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Queen of Liars

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Blog Entries posted by Queen of Liars

  1. Queen of Liars
    One of my favourite record labels - Century Media - mark their 25th anniversary this year and have released 25 of their classic albums as limited 2CD editions, which is pretty cool.
    I got myself City by Strapping Young Lad today and will probably end up getting Paradise Lost's In Requiem despite owning the original, just for the second CD and because that album means quite a lot to me.
    Might also use these reissues to get some albums by bands I've been wanting to try out, like Turisas, Iced Earth and Tiamat.
    And of course I find out about these reissues just as I was thinking I should probably cut down on the money I spend on music... Ah well.
  2. Queen of Liars
    Since I now have a blog, I thought I might as well start doing occasional short album reviews.
    And since Tragic Idol - the thirteenth album from the founders of Gothic Metal, Paradise Lost - comes out in a week's time, I thought I'd review it's predecessor: 2009's Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us.
     

     
    This was Paradise Lost's twelfth album, and is my favourite by them. It actually also is one of my favourite albums of all time.
    In comparison to their previous albums, it continues the darker and heavier side of Paradise Lost established by 2007's In Requiem, but steps it up a notch, while also taking bits from all of their previous eras of sound and using them as inspiration.
    The opening track, As Horizons End, tells you exactly what you're in for: a melodic, melancholic and atmospheric, yet very heavy and guitar-driven Gothic Metal record. There are a few variations in pace throughout the album, with some slower songs like the title track or In Truth but the whole record flows very well and the mood is never broken.
    Gregor Mackintosh is my favourite guitarist and this album is a great showcase as to why: his songwriting is fantastic. This album is full of great guitar playing with brilliant riffs and and solos, all of which serve to create a powerful melancholic atmosphere, which is something I've always loved Paradise Lost for doing. An epic atmosphere which is further strengthened by Nick Holmes' powerful vocals.
    There is really nothing negative I can say about this album. It pushes all the right buttons for me and I am happy to be a die-hard fan of the band.
    Also worth noting is that I bought the 2 CD limited edition of this album on its release day, which came with three bonus tracks - Cardinal Zero, which is a very strong track that could have easily been on the regular album, and different versions of the title track and Last Regret, with the music performed by the Lost In Prague orchestra. Let me tell you, the orchestra versions are very epic indeed, although I do prefer the originals.
     
    Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us is the fathers of Gothic Metal showing everyone how it's done.
  3. Queen of Liars
    Well, I suppose it's time for another very short and not very good album review.
     
    Awoken Broken - Primal Rock Rebellion (2012)
     

     
    Awoken Broken is the debut album by Primal Rock Rebellion, which is a collaboration between Iron Maiden's guitarist Adrian Smith and the now disbanded SikTh's vocalist Mikee Goodman, which in some ways is a rather strange collaboration as the two bands play very different music, but it works, and it works very well.
    From the opening track, this album is refreshingly different and quite unique. Adrian Smith's guitar playing is instantly recognisable, however it stays away from sounding like Iron Maiden, with the same going for Goodman's vocals.
    Both artists perform excellently here. Adrian Smith is one of my favourite guitarists and his talent shines through, as it always does, with his distinct songwriting, riffing and solos. Goodman's unique vocals were one of the things that set SikTh apart from other bands in their scene, and they are spot-on here as well. He uses four or five vocal techniques in each song and they all fit in nicely and flow well with the music, and give the album an eccentric feel, as they did in SikTh. This is further aided by Goodman's interesting lyrics and songwriting, and the variation through the album between fast and very heavy tracks and slower, more melodic ones.
    The combination of the two talents produces a sound that is unique and different from the two original bands and makes for an excellent album that grows better with each listen. This is a great debut to a project that will hopefully bring forth more brilliant material in the future.
  4. Queen of Liars
    Well, after handing in 3300 words worth of law coursework on Tuesday and doing my mooting assignment earlier this morning, I now have nothing but exams to look forward to.
    The moot went fairly well, although having went with a white shirt and a red tie I resembled Agent 47 from the Hitman series more than I intended (although I do have hair of course). Not necessarily a bad thing, but I was going for more of a lawyer look rather than a professional assassin look.
    It has been a very busy month and will continue to be so with exams on the 23rd and the 30th, the first of which I'm not feeling too good about. I do have a week to fix that though, so hopefully my first year of university will turn out alright.
  5. Queen of Liars
    Well, handed in my final English and History coursework pieces today, and it feels good to have that done.
    Sadly, no time to relax, got to prepare for exams now.
     
