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Queen of Liars

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  1. Queen of Liars
    Seriously, life would be so much easier.
    Revising for my final Sociology exam tomorrow and decided to refresh a bit on phenomenology, which is not in the book, just somewhere in my notes. Good luck to me in trying to find it.
     
    But yeah, last exam tomorrow, and feeling pretty nervous. I need to get an A in it, and I think I know everything I need to, and extra stuff from my additional reading, but still pretty stressful. I just hope the big questions allow to discuss Marxism in detail, as that is right in my comfort zone more than any other theory or approach.
     
    But I am looking forward to having it done and just having the rest of the summer off with no worries about education at all, maybe except for finding books for university. Almost there...
  3. Queen of Liars

    Ihsahn

    By Queen of Liars,

    Time for an updated Ihsahn collection post I guess, given the new album:
     

    ^Click for a bigger picture
     
    Starting on the left:
     
    Thou Shalt Suffer, which is essentially the earliest incarnation of Emperor. They originally released one death metal/black metal EP in 1991 - Into the Woods of Belial - before the band split up, with Ihsahn and Samoth forming Emperor immediately afterwards. However, Ihsahn used the name again in 2000 to release his solo album Somnium, this time it being a neoclassical/darkwave/ambient album. Both releases are pictured.
     
    Next up, the legendary Emperor, one of the most influential and well regarded black metal bands in the history of the genre. The releases are:
     
    Emperor/Wrath of the Tyrant (a compilation including the self-titled EP and the first demo)
    In the Nightside Eclipse
    Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
    IX Equilibrium (Special Edition)
    Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise
    Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath
    In the Nightside Eclipse (20th Anniversary Edition)
     
    Following this, we have Peccatum, an avant-garde band which Ihsahn formed with his wife Ihriel (aka Starofash) as Emperor was coming to an end. Here we have:
     
    Strangling from Within
    Amor Fati
    Lost in Reverie
    Oh, My Regrets EP
    The Moribund People EP
     
    Now we get to my favourite of these: Ihsahn's solo work which is what he primarily occupies himself with these days. Included here are:
     
    The Adversary
    angL
    After (Limited Edition)
    Eremita (Limited Edition Digibook)
    Das Seelenbrechen (Limited Edition Digibook)
    Arktis. (Limited Edition Digibook)
     
    Before we get to the stack all the way on the right, let's look at the three at the bottom:
     
    Blood Must Be Shed - a one-of EP by members of Emperor, Satyricon and Dødheimsgard.
    Grimen by Hardingrock - an experimental folk project by Ihsahn and Ihriel, joined by Norwegian folk musician Knut Buen.
    Fjelltronen by Wongraven - the dark folk/ambient/medieval project by Satyr of Satyricon, on which Ihsahn plays the grand piano and synths.
     
    As for the stack on the right, that one is for all the albums Ihsahn has appeared on as a guest:
     
    The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus
    Deconstruction by Devin Townsend Project
    Plains of Oblivion by Jeff Loomis
    Bilateral by Leprous
    Coal by Leprous
    Iter.Viator by Starofash
    Silence in the Snow by Trivium
    Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and *Heck* by Ulver
  4. Queen of Liars

    Ihsahn

    By Queen of Liars,

    It's time for my biggest music collection post thus far: Ihsahn.
     

    ^Click for a bigger picture
     
    Terrible quality picture, but I don't even know how I would get all those in a single picture and keep it good.
     
    Anyway, yes Ihsahn. This collection includes basically everything he's ever been on, and it's a collection that is particularly close to my heart, as Ihsahn is currently my favourite musician. At least as far as individual people are concerned. Refused are still my favourite band, but as far as individuals go, Ihsahn is second to none.
     
    Now then, let's tackle this bunch of CDs, starting on the left:
     
    Thou Shalt Suffer, which is essentially the earliest incarnation of Emperor. They originally released one death metal/black metal EP in 1991 - Into the Woods of Belial - before the band split up, with Ihsahn and Samoth forming Emperor immediately afterwards. However, Ihsahn used the name again in 2000 to release his solo album Somnium, this time it being a neoclassical/darkwave/ambient album. Both releases are pictured.
     
