Bear

I personally consider The Last of Us the most overrated game in the history of video games. Good story that should've been made into a film, because it would've worked really well. The gameplay is embarrassingly boring.

 

I'm sure this band/album will get something like 0 new fans, but I'll throw in a recommendation nonetheless. Warfare formed in 1982 and played a filthy mix of speed metal, punk and heavy metal. They started with three albums that's gained cult status over the year. Pure Filth, Metal Anarchy and Mayhem, Fuckin' Mayhem, three filthy speed/heavy/punk metal albums whose titles really sums up the sound of the band. Three superb albums with Metal Anarchy and Mayhem, Fuckin' Mayhem being close to proper classics as far as I am concerned.

 

However, after one more speed metal album they released Hammer Horror, their own homage to Hammer Horror, their many brilliant actors and fantastic films. They also changed their style up a bit. From filthy speed/heavy/punk metal to gothic heavy metal. A really unique album which stands out from the crowd. Atmospheric, catchy and with a very dark and sinister atmosphere. I really like it.

 

Not quite as good as their three first, but amazing nonetheless.

Sigh

Sabbat

Abigail

Evil

Gnome

Framtid

Envy

Boris

Acid Mothers Temple

Flower Travellin' Band

Ghost

S.O.B.

 

 

That's 12. Can think of 10-15 punk bands I'd love to have on this list, as well as psychedelic rock bands from the 60's to the early 90's. Most of them are fairly obscure outside of Japan too, even among psychedelic rock fans which is a shame because Japan really nailed this type of the music back in the days.

They both look and sound like a parody band tbh. But it's far from the worst shit I've ever heard.

Immortal's new full-lenght, Northern Chaos Gods, are easily their best album since At the Heart of Winter. Holy fuckity fuck, what a massive album we've got on our hands. Nuts!

 

It's massive, furious and epic and it borrows lots of classic elements from earlier Immortal-albums, but I don't mind that. The riffs are godly, the vocals are mean as fuck, the drums are brutal and the atmosphere is rich and thick. Will be surprised if this isn't among my favourites of 2018 when the year's passed by.

The Purge: Election Year - The third entry to the Purge franchise is to my big surprise also the best. That doesn't say much as the first one was mediocre at best, the second one decent at best and this, well, decent+. I like the concept, but something about the execution on these films are a bit off-putting. Should and could have been so much better, with just a few changes. I'd love to see more brutal violence and a lot more nudity, simply because it would fit as all the psychos, rapists and whatnot are out doing their thing. I guess we can't have everything.

 

What I do like tho is how the films has evolved from taking place in one house, to the streets and then to all over the place, in the government and stuff. It's also cool how they have told the stories from the side of the poor, rich and now the political side. It's a cool way to do things.

 

Decent entertainment, but not more than that. Will however watch the prequel, and probably the TV-series as well.

Ready Player One - Straight forward, easy-watching popcorn film with a cool-as-fuck universe where the real world sucks and the virtual world rules. A bit like ours tbh. But  as it points out, the virtual world wouldn't feel so awesome without the real world. Anyway, there's no deep meaning to this. It's a nostalgic roller coaster that never really ends. It doesn't give you much time to breathe, and it doesn't try to tell you anything truly important. It just tried to entertain and it does so wonderfully.

 

 

Cons: the visual style in the virtual world. I wish they had gone either full 80's on it, or gone with a better video game-graphics as it looked a bit half-arsed and lame. Even though a lot of the elements worked really well, and the lack of proper physics and shit also worked because it's set in a virtual world. And that's a problem with other CGI-driven films. They just hasn't found a way to properly nail the physics of the real world which means it always ends up looking fake. But because this is supposed to be fake, it works real well.

 

The soundtrack. It's good, it's filled with great songs and has strong nods to the 80's, which is some of the point as the creator of the Oasis fucking loved the 80's. But I wish they had gone full fucking synthwave on this movie. Would be so fitting.

 

Rampage - Brainless big monster action with Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It's not amazing, it's not something that'll make you think about life, the universe and all that. But it's nearly two hours of damn good, brainless entertainment that does exactly that: entertain. The only time the film fall flat is when Dwayne Johnson has to really act. He gets hurt in one scene, but where Bruce Willis showed a real sense of vulnerability and pain when his feet is filled with glass in Die Hard, Dwayne Johnson just continues as nothing happens. That one part where he fails, and when he's trying to show lots of emotions. He can play happy and smile and laugh, and it feels real. But when he's sad he falls flat on his ass. But aside from that I was very much entertained.

Immortal jussed dropped Mighty Ravendark, the 9 minute epic ending to Northern Chaos Gods. This is basically a new, updated version of Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark), but it works. And when I say it works I mean it works really fucking well, because this sounds awesome. 

Thought the new Craft was a huge step up from Void, but still not nearly good enough IMO. I'll always end up going back to the two first albums and the demo and I'll never revisit the later stuff.

