Of Tooth and Hammer

The Top 15 Greatest Metal Power Ballads

2010-06-24T12:39:00.003-05:00

This started from a dB forum discussion on Metal Power Ballads. Here is compiled what I think are 15 great songs highlighting what the genre has in offer of ballads. Some of the songs might differ a bit from the exact Power Ballad/Ballad structure, but in general I think they can be recognized as such.

#15 Metallica - The Unforgiven

#14 Iced Earth - Melancholy (Holy Martyr)

#13 Savatage - Gutter Ballet

#12 Bathory - Song to Hall Up High / Home of Once Brave

#11 Iron Maiden - Remember Tomorrow

#10 Pantera - Cemetery Gates

#09 Demons & Wizards - Fiddler on the Green

#08 Down - Learn From this Mistake

#07 Iron Maiden - Children of the Damned

#06 Metallica - Welcome Home (Sanitarium)

#05 Metallica - One

#04 Black Sabbath - The Sign of the Southern Cross

#03 Judas Priest - Dreamer Deceiver / Deceiver

#02 Metallica - Fade to Black

#01 Judas Priest - Beyond the Realms of Death

Every Movie I Own (up to 08/19/09)

2009-08-19T21:42:00.002-05:00

Here is a list of every movie I currently own. It's quite possible I'm forgetting a few, but this should cover it all. (Note: this does not include all the concert and performance DVDs I have).

Hard Candy

π (Pi)

Requiem for a Dream

The Fountain

Ravenous

Natural Born Killers

Sin City

Reservoir Dogs

Pulp Fiction

Kill Bill (pt. 2)

Blade Runner

Apocalypse Now

Watchmen

The Prestige

Brotherhood of the Wolf (Le Pact Des Loups)

Paths of Glory

Lolita

Dr. Strangelove - Or: How I Learned to stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

2001: A Space Odyssey

Clockwork Orange

Barry Lyndon

The Shining

Full Metal Jacket

Eyes Wide Shut

Monty Python & the Holy Grail

Monty Python's ...And Now for Something Completely Different

Brazil

Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas

12 Monkeys

Akira

Steamboy

Nausicaa: Of the Valley of the Wind

Princess Mononoke

Howl's Moving Castle

Vampire Hunter D Bloodlust

Ghost in the Shell

Blood: The Last Vampire

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut

Heavy Metal

Syriana

Crash

Fight Club

Donnie Darko

A.I.

A Hard Day's Night

Dreams in the Witch House

Pro-Life

Hellraiser

Hellbound: Hellraiser II

Lord of Illusions

In the Mouth of Madness

Jacob's Ladder

Alien

Aliens

The Howling

Howling III: The Marsupials

Dead Alive

Re-Animator

Evil Dead II

Army of Darkness

Sleepy Hollow

An American Werewolf in London

Interview with the Vampire

The Prophecy

The Devil's Rejects

The People Under the Stairs

Pumpkinhead

The Wicker Man

Phantasm

Dawn of the Dead

Deep Red

Gozu

La Cravate

Fando Y Lis

El Topo

The Holy Mountain

8 1/2

Wings of Desire (Der Himmel über Berlin)

Europa Europa

Downfall

Pan's Labyrinth

Persepolis

Altered States

One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

The Ninth Gate

Igby Goes Down

Sid & Nancy

Pink Floyd's The Wall

A Scanner Darkly

Straw Dogs

The Silence of the Lambs

The Birds

Down in the Valley

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer

Chinatown

Young Frankenstein

Little Miss Sunshine

River's Edge

No Country for Old Men

The Big Lebowski

Raising Arizona

Fargo

O Brother, Where Art Thou?

There Will be Blood

Scanners

Blue Velvet

Taxi Driver

Paradise Now

Oldboy

Into the Wild

Gladiator

Terminator

Terminator II

Total Recall

The Fifth Element

The Matrix

Matrix Reloaded

Matrix Revolutions

Animatrix

Batman

Batman Begins

The Dark Knight

Enter the Dragon

Highlander

The 13th Warrior

Kingdom of Heaven

The Doors

Airheads

PCU

Bowling for Columbine

Fahrenheit 9/11

Sicko

Dead Poets Society

Metal : A Headbanger's Journey

Global Metal

Marcus Brigstocke - ANOTHER Great Religion Rant {ten commandments with funny pictures}

2009-07-25T12:58:00.001-05:00

I found this to be quite hilarious and in general just spot on!

