Shit That Has Been Stuck In My Head

So much for my big insightful non-music post...

Two huge things for today (12/13):

Today is the second anniversary of the passing of one of the greatest heros in metal. Mr. Charles Schuldiner (Evil Chuck), the founding member of Death, and Control Denied. Plus he basically created the Death Metal genre (a genre my name is forever linked to even though I don't even listen to it that much other than the classics!!!! Grr) He lost an ongiong battle with Brain-Stem cancer. And the emtal community wept...and continues to weep for our fallen hero. Today I was in a shitty mood anyways, and this didn't help. But regardless, Dec. 13 is Chuck's day....not mine. Today I have listened to the following in their entirety:
Death - Symbolic
Death - Human
Death - Individual Thought Patterns
Death - Spiritual Healing
Death - The Sound of Perseverence
Control Denied - The Fragile Art of Existence
...and watched Death - Live In L.A. dvd
Oddly enough, with the music of choice playing a significant role, today has been pretty fucking cool.

Second, Today the legendary Syracuse metal band God Below got back together for a one-night only reunion. This band has not played together for 3 years now. The band booted the singer in favor of one with a cleaner style and they became Brand New Sin...old singer went on to make a band that absolutely fucking sucks (but for obvious reasons the hardcore kiddies in da 'cuse go ape shit for them) I haven't seen these guys since my first metal show in witer of 2000 when they opened for Nevermore and In Flames. For some reason unknown to me the hardcore scene has claimed them as their property. This makes no sense since they are not a hardcore band...hell, they aren't even a metalcre band. God Below is a metal band who is plagued with a sub-par hardcore screamer that they call a singer. The band is so good I don't care what the vocals sound like so I was eager to hear the ol' tunes one last time.
I got to the venue and as I walk in I hear blast beats and death metal growling...I glance at the stage and sure enough theres the band that I almost became the singer for over summer. They booted the original drummer and holy shit was that a good move, the new guy is AMAZING!!!! The singer that got the job in place of me is good too, he fits the style more. Thankfully I don't want to make my mark singing about masturbating with goat intestines, so theres no hard feelings...I'm a thrasher anyways, not a DM'er. I get a copy of their demo and it turns outt hey made a little trip to NYC and recorded with the guys in SUFFOCATION only THE death metla band in NY. So yeah...I missed out on that huge opportunity, but like I said, I'm old school, and want to make my mark playing old school. Next band was Heat Seeker out of Rochester. They played a kind of groove hard rock...kind of like AC/DC. Their lead guitarist was damn good and I found myself staring in awe at the neck of the guitar and he effortlessly made me want to vomit at the overindulgence of talent this guy was given. They closed the set in the most perfect way...an Iron Maiden cover, Die with Your Boots On...and god damnit, I was the only fucking person who knew the song, and it wouldn't suprise me if I was the only person who knew who Maiden was let alone the fact that they're active and outselling every major pop-act in the every country except this shit hole we call america. If I had a gun at the time I would have shot myself and blamed it on the ignorance of others. Next was a groove/hard rock act that mixed a lot of old-school hardcore into the mix (old school as in Sick of it all, not Earth Crisis you posers!!!!...You know who you are!!!!) they were pretty good, but the fans they brought with them from Inthaca were some almost as annoying as Syracuse hardcore kids...this segues nice into my next rant...which of course its not a Syracuse show without a visit from the sXe Hardcore Mafia. If it wasn't for the fact that I love God Below I would have left as soon as I saw the fuckers start their pre-faggotry stretching (pre-faggotry in the modern sense of the word which has no connotation towards one's sexuality ;-) ) as on as soon as the groove band finished I ran to a spot where I would be uninterrupted in my headbanging.
Then God Below came to conquor...and conquor they did. Every last one of them (including lame generic hardcore singer) are excellent showmen and they sounded as good as ever. Damnit I love metal! Great show overall, and I even ran into my friend Lindsay on the way out...she rules. Now I can barely hold my head up from all the headbanging that did take place, and my ears are going to be ringing for a few days...and i couldn;t be happier. Well, I could, but thats in the, as promised, insightful/non-music post coming up in a few days.

THE DOCTOR


THE PATIENT


THE THERAPY


The Chaos

Lets start the month off properly...Here, for no reason what so ever, is Lemmy (worship appropriately):

Today's Phrase of the Day: THRASH METAL!!!!!

