Nas - I Am....The Autobiography
Eminem - The Eminem Show
Cunninlynguists - A Piece Of Strange
Metal -
Insomnium
Be'lakor - Stone's Reach
Top 20 Films
#20 Saints & Soldiers
#19 The Midnight Run
#18 Black hawk down
#17 Basic
#16 The Italian Job
#15 The Inside Man
#14 The Gladiator
#13 One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
#12 Coach Carter
#11 Shawshank Redemption
#10 Oldboy
#09 No Country For Old Men
#08 oh what a lovely war
#07 Man On Fire
#06 Bicentennial Man
#05 Coach Carter
#04 In Bruges
#03 The Good The Bad And The Ugly
#02 Pulp Fiction
#01 Once Upon A Time In The West
Jotaro is still pretty much considered the face of the series, it was the first to introduce stands, it's the only one with an official English translation, until recently it was the only one with an anime or a videogame... yeah, 3 was pretty damn popular.
Unfortunately this season's been confirmed to only run for 26 episodes, which means we'll get 17 episodes dedicated to part 2. For 7 volumes that isn't so bad. Could be better, but eh.
They haven't confirmed a second season yet, but I doubt they'll skip out on adapting the most popular arc.
Sorry for the inexcusable delay. I wanted to reply a lot earlier with a huge message, but that delayed my reply even further. But here I am now!
Music Discussion
Vinnie Paz.
Last Breath. I agree that it's a pretty cool track.
Duel to the Death. The beat is excellent, but wow, does Prodigy's verse (3rd one) suck (Mobb Deep is a duo consisting of Havoc and Prodigy)! I mean, his delivery is great, but his flow and lyrics make me wonder if somebody who doesn't know how to rap ghostwrote his verse. It's like his verse was devoid of any skill whatsoever. I mean, for example, even though Eminem's recent verses are inexcusably terrible, I can see some form of skill there, but Prodigy's verse is amateurish, and that's the worst kind of bad.
Neutral. I disagree that Vinne doesn't need to act thuggish. On the contrary, he should, because this way he supplies us with unintentional comedy. If you remember the video of Cheesesteaks, his "hardcore" behavior combined with the most non-menacing appearance of all time (I especially love that some of his front teeth were missing) creates a hilariously paradoxical image which makes it impossible to take Vinnie seriously (in a good way) and provides us nice comedy.
Fame. Thanks, and check PM.
K-Rino - Pantheon. I liked the violin during the chorus, but the rest of the beat is weak. His rapping didn't really do anything to me, but it was decent at worst.
K-Rino - Don't Stop. Another relatively weak beat. The synths are very unfitting and the drums suck, which is a shame because the piano melody is cool. Haha, did he say "skill sharper than the cactus" in the chorus?
On a side note, you probably could have been worried that Hurricane Sandy somehow "got" me, but I would like to tell you that I conveniently moved from NJ to WA in September, so it did not really affect me.
And the reason I'm telling you this is because I went to Insomnium's concert in Seattle, so check PM for my lengthy story.
Other Discussion
Hunter x Hunter. Well, HxH doesn't have films. It just has OVAs which are direct continuation of the main series. And yeah, I think the new series is the same thing, except it will have more information.
"Doesn't seem at all likely bro. I just don't play any more"
That's unfortunate.
The Hour started up again! The first episode was pretty cool. At first I was afraid that Freddy was not going to be in the season, since he wasn't on screen in the first 20 minutes of the episode, but then he appeared, and everything started to be awesome. The second episode was great too.
One Piece. Wow, that chapter with Zoro has been one of the best in a while.
Yea, but I keep on expecting the author to mix it up in the next chapter lol.
And yep, reading Remember. Liking it more than Green Blood. The MC's past and how/why he lost his memories could be interesting, wondering if it'll go the supernatural route or not.
Don't worry about missing my birthday and its still my birthday here, so thanks.
Only 4 people, besides my parents, actually remembered my birthday lol.
I agree. It felt like there could have been some more chapters to finally put an end to things. Now that I think about it, it doesn't even feel like an ending, more like it got cancelled abruptly. Like, it totally wouldn't have surprised me if a new chapter was up with Mitsuhashi messing with Imai again.
