handle with care or i'll break your head

So then. A long post I had ready is consigned to electronic flame. My phone died.

Another quiet Sunday evening. After the hustle and bustle of Mumbai, this feels pretty perfect.

The earphones I bought
are annoyingly short.

The world cup starts in a few days. India's going to be humiliated. The batsmen are tired, the bowlers are clueless and the captain's got other things on his mind. Losing the opening game to Pakistan will pretty much seal our fate. Still, a small part of me indulges in wishful thinking. India will win the cup again and Dhoni will retire in a blaze of glory. Yes. That's what will happen.

I saw this film called Baby recently. Akshay Kumar is part of a black ops unit headed by Danny Denzogpa. I enjoyed it quite a bit. Silly fun with some nice set pieces. Could have done with a better name but it's easily Kumar's most entertaining film since Special 26.

In other news, Arrow and The Flash continue to have strong seasons. Brandon Routh's The Atom spinoff looks more and more likely to happen and there's a Daredevil mini series coming that I'm quite excited about. The only disappointment is Agent Carter. It lacks soul.

Season 4 of Episodes is turning out pretty great in spite of the premise. It also feels like they may be getting the hang of Hollywood finally. Justified's final season is promising with the 2 episodes I saw and has some more weird and colourful villains and some more of that dialogue. I'd like a point break style ending. Raylan reluctantly let's Ava and Boyd ride off into happiness. I know that'll probably not happen but what the hell, I'd like a happy ending.

I finally got some old storage space. A closet made me happy.

2014 - Top 40

2014 has been a pretty decent year all things considered. Work still to be done but I feel like I can actually do it now. This post though is about the heavy music from 2014 and here's my annual top 40 rundown of the best of the year.

40. Dread Sovereign - All Hell's Martyrs

Epic doom metal. Held together by a passionate vocal performance from Alan Averill. The songs are all a bit too long and not always interesting but Averill delivers one of the stand out vocal performances of the year and helps in making this album more than just another novelty doom project.

We Wield The Spear Of Longinus

39. Mustasch - Thank You For The Demon

Easily their best release since The Latest Version Of The Truth from 2007. This is some catchy, modern hard rock. Nothing more.

Thank Your For The Demon

38. Question - Doomed Passages

New old school death metal band from Mexico that manages to stay away from the million Incantaclones. These guys don't do anything new but their songwriting displays a maturity that is surprising and most welcome. I'm really looking forward to see how this band develops its sound. One of the better debuts of the year.

Universal Path Of Disgrace

37. Usurpress - Ordained

Layered and at times, intricate songwriting and Usurpress are heading in a slightly new direction. It's not an immediate, overpowering beast like Trenches of the Netherworld but it is a grower.

Fan The Flames Of Madness

36. Necrophagia - White Worm Cathedral

The return of Mirai to Necrophagia has changed things around again for the better. This sounds like the logical successor to Harvest Ritual and it's a fun set of songs.

Angel Blake

35. Salem's Pot - ...Lurar Ut Dig På Prärien

Heavy, psychedelic doom metal. 3 long jams and a little over 30 minutes of music. Impressive little debut.

Nothing Hill

34. Koulemanlaakso - Tulijoutsen

This is some massive sounding Finnish death doom that isn’t afraid to take a few chances. These Finns have class.

Tuonen Tähtivyö

33. Fistula - Vermin Prolificus

Fistula manage to sound heavier and nastier. This is one sick sounding sludge album and that's not a bad thing at all.

Harmful Situation

32. Desecresy - Chasmic Transendence

Slugathor by another name, pretty much. Huge riffs, vocals submerged in muck and some great Finnish death metal.

Cyclonic Mass Consumption

31. Fukpig - This World Is Weakening

Essentially a re-recording of the previous album "3" with some new band members are 2 new songs. Fukpig play a blackened, noisy grindcore that isn't usually my kind of thing but there's something about this band that I absolutely love. This World Is Weakening is an angry, heavy album that just got a lot of plays.