Scion Rock Fest (Finally!) Part 1- Pre-Show Day

2009-06-22T22:41:00.011-05:00

So I’ve been meaning to write a review of the Atlanta Scion Metal Festival for a while, but in truth have been rather lazy about it. Well finally here it is:

On the Friday before the actual fest I decided to head down early to catch a pre-fest show at the criminal record store that was featuring Skeletonwitch, Withered, Kylesa and Wolves in the “Motherfucking” Throne Room. You can guess which band I was the most excited about seeing. This was also a great opportunity to see a few bands early on so I could have more time to some other acts at the actual Scion fest (so many bands I love playing at the same time on different stages). I figured I had left early enough to get there, about a 4 hour drive plus a loss of one hour due to a switch from central to eastern time, and according to the press release about the show it seemed like WITTR was going to be playing first.

Well after randomly deciding to help someone at a gas station get back to their car down on the highway (the dude was nice and gave me some cash for my troubles even though I told him not to), I was running close to the wire when I finally got to Atlanta. Now I’ve never driven through Atlanta so this was a whole new experience and to top it off there was the double whammy of hitting the beginning of rush hour traffic. Then it starts raining like crazy. I actually get lost and have to turn around after getting dragged back onto the highway, so at this point the show should have just begun. I’m beginning to freak the fuck out, but eventually I do find the record store and some relatively cheap parking (got in right before they spiked the price up two more bucks).

It’s been a full hour and 15 minutes perhaps by then (6:15 p.m. or so) and I just get in with no band on stage. I quickly ask around and find out good news and bad news. Good news is that none of the bands have played yet and the bad news is that Wolves in the Throne Room had dropped off. DAMN IT! (I then figured I’d try to squeeze in seeing them before Neurosis the next day). Anyway, soon enough Skeletonwitch gets up and does their thing. It’s weird being in a record store to see a band on a stage crammed in the corner, resting back on a case of cds. When bored a bit I was looking at some of the comics they had. Anyway, not a big fan, but Skeletonwitch played rather furiously and their frontman certainly was very charismatic with the arm/hand gestures. Somehow they made me imagine a far more Metal version 3 Inches of Blood, actually there’s probably not that much of a difference between the two save for the vocals. That was fun, went outside in the rain to chill off from the packed humid air developing in the store from the hordes of people in there. Part of the cool thing about this and the following day was just the people watching. So many interesting looking people with interesting looking tee-shirts, jackets, hair, tattoos and back patches.

Next up were Withered and Kylesa. I’d seen both of them in Nashville back in the Summer at The End so I knew what to expect. For some reason I have a real liking for Withered so I got as close as possible to the stage and headbanged out a pretty great set from them, even though the sound sucked. For Kylesa I moved back a bit and dug their southern sludge rock while occasionally looking down at the CD racks and finding odd albums all about. Good set from them, if a bit undecipherable from the sound (and the absence of their full drum experience), but that came to a quick end with one of the guitar amps blowing its fuse. With that as a sign from the Metal Gods, I decided to head out where upon I heard that Scott Kelly was playing later that night at the East Atlanta Ice House. I wrote down some directions I got off some locals and then headed back to the car.

A couple hours later, after dropping off some stuff for the night, I arrived at the bar/venue that is the Ice House. A good chunk of the time I was on the phone or outside trying to see if a recent Nashville acquaintance of mine was showing up or not. It was a bit hard to make out which bands were opening. Found out later, but the first group were Royal Thunder who put on quite a show of acoustic guitar, electric bass and a drum kit. They had the stage covered in red candles (that being pretty much the only light source on stage along with a few red stage lights) a big fucking bull skull (with candles on it) and a fog machine going on damn overload. Atmosp

heric as all bloody hell with all that coupled with their Earth (recent) vibe. That was a real treat to enjoy when downing a couple of Guinnesses in plastic cups.

