Live Performance at the Royal Albert Hall- Opeth

A clip from the yet to be released DVD of Opeth's performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Amazing Song, Dirge for November. Fucking awesome! \m/ Can't wait any longer for the DVD

Chopin

Brilliantly played! My next project :)

Genius! Hallelujah

This happened while I was writing on Bree and its ridiculousness. Apple did a kickass job with introducing the genius function in the iTunes player. I know it has been there for a long time but it is so amazing.

While writing about the aforementioned article, my head was a swirl of naked chafe.  Like a mosquito buzzing about my head while I’m trying to hit the sack. Hence I put on Immolation – A Token of Malice. I was in the mood for more. It’d be really bugging were I to switch windows every time to put the appropriate song, and thank God! Enter Genius!

That little neutron icon is a bliss sometimes. The same sort of music sorted automatically from my library and even suggestions to artist that I don’t have that might interest me. The atmosphere it creates is so awesome! Like it reads my mind, although why “Say it Right” by Nelly Furtado was in that playlist beats the crap out of me :D...

8-10 songs down in the newly created playlist and I’m done with my article. Now for some smooth stuff to get me all drowsy and I put Riverside. “I Turned you Down” ringing in my head while my eyelids get heavy, my head has reached Shangri-la.

And Genius is almost always accurate. Apple says it goes well beyond genre in generating playlists. The company anonymously sends information about your library to the iTunes Store and combines that with data from other users to fine-tune playlists and buying recommendations. Suggestions show up in a Genius sidebar in Itunes. Awesomeness! Great job Apple! For heaven's sake get the iPhone right this time! $ was such a looker yet a poorly though out product. Get the genius right this time! Cheers!!

Bree=Shit

Ok. So apparently bree is in the “in” thing nowadays.  Every forum you go has at least a handful of wannabe vocalist wanting to know whether it is for everybody to make that ghastly racket or not. And quite frankly i don’t know what the whole fuss is about. I had recently gone into this craze of having a brutal death fiesta. I couldn’t have found a way more worse that that to waste my time.

After about a dozen youtube videos all consisting of bands with awesomely horrid album art and very similar looking names (mind you, similar looking, all thorny and symmetrical) i narrowed down to Defeated Sanity which according to me was the most bearable. While their album was getting downloaded, i heard another playlist consist of Putrid Pile, Dying Fetus, Guttural Secrete and Cemetery Rapist. What have these people got against people as such? Why would i want to listen to a guy screeching about his infected intestine or about some mass rape/murder of women. Yes, i get the fact that deranged thoughts occur a man once in while, I myself have had my share of masochistic or twisted dreams involving huge hammers and squashed heads smashed onto the wall while a truckload of bile wait for their chance to get under my axe. Yes, i’ve very happily  written about it all, but i don’t go on advertising about it generally. Whereas these bands, they’ve made it their job to tell their fans how exactly “putrid” they can be. The fact that they advertize it so much, seems to me as though they’re just showing off their skill at pig squealing.

Let’s analyse their music. I’d be fair by saying to each his own taste. I’m not contradicting the point i stated about nonsensical lyrics, because frankly, not one guy would get a word being growled or squealed. Not even the guy doing the growling or screeching. To me the snare sounded a bit off (typical for all of the bands I heard, hence maybe that’s the way it is done) otherwise the music would be something I’d listen to while watching a bloody gruesome fight or a similar scenario. Gets your blood boiling.  But once the squealing starts its like, “what the fuck went wrong with the recording studio?” Its sounds like utter crap, it is most probably anyway, I didn’t bother checking with the lyrics there.

Anyway by this time “Chapters of Repugnance” the album I’d put on download was done. I liked what I heard, but the same flaws were present here too. Plus the name of the songs really put me into perspective, showing me exactly how sad my vocabulary is. Introitus, Consumed By Repugnance, Carnal Deliverance, Salacious Affinity, Engulfed In Excrutiation, Coerced Into Idolatry, Blissfully Exsanguinated, Calculated Barbarity, Lurid Assimilation... This is the playlist. I needed a dictionary. And some of the words don’t even exist. Anyway that’s beside the point, the vocals made the entire atmosphere dead gloomy, but with this primitive tribal rhythm ringing in my head. The following painted quite a picture in my head.

