Guy In Rubber Suit

I went to Finntroll, Moonsorrow and Swallow the Sun last night. There were two other bands opening, Adavant and Bonded by Blood. Adavant is a local folk metal band that is decent; I've seen them before with Eluveitie. Bonded by Blood is a good thrash metal band just a terrible singer. Swallow the Sun had a good stage presence however I only caught the last handful of songs as I was hungry and was eating at the Whataburger. Moonsorrow is a fantastic folk metal band, even bought a shirt from them however I left early because I was tired.

You've played one of the old school Zeldas right? I recognized that instantly and I never played Legend of Zelda 2.

The Silver Gate - Dark Fortress Symphonic black metal similar to Dimmu Borgir.

Kind of similar just not done in a medley. Some of the examples are really stretching it. That was an awesome video, I'd like to check out the rest of their act.

There's a comic convention coming up in May which looks pretty sweet. Stan Lee is going to attend one of the days though the other guests are pretty good as well. There's a couple of anime conventions as well. The Minibosses play periodically. Are you looking for just video game centric events or basically anything that could be a potentially fun event?

I second Karl Sanders! If you're feeling especially bold you might want to check out his main band, Egyptian influenced death metal band Nile. Be forewarned this is pretty fucking brutal metal although they do incorporate some of the ambient and atmosphere of Karl Sanders' in little interludes. is another band I recommend. Specifically the White EP. It's kind of hard to find a physical copy as they were limited in production but you should have no problem finding it online. The rest of their stuff isn't exactly the same but they do have a lot of acoustic, clean guitars and heavy atmosphere. There is some harsh vocals but it's not overbearing and it doesn't go on for a long time. is a fantastic jazz fusion guitarist. He can have some beautiful jazz and then just shred on the guitar. Additionally if you dig him definitely check out him, Paco De Lucia and John Mclaughlin together doing an amazing acoustic trio. The other guitarists are fantastic as well. is a great composer. He did the soundtrack to the Fountain, Moon and Requiem For a Dream. Ihsahn some more metal here but this is probably my favorite song from him and favorite album. This is Undercurrent from After. Just listen to it and tell me you don't get goosebumps, especially when the saxophone comes in. classified as an atmospheric sludge metal band, they're pretty good with the drone-sludge riffs. Again some harsh vocals, but fantastic atmosphere (I'm really abusing this word).Opeth of course I'm gonna plug this band! The song is the opening track, Coil, to their newest album, Watershed. Opeth is not all like this but they do incorporate a lot of clean singing and acoustic guitar work into their music. If you just like their clean stuff more then Damnation would be a good jumping point. Check them out. Now! Pelican similar in style to Isis but instrumental. Porcupine Tree a delightful British progressive rock band. They do get a little bit heavier but no need to worry about harsh vocals. are a Mexican acoustic duo. Just simply fantastic.That's about all I can think of off the top of my head that would meet what you're looking for. I hope you enjoy these bands/guitarists.

Hey thanks for these. I downloaded your first album so far and I'm digging it. As a newbie to the whole electronica thing, what exactly makes the music electronica other than being written by virtual instruments? How is it different from say techno or whatever?

The Black Dahlia Murder - Eyes of Thousand Finally got around to picking up their newest album and it's very solid. They've steadily improved technically but I still like the catchiness of Unhallowed. They are definitely one of the more brutal and better melodic death metal bands out there.

Haha! Then they could team up with Rick Allen (Def Leppard drummer) and form the One Arms!

So her character design also pushes the stereotype that society holds of women. Her character design definitely seems catered toward a hyper-sexualization designed to sell for guys who get off on that and DMC combat aesthetics. It's a very absurd game in general and I don't doubt that the developers did with tongue planted firmly in cheek. To try to argue that she isn't sexualized is a bit naive. OK, enough of that. While I'm not a female, I do like strong female characters who are independent and at the same time a bit vulnerable. I guess that's why I liked Tali from Mass Effect so much. She was a genuinely interesting character who was strong, independent and vulnerable. Albeit that was due to her race's lack of immunity, she is still a well rounded character. Either way I'm just tired of the hyper sexualization of both female and male characters. I'm tired of the meat head military grunt complex of most modern sci-fi shooters and to an extend military shooters.

That's pretty incredible. Shows that you can overcome just about any adversity as long as you work at it and are dedicated. I wonder how he's able to pick individual strings, probably has some sort of pick attachment where the harness protector is at. Side note: There was a guy at my work who was born with a slight hand deformity, as well as some other physical issues, and he wanted to play guitar but said he couldn't because of his disability. I basically lectured him on just being lazy and having the wrong attitude about it. I told him about Django Reinhardt who's fingers were fused together due to an accident and he still played some mean gypsy jazz guitar. I've even seen videos of this guy who played guitar really well with just his feet. Seriously, don't let your lack of limbs or lack of use of them get the way of doing what you want to do.

