Bear

That's some very good choices, Jig. Especially Deathhammer. More of the same, but these guys truly know how to write riffs. Every single album is just one big, fat riff-o-rama without a single bad riff. Amazing!

14 hours ago, Jigsaw9 said:

Hmmm this remix... The original was perfectly fine as it was imo. Like you said, the overall sound suited the atmosphere excellently. Then again, I don't hear anything wrong with this new sound either, it's just kinda pointless to have. Sooo... I guess it'll be good for a download, heh.

Sure, the sound itself isn't bad. Sounds beefier and very natural, I just don't think it fits the material very much. The militant atmosphere and industrial feeling was just completely gone. And that's what truly makes this a special and unique album IMO. The combination of the weird riffing, Maniac's mad, militant vocal performance, Hellhammer's superb performance with the disgustingly triggered drums all topped by a the super thin, machine-like production that doesn't make much sense. It makes for such a good album. One of the more unique black metal albums of the 2000's, and that says a lot.

I just put in an order of the splatter version. Have you pre-ordered your, you fuck?

€318

Guess I won't eat any food over the next couple of months. Haha!

Track from the remastered and remixed version of Grand Declaration of War. Sure, it sounds "better" with a much thicker and beefier sound, but it's just lacking something imo. The overly triggered drums and thin sound of the original is half the reason why it is so fucking good. It totally matches the weird music and its atmosphere. Will not be getting this. Like ever. Sounds kinda boring, despite the riffing being totally fucking fantastic.

The change of cover art is really boring too. The original is more than fine as it is.

Quote

By now, SARGEIST require no introduction. For nearly 20 years now, the band - led by erstwhile HORNA guitarist/songwriter Shatraug, who's arguably the most prolific metal musician of that same period - have been at the forefront of the ever-fertile Finnish black metal scene. In fact, alongside HORNA, one could say that SARGEIST are the most influential band of that scene, which has gone on to influence countless other worldwide scenes in this millennium. 

And while each SARGEIST full-length has been a stunning snapshot of the band's headspace during that point in time, so, too, does the long-awaited Unbound provide a poignant portrait - one of a nearly reinvented lineup, but one just as vital. Gone is the "classic" SARGEIST lineup that included longstanding co-conspirators Torog and Horns (vocals and drums, respectively). Now, a rhythm section - bassist Abysmal and drummer Gruft - who together possess a wealth of experience in the Finnish metal underground; erstwhile Nightbringer and ADAESTUO guitarist VJS, whose activities also span other bands and continents; and vocalist Profundus, who's been an incredibly prolific drummer the last couple decades, and who's lately most renown as the vocalist for Desolate Shrine. 

Despite this seemingly significant change, the SARGEIST aesthetic remains resolute and unyielding - indeed, they are more Unbound than ever. Grimy yet spectral, icily melodic but burning with a desperation beyond compare, songwriting that cuts to the heart of the purest black metal but reverentially receives it blood: the SARGEIST of Unbound are a band renewed and revitalized, prepared to keep the throne they've occupied these many years through a subtle yet studied refinement. Not for nothing has this lineup been active on the live front, and upon the release of Unbound are heading out on a European tour with esteemed labelmates ACRIMONIOUS and CHAOS INVOCATION. 

https://wtcproductions.bandcamp.com/album/unbound

Didn't know they were about to drop a new album, but this sounds excellent as always.

Justice League: Throne of Atlantis - Stand-alone sequel to Justice League: War, but not quite as good. But again it's a cool origin story about Aquaman, but you also get a taste of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern and so on. I like how it's an actual Aquaman story, but the second half isn't all that and they didn't get the most of out his character. Anyway, it's a fun, action-driven superhero movie.

Superman/Doomsday - This one of based off The Death of Superman, so you kinda know the story. Thought it was superb, despite Doomsday not having a big enough part. But the rest is just top notch. Can't really find anything to complain about. Not the best animated DC film, but very, very good. Deep, rich, complex and with massive characters with a lot of depth.

Justice League: The New Frontier - Deep, rich, complex and with massive characters with a lot of depth. There's absolutely nothing not to love here. Got a superb story, great animations,amazing characters and so on. Really, really good!

Wonder Woman - Again, deep, rich, complex and with massive characters with a lot of depth. It kinda tells the same story as the shitty live-action film, just a billion times better and more interesting in every single way. Surprisingly brutal and dark with Wonder Woman showing no mercy and is using extreme force and just fucking people up. You know, beheadings and such. Steve Trevor is also bad as fuck in this. Just showing no mercy whatsoever, a pure fucking execution is just awesome and unexpected.

