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3 hours ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

And how was your little vacation in the 'deep south?' Where'd ya go Doc, Antarctica to feed the penguins?

Hobart and environs only. It was mainly a family visit to see my wife's very elderly parents -  and her brothers and their families. But I got to see some bands and that was great.

I have been to Tasmania many many times and we have travelled over most of it, having adventures large and small.

1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

So something has to give and I miss out on Dark Mofo again.

My commiserations...

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4 hours ago, KillaKukumba said:

We all aspire to be part of the 'superior northern breed', but we know our place and us lowly ol' Mexicans wont ever match up.

I miss the days when Tassie wasn't hip and cool and people opted to move out rather to move to.  Id much rather we were still Tasbania and the arse end of Australia.

 

All this population growth and mass tourism is turning the state to shit.  Our crap roads are congested, our hospitals inundated to the point the hospitals are asking people not to go there unless really needed!  Yet there aren't enough doctors.   Houses are now overpriced to the point most locals can't afford one, rentals are rare (thanks to not just people moving in but also Air BnB).  Homeless are now everywhere especially as government's quickly selling off public housing stocks, often to interstate investors or people wanting to move here (who are usually poor retired mainlanders who need more healthcare services in a state with the worst health system in Australia).

 

Discharge -Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing

Charged GBH - City Baby's Revenge

 

 

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I must have missed the memo saying Tassie was the place to move to. I think the ABS did too based on the stats from last year suggestion Tassie had a net gain of about 270 people for each of the three consecutive quarters recorded while Queensland had a net gain of approximately 8000 people for each of the same quarters.

 

Now watching (but still playing) - Mock The Week highlights.

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Yeah immigration slowed down during COVID, but before that it really started to grow.  Population in 2000 was 470,376.  It is now 520,386 - growth of about 11%.

 

However note the state was lagging in infrastructure and services in 2000.  In fact an engineering consultant gave Tasmania's infrastructure a score of D+ in 2010 or so.  It was unsuitable for existing population let alone 10s of thousands of additional people.

 

Basically since 1980 there was virtually no major infrastructure investment and the state closed huge amounts of assets - railways, schools, hospitals, housing, ports etc.  Eg Launceston's population grew but the number of schools declined by 3 (2 primary schools, 1 high school) and a second high school was reduced (my old one - buildings literally demolished and left as concrete slabs).

What new stuff there was was never funded properly.  Eg George Town and Deloraine hospitals were upgraded but no additional funds provided for extra staffing etc (i used to manage finance for those).  In one redevelopment some idiot cut back funding on double glazing and they actually recorded minus temperatures in a hospital/aged care facility in winter!

We have growing numbers of dementia sufferers yet closed down the only dedicated dementia facility.  They closed down the only psychiatric intensive care unit in Hobart too.  

Main highway between Launceston and Hobart and also Devonport to Launceston is still not dual carriage way or double lane.  Main road into Launceston is a death trap and has been for decades - there was another accident there this week, and one several months ago between two trucks (two lanes of traffic merging on the crest of a steep hill).

 

 

And it all comes out in the stats - poorest state, high levels of illiteracy (50% of population are functionally illiterate), worst health outcomes, etc etc.

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Of course the population will have grown in 20 years, my relations alone have accounted for more than a dozen new Tasmanian's in that time. However since 2009 Tasmania has had a net average interstate migration of 377 people per year. Meanwhile other states range from -13000 (NSW) to 12000 (QLD) for the same time. So while it is true that people have moved to Tassie, people are still moving out in nearly as many numbers.

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5 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

Of course the population will have grown in 20 years, my relations alone have accounted for more than a dozen new Tasmanian's in that time. However since 2009 Tasmania has had a net average interstate migration of 377 people per year. Meanwhile other states range from -13000 (NSW) to 12000 (QLD) for the same time. So while it is true that people have moved to Tassie, people are still moving out in nearly as many numbers.

 

It's a good thing as our current infrastructure isn't able to handle large populations.  Arguably you could have hundreds of millions live here ala in Asia or 10s of millions ala Europe. 

But Tasmania is essentially a poor shithole full of illiterate unhealthy bogans with an incompetent political system.  Shovelling more people into it just exacerbates the situation.

I love the place but it's not for everyone!  In fact quite a few of the middle class mainlanders I've met  have been very unhappy here and have moved back to mainland.  

 

The Exploited - Death Before Dishonour - The older I get the more I dig hardcore and the more hardcore side of crossover thrash.