Because the quality of the game is factored into the game's budget. The article also states that marketing is not included. I suspect that in time for the next generation consoles we'll start to see $200 million budgets kind of what we see with the typical Hollywood blockbuster now-a-days. I don't find the budgets to be all that shocking. The higher the budget the higher the fidelity of the graphics and how much of a game world there is. In GTA4's case; Liberty City is a huge locale and had an enormous licensed soundtrack and the use of some big name voice actors helped catapult the game into the $100 million territory. Plus all the people working on the game to make it happen. I wonder what Mass Effect 1 and 2's budget was?

Opeth. They've only been mentioned once. ONCE! But they deserve to be mentioned far more. Maybe two more times and that's it. Bleak The Lotus Eater The Baying of the Hounds I believe that Disillusion has been mentioned once. They're worth checking out, especially the album Back to Times of Splendor. Their sound is reminiscent of Opeth with the mixture of progressive melodic death metal and acoustic/progressive rock. Emperor The Tongue of Fire The Eruption Actually I'd recommend any song off of the album Prometheus: The Discipline of Fire and Demise. Their older stuff is great as well but a lot more extreme and not too much on the technicality however it has a ton of atmosphere and some great concepts. Agalloch Falling Snow Sowilo Rune Anything they have done is great. Though I particularly like the White EP which is basically a bunch of acoustic folk songs. The Mantle and Ashes Against the Grain are great atmospheric folk metal albums. Borknagar Vintersorg Dopt i en Jokelsjo

I got a ton of books this year and not a single game. Either way it was a good Christmas. Three t-shirts: One black with velvet on it; a red shirt with some cool graphics on it; and a yellow Super Mario World shirt Mario sleeping pants Two pairs of boxers; one of dogs and the other of skulls Black Dynamite soundtrack Mystery Science Theater 3000: Volume XIV The Falcon and the Snowman by Robert Lindsey Calculating God by Robert J. Sawyer Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer JPod by Douglas Coupland Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Friend by Christopher Moore (I actually got two copies though one sort of looks like a Bible. I'l be keeping that version) The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals by Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman Zoe's Tale by John Scalzi a head massager a metal Monty Python and the Holy Grail Black Knight poster

Agalloch - The Hawthorne Passage Great atmospheric folk metal band. They really invoke a sense of a winter wilderness.

I check GamesIndustry.biz, Gamasutra, Gamepolitics, 1up, Crispy Gamer and Kotaku. However I like Kotaku the least because of the way they try to inject personality into what are supposed to be news stories. Leave that to articles and features.

Just got back from seeing All That Remains. Pretty good show. My girlfriend and I missed the opening act, Taking Dawn but we heard a bit of their last song while we were outside getting our tickets and it sounded pretty shitty. The next band up, whose name I can't remember, had a southern rock feel toward it but with -core influences i.e. breakdowns and screaming vocals. I like the southern rock parts but hated the -core aspect. Ironic considering that I like ATR, but the southern rock didn't have to be muddled up with -core elements. My girlfriend dubbed them a 'chick band' because chicks would be into them. Next up was Lacuna Coil. I only have one of their albums, Unleashed Memories, and unfortunately they didn't play anything from that album, particularly Senzafine which is my favorite song off of the album. They had a decent stage presence but overall their songs sound very similar and reminds me a lot of nu-metal like Korn. Seeing this band was more for my girlfriend anyway. I also scored two bass picks from them. All That Remains put on a great show playing songs mainly from The Fall of Ideals and their newest album. They only played one off off This Darkened Heart. I was really impressed by Oli Herbert's (lead guitarist) playing. Phenominal skills. And I headbanged for several songs which I haven't done at a concert in a while, mostly because I'd protect my girl from the crowds haha. Next show, hopefully KMFDM.

Well you better lock up those thieving mother fuckers, the OneUps because they selling all kinds of video game remixed shit! I do believe that rearranging music falls under fair use of copyright. But I'm not some fancy, high priced city lawyer who focuses on copyright and neither are you all. I'll download it because xoc is awesome in general and the SMW album was the shit.

Video games got me into video games. Basically they gave me the career path that I was seeking and that was back in like sixth grade or something. I would also say that helped get me more into science fiction.

Isn't there a way to EQ out vocals? Unless the band puts out the master tracks themselves or instrumental versions, it's very hard to find them. I guess you could just try covering them on each instrument.

That was a pretty awesome video and I love Iron Maiden. My favorite Heavy Metal band out there. And they still put on a great live show.

Wow. Totally forgot about. I decided to work overtime instead. Wasn't too much fun but it is extra money. I hope it was a great show.

I'll probably go though I have no interest in the con and don't even know what it's about. The website doesn't inspire interest either.

I'd make an adaptation of the Village. You play the role of the elders and don the mask to scare the crap out of the villagers. You get more points for being creative on your scares and bonus points for especially terrorizing the blind girl. And then the twist!

Manticora - Long Farewell A concept album around the book Hyperion. Really good progressive/power metal.