One Step Beyond - Out With the Old
EP 2010
23.8 MB, 192kbps

Established in Adelaide, Australia during the 2nd summer of 1997, ONE STEP BEYOND play a unique blend of extreme metal, with styles as diverse as rock, funk and dub, sounding something like a mix of NAPALM DEATH and PRIMUS. Or as described by Eternal frost zine: “Imagine BLOOD DUSTER duking it out with BOB MARLEY and LES CLAYPOOL over the last hit of a PCP laced joint”.

THIS EP WAS RECORDED IN 2005 AND THROUGH LABEL RELATED COMPLICATIONS HAS REMAINED UNRELEASED UNTIL NOW. THE MATERIAL IS PREDOMINANTLY FROM OUR FORMATIVE YEARS FROM 1997-98 AND WAS NOT RECORDED AT THAT TIME. IT IS THE LAST OSB CD TO FEATURE THE TALENTS OF GUITARIST JEREMY LAMMAS.

1. Very Bad Man
2. This Life
3. Verb
4. Ordinary Citizens
5. Psychosexual
6. Dancing Fool
7. In With the New

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=RV6L2RM0

RZA and GZA

Iron Man 2 Review

- Too many attempts at comedic Woody Allen-esque dialogue. I overhear enough of that crap in my life already; I don't want to see actors wasting their breath like that.
- Jon Favreau, stick behind the camera. We don't need tertiary characters beating up goons. Heck, we don't even need primary/secondary characters (Black Widow) beating up goons.
- Speaking of Black Widow, she added very little to the drama. Just eye candy really. I imagined her character to be like many of the female spies that pop up in the James Bond films... very sneaky, very lethal. Here though, she seemed to be doing more paper work than espionage.
- Don Cheadle was respectable as James Rhodes. However, one questions his physical presence as a military man. Terrence Howard had more attitude, and would have served well here.
- The action scenes involving Whiplash came and went like a flash. In contrast, the action scenes with all those Hammer robots dragged on and on and on. I feel they should have made Whiplash much more fearsome... there seemed to be little doubt that Iron Man and War Machine would easily dispose of him. The climactic battle in the first film seemed more tense.
- At two hours, it was way too long.
- Too many references to the Avengers project.
- I'm sick of Stan Lee cameos. Couldn't they be more subtle, and slide him in a Hitchcock manner?
- Captain America's shield. Also so unsubtle. Why not just stick the first Avenger right in our face and get it over and done with? Same thing with Mjolnir in the post-credits scene (though at least that wasn't in the centre of the film).
- Monaco setting was brilliant. SUITCASE ARMOUR FOR THE WIN!!!

BSWTF

Microsoft PowerPoint 2007 doesn't have a wrap text around image functionality.

Instead, one is too manually wrap the text around an image.

See:
http://www.chillnite.com/wtf-microsoft-on-how-to-wrap-text-around-image-in-powerpoint-2007

Diocletian/Ignivomous ANZAC Weekend @ East Brunswick Club.

Check out my photos yo...

Meth Ghost Rae - Avenging Eagles (2010)

This is the official mixtape put out by DJ Mathematics preceding the release of 'Wu-Massacre' on Def Jam. You can find the official link on Maths' website HERE, but the tracklisting is all screwed up. With this upload, I've cleaned up the tags a bit.

MP3, 160kbps.

Tracklist:

1. Intro
2. Mef Vs. Chef (Exclusive)
3. Miranda (Exclusive)
4. House of Flying Daggers
5. The Turn
6. Paisley Darts
7. Silent
8. Cuban Chronicles (Exclusive)
9. Where Your Heat At?
10. Four Minutes to Lock Down
11. All Flowers (Exclusive)
12. RUSH (Mathematics Mix)
13. Method Man PLO Freestyle
14. RUSH 2
15. One (Mathematics Mix)
16. It's Yours (Mathematics Mix)
17. Goldmine
18. For This
19. Deadly Venoms
20. Tony Montana
21. Afterpaty
22. The General (Exclusive)
23. Murda Goons
24. The M.E.T.H.
25. Wu-Gambino's
26. 260thy
27. Wu-Tangs 1st Radio Appearance WBIA
28. St. Ides Commercial
29. Eye For a Eye
30. Right Back At You
31. Extortion
32. 10 Bricks
33. Raekwon and Ghostface Live Radio Freestyle
34. Iron God Chamber
35. It's What It Is
36. Diz iz 4 All My Smokers
37. Black Cream (My Guitar)
38. Where It Started At
39. Fast Shadow (feat. ODB)
40. Block Rock
41. About Me
42. Drummer
43. Watch Your Mouth
44. Cash Still Rules-Scary Hours
45. Box in Hand
46. 7th Chamber Part 2
47. Ghostface Freestyle Live on the Radio
48. Newcomer (feat. Eyes-Low)

Download

Such an awesome mixtape, way better than the album (*cough* EP) it was promoting. Mathematics is well sick.

