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faeriebabee · 1 year

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so this is how liberty dies.

a/n: so uhh the ghost of padme amidala visited me and demanded that i write this and who am i to deny my senator; on a serious note, this the product of my obsession with the likely unintentional symbolism of padme (one of the most earnest and genuinely well-intentioned politicians ever portrayed in fiction) dying shortly after the fall of the republic she fought to maintain. drives me insane. george lucas should have let me write her death. there is no plot, just angst.

summary: She is in perfect health, but in hours she too will be dead.

ao3

“The remaining Jedi will be hunted down and defeated!” Chancellor Palpatine stands in a pod hovering in the middle of the senate chamber, just as he has for the better part of a decade. Today, however, no one can quite see his face under the heavy velvet hood of his crimson robes. The senators he speaks to, usually eager for a chance to cut in and press their own agendas, listen raptly and talk among themselves only in whispers as he describes the Jedis’ attempt to assassinate him and overthrow the senate.

“The attempt on my life has left me scarred and deformed.” There is no need to show them what damage the traitorous Jedi have wreaked upon him. They can hear it in his once pleasant, now roughened voice. “But I assure you that resolve has never been stronger.”

Padmé Amidala of Naboo leans forward in her pod, chin propped up on a fist. The wide flare of her high-waisted dress barely conceals the round full moon of her belly. Her gaze darts across the assembly, judging the reactions of her peers. Having spent most of her life in politics, she’s a master at keeping a neutral face. What she sees, however, is so disheartening that she cannot keep the displeasure in her eyes masked. Beside her, Bail Organa of Alderaan frowns.

“To ensure the security and continuing stability, the Republic will be reorganized into the first Galatic Empire! For a safe and secure society.” The volume and gravitas of Palpatine’s voice grow with every word. Padmé��s hand goes to her mouth, now openly horrified. This is her worst fear for the galaxy realized. This is what she’s spent the past weeks trying to prevent.

Even in her worst nightmares, this announcement is met with an outcry from her fellow senators. Now, as Palpatine raises his arms, lauding his new empire, her peers clap enthusiastically. In her disbelief, she turns to Senator Organa. “So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause.”

She is in perfect health, but in hours she too will be dead. She is not murdered by any of the rebelling Jedi Palpatine warns of. She is not executed as a consequence of her open contempt for Palpatine’s new empire. She is not killed by her husband force-choking the air out of her lungs so he does not have to listen to any more of her pleading.

(Anakin’s with the Empire? Palpatine convinced him to murder children?)

(Those weren’t Ani’s eyes.)

She doesn’t die from an unforeseen complication in her premature labor, either. The medical droids don’t understand why she’s losing strength so rapidly. Maybe if they were in a fully-equipped hospital instead of the emergency care station of a cruiser, more could be done to save her.

She barely manages to name her newborn twins. She never gets to hold them.

Padmé Amidala always hoped she would pass peacefully in her sleep, surrounded by loved ones in the Lakes Country of Naboo. She often feared she would be assassinated among the shining buildings and towers of Coruscant. Instead, she dies in the barren cold of space, far from her family and handmaidens.

The only other humans with her are Bail Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi. They have both witnessed so much loss and destruction in the past day that they would be numb to any other new tragedy, but they find it in themselves to be terrified and grief-stricken for their dear friend.

Padmé, who at fourteen faced the Trade Federation’s occupation with a steel spine, ready to die alongside her people even as her advisors pleaded with her to save herself.

Padmé, who was so beloved by the people of Naboo that they wanted to amend their constitution to allow her to run for another term as Queen.

Padmé, who never entertained the thought of running for another term because she truly valued the necessity of change over her own station.

Padmé, who advocated for peace possible, but was willing to pick up a blaster and fight alongside others when necessary.

Padmé, who had been a leader in the Delegation of 2000 in an attempt to revoke Chancellor Palpatine’s emergency powers.

Padmé, who saw the Republic’s flaws and still believed in the good that could be achieved through it.

The most earnest and loyal of the Republic’s senators is dead, and the galaxy weeps.

#padme amidala #revenge of the sith #star wars #star wars fanfic #my writing

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archonreviews · 6 years

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The Archon’s Review of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines is a modern fantasy role-playing game developed by Troika Games and published by Activision. You play the role of a newly sired vampire in 21st century L.A. Your sire is executed on the orders of Sebastian LaCroix, Prince of Los Angeles, and you are then forced to do LaCroix’s chores. Thus begins an adventure through the seediest parts of Los Angeles as you attempt to recover a mysterious sarcophagus, fight off the attentions of the violent Sabbat, and decide where their loyalties lie. Oh! Also, don’t murder too many “innocent” humans, or you’ll turn into a monster or something.

Man, I wish this game got at least half the love it deserved from... well, from everybody. Or rather, I wish it had received more love from Activision and the public, and less from Troika. After all, it was Troika’s excessive design scope, combined with Activision’s apparent indifference and callous deadlines that made this game far less than it could have been. It’s been more or less left to fans to improve and even in some ways “complete” the game after its release.

All that said, however, the game as released is quite good, especially in the writing department. The story has you navigating vampire society, completing various missions for the clandestine Camarilla organization (not to be confused with Kaiser Wilhelm II’s circle of advisors headed by Otto von Bismarck), and more specifically Prince LaCroix, and has you eventually picking a side in a decades-spanning conflict between the rebellious Anarchs, and the Camarilla itself. The world is rich and enveloping, with characters that feel like real people even if you only speak to them for a little bit.

Before I go into greater detail about the story and writing, let’s talk about the mechanics of play, which are... ehhh-but-kinda-okay??? I’ll talk about your vampiric abilities first. Basically, as you increase in power, you’ll acquire greater powers as you attain higher levels in “disciplines”. Each vampire clan has a set of three disciplines at its disposal, ranging from superhuman strength and speed, to invisibility and extra-sensory perception, to literal magicks and the ability to afflict other people with madness. As you level up and put character points into those disciplines, either you get new powers, or the power of the discipline itself becomes greater. For example, more points in Thaumaturgy (otherwise known as Literal Blood Magick) gets you additional spells to cast, while putting additional points into Potence (otherwise known as Swoleness) makes the affect of the discipline greater when used. All of that, that being the character progression and the gradual increase in power over the course of the game, that all works pretty well. You can actually feel your character’s increasing power over the course of the game.