    Next up, the legendary Emperor, one of the most influential and well regarded black metal bands in the history of the genre (and for very good reason, I might add). The releases are:
     
    Emperor/Wrath of the Tyrant (a compilation including the self-titled EP and the first demo)
    In the Nightside Eclipse
    Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
    IX Equilibrium (Special Edition)
    Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise
    Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath
    In the Nightside Eclipse (20th Anniversary Edition)
     
    Following this, we have Peccatum, an avant-garde band which Ihsahn formed with his wife Ihriel (aka Starofash) as Emperor was coming to an end. Here we have:
     
    Strangling from Within
    Amor Fati
    Lost in Reverie
    Oh, My Regrets EP
    The Moribund People EP
     
    Now we get to my favourite of these: Ihsahn's solo work which is what he primarily occupies himself with these days. Included here are:
     
    The Adversary
    angL
    After (Limited Edition)
    Eremita (Limited Edition)
    Das Seelenbrechen (Limited Edition)
     
    Before we get to the stack all the way on the right, let's look at the three at the bottom:
     
    Blood Must Be Shed - a one-of EP by members of Emperor, Satyricon and Dodheimsgard.
    Grimen by Hardingrock - an experimental folk project by Ihsahn and Ihriel, joined by Norwegian folk musician Knut Buen.
    Fjelltronen by Wongraven - the dark folk/ambient/medieval project by Satyr of Satyricon, on which Ihsahn plays the grand piano and synths.
     
    As for the stack on the right, that one is for all the albums Ihsahn has appeared on as a guest:
     
    The Sham Mirrors by Arcturus
    Deconstruction by Devin Townsend Project
    Plains of Oblivion by Jeff Loomis
    Bilateral by Leprous
    Coal by Leprous
    Iter.Viator by Starofash
    Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and **** by Ulver
     
    And there you have it, my Ihsahn collection. Truly an incredible musician, going with ease from black metal, to classical, to the avant-garde and experimental, and doing it all flawlessly. He has an album in the works which is expected to come out this year, and I am very excited to see where he goes next.
  5. Queen of Liars
    Received my copy of the 20th anniversary reissue of Emperor's In the Nightside Eclipse today.
    One of the most well regarded and influential black metal albums, and for very good reason.
     

     
    That cover art is so good.
    It's a 2 CD package, with the first disc containing the remastered album, and the second containing a previously unreleased alternative mix of the album, along with a few rare tracks from EPs and demos they did around the time.
     
    This is also a good excuse to show off my collection of Emperor and Ihsahn's solo albums.
     

     
    Stacked them up Ryuujin style because my desk isn't big enough for 11 albums side by side.
     
    On the left, we have the Emperor stuff:
     
    In the Nightside Eclipse
    Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
    IX Equilibrium (Special Edition)
    Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire & Demise
    Scattered Ashes: A Decade of Emperial Wrath
    In the Nightside Eclipse (20th Anniversary Edition)
     
    And on the right, Ihshan stuff:
     
    The Adversary
    angL
    After (Limited Edition)
    Eremita (Limited Edition)
    Das Seelenbrechen (Limited Edition)
     
     
    With that, it should come as no surprise that Ihsahn is one of my favourite artists. He's definitely one of the most interesting artists to follow because he always strives to experiment and stretch the boundaries of extreme metal, from the first Emperor album all the way to Das Seelenbrechen, which in my opinion eclipses even Anthems... as the best thing he's done.
    He's working on a new album for this year and I absolutely can't wait to see where he goes next.
  6. Queen of Liars

    Industrial

    By Queen of Liars,

    So, Front Line Assembly are currently streaming their new album - Echogenetic - for free and after my first listen, it seems really good.
    I'd just like to say what a fantastic year for industrial music it is:
     




     
    Fantastic albums by Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly, as well as an upcoming album by Nine Inch Nails.
    What are my three favourite - as well as three of the most influential - bands in the genre each releasing an album this year is a great thing.
  7. Queen of Liars
    So I'm just gonna jump in on the tide of YouTube posts and leave one of my favourite pieces of music here:
     

     
     
    Being able to do this certainly is nice. Should make the 'Rate The Song Above You' topic a lot easier too.
  8. Queen of Liars
    Just finished my last exam, and so my first year at university comes to an end.
    It's been a fun year and I enjoyed it. Met lots of new people and made some new friends, although with us all being from different parts of the country, I probably won't see many of them over the summer.
    Not sure when I'll go back home to London, but I'll probably stay here for another week or so. My lease doesn't end until the 23rd, so might as well make some use of it.
     
    I'm not entirely sure if School's Out by Alice Cooper still fits, but I'll be listening to it today regardless. It's become somewhat of a habit now.
  9. Queen of Liars

    Life Update

    By Queen of Liars,

    Right, following up on the last entry, I guess I figured out the gender identity thing to some degree. Which means that I will now identify as female.
     
    Again, I spoke about it in detail on my Tumblr, but ultimately I am now ready to be myself and this is the first step towards that. So that's nice, I guess.
  10. Queen of Liars

    Life Update?

