JonoBlade

My favourite book as a kid was Magician. It may actually make it into a series (‘The Riftwar Cycle’ Fantasy Books In Works For Television – Deadline), but can't find any more up to date info. It should tick the diversity boxes because the "baddies" are an Empire of chinamen, but turn out to just be a different culture and no better or worse than the European-based-cliche Kingdom. And they have more awesome magic. There are black people wandering around from a southern continent called Kesh so there is a logical reason to be diverse. Even the main character is a bit ethnically ambiguous, merely described as short and dark haired. I have been re-reading it recently, and the writing is not quite as great as I remember, but it could translate well so long as high production values are maintained. The joy of modern adaptions is that most suck, so expectations can be kept low.

Dear moderator Isn't this grounds for automatic expulsion?

My first thought when the show started is that the beginning was almost a rehash of LOTR itself. A long catch up sequence. I wondered why they didn't just go back to the actual origin story of Morgoth, before Sauron. I had read The Silmarillion years ago and that is where all that detail would have been...which they don't have the rights to. So the whole thing is a waste of time. And the actress playing Galadriel just doesn't suit it at all. She's short and petulant, in no way portraying an ethereal calmness and strength that Cate Blanchett nailed. The only character I liked was the elf ranger guy...and he wasn't even in the last episode. And the dwarves were fun. No. The only way to do it was to use Middle Earth as a backdrop and just tell a new adventure story which may have loosely coincided with actual Tolkien-described events. I played Middle Earth role-playing games as a teenager and we had a great time, but never once cared about wider intrigues. After a few seasons, with good writers on board, THEN maybe pull together some plot threads that hint at a bigger story and creation of the one ring. But they've blown it now.

Good point. I mean, you can seek out indie/avant-garde films but they are more than likely self-indulgent shit. By contrast a one man black metal band's self-indulgent shit might actually be quite good. And it still cost him a fraction of the cost of even a cheap indie movie. I read an article about Channel 4 in the UK the other day. It is funded by the TV license which the tories are constantly trying to run down and move toward defunding the BBC. Public funds is the best way to finance TV/film productions that take risks. I personally don't watch hardly any of it, but it is good to know it is there and so proudly (get my wife to) pay the TV license. I presume in America, the land of free enterprise, there is much less appetite for making ground breaking art. Profit driven companies will stick to what is proven to turn the most profit. It does lead to homogenisation, although sometimes there is a recognition that an original idea may become a runaway success even if it looked like a dud on paper. Even Marvel was poking fun at its alleged movie generation algorithm in the final episode of She-Hulk. I only watch it with my daughter because it is a strong female role-model. Literally.

There is no boundary to what is "normie" these days. Once upon a time D&D fantasy was not for "normies" but other entertainment genres you mention liking are very much mainstream (earthbound action movies, westerns, war movies, espionage/spy stuff, prison movies, cops n robbers, drug cartels and gangster flicks).

Yip. The goblins were likely designed by a special effects department and nothing to do with JKR. Surely there will be something your boy is into that gets you off the rocking chair, chasing magpies off the lawn. Even my 76 year old dad has seen the Harry Potter movies. But LOTR, Rings of Power....sweet baby jesus, I am halfway through the last episode of the Prime series. That is 9 hours of my life I'll never get back. Visually stunning but horse shit. There has been an anti-woke backlash on that one since they cast Lenny Henry as a Hobbit. Funnily enough I'll put on my Oathkeepers hat and say I actually agree that having a small group of villagers or hobbits (who would most likely be from an isolated inbred population) comprised of every ethnic minority under the sun is visually distracting. They should have done it properly and made all the elves black, all the hobbits Chinese and all the dwarves jews. Or interchange into whatever stereotype is least offensive. That would make more sense because it would be a consistent stylistic choice. Then the interwebs would really lose it's collective shit. In any event, it would not have saved the atrocious writing and plot development.

They celebrated Christmas. I suspect it was one of those things that JKR didn't think through since it was a children's story to start with, and teen fiction by the end. It was like having Father Christmas in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Although CS Lewis was Christian so wanted to crowbar it in there somehow. While I have seen most of the MCU stuff I haven't bothered with Ms. Marvel because she's supposed to be Muslim I think. It doesn't make sense making any reference to real world religion in MCU because there can't be a one true god in a universe with Zeus and Odin. Seeing Russel Crowe as Zeus in the latest Thor alone is worth the price of admission. Doing his best Con the Fruiterer pisstake greek accent. It's genius.