(Pictured: Me trying not to get wrecked by a surprise boss. Punching it worked well enough.)

However, I will criticize a couple of things. First, when selecting disciplines to use, the default is using the mouse wheel, which is fine, I suppose, when selecting guns in a first-person shooter. But when trying to sift through ~7 abilities, each of which does different things, it can be something of a bugbear. I died at least a couple of times when I was trying to select the spell that makes nearby enemies barf their blood vessels out, and I accidentally selected the power that makes everything glowy for a bit. I only found out that you could (presumably) assign disciplines to the number keys very late in the game.

Second, combat difficulty can be a bit wobbly. Against human opponents, the difficulty depends almost entirely on whether the enemies have high-powered automatic guns. If yes, then it becomes a game of getting the enemies to come at you one-by-one for strategic beatings. If no, then feel free to run right into the middle of them and beat on all of them. Make sure to save one human for feeding though! Feeding regenerates your health and powers your blood gauge, which acts as a sort of mana bar for your disciplines. And since you can feed freely in combat areas, there’s no reason not to kill every human enemy except one, then get all your health and blood back from them.

(Omnomnomnom...)

Against other vampires, however, it’s a different story. Most vampire battles are boss battles, so it makes sense for them to be difficult. But the battles against regular vampires can also be nightmares if you’re not careful, and even if you are. Here, you have to be a bit more conservative with your disciplines, because for some reason, the game prevents you from committing diablerie (which I feel perfectly entitled to), so you can’t get your blood or health back from them. One thing I would recommend when fighting other vampires: use edged weapons. Even if your edged weapon and your blunt weapon or gun supposedly do exactly the same damage, even counting lethality ratings, you always want to use edged weapons against vamps. For some reason, edged weapons always do more damage to vampires, and stagger them more often.

(Fighting this motherfucker was... unpleasant, but it taught me that even if my punching stat was higher than my weapon stat, I should just use an edged weapon anyway.)

Let us get back to the writing, which is the game’s strongest point. VtM:B has extremely good writing, like, possibly the best out of any game I’ve ever reviewed on this blog. First off, I want to talk about the characterization. Even the minor characters get personality injected through them in every line. Every character feels like a real person, and I found myself relating more to them than to people in real life. Even when a character has aspects of a racial stereotype, the layering of their personality traits and motivations made them into composite humans whom I could get behind. The reason I mention racial stereotypes specifically is because of one character in particular: Fat Larry. He’s an overweight black man who sports an afro, wears a basketball jersey, speaks in jive, and deals in illegal goods. When I first encountered this character, my first thought was “Ohhh, nooooo.” partly because A) the obvious caricature, and B) I knew I’d have to talk about him. However, after talking to him, it became readily apparent that his character extended beyond the stereotype. He’s aware of his weight problem, and to quote “[He] don’t give a fuck”. He has a hand in running a large corporation, and has interactions with people from the local street gangs, all the way up to the Chinese Mafia. He likes steak. As for selling illicit goods; well, most shopkeepers seem to be selling the same kind of illegal goods, that is to say, guns. This pattern holds true for many other characters who seem flat at first, but then, as you dig just a little, they flesh themselves out until you have a wonderful tapestry of colorful characters.

(Ah, Fat Larry. I will never forget you.)

One more major writing point I want to talk about is the game’s use of horror elements. The game as a whole can best be described as a sort of RPG with heavy leanings of horror. However, when the game decides to use these elements, they are used to interesting, if not great, effect. The first such instance takes place in a haunted hotel, which is basically a homage to The Shining (one in a looong series of classics I have yet to check out). There are no enemies to fight, but goddamn if I didn’t have my weapon drawn the entire time. The sound effects and scare timing are perfect, and while the visual effects are a bit dated, they get the job done. I especially liked the whispering, indistinct at first, but increasing in clarity as you trek through the level until it sounds like someone’s whispering directly into your open earhole. Unnerving. The second horror-type location is a venerable house, opulent and imperial. Except this one was inhabited not by festering abominations, but by regular people driven to madness by the owner of the manor, an old-school psychologist who’s lived for centuries due to his vampirism. This guy loooved his insane asylums and it shows; the level plays like a combination of a haunted house and a haunted asylum; and I was never sure if an inmate was going to stand still and mutter or if they were gonna attack me. The audio logs kept on archaic recording devices further added to the atmosphere, detailing owner’s descent into paranoia as the voices that plagued him increased in volume and number. Next, we have zombie plagues! Zombies actually appear twice in the game, and both times they’re used to convey a sense that you are surrounded on all sides, as they spawn from areas you thought were cleared out, and have a nasty habit of appearing just around corners. The first time you encounter them is in the home of a blasphemous preacher who is... over-enamoured with disease and pestilence. Context and previous experience convey the idea that these zombies were formerly people, and that this preacherman’s sickness has touched far more people than expected. The second time zombies are encountered is in the basement of a deadly-decadent family mansion, and in this instance, there’s a sense that you are right in the middle of enemy territory, except the enemy wants to moan loudly at you and grab and eat you. Whereas in the first zombie-quest, you were trying to fight your way through the hordes to a definite end, in the second zombie-quest, it feels much more like you’re trying to escape a fucked situation, even though you’re again trying to get to a definite end. The last instance of horror is one wherein, again, there are no enemies, but there are still scares aplenty. It takes place in an abandoned hospital, and while the happenings seem to be spectral, in the end, it turns out that it’s all being caused by a cannibalistic vampire, who happens to have a quest for you. The end of the hospital is gruesome, and trek there is filled with tight corridors and gory killings observed too far away to do anything about. Oh! I almost forgot to talk about body horror. Yes, there are a couple of levels that indulge in quite gruesome body horror, once in a cliffside manor, and again in a sewer system. The sounds the afflicted enemies make as they announce themselves is far more horrifying than their actual assault, and when you learn that these monstrosities were once human, your sense of revulsion will tinge with pity and additional horror.

(There are also werewolves, which are unkillable and grant the player the additional horror of being chased and hunted down. Good stuff, that.)

