Bear

I am so fucking jealous of this. I don't even have the vocabulary to tell you exactly how jealous I am. Carpenter Brut are the masters of retrosynth and Magic Sword is brilliant as well. So.Fucking.Jealous!

Under-World is great and I don't get the hate for Fuyu no Castanet at all. I've said it many times and I'll gladly say it again: fantastic song!

Some good and bad news. We'll start with the bad, sad and awful ones: Heart attack at the age of only 42 years old. Damn. Negura Bunget in their prime years (02-06) were amazing. Some of the most honest and spritual black metal you'll find, with Om as the absolute highlight. But their early, more straight-forward black metal stuff and the symphonic black metal of Wiccan Rede are great as well, and some of their later stuff, like Măiestrit and Vîrstele pămîntului are good. But with Vîrstele pămîntului, the first one without Hupogrammos and Sol Faur, you could already sense that a huge part of the band was gone. A huge step down in quality. So the loss of Hupogrammos and Sol Faur just didn't do this band good at all as they manage to continue the sound of Negura Bunget much better in Dordeduh than what Negru did with Negura Bunget. Anyway, fantastic, creative drummer. This song, this album. Holy shit! Perfection. But the good news are that Peste Noire are on their way to record the new album. Fuck yes!

No idea how long I've been around under different usernames, shared accounts and whatnot, but it's been a while. Not sure why I've been here for so long as I've never been big on actually discussing (Japanese) music. But I did. And it's not because of downloads either, because I have not grabbed much from here. Probably the drama and the bans. And the film threads back when they were super active. Yeah, good job keeping it this active for so many years, though. Very impressive by both admins/mods and mortal users.

But I haven't made a single comment on your taste though, have I? Like I said, I like their debut and thought this might be cool. But I was really disappointed and thought it was shit, and I don't get why I shouldn't be allowed to say that or why you feel offended by that?

The fuck happened to these guys? Their debut album is a decent Mourning Beloveth-esque death/doom album, but this new song was godawful. Will not check out any further.

How bad editing ruined Iron Fist’s fight scenes Both scene included in that link are nothing short of shocking. Garbage!

Under the Shadow - How frightening and terrifying can a PG-13 film be, you ask? Well, this films shows us that it can scare even the toughest shitless. This Iranian horror film blends drama and horror into a terrifying experience. It's rather slow-burning, it's simple and it's low-budget, but it's so very effective in its simplicity. It's as intelligent as it is scary, and I can appreciate that. That's a plus. The atmosphere, the cinematography, the way the film changes throughout. Brilliant! Top this with a breathtaking performance by Narges Rashidi and you've got yourself a real treat. In some ways it reminds me of The Babadook, but it's got as much in common with both Repulsion and Pan's Labyrinth. There is also plenty of symbolism and social commentary going on throughout the film, and some of it might feel like it's forced upon you, but it's well-done and doesn't get in the way of anything. Say what you want about films like It Follows, You’re Next, Berberian Sound Studio, The House Of The Devil, The Babadook, Kill List, The Witch, A Field in England, Martyrs, Amer, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night, The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears and so on, but all these films, even The House Of The Devil which feels like an authentic late 70's-early 80's horror films, has brought something new and fresh to the horror genre in the 21's century. You don't have to like them, but that's the truth. And Under the Shadow is one more of those. Fresh, unique and amazing. Hands down!

I think The Young Offenders might be the best comedy since Superbad, and debutants Alex Murphy and Chris Walley are really impressive in their roles. Hilarious from start to end. Fantastic!

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/dread-sovereign-resurrect-the-cult-of-true-doom-with-for-doom-the-bell-tolls?utm_source=noiseyfbgus New Dread Sovereign is very welcome, and this sounds good as expected. For those who doesn't know, Dread Sovereign is a doom metal band consisting of A.A. Nemtheanga of Primordial, Johnny King of Altars of Plauge and some guy I'm not familiar with. Sol Dubh of Primordial used to be in the band as well. Fairly traditional doom with yet another strong performance by A.A. Nemtheanga who don't know how to do anything but sing amazing.

