Mini-Review: My Dying Bride – The Manuscript

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Music, Reviews on May 14, 2013 by slateman

The ManuscriptAnother EP from the kings of EPs. I recall a time when they had 2 LPs and 3 EPs and it was all downhill after that – in a sense. I recall The Angel And The Dark River and it took them a few years (and one interesting experiment) to get back to excellence. And since 1999, it’s been pretty consistent. The Dreadful Hours may be my favorite, Songs Of Light… not so good. A Line Of Deathless Kings came out in 2006 and since then, while solid, I haven’t been blown away. I like the stuff, but am not wowed and don’t tend to play any of the records/EPs/singles. I definitely liked the orchestral record and The Barghest O’Whitby is an excellent if not tough listen due to its length.

That long intro leads us to this four-song, half-hour offering that is both perfect in its duration and its quality. This stuff is fantastic, culling the best riffs and mood MDB has to offer from their vast catalog of sounds. From Var Gud Over Er‘s classic death growls to the chilling mood of the outro (Only Tears To Replace Her With), this EP is just about perfect. It’s got everything that the band does well. If that is considered playing it safe, then I hope for another LP of familiar safety. And in only one day of listening (four songs, remember), it’s up there with Amorphis’ Circle as the best of the year. Everything I love about MDB is right here. A+!!!

A Good Month For Metal!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Music on May 13, 2013 by slateman

Seventh SwamphonyOver the next month we’ll be treated to some exciting new metal releases! In fact, this is the biggest influx of new metal albums in recent memory. It’s simply impossible for them all to underwhelm, right? Let’s see what’s coming out. This is all stuff that’s set for release over a six-week period! I’m pretty psyched…that much should be clear.

My Dying Bride – The Manuscript (13th May)
Dark Tranquillity – Construct (27th May)
Megadeth – Super Collider (4th June)
Children Of Bodom – Halo Of Blood (7th June)
Summoning – Old Mornings Dawn (7th June)
The Black Dahlia Murder – Everblack (11th June)
Kalmah – Seventh Swamphony (17th June)
Amon Amarth – Deceiver Of The Gods (24th June)

I’m really psyched for the MDB, hoping for good things. The rest are pretty obvious. Strange that Dark Tranquillity still hasn’t released album art. The record comes out in two weeks!

R.I.P. Jeff Hanneman

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Music, Personal with tags on May 4, 2013 by slateman

The Big 4 - Metallica. Slayer. Megadeth. Anthrax.They come and they go. People we don’t know, never met or spoke to, but who inspired or impressed us. Jeff Hanneman, the iconic lead guitarist of Slayer, the best live band I’ve ever seen (9x to be precise), is dead. Why should I care? He hasn’t played in Slayer full-time in two years. I’m not altogether in love with any new album in the past two decades. So…what’s the deal?

I’m bummed. There’s something about this that transcends Peter Steele, Layne Staley, Clive Burr or even Dimebag Darrel (though his was different because of circumstance.) This is because Jeff Hanneman was me. He was all of us. A normal guy, a scrappy metalhead who transcended fandom to become a legend. Is that glorifying a musician in a band whose songs include lyrics about Nazis, Satan and a whole lotta death? Hell yeah, and that is because the music was just that good. Today’s iPod rotation was a healthy dose of SLAYER! And while I don’t listen to the last few records, none are bad. They don’t have any miserable Countdown To Extinction, Black Album, I Hear Black, or Sound Of White Noise in their catalog. This band epitomized just about everything I love about music, about metal. And…to reiterate, they were the best band I’ve ever seen.

And maybe Jeff would’ve never rejoined the band, but it was always there in my mind that it could happen. Now it can’t. I think Gary Holt is one of the best guitarists out there. But he’s no Jeff Hanneman. I’m friggin’ bummed. I don’t know why it’s so bad. I can’t say it’s because he was SLAYER, can I? Would you understand?

