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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Tue Feb 11, 2014 1:36 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 2/4-2/10
Because Metal Is Art
Brutal Truth announces final European dates
Many of us are still in mourning from the recent announcement by NY grindmasters Brutal Truth that the band would be disbanding shortly. However, Brutal Truth is going on one last world-destroying tour and theyre releasing European dates for that tour now.
In addition to announcing their final tour dates, Brutal Truth has also unveiled the brand new video for the track The Stroy. Taken from their split with powerviolence band Bastard Noise, The Stroy shows Brutal Truth at its most vicious.
Oration of Disorder reviews 02-05-14
Whats an oration of disorder? What most people think of as order consists in telling other people what they want to hear and then manipulating them. Thats how you sell them products. But the selling of products is the opposite of what art and listeners need, which is a harsh voice to tell us the truth.
What is the underground?
This issue is about to explode into public discourse because the rise in new-style metal bands has forced this question upon us all.
What is the underground?
Before even reading this article, keep in mind that there are some excellent resources. First, The Heavy Metal FAQ provides a complete answer. Second, Underground Never Dies! is a whole book dedicated to this topic through the eyes of metal bands from the 1980s-1990s underground era.
But we can come up with an even quicker definition.
Triptykon announce Melana Chasmata release on April 14
Ex-Celtic Frost guitarist and compose Tom G. Warrior releases the second album of his Triptykon project, Melana Chasmata (dark valleys) on April 14 in Europe and April 15 in the USA through Century Media Records/Prowling Death Records Ltd.
This follows up on the first Triptykon album, Eparistera Daimones, which introduced the modern speed metal (think Pantera or a more artistic and slower Meshuggah) style mixed with Gothic and doom metal elements that so far has characterized the band.
Bazillion Points releases Heavy Metal Movies
Metal-related publisher Bazillion Points (of Metalion and Only Death is Real fame) is furthering its extensive catalogue, this time with a book chronicling the exploits of heavy metal movies.
Written by Mike McBeardo McPadden, Heavy Metal Movies covers over 1300 films, ranging from movies explicitly about a heavy metal theme (obligatory This Is Spinal Tap entry), to movies that were metal in spirit and thus became involved in bands artistic development (notably Lord of the Rings and Conan the Barbarian), in addition to various violent slashers and metal documentaries. Reviews are accompanied by color photographs and promotional artwork.
Sadistic Metal Reviews 02-09-14
What are Sadistic Metal Reviews? When people decide that life is worth living, try to make good music. Unless they hope to make a quick buck, in which case they disguise bad music as innovation. We separate the good from the bad with a machete. Come for the misery, stay for the occasional exception
Thevetat enters studio to record EP
Satan Life Sentence tour 2014 kicks off in April
Codex Obscurum zine releases issue #4
The recent revival in non-ultra-niche zines for underground metal continues with the success of Codex Obscurum, an old-school style zine that takes advantage of modern technology. Our previous coverage of Codex Obscurum chronicles its development from the early days to mastery of aesthetic and content.
Interview: Zloslut
We reviewed Zloslut in our latest Oration of Disorder reviews. Response was good, and so we wrote to the band and asked if theyd do an interview. Hunter of Zloslut was good enough to respond and create this interview.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 2904
Posted: Tue Feb 18, 2014 1:15 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 2/11-2/17
Because Metal Is Art
The relationship between heavy metal and horror movies
Apparently Kirk Hammetts Fear FestEvil went off without a hitch, bringing together metal fans and horror movie fans in a celebration of movie artifacts, horror movie personalities and metal bands saluting their favorite genre of film.
The festival featured performances by Exodus, Death Angel and Carcass, but also had as guests Kerry King (Slayer), Scott Ian (Anthrax/SOD), Doyle (Mistfits) and of course Hammett (Metallica) himself. In addition, you could meet movie legends like Boris Karloffs wife and son, the man in the Godzilla suit Haruo Nakajima and a number of a directors and actresses from horror movies over the years.
The most interesting quote of the day however came from Hammett himself, who outlined the reasons for the relationship between metal and horror movies...
Marquis Marky leaving Coroner at end of February
Coroner occupy a unique place in metal history. Coming from the speed metal camp, they injected their music with technicality and a high art sense that placed them alongside Voivod and Prong as some of the 1980s oddities.
As power metal grew popular in the 2000s, Coroner came back into focus because so much of what they did presaged what power metal would become. As a result, the band re-united and began to play live again.
However, today drummer Marquis Marky announced on Facebook that he will be leaving the band at the end of February...
Defending metal before the internet
The Internet grew out of 1960s DARPA projects and has been with us a long time. Most of us however only began to explore it after September 1993 when AOL began mailing out all those free disks that allowed anyone (and they meant, Satan help us, literally anyone) to get on the internet. After that, the Internet became public property.
But before those times, in the days of the late 1970s through early 1990s, the BBS was king. Someone would set up a home computer on a second phone line, install and configure (or hand-code) some software, and then send out the word to others friends on their own BBSs. People traded files and wrote messages to one another, both private (email) and public (forums).
During the later days of that phenomenon, a user named Starmaster opted to defend heavy metal against accusations laid against it in a text-file known as Heavy Metal: The Untold Truth, translated here from the raw text file...
Death metal horror film Deathgasm wins funding
You may have read our previous coverage of Deathgasm, the metal-themed horror film that independent producer Jason Lei Howden of New Zealand intends to make. The film, which focuses on the story of two teenage boys who unwittingly summon an ancient evil entity known as The Blind One, will begin shooting in another eight to ten weeks.
King Crimson spinoff group The Crimson ProjeKCt releases Live in Tokyo
A supergroup composed of King Crimson musicians, The Crimson ProjeKCt, will release Live in Tokyo through InsideOut Music on March 18, 2014. To commemorate the announcement of the live albums release, the band have issued a video of their live performance of the 1974 King Crimson classic Red off the album by the same name.
Interview: Ray López of Thrash Corner Records
Regular DMU readers may have noticed that Puerto Rico has been on this sites radar since Brett Stevens interviewed José Chewy Correa of Organic last year, and for good reason. The Island of Enchantment is more than just beaches, bikinis and piña coladas; its also home to one of the most active and diverse metal scenes that youve probably never heard of.
Teenage Time Killer readies debut LP
Occasionally, even the most cynical members of the DMU venture into the outside world to a realm where supergroups come together and convulse the media in marked excitement. Corrosion of Conformity members Mike Dean and Reed Mullin have put together a project entitled Teenage Time Waster, a 21-track album featuring many prominent names within the music industry.
Destroying Texas Fest IX to destroy Houston on May 17, 2014
* Sadistic Intent
* Negative Plane
* Blaspherian
* Nodens
* Inverted Trifixion
* Morgengrau
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2014 7:00 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 2/18-2/23
Because Metal Is Art
Interview: metal academic John Sewell of the University of West Georgia
As part of our exploration of the ideas behind the metal, we take frequent peeks into the world of academia, where a number of metal academics are writing, teaching and evangelizing heavy metal as a cultural and artistic force. This is one mechanism for metal to rise above mere product status and be understood as a phenomenon with something to contribute to our understanding and society at large.
Today we chat with metal professor John Sewell, author of Doing it For The Dudes: A Comparative Ethnographic Study of Performative Masculinity in Heavy Metal and Hardcore Subcultures and the University of West Georgias resident metal analyst. Were grateful to him for sparing us the time to chat about the meaning behind metal, and what it is that makes this genre quite difficult to pin down.