 

I do however agree about the new Marduk. I think Werewolf is a really cool song and I was hoping they would go for a more punky and rockish sound this time around as they really nailed it on Werewolf, but the rest is just rehash of older Marduk tracks. It's not bad, but there's something like 10 Marduk albums I'll play through before bothering with this.

 

 

I haven't really been impressed with Deicide since Serpents of the Light, even though they've got a cool song here and there. But that cover art is quite something. Cool stuff!

Screamo lolwut? Are you sure? I really can't see any VK band go screamo any time soon. Pretty sure it'll be nothing like screamo at all, but the tag sure does get me interested even though I am sure it'll leave me very, very disappointed.

 

 

Cruel Magic is the title of the upcoming Satan album. Should be fantastic, so looking forward to this.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's one of the best cover arts I've seen in a long, long time, and the song sounds excellent too. Mean, raw black/deathrash metal in the vein of the very first releases by Sodom and Destruction. 

 

I highly recommend their earlier outputs too. Their first full-length is up on youtube and totally recommended if you like ancient lack/deathrash metal like the masters did it. The new song sounds way better than this album, tho. Should be noted.

 

 

Quote

I don't want you to get me wrong. I don't like "Graveward" and "Graveward" sucked. But as for "Heir to Despair", I like this album but probably I'll be the only one in the world that likes it. I am sure everybody that has been involved with the album including the band members is baffled at it. They don't openly say so, but I can tell that. And it has nothing to do with marketing.

 

 

https://dunkelheitprod.bandcamp.com/album/et-bahkouv-k-tt

 

In the old days of Aix La Chapelle (Aachen, Germany) and the whole Rhineland lived a creature which was descriped as an deformed calf with sharp fangs, that often lurks near fountains, streams, and sewers. In legend, the creature would ambush intoxicated men at night and latch onto their shoulders, forcing them to carry it around before attacking them. The name of the creature was spelled as "Bahkouv". So it is and was written... 

BAHKAUV is the materialization of old tales, myths, legends and stories arround the dark past of the place arround the place, that is rooted in a vulcan. A fog lays over the old and forgotten stories, but they are not lost. So the name BAHKAUV stand for a musical concept, which fit as Dungeon Synth, but even as an "historical sound voyage through old times and myths". Let the music tell the tales... 

 

 

 

This is beautiful and I am really enjoying it. I'm really getting a strong Asbjørnsen og Moe feeling from this. Asbjørnsen and Moe, for those unaware (everyone of you?), are the Norwegian answer to The Brothers Grimm. They went around and collected Norwegian Folktales. Very childfriendly folktales, unlike the Brothers Grimm's who were a lot darker. But a lot of the folktales are really good, and this music reminds me quite a lot of those classic folktales.

Album of the year by a long shot. 10/10

 

Really looking forward to then releasing the cover art now. Should be good 

That entire cover art, from the art, to the look of the logo, to the placement of the logo and font of the title is just beyond awful. Hurts my eyes. The logo, which is still the same, looks so fucking good on the two first albums. Both the logo and the placement.

 

But the cover art matches everything they've done after Davi tbh. Will check this out as well, but I can't say I expect anything good.

 

Will Smith, stil the fucking man! 

 

 

People's thoughts on the new Rae Sremmurd, Sr3mm, Swae Lee's Swaecation and Slim Jxmmi's Jxmtro? I've only spun it once and I'm so far very impressed. Both Sr3mm and  Swaecation's got a few really good bangers (Guatemala and Powerglide are both gorgeous!). Jxmtro is solid overall, but it lacks Swea Lee's swag and sense for melody for sure. Slim Jxmmi's stil the weakest link, and it os painfully obvious on his side of things. It's not bad, and he's improved a lot. But he's still got a long way to go until he can be compared to his brother.

The Toxic Avenger: The Musical - The Broadway musical is filmed and released on DVD in 2018, and since it was released on a torrent site yesterday I just had to check it out as I fucking love The Toxic Avenger and its sequels. I like musicals, but I've never been into this type of stage productions before. But this convinced me that there's surely something for me here because this was pretty awesome. It's got a shitload of good, catchy and fun songs, it's well-acted and got cool props and costumes. Nice dialogue, nice performances and such too. Yeah, very cool.

 

There's also one moment which seemed really damn improvised. Like it went wrong and they just improvised for a couple of minutes before they got back in character, but I don't know if it was staged or improvised. I hope it was improvised because it was the best part of the film.

Deadpool 2 - Just like Deadpool, Logan, Kick-Ass and a few others, Deadpool 2 is a breath of fresh air in the world of superhero movies. I mean, it's as the same as Deadpool for most part, but since Deadpool there's been around 5462756416416 regular superhero films for the entire family. Deadpool 2 is more for a grown up audience with it's violence, dark, black humour and all that. You know what you're getting, but it's well-made and real fun. Loved it!

