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Queen of Liars

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Blog Entries posted by Queen of Liars

  1. Queen of Liars

    Dronevil

    By Queen of Liars,

    Finally managed to get my hands on a physical copy of my second favourite Boris album, and it is beautiful.
     

     

     

     
    Boris CDs are always really neat. Makes me feel a lot better about the prices of these Japanese-only ones.
  2. Queen of Liars

    earthtone9

    By Queen of Liars,

    Recently got the last earthtone9 album I was missing:
     

     
    In order: Lo-def(inition) Discord; Off Kilter Enhancement; arc'tan'gent; IV
    Also a really cool deck of playing cards released to promote IV.
    There's also the For Cause and Consequence EP, but it's digital only.
     
    It's a band that's not really that well known. While arc'tan'gent has become somewhat of a cult classic, they've kinda been forgotten since they originally split up in the early 2000's shortly after that album.
    Although I haven't been a fan for long, I'm very happy that they reunited recently and released IV last year, which was their first album in 13 years. They've got a very unique sound that blends hardcore, progressive metal and alternative metal, and while their music can perhaps sometimes lack the complexity associated with prog, they're still very fun to listen to.
     
     
    On another note, I need to stop trying to take pictures of my CDs in the middle of the night because that never turns out well. Unfortunately, that's usually the time I get the urge to make an entry showing off something from my collection.
  3. Queen of Liars
    It's time for an updated Emilie Autumn collection post, since I recently made a few acquisitions:
     

     
    On the left we have the albums:
     
    Enchant
    Opheliac (The Deluxe Edition)
    Laced/Unlaced (Limited edition digibook, limited to 2000 copies)
    Fight Like a Girl
     
    And on the right we have the compilation and EPs:
     
    A Bit o' This & That (Limited edition digibook, limited to 3000 copies)
    Liar/Dead Is the New Alive EP (Limited edition digipak, limited to 3000 copies)
    4 o'Clock EP (Limited edition digipak, limited to 3000 copies)
    Girls Just Wanna Have Fun/Bohemian Rhapsody EP (Limited edition digipak, limited to 3000 copies)
     
    Which are all sitting on a signed copy of her book.
     
    And that's basically everything. I wouldn't mind getting the digibook edition of Enchant, but it's not a big deal, and otherwise I've got everything of hers I'd want. So that's nice.
     
     

    Don't mind that sound, that's just my bank account crying.


  4. Queen of Liars

    Emilie Autumn

    By Queen of Liars,

    Received my copy of Emilie Autumn's first album today, which means that I've completed my collection of her stuff:
     

     
    Here we have:
     
    Enchant
    Opheliac (The Deluxe Edition)
    Laced/Unlaced
    Fight Like a Girl
     
    All sitting on top of a signed copy of her book.
     
    There's a few EPs that I don't have which I may one day want to hunt down, but these are all four of the actual albums.
    Well, technically I suppose she had an album before Enchant, called On a Day, which contained her performances of several classical pieces, but a remastered version of that album is included as the first half of Laced/Unlaced, so it's all good.
  5. Queen of Liars
    It's time for the bit of history coursework that I've been working on for the past three or so months.
     
    "Assess the view that the policy of National Prohibition created more problems than it solved".
    It may sound like tons of fun, but I assure you that it is not.
     
    I'm gonna need some coffee for this one.
     
     
    ...Someone save me
  6. Queen of Liars
    So the exam went much better than I thought it would. The first two questions were very nice and easy, but kind of fell apart at the third one, partly due to lack of time, partly because it wasn't a very nice question.
    But hey, it was a choice of three questions out of seven, so at least I wasn't stuck with the other four, which were pretty horrible.
     
    Having a bit of free time, got myself a new headset and a new pair of earphones, since my old ones broke. It always feels strange switching to a new headset because I get so used to how the old one sounds.
    Also picked up a couple of books: The Revolution of Everyday Life by Raoul Vaneigem, having previously read a library copy, and Selected Poems 1947-1995 by Allen Ginsberg, having enjoyed what I've read of his work.
  7. Queen of Liars

    Exams Done

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, I had my last exam on Friday, which went about as poorly as expected. I guess that at least means I haven't had any expectations crushed =P
    Either way, it's a relief to finally have it out of the way and not have to think about it anymore. I was approaching breaking point with stress and anxiety, and it's good to at least have that source of it removed.
     