Black Sabbath Tyr
If I ever have to declare a field of study and I hope I never must I will declare my intention to study transitional material. It is the most fascinating by far, and Black Sabbath Tyr demonstrates why.
Emerging in the final days of the 1980s and the first days of the new decade, Tyr shows Black Sabbath trying to keep one foot in what succeeded in the previous era while gesturing at inventing the next. The band is not bold enough to simply invent it, since they are too invested in being an industry in themselves. That puts them in the position of defending what they have by incorporating the current, not by redefining it and trying to become something new.
Autopsy unleashes Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves on April 29
Society views heavy metal as a symbol
If youve suffered through even a few years of big media, youre probably aware how it functions through symbols. Where literature might describe something, big media trots out a handy symbol that might be described uncharitably as a cliche. Drinking = troubled. Strip bar = edgy. Slow dance = love. Motorcycle = rebel.
Mayhem Psywar
Norwegian black metal band Mayhem have released the first side of their upcoming single, entitled Psywar. At 3.5 minutes it shows the band continuing their foray into modern extreme metal aesthetics.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 2904
Posted: Thu Mar 13, 2014 4:50 am
Post subject:
March 12, 2014:
What are Sadistic Metal Reviews? The only path to metal glory is to make music that is metal both in form and content, and upholds the spirit of conquering the unknown and crushing the empty and pointless. Anything else fails and shall be mocked! Come for the impotent rage, stay for the occasional standout
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 4:10 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 3/9-3/16
Because Metal Is Art
Interview with Terry Butler of Massacre
Massacre carved a place for themselves in the death metal community years ago and with their foundational From Beyond, an album of tremolo-picked columnar death metal with big fuzzy production at a time when many death metal bands were still trying to emulate the muted-picked speed metal of the previous era.
Over two decades later, Massacre returns with Back From Beyond which sees release on April 1, 2014 via Century Media records. We were fortunate to be able to grab a few words with bassist Terry Butler, whose work with Massacre, Death, Six Feet Under and other Florida death metal bands has made him a towering legend in the community.
Arctic Music relaunches with Julian Hollowell (Kult of Azazel) at the helm
Arctic Music Group (AMG), famed for quality death metal releases at reasonable cost in the early 2000s, will restructure itself into Arctic Media (AM) along with its imprint labels Arctic Music, Frozen North and Punktuation!.
Under the leadership of Julian Hollowell (Kult of Azazel, Hateplow) Arctic Music and Punktuation! will focus on extreme metal and punk. Under Ricktor Ravensbrück (Electric Hellfire Club), Frozen North will focus on electronic and industrial music. Finally, Mike Gallo of SBS Recordings will lead the new label imprint Blue Light which will focus on blues, country, reggae and world music.
Finland hosts Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures conference in June 2015
Toni-Matti Karjalainen of the Aalto University School of Business announced the Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices and Cultures as slated for June 2015, in coordination with the International Society for Metal Music Studies. The conference is designed to be a fusion of business and management theory and observations on the business of heavy metal.
The former black sheep of popular culture is today a relevant subject for almost any scientific discipline, the conference organizational flyer announces. A Call For Papers and more information will be unleashed on March 31, 2014.
Interview with The Inverted Katabasis author Dean Swinford
We were fortunate to get some time for a chat with Dean Swinford, author of Death Metal Epic I: The Inverted Katabasis. As a person with extensive experience in both death metal and literature, Swinford provides a great deal of insight into both.
Saint Vitus on 35th anniversary tour of North America
Sadistic Metal Reviews 03-12-14
What are Sadistic Metal Reviews? The only path to metal glory is to make music that is metal both in form and content, and upholds the spirit of conquering the unknown and crushing the empty and pointless. Anything else fails and shall be mocked! Come for the impotent rage, stay for the occasional standout
Master launches North American Witchhunt Tour in April
Is all metal speed metal now?
All of this is well and good if we do one single but difficult thing: recognize that what were listening to now is a dressed-up version of what metal and punk were doing in the late 1980s. Were walking backward in history, away from that scary underground death metal and black metal, and looking toward something less disturbing and more fun at parties. It seems no one has come out and said this, so I figured it must be said.
Adramelech Psychostasia re-issued by Xtreem Music
Adramelech, long viewed as a younger brother to legendary Finnish death metal band Demigod, ride again with the re-issue of their classic Psychostasia on Xtreem Records. Revered for their ability to mix subtle melody with mid-paced death metal rhythms to produce an enveloping sense of pervasive darkness, Adramelech like Demigod found their way into many death metal collections but remained out of the spotlight that favored more dramatic bands.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Mon Mar 24, 2014 6:20 am
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 3/17-3/24
Because Metal Is Art
Teitanblood Death
After black metal collapsed, fans went looking for the next great genre to fill the void. Unfortunately, the only new developments post-1996 have been of retrogression. Whether combining metal with vapidity (post-black metal), commercialism ((Watain, Satyricon)), or frequently both; fans were left without any direction to look to. After reviewing the situation, some honest people realized that progression was a sham and the solution was to take metal back to its earlier underground roots in death and speed metal.
Enter Teitanblood.
Twilight III: Beneath Tridents Tomb
Commercial black metal. Oh dear.
Advertising agencies would like us to believe that Twilight is a black metal supergroup; but looking at the list of musicians involved, there isnt much to do with black metal, let alone a noteworthy record within that genre. If there was a desire to be accurate, the band would be billed as a group of musicians without much in common, to whom we rented a studio and told them to make something that we could promote. Its here the band succeeds but not anywhere else.
Rob Flynn expounds on how commerce crushes creativity
Alternative metal band Machine Head frontman Rob Flynn recently launched a blog-based tirade in which he excoriates the current music industry for being too industrial in its approach to music. In his view, as soon as something succeeds and lots of people show up to make money off of it, creativity is crushed.
Mayhem announces details of Esoteric Warfare
Jason Netherton (Dying Fetus) releases Extremity Retained: Notes from the Death Metal Underground
Former Dying Fetus member Jason Netherton, now proprietor Send Back My Stamps!, releases his latest creation in the form of a 480-page book of interview with figures in the death metal underground called Extremity Retained: Notes from the Death Metal Underground. The product of over 100 interviews over a three-year period, the book is comprised entirely of first-hand stories, anecdotes, memories and opinions.
Interview with metal academic Ross Hagen
As part of our exploration of academia in metal, we meet all sorts of interesting academics with different relationships to metal. Some are more on the academic side, some on the musical, and some in-between. Ross Hagen straddles both extremes by being both a musician and an academic with a focus on teaching metal. As a result, he brings both personal experience and delight in the genre to the otherwise more abstract academic view. We were lucky to get in a few questions with this interesting person and teacher.
Darkthrone announces release of Black, Death and Beyond anthology
Codex Obscurum Issue Four
Many of us old school death metal fans watched the rise of zine Codex Obscurum with growing interest because it, like Glorious Times and Underground Never Dies!, represents an attempt to look back at the underground and figure out what made it as powerful as it was. Part of the answer is selectivity, which is a gentle persons form of elitism, meaning that one selects quality over quantity and vigorously promotes and defends the quality. This is what zines did, what radio shows did, and what labels did, back in the day, by choosing some bands over others. The vague smell of blood in the air is the shadow of long-forgotten predation and natural selection that also shaped us as humans, which means not so much survival of the fittest but that all who make a meaningful contribution get kicked upstairs and everyone else is forgotten.