US Christmas’ acoustic set was actually a bit boring, but I just felt their plain sort of approach couldn’t compare to what had just been witnessed. Regardless it made good

background music for chatting with people, including two cool dudes I struck up a conversation with. They were from the Virgina/DC area, which I used to live 9-10 years in, so we talked about a whole bunch of stuff including the fact we had actually all gone to Enslaved’s gig at Jaxx back in ’03 (which was one of my earliest metal concerts, save for Ozzfest 2001). They were actually down at Scion as roadies for Salome and apparently the main guy I was talking with is/was actually the boyfriend of Kat (as in for you Deibel freaks, Salome & AGORAPHOBIC NOSEBLEED). Righteous, right?!?! I also ran into three skin head looking dudes (big, touch looking guys), but I noticed their neck and wrist tattoos. Noticing what the fuck they were, I mentioned I also liked Death in June and Coil…. so that hit off a cool though rather short conversation with them.

During all of this, one of the most amazing moments of the trip happened. I was sitting at the bar talking with Kat’s boyfriend who was sitting to my right and I turn suddenly to the left to take a look at US Christmas on the stage. I then pulled a full on bugs bunny double take as my jaw just hits the fucking floor. Sitting right next to me is Brann Dailor. Motherfucking Brann from Mastodon! He turns his head at me and I say hi, shake his hand and tell him he’s absolutely fucking amazing. I feel like a retard now about it, but I was just dumbstruck at the moment. He said thanks and we talked really shortly about Scott playing there that night and how he wasn’t going to miss that for anything. I then wished him the best of luck for the next night and couldn’t wait to see them on stage. Then just left him to his own while Kat’s boyfriend and I started freaking out about having just sat next to Brann and talking with him.

Was still talking with Kat’s boyfriend when I suddenly realized Scott Kelly was already playing. I actually felt like a jackass because I was still talking during the beginning of his set… hard to control a talk–a-holic like myself when being surrounded by cool people with good taste. Anyway, Scott played real bare-bones, just him singing and playing an acoustic. Very quiet stuff, which forced me to remind myself that even whispering during it was a bit too loud. At this point my Nashville friend and her boyfriend showed up and I flagged them down from the road (oh yea, still raining like fucking hell, just a little less) and we all rushed back in to finish the rest of the set. Scott topped it off with a sort of throat singing Olympics thing…. No guitar, just him wrenching out his vocal chords. Very cool way to end it that night.

I stayed in the bar chatting with folks, including a guy with one leg who apparently lived above the venue there. So, what could add to and maybe even top off saying hi and shaking hands with Brann. Yep! Scott walks by talking to a bunch of folks. I’m able to slide in and say, “Hi, can’t wait to see you play tomorrow” and shake his hand. He said something like “it’ll be good” or it might just have been “Yep” and then he headed out through the bar. I said bye to my amigos, planned to meet up at some point the next day and grabbed some late night food before hitting the sack.

-All photos here were taken by Kevin Griggs and are his property, for more photos go HERE-

Rudimentary Peni meets H. P. Lovecraft

2009-06-11T23:06:00.001-05:00

Brilliant, bloody, Brilliant!

Conservative Misinformation University Salutes The Class Of 2009

2009-06-09T21:54:00.001-05:00

A highlight of best of the worst.

Favorite Songs of the 00's

2009-05-02T11:36:00.012-05:00

Here is a list of my favorite songs that have been released this past decade:

(note: for some of the links, where available, the music video edits have been provided rather than the full track)

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible / Black Mirror / Windowsill

Agalloch - ...And The Great Cold Death Of The Earth / In The Shadow Of Our Pale Companion (1,2) / Not Unlike The Waves

Akercocke - Axiom / Leviathan

Amon Amarth - The Pursuit Of Vikings / Runes To My Memory / Death in Fire

The Angelic Process - Million Year Summer

Bathory - Broken Sword / Great Hall Awaits A Fallen Brother / Sea Wolf

Behemoth - Conquer All / Slaves Shall Serve / As Above, So Below

Blut Aus Nord - Our Blessed Frozen Cells

Boris - Pink

Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution

Celtic Frost - Progeny / A Dying God Coming Into Human Flesh

Cradle of Filth - Her Ghost In The Fog / Cthulhu Dawn

Cult of Luna - Leave Me Here

Darkthrone - Divided We Stand / Striving For A Piece Of Lucifer / Canadian Metal / Raised On Rock / Hiking Metal Punks / Witch Ghetto

