#blind prog was really fun!

[metalhead-brainrot]

[Album of the day] Various Artists - HDK 151 † Hell Night

Milan, ITA // 2023 // Heimat Der Katastrophe (HDK)

[Genres] dungeon synth, synth rock, prog rock, doom metal

[Themes] Hell's generals have escaped onto the material plane and you're a biker who has to track them down and drag them back, one by one

[FFO] indie RPGs, liturgical metal, Lingua Ignota

[Thoughts] This is the first album I've picked from the label HDK, an independent group of synth-loving Italians. Quoth their Bandcamp page: "DIY label focused on ambient punk, minimal-synth, dungeon-drone, wartime music and post-nuclear wave. Managed by a creative punx collective from Milano city."

As a fan of dungeon synth, I think HDK is grand. Most of their releases can be split into about three categories:

Old-school, fantasy dungeon synth (e.g. Kobold, Gnoll). Great music for classic TTRPGs. If you purchase the cassette release, you'll typically get a mini dungeon map and a scenario for any old-school RPG.

Cinematic synth music in the Italian tradition. Think Claudio Simonetti's Goblin, films like The Long Good Friday and Tenebre, bands like Zombi. Check out TEETH OF GLASS and A. RALLA.

Cold-War synth/signalwave, typically with a focus on the atomic era (i.e. sovietwave).* Conceptually interesting and a little underrated. I'd recommend RNLT and TSAR-BOMB.

Other frequent features in the HDK catalogue are proggy synth rock (e.g. POLONIUS), space rock (e.g. LOGIC GATE), and synthwave (e.g. MAX ROGUISH). HDK also has several official soundtracks to indie RPGs, most famously GNOLL's soundtrack to MÖRK BORG and CASIOTOMB's soundtrack to ALTNYC88.

Today's album is an official soundtrack to the indie RPG of the same name, Hell Night by Gavriel Quiroga (link to the DriveThru RPG page below). I haven't played the game,** but I have listened to this soundtrack about a dozen times. I love it. It's a compilation album but feels very proggy; all the tracks are from different artists and different musical styles, but they fit together really well.

Give the album a listen, try out the game, and check out HDK's other releases. I subscribed to their label on Bandcamp a while back, and I haven't regretted it.

o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::>

* These tend to remind me of the menu screen for CoD: Black Ops.

** But I would like to, it looks like a lot of fun.

o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::> o()xxxx[:::::::::::::::::>

[From the band/label]

"As these last words were spoken, an explosion of blinding white light filled the black palace, cowing even the grim death lords. The angelic messenger was gone, the message delivered, and outrage soon broke among the ranks of the defiled, cacophony of blasphemy and cursing that announced the arrival of dusk and the beginning of a... HELL NIGHT".

Here is the official soundtrack of the Role-Playing Game HELL NIGHT, by the author Gavriel Quiroga that you may have already known for NEUROCITY and WARPLAND. For now only in digital, the cassette will be available later! Info about Hell Night: * www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/hell-night-pdf * www.kickstarter.com/projects/gavrielquiroga/hell-night * www.drivethrurpg.com/product/399162/HELL-NIGHT

#album #full album #album of the day #Bandcamp #music #underground artist #underground music #compilation album #hdk #heimat der katastrophe #deionarra #j brewer #nanoverse #cam mitchell #dungeon dolls #psychedelic maze club #bog wizard #gnoll #hell night #indie ttrpg #indie rpg #dungeon synth #synth rock #doom metal #prog rock #progressive rock #osr

[mywifeleftme]

44: Fates Warning // Perfect Symmetry

Perfect Symmetry Fates Warning 1989, Metal Blade (Bandcamp)

As a teenager I almost certainly would’ve called prog metal or thrash my favourite genre of music, and I spent a lot of time listening to icily produced chops demonstrations in the vein of Fates Warning’s Perfect Symmetry (though, even as a head, I never cared much for this record in particular). I’ll pause here to play a game of Remember Some Guys.

Remember Some Guys (Prog Metal Edition)

Remember Watchtower?

Remember Anacrusis?

Remember Mekong Delta?

Remember Crimson Glory?

Remember Flotsam & Jetsam?

Remember Thought Industry?

I remember those guys! Anyway, Fates Warning at one time were considered one of the “Big Three” of ‘80s/‘90s prog metal, alongside Queensrÿche and Dream Theater, but the years have rendered them much more of a cult act (see: FW’s 26,000 Spotify listeners versus over a million each for DT and the ‘Ryche). I can think of a couple of reasons for this. Their early albums sound like straight up and down ‘80s traditional metal, if a group of guys had broken all its limbs with a set of golf clubs. The songs have huge, starry-eyed choruses, flashy solos, and some timeless riffs, but they jerk around at odd angles, thwarting the simple headbanger who just wants to gallop. As they moved through the ‘80s and ‘90s they reinvented themselves multiple times as first ur-technical Guitar Center porn (see: Perfect Symmetry), then mellow Queensrÿche-adjacent crossover hopefuls, and finally into a darker-hued sound influenced by latter-day King Crimson, Tool, and Peter Gabriel. A lot of their back catalogue is actually pretty good, but this restlessness (and leader Jim Matheos’ increasing taste for grey moods and flat melodies) soon saw them fall behind their peers in sales and influence.

Back to Perfect Symmetry. As you’ve probably gathered, I think this album sucks. Even when they were singing about giants and sorceresses, ‘80s Fates Warning never met a simple pleasure they weren’t compelled to complicate with bonkers time signature and tempo shifts. Sometimes those bait and switches and hairpin turns could be thrilling, as on the thrash-influenced numbers on No Exit, their previous album. Here though, you can practically see the band screwing up their faces (and their songs) into expressions of intense, tortured profundity. Everything fun about the band goes out the window in favour of plodding tempos, groaning pseudo-philosophy (sample: “Men of grandeur / blinding, numbing / with winsome wiles in specious styles”), and pointlessly busy playing that sounds like they arranged it using a circuit diagram. This also was not a good look for vocalist Ray Alder, who often gambles with the key when he shouldn’t.

I picked this album out of a dollar bin a few years ago out of old loyalty to the band and, given that it now fetches a decent little sum, I’m sure I’ll part with it eventually. But I’ll close with some words of praise for a band I’ve enjoyed a lot over the years: after Perfect Symmetry, Fates got this particular bug out of their system, and they never really returned to this style. Matheos in particular had a cool renaissance in the 2000s, and I’m very fond of his collaborations with Chroma Key’s Kevin Moore as OSI and his initial reunion with original Fates vocalist John Arch in 2003. Eh, in a 40-year career, they won’t all be winners right?

44/365

#fates warning #prog metal #'80s metal #metal blade records #remember some guys #vinyl record #music review #'80s music

[archangelofsacrifice]

Mostly a rambling vent post, FFXIV and the nature of mmos

So, I play a lot of FFXIV, and I'm far from like a god tier good player, but I AM a notably good player to some extent. I do savage content and have a mild interest in parsing and pushing myself to be better constantly. I can remember the flow of a fight, I can react fairly quickly to stuff I forget/am new to, and I'm usually pretty intuitive with figuring out mechanics.

I have a ton of fun in the high end raiding scene, but there's just this one little thing about it that really depresses me and just randomly hits me with being sad now and then.

I really enjoy blind prog for stuff... Just, a group of players sitting down and figuring out the fight together, no looking stuff up, no video guides, none of that shit... And there are other players that enjoy that. This isn't some woe is me, why does NO one play the game the way I like it to be played. I understand there are other blind prog enjoyers

But my friends aren't those people. The people I've grown attached to and enjoy playing the game with just, aren't that. So it's whatever, I still have tons of fun doing raids with them and I'm really excited for the last set of savage fights for EW and to do the fights with them.

I've basically given up on trying to do blind savage, I can't get enough of my current friends to do it, and meeting a new set of people that I click with and would enjoy that with... Would just be so exhausting...

