http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpbPoXjABDs

This is hilarious; first of all the chorus sounds WAY too upbeat. Second, they're basically only showing the singer in the video.

http://english.aljazeera.net/indepth/fe ... 28747.html

Secret files: US officials aided Gaddafi
Al Jazeera uncovers evidence that influential Americans tried to help the now-deposed Libyan leader cling to power.

Not surprising, WoP.

I smiled at this.

Looks like this incarnation of the FFA has already kicked off to a great start, folks!

Not surprising, but important news nonetheless. Thinking of it that way just marginalizes it.

The Priest theme is great; surprised it took this long really.

Anyone know what kind of show Grave does these days? Thinking of spending $40 on two tickets to see 'em.

Edit:
Yeah, we shouldnt' marginalise this, but it's getting to the point where US involvement in propping up some dictator seems like standard practice. What can the voters do about it? It seems that corporate concerns are always involved and these people don't seem to bow to any reason but the motivation of proffit.

I love how with every conflict in this day and age there is always controversial fallout of this sort from the so called protagonist's camp. Ah, a brave new world.

I'm listening to Benediction's Transcend the Rubicon. It is, in my humble opinion, totally fucking badass

They used to be one of the biggest names in death metal in the 1990s, but somehow they seem to have been largely forgotten since then. A shame that is, their early albums are a real treat.

I'm only really familiar with this one actually. Where should I go next? I agree it's an excellent piece of work.

Hmm.... how do you say "jack shit" in a way that still feels hopeful? Anyone?

Yeah, that's what I mean. It's a glum feeling all right.

That's what pisses me off about things in general, we discover wrongdoing through sources like Wikileaks and then nothing comes of it, no one is really held accountable except maybe a couple of fall guys who get slaps on the wrist and they're not really the ones who are ultimately responsible anyway.

Abominatrix, "The Grand Leveller" is worth checking out. It's a platter of dark, murky, back to basics DM. No frills. No bullshit.

Yeah. I am reminded of the business with Bush and a bunch of his cabinet getting hauled out for a serious inquiry headed up by a special board. It was big news for a while and I believe their testimony was considered to be seriously at fault...
ANd then...nothing.
This is why we all throw our hands up in the air and say "what the hell, something is very seriously wrong and nobody seems to know how to fix it..."

I remember when the Iraq war had been going on for about six years or so, it finally came out publicly that the intelligence that the war was based on was completely false and that the entire affair was basically a complete sham fuck-up, and Bush gave some speech talking about how he took full responsibility for what happened. Yeah, you know what happens when something like that goes down? You go to jail. Or at the very least you resign, or you get impeached. Did any of those things happen? Nah, it was just business as usual. I guess being the president makes you some black hole to crime and criticism and accountability...you just absorb it all within your demigod-like self and it's magically nullified. It's frightening to think that there are people governing this nation that are quite clearly above the law, doing whatever they damn well please, with horrific consequences, while meanwhile common citizens get jailed for decades for petty drug charges and shit. It's fairly sickening, and there isn't really fuck all we can do about it. All you can do is protest, and if you do that, the most that'll happen is that you'll get herded into some fenced enclosure by some riot cops and be arrested.

"The Dreams You Dread" is good, too. I'm not too big a fan of "Subconscious Terror", I can't really get into Barney's vocals. Otherwise all their stuff up to "The Dreams You Dread" is worth checking out, with "Transcend the Rubicon" being the best of the lot.

Regular Show
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upyQ9bCUrMQ
Regular Show

Is anyone a fan of Senmuth? If so, which albums should I hear first?

holy fuck i'm tired...I definitely think i've got mono or some shit like that

Flip 256 coins to decide.

Mono's some pretty nasty shit, I'll tell you what. If you do have it, and your doctor tells you to rest a lot and avoid physical activity, do it.

Write a letter to your reps in congress, get general form letters back. Get a thousand people to send letters, get a specialized form letter back for that issue. Routinely go to open forums held by the congressman for years, get evasive answers about how they took significant action on that issue. Ask a tough, specific question to try to avoid the scripted answers on that issue, get an even more vague/evasive response. Get involved in your school's student government, represent 1500-2000 people, and your Senators still don't care. At least our representative in the House will give us the courtesy of giving answers then continuing as usual.

