Echoes of Decimation (2006)

Sorry, no Origin content.  Awesome record is still awesome, but I'm just heisting the title here.

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My desktop computer is on the verge of breaking down.  In the process of cleaning it up to prepare for the move to a new box, though, I found something interesting going back to 2006.  I had apparently mostly forgotten in the interim, but it turned out that I had taken more pictures of the China trip than I previously thought.  Like, a lot more.  A bunch of them were duplicates or boring (at the time) pictures of barely-lived-in hotel rooms, but some of them are novel, and just overall, it's kind of interesting to see what didn't get selected for publication back then -- and compare it to what did.


NEMHF 2006

These pictures are from the 2006 iteration of the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival, and cover the first two bands, after which I decided it was a fool's errand.  Six and a half years on, I still fail at taking pictures indoors, but tend to keep doing it.



D01. Alarum, with neither flash nor focus.



D02. Alarum again, and the flash prematuring off a dude's back.  Four years later, Mark (center) and I would recall this performance over beers at Wacken.



D03. The Absence and no detail at all.


They Missed The Cut For China 1



D04. Chronologically after pic 01 in that album, this shows the legs of the dinosaur and more of the concourse.



D05. First picture from HK, inside the hotel.  I was apparently very impressed with Asian hotels after last being parked in a closet in Leuven.  (There was a link-mark on that because I wrote this up offline, initially, and forgot that the Belgium trip referred to is also still unposted....though it's been not-really-classified for five years now.  More tales untold.)



D06. This should precede the famous picture 09.  Obviously, I was setting up for that one -- pushed in from across the street and a ways up Nathan -- and the bus drove into the shot, neatly blocking the sign.















D07 - D13. Between pictures 13 and 14.  These are interiors from my brand-spanking-new/barely-finished room out in the BJEDD.  D13 really captures the uncanny emptiness of the place.



D14. After picture 15.  The effect of the giant, empty room and the high-line furnishings was pretty disorienting.



D15. Between pictures 16 and 17.  This shot completes the 'pan' (shot around closed curtains) between those two.  You see more of the replanted trees, and also a high-rise development that contrasts with the high-volume single-family development in 17.

















D16 - D23. A tour of my room at the Beijing Marriott (following picture 19).  Apparently the closet was super impressive.  A lot of this is implied by pic 19, but the kitchen, as seen in the first two shots, kind of needs the extra view.  And yes, there are two different beds pictured.  This was an extremely large as well as well-furnished space to keep one engineer in.


Held Back From China 2



D24. This is an alternate, more poorly-centered take on pic 18, but there may be some extra information at the edges.


Walled Off From China 3



D25. Bootlegs and paraphrenalia, and the shiny black granite countertops.  All those things on the left are DVD sleeves.  This precedes the whole album.



D26. An alternate take of picture 09.



D27. The silk burner on the other side of the path from the one in picture 12, plus tour leader.



D28. Blurry original take of picture 23.  Closer to the present, this would have just gotten deleted on-site.



D29. Mad as a wet....engineer, I guess.  As the end of the album shows, I got majorly rained on at the Great Wall, and this small shirt (well, technically 4XL, but these are Chinese sizes) was what I had on hand, as a souvenir, to wear on the bus back to the hotel.  Between pictures 55 and 56.

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Of the 29 rediscovered pictures, 3 aren't from the trip, and of the 26 that are, 19 of them are mostly dealing with the interiors of hotel rooms.  Two others are obvious mistakes that got corrected in the next shot.  However, there is enough of interest in the last five pics of legit B-roll to marginally justify dredging these up.  I'm not sure why D15 especially and also D27 did not make it into the original release.  The first really reinforces the other pictures from the BJEDD, and there are enough shots with other people in them that I can't see why the second was excluded.  Those cut decisions may have made sense then, but they don't now -- hence this post rolling them back out.