Wu-Tang Clan poster

Here's what I worked with (Warning: 'tis 8MB in size):

The aim: to remove the watermark and to clean the image up.

The result a few weeks later (had to resize it so that I could upload it):



Used GIMP. Pretty much clone tooled my way through. If you want the bigger version, let me know (6442 x 4464).

Digi Warfare

So a moron off the IMDB boards just reminded me that I have a 'music blog'. The last time I checked, it featured stuff about movies as well.

Anyway, I'm wondering where I should take this, seeing that my last post was in August, 2009. The blog has gone off on various tangents, the most recent one being an absence of posts. I've taken most of my thoughts on albums to RateYourMusic. Films I don't have much time for.

Hmm, well I suppose it doesn't really matter, I'm happy to let this rest.

Archive: Interview with Myrddraal, circa 2004?

Taken from Myrddraal's now dead website. Click here to see it as it was. Was too lazy to fix any typos.



Interview with Lord Surt of Myrddraal for DESECRATION OF VIRGIN Magazine:

Not only War Metal bands are to find in Australia but also soem great traditional hordes a bit in the vein of the old northern heroes, but with originality and own style of copositions comes up MYRDDRAAL from the dark depths of deathhell... get informed what else this aussie horde has to talk about their continent...

How´s life going in Australia for you and MYRDDRAAL?

Things are going pretty well for us at the moment, although we've had a couple of lineup changes since the "Blood On The Mountain" CD. We now have a new drummer and bass guitarist, who both seem to be working well with the band - for the time being at least.

You play any style of black metal.Why do you prefer to play this style in a time of overused clichees and trendy things?

In reality, great music can come from nearly any genre. We play the music we like in the style that suits us best, rather than attempt to create something in the mould of what is fashionable at the time. Our aim is to create music with lasting appeal, not something that will be the latest craze for two weeks.

Do you think there exists a typical aussie death/black style? Many people think that bands like B.Warlust,S.Exekution, Destroyer 666,Gospel of the Horns,Abominator are typical for Australia,what do you think about this kind of tradition and do you see your band in a more different way?

I agree that we are not so typical in the Australian scene, although we do like the above mentioned bands and I'm sure that those influences would find their way into our music somehow. We have not consciously tried to make music that is intentionally similar or different from other bands in our country or the BM genre as a whole. However, I guess that our music does sound fairly different from most of the other Aussie stuff, with the exception perhaps of Abyssic Hate (which is closer to the Norse sound in my opinion) in a couple of parts.

I personally did like your album "Blood On The Mountains" because it offers the feeling of early 90´s black metal in the northern way mixed with your very own ideas.So,original and traditional stuff can be found in same songs together.Tell us your opinion! What things are important for you from actual and past scene?

Basically, we write what we do because that is what we like, what we relate to. I don't go about songwriting with the idea of creating a sound that can be referenced to a particular band, era, style or country. When I write songs, I am trying to externally manifest the feelings within me at the time. So really, these influences from other bands are more or less subconscious when I am composing; and the mix of original vs traditional is not generally an important consideration for me.

If you compare the-so called- typical aussie black/death style with the 90´s northern sounds,what do you think are the main differences? Due to the sound of your CD and songwriting I think that northern sounds have influenced you much more, right?

I perceive that the primary difference between the Aussie style and the 90's northern sound, is that the Aussie stuff tends to be a bit more on the aggressive side, whereas in general the European bands focus a little more on atmosphere. You are quite correct that compositionally speaking, we have focused strongly on the atmosphere of our songs, although we still have a lot of aggressive rocking riffs in there too. Again, not so much planned, but just how the songs came out.

Of course the Norse influence is there, both musically and conceptually. This is reasonably important to myself and to Myrddraal, but we're not trying to copy or even interpret what the Norwegians did back in the early to mid nineties.