So the game knows how and when to use horror elements, but on the other side of its lawn of atmosphere is a gritty, seedy weed-field that pervades the entire setting. Apparently, Los Angeles is going through some shit at the time the story takes place, with gun-hustlers on every street corner, cops shooting to kill for any given offense, and sex work being the industry of choice among young white ladies with bob-cuts. Everybody’s dressed to the 90′s. And worst of all, there seems to be a massive homeless problem that hasn’t even been remotely addressed. It’s not just always night, but it’s always gloomy to boot. One half-expects the Punisher or a similar personage to pop out of the plasterwork and start waxing philosophical about the inherent degeneracy of humankind of some such rot. But make no mistake, the atmosphere thus conveyed is not an unwelcome one; indeed, the gloomy, gritty feel of the game enhances the experience and really lets you feel the oppressiveness of the “something in the air” that the other vampires go on about without giving you a mechanical indicator. You’re clued in organically that something isn’t right by the low state of the general populace and of the city itself.

(Of course, the sex workers are there to provide the player with a way to non-suspiciously feed. I mean, it’s probably fine; I paid them after all, so it’s fine, right? Right?)

Of course, there some points about the game that may turn some people off from a sensitivities standpoint, and such concerns not without merit. First off, there’s the aforementioned ethnic and racial stereotyping, which for some people can’t be fixed even by all the characterization in the world. And it doesn’t just hit black people. Oh, you haven’t heard? Los Angeles has a Chinatown. In addition, a lot of the female NPCs, and even a female player, are clad in, by default, skimpy dress; and I’m not even talking about the sex workers. A more nuanced weirdbad thing occurs in the system by which certain victims give you more blood than others. Basically, while rats only give you a little blood and humans a lot, this makes sense. What makes less sense is that homeless people give less blood than upper class people when fed upon. Certain characters imply, or even outright state that the quality of a person’s blood is directly tied to the kind of life they’ve led. A PhD is worth more blood than a regular dude, who’s worth more than a homeless person. Attaching objective worth to a person’s standard of living is classist, if nothing else, and the implications made me uncomfortable. However, I think this comes from the source material, White Wolf’s Vampire: the Masquerade tabletop game, so I don’t think we can blame the game devs for this one specifically.

So do I like VtM:B? Yes, I should think so. Even if the gameplay’s a little janky at times, and the game world’s a bit gloomy, I liked the strength of writing and fleshed-out characters quite a lot. Will I play it again? Well, let’s just say that this is one of the few games I managed to finish in time for a review (for obvious reasons), and I already started another playthrough. For your information, I started with a Tremere, and in the second run, I’m trying out a Nosferatu.

(I should note that yes, this is exactly how all white people dance. Also note the lack of a band in the background. Yep.)

#archon reviews #review #video games #video game #vampier the masquerade bloodlines #dark fantasy #modern fantasy #vampires #rpg #vampire the masquerade

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pika-ace · 6 years

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ITH Fran Bow AU

Since I’m stuck in Purgatory waiting for Sally Face to update so I can finish imagining Sonny in some king of ghost hunting murder mystery, I decided to satisfy myself for now with the game that Sally Face is the spiritual successor to: Fran Bow. Time for Usnavi to go on a trippy insanity ride!

Heavy stuff and spoilers ahoy! (And if this story doesn’t make sense, then...I can’t really help you, this summary is me trying desperately to simplify and summarize everything the best I can. Honestly, watching a playthrough of the game is your best bet cause there are NO actual explanations for what goes down in this game, soooo...yeah.)

