Bear

Well, this sure was surprising. Well, it's more black 'n' roll, but I'm surprised by how melodic it sounds. By far their best track since Now, Diabolical, and I like th emore epic, hymn-esque moments of the track. I really, really dislike The Age of Nero and Satyricon, and ain't too big of a fan of Now, Diabolical. But this was interesting. Like it. Catchy tune.

But ever since the release of Now, Diabolical I feel like Frost has been kept a fucking hostage in Satyricon. He's just doodling along to the guitars. While he didn't do much fancy work on Volcano, it still sounds like he let loose and just did whatever the fuck he wanted on the album. There was some power behind the drumming. But ever since he's seemed bored tbh.

But I can still listen to Beyond the Apocalypse, Hellfire, Rebel Extravaganza, Antichrist, Reclaim, Blood Must Be Shed and WW and enjoy his mad skills there. Holy cow this man is a beast behind the kit whenever he's actually free to let the beast loose.

Oooooh hell yeah! Last good Keep of Kalessin release too, and it's a fucking masterpiece. Best thing they ever did!

Universal Horror - A 90 minute long documentary about the glory days of Universal Studios and their Universal Monsters. It's a very good documentary that'll provide lots of fun and interesting info for people who aren't too familiar with the back stories and such, but if you are a horror maniac like myself you won't find much new info here. But it is a good documentary with lots of interesting and fun info/interviews. It is also superbly produced and crafted.

I've seen quite a lot of criticism towards the documentary, but you should just ignore all that as all they complain about is how it involves non-Universal films too. However, a lot of the non-Universal films are included to show clear inspiration from other films and scenes, such as the european (GERMAN!) silent horror era, and other companies in the US who produced similar films in many ways. But it's a great one!

Vincent Price's Dracula - An hour of Vincent Price hosting and narrating a documentary about Vlad Tepes/The Impaler/Dracula? Yeah, please! First off, he's got such an amazing voice and his way of telling things is incredible. Second off, he manage to make this documentary a bit campy, and he really uses himself for all its worth. He was once the master of campy horror, and he takes that with him into this documentary.

You can break the film into three parts:

1. One which is all about facts and who Vlad Tepes/the Impaler/Dracula is.

2. The fictionized version of him, where he known as a vampire called Nosferatu/Dracula, and how the idea of that character came through.

3. And a look at rituals, superstitions and stuff from, what was back then in 1985, modern day Transylvanian villages.

Are you interested in Vlad Tepes? Watch this!

Interested in Dracula? Watch this!

A fan of Vincent Price? Watch this!

And as one who is interested in both the first and a huge, huge fanboy of Vincent Price, this was a real pleasure for me. Loved it!

For most part it is a huge puppet, but I know Haruo Nakajima portrayed Mothra in her larval form.

Haruo Nakajima passed away recently.

If you mention the name Haruo Nakajima, or just show people a picture of his face, most people will shrug their head and ask you who it is. So who is he? Haruo Nakajima is the man who portrayed Godzilla 12 times between 1964 and 1972, and who have been other monsters such as Mothra, King Kong, Baragon, Rodan, Moguera, Varan, Gaira and more as well. He's not got a big name in the world of cinema and he's not got a face a lot of people will recognize, but a legend nonetheless. All hail!

Another Pagan Altar track: http://theobelisk.net/obelisk/2017/08/07/pagan-altar-the-room-of-shadows-review-premiere/

It's Pagan Altar, so it's obviously amazing. Starts off slow with a real thick haunting atmosphere. But then the riff kicks inn and from there on it's a total banger, and the solos are of the very best quality as always. If you don't like Pagan Altar, you don't like heavy or doom metal.

You talking about Battle Dagorath, there? Never had any problem with the drums themself. Just the overall production.

Yeah, Wode is very good. Very Dissection-esque, but without actually sounding like them.

Midnight - Sweet Death and Ecstasy

1. Crushed By Demons
2. Penetratal Ecstasy
3. Here Comes Sweet Death
4. Melting Brain
5. Rabid!
6. Bitch Mongrel
7. Poison Trash
8. Before My Time In Hell

Heeeeeel yeah! Really looking forward to this. I hope they go for a less polished sound this time around. The production of both full-lenghts ahave always bugged me a bit, while their older stuff is roduced sweetly as fuck. Complete and Total Hell is the shit!

