Bear

I will work on mine later today. It's so hard to make out one list. Lords of Dogtown - Biographical drama about the Zephyr crew that revolutionized the world of skateboarding back in the mid 70's. It's smoothly directed and tells a fine story, but some of the acting is subpar and it never gets as interesting as the documentaries on the subject. It just leaves out too much for my liking, and starts too late into the years. It should've started a few years earlier so that we would get a portrayal of who these boys actually were before they started skating. The original story is a lot more interesting with a lot more angles to it with the peole ending up with different fates and such. It's a lot sadder than this. Recommended, but watch the documentaries on the Zephyr boys first. Catherine Hardwicke showed a lot of potential by making this film, but this was obviously lost because she decided to follow it up with The Nativity Story, a film I have not seen, and fucking Twilight and Red Riding Hood. Stupidity! Nice cameos by Tony Alva, Stacy, Skip and Tony Hawk though.

I'm not familiar with every single Blazebirth Hall band, but the few I know is excellent. Forest's four first albums are nothing short of brilliant, Branikald's albums of the 90's are amazing, and the debut albums of both Nitberg and Raven Dark are very good and Rundagor's demo is brilliant. These are easily my most played Blazebirth Hall albums, though: Forest - Заревом над прахом Forest - Обрекая надежду на вечность Forest - Песнью в жатве горя Branikald - Kveldulv Branikald - Хладавзор I wouldn't be shy of giving any of them 6/6 to be honest. They're just fantastic albums.

Discovered Witch Vomit yesterday and their debut EP The Webs of Horror is up for be on the band's bandcamp: https://witchvomit1.bandcamp.com/releases They're obviously influenced by swedish death metal of the 80's and early 90's. I think the EP is fantastic. Raw, rotten and foul death metal in the vein of the oldest releases by bands such as Nihilist/Entombed, Corpce/Grave, Dismember, Mega Slaughter, Nirvana 2002 and so on with small hints of Autopsy thrown in here and there in the more doomy parts. I also highly recommend the chilean death metal band Putrid Yell. The When Life Has Ceased is brilliant, and as with Witch Vomit it's very inspired by the early swedish death metal scene. This could easily have been a demo from 1989 by a swedish death metal band. https://unholydomainrecords.bandcamp.com/album/when-life-has-ceased-tape

Let's pump this thread to life again. What people's favourite films of the 2000's so far? Make a list of 3, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 57 or what the fuck you feel like, and a comment, be it half a sentence or ten, about what makes the film appear on your list. If someone post a list including a film of 10 that you disagree with, discuss it and shit. Be polite, but add some life to this fantastic, but sadly forgotten thread.

Dragons Forever - Hilarious martial arts-comedy co-directed by Sammo Hung and Corey Yuen, two geniuses in my eyes, starring Jackie Chan, Sammo Hung and Yuen Biao, as well as Pauline Yeung, Deanie Ip, Yuen Wah and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez, the man who, together with Jackie Chan, is responsible for one of the best fights ever in the earlier Sammo Hung flick Wheels on Meals. When you have Jackie, Sammo and Yuen together in this big roles you are sure to end up with something fantastic. Three brilliant actors, martial artsts and comedies, and they are all spot on with every single move in this film. This film is exciting and hilarious, and one interesting aspect of the film is that the three stars play roles against type. An example is Jackie who plays a womanizing, sleazy lawyer which is totally different from what one is used to seeing him as. Everything, with the exception of some of the romance, is spot on here. The fights are TRULY excellent. I love watchinf all of these three fight. I still don't get how Sammo Hung, a man of big size, is able to do what he does. It simply shouldn't be possible. I mean, the guy is simply fat, yet he's got strength, speed, power and jaw-dropping technique. How the fuck? What a man! And Yuen Biao too. He makes every single move look like the most natural and easiest thing in the world to do. Underrated men, both of them! Jackie is Jackie. Brilliant! Benny "The Jet" Urquidez i good too. Not much of an actor, but he's not known as The Jet for no reason at all. Superb guy! Brilliant film! The worlds had deserved so many more films with the three brothers, but as far as I know this was the last to feature them all. A shame.

