Iceni

'Loss of Will' by Esoteric.

'Saturn and Skies' by Ghost Ship Octavius.

The 'Blasted Into Lunacy' album by Cephalic. Apparently this is impossible to get hold of anywhere...it is excellent technical brutal DM though.

'Prism of Muteness' by Abstract Spirit. I'm at work again so on goes the funeral doom.

'Dusk' by Las Cruces?

'Viva Loa Vegas' by Troldhaugen. So, Ghost Ship Octavius' self-titled was probably the only album I've ever heard that actually improved as it went on. I did like it a lot so I might just pick it up.

'Alive' by Ghost Ship Octavius.

No. You go to hell. You go to hell and you die. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYJcc2cItWA&feature=youtu.be

I agree - and it's a lot easier for me to pick up a new DM band than a new clean-vocal band but I think the threshold for greatness on clean vocals is higher. However, I don't think I'll ever be as awed by good growls as I will be by Vladimir Lumi's stylish bass, Jens Carlsson's howling, or Andy Schmidt's ragged melodic roar.

'Nevermind' by Leonard Cohen. Less of a techno sensibility in this song woulda gone far, and frankly the Arabic section makes no sense at all. Cohen's voice sounds like a wonderfully menacing Southern version of Gunther and the Sunshine Girls, so just throw in a bit of flourshing Southwestern guitar in the background and it'd be perfect to its purpose.

I had to go on a harsh-vocal drought for a little while because my cousin hated harsh vocals. Wasn't terrible, I actually prefer clean vocals most of the time, but I missed some of my prog-death...

'Between the Devil and the Seas' by Savage Circus over my roommate's nice big ol' speakers. I got to listen to Division by Zero and a lot of my other music at an ungodly loud volume last night, probably the highlight of Independence Day for me.

'Back For More' by Pyramaze. This does not at all sound like Pyramaze...more like more recent Anubis Gate. I'm not feeling particularly charitable toward it at the moment but it's not bad. I definitely need to give this another chance. Well, the Borealis album was a little less mind-blowing than I thought but it's still great and I'll definitely buy it. Apparently Darkology dropped something new as well so I'll look at that...maybe I'll try the new Storyteller as well. Ghost Ship Octavius released their debut, and I don't remember trying Divinity Compromised. I've got a lot of homework...

Sometimes I do honestly need to turn off the music, but that's only when I'm doing very intensive work...which happens either when I really care about a paper or when I've procrastinated. If I do things right I usually write to music.

Really? I've slogged through quite a bit of funeral doom at my internship... really good research music, that. Esoteric, Revelations of Rain and Abstract Spirit have been the soundtrack to my discovery of comparative points in religious freedom in Denmark and Sweden.

'From the Ashes' by Borealis. Man this band just gets better with every release if these teasers are any indication.

OK, ended up getting just 'Gloria' and 'Back to Times of Splendor', along with a Gurren Lagann flag for my best friend and a handful of songs off Amazon.

Almost anyone in the Dutch School, Rembrandt and Rubens in particular. I also like some of Raphael. Art Nouveau is awesome too, and I like Brian Ching, Jan Duursema, Doug Chiang, Dermot Power, Iain McCaig and a lot of other folks who did art for the Star Wars movies.

Dude, I'm pissed to be back in DC. Calm down.

Finished Akame ga Kill recently and while it kinda sucks that the pacing was so breakneck sometimes (as there seemed to be plot points like the romance that just kinda popped up outta nowhere) and that the main character seemed a little dull, it's still by a massive margin one of the most enjoyable animes I've ever seen. In a sense it's even a strength; you'd be hard-pressed to find any filler nonsense anywhere. It's got the vibrant color palette and excellent character design from Fairy Tail along with the good fights and blood from Soul Eater. The show also has a nice sense of humor along with its dark tone (never gets too big for its britches in that regard) a fun and surprisingly nuanced and relatable set of villains with their own fun group dynamic and a great main villain who is herself deceptively simple. Also this guy, who has a buzzsaw mace. You hear that? A f*cking buzzsaw mace!

Well, I didn't really get to post at all while I was on vacation, which might have been just as well because it was awesome. I have a newfound love for my South African relatives and it was wonderfully enjoyable all around. Two of the best meals of my entire life plus hanging out with relatives who were all fun to talk to and affectionate and sarcastic plus being around my family anyway (including having a genuinely enjoyable conversation with my mom) plus a comfy bed plus some of the nicest weather NM's ever produced plus actually waking up at 7 every morning and being sleep-deprived because I wanted to savor every single day...man, what a fantastic break. I really wish I coulda stayed another few days. Left to right: Dad, me, cousin, aunt, brother, granny, Mom

The rolls of thunder as the sky takes a giant anti-patriotic whizz all over the denizens of this muggy pit. No, I'm not happy to be back in DC...

My brother drew this to poke fun of the inept yet pretentious art scene we have here in New Mexico, especially in Taos and Santa Fe:

^Sorry, this kinda inspired a rant. I keep seeing a lot of my youth group and homeschool acquaintances getting married at 20, 21...one girl at 17...It's amusing because these are the same people who will profess shock that apparently the divorce rates among Evangelical Christians are exactly the same as among the rest of the population. I suspect they'll learn to like their marriages because they'd probably feel like empty failures if they divorced. So they'll either be in deep denial or (if they did choose to divorce) absolutely despondent because they failed and don't feel like trying to redeem themselves because that might involve admitting that they did something wrong. Remember, for as much as these folks talk about repentance they don't really repent of anything. It's more like a tabula rasa. They don't do anything different because they've never been taught to take responsibility for the state of their souls. Instead of viewing their lives as filled with opportunities granted by the grace of God they tend to assume the grace of God is something that is waiting to be granted. They place all the responsibility on God because they assume that he'll just do everything for them - and they've convinced themselves that this somehow constitutes humility instead of willfully indolent obliviousness. Or maybe their lives could be great. Maybe they do have difficulties but weather them because they do genuinely love each other. That'd be lovely. Maybe I'm just being extremely sour about the whole thing because of my bad luck and lack of initiative in trying to meet people - especially given that these folks have no trouble finding kindred spirits whereas I've been blessed to find two or maybe three outside of my own family. However, I have a suspicion that they're lying to themselves and to others. (By the way, yes. I am enjoying my vacation a lot. It's just that we met another one of these guys who got married at 21 the other day and it weirded me out the way it always does)