This World Is Weakening

30. Serpentine Path - Emanations

The band has just moved slightly away from their sludge roots and shades of mid-period Obituary creep in to the sound on Emanations. A bit more death metal than their debut and some really good songs here.

Disfigured Colossus

29. Fungoid Stream - Prehuman Shapes

Lovecraftian Funeral Doom. There's nothing out there that sounds like Fungoid Stream. The use of keyboards and the guitar as a textural element makes for an unsettling atmosphere and the leaden pace only heightens it.

All In One and One In All

28. Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet

Occult black metal from Greece. This is the band's second album but first I heard from them. It reminds me of early Root at times particularly with some of the riffs and the vocals. It's one of the few black metal albums that I listened to a lot of this year and has great replay value with the complex songs revealing new details on each play. 

Revival Through Arcane Skins

27. Take Over And Destroy - Vacant Face

This band had a very good album last year with Endless Night but this year, the band has seriously upped their game. Vacant Face is the kind of schizophrenic, difficult to pin down album that would normally annoy the crap out of me but the band makes all of their disparate influences work. The songwriting has progressed to a point where all of their influences have merged and the band has it's own unique sound. Sort of like a hardcore/ sludge band that loves Tiamat's Wildhoney, Emperor's Anthems and some good old classic rock. 

Terminal Burrowing

26. Monster Magnet - Milking the Stars: A Re-Imagining of Lost Patrol

They took the ho-hum songs from Last Patrol, added, subtracted and messed with them and the result is an album that's actually better than Last Patrol.

The Duke

25. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity

I haven't seen a lot written about this album. The follow up to the critically lauded debut "Night Sky Transform has more depth. These songs have a muscular swagger to them and some of these riffs are pretty fucking fantastic. They've progressed a fait bit from their cosmic grind sound and this album is all the better for it.

Ravenous Solemnity

24. Primordial - Where Greater Men Have Fallen

Yet another very good Primordial album. Not much else to be said about this one. Would have placed a lot higher in another year.

Where Greater Men Have Fallen

23. Apostle of Solitude - Of Woe And Wounds

This Chicago doom band had a very promising demo and then a couple of albums that were a bit inconsistent. Of Woe And Wounds is a great leap forward for the band. Apostle of Solitude is rocking out with classic heavy metal tropes added into some pretty massive doom metal. Very good stuff.

This Mania

22. Ride For Revenge - Enter The Gauntlet

This is either some really serious shit or a twisted parody. Ride for revenge don't do half measures. The band pay attention to song writing for the first time and the result is an album that is powerful and hypnotic. 

Dead Insane

21. Voices - London

high brow concept album from Akercoke almuni. It's got a strange and captivating mood and the band are unafraid to experiment and move from black and death metal to Antimatter like acoustic songs and spooky spoken word bits. It caught me quite off guard and it's become a favourite. 

The F**k Trance

20. Death Penalty - Death Penalty

Gaz Jennings from Cathedral with a couple of people from Serpent Cult doing a Maiden meets Witchfinder General kind of thing. It's retro but very enjoyably so and the production gives these songs some real bite. 

Immortal By Your Hand

19. Taurus - No/ Thing

I never really cared for Dark Castle much but this is some very good experimental sludge/ drone/ doom with electronic elements and a vaguely eastern tinge to the heavy heavy riffs

Lives Long For Own

18. The Flight of Sleipnir - V 

3 albums in 3 years and TFoS have managed to achieve an amazing level of consistency. The production has been consistently weak and the songwriting has been consistently strong. V might be their strongest outing yet which makes the production even more frustrating. Still it's the songs that count and V has plenty of good ones. 

Beacon In Black Horizon

17. Capilla Ardiente - Bravery, Truth and the Endless Darkness

Another band I thought was done but returned with a memorable slab of classic doom metal. Capilla Ardiente has expanded into a proper band and these songs build on the sound created in Solve Et Coagula but this is a huge progression. The roughness has been smoothed over, the songs go through different moods and there's some really fine musicianship happening. This is great, epic doom metal. 