Winners & Sinners - Of all the Sammo Hung-directed films I've seen, Sinners & Winners, the first in the Lucky Stars-series, is easily his weakest effort. It's not bad by any means, but it just doesn't live up to his other films. Unlike the other Sammo-films I've seen Sinners & Winners lean a lot more towards comedy than martial arts, and is more of a situation-based comedy with very little martial arts to it, but the few martial arts scenes we do get are most excellent though. It's one of many films with "the brothers" Sammo Hung, Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao, but Jackie Chan has a small role and Yuen Biao only has a cameo whch is a real shame because this trio is magnificent together. It's silly and fun, but not excellent at all. The jokes are a bit too hit and miss for me. But I enjoyed it, but not as much as I did 15 years ago. But if we rewatched the VHS we used 15 years ago, I'm sure the martial arts scenes would've been worn out while the rest would've been like new. Says it all really. Heh. My Lucky Stars - The second film in the Lucky Stars-series, and while a bit better than the first, it's not excellent either. Sammoy Hung is once again the star here, while both Jackie Chan and Yuen Biao only ha small roles. Which again is a shame. The jokes are a bit hit and miss and a few of them goes on way too long, but at times, such as with the hotel-resturant scene, they are absolutely spot on and they're sure to crack you the fuck up. Best part i the scene with Sammo Hung and the girl, though. So god damned funny! But this film is also a bit more on the action-side of things, despite still being a situation-based comedy. But it worksa lot better than the first film IMO. The fights are excellent! That's so funny. Can't stop laughing at that shit. That video is a must-see for sure. Brilliant!

Also really looking forward to Inferno festival now. Only four days (two working days) before I get onto the night train towards Oslo to watch a shitload of bands and get drunk out of my mind four days in a row. The band's we're seeing are pretty much clear at the moment too. The one's italiced are bands I'll most likely watch because my brother and friends want to see them, and I'll join in because of them: Wednesday: Gorguts Exodus Hetroertzen Thursday: Vader Marduk Mysticum Cattle Decapitation Friday: Sodom Suffocation Nile Wormlust The Crawling Saturday: Nifelheim Moonsorrow Mayhem Thaw Månegarm Saturday will be the highlight for sure. Nifelheim and fucking Moonsorrow for fucks sake! Never seen Nifelheim before and I've only seen Moonsorrow once, 8-9 years ago, so this is gonna be nice. I exect Nifelheim to be the highlight. They always looked like one of the ultimate live bands for sure.

I wouldn't say that it's too far off calling Cobalt a bit punky, especially in their later years. I think the two first songs on Landfill Breastmilk Beast and parts of Gin are very punkish. But I personally love both punk and black metal and think it is an excellent combination. The rawness and attitude of both genres just goes hand in hand. Darkthrone's The Cult is Alive, Ildjarn, Akitsa, Bone Awl, Iskra, Damned Grave, Barbatos, Raspberry Bulbs, Gallhammer, White Medal, Martyrdöd, newer Skitsystem, Sexdrome, Gandr, Ødelegger, Vordr, Urzeit and so on. An excellent mix! It doesn't get much more hateful and primitive than bands like Ildjarn, Ødelegger, Gandr, White Medal and stuff. Can totally understand how these aren't exactly for everyone, though. Total support from me, though!

Cheesecake is one of the best things in the world. Jesus, can't get enough of it.

Fantastic band. Love everything from their early demos with David Halliday on vocals to their recent outputs with David Bower on vocals. The original recording of Save Us from Those Who Would Save Us are easily among my favourite heavy metal tracks of all time. Andy Sneap is also a big cult figure in the world of metal aside from production. He was the guitarist in the english thrash metal band Sabbat who released two classic albums in the 80's, many years beofre he started producing albums. Check out Sabbat's two first albums too and be sure to get into their lyrics. Martin Walkyier are one of the most talented writers in metal for sure, shown both in Sabbat and Skyclad. Dreamweaver, depite not being the most known thrash metal album out there, is often considered one of thrash metal's finest albums, and with good reason. Total worship! Are you into bands like Satan, Portrait, Angel Witch, Attic, Trial, Metal Grave, Dracula, In Solitude and such too? A few of these should surely please you.

Bubba Ho-Tep - Rewatched this modern Don Coscarelli-classic, an underrated and overlooked gem of a film starring none other than a brilliant Bruce Campbell as Sebastian "Evis" Haff and a fantastic Ossie Davis as Jack "JFK". THere's so much to grab onto in this film. The whole setup and setting comes off as very unique and original, and it's as hilarious and funny as it is touching and somewhat clever. It's wacky and it's absurd, yet it touches you. The whole setting with an old Elvis and a black JFK in a nursing home is as absurd as it sounds, but it works so well. Real nice camoes by Larry Pennell and Reggie Bannister as well. Highlight of the film is the first 10-15 minutes or so. Bruce Campbell is God! A modern classic. Cult as fuck!

