Bear

Oh shit, this is good. So good I almost threw my laptop at the wall half way into the first song. I'm not sure I can handle the badassness and coolness from the duo this time around. It's almost too much.
 
 
Me right now:
 

Oh shit, this is good. So good I almost threw my laptop at the wall half way into the first song. I'm not sure I can handle the badassness and coolness from the duo this time around. It's almost too much.
 
 
Me right now:
 

Sounding different and original doesn't necessary mean you sound good, but sounding like someone else doesn't necessary mean you sound good either. It mostly comes down to if you manage to write good songs or not. But I'll add this, as this is how I see it:
 
If you're aiming for a very familiar sound, a sound that a shitload of other bands does, in most cases you will need not only to sound good, but also manage to add some character and identity to it. You simply need to stand out a bit. You'll need to be able to add that little extra that makes people wanna listen to you instead of the 50 other bands similar to you. And out of the 50 similar bands, rarely are there any reason to listen to more than 4-5 of those. A couple of those will stand out because of great songwriting that's above the rest, and a couple of them will stand out because they've managed to add a bit of character and identity to the sound, as well as writing just as good songs as the 45-46 other bands.
 
But as you probably know I am the one who made a thread about copycats and posted a lot of clones that I simply love, so I obviously don't mind bands with a similar sound to othes. But at the end of the day in most cases one will need some kind of a character to make you stand out, unless you manage to write way better songs than the rest of the bunch, which in most cases you simply don't. Only a few out of the lot can write songs that's above the rest.

Sounding different and original doesn't necessary mean you sound good, but sounding like someone else doesn't necessary mean you sound good either. It mostly comes down to if you manage to write good songs or not. But I'll add this, as this is how I see it:
 
If you're aiming for a very familiar sound, a sound that a shitload of other bands does, in most cases you will need not only to sound good, but also manage to add some character and identity to it. You simply need to stand out a bit. You'll need to be able to add that little extra that makes people wanna listen to you instead of the 50 other bands similar to you. And out of the 50 similar bands, rarely are there any reason to listen to more than 4-5 of those. A couple of those will stand out because of great songwriting that's above the rest, and a couple of them will stand out because they've managed to add a bit of character and identity to the sound, as well as writing just as good songs as the 45-46 other bands.
 
But as you probably know I am the one who made a thread about copycats and posted a lot of clones that I simply love, so I obviously don't mind bands with a similar sound to othes. But at the end of the day in most cases one will need some kind of a character to make you stand out, unless you manage to write way better songs than the rest of the bunch, which in most cases you simply don't. Only a few out of the lot can write songs that's above the rest.

Sounding different and original doesn't necessary mean you sound good, but sounding like someone else doesn't necessary mean you sound good either. It mostly comes down to if you manage to write good songs or not. But I'll add this, as this is how I see it:
 
If you're aiming for a very familiar sound, a sound that a shitload of other bands does, in most cases you will need not only to sound good, but also manage to add some character and identity to it. You simply need to stand out a bit. You'll need to be able to add that little extra that makes people wanna listen to you instead of the 50 other bands similar to you. And out of the 50 similar bands, rarely are there any reason to listen to more than 4-5 of those. A couple of those will stand out because of great songwriting that's above the rest, and a couple of them will stand out because they've managed to add a bit of character and identity to the sound, as well as writing just as good songs as the 45-46 other bands.
 
But as you probably know I am the one who made a thread about copycats and posted a lot of clones that I simply love, so I obviously don't mind bands with a similar sound to othes. But at the end of the day in most cases one will need some kind of a character to make you stand out, unless you manage to write way better songs than the rest of the bunch, which in most cases you simply don't. Only a few out of the lot can write songs that's above the rest.

Yeah, I think the nudity has a bit to do with authenticity, as it does feel a bit more real that way. At least to me. And this wasn't exactly grown up, respectable men we saw in these videos. It's kinda normal for a lot of men to focus on tits and ass when filming videos like that.
 
I also have to add that I have always appreciated nudity in most horror genres. When it comes ot ghost stories and haunted house films, I can do without, even though it doesn't bother me there either. I like nude girls after all. But I think nudity adds a lot to the fun in slashers, cannibal films and splatters as an example. A huge part of the fun.

