Sheol

Hail of Bullets - Ordered eastward

Not only is the opening riff+drum part absolutely tits and instantly memorble. Then they follow up with another excellent marching riff at 0:42. Then the bridge at 2:45 where Dan Swanö growls "We were ordered eastward", gives me chills everytime, knowing that east was almost certain death by.... frost or war. In total, just a masterpiece of a song.

Pink Floyd - Time

Everyone knows this song. What makes it is of course the lyrics. Incredibly poetic and poignant, and actually carries different meanings as you grow older and you move in and out of phases of your life. The Gilmour guitar solo is of course beautiful, and the delicate vocals of Richard Wright.

So I pulled the trigger on the ATH-M50. Hard to beat for €130. Haven't done any critical listening yet but they fit will on my head and the sound seems to be pretty flat and clear.

Manii - Innerst i Mörkret.

Hypnotic and meditative norwegian black metal from the veteran guard. Manii is basically the continuation of Manes if they had never gone down the Ulver-route.

Das Boot is amazing, but quite slow from what I remember.

Peter Jacksons "They shall not grow old" is a documentary using recolorized WW1 footage, but it's very good and gives a great feel of the real soldiers in the war. Not at all as sluggish as "recolorized WW1 footage" make it sound😄

On 9/8/2023 at 5:30 PM, JonoBlade said:

I couldn't imagine getting a separate pair of headphones to leave at work (which I presume is what you mean). I just got some custom IEMs from ACS which are great for commuting and in the office on the rare occasion I go in. They are basically ear plugs so I can't hear anything going on around. However, they fit so deep it is a bit of a hassle pulling them out if someone wants to talk to me. But I'd want to discourage that.

Well since I spend 7-8 hrs a day at work, often listning to music when I'm not teaching, so it's the one place where I actually have proper listening-time. I got Bose' QC IEM's for travel and when I'm out, but I couldn't have those in my ears for so many hours without developing fucking sores or something.

I remember the Meze 99 going around on Metal-Fi, eveyone seemed to love them. Forgot about them, I'll have a look.

22 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

Inexplicably my daughter has decided she likes war movies.

We watched "Dunkirk" the other day which she declared the greatest movie ever made (most recently held by Mary Poppins 2 and practically every other movie she sees until supplanted by the next).

Any recommendations sitting in the 12-13 age rating bracket? i.e. ideally not rated 15. 

Dunkirk was tastefully done. Didn't pull any punches but not too graphic. The soundtrack is pretty funny. Essentially the entire film is an ominous Hans Zimmer build up.

We'll probably watch Saving Private Ryan at the weekend, even though rated 15. I recall it has some pretty grisly scenes which might be a little too much but it is a classic.

Band of Brothers may also be approps.

We watched the trailer for Midway and it looked like a Marvel film - just too much action over substance. So any hollywoodified examples like Pearl Harbour are best avoided.

I watched Oppenheimer with my dad a month ago, he fell asleep somewhere in the middle, but I enjoyed it.

 

Yeha the beach landing in Saving private ryan is very gory, but the whole movie is pretty disturbing emotionally with the US soldier sparing the life of the german only to slowly be murdered by him etc. If she's fine with that it's a good movie, despite Tom Hanks.

Started wathcing the Stand tv series on HBO from a few years back. Really good actually, episodes move along and doesn't drag.

On 9/5/2023 at 4:17 PM, JonoBlade said:

Man, that is heart breaking. At 24 she really is in control of her own destiny now and the bad choices that entails. With a 13 year old we still have some sway over her use of the phone. To be honest, while I whinge about it, she isn't that bad compared to others. Mostly she just chats to school friends and listens to streaming music which is basically the same as I was at 13 with a walkman and dubbed cassette tapes. The real idiocrasy of social media hasn't kicked in yet. It's hard to know whether the toxic conflicts of 13 year old girls that have played out so far are better, worse or the same with social media accounts involved. 

The great tragedy to me is that these kids don't have any hobbies. Just something they can call their own other than staring at a stupid screen.

Yet, the internet is one of mankind's greatest inventions. It enables me to sit in my underpants typing a message to you while I'm supposed to be working. And I'm just as productive as I ever was.

It enabled me to find Transfigured In A Thousand Delusions | INANNA (bandcamp.com) and transfer some money directly to them for brightening my day.

It's better than being down a coal mine like my great grandad. He was a blacksmith, underground in t'pit.

