Zero Credibility

Just a little note to those who’s wondering where the heck is my photo gallery - I took it offline because I ran out of space on this miserable hosting (just have 400megs) and not sure where to put my pics at the moment. Also, there was nothing new for the long period of time and that was another reason I took the gallery off as the old pics bored me immensely. Sorry to those who came here from the other sites that have links to my gallery…

With the release of Wordpress 2.5 I decided to post in this dusty “blog” and test new Wordpress which is now looks so leet that I feel out of place. Anyway, since the last site’ update almost 2 months have passed and it feels like 1 week. The life is quite monotonous work-home cycle here, with sporadic fun blasts like parties with friends, etc. I’m pulling myself out of the winter with the last effort. The spring is always quite depressing period for me as I fight two things: from the one side I’m kinda tired of the dark cold winter but from another I feel approaching summer sunny hell. And I’m not sure what to do to survive this collapse. The snow have melted. The mud, dirt and dust is now uncovered and lay all over the city, making me feel even worse. I’m craving for cleaning rains, but I know that there won’t be any heavy rain soon. Just sun that exposes all the old dirt making me feel sad. I wish this weather condition ends soon, making green leaves and grass cover ugliness of the world. But everything will be properly green in May or something, so it’s entire month or more to wait yet.

Living under these circumstances I’m still enjoying life as much as I can. I’ve finally read Hunter Thompson’s “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” which proved to be very close to the movie thus making movie indeed brilliant. I like Thompson’s style and enjoyed the book a lot. The book I’m reading now is Douglas Adams’ “Hitchiker Guide to the Galaxy”. This one is also very funny book with proper English humor which I’m fan of. I have a desire to re-watch the movie too.

In the gaming part of my life there’s hardcore raiding in WoW. We‘ve entered Hyjal Summit and Black Temple dungeons and raiding them constantly, which is really challenging and fun. I’m also very glad that there’s all Unreal Games available on Steam now. I was unable to buy UT3 here as it’s only russian version available (i hate translated games), but Steam gave me possibility to try proper UT3 and replay classic old Unreals if I ever will have spare time.

So this is basically what’s happening now at this end of the sewer. Nothing seriously exciting but not boring at the same time. Months sneak by while I’m busy performing my daily routines…

I’ve got 3 nice power electronics releases recently: CON-DOM - “Holy Bible” this is the latest studio work of this old british industrial act. The release has just two tracks 10 mins each, filled with anti-christian scorn as usual. Also, the music itself is quite different from the previous works of the artist, it’s more eerie and not that brutal, but still has that special CON-DOM’s atmosphere. Released on the finnish noise label Freak Animal operated by another heavy electronics act Grunt.

Second CD is La Comunidad - “Bastion 23 G.P.”. This is second album of this German harsh noise project. The music is similar to their previous work and still brings harsh noise, politics and conspiracy. If you’re familiar with L.White records and like their releases you’re not gonna miss this one.

And finally is long awaited by me Ex.Order - “Corporate Control”. Very well done low-fi industrial loaded with politic themes. As with every Ex.Order releases this one is somewhat different from its predecessors and is steady progress forward. Released on german Power and Steel label which is a division of the well known Loki Foundation.

If you still think that I’m completely consumed by WoW, you’re kinda wrong, because I have some time for the other games. I’d like to tell a couple of words about the three games that pleased me a lot and which I’m gonna play in the nearest future. First game that I’ve bought for myself on x-mas off Steam is Call of Duty 4. Initially I thought that this is gonna be reallife boredom with general shooting. But no! The game took me tight and released only after I finished it 6 hours later. It is really addictive and has cool looking visuals. But not that plastic type of visuals that are inherent to the most modern games like Doom3, it’s really proper next-gen that doesn’t irritate the eye. The gameplay is very dynamic and won’t let you relax in a minute. There were some situations where I was really scared or I was really proud when “we” (me and the squad of bots) managed to win certain battle. Proper AI of as enemies as companions makes this game flawless. Add here nice small things like grabbing flying away helicopter and squad commander is helping you to get on board, etc. make this game very rich and remarkable. Don’t miss it really, this is what all modern games must be!

