The Antlers

One of my favourite Indie bands, although apart from Hospice it's just one dude, this dude:

Peter Silberman

Their first 2 releases are pretty much just a guy with an acoustic guitar pouring his heart out. Really good albums but compared to Hospice, absolutely nothing. Hospice is an amazing album that if you let it in, will touch you like no other album. The lyrics tell the story of a man who works at a Hospice, and falls in love with a woman who is dying. The two wed and he stays by her side until she passes. The music compliment the story perfectly and by the end of the album, you will feel something extraordinary.

If you are into Alternative or Indie music, you should definitely check this band out. For fans of Folk/Acoustic music, get into Uprooted and In the Attic of the Universe first as they are more Folk-oriented.

Uprooted (2006)

In the Attic of the Universe (2007)

Hospice (2009)

Two posts in one day is exhausting. I will probably never do this ever again.

God of War III

I love games, I really do. Been destroying my education for years. I'm also one of those infamous PlayStation 3 owners, so I obviously hate XBox 360s. Anyway I've been waiting for this game since I finished the second instalment about 2 years ago and I haven't been let down one iota.

God of War III is the final game in the trilogy, and the creators were very specific with that wording indicating they will probably continue the series. So basically this is the most epic thing ever and if you have a PlayStation 2 or 3 and have never played it, then may God have mercy on your soul.

It tells the story of Kratos, a spartan warrior who is crowned (and shortly thereafter dethroned) the God of War. If you haven't played the first game I just ruined it for you but hey, why should I give a fuck. This third game takes place just as the final battle begins, with Kratos riding the titan Gaia's back up Mount Olympus to once and for all destroy the Gods but in particular Zeus. Gameplay wise, it's the best hack n' slash out there, with ridiculously cool combos and loads of upgrades with different weapons and magic. The graphics are some of the best I've seen on the console and the music score matches the intensity and epic-ness fantastically. Plot-wise, I can't praise this series enough and this final chapter concludes the trilogy perfectly. Overall, possibly the greatest game I have ever played. So if you are into games, or have played some of the other God of War games, I highly recommend you check this out. You will not be disappointed. 

DO NOT DENY ME MY REVENGE!

Mezzanine

Up until a couple of weeks ago, I didn't have a clue what Trip-Hop was and wasn't planning on listening to it anytime soon since I'm not a fan of most Hip-Hop. But luckily my mate played the song 'Angel' by Massive Attack to me, which showed me just how good the genre could be. So I downloaded the album it was off, called 'Mezzanine'.

With every listen I'm liking it more, and every song is really solid. The main thing that attracts me to it are the down-tempo Hip-Hop beats with dark overtones which creates this chilled out, creepy atmosphere. Some of the tracks are even reminiscent of Post-Rock in the way they build up and have a very 'movement' style structure. I've heard this is one of the best Trip-Hop albums of all time, but I can't really back this up since it's the only one I've heard. But rest assured, I already have a bunch of ones to check out and will probably put up some more cool Trip-Hop albums in the near future.

Mezzanine (1998)

Also, go to YouTube and watch the video for "Angel". It's one of the coolest music videos I've seen.

Deftones

First heard this band way back when I was in primary school. I heard the song 'Change (In the House of Flies)' in a Dragon Ball Z movie (see, everything is connected), bought the CD 'White Pony' and the rest is history. 

Their earlier stuff is pretty Nu-Metal-ish, but it's still ahead of the curb (in other words, it shits on Korn and Limp Bizkit). They later moved on to a more Hard Rock sound, with the release of 'White Pony', but they still retained some Nu-Metal influence with their riffs and overall instrumentation. One of my favourite things about the band is Chino's vocals. They're harsh at times with his raspy screams but his serene singing technique pulls him back down to earth.
Cool fact #1: Chino was drunk during the recording of 'Around the Fur', resulting in slurring of words and a messy feel to it, which actually adds to the CD.
Anyway, here is their discography apart from their latest album 'Diamond Eyes' which is set to be released in May. It has already been leaked on the web but I'm not gonna put it up here out of respect for the band.

Adrenaline (1995)
Around the Fur (1997)
White Pony (2000)
Deftones (2003)
Saturday Night Wrist (2006)

I recommend reading some of Chino's lyrics, they are sexually violent, not even kidding.

Elfen Lied

I'm a pretty huge fan of anime. And I'm not one of those guys who is like "Oh man, I love anime! Dragon Ball Z and Pokemon are so fucking cool!" "What other anime have you seen?" "Other anime?"

But yeah, big anime fans will hopefully pick up on the extremely subtle picture from the film 'Akira' at the top of the page. Anyway, out of all the movies and series I've watched, my all time favourite would have to be Elfen Lied.

It's got everything you could ask for and more. Ridiculous amounts of blood and violence, a compelling and deep storyline, amazing plot twists, great character development and best of all: Hot anime babes and heaps of sexual tension. 

In all seriousness though, no anime (or other series for that matter) has hit me like this one. The 13 episodes don't seem like much but there is so much packed in that after the epic conclusion of the series, you'll spend days if not weeks letting all the stuff sink in. It will make you laugh, make you cringe and might even make you cry. All in all, any fan of anime should treat themselves to this masterpiece. Even if you don't consider yourself an anime buff, I still recommend checking this out because this is something amazing.

I understand that I haven't exactly explained any of the actual plot, but that's intentional as I saw it with no idea what it was about and that made it better. Feel free to google what it's about but just bear in mind, you could enjoy it more if you just watch it. 

If you thought that last part was patronising, don't be stupid.

The Beginning of the End

When everybody starting jumping on the MySpace bandwagon, I quite happily signed up. A little while later, this thing called Facebook starting getting big so I, yet again, quite happily jumped onto this. Then I started to see everybody with an iPhone, so with my technology phone-wise becoming obsolete, I conformed. However, with these 3 ‘fads’ that I have become a part of, I prided myself on 2 things that I hadn’t begun to use: Twitter and Blogs. Though blogs have been around for a lot longer, there has been a recent ‘wave’ of my friends jumping on and streaming their thoughts and/or horrible musical tastes (I mean you Eddie). And so, as some of the more clever readers may have realised, I have taken one more step towards the end, taken one more bullet, taken one more drink (and probably one too many metaphors). And so my pretentious views have pushed me to create this blog where I too can write things knowing that only about 3 or 4 people will actually read them, and even less people will give a fuck.

P.S. If I start using Twitter, I give you full permission to give me a frontal lobotomy with a double-barrelled shotgun.

And so it BEGINS!