I think the best decision we ever made as parents was not letting our kid play games, use social media or the internet, save for streaming movies/shows. Instead we steered her into painting, LEGO, music, creating and tinkering. She's almost a teenager now and I think her mental health are all the better for it.

I'm thinking of getting a new set of HP for my work office. I currently have a V-moda M100 and they're nice but the earcups are a little small and not comfortable for prolonged listening. I used to use a Philips Fidelio X1 which I loved but they have been moved to my livingroom where I listen at home.

I'm thinking a ATH M50x, they seem to get good reviews and have large over-ear cups. Thoughts?

18 hours ago, navybsn said:

 2) I'm the guy that gets things done. Got a problem you can't solve, give it to me I'll fix it. My wife and daughter call me the "Fixer". There is no load too heavy or task too big. Producing results, being dependable, and tackling the tough stuff has gotten me a long way.

There's a price though. I have very little "work-life balance". I never really stop working. Brain is always turning things over. There's always stress.

I was just going to say, that type of attitude is really really hard to acheive and still have a healthy work/life balance (or a healthy, connected family life). It takes a toll. Good on you for being insightful and aware of your positives and negatives, and I'm guessing having an understanding family.

If I didn't have a family I think I would work way too much, it's fun and I enjoy the challanges I encounter. I've had long bouts of working evenings/nights and weekends to hit deadlines or just catch up, but it's def. taken a toll on my family. Trying to scale it down to a more sustainable level now, but if I were single I think all I'd do would be work and go to concerts, haha.

5 hours ago, navybsn said:

hesher (plural heshers) (slang) A diehard enthusiast of heavy metal music.

"Heshers aren’t casual metalheads, they’re lifers. They don’t fold their arms or bob their heads at shows, they windmill their hair and pump their fists. They live, breathe, fight, and die for metal. And though superstition may abound that heshers are uncouth psychopaths (and some are, to be sure), the truth is that they’re just more dedicated to a brutal way of life than most."

Term derives from Hessian, the German soldiers famous for their participation in the Revolutionary War.

Never heard that word in my life, must be US slang?

Black Lion records  are in some financial trouble and are running a 70% off sale on

https://blacklionrecords.bandcamp.com/artists (code: blacklion70)

I'm listening to Sarcator - Alkahest trying to figure if it's worth a buy

8 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

How can you say they're thrash? They're sort of a groovy commercial melodeath band.

To me the first, self titled, album is thrash with hardcore vocals and a death metal production. They leaned in on the death metal aspects more with ...made me do it when it comes to the riffs and the new vocalist. But yeah, I'd say only the first album is thrash.

Quote

I haven't been exposed to any of the hype because I don't go anywhere on the internet where anyone is talking about metal except here. But I think this 2nd Blackbraid album is excellent, I've played it a ton and it has most certainly earned itself a spot in my top 20 black metal albums of 2023.

I think the second album is much better written than the debut. More focused songs. He's hypercommersial, sure, but he did say that the express goal is to live on his music so I'm not surprised.

The new Alkaloid sounds superfuckingboring. Werid and proggy but in all the wrong ways. Like trying to open up a planetary gate but the translation is all wrong and the book upside down.

Alkaloid - Numen

Blut aus Nord - Disharmonium: Nahab

Much more what I'd assume a jaunt through otherwordly, eldritch worlds would sound like. Funny, this is good but I can't really call it an enjoyable listen. It's way too disturbing for that.

On 8/20/2023 at 7:42 AM, Nasty_Cabbage said:

I swear I have to be built a little differently than most of them (again, that's not a slight), but the rest of my family seems to feed off each other's energy like seeing a flock of migratory birds changing formations mid-flight. I have no idea how they do it either.

Whie it gets thrown around quite carelessly, there is merit to the concept of introvert and extrovert personality types. It's not a binary state of course, introverts can absolutely enjoy and pursue social settings and vice versa, but the whole feeding on others energy you talk about is a good example. If you gain energy from social interactions you won't reach the bottom of the barrell so to speak. While if it effectively drains you, you will be able to expend your energy but sooner or later you'll need time to recouperate and recharge because you don't get the recharge from others.

There's nothing wrong with this, neither you or your relatives are flawed, you're just built different and in the best of worlds you can find situations were all your needs are balanced. Like for example as you said, seeing each other more often but for shorter times.