Checking out some asian metal with folk influences, and my newest discovery is Taiwain's Bloody Tyrant who plays a form of melodic black metal with lots of traditional folk influences, as well as touches of symphonic black metal. I've only checked out this album, but this sounds really good after one listen. It's hard to talk about a band like this without mentioning other Chinese bands like Chthonic, Deep Mountains and Anthelion, and even South-Korean melodic black/death metallers Oathean could be mentioned. Looking forward to hearing the other albums. Really appreciating the folk influences on this album.

I just watched High Risk aka Meltdown with Jet Li and Jacky Cheung. This is a high-octane action comedy that manage to balance perfect between brilliant martial arts, hardcore action and crazy stunts, and hilarious comedy. This is basically Hong Kong's own Die Hard, a film which obviously have been the biggest inspiration on making this film and it surpassed all my expectations. Fantastic film! It both spoofs and pays tribute to classic Hollywood action like Die Hard and Speed, as well as classic stuff by Bruce Lee and Jackie Chan. The latter is also spoofed in this film in a tremendous performance by Jacky Cheung who acts both as the comic relief and action star, and Jackie Chan was very offended by this. But Jacky Cheung owns this film. What a performance! Had me in tears at times. Some of the stunts are crazy as fuck, the action is brutal, the martial arts scenes are amazingly choreographed by Corey Yuen and the comedy is hilarious. This film has it all!

Are you fucking serious? Blacklisting? Fuck, that's an embarrassing suggestion, dude.

Just watched Keanu and this was a huge surprise. It doesn't offer anything new top the action-comedy genre, but its absurd premise, the brilliant chemestry between Jordan Peele and Keegan-Michael Key, non-stop, fast-paced comedy and surprisingly good action makes this into something great. Had me laughing out loud for huge parts of the film, and it had me in tears of laughter a couple of times as well, and that says it all. I really liked it. Highly recommended if you want something easy to watch.

I'm almost finished with Love season 2. Where the first season was fantastic, season two just turns everything up by a notch or two. It's fun, it's charming, it's dramatic and it's warm. The warmth of the entire series just rules . Top this with some fantastic charachters, both leads, supporting and cameos, and you've got yourself a real treat. The flawed characters and their lives feels super authentic and a lot of the episodes could so easily have been a day or two in my life, or your life. I do think that this series and its characters are that authentic. Also, I usually don't give a rats dick about critics, but their panning of Iron Fist is worrying. Because they all seem to have the same issues with the series, and one thing that really goes again and again is the action scene. Bland and short fights is not exactly what you want when you watch a TV-series about a man with some mystic powers and some incredible martial arts skills. And this could become a real problem as I am a martial arts film/series nerd, and even if the rest is good this could be enough to turn this into something uninteresting to me. Uh, not looking forward to this anymore. Afraid of being disappointed, especially since they have four amazing seasons behind them with Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage, and I was really looking forward to this and The Defenders. Still have hopes for The Defenders, though, no matter how bad this might be. But still. Fuuuuuuck!!!

Never really understood the thing about Havok. I was really into the whole "retro thrash wave" and I am still into a shitload of the retro thrash metal bands that formed around 02-05 or something, but Havok never managed to stand out in my eyes. Just one out of an incredible amount of bland bands with no identity or anything going for them at all. Havok, Evile, Bonded by Blood, Lich King, Warbringer, Fueled by Fire, Thrash or Die, Gama Bomb, Terrordome, Suicidal Angels, and so on. The majority of these bands are just living off old riffs packed in a disgusting production that sounds so artifical and plastic. The production just doesn't fit the music at all. This is what retro thrash should sound like in my eyes. Not only do they have the riffs, but they have the raw production and that raw, uncontrolled feeling of it as well. It just sounds so pure and real. No gimmicks, just pure thrash.

Liege Lord rules. Classic USPM! I gotta say that the USPM scene from the 80's are very underrated. So many good bands from that time and era. Attacker's Battle at Helm's Deep, Savage Grace's Master of Disguise, Helstar's Nosferatu, Jag Panzer's Ample Destruction, Griffin's Flight of the Griffin and Protectors of the Lair, Dark Age's Dark Age, Omen's Battle Cry, Manilla Road's Crystal Logic (and the majority of albums they released between 83-05), Medieval Steel's Medieval Steel, Abattoir's Vicious Attack, Iron Cross' Iron Cross, Brocas Helm's Into Battle and Black Death, *Crimson Glory's Crimson Glory and Transcendence, *Fates Warning's Night on Bröcken, The Spectre Within and Awaken the Guardian, *Warlord's And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun...., *Savatage's Hall of the Mountain King and so on. Yeah, I think I'll stop now, but I could go on forever here. I love this scene to death. *The majority of these bands are what we nerds refer to as "blue collar" bands, which is much dirtier and grittier sounding than the traditional European PM bands of that time, but the bands marked with * are what we call white collar bands. They're often much more progressive and melodic than the blue, and a bit flashy at times.

