Isbjørn

Dude, write exactly as much/little as you want. There's no point in pushing yourself just because you feel like you have to, you know? It's just for fun, anyway.

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Key

I've always been one to expect more out of myself than most people expect out of me. I'm the same way at work too. I do more than i'm supposed to for no reason.

Key

You ever get the feeling that when you discover a new band, you just know you're going to love them for a long time? You ever run into the situation where you completely forget about said band and find them again only to realize how amazing they are? That happened to me last night.

I was transferring my backed-up backup of all my music that I have collected over the years and placed it into a safe place where I feel I may never lose, so you could say it's a backed up backup of a backup. Anyway, I found an album I discovered a while ago and decided to give it a listen and boy was I just kicking myself for never putting this on my mp3 player.

A Swarm of The Sun - Zenith


Not even close to one of the first post-rock'ish albums I've ever listened to, but through the years, i've sort of become a bit biased in the sense that I'll only really enjoy a specific type of post-rock. pg.lost's Key and the Yes I Am EP are good examples as well as God Is An Astronaut's Age of The Fifth Sun is another fine example of what I want to hear when I listen to post-rock, and Zenith falls under that category. It's got that atmospheric and heavy sound throughout the album that isn't just constant repetitiveness leading nowhere, it keeps interest. Plus you get to hear some wonderful vocals which I think really do add something great to an already great album. An example of that would be this song here:



This song alone is reason enough to listen to this album. It captures the calmness and heaviness that go together so well throughout and is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the entire album.

Unknown Soldier

A journal should be something that you control and not it controlling you. Just write what you want when you want.

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Key

Casualties of Cool - Casualties of Cool

Devin Townsend, Ché Aimee Dorval, and Morgan Ågren

Casualties of Cool, the debut album for a country rock group featuring the genius like maniac, Devin Townsend. When I first heard about this album, and what genre it would be falling under, I immediately thought, "man, Devin is really going to blow this out of the water", and that is precisely what happened.

When I listened to it for the first time, I was caught a little bit off guard by the fact that Devin doesn't really sing a lot throughout the whole album, and that's one thing I was really wanting to hear, but I will say that Che's vocals really do add a great ambiance to the music, and her voice is beautiful and very easy to like. So it's a sacrifice I was willing to make. Other than the lack of Devin's vocals throughout, there is still that expert production quality that is sort of expected in a Devin Townsend album. Everything sounds very well leveled and nothing is too overpowering as is expected with an album by Devin.

It's obvious that Devin did his research in what a country rock album should sound like, and maybe there are some things that could change about the album as a whole, but honestly, as a debut into a new genre, he really did an outstanding job. As would be expected, he also adds his own magic into the album making it his own album and not just a typical country rock album. It's strictly a Devin Townsend album and there's really not much more to say about it.

One of the catchiest tracks on the album has to be this:

Key

It's time for...


First up we have Bring Me The Horizon with 685 plays. I don't know how long it's been since I listened to them, but whenever I did, I must have not know anything about music, or maybe I was just really into ****ty music, hell I don't know. I will admit that every now and again I can get some enjoyment out of Suicide Season. That's not taking away from the fact that this band is the epitome of awful. It's bands like this that give metalcore/deathcore/etc a bad rep, and honestly, it's really not that bad of a genre, I know a few bands that are fantastic, but unfortunately you don't hear of any of them. Know why? Because bands like Bring Me The Horizon take the spotlight.

Let's also not forget that BMTH also tried to be edgy by taking one of their more well known albums, and just making it a "remixed" album. Can't say I found a lot of enjoyment out of that either. Honestly, I'm surprised I didn't just blow my brains out from how bad my ears hurt. Though, I suppose someone might like it.

I know it's also really cliche to put mention this band when talking about bands that just straight up suck, but what other reason do I need. I'm certainly not going to talk about how good they are, minus the mention of Suicide Season, it's a guilty pleasure.

Will I still listen to them? Perhaps. Do I need to explain why? Nope. But there's no denying that they just suck.

Key

So lately, there have been two games on my mind almost every day and only one of which is one I have been actively playing, so i'll start with that one.


Borderlands 2

As I have mentioned before on this forum, i'm late to the party when it comes to playing this series, but when I heard about a new one coming out, I told myself it was finally time to get into these games. Not to forget the fact that a close friend of mine gifted me this one through Steam months ago, so that's an added bonus.

I found the first one at work coincidentally for like...5 bucks, so even at the start, I knew I was getting a killer deal. Everything about Borderlands is fantastic and the game play was very easy to get into. I had seen people play it before but never did for myself so I guess I sort of knew what to expect while at the same time not really knowing what to expect. Definitely one of the better "first games" in a series that I have played, though honorable mention does go to the Amnesia series and Dead Space.

Then it came the time to play the second one (i had beat the first one) and holy crap, everything that I wanted from the first one that wasn't in it was put into the second one, and then some. The new UI, the fact that you can jump from high places and not get hurt, and the fact that some weapons can be thrown like a grenade on reload. They really outdid themselves on this one and it just makes me more excited to see how they can 1 up themselves with the Pre-Sequel coming out, which of course I am going to play. Anyway, I won't say much more since i've not beaten this one yet.

And now time to touch on a game that I am just disappointed in even buying upon release...