Ya it ends at 366. The ending didn't really feel like an end to me either. It was way too open, but I guess thats how slice of life type mangas usually end.
Land of Snow and Sorrow. Hahaha, for some reason I thought that would be the case.
M@M? Minutes at Midnight?
Vinnie Paz's new album is available. You were right, it's pretty underwhelming. With that said, the intermission song has a hysterical beat which inspired me to create an instrumental using the same idea. The last song on the album is pretty good too.
Oh, Battle Hymn must be one of Vinnie's worst posse cut tracks ever. It just feels too uninspired. And man, I laughed really hard when I heard Jus Allah say: "Kick his face in the pool of blood like give him a taste of his own medicine". Ahahaha! I even needed to rewind that to make sure that I didn't mishear anything. I mean, how can any sane person consciously think this is a good line?
Also, check PM for my new verse.
Other Discussion
The Hour. Really? I must have forgotten.
Boss. Well, don't worry. The first time I watched this I stopped after 10 minutes and didn't really pick the series up again until my friend watched it and bugged me to do it too.
Jojo. I know, but I still thought that since you enjoyed the overall Jojo series, you might give the first part a chance as well.
Gintama. I don't know, I just thought that if it were reruns, they wouldn't name the series differently and add it to MAL.
Hunter X Hunter. I saw the original series and really liked it. Strangely enough, I remember you posting something negative on Cnc regarding HxH back when AfterGlow was in the club, so I decided not to touch this topic.
Walking Dead Season 3. Well, I can't say I'm pleased or displeased, but this must be really unfortunate for you, because you really enjoyed this awful series!
I also started watching Columbo, the TV show of my childhood. Not sure how it was in England, but when I was a kid this TV show was always airing on weekends in my country, and I semi-watched it without understanding anything. Now I'm watching it seriously and enjoying it a lot!
Hey, I don't always write my messages in one go either, especially if they are long, so no problem!
With regards to your guitar playing, you should definitely start setting up some kind of home studio in your house to be able to record the guitar, so that we would start working on some kind of project together!
Arm Yourself. Fair enough. I think the singing part of the hook is good. It's just the "fuck everybody else" part is repetitive. And man, the beat is not amazing since it doesn't have anything special, but at the same time it's pleasing, and I don't really hear what could make one's ears bleed.
Wintersun. I was checking for its availability periodically and was glad to find out it leaked in such a timely manner..
Sons Of Winter and Stars. No, "Rise" section is not my favorite part of the song. And I actually agree that the 8:52 section is better than the "Rise" one. However, this song has an even better moment than the two aforementioned ones! Go to 10:40. The choir sounds magnificent. How he managed to make it sound so perfect is beyond me.
Land Of Snow and Sorrow. I agree that the sound of the guitar is pretty awesome. Its composition, on the other hand, is just good. I would also like to highlight the section from 2:20 - 2:24. I feel like this awesomeness was accidental, which is why I think people might have missed it. The two vocal tracks got layered in an unexpectedly cool way during the "feel" and "of the world" parts.
Powerwolf. Weirdly enough, I actually listened to the whole album from the youtube link you gave me. I've never done that before, so that was an experience. I felt like I'm the laziest person in the world.
Before I begin my review, you should know that I can't get into most of power metal. I genuinely try to like most of its main representatives, since in a way power metal's music is often similar to MDM, but for some reason, it just doesn't cut it for me. Either I get bored with the vocals, or the music seems lackluster... I don't know.
I only like some songs... For example, this is my favorite power metal song. I also like Helloween - If I Could Fly and a couple of others. But generally that genre just bores me.
However, when I listened to Powerwolf's album, I was not bored during most of it. Some moments were legitimately catchy, and I might even revisit the album one day. I would like to bring to your attention that Murder at Midnight sounds like the band was copying Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark and that Son of a Wolf's bridge stood out the most to me.
Other Discussion
The Hour. Have you finished the first season? The last time we talked about this, you were on the second episode.
Boss. Kelsey Grammer was born to play Tom Kane. He really does have the face of the evil corrupt politician.
