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I have a list of books I've been wanting to read for years but never seem to get around to actually reading them. Trying to change that though. Currently have 3 going at the moment:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels (nonfiction) by Valery Rees

Mossflower by Brian Jacques (childhood favorite but kind of lackluster rereading it as an adult, oh well)

Also on the shelf but haven't started reading yet:

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (yeah, yeah can't believe I've never read them, I grew up with the films, which I think are great adaptations despite never reading the original source material)

I have the Book of Enoch as a PDF somewhere...

To acquire:

Nausea and The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

The Idiot and Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Paradise Lost by John Milton (have read Part I but want to read the entire work)

The VALIS trilogy by Philip K. Dick

"The Masque of Pandora" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot 

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On 9/15/2011 at 1:32 AM, Iceni said:

Re: Books? Well, as you can probably guess I'm a Harry Potter Fan...the books appeal to me on so many different levels, but the metaphysics are very interesting to consider. I also liked Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (by the same token I dislike Max Lucado's over-dramatized, affected manner when trying to do the same thing), C.S. Lewis' 'Screwtape Letters' and the translation of the 'Iliad' from which I read excerpts for class recently also held my attention. In the less erudite vein I love comic books when they're well-drawn. I especially enjoy the artistic work of Star Wars artists Jan Duursema and Brian Ching. The harsh realism of Northlanders is pretty cool; 'The Cross and the Hammer' was definitely my favorite.

If you've read the Iliad have you read homers Odyssey. I very much enjoyed the book. Would recommend if you liked the Iliad

I've got life and fate on the go by Vasily Grossman. It's like war and peace but based in 2nd war. It's very good so probably time I try reading it again..has any one else got books they liked but for some reason life got busy so they reading said book. Or is it just me

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On 3/10/2021 at 6:48 PM, Depraved said:

I have a list of books I've been wanting to read for years but never seem to get around to actually reading them. Trying to change that though. Currently have 3 going at the moment:

Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

From Gabriel to Lucifer: A Cultural History of Angels (nonfiction) by Valery Rees

Mossflower by Brian Jacques (childhood favorite but kind of lackluster rereading it as an adult, oh well)

Also on the shelf but haven't started reading yet:

No Exit by Jean-Paul Sartre

The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus

Lucifer by Joost van den Vondel

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (yeah, yeah can't believe I've never read them, I grew up with the films, which I think are great adaptations despite never reading the original source material)

I have the Book of Enoch as a PDF somewhere...

To acquire:

Nausea and The Age of Reason by Jean-Paul Sartre

Dracula by Bram Stoker

The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka

The Hunchback of Notre Dame by Victor Hugo

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson 

The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft

The Idiot and Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky 

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving

Paradise Lost by John Milton (have read Part I but want to read the entire work)

The VALIS trilogy by Philip K. Dick

"The Masque of Pandora" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and "The Waste Land" by T.S. Eliot 

Lots of good books on this list!  I a few of the Sartre/Camus books a few months ago, and they are interesting.  If you want any input on what to go to first on your to-buy list, then I cannot recommend getting into Kafka enough!

As to what I am currently reading:

  • Being and Time - Martin Heidegger
  • The Temple of Dawn - Yukio Mishima
  • The Illiad Book I - Homer
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On 3/22/2021 at 12:06 AM, Balor said:

Various releases by Black Mass of Absu might fit into this thread as well:

 

 

7 hours ago, Balor said:

Lots of good books on this list!  I a few of the Sartre/Camus books a few months ago, and they are interesting.  If you want any input on what to go to first on your to-buy list, then I cannot recommend getting into Kafka enough!

As to what I am currently reading:

  • Being and Time - Martin Heidegger
  • The Temple of Dawn - Yukio Mishima
  • The Illiad Book I - Homer

Kafka is very good. I've read a few of his. Definitely agree with you on that. 

Have you read homers Odyssey. The final fight sticks in my mind, 

 

 

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48 minutes ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

 

Kafka is very good. I've read a few of his. Definitely agree with you on that. 

Have you read homers Odyssey. The final fight sticks in my mind, 

 

 

I have never read The Odyssey, but I really should - if only for cultural literacy.  I am pretty ignorant of mythology in general, so I should probably work to fill in those gaps!

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On 3/26/2021 at 11:43 AM, Balor said:

Lots of good books on this list!  I a few of the Sartre/Camus books a few months ago, and they are interesting.  If you want any input on what to go to first on your to-buy list, then I cannot recommend getting into Kafka enough!

