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Laughing Man

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Blog Entries posted by Laughing Man

  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.
  4. Laughing Man

    $5 well spent

    By Laughing Man,

    goes for like $50+ on Amazon and eBay, got it for five bucks because of saved-up Kmart rewards points. last one they had in stock in an otherwise completely cleaned-out section of Star Wars merch.
  5. Laughing Man

    Stone Temple Pilots

    By Laughing Man,

    in honor of the late Scott Weiland, last week I ordered the remaining albums I needed for my collection by Stone Temple Pilots, the band he was best known for as well as one of my favorite bands of all time. the final album arrived today.
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Core
    - Purple
    - Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop
    - No. 4
    - Shangri-La Dee Da
    - Thank You (CD+DVD limited edition; greatest hits compilation also featuring an exclusive track, of which
    )- Stone Temple Pilots (Target exclusive limited edition)
     
    and that's it. unfortunately in the band's 20 year career they created a fairly small discography, but what a discography it was - yes, some albums were weaker than others (No. 4, Shangri-La, and the 2010 self-titled reunion album are usually thought to not live up to the standards of the first three) but all of them were enjoyable and good in their own way.
     
    the band does technically have one other release - an EP recorded with, of all people, Linkin Park's Chester Bennington on vocals following the dismissal of Scott Weiland from the band in 2013. I personally don't consider this a true Stone Temple Pilots release and prefer to pretend it doesn't exist. there's also some side-project stuff (Scott's work with Velvet Revolver, Art of Anarchy, and solo career; the DeLeo brothers' Army of Anyone; and the mediocre STP-minus-Scott project Talk Show) but the only one of those I've bothered with is the first Velvet Revolver album. while all the musicians in Stone Temple Pilots were talented in their own right, when taking on other projects they simply never matched the incredible chemistry that they had with one another.
  6. Laughing Man

    Jessica Jones

    By Laughing Man,

    AKA my new favorite piece of Marvel Cinematic Universe media
     
    I just wish they would've done a better job of actually, like, establishing that it's part of the MCU (besides a few vague offhand remarks)
     
    also Kilgrave for best/creepiest/most sadistic MCU villain. I'll never look at the Tenth Doctor the same way ever again
  7. 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.
  8. Laughing Man

    The GazettE

    By Laughing Man,

    instead of a full collection update, this is just something I got that I find particularly cool.
     
    about a month ago I ordered a pair of CDs by the Japanese rock band The GazettE, imported straight from Japan. today, they both arrived.
     
    on the left is Dim and on the right is Division (the Batman symbol isn't part of the artwork, that's just the reflection of my shirt)
     
    the coolest of the two is definitely Dim, which I got in the 2-disc limited edition. it comes packaged in a hologram slipcase with artwork on each side that changes as you move it.
     
    front: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
     
    back: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5
     
    in addition to the standard CD case, the slipcase also houses a CD-sized photo book.
     
    easily one of the coolest packages in my collection.
     
     
     
    BONUS: enjoy this framed picture of a squirrel that I have on my desk.
  11. Laughing Man

    Lamb of God

    By Laughing Man,

    another opportunity for a collection entry has presented itself with the release of Lamb of God's latest album, VII: Sturm und Drang ("storm and stress" in German) on Friday.
     
    I was interested to hear how the various circumstances the band went through within the last few years would affect the songwriting - frontman Randy Blythe (also a presidential candidate in 2012) was arrested, held, tried, and eventually acquitted for manslaughter in the Czech Republic, stemming from the accidental death of a stage-diving audience member at one of their shows. those dark days are indeed reflected in the lyrics of the new album, but also in the songwriting as well - it is, in my opinion, the fiercest, darkest, most caustic album they've done since 2004's Ashes of the Wake and probably my favorite since that album. really good stuff.
     