But hey, below savage there's ex fights. They're in a mixed spot of, hard content for casual players, and anywhere from easy to hard for savage raiders.

A new ex fight dropped the other day and just... Day 1, nothing in party finder but groups saying stuff like "x guide" "watch this guide to join" "x strats" just... Really no groups just going blind....

I and my one friend that does enjoy blind content as well went to make a blind party since it's day 1 of the fight being out... We get an entire premade party that was just missing our roles to join us and fill the party instantly... We start the fight and... Despite it being blind... They instantly put up waymarkers for setting up stuff to help resolve mechanics... "We're blind too but we did one lockout and got to 60%" cool... Whatever... Between the move telegraphs and the waymarkers, most of the stuff is just kinda easy for me to put together at that point, and like, there's no sense of us working together to figure stuff out... 6 people just joined and instantly resolved all the earlier mechanics of the fight for us... They explain stuff as we wipe, they just, leave no room for us to figure it out..

And yeah we could have left but, it's not that serious, I didn't care THAT much about doing it blind, but I would have liked to ya know? I would have enjoyed the chance... But no, probably like 90% of the players don't care about blind and just want to clear the fights asap.

High end MMO fights have such cool puzzle like elements woven into the fights that would be amazing to tackle with your friends and try out different ways to resolve them... But if even one player just starts getting frustrated and annoyed... It's like the storm of pestilence infects people bit by bit... Someone lagging behind on understanding what to do becomes a point of arguing... People get mad and frustrated... It just turns into a mess... I hate it. It fills me with such sadness... I can't be in sync with my friends like I want to be... I can't find an entire group that's all on the same page... I know that's selfish of me to want, I know it's unreasonable and not likely to happen... I already know that but it still makes me sad you know?

#vent #ffxiv #mmorpg #personal #rambling #my sin of sloth weighs heavy on my soul

[everdreamtree]

So about mods...

With what happened with recent events, I'd like to just remind folks not to start blind witch hunts that can potentially harm the innocent.

Tldr if someone's use of mods are:

Used maliciously against others and/or are a form of cheating in content that really matters, report them!

Used only in personal ways, where it does not impact other players unless they consent to it,or hell they may even NEED it, do not report them!!

Yes, the general rule is no mods allowed at all, but there's several reasons they haven't pushed punishment towards mods. What I'm focusing on here is the fact that not all mods are bad and meant for cheating or for bullying others.

Modding looks? Bro that's cool I love custom clothes, hair, articulate posing, etc. This is a PERSONAL preference. If someone else doesn't like these mods, then that's totally fine! Neither are right or wrong.

It's only shitty when this is used as a weapon against others such as forcing others to be nude and taking piccies. This is no longer a personal thing and should be reported. But don't report that side role player taking pics of themselves and their friends with mods. They'er minding their own business and doing no harm.

I already mentioned about parsing before. My stance is the same. It's a very cool helpful tool imo until the moment it is used maliciously against others. I have fun trying to better my own dps and abilities through them for instance.

There are also ease of access mods meant for anyone that needs them in any way. I'd love to see more of these mods tbh. Like I can see act having potential use for those with severe add. I know people who would love to do harder content, not like fucking progging world's first shit, but just being a part of a static of friends doing current stuff, but they aren't able to do something like follow and watch for enemy skill casts due to things like their specific add.

So please. Again. Look before you report. Is the person you're reporting actually cheating and being malicious about it, or are they using it only at a personal level or maybe even actually need the mod. It's very hard to draw a line on what mods are 'good' and 'bad' to use as it entirely depends on how they'er used.

#ffxiv #ff14 #final fantasy xiv #final fantasy 14 #mods #please stay safe and kind to one another 💜

[lovejustforaday]

2023 Year End List - #9

Paper Cut From The Obit - Celestaphone

Main Genres: Jazz Rap, Experimental Rap, Abstract Rap

A decent sampling of: Jazz-Funk, Psychedelic Soul, Conscious Rap, Jazz-Rock, Disco Rap, Progressive Rock

Counting down the list with yet another weird ass hip hop album, and there's still two more to go after this one, so strap in.

Celestaphone is the project of American rapper/producer Joseph Murphy. The guy raps in the way I might imagine the Joker (no, not that one, the OG one) would sound if he was whacked out on some really hefty stimulants and also an IT tech guy who plays D&D.

The dude's self-portrayal is so goofy and non-threatening that it makes some of the frankly insane abstract rap ramblings go down a lot smoother. Actually, I'm kind of obsessed with his persona - I would play the hell out of a video game staring this character.

According to his Spotify bio (Look, the guy hasn't done a whole lot of interviews), Joseph grew up around total music nerds, listening to Madvillain, Frank Zappa (checks out), and Kate Bush from an early age. And there is certainly a lot of evidence of a musically colourful mind on this latest project of his.

As far as I'm concerned, Paper Cut From The Obit is probably just the unhinged setlist of an in-house live jazz band meant to be playing for the rejected late night show that got cancelled for blatant sacrilege, put to record. Sound-wise, I think Celestaphone might've just invented "prog rap" on this thing, what with the virtuosic, ambitious jazz-funk production and clear prog rock influence, combined with sudden changes in rhythm that keeps me on the edge of my seat (if I'm not already up shaking my ass to the funk rhythms).

Also, just a silly little tip I discovered the other night - playing this while rolling around in Liberty City, speeding down the wrong side of the street is a whole aesthetic moment and the closest I've felt to being invincible in a while.

The jerky organized piano jazz rap chaos of "Jettatura" is disorienting. Feels like banging my head and seeing stars in a seedy jazz club in a city I'm completely unfamiliar with. Completely twisted magic.

"Small World" is a lyrical masterclass, plain and simple - maybe my favourite bars of the year. Musically, I'm getting vivid images of bouncy animated skyscrapers and blinding camera flashes and bright ass flood lights. "Imagine you looked at a tree just the way you look at your penis" is the most hilarious lyric of 2023.

"Tops Turvy" is a mix of classic funky clavinet and a plush, organic jazz beat that feels hella comfy. Floating up on the top cloud in a technical dreamy funk heaven, while giggling with the devil himself as Celestaphone pokes fun at the promises and overzealous claims of organized religion.

The instrumental "Chitauri Chip" is a glittering and mythical jazz-rock, dancing the flickers of an old and sacred flame. Has some desert-wandering merchant energy in the general vastness and mystery of its central riff, plus those golden brown acoustic guitar chimes shimmering like treasure in the sun's massive rays.

Also, would ya look at that? Surprise Armand Hammer feature on the more chilled-out "Tithes", along with underground avant-garde rapper sensation Moor Mother. Funny, I wonder if one of them Armand Hammer dudes is gonna appear one more time on a different entry in this list (hint hint). Incidentally, another one of the best moments on this highly leftfield record.

"Babies" is simultaneously one of the strangest choices for an album closer I've ever heard and exactly how an artist like Celestaphone would choose to end a record. It's, well, it's an ode to babies. There's elements of satire but also he's making a pretty good case for baby supremacy. That twangy guitar solo throughout the whole thing just accents how utterly crazy this guy is. I wouldn't have had it ending in any other way. A comical stroke of genius.

There is one or two tracks I would omit in the mid section, and the sequencing could've been spread out more seeing as how nearly every major highlight is on either end of this 16 track powerhouse. But still, enough of this is balls-to-the-wall crazy and infectious that I don't mind that it's got a longer run tracklisting-wise, and at only 43 minutes total runtime, no song every overstays it's welcome.

Yeah, honestly I'm mostly totally impressed by this record. Between all of the ambition displayed here and the major underground names he's collaborating with, it's really not a matter of if but when this guy blows up.

Paper Cut From The Obit is one of the most creative records I listened to in 2023, and nearly every second of it is teeming with mad scientist energy thanks to Joseph's immense presence as an MC and his immaculate taste in sexy fucking retro jazz beats. I'll have whatever this guys having, thank you very much - dude's got it all figured out.