Fable Anniversary

I'm really sad to see the outcome of this release because i'm sure i'm not alone when I say that I was super pumped to see this game come back in new high definition graphics, but unfortunately that's all it is. It's honestly just the first game with new graphics, nothing else, and that includes the glitches and bugs that were present in the first game. Granted, they have been sending out new updates to fix said bugs, but i've been dealing with a game breaking bug and i'm not the only one who has been dealing with it. There's a studder with every third or forth step I take, which makes the game completely unbearable to play. Some have said that you can just look past it and play it, but I can't. I was expecting to be playing a whole new version of the game that I absolutely loved as a kid, but all I got was a graphic revamp, and that's it. I mean, you shouldn't be forced to play a PC game on a great PC, and have it feel like you're playing on a 20 year old Xbox, with the disc being all scratched up.

I'm sincerely hoping that a future release will fix the studder, otherwise that game will just collect dust.

Key

As it's probably obvious, i'm taking on the task of (attempting) to review each and every one of Devin Townend's albums, and yes, that includes his other projects like Casualties of Cool and Strapping Young Lad. I have done some reviews of albums that he's done in my journal already, but these ones will be more fresh and up to date on my opinions on certain albums. Also on that note, if by some chance I don't get to reviewing albums that I have reviewed before, I will still link those specific reviews in this post since it's related to this little project.

Now to start things off, let's talk about the man behind the voice, Devin Townsend. Who is this guy? Well, in my opinion, he's one of the finest examples of having passion for his music in this day and age. Some have called him a genius, others have called him a lunatic, I consider him a crazy genius. Honestly, it's tough to match him up with other artists because he tends to put himself into situations that allow him to experiment with certain genres. For example, he experimented with blues rock with Casualties of Cool, and went heavier than hell with Deconstruction, and then of course you have the AOR type of deal with Epicloud (which may or may not be accurate). Not only that, but once you hear an album by him, you would think the man has been doing that specific genre his whole life, which in some cases I suppose that is true. Some have also said he makes clones of himself because there's no way one man can make that much music and continue to be successful. Honestly, I believe that's where the passion comes in. Live footage can also back me up on this, Devin Townsend has an amazing time making the music he makes, and really enjoys experimenting with sounds and other things. One thing is for sure, that in this entire Devin Townsend catalog review thingy, it's going to be very difficult to pick the best from the worst, because each and every album is unique in it's own way. Maybe I won't even pick worst albums, i'll just review them randomly. One thing is certain though, I'm going to be listening to a lot of Devin Townsend in the next couple weeks, while taking notes. It's going to be a hell of a ride.

This here is a list of the albums that have been reviewed, once an album has been reviewed, the album title will contain a link that will lead to that review.

Solo albums:
Ocean machine: Biomech
Infinity
Physicist
Terria
Devlab
The Hummer
Ziltoid the Omniscient
Z2. Dark Matters

Casualties of Cool:
Casualties of Cool

The Devin Townsend Band:
Accelerated Evolution
Synchestra

Devin Townsend Project:
Ki
Addicted
Deconstruction
Ghost
Epicloud
Z2, Sky Blue

EP's
Unplugged

Strapping Young Lad:
Decision was made that I will not be including any Strapping Young Lad reviews in this project. Perhaps another time

Just a side note, these aren't going to be professional reviews, since I'm not the strongest at writing reviews, but they will have my passion and overall opinion of the album, which I suppose is what an album review is all about. Some will be short and sweet, and others may be lengthy, but they will get reviewed nonetheless.

Key

Ziltoid The Omniscient



The year is 2007, and what Devin Townsend releases is easily one of the greatest albums to ever hit anybody's music catalog. Devin Townsend brings some of his finest examples of how quirky and weird he can be, and does it while still managing to make it sound so perfect. As I have said prior to this, Devin Townsend is considered a lunatic and a genius, and very very nerdy, and it's extremely evident in this album, but mostly you get a taste of what is to come in the opening track "ZTO"



Some have said that this is one of his greatest works, and I would agree to that, only for the fact that it's perfect for anyone who's into a nerdy fictional concept with rock opera-esque musicianship.

You're brought (as a listener) into a universe that is fictional, yet you feel like something like this could really happen, only to realize you wake up from a dream and wonder where the hell you went while you slept. Not to mention, the way they portray Ziltoid is perfection. A martian with a thirst for....yes, coffee. And black coffee at that. He has good taste in my opinion. It's spacey, and you feel like you're commanding a ship with Devin Townsend in the seat next to you, and you're just waiting for the moment that he'll just go completely insane and shoot meteors to blow up the ship you sit in. But of course, you feel like finding the "perfect cup of coffee" is important enough for Devin to keep his cool and progress with the mission at hand.

It's very difficult for me to pick a favorite track from this because it's a story being told in musical form, so just choosing one is difficult, but if there was a time where someone asked me to pick one, and allowed it to have no back story, and they just wondered what I find to be the catchiest track, it would definitely be Hyperdrive.



I guess it would also be good to mention that they did a remake of the song on the Addicted! album, it's not my preferred version, but it's still fantastic.

It's been said that this album would be perfect for someone who's not only nerdy, but enjoys a fantastic rock opera album. Because simply put, that's what you'll get. And you just have to be able to laugh at the ridiculousness that goes into this album. The only unfortunate part is that it ends, which I suppose is the same for pretty much any Devin Townsend album. You just feel the urge to ask for more, but you know deep down, there's not a lot of time between new releases from him. So you just wait patiently until that happens.

Anteater

'Hyperdrive' is a favorite from the first Ziltoid record for me too. One hell of a musical fishhook that's for sure...

I'll be interested in seeing how the rest of your Devin series plays out. Some of the Devin "soundalikes" out there like Ramage Inc. and The Omega Experiment are pretty interesting too, so I'd recommend giving them a spin at some point.

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