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10 minutes ago, KillaKukumba said:

And Thatguy thinks I hate everything!

Thing is I love Tasmania.  It's my home and I refuse to live anywhere else in Australia.  The nature is stunning and the pace of life and lifestyle suits people like myself.  It's not for the ambitious or those seeking the pseudo-"sophistication" of Melbourne or Sydney

But I am not going to view Tassie through rose coloured glasses.  In fact part of the appeal is the warts.  Melbourne, Sydney and probably other capitals are fake, plastic and bullshit.

Tassie is like early extreme metal and hardcore - uncouth, raw, unsophisticated and true to itself.  We still have a sense of community (eg local newspaper just reported death of a much respected local pharmacist who worked hard to help people in the community unlike the faceless underpaid stooges at Chemist Warehouse)  

Sadly Hobart is trying hard to emulate the big capital cities and is in turn ruining what made it appealing in the first place.

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26 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

The Exploited - Death Before Dishonour - The older I get the more I dig hardcore and the more hardcore side of crossover thrash.

Better late than never. I guess I had a head start on all that coming of age in NY in the late 70's which was basically hardcore crossover central for the states with Agnostic Front (1980) and Cro-Mags (1981) being two of the earlier examples of hardcore bands that would have a large 'crossover' appeal to metalheads. Of course proper UK hardcore bands like Discharge, The Exploted and GBH had already been in existence for a few years by then and were clearly massively inspirational to the NY crossover scene, (not to mention crucial to the budding thrash scene in the early 80's) we all had those UK records and I find it fascinating how different musicians took all the same influences and did such different things with them.

It's never too late to get into new stuff though. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've found that my musical tastes have continued to shift and evolve no matter how old I get. I was already a little older than you are now when I first got into extreme metal, and that already seems like a long ass time ago to me now. My initial gateway was melodeath, bands like Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, Kalmah, Amon Amarth, Amorphis and Opeth in 2004. But once my old boomer ass got used to the gutteral growling I quickly moved up into proper full-on death metal and then black metal came right along behind.

A few years later like '08-'09 I ran into Marko on the Amazon metal forums and he turned me onto the punk side of extreme metal. All the d-beat and crust and stenchcore and grind bands that I had been completely unaware of til that point, which brought me full circle because I had been totally into all those early hardcore and crosssover bands I listed up in my first paragraph 25 years earlier back in the 80's, but then I had just kinda lost track of them all at some point in the 90's.

I sometimes feel like a lot of metalheads are completely closed off to metal bands that have any kind of hardcore punk influence in their sounds (the way it seems many mainstream metalheads seem to be totally closed off to black metal) so it is always good to see someone else here who's into if not punk itself, at least metal bands that fall into that hardcore, crust and crossover category.

 

This will always be the pinnacle of NY 80's crossover thrash to me. This and Age of Quarrel I guess, hard to pick one.

Crumbsuckers - Life of Dreams 1986

 

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1 hour ago, Dead1 said:

Thing is I love Tasmania.  It's my home and I refuse to live anywhere else in Australia.  The nature is stunning and the pace of life and lifestyle suits people like myself.  It's not for the ambitious or those seeking the pseudo-"sophistication" of Melbourne or Sydney

But I am not going to view Tassie through rose coloured glasses.  In fact part of the appeal is the warts.  Melbourne, Sydney and probably other capitals are fake, plastic and bullshit.

Tassie is like early extreme metal and hardcore - uncouth, raw, unsophisticated and true to itself.  We still have a sense of community (eg local newspaper just reported death of a much respected local pharmacist who worked hard to help people in the community unlike the faceless underpaid stooges at Chemist Warehouse)  

Sadly Hobart is trying hard to emulate the big capital cities and is in turn ruining what made it appealing in the first place.

Tassie maybe beautiful, but it’s also bloody cold, and I tend not to cope well when the temperature drops below 20°… Still I am a little jealous I hear you guys have some excellent whiskey distilleries over there while here in Adelaide we are stuck with either wine or gin

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57 minutes ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

Better late than never. I guess I had a head start on all that coming of age in NY in the late 70's which was basically hardcore crossover central for the states with Agnostic Front (1980) and Cro-Mags (1981) being two of the earlier examples of hardcore bands that would have a large 'crossover' appeal to metalheads. Of course proper UK hardcore bands like Discharge, The Exploted and GBH had already been in existence for a few years by then and were clearly massively inspirational to the NY crossover scene, (not to mention crucial to the budding thrash scene in the early 80's) we all had those UK records and I find it fascinating how different musicians took all the same influences and did such different things with them.