Sorcier des Glaces releases Ritual of the End
Northern wanderlust black metal band Sorcier des Glaces announces its fifth album, Ritual of the End, to become available shortly through Galy Records. This Quebecois act made a name for itself in the internally collapsing underground by crafting lengthy melodies in windswept melancholic formations, despite the trends of the time which it rebuked.
Interview with Dallas Toler-Wade of Narcotic Wasteland
Most metalheads know the name Dallas Toler-Wade from Nile, the modern metal band that dropped static riffing and late-1970s guitar rock structures into death metal and paved the way for a new generation of hybrids and mythological themes in metal. However, before Nile, Toler-Wade created music with his cohorts in the band that has become Narcotic Wasteland.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Mon Mar 31, 2014 6:12 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 3/25-3/31
Because Metal Is Art
Oppression Sociopathie & Glorie
Punk music, in all of its myriad strains, was an integral foundation of black metal. The sense of strong alienation coupled with a conflicted youthful exuberance towards the future was shared between both genres, in addition to technical specificities. As black metal burned through its trajectory and splintered into its various initiatory parts, it became clear that a punk foundation to the genre would be a logical ground for renewal.
Its here that we find French-Canadian band Oppression...
Autopsy releases The Howling Dead from Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves
Crepitant muciferous mid-paced death metal band Autopsy releases its newest album, Tourniquets, Hacksaws and Graves on April 29. This will be the seventh full-length for the long-running band, who took a break from 1995-2008, and most likely will showcase more of their streamlined rubric of aggressive death metal balanced by a mainstay of moderately paced material which gives contrast to the bursts of fury.
Cruxiter unleashes Madness of the Void demo 2014
Heavy metal band Cruxiter unleashes its latest demo, Madness of the Void, via YouTube in preparation for a cassette release. Cruxiter has been steadily gaining fans for its mixture of modern technique, classic heavy metal, and touches from the album-oriented melodic guitar rock of the late 1970s.
Interview: Jari of Agonized
Finnish band Agonized got the break last year that they wanted two decades ago: a horde of people interested in their only demo, Gods , which was subsequently and sequentially released on CD-R, vinyl, CD and tape.
Created in the old school style of primitive rumbling death metal somewhere between Belial and Demigod, Gods comprised four tracks (and an intro) of disturbing inhuman noise shaped into musical form. Since metal has not produced any style more compelling than old school death metal, interest in such material has accelerated over the recent years.
We were fortunate to get in a few words with Jari from Agonized about Gods and the circumstances of its creation, and how and why it endures today
Nidhogg reveals details of Ildjarn and Hate Forest Those Once Mighty Fallen split
Last year, we reviewed Ildjarns contribution to the Those Once Mighty Fallen split. In it, we speculated that Ildjarn perhaps was uninvolved in composing that music, due to its distinct difference with the rest of his discography.
This perception turned out to be well-founded, as former collaborator NiDHOGG recently revealed the original demo tape via his Youtube page, composed by him in 1994...
How to buy friends and manipulate people
Metal and everything else humanity-related is like the first day of first grade. People are still using the same tactics they used then as the basis of their behavior, mainly because there are only so many options and the goal hasnt changed.
What is the goal? Society is a cooperation for the sake of survival. We need to get other people to work with us. Most people do that through socializing, others use raw power, some others can only deal with it through the filter of money. But when you socialize, there are only a few paths. You can try to be the over-achiever, with all As and good at athletics. Or you can stand out another way, which is being The Opposite of what people expect. You see this in high school drama departments the clearest, but its also present in entertainment and politics among adults.
The tactic is this: stand out by being different.
Hacker Metal by Brett Stevens on Perfect Sound Forever
I wrote an article about the cross-influence between hacking and heavy metal. It covers the use of alternative media, like BBS and AE lines, to convey a hidden truth that is shared between metalheads and hackers. The article is entitled Hacker Metal and it is published in Perfect Sound Forever webzine.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
Last edited by Total Deaf on Tue Apr 01, 2014 4:47 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Joined: 25 Feb 2009
Posts: 2904
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 7:52 am
Post subject:
A couple more:
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Joined: 09 Mar 2014
Posts: 26
Location: Netherlands / Netherworld
Posted: Tue Apr 01, 2014 8:46 am
Post subject:
I've been reading some articles... although I disagree with a lot, it's good there are sites like these...
Keep it up, very interesting.
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Tue Apr 15, 2014 1:56 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 4/1-4/15
Because Metal Is Art
Heavy metal documentary The Distorted Island: Heavy Metal music and community in Puerto Rico releases first trailer
A group of academics and metal fans called Puerto Rico Heavy Metal Studies spends its time working on a documentary about heavy metal in Puerto Rico named The Distorted Island: Heavy Metal music and community in Puerto Rico. The first trailer, seen below, from this project has been released as of yesterday.
Nelson Varas-Díaz, Osvaldo González, Eliut Segarra and Sigrid Mendoza comprise the research and filmmaking team. Dr. Nelson Varas-Díaz is Associate Professor at the University of Puerto Rico and a lifelong metal fan who has led the team in carrying out a research study on the local scene.
Tony Iommi Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath
In Iron Man: My Journey Through Heaven & Hell with Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi writes his memoirs for a book that is both everything and Black Sabbath fan could want, and not enough. He writes about everything important and brings out some moments of great clarity, but then at some point the book expands like a drunken conversation and spills too much ink on the less important later Black Sabbath works. Iommi also has an offhand and conversational way of explaining things from his point of view that does not flesh out the details and background enough to let people know what was really going on. However, the juicy stories of rock n roll excess, and most of the potent decision points in the Black Sabbath career, are not missed.
Metal Music Studies journal selling subscriptions directly
The journal of the International Society of Metal Music Studies (ISMMS), Metal Music Studies, is now available via subscription through direct purchase from the publisher Intellect Books. Editors Karl Spracklen and Niall Scott have been at the forefront of integrating heavy metal and academia so that the latter may study the former.
Why metal will never be understood, and never wants to be
We live in a land of confusion. Most people here have trouble differentiating between a conclusion and a method used to reach a conclusion.
Take for example the phrase, Thats logical. To most people, this conjures up a list of things that are accepted as having a basis in logic. When you ask them to parse something new, which involves applying a method to each sequential detail in order to find out how they fit together. Thats difficult; tracking conclusions and having a whitelist/blacklist of accepted ideas is easier.
If you want to know how metal calcifies itself, it is through these conclusions. Darkthrone ended up sounding the way they did as a result of their method, putting together all the pieces and coming up with a bigger direction. When bands imitate Darkthrone, none of this happens, and thus none of the music is nearly as good. They know how to imitate it from the surface inward, but they dont know why it came about it and thus, how to charge it with the meaning the original had.
Pilgrim II: Void Worship
After metal spent decades expanding its boundaries farther than may be wise, some individuals decided to adopt the inverse of this mentality. Instead of diluting the genre, go back to its roots and construct songs within an existing framework, rather than trying to do both simultaneously. It is here that heavy-metal/doom retrovival band Pilgrim enters the spotlight.