    *Sigh* Can't wait for the summer, although I'll probably spend it being worried about results and whether I'll get into university...
  6. Queen of Liars
    So, some drunk students in my accommodation apparently thought it would be funny to activate the fire alarm at 4 AM, thus waking everyone up and making them go stand outside in the cold for 20 minutes.
     
    It's fine really, not like I was planning to get a decent amount of sleep for once before a day at university or anything >.>
  7. Queen of Liars

    And I'm back

    By Queen of Liars,

    I got a new monitor, so I can use the computer again =D
    And I ended up not having to spend any money because my dad kindly bought it for me in return for me doing some accounting for him. So that's good. It's also vastly superior to my previous monitor (even if my previous monitor still worked), although it's gonna take a while to get used to the wider screen.
     
    Didn't do too much during my two days without a monitor, although that was where buying CDs really payed off as I could still listen to all my music without a computer, otherwise I might have gone crazy... -er.
  8. Queen of Liars
    Good to see the forums back. Big thanks to all the staff that worked on the problem.
     
    Didn't really do too much during the few days BZP was offline. Went to see Paradise Lost on Sunday, which was an absolutely brilliant show, and spent most of the rest of the time studying and sleeping. Also, didn't vote in the London mayor elections.
     
    At least there's only about one and a half months until my summer begins and I can just chill out for a couple of months.
  9. Queen of Liars
    I've spoken enough about how much I hate those barcode stickers that get put on new CDs from the US, so here's another pet peeve I was reminded of today:
     

     
    It's rare, but every once in a while when I order a used CD online I'll get something like this.
    I don't know if I even want to commit the effort to trying to remove that cleanly.
     
    I takes a bit of the joy out of the purchase. I know it's not the seller's fault. It's the fault of some record store employee who decided to put a sticker straight on the case back in 1992 for some reason. Maybe they had a grudge against the latest KMFDM album for going in a slightly more rock direction. Who knows, but it's still annoying me 23 years later.
     
    The worst part is that it's only the remains of a sticker, so I can't even get any interesting information about the history of this particular copy of the CD.
     
    Like that one time I got a Pitchshifter album, and upon examining the stickers I found that it was not in its original case, and that the new case it was occupying in fact once belonged to a Coldplay album. Kinda felt tainted after that, being tricked into touching something to do with Coldplay.
  10. Queen of Liars
    Well, I am now 19. Which is quite a boring age really. Nothing of much significance comes with it, but I am getting to the point where birthdays are becoming mundane.
     
    Ah well, I'll go listen to I'm Eighteen by Alice Cooper now, and pretend that I'm still 18 and that song is still the perfect fit for celebrating my birthday.
  11. Queen of Liars

    Arktis.

    By Queen of Liars,

    Finally received my copy of the new Ihsahn album the other day, after there being some delays with the limited editions.
     

     
    An excellent album which was well worth the wait. Not quite as good as his previous three, but I'd still be surprised if it isn't my album of the year.
     
    Perhaps I'll do an updated post of my entire Ihsahn collection later, when I'm not busy listening to Arktis.
  12. Queen of Liars
    So, I went to see the brilliant Steve Hughes tonight, and it was great. Bonus points to him for having Motorhead songs playing before the show started.
    This was actually the first time I've seen a comedian live, and having enjoyed it quite a lot, it seems that a fair amount of my free time at university will be divided between going music concerts and going to comedy shows. Often at the same venue too.
  13. Queen of Liars
    So, I went to see three Canadian comedians - Stewart Francis, Craig Campbell and Glenn Wool - on their The Lumberjacks tour tonight.
    Stewart Francis has been one of my favourite comedians for quite some time now, so it was great to finally see him live, and the other two were brilliant as well. Haven't laughed that much in a long time.
    It was just their second show of the tour, which meant that there were still some imperfections and they were still trying some new stuff out, which only made the show all the better. Also, as it was a fairly small venue, it felt more personal which is always great
     
     
    On another note, I've started buying more albums than I should again. I can't help it, something about a music CD just draws me in and doesn't let go until I've bought it. Especially those fancy limited/special/deluxe/whatever editions...
  14. Queen of Liars
    Well, I'm back in London for the weekend, and you know, I like London a lot less now. Getting around is way too difficult with these endless masses of people, and while I did get used to it before, having spent a month in university and coming back, it's less than enjoyable. Seriously, I got from Cambridge to London quicker than I got from one point in London to another, and it barely cost me more.
     