9/10

Highlights: "Small World", "Tops Turvy", "Chitauri Chip", "Tithes", "They All Con It", "Jettatura", "Babies", "Erfurt Latrine", "Paintings of Panspermia"

#album review #music review #list #aoty #year end list #jazz rap #rap #hip hop #experimental hip hop #abstract rap #celestaphone #paper cut from the obit #2023 #aoty2023

[voidendron]

4,6,16,17,18

thank you! 💚💜

4. What is your favorite player combat ability?

answered here so I'll answer for one of my tank classes this time

that being: grapple! I love my tank pull abilities and it's Amazing that you can spec into a friendly grapple now it's so stupid and great for trolling ajksl;dskl

6. Do you primarily play Republic, Empire, or a mix of both sides? Is there a specific reason for this preference?

I mostly play Empire! It's mostly just cause all three of my prog teams are Imperial, and that's mostly where my guildies main, so that's what side I'm on most often but I'd love to play my Republic toons more.

16. Do you have a favorite Flashpoint or operation? A least favorite?

Favorite flashpoint: Nathema, specifically master mode. I only run it with friends because of the mechanics on GEMINI 16 and Vin make it hard to run with random people/without voice chat, but I really love running it when I do get the chance.

Favorite operation: Terror from Beyond. Dread Guards, Op 9, and Terror are SUCH fun fights, and Terror is my favorite boss in the entire game. She's just such a unique fight I still remember my first time ever fighting her and being amazed when we were transported up top.

Least favorite flashpoint: Kuat. I hate Kuat and as soon as I 100% it and the rep I'm never touching it again. It's just tedious.

Least favorite operation: Nature of Progress. The first time I ever did Dxun with my buddies we were in there for five hours because we thought it would be a Great idea to go in blind and have no idea how to do any of the bosses. If Tech hadn't been there that night we Never would have cleared it she was So patient. And I haven't had many good experiences in it since, it's always a Struggle Bus and I hate it no matter what mode I'm in, and I hate being stuck in tank jail on Apex cause I can't play any cleansing DPS classes. R4 comes in close second. The story mode should not be that difficult jfc.

17. If you participate in warzones, which is your favorite map?

I don't care for PvP, but on the occasions that I do (normally when Gham drags me in for Seasons stuff) I prefer Voidstar and the Yavin Temple Grounds. If we get Huttball I can and Will moan and groan how much I hate it for the whole match.

18. Which achievement(s) are you most proud of?

answered here and here!

#swtor #answered ask #swtor player asks #winglssdemon

[transmiqote]

:D

#deltascape v4 savage is Spicy with 4 people ajshdsj #but we all got our mounts!!! i'm so happy!!! #blind prog was really fun! #& honestly alexander savage is so easy unsynced at this point. like i'm surprised more people don't have the mounts #we did it w 4 dps & it was quick n simple #& i got to finish my anima relic :-) #regardless! i'm very happy w these clears! fun content ^-^ #that being said my brain hurty thinking about doing sigmascape & alphascape savage!!! #but it will be done >:3

[rhaaclaws]

What is your opinion on Khada Jhin League of Legends bestie

JHIN MY WORSTIE JHIN

favorite thing about them

Absolutely lovelove love his character design it's honestly perfect. Everything ties into the number 4 and especially the opera mask is gorgeous to me. I like how you can see him and just get the character yaknow? A very theatrical appearance and you can just tell something is Wrong. Another fav thing abt him is that the corpses actually do look like that. Like how horrifying would it be to see someone's chest cavity open up while sprouting a bleeding golden flower?

least favorite thing about them

Honestly the face reveal. I feel like not knowing what he looks like is one of the most important parts of his character because his deal is that he can never be found out. Like I think face reveals can be done in very tasteful ways [like Diavolo] but having his entire face leaked because someone forgot to put a censor bar really sucks. Even the version from the comic book where just the eyes were censored it's like we're not meant to see it.

favorite line

I have multiple but:

"Behind every mask... is another mask." [its so goofy] "I am the singer without a voice. The dancer without legs." "I live for the applause, you will die for it." [did you know this references Lady Gaga's 'Applause'? of course he's a gaga fan] "The stars are my eyes, and one by one, I must blind them." [Beautiful] "Oceans of formless time open before me and they whisper, Jhin, we are your true face."

brOTP

I need him in prison but the fact that he's a fan of Sona is really funny imo

OTP

I feel like Jhin is a character that is better off without shipping for. Many reasons but the idea of him having something going on with Zed is very good [only in very specific ways that's like. You two are awful for each other keep at it] . I also think him and Pyke would be good but in enemies to lovers but they're still enemies like 'i wont hesitate to kill you but I think it'd be better if we killed people together' way. My old friend actually has a playlist for it and it bangs https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0hCuFrSlCpVGYu2oN1sAx4?si=5a6c0938b5fa4ec3

My friend has a jhin/draven thing going on and honestly its really funny so it gets a pass

nOTP

tbh anyone for the same reason that he's a character who's better off and more interesting without shipping. I specifically really hate him and Nami though I legit have no idea where it came a thing but I keep seeing it pop up and its so ???????????? tf yall on about. I also really don't like him and kayn

random headcanon

I like to keep the mystery so I don't really have a headcanon for him but! I think it'd be fun if he listened to prog rock. Also, he'd have a fucking field day with Mista

unpopular opinion

I really dislike it when people draw him without a mask. Put that shit back on. x100 if they make him into an attractive anime man who looks 20. He literally looks like some guy and he's about to be 40 I promise you he doesn't look like that

song I associate with them

King Crimson - Starless [You just have to listen to it to get it I can't explain it] Depeche Mode - Sweetest Perfection [That mystical vibe from this + the obsession with the perfection] Vessel - Red Sex [The theatrics of this song is just. Augjghhjh it fits Jhin so perfectly, especially since it has no lyrics] Orville Peck - Hope to Die [Specifically High Noon Jhin but. Slay] Talking Heads - Psycho Killer [Specifically from that quote where he says "I get nervous before every performance, but I need that feeling."] Mother Mother - Born In A Flash [Ok listen yeah yeah I knowww it's mother mother but like, it reminds me of how he has 'no past' until he started killing people and becoming known as 'The Golden Demon'. It's like this identity was born in a flash]

favorite picture of them

The dark cosmic splash art has to be one of my favorites of all time. Everything about it is just. So perfect and beautiful.

#Welp. this is long but can you really blame me when jhin is That Bitch? #He's one of my favorite characters of all time and it shows #rhaa talks #ask #ask game #fav

[ribcager]

I took your wizard quiz months ago and listened to Blind Guardian because of it and loved it! Do you have recommendations for similar bands, especially others that use choral elements? Thanks!

Tbh no one really does Blind Guardian like Blind Guardian does Blind Guardian – they’re the genre definer & ruiner, I think. If they're your first power metal band then most others might seem a bit lacking in comparison, so be prepared for that.

THAT SAID. Some bands that might fit the bill:

Judicator – The best guardian impersonators currently out there imo, and an excellent band in their own right. (Singer from BG also featured on one of their songs so there’s that)

Therion - Less like BG, but choirs & drama out the wazoo. (he’s featured on a song of theirs too)

Avantasia - (Hello again. Everything I list after this, though, is a Hansiless wasteland. -10/10)

Orion’s Reign - Lots of choir, fun as hell, one of my favourite albums ever. These guys caught lightning in a bottle with this album and then never did anything interesting again.

Wuthering Heights - More into prog folk territory. A bit messy sometimes due to how experimental they can get but also incredibly innovative, at least within their genre constraints.

Angra - More into speed territory.

Tanagra - Slower & bit proggier.

Rhapsody/Rhapsody of Fire - Choirs.

Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody - There’s a ton more rhapsodies if you feel like looking but for now these three should do

Savage Circus - ‘nother BG clone. The vocalist sounds so similar to guardians' at times that it’s actually eerie to realise that it’s not him.

If all of the above fails:

Ayreon - Fun collaborative project. (Hansi is there. And here.)

Orden Ogan

Operus

Fierce Deity - more on the heavy/classic side.

Manticora - Don’t let the horror gimmick put you off, these guys are really solid. I may or may not be including them just ‘cause I wanna tune more ppl in

Domine

Gamma Ray - (4got to mention but hansi is in here too. The question should be what band HASN’T he been in)

Twilight Force - If you can stomach them. jk, I like 'em, but they can be a bit. much.

Witherfall - Darker & Edgier

Forgotten Tales - really underrated, excellent vocals.

Haggard - As far from blind guardian as you can get but chock full of choirs. Just to give you some options.

If all else fails, powerwolf.

#it's 4 am so I might be forgetting someone but #enjoy! #text

[wyrmmaster]

I really like my first TEA clear a lot

It came at the very end of a raid night and we were getting really frustrated because someone was kind of millstoning us and there was a bit of a tilt spiral going on

The pull before this one Yuu got sunblock in her eye and we just wrote the whole thing off and goofed around the whole time then managed to make it to Wormhole Formation despite that

Somehow in the 4 nights of prog before this one we hadn't gone with the Wyrmhole joke, we wiped laughing, which lead to the miracle of this pull

If Yuu puts sunblock in her other eye, she'll get Stardiver

That's why Dragoons suck at mechanics, they're all blinded by sunblock

Blab starts an ass-eating joke with me in the first minute, this continues over the rest of the pull

Glick's Fun Fact Hour about Worms in Holes

"I'm just saying..." "Yeah well I'm just super saying you tryna flex dog?"

Blab and I get paired together for Limit Cut, the start of a trend

Real Link in Blab's chat saying dumb shit

Melee uptime shenanigans

Blab and I paired together for Nisi

"Not just anyone gets to eat my ass, Galen." "Good to know." "Is it?"

Blab, Galen and I in the Stasis stack

"I brought my spoon." (You can see my camera start twitching here because I'm fucking losing it)

"I don't know what that means!" "You know, because he eatin that ass wid a spoon." "Put two and two together!" "Yeah, come on!"

"*deep sigh* This is gonna be the pull."

Blab and I get paired for circles in Inception.

Link makes a lame "half-assed" pun

Blab gets paired with me and Glick for the last part of Inception

"The boys!" "GO AWAY!" "JACOB COME BACK!" (I was worried we were gonna wipe here, everyone was cracking up)

Wormhole happens, Galen is a professional at screwing up mechanics successfully

Everyone silent because Serious Mode

I notice Blab and I were paired for Chaser dash, he then gets put with the tanks for enumeration

"He's hugging us." "That's pretty wholesome." "I like your use of the word 'hole' in wholesome"

Holding DPS for red mage mana, gets bullied by procs

"... and I'm shutting up for Glick now." Jokes stop.

Serious Raider Mode for Perfect Alexander, terse callouts

"Of course that the was clear pull. OF COURSE IT WAS."

#i need to stress that this is the most difficult encounter in the game by a significant margin #and we did it mostly because we were goofing off and breaking the tension the whole time #wyrmxiv

[orbonnesavage]

did some blind p1s prog today with my FC, and it was really fun. i've never done a savage fight before, but it feels good to slowly work things out with your party. coming down hard from the good mood i was in when we called it for the night, though.

#/say #😔

[rollingthundermusic]

Some Albums I Like (1966-2000)

In my years on this Earth, I’ve had the pleasure of listening to a lot of music. It’s my belief that all music is redeemable to some extent. To the average listener, whatever gets their toe tapping or their head banging is good enough. But some music is truly horrendous. I mean an especially sick brand of diarrhea. This list is not dedicated to those crappy songs. This list is to give you an idea of the songs that get my toes tapping and my head gently bobbing (I’m not about to catch any neck problems). Because I can be pretty type A sometimes, this list is in chronological order of release. This is also not a definitive list of the music I like. That list would be an unreasonable length. This is just a small smattering, a peek at my biases, and a little blurb to sum up my thoughts. This will also help me keep track of my own biases, and I’ll update these lists as more music permeates my ears.

1966, Blonde on Blonde by Bob Dylan: You want blues? Bam! You want folk? Wah-Bam! You want rock? Boom! A musical three-way for the history books.

1966, Black Monk Time by The Monks: What do you get when you give 5 American GI’s stationed in West Germany band equipment? A proto-punk classic that really convinces you that LSD hit differently in the 60’s.

1969, Back in the USA by MC5: At the cost of sounding like Dave Marsh, this album fucking rocks.

1969, Loaded by The Velvet Underground: Lou Reed would leave the band over some pettiness in the production of this record, but besides that drama it was an amazing record. And considering Reed would go on to make atrocities like Metal Machine Music, it’s best that this album be the band’s swan song.

1970, After the Gold Rush by Neil Young: Young’s folk rock masterwork. Thoughtful, beautiful, and oh so graceful.

1971, Let’s Stay Together by Al Green: A basic choice, no doubt, but I’d like to believe that love is something fun, and Green lets me revel in that fantasy. 

1974, Apostrophe(‘) by Frank Zappa: Again, pretty basic, but the lyrical and instrumental content is anything but.

1975, Blood On The Tracks by Bob Dylan: Emotionally violent and full of resentment, Dylan teaches us how to truly hate ourselves.

1975, Born to Run By Bruce Springsteen: We’re all losers, but us losers have the biggest dreams, and Springsteen is the loudest loser of us all. 

1975, The Who By Numbers by The Who: Townshend, Daltry, Enwistle, and Moon (but mainly Townshend) present: Getting Old Sucks But We’re Fucking Rockstars So Fuck You! A Musical.

1975, Zuma by Neil Young and Crazy Horse: A pointed and strong record; Young is relentless and alive on this LP.

1976, Trans-Europe Express by Kraftwerk: Humans will soon be boinking robots and cyborgs on a mass scale, and this album will suddenly become very relevant again. 

1977, News of the World by Queen: Why make prog rock when you can make bombastic, anthemic albums like this one? 

1978, Darkness on the Edge of Town by Bruce Springsteen: Raw, focused, mature, and powerful. Our dreams are dead, but we’re still kicking.

1980, Bebe Le Strange by Heart: Men suck.

1980, Empty Glass by Pete Townshend: The one thing about love that Townshend leaves out in this album is that love is blind, which may explain why I like this album so much.

1983, Rescue by Clarence Clemons and the Red Bank Rockers: Came for the Big Man’s saxophone, stayed for Bowen’s sexy voice. 

1984, Suddenly by Billy Ocean: Soul music has always had a home in the American South, but the English, in their imperialistic ways, really wanted to get in on that action. This is the only time that imperialism actually contributed something good to the world. 

1989, Bleach by Nirvana: Kurt Cobain is screaming at you, but he’s really screaming at himself. It’s chilling to hear the words on this album when you know how his story will end.

1991, I Wish My Brother George Was Here by Del tha Funkee Homosapien: Del’s voice is the butter on this Culver’s Burger of an album. 

1993, In Utero by Nirvana: Soul crushingly hopeless and angry, an inside look at the mind of a man who already decided he was gone. It’s painful.

1994, Illmatic by Nas: Never will we see a record utterly destroy the competition like this one. A watershed moment for rap, one that we still feel the effects of today. 

1996 Iron Man by Ghostface Killah: Wu-Tang either prepared him for a solo career, or it was holding him back. This album proves it was the latter. 

1998, The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused: Name any underground/hardcore punk song that came out in the 2000’s and 2010’s, and I’ll tell you how this album influenced it. I think they knew what they were doing when they named this record.