Have you ever heard that one person at any show yelling it? 25 minutes before the band starts, during setbreak, during the tailgate. If you’ve heard it, you know…and if that is no more (the source, not the yelling), then it is a sad day indeed. Goddamnit…this sucks.

New Bone Fire MP3: Thirteen III

Posted in Blog, Downloads, MP3s, Music on May 3, 2013 by slateman

With the wife & kids downstate, tonight is the first night to myself in over a year. Plans? Nothin’. Record some metal, play some games, awesome! So, I whipped this one together and in the end…it sounds fucking heavy!!! Wow…I’m quite happy with it! Time to dance around the Bone Fire. \m/

3x4x5 Get! Solved…Finally!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Cubing with tags on April 28, 2013 by slateman

3x4x5 CuboidI received my Tom Z’s 3x4x5 Cuboid last Monday and took the time to tension, lubricate and sticker it. Later that night it exploded, with several internal pieces coming out. Since i didn’t know how to fix that, I took the whole thing apart and 90 minutes later it was in usable form. There is one inner-layer piece that will bandage one layer if placed improperly. Ah, what a nightmare.

In any event, after getting it done, I mixed it up again and started to solve it. However, I messed up on one of the layers which caused parity and I was stuck. Fortunately, solving this was a lot like a 3x3x2 and a 3x3x5 (or 7) and getting it back to cuboid state while avoiding massive parity was not difficult. Once I figured that out, I was able to solve the rest with just that one parity algorithm (modified for even/odd configurations). On Thursday, I solved it!!! No cube has ever stumped me for a full week before. Now that I’ve done it, I still get caught on some situations, but it’s not altogether too difficult once you grasp it all. Solving this was pretty cool. I’ll post that one algorithm in case I ever forget it!

All in all, it’s a very cool puzzle. I’d like to get the 4x4x6 as well. Not an every-day solve, but definitely impressive and fun to work through!

Even Parity
Uu2 R2 F2 Uu2 U2 F2 R2 Uu2

Odd Parity
Uu2 R2 F2 Uu2 F2 R2 Uu2

New Super Mario U: Done!!!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Games, High Scores / Accomplishments with tags on April 21, 2013 by slateman

mario-u-4-stars

I went through the superstar road and got all the coins for a fourth star. That swimming level sucked. I used a P-Wing to get the last coin on the running stage for the last coin! This revealed the 9th superstar road stage. I was prepared for a nightmare.

Fortunately, it wasn’t difficult; it was just interesting…and cool. So, after beating that, I was pretty psyched but got nothing. This morning I went back and caught every Nabbit but still didn’t get the fifth star…Then I noticed I was missing one hidden exit (#94).

mario-u-completed

After zipping through and getting that, I was greeted with the above message – and have now completed the whole game!!! Sadly, I’ve had enough Super Mario Bros. U for a little while. That’s sad mostly because I have little reason to return to the Wii U. I’m looking forward to the new firmware upgrade coming shortly, however. Once again, I’m also excited for the DLC to return to Mario. 100%! Nice!!!

mario-u-5-stars

Castlevania: Order Of Ecclesia Art

Posted in Artwork, Best / Worst, Blog, Game Art, Games with tags on April 21, 2013 by slateman

I can’t say I even remember playing this. After completing Portrait Of Ruin twice, I vaguely recall something afterwards. If anything, it didn’t leave a lasting memory other than ‘Oh, maybe I played that…wasn’t as good as Portrait.’ In any event, I’m trying to go through some hard drive stuff and these two artworks are pretty sweet…so while the game may not have been so spectacular, the art here is. Enjoy!

Order_Of_Ecclesia_1

Order_Of_Ecclesia_2

New Super Mario U: Almost Done!