Dave Mustaine explores classical-metal hybrid
Speed metal tyrant Dave Mustaine (Metallica, Megadeth) takes to the stage with the San Diego Symphony to play guitar solos in place of violin leads.
He will play along with Summer and Winter from Antonio Vivaldis The Four Seasons, Johann Sebastian Bachs Air, Richard Wagners Ride of the Valkyries and Antonín Dvořáks New World Symphony. Mustaine described these pieces as shredding, fast and melodic.
The difference between metal and punk, rock: its not literal
As author of The Heavy Metal FAQ, I have wrestled with the question of how to define metal over the years. Since it uses the same techniques as any other form of music, but used in different proportions and combinations, I have always focused on the idea that unites these uses which makes metal so obviously distinct from rock, punk and other forms of music.
To this Id like to add another idea: metal is not literal. That is, metal tends to view the world through a symbolic or mythological lens. It does so to reflect our inward sensations about what is going on, plus a historical viewpoint which requires a more high-level view. The details dont matter as much as the form, in metal, and we pay attention to the form and then put it in a folk-wisdom format.
Sinister plans release of The Post-Apocalyptic Servant in May 2014
Goatcraft The Blasphemer
While dark ambient provides a set of moods that metal listeners can relate to, it generally aims for simpler instrumentation than metal fans are accustomed to, and falls short of the dark yet violent atmosphere of death metal. Goatcraft merges horror movie soundtracks and dark ambient into necroclassical, a form of music created with a digital piano as its leading voice that creates a dense texture of melodic development underneath the soaring and expanding moods of dark ambient.
Created by the mastermind behind some of the music of After Death and other post-death metal projects, Goatcraft expands on the style of its previous work All For Naught with a greater tendency toward melodic development and more distinctive songs.
Interview with - - -
For those who caught our review of the - - - /Dawning split some months ago, the intentional mystery behind - - - may have created some interest. Artists disguising themselves is nothing new; all of black metal disguised themselves under pseudonyms and paint like nocturnal vigilantes. Authors such as Thomas Pynchon are famous for their reclusive refusal to be photographed or interviewed. And in occult and ambient music, the situation gets even more obscure.
- - - create music that sounds like a heavy metal hybrid with the vaguely occult black metal of the style that Deathspell Omega made famous, but with a mix of heavy metal in the balance such as one might find from Paradise Lost or Primordial. The result floats gently through the speakers and is both familiar and highly distant. We were fortunate to gain access to the concealed personality behind - - - for a short interview on the nature of existence, music and possibly why black metal has lost its way.
Thou Shell of Death Sepulchral Silence
Underground metal musicians have always intensely observed ambient, no-classical, and avant-garde genres. Recognizing the same desire to merge the ideals of classical composition with modern technology and popular song structure, some merge these strands in their own metal-based music.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2014 3:43 am
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 4/16-4/27
Because Metal Is Art
Documentary Lone Survivor Paul Speckmann and the story of Master soliciting funds
Way back in the early 1980s, a band in the Chicago area began making the transition from speed metal to a proto-death metal style. It transitioned through punk and oddly retained a lot of elements of 1960s rock, but was part of the formative path toward death metal along with Bathory, Slayer, Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Sepultura and Sodom before Death or Morbid Angel had ever recorded.
Three decades after that rocky start, two metal journalists are attempting to record the life and times of Paul Speckmann with a documentary entitled Lone Survivor Paul Speckmann and the story of Master. The filmmakers bill the film as not just a Speckmann history, but the story of anyone who has chased a dream and endured the victories and defeats that come with the journey.
Another take on the Hellfest porn angle
By now, youve probably heard that Frances Hellfest had been planning to team up with a porn site to provide entertainment at the show. Naturally, two sides have formed, the pro side who think either this might be cool or it should be allowed, and the con side which thinks its a bad idea.
Im going to join the con side at a meta level by saying that I think we should be very careful about involving any industry with metal, including the metal industry (which should be an oxymoron) itself. Industry wants the opposite of music quality; it wants a tractable fan-base that will buy whatever comes out so long as it has some new quality, like using a trombone or a different singer.
The danger of obscurity bias
Obscurity bias arises from our desire to discover hidden essential influences in the past. In metal, it is the search not only for concealed gems but for lost ancestors of our favorite music.
This thinking is a variation on our perpetual quest for more alternatives. We look at whats there and think we want something better. This ignores the basic rule of life that usually whats wrong is a lack of quality, not need for another alternative.
When we look back for historical alternatives, we are seeking to avoid the obvious historical truth: there are few ancestors because few necessary steps lie between 1969, when Black Sabbath recorded the first proto-metal record, and today.
Triptykon Melana Chasmata
Back in 1990, Celtic Frost released Vanity/Nemesis. This album was tasked with redeeming the fans respect after the affair that was Cold Lake . Straddling the gap that existed between that album and the style of inventive proto-death metal that had made Celtic Frost worth hearing, Vanity/Nemesis was a rather mediocre album. It was reasonably competent and it attempted to blend in with its contemporary milieu, but the album was artificial and uncomfortable to listen to.
In many ways, Melana Chasmata is the linear descendant of that album.
How the internet ruined metal
A common sentiment expressed by diehards (or as cynics call them tryhards) is that the internet ruined metal. It was a paradise before, they say. You bought zines, traded tapes, bought from small labels, and everything was pure and innocent. The demon of convenience and commerce had not yet reared its ugly head.
With the internet, it is said, all of that ended because it became easy to acquire a band by just typing the name into a search engine. There was no commitment that way, the story goes. People became accustomed to everything being easy and no longer cared about quality. They stopped going to shows and supporting the scene. Underground metal became armchair metal.
While I dont doubt there is some legitimacy to those complaints, I offer another view: what made the internet kill metal was that it turned the process of being a fan inside out.
Call for papers for Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices, Cultures conference
The international academic research conference Modern Heavy Metal: Markets, Practices, Cultures has issued a call for papers or request that those of you with something to write on this topic announce your thesis and send in your paper(s). This conference is hosted by the Aalto School of Business in conjunction with the International Society for Metal Music Studies and will occur from June 8-12, 2015.
Sadistic Intent announce May tour dates
Sadistic Intent became known for their brand of intense death metal that carried the dark, foreboding atmosphere of speed/death metal bands such as Possessed and Slayer to its logical conclusion. Later, the band further developed its technical capacities into a style of death metal similar to Morbid Angel. After years of relative silence, Sadistic Intent have announced the itinerary for their Lurking Terror Crusade 2014 tour:
May 2 Detroit, MI (The Tangent Gallery)
May 3 Chicago, IL (Cobra Lounge)
May 4 Lakewood, Oh (The Foundry)
May 5 Buffalo, NY (The Rocking Buffalo
May 6 Philadelphia, PA (The Milkcreek Tavern)
May 7 Wallingford, CT (Cherry Street Station)
May 8 Boston, MA (Sammys Patio)
May 9 Brooklyn, NY (The Acheron)
May 10 Hyattsville, MD (Schizophrenia)
May 11 Chesapeake, VA (Rogers)
May 15 New Orleans, LA (Sitheria)
May 17 Houston, TX (Mangos)
Tom G. Warrior agrees with our review of Triptykon Melana Chasmata
Warrior honestly reflects on the difficult process of creating the album.
