mood: full Current Music:SunnO))) & Boris - Altars
O Goddess! Hear these tuneless numbers, wrung Time for the monthly update, I reckon. Current news then; my brother is moving in next Monday, and as it is we're staying in the same flat i've been in all year, now that it no longer stinks of kitten and Jew (I tease because I love). It's perhaps not a genius financial move for either of us, and despite now having a job, my student loan doesn't even cover my rent, so it's all ah... exciting?
On the plus side, it's going to be great to hang out with my brother again, and we'll most definitely be up for beers with any of you Brighton or (scum) Hove lot.
Otherwise, the last month has seen the finest bands of the year, with Wacken showcasing Morbid Angel, Atheist and Emperor, and then going to see Morbid Angel again last week in London. Morbid was the best gig I went to last year, and wins the honours again this year, although there's a few ace shows within a month or two; Enslaved, Satyricon and Emperor. I'd also like to catch Grimfist before Frediablo fucks off the metal world for good. I've booked Emperor, but none of the rest since money is flying out faster than i'd like.
In other pointless news I discovered that I can still use my nunchaku after ingesting much Sambucca, and not cave my own face in. Result.
Update You know when i'm really trying to avoid work, because I update my live journal. It's been more than a month since the last one, although I do still read it alot, so I began to feel like some kind of sick voyeur. Who'd imagine that, feeling like a voyeur on the internet?
Anyway, yes, i've been busy. I've had friends stay over for a weekend for the last three weeks respectively, in the shape of Karl, Tom (my brother) and Nina, all the while dealing with massing assignments and exams. Fortunately the exams were easy, and I scored 90% and 93% for Chemistry and Biology respectively. Anyway, the course is all but done, and there's no work left to worry about, really.
I've also been to a few gigs over the past few weeks, Keep Of Kalessin & Biomechanical & Carpathian Forest & Decapitated, Spawn Of Possession & Hate Eternal, Down and most recently the Deathfest. Each of these gigs was great, and the Carpathian Forest one is probably my gig of the year, despite my nearly dying of exhaustion and dehydration.
I'm starting to look for a new place this week, and it seems that I may well be sharing with my brother as well as Eddie and Nick. Price wise, this makes getting new digs for £300pcm each feasible, and thats what we're aiming for. Ideally I need to find a new place and move in by the last week of July, or things will get tight with my travel to Wacken.
CDs Here's something that I stole from Mrstork (can't get the bastard tags to work). It's meant represent my music taste, or CDs that were/are important to me. There's a couple missing, who werent listed for whatever reason, like Death and Nile and a few which i choose to omit because I think that they suck now. Anyway, I left in a couple which should ruin my metal credability anyway.
And in fairness, there should be a Rage Against The Machine CD in there and probably a Slipknot one too, but I didn't think of them 'til just now, and I can't be bothered to do it again.
Bastard thrash Nothing starts the day like the bastard thrash, especially when it's as groove-laden as Lair Of The Minotaur. Anyway, I haven't updated in awhile because i've been busy playing Resident Evil 4 and having my brain melted by a certain young lady. So lets see, i've recently seen Bolt Thrower and Boris, both of whom were excellent in very different ways. Boris was my first taste of live drone, and I have to say the doom sections pretty much crushed everything else i've seen live.
Otherwise, i've been playing lots of computer games in an attempt to avoid work and avoid being emo. I thoroughly sucked at Guitar Hero on saturday night, and was a legend at Doctor Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine yesterday (17 - 3). Last night one of my mates decided to buy me Counterstrike Source, just so that he can headshot me. Between that and my raging addiction to Resident Evil 4, i'm concerned about my studying.
I haven't got any gigs now for a couple of weeks, until Spawn Of Possession, Biomechanical and Down come around so a chance for a bit of rest. I've also booked my ticket to Wacken, and i'll be travelling by coach, since it worked out only marginally cheaper for us to fly, and would have just been a shitload more hassle.
I had a religious experience last night When Cryptopsy played Graves Of The Fathers. It was unbelievably good, in stark contrast to Aborted who sounded so bad that I mistook them for a dodgy metal band with a hardcore singer. Anyway, Cryptopsy were remarkably good, and the crowd was excellent (excusing a handful of obligatory tossers), although they didn't play Slit Your Guts.
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