The P.SOA Running Order Is Out And I Have Beef

The running order, as alluded, for Party.San has now been published.  And, as always, there's stuff to nerdrage about.  I like how hard it is to miss Dead Congregation, and that on Saturday I can probably go to bed after Tankard.  But I have no goddamn idea how Ghost Brigade gets to play so late, or why they think it's ok for Rompeprop to play at noon.  There is something really wrong here.  Obviously, someone has to open, but "long-term grindcore legends" seems a bit of a reach to stick in that slot.

On the other hand, I'm bitching about when I get to see Rompeprop, not that they're not playing, so this is ultimately more first-world problems.  Just inside four weeks till boots down in Schlotheim.

Here Is Your Goddamned Infernal Combustion Archive Link

I refer to Infernal Combustion far too much for a satirical webzine that published most of its relevant numbers more than a decade ago. This is because Keith Bergman and Mark Tinta put together some awesome writing in an era in which there was a lot less stuff on the internet, and it's had some staying power. This is where that Amon Amarth copypasta comes from, as well as what I'm referring to when I talk about Hypocrisy and Gamma Ray wrecking a hotel room, or attribute certain guidelines on music to King Fowley. ("...[I]f it's not on vinyl and I don't own the band's backpatch, it's probably homosexual!") So go read it, and whine that the Wayback Machine folks have the later, Roadrunner/Blabbermouth-aegised content stored under a different hierarchy.

http://web.archive.org/web/20021210045130/http://www.infernalcombustion.com/index2.htm

Also, if you got here from a misformed phpBB URL wrapper for a picture on a site for Ukranian prostitutes, please leave a comment explaining how that even happens. I get referrer spam all the time, but seldom is it this obviously sketchy or this functionally impossible.

Do a redesign about it.

I'm not nearly kvlt enough to stay with the old template. Also, I'm bored waiting to leave for Metal Thursday.

Every Shirt: An Introduction

That is a stack of t-shirts. It is more than four feet high, not counting the box it's sitting on. If you figure that each shirt, folded, is on average about half an inch thick (though in the process of piling up this stack, I found numerous shirts that had been compressed by the weight of others to a quarter-inch or less), it stands to reason that there are somewhere between 90 and 100 shirts in this pile, potentially more.

This pile exists because I support bands. Most of the shirts in this stack are less than 3 years old and were bought out of some band's merch tub, or off a merch table somewhere, though some were not. For whatever reason, heavy metal t-shirts for, by weight and by volume, the dominant share of my wardrobe; what will follow at the pace of one shirt per day, interspersed with real show reviews and other stuff, is a cataloguing of every shirt in this pile: where it came from, where it fits into my history, and anything else the delusion needed to embark on something like this, much less publish it, might consider interesting or relevant.

Most metalheads will probably have the ability to build a stack like this; we all pick up shirts at a pretty steady pace, year by year, because the designs are cool or the band played an especially good set, or whatever, and they tend to stick around; not often destroyed, less often still donated, sold, or just thrown out. Like CDs, patches, and other detritus of being a metalhead, the shirts you have and choose to wear become in some ways an extension of yourself; this is mine, and over the next three months or so, modulo the normal rate of shirt acquisition, I'm going to go through in in stupidly excruciating depth.

fucking finally

Thank You for your order!

The order was shipped.


The following articles were ordered:

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Quant. - Itemno. - Name - Price - Total
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1 - 24158 - WOA - 3-Tages ALL-IN -ANNIVERSARY- Festival-Ticket 2009 - 30.07. - 01.08. 2009 - 130,00 EUR - 130,00 EUR

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At long last, my Wacken ticket is on the way. Now I can start planning around W:O:A + Party.San, and not Party.San + Summer Breeze; it's probably too much of a stretch to do the full and undoubtedly filthy W:O:A + Party.San + Summer Breeze, unless of course I drag around a bunch of technological crap and do support whenever I'm not drunk.

It'll be interesting to see what the serial is on this one; last year I was #1419 or thereabouts, but this time there's almost certain to be five digits. Also, I now have to care about the lineup, and hope that more good bands will be added than bad.

a crap cascade

In the last 15 hours, three bad things happened. In order:

1. I majorly fucked up my left knee at soccer, meaning that I basically couldn't walk and thus
2. I missed Vital Remains and Monstrosity last night, and will in all likelihood have to give Napalm Death a pass tonight. Not cool.
3. I find out that Avenged Sevenfold is playing at Wacken this year. SERIOUSLY WHAT THE HELL.