     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Burn the Priest (2006 reissue; self-titled debut released under the band's original name)
    - New American Gospel (2005 reissue)
    - As the Palaces Burn
    - Ashes of the Wake
    - Sacrament (producer edition featuring a bonus disc of song stems)
    - Wrath
    - Resolution
    - As the Palaces Burn 10th Anniversary Edition (remixed/remastered reissue featuring bonus DVD)
    - VII: Sturm und Drang (FYE-exclusive deluxe edition featuring bonus tracks and bonus disc of instrumental versions)
  13. 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.
  14. Laughing Man
    I've run out of larger collections to dedicate whole entries to, so here's a couple smaller ones put together.
     

     
    this one isn't quite complete, unfortunately. I'm missing the first two albums plus the 2014 Last Stardust EP, but that's because those are all difficult to find (and expensive) outside of the band's home of Japan. I'm fine with missing the first two albums since they predate the trance-metal hybrid style the band excels at, but I would like to track down Last Stardust eventually.
     
    incidentally, the album Mozaiq is also pretty hard to find. for a while it wasn't available through U.S. or European digital outlets, and all the CD copies ranged from $30-$100. furthermore, if you were lucky enough to find a CD copy for cheap, there was a pretty good chance you would end up with one of Amazon's awful "manufactured on demand" CD-Rs instead of the real thing. and as if this wasn't annoying enough, it would appear that virtually all the copies of the album available outside of Japan, digital or otherwise, have the track listing totally screwed up where the songs are all shuffled around and don't match what's shown on the packaging or listed online - some copies, specifically the Amazon CD-Rs, even mistakenly include a song by a completely different band in place of the track "Neo-Gothic-Romance". I somehow managed to luck out seriously a couple years back and find a promotional European pressing on Amazon for $7. it does have the track order messed up, but at least it's not a CD-R and none of the songs are missing.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Idolator (European pressing, excludes two tracks included on the Japanese version, includes the music video for "Truth")
    - Mozaiq (European promotional copy, includes the bonus track "Cosmic Highway")
    - Epsilon (European pressing, includes the bonus track "Royal Sky", an updated re-recording of "Final Sky" from Idolator)
     

     
    this one is a complete collection, albeit with a far less interesting background than the Blood Stain Child one. Days of Nothing is a bit harder to find than the other two, but I did manage to luck out and get one for about $8. all of these are American pressings to my knowledge.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Days of Nothing
    - Oionos
    - Second World
     
    as a side note, if everything goes as scheduled, I should have an entry up tomorrow about a very cool box set I ordered last week.
  15. Laughing Man

    Hypocrisy

    By Laughing Man,

    upon receiving A Taste of Extreme Divinity in the mail today, I've pretty much completed my Hypocrisy collection. I'm still missing some things - like their first three albums which are different in style and just not as good in my opinion, and both versions of the band's horrible attempt at cashing in on the nu-metal craze with Catch 22 - but all of the core albums in the band's discography that display their unique mix of death metal, melody, spacey atmospherics, and lyrical themes obsessed with the paranormal, extraterrestrial, and horror that make them one of my top 5 favorite bands of all time are represented now.
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - The Final Chapter
    - Hypocrisy (German digipak edition)
    - Into the Abyss
    - The Arrival
    - Virus (CD/DVD limited edition)
    - A Taste of Extreme Divinity (U.S. limited edition)
    - End of Disclosure (digipak limited edition)
     
    also owned, but not pictured:
     
    - Abducted (2003 reissue, owned digitally because the CD is hard to find at a decent price)
  16. Laughing Man

    Meshuggah

    By Laughing Man,

    normally I post complete collections, but I'm very quickly running out of those so here's one that's only mostly complete.
     
    I'm currently missing the original 2002 version of Nothing, the EP I (which was just reissued last year, but I haven't been able to find it yet), and the Rare Trax compilation.
     

     
    from top to bottom:
     
    - Contradictions Collapse (2008 reissue with 4/5 of the None EP as bonus tracks)
    - Destroy Erase Improve (2008 reissue with the other 1/4 of the None EP as a bonus track, among others)
    - Chaosphere (2008 reissue with The True Human Design EP as bonus tracks)
    - Catch Thirtythree
    - Nothing (2006 remixed/remastered/partly re-recorded reissue)
    - ObZen
    - Koloss
     
    also owned, but not pictured:
     
