Friday, February 27, 2009

Classic Album Of The Week


Slayer's South Of Heaven was actually the first Slayer album that I heard in it's entirety. I remember thinking how trippy that last long note at the end of South Of Heaven was. I still listen to this album a few times a year. It never seems old or dated to me. They obviously slowed down a bit after Reign In Blood, but it's still a really heavy album. Not that playing super fast equals heavy because it doesn't.

South Of Heaven is one of the greatest title tracks in the history of Metal. I love that erie beginning riff and that classic line "Before You See The Light You Must DIIIIIIIIIIIIE!"

Dave Lombardo was the man back in the day. Sometimes when I listen to South Of Heaven I concentrate on just the drums. Dave had so many awesome drum fills on this album.

Standout songs: South Of Heaven, Behind The Crooked Cross, Mandatory Suicide, Spill The Blood.

Most underrated song: Read Between The Lies

Shortly after hearing this album I became obsessed with a little song called Angel Of Death off of Reign In Blood. I played that song over and over before listening to the whole album. Once upon a time Slayer was a great Thrash Metal band playing some really creative music. In my opinion their last good album was Divine Intervention. Since then I haven't heard anything worth a shit.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Top 5 Peeves


There are many many things in this world that people do that irritate the shit out of me. Here are just a few things that I consider to be the things that irritate me the most.

1) People that don't wash their hands after using the restroom. I'm sure we've all seen it before. You're in a public restroom and some guy who has just walked out of the shitter after grunting and groaning for probably a good 10 minutes flushes and then walks right out of the restroom. Of course this scumbag had to touch the door knob/handle on his way out with his shit and dick germs now all over that door knob/handle. I don't want your butthole or dick germs, scumbags!

2) People who stare. This happens all the time at work. We have a security guard on site at all times at my place of employment. Why is it that when I happen to have to go outside on the forklift every guard that we've ever had sits in the guard shack staring at me while I work? Maybe it's because guards have no concept of what real work is all about, so they're trying to figure out just what in the hell I'm doing. Security Guards = the laziest most unhealthy people on this planet.

3) Adults who smoke and cigarettes in general. I can't believe there are actually adults out there who inhale cigarette smoke. With everything we know about what cigarettes can do to the human body people continue to smoke. To me that's just pure idiocy!

4) Having to pick up after lazy people at work. I could give you a million examples of all of the shit I have to take care of after a certain asshole at work is done with his shift, but I'll spare you the boring details. I wish an anvil would fall out of the sky and hit him in the head.

5) People who think they know everything. You know the type. They know it all, and they're never wrong about anything. If they are they come up with bogus excuses. A few of us know a guy in Maine like this. Yeah, if you're reading this you jackass from Maine you can kiss my hairy white ass because you know nothing. Oh, and Obama owns you!

Obviously I could list a ton of irritations, but I'll stick with five for now.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Great Idea For A Judas Priest Advil Commercial


So I'm listening to Judas Priest's PAINKILLER on my mp3 player tonight at work while I'm doing my 30 minute walk. Yeah, that's right I'm getting paid to exercise. That's how I like to look at. Anyway I got to thinking how great the song PAINKILLER would be in an Advil commercial. First you see Priest jamming on stage playing PAINKILLER. Then Rob Halford grabs a bottle of Advil. He then screams THIS IS THE PAINKILLER while pointing at the bottle of Advil. Genius isn't it? Almost as genius as a new ROCK OF LOVE with Glenn Danzig. I smell bullshit on that one, but I can dream can't I!?

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Did You See That Penis?


Well, it seems that you get to see full frontal male nudity in the new The Lost And Damned DLC for GTA 4. I haven't seen it. I may go look for the video so I can post it here. I guess all of the middle school kids are filling up message boards about how they aren't going to play it because you see a dick in the game. OMG A COCK! I'm just wondering how long (haha how long) it will be before the media goes ape shit over this. BTW Phil I'll save you the trouble by saying ROCKSTAR GAMES you FAGGOTS! LOL

Monday, February 23, 2009

What's Been Going On...