9 hours ago, platy said:

@Bear Crypt of the Necrodancer has an incredible soundtrack, even better while you're playing it since it's a rhythm game.

 

I highly recommend Hotline Miami's soundtrack if you can't get enough of this type of music. 

 

I've not played through the game yet, but I've tried it now and then. And yeah, the gameplay truly adds to the soundtrack. Or the opposite. Anyway, fantastic soundtrack.

 

The Hotline Miami soundtrack was the one I mentioned in the post above my new one where I mentioned Crypt of the Necrodancer and more. Hehe! Both HM games got brilliant soundtracks.

 

 

I mentioned Far Cry: Blood Dragon earlier, and this is the best track on the soundtrack:

 

 

This one of actually from a cult 80's film called Miami Connection. A total fucking cheese fest with two of my favourite songs ever (Friends Forever being one of them). A must-see for any fan of cheese!

 

Some interesting news from the world of metal:

 

Unanimated - Annihilation

A brand new 4 song EP by Unanimated, one of the most overlooked bands of the 90's. The first release since the good, but disappointing In the Light of Darkness from 2009. I am very much looking forward to this. Really wondering what this will sound like.

 

Ill Omen - The Grande Usurper

Australian one-man band by Desolate/VI from bands like Austere, Funeral Mourning and Nazxul. The previous albums has been dark and crushing black metal, so this should be good.

 

Crawl - Rituals

Dark and crushing death metal from Sweden. Unoriginal as fuck and very traditional Swedish sound, but sounds really good.

 

https://crawldeath.bandcamp.com/

 

Sex Messiah - Eastern Cult of Sodomy

Japanese black/thrash/crossover maniacs debut album is seeing the light of day soon enough. With members from Another Dimension, Terror Squad and Revölt.

 

https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/eastern-cult-of-sodomy

 

Sear Bliss - Letters from the Edge

After two good but really disappointing albums Sear Bliss returns after six years of silence with a new album. They seems to have moved even further away from their black metal roots. Sounds softer and more inspired by the likes of Alcest, but it sounds really good tbh. The fucking trombone too, tho. Dear God have I missed Sear Bliss' majestic use of trombone for years now. The trombone parts are nothing short of mind blowing and majestic. Not quite sold on the clean vocals tho.

 

https://searblisshhr.bandcamp.com/album/letters-from-the-edge

 

Satan - The Doomsday Clock

Satan made one hell of a comeback in 2013 with their modern heavy metal masterpiece Life Sentence, and two years later they released an album that was just as good, if not better in form of Atom by Atom. Life Sentence came 26, though they did release a few albums as Pariah in the late 80's. The new teaser sounds awesome. The riffing is just wild.

 

 

Wytch Hazel - II: Sojourn

After a single, an EP and a split Wytch Hazel released their hard rocking heavy metal debut album in 2016, an album, while not as good as their previous stuff, was very, very good. But judging from the first song they released off the album, this is gonna be bloody brilliant. Take the heavy and epic of Pagan Altar, mix it with the mysticism of Tarot and the rocking twin leads of Thin Lizzy and mix it up and you got the sound of this new song. So damn good! If the rest of the album is as good as Save My Life, I'll be a damn Christian before the album ends. Sweet!

 

https://wytchhazel.bandcamp.com/album/ii-sojourn

 

Jungle Rot - Jungle Rot

Never change a winning team? Which in Jungle Rot's case means straight forward groovy death metal, ugly-as-fuck cover art and lyrics about war, death murder and torture. Though the new track is a bit more thrashy than expected, and features Schmier of Destruction on guest vocals.

 

 

Void of Silence - The Sky Over

Funeral doom/dark ambient. Dark, heavy and beautiful. Their worst vocalist Malfeitor Fabban (Aborym) was great, and their second vocalist Alan Nemtheanga (Primordial) are among my very favourites ever, no matter genre. But after Alan Nemtheanga they've never really managed to find anyone close to his caliber. Vocal-vise I was very disappointed with The Grave of Civilization, and juding from the new track The Sky Over will also be very disappointing as far as the vocals goes. A real shame, because musically it's truly top notch.

 

https://avantgardemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-sky-over

Part of Laibach's discography can surely be counted as martial industrial, though I'll admit I am not too experienced with the genre. But if not proper martial industrial, they're surely to martial industrial what Venom and Mercyful Fate is to black metal.

 

Anyway Laibach rules. Spectre gotta be my favourite with tracks such as The Whistleblowers and Bossanova as my favourites. But these count more as electro-industrial I guess. Anyway, awesome band and super-superb live band.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear God, video game soundtracks have really stepped up the game over the past 10 years or so. Holy fuckity fuck! I'm a huge fan of soundtracks to a crapload of 90's video games, but in the last decade shit's been taken to a whole new level with the addition of synthwave, weirdass techno-esque music and so. I can't get enough.