Second game is nothing else than Puzzle Quest. Don’t stare at me! I blame Steam for that! Really, the game turned to be so cool that I got hooked immediately after trying the demo. Developers managed to mix casual Bejeweled (which I also like) and some kind of hardcore RPG and succeeded. This game is so addictive it’s scary. The base of the game is pure randomness and you try to survive through it using your class abilities. Thus, you can make your enemy to skip the turn or damage him greatly by moving figures on board as u wish, he in his turn uses the same tricks against you. It’s very easy to play and has that element of suddenness which makes it so attractive. I also discovered that the game is available for PSP and other platforms which makes it even better. Maybe I’ll get it for PSP one day. Try the demo and you’ll be hooked I guarantee ;)

And last but not least comes Dawn of War: The Dark Crusade. Then again, it’s all Steam’s tricks. Goddamn games are at hand now, it’s so easy to buy them I’m gonna go bankrupt soon. They sell DoW Platinum pack with 3 games in it for real cheap price and I got hooked by this offer. Long story short: DoW is a top RTS. Gameplay is challenging and fun at the same time. Units are cool looking, almost like those action figures from the table game of Warhammer 40k. The sounds they yell are also quite atmospheric. Developers also added global map where you decide what country you gonna attack and you can play the game for any race from available 7! That’s amazing. Of course I took Chaos side and started devastating silly Imperial Guards with my army of darkness. Upon finishing Dark Crusade I’ll play Winter Assault and the next addon Soulstorm should be ready at that time ;)

So, now I feel like a fish which caught on all the hooks Steam placed all over their site… But “I’m not a fish! I’m a man!“

Finally, after buying this book 2 years ago I got to read it. Well, it brought nostalgic feeling and submerged me to that dim era of early Black Metal. I remember myself discovering this genre and seeking for the Black Metal records back in 1994. This genre completely changed my views on music in general, I took it rather seriously and now I’m stained with darkness for ever hopefully :)  The book is an attempt to look at the Black Metal scene from beyond. It describes all sinister things that happened in the early 90s and later. It tells about the development of the Black Metal as a genre and about various underground circles and movements. The impression from the book is like from some BBC documentary: a lot of things pulled there to create mysterious atmosphere and speculate on pure facts, but there’s no any mysticism really. At the same time there’re nice interviews with the key people of the scene, which could hint unready reader about the situation properly. If you’re an old time black metaler you don’t need this book as you know everything yourself. But if you’re passing by man who likes to widen his views on life, this book might give you some idea (even a bit wrong maybe) about underground music in general. Just don’t take too seriously what’s written there….

Been on the Cyclic Law concert last weekend featuring Northaunt and Svartsinn. There was Kammarheit also promised, but he didn’t appear. Well, the show was calm and tranquill and balanced. What else one can expect from the Cyclic Law artists - dark ambient without any particular sinister or satanic message. Just moody cosmic darkness. Indeed, as once Lustmord said when someone asked him in the interview why didn’t he make live performances, and he said that it wouldn’t be interesting to see at him messing with some equipment. It was the same on this show. Though, Northaunt man picked up the guitar to animate up the show a bit, like there’s live sound. Of course, the video helped to create mood as well, but still, this is not music for the concerts. It’s for the headphones, solitude and dreams… Still, being dark ambient collector I couldn’t resist and bought 3 new Cyclic Law releases, such as: Tholen - “Sternklang”, this one is quite general dark ambient, sometimes you can hear there nice melody which adds that spice to the monotonous dark ambient texture. Next one is Northaunt - “Horizons” - this album was featured on this show. Again, dark ambient at its best: polished, moody and, uhm dark. If you’re in the proper mood this album might deliver your soul somewhere indeed. And the last one is the new project on CL - Sinke Dûs - “Akrasia”. This is very spacious ambient, reiminds other Cyclic Law releases in general, i.e. nothing remarkable but could suit certain seasonal moods. If you’re interested, there are samples of all abovementioned albums on the label’s site.

I’ve also met my old friend who’s now running the ambient Moonsun label. He presented me the first release of the label his project Neznamo - “Seme>Zemlya”. This is short release featuring two 10 min tracks. The music is light ambient which is quite tranquil and thinly structured. As label states this is “Protoslavonic ritual ambient soundscapes”. Quite good first release of the label, gonna get second CD of the trilogy as well. Btw, all releases of the label available in .flac format for free, so if you’re interested you can snatch them.