On 7.8.2017 at 4:01 AM, emmny said:

i REALLY hope this isn't that vamps lmfao @ their fans showing up to a deafheaven and danzig show

It is that Vamps. Awful booking. The king himself should refuse to play alongside both bands tbh.

6 hours ago, Saishu said:

 

Well, no. A good remaster will take all the tracks within a song and rebalance them. Like say a drum track wasn't very prominent in the original master, a remaster would add some clarity to it. Or perhaps boost the bass a bit to add more bottom end. However, since the late 90s/early 00s, remasters (and original masters for that matter) raise the volume on EVERYTHING. The entire recording is compressed to be louder, which ruins the dynamics; if a song starts quiet and gets louder, the effect is diminished because the entire song is now at the same volume levels. This also means there's  possibility of distortion because the sound levels are so high. 

 

A remix is taking a song and rearranging it so it's basically a new song. 

This is the definitions I've always come to know from I was young, and it's the definition that me, and more or less everyone I have discuss music with over the last 15 years, also use:

Quote

My understanding (correct me if I'm wrong):

Remix means mixing again. You basically go back to the multitracks, assemble them and determine the volume and stereo placement between each track. So when this job is done the fact that the guitar is up front (purely by volume differences between tracks) and the cymbal is slightly to the right etc. is set in stone. As far as I understand a remix can be two things: Just reassembling the same multitracks used in the original mix yet another time creating a slightly different sonic landscape but with the same sounds OR an artistic remix as in giving the multitracks to a remixer/dj etc and give him/her the freedom to create a separate work based on the original recording of a song but perhaps with tracks removed/replaced/distorted etc. Typically something like "Masterbooster Dub Club Remix" etc. Whatever the result of the mix it results in a two track tape or file (if we're talking about stereo only), basically left and right channel.

Remaster is mastering the two track mix (often called the master tape) again. What you have available now is the two tracks mentioned above. You can NOT remove or add (well you can add I suppose but then we are actually talking about remixing) a single multitrack or turn the volume down on that guitar that was chosen to be up front in the mix. What you now can do is to adjust the balance of the frequency spectrum. If the bass is too thin you can boost the low frequencies and in that way make the bass sound louder (note that the bass itself is not mixed louder as a track on its own but becomes louder because it belongs to that particular frequency you choose to turn up). You can also adjust the overall volume so that in an album each song will appear in balance to each other. And then you can choose to compress as to lessen the dynamic range: low sounds sounds louder/high sounds sounds lower etc. Now that the master is done (remaster if it have been done previously for that format) it is what will be printed onto whatever media it is supposed to be on.

And I know what a remix of a track is, but it's actually a word and an act with more than one meaning.

But that is basically what a remaster is. For a remix however they'll mix the individual tracks withon a song and so on.

If I had to choose I'd go with "remastered". I actually can't think of a single good example of a full re-recording that beats an already good/great/amazing album, nothing even comes close. For most part they've just slaughtered an album totally and made it unlistenable.

But to add something positive to the discussion of remastered vs re-recorded vs nothing:

Edit: just noticed this was about Mucc. Haven't heard the re-recorded versions, and most likely won't as I am already a huge fan of the originals. My bad.

Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film - Rewatched this as I was eating food last night, and this is still as good as it was years ago. It's not perfect and it's way too short, as it cover everything from the early 1900's to the first decade of the 2000's in 90 minutes. A documentary like this should've been 10+ hours long tbh, because you have to skip so much history when going this fast through it. But it does do a good job in covering the genre, even though it mainly focus on the bigger names of the genre as far as both films and directors goes. But it is what it is, and while it doesn't offer anything new to a horror nerd like me and barely scratches the surface of american horror cinema, it might offer a lot to you. Totally recommended!

Among the people interviewed is John Carpenter, George A. Romero, Joe Dante, Brian Yuzna, Roger Corman and more. And as always, watching and hearing George A. Romenro and Roger Corman interviewed is always a pleasure, and they are woth the 90 minutes alone.

Yeah, the new Battle Dagorath is very good. But as always with this band, I wish the production was a bit rougher.They've always been a very nice mix of Paysage d'Hiver and Darkspace. Which totally works of course. But I wish it was more lo-fi sounding.

And since you brought up an album released on Avantgarde Music, let's continue that trend:

Selvans - Lupercalia

Atmospheric black/folk metal with clear influences from acts such as Negură Bunget, Nokturnal Mortum, Kampfar and such. It's keyboard-heavy and folky, but it never gets jolly and happy and all that. Released in 2015, but it's only recently I've really gotten into it. Really, really good album.

