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Queen of Liars

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  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Queen of Liars

    Tim Skold

    By Queen of Liars,

    Recently finished my collection of albums by one of my favourite musicians - Tim Skold.
    While there are a couple of things I'm missing, I have everything that I actually want.
     
    So let's go through it:
     

     
    Terrible picture I know, but it's hard to fit everything in at a good resolution without the file size being too big.
     
    Anyway, at the top left we have his solo project - Skold:
    Skold
    Anomie
    Suck EP
    Tonight EP
     
    Top middle, we have the KMFDM albums with him as a member of the band:
    Symbols
    Adios
    Attak
     
    Top right, Shotgun Messiah, which was his first band:
    Shotgun Messiah
    Second Coming
    Violent New Breed
     
    Bottom left, we have the self-titled Skold vs KMFDM album which was a collaboration between the two a few years after Tim left KMFDM.
     
    Bottom middle, the self titled album from the short-lived MDFMK. This was a project formed by Tim and two other members of KMFDM after they split up following Adios. However, MDFMK turned back into KMFDM just a couple of years later when the band officially reformed with Attak.
     
    Bottom right, I Declare: Treason by Doctor Midnight & The Mercy Cult - an industrial metal supergroup with Tim on bass.
     
    And finally, all the way off to the right side there, we have Infamous by Motionless in White, which was largely produced and engineered by Tim, although is otherwise a rather unremarkable album.
     
    Obsessed? Maybe a little, but he definitely is a prolific artist.
     
    The only things I'm missing are the three Marilyn Manson albums he was a member on which I honestly have no interest in, and the new Motionless in White album which he produced again, but apart from one song which was originally written by Tim and features him on vocals, that album is just kind of bad so I don't really intend on getting it.
  5. 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...
  6. 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.
  7. Queen of Liars
    5 - Longhena by Gridlink
     

     
    The final album by Gridlink is a ferocious technical grindcore goodbye with incredible musicianship.
    Over the course of just 23 minutes Longhena delivers one of the most intense listens of the year. It's fast and brutal, yet filled with a sorrowful beauty.
    Farewell, Gridlink.
     
     
    4 - Noise by Boris
     

     
    The 19th Boris album has a rather deceptive title, as there is in fact pretty much no noise contained within.
    What it does contain is a trip through several styles across eight tracks, and Boris doing what only Boris do.
    Opening with a couple of incredibly catchy and enjoyable stoner rock tracks not too dissimilar form their 2011 Heavy Rocks album, it carries on into highly atmospheric ambient and post-rock, before hitting the listener with a J-pop song.
    While all this sounds fantastic and is excellently written, the crown pieces here are without a doubt tracks 6 and 7 - Angel and Quicksilver.
    Angel is a 19 minute epic of Boris' experimentation through melancholy and beauty, with both a fantastic build up and an incredibly satisfying climax. Quicksilver on the other hand is the closest the album comes to its title. It's an eccentric and fast-paced 10 minute blast through excellent riffs and melodies, with clean vocals in the foreground and dissonant screams in the back.
    Both tracks feature incredible songwriting, accompanied by the usual guitar mastery one has come to expect from Wata. I think at this point it can safely be assumed that she is no mere mortal, and her talent and skill with the guitar are of supernatural origins.
    With Noise, Boris continue their constant evolution and refusal to sound the same. Can't wait to see where they go next.
     
     
    3 - The Satanist by Behemoth
     

     
    One of the most talked about metal albums of the year, and it deserves all of its attention.
    As the first Behemoth album since Nergal's lengthy battle with leukemia, The Satanist stands tall as a statement of his defiance of death.
    Incredibly grandiose, and just as brutal and crushing, this album contains the most well written music Behemoth have done. Filled with great riffs and captivating vocals, its an enthralling piece which doesn't let you out of its grip until it's done.
    Displaying Nergal's Nietzsche-inspired philosophy on art, it is ugly and beautiful in equal parts, going with ease from fast-paced death metal assault on the ears to enchanting spoken word parts, before it all culminates in the absolutely incredible closing track.
    The Satanist is quite the statement.
     