    By Queen of Liars,

    It's been a long time since I used the blog, eh? Might as well do a little life update thingy, as it's been a strange month or two for me.
     
    Right now I am approaching two months of having worked in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, which is pretty far from home. It's a job for an Austrian company, which looks like it will last around half a year. I'll occasionally fly back home to London for holidays and stuff, but for the most part I'll be living here, which has been pretty interesting. It's nice to have an opportunity to see a bit more of the world, I suppose. The job is nice, though at 6 days a week it doesn't leave me with too much free time, but I'm not complaining. The time zone change does make it a bit tricky to keep up with friends from around the world, but I've been managing.
     
    So that's one big thing, but then I have also been dealing with some... gender idendity stuff? However you want to phrase it. Won't go into much detail here, but if you follow me on Tumblr you've seen my numerous posts there. So yeah, that has made it... an interesting time, I guess. We'll see where that ends up going.
     
    Well, without going into some other stuff, that is mainly what's been going on with me lately. A whole lot of self-discovery.
  11. Queen of Liars
    Well, as I was looking forward to perhaps picking up some albums today, I was greeted by the rather unpleasant news that my local independent record store has closed.
    It's a real shame, as it was a fantastic store and I only found it a few months ago. It always sucks to see a good record store go out of business and hopefully the staff manage to find new jobs.
     
    This also means that now my only way of buying albums is online, which I've been doing a lot anyway, but I'll still miss my weekly trips to the record store.
  12. Queen of Liars

    Massive Attack

    By Queen of Liars,

    Completed my Massive Attack collection today:
     

     
    Left to right:
     
    Blue Lines
    Protection
    Mezzanine
    100th Window
    Danny the Dog Soundtrack
    Heligoland
     
    Allegedly they've been working on a new album, so if that's true, I'm definitely looking forward to it. And also hoping that it's better than Heligoland...
  13. Queen of Liars
    I left this off a bit late as I've been pretty busy, but I thought I might as well still do my yearly music list.
    Before we get to the actually good stuff, why not have a look and maybe laugh at some of the albums that have been less than excellent?
    These are the albums of 2014 that I have been considerably disappointed by, for one reason or another.
     
     
    A World Lit Only by Fire by Godflesh
    I'm not really a big Godflesh fan, but I like Streetcleaner well enough and respect their influence in industrial metal, so I thought I would give the new album a try.
    Unfortunately, this turned out to be just a really bland and boring album. Ten heavy and crushing tracks with pretty much nothing going on in them. There's no texture, no subtle melodies to break up the repetitiveness, nothing. Just ten songs which all sound practically the same.
    Some of the riffs are pretty nice admittedly, but no matter how nice a riff, if you loop it for five minutes and then end the song without it progressing into anything I'm probably going to stop appreciating it at some point.
     
    1000hp by Godsmack
    Ok yeah, the title, the awful cover and it being Godsmack should be enough to deduce that the album isn't going to be very good. Thing is, I actually thought that their 2010 album, The Oracle, was really solid, and both Sully Erna and Shannon Larkin are very talented musicians who have the capacity to make something great if they actually used their talent (just look at Sully's solo album), so I had hopes that perhaps they would continue improving.
    Nope. Why bother with that when you can just make some lazy generic radio rock?
    I mean if the other clues weren't enough to glean what this album is like, it opens with the line "time to rewind back to 1995"...
    Yeah, I'd really rather you didn't to be honest with you, Sully.
     
    Triumph and Power by Grand Magus
    I wasn't a big fan of their last album, The Hunt, which I thought just lacked the punch of their previous albums, but was hoping they would pick back up after that slight low point.
    Unfortunately this ended up being just a generic heavy metal album with a bit of a power metal influence. Pretty much indistinguishable from the hundreds of other bands that do it.
    Don't really have anything else to say about it. It's completely unremarkable.
     
    Black Widow by In This Moment
    Largely generic metalcore/alternative metal is not something I usually listen to, so you might wonder why I even had any expectations for the new In This Moment album in the first place. Well, while I really don't care for their first three albums, I was surprised to learn that their last one, Blood, was actually quite good. It was probably the biggest surprise of 2012 for me as far as albums I initially had no interest in are concerned.
    Two of the band members left, which I guess made Blood more of a Maria Brink solo album, and it was actually much better for it. Thus, I was hoping that she would use her new found creative freedom to continue improving.
    Instead, what we get is a return to the mediocrity of previous albums, with lyrics and themes that feel like a second rate Alice Cooper knock off. The best songs on this feel like they could have been cut from Blood for not being good enough. Who knows, maybe they were.
     
