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Laughing Man

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Blog Entries posted by Laughing Man

  1. Laughing Man

    [UPDATED] In Flames

    By Laughing Man,

    I would've updated this over a month ago when I picked up the new album Siren Charms, but as it turns out, the entire first pressing of the deluxe edition was defective. after a few weeks of waiting, the record label finally offered people corrected replacement discs about a week ago. I received mine in the mail just yesterday.
     
    at one point in the past these guys were my favorite band, and this collection is quite possibly the most complete that I own, just slightly ahead of Katatonia - between bonus tracks and B-sides, I've got basically every finished, studio-recorded song the band has released.
     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Lunar Strain (2005 Candlelight Records reissue)
    - Subterranean EP (2005 Candlelight Records reissue)
    - The Jester Race (2008 Reloaded edition + Black-Ash Inheritance EP)
    - Whoracle (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Colony (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Clayman (2008 Reloaded edition)
    - Reroute to Remain
    - Trigger EP
    - Soundtrack to Your Escape
    - Come Clarity
    - A Sense of Purpose
    - The Mirror's Truth EP (German pressing)
    - Sounds of a Playground Fading
    - Siren Charms (deluxe edition)
     
    also owned but not pictured:
     
    - Lunar Strain/Subterranean (single-disc compilation including both the full-length debut and its follow-up EP, sans the bonus tracks available on the individual reissues)
    - "Discover Me Like Emptiness" (bonus track for Soundtrack to Your Escape, bought separately from AmazonMP3)
    - "Self vs. Self" (collaboration with Pendulum from that artist's Immersion album, bought separately from AmazonMP3)
    - "The Chase" (iTunes-exclusive bonus track for Siren Charms)
    - first press edition of Reroute to Remain featuring variant artwork (black border around the usual image)
    - a nifty In Flames magnet included with the purchase of Siren Charms through FYE, features the Purpose/Playground-era logo
  2. Laughing Man

    Stardew Valley

    By Laughing Man,

    (shout-out to Jedi Master J. for gifting this game to me)
     
    story time: I was utterly obsessed with Harvest Moon when I was younger. it was one of the games I played on my brothers' Nintendo 64 a lot as a kid, and then when I got older I had the DS version and was so addicted to it that my parents had to take my DS away from me sometimes just to get me to sleep and eat.
     
    so after seeing Stardew Valley touted by multiple sites and people whose opinions I generally trust as being "like Harvest Moon but better", my interest was piqued and I needed to try it for myself.
     
    4 hours in and so far it's lived up to the hype. it really is a lot like Harvest Moon without being a direct ripoff, and does a lot of things even better than Harvest Moon did. I've been taking it slow since I'm working through a couple other games at the moment (including a visual novel that seemingly never ends; I've logged 23 hours on the first route alone and there's still no end in sight) but I think it's safe to say that once I really get into it, there will be very little sleeping or eating in my future. and if that's not a recommendation, I don't know what is.
  5. Laughing Man

    Blind Guardian

    By Laughing Man,

    (L-R: Somewhere Far Beyond, Imaginations from the Other Side, and Nightfall in Middle-Earth)
     
    about 10 days ago I dropped $24 on a set of three classic Blind Guardian CDs from Japan, and to my surprise, they arrived today. they’re all the original Japanese pressings with bonus tracks and booklets in both English and Japanese, although Nightfall in Middle-Earth is missing the obi strip which is slightly disappointing but not surprising. really nice to finally own these albums, especially copies as cool and special as these.
  7. Laughing Man

    Converge

    By Laughing Man,

    just sort-of completed my Converge collection.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Petitioning the Empty Sky (1998 Equal Vision edition)
    - When Forever Comes Crashing
    - Jane Doe
    - You Fail Me
    - No Heroes
    - Axe to Fall
    - All We Love We Leave Behind
     
    I say it's "sort-of" completed because A. Petitioning the Empty Sky is defective and has to be replaced and B. I don't have Halo in a Haystack, their long-out-of-print debut. I'd like to get the two rarities/early material compilations, Caring and Killing and Unloved and Weeded Out, which contain most of the Halo in a Haystack tracks between the two of them, provided I can find them for a decent price. I'll probably also end up getting the 2005 remastered versions of Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing eventually.
  8. Laughing Man

    Baroness

    By Laughing Man,

    bit of a small discography this time as the band only has three full-length albums (so far; they're recording a new one currently). yet another band that went from a casual interest to an overall favorite of mine.
     
    these guys have had an interesting stylistic progression - from heavy sludge/stoner metal on Red Album to a more progressive/alternative rock sound on Yellow & Green, with Blue Record somewhere in between. all of it is really good, though, which is not something that can be said about all bands that go through such drastic changes in direction (coughOpethcough).
     

     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Red Album
    - Blue Record
    - Yellow & Green (2CD double album)
     
    these guys also have two EPs, First and Second, which are out of print and really hard to find. I'm currently keeping an eye on a set of both that's up on eBay for a decent price, but it's got three days left and I imagine it'll be driven way up by the time it's sold.
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