    And so that's it. My three years of university have passed, and hopefully so have I. Quite the three years, these were. It's interesting to reflect on them and see both how much and how little I've changed. It's definitely going to feel very strange not having university anymore.
     
    For now, I can relax for while, which is really nice. I'll be trying to focus on music this summer, specifically honing my guitar skills, as well as messing around with FL Studio and other software, while I try to set up a good opportunity to move to either Japan or Norway for a while. We'll see how that goes.
  8. Queen of Liars

    Exams Done

    By Queen of Liars,

    Handed in my university assignments on Monday, had exams yesterday and today, and now I have the rest of the month off, which is very nice.
     
    Exams went alright, I suppose, although neither of them really had much room to talk about what I know the most unfortunately. The Law of Tort exam on Tuesday had no room for volenti and very little for public and private nuisance, and today's EU Law exam didn't really provide many opportunities to talk about the free movement of persons.
    Still, the questions were pretty nice. The EU exam had a very nice question on the free movement of goods, and got to mention trespass ab initio in Tort.
     
    Oh, and one of the questions in the Tort exam had Harry Potter characters in it. Obviously that was one of the three I chose to do. When there's a question that includes scenarios like Albus giving bad financial advice to Neville about share investments, followed by the property that Albus was going to turn into an office building being set on fire which spreads to Severus' property, you don't not do it.
  9. Queen of Liars
    After putting it off for ages, I finally started XCOM: EU this week and I've been really enjoying it. It's definitely among my favourite strategy games, only outdone by Civilization IV and Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. It's certainly very addictive.
     
    My current squad, made up of (mostly) musicians:
     

     
    I do wish there were more customisation options, as right now Devin Townsend and Ihsahn are the only ones that actually resemble their real-life selves. With no long hairstyles, there's no way to make Alice Cooper work =P
    I wanted Nick Holmes' nickname to be Cardinal Zero, since he's said that it's his favourite Paradise Lost song title and that's what he would name a new band if he started one, but it sadly didn't fit. Went with Host instead as it seemed the most fitting of their album titles. Don't get why they had to make such a low character limit, but oh well.
    And yes, Motoko Kusanagi is a character from Ghost in the Shell and not a musician, but both Dennis Lyxzen and Bjork ended up getting killed pretty early on when I didn't quite know what I was doing. Been getting kind of re-obsessed with GitS, so I felt like including her.
     
    That's pretty much all I've been doing this week. It sure is nice to have a few weeks where I can just relax and catch up with some of the games, music and movies I've been putting off.
  10. Queen of Liars
    At last, the unbearable heat has ended and it is raining. The best kind of weather. Well, second best. Nothing beats snow.
     
    Maybe now my brain will function well enough to get some work done
  12. Queen of Liars
    Well, submitted my last two assignments this morning, and with that it's the end of my first semester of university. Got to say it was quite enjoyable. Very enjoyable even. Definitely the most enjoyable time I've had in education so far. I'm glad that I decided to go with Law after all, as it's actually a very interesting and relevant subject. Although the workload multiplies at a rather staggering rate if left unattended for even the tiniest amount of time, most of that work is fairly interesting and engaging.
     
    However, I would have thought that at this point I'd be able to pull myself together enough not to leave large chunks of assignments unfinished, only starting to finish them within the last 24 hours before the submission deadline.
    Apparently not.
     
    Well, it's still a big relief not having anymore coursework to do for the time being. Now I get more time to do nothing.
  13. Queen of Liars
    I got a ridiculous amount of work to do for tomorrow and it looks like it will take me the night to do it...
    Well, that's what I get for so foolishly leaving it off until now. At least I have an empty timetable for tomorrow, so I'll just turn up, hand in the work, go home and sleep.
     
    Looks like I'll need some coffee for this one...
  14. Queen of Liars
    Recently acquired a copy of the second volume of the Ghost in the Shell manga, so now I have this little collection:
     

     
    DVDs: Ghost in the Shell and Innocence boxset (plus the Ghost in the Shell 2.0 remaster of the original movie); Stand Alone Complex 1st GIG boxset; Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG boxset; Stand Alone Complex: The Laughing Man; Stand Alone Complex: Individual Eleven; Stand Alone Complex: Solid State Society
    Manga: Ghost in the Shell; Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface; Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor
     
    Which - apart from the soundtracks - is pretty much everything that I think is worth owning. There's also a Stand Alone Complex manga, but from what I understand it's basically the equivalent of a novelisation of the anime series rather than something unique, so I'm not really interested in it.
     
