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Bear

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  2. Posted · Edited by Bear

    Buffy the Vampire Slayer

     

    Final Score

     

    Seraphim Falls

     

    The Night Comes for Us

     

     

    I'm really itching to say something about The Night Comes for Us, but with everything that's going on and people getting so easily  offended by opinions these days I guess I just gotta keep it to myself. Or just PM Jigsaw9 as he's actually not an easily offended little... woops. Sorry guys.

  15. Posted

    Errementari: The Blacksmith and the Devil - Awesome horror/dark fantasy based on an old Spanish fable or so. It's quite similar to Pan's Labyrinth or maybe The Dark Crystal in tone, but not as layered or deep as the first, and maybe a bit darker than the latter. Too dark for kids, and maybe a bit too silly for older teens. I am not really sure who they target with this, but I absolutely loved it. It's dark and twisted, but really fun because of a devil/demon that goes into slapstick territory quite often. Heavily recommended! Available on NEtflix.

     

    There really isn't enough fables and fairy tales with a twist of horror. The world needs more!!!

  16. Posted

    Castlevania, season 2 was twice as long and twice as good as season 1. Again they fully capture the essence of what makes the universe in Castlevania so fucking good. One thing that is upped tho is the soundtrack which this time is phenomenal all around. BLOODY TEARS!!!

     

    Episode 7 was a monstrous episode. Can't wait for next season!

  17. Posted · Edited by Bear

    26 minutes ago, Jigsaw9 said:

    Sadly I never heard of this band before but these tracks sound AMAZING. Really looking forward to this now, thanks for mentioning them! :) 

     

    You need to pay more attention my posts, brah, cuz Obliteration is a band I've talked a lot about on here. Not a big fan of their debut album which is a fairly standard and mediocre release, but Nekropsalms is really good and Black Death Horizon is just amazing. That production job is just too fucking sweet.

     

     

    I highly recommend fellow Norwegian death metallers Reptilian if you like the sound of Obliteration. Their one and only album Perennial Void Traverse is a complete masterpiece. They sound A LOT like Obliteration, but I feel like they're a bit more chaotic at times. Just as good as Obliteration if you ask me. Fantastic album!

     

     

    Jigsaw9 reacted to this

  18. Posted

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    Debut album from these amazing Finnish heavy doom rockers. Everything they've released up to this point is really good and this too sounds sweet as fuck.  The last two minutes of the track, man. Holy fuck! That is awesome. And while I'd rather see a new track instead of the included Joy Division cover, I'm not gonna complain because it's one hell of a good cover song. For fans of Jex Thoth/Totem.

     

    Hear my warning

    The Lord is calling

    Do you see the signs

    It’s the end of times.

  20. Posted

    Kingsman: The Golden Circle - First one was bad and one of the more overrated films in the history, and this isn't much better. Awful, modern action film that does nothing right. Just like the first one. And it seems like they spent the majority of their budget on one particular scene, the "spectacular" action scene that's as far from spectacular, impressive or fun as it gets, just like the church scene in the first film. Only a blind fool would enjoy scenes like that. If they had done them in one shot, sure. But how many cuts do they have during these scenes? 20-30? If they managed to hide the cuts, sure, cool. But they're so obvious it only gets embarrassing. 

    Taron Egerton has one of the most punchable faces in history of cinema. Fuck these films and fuck anyone who actually like them.

     

    Running Scared - Had to re-watch this buddy cop action-comedy after watching The Nice Guys, and this was slightly better than I remembered. Adds nothing new to the genre, but the chemistry between our leads, the humour, the action, the characters. There's nothing not to enjoy here. Very fun!

     

    Friday - Re-watched this. Maybe not quite as fun as when I was 17, but still loads of fun. Both Ice Cube and Chris Tucker does a really good job.

     

    Karate Kill - With a tagline like "He is no Mr. Miyagi." and a poster that looks like a billion dollars, I kinda got my expectations up high for this film. It's a Kurando Mitsutake film, so you know it'll be cheap and have a "I'll do whatever the fuck I feel like, so fuck you you fucking fuck" attitude as Kurando Mitsutake doesn't give a flying fuck about anything, but I was let down by this, as I was by his Gun Woman. Should've been shorter, should've looked slightly less digital and should've completely dropped the CGI. I liked his Samurai Avenger: The Blind Wolf tho. Not amazing, but real fun for whatever the fuck it is. A cross between classic chambara and spaghetti western. But despite some cool ides and very good martial arts scenes, it's ultimately disappointing.

