It's at this point however that I also remember that I'm meant to be writing up a review of yet another year in rampant consumerism, as is apparently traditional around these parts. As ever, the following list is based on what I personally have discovered and experienced in the past year, with very little correlation to actual release dates or objective standards of taste.
Music
You know, it's getting increasingly difficult for me to objectively judge new music. Partly of course this is because I'm an old man and thus any new band is metaphorically on my damn lawn. Mostly however it's the fact that more or less all the new music I get comes from one label: Darkest Labyrinth. Although the internets should in theory provide one with all manner of sources of news and new music at the end of the day (much like the magazines that preceeded it) the signal to noise ratio becomes too high.So if you ever wondered why Radio 2 happens, you're welcome.
However, until I find some source other than myspace to plug the gap for incestuous band interrelations I guess we'll have to stick with what we know. And frankly, when it's this good, who really cares?
If someone asked to pick one best album from the whole year, I'd probably punch them in the facedick for asking stupid questions. However if you want one album that's actually just pretty goddman GOOD then I'm gonna recommend Sicks Rain by Lix. I must confess I was a little worried when most of the members left, as I'd always rather liked Lix. But after all the line up changes they then put this out, which is pretty much they're strongest release yet. Of course, there's been a lot of really good releases out of DL this year, with new stuff from GPKISM, BLOOD, Marlee, Himemanik and more. But the we KNOW how good that all is. If I'm gonna pick at least one other DL release to highlight here (purely in the interests of not having EVERYTHING be a DL band) then I'm gonna have to go with
I'm Frenzy Of Liberty by Frenzy, AKA Mr Satan from SATAN. This wasn't something I was really expecting. What we have is a nice slice of Industrial infused gothic rock in a gothic vein. Whilst I must admit I had been attracted by the bright colours on one of the flyers, it was actually hearing one of the tracks on a compilation that really sold me on it. The thing about solo projects is they tend to go one of two ways. Either they'll be almost exactly the same as the original band (only usually not as good), or they will really be doing something totally different. And this release falls firmly into the latter catagory. Not that I'd wish to accidentally impune SATAN in any way, as they are undoubtedly a fine band. But then it's not like you can really compare them, because they're doing a different thing entirely. But anyway, it's a fun release, and certainly worth checking out.
Of course, it's not all obscure Japanese bands. Well, not QUITE anyway.
Okay, yes, It took me FAR TOO LONG to actually buy The High End Of Low from Marilyn Manson. I have no excuse. I could have been listening to this album like two years ago if I'd been paying attention. But I wasn't. Not quite sure what happened there, as I used to eat, breathe and shit Marilyn Manson for breakfast. Which is probably not quite as messy as it sounds as that is a (largely) metaphorical statement. Anyway, holy shit was I missing out here. A goddamn fine album.
It is also a fact that in the latter months of the year I was overcome with the uncontrolable urge to listen to Bal-Sagoth. I'm not entirely sure why, save the obvious fact that they are fucking awesome. The sheer balls out bombastic melodrama of it all. There really isn't anything else close. I'm picking Atlantis Ascendant in particular for two reasons. Partly because I have great difficulty getting Draconis Albionensis out of my head, but mainly just to spite the twat I bought it from on ebay who thought he didn't actually have to send people the stuff they paid for. You sir, are a total and utter WANKBISCUIT.
Finally I'm gonna have to give a shout out to Vampillia. I picked up their Rule The World album more or less on a whim, but liked it enough to grab the last copy of Alchemic Heart. Which is one of those rare albums that you don't such much listen to as experience. If you don't like 20 minute tracks of noise/orchestral/metal/whatthefuckness then there's either something deeply wrong with you or, even worse, you're NORMAL. Get the hell off my blog.
Film & TV
You know, I really seem to have been slacking when it comes to vegetating in front of the screen, because there really isn't that much that's been all that memorable.
RohypLOL
Doctor Series depends on how you count it came in strongly f course. There's a lot of very good episodes, and they tried a lot of new things, although in the end I don't think the overarching plot was sustained over twelve episodes so much as ignored for most of them. I suppose if one was feeling uncharitable you could describe the series as a bit hit and miss. But then you could say that about an 80% accuracy score, and it'd be about as valid. Overall a lot of good stuff.
I can't deny that I barely watch any movies at all these days. Put simply there is rarely anything that perks my interest sufficiently. Hollywood has more or less destroyed my interest in the art of cinema. However if there is one thing that will encourage me to sit up and pay attention, it's Ultraman. And someone FINALLY put out Ultraman Zero: The Revenge Of Belial with english subtitles. I'm not going to pretend it's the greatest most sophisticated piece of art in the cinematic medium, but what it IS is big, fun and entertaining. Ultraman does space opera. What's not to like about that?
