Archive for March, 2006

Obsessis

Posted in Music on 20:33, March 28th, 2006

bdn_o.jpgGot long ago ordered Brighter Death Now’s Obsessis. This one is something different from the older albums. It’s not that lowfreq and looped as May all Be Dead for example, it’s something more high-pitched and screamy. There’s just a little bit of that much loved typical BDN’s bassy sound. I’m not saying I didn’t like this CD, it’s just different and actually not bad. I just like it a bit less than older or newer BDN. Oh and there’s blatant usage of Deutsch Nepal samples on one track at least! It’s like listening to DN’s track but a bit distorted and with Roger’s vocals over it… What!

Burnout Legends

Posted in Games on 22:11, March 18th, 2006

burnoutlegends.jpgGot this game recently. Played as singleplayer as multi with people at work via wifi. Well this one is very much like NFSMW but it has its own fun bit. This bit is the possibility to destroy competing cars by pushing them off the road to the borders. They can do the same to your car. As soon as you crash you loose precious time and distance. So you have to make hard things to gain nitro acceleration by perforeming extra things like driving on the opposite side of the road, making cool drifting turns, etc. This game is actually qute addictive and has nice gfx. If you like racing games and got psp this game is good addition to your collection, especially if you got friends with psp and this game so you can play it via wifi and have alot of fun :)

Type O Negative news

Posted in Music on 17:04, March 10th, 2006

Splashdevil[1].jpg There’s fresh and rather interesting interview with Peter Steele of Type O Negative on KNAC.COM. I liked this bit in particular:

KNAC.COM: Did you get any snow?

STEELE: It’s snowing as we speak, yeah. Well, we got, you know, plenty a couple of weeks ago. That was remarkable, I had shoveled four times at like, 5 O’clock in the morning. I was in my Russian military uniform, which, of course, the neighbors get a really big kick out of. I mean, they won’t even come out of the house when I’m outside, shoveling, in the crazy uniforms that I wear.

There will be new dvd “Symphony for the Devil” released soon (or it just got released) it’ll feature live in Germany and alot of footage “home video”. I cannot wait for it to arrive so I can enjoy TON’s mad humour and the mountain of a man Peter himself performing live :)

Re-entering Darkthrone

Posted in Music on 15:08, March 10th, 2006

darkthrone.jpgThis is actually rather long story. It all began back in 1994 when I got to listen to Darkthrone on the cassette. I was hooked by the rawness and coldness of the sound and became a real fan of this band gathering all their records. My journey through the black metal realm was rather long and lasted for like 6 years. Somewhere around 1999-2000 real black metal ceased to exist in my opinion, new bands spoiled the scene and I didn’t listen to the new albums of the old black metal bands, thinking they got the trend plague too and melted. I’ve abandoned black metal back then because there was nothing new and honest. But my opinion have changed recently as I got to listen to the mp3s of the latest Darkthrone’s album – The Cult is Alive. I was kinda impressed! Darkthrone managed to breathe new air into their sound. The album sounds fresh and evil at the same time. Darkthrone is the only real black metal band these days I must say, even though they call their music “evil rock”, they’re still gods. And I was wrong forgetting them. But it’s better to wait and get your mind ready for the new than abandon them completely. I’ve relistened all the albums I missed during these non-black metal years of mine and going to buy them all now. The Cult is Alive somewhat returned that ’94 feeling into my heart and I’m glad that the Darkthrone still blasts the world with their music. Hail Darkthrone!

Winter Q1SP Map Pack 2005-2006

Posted in Levels on 1:47, March 10th, 2006

fitz0013.jpg Zwiffle and Hrimfaxi just released awesome map pack with two maps in it! The pack must be started within the Quoth mod. The first level (teacup) is made by Zwiffle out of scrapmaps by czg. This level uses arabian set by Iikka and has good gameplay and some nice interesting designs. But the second level (egypt) is just awesome! The initial brushwork is done by Drew and Hrimfaxi have finished it. It uses my favourite Dissolution of Eternity egypt textureset and has vast designs with waterfalls, high and big structures, proper Quake atmosphere and other interesting ideas. The official discussion goes at the ever slow and b0rked func, you’ll find screenshots there as well. Very well done level! Every Quake fan must play this pack NOW!

New snowy images

Posted in General News on 23:31, March 9th, 2006

thumb.jpgI was out of the city last weekend and took some images of surrounding nature. Winter pictures are rather rare in my gallery because I’m too lazy to take my camera when it’s -25C outside. But this time I won the battle with my laziness and here we are. It’s rather hard to take pics when it’s snowy or cold. When it’s snowy you get camera lens plastered with snowlakes that just plain make image unusable and when it’s sunny but cold it’s better to keep camera under your coat otherwise you rist to freeze it and break it. Anyway, enough of idle talks, enjoy the cold of the russian woods!