Kill on command!

Another great cover song by Moonsorrow, and as usual they manage to pay nice homage to the original song while adding their own touch and twist to the song. You can hear that this is a Rotting Christ track, yet at the same time it could easily have been an original Moonsorrow track. Just what they did with their Metallica and Merciless covers a few years back. Really looking forward to hearing their Grave cover too.

I always saw Disorder as their best release by a mile, followed by Cockayne Soup and Akuyuukai. I like the other EPs a lot too. And those also happens to be the only Gazette releases I need, despite a handful of very good songs on DIM and Taion from NIL which is easily among their best songs. But it's not enough to make me care for or actually listen to the two albums, as I am an album-kind of guy and listen to albums from A to Z without skipping songs. So if an album has 15 songs, it's gotta be 15 very enjoyable songs. As far as singles goes it's all about the singles released before Reila + Distress and Coma. The rest I more or less consider garbage.

I've sever been too big on Gorguts to be honest. I think Considered Dead is fantastic and a real classic, and The Erosion of Sanity is fairly good. But I think Obscura and the albums after are just godawful nonsense. Not close to being my up of tea at all. The logo change that came with Obscura sucked too. The old logo was so much cooler, but with the massive change in sound I can totally understand why they did it. But I don't get why they changed it to an ugly one. Ew! So for me: 1. Considered Dead (9/10) 2....and Then Comes Lividity / Demo Anthology (9/10) 3. The Erosion of Sanity(8/10) The rest I don't like at all. But I am actually seeing Gorguts live at Inferno festival next wednesday. As far as I can remember Vulkan arena and Pokalen are in the same building, so I will try to see Gorguts and Exodus at the big scene, Vulkan, and Hetroertzen at the smaller scene, Pokalen. I don't expect to enjoy Gorguts live as I can see them play mostly newer songs, but who the fuck knows. Maybe they'll surprise me. Exodus and Hetroertzen should be very fun, though.

Legend of the Werewolf - Slow, atmospheric horror film by Freddie Francis (The Evil of Frankenstein, Dracula Has Risen from the Grave) with a brilliant Peter Cushing in the lead. It's not by any means brilliant, and at times it comes off as very amateurish, but Peter Cushing just drives this film forward with a magnificent performance, and the werewolf is really cool. At times a bit slow, sloppily acted and poorly directed, but I can easily oversee such small flaws when the rest is good. If you like Peter Cushing or werewolfs I see no reason why you should not see this.

No.

Awwwww damn! Laudata Nex Magicka II was good. As good as the first one I Dare say. Blæst is a fantastic place for concerts as well. The sound is always top notch. Slagmaur kicked off day one, and I was quite surprised. Saw them at Inferno last year or the year before and they were awful. While not fantastic this time around, they did a lot better and the chick they had on stage for a couple of songs had one hell of a powerful voice. Shame about the playback and the masks which looks like cheap masks from a Halloween store, but I was entertained and the playback is excusted as the previous vocalist died only a couple of weeks ago. 6/10 Mgla was next band up, and they were once again beyond brilliant. What a fantastic live band they are. Their delivery is as tight as it gets, and their attitude is amazing. 10/10 One Tail, One Head was the last band of day one and it was amazing. Last time I saw them I was quite disappointed, but this time around they impressed me hella lot. Intense, destructive and ugly. Great grig! 8/10 Execration kicked off day two, and despite playing death metal on a black metal festival they felt like they fitted right in and what a gig it was. Superb from begining to end! Best gig I've seen from them. 9/10 The Ruins of Beverast was massive. Heavy as fuck, and I never noticed that they lacked a guitarist. Due a double booking I was told they lacked one member, but from the sound and performance itself I never noticed anything. Superb! 8/10 Dark Sonority was given the honor of ending the festival, and what an ending it was. I'm not too familiar with Dark Sonority, but I am familiar with Kaosritual as they were called when Steingrim Torson was still alive. As with Mare who played last year and share some members, this is more like an occult ritual than a traditional gig. They looked fantastic, the delivery was spot on, the atmosphere was thick as vocalist Blix (Vemod, Mare, Black Majesty) led on with his magick. He's one hell of a frontman, as seen in Mare and Vemod last year, Not in a traditional sense, because he doesn't do much out of himself. He just stands there and do some signs with his arms, turns his back to the crowd and just continue with his signs. But he's captivating and just knows exactly what he's doing. Fantastic gig! Seond best only to Mgla. 10/10 Slagmaur: Mgla: One Tail, One Head: Execration: The Ruins of Beverast: Dark Sonority: Not my pictures. Already looking forward to next year, and this was a nice build up to the four day party that is Inferno festival. Had three people over for the weekend, and next week we travel to Oslo and to one of them to live there for four days. Jesus, I dno't know if my body can't take this. Heh.