Thanks, I'm really not sure where I'm going to start, I want to read all of them at once because they all sound so interesting but that would be impossible lol. I really need to finish the books I'm reading now first, honestly. I have a really bad habit of starting books but hardly ever finishing them. The last book I read all the way through for the first time was Guantanamo Diary  for a university seminar back in 2017 (which is excellent, by the way).

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On 3/27/2021 at 12:28 AM, Balor said:

I have never read The Odyssey, but I really should - if only for cultural literacy.  I am pretty ignorant of mythology in general, so I should probably work to fill in those gaps!

Yeah there's some mythology in odyssey. Well worth a read. Not too long either about 300 pages as I remember which is good and easy read too. What's the illiad like to read. Would you recommend this.  

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6 hours ago, Depraved said:

The last book I read all the way through for the first time was Guantanamo Diary  for a university seminar back in 2017 (which is excellent, by the way).

That was the one about the Guantanamo Bay prisoner from his perspective, right?  I had helped a professor of mine with a book chapter dealing with it a while ago, and thought that it looked really interesting.

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2 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

Yeah there's some mythology in odyssey. Well worth a read. Not too long either about 300 pages as I remember which is good and easy read too. What's the illiad like to read. Would you recommend this.  

I have the Lattimore translation of the Iliad and it's kind of chewy. Tons of characters, each sometimes called different things. Lots of formulaic description to fill out the meter. Brutal, gory fight scenes. The gods are almost nonsensically capricious and petulant. It's fun if you imagine some old guy with a big beard wearing goat skins and declaiming it by a campfire into the wee hours of the morning.

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14 hours ago, Balor said:

That was the one about the Guantanamo Bay prisoner from his perspective, right?  I had helped a professor of mine with a book chapter dealing with it a while ago, and thought that it looked really interesting.

Yes! It's a very shocking and eye-opening read, especially for me (since I'm an American...) and many of the things the government tried to lead us to believe post 9/11 were exaggerated or fabricated or half-truths, trying to justify their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and "the war on terror". I actually got to interview the author for my thesis via Twitter and Skype, which was awesome. At the time I remember him talking about a new book he was working on called Portable Happiness but to my knowledge it hasn't been published yet. I know that there have to be a lot of legal proceedings and such so that his work can be published. Guantanamo Diary was only allowed to be published if a lot of information about the US government and certain conditions at the prison were omitted because it's evidence of the US violating international human rights law (which for some reason they're allowed to do, just shows you how corrupt this country is and how money and power can let them side step the law when other, smaller or poorer countries would be punished), so you end up flipping through pages upon pages of redactions with footnotes from the guy who helped him publish it explaining what information was likely redacted since he'd done a ton of research about Guantanamo and the justice system.

It always amuses me that I'm pretty much completely alone, I've never really had any friends and average people always accuse me of being "boring", yet I've gotten to meet and/or have conversations with several famous people and public figures over the years lol.

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On 3/29/2021 at 2:14 AM, FatherAlabaster said:

I have the Lattimore translation of the Iliad and it's kind of chewy. Tons of characters, each sometimes called different things. Lots of formulaic description to fill out the meter. Brutal, gory fight scenes. The gods are almost nonsensically capricious and petulant. It's fun if you imagine some old guy with a big beard wearing goat skins and declaiming it by a campfire into the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks for the description. I will likely get a sample from kindle and see if I like it.by the way Did you finish reading the illiad. Would you recommend others to read it. 

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On 4/5/2021 at 2:30 PM, Depraved said:

Today I went to the bookstore and picked up The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. I've been on classic sci-fi kick since reading Brave New World. Not like a I really need to be adding anymore books to my list...

Nice. I picked up an H.G. Wells anthology here lately, but have yet to really dig into it. It is indeed very easy to build up a backlog with books.

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On 3/30/2021 at 6:46 PM, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

 

Thanks for the description. I will likely get a sample from kindle and see if I like it.by the way Did you finish reading the illiad. Would you recommend others to read it. 

I really enjoy it so far, although I'm going to take out some other translations and see if I can find one I like better. I keep getting knocked off track. Maybe now that my son is back in school during the week, I can carve out some reading time again.

@Balor, you might like Roberto Calasso's "The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony". It's chock full of great insights into the Greek myths.