Deströyer 666 - Lone Wolf Winter

The Devil's Blood - The Heavens Cry Out For The Devil's Blood

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Setting Fire to Sleeping Giants / Black Bubblegum / Milk Lizard

Dimmu Borgir - Blessings Upon The Throne Of Tyranny / Kings of the Carnival Creation

Down - Learn from this Mistake / Landing On The Mountains Of Meggido / On March The Saints

Earth - Raiford (The Felon Wind) / Engine Of Ruin

Electric Wizard - Vinum Sabbathi / I, the Witchfinder / Dunwich / Satanic Rites of Drugula

Enslaved - The Crossing / The Dead Stare / Isa / Return To Yggdrasill / The Voices / The Cromlech Gate / Essence / Heir To The Cosmic Seed / New Dawn / The Watcher

Fear Factory - Slave Labor

The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize??

Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Sleep (1,2,3,4)

Gojira - To Sirius / The Heaviest Matter Of The Universe

Gorgoroth - Carving A Giant

Grinderman - No Pussy Blues

High on Fire - Hung, Drawn and Quartered / Cometh Down Hessian

Immortal - Tyrants / In My Kingdom Cold

Isis - So Did We

Jesu - We All Faulter / Star / Medicine

Keep Of Kalessin - Come Damnation / Reclaim

Killing Joke - Hosannas From the Basement of Hell

Mastodon - March of the Fire Ants / Seabeast / Naked Burn / Colony Of Birchmen / Sleeping Giant / Oblivion / Crack The Skye / The Last Baron

Ministry - Unsung / Warp City / Lieslieslies

Morbid Angel - Opening Of The Gates

Nachtmystium - Bleed for Thee / My Vengeance / Seasick (1, 2 & 3)

The National - Mistaken For Strangers

Negura Bunget - Cunoaşterea Tăcută

Neurosis - A Sun That Never Sets / Stones From The Sky / Burn / Water Is Not Enough

Nevermore - Inside four Walls / Dead Heart in a Dead World / Final Product / Born

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - As I Sat Sadly By Her Side / Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!

Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds / Getting Smaller / Sunspots / Capital G / God Given / The Great Destroyer / In This Twilight

Opeth - The Drapery Falls / Blackwater Park (1,2) / A Fair Judgment / Death Whispered a lullaby / The Lotus Eater / Porcelain Heart

A Perfect Circle - Magdalena / Judith / Pet

Portrait - A Thousand Nightmares

Primordial - Gods to the Godless / End Of All Times (Martyrs Fire) / Empire Falls

Queens of the Stone Age - Feel Good Hit of the Summer / The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret / Monsters In The Parasol / Go With the Flow / Burn The Witch / Little Sister / Make It Wit Chu / 3's & 7's

Rammstein - Ich will / Mutter / Adios / Moskau / Mein Teil / Amerika

Red Harvest - AEP

Satyricon - Fuel for Hatred / The Pentagram Burns

Sigh - Midnight Sun / Inked In Blood / Me-Devil

Sigur Rós - Untitled 8 - Popplagi / hoppípolla / Glósóli

Skinny Puppy - pedafly / ugLi

Slayer - Bloodline / Disciple / Cult

Smashing Pumpkins - Doomsday Clock / United States

System of a Down - Psycho / Aerials / B.Y.O.B. / Violent Pornography

Tool - Schism / Parabola / Wings For Marie - 10,000 Days

Trench Hell - Southern Cross Ripper

Type O Negative - Dead Again / The Profit Of Doom / Halloween In Heaven

Ulver - Lost In Moments / Vowels / Solitude

Velvet Cacoon - Avalon Polo

Watain - Puzzles Of Flesh / I Am The Earth / Casus Luciferi / Sworn to the Dark / Stellarvore

Happy Zombie Jesus Day!

2009-04-12T13:01:00.008-05:00

The official high holiday of the Zombie Church!

Of course, our Dinosaur Brothers have a different holiday for this Sunday. The Resurrection of Raptor Jesus.

Metallica finally get into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame!

