navybsn

Good to see you've made the connection with Killing Joke @GoatmasterGeneral. It's amazing how influential and long running they are and as you mentioned with essentially the original lineup. Tippy top of my bucket list, but I'm pretty realistic that I've got little chance of ever seeing them. Course, I've said that about plenty of other bands who I went on to see in the past few years. Maybe they will do a fest in the States one day. I'm terrible at rankings for bands I'm obsessed with. Favorites change too often. But outside of the debut which is mandatory listening for everyone IMO, I'd say the self titled from the early 2000's, Hosannas, Pylon, and Night Time get the most play. I need to go back and refamiliarize myself with some of the stuff I don't spin regularly like the EPs and such.

Well, you have a new monarch. New money, new theme song...I mean that's pretty exciting 😆.

WFH day - so big playlist. Go big or go home. Wait, I am home... Haunter - Discarnate Ails The Chasm - The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow Escotrilihum - Mystic Echo From A Funeral Dimension культура курения - Холодные Провода/Цемент (EP) культура курения - Некрофилия Predatory Light - Death and the Twilight Hours Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade Autonesis - Moon of Foul Magics Conan - Evidence of Immortality Goatriders - Traveler

I liked it ok. Swans is a band I've never really been able to crack the code on. It was a rather dreary morning, so it seemed to fit somewhat, but to be honest I found myself zoning out a bit and not paying much attention. Today UFO - UFO 1 UFO - UFO 2 Flying UFO - Force It Opeth - In Cauda Venenum

Swans - Various Failures

Rush - All The World's A Stage Been a while since I've been on a Rush binge.

Joy Division - Unknown Pleasures Joy Division - Closer

You guys just need to up the pay scale then and you're all set. Really bring you into the modern world.

Agreed. Bought this a week or so ago and have been digging it. I think it was @SurgicalBrute who mentioned that their previous album was good too, but I haven't checked that out yet.

You guys need real sports over there like American (the real) football and baseball. I mean if you aren't paying your players hundreds of millions and they're not being indicted for sex crimes, domestic abuse, or drugs, how can you call yourselves a first world country? I jest of course.

I had not. I just bought their entire discography relatively recently, likely just before this popped up on bc. Sounds pretty good. Admittedly, I'm still trying to digest the 4-5 things I have by them, but I'll be glad to throw another in the mix. Glad you turned me on to them. NP: Inquisition - Black Mass Just finished: Moonsorrow - Jumalten Aika

Monarchies can have good monarchs. Doesn't make the ongoing concentration of wealth and power into the hands of one family over generations a good thing. Democracies and Republics can also have good leaders as well as bad. Doesn't make the concentration of wealth and power into the hands of a few a good thing either. Your point our fair @Dead1 about Scandanavian countries is valid, but as @Hungarino points out, those are smaller countries with more homogenous populations. Governments are always going to be more effective on a smaller scale and with those conditions. Doesn't hurt that they are resource rich. Unfortunately, there are few if no examples of government being able to successfully scale to govern large areas with disparate populations. The US has arguably been the most successful at doing so, but as you point out the future success remains to be seen. A truly benevolent government that tried to meet the needs and wants of a population, say the size of the US, would either need more resources than one could imagine or be completely ineffective. We do have an unbelievable amount of resources and the best position to pull it off, but our self-imposed limitations of the 2 party system and convoluted electoral system among others leads us towards the concentration of power subject to the whims/desires of an outspoken minority (say christian evangelicals) instead of a true representation of the best interests of the majority leads to the disfunction we see today. I would agree that the US needs a constitutional overhaul to bring it into the modern era, and I think the process of reviewing and updating the foundational document of any government should be ingrained in said document. Not what we currently have where it takes a vote from a super majority to invoke that process, but instead at a predefined time. Changes being taken independent of each other and put to popular vote for ratification. I'm in no way arguing that the US system is any better. It is an empire with all the problems that brings. My thoughts on the US and the UK are pretty much the same, that it would serve all of the people better to be governed by smaller regional governments with favorable trade and cooperation agreements rather than centralized power with bound vassal states. Neither form of government (monarchy, democracy, republic, etc) is inherently bad, but the implementations that are problematic.

Immortal - Pure Holocaust Nightbringer - Terra Damnata

Yeah, hard agree. She seemed to be pretty classy from my very disinterested outsider American perspective. The thing that amazes me is the length of her reign. Will probably never see that again. When she was coronated, Churchill was the PM and Stalin was in power in the USSR. The shit she saw and was a part of as a world leader... It will be interesting to see what happens to the "empire" and UK now that she's gone. I think we could see an independent Scotland and Wales in the next 25-30 years and likely see places like Australia and Canada drift further away without a strong English crown. Personally, I say good riddance to a relic of humanity's past. Monarchy & Empires are garbage.