You have released a CD with very long playtime and long songs which never get boring...but this all is seldom in black metal scene.Does it all need a very long time to compose the music or wasn´t it a problem to find cool and original own ideas?

That is quite a good point actually. The music featured on the "Blood On The Mountain" CD was composed over a very long period, starting in about 1994 when the title track and outro were penned. I have always tried to take my time writing songs, in the hope that I will be satisfied with them in years to come. To an exent this has been the case; but unfortunately - due to a fairly limited amount of time in the studio (for a work of this magnitude) - I feel that we did not achieve a recording that is completely worthy of the songs themselves. It is all a part of the learning process, so we will be sure to learn from our past mistakes and do it much better next time!

"Daughter Of The Night" is the longest song and it also shows typically the whole variation of your music:fast riffs+drumming,ancient melodies,dark atmosphere,aggressive vocals,acoustic parts and also a technical side of MYRDDRAAL including great solos.From where do you take all these ideas and inspiration to get this great variation,without sounding complex but still simple and straight?

Thanks for the compliments! With a song like Daughter Of The Night, I tried to let the song write itself rather than force the idea. It's a little hard to explain, but basically I started with the concept and very slowly came up with musical and lyrical ideas that I felt would suit the piece. The musical inspiration for the song came entirely from the kind of sounds I heard in my head whilst pondering the conceptual matter of the song - if that makes sense!

Also lyrically it seems that this song is a singular one so please would you tell us the meaning of its words?

That's probably a little hard to convey accurately to someone who is unfamiliar with the "Wheel Of Time" series by Robert Jordan. However in brief, it is basically an ode to the dark, asthetic and powerful side of femininity (personified by the "Lanfear" character); as opposed to the good-willed, caring, mother nature so often associated with the female gender. This idea can be further simplified by removing the gender specific references; to declare simply that BM itself is an embodiment of this side of the dichotomy: BM embraces darkness, power and asthetics over morality and good will.

To have a satanic image is normal in these days and is a clichee standart,so many black metallers search for other things for themselves to get more attention.What about MYRDDRAAL in this point?And your opinion,please!

The way I see it, BM is primarily an artform, albeit one that has certain idealogies attached to it. Much like an opera or a ballet, there are themes belonging to a recording or a performance that do not always transcend the boundaries into one's (composer's, performer's) personal life. As you say it's pretty standard for a BM band to have some kind of Satanic (or otherwise 'evil') image these days, but I strongly doubt that it goes far beyond the superficial level for most bands.

As for Myrddraal, we do not consider ourselves to be Satanists, nor does the band as a whole embrace or appeal to any particular religious creed or political system. However, as individuals we have our own beliefs and ideas; mine being that I believe that Satanism is virtually useless beyond being an opposition to Christianity.

Do you think it is a good way to search for more extreme image if the music still is the same or even more bad...?

Well no, not at all. There are so many bands that have done the whole Satanism thing to death, so it's not really much of an attention grabber these days. Besides which - as I stated before - aside from it's obvious merit as an opponent of the Christian god, Satanism has very little value.

Please would you tell us about your band name?

Again this is inspired by the Robert Jordan novels. In brief Myrddraal are a type of creature spawned of darkness and evil from human and non-human stock. They revel in the suffering of others and cause paralysing fear with a gaze.

When I compare south american scene with australian one,i notice that s.american people are proud of their non-spanish blood and pre-spanish history,and often they use such themes in their lyrics.But in Australia it seems that nobody takes care of the pre-english history.What are the reasons for this?Also it seems that there are no indians involved into the aussie metal scene,tell us more please!

Interesting question! Whilst it is true that many people would rather avoid the chance of becoming involved in violent arguments from overbearing, opionated people by leaving these political issues well alone; I shall attempt to address your query as best I can.

We have somewhat of a division in Australia, in that there are many people who feel that these native people have been done a great injustice by us white Europeans and wish for reconciliation with the native Australian peoples; to give them back their tribal land and compensation for the perceived injustices.

There are others who hold little respect for the Australian Aborigines, due to the antics of many members of this race; which include sniffing petrol, drinking metho and having a generally much lower standard of living than the white European populace of the country.

The former viewpoint is seen to be more "politically correct" and is often associated with "bleeding hearts", Christians and the radical lefties. Whereas the latter could be seen by some as more of a country redneck attitude, or at least that of those who are perceived to be more right wing in a political sense.