     
    2 - Enter by Fire! Orchestra
     

     
     
    Fire! Orchestra are a 28-piece experimental big band/free jazz group, which delivered one of the best jazz albums of the century in 2013, with Exit. They are now back just a year later with Enter - an album that lives up to, and in some areas surpasses, its predecessor.
    Like Exit, this album sounds huge. With such a large cast, it is chaotic and organised at the same time, with a ton going on in the music at any given moment. At times it pushes even further into experimental territory than Exit did, but at other times, such as the closing track, it can be a lot more straight forward and easy to follow. Well, by Fire! Orchestra's standards, anyway.
    It's a magnificent album unlike anything else.
     
     
    1 - Dark Space III I - by Darkspace
     

     
    Darkspace are an enigmatic band which fuse dark ambient and atmospheric black metal, with lyrics about... well, dark space and the mysteries of the cosmos.
    With three tracks adding up to just over an hour of music, Dark Space III I is an absolutely captivating experience with a strong eerie atmosphere and excellent instrumentation. It's an ethereal and terrifying journey through the darkest and blackest depths of space, with only the infinite void surrounding you. Indeed, even the flow of time seems distorted with this album, as throughout its long duration it never once drags or leaves you anywhere else but the edge of your seat.
    Listen to it on BandCamp.
    The MP3 is also currently stupidly cheap on Amazon, at $3/£3. Do yourself a favour if you like metal or atmospheric music and pick it up.
  8. Queen of Liars
    10 - Aura by Saor
     

     
    An amazing atmospheric black metal album with many elements from Celtic folk music.
    The way the folk and metal instrumentation interact with each other is excellent, creating both heaviness and stunning beauty.
     
     
    9 - Citadel by Ne Obliviscaris
     

     
    Citadel is an excellently written progressive metal album with undertones of melodic death metal.
    The pacing here is great, with very well timed intros, bridges and interludes creating a really cohesive experience. The musicianship is top notch, with fantastic guitar parts and a cello providing a haunting beauty over its dark and heavy atmosphere.
     
     
    8 - Full of Heck & Merzbow by Full of Helmets & Merzbow
     

     
    For their third album, Full of Helium enter a rather surprising collaboration with the legendary Japanese noise artist Merzbow.
    The results are a fantastic combination of Full of Hegemony's absolutely crushing powerviolence/grindcore and Merzbow's deafening blasts of noise, proving that this collaboration is totally worthwhile.
    Full of Hello Kitty provide some absolutely brutal music at breakneck speed, while Merzbow adds a lot of subtlety and texture to it, adding a lot of depth to the album. And subtlety really is a big part of Merzbow's presence on the first disc, to the point that some fans expressed disappointment at it being hard to notice his contributions outside of when songs transition into noise. However, his presence is definitely there and adds a lot to Full of Hemoglobins' delightful attack on the ears.
    Now, I mentioned the 'first disc' earlier. The thing is, I guess this is technically a double album, but disc 2 is only available with the physical release. I've ordered the digipak album straight from Full of Hematosis' BandCamp, but I live in the UK and it is being shipped from Canada, which coupled with delays caused by the holidays means that I haven't been able to get my hands on it yet. However, I am told that disc 2 is a more noise oriented album. Basically if disc 1 is Full of Hemingway featuring Merzbow, then disc 2 is Merzbow featuring Full of Hexagons. Which sounds pretty excellent. As much as I now enjoy Full of Heliocentrism, Merzbow was the reason I checked this album out in the first place, so I am definitely looking forward to hearing the second disc.
    Either way, the first disc is more than great enough for Full of Heterozygosity & Merzbow to earn a spot on my list.
     
     
    7 - Arche by Dir en Grey
     

     
    Dir en Grey doing what Dir en Grey do. With a fantastic and varied mix of alternative, progressive and avant-garde metal, Arche makes for a very unique listen through a series of very well written tracks.
    The only disappointing thing is that the physical release of this album is not available outside of Japan. I want to give you money for your CD, Dir en Grey. Help me do that. (Yes, I know that in all likelihood it's their label's fault)
     