Towards the Midnight Ocean

16. Greenleaf - Trails and Passes

Some more line up changes and the sound changed a bit too. 70s rock meets 90s alt rock with catchy tunes and pleasant vocals. It's a lot more stripped down compared to Nest of Vipers and I loved it. Swedish stoner rock. 

Our Mother Ash

15. Blood Farmers - Headless Eyes

New Blood Farmers album after almost 20 years. The Sabbath is strong in them and this album hits all the right spots. Beautifully crafted, heavy, melodic and atmospheric, Blood Farmers have created something really special with Headless Eyes.  

Thousand-Yard Stare

14. Herder - Gods

There's melodies galore here. And riffs. Wrapped up in an aggressive sludge cocktail that is great great fun. Herder came out of nowhere and delivered one hell of an album.  

Gods

13. The Wounded Kings - Consolamentum

The last couple of albums were pretty inconsistent but Consolamentum has grown on me with every listen. Great doom metal and a memorable vocal performance.

12. Grand Madus - Triumph And Power

Catchy heavy metal. Another great set of riffs and a superb vocal performance. Grand Magus has released some very good albums in the past but they've never sounded this fun.

Steel Versus Steel

11. Morbus Chron - Sven

The more I listened to this, the more I started to like it. The vocals are still problematic but there's very little of it. Album 3 will be interesting

Terminus

10. Riot - Unleash The Fire

Damn this is awesome. The band plays with passion and there's an emotional heft to this album that is backed up by killer songs. 

Immortal

9. Howls Of Ebb - Vigils of the 3rd Eye

Cosmic horror death metal. This was the most exciting death metal album I'd heard in a long, long time. Like Voivod and Demilich had a baby.  

The Ark, The Vine, The Blight.

8. Mekong Delta - In A Mirror Darkly

This one caught me completely by surprise. It's the tightest set of songs Ralf Hubert's done in a long while. The vocals are strong and the music is just solid right through. Heavy metal that's technical without being overbearing. Unfortunately, there don't seem to be any links online apart from a full album rip. It's only 40 minutes long. 

In A Mirror Darkly

7. Giant Squid - Minoans

This band has come a long way since Icthyologist. The songwriting is way tighter and the experimentation is nicely integrated. Wow.

Minoans

6. Godhunter - City of Dust

The melodies on this album. It's strange and catchy and original. Great songs, great use of samples and far superior to just about every high profile sludge release this year

City of Dust

5. The Skull - For Those Which Are Asleep

Eric Wagner's back. He sounds great. As do Jeff Olson and Ron Holzer. With a little help from a couple of veteren guitarists of doom, The Skull has crafted a memorable set of bluesy doom metal songs that stay in my head long after the album's done. 

Till The Sun Turns Black

4. Ogre - The Last Neanderthal

I thought this band was done and then one day the promo for this album landed in my inbox. Happy daze. The year's best stoner rock album. 

The Last Neanderthal

3. Solstafir - Otta

I don't really know what to call this band anymore. It's magnificent music. The songs are epic, melodic and at times just really catchy. It's like Solstafir still has the coldness of their black metal roots but they've somehow made it seem welcoming. Otta is a cold embrace that is tough to resist. 

Otta

2. Lord Mantis - Death Mask

\

The addition of that dude from Abigail Williams had me quite sceptical to begin with but holy shit. Slightly blackened, slightly industrial, noisey sludge. Haha. It's the year's angriest record and easily stomps all over 2012's Pervertor. Lord Mantis has delivered an angry, ugly and heavy as fuck album that is not for the faint of heart. 