Metal musicans and fans as a whole seem to be more likely to come from white middle-class backgrounds, and those who play or are fans of BM tend to be leaning a little more to the right (politically speaking) and hence to some extent less tolerant of Aborigines and/or coloured people in general.

Anyway, perhaps partially due to the generally lower living standard of the Australian Aborigines and/or their lack of acceptance into the scene, they tend to be less likely to become involved in extreme metal music.

The other thing is that metal (BM in particular) is typically a very European style of music; with much of the melodic and harmonic structure being derived mostly from European classical music. Obviously this must to some extent limit it's appeal to those who are receptive to this mode of expression - that being mainly those of European descent.

Decius Prod is a young label from Australia.Please tell us about them and their work!

Decius is a great label and has been very supportive of Myrddraal.

Please give us any future plans,upcoming release info,live activity and all about I forgot to ask!!!!

Myrddraal has just begun rehearsals with the new line up and has a few gigs planned throughout the next few months, including a show in Adelaide. We are looking at entering the studio - perhaps in Winter - to record our next full length CD, which we hope to have a vinyl release of also.

Thanks for the interview and keep spreading the evil fucking word!

Hails!

Surt

Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time album art

I'll try get around to scanning it all. Will also be attempting to upload the scans to AllCDCovers.com. This is the UK edition, from Wiiija Records. The US edition has the female on the front. Just to irritate those looking to download the album, I'll include the tracklist.


Front


Rear (Not the greatest scan, my apologies)


Inside


Inlay

1. "Sleep on the Left Side" – 4:06
2. "Brimful of Asha" – 5:17
3. "Butter the Soul" – 3:19
4. "Chocolat" – 1:24
5. "We're in Yr Corner" – 5:47
6. "Funky Days Are Back Again" – 3:41
7. "What Is Happening?" – 2:15
8. "When the Light Appears Boy" – 2:41
9. "Coming Up" – 1:03
10. "Good Shit" – 4:40
11. "Good to Be on the Road Back Home" – 5:45
12. "It's Indian Tobacco My Friend" – 4:51
13. "Candyman" – 3:49
14. "State Troopers" – 3:07
15. "Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)" – 2:27
    

Myrddraal photos

Myddraal are (or were?) an Australian black metal band. These are pics recovered from their dead website with the help of Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Click the thumbnails for full size images.

Archive: Interview with StarGazer, circa 2003/04?

Used Internet Archive's Wayback Machine to look at Australian esoteric death metallers StarGazer's now dead homepage. Managed to find this interview, which isn't accessible via normal google searching. Click HERE for the link to the original source. Perhaps against better judgment, I've decided to correct some typos, so refer to that link for the interview, typos and all.

Interview from 'Tales of the Macabre' with The Serpent Inquisitor
Costa Stoios, Brunnenstr.6, 54538 Kinderbeuern-Hetzhof, Germany

Costa
Stargazer from Australia, for most people still an unknown name... Of course it's obvious that their music (a mixture of Black/Death/Thrash, but always heavy) rules, otherwise they wouldn't be interviewed here. As I am a lazy guy, I let the band do their own introduction...

The Serpent Inquisitor
I could tell much of Stargazer, yet I shall share what is only necessary. We formed in early 1995, released a rehearsal / demo in mid 1996 called 'Gloat', and before this time we had made numerous recordings of older tracks, which are subsequently featured on our 7 inch EP 'Borne', now available... just write and ask. Early 1997, we were blessed with a new lotus percussionist / vocalist Phoenix Chrysalis who's wise spirit and strength of shell has enabled us to improve somewhat and re-establish the Stargazer faction as a trinitical power, aligned and luminescent one more. This alignment is of extreme importance considering the dimensional shift occurring this Age of Aquarius. Fortunately, this year we have attracted quite a lot of overseas attention, which is very satisfying, this interview being some sort of pinnacle to that statement. Fortunate in that we are also rehearsing heavily for an upcoming studio release, whence we hope to secure a record deal.

Costa
Your style of music is very variable and does not get boring in my opinion... how do you see Stargazer's style of writing songs with your own words?