    Redeemer of Souls by Judas Priest
    The best thing I can say about this album is that it's mostly not nearly as bad as the two singles from it. Seriously, March of the *Danged* is just straight up awful. The production on it makes Rob Halford, one of the greatest voices in all of metal, sound like Ozzy Osbourne did on Black Sabbatth's 13. Except even worse if you can imagine such a thing.
    As for the actual album, it feels like a cheap and tired imitation of Painkiller with none of the energy they had on that classic.
     
     
    And now, for my biggest disappointment of the year:
     

     
    The Undoing by Skold
    This is the only album on this list which is not here because of it's musical content being subpar. I'm sure that the album is actually of high quality. No, the reason this album is on the list is because it doesn't exist.
     
    Tim Skold announced this follow up to 2011's Anomie on the 17th of March, but only a week later made an announcement that "due to unforeseen developments [he has] chosen to cancel the scheduled release of the new Skold album".
    I have no idea what happened, and I'm sure that he has very good reasons for the cancellation, but I am still extremely disappointed.
    Tim is one of my favourite musicians and I adore both his solo work and his work with many other bands, such as KMFDM, so I'm always excited for something new by him. Anomie was his first solo album in over 15 years and an excellent display of all he has learned during that time, and I'm really hoping that he doesn't take another huge break from that project.
     
    This also isn't the first time he canceled an album. Back in the early 2000's he was working on what was to be his second solo album, Disrupting the Orderly Routine of the Institution (great title). He made demos of six songs that were pretty much finished, and gave them to a handful of people he trusted looking for some feedback. Unfortunately the demos ended up getting leaked, and being understandably furious and disheartened, Tim scrapped the whole project. All that is left of it are the six songs which are now floating around on the internet, known as the Dead God EP.
    A real shame that one person's total lack of respect for an artist's work deprived the rest of us of what would have likely been a great album.
     
    Hopefully whatever problems arose will be resolved and The Undoing will see a release this year.
     
     
    That does it for this list. Next I'll probably do an honourable mentions type thing, followed by my actual best of the year list.
  14. Queen of Liars

    Moving

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, it seems like I just got back home with all my stuff from university, and now it's all packed up again as my parents are moving house tomorrow.
    I quite enjoy moving. It's a lot of work, and we definitely have a ton more stuff to pack up and transport to the new house than we did when we moved here, but something about packing your things up is really fun. Especially when you find some belonging that you have completely forgotten about, like when I found my Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon Yu-Gi-Oh! card earlier today. Sure was a nostalgic moment.
     
    I also tend to take forever to pack my stuff because I like to sit there and go through each individual thing before putting it in a box.
     

     
    CDs are definitely my favourite thing to pack. So many things to look through and so many "oh, forgot I had that. Should listen to it again some time" moments.
     

     
    Then there are books, which are also awesome. At first I was going to put them all into one bag but quickly came to the conclusion that it would be far too heavy to move, even without my university books.
     

     
    And you know, as much as I prefer buying games physically rather than digitally, I am pretty grateful that I don't have an extra 100+ copies of games to carry from my Steam library.
    Also found some of my PS2 games, which again, brought nostalgia. Will get the console and the rest of the games down from the loft tomorrow and probably spend a good chunk of time playing them once we move.
     
    Unfortunately, it's apparently going to take Sky up to two weeks to set up the internet in our new house, so might be stuck with having to use my phone for that for a while.
  15. Queen of Liars
    Well, university starts soon and I visited today to collect my keys and check out the place where I'll spend the next three years of studying. It's actually pretty nice, about the same size as my room now, so that's great. No wi-fi though, and the internet provided is probably going to be fairly slow, so I'll have to look into getting better internet for myself.
    I came to the conclusion that I am the second to visit my floor/hall, as there was some milk in one of the fridges, however I did not come into contact with its owner.
     
    Now I just have until Sunday to figure out what I need that I don't have and buy it, and then I'll be moving in. Actually can't wait, although I'll miss this summer of not doing anything.
  16. Queen of Liars

    Moving Out

    By Queen of Liars,

    Well, tomorrow morning I'll be moving out of my university accommodation and back home to London for the summer.
    I guess I'll kinda miss this room, even if it's not all that great, and thus I decided to take a few pictures of it before I started packing my things: [1] [2] [3] [4]
  17. Queen of Liars
    So, my cat swallowed a sewing needle that my mum left lying around in her room. Fortunately, it got stuck in the cat's throat and didn't enter the digestive system, so it should be alright as the vet removes it overnight. Close call though, hope my mum learns a lesson from that. It's not cool to leave needles lying around whether there are pets or not >.>
     
    On the upside, my book, The New Criminology, arrived today. It's supposed to be an approach towards crime and deviance that combines Marxist and Interactionist approaches, which sounds close to what I think about it, although I lean much more towards Marxism.. Hopefully I can finish it before my Sociology exam so that I can quote it there, as it was a cutting edge piece of work on criminology when it was first published
  18. Queen of Liars
    Classic Bethesda.
     