Fetus punctured

Through the womb

Decollated

Sputtering stumps painting the streets

Awaking, drugged, bound and gagged

Strapped onto the table

Mutilated with the hacksaw

Narcotic unstable

But i must say, had the squealing not been there, if grindcore, deathcore or brutal death or whatever other synonym you can come up with, were squeal free then I’d say these bands would be quite epic too. Not because of their ideology, but their music. I discovered a new narcotic today, and i will continue searching for that band that has this music minus the squealing.

Ps. This video. Something that I stumbled upon. Ignoring the squeals, i’d say it is pretty good music! Putrid pile \m/ :D

Musings

Opeth's New DVD!! Fuck yes I want it!

Hell yeah!! You read that right! Opeth is coming out with a brand new DVD featuring their performance at the Royal Albert Hall in London. For those of you who haven't a clue about what an EPIC band Opeth is, first and foremost i pity you. Next thing I'd suggest would be to utilize your bandwidth to download their entire discography or buy the Cd's, instead of buffering on youtube/redtube/facebook. Get a life people!

Official Website

Last.fm Link

Anyway I hope I get a good print. Its due out on september 21st. Most probably It'll take ages for it to come to India. And that sucks. But still, thank you google and piratebay for helping us out. Here's the link to where i got my info from. Also there is also a tracklist for the set. Fuck awesome!! Can't wait for it!

Source

If Only it Were Perception

  Today I heard from a person, “perception is everything”. I disagreed.

  My people were over at my place, and as usual i was expected to entertain. (That is another thing I’d like to blabber about, but then I’d be side-tracking the main agenda for now) I started of by informing them about my latest loss (look for a previous entry of mine to understand which one), got lectured a bit. That was the point though, giving free and unneeded advice is something Gen Y is really good at. Then it came to my college and marks, let’s not get into that ( murky waters, dangerous to venture there). Finally came the moment, “Varun play something on your Casio”.

  First of all, this pissed me off. Casio? CASIO? Who the fuck are they kidding? Seriously people, learn to call it the synthesizer or at least a keyboard. Secondly, do I look like some circus clown here to please everyone? No. Then why that tone?

  Anyway, I didn’t have the balls to say it to their face so i proceeded to play my “casio”. I start out with a really complex song i’ve been trying to learn by David Lanz. The look on their face wasn’t too encouraging! I thought maybe im playing it real bad. I wish it were that. No, what they said was play something funky! Or at least happy birthday! Had there been a hammer in the vicinity, Delhi papers would’ve had a field day reporting a brutal triple murder in Dwarka :D.

  I made an apologetic face and said no i don’t prefer music like that ( not to mention to my embarrassment, i didn’t know how to play happy birthday! :D ). Then Mr. X informed me that the best pianist was from deep purple or some band which sounded awfully similar. I informed him about the differences between popular and best, cheeky of me, but he had touched a nerve. That’s when the phrase i began with in the first place was uttered. And i couldn’t imagine why anyone would say that? How big an ignoramus some tend to be really shocks me. More than 80% of the artists ever borne by this world have gained recognition only in the twilight of their time. Most getting their worth generations later. Their talent, their skill being recognized finally but to its full extent. Many of these examples have greatly overshadowed their “popular” contemporaries. They have become legends, even though throughout their lifetime they might’ve struggled.

  Talent is something you do not measure with popularity, but with quality. Did it achieve its purpose? That is what counts.

In Sorte Diaboli

This is an album released by Dimmu Borgir in 2007. Declaring itself to be black metal, i think it does a much better job as a fusion of death, folk and black at the same time. Percussion is handled amazingly by Hellhammer (Jan Axel Blomberg) and the clean vocals are just as brutal as the one's that are shrieked out :D. The album name means " In direct contact with Satan" gisting exactly what the lyrics and the message which the band wants to convey.

For my sins

I will ask no forgiveness

For my sins

They are not to forgive

The playlist:

1. The Serpentine Offering
2. The Chosen Legacy
3. The Conspiracy Unfolds
4. The Ancestral Fever
5. The Sacrilegious Scorn
6. The Fallen Arises

7. The Heretic Hammer

8. The Sinister Awakening
9. The Fundamental Alienation
10. The Invaluable Darkness
11. The Foreshadowing Furnace
12. Black Metal

I liked "The Serpentine Offering" the best although the instrumental track "The fallen Arises" is also amazing... listen to the rest and tell me what you think.

