Break like the wind and sail the waves full of pride, Our breath shall never settle, For we are made of heavy metal!

Man, it has been a long ass time since I've done a post here. Well obviously summer occured and is now almost over. It;s weird to think that a year from now I will be about to go into senior year.

In any case summer was cool but I'm looking forward to this school year. Once my band is all back in syracuse I plan to get together with them and sort of develope a plan so that we can practice at least once a week. My goal is to have enough material done for us to record a demo by the end of the year. Then we can send it to a shitload of record labels and probably not (but possibly) get picked up by one of them. If we don't we repeat the whole process again with other songs. Some of the stuff we've been working on is really damn cool though so I'm hopefull. I still need to figure out what I'm doing in terms of female vocals since several girls have said they could do it and one was planning to but I'm not entirel sure that shes free which might be an issue. Songwriting is going well, I have lyrics for about 4 or 5 songs that we can do andd miguel has some guitar stuff written. 1 song is basically done (it's 8 minutes long and fucking epic) and a second one is well underway. So our quest for Gold Glory and Goth Girls continues.

On a non band related note two of my friends are moving which of course sucks. One to Indiana and one to Florida, neither of these being particularly close to syracuse. However a friend of mine is starting college nearby who I'll probably end up visiting so that's cool. So Fridays will be somewhat quieter now without insane Alex but should still be fun still.

There's substantially less romantic problems with me than in some of my earlier posts mostly due to me trying to give up on the whole GF thing due to it not being worth it and instead focus on my friends and my music. Basically I figure that the possabillity of me actually dating a girl I like is substantially lower than the possabillity of that person only liking me as a friend and then me going through months of severe depression. Ive done that twice and oddly enough it;s not quite as fun as it sounds. So yeah, hopefully my ignoring my hopeless romantic tendancies will lead to me not going back into a big depression spiral again. Things are basically fine now except for when I slip up on the whole ignoring aspect and get depressed for a while untill I get myself to stop thinking about it. Anyway yeah, hopefully if I ignore wanting to ask out chicks I like in the future it will lead to less stress for me :P.

Concert season is looking good. I'm pretty sure I'm seeing eluveitie, belphegor, alestorm, Vried and kivimetsan druidi in november which should be fucking awesome. Ensiferum is also doing a tour, as well as epica, and some other bands. I'll be interested to see whos playing Paganfest this year, but I'm sure it will be awesome. Bands I'm hoping will do tours this year are Iced Earth, Blind Guardian, and Turisas. The first ones might tour in 2010 or 2011 in support of new blind guardian and demons and wizards albums. Turisas have no reason to be touring here rightn ow but they should anyway because they're fucking awesome and I haven;t seen them headline.

In any case life is generally good and will hopefully continue to be. School should be okay given the classes and teachers I have, and I'll tell you guys more about that once I actually go. With that, Im gonna go practice guitar.

~ Later Days

open the door, enter hells core ,black is the code for tonight, atomic force, feel no remorse, crank up the amps now it's night

I have returned from this years paganfest and from New York City! It was fucking awesome this year and I will give you a rundown of the evening.

After meeting up with my friend peter and getting some really good pizza, we got in line at the venue and eventually got in. It's a really sweet venue with a seated area separate from the one for all us who want to headbang and mosh and pogo which is nice. The lights were really good, and after buying a primordial shirt and a paganfest shirt and putting them into my belt we hung out until the first act began! I also bought Peter a Korpiklaani T shirt as it was his first metal concert and it seemed like the menchy thing to do.

Swashbuckle from the pirate infested shores of New Jersey took the stage! They were dressed wholly in pirate attire with a singer who talked very much like the narrator from spongebob as my friend pointed out. They played pretty well in a very brutal/piratey thrash/death type way and were quite fun to watch. I would have headbanged and or started a pit but I wanted to reserve myself for the later acts so I wouldn't be worn out. They were very amusing particularly towards the end of your set saying "Now are you ready to rip out your heart, stare at it, and scream with despair for Primordial!" "And are you ready to dance around with glee, drinkin and screwin to Korpiklaani?!?" Good crowd reaction to both of those.

After a bit of talking and setup, blackguard took the stage. To say that I was blown away would be an understatement. They are fucking badass man, delivering brutal but melodic mix of death metal melodeath epic metal and folk metal. I headbanged and air guitarred a ton to these guys despite it being so early in the show due to the sheer awesomeness before me. Their singer was having technical difficulties and I didn't even notice because they were still so fucking good! I talked to him after the show and he was a really cool dude although he thought that his performance had been bad (bullshit, it was fucking awesome! technical difficulties or not), and I bought a T shirt from him since they were just too good for me not to. I talked to a few others from the band later. They were all really cool very nice guys and were all wearing cowboy hats after the show which i found amusing.

