FatherAlabaster

a mashup: Assuck - Anticapital and Jerry Cantrell - Degradation Trip

Wow, I actually really liked that. Great gloomy lo-fi mood. 8.5/10 Funny - right in the middle of the song, my kid pressed a button on his toy keyboard and it started playing a little tune in exactly the same key. It fit really well. I had to walk over to the computer and double check it wasn't part of the track. Reminded me a lot of this - released the same year: Frf3hhNIwLs

Again - I'd call that evidence of something peculiar about our way of thinking. A tendency, throughout history, to attribute events that we don't understand to the working of an active intellect. Having evolved as social creatures, it makes sense that we'd look for personal motives behind every occurrence. I grew up with the Hindu pantheon, but even as a child I started to see it as a metaphor. At some point it wasn't a useful metaphor anymore.

Cheers! I was never huge on thrash, but a standout for me is that Forced Entry album, "As Above, So Below" - ever get into them?

Excellent. I'll check out Negative Plane. Castevet is like black metal with an Isis twist - I'll have to find the CD again, my hard drive died a while back and I'm still rebuilding my collection. I agree with everything you said about Ulver. Bergtatt has been one of the prides of my physical CD collection for at least 15 years at this point. Rotting Christ's "Triarchy" was an accidental discovery of mine in 1996 and became one of my biggest influences as a musician for a while, so that'll always be my favorite, and I apologize, my mistake - Non Serviam is the one with the out of tune guitars! And still, some really great songs. I have to say that "Triarchy" is the last one of theirs that I liked. I wouldn't call it black metal, more "dark metal"... but I can't be going too far down that subgenre-label-rabbithole. I hear what you're saying about North From Here, which is why it's a tough one to categorize. Easier to categorize is Disfear - definitely NOT black metal - but listen to the track "Det Sista Kriget" and see if you can't hear some Darkthrone or Bathory. Darkthrone, by the way, I liked all the way up through "Sardonic Wrath", but I have to say that, by a slim margin, "Transilvanian Hunger" tops my Darkthrone list. I hate to have to admit this, but I never liked "De Mysteriis". I couldn't get behind the vocals. I wanted to like it. I tried really hard. I prefer Maniac. What can I say... And to say that a lot of these bands hit their stride later on isn't to say their albums belong on a black metal list! A lot of Bethlehem's later material sounds more like Rammstein. I like some of Ihsahn's solo stuff but it's not black metal either. For troo kvlt laughs, have you heard Ulver's split with Immortal? It sucks, it's worse than "Goatlord" in terms of production, but fun to hear anyway.

That's exactly why it's worth real study. Dennett explains his concept far better than I could. "Consciousness Explained" is worth reading for argument's sake if you're into thick wordy stuff' date=' even if you wind up thinking it's either wrong or irrelevant at the end (I think neither; I love that book). But the point, which you've taken, is that individuals' perceptions can be different, their interpretations of those perceptions can be different, and their memories of them can vary wildly in accuracy, strength, etc. - so the individual's reports of their own experiences are treated as [i']one set of data. There can, and should, be others, like "what brain events took place while subject A was reporting feeling X? What about subject B?" It's a lot like classic experiments in neuroscience. (I imagine that as a law student, you're used to dealing with adversarial subjects; we'd want to assume they weren't lying, but if they were, the question would become "why did A choose to lie about X?") Self-reporting is widely used in experiments to begin with, and it's not worth disregarding in this one special case - in fact it might be eminently useful. To establish a library of these reactions, to really map it out with a lot of people instead of just saying "we're all different, end of story", would be a worthy undertaking. To come at it from a different angle - the question of the "soul". The brain is a physical object, and physical, chemical/electrical things happen in it that precede our actions and respond to stimuli, and those things comprise our thoughts (unless you follow someone like Sheldrake, who is A) guilty of wishful thinking and full of shit, IMHO). In any case it follows that the "soul," however immeasurable or indescribable it might be, must have some physical ramification, some point of contact - if it exists, it's our tether to the metaphysical. They have been looking for this point of contact for centuries with no success (the pineal gland, anyone?). Not to say it won't be found - the odds aren't very good - but the basic point of both of my little arguments here is that we're not up against things that are unknowable in principle. We're up against things we haven't figured out; we're up against things we haven't figured out how to figure out. I don't think that evolution has gifted us with the miraculous ability to comprehend the totality of existence, but there are a lot of easy questions in here, and I'm betting the hard questions will get broken down into easier ones, and eventually disappear. It's far more interesting/illuminating to me to wonder why we as humans are susceptible to metaphysical thinking, than to just accept A) the fact of metaphysical thinking, and some people's insistence on their interpretation of things they may or may not have actually experienced, as actual evidence of a metaphysical plane. All it's evidence of, really, is that a lot of people think a certain way. And not too much light has been shed on that. Saying it's "unknowable" is a copout. Saying it's "non-linear" is semantics. We have to try harder.