Possession Prayer

Death Mask

1. Thou - Heathen

Louisiana doom of the thickest, filthiest kind but still holds a sense of beauty. Thou managed to top Summit. They had a pretty awesome year with the collaboration with The Body and the Algiers compilation but with Heathen, the band has really moved to another level. They've let in a tiny bit of light into the darkness this time around and the songs are all the better for it. This is the band's best full length yet and that is really saying something. 

Into The Marshlands

Heathen 

2014. Not a bad year. 

...and then I'll laugh like a motherfucker

A year ago no one even knew there was a Cuppa in front of the petrol bunk. Sundays used to be peaceful and lazy where a cold coffee would take 40 minutes to arrive. Word seems to have spread though. It was full today. Like literally. Loud conversations, cigarette smoke and fried potatoes of various shapes. It was like a cheap local bar minus the booze. I'm not sure if I like it.

I must confess. I spent all of last night listening to these 3 songs on repeat. Lydia Ainsworth's Malachite is some strange experimental pop and its captivating even without the video.  Azealia Banks' 212 was impressive early on with the rapping but when she sang those few lines it became a really memorable piece of pop. Finally I heard Grimes and her Oblivion.Pitchfork is calling this the song of the decade so far. The first time I heard it I thought it was boring. Then last night I found it to be delightful. It made me smile and the video made a big difference. Then this morning I read up on the song and I wish I hadn't. Its a nice bit of off beat pop but will I remember it in another 5 years?



I'm on the verge of something. Soaring. This Herder is so good. Its managed to drown out all the noise outside. Deepawali. I wish you were celebrated differently.

This blog must never die. People stare. I do too. The beautiful people of Bangalore. No concept of space, time or common sense. 

The new season of American Horror Story got off to a pretty good start. After Coven though, I'm watching this mostly for Sarah Paulson. She's quite fabulous. Still Twisty the clown is pretty good and the freaks are just right. Its going to be another season of highly exploitative horror and will offend but I think that's the charm of the whole thing. How far will they go?

Today's been a bit more metal. Herder, Stone and Manilla Road. The original mix of Mystification is raw and manic. Its the only album of theirs I really like though. It has a wild sense of freedom. On the verge of falling down the stairs but managing to hold on. I've suddenly gone back to listening to a fair bit of straight up heavy metal in the last year. Revisiting classics and listening to new stuff. The new Riot is fun but that Mekong Delta album is truly one for the ages. Great album.

Here's 10 songs I'd like to cover.

sundays

The more I listen to this Iron Void, the better it gets. Even with a song like burden of regret and it's thinly veiled "tribute" to Candlemass. I still haven't heard The W'izard album from last year. Witch's Brew doesn't have a bandcamp page and ordering from the label costs 40 euros with shipping. What the fuck.

Listening to jumalhamara. Finnish black metal. One song lasting 17 minutes. I'm at the mid-song interlude. All drone and atmosphere. Then the band kicks in with some wild percussion, noise and static. This is quite arty and avant-garde stuff. The first 8 minutes made no impact at all and then they show of all their different influences. Noise, shoegaze, drone, a little bit of post punk and goth and amidst all this, black metal is just the canvas. 18 minutes well spent.

What is it about South American stoner/ psych/ doom bands? La Hell Gang is the latest and they sound like old Ganjas. Yeah, that's pretty much it. Just listen to The Ganjas instead.

List your top 10 stoner/ psych/ doom bands from South America. Now there's a list I could sink my teeth into.

Where does a body end?

We start recording again this week. Excited. Maybe put down some vocals over the weekend. I Zombie, Hangman's Hope, Bones of My Brothers, Mortal Science, Harvest of Kings and Doombringer.  Doombringer came together very quickly. Maybe a bit too quickly. Feels a little on the short side. It's going to be a long album unless we use mortal science and Harvest separately. Flight of Sand has mostly been discarded now which is a pity. I liked that song. Maybe a couple more will get done too by the time we're finished. Should be fun.