    - Pitch Black EP (free digital download from Scion A/V, also included as bonus tracks on the 2014 reissue of the I EP)
  18. Laughing Man

    Megadeth

    By Laughing Man,

    recently bought up the last few albums I needed and finally finished my collection for one of my top 10 favorite bands of all time.
     
    left stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Killing Is My Business... and Business Is Good! (1990 pressing which omits "These Boots". might get another copy eventually that includes it.)
    - Peace Sells... but Who's Buying?
    - So Far, So Good... So What!
    - Rust in Peace (one of my favorite albums ever)
    - Countdown to Extinction
    - Youthanasia
    - Hidden Treasures (B-sides/rarities compilation EP)
    - Cryptic Writings (HDCD pressing)
     
    right stack, top to bottom:
     
    - Risk (remixed & remastered version. I hate this album, but if I had to choose, I'd say this version is more tolerable because it removes some of the ill-advised synths.)
    - The World Needs a Hero
    - The System Has Failed
    - Greatest Hits: Back to the Start (signed by frontman Dave Mustaine)
    - United Abominations
    - Endgame (best album they've done since RiP)
    - Th1rt3en
    - Super Collider (Best Buy edition with three bonus tracks and a 3D cover. not a very good album though.)
     
    here's hoping that the new album they're recording now will be just as good as Endgame, if not better.
  23. Laughing Man
    updated with the brand new album The Fall of Hearts, of which I just got my pre-order today.
     

     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Dance of December Souls (2007 reissue featuring Jhva Elohim Meth...The Revival EP as bonus tracks)
    - For Funerals to Come EP (2011 reissue featuring bonus tracks)
    - Brave Murder Day (2006 reissue featuring Sounds of Decay EP as bonus tracks)
    - Discouraged Ones (2008 reissue with bonus tracks)
    - Tonight's Decision (2001 reissue with bonus tracks)
    - Last Fair Deal Gone Down (2011 tenth anniversary 2CD reissue)
    - Viva Emptiness (2013 tenth anniversary reissue)
    - The Great Cold Distance
    - Night Is the New Day (2011 tour edition reissue)
    - Dead End Kings
    - Dethroned & Uncrowned (acoustic reworking of Dead End Kings CD/DVD)
    - Sanctitude (live acoustic CD/DVD)
    - The Fall of Hearts (CD/DVD deluxe edition)
     
    also owned:
     
    - Kocytean (Record Store Day 2014 exclusive limited to 2,000 copies rarities EP on trans-orange 12" vinyl)
     
    also owned, not pictured:
     
    - Discouraged Ones (original 1998 Century Black US pressing)
    - Viva Emptiness (original 2003 pressing)
    - "Displaced" (digital My Twin single B-side)
    - "Dissolving Bonds" (digital My Twin single B-side)
    - "The Act of Darkening" (iTunes bonus track for Dead End Kings)
    - "Wide Awake in Quietus" (iTunes bonus track for The Fall of Hearts)
  24. Laughing Man
    since I mentioned the Pumpkins in my last post, I figured why not.
     
    top to bottom:
     
    - Gish
    - Lull EP
    - Siamese Dream
    - Pisces Iscariot
    - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness
    - 1979 single (the B-sides on this are fantastic)
    - Zero EP
    - Adore
    - MACHINA/The Machines of God
    - {Rotten Apples} Greatest Hits (my first Pumpkins album)
    - Zeitgeist (Best Buy exclusive deluxe edition)
    - Oceania
     
    owned but not pictured:
     
    - MACHINA II/The Friends & Enemies of Modern Music (digital-only release)
    - Zeitgeist standard edition
    - all Teargarden by Kaleidyscope tracks so far (digital-only release)
    - Batman & Robin soundtrack (includes two Pumpkins songs, “The End Is the Beginning Is the End” and “The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning”)
    - Zero T-shirt
    - Zeitgeist “Invasion” T-shirt
  25. Laughing Man

    Seam Stale

    By Laughing Man,

    I got Payday: The Heist from a friend
     
    and then I crafted some cards and got a backpack expander and an item and a name tag in TF2
     
    that's it that's all
     
    I don't buy video games much
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