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On 3/29/2021 at 8:28 AM, Depraved said:

Yes! It's a very shocking and eye-opening read, especially for me (since I'm an American...) and many of the things the government tried to lead us to believe post 9/11 were exaggerated or fabricated or half-truths, trying to justify their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan and "the war on terror". I actually got to interview the author for my thesis via Twitter and Skype, which was awesome. At the time I remember him talking about a new book he was working on called Portable Happiness but to my knowledge it hasn't been published yet. I know that there have to be a lot of legal proceedings and such so that his work can be published. Guantanamo Diary was only allowed to be published if a lot of information about the US government and certain conditions at the prison were omitted because it's evidence of the US violating international human rights law (which for some reason they're allowed to do, just shows you how corrupt this country is and how money and power can let them side step the law when other, smaller or poorer countries would be punished), so you end up flipping through pages upon pages of redactions with footnotes from the guy who helped him publish it explaining what information was likely redacted since he'd done a ton of research about Guantanamo and the justice system.

It always amuses me that I'm pretty much completely alone, I've never really had any friends and average people always accuse me of being "boring", yet I've gotten to meet and/or have conversations with several famous people and public figures over the years lol.

I wish I remembered more about the background of this book that I read when I was working on it, but from what I remember it was pretty harrowing what he had to go through in order to publish it. 

I have always been amazed too by how willing some people are to speak about their work if you actually end up reaching out to them.  I have only ever spoken with a few of the musicians that I like, but it's all relative I guess!

1 hour ago, FatherAlabaster said:

 

@Balor, you might like Roberto Calasso's "The Marriage Of Cadmus And Harmony". It's chock full of great insights into the Greek myths.

Thanks, I will check it out!

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On 4/6/2021 at 9:45 PM, FatherAlabaster said:

I really enjoy it so far, although I'm going to take out some other translations and see if I can find one I like better. I keep getting knocked off track. Maybe now that my son is back in school during the week, I can carve out some reading time again.

@Balor

Good luck with finding time to finish off reading the illiad alabaster and getting a translation you prefer.  Also have you ever read don Quixote. That's such a good book. I can't remember much about it other than they go on an amusing quest. I remember it's very funny in places. Also My sister reckons it was one of the first popular books written in first person narrative. It's a good book to me weather this is true or not. 

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On 3/29/2021 at 4:28 PM, Depraved said:

 

It always amuses me that I'm pretty much completely alone, I've never really had any friends and average people always accuse me of being "boring", yet I've gotten to meet and/or have conversations with several famous people and public figures over the years lol.

thats cool you got to meet and have conversations with some famous people and public figures including that Guantanamo bay author. most cant say make that claim. also believe me you aren't the only one who doesn't have that many friends.  

On 4/5/2021 at 8:30 PM, Depraved said:

Today I went to the bookstore and picked up The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells and Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein. I've been on classic sci-fi kick since reading Brave New World. Not like a I really need to be adding anymore books to my list...

hg wells. the invisible man. i read that book 20 years ago. i liked it. have you had chance to start  reading  it yet depraved.  

On 3/27/2021 at 12:28 AM, Balor said:

I have never read The Odyssey, but I really should - if only for cultural literacy.  I am pretty ignorant of mythology in general, so I should probably work to fill in those gaps!

apart from the greek stuff balor. have you ever read crime and punishment by Dostoevsky. a classic book imo

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2 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

thats cool you got to meet and have conversations with some famous people and public figures including that Guantanamo bay author. most cant say make that claim. also believe me you aren't the only one who doesn't have that many friends.

Right place at the right time, I guess.

I've been very alone all my life. I've always felt like I can't relate to most people or like there is some sort of disconnect from me at a fundamental level. I often feel like I'm trapped in a glass box and the other people are on the side of the glass, and I can see them and they can see me, but I can't really pass through the glass to join them...I don't know if that makes sense, but I've read about other people who feel like this, too. I grew up in isolation and I've had to move around a lot ever since I was a kid, so it was very difficult to meet people and get close enough to them because I was never in a place for more than a few years. I've always been a drifter. The few times I felt like I was able to connect with someone, either they or I had to move away a year or so later and the relationship wasn't deep enough for them to maintain it despite my efforts. Right now I only have 2 or 3 acquaintances and none of them live nearby. 

Being alone so much, I filled my time with solitary pursuits, but as I've gotten older I realize that's just made me even more isolated. I feel very lonely all the time. But I've also had a lot of bad experiences with people so when I sometimes think of trying to make myself meet people, I remember those things and it makes me think that it's better to be alone...

2 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

hg wells. the invisible man. i read that book 20 years ago. i liked it. have you had chance to start  reading  it yet depraved.

I haven't started reading this yet. Actually I'm not quite finished with Brave New World yet so I'm trying to finish that before I begin The Invisible Man.  

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16 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

 

apart from the greek stuff balor. have you ever read crime and punishment by Dostoevsky. a classic book imo

Speaking of Greek stuff, I actually just started reading Antigone last night!  I have wanted to read Crime and Punishment for a while, but have never gotten to it.  However, I did read The Brothers Karamazov, and I enjoyed it greatly.

