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the silence was broken by cries
2003-12-10 13:18:55
It's Agalloch weather here. When I look out the lab windows, I have to blink to make sure someone's not just holding up the cover of _The Mantle_ And they'll shortly be touring the US with The Gathering. Sweet. Not only do I have a chance to catch perhaps the best post-black metal live show ever assembled, but at next Metalfest I can score big bogus l33tness points by saying that I've (truthfully) been following them since 1999.
I've already written my column for the 13th, so I can concentrate on studying, the book, and getting tracks off lugburz.be. I wish the succeed rate on here was better...there's a lot of crappy black metal coming out of the Low Countries, but when they're good they're DAMN GOOD. In between the over-stylized French cults and the more 'street', deathy sound from Germany, influenced by raw Norwegian and orchestral English styles without the bogus politics of the Eastern European scene....probably the best blended black metal out there. If only there was a site like this for the East Asian scene...Neurotic of Gods has thoroughly justified my original high expectations for Malaysian black metal, like a slightly calmer version of the completely gonzo Singapore sound.
If you haven't already kicked off this page to check out lugburz, do so now, and don't forget to pick out whatever Disown you can. Heavy-bore black/death = awesome.
May put a video up on direct over break, but that's kind of up in the air right now. Candidates are still undecided.
--Kai out
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don't | want | to be
2003-12-09 07:26:47
If I don't have anything to say about video progress, I probably shouldn't post anything. And right now I'm sitting in the lab on what will (probably) become four hours of sleep in 42, getting last-minute observations on an AI simulation and underground Belgian extreme metal tracks.
I need to get _Hell's Unleashed_ like, yesterday. I was always a fan of Unleashed's old sound, no matter how simplistic it might be, for most of the same reasons I own Manowar live releases and Usurper demos. There's just something about that kind of rawness and purity that continues to appeal. Now, though, Jonny et al are spinning that sound a little differently, and the result is still cool. Unleashed going hardcore? Unleashed sounding like a crossover with the Gravediggaz? They might as well, because Amon Amarth has thoroughly 0wnz0r3d the viking-death niche, and as good as "Hail The New Age" was, it can't hold a candle to "Victorious March".
Watched some Last Exile last night for a study break. If it wasn't for the faint gundam-dumbness vibe that it emits and that I only have those three eps, I'd have to go out and buy a DVD to stop feeling guilty. As it is I can just continue to drive myself to exhaustion, and eventually it'll go away.
About eleven days until break. I think I can hack it.
--Kai out
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none buried deeper
2003-12-08 11:49:27
Hiatus couldn't have come at a better time. I should be able to work through all the crud that I've still got to deal with and get some good progress in on the book before the end of the semester, now that I don't have to push myself to do videos.
I've worked through a lot of hate and frustration in the past couple days, and I'm pretty sure that I've gotten myself straightened out. I wish I could say I've got my whole life solved, but more accurately it's just that a solution plan has been determined.
Whatever. I'm going home in less than a week, my projects all clear in less than two days, and I'll finish getting another Chastisement live-show in less than half an hour. I want in on their bandwidth deal....
On a related note (servers & such), it's looking more and more likely that there will actually be a SH non-org web presence and Video of the Week links by the end of January. This was supposed to be Video of the Month when originated, but then the pace started way outrunning any idea of making that reasonable. Sure there will be reruns. But this way, all that non-demo stuff that was too gory or dumb for the .org will get some exposure.
Not like that's always a good thing...(thinking of #34)
--Kai out
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don't come here to mourn
2003-12-05 16:52:16
So I started a new video last night. Did crazy audio editing, got all the source together, etc. However, the way school is going, I may not be able to work on it except as a study break going into exams. It's an excellent way to relieve stress and frustration, though, and I've got way more of that than I need. Hikaru gives the world the finger.
On the plus side, though, chapter-12-so-far has been given a thumbs-up, which is good. I don't have to worry about rewriting it, and the mods I need to make to chapter 17 probably won't be too severe.
This would be where the video progress stuff and band tht's better than yours stuff would go, but I've got a meeting and will spend the next 4 hours writing code. Probably an informative/less content-free submission tomorrow.
--Kai out
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taking me back to the real world
2003-12-04 12:45:48
The first words out of her mouth were "how could you" so I guess I did something right. Chapter 11 success.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about the current video. It's basically shelved right now, because I don't have either my spare breakout or my software CD on hand, so I can't get the capture system working. Given that I've pushed a couple thousand clips through the PCI hardware since the last cap, with no signs of malfunction, and that it works okay for output, I don't think the chip's bad; I may have driven into a loop in the breakout or overwritten something important with all those memory antics, but both of these are fixable. Just not with anything I've got on hand.
So AMVs are more or less off my mind, allowing me to concentrate on schoolwork and the book for the rest of the month. Need airport pickup as well. Hopefully everyone'll already be gone by the time I need to ship out -- last midterm on the last day = not fun.
Today's band that's better than yours is one of Swedish production mastermind Dan Swano's projects, Nightingale (quoted in the title). Even though they don't hit anywhere near as hard as his main band, Edge of Sanity, and their aggro is much more full-on prog than Evergrey's, they're still much cool and to be respected. Most bands have trouble articulating a concept though a single album; Nightingale's _The Breathing Shadow_ epic stretches over *FOUR*, released over a period of seven years. It's good music, not just that I'm two degrees of separation from the band (know Shayne (ceno) Schecht, who's one of Dan's good buddies). Unfortunately, they're on Black Mark, but their distro is now through The End, so things could start looking up for them a little.
Especially if both people who read this journal checked them out. That'd, like, *double* their American fanbase (j/k).
--Kai out
JOURNAL: Kai Stromler (Kai Stromler)
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