Slayer posts new track for free download
Crucifix Visions of Nihilism
Texan death metal band Crucifix released multiple demos during the early 1990s which showcased the bands development of percussive death metal into an artistic voice instead of participation in a trend. Like many other neglected bands who were ahead their time, the band never released a full album. Those who desire a collection of the bands original material can now obtain it through the efforts of Dark Blasphemies Records.
Desecresy Chasmic Transcendence released by Xtreem Records
Finnish old school death metal band Desecresy released their third album, Chasmic Transcendence, via Xtreem Records (ex-Drowned) on April 21, 2014. Following more of a mid-paced approach in deference to the doom-death of past, the album offers 14 tracks of shorter length than previous albums.
Descresy, which consists of Nurmi T.G. on vocals and Tommi Gronqvist on guitars/bass/drums, might be compared to a fusion of old Finnish death metal like Abhorrence and doom-death like Incantation or Asphyx. The band released a promotional track, Voracious Mass, which demonstrates the changes in style.
CIA agrees that later Deicide sucks, uses it to torture prisoners
As part of its enhanced interrogation of prisoners in the worldwide police action against terrorist guerrillas, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been subjecting prisoners to abruptly-changing streams of loud music. The idea behind this interrogation is essentially to obliterate the prisoners mind with repetitive and offensive noise and make them pliable; how this is different from people voluntarily watching television and listening to radio remains to be studied.
Dont support the scene
After death metal and black metal had made their meaningful contributions, a cry rang out: support the scene!
By that it was meant that you should go to local shows, buy records, and otherwise give monetary subsistence and publicity to local bands.
They left off a key detail: which local bands?
Actually, they dont want you to ask that question. All local bands, they hope. That way, even if their bands are talentless, theyll be able to sell merch and music because, yknow be cool man, support the scene!
Interview with Brett Stevens at MetalRecusants.com
Adventurous metal site Metal Recusants published an interview with myself that hopefully will not bore any of you too much. Metal Recusants is one of the more interesting sites out there as you found out when you read our profile of Editor Dom and his team a few months back. Be sure to poke around for their commentary and reviews, interviews, and other forays into the world of extreme metal.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Total Deaf
Joined: 26 Nov 2013
Posts: 21
Posted: Mon May 05, 2014 3:13 pm
Post subject:
Death Metal Underground
Newsletter 4/28-5/5
Because Metal Is Art
Judas Priest announce Redeemer of Souls
Legendary heavy metal band Judas Priest have released their first new music following the departure of longtime guitarist K.K. Downing. Entitled Redeemer of Souls, it is the first single off the upcoming album of the same name. It reveals a band simultaneously keeping with modern expectations of heavy metal composition and production and staying loyal to their roots in the NWOBHM movement.
Unleashed Odalheim
The most recent album from Unleashed, Odalheim, is simultaneously the best and worst of days for this band. On the plus side, Unleashed have improved at editing down their material so it all flows smoothly and doesnt ramble. On the downside, the band have adopted a style that is equal parts Dissection and The Haunted, which makes for an almost satisfying heavy metal experience ruined by kiddie rock band style antics on the level of nu-metal.
Interview with Jeff Tandy of Birth A.D.
Im interviewing Jeff Tandy, vanguard of the hateful and cynical Texas thrash band Birth A.D. He also played bass in the black metal band Averse Sefira under the pseudonym Wrath Sathariel Diabolus.
Incantation Carrion Prophecy from Dirges of Elysium
Foundational death metal band Incantation have released the first single off their upcoming album, Dirges of Elysium. Entitled Carrion Prophecy, the single showcases Incantation widening the extent of their genre limit and leaning in the direction of modernitys post-death metal doom/sludge marketplace.
Interview with D.X. Ferris, author of Slayers Reign in Blood (33 1/3)
The second of May makes many of us uneasy because we remember the death of Jeff Hanneman, composer and architect of the Slayer approach to mythological alienation. The world isnt the same without him, and many of us felt like we had lost a parent, since when adults refuse to grow up and speak honestly about life, children have to turn to other sources of information. Hanneman made sense of the modern world, no matter how apocalyptic the outlook ultimately turned out to be.
We are fortunate to get a few words in with D.X. Ferris, author of the books Slayers Reign in Blood (33 1/3) and Slayer 66 2/3: The Jeff & Dave Years. A Metal Band Biography. Ferris has spent the last several years writing about Slayer and understands the importance of this historic act not just to metal, but to the society around us all. Read on for the inner truths of writing about Slayer on this day we commemorate Hannemans life.
The problem of commercialism in metal
Some will tell you that metal cannot sell out because metal is not a large financial enterprise. The question then is, What is large? because if a genre supports dozens of labels, has top-grossing tours, and tens of thousands of bands, it seems that someone is getting paid more than they would otherwise.
Death metal albums of which I will never tire
If you want to get to the core of death metal, these albums might help. Theyre albums I keep returning to year after year because they have enough complexity and that unquantifiable quality of having purpose and being expressive, perhaps even emulating the life around them and converting it into a beast of mythological quality, which makes them interesting each time I pick them up. Without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, the players .
Why zines are coming back big time
People say what they hope will be true and the grand visions printed about the internet back in the 90s are no exception. While most of us were hoping for Neuromancer on our home computers, more mature people saw the internet as an emerging market. They cynically promised as a new age where anyone could publish to the internet. It would be a new age free of domination by big media and a marketplace of ideas, they said.
Fast-forward to the time when those predictions would have come true and we see a far different reality.
DeathMetal.org is the net's oldest and longest-running heavy metal resource center and home of The Heavy Metal FAQ. We treat heavy metal music as a form of art and culture, and believe we should bring out the best in it. Our primary focus is death metal; but we remain open to new musical experiences, both within metal and without. To learn more, visit our information center at:
To join our weekly mailing list, visit:
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Phun At The Phestival
On Monday, the husband, kids, and myself attended the 21st annual Phillies Phestival at Citizens Bank Park. The Phestival benefits the Philadelphia chapter of the ALS Association, and raised over $800,000 this year. Click here and here for coverage on the Phillies website.
Although it was drizzling slightly when we arrived at the ballpark, it did not last long, and it turned into a pleasant evening. Since we had about an hour until the players would begin signing autographs at their booths, we decided to take a walk around the concourse and get something to eat, rather than stand in line while nothing was going on. Then again, we weren't lucky enough to get tickets to the "big name" booths, i.e. Howard, Utley, Rollins, etc., so there was no burning need to get in line early.
First stop was Brad Lidge's booth, as all three of us had this ticket. My husband feels no need to get autographs, and really, why would we both need one? So he is the designated bag holder while the kids and myself are in the lines.
So what brilliant thing did I blurt out as I was handing Brad a baseball to sign? "Hi, how's the elbow?" Like he hadn't heard that hundreds of times already! Duh! By the way, he said it was feeling great. As I thanked him and moved on, I overheard the guy behind me in line come up to the table – "Hi Brad, how's the elbow?" I wonder if he got really tired of that question by the end of the evening.
My daughter had a ticket for the Kyle Kendrick/Ben Francisco booth, so my husband went with her while my son followed me around as I was taking pictures of the players at some of the other booths. He didn't enjoy this part of the evening.
My next stop was the Cuban station, otherwise known as the Danys Baez/Jose Contreras autograph booth. Neither of them was particularly talkative – I can understand Contreras wouldn't be, as he doesn't speak much (any?) English and Baez usually acts as his "interpreter". Maybe Baez wasn't quite sure what to make of all of it.
