via youtube.com
Ponderously gnawing on the bloated biomechanical mass of post modernism since 2008.
Friday, 30 September 2011
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Mastodon: The Hunter
via google.co.uk
Georgian sludge metal band Mastodon return for a fifth trip into metal psychedelia with The Hunter, a raw follow up to its predecessor Crack the Skye.
Where Crack the Skye had heavy prog elements and a definite concept throughout, this new album is much more independent from that kind of structure, making stunning use of those trademark riffs and forcing every song to stand on its own merits - which they do, spectacularly. Every song is like a concept within itself, and pretty much all of them start with an instant hook riff.
If you're looking for something new from the band, then you may not be fulfilled. But if you're all good with more of what the band does best, it's definitely worth buying.
-L
Tuesday, 27 September 2011
Silly DC.
via io9.com
What's that? DC massively missed the mark with that giant DCU-wide reboot they had in mind? Surprise, surprise.
Surely when a seven year old girl can see how badly you've fucked up, that's time to take a step back and think "Hm, perhaps we should consider turning this one around..."
Anyway, this is a great read if you're remotely interested in comics and it has a bunch of links to other great articles.
-L
My sick sense of humour, summarized.
via newgrounds.com
I love this series. It's not to the taste of most but imagine your favourite childhood cartoon, put it in the back of a dirty white van with that nice gent offering candies, put it through an extremely stressful and experimental series of therapies, and you have Leo & Satan. If you like Adult Swim, this is definitely something you should look into.
-L
Gears of War 3: The biggest launch this year.
THE BUZZ: Online sales-tracking website VGChartz is proclaiming that in its first week of release, Gears of War 3 has sold over 3 million copies. If true, this would not only be a 50% increase from the sales of Gears of War 2, but would mean that Gears 3 outsold the first-week sales of both previous Gears of War titles combined.
This would also put Gears of War 3 as the biggest launch of 2011—above previous top seller Pokemon Black & White—and would chart it as the 6th biggest Xbox 360 launch of all time worldwide (behind Grand Theft Auto IV).
EGM’s TAKE: VGChartz isn’t always known as the most reliable sales-tracking outfit out there, but it wouldn’t be surprising if their numbers on this one turn out be true. Back in May, Gears of War 3 had already hit 1+ million pre-orders, and there are no doubt more gamers out there who purchase games without pre-ordering versus those who do.
Source: VGChartz
via egmnow.com
This is really unsurprising. I've yet to get all the way through the story but the game is good. Chest high walls are go as this cover based shooter reaches Epic new heights.
Metal Hammer » Blog Archive » EXCLUSIVE: New Evanescence Track Streaming On Metal Hammer!
I fail to see the point in Amy Lee continuing to produce the same limpid crap that has been every single one of her efforts since Fallen.
And that was a long time ago.
Perhaps she has some misguided sense of self entitlement ("I am a musician! Honest!") that continues to drive her to churn out this bland crap. Their sound (Back when it was good) has since been improved tenfold by We Are The Fallen. This band was basically a big "fuck you" to Amy Lee after her endless histrionics caused all the decent musicians in her once-great band to scarper... and then form a better band with that same gloriously miserable sound and a far superior vocalist.
Vitriol aside, Amy Lee fails to impress with these lacklustre, derivative singles. I'll still give the self titled album a listen - old habits die hard, and Evanescence was a childhood band almost as essential as Nirvana for me - but I will do so in the same way you approach cleaning up after your dog. You know it's going to be warm shit, but someone has to pick it up.
-L
Monday, 26 September 2011
rob-zombie-mobile-wallpaper.jpg (320×480)
So now we all now what Kurt Cobain would have looked like if he had lived to reach middle age...
-L
Monday, 12 September 2011
A busy summer, and a deluge of fantasy.
It's been a good while since I've written anything remotely insightful or opinionated due to (ironically enough) moving away to study Journalism at university, so this is my first attempt at giving my atrophied creative muscles a good kicking.
My summer has been spent pursuing fantasy novels in the hopes of finding some inspiration to begin writing my own stories again (What was once an absolutely predominant part of my character has grown somewhat meek, and I fear if I don't get back into gear I'll lose all rights to title myself a writer). This began with an assault on George RR Martin's gargantuan series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Now, I'd heard much and more of this epic before HBO succeeded in condensing the first book into ten gripping episodes of sex, death, and betrayal, but I must admit, even for me, it was daunting. It wasn't the size of the saga that gave me cause to hesitate, rather two uncertainties that lingered in the back of my head as a long time fantasy reader.
Reason number one: Due to an issue between Martin and his publisher regarding the size of the original manuscript, there was a huge delay between the release of A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons - seeing as these two were intended to be pushed as one book. Six years separate the publications, and I have no doubt that ADWD's release was well-timed after the conclusion of the massively successful HBO series. No offense to the author, but I don't know if I can genuinely stay interested in the series long enough to wait potentially another decade for its conclusion - and Martin isn't getting any younger!
Reason number two: Series that stay active for this long seem to start to lose priority in the author's mind - unless of course we're talking about bloated cash cow franchises. Not only that, but one with the expertly crafted multi-thread narrative of A Song of Ice and Fire's will eventually begin to loop around on itself, questions will go unanswered, and the story will begin to drag. After reading the latest instalment I realized that Martin has fallen into this trap, and this was a truly sad realization, as this man is a master of the literary craft, and ASOIAF had the potential to overcome classic literary epics.
I'm not a long time reader of the series, but I love them all the same - perhaps not with the somewhat creepy passion of people who have been reading it since the beginning, but hell, they've been sat on this particular journey for almost 20 years now, they've earned the right to be a little weird about it. Here's hoping Martin can get things moving again in The Winds of Winter!
-L
My summer has been spent pursuing fantasy novels in the hopes of finding some inspiration to begin writing my own stories again (What was once an absolutely predominant part of my character has grown somewhat meek, and I fear if I don't get back into gear I'll lose all rights to title myself a writer). This began with an assault on George RR Martin's gargantuan series, A Song of Ice and Fire. Now, I'd heard much and more of this epic before HBO succeeded in condensing the first book into ten gripping episodes of sex, death, and betrayal, but I must admit, even for me, it was daunting. It wasn't the size of the saga that gave me cause to hesitate, rather two uncertainties that lingered in the back of my head as a long time fantasy reader.
Reason number one: Due to an issue between Martin and his publisher regarding the size of the original manuscript, there was a huge delay between the release of A Feast For Crows and A Dance With Dragons - seeing as these two were intended to be pushed as one book. Six years separate the publications, and I have no doubt that ADWD's release was well-timed after the conclusion of the massively successful HBO series. No offense to the author, but I don't know if I can genuinely stay interested in the series long enough to wait potentially another decade for its conclusion - and Martin isn't getting any younger!
Reason number two: Series that stay active for this long seem to start to lose priority in the author's mind - unless of course we're talking about bloated cash cow franchises. Not only that, but one with the expertly crafted multi-thread narrative of A Song of Ice and Fire's will eventually begin to loop around on itself, questions will go unanswered, and the story will begin to drag. After reading the latest instalment I realized that Martin has fallen into this trap, and this was a truly sad realization, as this man is a master of the literary craft, and ASOIAF had the potential to overcome classic literary epics.
I'm not a long time reader of the series, but I love them all the same - perhaps not with the somewhat creepy passion of people who have been reading it since the beginning, but hell, they've been sat on this particular journey for almost 20 years now, they've earned the right to be a little weird about it. Here's hoping Martin can get things moving again in The Winds of Winter!
-L
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