In between dealing with having a stomach ache every time I eat something, and trying to finish F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin I haven't had proper time to add anything to the blog. I did however get a chance to write a review for F.E.A.R. 2 for Thisxboxlife.com which should be up over there soon...I hope. I definitely enjoyed playing it. I gave it an 8/10

I also got a chance to check out the movie QUARANTINE which I really enjoyed. It's the best virus/zombie type movie I've seen in a while.

I tried to watch some Pink Panther cartoons from my Pink Panther classic cartoon collection on dvd, but my Pioneer receiver is freaking out upstairs, and I didn't feel like watching it in the basement.

Just watched my Dallas Stars outplay the San Jose Sharks, but still end up losing 1-0. Nothing pisses me off more than to see my team outplay another team and still lose. Hats off to Nabokov though. If not for him the Stars could have won it 6-1 easily. Sharks players should be blowing him in locker room after the game for his netminding.

Final thought: Blaze Bailey sucks! What was Iron Maiden thinking when they recruited this guy to sing. Anyone who thinks this guy can sing needs a really strong hearing aid!!!! That means you KING FOWLEY!

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Rat Skates: Born In The Basement


Shame on me for finally getting around to watching this fine piece of OVERKILL history. Man, what a great documentary! Usually when people think of Thrash Metal pioneers they always think Metallica, Slayer, Anthrax, and Megadeth. Just to be totally clear here, OVERKILL should be mentioned in the same breath. They were banging it out in the early days right along with Anthrax. As a matter of fact Danny Spitz was in OVERKILL before he was in Anthrax! People seem to either forget that or just plain never knew it.

"Rat Skates" paints a picture of fun and hard work in this documentary. He comes across as a super nice and intelligent guy. He isn't one of those bitter old Thrashers who acts as if the band he left behind owes him the world. With that being said the current OVERKILL lineup owes their existence to Rat Skates. This band was his and D.D. Verni's child. Mostly though it seems that it was Rat who put in the majority of the ass busting work creating elaborate stage sets, creating merchandise, creating the band's logo, booking gigs, and just plain making sure everything worked. It's really too bad that in the end he just realized that he wasn't cut out for touring. Being on the road just wasn't for him.

Obviously the band continued on without Rat, and thankfully so. Whether or not people want to acknowledge it OVERKILL were a huge part of the early 80's Thrash movement, and dare I say forefathers of Thrash Metal. Even if you're only mildly interested in Thrash Metal you really should watch this documentary. If anything just watch it to see some early live OVERKILL footage with the band wearing "scary" makeup as well as BLITZ wearing a cape! HaHa!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

F.E.A.R.2 Impressions, & Iron Maiden Is Owning Me Lately


Gamefly shipped F.E.A.R.2 Project Origin to my homestead yesterday. I've been waiting for a true sequel to the FEAR franchise since I finished the first FEAR game. It was worth the wait. Why FEAR Files was even released is beyond my comprehension, but this sequel makes up for that borefest of a video game. Though I do plan to go back to FEAR Files one day.

The two or so hours that I spent with FEAR 2 was definitely a fun time. I really don't have many complaints about it so far. The one thing that really stands out is how easy it is on normal mode. I'm a seasoned veteran with shooters, but I'm not incredible. This game is a breeze on normal difficulty. In two hours of gameplay I haven't died once. I only came close to dying once. The first FEAR was nothing like this in terms of difficulty on normal mode. I found the first FEAR rather challenging. The first FEAR also had a very tactical feel to it where the sequel seems more run and gun. Not that you can really run in tight corridors, but it feels that way. Of course you can also slow down time just like in the first FEAR game, but in my opinion you actually needed to slow down time in a lot of sections just to save yourself from getting killed over and over. This time around slowing down time just looks cool when you shoot an enemy in the face because you get to watch the blood fly in slow motion. Oh, by the way if you love blood you'll definitely enjoy this game. I feel like I should have started playing on the hard difficulty, but with two hours in I'm not starting over. I truly hope the difficulty ramps up as I go through the game, but I'm not really counting on it. Oh, and one more thing. I actually did find myself freaked out a couple of times. I won't spoil that by telling you why though. Based on two hours of play I would definitely recommend renting FEAR 2.


