For the simple idea of cheeseburgers...

After putting it off for a long time I decided to not be a cheapskate, and rather than resort to downloading I actually purchased Between the Buried and Me's latest album, The Great Misdirect. They are one of those bands who impress me enough with the skill and emotion they play their music to allow them into the circle of bands I listen to that I enjoy enough to pay ridiculous amounts for their imported albums rather than download them. And with this album they prove themselves even more.

I only own a couple of their other albums, The Silent Circus and Alaska, though both outline different eras of BTBAM's music. Though The Great Misdirect doesn't have the aggression and epic-ballad-overtones of The Silent Circus, nor the tongue-in-cheek attitude of Alaska, it signifies an alternative path in their always unpredictable style of progressive metal. With only six tracks, clocking in at nearly an immense hour long, you're in for some reasonably long songs. Each is like a story, a journey, containing passages where they leap from genre to genre. Each song has it's own different mood and distinguishable features thrown in amongst the metal chaos.

Another identifiable aspect is that the band have dropped most, if not all, hardcore ties in their music. Unlike earlier material you will not listen to this album and think "metalcore". This album is straight-up progressive metal, an ever-relentless onslaught on the senses. At times the music seems equally balanced between metal, jazz and soft-rock, with the slightest hint of southern/country. This album's spastic tendencies mean you have to really be in the mood for the spontaneous; don't expect an easy, simple listen.

My custom desktop wallpaper(s) are awesome.

I created this wallpaper and it's 3 variations for the dimensions of an iMac screen, and as such they may not be optimum for Windows.

No Harm Done to my sanity.

Like last week, my most listened to artist has already been mentioned once, and so Fact has to hand down the title to second-most listened this week, No Harm Done. If you've read much of this blog before, no doubt you'd have heard me ramble about this band. Catchy, fast, bouncy, angry, uplifting and heartfelt. Their music seems written solely to be perfect for my tastes on every aspect. Their music livens the darkest of days. They split up, some members to join Offsides and to form Nightlights. Though both are good, neither live up to NHD standards.

Blessed by not-so broken sanity.

Artist of the week was actually Polar Bear Club, but they've already been glorified once and so it was instead handed to second-in-liners Blessed By A Broken Heart. Okay, in your head right now you're probably putting the photo and their name together. And you've probably developed the idea that their music is going to be a) awful - depends on your taste. Or b) cheesy - ooohh yes, spot on there.

Usually I refrain from listening to cheesy music. But BBABH are differently cheesy, like one of those cheeses from Europe you can't pronounce the name of. Combining the most generic elements of the 80's pop/glam/hair phase (including the image) and modern metalcore, they manage to make two generics equal something unique. I'll admit, they're one of my guilty pleasures. I find their music infectious, catchy, danceable and upbeat. These guys really are one of those bands you'll fall in love with, or absolutely loathe with every ounce of your being.

Today was a good day.

• I received my NCEA results for end-of-year exams and achieved higher than I thought I would.
  
• I also discovered that for my most important assessment of the year - my Art Design external - I achieved to the highest degree, Excellence.
  
• I calculated with my NCEA results that I have passed the year with a Merit endorsement, and also only need 60 credits to pass this coming year.
  
• For a celebration, I made me and the lady some awesome toasted sandwiches and the parents bought Royal Crown cola. I drank two today.
  
• Because it will not be available for release outside JP and I will not be able to afford it for a while, I downloaded Fact's new album In The Blink Of An Eye. It lived up to & beyond my expectations and is currently my favorite Fact album.
  
• I have had 5 or so cats - not my own - smile at me.
  
• I found a Soundwave timetable and planned my day - I will be seeing the complete sets for This Is Hell, Set Your Goals, Isis, Alexisonfire, Comeback Kid, Architects, A Wilhelm Scream, The Aquabats and A Day To Remember. Wandering in between I may see portions of Rolo Tomassi, Baroness, Motion City Soundtrack, The Get Up Kids, AFI, Anti-Flag and Faith No More.
  
• I improved some html on this blog.
  

Battlefield: VERY Bad Company

It's 20 years into the future, and war, blah blah blah, Russians, blah blah blah, gold, blah blah blah... basically the story is nothing enthralling, and at times you may even get a little lost. But nobody buys these games for the story, right? You buy them for the fun. And BF:BC delivers by the bucketloads. You, Preston, arrive at Bad Company for doing something with a helicopter, I wasn't really listening. Basically, Bad Company is a division of the US army consisting of outcasted, criminal soldiers who are deemed "expendable". It may also refer to, a) the awful company you are forced to spend your time with for the most part of the game, or b) the enemies and levels themselves.