Just watched Nosferatu the Vampyre... actually I meant to check out Shadow of the Vampire (the one that tells the story of the making of the original Nosferatu) but didn't remember the title so I thought this must be it, haha. Anyway, it was an interesting remake, at times extremely faithful to the original. Klaus Kinski looked pretty badass as the wicked and sick-looking Count, and also managed to inject a kind of weird humor into some of his scenes. Sometimes it felt like they wanted to poke fun at, or at least make an homage to, the old silent movie characteristics (lighting, makeup, gestures etc). Anyway, it was a cool flick with some killer visuals and music, made me wanna re-watch the original again (maybe I'll get through it without falling asleep this time, lol). And of course, I'll still seek out Shadow of the Vampire. xD

Somehow I couldn't really get into the 1st V/H/S at all but the Safe Haven segment in the 2nd movie...yeah, that alone was worth watching the whole thing.

I just finished watching V/H/S.
And.....
I thought it was alright.
For it's genre, I thought it was very well done. A lot of the shorts had good atmosphere and I liked the way all the videos were connected through one main story.
I liked the variety of topics the different directors tackled and there were some pretty good effects.
 
With that said though, the movie was pretty forgettable with no real scares and lacked an impact that shakes the heart.
With most of the shorts, you knew how it was going to end and, as with other films of the shaky cam style, there's too much filler for my liking.
For example, with Second Honeymoon, the only real tense or interesting parts constituted about like 5 minutes of the entire short (at least it only felt like 5).
Some of the audio was difficult to hear and, as a result, I missed crucial parts of the stories (ex. The sick thing...Emily..)
 
Probably isn't a complaint for most people, but there was way too much (senseless) nudity or sex related writing in the shorts for me. In Tuesday the 17th, the main girl's dialogue *before a certain event*, was really awkward and didn't add to the situation.
I know guys like boobs, but almost every guy behind the camera focuses on cleavage or legs. Yes, I suppose it gives it more of a natural feel to the footage, but not every guy is a perverted sex fiend who'll do anything to get a quick peak at some boobehs.
 
Now, I do give them credit for the final product considering they had a lot less time than a full length film to execute their ideas. That in itself is pretty impressive.
But, I guess that's where some of my disappointment comes from; I'd like to see a lot of ideas fleshed out more and given the time they need to develop and build a solid story and atmosphere.
 
Overall, it was entertaining and definitely didn't feel like a waste of time. It just didn't have that extra something to really make a lasting impression and become something historically great. This first entry, in what appears to be a trilogy so far, has definitely wetted my appetite and gets me curious enough to follow the series to experience more creepy shaky cam horrors.
 
What would really make this authentic is viewing the movie on an actual VHS.
 

Laudata Nex Magick Vol. 1 was fantastic. Six bands whom all delivered high quaity music. Not a single band was worse than very good.
 
The whole thing kicked off around 7pm on friday with Sortilegia. A female handling the guitar and vocals and a drummer. Nothing more. Dark, evil black metal in the vein of Mare. This was a fantastic concert both music-, visual- and atmosphere-wise. Top notch.
Next band up was Urfaust, another two-man band with guitars, vocals and drums only. Great concert with lots of atmosphere. Fantastic stuff.
Vemod ended the eveing with 50 minutes of beautiful black metal. Very mesmerizing and good, but the biggest disappointment of all the band. It wasn't bad, but where I stood (moved around to see if I could get better sound) the bass drum sounded awful. It sounded as if they had triggered it, but appaently it was only in the middle we had that problem. Other wise it was top notch.
 
Saturday kicked off with another two-man band, Bölzer, again a guitarist and vocalist and a drummer. This was fantastic. Second best gig this weekend. So fucking heavy and massive. How two men manage to create something this massive, not only on record, but live is just weird. How on earth?
Epic black metallers Cult of Fire continued the evening. We were sitting outside utnil we heard they were gonna get on any minute now, and as soon as we got inside the door we were met with a wall of smoke of incense, and even then, before we'd gotten up to the second floor where they were gonna play the mood were set. This was the best gig for me. A bit troubling sound throught the concert, but it wasn't awful and the stage show was amazing. They looked fantastic, the stage was fantastic and it was amazing. The vocalist moved a lot like Papa from Ghost. Lots of similarities there. loved it! Also, four peole on stage, but no bass here either which makes it 4/6 bands with no bass, and 3/6 with only two people. Awesome!
Ritualistic black metallers Mare ended the weekend with a fantastic concert. Dark and ritualistic, just as expected.
 
Well, one of the best concerts I've been to. Everything was so very well worked out. 6/6 for the whole thing. As good as it gets. Already ready for a part 2.

Got these beauties at last night's Swans gig (which was amazing but more on that later in the appropriate thread).
 

Mirai's been posting lots of rare Sigh photos lately. Maximum awesomeness!
 
 

Mirai frm the first or second ever Sigh gig back in 1990 or something.
 

Mirai from a gig with his Ramones cover band back in the early 90's.
 