2009-04-05T23:06:00.005-05:00

Cheers and it's about damn time!

ps... The other day I bought two tickets for Metallica's show in Nashville come September. I'VE BEEN WAITING TEN FREAKING YEARS FOR THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Human, All Too Human

2009-03-11T21:29:00.005-05:00

This was a really interesting series I caught on youtube that was originally done by the BBC (the standard of good TV documentaries, IMO). It's on three of Continental Philosophy's most important philosophers from the 19th into the 20th century.

Note: Unfortunately pretty much all of these videos are in mono. So hopefully you'll be able to still listen.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Martin Heidegger

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Jean Paul Sartre

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

I love the smell of Napalm (Death) in the morning (Night)

2009-03-11T20:49:00.003-05:00

Here is some very old-school 1990 pretty decently recorded live Napalm Death. One of the band's better line-ups back then, but they've struck an almostly equally great run lately with albums like The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code, Smear Campaign, and their latest and sure fired top 20 of the year album Time Waits For No Slave.

For more Napalm go HERE!

Which one is Pink? (Before they even cared about Pink)

2009-02-21T02:33:00.005-06:00

Meddle is one of the more over-looked Pink Floyd albums. It came out right before Dark Side of the Moon in 1971 and none of its songs have gotten much radio play at all (which could be said of most early Floyd).

Meddle (along with Animals), came to attention a bit more it seems in the metal community ever since Blake from Nachtmystium mentioned it as one of his favorite albums. This can be best seen (heard) in Nachtmystium's song One of These Nights, which thematically and musically plays upon the Floyd's One of these Days.

With that in mind I thought I would link a few vids for those not familiar with this side of Floyd.

Here is One of These Days (subtitled: I'm Going to Cut You into Little Pieces)

Next is the song Echoes, which is possibly one of Floyd's best songs ever. It comes in at more than 23 minutes. There have been two video presentations of this song that have in particular touched me. One is the Live in Pompeii version which has a unique sound to it since it's live and they're playing behind a literal wall of amps (out in the ruins of Pompeii, quite cool, huh?). The second is the pairing of the song with the last scene from Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey". There are a lot of rumors as to why it fits so perfectly, but I won't touch upon that besides the fact that they work together SO GOD DAMN PERFECTLY.

Anyway here, in all 23+ minute form:

(note: It is best to watch this in a very dark room, with the screen blown all the way out and the volume very, very high.... which you might want to get as well)

I don't want to post the Pompeii version because you should all go out and buy it, but if you want to see it now just go on youtube you'll find it easily enough.

25 Most Conservative/Liberal Films?

2009-02-21T02:18:00.003-06:00

The National Review recently released a list, based on votes from subscribers and apparently some editorial/crtic based editing, of what they claimed were the top 25 Conservative films of the past 25 years.

25 Top Conservative Films

In looking it up, I also found that Daily Kos posted a list as well based on polls (or something).

Top 25 Liberal Films

My general conclusion after looking at both lists is that they both have quite a bit of bullshit in them. However, the Daily Kos' list is filled with the most bulllshit.

First off a documentary really shouldn't be placed on a list of "great" films unless you're just talking about documentaries alone. It's like putting a book on tape in a list of greatest albums. It just doesn't work. So Daily Kos really fucks it up by including, by my count (I don't know all the movies they posted), 6 docs and 4 of them are from Michael Moore. I'm sorry but that's really bullshit. But even more bullshit is that they gave #1 to An Inconvenient Truth. I don't know if I should laugh or cry. At its best it can be called informative and thought provoking, however that doesn't make it great film making, rather it was very dull film making because it was only filming a god damn lecture. Oh, and to have included Thank You for Smoking... that's really fucking ironic.

Anyway... as for NR's list, some of it seems fitting and some of it seems to be rather bizzare. The Incredibles I would say is fitting though I have to laugh to myself about it because after seeing the film I called it the most blatant anti-communist propaganda I had ever seen (note: I still enjoyed the movie). The Life of Others seems very odd, but I guess the ethics of spying can be overshadowed if the ultimate result is showing how fucked up Soviet style Communism was.