     
    6 - Z² (Sky Blue and Dark Matters) by Devin Townsend
     

     
    This is a double album, containing Sky Blue and the long awaited Dark Matters, which is the sequel to Devin's 2007 album Ziltoid the Omniscient.
    Sky Blue builds off of 2012's Epicloud, delivering a similar 'pop metal' sound, mixing Devin's trademark wall of sound and progressive metal tendencies with lots of melody and catchiness. Anneke van Giersbergen returns once again to provide the female vocals, and at this point it's getting hard to imagine hearing one of them without the other. Their voices go together amazingly well.
    The songwriting is incredible as usual, and unlike Epicloud which was a very positive and happy album in tone pretty much throughout, Sky Blue has real hints of anger and tension behind some of the songs, which really adds to the feeling of the album overall.
    Dark Matters is the continuation of the comical space opera story of Ziltoid from the previous album. With his home planet dying, Ziltoid arrives on Earth with the intention to colonise it, choosing Earth in particular because of its coffee. However, in order to accomplish this, Ziltoid steals a creature known as a Poozer from the war princess Blattaria of planet Titan, which invokes her wrath and starts an intergalactic war between them, with Earth as the prize.
    Musically, it sounds absolutely immense. It's not often I use the word 'epic', but this album merits it. With an array of guests, a backing choir and Devin himself making full use of his incredible vocal range over top of fantastic song writing and instrumentation, there's not much room for breathing outside of the interludes with story dialogue.
    Z² marks the end of a chapter for Devin, and after doing one final show in April he will be taking a hiatus from music for at least a year. With the ridiculously high amount of brilliant music he's been releasing over the past few years he definitely deserves the rest, but I will be eagerly awaiting his return.
  9. Queen of Liars
    15 - Once More 'Round the Sun by Mastodon
     

     
    A huge improvement over 2011's The Hunter, this album is a really fun trip through Mastodon's signature blend of progressive and stoner metal.
     
     
    14 - Our Time Will Come by KMFDM
     

     
    Celebrating their 30th anniversary, KMFDM release a pretty big improvement over their last two rather average albums.
    Fitting for the occasion, this album contains pretty much everything you would expect to see from KMFDM. There's the tongue in cheek satire and self-parody, and there's the songs dealing with more serious political issues, all delivered via both their signature fast paced industrial rock/metal that you can't help but nod your head along to, and slower, more personal tracks.
    KMFDM are clearly showing that 30 years later, they have no intention to stop. A lot of the songwriting is as good as ever, with great use of electronics and instrumentation. Lyrically, there's lots of references to songs from previous albums, some deliberately silly songs like Genau - the lyrics to which are composed almost entirely of random German words which have found their way into English usage (schadenfreude, zeitgeist, blitzkrieg, etc) - but there's also serious songs with really well crafted lyrics and imagery such as Blood vs. Money.
    It doesn't do anything new or groundbreaking, but given the occasion, it doesn't have to. This is just a really fun album to mark 30 years of the ultra heavy beat. While not reaching the heights of their 90's classics, it's right behind Blitz and Hau Ruck as one of their best post-reunion albums.
     
     
    13 - Where Greater Men Have Fallen - Primordial
     

     
    A crushing and grandiose piece of folk metal, with influences from doom and black metal.
    This album sounds absolutely colossal, with beautiful melodies and soaring vocals over heavy and tight instrumentation.
     
     
    12 - Splinters by Vallenfyre
     

     
    This one's just relentlessly crushing, without the grandiose.
    It's the second album from this death metal supergroup, formed back in 2010 by Paradise Lost's lead guitarist Greg Mackintosh to help him deal with his father's death. With such origins, the album is unsurprisingly dark and crushingly heavy, suffocating you with its bleak atmosphere.
    Greg is one my favourite guitarists, and here he continues to display as to why. The songwriting on this thing is just fantastic. Vallenfyre know when to play at break-neck speeds and when to be methodically slow, all the while delivering excellent music.
     
     
    11 - Ghouleh by Starofash
     

     
    A project recorded by Ihriel over the course of 2013, with one song written for each month, this is a great neoclassical darkwave/art pop journey.
    Very varied and atmospheric, this is a fantastic album which is pretty hard for me to describe.
    Listen to it on her official BandCamp
  10. Queen of Liars
    It's time for the albums that won't be making it to my top of the year list, but are still great albums which deserve attention.
     