This Ogre is just great. Still on the playlist. It hasn't really changed all that much since March. Thou and Lord Mantis are still firmly on top. Ogre, Greenleaf, Godhunter, Grand Magus, Herder, Ride for Revenge, Howls of Ebb and Mekong Delta round out my top 10. The new Earth sounds great; Godflesh and Witch Mountain are going to have albums out but I don't see anything else breaking into that list.

Listening to The Great Annihilator. It's been a Swans Sunday.

see that my grave is kept clean

It's always a pretty great feeling to go to show where I'm not playing and still see a couple of random people in djinn T-shirts. Went to Insurrection last night to watch Orchid and Nihilus and both bands were pretty good. Also bumped into a friend I hadn't seen in some 4 years and the general vibe was friendly and peaceful. I think trendslaughter last weekend didn't work for me simply because of the whole attitude. A bunch of uber kvlt people who are all just trying a bit too hard and it sometimes just feels a bit fake. Walked out halfway through Dying Embrace's set and didn't stay for Impiety but Orator was absolutely brilliant. Could have done without the drunken idiot storming the stage and waving that human skull over his head though.

In other news I've been on a massive JCVD trip lately. Saw Wake of Death, 6 Bullets, Enemies Closer and Welcome to the Jungle over the last couple of weeks and all 4 movies were entertaining to various degrees.

In still other news, AMC has announced they'll be bringing The Preacher to the small screen. I guess this was inevitable after the success of The Walking Dead but I'm unsure about this.

...and djinn is sort of back again. we're playing in thane sometime in may and then hopefully record the rest of the songs by the end of the year. if we have a 2nd album up on bandcamp by this time next year, then i think i'll be quite happy. Thane should be good. Last time was great. 

Watching India play in New Zealand right now is quite depressing. There's plenty of talent but it's not coming together. Although Ishant Sharma is doing well in the tests, Jadeja and Shami continue to grow. Good signs but will be a while before we win abroad. 

And saw a few more movies. Confession of Murder is the most fun action/ thriller movie I've seen in a long time. The car chase scene was ridiculous but the movie had just enough bite to be quite good. Thor: The Dark World was surprisingly entertaining and so was Arnold's The Last Stand. Stoker was pretty good too. Effective and creepy. American Mary had so much promise but the last 30 minutes just ruined it a bit for me. And the fucking cop with the strange Brit accent. Katherine Isabelle was great though. The most likable horror heroine in a long while.   

This new Ogre is something else. Some absolutely killer jams, great songs and the nasal ozzy light delivery somehow fits perfectly. Album of the quarter. Other mentions go out to Godhunter, Indian, Grand Magus, Dephosphorus, The Wounded Kings, Conan and Mustach. It's been a pretty great year so far and a lot more to come. 

walking on water

3 Swans

A friend died, the band was killed and work is killing me. What a splendid week.

I spent all evening smiling vacantly at relatives I hadn't seen in years and won't see for more years.

Its going be a long week. I resent having to do anything on my off days.

This new Rudra album is great. Easily the best thing they've done. The guitarist they got on the last album is really ripping it and the songs are finally, proper Vedic metal. The band sounds tight and like they mean it. Well done. "RTA" is Rudra's finest hour.

When mind escapes flesh

My bed has turned into an intermittent black hole. It started a month ago when a carefully rolled joint just disappeared. No puff of smoke, no blinding flash of light. Just gone. That was followed by 2 pairs of scissors, a CD of Undying Inc's debut ep, my earphones and a couple of james lee burke books. All vanished without a trace. A ghost with a penchant for origami and slam or a homicidal spirit biding its time in the company of some burke. That Undying Inc CD is enough to drive the living to murder. Don't know what effect it'll have on the dead.

I'm irritated a lot. Annoyed and impatient with people. Unwind Inc. A weekend without work after a long while. Show tomorrow and practice at some point today. Been a while. Should be good. I'm not confident about Hangman. So set list is Weird Tales, I, Zombie, Book of the Fallen and Hangman.  Yippie! I should come up with easier parts to sing. So finally, 30 minutes on stage. I, Zombie and Weird Tales. Haha! I, Zombie came out really well. Best live version yet. Weird Tales was a bit off in the first half but settled down nicely after that. Overall, a patchy set but a few people liked us.