My son had a ticket for the Placido Polanco station, but decided not to use it since he already had a Polanco autograph from the first Phestival I took him to about six years ago, during Polanco's first stint as a Phillie. Since I also had a ball signed back then, I had Placido sign a photo of him that I had taken in Spring Training:
While I was doing this, my husband took the kids to buy some grab bags, and also go in the clubhouse store. My son wanted to buy a Polanco t-shirt, but being a male, can't be bothered to look at the tag to see what size it is. So he held one up in front of him, asking dad if he thought he'd "grow into it". Lord only knows if my husband was actually paying attention, because when we got home, he tried it on and it fit like a dress. I took a look at the tag and said of course it was too big, it was an adult extra-large. So yeah, he'll grow into it, maybe by the time he graduates high school! So I guess it's mine for now. 🙂
So here are some photos from the evening, of the players whose booths I could get to. Some were in locations where only people with tickets to those booths could get through, or were not easily accessible, such as Raul Ibanez, Jayson Werth, and Ryan Howard. Cole Hamels and Roy Halladay were in photo booths, which required purchase of a separate ticket.
Brad Lidge's elbow was feeling great, hopefully he didn't get writer's cramp!
Chase Utley is much better looking without his hair all gooped back.
Kyle Kendrick has a really big forehead, which I never noticed with his cap on.
Ben Francisco was making his first Phestival appearance.
Why does Milt Thompson look so serious? Milt didn't smile much in last year's photo, and he still isn't in this year's version.
Since I had my camera turned vertically, J.C. Romero decided to turn his head, too. 🙂
Joe Blanton strikes a no-nonsense look.
Jimmy Rollins always looks like he's having fun. Jimmy was one of several players on the DL who still chose to participate in the Phestival – kudos to them!
David Herndon signs a card for a fan.
I hope Ryan Madson's toe was carefully tucked under the table, so no one stepped on it.
I warned Danys Baez I was going to take a picture, but he still doesn't quite look ready for it.
Jose Contreras signs a baseball for me.
Team president and CEO David Montgomery was on hand to help out. He later walked past my husband while I was at the grab bag table with the kids, and thanked him (and us) for coming out.
Placido Polanco smiles for my camera.
Davey Lopes reaches for a ball from a fan. Davey also looks very serious all the time – he and Milt need to smile more often! 🙂
Jamie Moyer appears to be letting his hair get a little shaggier than usual.
Shane Victorino has a big grin – hmm, what is he up to?
J.A. Happ was another player on the DL who chose to appear at the Phestival.
Is there a rule that coaches don't smile? Rich Dubee follows the lead of Milt and Davey.
Carlos Ruiz signs a jersey.
I felt kind of bad for Wilson Valdez. Paired with Ruiz at a booth, many people walked right past him without stopping. He's even holding two pens, ready and waiting to sign something. His photo was in the program, people! He did light up with a smile when I called his name for a photo op.
Is it wise to hand your children over to Larry Andersen and Gary Matthews? And when did L.A. shave his beard?? He just looks so…so…different.
My daughter and I pose with the 2008 World Series trophy and the 2009 National League champion trophy.
Why are my son and husband grinning like that? Certainly not because they're thinking about all the money we just spent on tickets, grab bags, food, and the gift shop (though it is going towards a good cause). No, apparently my daughter was sticking her fingers up in "rabbit ears" behind my head, unbeknownst to me.
Speaking of the gift shop, one of my purchases was the new Phillies coffee-table book, Phillies: An Extraordinary Tradition.
I've only just begun to casually flip through it, but it looks to be a real visual feast, with plenty of photos covering the entire spectrum of Phillies history.
You may have noticed that I haven't had much to say about the Phillies actual play recently. Well, that's because I haven't been too happy with it. The offense again failed to show up last night, as they were shut out 8-0 by the (ugh!) Mets.
Though I may frequently spew negative comments to my family while watching the games, I don't really like to commit such thoughts to the permanency of the internet. I may be forced to break this self-imposed rule if they don't start scoring some runs and winning some more games pretty soon! Only three games separate the first- and last-place teams in the NL East right now. Please, Phillies, I don't deal with stress very well – enlarge that lead or I will eat way too much junk food, and it will be all your fault!

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|View Poll Results: Toradora! - Episode 15 Rating
|Perfect 10
|9 out of 10 : Excellent
|8 out of 10 : Very Good
|7 out of 10 : Good
|6 out of 10 : Average
|5 out of 10 : Below Average
|4 out of 10 : Poor
|3 out of 10 : Bad
|2 out of 10 : Very Bad
|1 out of 10 : Painful
|Voters: 82. You may not vote on this poll
|Thread Tools
|2009-01-16, 06:33
|Link #101
A blast from the past
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Fortaleza-CE, Brazil
Age: 41
There's a fundamental flaw to your stance, Darknemo2000... the more information we have on something, the better our perception of that something turns out to be. It's just a matter of depth perception (not the visual kind, by the way) - and a factual one, at that.
Now, you can discount that information all you want, but more information about a character does, indeed, add to that character's depth. If you don't think it's all that relevant to the way the character behaves or whatever, well, that's another matter entirely.
|2009-01-16, 06:51
|Link #102
Baka Inu~
I really like Kitamura despite how many people don't care for him, so I'm really happy that we have an arc based around him. He's a main character but so far it's just been so circled around the three girls that he was almost forgotten. It's kind of annoying how there's this air of confusion with his changes, but I have a belief that the directors did that on purpose. You do want to care for Yuusaku and know what happened to him. Anyone agree?
Anyway, I did like the episode even though it had a lot of weird moments. I Minori really shined due to her insight and there were plenty of cute moments with Taiga and Ryuuji. Yasuko gets points too for being angry for the first time and then the whole scene where they plan to dye his hair back.
I do have a couple of issues with the episode nonetheless:
-Yeah, Ami got too little screentime. I wouldn't of been irritated with this, but it feels like that the left her in such a negative mood in the little time they showed us.
-Taiga's realization towards Kitamura felt a bit forced and random.
-It feels like since Sumire is the cause of Yuusaku's attitude, they should of reflected more on her.
And on a smaller note, Ami's friends kept refering Kitamura to as "Maruo." (Atleast from the subs I watched) I was thinking that they call him Mauro since that sounds like Marimo. Marimo = Green Algae. Yet when they try to dye his hair back, you notice that they plan to use black dye. Was there any reason for the name change or what?
|2009-01-16, 07:21
|Link #103
Join Date: Nov 2008
Location: Somewhere between heaven and hell !
Wow wow wow , don't become angry all , it's just an anime (even though i hate kitamura's character but it can be helped , you like or dislike some character ) !
I'm worried about , japanese , are they really like in anime ? i know there are somethings they are like anime's character (most japanese are timid ...... )
|2009-01-16, 07:22
|Link #104
seiyuu maniac
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Tokyo, Japan
|2009-01-16, 08:07
|Link #105
a small cat
Thouroughly enjoyed watching episode 15, there's just a little bit of everyone and a lot about Kitamura and Taiga on this episode.
Ami frowns when the council president says she's disappointed at Kitamura, shows that Ami cares for Kitamura (as a friend) because she doesn't like someone saying bad things about him. A little about Minori too... she thinks of herself as "haughty" and "unfair" (watched Shukumei's subs) I wonder why?