     
    Tried all the fixes and whatnot, so I'm just stuck here waiting for them to hopefully fix it, and by the looks of various forums I'm not alone. Thankfully Steam refunds now exist, so I'll be getting one of those if this isn't addressed soon.
     
    Disappointing, but not unexpected. I'm not one to purchase games at release, precisely because of things like this, but Fallout is one of the few exceptions I'm willing to make.
     
    Granted, the game is not looking great, especially for someone whose idea of a perfect Fallout game is New Vegas. From what I've read and seen, a lot of it is dumbed down compared to the previous games, with things like the new dialogue wheel looking especially terrible, along with a smörgåsbord of other issues to give modders a ton of work to do. The story and writing are also apparently typical Bethesda, which is to say they're trash.
    Hopefully once I can actually play it I'll be pleasantly surprised, but I've played enough Bethesda games to not set my expectations too high. Oh well, we'll see.
  19. Queen of Liars
    Well, had my first exam today. English Language and Literature, and it went fairly good. Although it turns out mild insomnia and exams don't go together too well in terms of how you feel. Who would have thought?
     
    The Hamlet bit was interesting, as our teacher assured us that there is very little chance that we would be given a scene that doesn't have Hamlet in it. Well lo and behold, we got the scene where Claudius and Laertes were crafting their plan to kill Hamlet, and we had to talk about how Claudius manipulates Laertes. Which was actually quite a nice question, and went pretty good.
    The talk in life and literature part wasn't as great. We get two unseen texts, one a transcript of a real-life conversation and the other an extract of talk in literature, and to my dismay, the second unseen text was a poem. Those really suck when you have to compare them to real talk. However, I think I did alright.
    Overall, I'm feeling a strong B to a light A on this one, which is exactly what I need for English.
     
    Tomorrow is history, which should be a piece of cake.
  20. Queen of Liars
    I tend to make playlists of horror themed songs for Halloween, and here is this year's. Just gonna leave it playing in the background throughout the day ^^
    Always a struggle to not just fill it up with Alice Cooper But it does always have to start with Dada.
     
    Anyway, happy Halloween everyone!
  21. Queen of Liars
    With the summer sale drawing to an end, here's what I got:
     
    Far Cry 3 - Blood Dragon
    Far Cry 2
    Tomb Raider (2013)
    BattleBlock Theater
    Mass Effect
    Splinter Cell: Blacklist
    Shadowrun Returns
    Mitsurugi Kamui Hikae
     
    Already played through all of Far Cry 2 when it first came out, but it's nice to have a digital copy. Everything else I've never played before and am excited to get started. Especially the new Splinter Cell, since I hear that it toned down the action and regained some of the focus on stealth that the last two games lost. I'm not expecting it to have nearly the same amount of complexity as Chaos Theory, but hopefully it won't be as bad as the last two. Particularly Conviction, because that was just awful.
    Already spent quite a bit of time playing Tomb Raider and BattleBlock Theater, both of which are great so far, although the quick time events in Tomb Raider are really annoying.
     
    It was a decent sale, but it's really frustrating how many indie games lost in the community choice votes and didn't go on sale at all, while many AAA games go on sale multiple times in daily, flash and community deals. But that's pretty much every Steam sale for you I guess.
    I'm more looking forward to the winter sale, when games like Transistor, Killer Is Dead, Murdered: Soul Suspect and Dark Souls II will likely have larger discounts.
  22. Queen of Liars
    2012 recently ended and it has been a great year for music, so here are albums 10-6 of my top 10 albums of the year. I was intending to do reviews or something detailed for each one, but I guess I can't be bothered
    Anyway...
     
    10 - Sentenced To Life by Black Breath
     

     
    A remarkably heavy combination of death metal and hard rock with crust punk undertones, full of great riffs and drumming.
     
     
    9 - Dead End Kings by Katatonia
     

     
    A brilliant melancholic atmosphere with enchanting melodies. Perhaps one of Katatonia's best records, it gets better with each listen.
     
