Dead1

Fredlos - Fredlos Folk metal featuring Entombed guitarist Alex Hellid. Out 10 February 2023 on Threeman Recordings, Fredlös Produktion and Sound Pollution.

Just checking it out now. I haven't been in the Meshuggah loop for a while but this seems very different to previous efforts. A bit more atmospheric. EDIT: Still got boring. I miss Destroy Erase Improve.

No one is happy to do the prayer. It's generally muttered out forcibly. The people that get the most excited about it are also the most incompetent and/or corrupt sycophants that should be sacked and/or gaoled. I don't wish those fuckers any happiness. Maybe painful deaths for them and their loved ones, but certainly not happiness. People will "defend their own." We are tribal/herd creatures. So Muslims complain about no Muslims in Dune and white people complain about black Ariel. This will never change (in fact I suspect at some stage in near future tribalism will get out of control as inequality destroys economic foundation of western societies - again already happening).

There has been very much a backlash against this. Eg Ben Kingsley portrayed the Mandarin in Iron Man 3. Mandarin was an Asian stereotype (typical Asian bad guy from 1930s pulp fiction) . Marvel has since retconned in Shang-Chi movie that Kingsley's Mandarin was just an actor hired by the actual villain Wenwu who is played by Asian actor Tony Leung and certainly not a stereotype. Eg Apu from Simpsons has been removed as he is voiced by Hank Azaria who is white. Eg White voice actor for black character Missy in show Big Mouth was replaced in season 4 by a black actor. I've also already mentioned the unhappiness Muslims displayed about not having any starring roles in Dune. I don't watch much tv so these come from my limited viewing and there's probably more. I'd rather people just keep their political and religious views at work to themselves. I certainly don't want it rammed down my throat at work. If people want to give praise to the spirits of indigenous ancestors, they should do it in private. And remember I work for a public service, not some church run health facility or an organisation run by an aboriginal agency. Our guiding values are basically secularism, equality and impartiality. Praying to and thanking Aborigines goes against those core values. Ironically whilst we increasingly prostate ourselves to minorities, values such as impartiality, integrity and accountability are being flushed down the toilet.

Recognising a bunch of people as traditional custodians of the land and paying respect to their ancestors using the same words each time is very much a prayer. Here's the generic wording used before every meeting. And definition of a prayer as from Wikipedia: I would argue that acknowledgement of country/welcome to country is very much an invocation or act seeking to activate rapport with the indigenous community (as well as spiritual concept of "Traditional Custodian") through deliberate communication. As a secular atheist and socialist who believes in equality of all and that the public service represents and serves all, I find it very offensive.

No one says much to me though very occasionally I get stares/glares at my t-shirts (usually old ladies or immigrants).

Welcome aboard!

What about a bunch of white guys doing a traditional Maori Haka or the Seven Samurai set in Japan with all white actors or Nelson Mandela movie with an Indian cast as Nelson Mandela? Though when it comes to Shakespeare I actually enjoy the messing around with the setting. Some of my favourite versions of Shakespeare were set in 1920s (Midsummer's Night Dream) or a 1930s type world (Macbeth). I would like to see some of the cyberpunk versions of the plays (eg Richard III). But Shakespeare's plays are not as fleshed out in terms of world building unlike LOTR or Star Wars or Marvel or whatever. That describes it perfectly.

Nail hit on the head. I certainly don't think a character needs to look like me for me to identify with them. Hell, I just watched Wednesday and I really identified with Wednesday Adams who is a 15 year old Hispanic girl. She was nearly everything I was in my youth and even today - attracted to darkness, had an air of superiority, despised mainstreamness, lonely and struggled to trust people. And Hollywood is lazy - how many Robin Hoods or Spidermen or Iron Men or Terminators or Fast n Furious or whatever do we need? Massive world out there and so many interesting stories that could be told on the big screen.

As stated, it's mandatory in my workplace. Y'know departmental policy that we have to abide by. And it's done as a prayer in the same way Christians say grace before a meal - a meaningless hollow utterance spoken ritualistically using the exact same phrase each time. The arts community do spice it up but it's still done in a quasi-religious way. And it's promoting a religious concept of indigenous as spiritual guardians of Australia and also implying we should be grateful they let us live here. I usually mute the microphone on the first part of the meeting just to ignore it.

Arguably the why not is the same reason we shouldn't dilute other culture eg casting white people as non-white characters like they did back in the old days. Tolkein is part of British literary condition routed in European culture. And note people seriously believe that white people should not be allowed to act as non-white cultures. Indeed Muslims complained the modern remake of Dune didn't feature Muslim actors despite some aspects of culture being similar to Islamic (given Dune is set in the year 10191 AD who knows what racial features the Dune dwellers would have). As for monied interests, you know my opinion there and it lies more with Franklin Roosevelt and even Vladimir Lenin, than it does with Adam Smith and Milton Friedman. 😁

Except none of those groups generally live together. Fantasy is usually based on middle ages with most people living as peasants and not much intermingling except maybe in large cities in markets (and even then traditionally not). So the dwarves usually live in underground cities, the Elves in their own realms, the Hobbits in their shire and the Men in their own. These are like countries. Fantasy usually involves a journey. So young Bilbo who is essentially a peasant never meets any of these people until he leaves the Shire on an epic quest. It's no different to say the world in 1000 AD - sure you had Mayans and Chinese and Arabs and Norse and Seljuks and Chinese and French and Rus but no one really travelled much. In fact people seldom left their villages or farms! Having a multicultural village in Northumbria or in Song Dynasty era China in 1000 AD would be historically implausible. Same applies to fantasy which is based on this stuff. Note no one really complains about diversity in sci-fi because they have the same technological capabilities we have in terms of moving around.