Look at this:
As I Lay Dying
Avenged Sevenfold
Job For A Cowboy
Killswitch Engage
Soilwork
Unearth

Doesn't this look like a garbage metalcore fest? Of course, all the good bands mentioned earlier are still playing, but as a metal purist I hate to see these bands on the marquee at Wacken (even though Soilwork did some good stuff before about 5 years ago, and I can actually stand Killswitch). On the other hand, the more lame mainstream bands are added, the greater the chance that I won't miss anyone I actually want to see in order to catch the underground portion of the bill.

I have no idea what to expect this year, and no idea what the 20th iteration of the fest will present next year. It's getting freaking surreal.

Negura Bunget (edit: and Cynic) confirmed for Wacken

Yes, you read that right. My eyes nearly jumped out of my head as a result, but this is yet another reason not to miss this year's iteration; even with Kreator, Iron Maiden, Primordial, Carcass, At The Gates, Watain, and a ton of other bands who would be headline-worthy if not for this crop, it was treading near, but this fest is now definitely into quit-your-job-if-they-won't-give-you-leave territory. I've got faith in my employer that it won't come to that, but if it does, much like '05 when I was actually in Germany already and not about to miss Dissection, Kreator, Primordial, and Sentenced, I'll be able to pull the trigger without hesitation.

The cult three (NB, Primordial, and Watain) are all likely to be on the tent stage, but if they're booked against Kreator (likely culprit) or ATG or Carcass, someone is going to get hurt. Hopefully, though, the orgas will be smart and line them up against Unearth and/or Job For A Cowboy, so that such bands can be safely avoided.

Next show is tomorrow at Dodge Street with Cocaine Tongue and MPD if the weather cooperates, and then there's a lot of shows through the rest of March, including a four-day Metal Spring Break stretch at the end of the month. 5 months till W:O:A.....


update: Cynic is now confirmed, and it's the "real" one, not the NWOBHM band that caused a bit of a kickup a few weeks back. Personally, I'd dig seeing this lineup with both Cynic and Cynic (UK) on the bill, just to confuse people. The billing is now crawl-there-if-you-have-to good, and I am damn glad that my ticket is already in my possession.

2007 - a year in show reviews

I tried to pick out only one gig to officially designate the best show of 2007 (even though MPD's release show is still on the calendar), but unfortunately couldn't come up with any one gig that would get the nod, so instead, here's a brief review of the seven best gigs I went to in 2007, and what made them really stand out. These are selected from the 46 shows that I went to in 2007, in which I saw 282 individual sets from 204 different bands; this does not include three Autumn Above gigs, which would add another 11 sets and nine bands to the total, because until said indie-pop/prog-metal band gets their act together and starts doing more shows with post-hardcore bands, I go to their gigs much more to support them than for the overall musical experience.

#0/Honorable Mention:
2007/8/2
Wacken, Schleswig-Holstein
W:O:A 2007
Wacken does not and should not count as a normal show for these purposes, especially as it's not something people in North America can generally get to. Regardless, this was about the top Wacken that I've been to; last year had debatably better music, with high flyers from Atheist, Emperor, and Amon Amarth, but this year was the best-managed festival experience, overall, and musically, there was the thrash Altliga-Cup of Destruction, Sodom, Sacred Reich, Possessed, and Sabbat, plus Blind Guardian, Iced Earth, Immortal, and Cannibal Corpse headlining. "Stunning" is almost too mundane a word for it, but this is why it's worth the $1500 in ticket and travel expenses.