I wish they'd kill Mickey already. The scene with Jon Voight and Elliot Gould was absolutely brilliant. Right down to the hallucination. Generally well written and acted but James Woods is unnecessary and very, very hammy. Overall, Ray Donovan is worth following. Season finale tonight and it was pretty good. James Woods got a bullet in the head, Mickey's still around and Ray got lucky.



The first time I heard "for god your soul" I was 16. Impressionable age. Autopsy had already happened but when Shirinc went "For god your soul... For me your flesh", something just switched on in my head. John Tardy on Infected and Chris Reifert on An act of the unspeakable were the 2 other defining moments of death metal vocals growing up. So thanks to this wondrous thing called YouTube...

the mango is in season

The mango is in season. Blog me this, blog me that. Old lines remembered, repeated. There's something off with this new Necrophobic. Cleaner. Heavier. A mid week off is never eventful. This one was quieter than most. The mango is in season. The king is hungry. The royal taster died. In his sleep. 51 days ago. The king is hungry. The dog sleeps. Stretched out. Big fellow. This Gutslit T shirt is very comfortable. I'm sitting by the side of the road. The mango is in season. Umbrella's are out, the rain comes and goes. The light from the street is blinding me. The noise from the street can't touch me. The mango is in season.

A Breath in the Shade of Time

Saw Lunchbox. Would have been the perfect Indian film to send to the Oscars. I liked it a lot. Irfan and Nawazuddin are absolutely brilliant but that woman did a good job too. By the end of it, I was rooting for the lovers to unite.

This new Eibon is pretty great. 2 long songs than can be called sludge but a bit more varied and dynamic than the last 2 albums. File it next to the new Pombagira which is also pretty great, has 2 long songs and can be broadly classified as sludge.

Still watching Lost. Jack has to be one of the most annoying TV characters ever written and its all getting a bit unnecessarily complicated. Season 4 turned out pretty great but then Season 5 fucked things up. The whole time travel conundrum was solved with lame philosophy. Annoyed the crap out of me.

Sat through about 45 minutes of World's End and its pretty dull so far. Hopefully will get better.

Finally got my hands on The Baby. Damn that was a hard find.



Another Sunday and another show. Its not as regular as that sounds but here we are again. The air conditioning is off and the place is a sauna. We're the second band on the lineup with 50 minutes to kill. Should be fun. Couple of bombay bands to look forward to and Threinody who will hopefully play Disembodiment. They'll turn the a/c on soon. I can't remember the lyrics to Weird Tales. Oops. Soundcheck @ 3.

I finally have comfortable seating. Always at a premium. Very poor turnout so far. I hope it gets better. 5 CDs sold which is not bad. Ontologus are some kind of tech death I guess. Sound quite good. We're up next. Empty hall. Maybe 50 people if you count the waiters. Bad scene. Although considering we've played to 5 people and a dog, it's not actually bad at all. Well, the djinn fans seemed to like what we did. Major sound issues aside, old faithful Weird Tales ended things nicely. I, Zombie turned out quite well too. Shepherd are a great band but they need to sort out the vocals. Big fat grooves, good songs. When they're instrumental they give off a K2B vibe. Other times its abrasive noise rock. Very good either way. Threinody up next. Fucking killed it. Disembodiment was the wow moment for the night. Awesome song. The other 3 were pretty good too. Especially Schism and Blade. It was a genuine pleasure to see a proper thrash band. No unnecessary labels.

My pretty pink drink is over and I must make my way home.

I discovered a new coffee shop a while ago. They made a damn good cup of cold coffee. Then they didn't anymore. It's back on the menu today. All is right again.

I no longer know which day of the week it is when I wake up.