Donate $10,000+ to the campaign and they might care. Money buys influence, money is free speech.

Ask about information released by WikiLeaks - we don't talk about that. What about my senator who used his influence to get money-processing companies to stop money going to WikiLeaks? He was also a strong public proponent of taking illegal action against them. Well, very few media outlets are publishing the information about him being one of the four Senators pushing for arms sales to our newfound enemy in Libya. None are pushing the point, few even publish it. Well, I guess that information is less important than current headlines like a football player's contract and the new cast of "Dancing With The Stars". Maybe if there was some money behind that point....

http://www.pacificfreepress.com/news/1/ ... -plan.html
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62114.html

I've been looking for the Kafka-esque nightmare in contemporary literature, but it's actually here and present in everyday life....

There's an older woman I work with whose family is from North Carolina or somewhere like that, and I guess she has dual citizenship though she lives here in Toronto. She's always talking about how upset she is about the state of things in the united States, and here in Canada as well, and how she's writing letters to congressmen, senators, the prime minister, etc. It's heartbreaking...I mean how many of these people actually read what she writes? I know she pours her heart and soul into this stuff but I can't escape the feeling that it's all for nothing...these people really think they've heard it all before and they simply know what's best, or they're only interested in dollars and so don't give a damn anyway.

I expected an answer such as this. Urgh, the scores that reviewers gave Senmuth's albums don't help much either. Ah well. I'll go with the best cover art then.

For real, my favorite album is Evolution: Exodus, but I've heard 8 albums out of what, 80 something? God only knows which ones truly are the best.

I've taken up running again, as it is quite liberating and a good way to get some exercise and listen to music (instead of just sitting around my house listening to music). Last night, I uploaded my "Somewhere in Time" CD onto my iPod and ran to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Holy fuck, talk about adrenaline. That song would not let me stop. Even when I thought I'd reach my physical threshold, and my legs were on fire and I was completely out of breath, I would play that song and fucking keep going. With the night sky and cool breeze accompanying me, it was also strangely euphoric.

Running is really great exercise, and really liberating. I used to be a long distance runner (was never super good, but I did get my one mile time under 6 minutes at my best), until I injured my foot about three years ago. Now I'm all fat and out of shape.

So I always knew that Beherit's Engram was a very good album, but every time I listen to that last track, "Demons' Advance", I have to smoke a gigantic bowl and marvel at how powerful it is. If Beherit continued in this kind of direction it'd be simply amazing. The rest of the album doesn't sound much like this piece, either. So heavy and dark, and the way he keeps adding those layers of synth while maintaining the same trancelike pace and feel throughout yet still building to this huge evil climax....damn. I'd say "more of this please, NHV", only I'm pretty sure if I was too public about that he'd purposefully make an album like the Oath of Black Blood just to tell me to fuck off...

Man, that was known all along. That wasn't some real shocking revelation. Anyone who wasn't fellating Fox News was aware of that. Hell, even *I* knew it and I was just a stupid 18 year old at the time. (Fun fact: War in Iraq started on my 18th birthday - March 20, 2003. Glad I'm female and didn't have to register for Selective Service.)

Thanks for reminding me to buy that album, I've heard bits of it and I was impressed. I wonder if their older stuff is as good

I don't think it's the fact that the public was duped that's the revelation, the revelation is that the duping can be publicly admitted to, the fact that the people were told a huge lie and many lost their lives over it, yet those responsible still escape unscathed. Of course if you're a cynical person you'll say that that was inevitable anyway, but it's exactly this kind of cynicism that we should be fighting, because most extremely cynical people have no ideals and are extremely apathetic. Yes, people should be very very angry about this sort of stuff, and not just a bunch of "9/11 truthers" posting crap on youtube and so on. If you deceive an entire nation, it doesn't really matter so long as you have enough money and friends in high places that can protect you, is the message this sends. Considering the supposed founding precepts of the uSA, there ought to have been riots in the streats over this business.

I would say so, but you'd better do some sampling, they're one of those bands that people seem very polarised about. For every person that believes Drawing down the Moon is classic there's someone out there who finds it dull, plodding, too simple, etc.