2000, Deltron 3030 by Deltron 3030: Del tha Funkee Homosapien teamed up with Dan the Automator and DJ Kid Koala to make a hip hopera that’ll still be good in the year 3030.  

I’ll have a list of 2000’s/2010’s albums coming soon, because this one’s getting a bit too long. Until the next time.

#music #music review #bob dylan #bruce springsteen #deltron 3030 #refused #nirvana #kurt cobain #nas #neil young #clarence clemons #lou reed #the velvet underground #queen #billy ocean #ghostface killah #wu-tang clan #mc5 #the monks #the who #heart #pete townshend

[bunjywunjy]

BELLIGERENT BUTT BLASTERS

image that you’re puttering around in the undergrowth of a temperate forest looking for mushrooms when you see a brightly-colored beetle out of the corner of your eye. it’s not a mushroom, but you reach out curiously anyway.

MISTAKE.

a “pop” like someone stabbing a can of beer with a letter opener rings through the forest, and suddenly your hand is covered with boiling corrosive liquid! roll 2d6 for burn damage and start over.

congrats, you’ve just made the blistering acquaintance of a brutally belligerent beast- it’s the

and this episode of Weird Biology was brought to you by the letter “B”.

Bombardier Beetles are a type of ground beetle with an 8th-grade spelling bee of a name. they come in a striking array of brown and amber shades, but what’s REALLY striking about them is their signature defense move.

you’ve probably heard of the Bombardier Beetle before, and with good reason! these singular insects have one of the most effective, awesome, and outrageously violent defenses on the planet! and it’s centered around exploding butts. I swear I am not making this up.

if animals had ratings, these guys would be “R” for Excessive Butt Violence 

now when I say “exploding butts”, what I actually mean is “they shoot a spray of boiling noxious liquid in a wide arc, injuring or outright killing an attacker. from their butts.” there’s a bit of nuance, there. and while there might not be an actual explosion involved, you have to agree that that’s weird as shit. 

but how does a mere insect manage to pull off what’s basically a real-life Pokemon move? well, to explain that, we need to get a little more scientific. brace yourselves, it’s time to learn everything your high school teachers never wanted you to learn about butt chemistry!

high school never taught us the important things we really needed in life, especially if it involved butts.

to start with, Bombardier Beetles are structural marvels with guts set up like an organic version of a rocket engine. no, seriously. they have two chambers deep inside their bodies with a valve connecting them both to a special reaction chamber in their teeny beetle butts. (teeny beetle butts would be a pretty good name for a prog rock group.)

one of these chambers contains hydroquinone, a noxious disgusting compound that many other beetle species use to make themselves taste gross and inedible. (like carrying around a “do not eat me!” sign all day.) but Bombardier Beetles use this chemical for a more creative purpose, because their other chamber contains hydrogen peroxide. which does NOT get along with hydroquinone, and demonstrates this fact with ULTIMATE VIOLENCE.

EXTREMELY DO NOT EAT ME.

when these two chemicals are combined, it results in a violent chemical reaction that creates a) a metric fuckton of heat very quickly, and b) a mildly toxic liquid called benzoquinone. and when something impolite gets all up in the Bombardier Beetle’s face, they open the internal valve to combine the chamber contents and now it’s go time motherfucker. 

this reaction creates so much heat that it instantly boils the resulting compound. this boiling liquid builds up pressure like the inside of an Instapot, at which point the Bombardier Beetle opens its butt valve and sends a pressurized jet of boiling toxic liquid directly into an attacker’s face with a POP like someone opening the world’s most painful can of soda. and it all happens in just a few milliseconds.

a few milliseconds is a very short time in which to lose your eyebrows.

unsurprisingly, this move is super-effective on every single enemy Mother Nature can field against the Bombardier Beetle. this superhot jet can kill smaller predators on contact and blind or inconvenience larger ones badly enough to scare them off. (this category includes you, by the way. DO NOT TOUCH.)

this elaborate defense is so incredibly unstoppable that the Bombardier Beetle is damn near ubiquitous. there are over 500 different species of them, found on every continent except Antarctica. you may have even seen one today and not realized it!

there are 40 species in the US alone! WATCH OUT.

for all their incredible butt-rocket fury, Bombardier Beetles look... pretty unremarkable. none of them reach even an inch in length, and they tend to inhabit forested and scrubby areas. if you didn’t know exactly what you were looking at, you’d think it was just another itty bitty forest beetle scuttling its unobtrusive way through life. but that just goes to show that Unyielding Butt Destruction can come in very small packages.

but because they are so eeny teeny weeny, Bombardier Beetles really don’t pose much of a threat to humans unless you’re actively harassing one. in which case, cut that out! don’t be an asshole, c’mon. watch where you step though, because the only predator Bombardier Beetles can’t win against is a thick-soled boot. 

just don’t hold one directly up to your face.

but being inconspicuous can be a very good thing! because humans rarely interact with Bombardier Beetles, their populations seem to be pretty stable. they’ve lost some habitat, but they’re adaptable enough to make up for it.

 Bombardier Beetles will live anywhere that’s damp enough for their eggs to stay moist and babyful, and they have no problems decimating populations of smaller snack-sized insects while warding off any creatures foolish enough to try to munch on THEM. and it’s all thanks to a butt-blasting deathsplosion unequaled in nature.  let’s hope these eeny weeny meanies stick around for a long, long time.

Bombardier Beetle, you’re cool enough that I don’t mind typing your terrible name one last time!

–

thanks for reading! you can find the rest of the Weird Biology series on my tumblr here, or check out the official archive at weirdbiology.com!

if you enjoy my work, maybe buy me a coffee and support Weird Biology!

and if you’d like to see exclusive Weird Biology content, check out my Patreon today!

–

IMAGE SOURCES

img1- UPI.com img2- arabiaweather.com img3- Wikipedia img4- Fun Animals Wiki img5- NewsWeek img6- OneKindPlanet img7- rt-bi.nl img8- Discover Magazine

#bug #insect #beetle #explosion #biology with bunjy

[minecraftoworymode]

local admin discovers this CRAZY life hack, other admins HATE him! click to find out more -->

no but seriously what the hell kind of drama is bad enough that you kill one of your best friends and torture the other for an unspecified but presumably quite lengthy amount of time? did fred start kinning one of romeo’s ‘no doubles’ IDs? did they accuse romeo of being a homestuck and, having no way to deny the truth, he killed them in a blind panic? they didn’t play romeo’s nine-hour oblivion mod and he took this as a supreme betrayal? romeo wouldn’t get off the xbox when it was xara’s turn? what led to them fighting “for control of the world”?

i mean, given how much romeo wants friends you’d think that for him to consciously yeet the only ones he had there’d have to be a really good reason for it, right? right??

[well, at least it’s free real estate. everything in this post is headcanon territory, so to save both of us the trouble of having to read “i think” or “probably” or “evidence suggests” every two sentences i’ll be speaking as if this actually happened. but if anyone else has an idea of what the heck happened, i’d love to hear others’ takes!!!]

big Fs in the chat tonight, pals. for all that he wants people to like him, romeo is really, really, REALLY bad at going about it like a normal person. (ESPECIALLY in canon. like. frankly it’s almost to the point of seeming intentional because NO ONE can be that dense about being such an absolute and utter scoundrel. who does things that actively malicious without being aware of how hurtful it is? even capitalists generally know they’re being bastards. canon, man. i dont know.)

but- he wasn’t always quite that bad at it. it’s just that once you’ve tripped and spilled paint all over your canvas, and also you have god powers that give you infinite copies of other peoples’ paintings, it’s a lot easier to plug your ears chuck the canvas in the trash and go LA LA LA, MUST’VE BEEN THE PAINT’S FAULT instead of admitting you made a mistake, cleaning up the mess you made, and trying again.

the admins’ friendship was the canvas. here is the paint.