Download: Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli

Password: musictechandmore

David Lanz

 This man's a genius! Not only are his compositions most melodious and relaxing, also the complexity with which he plays is not to be doubted. those of you who do play the piano would know exactly what Im talking about. My roommate and I had once tried to cover one of his tracks "Love Lost... Love Found"... We ended up cursing him more than crediting him. For, every note he takes may make perfect harmony with the whole aura of the song, it just wouldn't stick to the scale.. I love his compositions and take it as a challenge to cover as many songs of his as possible and post them online soon.. till then enjoy the track below, i just discovered it today. 

   

http://www.davidlanz.com/


ps. what a head of hair!! amazing!

pps. His songs are best to woo girls. Just an option guys reading this can use ;)

Enslaved - Vertebrae

Download:  http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8T25PSK5

Password:  musictechandmore

Zonaria - Infamy and the Breed

        Today I came across a new band. It goes by the name Zonaria. It is a death metal band hailing from Sweden (no biggy there). Their music is interesting, not much of a change from the usual death metal riffs, but some songs have this symphonic black metal touch which is such a desirable change.
I'm not  gonna bother with telling you about the band, that you can see from the below link,

http://www.last.fm/music/Zonaria/+wiki

I got an album of theirs by the title Infamy and the Breed. It released in 2007.

Vocals are very neat. My favorite, as you'd soon realize, are the percussion which i must say was carried out perfectly. Songs like "Image of Myself" were my favourite of the lot here. Some songs also have clean vocals (not unlike Atreyu) like "Attending Annihilation". This is of those albums wherein most songs have a similar rhythm and almost the same patch but all songs are worth a hear.

The tracklist is:

• Infamy  
• The Last Endeavour
• Pandemic Assault
• The Armageddon Anthem
• Rendered In Vain
• Image of Myself
• Evolution Overdose
• Attending Annihilation
• Descend Into Chaos
• Ravage the Breed
• The Black Omen
• Everything Is Wasteland

You can download this album here:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=KM2FKNM1

Password is: musictechandmore

Undying Inc.'s gig at Cafe Morrison

The Event: A tribute to one of the greatest heavy metal bands to grace the stage... their music is legendary as are the artists : PANTERA!!!

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=120186161350131&ref=ts

Sound check began with Undying doing their thing, shashank (vocalist) shouting/screaming/growling "CHECK"... a couple of beats, a horde of kickass riffs and audience were already craving for more.
But no! they made us wait... and wait we did for another hour.
Let me tell you about the place. For those of you who haven't been to cafe Morrison, it is puny and cluttered, and the no. of people that were to turn up were at least 250-300. By 9 that place was shit stuffed.

                                                                    
                                                                       Lycanthropia

Thus began the gig. lycanthropia started off with a couple of their original compositions. Amazing stuff only that the lead vocalist couldn't handle the crowd :D... he sounded like a freaking baby! but when Bheem (vocalist) got started there was no stopping the headbanging.. a mosh pit was formed quick... their music was catchy but very typical of the bands in that genre.. but then again this is just my opinion.

Then came a super group formed by members of Artillerie, Decibel, Them Clones, Frequency and Undying Inc. proclaming themselves as the "Hollowcaust".. Their music was similar to that of Lycanthropia's vocals handled by both Noble Luke and Shashank... they really got the crowd started and then it got wicked \m/
There waged a war between the bouncers and the crowd with the score 1-0 in favour of the crowd.

The mosh was crazy and that is where (im assuming) i nearly broke my toe (Dethklok moment coz i got elbowed twice on the face and kicked in a gap of maybe 10 secs :D)  and the people were just craving for pantera! chants rose and filled the air with a hundred voices.. the energy!! it was amazing!!

Then came Undying Inc. Pantera all the way!! "Cowboys From Hell!, This Love, Walk, DOMINATION!!" were tracks they covered, and hell yes they did it! Covers were awesome! the lead, the bass the drums just what was required... and thus the crowd lost it all. the bar was lit up, shirts were torn, beer was splashed, earth shattering music played and the crowd as one headbanged, the motion almost dream like with everyone windmilling :D... WE ACHIEVED NIRVANA!!

As the for the crowd itself, decent no. of girls showed up, which i was happy with :D... the sound system rocked... overall one of the best gigs i've attended in a long time! for those of you who missed it - SUCKERS!!! :D

Peace