Hacked is great, but I always loved the Mortal Massacre EP the best. That came out in 1991 when they still had a human drummer and it's one of the heaviest albums I've ever heard. Another cool Mortician album is Final Bloodbath Sessions, which is basically a "best of" album re-recorded live in-studio. It's cool to hear those classic Mortician songs with actual, human drumming and without any of the samples (which do get really tedious on a regular Mortician album).

the only album i find them to be overdone on is Chainsaw Dismemberment. that's where they get into minute and a half of sample, minute or so of music territory. but that's part of the album's charm imo

I love their logo and I think Zombie Apocalypse has a great cover art. That's about it for me.

Given what I've seen from Petrucci discussing politics, that wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

Speaking of Dream Theater, I found something rather amusing...

Chris Caffery and Ripper Owens, too.

IIRC Ripper Owens is from Akron, Ohio, so yeah.

I've always wondered how DT would sound without Labrie, but couldn't figured out who would be the perfect replacement for the band

Final Bloodbath Session. All the brutality, real drums, and none of the horror movie samples.

John Arch auditioned for DT at one point I believe. Having that said, I don't think it would have made me like the band a lot more.

Hmm is just there's something about Labire's vocals... It's like a pregnant stripper. Some may be ok with it but I don't feel so comfortable.
Neverthenless I always liked his performance in Winter Rose

I think LaBrie sounded fine on Awake - the exaggerated distortion and improvised high notes he did live around that time sounded cool, too, but were probably the main cause of his vocal damage. (Yeah, I know about his accident, but I don't buy it.)

Shame that the production on Final Bloodbath Session is lacking. Also, fwiw, I think Mortician are better with the drum machine.

Went to a restaurant in Louisiana called Steamboat Bills. The fried alligator was very good and the gumbo was okay. I'm probably going to eat some more gumbo later.

A good friend of mine is running for mayor of my hometown. He's definitely not a politician, and I have no clue what he would actually do if he won, but it would surely be entertaining.

I was looking for live versions of 'Soulitude' by Overkill and my search came up empty bar one potato cam video. Why don't they play that song live more often? It really suits a live atmosphere. Or is the song not as good as I think it is.

Hell yes, a hundred percent so. It's a major part of what set them apart from all the other bands.

Prove me wrong: Mortician are known because they write songs at a level of stupidity very few other bands even consider. Ala Anal Cunt.

Breaking news guys, somethin' huge is coming.
https://www.facebook.com/VektorOfficial ... 950346821/

*sigh* Great, I guess. These guys have to be one of the most over-praised bands in the current scene.

EDIT: Also, they don't have any members other than DiSanto, so I'll take this to mean he's riding solo from here on out, or he's got plans for a new line-up. If he's got plans on a new lineup, isn't weird he's preparing for a new album without any of them?

Terminal Redux being one of if not the best thrash album of the last few years is a double edged sword: obviously the talent is there, so another stellar album is not out of the question unless TR was a fluke but TR will also be nigh impossible to top, so it's gonna be extremely difficult for Vektor to top it.

Oh and also the band drama.

It'll be hard to replace the other guys in the band, so I'm worried the next album will be less inventive, less theatrical, and less interesting.

I've heard Petrucci declare himself Libertarian at least once so it wouldn't surprise if they were all on the Trump train at this point.

On a Dream Theater note, they recently put up a poll on their Facebook page asking if fans wanted their next album to be progressive, heavy, melodic/light, epic-orchestral, or other. Depending on the intentions of said poll, it's either an awkward joke or reassurance that me writing them off in 2013 was for the best.

I'd be all for a revisiting of the style of Images/Awake or Black Clouds. The flat, tasteless noodling of their past 3 albums has gotten old fast.

Dude, trust me on this, there are no real libertarians on the Trump train.

Plenty of libertarians are on the Trump train. You know it - I know it. You don't like it - it only proves to me what I already thought about them. Such is life.

Really....and you know this how?

Pretty much this, though another heavy album like Train of Thought wouldn't go amiss. Awake is probably their darkest album, so I doubt there'll be too much of a return to that sound, as much as I'd like there to be. Since Portnoy left there's definitely been a noticeable downturn in quality. I blame losing a primary songwriter and not replacing him with another songwriter, Petrucci clearly has good ideas but not enough of them for an entire album.

I thought more people were to like Vektor. They are the pioneers of the revival sci-fi and prog thrash movement.
TR is a very complex album, that's maybe its only flaw, to be so perfectionist that it actually became something very dense and hard to dissect.