Fuck me backwards! That looks gorgeous. I don't really like the idea of releasing half of a bands discography in one box set, but it looks good as fuck and the new cover to Scenario IV: Dread Dreams looks incredible. I will have to buy this, even though it includes a shitload of stuff I've already got. And if I know my stupid self right, I am gonna buy both the splatter and black version of the release. Gonna be really fucking expensive.  Christmas and birthday presents for myself? Heh.

€260. Christ!

Yeah, it was. First time either played in Norway as far as I know. Perturbator and The Midnight have both played, but I missed out on both.

But yeah, crowd was insane. Very unusual at a gig on a Thursday which kicked off at 8pm. But the crowd was magnificent.

My last gig was also a synthwave gig.

Gost kicked it off with one hell of a show, and the audience was absolutely mad despite the fact that he started playing at 8pm. It was like magic from beginning to end with the entire crowd going mad. Dancing, singing, headbanging, jumping and whatnot. It was a beast of a gig with Gost himself being behind the synths, sometimes with a guitar in hand, sometimes with a mic. He was high, he was low, he was in front and he was at the back. Just everywhere, all the time. Brilliant and everything I had hoped for, and even more.

Carpenter Brut was the headliner, and in some unexplainable way they actually topped Gost with a gig that's nothing short of breathtaking. While never as dark or brutal as Gost can be, the mood was much of the same with the entire audience (sold out for the evening!) dancing, singing, headbanging, jumping and whatnot. Insanely good gig.

Also, playing a cover of Maniac and asking the audience to sing along could've easily have been an embarrassing affair, but they made it into something truly special. Amazing!

I hope this opens up for more synthwave gigs in Norway in the coming time, and considering it was sold out a month before the gig I'm pretty sure it will be.

Justice League: The Flashpoint Paradox - And incredibly well-crafted DC tale based on 2011's graphic novel Flashpoint. Easily one of the best superhero movies I've seen. Deep, rich and really complex storyline, great, well-crafted and deep characters, loads of nice and brutal violence and so on. Everything takes time in an alternative universe, and I am a proper sucker for that kind of things. Yeah, thought this was exceptional and a must for any fan of superheros.

I need to get a hold of the graphic novel it is based on. Like now!

Justice League: War - Cool, modern origin story that's a bit all over the place, but still incredibly funny and entertaining and not hard to follow or anything. It's not anywhere near as complex and well-written as The Flashpoint Paradox, though. It's really straight-forward and heavy on the action. But it was really fun!

Ant-Man and the Wasp - A bit disappointing as it doesn't live up to the quality of its predecessor, despite the creators choice to utilize Paul Rudd's comedic timing way more and better. But in the end I thought it was a bit too light-hearted, and it lacked a proper villain. Thought Ghost was pretty boring and simple. Shame, because if Ghost was a bit meaner this would've been thousand times better tbh.

Slaughterhouse - Standard and predictable as fuck 80's slasher, but it's loads of fun if you're into the C-slashers of the 80's. The imitators of the imitators. Nothing special, but it's fun and enjoyable.

Underworld: Blood Wars - I had seen all the Underworld films before this, and I've enjoyed them quite a lot. The first one if very good, and the next three are very enjoyable, while far from as good. The animated short Underworld: Endless War is really good to. This however wasn't all that. I was entertained, but it's by far the weakest in the series. A shame. But I will never get tired of seeing Kate Beckinsale dressed in leather and slaying both vampires and werewolfs and whatnot. Hot!

Resident Evil: Retribution - One of the better and more enjoyable one in the series if you ask me, although it's incredibly flawed, like the rest with the exception of the first. But this is easily the most video game-esque film, and that's cool. The Axeman(axemen) are cool as fuck!

Resident Evil: The Final Chapter - This could and should've been the best, but Paul W.S. Anderson went full retard with the action. Like, the action hasn't exactly been top notch throughout the series, but it's so cut apart here that it hurts my eyes, brain and body. Every single action scene has a shitload of cuts. If they scenes is 25 seconds long, it has 50 cuts. No idea what they were thinking. You can't see a single thing that's going on. God damned! How? Why?

Mirai might be a weirdo (he's weird as fuck tbh), but listening to or reading interviews with him is a real pleasure. Or just watching or reading him interview other bands, which he does a lot as he's a music journalist as well. A very interesting man.

I'd love to see an Amoeba What's In My Bag episode with Mirai, and the rest of the band. Think that could be interesting.

Even after all these years I still can't tell if this is supposed to be a serious band or a metal parody by listening to their music. Got Malevolent Rapture for my birthday in 2006 and thought my brother was fucking around. You know, like he got this shitty CD for free and decided to give it to me as a joke, before he brought forth his real present. But it was the present. By far the worst and shittiest present I've ever been gifted. And this sounds exactly like that. One ultra-generic riff after another, tired-as-fuck vocals, and boring and over-produced to te point where everything sounds artificial as fuck. If someone told me that no instruments were actually played on the albums and that everything is programmed on a computer, I'd have no problem believing them. Awful.