Angel Witch's reunion album from 2012 is very good, though far from classic. But it's worth checking out for sure.

I'd recommend trying the two other Portrait albums, especially the debut. It's an album that could've had the Mercyful Fate logo, and the only thing anyone would ask is if Kind Diamond had a cold at the time of recording. And I forgot Oz. Fire in the Brain and Turn the Cross Upside Down are must haves for anyone into heavy metal. They had Quorthon as a cover desinger, and the hand on Fire in the Brain is none other than the hand of Quorthon himself. I guess you already know Angel Witch, but they're worth a shout anyway. Classic band. Their two first albums and the stuff before the debut are amazing. Witchfynde's debut is really good, too.

I sure can do, good sir. Portrait The debut is pure Mercyful Fate worship with shabby vocals, but the second and third album has a more steady vocalist. The albums gets a bit more progressive and more King Diamond-esque too. The debut is my favourite, but most people seem to prefer Crimen Laesae Majestatis Divinae. Luzifer One of the best heavy metal releases in newer time. Occult with a strong Mercyful Fate and Angel Witch vibe. Just listen to that opening riff. Magic! Amulet The First is a fantastic album. A strong Angel Witch vibe, but a bit heavier. Lovely album! Trial Another band with a strong Mercyful Fate vibe, but this band sounds a lot more progressive IMO. They have a new album around the corner too. Metal Grave This fantastic band sounds like the love child of old Mercyful Fate and Running Wild. Dracula I love this band, but they sound almost campy at times. Strong Mercyful Fate vibe, but with a high camp factor. I love it! Crowley The first Japanese band on the list and they're exceptional. Source New band with ex-members of Portrait. Yeah, this has that nice dark, occult vibe to it. Very Mercyful Fate-ish Hell Legendary band that only released some demos back in the 80's, but these gaind cult status and the band reformed in 2008 and have so far given us two modern classics. One which is mostly older tracks and one that's newly written, which is very impressive. The production is a bit iffy on the debut, though. It sounds too modern. But amazing album nontheless.

I'm seeing Swans live tonight. Should be F.U.N.! Massive expectations.

Keanu Reeves is no good actor. Good actors can do different roles, portray different types of humans/machines/monsters and whatnot. A good actor is versatile, and Keanu Reeves is not. But he can do certain roles, and roles that does not demand him to show much emotion or versatility fits him a lot, much like many other actors. Sylvester Stallone, a fuckinggod,bit is amother example of that. That is something shown throughout his time as ann actor. John Wick is his masterpiece. It's a role he handled perfectly. He was excellent in the film. Not a grat actor, but a brilliant performance!

I like how they've taken mostly shitty tracks and just made them even worse. How the mighty have fallen.

Speaking of Bolt Thrower: I don't expect anything new, but someone mentioned a while ago that the band were raising funds to buy back some drum tracks Kiddie tracked some years ago. Perhaps they will release something new after all?

I'm checking out Dementia as we speak. A sort of progressive melodic death metal band. They sound very original, mostly because of the unusual keyboard work that pops up quite frequently on their latest album, Dreaming in Monochrome. They formed all the way back in 1989 and released their first demo in 95 and debut album in 96, and they have five albums to their name. I haven't heard their earlier albums, but this sounds really good. I love the 70's prog vibe this album had going for itself. I can hear elements of Opeth, Edge of Sanity, Ayreon and lots of 70's prog rock. Highly recommended. I'll play this quite a lot in the coming time, especially the 18 minute closer. That song has a lot to offer and it's a lot to get into, but that is 18 sweet minutes for sure. I recommend the entire album, but if you only bother one song, make sure it's the last track of the album, Dreaming in Monochrome. https://dementiametal.bandcamp.com/