Classic thrash from the golden age of steel (1986-1992) to be exact. Where the scene was in full bloom and the amount of quality thrash released was astounding. For some reason today has been ALL old school. For the lack of anything to report (except meeting someone kewl that I've known for 2 years for the first time...but i forgot my camera in the damn car...grrr) I'll post the playlist of the day:


EXODUS - ANOTHER LESSON IN VIOLENCE


DARK ANGEL - TIME DOES NOT HEAL


NECRODEATH - INTO THE MACABRE


KREATOR - COMA OF SOULS


FORBIDDEN - FORBIDDEN EVIL

From now on I will be living on a tighter budget than I ever have. Not because of dock in pay, getting fired, or outsdanding debts. No, none of that, then why?
I have finally set a date, this date shall be the day that I finally become free, the day that I join my people with my hands raised triumphantly in salute and screaming the praises of honor and pride. I have set the date, August 2005, I shall make the trip to Germany and stand united with Europe's metal community and take part in the Wacken Open Air Festival I have said in the past that I was going to at some time attend this concert, well, here it is. I will be there in 2005, camping outside the gates for 2 days of raging, life giving, heavy 'fucking' metal!
I have heard the stories about this festival from Americans who have made the trip, I have seen footage shot at the fest. In my life this will be more than a concert, as I have always held metal as more than music. This will simply be the greatest thing I have ever done. I know that may sound sad to anyone who doesn't worship music almost as a religion, but thankfully I'm not one of them, haha.


Today is Thanksgiving and wow. Once again I could care less. Any members of my extended family that i actually care about are either in Florida, or are people I see on a regular basis anyways. I don't care for turkey, I hate watching football, and I consider my friends closer to me than most of my relatives...so, blah. I'm going to have to pull out some of my seldom used resourcefulness and liven up this dullest of dull holidays.

Day 1 of thanksgiving break. I'd be lying if I said I didn't need this time off. Things have actually been going really good with school and the social life (whats this? Casey has a social life? I know, it suprised the hell out of me too, lol) but school gets overwhelming around this time and you need to be forced to just take a step back for a bit and relax.
I finally got my car fixed yesterday. $600 worth of brake, and transmission repairs, YAY! Thankfully the 'rents helped me out. Haha, somehow within 6 months i have managed to take a brand new set of brakes and wear them down to the point where they are going metal to metal. Damn I'm good :-P
Not much else has really been going on...hense the lack of posting and lack of anything creative or worth reading in this one. What can I say? Things have been slow, and damnit, its nice for a change.

Damn...and to think I wasted all of that space typing yesterday. The music is back, my life has returned...I am now ready to beat the hell out of these next few weeks. To whom do I owe for the recharge? SAVATAGE and their album Dead Winter Dead. Deffinetly not your typical metal album (or band for that matter) They use a lot of piano, clean guitar, and even full orchestra at times. As a matter of fact, you probobly know some of the members from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. And it was one song in particular:

Watching in silence, I hesitate: It was not in the plans
All of our lives we could only wait: It was out of our hands

And every war where we took the day, it was all in our heads
And though in the dark we dream at night, they were better unsaid

(chorus)
But this is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be

Yeah, yeah

We placed our years in the hourglass, they were never unearned
And we seemed destined to watch them pass - it was never our turn

(chorus)
But this is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be

Yeah, yeah

(lead break)

(solo)

(chorus)
This is the time and this is the place
And these are the signs that we must embrace
The moment is now, in all history
The time has arrived and this is the one place to be

Yeah, yeah

(extro)

You see the (Lead Break) and (Solo) towards the bottom? That is the kind of stuff I live for. The songs really has little to no relevence to my life at the moment, at least lyrically. I guess its a good thing I don't listen to music souley for lyrical content then isn't it? The music in this song and the album in general is stunning, just absolutely brilliant. Wow...this is starting to turn into a review isn't it? haha. Sorry, but I urge everyone I know that is having a tough time, or even if you just have about an hour to spare and feel like relaxing, to listen to this album all the way through. I mean REALLY listen to it. Turn out the lights, put it on a good system, bust out a glass of wine (boxed or bottled, doesn't matter ;) ) and just absorb the music. Pay no attention to the lyrics...listen tot he musical composition. The way the guitar ineracts with the piano, the way the vocals meld with everything going on to create the perfect atmosphere. I guarantee you that when you turn on the lights you will be a different person...with a craving for more Savatage, lol. Here...i'll even start you off, this is a link to two of my favorite songs from the album "this is the Time" (the song whose lyrics i posted above) and "This isn't what we meant" :
http://briefcase.yahoo.com/thrashkreator
both are in the folder titled "Metal"...enjoy and let me know if you want a copy of the whole album.