Dead1

Bathory - Bathory Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness Dark Tranquility - Character Megadeth - The Sick, The Dying...and the Dead! Pungent Stench - Been Caught Buttering Sepultura - Bestial Devastation Slayer - Haunting the Chapel

I've called the cops on several occasions and they either never showed up or they did nothing. In first instances there was a big loud domestic dispute at a neighbours where one person was threatening to shoot another. The cops didn't turn up. Luckily the neighbours managed to sort it themselves In second instance, I could see two guys trashing the petrol station next door. I called the cops and they never turned up. Also called them for a burglary at one of our facilities. Cop literally said it was a waste of time doing anything but took prints whilst fagging away and cigarette ash falling all over the area he was dusting! He said he was there for insurance processes. Oh and I know at least 3 drunk drivers they let go instead of charging - my brother, my best mate and myself.. My wife used to work in another part of the justice system in the magistrates court. The cops were lazy - they sometimes didn't collect statements from witnesses for several months and they certainly didn't bother filling in paper work. Apparently their KPI was number of charges laid, not convictions. Cops are a waste of space and an illusion of security. My dad said the cops are there to keep honest people honest and that's it. Exactly. My wife has said the cops are especially nasty and unhelpful with victims of domestic violence if they're Asian women married to Australian men. They apparently view them as mail order brides and gold diggers.

Local cops really are pigs. One of my wife's clients was scheduled to witness in a domestic violence case (she is the victim). Two days before the court appearance, two men break into her house and beat her up so badly she ends up in hospital with internal injuries (though she is conscious). As she is in hospital with serious injuries, she has missed her court appearance today. The cops have not taken any statement from her and to make matters worse are now making rumblings that she will be arrested for failing to turn up to court! This isn't the first time cops have been harassing domestic violence victims. Not the first time they've not wanted to take statements. My wife's been in police stations with the victims and watched the cops try to avoid taking statements. She has to argue with them to take statements from her clients. Cops are also violating court orders - they tried to arrest another victim due to an administrative error at the court even though they knew it was an administrative error (my wife pulled strings to have the court fix up the error and the head cop full on argued with my wife the cops were within their rights). Again enforces my belief that cops are just thugs with badges. Also goes to show that female rights are still not entrenched in the Australian justice system.

There is an interview with Slayer from that time where the Slayer guys complain about the annoying stuff Venom were doing. They didn't go into details though.

No probs with Ice T being here but then Bodycount played an outsize role in my youth! Album is not too bad but it does need editing. I think it's an improvement over Dystopia but not as good as Endgame. The riffage is great and the drums are best they've been in years (thank you Drik Vanbeuren My only concern is Dave's voice is starting to show real signs of strain and hollowing out. He is starting to sound like an old man..

Reading old interviews in the Slayer Mag Diaries. These came out in late 1980s. Lots of cool stuff ala early Bathory, Mayhem, Slayer, Destruction all at their peak as well as lots of forgotten stuff. One of the funniest things is how much Quorthorn sledged the crap out of Hellhammer and Celtic Frost. He literally referred to Hellhammer as Wimphammer. Also in one sentence Quorthorn says he can't stand Venom and then he immediately states Black Metal LP is good. Some other observations: - The terms death, thrash and thraschcore were used interchangeably even as late as 1987-88. The only "genre" was black metal which implied use of satanic lyrics. So thrash act Sabbat were actually regarded as black metal. -1980s metal guys were really, really homophobic. Lots of nasty homophobic slurs some of which are really quite overt and not tongue in cheek or anything. - To get into extreme scene was a matter of writing letters to like minded metallers courtesy of Metal Forces pen pal page! There was no way in hell you were going to hear an extreme metal demo without plugging into the letter writing scene. People today don't realise how easy it really is. The letters literally opened doors - so you might be in touch with someone in another country which meant if your bed went to that country they'd have a bed! The art is great and it's an awesome time capsule into the 1980s extreme metal scene when it was a small number of people creating the start of a global music phenomenon.

Picked up Metallion: the Slayer Mag Diaries. Lots of ancient interviews from the early days of extreme metal. https://www.bazillionpoints.com/books/metalion-the-slayer-mag-diaries-by-jon-metalion-kristiansen/

Hence I'm seriously convinced we need AI to rule over us.

