Archive for September, 2010

Edict Zero

Posted in Books on 9:58, September 22nd, 2010

Recenlty, the sinister man from the interweb contacted me and pointed me to his new creation Edict Zero – FIS audio drama. I hurriedly downloaded it and started to listen. And you know what, it’s his best creation to this day I think. It features better voice acting, appropriate sounds in background creating proper atmosphere and of course the story itself is done in trademark Mindcrime’s way: non stop developing urging you to read/listen till the end. В It has that nice radio theater quality which I liked so much when there was theater being translated on radio back in my childhood. Also, not being native english speaker I understood everything quite clearly, production quality is very well done. Waiting for the next chapter to be released!

Ilium

Posted in Books on 9:48, September 22nd, 2010

Just felt I had to restore my habit to write about the books I read. I have finished “Ilium” by Dan Simmons recently. I didn’t know about this author at all before buying this book. I just dug through the bookstall in the shop reading annotations and one for “Ilium” hooked me. And I was not disappointed! This is great “literary sci-fi” novel featuring collapse of three dimensions: Homer’s Iliad, nearly extinct humanity still living on Earth and post-human race of robotic creatures living in Jovian space and reading Shakespeare all the time. You might think of it as someВ nonsenseВ mix, but Simmons managed to make very interesting story out of it, yet it was useful for me as I got to know Iliad much better and dusty school knowledge was renewed. So I highly recommend this book for sci-fi fans.В Being in Dan Simmons era now, I’m reading his “The Terror” at the moment. And I’d say it’s even more powerful. Will write about it more upon finishing.

Pack of music for the Autumn

Posted in Music on 13:34, September 21st, 2010

The time has come to get another pack of music to support autumn twilight mood and to greet incoming winter!

Cathedral“The Guessing Game”. Finally got new album of myВ favoriteВ doom band! This is epic masterpiece contains 2CD of quality stuff. It’s their 20th year of existence and they didn’t melt down but still bring proper igniting music. The music has very strong 70s rock hue with analog synth on background all the time. The voice of Lee Dorrian isn’t that brutal as it used to be. But the music still has that trademark Cathedral heavyness. Though there’s something new and cool to it – softness of the sound I’d say. I like this new Cathedral sound very much. Last track about Cathedral history is quite nice idea actually :)

Immortal “All Shall Fall”. I was pondering whether to get this album or not. Finally I decided for it because the music on it is quite in bands early days style and very atmospheric. It sounds more like early Immortal albums but with added experience of musicians. Of course it brings that northern wind within the music, so winter lovers will not beВ disappointed. I wasn’t ;)

Sigh “Scenes From Hell”. This is epic metal album from japanese masters of experimental metal. Wide usage of synth plus mad orchestral melodies make it quite peculiar release. Yet it’s kinda conceptual which makes it more interesting. It’s far from being black metal as some people used to call Sigh, it’s more to heavy rock. Still melodies have that weird japanese touch and attractive with that orchestral hue.

Allerseelen“Rauhe Schale”. Last album of Gerhard is a bit different from his previous works. More smooth and alive. His voice sounds indeed better having that aged quality that adds charm. The sound quality is better in this release, I liked variety in temperature of sound: there’re nice warm tracks with bass and deep vocals, there’s also colder ones. All in all good new release that brings something fresh to Allerseelen sound.

Menace Ruine“Cult Of Ruins”. В I was recommended to listen to this band. I’d say it’s not an easy one to research. First album features icecold guitar wailing with screaming vocals typical to old black metal. I’d say it’s an opening to Menace Ruine sound, ones who survived will be ready for the next two albums for sure.

Menace Ruine“The Die Is Cast”. This album is a bit less screamy and cold. More slow melodies, but still there’s that guitar noise in the background that adds ghost feel to the music. Female vocals are more distinctive there which is good as it sounds really nice with such type of music. This album shows more potential/

Menace Ruine“Union Of Irreconcilables”. Last album goes even more to slow area still keeping that ice cold guitars. It’s far from black metal, but still it maintains proper darkness. All three albums are somewhat similar like three volumes of the book. Yet there’s progress with every album and to the better side i’d say. More female vocals, more slow ill ambient tracks make it sound more like some kind of experimental/noise band rather than metal. We shall see what future brings.

Bonedust“Demo”. I was recommended this band as well. At first I didn’t accept it. Being very lo-fi it scares away. But more I listened to it more it took place in my soul. It’s indeed the music of death. Screaming and moaning female vocals with low drone of guitar and slow drums that sound as if they’re in the room with you add here quite brutal lyrics. All this makes this female duo quite peculiar. This demo was recorded back in 2005, no new stuff from them till now. Would be a pity if this act will be lost in history.

Sudden luck

Posted in Music on 17:17, September 8th, 2010

Wandering through the filthy wastes of russian internet I stumbled across some obscure forum with a lot of used music CDs being on sale. Reading countless lines of offered stuff I found two rare gems I lost hope to find. This is Thorr’s Hammer“Dommedagsnatt”, the first release of Southern Lord label. Of course I got the reissue pressed in 2006, but still, the price was under 10bucks so who cares, also the box was wrapped in plastic, meaning it was absolutely new! This is proper doom with nice female vocals including proper doom growling. You cannot miss this one if you’re into doom.

The second one is also quite difficult to find Cathedral“The VIIth Coming”. This album is hard to find mostly because it was released long ago (’02) on some weird american label which mostly specializes on pop. Still, it’s proper Cathedral release with a lot of varied styled songs. I was hunting for this one for quite some time too. Looks like it’s useful to dig into the piles of used CDs monitoring local forums for rare stuff afterall ;)