Feeling guilty that this blog is covered with the old dust of 2007 I decided to update it. And having no creativity as my brain is completely melted due to excessive raiding in WoW and playing alot of Call of Duty 4, I’ve just stole the idea from czg’s blog and decided to post the list of the most remarkable albums I’ve got during the year of 2007 (let it be 10 albums cap in no particular order):

• Gallhammer “Ill Innocence“ - This is a nice and sincere metal band.
• Toroidh - “Segervittring“ - Proper martial industrial, hard to forget.
• Nordvargr - “In Oceans Abandoned By Life I Drown……To Live Again As a Servant of Darkness” - Something new from the dark swede.
• Type O Negative - “Dead Again” - Old dogs bring fresh sound and hope.
• Land:Fire - “Physical Mental Psychological” - Proper military industrial I’m always looking for.
• Derniere Volonte - “Les Blessures De L’Ombre” - Ear pleasing military pop.
• Hilter - “Sexfilms” - Alot of nice ideas from obscure project.
• Nordvarg, Beyond Sensory Experience vs Kenji Siratori - “Hypergenome666“ - The quintessence of evil and darkness and technology.
• Sleep_Research Facility - “Deep Frieze“ - Proper glacier ambient.
• Rasthof Dachau - “Prison Poem“ - Merciless power electronics.

This year definately passed under the sign of Nordvargr, there was so much releases from him that it seems I listened to his music all the time. From the metal side oldies like Darkthrone and Type O Negative pleased my soul with their proper releases nevertheless. Overall this was good year from music side, showing that there’s still gems in the old genres like noise industrial, minimal electronic and good old metal.

I’m not celebrating this x-mas as it’s different date here in Russia. I’m sitting at work and found free minute to update this empty and useless blog just to cheer up my capitalistic friends and tell them ‘Hello and marry x-mas, bastards!’.

Nothing interesting happened here last month. I’ve finished Bruce Campbell’s “Make Love the Bruce Campbell Way” book. Which was funny and easy reading. It’s somewhat adventure story about Bruce’s acting profession, featuring chases and beating. If you’re fan of him you might find this book amusing. China Mieville’s “Iron Council” was put back to the shelve as I found it very hard to read, so I’d rather wait for the proper hardcore fantasy mood and assault it for the second time. Really, this is very hardcore book, I’d rather read hc sci-fi than this one. I have to order new pack of the books, btw. So, going to the 2008 with the calm mood, see ya there…

Nothing changed in my dark realm for the last month. The weather became cold and snowy, no leaves on the trees anymore, it’s proper russian winter now. I had some connection problems with W0W during one week, so my gaming attention turned to other games, such as Team Fortress 2 where I continued to have immense fun and I also tried Neverwinter Nights 2. NwN2 turned to be a game with slow pace. One must be real solo RPG fan to continue playing it. It has a nice story development and cool gfx though. It’s real gem for the lovers of this style. Maybe I’ll return to it when my WoW connect will break again ;) Surprisingly, there’s no music updates this month, nothing new interested me and I haven’t ordered a single CD, i’m collecting moneys for the next wave of music though.  I’ve started next book by China Mieville - “Iron Council”. The beginning is quite hard at the moment, but it’s promising. Will see how it develops. Monsieur Bal says the book is worthy, I believe him.

Of course I’ve bought and finished playing Orange Box. And I’m once again impressed by what Valve did. Episode 2 turned to be no less fun to play than the rest of the HL2. Portal is damn addictive game, yet atmospheric. This is not what I was expecting from some puzzle like game. I hope there will be more Portal levels to play in the future. One downpoint of all this new stuff is that it is painfully short. I want more! Team Fortress 2 is as fun as good old Quakeworld, every class has its own cool features. And I’m yet to discover full potential of the classes. Once again Valve proved to be one of the best game developers out there and they know what kind of fun to deliver. They also added nice Community feature to Steam, so you can communicate with fellow geeks like me and play and chat together. Valve are gods indeed!

I didn’t write about my WoW achievements for quite some time. Well, the PVE progress is slowly but steady there. I’ve got full T4 set by now, our guild have started doing evil Serpentshrine Cavern raid instance. We’re learning new bosses and having general WoW fun. Everyone in the game’s awaiting for the new 2.3 patch which will feature new 10 man instance Zul’aman, and a lot of new other content. So WoW addiction still exists and I’m not sure when it will end ;)