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On 4/13/2021 at 2:30 AM, Depraved said:

Right place at the right time, I guess.

I've been very alone all my life. I've always felt like I can't relate to most people or like there is some sort of disconnect from me at a fundamental level. I often feel like I'm trapped in a glass box and the other people are on the side of the glass, and I can see them and they can see me, but I can't really pass through the glass to join them...I don't know if that makes sense, but I've read about other people who feel like this, too. I grew up in isolation and I've had to move around a lot ever since I was a kid, so it was very difficult to meet people and get close enough to them because I was never in a place for more than a few years. I've always been a drifter. The few times I felt like I was able to connect with someone, either they or I had to move away a year or so later and the relationship wasn't deep enough for them to maintain it despite my efforts. Right now I only have 2 or 3 acquaintances and none of them live nearby. 

Being alone so much, I filled my time with solitary pursuits, but as I've gotten older I realize that's just made me even more isolated. I feel very lonely all the time. But I've also had a lot of bad experiences with people so when I sometimes think of trying to make myself meet people, I remember those things and it makes me think that it's better to be alone...

I haven't started reading this yet. Actually I'm not quite finished with Brave New World yet so I'm trying to finish that before I begin The Invisible Man.  

depraved. im honoured to get your message and if its slightly easier i can relate to what your saying. really can. i was thinking i was completely alone other day. its not a nice feeling at tbh. its not true exactly for me anymore as ive got a wife and three kids but theres some truth to it as ive only got two close friends who live miles away. if im feeling bit low i do new tasks such as diy,sewing up broken clothes, all sorts really,manual handling huge manhole covers i always like at work. a touch a danger or excitement works for me. it seems to help having bit of a challenge or just something routine like gardening or Hoovering.  another forum person im sure said the same. insomniac or something 👻one thing thats improved my mood a bit is getting to know the neighbors bit better. bit daunting but i was surprised how positive the response has been speaking to people who i would have not considered in the past. re disconnect to other people. yeah i get that alot. my mind plays tricks on me. its a shame as i miss out on good conversations for no reason as i think of bad experiences too much. my experience is a friendly hello goes along way. i dont find it easy. its never gets easy to begin with for me and i never know what to say but a short hello often is good in my experience. re the glassbox idea you said. i get it too often where i want to say something but its like my tongue is tied and i cant move it or i stammer 😫 its no fun and as you say will make no sense to many.  re meeting new people. id honestly recommend it.thats why im on this forum tbh. requiem said an obvious thing which id completely missed and its helped me socially as well as all the self help books i read re small talk etc. surely im not only one who reads these but probably only one who admits to it.😜 know im not. they wouldn't print them otherwise.  follow your interests too is a classic. that's some thing i do more these days as im fed up of constant work, work,work,ive gone off on a tangent 😁 re bad experiences with people imo i'd honestly say youve met a socially negative person and most people wouldn't be so negative. ive had it a few times and its the worst.  anyone who talks in absolute twisted negativity to me i tend to ignore now and usually just try to avoid them. ive been recommended mindlefullness books from all sorts of people. ive googled it and i do that more these days. seems to be about taking in what is actually happening in the present moment rather than what you think is happening in present moment. alot of the self help books have mindfulness stuff in them. apparently with painting a classic error is drawing or painting what you interpret to be there. tree trunks for example people draw as only brown but looking closely theres all sorts of other colors. putting in the other colours makes a big difference apparently. anyway this imo is an example of mindfulness surely. 

 re books which is er the thread😂. i hope you enjoy the invisible man. re sci fiction. have you read any asimov stuff? 

 

 

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On 4/13/2021 at 3:50 PM, Balor said:

Speaking of Greek stuff, I actually just started reading Antigone last night!  I have wanted to read Crime and Punishment for a while, but have never gotten to it.  However, I did read The Brothers Karamazov, and I enjoyed it greatly.

balor its a very interesting read that er antigone by Sophocles i assume i got that right. i read a quick summary. alot happens. how are you getting on with this book. are you still reading it? would you recommend it so far. 

brothers Karamazov is really good. its very long. think thats whats put me off reading it again. read synopsis again. its definitely one i should read again. alyosha and his naughty brother Dmitry left a strong impression when i first read it especially a bit near the end where they both have a dialogue. which is your best bit? its hard without giving plot away. 😂

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On 4/18/2021 at 2:13 AM, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

balor its a very interesting read that er antigone by Sophocles i assume i got that right. i read a quick summary. alot happens. how are you getting on with this book. are you still reading it? would you recommend it so far. 

brothers Karamazov is really good. its very long. think thats whats put me off reading it again. read synopsis again. its definitely one i should read again. alyosha and his naughty brother Dmitry left a strong impression when i first read it especially a bit near the end where they both have a dialogue. which is your best bit? its hard without giving plot away. 😂

Antigone was great, though I mainly read it as some context for a section of Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics.  It was actually pretty short, and it only took me about two hours or so to read.  I would definitely recommend it!