    Casualties of Cool by Casualties of Cool
    This is a side project by Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval (who did the female vocals on Ki) which Devin made while wanting to take a break from all the heavy music he's been making. Indeed, very different from his usual music, this is a strange mix of country, ambient and blues rock with a very eerie and mysterious sound to it. Although extremely different from his other work, it is still unmistakably Devin Townsend.
    It's a concept album about a traveler who is lured to distant a planet by a beautiful voice. Once he lands on it, he discovers an old radio which was the origin of the voice, and finds out that the planet is in fact sentient and uses the radio to lure unaware travelers and trap them, feeding on their fear. His attempts at escape being futile, he finds solace in the music from the radio and explores the planet, finding clues about other people once trapped on it. Really neat stuff.
     
    The Serpent & the Sphere by Agalloch
    A fantastic atmospheric black metal album, with influences from doom metal and folk.
    Even if it doesn't necessarily live up to some of their previous albums, it's still excellent.
     
    Grand Morbid Funeral by Bloodbath
    With Paradise Lost's Nick Holmes taking over the vocals, Bloodbath make another great death metal album.
    It's crushingly heavy with some excellent instrumentation.
     
    The World We Left Behind by Nachtmystium
    The band's final album, it's a fitting progressive black metal swan song with great guitar parts and a very strong atmosphere.
     
    Esoteric Warfare by Mayhem
    One of black metal's most infamous bands returns with another album, delivering ten absolutely crushing songs.
     
    Run the Jewels 2 by Run the Jewels
    The second album by this hip-hop collaboration between Killer Mike and El-P starts off with an extremely strong first two thirds or so, but unfortunately loses some steam by the final third which I think suffers from too many guest artists, making it feel far less cohesive than their debut. Regardless, the first two thirds are fantastic enough to earn a spot on this list.
     
    Roads to the North by Panopticon
    An excellent atmospheric black metal journey, with influences from melodic death metal and bluegrass.
    It's also almost entirely created by the band's sole member Austin Lunn, with only the violin being performed by a guest, which is just incredible.
     
    Shogunate Macabre by Whispered
    Melodic death metal with influences from Japanese folk music. More or less as cool as it sounds.
  11. 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.
  12. Queen of Liars

    Z2

    By Queen of Liars,

    Today is the release day for the new Devin Townsend album Z².
    It being my most anticipated album of the year I've pre-ordered it, and since I did so from Devin's official store rather than say Amazon, it actually arrived on time. Imagine that.
    Seriously though, I'm never pre-ordering stuff from Amazon again. I've had consistent problems with things being late, but Ihshan's album being late last year was the final straw. Considering they charge for release date delivery, more than half of my pre-orders from them being late is not something I want to deal with.
     

     
    Anyhow, Z². I got the limited 3-CD digipak edition, bundled with that awesome t-shirt.
     
    It's a double album, consisting of Sky Blue and Dark Matters, with the third disc containing a version of Dark Matters without the dialogue. Being part of the final stage of this chapter of Devin's career, it's a concept album that acts as the sequel to Ziltoid the Omniscient, something that he's been working on for several years. It's nice to finally see it culminate in this project.
    This will be followed by a huge show in April, after which Devin will be taking a hiatus from music for at least year. Considering how much work he has done in the past few years - even this year had not only Z², but the Casualties of Cool album as well - it's a well deserved rest. Still, I will be eagerly awaiting his return.
  13. Queen of Liars
    Seriously, I really hate these stickers. They really make me hesitate when getting new CDs imported from the US.
    I actually managed to remove it without it tearing this time, but it of course still left a small bit of residue on the case.
     
    But, that does give me an excuse to post my Boris collection thus far:
     

     
    In order: Amplifier Worship; Pink; Smile (US Version); Attention Please; Heavy Rocks (2011); New Album and Noise.
     
    Which is only seven out of twenty - if we're not counting collaborations - but it's not likely to get bigger any time soon, as pretty much all of the others are really hard to get physically. There's obviously the ones that were only released in Japan and are really expensive to import, but there's also a few that only ever had very limited vinyl releases and aren't available on CD at all.
    The only one I could find that isn't ridiculously expensive is the Japanese version of Smile at around £17, which is a price that I could still be convinced to go for, but I'm definitely gonna wait on it.
  14. 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.
  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
    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.
  17. 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.
  18. 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.
  19. Queen of Liars
    5 - Exit! by Fire! Orchestra
     

     
    Exit! is an experimental big band free jazz record with a lot going on. There's over twenty musicians on this album, and you'll often be hearing many of them play at once in what builds up to a complete pandemonium.
    The album is chaotic and organised, both at once. There are times where you'll have stuff like a steady bass line and drum beat while at the same time saxophones, clarinets and pianos will be going insane, all synergising to create these incredible compositions. Compositions which twist and turn into completely unpredictable directions, always maintaining suspense.
    This is a truly great jazz album.
     