For Kitamura's situation, I think there's something the student council president wants him to do but he can't do it.
Eventhough he's depressed, I like how he still tries to be kind, like how he ate the burnt egg that Taiga cooked. I hope things will get better for him later on.
Taiga is doing her best to cheer up Kitamura, I kind of expected her to do that.
What I didn't expect was that she would really be bothered that Kitamura wasn't cheered up, I realized on this episode that Taiga really likes Kitamura from the bottom of her heart and it's not just a simple crush. The comparison Taiga made about the distance of the stars with distnace in people's relationships also surprised me, she can be perceptive if she wants too.
*can't wait for next episode
Last edited by Liddo-kun; 2009-01-16 at 10:47.
|2009-01-16, 08:13
|Link #106
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: USA
|2009-01-16, 08:29
|Link #107
Achilles Last Stand
Ho to all...
Well i think that kitamura reactions it`s a prove that our way to see kitamura was complete wrong...
In the beginning we see kitamura as some mature kid, with responsibilities (as vicepresident of the student council) and we think that was his true self...
But when he talk with sumire, he learn someting (in the anime that is still a mystery) about Sumire, and his reactionts show us something about kitamura...
Becoming "Emo" just show us, that kitamura is no mature at all, is just a kid...
Becouse a Mature person will confrount the situation, kitamura just run away, he tries that his problems resolve by itself just by he becoming "emo"...
Is Like a kid, How don't want to Eat Soup, and stop breathing until his mom/dad say "well what do you wanna eat"...
In this chapter we see that kitamura is still a kid, a stupid kid, who don't know how to confront unexpected thing, the fact that he became "Emo" or a "yanki" is not the main theme, the theme is he believes that "Becoming emo" is the way of resolving his problems...
And that IS something Deep, i think that he becoming "emo" is just a way to see the his truly immature nature...
And i thing he has a good reason for becoming "emo" but no for just what Sumire said to him, but also the implications of what she said (but leave that for the next episode)...
Sorry for my bad english... BYE!!!
|2009-01-16, 08:54
|Link #109
Senior Member
I count depth not as a background information but actually how profound the called info makes the character to be. After all there are cases where we get a lot of info about characters background but it still doenst create a very deep or realistic charcter with whom one could easily empathize with.
So it is not a flaw in my position but rather my opinion, which you call flow based... on your own opinion, which is not better or worse than mine, and which will turn out into another sparring without any conclusion anyway.
typhonsentra, I do not think it really humanizes him. To do that you would need to make charcter realistic, for me Kitamura's acts are not that unrealistic (even considering the teenage age, you have to remember that not that many teenagers tend to overact as this). Again this is my opinion but I feel that the tension constructed in here feels too forced, even if we take his age into account.
Now if he would be made as a realistic character to begin with then yes, but he is far from that and one hastily thrown flow hardly make him deeper because he still looks artificiial (like most harem leads) and his problems look like that as well. Again this is my opinion (I now will need to add this to me every sentence so taht poeple do not think that I am making it into objective sentence).
Last edited by Darknemo2000; 2009-01-16 at 09:05.
|2009-01-16, 09:03
|Link #110
In the Tatami Galaxy ↓
Join Date: Feb 2006
|2009-01-16, 09:12
|Link #111
A blast from the past
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Fortaleza-CE, Brazil
Age: 41
There's just no arguing with you, is there, Darknemo2000?
It's not an opinion: more factual information adds to the perception of something. End of story. You're debating the merits of said information and whether they are relevant to your opinion on whatever the relevant subject is. Oh, well... I'm off.
|2009-01-16, 09:17
|Link #112
Senior Member
It is not a fact that more information adds to perception of something. You are overassuming some things. Sometimes more information destabilizes perception of something and make it more shallow then the perfection with the less information. Yes more information can actually be more harmful and misleading than the similar information with less of actual info.
In modern world we do suffer from too much of information whivch harms our perception of the things and their depth. Baurdillard has a few analytic books regarding the modernism in our society and the information perception, pretty good if you'd ignore some of his rather crazy theories.
You are once again putting your opinion and saying it is objective fact while it is eternally subjective. Juts like mine mind, but you should really look at what you yourself try to express and if it really is objective. In most case, if you'd look deeper you will find a lot of subjectivity in seemingly objective facts.
|2009-01-16, 09:37
|Link #114
seiyuu maniac
Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: Tokyo, Japan
|2009-01-16, 09:53
|Link #115
A blast from the past
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Fortaleza-CE, Brazil
Age: 41
Look, you stick with your post-modernist theories and I'll stick with my academic views that the more we know about something, the more we know about something. This topic has become officially too weird for me. See ya!
|2009-01-16, 10:15
|Link #116
ショ ン (^^)
IT Support
I will admit i was not expecting Kitamura to basically have a nervous break down over what transpired between him and the Student Council Prez. Although i really have a feeling about what really happened i will have to confirm with the novels because Kitamura's behavior actually is making sense to me. Everyone reacts differently to situations the seemingly strong willed Kitamura crumbled when something didnt go his way. The result is him acting out dyeing his hair, quitting the student council, screaming and yelling to get out his frustration. Though this is not the way i would handle a situation i am also not teenager prone to random outburst of emotion. Kitamura's scenes showed me personally he is human which i think through all his other interaction is something was missed. The perception that he had everything together was shattered as he could not handle even one piece of news shows just how human he is.
Do i think he acted his age absolutely do i think it was over the top no not really it was way to get the point across that something was eating him up inside. Im fairly certain that whatever happened between the two involved something the Prez wanted him to do and also maybe a confession which ended badly for Kitamura. But i guess we will find out in the next episode. Either way it was obvious that she had high expectations for him and his actions letting her down. She called him him stupid and a waste of time and when Ami confronted her about her about it, her reply made it all more obvious that something personal transpired between her and Kitamura. I felt the emotions were portrayed fluently and coherently i recognize that some people thought many scenes were contrived and Emo i however had no such feelings towards any of the scenes.
For the second time we see Taiga burst into tears. This time its over her inability to help Kitamura and understand exactly what his pain is hence her saying "im no good" Her feelings for Kitamura are still there but i have noticed a slight change in how she deals with him its ever so slight . She did manage to irritate me with her "Kitamura-kun has always been there for me" while Ryu is standing right next to her she is very blinded by her infatuation sometimes. but for those who think that a TaigaxRyu ending is moving further and further away dont count on it there is plenty of evidence to support that the battle is not even halfway over. Taiga's intuition about Kitamura's problems stemming from the the Student Council prez is not far off which prompted her to think the only way to fix the problem is remove him from her side. This is the basis of Taiga's thinking about most things remove it and it will be ok. Though that thinking is not exactly flawed it does not always work especially in this situation where there is evidence to support that Kitamura has feelings for his sempai.
I found Minorin speech to Ryu interesting as she once again shows that she can be quite intelligent and thoughtful about situations. However she herself does not know that much about Ami as well. Anyhow at least there was some screen time involving Ami even though i really wish they stop pushing her character to the side because she is a very interesting and dynamic character with lots of range as i find Minorin the same in most episodes which does not get very interested in her at all.
Over a very good episode the story is moving maybe not as fast as some would like. But imo JC.Staff is on the right track with progression and character development hopefully the direction stays fluid and does not try to go to some alternate world of forced drama.