#1
2007/5/13
Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge
Watain, Angelcorpse, Nachtmystium, Cold Northern Vengeance, Witch Tomb
This was one of the more anticipated "mundane" gigs this year, and it definitely lived up to its billing. This was a difficult tour for Watain marked with several cancellations, and it may be difficult for them to come back given the amounts of animal blood employed in their set, but that just makes this performance, which was fucking ace musically as well, that much more special. Additionally, the whole of the undercard was really strong: Angelcorpse gave a headliner-quality set, Nachtmystium did probably the best performance I've seen from them, and both Witch Tomb and CNV brought their A-game, making this likely the signature show, or one of the signature gigs, of 2007 for both bands. The appeal of this bill is somewhat insular, but black metal as an art form seldom gets better than this.

#2
2007/7/6
Worcester Palladium
Summer Slaughter: Necrophagist, Decapitated, Cephalic Carnage, Cattle Decapitation, The Faceless, As Blood Runs Black, Ion Dissonance, Beneath The Massacre, In Dire Need, Zircon
There were some subpar bands on the bill on this one, but there was a lot of real quality as well; with the top four, this was probably the most technically intense show that I saw this past year. Necrophagist demonstrated just how far the gap is between them and the rest of the tech-death field, including a fantastic clinic in creative drum technique from Marco Minneman, and Decapitated absolutely blew the doors off the venue with the kind of incredible, perfect, skullcrushing sound that the Palladium occasionally manages to produce by accident. Though it doesn't lessen the impact of the tragic accident that has at press time put the band on infinite hold, this performance is a hell of a last memory to have of one of death metal's leading lights. Of the multi-band package tours that crawl around the US between June and August, substituting for real festivals, Summer Slaughter is the most promising: Ozzfest has a lot of crap, and Sounds of the Underground is trending that way, but on this bill, you're more likely to hear a very good band than a bad one.

#3
2007/2/7
Castle Greyskull, Allston
Despotic Robot, Revocation, Mechannibal
Beer, metal, pizza, and a hole in the ground; though Evil Army never made it out of Ohio, this one still makes it into the top three shows of the year. Basement shows have a special vibe all their own, and this was a very good one, with the locals creating more than enough thrash chaos to make up for the headliner's no-show. Directly or indirectly, this one also kind of lead to the purportedly very cool Benefit For The Advancement of Dudes series of thrash basement shows -- of which I have missed each of the three installments, usually due to being on the road. My new job doesn't require half as much travel, so catching more basement shows due to not being in Seoul or Texas or somewhere is an important side benefit.

#4
2007/1/20
DeeDee's, Quincy
Hell's Infinite 6, Baphomet's Horns, Hekseri, Martyrvore, Witch Tomb
This was one of the first gigs of the year, and one of the last at this venue, which looked like it was under partial demolition at the time, and was supplying itself with beer from a local package store rather than an actual distributor. The sound was of indifferent, the layout was weird, the night was excessively khold and grvm, and a bar that runs out of beer is of debatable utility, but in music and atmosphere, this was an excellent show, providing close to optimum presentation for a bill full of local black metal bands. If you don't understand the appeal of frigid weather and squalid accomodations, raw black metal like this is probably not for you.

#5
2007/9/7
Bedford, NH Mark's Showplace
Katatonia, Scar Symmetry, Insomnium, Swallow The Sun, Dreaded Silence, Tripmynd, Frozen, Eternal Embrace
There were almost as many bad moments as good at Mark's this year (much like every year), but this was debatably the best of the shows I caught there. While Tripmynd and Eternal Embrace were duds to a certain degree, DS and Frozen both put up very strong sets, and the headliners represented about the overall-best four-band tour I've seen at this place. Scar Symmetry was a little off, but Swallow The Sun was great, Insomnium made a good case for headlining on their next jaunt, and Katatonia simply outclassed the venue by further than about every other band I've seen here.

#6
2007/9/27
Worcester Palladium
Municipal Waste, Skeleton Witch, Toxic Holocaust, Doomriders
Probably the best non-festival show I saw at the Palladium this year, but then again, it seems like I only ever go to the Palladium for festival-type gigs (actually, it's about even). In the more confined space of the upstairs portion, this was like a mini-thrash-convention, showing four killer performances in a good atmosphere. Skeleton Witch may just be the best band to debut on Metal Blade this year, Doomriders almost convinced the audience that they deserved to go on next to last rather than opening for the touring bands, and of course the Waste just killed the hell out of everything. Toxic Holocaust seemed a little flat, but those who hadn't seen the classic lineup of Sodom playing essentially a headlining set two months prior probably didn't think so, and at any rate, Toxic Holocaust live is pretty goddamned special just of itself. The weather was shitty getting back, but the show itself was awesome.