So it starts out nice enough. Usnavi is a normal kid living with his parents and his young cousin Sonny, while his uncle occasionally drops by. one day, Usnavi’s parents give Usnavi a cat that he names Meeko, and she becomes Usnavi’s best friend. But one night, Usnavi is playing with Meeko when he sees a scary monster outside his window, followed by his mother’s scream. Usnavi goes to his parents’ bedroom, only to find his mom and dad completely slaughtered and sliced into pieces. After that, it gets blurry. Usnavi remembers him and Meeko finding Sonny and all three of them running away into the forest. But after that, Usnavi passed out and woke up in an asylum, with no sign of Sonny or Meeko. A few days pass and Usnavi wants out of this asylum. Daniela, his assigned doctor is trying her best to help him, but there’s really nothing she can do. After Usnavi has a dream about his cat, he decides he wants to escape and find Meeko and Sonny and have them all go home to Usnavi’s uncle. He finds some pills that when he takes one he can see into what he will soon learn is called Ultra-reality, a world that is parallel to his only there’s more bloody and creepy stuff involved, along with these shadow creatures that seem to be everywhere as well as the monster he saw the night his parents died (this is where the weirdness starts). Usnavi eventually escapes the asylum and follows a moving cat toy that bares a resemblance to Meeko, and Usnavi finds himself in a forest. After getting help from a giant Ant, a rat, and some floating heads with long hair that turn into dragonflies when you brush said hair (I told you, this game is weird), Usnavi opens a door in an old well, finding himself in a nice house that’s empty. After exploring, Usnavi finds Meeko in a cage (BTW Meeko can talk in this) and she tells him that she tried to follow Usnavi when he was taken away, but she lost track of both him and Sonny too. Then someone took her and put her in a cage, so Usnavi has to find the key. Usnavi explores a bit more and eventually finds a mirror but his reflection isn’t in it. That’s because Sonny’s trapped behind it, alone, terrified, and wanting his cousin. Sonny says he was in the forest, running to find help when Usnavi passed out, but then he remembered something taking him when he stopped to rest, similar to Meeko’s story. And that’s when he woke up behind the mirror, with the twins taunting and teasing him. Usnavi promises to free him and Meeko, and Sonny tells him that the twins have the key. Usnavi eventually meets said twins, who are Siamese twins to the highest degree, meaning they’ve been sewed together and they’re holding a key. They tell Usnavi that if he wants his cat and cousin back, he has to do some kind of ritual for them. It’s clearly a ritual that isn’t worth doing, because judging by another corpse in another room, Usnavi will get chopped up if he does it wrong. Luckily, thanks to the pills, Usnavi finds another ritual that will take care of the twins and it involves less bloody ingredients. Usnavi does the ritual and the twins are reduced to ash, leaving the key behind. However, they key doesn’t open Meeko’s cage, but it DOES open the mirror where Sonny is and THEN they find the key to Meeko’s cage. So with the family reunited, they escape the house and get back to the forest. But when they cross a tree bridge, the same monster that Usnavi saw the night his parents’ died appeared, and the three of them fall down a cliff. Meeko and Sonny wake up in some kind of nice nature-y field perfectly fine, but Usnavi’s clothes are scattered everywhere and...he’s a tree. I’m dead serious. Luckily, Meeko and Sonny come across some locals who are vegetable/tree things and they take the three to their ruler who graciously agrees to help them. They learn they’re in the kingdom of Ithersta, the land of tree and bug people (this game is so fucking weird...) which is a different reality. Anyway, Usnavi needs arms and legs cause only the Great Wizard Nina can turn Usnavi back into a human, so they’re taken to the kingdom’s doctor, a bird-like creature named Claudia, though she insists on the children calling her Abuela. Abuela tells Usnavi that the reason he’s a tree is because of a strong wish he made while falling. He wished to keep Sonny safe from harm, which caused his body to be destroyed in Sonny’s place, but he also wanted to keep being himself, so he basically inhabited a tree to keep his memories and everything (Make sense? No? Moving on.). So Abuela gives Usnavi arms and legs, making him a tree person and he, Sonny, and Meeko go off to find the Great Wizard. After exploring, they find Nina and complete a ritual, and Usnavi’s body is back and the three can go back to their own reality to keep on their way home. After that, they meet two strange creatures called Benny and Pete, who claim to be Usnavi and Sonny’s imaginary friends. Usnavi and Sonny say they seem familiar but can’t quite put their fingers on why. Anyway, Benny and Pete say that they have a flying machine to help them get home. Things start out great, but it goes south when more shadow things attack the ship and make it crash. Usnavi, Sonny, and Meeko wake up by themselves, but they’re close to home aka Usnavi’s uncle/Sonny’s dad’s house, so that’s where they go. They send Meeko in through a window to unlock the door, but before they can get in, Daniela arrives and gets Usnavi and Sonny in the car, having been worried about them. As they drive, Daniela tells them that something weird has been happening, particularly surrounding Usnavi and Sonny, as reports say that after his parents’ murder, Usnavi was found frozen to death and Sonny is still reported as ‘missing’. Plus, the pills that Usnavi’s been taking isn’t the medicine he was supposed to have; it was switched by someone. Daniela drives them to the cemetary where they dig up the coffins for the De la Vega family. The first two coffins hold Usnavi’s mom and dad, but the third...holds the skeleton of a cat (don’t get excited; this is never given a straight answer). After that, the scary monster appears and attacks Daniela making her disappear, followed by Usnavi and Sonny. Usnavi then wakes up, chained to his bed in his house, with his uncle standing over him. His uncle refuses to answer Usnavi’s questions, like where Sonny is and where he is in general, but his uncle keeps saying that Meeko was the one who killed Usnavi’s parents. After managing to escape thanks to a version of Usnavi in a different reality, Usnavi explores this trippy dollhouse version of himself that he’s in, and manages to find Sonny locked in his own little room. After that, they make it a lab looking place where Meeko is in a cage, and Daniela is strapped to an electric chair; but she’s still alive, thankfully. Then Usnavi’s uncle appears, along with another doctor, aka the founder of the asylum Usnavi had been staying in and things (kinda) become revealed. It turns out that Usnavi’s mother and Sonny’s mother were twins, and they were close with the Doctor. And when they became pregnant, the Doctor knew those children would be special somehow (this is where the game gets real confusing). Of course, Usnavi’s mother and father didn’t want to give Usnavi to the doctor to be a science experiment, so they ran away to try and hide from the doctor. A few years later, Sonny’s mother realized the same thing, but her husband, Usnavi’s uncle, was on the Doctor’s side. Sonny’s mother was able to get baby Sonny to Usnavi’s parents before dying mysteriously, as it was the uncle and Doctor who killed her. And when they finally found Usnavi and Sonny again, the Doctor used the evil monster to possess Usnavi and kill his parents so as to make him suffer and make him and Sonny the way he wants for the experiment I think?? It’s kinda out there. Anyway, long story short, Usnavi gets shot by the doctor after he attacks his uncle out of anger cause, but Benny, Pete, and Abuela come to save the day. They heal Usnavi and whisk Usnavi, Sonny and Meeko away to learn more about the realities that the universe have to offer. And that’s it. I’m not kidding. It’s an ending that is WAY too open especially after the rest of what happened. But I guess what’s important is that Usnavi’s together with Sonny and Meeko and his other friends in the other realities and is happy so...yeah, I’ll leave it here.

#in the heights aus #fran bow #usnavi de la vega #meeko the cat #sonny de la vega #this game was such a ride #like i don't think this post even accurately sum up how weird it is #just...watch it for yourselves #you'll see what a trip this is

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snarkyoracle · 6 years

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You don’t have to die to go to hell….

BLOOD BLISTER #4

(MR) / $3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer/artist: Phil Hester inker: Eric Layton color: Guy Major letterer: Dave Sharpe cover: Tony Harris

YOU DON’T NEED TO DIE TO GO TO HELL…

Brand Hull finally comes face-to-face with the demon claiming his soul, unaware that the evil he’s sown has already taken on a life of its own…and claimed the life of an innocent. The sophisticated, yet visceral horror story from Hester, Layton, Major & Sharpe continues!

“BLOOD BLISTER…is bursting with greatness.” – Jason Bennett of popculthq.com

Opening a jarring window to a world of horror from the Eisner Award-nominated writer of The Coffin, Firebreather and Deathstroke. Covers by Ex Machina’s Tony Harris!

ROUGH RIDERS: RIDE OR DIE #1

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Adam Glass artist: Patrick Olliffe color: Gabe Eltaeb letterer: Sal Cipriano cover: Patrick Olliffe w/ Gabe Eltaeb

Volume Three of the hit AfterShock Series! A great jumping-on point!

It’s 1906 and Theodore Roosevelt is the sitting president when a familiar face from his past asks him once again to call upon the Rough Riders to save the world. But this time it’s not anarchists or aliens—no, it’s something from the great beyond. Something so ancient and inherently evil that the Rough Riders will need to add to their ranks in hopes of defeating it. Who will be the newest historical figure to have the honor to call themselves a Rough Rider?

Created and written by Adam Glass (executive producer of Supernatural and writer of Suicide Squad) with artwork by Patrick Olliffe (Untold Tales of Spider-Man).

“The story is exciting and fun, with the characters being faithful and fanciful, and the visuals are epic and thrilling. This is what comic books are all about!“ – Patrick Hayes of scifipulse.net

BACKWAYS #3

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Justin Jordan artist: Eleonora Carlini colorist: Silvia Tidei letterer: Marshall Dillon cover: Eleonora Carlini & Silvia Tidei

As Anna and Coyote Bones continue to search for Slyvia in the Backways, they are being stalked by something dangerous—the Morning Wolf is on the hunt!