One funny bit is how both lists have Brazil, which in reflection doesn't suprise me. It's a highly Orwellian like story and that's the real root of why both the left and right love it. Orwell's works pointed out the failings/horror of totalitarianism, as seen in the Soviet Union, yet he was a staunch socialist. Anyway, I would certainly rank Brazil as one of my favorite movies of all time (gotta love Criterion).

Videodrome:

George W. Bush's Legacy

2008-12-14T14:47:00.001-06:00

Wow. That journalist has BALLS.

I can't think of a better way to summarize this year than this.

Band of the Week - Woven Hand

2008-11-09T16:34:00.006-06:00

Here's a new segment I want to try out where I'll post some clips and links to a musical group/project that I think deserves more attention. For the first attempt of this hopefully weekly occurrence I'll begin with Woven Hand, the brainchild of former 16 Horsepower lead singer David Eugene Edwards.

Woven Hand has been described as a mix of "alternative country, post-rock, punk, industrial music, folk rock, old-time music and native American music, among others". Along with Allmusic describing their music as "dark, gloomy, dreamy, organic and atmospheric".

Perhaps the most shocking and interesting facet of this group (at least for me) has been all the attention they have been getting from Death Metal and Black Metal musicians/fans when considering Edwards' has been quite vocal about his Christian faith (he was raised by a Nazarene preacher). Still I suppose the fascination stemming from many non-christian fans is that with the music and lyrics, Edwards creates a world of doom and gloom. It's a Christianity that doesn't seem to proclaim set lines between the divine and the heathens. Rather it pits all of humanity as damned and wretched before a wrathful God. Something that's not all that foreign from bands like Black Sabbath or Trouble nor from indie rock heroes Nick Cave or Tom Waits.

For an example of the group's wide audience check this interesting snip from an interview (here's the full text) with guitarist Morgan Steinmeyer Håkansson from Black Metal band Marduk:

CoC: So what's spinning in your CD player right now?

MSH: I listen to what I regard as the best black and death metal, for example right now I'm listening to a lot of early Morbid Angel stuff. _Altars of Madness_ and _Domination_ still remain very powerful and very heavy. I also like dark and powerful industrial music, I like classical music -- I like everything that I can find that has a soul. For example, I like two bands who are actually very Christian, but are still a lot darker than many so-called black metal bands: Sixteen Horsepower and Woven Hand.

CoC: Never heard them.

MSH: Oh my God, you should really check them out -- they're really dark and really Christian, but still extremely fascinating. I'm going to see them live on Sunday; it's really bizarre music. I like anything that can really paint pictures in my mind.

Mypace Page: http://www.myspace.com/wovenhand

Videodrome:

New Rules & Cornel West

2008-11-09T16:04:00.007-06:00

As a way to kick start back into the groove, here's Bill Maher giving his "New Rules" on the most recent episdoe of Real Time. Hope you enjoy.

Also, I would like to add this video featuring Philosopher Cornel West visting Maher's show, before the election. West is quite possible one of the most accessible and profound philosophers that's still alive. Again, enjoy.

A Quote of Wisdom

2008-08-17T23:14:00.007-05:00

Well of late I have decided to extend this blog beyond just the arts to topics of politics and philosophy. This will include a sort of scrap-booking of interesting quotes and following reflections from books I am reading.

Currently I just started plowing through The Portable Atheist, which is a collection of writings with atheistic and agnostic messages edited together by modern day crusader against all that is (un)Holy, Christopher Hitchens. The sampled works range from the Roman philosopher Lucretius all the way to modern day Dutch feminist and critic of Islam, Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I'm sure I'll be adding quotes from a number of sections in this impressive collection, but I'll begin with where I've most recently finished, a section of Thomas Hobbes Leviathan.

For being assured that there be causes of all things that have arrived hitherto, or shall arrive hereafter, it is impossible for a man, who continually endeavoureth to secure himself against the evil he fears, and procure the good he desireth, not to be in a perpetual solicitude of the time to come; so that every man, especially those that are over-provident, are in an estate like to that of Prometheus. For as Prometheus (which, interpreted, is the prudent man) was bound to the hill Caucasus, a place of large prospect, where an eagle, feeding on his liver, devoured in the day as much as was repaired in the night: so that man, which looks too far before him in the care of future time, hath his heart all the day long gnawed on by fear of death, poverty, or other calamity; and has no repose, nor pause of his anxiety, but in sleep...