Mirai from around the time of Infidel Art
 

This is the outtake for GFT back cover. We went to the river side at midnight for this photo shooting. I believe Yasuyuki from Abigail was with us, too. The riverside was shrouded by complete dark and we could not see anything and we realized that we had no way to push the button of the camera exactly coinciding to the fire breathing! So instead we just left the camera lens open for a few seconds and breathed fire during that and surprisingly the photos turned out to be much better than we had expected.
 

This is pretty much rare, evil Satoshi. I believe this one is from 1991.
 

This gig was hilarious. This was our third gig or so. We were asked to play at the newly opened venue in Tokyo. We didn't advertise the gig at all as we thought we'd be one of 10 bands to play. We were just a new born band and didn't have fans anyway. Then we loaded in to find out we were the only band to play that night and ended up in playing for 1 or 2 friends of ours. This happened 24 years ago.
 

Apparently the shot of the moment I failed fire-breathing. Should be around "Infidel Art" era.
 

And this is the one when I succeeded to spit fire. Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?
 

Actually in 24 years of Sigh's history, we were a band with two guitarists for a few weeks. I believe it was 1992 and we even played one show with two guitarists. It didn't work so did not last long though. And yes, Satoshi and I were young.
 

 

Satoshi's photo that was never used. Never used because of, well, as you see, the bad corpse painting.
 

Satoshi played everything from guitar, bass to drums with Sigh. He's a really talented musician. However, he was never good at breathing fire...
 

Unlike Satoshi, I have been always great at breathing fire.
 

I was short-haired. This should be from some time in the beginning of the 2000s. And I haven't had a haircut at all since then.
 

I believe this one was taken in 2006 or 2007 around the time Dr. Mikannibal joined the band. Somehow this shot was never used though.
 
 
 
 
Just posted the last two since I was at it, but everything above are as awesome as it gets.

The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears - If you're familiar with giallos, then I'm sure you'll notice that even the title here is very giallo-inspired. The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears is the second feature lenght from Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, the French/Belgian(?) couple/friends behind 07's awesome neo-giallo Amer. They also directed a segment in The ABCs of Death. I was very impressed with Amer, an interesting and challenging neo-giallo which takes a lot from the genre, but also adds a lot more to it which made it to more than just another giallo homage. With The Strange Colour of Your Body's Tears they go even more complicated and surreal, and I'd say less straightforward than Amer, and Amer was anything but straightforward in my eyes. The cinematography is great and it's beautifully shot, but there's a lot of weird dream sequences and flashbacks (sometimes with an altered frames per second rate), some violence and sexual perversion. And the soundtrack is as 70's as it gets and considering this is a neo-giallo with a of late 60's and 70's in it, it's fits perfectly.
 
But you know what? Fuck trying to put this into words. Imagine Dario Argento, Satoshi Kon and Brian de Palma making a film together, and from the moment they start writing it and until the film is finished, they've had nothing more to eat than magic mushrooms and LSD.
 
I think I will place it even with Amer at 8/10, but I will have to watch it a couple of more times to decide on it. This, just like Amer was, is a film that deserves a few rewatches before one decides on the quality of the film. Anyway, Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzan's among most interesting filmmakers out there today, and I am waiting eagerly to see what they come up with next.
 

Jesus. Horror isn't necessary meant to be scary, you know.

Mirai's been posting lots of rare Sigh photos lately. Maximum awesomeness!
 
 

Mirai frm the first or second ever Sigh gig back in 1990 or something.
 

Mirai from a gig with his Ramones cover band back in the early 90's.
 

Mirai from around the time of Infidel Art
 

This is the outtake for GFT back cover. We went to the river side at midnight for this photo shooting. I believe Yasuyuki from Abigail was with us, too. The riverside was shrouded by complete dark and we could not see anything and we realized that we had no way to push the button of the camera exactly coinciding to the fire breathing! So instead we just left the camera lens open for a few seconds and breathed fire during that and surprisingly the photos turned out to be much better than we had expected.
 

This is pretty much rare, evil Satoshi. I believe this one is from 1991.
 

This gig was hilarious. This was our third gig or so. We were asked to play at the newly opened venue in Tokyo. We didn't advertise the gig at all as we thought we'd be one of 10 bands to play. We were just a new born band and didn't have fans anyway. Then we loaded in to find out we were the only band to play that night and ended up in playing for 1 or 2 friends of ours. This happened 24 years ago.
 

Apparently the shot of the moment I failed fire-breathing. Should be around "Infidel Art" era.
 

And this is the one when I succeeded to spit fire. Looks pretty nice, doesn't it?
 

Actually in 24 years of Sigh's history, we were a band with two guitarists for a few weeks. I believe it was 1992 and we even played one show with two guitarists. It didn't work so did not last long though. And yes, Satoshi and I were young.
 