A pack of american noise

Posted in Music on 1:10, March 3rd, 2006

Yeah, the music again… The torrent never ceases, it flows, flooding my room with cds and dark ambience… There’s no light in the end of this tunnel… This time I’ve got 5 CDs of the north american experimental music. American music is quite rare in my collection, dunno why but there are not much good american artists for me. I’ll use quotes from the project’s sites because I just don’t want to type what’s written already if I’m agreed with that. Anyway, here we go:

amf.jpgAesthetic Meat Front“Embalmer Tapes (dissected)” – dronenoise from the masochistic extremists. Released on italian Old Europa Cafe this album is rather nice actually: noiseloops, industrial feel and “eerie soundscape of post-mortem ambience”. It’s no wonder considering that R|A|A|N participated there as sound manipulator. “Those 68 minutes were the sole sound source for Embalmer Tapes, Louis Fleischauer together with R|A|A|N dissected, sliced and reconstructed this recording into an eerie soundscape of post-mortem ambience. Embalmer Tapes is a sonique exploration of cold flesh. By only using sounds from the original embalming tape, AMF captured the unsettling atmosphere of the prep-room. Let the dead not be forgotten, may they live amongst us through sonic energy. “There is only hope in Oblivion, Oblivion, Oblivion …”

basement.jpgSecond CD is split Bargain Basement/Wilt“Flea Market/1958”. The first 30 min track is by Bargain Basement and it’s some weird collage of sounds, i didn’t like it much. It’s something chaotic and weird with alot of field and radio recordings. “Bargain basement takes an assortment of ordinary sounds from day to day life, and mixes them together to create a surreal soundtrack to places unknown. Wilt uses a collection of both natural, found sounds, and electronic manipulation to create a dark, drifting, and dream like soundscapes.” Wilt’s part is a bit better, there are as ambient as industrial tracks. Not top, but okish stuff.

cca019.jpgThird CD is Gruntsplatter“The Death Fires”. Well, I’ve found this project browsing Crionic Mind records site year ago, was interested by the samples and ordered three cds. This is good drone noise. Nothing special about it, some tracks create rather nice desolate atmosphere though. I like this kind of quiet harsh noise where you can drift away to some gloomy postapocalyptic landscape. “Soot choked atmospherics, splintered frequencies & rhythmic subtlty gurgle in rotten sockets and drift down untouched crevasses in the stale earth to a primal place of instinctual violence and visceral fear, where intellect is abandoned in the face of a saturating unknown.”

grunt_gntslo.jpgFourth CD is split of Gruntsplatter/Slowvent non-creatively entitled “Split Release”. “By combining elements of of Death Industrial, Harsh/Noise Ambient, rhythmic undercurrents and pitch-shifted experimentation, he creates a powerful mix of both the abrasive and atmospheric. The sluggish soundscapes and low end distortions move like the grinding of tectonic plates… like boiling pitch, Slowvent generates thick, viscous, malleable visions of the obscure that gurgle and lick at something far deeper than your eardrums.”

npf_dvncov.jpgAnd fifth and the last is from the same Crionic Mind label: Never Presence Forever“Disturbed Visceral Nociception”. “It is an outstanding collection of bleak soundscapes, crytpic minimalism and dark noise. Rich textural drifts and detailed craftsmanship give this release a enveloping penetration and depth.”

Well, summing the last 4 cds up which are the part of one gang, I’d say that they’re quite similar by the nature and sound in general. There are differencies of course. Alignments to various substyles, but there’s one common basement for them all, low fi noise and loops. Some artists use field recordings and some light sounding instruments to add some additional feel to the music, but the atmosphere is pretty similar. It’s hard to describe this more precisely, well, it’s like some people distinguish swedish death metal sound from the Florida death metal. I hope you understand what I mean. This is american sound. I woudn’t add to this bunch Aesthetic Meat Front though, this one has more sinister and ritualistic feel with secret meaning tied to it, hence I like it better.

The Algebraist

Posted in Books on 18:22, March 1st, 2006

jsf10.jpgStarted reading The Algebraist today. Going to enjoy it as Iain Banks never failed my expectations, considering the things happen in the far future of 4034AD where humans explored alot in our Galaxy. And in this story the action takes place on the small planet moon that orbits around gas giant that obscures almost entire sky of that small planet. The previous Banks’ book I read was Excession, the 4th Culture novel. This one was rather epic novel with giant ships, vast timescale and good plot. As with Alastair Reynolds’ Revelation Space series I’m obliged to get all the Culture novels of Banks. These two britts satisfy my science-fiction hunger quite properly i must admit.