The Serpent Inquisitor
As a 3 piece band, we have constructed music we best attribute extreme and bizarre Metal in wake of old and later, yet heard material. Only quality riffs are used in that much sifting and work is done on any riff qualitative to a Stargazer hymn. Some are written under the inspiration of lyrical vedas. As we all listen to many types of music, mostly metal and thus types of metal, one can hear slices of Death/Black/Grind/Speed/Thrash and Heavy metal.

Costa
Most Australian bands play very fast and destructive metal and your band also has a touch of this brutal sound. Why do so many bands in Oz play so aggressively? Do you feel my wrath and anger more than others or is it just a chain reaction of influencing each other?

The Serpent Inquisitor
Yes a popular observation of Australian metal. A broad range of metal actually exists here, which is truly admirable, for me - preferable. A few of the songs on our 'Gloat' release are similar to the aforementioned style, yet many are surely not. In many cases it may channel from the forefathers of a countries metal. Australia had bands of such Slaughter Lord, Hobbs' Angel of Death, Martire (still awake) etc, all of that aggressive style you quote. Scandinavia had Bathory, which is surely an influence in the majority of respectively located bands. Perhaps Germanic bands are greatly influenced by the Black / Thrash of Destruction and Kreator? Maybe not. The harsh Australian climate surely be enough to irritate and aggravate any Australian band!

Costa
Yeah, that's an argument! What is your opinion on the Australian underground scene? Good unknown bands?

The Serpent Inquisitor
The Australian scene has had no boom of new bands, which is good. Australian bands put good efforts into some sort of establishment. I could quote many 'new' bands, yet it depends on what age one would accept as 'new'. Either way, some top bands are Oracle of the void, Samain, Shatter Dark, Cauldron Black Ram, Agartus, Dream Sovereign, Martire, Impact Winter, Lord of the Command, Zemial, Lord Kaos, Mournful Congregation, Nocturnal, Spear of Longinus...

Costa
Bah, except for some names there are not many bands I already heard, so there's still quite some stuff to check out. Do you think you can manage to spread your name without having a big label / management in your back? Or will Stargazer always remain an underground band?

The Serpent Inquisitor
Of course that is what the underground is about!! Sometimes I become so engrossed with underground bands I loose foresight of 'bigger' releases. If a band is true to it's supporters despite success, a band to be admired and heralded is that, a goal of many I am sure.

Costa
What about a Stargazer album? have you already been offered a deal or do you think you are not ready for that?

The Serpent Inquisitor
We have chosen the tracks for an album, yet we don't wish to record nor release it for at least one year. As I hinted before, we are perfecting 6 tracks for a MCD release 'Harbringer'. A search for signing begins now. Strong hope we have for a label with the conviction to release our metal classic (hopefully) in the works 'The Scream that Tore the Sky'. One must accept that the CD ormat is a common used medium these days, though that is no excuse for demo-rate bands to press full -length albums! If you are a demo standard band, then release demo's. I personally love demo's, if you yearn some officiality, then work towards a 7 inch piece of vinyl. The scene is flooded with second rate full-length releases, most go unnoticed, we still not allow Stargazer to become one of those statistics.

Costa
I noticed you covered a Sodom song live at a gig. How important is old school metal for Stargazer?

The Serpent Inquisitor
Old school metal is no more, no less important than newer styles and bands. I like new / old style bands like Angel Corpse, Order from Chaos, Blood Storm, and the metal genius of Arghoslent etc. I also like old metal bands like Mercyful Fate / King Diamond, Judas Priest, Candlemass, Watchtower, Iron Maiden, Accept, Rainbow, Dio.... how antique a band is no matter to dispute, good metal is all that matters. and thus we attract influence from all era's. We even covered a Grand Belial's Key song as opposed to elder compositions.

Costa
Please tell us about your gigs. Which was the coolest / worst ones? Are the Australian fans as wild as the bands sound?

The Serpent Inquisitor
The live shows were successful, very extreme and the crowd has always gone away extremely impressed and yearning for more! We have no room for lesser effort, we are currently designing stage props to enhance visual presence and in particular, attract as much sacred energy to the stage perimeter, especially golden ley energy. As I know it, Australian crowds are very supportive and are not predisposed to refraining their emotions driven by good metal! A crowd should appreciate a band accordingly, as a band does an audience through effort and a hard performance. In days of yore, before recording facilities were ever made available, a live performance was the only option for audience, so we stick that musical tradition on a priority list,as should more bands.