...And in these four things, opinion of ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion towards what men fear, and taking of things casual for prognostics, consisteth the natural seed of religion; which, by reason of the different fancies, judgements, and passions of several men, hath grown up into ceremonies so different that those which are used by one man are for the most part ridiculous to another...

...For seeing all formed religion is founded at first upon the faith which a multitude hath in some one person, whom they believe not only to be a wise man and to labour to procure their happiness, but also to be a holy man to whom God Himself vouchsafeth to declare His will supernaturally, it followeth necessarily when they that have the government of religion shall come to have either the wisdom of those men, their sincerity, or their love suspected, or that they shall be unable to show any probable token of divine revelation, that the religion which they desire to uphold must be suspected likewise and (without the fear of the civil sword) contradicted and rejected.

-"Of Religion", Leviathan; Thomas Hobbes

There is some ambiguity about Hobbes' exact stance on religion considering the precarious situation he was in during the English Civil War. Hobbes makes clear reference to the Judaic-Christian faith as being different from what he entitles as the Gentile faiths with the former being born from divine revelation and the later created by man and his fear. However, the trick is noticed by the reader who observes how Hobbes never really makes a distinction between the false prophets of revelation and those supposedly truly in communication with God. The planting of kind words for the Judea-Christian tradition would save Hobbes from being out-right labelled an atheist (a punishable crime at the time), but clearly Hobbes seems to feel Religion is an institution of the state born from taking advantage of the populaces fears and ignorance. This is a theme central to most later atheistic attacks against religion and shows very prominently in the works of Marx and Freud.

Here is a link to the whole of "Of Religion" from Leviathan(as a part of the whole text).

Note: this is not me!

Frostbitten

2008-07-26T20:59:00.008-05:00

Response to Tom Gabriel Fischer’s latest blog post:

Tom Gabriel Fischer, former front man of Swiss Metal legends Celtic Frost, notified back in April that he had left Celtic Frost. This sent shock waves through many in the metal world since Celtic Frost had only just released it’s heavily praised return album “Monotheist” and had successfully toured all over the globe. The band themselves were skeptical of how far the reunion would go, but as time wore on all signs seemed to be pointing towards a glorious future. Talks of a future album taking the previous venture adventurous experimenting even further and into even darker territories. Plus Tom had whispered in interviews an idea for a DVD that went beyond the conventions of anything previously done by anyone. With the album the return album and the exhilarating tours as ample foundations for such wild prospects, for a while the Metal world felt giddy in a way not felt in a long time. Of course all that was hoped now lies upon the floor like shattered glass.

In the time since then, Fischer has released a string of messages on his blog about the break-up. Overall these have been disappointing by not providing any explanation, but merely giving veiled suggestions of blame projected through whines and whelps. Most mature minds can understand this though as the emotional release of a man whose lifetime work has fallen well short of his expectations. However, for his fans the tipping point is nearing where a lack of exhibited clarity upon the situation leaves us to feel like we’re being toyed around with. The latest public announcement from Tom is no different.

What we have here is perhaps the most open revelation on what caused Celtic Frost’s second downfall and at the same time we are still left grasping for what has not been provided. Tom’s hinting has started to shape a picture where it seems Frost’s troubles were rooted in the absence of Reed St. Mark in the reunion and some still unspecific conflict of interests/vision with Martin Eric Ain along with perhaps some issues with Franco Sesa. Also in an odd sense it was at least kind of Tom to reveal that another reunion (or cancellation of this secondary demise) is out of the question for him. Yet, can this even be taken serious from one musician whom among his fellow band mates has consistently used ambiguity to pull on the emotional strings of their fans?

One could even develop the cynical opinion that this teasing on about the break-up is being used to retain the attention on the band in aspirations for some novel or other to be sold, which even then may not fully reveal the physical events that created this whole mess. Yet still perhaps people are just far too demanding of other human beings, particularly of ones whose life work have recently ended. Perhaps so, but the continued absence of a clear voice in this debacle makes it seem that this band consists of overall vain men who allowed minor problems to escalate into an atmosphere of immaturity. This has been the history of rock music where golden gods are merely masked children that never learned how to cooperate with a single living human being.