Clan of Amazons - Fantastic wuxia-inspired martial arts film by Chor Yuen. As a film this is compareable to some of Chor Yuen's pevious films, such as The Sentimental Swordsman trilogy. Which is no conincident considering they are all based on Gu Long's Chu Liuxiang novels. As with The Sentimental Swordsman trilogy, Clan of Amazons' main focus is the mystery-side of it all. It's an epic swordplay mystery with a shitload of characters, maybe a bit too many for a lot of people who tries it as I am sure it'll confuse the shit out of a lot of people, but it works beautifully. The dialogue is playful, smart and very sharp throughout, the characters are nice, the plot is great and the mystery is fantastic. Oh, and the villain, our The Embroidery Bandit, is god damn awesome! So fucking badass! It's almost a shame he didn't get more on-screen time. A masterpiece of complex martial arts cinema. Brilliant! Duel of the Century - Sequel of Clan of Amazns, and it plays out much of the same way. Fantastic martial arts scene, sharp, smart, good and witty dialogue and nice characters, but as with Clan of Amazons it focus on the mystery and has a shitload of characters to keep a track of. As with Clan of Amazons it's beautifully directed and shot, and has plenty beautiful sets and nice, colourful costumes. If you like epic swordplay films that plays out almost like an opera, then this is for you! Keep focused and give the film time. It's magnificent! "That's the way the martial arts world goes: the more famous you are, the more trouble you'll have."

The Flag of Iron - Classic CHang Cheh flick that feels like a mix of his costume epics like The Heroic Ones and exploitation-esque kung fu films like Five Deadly Venoms. The Flag of Iron stars several Venom Mob members, both from the original crew and 2nd tier members, which is very cool. Kuo Chui, Lu Feng, Chiang Sheng, Lau Shi Kwong, Lung Tien-Sheng and Yu Tai Ping. Fantastic cast! The plot is fairly typical and straight-forward. Who killed the master? The "mystery" is as simple as it get, but you won't watch this for its mystery. You watch this for the immensely choreographed fight scenes and acrobatics. The choreograhy is tremendous, and a real treat to the eye. They're so fucking good! They're the type of fights that'll give you huge eye and make you wonder "how the fuck did they do this, and how the fuck did they do that?" Crazy good choreograhy, crazy good film!

Interesting. Why exactly? Just curious.

I recommend watching THIS film. It's very interesting and lots of fun.

The Fifth Cord - Giallo by Luigi Bazzoni, the man behind films such as Man, Pride & Vengeance, The Possessed and Footprints on the Moon. The Fifth Chord, starring Franco Nero and Silvia Monti, is a cold and bleak giallo more on the mystery-side than horror, but with great atmosphere, a great mystery, some superb performances and some truly suspense-filled moments. It's very 70's modern with its architecture which adds a lot to the film, lots of concrete and glass all over the place, and it just looks very stylish. Lots of geometric shapes/angels, and an overall feeling of ambiance. There's some really original and memorable shots here, the cinematography is striking and it's really nice visually. And now that I've come to the cinematography: The star of this film, despite having Franco Nero, is cinematographer Vittorio Storaro. As far as his name goes he's probably no-one to you, but he's worked with Dario Argento on The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, with Francis Ford Coppola on Apocalypse Now, with Bernardo Bertolucci on The Last Emperor and Richard Donner on Ladyhawk, so it's while his name may not be too familiar, his work truly is. He's got an eye for details and he just knows how to shoot and film. Incredible man! And this is topped off with a fantastic soundtrack by none other than Ennio Morricone! Far from the best in the genre, but more than worthy of your time. Great film!

It's probably not a 100% SFW, but it's not close to what I'd call NSFW either. It's safe.

https://imgur.com/GpE2bHu Beautiful!