Every so often I go through a period of time where I can't get enough of a certain band. I've been a huge Iron Maiden fan since 1984's POWERSLAVE album was released. Lately I just can't get enough Maiden. Throw a couple of Bruce's solo albums in the mix for good measure as well. This band is easily one of the best bands in the history of music. Yeah, that's right I said it. The history of recorded music. Maiden is just so damn good at what they do.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Cause Of Death Reigns Supreme As My Second Classic Pick


As much of a Thrash fan as I was back in the late 80's I really wanted something heavier. In 1990 me and a friend of mine were both having the same issue. We were huge Thrash Metal fans, but we wanted something more. I really didn't know much about Death Metal, but I was definitely interested in hearing more from the genre. The album that really kick started it all for me as far as Death Metal goes is Obituary's "Cause Of Death". From the opening track "Infected" to the last track, "Turned Inside Out" I was just blown away by what I heard. There wasn't a bad song to be had. There wasn't even a a single song that I would consider "filler". I think the thing that really did it for me was the guitar playing of James Murphy. This guy's playing to me is just incerdible. To this day he is still my favorite Death Metal guitarist. James Murphy was obviously on a lot of other people's lists as being an incredible guitarist because he played with several other bands in the Death Metal genre.

I've listened to a lot of Death Metal albums since 1990, and I don't hold too many of those albums in the same reguard that I hold "Cause Of Death". There are a few that are in the same league, but most pale in comparison. This album just has a great vibe that I can't even describe. One of the things that I love about Obituary is that they don't feel like they have to play 100 mph to be heavy. To me they have one of the heaviest sounds you'll ever hear. On top of that the songs are memorable. You don't feel like the next song on the album that you're listening to sounds like the one before it. This batch of songs actually have their own identity from song to song. This is a problem that would later plague the Death Metal genre. You'd have band after band pumping out albums where every song would sound like the one before it. If you ask me it's what has killed the genre. That and the fact that after a while every DM vocalist started to sound the same. That's something that cannot be said about John Tardy. He had his own style for the most part. Yeah he had the gutteral voice with unintelligible vocals most of the time, but he delivered them in a way that was different from the rest.

This album definitely belongs in the top 10 all time best Death Metal albums list. For me it's probably at the very top. I may also feel this way because it was one of the first DM albums I ever heard, but without hearing this one in the beginning who knows how I may have felt about the genre. What if my first DM album had been something by Oppressor or Broken Hope? I may have ran screaming back to Thrash Metal.

If I had to pick just one track as my favorite it would be tough to do, but I think I'd have to choose "Chopped In Half". It's a face ripper from beginning to end.

Great album. Great band.

Chopped In Half

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

My First Classic Album Pick


While listening to the self titled Danzig album I decided that I'd start blogging about classic albums. That is albums that are classic to me. They may not be classic to people reading this, but that's ok. I figure I'll just pick albums that I love and give some thoughts on them. People who know me probably figured my first pick would be an Overkill album. You can count on seeing Overkill albums being blogged about soon enough. Right now it's all about the incredible self titled Danzig album, so let's begin.

I first heard this album from my at the time best friend who was about three years older than me. He was actually a huge influence on my musical tastes. If not for him I might have missed out on quite a few great bands. He was also the person who turned me on to Overkill. Anyway, the first time I heard this I was at my friend's apartment. I was like what the hell is this crap? His reply was of course Danzig. I'm thinking who in the hell is Danzig? Now keep in mind that it was 1988 and Mother hadn't been in heavy rotation on Mtv yet. The first song that I heard was the first song on the album. That song being "Twist Of Cain". I remember not liking it very much. I actually made fun of it by singing "Twist Of Cain-o Snort Some Draino". My friend would just shake his head and or roll his eyes at me. He had this habit of playing a certain number of songs over and over again on albums he liked. That's exactly what he did with this album. After hearing "Twist Of Cain", "She Rides", and "Mother" over and over again I was absolutely hooked. In my mind this Glen Danzig character was pretty damn cool.