Jojo. I see. That was the first episode of the anime series, so I thought you might've been interested.
Gintama. And having watched 252 episodes of Gintama, you believed that? Case in point: recaps. But yeah, I watched two episodes so far, and neither of them were reruns.
"The IT song? I'm partially confused, which song are you referring to?"
I'm referring to that song about information technology where he talks about its influence (particularly the internet) on our lives. How could you miss it?!
(Just kidding, I'm talking about the Immortal Technique track)
Well, it's going to be hard to make me listen to something other than Wintersun's new album at this moment, but I'll try.
Serpent. Sorry, can't do it. Wintersun is playing.
Let me just review the highly anticipated record first, and then I'll get back to you on your other two bands.
This new Wintersun album is unbelievably fun to exaggerate its awesomeness on by saying that Jari Maenpaa is the true god and how his music is greater than the whole universe, but I'll try to describe what I really feel at the moment.
I'm sure you're in the loop already, but just to remind you, Time I is only the first half of the Time project, so it's natural that it's short and that it feels it ended too early. So when Time II will be released in 2013, I will be able to judge the project as a whole more fairly, but for now, here are my thoughts.
Considering what Jari has been telling us about the album, Time I turned out to be pretty much what I expected: long, seemingly cohesive songs consisting plenty of layers with melodies and vocals, lots of orchestration, and some Japanese melodies.
If you do not count the intro and the interlude (which work very well as transitions and do not seem anything special as standalone tracks), we have 3 legitimate songs: Sons Of Winter and Stars, Land Of Snow and Sorrow, and Time.
The first one is 13 minutes long, the second one is 8, and the third one is 11. The length is also something I anticipated.
The only thing that slightly let me down is the guitar riffs composition-wise. Production-wise they sound amazing as expected, but I would've wanted something more memorable. With that said, the album did have some awesome riffs.
Sons Of Winter and Stars - I don't think this song can be described as anything other than 'epic'. It incidentally happens to have the best guitar riff on the album, which starts at the 4:30 mark. I'm shocked at how awesome the loud orchestral sounds fit in with the song, and the reason why I am is because I personally know how how it is to master the songs properly so that they would both sound loud and not contain clipping. So when this "RISE!" vocal along with the orchestra came on, it's insane that I didn't hear any clipping and felt that it was noticeably louder than the rest of the song. The vocals in the last 1/3 of the song are superb. How can anyone think otherwise?
Land Of Snow And Sorrow - I love the change of pace from the fast previous song to a slightly slower one. The intro along with the vocals in the first verse are amazing. That type of voice is probably my favorite. I love the notes he chose to sing the lyrics too, because that's exactly what I associate with the word 'victorious'.
Time. This is probably the weakest song out of the three, but it's still better than the worst song on their debut (which happens to be the be Sadness and Hate for me). I absolutely love the chorus here. Even though it's really long and repeated 3 times, I find its placement very appropriate.
Overall, it's amazing how massive the album is, and for now it's my second favorite record of the year after Of Breath And Bone.
Okay, so where were we? Oh.
Serpent. I don't think we discussed this to be honest. The song is decent, but not Wintersun.
Light Bringer. Didn't like this song too much. Her voice is good, but the vocals aren't well structured. Some of the riffs were good, but they were no Wintersun.
Other Discussion
Noblesse. By 40th chapter, it got better. I haven't read further, but I will.
Thanks for the recommendation.
The Hour's second season starts in a month.
If you haven't watched it, watch the "Boss" TV series. It stars the guy who played some character on Frasier (Kelsey Grammer), and if I'm not mistaken, you told me he's the reason you found Frasier funny. I haven't seen the latter myself, but Boss is amazing, and after this series I cannot envision Kelsey Grammer playing a comedic relief character at all.
Boss is a serious political drama where Kelsey Grammer plays a powerful politician who has a terminal disease which reflects on the way he behaves in front of people, and despite this shortcoming, he still uses his intimidation techniques amazingly.
Some parts aren't written very well, but believe me when I tell you that you will get an enormous enjoyment from how badass he is. The guy is despicable, but he's insanely badass.
Have you started the new Gintama and the new Jojo anime series yet?