From Justin Jordan (STRAYER, Green Lantern: New Guardians) and Eleonora Carlini (Batgirl, Doctor Who) comes the BRAND NEW series of magic, mystery and mayhem that is sure to appeal to fans of Harry Potter and The Chronicles of Narnia!

“Horror and dark fantasy comics are thriving right now thanks to series like Wytches and Harrow County, and Backways sounds like it’ll fit right in.” -Matthew Jackson of SyFy.com

MONSTRO MECHANICA #3

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Paul Allor artist: Chris Evenhuis colorist: Sjen Weijers letterer: Paul Allor cover : Chris Evenhuis

A new series starring Leonardo da Vinci, his female apprentice and their wooden robot!

Isabel and the Machine are separated during the Siege of Volterra! As Isabel races to find him in the carnage and chaos, the violence surrounding them affects the Machine in surprising and potentially terrible ways!

From creators Paul Allor (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles) and Chris Evenhuis (Wynonna Earp) comes this swashbuckling adventure story about war, identity and the birth of the modern world!

“MONSTRO MECHANICA” is a swashbuckling adventure story, filled with humor, pathos and giant wooden robots, that has something to say about humanity and society. It’s also incredibly fun, and filled with absolutely gorgeous art. You’re going to love it!” –Paul Allor

JIMMY’S BASTARDS #7

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Garth Ennis artist: Russ Braun color: John Kalisz letterer: Rob Steen cover: Andy Clarke & Jose Villarrubia

Fresh out of the asylum, but on extremely shaky mental ground, Jimmy marshals his forces for the final battle with Junior and the Bastards. But Nancy is already launching her own one-woman assault on the enemy fortress—with no idea of the terrible secret that awaits her…

From the creator and writer of Preacherand The Boys comes the series that HAD to be told at AfterShock Comics.

“JIMMY’S BASTARDS…is a crazy, offensive, beautiful debut to what is sure to be another Garth Ennis winner!” – Lucas Wagner of thatsnotcurrent.com

BRILLIANT TRASH #4

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Tim Seeley artist: Priscilla Petraites color: Marco Lesko letters: Marshall Dillon cover: Mike Norton & Addison Duke

Lifespan, Inc. has Kennedy Avis in its clutches, and with her the information to privatize superhumanity. But as Jim Heller counts the days left in his life, will he allow the woman he just rescued to be made into a disposable corporate asset?

A sci-fi superhuman epic from Tim Seeley, the writer of Revival and Grayson, and breakout art sensation Priscilla Petraites!

“It’s the story of the ‘word of tomorrow,’ torn directly from the headlines, about an America that might be waiting for us. It’s cautionary, but it’s also action packed and fun!“ -Tim Seeley

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COLD WAR #1

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Christopher Sebela artist: Hayden Sherman colors: Hayden Sherman letters: Hayden Sherman cover A: Hayden Sherman cover B: Juan Doe

New Series!

Panacea Cryonics offered its customers life after death by keeping their heads frozen until the day technology could rebuild them, free of disease and death. However, as these everyday people from the past are revived, they’re not handed the keys to a new life, but a gun, body armor and an ultimatum. They must fight in a war against unknown opponents for unknown reasons, to secure their place in a brave new world that doesn’t want them around.

From Christopher Sebela, writer of Blue Beetle, Kiss/Vampirella and Evolution, and Hayden Sherman, artist of The Few and John Carter The End, comes the story that HAD to be told at AfterShock!

FU JITSU #5

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Jai Nitz artist: Wesley St. Claire color: Maria Santoalalla letters: Ryane Hill cover: Wesley St. Claire

Injured to the brink of death, Fu Jitsu stands against Wadlow and his army. Can Fu cheat the unstoppable icy claw of Death and discover a new form of Kung Fu to save the day? Or will our hero sacrifice everything when he has nothing left to lose but his life? Find out in the conclusion of our first story arc!

From Jai Nitz, the award-winning writer of El Diablo, Suicide Squad Most Wanted and Dream Thief, comes this action-packed new series with art from Teen Titans Annual artist Wes St. Claire!

“FU JITSU #1 is an infectious ball of fun. Jai Nitz and Wes St. Claire’s sensibility is delightfully off-kilter.“ – Kent Falkenberg of multiversitycomics.com

BABYTEETH #8

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Donny Cates artist: Garry Brown color: Mark Englert letterer: Taylor Esposito cover: Garry Brown

“Hey, friends, Donny Cates here. So here’s the thing about this issue: if I were to write even a single true sentence about what happens in this one, it would spoil the whole thing. So instead of attempting some kind of vague “This issue changes everything!!, I’ll just say that this issue is insane. Lots of reveals, lots of uncovered truths about the family and the cult and the assassin and the raccoon monster and the mom and the OTHER mom and…yeah, see? It’s gonna get weird. Thanks, we’ll see you on the stands!”

From Donny Cates, the writer of Buzzkill, Paybacks, Redneck and the breakout hit God Country, comes a pulse-pounding new series with art from THE REVISIONIST’s Garry Brown!

“This book is going to be the most sought after title of 2017” –Rick Shea of Famous Faces & Funnies comic shop

ALTERS #10

$3.99 / 32 pages / Color

writer: Paul Jenkins artist: Leila Leiz color: Leonardo Paciarotti letterer: Ryane Hill cover: Leila Leiz

Faced with the choice of losing her own child or losing her own life, the newest Alter on the team may find her career has ended before it ever begun. The is the climactic end to the story of No Damn Name, where the emergence of the most powerful and dangerous Alter yet may change the balance of power, or even lead to the entire destruction of Earth.

From Paul Jenkins, the writer of Wolverine: Origin, Sentry and Hellblazer, with artwork by AfterShock’s very own Leila Leiz!

“The visuals are beautiful and deserve attention, while the story looks to be addressing something avoided in American society. Overall grade: A.” – Patrick Hayes of scifipulse.net

ANIMOSITY Coloring Book

$14.99 / 64 pages / B&W

Artists: Rafael de Latorre, Juan Doe, Mike Rooth, Kelsey Shannon & more Based on story concepts created by Marguerite Bennett

Over 60 pages of gorgeous black-and-white artwork from your favorite AfterShock series, ANIMOSITY! Now you too can join the adult coloring book movement by breathing colorful life into your own pages of ANIMOSITY artwork, specially printed on heavy paper stock!