     
    4 - Weapon by Skinny Puppy
     

     
    I think it's fair to say that Skinny Puppy are the one of the most important bands in industrial music, and to many, myself included, they're also by far the best. So like many bands with such acclaim, whenever they release a new album, it will inevitably be met with an air of cynicism from certain fans and comparisons to their past masterpieces, which is rather unfortunate.
    Is Weapon another Last Rights or Too Dark Park? No, of course not, nor does it attempt to be. Like most of the post-reunion era of Skinny Puppy, Weapon is much more energetic and straight-forward electro-industrial as opposed to the dark and abrasive soundscapes that were the focus of albums like Last Rights. Which is not to say that they don't do experimentation anymore or that their current stuff is much more accessible (Weapon definitely took me a couple of listens to get into and recognise everything that is going on in the music), but the last four albums have been substantially different from what the band were doing before they broke up.
    A more apt point for comparison would be the 1984 EP Remission, especially since the new album contains a remake of the song Solvent. Weapon is very much a refinement of the style found on the EP with added elements of the modern Skinny Puppy, and it's something that ends up working very well.
    With Weapon I think Skinny Puppy have continued the trend of each post-reunion album being better than the last, which should say something as all of them are great. Weapon contains some very good song writing with a lot of subtle melodies over the great beats, all accompanied by the usual abstract and political lyrics.
    Something Skinny Puppy have always been great at is maintaining an atmosphere and theme throughout their albums, and this one really gives the sense of a cyberpunk dystopia to me, which is fantastic.
    While I wouldn't put Weapon up there with Last Rights, Too Dark Park and The Process, it is still a great album which makes me feel very happy that Skinny Puppy decided to reform ten years ago.

    3 - Earth Rocker by Clutch
     

     
    This is without a doubt the 2013 album I listened to the most this year. I suppose that's in part due to it coming out back in March, but mostly what I'm getting at is that it's an incredibly addicting album that I just can't get enough of.
    Earth Rocker is an absolutely fantastic hard rock album with a hint of blues rock that is overflowing with great riffs, vocals and songwriting. Every song is infectious, from the title track opener, to the slow and especially bluesy Gone Cold, to the loud and rocking closer The Wolf Man Kindly Requests.
    It is an incredibly fun album to listen to. As far as pure enjoyment goes, this was the most I've had of it this year.
     
    2 - Vertikal by Cult of Luna
     

     
    From the pure fun of Earth Rocker, we come to the bleak and miserable atmospheric sludge metal journey that is Cult of Luna's Vertikal.
    And a journey it is. Very thematically and atmospherically strong, Vertikal is an absolutely captivating piece of beautiful melancholy with incredible instrumentation and the incorporation of many influences from post-rock, electronic and ambient. Well over an hour long, the album never drags or gets boring and just continues to surprise the listener.
    Cult of Luna are clearly the masters of their craft, and with them announcing an indefinite hiatus, this coupled with the equally amazing EP Vertikal II is their final artistic statement.
    I'm sad to see them go, but what a note to end on.
     
    1 - Das Seelenbrechen by Ihsahn
     

     
    The Breaking of the Soul. Taken from Nietzcshe's writings on art, there could hardly be a more appropriate title for this masterpiece.
    Das Seelenbrechen is the fifth solo album from the mastermind behind the most influential and innovative black metal band Emperor, and is easily the best thing he has done. Considering how incredible his work with Emperor, Peccatum and his solo project is, for Ihsahn to outdo himself again is no small feat.
    Created in an entirely different manner than his previous four albums, Das Seelenbrechen is a largely improvised piece that gives us a deep personal look into Ihsahn's true psyche.
    It's very difficult to describe it. I suppose it's because of albums like this that we have terms like avant-garde. Stylistically, it's all over the place in the best possible way. You have the opener Hiber which deliberately reels you in with a false sense of familiarity to the progressive black metal of his previous albums, but that familiarity is shattered barely half-way through the song when it takes a completely different turn. Following this are tracks like the symphonic Regen, the electronic tinged beautiful and personal Pulse, the experimentation with time signatures in the terrifying recreation of black metal Tacit II, the atmospheric spoken-word piece M, the chilling experimental drone-influenced See, and five other tracks, all of which are very unique.
    Despite it's chaotic nature, the album still feels very coherent and all the tracks very much act as one continuous experience.
    Das Seelenbrechen is a display of incredible musicianship in every aspect. Beyond that, it is a display of creative genius.
    It's definitely not an album that will appeal to everyone, but to me this not only blows everything else from this year out of the water, but it ranks amongst the greatest albums I have ever heard.
  20. Queen of Liars
    10 - Ænigma by In Vain
     