romeo really wants people to be his friends, and he couldn’t have had better ones than fred and xara. and honestly? he was perfectly fine with leaving behind everything and everyone else he’d ever known- all he needed were the other admins, no one and nothing else. dependency whoms’t? but for fred and xara, whose stances on relationships were , just a bit healthier than that- as much as they loved romeo- they missed the people they’d left behind.

romeo had invited them here- first xara, then fred- and while he’d of course agreed to let them go back whenever they asked they’ve- like, the idea hasn’t really seriously come up in... it’s been a very long while. i’m still working on the exact timeline here but it’s been- he’d almost completely forgotten about it, actually. they, on the other hand... hadn’t. 

it’s like a freaking 2x combo double whopper whammy of being abandoned and also not being “enough” that hits romeo right in the heart nuts. but hey! necessity (or what he thought necessity) is the mother of invention, and for all that he thinks himself stupid he figured out a solution- more than a solution, even! he could do them one better than bringing them the people they missed. he would bring them the people they wanted.

the custom npcs mod allows you to create, well, npcs. it allows you to set their schedules, dialogue, stats, appearance, etc. and you do most of it by right-clicking with a hoe which i find hilarious but ANYWAY romeo came up with something similar. at first, his constructs were... not very convincing, but a little help from a bright-eyed friend made them almost indistinguishable from real people. (herobrine is another post, but for the record this isn’t even the biggest crap he’s pulled.)

he was so excited, presenting his gift to fred and xara. look, i was thinking- you said you missed that one roommate, right, even though they always left the door open and didn’t put food away? ta-dah! look at that, closing the door like a gentleman! and you were missing your counsellor, right? well, miss no more! they’re programmed to always be there for you- you never have to worry about scheduling or other patients, here’s someone who will always care! and that’s not all- if you’ve been having trouble with any of your moderators- or even the normal humans, those are fun too sometimes- this lets you change their mind! literally! no more arguing about what colour to make the new concrete blocks, no more fighting over who gets the first seat in the rollercoaster, you’ll never have to deal with any of that ever again-! ... hey, why aren’t you- why do you- why are you looking at me like that? xara? ... fred?

yeah, it... doesnt go over too well. the tool ends up broken, and romeo promises to not use it again- though only because it upset fred and xara, not because he really saw anything wrong with it. and he keeps that promise for a time. of course the paint can is already leaking, but romeo doesn’t see that yet. none of them really see what’s coming, not fully. how could they? no one wants to think the worst of the ones they love.

but they’re all understandably... tense, and romeo always tended to look to people to vent his emotions, and- the person who would come to be the warden  has a huge fight with romeo, right in front of fred and xara’s salad. like. it’s really bad. they’re both on the verge of tears and the warden SLAMS the door as he leaves, which does make romeo cry. and the other two are like... hey... do you want anything... some cake...? prog rock...? we can cuddle...? n romeo’s usually already invited himself to one or more of those things by now but instead of throwing himself into their arms and wailing he’s just, standing there silently, tears streaming down his face, looking of all things pensive. and next in the series of many shocking things to come, he does something he’s never done before: he brightens and says, “i’m going to fix this,” before resolutely walking out the door.

fred and xara are like. oh my god. is- is he actually going to talk out his feelings and problems? is this- is healthy open communication here? did we do it? have we reached the mental wellness? is it finally happening? n romeo comes back a few hours later with his arm around the warden’s shoulders and they're both smiling and laughing and it sounds like everything's worked out just fine. in fact, after that, a bunch of people who’d had beef with romeo in the past seem to work things out with him, all parties seeming genuinely happier for it. romeo’s made a real change! fred and xara have never been more proud, more relieved, or more wrong.

he can’t lie to his friends. he can lie to everyone else, up to and including himself, but not to the ones he loves. it’s just... they’d been so happy, and he’d never seen anyone that proud of him, and, and...

that doesn’t go over too well either. and he should really make the tool out of something other than like, wood, so it stops getting broken so easily? he certainly has time to do so- the silence that follows is the longest the admins have ever gone without talking to one another. in retrospect they probably should’ve known that things were only going to get worse from there, but could you blame fred and xara for hoping beyond hope that- since they were always the ones to drag romeo out of his sulking and brooding- him coming to them first was a sign that he’d changed, for real this time? and the way he starts the conversation- by saying how the admins’ absence has impacted the people in their care- it’s certainly promising.

but- ah, what’s that line? something like,

"Oft expectation fails, and most oft there Where most it promises; and oft it hits Where hope is coldest, and despair most fits."

there are very, very few things that make fred visibly angry. not that things don’t ever make them mad, it’s just that their dedication to living their best life means that they’re generally able to keep a firm grip on how they express their emotions. but for romeo to brainwash- no, worse than brainwash- they don’t even have a word for it- fred’s own people? they’re called their friends for a reason! it doesn’t MATTER that he thought it’d make fred happy- did he think, for even a moment, about listening to what they’d said? does he not realize how absolutely vile it was to do that? the others are real people, too! all of them, not just the ones he considers his friends- do you even understand what that word means, romeo? "friend"?

what really burns is that fred isn’t just angry- they’re disappointed. they’re scared. they’re just as hurt as he is, which is just- how DARE they?! ROMEO’S the one who’s being yelled at! why are THEY crying?! (they’re all in tears now, actually, but romeo doesn’t notice his own.)

a deep breath. fred asks him to undo what he’s done. romeo doesn’t move.

a tense heartbeat. fred asks again, and takes a step forward. this time romeo flinches back.

there’s not a single quark between the three of them right now not on edge. it feels like the air before a lightning strike. something’s going to break. none of them are backing down. maybe none of them can because, if romeo’s not going to do it himself- fred takes a final step forward and asks, remarkably calmly, for romeo to give them the tool.

and then he does! and they apologize to each other for not having been more open about their feelings and defining and maintaining their boundaries and then they make up and have a really good hug and it’s great, everything’s great, and this is probably the mental image romeo tried to fall asleep to before realizing that that wouldn’t stop the nightmares and just giving up on the whole “resting” thing. 

if you’re beginning to notice a pattern here with things really not going well, you might just be onto something about romeo’s behaviour. but to be fair none of them had gone into this situation expecting a fight- it was just, fred tried to take the tool and romeo instinctively pulled his weapon and- none of them realized quite how long fred had been losing blood? romeo had been lashing out, fred had been trying to take something he was holding while also trying to defend themself, xara had been trying to protect fred (and was also lashing out too, just a little)- i mean, they realized. eventually. and by that point honestly accidentally stabbing them wasn’t going to do anything the life force loss hadn’t, so like... 

okay, brief side note: as operator, romeo’s existence maintains the mcsm universe. he can’t die, even if he wants to. xara and fred had the next best deal (arguably anyway), in that they could only be truly hurt by one thing: the person who’d given them administrative powers in the first place. which happened to be the same person who’d, like, just stabbed his best friend and was now staring in open horror as said friend’s skin flickered back to its original appearance before-

just like that they were gone. just like that. the lack of body and inventory really should’ve tipped them off that something wasn’t right, but for all that they both replay that moment in their minds for years to come they somehow never consider that fred wasn’t quite dead. and romeo had always had such an imagination! but maybe it was for the best that they didn’t consider it, anyway. ... maybe it was for the best.

it doesn’t have to almost kill xara for romeo to take her powers, but it does anyway because if romeo made a lot of stupid decisions before that’s just gotten amped up to eleven now that 90% of his impulse control is gone.

oh.

oh no.!!

romeo watch out almost a millennium of unprocessed trauma and grief is sneaking up on you- romeo- oh my god he can’t hear us he has minecraft airpods in- romeo oh nO

anyway thanks for coming to my tedtalk! tune in next time to hear about the fallout of romeo’s actions across multiple worlds and the group of dissidents whose entire existence is to, well, diss romeo, aka soren’s cult. in conclusion:

#mcsm #minecraft story mode #me a bit over a month ago: huh i wonder what this mcsm business is about #me now: #ng+ #msg

[patricksilvrrozartistry]

Current Music Obsessions: March 2019

Been pretty busy lately, so I'm a bit late on this. A lot of purging happened this past month, just like there probably will be in April. But let's just get into these honorable mentions and mild obsessions.