     
    8 - Honor Found In Decay by Neurosis
     

     
    A more straightforward and accessible Neurosis album than usual, it still is a great heavy and atmospheric sludge metal journey.
     
    7 - A Map Of All Our Failures by My Dying Bride
     

     
    As the sticker on the limited edition of the albums says, "a new voyage into the darkest depths of humanity, religion, love and death from the UK masters of doom".
    This album is a blanket of bleakness and misery, and it's great at that.
     
     
    6 - De Vermis Mysteriis by High On Fire
     

     
    Filled with fantastic riffs and brilliant solos, sometimes incredibly heavy and sometimes mesmerisingly melodic, this is a great aggressive stoner metal album with leanings towards doom metal.
     
     
    And there you have it. I might write more detailed stuff for my top 5, but that's not very likely.
  23. Queen of Liars
    Well, here are my five favourite albums of last year.
     
    5 - Eremita by Ihsahn
     

     
    This is a superb progressive metal album with black metal influences. The songs here range from beautiful to brutal, and the riffs from simple to wonderfully complex, but it all flows together very nicely. The musicianship across the album is brilliant with lots of absolutely fantastic guitar playing and great drumming. It's a very heavy album at times, but there is always subtle melody to the heaviness and the songs will often go in unexpected directions. It also has some guest vocals by Devin Townsend on one of the songs, which is always good.
     
     
    4 - Phantom Antichrist by Kreator
     

     
    I'm not too big on thrash metal, but this album really clicked with me like few other thrash albums have.
    It's an anthemic and infectious album, full of stellar guitar playing with catchy riffs, blazing solos and melodic bridges. It often sounds very grandiose and melodic, while retaining the heaviness of thrash metal.
    This is a fantastic album that is everything good thrash is, and then more. If not for Anthrax's Worship Music, I'd likely call this the finest thrash metal album of the century so far.
     
     
    3 - Epicloud and Epiclouder by Devin Townsend Project
     

     
    I wasn't sure whether to treat this as two albums, but decided to treat it as one, as Epiclouder is a set of demos that comes together with the deluxe edition of Epicloud, although it could have easily been released as an album in its own right.
    Epicloud is a much more simple and accessible Devin Townsend album than usual, especially when compared to 2011's Deconstruction, with Devin even calling it pop-metal. But then again, there is rarely anything 'usual' about Devin's music. He always creates very unique albums with none being the same as another, and this is no exception.
    This is an album about love, and apart from being, as the title would suggest, epic and loud, it is also very positive and beautiful. Anneke van Giersbergen makes a return to provide her beautiful female vocals which go very well with Devin's clean vocals and contrast just as well with his harsher vocals, although the latter don't have much presence here.
    The musicianship is brilliant as expected, and although the album is mostly simple and catchy, it does become complex at times. It also has its heavy moments on songs like More! and Kingdom, which are reminiscent of some of his earlier work.
    As I said, this is a very beautiful and uplifting album, and despite being much less complex than one would expect from Devin Townsend, it's still a gripping and original record, breaking quite a few metal cliches by being a positive album about love.
    Also, I have to say that seeing him perform Grace was one of my greatest live music experiences.
    Epiclouder retains the same vibe, but is a more complex and musically diverse piece. I do feel it's a shame that it was only released as a bonus disc, as it deserves to be an album on its own, at times being even better than Epicloud.
     
     
    2 - Awoken Broken by Primal Rock Rebellion
     

     
    I've done a review of this album on my blog earlier, so if you care you can read that.
    A collaboration between Iron Maiden's Adrian Smith and SikTh's Mikee Goodman, this is a very unique record, the sound of which is hard to describe. It's eccentric and often quite heavy, but not overwhelmingly so. Adrian Smith's guitar work is as excellent as ever, as are Mikee Goodman's vocals. As he did with SikTh, Goodman will use four or five different vocal styles or techniques in a song, which creates a very unique sound which is only further aided by the intriguing lyrics and Adrian Smith's fantastic riffs and solos.
     
     
    1 - Tragic Idol by Paradise Lost
     

     
    For the third time in a row, Paradise Lost have released an album that has completely blown me away.
    This record is the fathers and masters of gothic metal doing what they do best. A strong, gripping and melancholic atmosphere accompanied by absolutely brilliant guitar and powerful vocals. It's heavy, but it's melodic and it has a haunting beauty about it that only Paradise Lost can create.
    I can not put into words how much I like this album. Paradise Lost are a band that constantly evolve and are not afraid to experiment, and almost 25 years of doing so have led to this masterpiece of melancholic beauty. I don't know where they can go from here, but then again, that's what I thought the last two times.
  24. Queen of Liars
    10 - Party Hard
     

     
    A fun little stealth game which plays a bit like a top-down Hitman.
    It's 3 AM and you're simply trying to sleep, but the house next door is having an obnoxiously loud party. The most rational course of action is of course to put on a hockey mask and murder everyone at the party, so that's exactly what you do.
     