Hedningarna - Hippjokk not metal - semi-traditional Scandinavian music with some electronic elements, late 90s era. If you dig trad music, check this album out. Good for dancing around bonfires.

Gotcha, no worries. Send me a PM and we'll get the email/dropbox thing sorted out. Working on my new album at the moment, so recording time is a bit limited, but I'm happy to give it a listen and see if I have anything to offer.

Guitars too sharp. Too much compression on vocals. Must redo the mix with my tin ears and cheap equipment. Keep plugging away. Ancient samurai say: Cry in the dojo, laugh on the battlefield.

I prefer the Lionheart (NYC based medieval a capella group!!!) version from their album "Paris 1200". But this song. Despite being non-religious. S7Ax2yl2f6U

Wasn't sure what to expect from this, but I liked it. A little too simplistic for my taste, but quirky enough to be interesting. 7/10 Looks like there's a linked ad in this video, annoying, don't know what's up with that. But: YepbZ90amLY

Chris Cornell, Grutle Kjellson from Enslaved, Mikael Akerfeldt, Jonas Renske, Garm (Ulver), Michael Gira (Swans), Phil Anselmo, Maynard from Tool. Hansi Kursch has an amazing voice but I really can't stand Blind Guardian. Pasi Koskinen for his singing on Amorphis albums Elegy and Tuonela and his screams on the Ajattara stuff - the music is a bit bland but his screams are intense. For even harsher stuff, I love Jeppe Lerjerud (old Disfear frontman), Jon Chang (Discordance Axis), Edgy 59 (Burning Witch) and Alan Dubin (Khanate). At the moment I'm really diggin Cedric Bixler-Zavala on ATDI's "Relationship of Command" and Mars Volta's first two albums. My fuck but he can sing. Bit of an acquired taste.

Odd to see so many shout-outs for Hammett and none for Hetfield. Oh, let me add: Chris DeGarmo (from Queensryche, kids). I didn't like "Hear In The Now Frontier" AT ALL but they really 100% shat the bed after he left. His solos still inspire me to come up with guitar parts.

I don't know what you mean by "awesome vocals" but if you like sort of gruff, dark screaming and kinda doomy guitars, October Tide's first two albums are amazing. "Rain Without End" and "Grey Dawn". It's Jonas and Fred from Katatonia, BITD. No clean vox but a surprisingly mellow vibe. I really don't like the new album they came out with but those two are pure gold. 86avke300zg

^I think they drove that car off the cliff together. I can't even listen to more than four songs on the black album. In a word, ugh. Unhear? Anything by Despised Icon, Whitechapel, or Job For A Cowboy. Machine Head. Coal Chamber. Music is better off without you.

I don't know if I put Type O in the doom category. They're too gothed out for that. Definitely in my top ten bands of any genre. Doom for me is Burning Witch and Khanate. The self-titled Khanate is harrowing. And another shout-out for Swans - Body To Body era prefigured a lot of doom metal.