True. Except it's not necessarily been smooth sailing be it ACW or civil rights or whatever. And I would argue the current system is in need of a massive overhaul from role of president to electoral college to gerrymandering to state/federal rights and responsibility to supreme court ie everything. It worked in past but is now cumbersome, promotes inertia and doesn't fit with modern expectations of how a state should run. I would also argue since 1970s it has stopped working for benefit of the American people and now increasingly serves a few rich people. Sweden hasn't been in a war since 1814 and has really never been invaded. Denmark and Norway - yes they have been invaded but it hasn't affected them in terms of creating inherent instability and both have superb living standards that are are the envy of the world.. The big advantage of those 3 countries is culture that was formed by a variety of environmental, historical, religious (especially their specific forms of Protestantism) and political factors. Note we Croats now have a largely homogenous culture yet the system is inert, and corrupt. But again environment, historical, religious and political factors contribute to greater dysfunction. Same can be applied to every other country. Most cultures have a bias towards authoritarianism simply because of factors such as emphasis on collectivism instead of individual. Most cultures are set up to promote inequality simply because of religious, political and other factors. Western world is unique in that due to quirks of Protestantism, enlightenment, industrial revolution and other factors it managed to develop a environment for stable democracy.

Death Angel - Act III - one of the best albums of the era yet critically underrated in my opinion.

To be fair your presidents aren't exactly glowing examples of great humanity (aside from FDR and Lincoln) and your republic runs a global pseudo empire whereby you set the rules based on American national interest (eg Saudi Arabia invades Yemen and commits atrocities = GOOD, Russia invades Ukraine and commits atrocities = BAD). It's actually amazing how often US is involved in setting up global rules but doesn't ratify the treaties to make the US accountable. Hence the rules apply for other countries, but not US. I think the British monarchy has an important role in stabilising Britain - the country has been at relative peace with itself since 1745 and it's institutions largely stable since 1688. It has coped with a lot - industrial revolution WWI, WWII, end of Empire, growth of humanism, expansion of democracy, fascism etc and socialism etc yet the system is still stable. I am not talking about individual kings or queens or royals but rather the system - British government has not collapsed due to violence or revolution or constitutional collapsed since 1688 - yet France is on its Fifth Republic since 1792 and that's not including 2 Empires, a Kingdom and several other periods of different government. Fourth French Republic collapsed in 1958, whilst Fifth nearly collapsed in 1968. So much for French republicanism promoting stability. Meanwhile the American system designed in late 1700s is already falling apart and needs a significant overhaul if not complete replacement. It doesn't help the US President is a pseudo tyrant who can rule by decree and the system of checks and balances has become a system of inertia. Note some of the other countries that have monarchies are also shining lights for human living standards in the whole planet (better than US or UK): - Denmark - Sweden - Norway There are also some truly horrid monarchies out there ala Saudi Arabia or Bahrain or Eswatini or whatever. Same with republics - look at Russia or Kazakhstan or Syria or even Indonesia or Pakistan! The truth is it is more about political systems and cultural norms. Who sits at the head is largely irrelevant if the system and culture are corrupted or fractured or predisposed to authoritarianism and brutality. Even republican democracy can be an atrocious system if it's poorly set up and unsupported by proper checks, balances, functioning civil society and institutions. Eg Philippines elected Duterte who started a massive killing spree of anyone suspected of a crime - 7000+ killed by police and vigilantes in first 6 months alone without a trial. Though it would also be a good reason to divert Australian attention from some of the real growing problems this country is experiencing yet government is ignoring. I seriously doubt we could come up with a better system either and no doubt any presidential system we come up with will be a corrupted, over politicised, media driven circus.

Some really interesting stuff. You are right - John Bush's voice comes across as hollow at times. I actually never liked his work in Armoured Saint. Joey's interesting - his original style was too classical heavy metal with punk undertones. He simply didn't sound thrash. I do like it though. Sepultura - Chaos AD

Did someone try to rip you off?

I had previously mentioned how we have to say a little prayer to Aborigines at my work (Welcome to country) and how they were looking at expanding it to include other groups. So I saw the wording of the additional "prayer" and I kid you not they now "recognise the expertise of people with lived mental health illness or alcohol and drug abuse." So we now at start of each meeting we recognise having schizophrenia or smoking crack or being an alcoholic as expertise. I literally read that line several times thinking I must have misread "experience" but no it is expertise. Seems now knowing how to pack a bong, chop lines on a mirror or get the most out of your boxed wine bladder are valuable skill sets to be praised by government mental health employees.