Costa
Go ahead with some last words...

The Serpent Inquisitor
I'll first commend you for this interview - I hope you and others gain somewhat of it. All powerful spirits write, and send no IRC's!! Let me quote Stargazer text in honour and salute to you Costa, and my human counterparts known and unknown upon this grand Earth (including those of Sirius), and to revere those, sacred races within. May you all pass safely into the folds...

Success!

Regarding this entry, when I google image 'Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time', my scan pops up! My faith in the internet has increased by 2 cm! Photobucket says that it has received 235 views (that's like all of the internet)! Excellent!

Tell you what, if I'm bored later today, I'll post a full size scan. Wait, make that two full sized scans. One unedited (with moire patterns and all) so that better artists than myself can improve it, and one edited (with my attempt at removing the moire pattern).

edit 8/8/09: Obviously, the above hasn't happened. Rather lazy about it. Give or take a few years.

Been lazy with this blog. Have shifted attentions to last.fm and rateyourmusic recently. I'll add the link to that side column later. One thing I don't get about rateyourmusic is their inclusion of films to the database. They should have created a separate site for movies and such. It's just silly rating films on a supposedly music website. Anyway, I've got imdb for that (have to add the link to 'My movies' list).

Atheism + Jehovah's Witnesses

The best thing about atheism is that I don't have to devote much energy into being an atheist. Recently read Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion (well, I gave up towards the very end... section didn't concern me). I was particularly interested in one area where Dawkins highlights particular sections of the Bible which aren't so nice. Long story short, I wanted to see what the religios would offer regarding incidences where rape is supposedly condoned.

One particular blog refuted that the taking of virgin women does not equal rape. Atheists see what they want to see. No rape is mentioned at all in the Bible, they say. It's called reading between the lines. But that takes me back to how I started this entry. I don't give too much care. Religious crazies can do what they want. While it is rather regrettable that I can't save any precious children from religion, in truth, I think human stupidity is going to win the war anyway. Maybe that's what being human is all about. Gah, that's kinda stupid, haha.

But yeah, I'm going to go on not caring. If I come across someone close (nah) who is religious, maybe I'll try beat it out of them.

I've been playing nice with these Jehovah's Witnesses. Next time they come up, I'm going to admit myself as a sinner. A huge sinner. If they try to save me, I'll proposition them. We'll go to Sodom. On my bicycle.

Can't think of an interesting title

Crash (1996)
That was hot. I was turned on. I'll never have sex with a car accident victim the same way again. Couldn't make much of the plot though... it was high brow pornography! Made for compelling viewing, probably because I'm a sick, sick pervert.

Very nice to see Elias Koteas. As someone on IMDB pointed out, he "was awesome as Casey Jones and looks like Christopher Meloni". Koteas is my godfather. He's been there for me since I was a child, haha.

MASH (1976)
This was confusing. The humour went here, there, then back here again, and then took another diversion.

Juno (2007)
The lingo killed me. The delivery of the lingo was worse. Juno is so quirky, so out there, so wicked. She's also too quirky, too out there, bla. There is no inate coolness about Juno, everything about her felt forced. I blame Ellen Page. She played "pretend cool", rather than "cool".

- I bet that half of the appeal to audience viewers was that burger phone. Teenage girls dig that sort of stuff.
- Michael Cera as a runner? Get the fuck out of here.
- Jennifer Garner is hot.

Poor human's Napoleon Dynamite. I also dislike this film because on Buddy Holly's last.fm artist page, "Dearest" is the top track instead of "Peggy Sue". Why? Because "Dearest" was on the soundtrack to the film. Great.

Tony Hawk's Underground

I bought Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 back in the day. Spent many hours playing that. When I bought a PS2, the first games I bought were THPS3 (and then THPS4 when it came out). Also many fun hours with those games. Recently, I got myself the PC port of Tony Hawk's Underground. My spider sense should have gone off when I read on wikipedia that the port was a "budget release" and only released in Australia. Port sucked.

[IMG]http://i723.photobucket.com/albums/ww240/eztr/TonyHawksUnderground.jpg[/IMG]

First thing I noticed, browsing through the in-game menus, the sound effects would routinely disappear. Not sure if it was the game's problem or my computers - better to blame the game in these situations.