Posted in Blog, Games, High Scores / Accomplishments with tags on April 20, 2013 by slateman

super-mario-u-two-stars

I’ve been going back to New Super Mario Bros. U here and there to collect the last remaining gold coins. I’ve always been a completionist when it comes to games like this and this one is good enough to warrant this dedication. I remember the first New Super Mario Bros. which may very well be the fourth-best Mario game ever. The Wii U version is good, hell, it’s great, but it’s not necessarily as legendary as the DS game. In any event, it’s great that I can play the game on my controller while the kids watch Shrek for the 199th time (this week). So, today I managed to get the last hidden stages and the last gold coins.

super-mario-u-three-stars

What does this leave? Well, I need to beat two more superstar road levels, collect the last one on the Run For Your Life level (which may require a P-Acorn) and then the ultimate, final superstar road level. These last stages will prove to be pretty difficult but I have faith I’ll beat them. Once again, I’ll have to admit, trophies/achievements would be awfully nice for this type of game. As lame as some people may think they are, they really motivate these types of endeavors. You know, the ones where you waste hours away trying to collect last coins by performing super-specific, rigid jumps and maneuvers. Yeah those. I look forward to getting these last 10 coins. Then, I think you beat the game and get something else…but by then, why will I care? Oh, maybe for the New Super Luigi U DLC this summer!!!

Mega/Gigaminx Algorithms

Posted in Blog, Cubing with tags , , on April 20, 2013 by slateman

megaminxI find both the Megaminx and Gigaminx to be fun puzzles to solve but I always get stuck on the last layer. The last two steps get me every time. Then, I take a little break from the puzzles and forget the algorithms again the next time! In fact, my Gigaminx has sat unsolved (last-layer corner orientation and permutation) for well over a week. The puzzle is quite impressive when solved. With the last layers unsolved…not so much. SO, let’s do it!

Last-Layer Orientation: Clockwise (Turn cube so top is L)
R’ U’ R U

Last-Layer: Counter-Clockwise
U’ R’ U R

(Tip: Prime/Regular – If Counter, U first)

Last-Layer Permutation
R’ D R…R’ D’ R

Not so bad! These are all from LanceTheBlueKnight’s Megaminx Tutorial. :D

Mini-Review: Amorphis – Circle – Yesss!

Posted in Best / Worst, Blog, Music, Reviews on April 20, 2013 by slateman

Amorphis-CircleI truly believe all reviews should come with a disclaimer. What’s your background with this? Can you review the Star Wars prequels if you never saw the original trilogy? Sure…but your opinion suddenly doesn’t matter to, well, anyone. The new Amorphis is great. Why? Well, the brief intro: A friend gave me Thousand Lakes in 1994 and the band has never trumped it. I hated Elegy at first but stuck with the band through several weak albums before they stormed back with Eclipse. Since then, some are great (Skyforger) and others less so (Silent Waters). There. Now, you have an understanding of my approach to this record. It’s important because like many others, Tales will always remain the pinnacle. But of course, I can’t compare this to that epic. How does this album stand on its own?

After listening to the new October Tide, I found myself bored. Nothing caught me at all, nothing stayed with me after I left the car. When I stepped out of my lovely mini-van to run into the store, I found myself humming several riffs, vocal melodies, drum beats. Yes! That’s what you want! Circle blends the trademark Amorphis sound with spectacular production and has that requisite balance of familiar yet new. Tomi’s vocals are as strong as ever, matching the best clean vocals of the band’s career with that growl that blows away all others. While the death vocals aren’t used too often, they are placed well. Guitars sound crisp and clear, keyboards fit perfectly and the rhythm section fulfills its purpose with a great bass sound and a few well-timed double-bass sections.

This was one of those records that was ‘pretty good’ the first time, but each subsequent listen drew me in more. So many harmonies, riffs and vocal lines were left on my brain minutes even hours after pressing pause. The pattern of Good (Eclipse) – OK – Great – OK is followed by fucking awesome on Circle. With Kalmah coming, I won’t lock this one in, but four months in, it’s by far the album of the year so far. Now to put it on again. LOUD.

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