One of the very worst metal bands I've heard. Which is weird, because I actually like Occult (with the exception of the last album) and this is basically a continuation of Occult. But in Occult they played a much rawer, darker, blacker, dynamic and more intense side of the band lending more towards black than death metal. Occult's got more in common with Desaster and Usurper, than Deathchain and newer The Crown (which is fucking awful!). There's only two ex-members of Occult in the band today, but when they started in 2006 all four members had previously been in Occult. There was a slightly change in direction tho, which might explain the change of name. 

I highly recommend Occult.

Napalm Death! Some really old pictures. I think they were 12 years old on the picture where they're holding the punk zines. Cool shit.

Guess the band without cheating (=looking at the URL or use the google search thing):

Watched Wheelman with Frank Grillo last night. One of 2017's best movies. A extremely tense and suspenseful thriller set mostly in a car with Frank Grillo talking on the phone. Simple as fuck, but balanced perfectly between style and substance and is really effective. Feels like a tribute to late 60's and 70's car movies, which in itself is awesome. With a budget of 5m and shot in 19 days it's a b-film alright, but that just makes it better.

Must watch for sure!

That's just awful. That just looked so cheap and ugly.

Arrival - I expected some generic and mediocre sci-fi action, so I was taken quite by surprise when it proved to be a slow-burning, deep and thought-provoking sci-fi-drama with a lot of depth. This was just magnificent! Btw, I was not surprised about this when I saw that it was a Denis Villeneuve though. I just didn't realize this was one of his works. Anyway, fantastic!

Justice League Dark - Animated DC film with a fantastic set of characters (Batman, Constantine, Zatanna, Deadman, Etrigan the Demon, Black Orchid, Felix Faust and a shitload of more) , a complex and cool-as-fuck-plot with great action, interesting and fun dialogue and lots of depth all over the place. The whole story holds a sense of mystery to it, deals with magic and whatnot but still feels like a proper superhero film. Really fucking good! 

There's also a sequel series to this called Constantine: City of Demons. I just have to dig into that series ASAP!

Fucking hell, these animated films from DC are so good. How the hell are they able to produce one brilliant animated film after another, and when it comes to live-action films we're treated with utter fucking shit like Man of Steel, Batman v Superman:
Dawn of Justice, Suicide Squad and Justice League. At their best, Wonder Woman, they're mediocre as fucking fuck. It's incredible.

This was so good I almost shat my pants. By far the best song off the new album. Great video again too.

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Jurassic World wasn't exactly a masterpiece or anything. Hell, it wasn't even a good film. It was decent at best, and a film I'll most likely never watch again. But as I fucking love the universe and even really enjoy The Lost World and Jurassic Park 3 I just had to watch it. And I am sad to say that it was exactly as I imagined. The only times it feels slightly as a Jurassic Park film is when it uses scenes from the original, and even then it only feels like its done parodically. The characters are flat and boring and none have any motives for what they're doing, the set-pieces looks incredibly artificial and soulless and the dinosaurs doesn't like shit. There's just nothing here tbh. Crap!

Power Rangers - As a fan of the original TV-series and some of the old video games I just had to check this out. Didn't expect much, and didn't get much. It's a really weird film as it jumps back and forth between being silly and cartoonish as fuck and rather dark and gritty, and the creators didn't really seem to have any clue as to where to go with the film. It's all over the place. The CGI is less than good to. Every single time they use CGI for a jump or something, which they happen to do quite a lot, the physics are way off. Like, not just a litle. It's so fucking bad. Dear God! Rita Repulsa is also disappointing as fuck. Poorly played by Elisabeth Banks. Lacks everything that made the original Rita so good. Original was crazy as fuck and seemed like a maniac through and through. This doesn't. This is just out of place.

That doesn't make any sense tho. Not sure why he, as an old man, actually bothers spending time posting shit like that. Done it a bit too many times over the past couple of years.

Nice catch. That Spectral Voice looks nice, although I am not too fond of arm prints. But other than that it looks sweet. Fantastic band!

I know, but thing is that Sigh and Mirai always make it work somehow and the majority of albums has that one, two or fucking five tracks that really sticks out, but yet feels as much as a part of the album as all the other tracks. So no matter how different everything else is, I'm pretty sure it'll end up feeling like they belong together and form a massive album nonetheless.

Holy fuck, hip hop song of the year by a long shot. This was as impressive as it was long. Brilliance from beginning to end.

Been checking out lots of Japanese OI! and RAC lately, most of them involved in a skinhead movement called Samurai Skinhead Spirit (SSS) in the 90's. Some of the stuff fucking rules!