Dead1

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Sweden's God Macabre are one of the many forgotten death metal warriors that arose in the glorious years of the early 1990s only to be drowned in an over saturated market driven by labels' commercial interests. Yet through the necromantic power of Youtube, God Macabre has a second chance at redemption. So God Macabre: yay or nay? meta

I am in the same boat. I've kept a handful of melodic death metal albums, primarily from the 1990s. They get a spin every so often. Same with power metal. Everything else I got rid off. I only checked out that Halo Effect album because Michael Stanne was involved! I do lump Opeth in with melodic DM for the period I like (Blackwater Park, Ghost Reveries). Their really early stuff is closer to black metal. God Macabre - The Winterlong Cianide - The Dying Truth Yattering - Human's Pain

I have a wallet. All I need is cheap hooch so I can talk to my wallet in a realistically convincing manner.

In other news I went to play Death Stranding - a video game that was made by Hideo Kojma of Metal Gear Solid fame and starring one Norman Reedus (Daryl on Walking Dead). It's meant to be a post apocalyptic open world game (ie you can roam around and do missions your own way and interact with the world. Sounds great! Except all you fucking do is walk. Literally the player has walk and deliver goods (or dead bodies) from one place to another. All you do is walk. Occasionally you get a bit unbalanced and have to correct your self. THAT IS IT. The plot was nonsensical and assumed you had played this game before. The controls and interfaces are clunky and the world is empty and devoid of anything save the odd river and mossy hills. Even the city had no people or interactions and was dead. Without a doubt the WORST FUCKING VIDEO GAME EVER. Worst $7.10 I have ever spent!

The kind of sport that in Sydney would require a trip to Kings Cross and a wallet full of cash (though they might accept EFTPOS in this enlightened age).

Cricket talk. SA = South Australia 12th man - reserve in cricket Taking a wicket - getting a batsman out. I could be wrong as I don't actually like cricket (or any sport save war).

In terms of stuff becoming dated I was thinking the other day how so many early 2000s big albums ala In Flames or Soilwork or Killswitch Engage or even Opeth seem to have been consigned to history and don't get mentioned much these days. Cryptopsy - None So Vile Demilich - Nespithe Morbid Angel - Formulas Fatal To The Flesh

One major problem with any In Flames post 1999 is I hate Anders' vocal style post Colony. Literally the band kept the least talented twit in the band. I will check out Majesties. Thanks for the recommendation.

What's in a band name? Every single band member of The Halo Effect is ex-In Flames! And the lineup is actually closer to In Flames in their glory period as well as their commercially successful period: Jesper Stromblad (1990-2010) Daniel Svenson (1998-2015) Peter Iwers (1997-2016) Niclas Englin (1997-1998, 2011-2021). Michael Stanne (session vocals and lyrics in 1993-94) Only members left in In Flames are Anders and Bjorn Gellotte who both joined in 1995. Rest of the band is American including ex-Megadeth guitarist Chris Broderick. So The Halo Effect is closer to In Flames than In Flames are in terms of members (including founding member Jesper Stromblad!!) Also ironic these ex In Flames and current Dark Tranquillity members had to start a melodic death metal band because their old melodic death metal bands had obviously gone down more mellow pastures.

Blind Guardian - The God Machine I love early Blind Guardian though lost interest from A Night At The Opera when they got too polished, too wanky and not riffy enough. They seem to have gone back to a more riff orientated style. Sound is still overpolished. But unlike last several Blind Guardian albums I can actually listen to this without wanting to turn it off instantly. Song writing is still stagnant though. Halo Effect - Days of the Lost Members of In Flames with Michael Stanne from Dark Tranquility on vox. Generic as fuck but more tolerable than either modern In Flames or Dark Tranquility. Closer to classic In Flames than anything In Flames have released in 23 years. There's also some occasional classic Dark Tranquility-esque moments too (eg Feel What I Believe) Overall not a bad spin for some nostalgia. https://youtu.be/VwlN1F9TVcQ?list=PLMzepslwWUzoqV5kfpIGDyCNUX8_tsnTM

It's funny cause it's true. It certainly puts a whole new spin on the concept of synergy.

So I got to attend a high level meeting (statewide executive) for the first time to backfill some one. Man talk about a waste of 2 hours. It was all just sycophantic back patting and rambling fluff with no substance, no decision making, no actions set). It was all so disconnected from the service we deliver and none of it had much to do with anything. The one time a major problem was mentioned the head of the service apologised to the doctor who raised it and then shut me down after I started to say the problem's been around for 3-4 years now with no improvement. Little wonder the west is slowly going to shit with "leaders" like this!

Abbath - Outstrider Accept - Stalingrad Helloween - Time of the Oath

Carnation - Where Death Lies https://youtu.be/ZRyFM2GYgSI

Religions "look" after the poor to gain converts. At the same time they support the power structures that keep poor people poor. Indeed Mother Theresa was all about keeping the poor dreadfully poor and never did one things to empower them to rise from poverty. In the 1940s-80s in Latin America Catholic priests would chum up with authoritarian governments and report on people looking to changes the power structures. These people would then be murdered by death squads trained in the US run School of the Americas located in Fort Benning, USA. (That school still exists but is now known as the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation.) Here in Australia, the churches have transformed themselves into multimillion charity businesses. They swallow huge amounts of government funding and then offer very little service. I work in health and some of the reports show the "not-for-profit" sector including religious affiliated organisations only spend $0.30-$0.40 out of every dollar of government funding on actual service delivery. Rest gets gobbled up in bureaucracy and executive salaries. Churches also run many other for profit businesses on which they pay no taxes due to the corrupt nature of our tax laws (including a former musical instrument store here in Launceston). I was once (unwillingly) involved in the privatisation of a government run nursing home. The head of the Presbyterian organisation that wanted to take it over openly stated they weren't interested in safe service delivery models but rather financially "sustainable" ones. If our society actually empowered people and wasn't run as a glorified enrichment scheme for the already rich, the churches would have no work! Churches like multinational corporations are the bad guys,

Dead Kennedies - Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death Lock Up - Demonization Napalm Death - Leader Not Followers (Pt 2) Turbonegro - Party Animals

I am all for this reunion! Just eish it comes to Australia. I love Pantera so much I have the CFH logo tattoed on my right leg!

Bad Religion - How Could Hell Be Any Worse

Would love to see Megadeth again but saving up for Europe. 😪 Megadeth - Countdown To Extinction Sex Pistols - Never Mind The Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols

That's a great album! Pantera - Vulgar Display Of Power Slayer - Seasons In The Abyss

Chances of me seeing them live are roughly 0 so all good! 🤪

Atheist - Elements Criminally underrated album by a criminally underrated band

Sydney and Melbourne are shitholes. I would not shed a tear if they were swallowed up by the sea.

For me metal is a lot of things: - Entertainment. Riffs and more fucking riffs - Emotional outlet/resonnance. - Ideals and attitudes towards society - One of the cornerstones of my identity (the others being a socialist, a Yugoslav, a Tasmanian(not Australian), and a history nerd). As the Entombed lyrics on Masters of Death go: "I love it like you love Jesus. It does the same thing to my soul."