I may have utterly failed to see any movies in the past year, but there is at least one other series that I feel is worth mentioning. After god knows how long I finally managed to pick up the first series of the Muppet Show. If you're not sure why this might be worth mentioning then you've fallen into my trap, invader scum. The Muppet Show is how we tell humanity apart from soulless alien scum like you.
Reading
I'm really starting to wonder what the hell I've been doing all year. Rather than picking a handful of higlights out the various piles of things I'm finding that actually there are only a handful of things to start with. Some might say it's the recession, but personally I think it's the fact that all my spare time is either spent suffering on the bloody wii fit or recovering from suffering on the wii fit.
Itsuwaribito is one of the very few new manga series I've picked up. And I'm not ashamed to admit that a lot of the reason for that was that I found the Tanuki character utterly adorable. Of course, it had a cool sounding story as well. A nice mix of action and comedy, the main characters goal is to save as many people as possible. Through lying. Essentially a good guy but utterly devious. I'm not sure if they've gotten up to more than a quadrouple bluff yet, but knowing this book it's only a matter of time.
In terms of actual novels and such like it appears to be fairly depressing once again. Whilst I've mentioned a few there doesn't seem to be that many others, at least new ones anyway. I got a few Shadowrun books that were quite fun, but outside of that there's only... Oh god why do I keep doing this to myself?
Luckily I got a big pile of books for christmas, so hopefully things will improve next year. Provided she doesn't write another one anyway.
Gaming
I suppose it's here that I'll finally have something substantial to say. after all, if I haven't been watching or reading anything, what have I been up to?
Well, painting mostly. Everybody's gotta have a hobby after all, and it seems that I've rediscovered mine. But that's not all of course, as I HAVE been doing quite a bit of gaming.
And quite a bit of the gaming that I've been doing has been Yu-Gi-Oh, thanks in a large part to discovering that they'd actually done a proper version on the Wii. I hadn't picked up any cards in years before I got this. Serving as a bit of a crash course in all the new mechanics that had cropped up since the original series ended it rather reignited my passion for the game, which in turn reignited my need to actually have a way of sorting and cataloguing my cards, which resulted in weeks of shuffling and developing an overly complicated spreadsheet. Oh, and also some playing of cards in the real world as well.
My Dark Necrofear deck will FUCKING KILL YOU.
Outside of the manly world of childrens card games the other electronic offering I feel compelled to discuss is Kings Bounty: The Legend.
If there's one thing wrong with state of gaming it's actually a hell of a lot of different things. But one in particular is the lack of turn based games. Note that we're at the stage where I'm not even saying DECENT turn based games any more, just ANY. Luckily I found a way to fill the void with Kings Bounty. Indeed, it's overfilled the void and spilled out into my painting time, thus meaning that many days I get nothing done. A trun based strategy game, with some RPG elements, hex based movement and lot's of spells and different troops. The best being that you can get the platinum edition (as I did) pretty cheap from amazon, containing the game, the sequel, and the expansions.
Outside of strange metal boxes full of flashing lights and witchcraft however, we've also been playing some proper games. I've already mentioned Quarriors before, and it's still wicked fun. But what else is there?
Well, I can't get without mentioning Doom: The Boardgame. This is, after all, the main reason I started painting again. In addition to having lots of brighly coloured gribblies however, it is also a really fun game, despite (or perhaps even because of) it's punishing difficulty. A valid question many might ask would be "how the hell do you make Doom into a boardgame?". The answer of course is via Space Hulk. Indeed, it was my desire to find something along the lines of Space Crusade that led me to the game in the first place. It is my fond hope that maybe one day we can progress past the first scenario.
Braggart is, without a doubt, one of the more hilarious games I've played. The basic mechanics are pretty straightforward, in that you play cards to form a story, and your opponents can play cards to modify it from a tale of heroic daring do into a farcical comedy of errors. And somehow every game I end up sleeping with the dead. Whilst one of the great things about this game is the fact that it's non collectable and you get everything you need in one tasty package, the game by it's very nature is screaming out for an expansion or two.
Other honourable mentions would go to Torchlight, Dungeoneer, Knights Of The Chalice and Unspeakable Words. I suppose I could make some mention of our attempts to play D&D, but really this is supposed to be a positive discourse on the highlights of the year, and dissecting everything wrong with that system needs it's own post or two.
Overall though I hope this has given a taste of some of the good stuff, because there has been quite a bit actually. It seems once again though that I need to set aside more time for reading.
Hard life, eh?
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