Whist - Thinking Straight The Uncharted - Revival Akoma - Humanity Tamta - Replay Keiino - Spirit in the Sky Imperia - Unspoken Words Mgla - Exercises in Futility V mAdAlice - Skin Cupcakke - Squidward Nose Lighthouse in Darkness - The Melancholy Movies Shokran - Ascention Achilla - Wild Flower A$AP Rocky - Fukk Sleep feat. FKA twigs Parting Gift - Pale Imperia - The Scarred Soul Imperia - Blinded Tamara Todevska - Proud Tulia - Fire of Love (Pali Sie) Hatari - Hatrid Mun Sigra Main-de-Gloire - Run Battle Beast - Eden New Years Day - Shut Up Lahmia - Elegy for a Dying Sun Fleurie - Explosions of Grandeur Bloodred Hourglass - Valkyrie

Atomic Symphony - Abyss Rogue - Para Marina - Handmade Heaven Kate Miller-Heidke - Zero Gravity My Propane - The End Fallujah - Ultraviolet Enemy Inside - Phoenix Netta - Bassa Sababa Conan Osiris - Telemoveis Ester Peony - On a Sunday All but One - White Noise Bilal Hassani - Roi Hecate Enthroned - Erebus and Terror feat. Sarah Jezebel Deva Infected Rain - Passerby DuncanLaurence - Arcade Delain - Hunter's Moon Celestivl - Blasphemous Beast in Black - From Hell with Love The End of Melancholy - Peaceful Warrior Imperia - The Ocean Delain - Art Kills Doxa - Love Letter to a Butterfly Sergey Lazarev - Scream

Now let's see those songs that I was really obsessed with.

Within Temptation - Trophy Hunter

This is such an epic track and a perfect way to close an amazing album. They really outdid themselves with this album and you can truly feel that they love what they've created with this release. The power, the drama, the energy; it's all there. This is what we've been waiting for and it was definitely worth it.

Ursine Vulpine & Annaca - Without You (Extended)

I wasn't expecting to love the Solace EP as much as I do, but this song in particular is absolutely everything. It's full of so much raw power and emotion. Annaca's voice is so powerful and she channels emotion so well, and pair that with the powerful orchestrations, it makes this song absolutely majestic and amazing.

Katerine Duska - Better Love

She's representing Greece in Eurovision this year with this pretty and fun song and is my second favorite this year. I love that she has a lower vocal range and that it isn't like a typical high-ranged pop singer; it has thickness and power to it. I really hope she makes it far in the competition.

Jonida Maliqi - Ktheju Tokes

This is my favorite song for Eurovision this year. I hope Albania win it or at least get very far in the competition, because this song is so powerful, dramatic and beautiful. I just can't get over how amazing this is. The instrumentals, the production, the voice; so much yes.

Devin Townsend - Genesis

This is the first single off his upcoming album Empath and it's perfect. Devin truly is an amazing musician. Who would've ever thought to do something this weird and creative? It definitely has me interested in the new album, but I will say that the other singles he's released for it so fat haven't caught my attention nearly as much as this one.

Spiritbox - Belcarra

I'm pretty sure this is their most aggressive track to date. They really tapped into the death metal with this one, but still managed to incorporate a soft bass solo with some pretty cleans. But in true prog fashion, went straight back to being an intense song. Also, I love that Courtney wears a yellow dress throughout the video.

Walk in Darkness - Time to Rise

I really prefer Nicoletta with these guys over Kalidia, but then again I'm really particular about power metal. These guys just have that dark, broody atmosphere that I love in gothic metal bands and I'm really curious as to what new music this will bring. And I love that this song really shows off Nicoletta's vocal range in the best way possible.

Munro - Matricide

These guys went from having new singles that were atmospheric-prog to full blown prog-death and it's insane. It's a bit cheesy, lyrically, during the exit in my opinion, but Jake really dove deep into his emotions for this track. It's definitely very different from what they've put out previously and I'm curious as to what direction they're going to go in.

Disperson - Pale Grey Shrouds

Found these guys after seeing their Facebook page pop up a lot and I'm so glad I decided to check them out. This is their only song so far and it's such a beautiful gothic doom metal track. It's a bit on the ambient side which I absolutely adore. I can't wait for them to release more material.

Ex Libris - The Exile

This might be a stretch to say to some, but this is one of the best songs ever written in my opinion. I don't want to get too deep into explaining this song, because you need to experience it for yourself. It's the last track off Chapter 2: Anastasia Romanova from their third release called ANN, and it's perfection. Dianne put so much raw emotion into this and it's absolutely bone-chilling. Definitely go listen to this, because I don't want to spoil the experience that is this song.

And that's it for March! Let's see what April has in store for us.

#me #music #blogger #Current Music Obsessions #favorites #metalhead #Eurovision #ESC #Within Temptation #modern metal #Ursine Vulpine #Annaca #cinematic #emotive #orchestral #orchestra #Katerine Duska #pop #Jonida Maliqi #ethnic #Devin Townsend #progressive metal #Spiritbox #djent #Walk in Darkness #gothic metal #Munro #death metal #Disperson #doom metal

[brn1029]

Get those tin foil hats ready to go!

The 10 greatest conspiracy theories in rock

By Emma Johnston

In a world where fake news runs rampant, rock'n'roll is not immune to the lure of the conspiracy theory. These are 10 of the most ludicrous

Conspiracy theories, myths and legends have existed in rock’n’roll for as long as the music has existed, stretching all the way back to bluesman Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads in exchange for superhuman guitar skills, fame and fortune.

There are those who believe Elvis Presley and Jim Morrison live on, others who think the Illuminati control the world through symbolism in popular culture, and plenty of evangelical types with their own agendas trawling rock and metal songs for secret messages luring the innocent to the dark side.

Let us take a look, then, at rock’n’roll conspiracy theories ranging from the intriguing to the ludicrous, as we try to separate the truth from the codswallop.

Lemmy was in league with the Illuminati

Few men have ever been earthier than Lemmy, but one conspiracy theorist claims that the Motorhead legend didn’t really die in December 2015, instead “ascending into the heavenly realm” after making a “blood sacrifice pact” with the Illuminati.

A “watcher” of the mythical secret society some believe are running the world – despite evidence that is at best flimsy, at worst straight from The Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown’s discarded notebooks – told the Daily Star: “Lemmy signed up for the ultimate pact – he signed his soul to the devil in order to achieve fame and fortune.”

While we can only imagine what the great man would have to say on the matter, there’s one word, in husky, JD-soaked tones, that we can just about make out coming across from the other side: “Bollocks.”

Paul McCartney died in 1966

As you might expect from the most famous band that has ever existed, there are enough crackpot theories about The Beatles to fill the Albert Hall. From John Lennon’s murder being ordered by the US government, who, led by Richard Nixon, suspected him of communism (the FBI actually did have a file on Lennon, but the story is spiced up by the man behind murderlennontruth.com, who apparently believes author Steven King was involved due to, uh, looking a bit like Mark Chapman) to Canadian prog outfit Klaatu being the Fab Four in disguise, there are plenty of tall tales more colourful than a Ringo B-side.

The most enduring, though, is the notion dreamt up by some US radio DJs that Paul McCartney died in a car crash in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike. They came to this conclusion having studied the cover of Abbey Road – McCartney’s bare feet on the zebra crossing apparently symbolising death, while others found “evidence” in the album’s opaque lyrics. There were a lot of drugs in the 60s.

Gene Simmons has a cow’s tongue

It’s easy to see why all kinds of far-fetched stories sprung up when Kiss first took off in the 1970s. The fake-blood-spitting, the fire, the demon-superhero personas – middle America clutched its pearls and word spread that these otherworldly weirdos’ moniker stood for Knights In Satan’s Service. Spoiler alert: it doesn’t.