There is hope that this newel titled project, Triptykon, will be able to pick up the pieces and carry on to what Celtic Frost promised. Or as is more likely, this will illustrate how the broken chemistry of talented individuals leads to lack-luster results. Isn’t Pink Floyd evidence enough of that?

note: Honestly though, in regard to Triptykon, I hope Tom proves me wrong. Monotheist was too killer to be his last mark.

Videodrone:

The Dead Continue To Speak

2008-06-24T23:55:00.018-05:00

Well certainly the biggest news story this week was the death (passing away is an insult) of comedian legend George Carlin. Carlin had an unbelievable talent for word play and a satirical knifed tongue that often cut deep through social norms to reveal what was really going on. He is often reflected upon having become overly cynical in his older years with nihilistic thoughts about man's future and certainly having little patience for God folk. In part this darkness, and to many accurate portrayal, was a major part of Carlin's appeal. He just plain out wouldn't accept anyone's "Bullshit"!

Well, on the lighter side the good news is that many of us in the US will be able to experience a Crepitating Bowel Erosion. Now for those not metal heads that won't make sense, but anyone who has any love for Death Metal must have jumped out of their skin when they saw that the Grind/Death Metal gods Carcass will be touring America. Finally anyone too young back in the 90's (i.e. ME) will be able to witness Carcass, minus brain injured drummer Ken Owen, perform classics off of Symphonies of Sickness, Necroticism-Descanting the Insalubrious and Heartwork. Plus, the chance to ask Jeff Walker when his next country album is coming out.

Positive and interesting events occured for Canadians as Sam Dunn's next metal film "Global Metal" is finally coming out and Rush are getting a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Gojira are working on their next album and by everything that Joe Duplantier has said it seems like it well could top their last album. Judas Priest just came out with their new video for Nostradamus entitled War, which unfortunately will universally be considered a poorly made flop. As we all wait for Metallica's new Album Death Magnetic (yea, I know) to come out, the boys have released a pretty cool video that looks back at their beginnings and their first masterpiece Kill'em All.

A string of recent sad/pathetic/odd events has included Cradle of Filth getting caught up in another free speech "persecution" for their infamous Jesus is a C*** tee-shirt, this time in Australia. QOTSA's Josh Homme continues to be a jack-ass whom you still agree with, while department store Macy's continues it's corporate vampire tradition by now marketing Jimi Hendrix, Metallica and Ozzy shirts. Kerry King embarrassed Slayer fans (and hopefully the rest of his band) by saying he's influenced now by Trivium, whom are also co-headlining with Slayer.

In futher tour news beyond Carcass it's been recently published that tours/concerts in the states are on the way for Krautrock heroes Faust, Boris, Tortoise, & Sigur Rós.

Videodrome:

Opening up Shop

2008-06-15T14:20:00.008-05:00

So this will be my first step into the world of actually blogging. Like many of the blogs I enjoy reading, I'll be using this place to link to articles/videos/audio of interest (from culture to politics) and giving my own two cents on them. With nothing else to say, lets begin:

Links:

I'm not so sure about this. Another minimalist album cover does seem to harken back to the "Black Album", but this time with perhaps some sort of Beatles "White Album" reference. Much of the buzz from the select journalists who have gotten a listen of the album are all drooling over it with claims of it being as glorious as band's legendary 80's material. Most fans though will look at these reviews with a bit of skepticism, which is something Metallica have well instilled in their fans over the years due to such odd ventures as Re-Load and St. Anger. It doesn't help though when Metallica pulls reviews from the internet and then gives them back, as the good guys at Metal Sucks reported. Of the then deleted and now resurrected reviews, one came from a writer with The Quietus who gave a fair and critical review that one can likely believe in. We'll all know when it finally comes out.

Great video interviews with Ihsahn from Emperor and many more Black Metal musicians from Norway, courtesy of MetalKult.
Trent Reznor possibly making Year Zero into a T.V. Series

Very cool news and hopefully it takes off. The article also mentions the prospects for this Summer's NIN tour and it sounds freakily fantastic.

Videodrome:

Green Jello- Three Little Pigs

Meshuggah- In Death - Is Life/In Death - Is Death