    Also, that Devin Townsend show I went to on Wednesday was absolutely brilliant, and I am very jealous of the people in London who at this very moment are enjoying his biggest show yet. The man has seemingly infinite amounts of charisma and is of course an incredible musician.
  15. Queen of Liars
    As of yesterday, my third year of university has officially begun. While I've certainly missed it, at the same time I do find myself wishing it hadn't started just yet.
     
    The day went well enough. Had three lectures on land law, which isn't the most boring module I've studied so far. Pretty close though.
     
    Spent some of the free time visiting the local record/movie store. Didn't find many interesting CDs, but they did have a large selection of films by Wong Kar-Wai. I'll definitely be going back on Friday to get the ones I don't have yet, but in the meantime I picked up Love Exposure, The Twilight Samurai and The Flowers of War.
    I guess I've shifted form buying too many albums to buying too many movies.
  16. Queen of Liars

    Birthday

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, I'm officially 20 years old as of about an hour ago.
     
    20 is a nice number and all, but obviously it just goes downhill after 18 because this song doesn't fit anymore:
     
    http://youtu.be/vMCyX0P_dGE
  17. Queen of Liars

    Björk

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, here is my recently completed Björk collection:
     

    ^Click for a bigger picture
     
    Debut
    Post
    Homogenic
    Selmasongs: Music from Dancer in the Dark
    Vespertine
    Medúlla
    The Music from Drawing Restraint 9
    Volta
    Biophilia
    Vulnicura
     
    Got to say I'm not overly fond her newest album, but I love pretty much all of the other main albums, especially Post and Debut.
  18. Queen of Liars

    Boris

    By Queen of Liars,

    Finally received my CD copy of one of my favourite albums, Boris at Last -Feedbacker- by Boris.
    Took quite a while to find a copy at reasonable price, and it still wasn't cheap, but I am now very happy to finally own it.
    An updated picture of my Boris collection:
     

     
    Amplifier Worship
    Boris at Last -Feedbacker-
    Pink
    Smile (US Version)
    New Album
    Attention Please
    Heavy Rocks (2011)
    Noise
     
    Which not counting collaborations, is still only eight out of nineteen. Twenty if the Japanese and US versions of Smile are counted as separate, which they should be.
    So still a long way to go, but with most of the rest being Japan-only releases, I'm not getting my hopes up for getting anything else in the near future. The price for imports of some of their albums go up to the hundreds here.
    Plus, some of those albums are vinyl only. Now, Japan-only CDs are really expensive as is. Japan-only vinyl is a different beast altogether.
    For now I'm just hoping that some of their older albums get reissues with world-wide releases.
  19. Queen of Liars
    So, I went into the kitchen intending to get myself a cup of mint green tea, daydreaming as I did so, and everything seemed fine in the moment. However, it was only upon returning to my room and taking a sip of said tea when I noticed that it tasted a bit odd, at which point I came to the realisation that what I have actually made was, in fact, a cup of coffee.
    I am not sure how I went through the whole process without it even occurring to me that I was making an entirely different drink, which I keep on an entirely different shelf and consume from an entirely different mug.
    It seems that I either have a caffeine problem or really need to get some sleep for once. Probably both.
     
    And yes, I have nothing else noteworthy to blog about, in case you're wondering.
    Mostly just trying to finish off my coursework and prepare for the two exams at the end of the month, which have me a bit worried.
    It's hard to believe that my first year of university is already almost over.
  20. Queen of Liars
    My copy of the new Devin Townsend album finally arrived and it's pretty awesome.
     