    Now I'm just waiting for Ghost in the Shell: Arise to get DVD releases over here. The first two parts will be released on the 24th of November, but I don't believe parts 3 and 4 have a release date yet.
  15. Queen of Liars
    Time for an updated Ghost in the Shell collection post, now that I have all the new Arise stuff.
     

     
    We have the DVDs:
     
    Ghost in the Shell / Innocence / Ghost in the Shell 2.0 boxset
    Stand Alone Complex 1st GIG boxset
    Stand Alone Complex 2nd GIG boxset
    Stand Alone Complex - The Laughing Man
    Stand Alone Complex - Individual Eleven
    Stand Alone Complex - Solid State Society
    Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Borders 1 & 2
    Ghost in the Shell: Arise - Borders 3 & 4
    Ghost in the Shell: The New Movie
     
    And the manga:
     
    Ghost in the Shell
    Ghost in the Shell 2: Man-Machine Interface
    Ghost in the Shell 1.5: Human Error Processor
     
    Good stuff right there.
  16. Queen of Liars
    Well, I'm spending this week in France, so that's nice I guess.
    Got to say, I'm a bit jealous of the French as they still get toys in their cereal. We don't have that in the UK anymore. I know I don't exactly fall within the age demographic they try to hit with those toys, but it's still nice to get them.
  17. Queen of Liars
    Paradise Lost are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year and are doing some special shows in October and November, with support from Lacuna Coil and a special guest that hasn't been announced yet.
    Went ahead and got myself a ticket for the London show in November. Really looking forward to it
     
    It's also a reminder of how quickly time goes by. It doesn't seem that long ago that they were celebrating their 20th anniversary with the release of a demo compilation, which I have sitting on my desk right here, and yet it was almost five years ago.
    Why does that make me feel so old, even though I'm so young?
  18. Queen of Liars
    So today, roughly two weeks after we handed in our final coursework, he asks us to make sure that the question combinations we picked are allowed by the exam board, because the coursework is being sent off for moderation on Friday.
    Wonder what would have happened if someone actually didn't check that when they first picked their questions and only found out today that they're not allowed to do the two they chose.
  20. Queen of Liars

    Happy Halloween

    By Queen of Liars,

    Oh look, an excuse to use my blog.
     
    I do hope everyone's having a nice and appropriately themed Halloween though. It's always a fun time.
     
    I'm enjoying a Halloween playlist, but I've been busy lately so it's a bit more hastily put together than usual. Still, it'll do the job. Might follow it up with some appropriate gaming and/or movie watching later tonight.
  22. Queen of Liars

    History Exam

    By Queen of Liars,

    Had my second exam today - History.
    It went quite good, the questions were great. The first one I chose asked us to assess whether taxation was the main cause of economic rebellions in Tudor England, which was pretty straight forward and I made some good points as to the reason it wasn't the case.
    The second question asked how effectively the Tudor governments dealt with rebellions in England and Ireland, which is again pretty straight forward, and it's always fun to bash the Tudors' incompetence in Irish matters.
    The question I didn't chose asked to how important the role of the clergy was in maintaining political stability in Tudor England, which isn't a very nice question, especially since you can't talk about Ireland. But since I could chose the other two, not a problem.
     
    So yeah, this exam was as easy as I thought it would be.
    Tomorrow is my Sociology retake, and that's the one I'm not feeling too good about.
  24. Queen of Liars
    I'm barely using my blog at all, so I thought I'd start a little series where I basically just talk about music. Maybe talk about my favourite bands and why I like them, maybe show off interesting albums in my collection. Stuff like that.
     
    Just over a week ago it was the 15th anniversary of what I currently hold to be the greatest album of all time - The Shape of Punk to Come - and so I thought I'd talk about the band responsible for that album: Refused.

    Refused were one of the most important (and certainly the most well known) bands in the Swedish hardcore punk scene and during their career from 1991 to 1998 they became one of the most influential punk bands in history.
     

    In order: This Just Might Be... The Truth; Songs to Fan the Flames of Discontent; The Shape of Punk to Come; This Album Contains Old Songs and Old Pictures Vol. 1 (Also Known as the EP Comp CD); This Album Contains Old Songs and Old Pictures Vol. 2 (Also Known as the Demo Comp CD); The New Noise Theology EP.
     
