Iceni

'Stellar Depopulation' by Wormed. This seems like one of their weaker tracks but I'm not all that fussed.

Agreed; also, bugger Metalsucks with telephone pole. The article I saw that convinced me never to go on there again was some model talking about 'the top 5 metal bands with whom she would most like to participate in the event of a gangbang'. Also somebody was saying vocals don't belong in metal music anymore, which would have been a clever observation had it not been completely wrong and probably written by someone who likes Animals As Leaders.

Really? I was completely unaware of this whole thing. ...it was ReturnToCarthage, wasn't it?

I don't know...I think they're all right, they're not long or eloquent but I think they get the point across.

These are the ones that have stuck out to me thus far: Fallujah - 'The Flesh Prevails' Black Crown Initiate - 'The Wreckage of Stars' Severnaja - 'In Dying Summer's Glow' Devin Townsend Project 'Z2' Voyager - 'V' Persuader - 'The Fiction Maze' Archspire's 'The Lucid Collective' wasn't bad either, but I should give it another run-through. 'Methocha' by Quadrivium was also good, but I'm not sure if it's quite on the level of the others here. Equilibrium's 'Erdentempel' was good too, as was Ne Obliviscaris' 'Citadel'.

'Linear' by Black Crown Initiate. FA, you might like these lyrics more than I do (I obviously don't agree with the premise) and might find the whole idea of the album interesting. My own wonky take on the album is that it's an atheist genetic/biological engineer talking to some variety of religious person who is eventually confronted with an incontrovertible 'truth': the nonexistence of God and free will, and tries to deal with that revelation. Plus it's great music, a nice bit of dissonance here and there.

The ratel is ours, mah bru.

Quo Vadis, Sympathy, Devin Townsend Project, Into Eternity, Borealis, Blood Revolt, Heaven's Cry, Unhuman, Excruciating Thoughts, Abolishment of Hate, First Fragment, Disembarkation, and of course Unexpect are some of my favorites. Archspire's latest was also pretty good, and I'm getting into Cryptopsy.

As I recall that's also how you like your women...

'Fragments of Light' by Vallendusk, some Indonesian stuff. Let's hope this doesn't get boring after two minutes in the name of 'atmosphere' like most of the black metal I've been hearing lately. What do you mean? That song was OK but not Threshold's best in my opinion.

'Noir' by Severnaja. Lumi continues to be awesome here.

Agreed. The weather is nice but I wish it'd pick a temperature.

'Autumn Red' by Threshold. Bleuh, this album is kinda boring. It's not as if it's a result of a long decline, 'Dead Reckoning' and 'March of Progress' are arguably this band's best work. This song is enjoyable, but so far it's one of only two songs that haven't leaned injudiciously upon the crutch of emotional atmosphere. It's not really good atmosphere either, like Katatonia or Forest Stream...it's more like saccharine dithering like In Mourning's regular trough of bollocks.

Finished up some rice, beans and sausage at my friend's place, he's a good cook.

My friend actually asked me whether it was ethically permissible for Christian women to jack off to Jesus. I remember him saying to me 'man, I wouldn't wanna be cucked by Jesus...' As for reasoning in and out of something...I'm beginning to realize that. It's just disappointing to see my mom being so relentlessly illogical, I know she's not stupid enough to believe what she professes.

'Stench of the Iron Age' by Black Crown Initiate. The name sucks. The band does not.

It depends. How did this conquest happen?

Ha. I get that same 'not a religion' BS from people occasionally: 'no really, it's a relationship...' Well I hope not, I'm not sure how I'd feel being given a thousand-page book of guidelines by somebody I was trying to date, and trying to get to first base with Jesus is notoriously difficult, what with the beard and the being intangible. The problems didn't exactly start with her conversion so much as the lead-up to that conversion. All of us did our darndest to point out the flaws in the literature she was reading and never really seemed to disagree with any of us, but that didn't stop her from adopting a position standing in very stark contrast with the rest of us. Yes, she's the one giving the lectures, most of the time. We had a long, long talk about birth control over the summer. I use the word 'talk' because there was no argument, it consisted mainly of me trying to argue but getting caught up in the justifications she used, which were in themselves flawed. It's hard to localize an argument because all of this stuff fits together, but even some of the localized premises don't work. Why, for example, if life is a gift and if the purpose of intercourse is reproduction, are couples permitted to engage in any kind of birth control? What makes naturalness a criterion for Godliness, especially considering the presence of Original Sin in Catholic doctrine and the Biblical contention that the natural world is inherently flawed? Why are 'artificial' inventions considered negative despite the fact that at root the result is the same, the intent is the same, and that these 'unnatural' means are constructed entirely out of materials which are naturally occurring? It boggled my mind how completely unproductive the whole argument turned out to be given that I constructed my complaints as clearly as possible.

I'd looked positively upon the marriage of British and Indian cuisines for producing tikka masala, but perhaps I was too hasty.

'The Nonlocality Trilemma' by Wormed. BRRRECK EURRRRP WEEGREEEB Oh, this is so fun...

I just decided to try listening through Aberrant Vascular's album Aegisthus. For some reason I remembered I'd glossed over it, maybe because the songs were too long. It's been awesome so far, that vocalist is wasted in Thaurorod. Also Wormed and Quadrivium showed up in the recommendations so I'm giving them a shot. Quadrivium is very elegant, great stuff; Wormed is a lot of fun and I've only heard three minutes. Granted, that's because they don't do one thing for longer than 10 seconds but that's fine with me...they manage to make these goofy grunts and slams into something genuinely enjoyable.

'Hold Back Tomorrow' by Anubis Gate.

'Ultimatum' by Galneryus. This album Vetelgyus is weird, I can't quite make my mind up. Every song has good bits and crap bits. The stock power metal drumming is back, but the vocals are certainly memorable.

Psycho Traktor In My Pants.