     
    A brilliant piece of progressive death metal. Atmospheric and captivating, the album features consistently great instrumentation and songwriting.
     
     
    9 - Push The Sky Away by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
     

     
    A beautiful art rock/chamber pop album with a sense of danger. It feels like a relaxing listen, but at the same time it always feels tense thanks to some excellent choices in terms of the songs' tempo.
    Beyond the great lyrics and really cool vocal style, there's a lot of subtleties here, such as sparse string arrangements, which add a lot of texture to the album.
     
     
    8 - Nice Hooves by Nice Hooves
     

     
    An excellent debut, the heavy hardcore punk of Nice Hooves is filled with blistering riffs and crushing vocals that you can't help but nod your head along to.
    Big thanks to Ryuujin for letting me know about this. It's free on the band's bandcamp page, so go check it out.
     
     
    7 - Meir by Kvelertak
     

     
    Kvelertak are back with their second album of hardcore punk/black metal/rock 'n' roll (or black 'n' roll as some would call it) goodness, and I still can't get enough.
    Fast paced and energetic, with great riffs and songwriting everywhere, Meir is not quite like anything else you've heard before.
     
     
    6 - Des Winters finsterer Gesell by Angizia
     

     
    Angizia bring forth a very unique offering of a combination between avant-garde metal and dark cabaret, and they nail it.
    They incorporate the traditional metal instruments with violin and piano to produce some incredible compositions.
    Atmospheric and mysterious, this album is a journey that constantly twists and turns in new directions.
  21. 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.
  22. 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.
  23. Queen of Liars
    With most video game sales being over by now, here's what I got over the holiday period:
     
    Steam:
     
    Deus Ex (lost my physical copy a while ago, so this will replace it)
    Deus Ex: Invisible War
    Mark of the Ninja Special Edition DLC
    Braid
    Sequence
    Resonance
    Poker Night 2
    Another World
    Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter
    Serious Sam 3: Jewel of the Nile DLC
    BIT.TRIP Beat
    Rush
    Dinner Date
    Paranautical Activity
    Counter Strike Complete
    The Walking Dead: 400 Days DLC
    Star Wars: Balance of the Force and Ms. Splosion Man tables for Pinball FX2
     
    The Humble Store:
     
    The Novelist
    Guacamelee
     
    Overall, some pretty nice stuff I guess. Looking at it, I picked up quite a few games, but the sales still felt a bit lacking. It's kinda gotten to the point where I already own most of the stuff I'd want, and the stuff I don't have yet either didn't go on sale or was still too expensive for me to justify picking it up.
    I ended up spending very little actual money thanks to selling a lot of Steam trading cards, so that's nice.
    Although I have no idea when I'll have the time to actually play all this stuff. My backlog of games is huge enough as it is.
  24. Queen of Liars
    Happy new year. I hope 2014 goes well for everyone.
     
    2013 was a pretty mixed bag for me. The first half of it was probably the best time of my life, and the second half... kinda went in the other direction.
    And you know, I'd like to be optimistic about 2014, but I have two university assignments that are due on the 6th followed by exams on the 7th and 8th that I'm honestly not feeling very good about, so I'm starting this year pretty stressed out. Hopefully once that's done I can get back on track though. Hopefully being they key word there.
     
     
    Anyhow, I'll probably do a top 10 albums of 2013 over the next couple of days if I get around to it.
    In the meantime, here's one of two songs I love from a rather disappointing album that won't even make it to honourable mentions (I like the title track a lot more, but it has a certain word in it so you get this instead):
     

  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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