I must say that to this day I still feel like there isn't one song on this album that is a "filler" song. From start to finish it's just a great album. It's rare when I don't feel like skipping a track or two on an album. 21 years later I still love this album. God, typing that made me feel old. It's crazy to think that I was just 16 years old when the self titled Danzig album was released.

Standout tracks for me would be TWIST OF CAIN, SHE RIDES, SOUL ON FIRE, AM I DEMON, MOTHER....man, they all rule. I was about to list just about every song as a stand out track.

Go watch the video for SHE RIDES. Holy crap that woman can move it. So hot! Actually I'll post the youtube vid.

I've seen Danzig live three times with the original lineup. Every time I saw them at the Kalamazoo State Theatre. They were awesome every time. I really wish the original lineup would reunite.

I still own the original copy of this on cd. I should see if there's a remastered copy out there.

Danzig happens to be the band that almost dethroned Overkill as my favorite band.

The beginning of POSSESSION still creeps me out. Listen to it on headphones where you can hear someone chanting the word "incubus". Very cool. Very creepy.

This album is a classic, and it's not the only Danzig album that deserves be called a classic.

DANZIG - SHE RIDES

Monday, February 2, 2009

What I've Been Playing & Future Blog Ideas


Not much going on in my brain lately to be creative enough to post anything worth a crap on this blog or over on This Xbox Life. I'll just post some thoghts on games I've been playing.

First up is STAR WARS THE FORCE UNLEASHED. Man, it's fun to play as Darth Vader's evil apprentice! Using the force to pick up harmless little Jawa's and smash them into walls has got to be one of the funniest video game moments I've ever encountered. Electrifying countless Stormtroopers and doing various other harmful things to enemies is so satisfying. I really don't have much that's negative to say about this game so far. It's fun.

Prince Of Persia is a beautiful game. There have been some frustrating sections mostly due to the controls at times when controling the prince matters the most. The good thing about this game is that you can't die. It also happens to be the bad thing about this game. There are no consequences. Before I try wall walking and jumping to the next section I'm never stressed because I know I can't die. I do know exactly why you can't die though. You fall a lot. You will fall many many many many times. If you died every time you fell nobody would ever want to play past the first fertile land. Right now I'm renting this. I'm in no hurry to get back to it. As Axl Rose would say "All we need is just a little patience". I just don't have the patience for this game most of the time. It's a fun game, but I can only play it in one hour chunks before I start to go mad. I'll buy this when I find it for around 20 bucks.

I also played Viva Pinata Party Animals just for achievement points. UGH! This game is mind numbing. It's so boring. I played it with my wife. She said she was offended by the fact that I chose to play this simple minded game with her. In my defense she's not good at games, so I figured she could handle this one. The fact that I beat her every time we played this should tell you something about how bad she is at games.

I also have Eternal Sonata on standby. I'll probably dig into that RPG world when I finish Star Wars.

While listening to a certain cd the other day I decided that I'll spend some time blogging about albums that I think are classic picking a different album and commenting on it here. Most will be Metal/hard rock albums that I just don't think I would want to live without. Basically albums that I worship. Look for that soon. I plan on getting back into the swing of blogging a hell of a lot more often.
Games I'm Playing:

Halo 3: ODST (Xbox 360)







About Me

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Kalamazoo, Michigan, United States
I'm 38. I'm addicted to Xbox 360 gaming and Dallas Stars hockey. I make a decent living at a boring job where I run two autoclaves and do various other tasks. My escape from this boring as hell life is video games, hockey, and music. I generally listen to Metal music, but I also love 80's tunes as well as 70's tunes. I have an unusual love for the band Overkill. They do it for me for some reason. Blitz is GOD!

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