The new Fister is ridiculously good. Unbelievably heavy.

I'm about halfway through Chennai Express and I'm enjoying it. Shahrukh Khan hams it up but that's the only brand of comedy he knows. Deepika Padukone looks stunning and manages to be funny with her ridiculous accent. Sathyaraj though is an inspired piece of casting. Would have been easier to go with someone like Prakash Rai but Sathyaraj fits the bill to perfection. Hopefully, the next one hour of the movie won't drag. Silly, ridiculous fun. Way better than any of Shetty's other films so far....

And the second hour didn't drag. Silly, ridiculous fun and a new found sense of respect for SRK.



So Peter Capaldi is the new Doctor. There's some sort of backlash against Moffat for not picking a female, black or Asian as the new doctor but honestly, I think Cripaldi will be a good fit. I don't want to see a female, black or Asian Doctor Who. Does that make me a mysoginistic racist? I suppose so.

All set to watch The Conjuring tomorrow. Its been getting some rave reviews from serious horror fans so hoping for a few chills.... And missed it again. Will probably watch it at home now whenever the dvd pops up.

The new Orator is disappointing. The riffs are all kind of straight forward and that evil atmosphere of the EP is missing. Kind of a decent, modern death-thrash album.

In the time that I started this post and now, I've been watching Battlestar Galactica. Almost done with it now and its pretty fucking great. Katee Sakhoff is so hot but Tricia Helfer is simply awesome. 6 and Baltar start off awkward and annoying but once the chemistry kicks in, their scenes together is one of many highlights on the show. The show itself starts off in sci-fi territory but moves to pseudo spiritual mumbo jumbo in season 3. Edward James Olmos is perfectly cast and the other actors grow into their roles nicely.

I finished Battlestar Galactica and then some. Started watching Lost on a friend's reccomendation and season 1 was pretty good. Season 2 is a bit muddled. Either they're all dead or they're all in some strange reality show. I hope I'm wrong. Another 4 seasons to go before I'll find out.

The album is almost upon us now. Release in the first week of September and a bunch of shows to go with it next month. What I'd really like is a collage video to "7 Year Witch". Lots of clippings from old witchy movies should be fun. More excited about the album than I've been about anything in a long, long time.

Well, release didn't happen. Delays. Album's up on bandcamp and its also up on Bunalti. Considering all the albums I've stolen from there, it's probably karma. Anyway, felt pretty good to see it up there. Our best show so far was in Thane. Who would have thought. People moshed to 7 Year Witch and there were about 50 odd people nodding their heads in a suitably ponderous manner. I couldn't stop smiling. So much for bringing the doom.

I set a timer to harvest my fear.
I overslept.

I don't believe a word

Strange thing happening over the last few days. A missed call at around 11.30 from an unknown number. Yesterday and today I picked up. It turned out to be a cross connection. I eves dropped. Man and woman. Talking in Hindi. Making plans to meet. Identical conversations on both nights. The  woman is loud and the man is whispering. It's happened before. They're always having the same conversation. At least when I've answered and listened in. Maybe they talk about other stuff when I don't answer.

Don't know why I didn't put this up before. We got on a Motorhead tribute. People seem to like it.

Malazans, arrows and jubilees

An unexpected holiday. Chilled out evening. The same old faces led me to abandon ship and skip across the water. To dry land and safety.

Malazan black metal is now a thing. Caladan Brood. Pretty good Summoning worship. Is there an Anomander Rake yet?

I don't care about the CDs you've bought and don't care about your work. I'm hoping you'll shut up and in the meantime, I'm simply practicing what I preach. Reassure,  empathize, summarize and say goodbye. With a smile.

Yeah, this malazan black metal is pretty good.

In TV news, Arrow is kicking ass. The show scored a big win with its casting of Slade Wilson. The fights have gotten better and last week the whole "Moira Queen. You have failed this city" ending was badass. Community restarted. First episode was a bit lazy but I'm hoping it'll pick up.