I don't think anyone cares, but I sure as fuck do:

Quote

New Abigor album almost finished!
Black Metal may still be excellent, and the pool of "occult" or post-DSO bands is huge. But where´s the pounding greatness of Natten´s Madrigal, Apokalypsens Ängel, Det Som Engang Var or the Strid 7“ today?
Not that we would or could fill this gap, but in Abigor´s very own stubborn way and with the old-school execution of mentioned masterpieces, our new album was recorded without a single „blastbeat“, without multi-guitar madness or downtuned disharmonic riffing.
String wise, minimalism was the law - only one guitar left, one guitar right, and a bass in the middle. Not one single additional guitar-track to add soli, melodies or double-tracks.
Lyrically, all hokuspokus and theological pondering was avoided. It´s not an album of a seeker, or about one´s initiation, or to lecture, but about the Devil and the Devil only! An impulsive work stripped down to the very basics that maybe could have been released in the 1990s.
This technical restriction as well as a focus on the the evil force that sparked Black Metal ablaze at the beginning of the 90s also torched our work again.
Silenius is soon starting to record the vocals, and you can expect the new Abigor LP and CD after the summer makes way for the autumn´s gloom.
Here´s the first 3 - maybe not too representative, more soon to come - instrumental extracts (PLAY AT LOUD VOLUME!) to an album that will feature the following songs:

 

1. All Hail Darkness And Evil
2. Sword Of Silence
3. Black Icarus
4. The Cold Breath Of Satan
5. Our Lord´s Arrival - Black Death Sathanas
6. None Before Him
7. Olden Days
8. Hymn To The Flaming Void
9. Christ´s Descent Into Hell
10. Ancient Fog Of Evil
11. Metamorphosis

 

That teaser sounds seriously good, and it's real nice to see Abigor somewhat return to their roots. Not as straight-forward as their first few albums and there is clearly elements of their newer albums as well, but it does have a lot of similarities with their oldies for sure. Their newer, more experimental albums have grown on me a lot over the last few years, but their first few releases are what I keep coming back to.

Verwüstung – Invoke the Dark Age, Nachthymnen (From the Twilight Kingdom), Origo Regium 1993-1994, Opus IV, Supreme Immortal Art and  are mustChanneling the Quintessence of Satan-haves for any fan of black metal. It was with Channeling the Quintessence of Satan they started to lean towards experimental black metal and avant-garde, but it is a supreme album nonetheless.

One of the most overlooked and underrated black metal bands in the entire history of its genre. Totally recommended! And if you're fan of the more experimental works of Deathspell Omega, Blut aus Nord, Dødheimsgard, Dodecahedron and so on you might enjoy their newers releases too.

I know for a fact that the way people will look upon It Follows in about 20-30 years, is the same way my generation looks upon late 70's and 80's classics like Alien, Dawn of the Dead, Nosferatu: Phantom der Nacht, Suspiria, Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, The Thing, An American Werewolf In London, Poltergeist and so on. While there are newer horror films I prefer over It Follows, I think few, if any of them, will manage to claim the same status and reputation in 20+ years as It Follows. It'll be remembered and gain status as a proper classic for sure. Just trust me on this, kids. And when you grow up you'll learn to like this film as well.

The soundtrack slays by the way. Could listen to that shit all week long. I really like the recent trend of synthy soundtracks. Been some proper, proper good ones lately. It Follows, Stranger Things, Yellow, Maniac, Starry Eyes and more have top notch synthy soundtracks that can match the old classic ones.

1 hour ago, ArtFart said:

I watched It Follows.... it was a very frustrating movie about a friggin STD ghost that walk hunts you and you basically get rid of it by having sex with someone.

How was it frustrating? An absolute masterpiece of chilling and interesting modern horror cinema. Almost perfection, and one of the most original horror films in ages.

https://www.decibelmagazine.com/2017/07/27/track-premiere-pagan-altar-dance-of-the-vampires/

Here we actually got a track off the new Pagan Altar album. Production-wise it sounds a bit more modern, but it sounds really, really nice and far from over-produced. Terry is an amazing vocalist. He got a very unique touch to his voice, but his passion and devotion is fantastic. A bit like Quorthon, Mr. Doctor and A.A. Nemtheanga who are my three favourite vocalists of all time.