     

     
    It's the reward for the £19 tier of the PledgeMusic campaign, which I backed pretty much as soon as it went live. That included a digital download of the album as soon as it was released, but it's really nice to actually have a physical copy now. Also, there's the bonus disc, which as usual is about as good as the actual album.
     
    The campaign was actually something like 600% of the target by the end of it, with most of the excess going to fund Devin's next Ziltoid album, along with donations to charity, so that's really cool too. Devin has great fans, and he deserves to.
  21. Queen of Liars

    Community

    By Queen of Liars,

    So, I watched all four seasons of Community over the past few days.
    Now that that's done, I'm not really sure what to do with my life anymore. At least until season 5 starts.
  22. Queen of Liars

    Computer Troubles

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, my laptop might be screwed, which would be rather unfortunate. And just as I started to get a bit more back into gaming too.
     
    For those curious, basically I restarted it last night, and then it simply failed to boot up. It would get to the welcome screen, flash blue and restart again. If I try doing start up repair, it gets stuck on a black screen with a movable cursor and nothing else. After lots of Googling, didn't really find all that much. As you might be able to guess, start up repair isn't meant to do that.
    I went inside the latop to try reseating the RAM and whatnot, and none of the components are obviously damaged, as in nothing's on fire, but that doesn't mean much. Based on the information I've gathered, the hard drive is my main suspect, but right now I've got neither another laptop sized hard drive, nor anywhere else to stick this hard drive into, so I can't confirm it. The next step is to try and get it working with a Windows repair/install disc, which I am in the process of downloading and burning, but somehow I'm not feeling too optimistic.
     
    Fortunately I back up my stuff fairly regularly, though it has been a little while since the last time, so I would end up losing a bit of stuff in the worst case scenario. Nothing too important though. I'm more concerned with simply not having a computer for who knows how long if I can't fix it. Oh well, here's hoping, I guess.
  23. Queen of Liars

    Concerts

    By Queen of Liars,

    Why is it that all the shows I really want to go to are always at the worst date for me?
     
    Refused are doing a show in a London club in August, which is great because bands like Refused really shine in smaller venues and I'd love to go see the show. However, it's on the last day of the 2012 Olympics. That is the one evening that I would really wish to not go outside. Being outside after a big football match in the area finished is bad enough, but Olympics?
    But it's okay, the band just reformed earlier this year and I'm sure there will be plenty of shows like this to come in the future.
     
    However, following this, W.A.S.P. are starting their 30th anniversary tour in London this September, and it's going to be a really special show. A 2 hour set including a shortened version of The Crimson Idol album and all the stage theatrics you'd ever want from W.A.S.P.
    The problem? It's on the Friday of my first week at university. So if I want to go, I have to either skip the first week or dish out a lot of money that I probably won't have on train tickets.
     

  24. Queen of Liars

    Cryptic Clues?

    By Queen of Liars,

    So, I mentioned yesterday that I got a used copy of the limited edition of Paradise Lost's album One Second. As I was looking through the booklet, this piece of paper fell out:
     

     
    What does it mean? Does it mean anything at all? Has it been there for the whole 15 years that this copy of the album existed?
    It kinda makes me sad that I will never know.
  25. Queen of Liars

    Deus Ex

    By Queen of Liars,

    I simply can't wait for this.
     
    I usually try really hard not to buy into hype or get too excited when there's very little information available, but sometimes even I can't help it. This is probably the most excited I've ever been for a video game.
     
    It's been known for a while that Eidos have been working on the next Deus Ex game, but now we finally have actual information and it's all getting me psyched.
     
    This is the first time in the series that we'll have a returning protagonist, but I am more than happy with more Adam Jensen. Elias Toufexis' voice acting work as him is just excellent. Michael McCann will also be composing the soundtrack again, which is great to hear as well.
     
    What they've said about the story thus far definitely has my interest, and I have total faith in Eidos that the writing will be just as good as it was in Human Revolution. Gameplay so far sounds like it's going to build on the previous game, with stuff like more fluid use of augmentations and even more open levels, which is just fine by me.
     
    So yeah, I am very excited. Human Revolution is my second favourite game of all time, and the original of course also has a spot in my top ten, so I have extremely high hopes for the new game. The only thing I'm not fond of is the title which just sounds cheesy, but that can be easily ignored if the game ends up as good as HR.
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