ELEANOR & THE EGRET TPB vol1

$14.99 / 120 pages /color

writer: John Layman artist: Sam Kieth color: Ronda Pattinson letterer: John Layman cover: Sam Kieth

Collecting the entire series!

The most daring art thief in Paris has struck again, and the police have assigned their best detective to the case. His only clue? A single white feather left at the scene. Could this feather belong to the thief? To the thief’s accomplice, an oversized talking egret? Or will his investigation lead him to somewhere even stranger? (Answer: all of the above.)

Presenting a peculiar and unforgettable tale of birds and banditry, paintings and pets, larceny, love and…lamprey-wielding assassins? From the legendary creator of THE MAXX and co-creator of SANDMAN, Sam Kieth, and the considerably less-legendary creator of CHEW, John Layman!

“Gorgeous artwork by Sam Kieth and Ronda Pattison and a script by John Layman that subtly lays the groundwork for a magical world make ELEANOR & THE EGRET…a fascinating debut! 10 out of 10.” – Robert Reed of newsarama.com

JIMMY’S BASTARDS TPB vol1

$14.99 / 128 pages / color

writer: Garth Ennis artist: Russ Braun color: John Kalisz letterer: Rob Steen cover: Dave Johnson

Collecting the first five issues of this hit AfterShock series!

Jimmy Regent, Britain’s number one super-spy, has got it all: intrigue, adventure, a license to shoot whoever he likes and beautiful women falling at his feet. He also has a new partner who isn’t quite as impressed by Jimmy as all other women appear to be. Now, there’s a price to pay for Jimmy’s multiple romantic conquests — the results of which are about to come calling in the worst possible way…

From the creator and writer of Preacherand The Boys comes the brand-new series that HAD to be told at AfterShock Comics.

“Jimmy’s Bastards…is a crazy, offensive, beautiful debut to what is sure to be another Garth Ennis winner!“ – Lucas Wagner of thatsnotcurrent.com

February 2018 Solicitations: AfterShock You don't have to die to go to hell.... BLOOD BLISTER #4 (MR) / $3.99 / 32 pages / Color…

#11.30 #2018 #Aftershock #February #Solicitations

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radical-conceptual21-blog · 7 years

Text

The Transformative Power of Metal Music

You think you’re an expert on literally anything? Well, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself, because Mike was never beyond proving you wrong. Did you just find out about an underground band that you think nobody knows about? Well, Mike had already owned every album, EP, single, interview, and a DNA sample of every member and their mothers before their name even first entered your subconscious.

These delusions of grandeur didn’t limit themselves to music. Oh no. Movies, plays, literature, video games, even his food turned into a piece of art that needed to be criticized. He was a jerk, but he was my jerk. He invited me to what he guaranteed would be "the most brutal show you've ever been to," (referring specifically to me because he was assured he was on a higher tier of brutality than I would ever achieve) I decided to oblige. I coughed up the fifteen bucks for the night in Hell.

Have you ever seen the movies where the scraggly protagonist walks into a saloon full of biker dudes? Well, imagine that saloon, with all of it's intimidation and lack of cleanliness, and with pentagrams all over the walls. The room was no bigger than your living room. There was a bar to the right, and to the left, a merch stand for t-shirts with blood n' guts designs that cost more than the tickets did. In the far left corner, there was a stage that could barely intimidate a picnic table. Me, Mike, and three of his lackeys that we brought with us were quite the motley crew with our t-shirts and shorts.

We were the only ones that stood by the stage while everyone else, with their patched jean jackets, spiked leather vests, and builds like bulls, conversed about some pretty normal things like renovating houses and craft beer. At one point in the show, I was coerced by Mike to partake in what is called a "silent wall of death." A wall of death is where the band splits the audience down the middle and when a certain breakdown or heavy part in the song hits, everyone runs at each other and chaos ensues.

This wasn't good enough for Mike. This wasn't good enough for the technical death metal band "Origin" either. Origin does what is called a silent wall of death, where "you motherfuckers are so crazy that you don't even need music to lose your minds," so on the very silent count of three, after I had sized up the bull that was waiting for me at the other side of the wall, I felt like a bullfighter with no sword. I ran with faux aggression and whimsy only to be knocked right to the ground the minute my skin touched another body.

It was the scariest eleven seconds of my life before someone helped me up to my feet where I thought I was going to die by being trodden underfoot by a legion of cold blooded Vikings at hunt. I waddled my way back to my group. Mike exclaimed, "what did I tell you? That was sick, wasn't it?" At the time, I had the sudden urge to kick him in the teeth. However, in retrospect, this chaos must have had an impact on me.

See, while the eleven seconds on the ground was certainly scary, after this eleven seconds was over, two of the strongest arms that I ever felt heaved me up off of the ground and shoved me out of the veitable pit of chaos as if to say "you knew you weren't ready, and you did it anyway just to make your friend happy." Even though I was angry at Mike for making me do it, the aggressive act of grace that the bodybuilding stranger gave me left me feeling fickle and exposed, but at the same time, part of me must had been knocked off of me and left in the carnage of the silent wall of death. It was almost as if catharsis was working overtime and fired off on all cylinders and left my colors jumbled and warped. It took the throwing around of my body to get the Catholic raised middle class white boy that I was to breathe some uncertainty into my lungs. The pit floor was the lake and the arms that saved me were my baptism. I believe that everyone should have an experience like this. I believe that everyone should experience the transformative power of metal at least once in their lives.

Bands like Avantasia, TesseracT, Helloween, and many others are well known for their soaring choruses, uplifting lyrics, and happy melodies. Metal covers the depressive spectrum as well. Type O Negative and My Dying Bride illicit a sense of sadness in the listener, and of course, metal has no shortage of angry bands for the folks who love breaking things. If this sounds like you, then death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Aborted, or Dying Fetus should do the trick. I guarantee you that if you're willing to open your mind do a little bit of digging, you'll find something within the metal genre that you'll like one way or another.

What about the screamy stuff, the stuff that sounds like a family reunion of chainsaws? The stuff that sounds like your little sister when she's crying about losing her blankie? Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on your outlook on life, I can't use words to turn you onto music with screaming, It's simply an acquired taste. At first, I hated screaming music too, but again, it took another intervention from the metal Gods.