It was Gene Simmons’ preposterous mouth that got the nation’s less voluminous tongues wagging though. So long and pointy is his appendage, and so often waggled at his audiences (whether they asked for it or not), that eventually the rumour spread around the world’s playgrounds was that he’d had a cow’s tongue grafted onto his own. The bovine baloney is, of course, bullshit, but Simmons has admitted it's one of his favourite Kiss urban myths.

Supertramp predicted 9/11

The Logical Song may be Supertramp’s calling card, but one man in the US stretches common sense to the limit having come to the conclusion that the artwork for their 1979 album Breakfast In America gave prior warning of the terrorist attacks on New York on September 11, 2001.

Look at the album cover – painted from the perspective of a window on a flight into the city – in a mirror, and the ‘u’ and ‘p’ band’s name appears to become a 911 floating above the twin towers, while a logo on the back features a plane flying towards the World Trade Center.

So far, so coincidental, but when our intrepid investigator falls down a rabbit hole of Masonic interference, strained Old Testament connections (“The Great Whore of Babylon – Super Tramp”), and the title Breakfast In America reflecting the fact that the planes crashed early in the morning, things get really tenuous.

It’s fair to say it’s unlikely a British prog-pop band had prior knowledge of the terrorist attacks 22 years before they happened. But maybe Al Qaida were really big fans.

Stevie Wonder can see

Stevie Wonder is a genius. That fact is not up for dispute. The soul/jazz/funk/rock/pop legend was born six weeks prematurely in 1950, and the oxygen used in the hospital incubator to stabilise him caused him to go blind shortly afterwards. But his love of front-row seats at basketball games, the evocative imagery in his songs, and the fact that he once effortlessly caught a falling mic stand knocked over by Paul McCartney (who, let us reiterate, did not die in 1966) has caused basement Jessica Fletchers to muse that he’s faking his blindness as part of the act.

Wonder himself, a known prankster, has great fun with his status as one of the world’s most famous vision-impaired musicians. In 1973, he told Rolling Stone: “I’ve flown a plane before. A Cessna or something, from Chicago to New York. Scared the hell out of everybody.”

Dave Grohl invented Andrew W.K.

When Andrew W.K. first broke through in the early 2000s, dressed in white and covered in blood, his mission was serious in its simplicity: the party is everything. He took his message of having a good time, all the time, to levels of political fervour. But rumours of his authenticity have been doing the rounds from the start.

Reviewing WK’s first UK show at The Garage in London, The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis wrote: “One music-biz conspiracy theory currently circulating suggests that Andrew W.K. is an elaborate hoax devised by former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl.”

As time went on, the theory gained traction – Grohl was believed to be the mysterious Steev Mike credited on the debut album I Get Wet. And as W.K.’s style changed over subsequent records, and his own admission that there were legal arguments over who owns his name, whispers began that he wasn’t even a real person – he was a character, played by several different actors, an attempt to create the ultimate Frankenstein’s frontman.

"I'm not the same guy that you may have seen from the I Get Wet album," W.K. said in 2008. “I don't just mean that in a philosophical or conceptual way, it's not the same person at all. Do I look the same as that person?" The jury is out, but if this is a great white elephant concocted just for the sheer hell of it, we kind of want this one to be true.

Jimi Hendrix was murdered by his manager

An early victim of the 27 club, the death of Jimi Hendrix was depressingly cliched for a man so wildly creative: a bellyful of barbiturates led to him asphyxiating on his own vomit, according to the post-mortem. But in the years following the grim discovery at the Samarkand Hotel in London on 19 September 1970, a different theory was offered by the guitarist’s former roadie, James “Tappy” Wright.

In his book Rock Roadie, Wright claims Hendrix was murdered by his manager, Michael Jeffery, who he says force-fed his charge red wine and pills. The motive? He feared he was about to be fired and was keen to cash in on the star’s life insurance. One thing we do know for certain is Jeffery won’t be able to give his version of events, as he was killed in a plane crash over France in 1973.

The 50th anniversary of Hendrix's tragic passing was "celebrated" with the release of Hendrix and the Spook, a documentary that "explored" his death further and was described by The Guardian as "a cheaply made mix of interviews and dumbshow dramatic recreations by actors scuttling about flimsy sets in gloomy lighting." Sounds good.

Courtney killed Kurt

Courtney Love is no stranger to demonisation from Nirvana fans. When Hole’s second album, the searing, catchy, feminist, witty, aggressive, vulnerable and unflinchingly honest Live Through This was released, days after Kurt Cobain’s death, rumours almost immediately started up that Love’s late husband wrote the songs. That was insulting and sexist enough, but nowhere near as damaging as the conspiracy theory that Love hired a hitman to kill Cobain amid rumours they were about to divorce.

After Cobain’s first attempt to take his own life in Rome, the Nirvana frontman was eventually convinced to go to rehab following an intervention by his wife and friends. He ran away from the facility, and the private investigator hired by Love to find him, Tom Grant, eventually became the source of the idea that Love and the couple’s live-in nanny Michael Dewitt were responsible for Cobain’s death shortly afterwards.

His claims, made in the Soaked In Bleach documentary, include the notion that Cobain had too much heroin in his system to pull the trigger of the shotgun, and that he believed the suicide note was forged.

People close to Cobain (and the Seattle Police Department) have refuted the theory, including Nirvana manager Danny Goldberg: “It’s ridiculous. He killed himself. I saw him the week beforehand, he was depressed. He tried to kill himself six weeks earlier, he’d talked and written about suicide a lot, he was on drugs, he got a gun. Why do people speculate about it? The tragedy of the loss is so great people look for other explanations. I don’t think there’s any truth at all to it."

The CIA wrote The Scorpions’ biggest hit

Previously synonymous with leather, hard rock anthems and some very questionable album artwork, West Germany’s Scorpions scored big with Wind Of Change, a power ballad heralding the oncoming fall of the USSR, the end of the Cold War, and a new sense of hope in the Eastern Bloc.

In a podcast named after the 1990 song, though, Orwell Prize-winning US journalist Patrick Radden Keefe follows rumours from within the intelligence community that the song was actually written by the CIA, as propaganda to hasten the fall of the ailing Soviet Union via popular culture.

“Soviet officials had long been nervous over the free expression that rock stood for, and how it might affect the Soviet youth,” Keefe is quoted as saying. “The CIA saw rock music as a cultural weapon in the cold war. Wind of Change was released a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and became this anthem for the end of communism and reunification of Germany. It had this soft-power message that the intelligence service wanted to promote.”

It's a convincing theory, but one that is disputed by Scorpions frontman Klaus Meine: “I thought it was very amusing and I just cracked up laughing. It’s a very entertaining and really crazy story but like I said, it’s not true at all. Like you American guys would say, it’s fake news."

There are satanic messages in Stairway To Heaven

The great comedian Bill Hicks had something to say about people searching for evidence of devilry in rock’n’roll: “Remember this shit, if you play certain rock albums backwards there'd be satanic messages? Let me tell you something, if you're sitting round your house playing your albums backwards, you are Satan. You needn't look any further. And don't go ruining my stereo to prove a point either.”

The memo didn’t get through to televangelist and stylus ruiner Paul Crouch, who in 1982 attempted to scare the Christian right into believing Led Zeppelin’s Stairway To Heaven was stuffed with demonic meaning, and that played backwards it revealed the following message: “Here’s to my sweet Satan/The one whose little path would make me sad, whose power is Satan/He will give those with him 666/There was a little toolshed where he made us suffer, sad Satan.”

Guitarist Jimmy Page, of course, is no stranger to the esoteric, making no secret of his interest in occultist Aleister Crowley and the attendant magick, and there were even rumours the band made a Faustian pact to achieve fame and fortune. But hiding messa