     
    9 - The Consuming Shadow
     

     
    A procedurally generated, Lovecraftian-themed survival horror game by Ben 'Yahtzee' Croshaw, of Zero Punctuation fame. It's quirky, and more than a bit janky, but it is also very engrossing and enjoyable. The world is being invaded by an ancient evil, and you have 60 hours to figure out exactly which of the evil aspects is invading, how to perform the ritual to banish it, and get to the location in one piece to perform said ritual. Piecing together the evidence and clues is really fun, and all the while there's a lot of tension as both the timer and your sanity tick down, the latter of which causes some very subtle and clever changes as it depletes.
     
     
    8 - Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
     

     
    Certainly a very creative way to do multiplayer. One person looks at a bomb, while the other person (or people) look at the diffusal manual, with neither being able to see the other, and try to diffuse the bomb before it explodes. It's all in how well players can communicate with each other, and gets very tense very quickly. Some of the most fun I've had with a multiplayer game.
     
     
    7 - Sunless Sea
     

     
    Continuing with the Lovecraftian themes, we have Sunless Sea. Rarely do I see a game with such a totally engrossing world. You're the captain of a ship in some sort of Victorian Gothic London setting, and you explore this strange and dark world, trying to not go insane in the process.
    Now, the combat in this game is something I'm not a fan of at all, but its presence on this list regardless is only testament to the incredible world-building and narrative Sunless Sea accomplishes.
     
     
    6 - Crypt of the NecroDancer
     

     
    A challenging, but incredibly enjoyable roguelike rhythm game. Perhaps even the best rhythm I've played.
    In standard roguelike fashion, you explore dungeons and fight various enemies, but have to do everything to the beat of the music, which can lead to some very hectic moments when you try to figure out how to defeat a group of enemies while not missing a beat.
    Of course any rhythm game needs a good soundtrack, and this one sure has an amazing one, courtesy of Danny Baranowsky.
     
     
    5 - Volume
     

     
    I've been looking forward to this one pretty much since it was announced, and was not disappointed. Mike Bithell delivers a fantastic stealth game with this cyberpunk retelling of Robin Hood, and shows that Thomas Was Alone wasn't a fluke.
     
     
    4 - Her Story
     

     
    Very interesting and well executed idea for a game. Without going into spoilers, Her Story provides a gripping narrative, and an engaging way of uncovering it. It really makes you feel like a detective piecing together a mystery.
     
     
    3 - Black Closet
     

     
    Speaking of detectives, we have this game from the developer of Long Live The Queen. Probably best described as a strategy game with a visual novel presentation, Black Closet is a very engaging and unique title. You take on the role of the president of the student council in a highly prestigious school, and are tasked with solving various cases in order to prevent scandals and thus preserve the school's reputation. You command the other five members of the council in your investigations, taking into account their strengths and weaknesses, trying to solve the cases as fast as possible, but not acting too rashly, as the reputation of the council itself is also something you have to worry about, and thus you don't want to go around harassing innocent people.
    Oh, and all the while one of the council members is actually a traitor trying to sabotage you, there's some sort of secret society within the school, and there may be something sinister going on with the teachers you work for, which are all things you might want to look out for.
     
     
    2 - Invisible, Inc.
     

     
    Klei Entertainment deliver once again with this fantastic cyberpunk stealth strategy game. It plays a lot like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but purely focusing on stealth. You command your agents through the offices of various mega corporations, utilising their unique abilities and tools to remain undetected as you accomplish your objectives. All the while the level of security increases as the corporations realise that someone has infiltrated, so your time is short. You can try to hack and empty that one extra safe, but more guards will arrive by the time you're done. Whether that's worth the risk is up to you.
     