Queen Elizabeth dies at 96, ending an era for Britain | Reuters

Darkthrone - Old Star - I'm probably in the minority, but I actually like the later DT (or Dadthrone) output. It's not the trinity, or even the first few albums that followed them, and I'm totally ok with that. Paradise Lost - Shades of God

My little asshole Geddy generally wants little to do with me unless I'm sitting in my office on a video call. Then he's in my lap trying to determine the most uncomfortable position he can get into before I shove him off. He does occasionally get in my lap when no one else is home so they can't see he's actually a softie at heart. Gotta maintain the image y'know. When we first got him, he would sleep with us. His preferred position was "nose to nose" with my wife. Understandably, she was not fond of that. Now the bedroom door is closed at night as he doesn't take kindly to polite refusal. Gets rather violent as a matter of fact. My wife assures me that his teeth are very sharp.

Utzalu - The Grobian Fall

I do find the lack of availability annoying, but there are so many things out there to listen to, I usually just move on to something I can get rather than waste time and energy on the things I can't (at least easily). I love vinyl, but I don't get to spin one nearly as often as I like to. Digital is much easier and portable. I'm not setup to "burn" my vinyl to digital and have no interest in doing so. I might take a glance at the shadier parts of the web to look for a digital copy if I already own the vinyl to avoid the trouble, but it has to be something special that I really want to listen to often. My purchasing of vinyl has taken a nose dive over recent years due to cost and time. Old(er) age is moving me towards all digital whether I like it or not.

New Darkthrone is always a good thing. The little snippet sounds pretty good.

Can confirm. Saw them a few years ago and he sounded great. Circle of Ouroborus - Vimeninen Juoksu

Huh. Learn something new every day. Guess I didn't really know that M-Disc wasn't short for minidisc and was a separate thing altogether. Reading over the quick and dirty details, I'm struck by the "Makers of the M-Disc call it a “permanent storage solution.” that I see cited. Makes me think of when cds rolled out in the late 80's. I remember hearing the same sorta line. I sincerely doubt anyone 100 years from now, much less 1000 will have the technology or desire to listen to any of our current musical formats. I suspect all current digital music protocols will even be outdated by that point.

LIFE - Ossification of Coral

Minidisc was a thing (a very brief one) in the US years ago. I had one before the widespread availability of quality MP3 players like the iPod. Like video which killed the radio star, mp3 killed the minidisc. At least in the US. The only place I know of that ever saw any sort of widespread adoption was Japan. You can still get quality MD players and the physical media, but it's more than likely going to be coming out of Japan and be pricey. Minidisc was a hybrid of cassette and early MP3 players. A relatively convenient way to transport digital files before the iPod took over. They really offer no advantage over your mobile phone/DAP these days, unless you like spending money on having physical stuff to store and tote around. Even then, I'd recommend a cd which you can have and transfer to your portable electronic device of choice. New music is still released on MD formats, but it's typically more expensive than CD and again offers no sonic advantage.

Oh I totally agree. I make a point to not buy a bunch of crap my family will have to deal with if I suddenly disappear. Do I have crap I need to get rid of, sure. But I do make a point to try to clean out that stuff regularly. I've been dealing with my Father-in-law's estate for the past year. We're talking 50+ years in one house worth of stuff in addition to the house. It's truly been a nightmare dealing with the legal system to even get to a point that we can liquidate. If they had planned better, the process would have been so much easier. A more specific will, downsizing when he was no longer able to maintain everything on his own, getting all of the financials in order....lots of things people just don't realize need to be done. I've been in healthcare for 25 years. I see this stuff all the time. Education on death & dying is severely lacking in the US if not all of the west. People just don't know what to do and much of it is costly which would bar many from pursuing it even if they knew. Everything is a business in the US, including death. Planning for your own death is probably one of the more important things you can do in life, and definitely the most neglected. For anyone interested in the concept of Death Cleaning (Döstädning), this is a reasonable place to start. The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning: How to Free Yourself and Your Family from a Lifetime of Clutter (The Swedish Art of Living & Dying Series) - Kindle edition by Magnusson, Margareta. Crafts, Hobbies & Home Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com. What I was getting at from my perspective is that I am not "attached" to my stuff. There are things I do value and plan to keep until I shed this mortal coil. They still bring me "joy", so they're staying. Afterwards, however, I'm not concerned with where they end up. If someone wants them, they can have them. If not, dispose as you see fit. My many years of moving around the world for the military taught me well to keep my "pack" as light as possible. I've no compunction about getting rid of shit that is not adding value. Same for my family. If my wife or daughter go before I do, I may keep a few things that remind me of them, but the rest goes.