One of the better blogs on the internet might have breathed its last. If you have any interest at all in movies of the forgotten, kvlt, B to Z type, then go pay http://ninjadixon.blogspt.com a visit. You might get lost but it'll be a trip worth taking.

The new Nick Cave is terrific. After the angular noise rock of Grinderman, Cave returns with the Bad Seeds to carve out a beautiful set of songs.

2013

Ugh! Just ugh! My feet hurt, I can't keep my eyes open and exhaustion overtakes me. Writing this now is a good way of staying awake and active. For a few more hours at least.

Oscar season has started. DVD screeners abound. Django Unchained is ridiculous fun but what's with all the animal killing? Unnecessary but way more shocking than the 100+ instances of the word "nigger". How come no one's complaining about the gratuitous killing of animals but everyone has an opinion on that word? Sam Jackson should win an oscar. He hasn't been this good ever. Don Johnson was pretty great too. Otherwise, typical Tarantino over the top violence, great dialogue and some pretty good set pieces. Not as riveting as the last one but still pretty great.

Zero Dark Thirty though was disappointing. Too bloody long, a main character who's nothing more than a cardboard cut out and loads of fine actors wasted. Also, I guess no one will know but the streets of Karachi are lined with shops with Hindu names. So much for accuracy. Its a decent thriller but nothing more. Definitely no Syriana.

Planning to watch either Hitchcock or Seven Psychopaths tonight. Probably 7 P.

God! Java City's fucking loud. And I have mosquito bites all over my neck.

I want to shout at these people and tell them all to shut up. Easier to put on my earplugs.

2013 so far has been tiring. People everywhere are talking about "all the recent rapes". Were these people not watching or reading the news till December? Suddenly, people say they were late cause they were helping a girl get home. Where was this chivalry and how long will it last? The Times group seems to have found its bone and they're using it to target every establishment figure they can find. The Today group is using the bone to target the ruling coalition. NDTV is trying desperately to divert the focus from the ruling coalition while exploiting victims quite shamelessly. Surprisingly, CNN-IBN seems to be the only channel without an axe to grind but they too have the bone firmly between their teeth and don't seem to be letting go.

I doubt if anything's going to come of all this activism though. Talk of a special session of parliament has died down. The Delhi rape case hasn't been shifted to a fast track court yet and women all over the country are still facing atrocities on a daily basis. Everything depends now on the middle class and how good their memory is.

Why are the laws that most affect us, the hardest to change? A 17 year old juvenile who raped a 6 year old, chopped her up and dumped the parts in a few dumpsters is given the maximum punishment of 3 years and then released on his 18th birthday because that's just how the law works. The accused juvenile in the recent rape is also 17 and will get the max punishment of 3 years but walk out when he hits 18. The mind boggles.

The funniest thing for me was how some Punjabi pop singer was targeted for misogynistic lyrics and the ensuing outrage he suddenly provoked over a song that's a few years old. The funny bit was the moral indignation of people who have no problem dancing to a hip hop song where all the women are bitches and ho's. Oh well. And the next metalhead who claims outrage over Honey Singh's lyrics is going to get a kick in the balls from me. Even hypocrisy must have some limits.

the mood of the nation

A day of mourning,
A day of shame.
A night of talking,
About how much we care.

Move on, move on
Say our rulers.
No more, no more
Say our leaders.

Our fear is real
Our anger is rising
Our throat is hoarse
From this endless shouting

Move on, move on
Say our rulers.
No more, no more
Say our leaders.

Our rulers are blind
to our anger and fear
Our leaders will lie
While blood flows like beer

Our voice is stifled
Our lament unheard
We are the new monkeys
Nothing spoken, seen or heard

The leader will pledge allegiance
Promise of a new awakening
The crowd will light a candle
Finally, change is coming

Outrage is the entrance fee
To a better tomorrow
But there's nothing new to see
So come, let's drown our sorrow