It's never too late to get into new stuff though. I can't speak for anyone else, but I've found that my musical tastes have continued to shift and evolve no matter how old I get. I was already a little older than you are now when I first got into extreme metal, and that already seems like a long ass time ago to me now. My initial gateway was melodeath, bands like Dark Tranquility, Hypocrisy, Kalmah, Amon Amarth, Amorphis and Opeth in 2004. But once my old boomer ass got used to the gutteral growling I quickly moved up into proper full-on death metal and then black metal came right along behind.

A few years later like '08-'09 I ran into Marko on the Amazon metal forums and he turned me onto the punk side of extreme metal. All the d-beat and crust and stenchcore and grind bands that I had been completely unaware of til that point, which brought me full circle because I had been totally into all those early hardcore and crosssover bands I listed up in my first paragraph 25 years earlier back in the 80's, but then I had just kinda lost track of them all at some point in the 90's.

I sometimes feel like a lot of metalheads are completely closed off to metal bands that have any kind of hardcore punk influence in their sounds (the way it seems many mainstream metalheads seem to be totally closed off to black metal) so it is always good to see someone else here who's into if not punk itself, at least metal bands that fall into that hardcore, crust and crossover category.

 

This will always be the pinnacle of NY 80's crossover thrash to me. This and Age of Quarrel I guess, hard to pick one.

Crumbsuckers - Life of Dreams 1986

 

That Crumbsuckers album is awesome.  

 

I think the problem for a lot of us guys who really got into extreme music in late 1990s/early 2000s was that a lot of old school hardcore punk/crossover/crustpunk was largely unavailable and was also kind of forgotten in metal scene.  People talked about Death or Slayer or Venom and only vaguely referred to Discharge and only Suicidal Tendencies was well known (and then it was mainly their thrash years) and SOD cause it was the guys from Anthrax.  But rest of it was forgotten.

 

The other thing was melodic metalcore ala Trivium or As I Lay Dying or Killswitch Engage left a bad taste in my mouth as it was so gutless, over melodic -really it was the worst excesses of commerical melodic DM with any extremity removed.   And the other punk stuff that was getting any kind of airwaves was poppier punk ala Pennywise or local stuff ala Living End (ok but very mainstream), Frenzal Rhomb etc.  I was vaguely aware of Earthcrisis and really liked Vision of Disorder's Imprint but a lot of bands in the VoD style were also too melodic eg Shai Halud.

 

Then things started to get more diverse - there was Hatebreed who were just boring but at least opened up my ears to their being something more lurking in the American scene other than melodic tripe.

 

And then Ian Glasper from Terrorizer mag really promoted hardcore and his book "Contract In Blood: A History of UK Thrash Metal" really got me immersed into the whole thing with bands like Sacriliege, English Dogs and the Varukers

 

Interesting none of the old school death/thrash guys I knew listened to any punk or hardcore except Suicidal Tendencies in a couple of instances.  It was pure metal, even with the grindcore.   EDIT: Know one guy who did like DRI, Carnivore and other crossover.

 

 

np: Crumbsuckers - Life of Dreams

 

41 minutes ago, RelentlessOblivion said:

Tassie maybe beautiful, but it’s also bloody cold, and I tend not to cope well when the temperature drops below 20°… Still I am a little jealous I hear you guys have some excellent whiskey distilleries over there while here in Adelaide we are stuck with either wine or gin

I love the cold.  I can't stand heat.

 

I just went for a lunch time walk - raining and cold and I thoroughly enjoyed it despite forgetting my umbrella.  Superb weather and it reminds me of some great holidays!

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2 hours ago, Dead1 said:

But Tasmania is essentially a poor shithole full of illiterate unhealthy bogans with an incompetent political system

True enough

 

2 hours ago, Dead1 said:

I love the place but it's not for everyone!  In fact quite a few of the middle class mainlanders I've met  have been very unhappy here and have moved back to mainland.  

 

We could have moved there when I qualified but my wife who grew up in Hobart knew better and she was right. Better for us the relative anonymity and more refined life in the bush capital.

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29 minutes ago, Thatguy said:

We could have moved there when I qualified but my wife who grew up in Hobart knew better and she was right. Better for us the relative anonymity and more refined life in the bush capital.

Canberra was my original goal too.  However met my wife and figured out I belonged in Tassie so I stopped looking for work in Canberra,

 

Megadeth - Endgame - my favourite of their 21st century albums.

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