    With their first album and first few EPs Refused started out playing what was pretty much typical hardcore in the scene at the time (mind you, they did it incredibly well). Their second album saw them exploring more complex post-hardcore before revolutionising punk in 1998 with their third album, The Shape of Punk to Come.
     
    I love everything Refused have done, but it is this third and final album (the band broke up shortly after its completion) that has earned them their spot in music history, and with good reason.
    With 15 years since its release, I think it is still completely unparalleled.
     
    A very ambitious and forward-thinking record, it experimented a lot with what hardcore was and could be, with complex songwriting and seamless incorporation of many jazz and electronic elements (indeed, the album's title is a tip of the hat to Ornette Coleman's album The Shape of Jazz to Come).
     
    It's a fantastically written and very unique album. Everything from little things to the big things, from the electronic interludes, to the jazz bridge on The Deadly Rhythm, to the fantastic violin intro to Tannhäuser / Derivè (which happens to be pretty much my favourite song ever) serves a purpose in crafting this masterpiece.
    It's an album that is brutal and aggressive, yet delicate and sophisticated.
     
    There's not much I can say about this album that hasn't already been said my many fans and critics. Pretty much everything about this record is perfect and everyone in the band is so good at what they do that it's ridiculous.
    It's an album that has influenced countless artists, but none of them have come close to matching its greatness.
    Of course it's not an album that's for everyone, but it's definitely the album for me.
     
    However, an album this incredible took its toll on Refused's creative energy and the band broke up soon after, vowing to never play together again.
    Fortunately, that was not the case and they reunited in 2012 for one tour to do justice to their last album. Following the tour Refused broke up once again, but stated that the possibility of their return remains.
    I certainly hope that they do indeed return, as they are by far my favourite band.
     
     
    ...And that will be the end of my babbling for this first entry. I kinda wanted to talk more about their early work, but I don't really want to make these entries long, so maybe another time
  25. Queen of Liars
    I talked about Refused in my last entry, so I thought I would next talk about other projects of their vocalist Dennis Lyxzén.
     
    Dennis is probably one of my favourite people in music. He's a very talented vocalist with an impressive range, and he's a good guitarist and bassist too.
    Beyond that, he is also a fantastic songwriter and lyricist, with a strong passion for his music and message.
     
    After Refused broke up, Dennis went on to form The (International) Noise Conspiracy - a garage punk/dance punk band which was his main focus until he ended the project in 2009.
    During that time he also formed the Lost Patrol Band, later renamed to Invasionen and currently known as INVSN, which has more of an indie-rock edge and, now that T(I)NC is done, is his main project.
    In 2008 he also formed a hardcore punk band with Refused's drummer David Sandström after the two started talking again, under the name of AC4. After releasing the second album earlier this year, this project is also coming to an end, with Dennis having said that there's a compilation to be released after which the band will split up.
    During Refused's time, he was also in Final Exit - a hardcore punk supergroup of sorts, formed by members of Refused and Abhinanda, which released two albums.
     
    So, onto my collection of his stuff. Along with everything by Refused, I have this:
     

     
    The (International) Noise Conspiracy - The First Conspiracy; Survival Sickness; A New Morning, Changing Weather; Armed Love; Bigger Cages, Longer Chains EP and the Capitalism Stole My Virginity single
    The Lost Patrol Band - The Lost Patrol Band
    INVSN - INVSN
    AC4 - AC4; Burn The World
     
    I'm missing quite a lot, including the last T(I)NC album, two albums by The Lost Patrol Band, the two albums by Invasionen and the two albums by Final Exit.
    Those albums get harder to find as the list goes on, with me waiting for the T(I)NC album to drop in price, and with the Final Exit albums being pretty much impossible to find at this stage.
     
    Either way, that's quite a lot of bands for one person to have been in, and not only are they all at least pretty good, but they all sound very different from each other. It's almost hard to believe that INVSN are fronted by the same person as Refused.
     
    I'm eagerly awaiting to see what Dennis comes out with next. Of course after the amazing tour last year, the hope is that Refused will return again, but I'm just as excited for anything else he might do.
    Even if none of these bands were as influential or revolutionised punk like Refused did, Dennis always creates quality music.
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