It was 2:54 PM on a Friday afternoon. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and mentally, I was in a different place than the school bus on the way home sitting next to Mike. As I sat on the sauna known as "bus 132", I sat watching a video that Mike promised me was "kickass." I had no say in the matter, so I obliged.

*WARNING, THIS VIDEO CONTAINS OFFENSIVE AND VULGAR LANGUAGE, SUCH AS F***, B****, AND WH***. WIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED... YOU CHEEKY BASTARDS.*

What followed this edgy intro was the most inhumane disregard for human health and lack of personal dignity I had seen in my entire life. A drunkard with a microphone shouted obscenities at a preteen audience of snotty brats. This drunkard was backed with four human mops with electric instruments.

Following this trauma, I wanted nothing to do with bands like this anymore, until the December of 2014. It was sometime during this time that a small spark was lit inside of me that Mike's video was initially unable to do. This spark will ignite anger or frustration that you didn't even know you had, and once you've felt the first spark, let me tell you, there's no going back. So listen to the madness and enjoy, because you might just become one with the madness, and boy, is it a beautiful thing once you've found it. I have the metalcore band For Today to thank for this spark. Mike had been trying to turn me onto screaming music for quite a while and had given up a while ago before I made the decision to listen to a random song from a band that was playing a music festival I wanted to go to. Not long after the music video started, and the intro guitar riff started, I knew things were going to change. The way this riff danced menacingly over the growled vocals and the pounding kick drums all in tandem, it was as if a war drum was calling me in the distance. All of this raw emotion that I never knew how to express was suddenly laid in front of me like a fiery magic carpet, and I was about to ride it through the great beyond. There was no turning back.

So, you probably have a couple questions about the journey you're about to take, right? The most prevalent may be "Who in their right mind would actually elect to partake in extreme acts of concert aggression where people have died before? How messed up do you have to be to want to do this?" Among other questions like "Do I have to become a Satanist in order to listen to metal music? Do I have to grow my beard like Dumdledore and wear jean jackets and ride motorcycles? Do I have to crush beer cans on my forehead and drink goat blood?" Thankfully, the answer to all these questions is no. While these are all things that some metalheads choose to do for their own personal reasons, the image of the hardened macho man with spiked clothing is very quickly starting to loose it's relevancy. The truth of the matter is that metalheads come from all different walks of life. True metalheads do not discriminate based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. Metal music seeks to find the sufferers of the world, the outcasts, the misfits, the degenerates, the losers, and the scum of the earth. However, the cool thing about the metal community is that metal is not exclusively for these so called degenerates, it's for happy people, sad people, angry people, and everything in between and surrounding. As long as you're not judgmental, there's no reason for anyone to make fun of you or beat you up. In reality, your choice to wear shorts and a t-shirt is only agonizing because you make it agonizing, nobody really cares except you.

Ahh, here we are. At the end. All your life now leads you to this moment. Are you ready to take the plunge? The metal lifestyle is no small feat, as I'm sure you've grasped by now. As with most other big decisions or changes you make in your life, this will strike you when you least expect it. The spark of aggression that comes when you hear guitar riffs and drum fills that resurrect past angers. The feeling of rejuvenating energy, but at the same time, overwhelming fear that hits when you stare down your burly opponent in a silent wall of death. These are things that will change your life if you let it, and it will reach in and touch parts of your heart and mind that you didn't know existed. If you're anything like Billy, then you understand the heartache, the pain, the futile feelings that come with living life the way everyone else wants you to, and that's where metal music comes in to shake up your entire existence, to the point where you'll wonder why you even lived a normal life in the first place. Just be real, carry on, and metal will always be with you. This I believe.

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radical-conceptual21-blog · 7 years

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This I Believe Draft 2

Picture for one moment, a fourteen-year-old boy wearing the same dirty t-shirt with indecipherable writing and torn jeans that he’s had since he was twelve. His mother is an alcoholic and his father is neglectful and wants his son to join military school so he doesn’t have to deal with the growing pains of parenthood. Whenever he goes to school, he’s made fun of for the “shitty” music he listens to. He’s called “freak” and “faggot”. The people he does hang out with in school are only acquaintances, and he has a digging voice in the back of his brain that tells him that his friends actually think he's a freak. They're just putting up with him because they feel bad and they need to feel like they're doing something to feel like a good Samaritan. Tell me, what reason can you realistically give to little Billy here that would make him want to carry on? What can you say to him that will convince him to do something with his time other than stare down a dark barrel, wondering when he should just load it and fire away? You can of course absolve your guilt by rehashing the old saying, “it gets better,” and that may seem to be the truth to you now that you’re a self-realized individual, but to Billy, that phrase probably makes him angrier than it makes him feel better considering how many times he’s heard it rehashed over and over again. Imagine again, Billy hears that one of his favorite underground death metal bands is coming to his town. "Krisiun, Origin, and Aeon are all playing at one venue? Hell yeah I'll go!" He quickly gathers all of the money that he’s been saving from mowing lawns and he buys the ticket. He goes to the venue the night of the concerts and suddenly, he’s surrounded with people just like him, and guess what? These people are all nice! These people have all suffered before, so they can relate to him, and him to they. He’s now found a community of misfits just like him where he can escape the clutches of society and he can be himself.

I'll never forget my first death metal show, I went with Mike “Kenshin” Muhlbauer. Don’t ask me why he called himself Kenshin. I think it was based on an Anime character, probably had something to do with honor or dignity or whatever. Mike was a never ending fountain of information and media. You think you’re an expert on literally anything? Well, you better check yourself before you wreck yourself, because Mike was never beyond proving you wrong. Did you just find out about an underground band that (you think) nobody knows about? Well, Mike had already owned every album, EP, single, interview, and a DNA sample of every member and their mothers before their name even first entered your subconscious. These delusions of grandeur didn’t limit themselves to music, oh no. Movies, plays, literature, video games, even the food he ate turned into a piece of art that needed to be criticized. He was a jerk, but he was my jerk, so when he invited me to what he guaranteed would be "the most brutal show you've ever been to," (he was referring specifically to me because he was assured he was on a higher tier of brutality than I would ever achieve) I decided to oblige and cough up the fifteen bucks for the night in Hell.