Sick burn.

Yes, thank you. And even if (mind you this is a massive, absurdly enormous, planet-sized, hypothetical if) there were no illegal intent behind the affair, if it were (use your imaginations here) simply an incredible mistake, a cock-up of inconceivable, mind-shattering proportions, what would you do with the man "fully responsible" for it all? If you were a senator, you would howl for his impeachment, if not his blood, for he would clearly be a walking travesty of authority, a glorious avatar of incompetence. You would reasonably say to yourself "this man is incapable of safe leadership; he cannot be allowed another day as our high leader, responsible as he is for the misguided deaths of untold thousands." And then he would be summarily deposed, having admitted guilt and been condemned in the sight of the consensus.

And yet...I can't remember even one genuine Senatorial call for his resignation or his impeachment. And then you have people like Andrew Weiner being forced out of office for fucking illicit underwear photos?

I didn't hear about that, but I've often thought of the big fuss over Clinton's whitehouse dalliance in comparison, and what a stir that caused. There's a real sickness at work when a little marital infidelity makes more headlines and causes more apparent unrest than orchestrated lies and half-truths leading to bloodshed on a massive scale. People said of Clinton, "but if this man could break his marriage vows so flagrantly, what could his election promises/the fabric of the nation/the safety of the people matter to him?" It simply doesn't compute. The Clinton "scandal" made headlines because it excited people, and the figurative calls for his blood (or at least impeachment) were another indication of the public's hunger for dirt and sensation. Sex sells better than does agonising political hearing, basically. Anybody remember the Oliver North business?

Edit: And I'm well aware that I am simplifying the picture, and to be honest I don't follow US politics very rigorously, and I was a very young child when the Iran contra business happened. Even so, I remember watching bits of the hearings on television with my father at the time, and later I wondered just why it was that people didn't seem more upset about all this, yet trivialities irked them so much. Maybe we have come to expect nothing but utter duplicity and treachery from leaders, and so when it happens a complete sense of cynicism and powerlessness (and hell knows I feel it too) prevents hell from being raised over truly serious issues. If that is the case, then we in the comfortable west have been successfully repressed ourselves, not with guns and so forth but with newspaper headlines, yammering televisions that tell us what we're really supposed to be worried about, etc.

Indeed. NWOBHM is like one of THE metal movements. But personally, over the years, as much as I like extreme metal, I feel like it's starting to be a mood thing. Like, anytime I feel like spinning something, I'm always in for some more traditional stuff, while I really don't always feel like putting some death or black, while I still like extreme metal almost as much as before. I feel I need to invest myself a bit more in the mood or something, while I feel there's never a bad time to put some more rockin' stuff, I rarely want to put some extreme metal when I just feel like relaxing with a beer.

@ Abom: Agreed. Maybe people have some ambiguous script in their mind that "war is hell," and therefore anything associated with it gets a free pass as being just part of the 'fog of war' or some shit, no matter how heinous it might be. Or maybe because war has little to do with "everyday family values," people tend to feel like they have no ability to judge what's right or wrong in war situations. "Those are the decisions we pay our leaders to make," etc etc. "They're just doing their best to keep us safe," etc. "As long as we're winning...." Etcetera. But then when it comes to something really 'close to home,' something that involves parental guidance and manners and shit like that, people start frothing and getting all up in arms and righteous. It's insanely retarded. This Weiner business was in the headlines for weeks. For those that don't know (not trying to get all America-centric up in here), it was just a matter of some random congressman sending some naughty pics to an intern or coworker or something, and it became this huge deal (coincidentally distracting everyone's attention from the Libya affair) that culminated in his resignation from office. It was exactly like the Clinton thing, except even more PG-rated, even less important, and with punnier headlines.

Yeah, Johnny, its definitely a mood thing for me as well. I have a few death metal CDs still in the packaging (Encoffination, Bastard Priest, new Deteriorot) just because I haven't really been in the mood for the crushing morbidity lately. I don't sweat it though, I know its always on the verge of rolling back around.

I need to get a copy of Power Games, and soon.

Been wanting that album too, hopefully I can get it on LP for cheap. I got Opening Enclosure recently and it's pretty damn good, the packaging is also really sweet, really old school.