Peter went into the seated area for the next band to rest up for the last two acts. I chatted with a few guys who had been at last years paganfest for a bit, then Moonsorrow began! I haven't listened to much of their stuff but they're really good and quite unique. They're one of those very epic bands that has sort of a soundtrack type quality to them that makes you think you're in lord of the rings or on a longboat or something haha. Lots of headbanging, and my first bit of moshing for the evening! I would later talk to their guitarist/clean vocalist who was a cool dude and I chatted with him for a bit.

Peter came back down for the next group and we witnessed the awesomeness that is Primordial. Their singer A.A. Nemtheanga is probably the most passionate vocalist I've ever listened to. He sings and it just sounds like pure despair, it's incredibly raw and powerfull. He's also fantastic at drawing the audience in to the show, and is truly fantastic to watch. After performing Empire Falls and As Rome burns which were fantastic to shout/sing along to as well as several other songs they did something very cool. A.A. asked if there was anyone with any irish in them in the audience, as expected lots of people cheered. He then explained the irish potato famine and how he had always wanted to play the song in New york and ended by saying something to the effect of "You are the descendants of those who emigrated on these ships from ireland, you are living history and this one goes out to you" and a very powerful performance of "The Coffin Ships" followed. They closed with an astounding performance of "Heathen tribes". It was one of the greatest live sets I've witnessed what with the sheer passion from the band and the connection they established with their audience. I ended up shaking hands with A.A. after the show and shaking hands with him, which was a very cool moment for me as well.

Lastly was the Korpiklaani! As I've heard of them they're really fun live . They were very funny throughout the show and played all the fan favourites. Singing along to wooden pints was fun as hell. It was also during this set that a girl who had been in the mosh pit flew out in front of me and as they continued dancing and such given the pushing from the crowd due to the mosh pit I discovered that more incidental grinding occurs at metal concerts than you would think , which was something I certainly didn't mind xD! After ending their set they came back and did an encore playing "Let's drink!". Janne started throwing beers into the audience, spitting beer on the front area, etc. and was hilarious to watch. A folk metal mosh pit started! Basically it;s a ring of people latches onto each other folk dancing and it's fun as hell. Thus concluded a fantastic evening of folk metal and one of my coolest concert experiences so far.

At sunrise we will dance the hempen jig, so raise up your pint of rum and take another swig!

So I saw the Pagan Knights tour down in Rochester last night, epic show. Here's basically how it went down

First band was a local black metal band called Crucafist. They put on a good show, and had music pretty reminiscent of the old Norwegian stuff, good for headbanging to. Oh and they have the original bassist of Anthrax as their Bassist.

Second was a fairly boring Prog/Death-metal band called Warblade. They weren't bad but they were just extremely generic.

Third was SuidAkrA. The first pit of the night started with these guys and it was also the most brutal pit I've seen so far at any of the metal shows I;ve been to. Friend of mine got a chipped tooth and big gash in his neck and stuff so I decided not to go in the pit. Was right in front of the stage for these guys and the next ones though. Back to the music though. Their sound quality was a bit iffy, but they played really well, their new guitarist seems to be really good. Sort of announced the song "Shattering Swords" for them which was cool haha. I also talked to their drummer after the show who was a really nice guy, and have a pic of me and him that I'll upload at some point.

Fourth were ALESTORM who were fantastic. Great live band, hilarious throughout the set and played really well despite their guitarist having technical difficulties. They played all of the fan favourites, and as it was a non drinking venue me and my friends started the trend of raising cans of coke during the drinking songs. The pits continued but sort of Died down for these guys, although there was some stage diving and the crowd was really energetic. Talked to their guitarist and their singer/keyboardist after the show for a while, both were really cool dudes. Also saw them taking pictures of the passed out sound guy in his booth after the show haha.

Last was Tyr who were great. Best sound quality of any of the bands, and a much more chill crowd made this an awesome set to experience. They were pretty funny throughout the night, played really well, and did an awesome cover of Wild Rover which was great to sing along to. No pits for these guys as a large percentage of the moshing crowd left after alestorm, as did many of the people dressed as pirates.

After the show I hung out for a bit, talked to the people previously mentioned, and got into a chat with the singer from Crucafist who after we talked to him for a while said that if my band ever gets some good recordings he can play our stuff on his local radio show which would be pretty cool.

All in all it was a pretty epic night, got home at about three in the morning.

