Let's try this again...

Okay, so as I mentioned before, I'm taking some summer classes that jam an entire semester into one month. The first one that I took was International Business, and it was an online class, which I HATE. As if weekly tests that covered six chapters each wasn't enough, we also had group projects--which were made more difficult than normal, as we never actually saw each other. Anywho, I survived. Even though I'm starting a new class on Tuesday, it's going to be a physical class, so I SHOULD be able to juggle class and this blog.

In other news, I do have a handful of new bands/albums for you all, but I think I'm going to wait until tomorrow to start posting them. For now, however, here's a couple animated videos that I found:

The Saga Of Biorn



Blood Trail

Van Helsing's Curse

I really have no clue how I came this far without posting this oddity. Van Helsing's Curse was a side project of Twisted Sister's Dee Snider. Unfortunately, they only made a single album, Oculus Infernum, which was a concept album that Wikipedia summarizes as, "[Telling] the fictional story of a young boy, orphaned after an entity murders all the adults in his town. The child then wanting revenge comes upon one of the descendants of Van Helsing and teams with him to try and put an end to the entity". They used to do live performances of the album around Halloween, but have since quit due to a "lack of demand". I don't know about you, but I would absolutely love to see something like this.

Tubular Hell



Let Me Pray



As there's only one album, and it doesn't differ very much from the above examples, I'll stop there. I suppose this won't be for everyone, but then again when do I ever post something that is?

Why Is The Rum Always Gone? part 5

So, first thing first. You might notice a new button on the right. I have finally given in and created a Facebook page. I won't promise anything more than a cross posting of my blag, but hey, if you're one of *those people* that embrace the book of faces, then by all means start spreading my word across your unholy land.

Now, onto today's post. It's Saturday, and that means another rum-filled post! Today's rum: Blackheart spiced rum. I swear to you, contrary to what these reviews have been, I've never been a huge spiced rum fan. Alas, however, I'm still recovering from a bit of a financial ass kicking I received last summer, and spiced rum tends to be cheap. Combine that with not wanting to review something I don't currently have (As, trust me, those would be shit reviews.) and we're kinda stuck with spiced. With all that being said, I promise that I'll avoid the Captain. (Save Private Stock.) as no amount of coke will ever make that a respectable drink.

The very first thing that I should mention about this rum is that it's about $13 for a 750 mL and there's a $10 mail in rebate attached. So $3 for a bottle of 93 proof rum? I'm trying it. Period. End of story. (With rebate, that gives Blackheart a 10/5 on the Broke College Student Scale...If you can't find a bottle with a rebate, I'll give it 3.5. Maybe I'm just a bit skewed after finding out that something as cheap as Aristocrat is actually drinkable.)

As for the taste: There is some flavor (caramel apple?) that dominates all the other spices. Even when mixed, it's very prominent. When I looked up other Blackheart reviews online, this flavor, whatever it is, and the sweetness of the drink were the two largest focal points. Some people loved it, some...didn't. Since I brought up the sweetness, I might as well, talk about that next. It's definitely much sweeter than one would expect a 93 proof anything to be.When I say "sweet" I mean, "You can actually forgo the coke, if you want." That would turn many people off, but I dunno. I kinda see some potential with it as far as mixing goes. Maybe in some kind of hard cider? Dunno. (Oh, and with it being so sweet and high proof, the drunkability is going to be VERY subjective, so I'll skip that score.)

Wallpapers

Okay, so I just spent WAY more time then I should have looking at wallpapers. Then I saw that my favorite TV streaming site just uploaded the Fringe S3 finale (And the latest episode of Supernatural.) and was super-excited to watch it. But NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO It's 11:49 and I have no post written. So I'm gonna take the lazy way out, and throw up some of my favorite wallpapers.

Also, I really don't wanna say that I'm going to do this again in the foreseeable future, but it did take me a while to finally narrow my collection down to these. I had *a lot* more I wanted to post.

Bal-Sagoth

Okay, I know right now that this band is going to be too heavy for some of you. While I initially disregarded them as just another black metal band, I quickly changed my attitude when I looked deeper into their lyrics. As I can not write a better description than what Wikipedia has, I'll just refer to its description of The Multiverse, in which all of Bal-Sagoth's lyrics are about.