I'm not a pagan, but I used to hang out with a bunch of pagans when I lived in Raleigh. Some of my favorite people. I have a Mjollnir on my keychain, probably had it for about 15 years now - the one thing that hasn't changed. And yes, I still have an impulse to offend people when I get accosted by their opinions about god. Growing up in the South, if nothing else, made me hate sappy-ass passive-aggressive christian pandering. Trying to keep it cool now that I'm all over the neighborhood with my kid, but sometimes nothing but "Fuck Off" seems to work.

Any list with Bergtatt is ok by me! My favorite Ulver album, and probably my favorite black metal album though I love Nattens Madrigal and Themes from A Marriage of Heaven and Hell (not black metal but still brilliant). Criticisms or additions, IMHO: Satyricon: "The Shadowthrone" makes "Nemesis Divina" sound like commercial pandering. Maybe a touchy choice, but Sentenced - "North From Here" belongs on my list. Fuck all their other albums. So does some old Dawn, like "Naer Solen Gar Nither For Evogher". "Slaughtersun" is cool, but not my favorite. I like Khold, and Tulus' "Biography Obscene" - maybe not "black metal" but I'm not sure where else you'd put it. I hate to admit it, but "Vittra" by Naglfar used to be one of my favorites, about 16 years ago... In retrospect it's either bad black metal or not black metal at all, and I don't listen to it anymore, but it had its place. In this vein I'd also put up "Ancient God Of Evil" by Unanimated. Rotting Christ: all I can say is "Triarchy Of The Lost Lovers":"Thy Mighty Contract" as "Arise":"Beneath The Remains", and I can't get past the guitars being out of tune. Bunch of cool tunes on there but this is a case where bad production really harms the album. If we're including Celtic Frost, "Into The Pandemonium" is still my favorite. Before they went full-on suck. Older Enslaved, I'd hang out with "Blodhemn" although some might want to call it "viking metal" instead. Overall, "Below The Lights" may still be my favorite for overall impact and inventiveness although I love almost everything they've done since then. Mork Gryning's self-titled from 2005 is really good, as is Dodheimsgard's "Supervillian Outcast" - both odd albums, pushing the industrial envelope, great for walking around the city in a bad mood. Some of these bands really hit their stride after their initial "black metal" phase, like Emperor (IX Equilibrium is still my favorite) and Bethlehem (I admit to actually liking "Dictius Te Necare", but I think they found their voice with a few songs on "Mein Weg"). I saw Mayhem on the Grand Declaration tour. Really intense. The album didn't do them justice. I liked it OK but it wore on me quickly. "Wolf's Lair Abyss" is a bit more to my taste. Again, not "black metal" at all, but I got into Disfear through their involvement with Darkthrone, and they have a lot in common on their early albums. Love the vocals! "Brutal Sight Of War" and "Soul Scars" were some of my required listening in college. Not that dreck they did with Tomas. I'm still not sure how I feel about the resurgence of (so-called) black metal in NYC over the past few years, but a couple of local bands that stick out as being solid to me are Castevet and Mutilation Rites. Good live shows, good recordings. Check them out if you haven't heard them. I'm not involved with either band, not even really friends with the guys - no bias on my part! A lot of great stuff on your list, with plenty of shit I haven't heard of and a lot of great choices that I couldn't argue with. Good times. Keep it coming!

Lots of good stuff in here. If nobody mentioned it yet, Assuck's "Anticapital" is a bit of a hidden gem. More grind than death. Also, -1 on The Faceless. Their name suits them perfectly.

Matt Taibbi has a good response to the criticism. My knee-jerk reaction was to agree with Ozzy (surprisingly) but Taibbi's article makes a lot of sense.

Wow, I feel that way too a lot of the time! I know exactly what you mean!

Alice In Chains At The Drive-In Opeth TV On The Radio Soundgarden don't look at me that way I love metal too