Lower the flags a good man has passed he has reached the last of frontiers

One of me and my bands biggest musical influences has died it would seem. Miika Tenkula of sentenced, one of the most soulful guitarists I've ever seen, has passed. He was an amazing player who could take you on a total emotional ride with a solo and complimented Villes melancholy vocals really well. I'm taking the whole thing rather hard I geuss. I just saw Buried Alive (sentenced's live DVD for the first time a couple days ago and thought it was amazing, the best live DVD i've ever seen. And it was verry odd for me t o hear only two days later that the guitarist who had odne so much of the songwriting, had just died. And it's making me think, why is it that all of my heroes of music that I really connect to seem to die? I mean Ville hasn't died but still the main songwriter of sentenced, and then there's Kurt Cobain, and Lane Staley. These three are all members of bands that I have attributed before to me not being dead and yet all three have died extremely untimely deaths, Cobain dying at 27 and Lane and Miika both dying at 34. It seems that those who have really gotten to me emotionally in their music have a tendancy to die untimely deaths. Me andd Miguel are working on a tribute to Miika and the lyrics largely consern that idea. In any case I'm going to go eat some unhealthy food and maby try to cheer up a little. Rest in peace Miika, you were an amazing guitarist and songwriter, and you will be missed.
~Later Days

Music: Where Did You Sleep Last Night? ~ Nirvana

Somewhere in Time Deeds of The Brave, Became the Rhymes We sing today

So I've had an interesting self realization today. I think that one of the things that I've sort of hidden is that one of the things I want most in life is to be remembered. I want people living after I am dead to know my name. But I believe what I really want is not so much fame as glory. I've always had an obsession with the vikings and the heroes of the Trojan War and in my heart I believe that what I wish most of all was possible is that I could be like them or some kind of modern equivalent. To be someone who is remembered for their skills and bravery and revered by those who hear of them. this is one of the reasons I have often thought that if I were to choose a religion's heaven I would want to be my own ,though I am Christian, I would want to be in Valhalla. Living with the fallen warriors of the past feasting and fighting and repeating eternally gaining glory. I don;t want to live in the mortal world forever and hope and believe there is an afterlife, but I want to be remembered by the people of this life. There is a song by the band Tyr that I think fits me very well that I've been listening to a lot lately, I'll leave you with a quotation from that and give you more life related updates next time:

"I've learned all the lore
I've been told all the tales
Ancient Legends of War
Are the wind in my sales
The Deeds of the brave
Come alive in the rhyme
And the myth is my ship
on the ocean of time...."

Born to Raise Hell, Born to Raise Hell, We Know How to do It and We do it Real Well

Well about damn time I got back to this old blog isn't it? Happy solstice/christmas/kwanza/Hanuka/ect. hope you had a good holliday. Mine went pretty well, seeing family, eating tons of stuff, presents, all that jazz. Whilst I was away at least one thing of note happened, wich is I discovered glam metal .

Now it would be untrue for me to say that I had not listened to glam metal before now but I had never really givin it any respect for it;s awesome ness til now (I had thought it was lame for a long time. Now of course certain glam bands were really lame, Poison for examlpe while they were good musicians and wrote some fun songs had pretty horribly cheesy lyrics. But some of the gems I've discovered would be W.A.S.P., Warrant (not reffering to cherry pie, I mean their awesome less mainstream stuff), Skid Row (even their power ballads rock!), Motley Crue, Ratt, all those bands own face. They had some amazing soloes wich seem to me to porbably be an influuence on some modern melodic deathmetal guitarists such as Alexi Laiho stylistically. Lots of great songs, and glad I finally got into it.

On another note, I simply cannot wait untill the spring tours start. The lineup for Paganfest is simply amazing this year, and the Pagan Knights tour should be awesome. Might even see cradle of filth with satyricon laterr this year! that would be pretty sweet. Plenty opportunities for me to do crazy makeup.

I have also Ordered a mic and all the acoutrements finally so my band can practice with vocals, this should help a lot, and be good times.

Happy new year all, untill we meet again,
~Later Days

Nothing to prove, Just a hellish rock 'n roll freak, you call your metal black, It's plastic lame and weak

Well In a much better mood this week I am preparing for a big band practice tomorrow, which should be good times. I am also buying a darkthrone album and a darkthrone shirt this week, still trying to decide on what album to get. But yeah band practice should be fun, first full length Renfield's Disorder practice with keyboards and drums (no bass because doran lives really far away, this could turn out to be an issue). But yeah,so thats cool, and I have my first payed gig in January, Woot.

Thanksgiving was nice, good food, and it was cool to have the family all back together for a while since that;s always fun, yeah good times all in all.

So I'm kind of ecstatic due to the idea that my band will probably have a demo out before I'm even a senior in high school. I have plans for what I'm going to do press kit wise, and we're hoping to write some more killer songs for the demo. Hopefully we'll get signed within the next 5 years, that would be amazing.

I'll inform you as to how the rehearsal went tomorrow, for now

Until we meet again
~Later Days