Scott's Stash: Somewhere Far Beyond

This one is easy:

Blind Guardian- Somewhere Far Beyond (1992)

Not as bombastic as later Blind Guardian albums- i.e., not as much synth and orchestral stuff- and much faster than the last record of theirs I heard (A Twist in the Myth from 2006), this is an excellent example of why the phrase "power metal" is so often proceeded by "German."

When I think of Blind Guardian my mind jumps to my brother's bedroom c. 1998-99, when he played some of Nightfall in Middle-Earth for me. A whole metal album based on The Silmarillion was pretty fucking cool in my book, so BG has stayed in my mind over the years. I'm no connoisseur of power metal, but Blind Guardian's good at what they do and have earned their reputation.

This is a good soundtrack for doing homework, too. The vibe is so positive and soaring and, despite the technical skill and musicianship, uncomplicated, that I got a lot more done than I would have if I'd been listening to, say, any of the albums I've bought lately. (Jex Thoth, I'm looking at you.) It's a good feeling.

One last stray observation before I wrap up. This particular disc is a reissue from 2000 and has three "CD bonus tracks." They're unnecessary and distracting on two levels: they throw off the album's general feel, and the addition of "CD" to "bonus tracks" in 2000 AD is baffling. C'est la vie, or however you'd say it in German or Elvish.

"West Lake"

One day I walk by the lake.
One day I sit by the lake.
One day I stand by the lake.
One day I lie by the lake.

-袁宏道/Yuan Hongdao, 1568-1610 (translated by Jonathan Chaves)

Categorization.

I've never tagged any of my writing here, mostly out of laziness but partially because of my disinterest in sorting my posts into categories that would feel either forced or merely convenient. I'd say that my muttering does often lend itself to tagging- poetry, personal stuff, music, etc.- but I don't see any reason to label individual entries in what is essentially an ongoing chronicle of, let's face it, whatever happens to capture my attention long enough to write about it online. I don't have any problems with categories (if I did, I wouldn't haunt the stacks at the library as often as I do), and I'm certainly not claiming that my, ahem, "work" defies categorization. I'm just not interested in doing it myself.

I probably should have joined LiveJournal a long time ago, I guess, but fuck it. The Corpse Speaks: music, writing, nostalgia, beer, books, life's small triumphs and looming defeats, and anything else are all fair game, unsorted save by date of publication. Just like a notebook, or that journal you wish you'd destroyed after senior year wound down and left you with a knot in your stomach, wondering what the hell would come next.


now playing: The Human Instinct, Stoned Guitar

Scott's Stash: Birth of the Dawn

What? Two posts in one day? Why is that, you ask? Because yours truly doesn't feel like tackling his Chinese homework yet, that's why. My procrastination gives you...

Orodruin- Birth of the Dawn (1999)

This pick looked dubious from the start. The liner notes have that ragged desktop printer thing going on, but since this is a remastered demo (not listed on the Encyclopedia Metallum, by the way, though the demo is), shitty packaging is acceptable. There are three songs here, or more accurately two songs, the first of which is a two-parter. The CD is completely unlabeled.

I have no idea how my brother acquired this, but I'm glad he did. This is fuckin' rad. "Birth of the Dawn/Sons of Nature" opens with some speedy traditional metal riffage that continues on for a while before the vocals show up- I thought it was going to be an instrumental. The overall sound of this first track brings to mind something that never happened: my brother's old band Last Eve playing Iron Maiden's "Losfer Words/Big 'Orra." Which probably means nothing to you, but that's not my problem.

"Creation Through Death" hits the brakes and lurches into doom mode. Whether this song's as good as the first is a matter of taste, but it's no slouch in the musicianship department. For a demo, this has remarkably clear production; I wonder what the unremastered original sounded like. My main complaint is that the vocals aren't as strong as the music demands. They're adequate, but not much more than that.

Birth of the Dawn is a nice little find for a Wednesday afternoon, and proof that the heavy metal demo is as cool as ever.

Scott's Stash: The Grand Leveller

This one comes from the batch of albums that Drew gave my brother:

Benediction- The Grand Leveller (1991)

Once more I find myself holding an album belonging to a band whose name I've known for ages but have never listened to. At some point I'm going to stop even bothering to mention this, as it'll probably be the norm for this series.

Actually Benediction's music isn't completely new to me, at least in part. Dave Ingram replaced Karl Willetts as the vocalist for Bolt Thrower from 1998 until 2004. I've always liked the one album Bolt Thrower released with Ingram on vocals, so when I went searching for an album to listen to while driving down the toll road and saw The Grand Leveller, I knew that even if the music sucked, the vocals wouldn't.

Of course, I didn't expect that the music would actually suck. Lo and behold, it turned out to be damned good. The production and overall tone of the instruments dates the album in the best way possible: it's the sound of British death metal a few years past its infancy but well before death metal's general decline into frustrating mediocrity in the late '90s. Not that nothing good came out of those years, but the early '90s produced some really good shit, and the response to some of it (i.e., black metal) was inspiring, too. The Grand Leveller is a good example of that time, if a lesser-known one.

Dave Ingram sounds good here, as does the rest of the band (not that I have a point of comparison). The songs are varied in tempo and mood, but not in a predictable, slow-doomy-number-now-something-faster-now-a-couple-midpaced-ones way. The riffs are killer, and the solos are too. As I mentioned earlier, I like the production; the heaviness of the music doesn't rely on it, and it accentuates what I think of as the outer edges of the sound. The lyrics aren't awful, but they're not particularly good, either. (I'm leaving the issue of the importance of lyrics alone.) There's a Celtic Frost cover here that's cool enough, but feels unnecessary, as covers often do.

Overall, Benediction surpassed my expectations. One thing I've noted as I've listened to this album a few times is that it works well as a complete unit, to the point where I don't have a favorite song. That could be a reflecting on how I listen to music, but I think it's more a sign of a well-crafted and well-played album. This isn't unique in death metal, but it's always a pleasure to put on a record and be able to listen to it all the way through, knowing that there's a sick riff or real headbanging part just around the corner. Good shit.


P.S. The photo of Dave Ingram in the liner notes is priceless.

星期四跟星期五一样吗？

Despite four weeks of gainful unemployment, Thursday nights still feel like the equivalent of Friday nights. It'll change with time, I'm sure, but old habits die hard. It's past midnight and I'm done beating my head against the wall working on the new potential novel, so I've been delving into the PDFs that came with my recent purchase of Lamentions of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role-Playing. It's all great stuff- so much so that I'm having a hard time reading one particular rulebook and keep switching between them. It doesn't help that I bought a couple-three modules as well, all of which seem rich with potential.

Life's all kinds of busy these days. There's school, moving in with the wife, planning for the wedding, planning for my summer study and honeymoon in China, figuring out what classes to take in the fall, adjusting to a new laptop (and a new OS, which is Windows- blargh), plans to edit/rewrite Critical Hits, research and writing for the new novel, trying to keep my AD&D game together, schemes for the LOTFP game I want to run in the fall... this is probably the busiest year I've had in a long time, and I'm sure there are events and activities I'm forgetting.*

It's late. I should go to bed, but I think I'll keep reading the LOTFP rules. I never followed James Raggi's old heavy metal zine of the same name that closely, but I'm pleased to see that the dedication he put into it has transferred to his role-playing efforts.

G'night!

*I just remembered the "Scott's Stash" series- I've got a couple albums lined up for it, but haven't posted my writeups yet. Soon enough, soon enough...