And riff-wise it's brilliant too. Catchy as fuck, and the leads are, as expected from Pagan Altar, nothing short of exceptional.

While the new layout isn't perfect, at least MH isn't the slowest forum on the whole fucking internet anymore. That's clearly a step in the right direction if you ask me.

I love me some Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, and having Slayer playing an older, brutal track is unexpected, but awesome. Fucking Gary Holt, man. What a man! He really gets the job done. Amazing!

Love me some Jimmy Fallon. Great guy!

I'm also a batsuer although me and my friends whom I shared my accounts with were mostly banned.

Anyways, hello.

Oh yeah! Neat.

This isn't GDQ, but European Speedrunner Assembly is on and it is unsurprisingly a lot of fun. You have two speedrunners speedrunning at the same time and two channels, which I really like.

Currently watching Blurb speedrunning Castlevania II: Simon's Quest. Nice stuff

https://www.twitch.tv/geekygoonsquad

https://www.twitch.tv/esamarathon

https://wolvesinthethroneroom.bandcamp.com/

A track off the upcoming Wolves in the Throne Room album. Sounds as majestic as ever. This is gonna be good!

https://drudkh.bandcamp.com/album/somewhere-sadness-wanders

A track off the upcoming Drudkh and Paysage d'Hiver split. Sounds very good, just like the last couple of albums as well. But I bet my ass Paysage d'Hiver's side of this split will outclass Drudkh in every way possible.

And the good news doesn't stop here. Pagan Altar will release a new album soon, their first since 2006's Mythical & Magical. The band's upcoming album is titled The Room of Shadows, but was written 13 years ago under the title Never Quite Dead. One of the very best heavy metal and/or doom metal bands ever, depends on what genre you choose to put them in. They never released anything bad, and I doubt this will be anything less than amazing.

Here's a demo version recorded many a year ago with one of the tracks from the upcoming album.

6 hours ago, TheZigzagoon said:

Disorder is my favourite album, I'd love a re-recording of songs from it, as long as it's not shit tier quality like Traces 2

If you think it's their best album, why would you want them to re-record it? If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Simple as that if you ask me. Goes for all good music, films and TV-series, graphic novels, games and whatnot. If it's good, just leave it alone to be good and go do something else.

Disorder is my favourite as well, a right ahead of the glorious EPs released before it. Ain't interested in any of those being re-recorded as they won't be able to re-create the passion and magic from those recording sessions. And they're all beyond fantastic as they are.

On 29.6.2017 at 7:21 AM, Bear said:

It's not been a brilliant year for thrash metal, but there's been some good releases if you ask me. Not all these are pure thrash, but I'd recommend checking 'em out anyway:

 

Droid - Terrestrial Mutations

Progressive speed/thrash heavily influenced by Voivod, Coroner, Vektor,Megadeth and stuff. Imagine if Megadeth anno 1985 were inspired by Voivod and Coroner instead of Metallica.

 

Evil - Rites of Evil

I haven't heard this entire album, but their demos and splits, as well as the three songs released from this album is great. Think Sabbat, Bathory, Sarcofago, Vulcano, Bulldozer, Tormentor, Kreator, Sodom, Destruction and so on. 80's black/thrash all the way.

Full streams of both albums:

Evil: https://nuclearwarnowproductions.bandcamp.com/album/rites-of-evil

Droid: https://droidcanada.bandcamp.com/album/terrestrial-mutations
 

Droid sounds very good and Evil sounds like an instant classic. So fucking great, and the solos are crazy good. Superb!

I'm not sure what he/she means by "legacy titles", but the mentioned Chrono Trigger is a must for anyone into RPG, and since we're already on the subject of RPGs and Chrono Trigger I just can't post this without throwing in games like Secret of Mana, Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals, Secret of Evermore, Terranigma, Breath of Fire I & II, The Final Fantasy games for SNES and more. A list is of super RPGs for the SNES is almost fucking endless, and this is just a small portion of it. A few games.

It also help sthat all of these games have brilliant soundtracks.

And if you ask me the SNES is the best consolle ever, by a fucking mile. Destroying every other consolle made both before and after. Miles and miles ahead.

And using save states and cheats have always been a big no-no, even as a kid. Whenever I save ingame I usually also make a save state just in case, but I never use a save state unless I can save ingame as well. This is so important for me when playing games.