#7
2007/3/31
Bedford, NH Mark's Showplace
1349, Goatwhore, Nachtmystium, Averse Sephira, Mortis Deveia, Aura of Aquila, Zircon, Cold Northern Vengeance
Mark's always has a hard time with consistency, but on this outing at least, the bill shaped up so direct and focused (even considering Mortis Dev) that it might as well have been set intentionlly rather than by the exigencies of who could sell tickets. Though Averse Sephira played a strong set, they had difficulty setting themselves above New England's best in a strong outing from both Zircon and CNV, and the other local openers definitely made a decent case for their inclusion (even if this wasn't the best set I saw from Aura of Aquila in '07). Nachtmystium was really good, and Goatwhore put out absolutely the best set I've seen from them; 1349 may not have been as on their game as when I saw them at Wacken later, but they put on a really good performance, capping debatably the second best show at Mark's this year.


There were, of course, a lot of other killer gigs along the way -- Suffocation and the victory over TNT, Amon Amarth roaring into the mainstream at the Palladium, Pelican in the fog at the Middle East, Nile and Cthtonic, that whole week at the end of June where the Skybar was on its deathbed binge, Lord Bacon supporting Finntroll, any show involving Goreality -- but in the end, these are the ones that came out best or most memorable. Counting Autumn Above and the MPD show next weekend, it'll be an even 50 shows on the year; on average, every weekend, I saw a metal show or at least a somewhat metal band, which is pretty impressive given that I spent two weeks in Korea and another two in Texas. I'm so glad I didn't have to move to Rochester, and instead can stay in this much more metal and less snowy part of the world.

a month and a half of catch-up

Damn, I didn't realize I was so behind. Korea, Metalfest, and cleaning up at work from several weeks spent overseas have left this record a little out of date, so here goes what's been going lately.

now that that's out of the way...

....comes the situation that my Myspace is not deleted after all. :roll: This was kind of predicted, so it's not like it's like I wasn't planning on keeping it live for the near future. However, this move off towards the real internet is something I was planning on doing anyway.

I'm going to do some more cleanup and such probably next Monday, and then the week after that, there'll be a report from this year's Wacken Open Air. It may seem a little excessive to fly to another continent for a heavy metal concert, but it's the only way I'm likely to ever see Emperor with the full lineup, and Amon Amarth with their full Viking show. I'm hoping to run into some of the people I met last year, but there's 50,000+ people at this festival, always growing, and if I run into anyone I know it'll likely be purely by accident. Of course, as I continue to go back (Immortal's reuniting next year, so that's kind of a foregone conclusion), the number of people that I've randomly hung out with will continue to expand, and the overall chance will go up. This year will see more pictures, and hopefully more bands seen, but all is certain, even if the airline loses my gear and I end up sleeping under a tarp, is that I'll have a great time. (Large mugs of beer help with this, but are not the answer in and of themselves.)

In the short term I'm losing sleep; last night was writing up two weeks' worth of D&D materials, and tonight I have to do the Chinese homework I've been putting off all week, then do next week's tomorrow night so that I can go to Germany and not worry about leaving lessons undone. Maybe I should spread this out some, but the concentrations help me focus. Or, rather, this is a useful side effect of being generally lazy.

I am not cooking more Chinese buns for the session; I screwed up the last batch, but fortunately, everyone was more interested in the actual game than in eating, so I've been using them as a lunch substitute all week. The pork was a little old and I didn't prepare the steamer pans right, so it's actually a positive that I'm soaking it -- they weren't poisonous or anything, and I'm going to be living on doner, sausage and beer next week, so I need all the help I can get getting ready.