It has been a long time since I read The Brothers Karamazov, but I always remember liking the scene with the Grand Inquisitor.  I need to read it again too.

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6 hours ago, Balor said:

Antigone was great, though I mainly read it as some context for a section of Heidegger's Introduction to Metaphysics.  It was actually pretty short, and it only took me about two hours or so to read.  I would definitely recommend it!

It has been a long time since I read The Brothers Karamazov, but I always remember liking the scene with the Grand Inquisitor.  I need to read it again too.

balor i hope reading antigone helps make sense of Heidegger's introduction to metaphysics. did it help? and at least you read a good book/play.  

 

re brother karamazov. thats one i need to read again as its been over a decade since i read it. it left a lasting impression on me though also the grand inquisitor sounds memorable character except for me sieve brain who completly forgot😂 

have you every read dantes divine comedy.was quite interesting as i remember. 

 

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2 hours ago, blaaacdoommmmfan said:

balor i hope reading antigone helps make sense of Heidegger's introduction to metaphysics. did it help? and at least you read a good book/play.  

 

re brother karamazov. thats one i need to read again as its been over a decade since i read it. it left a lasting impression on me though also the grand inquisitor sounds memorable character except for me sieve brain who completly forgot😂 

have you every read dantes divine comedy.was quite interesting as i remember. 

 

It helped as much as anything can really be said to "help" one read Heidegger.  Heidegger translating the play in a very weird way didn't exactly make it any easier either...

I have not read Dante, but I have wanted to for a long time.  I am sort of wary of poetry just because I am not very familiar with it.  Would you say that it is worth reading?  I'm sure that greater Bible literacy would help one understand it better.

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21 hours ago, Balor said:

It helped as much as anything can really be said to "help" one read Heidegger.  Heidegger translating the play in a very weird way didn't exactly make it any easier either...

I have not read Dante, but I have wanted to for a long time.  I am sort of wary of poetry just because I am not very familiar with it.  Would you say that it is worth reading?  I'm sure that greater Bible literacy would help one understand it better.

balor yes understanding Heidegger. ok sounds like a challenge.  all that metaphysics stuff including im pretty sure Heidegger was mentioned in the commentary for the matrix films. ken wilbur and cornel west certainly talked up some interesting ideas. obviously ive no idea if there any good but it was interesting hearing about the philosophies of the matrix film's and i definitely appreciated the matrix revolutions film alot more after hearing the commentary. 

re the divine comedy. i can recommend that if you like lots of interesting imagery. most interesting part for me was hell section.  as books go its a poem but the translation i had, read more like a novel. definitely worth reading once. definitely i should  read it again

 

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    • Full length number 19 from overkill certainly makes a splash in the energy stakes, I mean there's some modern thrash bands that are a good two decades younger than Overkill who can only hope to achieve the levels of spunk that New Jersey's finest produce here.  That in itself is an achievement, for a band of Overkill's stature and reputation to be able to still sound relevant four decades into their career is no mean feat.  Even in the albums weaker moments it never gets redundant and the energy levels remain high.  There's a real sense of a band in a state of some renewed vigour, helped in no small part by the addition of Jason Bittner on drums.  The former Flotsam & Jetsam skinsman is nothing short of superb throughout "The Wings of War" and seems to have squeezed a little extra out of the rest of his peers.

      The album kicks of with a great build to opening track "Last Man Standing" and for the first 4 tracks of the album the Overkill crew stomp, bash and groove their way to a solid level of consistency.  The lead work is of particular note and Blitz sounds as sneery and scathing as ever.  The album is well produced and mixed too with all parts of the thrash machine audible as the five piece hammer away at your skull with the usual blend of chugging riffs and infectious anthems.  


      There are weak moments as mentioned but they are more a victim of how good the strong tracks are.  In it's own right "Distortion" is a solid enough - if not slightly varied a journey from the last offering - but it just doesn't stand up well against a "Bat Shit Crazy" or a "Head of a Pin".  As the album draws to a close you get the increasing impression that the last few tracks are rescued really by some great solos and stomping skin work which is a shame because trimming of a couple of tracks may have made this less obvious. 

      4/5
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