I only started regularly posting to a forum with Metal-Fi, which was supposed to be about promoting good sound quality in metal. They were really hung up on the loudness wars, which I respect as a thing, and was great for debate but I remember the choice of "best sounding" album of the year sometimes was very far removed from my own. It wasn't about not being able to be objective about whether I liked the band or not - the actual production choices sounded bad to me. A mix can have perfect balance/separation and full dynamic range but still be shit if they use midi strings and plastic sounding drums all over it.

Hadn't heard that one before. The entire plot of Harry Potter deals with issues of a villain obsessed with being the master race, and getting beaten...and major characters are gay. They cast a black actress to play Hermione in the Cursed Child play. And Hagrid! Although I think there was a throwaway line in the first act that mentioned there were no Jews at Hogwarts because they were too busy eating babies. So, you're probably right.

Not just an evening. Try a whole day. The Cursed Child is a two-part play spanning 1-9pm. Would not have been my choice for spending a Sunday, but it was ok. Good stage effects. As with any JK Rowling story it has good characters and emotional depth but plot holes you could drive the Hogwarts Express through.

On the way to see Harry Potter and the Cursed Child I saw a Skid Row poster on the London Underground advertising their new album. That was random. Since I read Blabbermouth I know about the drama with Sebastian Bach and lineup changes, despite never having heard a Skid Row album, nor ever likely to. I was just surprised to see multiple posters in the Underground because that kind of coverage can't be cheap.

I bet you do. NP: Plague - Portraits of Mind

Corpsessed - Succumb to Rot Sometimes meat and potatoes is all you need. (Especially if you don't eat meat...)

That's the spirit!

Is it just me or does it look like Gene Wilder being tortured on the Spreading the Disease album cover?

Unsurprisingly there are already 5 Hellgoat and 3 Necrowitch bands. A couple of bloodwar album titles....but incredibly no Bloodwar band on metal archives. I think you may be onto something.

There is some great, measured and calm advice here. It's possible quite a few of us have been through a similar experience to greater or lesser degrees. My mum is still waiting for me to give up on this ridiculous music. However, she had the good sense not to try and forbid it and just hoped it would go away. Which it never did. I do recall a flare up when I was about 6 years old because I listened to KISS and my mum had heard they were "Knights in Satan's Service". But the funny thing was I got a tape copy of the record from a family friend of my parents who didn't believe in that nonsense and probably explained it to them. So, an additional bit of advice I could give is to try and find an ally elsewhere in the family (an uncle or family friend) who might back you up. That at least shows your parents how serious you take it. That you don't want to disappoint them, but metal is awesome.....and "hey mum, no doubt I'll grow out of it anyway. Just be patient." Later, as a teenager, my dad heard that AC/DC was a slang term for bisexual and was concerned I'd become a sexual deviant. I told him Angus got the name from the back of a sewing machine. Also, when I played TNT in the car one day he said "oh, that sounds pretty harmless."

Welcome back Random Metal Thoughts. We missed you. "essentially pointless except as income generation through album sales and touring cycles" That is almost every band 20+ years into their career. It is their livelihood. For a band I like I will gladly take "It's not bad just superfluous" and keep an ear out for new sounds/bands that pique my interest.

Squids are thickies. Giant and deep sea capable, for sure, but: Cephalopod intelligence - Wikipedia "It is believed that squids are slightly less intelligent than octopuses and cuttlefish" Cuttlefish is a pretty low bar. My octopus mates frequently use the derogatory term "dumber than a cuttlefish." It's a bit racist but they are of a different time. It was well known that while Oderus Urungus' penis, AKA "the cuttlefish of Cthulhu" (subject of the documentary Phallus in Wonderland) was sentient, it was not that smart.

Octopii. Super smart. There's a Netflix documentary "My Octopus Teacher" which is a good watch. It's not for nothing that Cthulhu has an octopus head.