As a Megadeth fanboy, I'd agree with you. New Testament and Anthrax are on average generally better than new Megadeth IMO. I do find each Megadeth album enjoyable except Risk but I suspect there's a lot of bias given I love the band so much (same with Iron Maiden). As to Dave's voice, it sounds tired on the new album. Not sure how much that cancer kicked him around or if it's just him becoming an old man (same happened to Lemmy - he sounded so old and tired on the last several Motorhead albums). Last 2 are Joey Belladonna on vocals. I've liked the 2 Joey albums. Of the Bush era I love Sound of White Noise and Volume 8 but Stomp 442 and We've Come For You All are z-grade turdburgers. I think a bigger issue with Bush era was that they tried very hard to stay relevant commercially. I remember reading an interview with them in late 1990s when they were lamenting how they couldn't fill even small venues anymore. Nail smacked on the head. Personally I think 35-40 minutes running time is ideal in most cases. Note human attention span is on average 45 minutes. Bands like modern Metallica or Iron Maiden or older Opeth would have been far better if they trimmed the excess. So many albums in 1990s were full of filler because they tried to write longer albums to use up all CD storage capacity.

Reminds me of a story I head about Nissan looking to sell a car in Australia in the 1960s. They had a team of Aussies review a list of names for the car. The list included Cedric. Apparently they were told by their Australian team the name was a bit too "mummy's-boy" (ie effeminate and pansy). The Japanese didn't understand this was regarded a bad thing and released the car as the Cedric. Not sure if it's true but it shows the Aussie attitude to naming. Dio - Holy Diver

It's interesting how many bands try to pull the whole Hammerheart/Twilight of the Gods vibe but fail. They all get too pretty. Bathory always had an abrasive ugliness in that period, even when Quorthon toned right down.

Finally got to see a gig after many years of COVID induced nothingness! Band was Fridge - an old Tassie stoner rock/sludge/grunge band featuring one of the guys from King Parrot. Also tried out some new earplugs which worked really well and I could still hear the guitars and bass! Bloody brilliant and an awesome way to get back to live music.

Back after 2 weeks of rest and relaxation in northern Queensland. Megadeth - The Sick, The Dying...And the Dead! Good on first listen. Probably their most intense album in a while. Having death metal drummer Dirk Verebeuren on drums really seems to have allowed the band to crank it up a notch. Needs more thorough listening to suss out Steve DiGiorgio's impact. Only complaint is the usual one - production is a bit too polished.

Politics has an impact on our every day lives and at least in democracies well get a vote. And a vote is kind of a purchasing decision so it needs information to be informed. Sure most people in Australia vote cause they get fined if they don't and don't give two fucks about how the country's being run. But you still hope to open some minds to different ideas so the vote they cast is based on some understanding of things . After all as many great (now probably discredited) people all said in various forms: "an informed citizenry is essential to the healthy functioning of a democracy." I'm not saying blast people with messages like some demented preacher, but healthy discussion on this matter is IMO critical. One of my favourite songs of all time!

Used to be politics and social issues on grind covers in a more enlightened time....or toy soldiers if you were Bolt Thrower! ---- Darkthrone - Eternal Hails D.R.I. - Thrash Zone Kreator - Pleasure To Kill Sepultura - Beneath The Remains Slayer - Reign In Blood Sodom - Agent Orange

Sober Australians aren't really worth discussing politics or religion with in the first place. Most have no idea about pretty much anything save footie, DIY, shopping, beauty products, clothes, utes, fishing and other more inane topics. As I always say these people have all the intellectual and philosophical bent of a brick. Oh how I relish discussions with the odd educated European or American I come across - like manna from heaven. (This is the elitist European in me).

My social media persona is mostly my real persona too. What you see is what you get. I do tend to restrain myself a bit more on social media simply cause those are the rules. Come to think of it these days I restrain myself more on social media than real life cause even at work you quickly figure out the people you can talk to openly. Also stuff on things like Facebook is hard to get rid of! So in real life I am far more self opinionated, elitist, bigoted, all knowing, misanthropic, anti-fucking everything than I am here or Facebook where I play nice. Suffice to say my wife, family and friends are extremely tolerant human beings.

Real shame about ST. Would've been awesome to see them live in their heyday.