Crap, I let this slip. Badly.
I’m back though, for now. I’m sure this’ll slip again but hopefully not for a while. My main issue is that I can’t figure out what the hell to do with this blog. I think I mentioned this problem before, and I think I just need continue to use this as I have been: Partial work, partial bullshit. Here goes.
2008 is gone, good riddance. I wish there was a grave I could desecrate, some kind of memorial I could burn. Nothing, though I toasted it’s demise with Trois Pistole and La Fin Du Monde. A fitting end at least, so long jerk.
Been playing WoW again. The designers at Blizzard are earning every penny they make, they’ve managed to take a pretty well trod game and make it interesting again. There are the old classic quests, go here kill this, go there kill these until you get x of this. A lot of it just has to do with the story (gasp!) that they introduce through the entire new continent. There are new quests types and other interesting things to do, the Rep grind isn’t nearly as stupidly retarded as it was previously. The instances are well thought out and heroics are genuinely tough now.
The thing that really gets me is the art style though, it’s friggin beautiful. There are areas that are genuinely gorgeous, the tundras are frostbitten masterpieces, and there is an area that could be taken straight out of northern California. It’s all a huge step away from all the crystal and glowly crap that dominated the last expansion. The gear is very much a Norse aesthtetic, which might not sound like it should look so great, but it all comes together so well.
I’ve been on another hunt for weird black metal. The band I’m listening to a lot right now is a Canadian band (don’t laugh) named Gris. It’s in the same kind of vein as the French scene, which is developing some of the best stuff right now in my opinion. It’s a little more midpaced then a lot of other black metal, and it’s friggin bleak and buzzing and cold swept. Yet, it retains an amazing amount of melody and feeling. This isn’t the typical kind of corpse painted band, which is one thing I think is wrong with black metal in recent times. Not necessarily the corpse paint but just that all these bands get caught up in their own image and people constantly striving for the most brutal face scorching groups. But most of these bands are empty. They don’t really have anything to offer and it’s like they are working from a template. I could write even more about this but I’ll leave that for a later date.
GRIS – Il Etait Une Foret
Other things I’ve been listening to are the new Darkspace album, Darkspace III (awesome spacey black metal) and a Peste Noire album, can’t remember the name (awesome French black metal). As you can see it’s been a very black beginning to the new year.
A package just arrived from newegg.com, my new video card and Wacom tablet. I’m going to go rip that shit open now.