We don't know what happened with the band and I don't give a damn to band dramas but something is sure, this one won't be irrelevant. Since David is Vektor's mastermind we could still hope something great though I strongly doubt it would top TR.

Wait, there's an entire movement? And they are *the* pioneers of it?

A lot of people like Vektor, don't worry. It's just that when a lot of people like something, it's inevitable that some people will have to shout "overrated". Personally, I think they have a flawless discography.

I am also concerned about the lineup changes, esp. Erik Nelson was a very rare find and his leads added a lot to DiSanto's songs but also Blake (the drummer). Plus of course the insane tightness they had together. We'll see.

...and there definitely is a wave of bands doing the tech/prog thrash/death thing as well as a wave of bands doing that dark sci-fi thing and you can hear Vektor in all of them, some more, some less. For example Black Fast, Droid, Vexovoid, Teleport...

Here's a band from Greece really following in Vektor's footsteps - minus the alien blackthrash vocals: Blasteroid

There was by the end of the 80's a small sci-fi/prog thrash movement led by Voivod among others. It included bands like Obliveon or Hexenhaus but it disappeared quickly.

Then Vektor came with their first album and they "motivated" people to make sci-fi thrash, seeing that this formula succeeded.

And I don't quote Dungeon_Vic because I agree with everything he just said.

Yes, I know about the 80s sci-fi/prog thrash movement.

I am talking about the one you were referring to. What other bands are part of this new "movement"? I suspect there aren't that many and you're just throwing that word around without much thought! BTW I know all of those bands Vic mentioned, none of them are like Vektor and I wouldn't categorize them in the same space, nor say that they are part of any particular movement.

Once again as Dugeon_Vic said check out bands like Vexovoid, Teleport, Obliterated, Paranorm, Exocosm, Black Fast, Droid... I don't know what's your definition of "many bands" but to me since it's a very nitpicky movement (modern technical thrash bands dealing with cosmic stuff) it is normal not to have tons of bands like that, especially since prog thrash is less accessible than standard thrash in terms of composition.

Well, they are not Vektor clones if that's what you mean but honestly, following thrash in the past ten years you must have noticed a surge in bands that have that dark sci-fi theme as well as the prog/technical direction. Usually both. And really, listen to Blasteroid and tell me you don't hear Vektor.

Vektor's main problem is that they just do too much at the same time. A lot of it works, don't get me wrong, I like all of their albums quite a bit, but it's all super dense and becomes this blistering cacophony that can be hard to digest more than a few songs at a time. I thought Outer Isolation figured it out perfectly so I was a bit disappointed with Terminal Redux going so overboard again but I'm always gonna check out what they do next.

Also the band drama isn't hard to figure out. Everybody left except one guy. Gee I wonder who the problem was? Either way I'm pretty sure he's the chief songwriter so I don't expect any drastic shift in sound.

Nah, if you keep listening, eventually the songs will feel very simple. They are dense and complex but today they feel very normal to my ears. I will say that Terminal Redux has one setback and that is the samey dynamics throughout the album. It has few moments that provide balance (the instrumental and Collapse being the most obvious) so it can be a tiring experience, especially at first listens. But overall I think it really boils down to how much time you spend with it.

I thought the same about Individual Thought Patterns ("a mess of riffs and passages") and today it's one of my favorite albums ever.

Yeah, DiSanto is the songwriter. I don't expect a drastic shift in sound either but definitely it's gonna sound like a different band.

I've never seemed to mind a jumble of ideas coming at you at once. Hence I think Vektor are the shit and I actually like Terminal Redux the most. I haven't listened to their stuff intensively, but I'm doing a bit of a brush up on them now and they are growing on me every listen. Where some people hear a busy and overloaded album, I quite enjoy a release that requires multiple listens to take it all in. I find it quite a rewarding process (provided the music is good).

I'm a big fan of Individual Thought Patterns too, but I can see where the people who don't like it are coming from.

Over the weekend, we finally realized the air conditioner in our living room flatly did not cool any air. It was above 90 (F) all weekend, and then it got muggy. On Friday, I put in a work request to our building management to replace the AC. Mind you, this was Memorial Day weekend, so a 3-day holiday weekend for many. By Sunday night, it was so bad, my girlfriend and I ended up basically harassing management until they finally sent someone out whose first comment upon entering the apartment was "oh wow, this is bad." So they replaced it. I hate to be a bother, but by Sunday afternoon, tempers and patience had effectively bottomed out.

Earlier on Sunday, my son and I attempted to build our own ramshackle AC unit, assuming building maintenance would not get to us until Tuesday. It worked fairly well, but we couldn't get enough water frozen in a reasonable time.