Have you ever seen the movies where the scraggly protagonist walks into a saloon full of biker dudes? Well, imagine that saloon, with all of it's intimidation and lack of cleanliness, but with pentagrams all over the walls. The room was no bigger than where you are to wherever the wall in whatever room you're in right now is furthest away from you. There was a bar to the right, a merch stand for t-shirts with blood n' guts designs that cost more than the tickets did to the left, and in the far left corner, there was a stage that could barely intimidate a picnic table. Me, Mike, and the three or so Billys that we brought with us were quite the motley crew with our t-shirts and shorts. We were the only ones that stood by the stage while everyone else, with their patched jean jackets, spiked leather vests, and builds like bulls, conversed about some pretty normal things like renovating houses and craft beer. At one point in the show, I was coerced by Mike to partake in what is called a "silent wall of death." A wall of death is where the band splits the audience down the middle and when a certain breakdown or heavy part in the song hits, everyone runs at each other and chaos ensues. But see, this wasn't good enough for Mike, and this wasn't good enough for the technical death metal band "Origin" either. Origin does what is called a silent wall of death, where "you motherfuckers are so crazy that you don't even need music to lose your minds," so on the very silent count of three, after I had sized up the triceratops that was poised directly in front of me at the other side of the wall, I ran with faux aggression and whimsy only to be knocked right to the ground the minute my skin touched the skin of the triceratops. It took the scariest eleven seconds of my life before someone helped me up to my feet where I thought I was going to die by being trodden underfoot by a legion of Vikings. I waddled my way back to my group and Mike exclaimed, "what did I tell you? That was sick, wasn't it?" At the time, I had the sudden urge to kick him in the teeth, but in retrospect, this chaos must have had an impact on me. Part of me must have been knocked off of me and left in the carnage of the silent wall of death. As perverted as the sentiment may be, I believe that everyone should have an experience like this. I believe that everyone should give metal music a fair chance at least once in their lives.

So, young padawan learner, you probably have a couple questions about the journey you're about to take, right? The most prevalent may be "Who in their right mind would actually elect to partake in extreme acts of concert aggression where people have died before? How messed up do you have to be to want to do this?" Among other questions like "Do I have to become a Satanist in order to listen to metal music? Do I have to grow my beard like Dumdledore and wear jean jackets and ride motorcycles? Do I have to crush beer cans on my forehead and drink goat blood?" Thankfully, the answer to all these questions is no. While these are all things that some metalheads choose to do for their own personal reasons, the image of the hardened macho man with spiked clothing is very quickly starting to loose it's relevancy. The truth of the matter is that metalheads come from all different walks of life. True metalheads do not discriminate based on race, gender identity, sexual orientation, etc. Metal music seeks to find the sufferers of the world, the outcasts, the misfits, the degenerates, the losers, and the scum of the earth. However, the cool thing about the metal community is that metal is not exclusively for these so called degenerates, it's for happy people, sad people, angry people, and everything in between and surrounding. As long as you're not judgmental, there's no reason for anyone to make fun of you or beat you up. In reality, your choice to wear shorts and a t-shirt is only agonizing because you make it agonizing, nobody really cares except you.

`You may also be wondering to yourself, "why would I listen to a genre of music that sounds like a cat in a blender? It just sounds like a bunch of screaming! Why would I want to listen to this?" Well, first and foremost, not all metal music, in fact, a great majority of metal music, doesn't have any "screaming" in it, and there are tons of different subgenres within the metal category. Not all metal sounds like absolute insanity like the aforementioned night from Hell. There's thrash metal (Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax), power metal (Helloween, DragonForce), doom metal, (Candlemass), among many, many others, and all of these subgenres branch off into different subgenres, and the family tree seemingly never ends. Fortunately, since metal attracts people with all different types of emotional statuses, it would only make sense that the music would also reflect this diversity. There are bands like Avantasia, TesseracT, Helloween, and many others that are well known for they're soaring choruses, uplifting lyrics, and happy melodies, all without losing the indelible grime that is attributed with metal music, At the same time, metal covers the sad spectrum as well. Bands like Type O Negative and My Dying Bride illicit a sense of sadness in the listener, and of course, metal has no shortage of angry bands for the folks who love breaking things. If this sounds like you, then death metal bands like Cannibal Corpse, Aborted, or Dying Fetus should do the trick. Chances are that if you're willing to do a little bit of digging, you'll find something within the metal genre that you'll like one way or another.

Now, enough beating around the bush; onto the screamy stuff, the stuff that sounds like a family reunion of chainsaws. The stuff that sounds like your little sister when she's crying about losing her blankie. Unfortunately, or maybe fortunately, depending on your outlook on life, I can't use words to turn you onto music with screaming, It's simply an acquired taste. Chances are, at first, screaming will be hard to get into. I hated it at first too, but over time, you'll find that a part of you is going to connect with it. It'll light a small spark off inside of you that will ignite anger or frustration that you didn't even know you had. And once you've felt the first spark, let me tell you, there's no going back. So listen to the madness and enjoy, because you might just become one with the madness, and boy, is it a beautiful thing once you've found it. I have the metalcore band For Today to thank for this spark. Mike had been trying to turn me onto screaming music for quite a while and had given up a while ago before I made the decision to listen to a random song from a band that was playing a music festival I wanted to go to. Not long after the music video started, and the intro guitar riff started, I knew things were going to change. The way this riff danced menacingly over the growled vocals and the pounding kick drums all in tandem, it was as if a war drum was calling me in the distance. All of this raw emotion that I never knew how to express was suddenly laid in front of me like a fiery magic carpet, and I was about to ride it through the great beyond. There was no turning back.

Ahh, here we are. At the end. The beginning. All your life now leads you to this moment. Are you ready to take the plunge? The metal lifestyle is no small feat, as I'm sure you've grasped by now. As with most other big decisions or changes you make in your life, this will strike you when you least expect it. The spark of aggression that comes when you hear guitar riffs and drum fills that resurrect past angers. The feeling of rejuvenating energy, but at the same time, overwhelming fear that hits when you stare down your burly opponent in a silent wall of death. These are things that will change your life if you let it, and it will reach in and touch parts of your heart and mind that you didn't know existed. If you're anything like Billy, then you understand the hearache, the pain, the futile feelings that come with living life the way everyone else wants you to, and that's where metal music comes in to shake up your entire existence, to the point where you'll wonder why you even lived a normal life in the first place. Just be real, carry on, and metal will always be with you. This I believe.

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