One of the bew features of THUG was the ability to upload a photo and then use it as a custom skater's face. I dug out a high school photo of myself, scanned it and popped it in. Pretty cool feature, though it probably would have looked better if I didn't have that gawky, exaggerated smile on my face. As a result, my custom skater was constantly smiling.

Unlike the Pro Skater series, the main part of the game no longer sees you completing different levels with your skater of choice. Here, you go through a story mode with a custom skater, starting as a local unsigned skater and working your way up. Sounds good. Only problem is that because the other pro skaters are no longer the main object, their graphics have been downgraded. Quite visibly as well.

Some notes from skating around in the first level:
- More sound problems. Various sound effects would drop out, then return later on.
- The new ability to get off your board and walk around doesn't feel comfortable. There's no sense of control. A lot of guesswork is needed to get from point A to point B (particularly when jumping to climb ledges, roofs, etc).
- The rejig of the controls was quite a jarring learning experience (mainly with the shoulder buttons).
- Gameplay motion felt fast. Add the fact that I found it hard to see much, and it felt quite chaotic.

The in-game missions are similar to objectives of previous games. Collect this, get this amount of points, hit this combo, etc. Stats could be raised by achieving certain goals. Getting new trick slots involved visiting a pro skater who would also offer a challenge. As with THPS4, you'd have freedom to select from whichever mission most tickled your fancy.

Easy going really. In no time, I was on the third or fourth level. Which was annoying, because I was wanting a challenge. I was wanting to fall in love with the maps. Instead, I was getting nothing. Rewards weren't rewarding, the story was ultra lacklustre (unaided by dull voice work and dialogue).

I gave up and uninstalled the game. No hesitation.

Cornershop - When I Was Born for the 7th Time

I often use Google's image search to look for a cover of an album. For Cornershop's When I Was Born for the 7th Time though, I couldn't find a large cover of the UK version, with appropriate colouring. So I scanned my own copy:

Click me for better performance in bed!!!

I'm curious to see whether this will eventually pop up in the images search results in the future.

Shining Force

What a confusing series of video games. There are all these different series (with different styles of gameplay) under the umbrella name of Shining Force, so I'm trying to get my head around what I've missed out on. Well, I know I've missed out on quite a bit. I'd been going by FantasyAnime's Shining Force information, and seeing that there was only four games listed, I thought that those were the only ones with English translations (either official or fan translated). Seeing that one Japan-released-only game had been translated by fans, I'd thought there be more out there.

But no, those four are the on FantasyAnime are the only old games in English available. I've only finished two of those four, and have visited a third briefly.

Mother, brother and I visited family in the US back in the day. An aunt bought us a Sega Game Gear console, Shining Force: The Sword of Hajya, and this tetris like game. Man, that Game Gear sure was thirsty. Six AA batteries gave you a pittance of game time. It really pains me to think of all the batteries that I went through.

The Sword of Hajya was the first RPG I played, and was rather fun to boot. The 'cinematic' action sequences were probably the drawcard of the game. Characters would be depicted as cutesy manga-like characters in portraits and on the map, but when it came to battling, they'd suddenly be depicted realistically. 'tis an interesting idiosyncracy - kinda like the US cover shown above (you wouldn't expect to be dealing with manga characters in the game based on that cover).

Ah, that's more like it! The odd assortment of characters was entertaining. Humans, centaurs, dwarves, bird-men, and other anthromorphs all made for an interesting looking army. Ah, yes, that was another feature - you'd build an army as you beat levels and gathered new allies. Also, just as it was getting visually boring, you'd have the opportunity to promote your characters, so that they'd receive a new title, something like 'Knight' to 'Paladin'. This would coincide with a new look for the character. New and better weapons could also be discovered or bought.

The game had its share of oddities though. The colouring of characters would be counter-intuitive - say on the map, a character would have brown armour, but in their battle sequence, their armour would be green. Next up, our main protagonist is named Deanna. That takes the epicness out of everything.

I've just remembered something that plagued me back in the day. Certain characters would have a spell called 'egress', where you could retreat from a battle. The whole point of the spell was to allow characters to be able to level up, since you kept any experience points earnt. I didn't know back when I was a youngling. Thus, I'd go through a game without levelling up, eventually getting stuck on a certain map, when the difficulty level of the map would overcome my undeveloped characters. Every time I reached that point, I'd restart the entire game. More dead batteries =(

Recently, I discovered Game Gear emulators and ROMs, and so, I wiped my slate clean of that particular unfinished game. Hurrah!