  21. Posted

    I miss out on several "must-see" concerts weekly tbh (as well as other gigs I'd love to attend to), and it's been like that since I first started going on concerts some 15 years ago. Sometimes because I can't get a day or two off because of work, sometimes because I don't want to travel to where the concert is and sometimes because I can't afford it (well, I always can afford whatever the fuck I want, I'm just too cheap so spend money). Shit happens. So is life. No big deal. If I miss out on the next 5 gigs I want to see, which I most certainly will, there will always be 5 new one at another point and so on. No biggie.

  22. Posted

    Interesting interview with Mirai:

     

    Quote

    Diamond Oz: Thank you for taking the time to speak to us. Obviously the first place to start is with the new album, "Heir To Despair." You maintained for months that fans would hate the album. Why is this?

     

    Mirai Kawashima: There is no other reason than I have been feeling so. It's not a part of promotion plan or anything. I just mean it. This is 100% my personal album. This album is not meant to please anybody including the band members. I am quite sure the other members do not get what it is about, either. So far "Homo Homini Lupus" has been published and people say they liked it, but this song is a big exception. This does not have an Asian feel or flute, which is a feature of the album. Other songs do not sound anything like HHL. If you liked HHL, that means you'd hate rest of the album.

     

    Oz: There is a trilogy of songs on the album entitled, "Heresy." Could you tell us more about this concept?

     

    Mirai: Actually this trilogy is the main reason that I keep saying fans won't appreciate the album. It has nothing to do with metal. I myself do not know what they are. I just made those songs without thinking much. I just wanted to make something druggy and evil. For Heresy II and III, I tried to imagine how schizophrenic people see and hear this world. Heresy I was remixed by David Harrow. He also remixed "The Tranquilizer Song" on "Gallows Gallery". David is one of the artists I truly respect. "Tantric Steps" by Technova, which is actually David, is one of the druggiest techno stuff I have ever heard. It's a genius work.

     

    Oz: Why did you decide to write the lyrics primarily in Japanese this time, after so many years of performing in English?

     

    Mirai: There are several simple reasons. As Japanese is my mother tongue, it is much easier for me to sing in Japanese. Obviously I can sing much better in Japanese as I do not have to care about the "accurate" pronunciation unlike I sing in English. Also I thought I'd be able to make something new with the Japanese lyrics because Japanese and English are aurally completely different. I mean, I thought I'd come up with "different" riffs and melodies if I had "Japanese" in my mind. I guess it worked well. And the simplest reason is that I almost ran out of the things I would like to say in English after 10 albums.

     

    Oz: There seems to be a Middle Eastern influence on the album. Particularly on the opening track, "Aletheia." Where did this come from?

     

    Mirai: A Middle Eastern or Indian influence is something very common in rock music. It's been tried probably since 60s and it's rather cliche. Also I myself have been into the Indian traditional music for a long time. I used to take Sitar and Tabla lessons for a while so this influence has been on every Sigh's album since "Gallows Gallery".

     

    Oz: The art work for the album is, much like your music, very striking in a unique way. The image of an everyday Japanese woman with hints of darkness behind her reminded me of Fusako Shigenobu (former leader of the left wing militant group, Japanese Red Army.) Can you explain a little more about the front cover?

     

    Mirai: The concept of the album is insanity. I've been wondering what insanity is these days. Insanity isn't often very distinctive and a line between sanity and insanity is 100% arbitrary as Foucauld said. The artwork by Eliran perfectly describes it. I sent him some Japanese psychotropic drug advertisement from 60s / 70s I love to show what kind of feel I wanted for artwork. A woman looks happy but everything else is wrong. The plant is dead and the room is a mess. This is what I consider insanity is. Look at social media. They're too busy to pretend how happy they are but you can easily tell they have huge darkness inside their mind.

     

    Oz: Some of the vocals on the album are incredibly fast, most notably "In Dreams Delusional". When writing them, did you think about how difficult it would be to perform them live?