Bandcamp Friday! Fairly randomly picked some stuff from my wishlist so I didn't forget later in the day. Balmog, BÜTCHER and Void of Sleep are relatively "new" bands with a recent album that I regularly go back to, but no idea what the albums I bought today are like. Album art of New World Order looked cool....so I'll really enjoy delving into that two inch square on my phone screen. I never actually heard Swans but from various independent reports it is something I might dig. I am aware it is a triple album, but bands are allowed one of those in their career. Also, really like the latest Mastodon which is a proper double album with an ebb and flow. Not quite a Quadrophenia or The Wall but catchy as hell. Dead's list reminded me that I bought the download of the latest Clutch album direct from the band but because it is not on Bandcamp, which is what I typically listen to during the day - from phone to studio monitors, I've barely heard it. Also, Iron Maiden - Senjitsu. Ugh. After debating months ago whether to get it and caving in, they withdrew it from the 7Digital service where I bought/stored it and the only download copy I had was on my work laptop...which I erased and gave back when I left my job a few months back. That's it. I am done with Maiden. I'll never put on a life jacket again. Pillars of Salt by Balmog New World Order by Void Of Sleep 666 Goats Carry My Chariot by BÜTCHER The Seer by SWANS EDIT: Late Friday additions Barren Dominion by Void King Angels Hung from the Arches of Heaven by Goatwhore I was pondering "most cliched band name" and proposed King Void Wizard Witch Queen....then came across Void King on metal archives and recalled must have heard of these guys a year or two ago. Review of Goatwhore on Blabbermouth was good and I liked the video.

NP: Repugnant - Epitome of Darkness To finish off working week.

I guess some kind of constitutional capitalism? Deregulation is death by a thousand cuts because corporate bodies want less oversight in order to make more profit. Could regulation enshrined in a constitution have a hope of maintaining a level of minimum standards and preventing corporations from running amok? It does not have to be "heavy handed" in relation to everyday citizens. In other words, you can have strict regulation to protect society from corporate greed without having every individual "monitored." To me, these are different issues. What personal freedoms have you had taken away? Privacy, which is like a personal freedom, has been somewhat eroded...mainly due to corporations collecting and selling data about you. So, regulate it! Governments collect data too which is potentially a loss of freedom and breach of privacy, but then government policy is naturally regulated if the democracy functions properly because there is oversight by the next batch of elected officials. Corporations have no such natural oversight. If freedom is to do what you want, when you want and damn everybody else; then you need to be "regulated". It just has to be a sensible framework. Which is what laws and a legal framework to challenge those laws should provide. The kinds of regulation I am talking about is preventing further damage to the environment so we have a future. On the social side, there should be strict and far reaching regulation on financial markets and tax systems. These are macroscopic issues and not designed to take away personal freedoms, except maybe that you can no longer be a currency trader that makes a fortune from speculating and shifting money from one place to the other without creating anything. I wrack my brain but can't actually think of a "personal freedom" I have lost in my adult life. I can't speed if I have a fast car. There's always been a speed limit. I can't kill someone I don't like. Murder has always been frowned upon. I can't smoke in a public space? Sorry, I just don't see those things as some kind of fundamental nanny state "loss of freedom" issue. It's just common sense based on evidence. I'll keep thinking and ask around to try and come up with a single freedom I have lost in my lifetime. Which is not to say one shouldn't be vigilant and rail against an authoritarian government trying to introduce restrictions, but that is normally about standing up for other people, because they always come for them first.

Went to see Obscura last night. It was ok. Very widdly and blast beaten. The only album I know is Omnivium and those songs did seem to go down the best with everybody else too. Found it most interesting that Disillusion was the opening band (like, first of three bands, Persephone was second who I'd never heard of). I missed most of the Disillusion set by accident (I knew they were playing but assumed they'd be second). Anyhow, I used to be very familiar with "Back to Times of Splendour" (2004) until they burned all their cred with the next album "Gloria". There was a review on Blabbermouth that was so scathing that it was removed by the next day when I tried to find it again. Good on them for keeping at it. Apparently there is a new album in November, although the last one from 2019 didn't do much for me. BTW, how do you delete attachments from your metal forum account? I can see where to view attachments but there is no option to select and delete them.

No doubt we've covered this before, but that is my conclusion too. Capitalism ok but with massive and eternal regulation and a shift of focus away from growth as a metric for everything. Communism never seemed to work because it becomes a cult of personality and any regime that tries too hard to stop people from leaving the country is probably not an ideal system.