Seeing that there were was another Shining Force game on the Game Gear, I decided to give it a go.

Final Conflict I didn't enjoy as much as The Sword of Hajya. Besides the lack of nostalgia driving me on, the characters seemed dull and the gameplay was very much the same. By dull characters, I mean another silent main protagonist but with blonde hair this time. Blonde! While Deanna had a bad name, at least he had pitch black hair to make a difference. Ian (not a bad name, but not one suitable for a game hero) is just plain stereotypical (tbh, I don't know of many main RPG characters with blonde hair... just my intuition writing here).

The fact that I didn't complete the Shining Force: The Legend of Great Intention ROM on the Sega Genesis probably didn't help. A few characters (or many, I'm not sure) from that game feature here (I've a feeling that there's quite a bit of character sharing in this series*). No nostalgia points for me. Mmyes, despite the Genesis games appearing to have slightly better graphics and more extensive gameplay (town exploration in particular), I just fancied the more simple graphics and gameplay of the Game Gear games.

Returning to Final Conflict now, it was pretty much more of the same. One small difference actually was that there more difficult levels, there'd be stronger enemies and tighter spaces to work through. Required more egress action.

I don't plan to explore the other games in the series. My experience with Final Conflict suggested to me that the fun experienced with The Sword of Hajya was feeding off nostalgia, and my anger regarding the Game Gear consuming so many batteries.

*The Sword of Hajya, called Shining Force Gaiden II in Japan, is actually a sequel. Unfortunately, there's no English translation of Shining Force Gaiden.

Pictures are all sourced from Shining Force Central.

Unobservant

• Holy crap, Sean Malone (Cynic, Gordian Knot) has a blog. I'm surprised it isn't inundated with fans (*cough* fanboys/girls). Heck, if I were a fan, his blog would be my homepage. Instead, I'm in objective awe, rather than subjective awe, haha.
• Masterchef Australia is iffy. It isn't beautiful, compelling reality television. The judges haven't had much experience on the screen and it shows. But... it is a relief from what viewers are probably accustomed to. That is, wild, exaggerated, predictable, eye-catching drama.
  
• Swine flu. Everything has its purpose. Humans aren't sacred.

Update

Been a while since I last posted. Too lazy to gather pictures, so here's a lazy rundown.

Flims
Les Diaboliques (1954) - Enjoyable French suspense/thriller.

Masque of the Red Death (1964) - Not so enjoyable adaptation based on Poe's short story. Vincent Price was too ridiculous for me. Wasn't particularly scary or pretty. Could have used pointless nudity.

Misuc
Coheed and Cambria - In Keeping Secrets of Silent Earth: 3 - Pretty cool. Wish the vocals were mixed down slightly. Lots of nice melodies.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience - Are You Experienced - Prior to just recently, my conception of Hendrix's music was just of crazy guitar wankery. Not the case. Lots of great songs here.

General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners - Nice. No fart noises from Patton here, good job all around. Wacky, but never stupid.

Bob Marley & the Wailers - Exodus - Again, I had a preconceived notion about reggae music. Again, my mind has been opened to its variety and capabilities.

Trivium - Ascendancy - Mmm... besides "Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr", album isn't doing much for me. Don't like Heafy's vocals either... there's no bite to it (besides in the song mentioned above, of course).

Emperor - Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk - Hmm... quite different to In the Nightside Eclipse. Nothing here has had any impact on me.

Madvillain - Madvillainy - MF DOOM bores me. He doesn't rap, he talks. Madlib's beats don't strike me as being particularly special either. Cynic in me says: "underground cred, DOOM wears a mask, hipster music".

Sunn O))) - Flight of the Behemoth - I dig the aesthetic. I don't dig the 'everything sounds the same' ethic. I could make my own drone music. If I labelled it as a Sunn O))) product and threw it out there, people would eat it up.

Massive Attack - Mezzanine - Not a big fan of trip-hop. More than listenable though.

Bolt Thrower - War Master - You don't get fans of Death on Bolt Thrower's last.fm shoutbox trying to advertise Death. You do get fans of Bolt Thrower on Death's last.fm shoutbox trying to spread the word. Sounded like what I'd think generic death metal would sound like.

Run-D.M.C. - Raising Hell - Some nice stuff here, but overall, I don't favour the overall sound of the group's hip-hop.