Back when Relapse was mostly a grindcore/death metal label I could pick up almost anything blind and it would be at least a 3/5. Not so much now a days.

I think some labels that I almost always trust to at least be interesting is Debemur Morti, 20 Buck Spin, Deathprayer, I, Voidhanger, Norma Evangelium Diaboli and Sentient Ruin.

A friend was selling parts of his vinyl collection so I snagged:

Avatarium - "s/t"
Dimension zero - "Silent Night Fever" Pic-LP
Extreme - "III"
In Flames - "Lunar strain" 2-LP

All for €100.

9 minutes ago, BLAMO said:

I am on no-one's side here (maybe more on UKraine's since they responded and sent help to our country last week when we were flooded) but I think it's funny that Zelensky always wears army colours like he ever saw battlefield.

He tunes into Oscars in camouflage...visists white house camouflage again

I realise I exaggerate but we get it, your country is in a war.

It's just a clever propaganda stance, shows the world and his countrymen that he, just like them, are at war. Imagine the symbolic power when there's finally peace and he changes close. It's clever, and I don't begrudge him that flair of the theatrical.

On 8/3/2023 at 2:34 AM, Dead1 said:

Ukraine's much vaunted counter offensive is "stalling" ie a euphemism for failing.  2 months in and they've made no real progress.

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/ukraine-situation-report-kyiv-changes-counteroffensive-tactics

Given the grief this war has caused their people and given that even with NATO rearmament they don't have the capabilities to defeat Russia, it probably would have been better off for them if they did surrender to Russia back in February 2022.

After all it's better to be alive and healthy under occupation than to be dead or seriously injured or disposed or condemned to poverty in a forever war.

Russia may be inept but they know how to fight defensively (and defence is always easier than offence) and I doubt Ukraine can ever dislodge them.

 

And having said that if in some bizarre accident of fate the People's Republic of China comes rumbling down my way, I hope our country has the common sense to just surrender instead of risking annihilation.

🙄

By that rationale majority of conflicts in recorded history should've just ended with surrendering due to a superior force. That makes zero sense. Russia has no interest in conquering Ukraine, they want to swallow it into Russia so that the country effectively ceases to exist as a nation and people. I.e. ethnic cleansing. They've already shown what the aim is by forcefully adopting tens of thousands of ukranian children into russian families, effectively erasing their history. Ukrainians aren't just fighting for their lives, but for future generations. And it's much harded to initiate a succesful independnce revold after being counquered and scattered for the wind, than actively resisting from the start.

So yeah, I can see why they didn't just surrender...

On 6/8/2023 at 3:22 AM, Dead1 said:

Torture Rack - Primeval Onslaught

Out 9 June on 20 Buck Spin

 

 

 

I was not 100% sold on the initial tracks but the full-length is really quite cool!

6 minutes ago, JonoBlade said:

They have a song about dragons:

Dragon, Why Do You Cry? | Unto Others (bandcamp.com)

It is beyond the joke and back to super serial. I tend to get gyp for liking these bands with questionable vocals, which is now a badge of honour.

 

That band will forever be called Un toothers in my mind.

19 hours ago, JonoBlade said:

The latest vegan burgers (like Beyond Meat) are indistinguishable in taste and texture from minced beef. No one here will believe me of course and it's a tiring conversation to have, but that is my observation as someone who was a big fan of burgers.

I found that the main problem with Beyond Meat and similar brands is that they are way too salt. But that goes for most fast food mince meat burgers as well. But the BM taste is great IMO, it's usually my patty of choice when availble. Less risk of food poisining too

Celtic Frost - Monotheist

Accept - Blood of the nations

Gorefest - La Muerte

Honorble mention:

Dissection - Fallen Angel's Dominion (but they changed their name to Thulcandra for that one)

I would love to see you nerds do 1 black metal album for every year from 1983 to 2023. Fuck knows I don't think I could do it...

Pugh Rogefeldt passed away yesterday. He was credited with releasing the very first rock album (Ja dä ä dä) in Swedish back in 1969. He's also erroneously credited as being Quorthon in the infamously awful book Lords of Chaos.

I've never listened to him, so I pulled up the debut album in question and... yeah, not my cup of tea. But I def. hear his influence on later eras of Swedish music, both the 70's Progg rock, hippie-folk and then Swedish pop/rock of the 80-90's.

Pugh Rogefeldt - Här kommer natten