Your squad for the game consists of the downer sergeant, the whiny intelligence guy and the loud-mouth pyromaniac. As nice as they all seem in the beginning, by the end of the game all their prattling and idiotic actions will make you want their heads on pikes. They never seem to fight, only running around in circles acting as cannon fodder. Which is okay I guess, gives the enemy something for target practice whilst you retreat to heal/reload. On the levels front, for most of the game you are flung into the heart of enemy territory. Just you, and your 3 fellow squad members. In the expanse of the levels, through the rolling hills and farming plains, tall mountains and long rivers, there's this overwhelming sense of isolation. Most of the time, without a anybody in sight, let alone a friend, you'll find yourself sweating in anticipation for the next group of enemies you'll find. And though they generally aren't hard to dispose of, it' still a frightening and enthralling experience. When you do come across them, you can be sure you're up for some challenging long-distance encounters or intense village shoot-outs.

Though the story is for a game, comparatively short, the story is only half the game. With an internet connection, multiplayer mode is available. And though the story is short (2 weeks on-and-off playing for me), multiplayer will last you considerably longer. It will take you forever to up your rank all the way to the top and to unlock all the weapons, but in the meantime you'll be having fun! Fighting against real people who actually think, plan and strategise, will provide an incredibly fun challenge, and with each game being completely different, it's hard to get bored of it. If you lack an internet connection to your PS3 or Xbox 360, then you'll miss out on this opportunity. And though the story mode is great fun, it doesn't really make for a full game. If you do have a connection however, this is a game that will have you entertained for a very long time.

For the gamers:

Not-hardcore appreciation.

According to last.fm, my top tags are melodic hardcore, hardcore, metalcore, post-hardcore and punk. My top played artists are The Ghost Inside (hardcore), Fact (post-hardcore) and No Harm Done (melodic hardcore). But believe it or not, though hardcore does make up the bulk of my library I do listen to other stuff. And so every now and then I shall dediacte a review to the music of mine that isn't of the hardcore/metal/punk variety.

Amon Tobin, Foley Room
Probably one of the most interesting artists I listen to, there's a good reason he's my highest-played electronic artist. I've always been a sucker for the experimental, the odd, the creative. And Foley Room delivers solidly on all fronts. I first heard of Amon through the inFamous soundtrack; he was one of several musicians to contribute, and the one who grabbed my attention the most. He seemed to have clicked well to the mood of the game, as his music grinded and clanked in a city-like ambient way. I looked more into this, and it seemed Amon was the mastermind behind the whole soundtrack, with techniques of his being prominently used. The very techniques used for Foley Room.

Inspired by foley rooms used for recording sound effects for films, the entire album was field recorded - Amon delved into the streets with assistants and microphones and recorded any obscure noise they could find. Barely any aspect of the album was recorded inside the studio: there the sounds were only tinkered and engineered into Foley Room. The result is amazing. Through primarily known as an electronic/dance musician, with this album Amon plunged-headlong into the world of ambient, though maybe not on purpose, and emerged an incredible victor. The result is a sometimes haunting, sometimes lively, and always atmospheric album which paints vivid images in the mind of the bustling and industrial, sparse and apocalyptic.

Fonts are a designer's staple diet.

With the exception of fonts like Trebuchet MS, your computer's pre-installed fonts are well, let's be honest, bland. Boring. With my love for design has come an addiction for free fonts, and I feast up on good ones wherever I can find them.

There then comes the issue though of commercial use. Even licensing. Most font demos do not allow commercial use and so works containing them are not considered legitimately yours for commercial use... or any use at all, really.

For those of you that commercial use is not an issue, I suggest checking out Search Free Fonts. My personal favorite however, for great-quality fonts that are free for commercial use, check out Font Squirrel. Home of my favorite font nevis, as seen in this very blog's title and nav bar.

Finding sanity in lost sanity.

Topping the charts this week is Ceremony. Ceremony are a punk/hardcore band who pretty much sound like concentrated angry. I don't think I've ever heard a more pissed-off band. Yelling lyrics like "I won't be skullfucked by faith", it seems vocalist Ross is the main anger-engine for the band, and his vocals accompany well the raw, no-frills music. Ceremony sound like every time you've been bullied, every time you've been cheated on, every time you've wanted to punch a hole in the wall. Ceremony are a display of 4 men's disgust with the world we live in, and though angry and negative, their music is sincere, thought-provoking, and spine-chillingly empowering. Play loud.