In my department Acknowledgement of Country is mandatory. I hate the Acknowledgement of Country prayer with a passion. I work for a secular public service that provides services to anyone regardless of race, religion etc. Why acknowledge one group (well now potentially 3 if they do end up implementing bit about about acknowledging LGBTIQ+ and mentally ill/alcohol and drug addicts)? Why should my kids' school do the same?

Woke's definitely a thing. I've already mentioned how we have to say a prayer to indigenous Australians at the start of every meeting. It's now also done at the start of performances (eg my daughter's ballet recital), awards ceremonies, even a dance party I attended this year etc etc. At my work they are looking at expanding the prayer to include LGBTIQ+, the mentally ill and bizarrely alcoholics and drug addicts. You listen to young people like my niece talk and all the world's problems are attributed to white males. My wife does it too as do her friends and colleagues. It's everywhere on TV. Woke is the historical revisionism we are seeing eg Captain James Cook now being touted as as a genocidal colonialist. It's assigning modern values to respected historical characters to destroy the legacy of those people. It's recasting the whole of western civilisation as intrinsically evil and to be got rid off. Other cultures are recast as saintly and without fault. Accusing another culture of bad practice (eg baked in misogyny in Islam or problems associated with Indian castes) results in allegations of racism. Wokeness is essentially the old post colonialist philosophy transplanted back to the west and expanded across all facets of life. It's been merged with feminism and Richard von Coudenhove-Kalergi's concepts outlined in Practical Idealism. Like any concept it's been reduced to mindless slogans and closed minds. And I say this as someone who is essentially a feminist and a an actual Marxist (if I had it my way, most industries would be nationalised). Just last week I participated in a march against domestic violence. I am all for equality but I am also for freedom of speech and I also think western civilisation and in particular protestant cultures* revolutionised human existence for the better. *I am again a southern Slav of Catholic origin and an atheist, certainly not a north European Protestant. ---- As for inclusivity, no not everything needs to be inclusive. Eg metal - I can't stand normies taking the piss out of metal which is what they do when they send me all those memes on FB. I can't stand normies appropriating metal shirts etc. Metal is for metalheads! Or wargaming - the ultracompetitive win at all costs types that cheat and argue to win can fuck off. I refuse to play them and let my displeasure be known if they've behaved that way after our first game.

Actually I was referring to Blaze of Perdition! 😜

I can relate to it. Recently D&D stopped having racial/species features because they viewed it as promoting racism (I kid you not). Eg Elves are not so good at magic anymore and Dwarves not automatically being tough. So their whole backstory has been effectively wiped out. They're now just the same as humans. Also creatures are no longer good or evil aligned. And all this kind of cheapens what lore there is. Eg one of the most famous D&D characters is Drizzt do' Urden who is a Dark Elf that tore from his culture's evil and violent ways to become a good guy. Well now Dark Elves are no longer evil so all of a sudden Drizzt's exploits have become meaningless. The only reason Dark Elves exist is because they did a deal with a demon (Lloth, the Spider Queen). To gain and keep her favour required acts of violence, slavery and sadism. Their culture developed accordingly. All of a sudden they're just elves with dark skin with no defining culture or background or anything. In fact it kind of destroys DnD which is typical good guys v bad guys. All of a sudden those goblins you're smashing are just impoverished wretches forced into crime and violence due to lack of other options! My brother has already gone down this politically correct path and he is now a pain to game with. Now when I DM mix things up. Most of the NPCs are "grey." However those distinctions of good and bad are necessary to give the players grounding and define their parameters.

You forget people like Kirk Hammett (half Filipino), Rocky George from Suicidal Tendencies, Chuck Billy (half Mexican half Native American), Dino Cazares, Tom Araya, Slash, Mike Alexander (Evile), whole of Bodycount, Benji Webb (Skindred), Tom Morello and Zache de la Roche from RATM), Eddie and Alex Van Halen (half Indonesian), Kim Thayil and Hiro Yamamoto from Soundgarden etc etc. In fact hispanics form a large percentage of the modern US metal scene! We now have metal bands from as far as Mongolia! The Revolver article was just modern race baiting. Same. It's called suspension of disbelief. I remember the woke people complaining that the WWII movie Dunkirk lacked people of colour and women. It's a movie about 300,000 white men hanging out on a beach. Women and people of colour weren't really present (though they did show some French African colonial troops which is historically accurate).

Curious what you think about this given it's somewhat overproduced and "tame"?

Probably a good way to describe them. Cave In - Heavy Pendulum- feel tired and in the mood for something mellow. Still one of my favourite albums of the year even if it isn't speed, thrash or traditional heavy metal! https://youtu.be/sN3_dRyT5Kw

High as Hell - Razorblade Dreams Stoner metal but a bit more high octane than what one would usually associate with the genre. Saw them live with King Parrot and they rocked hard. https://highashell.bandcamp.com/album/razorblade-dream

Sad but true. Yet the forum still represents the best format in terms of usability, flexibility and organisation.

Also dead since 2019...

That's pretty well done but generally not my cup of tea (these days I like my music more raw, more crusty). Reminds me of Fleshgod Apocalypse. Not sure where anything "core" comes out of it - sounds like symphonic black/death for most part.

That Profane Order isn't too bad.

Seconded on Facebook page! Didn't know there was one. EDIT: Looks a bit dead: https://www.facebook.com/MetalForumCom