     

    Mirai: I still remember when I heard "Hell Awaits" for the first time. I was listening to it with a lyric sheet but I could not follow it at all as Tom Araya was singing way too fast! So I always try to sing as fast as I can. I guess some song from "Hangman's Hymn" have very fast singing in English. And this time as I sang in my mother tongue, I tried to sing even faster. Well, recording the songs was much tougher that I had expected! I never thought it'd be that tough as far as I sang in Japanese, but probably Japanese does not fit the fast singing! Every letter has a vowel in Japanese so maybe it's tougher to sing fast than in English. To be honest I am not sure I can make it live...

     

    Oz: You've mentioned your dissatisfaction with the previous album, "Graveward," despite it being very popular among fans. What don't you like about it?

     

    Mirai: I am not sure if it is very popular among fans. There are a few problems about this album. During the recording, we had to fire the former guitarist, so it turned out to be a bit half-assed album. Also I must say I was into the orchestral stuff too much. And it was not a good idea to have Yuichi, our guitarist, mix the album. I'm not saying that he's a bad engineer. What I mean is it's the matter of objectivity. He played guitar on this album and he knew too much about the album. Of course he wanted to his playing heard more than anything. The album needed more objective view from outside of the band. That's why we had a Canadian engineer this time.

     

    Oz: I was fortunate enough to see you at Graspop Metal Meeting 2015. Are there any plans to return to the West any time soon?

     

    Mirai: There are some talks. I believe we will be back to Europe some time in 2019.

     

    Oz: To date, there has been no home video releases from Sigh. With such an amazing live show that so few people are lucky enough to see, would you ever consider releasing a live and/or career retrospective Blu Ray/DVD in the future?

     

    Mirai: Do you really want BD / DVD from us when you can find many live footages from us on YouTube? Maybe some people do, but I myself never ever buy live BD /DVD! Actually there are some material that can be released on BD / DVD so there's a possibility.

     

    Some very good and interesting answers during this interview. While I like Graveward very much, it's interesting to hear why he thinks as he does about the album.

     

    Also, some of the stuff said about the new album sounds so promising!

    Jigsaw9 and Crube reacted to this

  23. Posted

     

     

     

    Best split release ever? It features five bands and five early EPs. Emperor's  As the Shadows Rise, Immortal's Immortal, Dimmu Borgir's Inn i evighetens mørke, Ancient's Det glemte riket and Arcturus's My Angel. I love all these EPs, and collecting them onto one single compilation was a work of genius and while they all play very different types of black metal, they fir so well together. Amazing release!

  24. Posted

    Deepwater Horizon - The first half is fantastic with good, ol' Kurt Russell stealing the show. Like, completely stealing the show. It's a one-man show until he's hit in the shower. But when ut turns into a standard, CGI-driven action fest it turns into a very standard and generic catastrophe film. Such a waste. The scene with the american flag hanging in front of the flames are absolutely ridiculous. L O L!

     

    The Queen of Hollywood Blvd - From the very beginning of the film I can easily see what first-time director Orson Oblowitz is trying to do. He's clearly inspired by Grindhouse cinema and perhaps a few, older noir movies. It's all style over substance, but the style simply isn't good enough. The pacing is off for most part of the film, and while it does look pretty good for most part, every now and then it turns into some cheap-lookin' trash out of nowhere. It's not awful, but could and should've been so much better. I can see this become a cult film with the years, tho.

     

    Phone Booth - Realized I had to re-watch this, and I am glad I did because this is even better than I remembered. The film stars a young, inexperienced Colin Farrell, Kiefer Sutherland, who only appears in one scene but is talking throughout and Forest Whitaker, all whom deliver amazing performances. Phone Booth is a neo-noir inspired thriller which is intense as fuck, even though it's mostly filmed in one location with Colin Farrell's character spending most of the time inside a phone booth. Really damn good film!

     

    Black '47 - Dark and gritty Irish western-drama set during the great famine in 1847.  Doesn't offer much new, but stellar performances by the likes of Hugo Weaving and James Frecheville and beautiful cinematography makes it very interesting and good. Very much worth a look.

     

    Hell or High Water - Neo-western crime that stars Jeff Bridges and Gil Birmingham on one side of the law, and Chris Pine and Ben Foster on the other side. Superb atmosphere, well-acted (with Jeff Bridges stealing the show) and well-directed. But the highlight is the script, but none other than Taylor Sheridan who wrote Sicario and this, before he went on to write and direct the excellent Wind River. Obviously a man with great talent.  Not quite as good as Sicario or Wind River, but different type of films where this obviously aims at more social criticism, especially towards the american banks and shit. Anyway, good stuff!

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