New design sub-site up!

I finally have a separate place for my design, though I may post some here from now on. Give it a look-see at http://superpangolin-portfolio.blogspot.com/.

He's probably listening to In Dread Response.

Does anybody even read this blog?

Midnight Club: Retirement Village

Oops, I mean Midnight Club: Los Angeles. But seriously, this is one of the most frustrating and ungodly-difficult games I have ever played and will have you driving like a senior in no time. Police feature in this game, and they are the most ridiculous police in the world. Oh, you want to drive through a mall carpark? Sorry, that's reckless driving. Oh, you pulled over and parked to accept your ticket because they saw you speeding? Nope, sorry, apparently you're running away and they have to give chase and come at you with guns and fine you well into quad-digits. The retarded addition of the police to the Midnight series will have you so paranoid of getting arrested and being fined into owing them cash that you'll be driving leagues under the speed limit - but you'd probably get arrested for that as well.

But that's just the half of it. Missions are ordered into 4 difficulties - green, yellow, orange and red (not hard to guess which are harder). So, despite starting with rubbish cars, you blitz through green missions. The going is slow, but through desperate saving and upping ranks you can finally afford non-crap cars. You buy the fastest/best handling car you can, gear up for a yellow mission (the next difficulty up) and upon beginning the race are left in a wake of smoke as your opponent ploughs ahead of you through the traffic, past cop cars, leaving you to plod along after them. At this point, I thought the game was impossible.

So, being the lazy man I am I proceeded to download a saved file, with everything unlocked, off the internet. I copied it to my PS3 and I was off. I bought one of the best, most expensive cars in the game and upgraded it as far as possible. Now, truly geared up for a yellow mission, I sought out my nearest one. Now, geared up with not only one of the fastest, but also one of the best-handling cars in the game, I truly felt prepared. The race began, and I was left in a wake of smoke as my opponent ploughed ahead of me through the traffic, past cop cars, leaving me to plod along after them. My girlfriend, who is a bit of a Midnight Club pro, even admitted that I was certainly not going slow: I only stopped accelerating for brief milliseconds at a time to aid with turning into corners. My suspicions were confirmed.

Okay, so for the non-experienced driver, this game is a TOTAL nightmare. But I never said it wasn't fun. I've never had as much of an adrenaline rush in a game as I had evading police through winding hill roads in a crappy Datsun z-car. The customisation possibilities in this game are incredible, and really allow your car to be your very own. So, if you are patient and can deal with any frustrating situations games can throw at you, this is well worth checking out. Personally, I'm just not going to bother with playing the game properly and continue to exploit the saved file I downloaded.

I celebrated the new year...

Not only with family and the girl, but also in true super-pangolin fashion with a Real Groovy alternative-sale-section scourge. I plundered 6 CDs for $20, or 100 20c coins, a few of them I'd never even heard of before. So, here I shall review said CDs and decree them a good buy or not.

The Daylight Curse, Black And White Memories - $3
Judging from the cover/song names I could tell it was going to belong to the post/hardcore/metal variety. For $3 I certainly wasn't expecting anything great. Surprisingly however, I had stumbled across quite a unique metalcore band, whose music refrains from breakdowns and instead in it's place are ripping riffs and epic melodies. A very good buy.

KEN mode, Reprisal - $1
I bought this purely because I was intrigued by the cover. I literally had no idea what to expect. The artwork, design and song titles all varied and left no clues as to what this album contained. But I thought hey, a dollar, why not? I was richly rewarded with a sludge-drenched noisecore-esque metal album. Good buy.

Lux, Northern Lights - $1
Possibly the oddest find of all, especially considering it was the alternative section. The cover design is reminiscent of a punk band I meant to get into a few years ago, possibly what sparked me into buying it. I wasn't expecting Lux to be an electronica duo who fuse electronics with real instruments and percussion, to form a kind of chill-out ambience atmosphere. A refreshing change from the rest, and good because I'm always seeking good electronic music. A very good buy.


The Human Abstract, Midheaven - $10
The most expensive buy, but possibly the best. Having heard and enjoyed a song of theirs a couple of years ago I figured now would be a good time to fuel my interest. Highly technical progressive metal/hardcore. Spastic and unpredictable, though verging on the melodic and calm at times. A very good buy.