 

Satoshi's photo that was never used. Never used because of, well, as you see, the bad corpse painting.
 

Satoshi played everything from guitar, bass to drums with Sigh. He's a really talented musician. However, he was never good at breathing fire...
 

Unlike Satoshi, I have been always great at breathing fire.
 

I was short-haired. This should be from some time in the beginning of the 2000s. And I haven't had a haircut at all since then.
 

I believe this one was taken in 2006 or 2007 around the time Dr. Mikannibal joined the band. Somehow this shot was never used though.
 
 
 
 
Just posted the last two since I was at it, but everything above are as awesome as it gets.

As far as female growlers goes, I can't realy think of too many who sounds very manly when growling. That itself is not something I consider a negative factor, though. I like plenty of female growlers who does not sound like men even when growling. But chicks like Runhild Gammelsæter from Thorr's Hammer, Dana Duffey from Mythic, Sharon Bascovsky from Derkéta, Koldovstvo from Sortilegia, Doomed Warrior from Into Darkness and Alicia Morgan from 13 are the few I can think of right now that would've fooled me. There's obviously more chicks, but I can't think of more right now.

It's the total oposite for me. I consider Asagi's growls to be a bit weak and powerless, but I think he sounds more manly, powerful and way better than Angela Gossow.

Merry covered a Pantera song. Way better than the original, but still shit.

Youth Of The Beast - Directed by Seijun Suzuki who directed 40 films in 11 years between 1956 - 1967 and about a dozen films after that. This movie is considered to be his breakthrough. The plot is similar to Yojimbo and A Fistful Of Dollars but this time it's set in the yakuza world. Violent, stylish and highly entertaining, just the way I like it!

I'm usually very picky about horror movies but I found some interesting ones in this thread and I'm going to watch them. Thanks, just wanted to say that

Resolution - Just watched this interesting little movie, and I'm having a bit of a hard time whether I should mention it here or in the "general" movie thread... I read some praising remarks about it, watched the trailer and then the movie itself. Everything points to the fact that this should be some kinda horror flick (especially if you watch the trailer), and the end product... I dunno how to call it, maybe an anti-horror horror movie? XD So yeah, it was a pretty weird ride. I had a sense the overall theme and conclusion is very similar to The Cabin in the Woods but I actually liked this one, heh. If you're a fan of horror in general and wanna watch something different and eerie (but maybe don't expect too much) to make your mind bend a little, then I recommend this one.

Opera - While I do like some of Dario's films after this one, this is with no doubt whatsoever Dario Argento' last proper good film. And while not quite as good as masterpieces like Profondo rosso, Suspiria, Tenebre, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and a few more, it's still a fantastic giallo with great atomsphere, an awesome killer, a cool plot, fine visuals and damn cool soundtrack. It's very stylish in an Argentoesque way, which means it looks amazing throughout, it's well-acted and all in all it's a very good film. The kills? Top notch! Cold, gruesome and very well made. One just gotta love it if one's into this kind of things.
 
 

People were expecting something from Sadie? When and where? Everything I read leading up to GANGSTA was about how silly the name was and how bad the album was going to be. People were calling their reactions before the album was even released, and the reviews are a reflection of that belief. Is it right that people judged the book by it's cover? No. But it's not as if GANGSTA is helping the situation any when even the people that are defending the album won't go higher than 5/10 or 6/10.
I actually like Sadie and listen to a lot of material between Crimson Tear to Master of Romance often. I didn't want to give GANGSTA a bad review because hating Sadie gets me likes and makes my readers laugh. I wanted to be the one to go out on a limb and say Hey, this album is actually really good! But it's not.

Black Mirror - Damn, this mini-series packs a punch. Shame it's only two seasons with just six episodes in total. I love the anthology format to begin with, and these stories were really neat and frightening (or more like unnerving). Most of them could be even quite plausible in the near future. I liked how it concentrated more on human relations than hi-tech sci-fi shizz. Makes for a good viewing, highly recommended.
 
Danger 5 - Okay, I'm almost at a loss for words. Wow. xDDD This has gotta be one of the funniest mini-series I've ever seen. If you like over-the-top cheesy B-movie "so bad it's good" stuff it's mandatory to watch this. I mean....damn. XD There's a 2nd season coming soon too!

^ My recommendations: Child's Play franchise (especially first two and Bride of Chucky but stay away from the remake), You're Next, High Tension (except for the ending, lol), The Midnight Meat Train (same as before), The Hills Run Red, Trick 'r Treat and of course the fabulous Texas Chainsaw Massacre (first movie and maybe the two remakes).