The "Multiverse" is the alternate reality in which the lyrics of Byron Roberts are set. Based on ideas similar in concept to H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and especially Robert E. Howard, the Multiverse is mostly past tense, wherein Roberts describes ancient events that have already transpired. Worldwide floods, pan-galactic wars, rogue demigods, ancient empires and kingdoms, and sinister artifacts compose this alternate history of the earth. Mythical places such as Atlantis, Hyperborea, Ultima Thule, Ys, Mu and Lemuria feature prominently in the band's Antediluvian World. Additionally, many of the lyrics are set within the framework of recognizable history, with a cast of characters including historical barbarians, gladiators, corsairs and privateers, archaeologists and occult investigators whose exploits take place during recorded history from Roman times through the age of Reason, the late 19th century and early 20th century. Along with Byron's other, more science fiction oriented lyrics detailing a far future era of galactic struggle and interstellar war, the Bal-Sagoth lyrics span countless aeons and are truly epic in scope.

Oh, I should also mention that this band apparently loves REALLY long song titles. This song, for example, while being good, on its own, I knew I had to post it simply because of its redonkulously long title. This is *takes a deep breath* The Dark Liege of Chaos is Unleashed at the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire Part II) from their third album, Battle Magic.



Next is, The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies Of Mu off their fourth album, The Power Cosmic.



And lastly, Shackled To The Trilithon Of Kutulu from their latest (And perhaps, last) album, The Chthonic Chronicles.



I doubt you picked up many of the lyrics that weren't spoken, which is a shame because the stories told are so brilliant. I HIGHLY recommend you find proper lyrics and the booklets with more back story and take in the entire discography in one sitting. Imagine it a black metal book on tape.

New Skindred and Turisas

So, while I was gone, Skindred's new album, Union Black got released, and Turisas made a new music video.

Here is the new Turisas video, Stand up and Fight.



And here are a couple track's off of Skindred's Union Black.Between the album being so new and Warner Brothers taking down videos, I'm limited on what I can post. Anywho, here's Doom Riff.



And Cut Dem.




Also, I'm thinking that tomorrow, I'll go back to a "normal" post. I have no clue what it will be about, but I believe I've covered all the news I had.

Drinking Horn

So, way back when I first mentioned Amon Amarth, I also mentioned that I made a drinking horn with the intent to get it signed and scrimshaw said signatures in. Unfortunately, when I went to their Twilight of the Thunder God tour, a friend I brought had a test the next day and couldn't wait after the show. So, cut to a few years later, and they have a new album out, which means a new tour, and a new opportunity to get my horn signed. On Sunday, I went to Atlanta to see their An Evening With Amon Amarth show, in which they played their latest album, Surtur Rising, in full. Then played an entire second set, which was a "best of" show. (And I FINALLY got to hear Live For the Kill live. Albeit, sans Apocalyptica, but it's still one of my favorite songs.)

So, after 2+ hours waiting in line pre-show, 1.5 hours in the crowd inside waiting for the show to begin, standing through a 4 hour show, and then at least 2 more hours standing outside, I FINALLY got to meet the band and got my horn signed. I've been working on the scrimshawing for the past couple of days, and will say that after I applied the ink, I realized I should have polished the horn before getting it signed. While I sanded/polished it when I first got it, a couple years of use has put a bunch of micro scratches on it, and it's been a bitch and a half to wipe the ink out of them. As such, I'm still not completely content with it, but it's good enough as-is to post here. Oh, and also, due to space issues, I had a choice to make. One signature could have either been on a particularly thin part of horn, or on the black half. I obviously chose the latter, and since I only have india ink, I decided to try red sharpie on that one. It's not perfect, but it'll do until I can find some red ink. Below, are a few pictures. If you want to see more, you can check them out HERE. I had them labeled and sorted in an orderly fashion, but Photobucket decided not to pay very much attention to my order.

Yey! Signatures!

I more or less divided the work into four stages: Getting it signed; carving it; inking it; and polishing it. I took photos at each stage, but what the photos don't show are the 9,001 times I went back to wipe away more ink, then wiped too much and started cleaning the ink out of the carvings, then re-inking and in the process getting ink back in the microscratches, and starting the process all over. So, when a photo says, "polished", and you still see black marks, just know that if I haven't already started getting those out, I will....Anywho, here's the evolution of Johan Hegg's (the singer) signature:

This one's actually not that bad. Nothing like Fredrick's.

And finally, the finished (Well ish...kinda...not really...whatever.) product:

Also pictured: a lot of shit. Peanuts from a Puscifer show,  an oil lamp I made out of a grenade, a few picks, and a bunch more.