Glasseater, Everything Is Beautiful When You Don't Look Down - $2
Upon first listen it sounds like a somewhat generic emo album. You imagine the vocalist being scrawny and girly and the guitarist flicking his fringe whilst playing overly-dramaticly. You'd be very wrong there! This album is dated 2003 - a good year or two before all these sceney-emo bands shot to popularity, and you won't find any fringes here either. They play good, modern pop-punk-lenient emotive hardcore without the unnecessary attire or attitude. A very good buy.

New Found Glory, Coming Home - $3
Hey, cut me some slack. Tip Of The Iceberg was a legit EP, and Sticks and Stones was a pop-punk great. Besides, everybody is allowed a guilty pleasure. The hate towards this album is justified, as it is considerably more pop-drenched and sugar coated than any other release of theirs. That said, it's not an entirely bad release for those who enjoy music on the lighter and happier side, it's actually an enjoyable listen. Good buy.

Overall, a well-spent $20, and a good start to 2010.

Twitter quotes!

I've joined twitter mostly for the purpose of staying up-to-date with artists/bands, and I've gathered a large collection of quotes. Here's a few of them:

Throwdown (throwdown)

"This morning I had a dream I dropped my iPhone into a pool on accident. I dove in after it in my dream... ...and consequently dove OUT of my bunk in reality. No one saw. Shh."

"As if standing around for a stall in a men's room isn't awkward enough, someone cuts ahead and makes it look like you're just loitering..."

The Ghost Inside (DaGhostInside)

"I brought home some Nutella & put it in the fridge. It hardened, and I had to wait for it to thaw. I'm no good at being European." - Garrett

"@ArchitectsUK are the worst people I have ever met. Total Dog shit. Twat idiot children the lot of them." - Garrett

"I guess I should have posted something about how that @ArchitectsUK bit was not true in any way whatsoever. They put me up to it!" - Garrett

"italy is so damn pretty. this place is so beautiful. lucky ass italians get to look at this pretty shit everyday. lucky kids." - KC

"whys every interstate so fucking bumpy? i wish we toured in a hovercraft." - KC

"@seancharmander from @betrayalhc is a poopy stupid doo doo head"

"i just met a kid that doesnt like andrew wk!! HOW CAN YOU NOT LIKE ANDREW WK?!?!?!" - KC

"Can I go blind from eating nothing but Ramen and PBJ for a week straight? Cuz my left eye is starting to twitch really badly." - Vigil

"Has anyone elses legs ever fallen asleep from sitting on the toilet for so long? It's a bummer." - Vigil

Andrew W.K. (AndrewWK)

"PARTY TIP: Don't feel the need to invite me to your party - I'm already coming! In fact, I'm already there! And I'm puking!"

"PARTY TIP: Live your life like tonight is the last night, but at the same time with the realization that it's ONLY JUST BEGUN!"

Vigil (doyourworst)

"Cricket is the most confusing, boring and complicated sport to watch. What is even going on?!?"

KC (ihatekc)

"For some reason @jjdtd thinks he looks like me. Dude wishes he looked this good. And all his tats are fake. Truth."

Jordan Hastings (Ratbeard)

"My dog has the worst farts right now. Booo!"

Stray From The Path (strayfromdapath)

"Oh baby, start my day with @danfromthepath playing toilet music. Bon jovi and guns and roses. Terrification.

Karl (karlschubach)

"Committing the ultimate fashion faux pas. Wearing both my Bane shirt AND Bane shorts to bed. I'll be stagediving in my dreams tonight."

Travis (TravisReilly)

Dad - "Who's that singing?" Mom - "Boys Like Girls." Dad - "More like Boys Like Boys, fun boys." Me - "Ayyoooo!"

Cash keeping me sane into the New Year.

A bit of an unexpected change, I was surprised to see ol' Johnny at the top of my charts this morning. Well, what can I say? The man's a legend. Nobody plays country with the same flair as him. Though most of his earlier songs sound the same (as goes for all country music: who can deny it?) I can still listen to it hour after hour. The stories he tells and the way he tells them are fascinating, and even the minimal music that accompanies it becomes enjoyable. His material towards his later years it beautiful, and some of the most moving music I've ever heard. He definitely holds well the title of keeping me sane.

Happy New Year all! Hope your decade was great!