     
    1 - Darkest Dungeon
     

     
    Not only the best game I've played this year, but one which ranks amongst the best games I've played ever.
    So, what is Darkest Dungeon? According to the store page, it "is a challenging gothic roguelike turn-based RPG about the psychological stresses of adventuring". That is indeed what it is, but oh it is also so much more.
    The game has an absolutely gorgeous, yet dark aesthetic, an amazing atmosphere, and probably the best narrator I've ever heard in a game in the form of Wayne June, along with a great soundtrack from Stuart Chatwood (also responsible for the amazing soundtracks to the Prince of Persia games). It has incredibly engaging and challenging gameplay, as you recruit heroes, make your party, and descend into dungeons to fight eldritch monstrosities, using strategy and tactics to overcome their strength.
    And yet, those are not the best parts of Darkest Dungeon. Those would be the quirk and stress mechanics, which I will now gush over. They are just so well implemented and add so much depth to the game, and a rarely seen level of agency possessed by characters.
    So the quirk mechanic is pretty simple. All heroes start with, and then develop additional quirks, some positive, some negative. Some of these merely affect their stats and abilities - a hero might be sickly and thus more susceptible to diseases, or perhaps they're a known cheat and aren't allowed to gamble in the town. That sort of thing. But the really interesting quirks are the more insidious ones. For example, a hero might be a kleptomaniac. And if you had said hero in your party, you might find that some chests are mysteriously rather light on loot. Or sometimes they may just steal the loot for themselves right in front of you before you can collect it, and not even try to hide it. And there's lots of quirks like that.
    Stress on the other hand, is a little more complicated. The mental health of your heroes is a very important part of the game, and to put it simply, as they explore dungeons, their stress levels will rise by various means. Once it gets to a certain point, their resolve will be tested. Sometimes, a hero will overcome the stress and display newfound courage. But more often than not, they will break, and gain an affliction. Apart from stat penalties, afflictions will change how the hero behaves. For example, a hero may become selfish when their resolve breaks, and move back in the formation, putting your other heroes in harm's way. Alternatively, you may try to have the selfish one heal another hero, only to have them refuse and heal themselves instead. One time I had a hero become paranoid after their resolve broke, which at first didn't manifest itself in an obvious way. But then my healer missed an attack, and the paranoid hero muttered something along the lines of "how could she possibly miss...", and from there on they refused to be healed by her, being convinced that the healer was in league with the enemy.
    I could keep going on about how much I love these mechanics, but you get the picture. It's just so cool to see characters have this degree of their own agency.
    So yes, Darkest Dungeon is phenomenal, and is my game of the year.
     
     
     
    So there we go, that's my list. Ended up being all indie games, but hey, they're that good.
    You may also notice that my list doesn't contain a certain indie game which generated a rather large amount of hype and acclaim this year, taking many by surprise with its writing and treatment of player choice. Yes, I'm indeed afraid that HuniePop did very narrowly miss out on being on the list, but you can consider it to be at the 11th spot if it makes you feel better.
  25. Queen of Liars
    Well, here are albums 15-11 of my end of year list:
     
     
    15 - A Piece of Infinity by Wretched Excess
     

     
    A Piece of Infinity is a very nice fusion of dark ambient and jazz. Atmospheric and foreboding, it's a pleasant listen.
    Oh, and it's available for free on the Wretched Excess bandcamp page, so go pick it up.
     
     
    14 - Burn The World by AC4
     

    Burn The World is a great album of fast-paced old-school hardcore punk, by a band fronted by Dennis Lyxzen from the legendary Refused.
    It's a bit of a throwback to the Swedish hardcore scene that Refused belonged to in their early days, before they went on their experimental path.
    However this is by no means a replication of Refused's sound. There is no experimentation or groundbreaking ideas here, but there are 16 tracks of loud and infectious hardcore which will make you feel like it's the early 90s again.
    This album is great at what it does and is a joy to listen to.
     
     
    13 - Abandon All Life by Nails
     

     
    Nails' powerviolence/grindcore piece Abandon All Life fills the same niche for me that Black Breath's Sentenced to Life did last year. It's a relentless, crushingly heavy assault on the ears.
    Allowing no time to rest, the album delivers 10 punches in quick succession and barely hits 17 minutes. Which is probably for the best, as it can be a pretty exhausting listen.
     
     
    12 - VILKÉ by Daniel Menche
     

     
    Inspired by the wolves he saw on his travels, Menche's VILKÉ incorporates the howls of wolves into an atmospheric and haunting drone journey through a downward spiral of decay, providing for a very eerie and gripping album.
     
     
    11 - Shadow Music: A Soundtrack to Contrast by Nicolas Marquis
     

     
    An absolutely fantastic piece of 1920s style jazz and cabaret with a surreal atmosphere, this album emulates the decadent noir setting of the game very well.
    The two tracks which feature Laura Ellis on vocals are especially great and truly feel like they could be straight out of a cabaret performance. The instrumentals are an absolute joy to listen to as well, making this album a great throwback to the era it's inspired by, with enough modern touches to keep it sounding fresh.
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