Last edited by Sinestra; 2009-01-16 at 10:26.
|2009-01-16, 10:25
|Link #117
Senior Member
You just have to believe that some things are objective - like saying 2+2=4 but even there the individual perception of the mathematical action exists.
And you should know that solipsism is not really post-modern. Unless you are saying that the first Cynics (note Cynics as philosophical school, not in casual meaning of cynics) since Socrates times where post-modern, or Descrates... which I hope you do not.
The question of objectiveness is still disputed as in what is really objective and can such thing be as objectiveness there. Some, like Nietzsche believed such phenomena as objectiveness non existant, some tried to defeat the solipsism (aka Descrates and his demiurg) with belief....
Basically it is the way, not to go mad, you just have to assume and believe some things to be objective even if you really look at deep enough you will see that what we held to be objective is really subjective, be it formula's or laws.
But again it wasn't what I was trying to point out with my posts. I was trying to say that you are assuming too much saying that it is a fact that more info deepens ones understanding of a certain thing and action - it really is not a fact, and can be disputed, specially in modern world where information has to be limited for us to understand few things better.
But lets go back to Kitamura, lol.
If you want you can come to some philosophy forums to discuss this theme, as objectiveness is one of those eternal problems that no one found an answer to so far (or in this case a proof that it really exists).
|2009-01-16, 10:33
|Link #118
Achilles Last Stand
But the story was always (at least for me) too rash, for me the series is too fast, they eat each light novel in 2 chapters (except for 5 in 3 and 6 in 2 1/2)...
But hey is just my opinion...
|2009-01-16, 11:34
|Link #120
ショ ン (^^)
IT Support
|Thread Tools


text: Our primary goal is to help you to understand RegTech and to become more confident and persuasive in your ability to analyze and make recommendations to executives within the finance industry regarding how to react to these changes, e.g. Regulations to crypto-currencies like BitCoin & ICO. This MOOC on RegTech offered by HKUST presents the views of several professors from the top business school in Asia as well as perspectives from industry professionals. HKUST has been ranked for many years as the number one EMBA program in the world, as the number one Finance program in Asia, and as the top MBA program in Asia by multiple independent rating and review journals and surveys. This course offers the combined strengths of HKUST in Business, Finance, and Technology as one the world's leading academic institutions on an important area of technology and business innovations. For students from outside Asia, this also gives an insight into changes happening in the most advanced FinTech markets of the world, since Asia leads worldwide in FinTech adoption and creative innovations. This course "FinTech Security & Regulation(RegTech)" is part of the HKUST-Coursera FinTech specialization. There are 3 other courses in the specialization including FinTech Foundations and Overview, FinTech Risk Management, and FinTech Disruptive Innovation: Implications for Society.


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Dear Andrew 108, all and All,Andrew108 wrote:This is a very nice fantasy.deepbluehum wrote: Topic: FREE FROM LIMITATIONS
How you arrive at the state of exhaustion of your mind is up to you. As far as I can tell, ChNN, in every single retreat, extends the bridge for you to cross to the other shore. If you can cross into the state of the guru, you are Samantabhadra. It doesn't mean you are Samantabhadra minus four visions. He has never ever said that. There are three levels of intensity with which you can practice, semde, longde and upadesha. People get pretty jazzed up about Thogal, because there is solid visual evidence of what the guru is talking about plus all the intrigue around the secrecy. And yes they are "wisdom appearances" with the caveat that they are not yet completely pure, because the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, before becoming Buddha saw the five lights, but was not yet buddha. He was not buddha until, based on past knowledge, knew those appearances to be self-appearance. So seeing the appearances of Thogal are not the visions of a Buddha. You are not a buddha until the visions exhaust. And technically, as Malcolm has said many times, the five lights are not actually from pure winds. You purify them in the process of the system. What Thogal is showing you is guru yoga in direct perception. Rinpoche teaches Ati guru yoga. It is upadesha level.
Great posts all.
My 2 cents. (Means I am not in instant presence if I have something to say.)
Dzogchen Teaching is Free From Limitations ---.
From the viewpoint of instant presence, this cannot be commented on in any way.
In instant presence, whatever occurs in my continuum is exactly the same grist for the no-action, single stone (without any characteristics whatsoever), of the instant presence mill. Whatever occurs, or does not occur, is just fine, and is left in its own condition without comment or correction.
A good or bad thought, or an ideational expression of any of the 9 yana philosophical positions, or ANY philosophical position, or any thought about anything, or feeling of any sort, is self liberated on occurring.
In instant presence there is no limit as to what can occur, and be self liberated on occurrence.
In this precise way, Dzogchen teaching is free from any limitation whatsoever. Within this single point, all the conceptual structures of the triple time are resolved.
This is the single point that includes all others.
If I experience the visions of ordinary mind, or Thogal, or Dark retreat, from the viewpoint of instant presence, there is no differentiation among / between these visions.
--- and everything that occurs in my continuum is "seen" (without vision), and "understood" (without thought) as a "very nice fantasy," without any name, or naming, that this is so.
This can only be understood by experience, and cannot be understood by words. Which points to why we take direct introduction from a Dzogchen Master, and then utilize the Dzogchen practices to develop confidence in, and continue in, this unconditioned condition.
Hope this helps.
Now my words are exhausted, but is this the second or third vision? - I get confused. Maybe I am just tired.
Long life to the Dzogchen Masters, may they live long in good health and with success in all things.


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Saturday, October 2, 2010
The powers that be
Flash forward 16 plus years later and sure enough, the shop and the office are jam packed with all sorts of stuff that framebuilders accumulate : Lots of frames needing repairs that are abandoned, some day to be resurrected into rideable classics when the work load gets thin ,posters of bike racers and catalogues from bike component companies,bike magazines,jerseys-can't seem to part with them, even if the moths have eaten many holes in them......old frame drawing..on and on. In my sixteen years of occupying this space I had done a good job of filling every square inch of space and a bad job of throwing stuff out.
A few days ago the building superintendent came by and gave me a real surprise-my office was going away. The landlady was supposedly appropriating the 160 square foot office and stairwell for storage. I was to lose my universal catch-all space for all the stuff that wouldn't fit downstairs in the shop. My desk, computer , rollers , sales and tax records, shipping boxes and old musical gear would have to find a new home, most likely the recycling center at the county dump. The superintendent gave me all fo three days to re-arrange 16 years of accumulation. Saddled with this new unexpected task ,I was trying really hard not to be mad , sad and or sentimental. What I had to do was to get a lot of stuff organized downstairs and make room for whatever I felt was too essential to either give away or throw away.
With grim determination I began the task of looking through all the boxes and piles of stuff upstairs , trying to really not get too caught up in looking through memory lane and stay at the task of downsizing my substantial accumulation. Ignoring the stories in each box of stuff was pretty much impossible for me and I began to get sidetracked in looking at receipts for frames sold in years past , trying to remember the faces of the people who had ordered them. I came across names of people who have passed on, bike shops long out of business , prices that were so low that I wondered how I survived. I looked for a time at the old books but soon figured out that I could easily run out of valuable time spending the day looking at things I had ignored for over a decade. I came to the conclusion that placing the receipt books in a box and keeping to the task at hand was needed, although this sensibility did not come natural to me. I thought about all the years I had been building bikes and what all of this stuff represented to my personal history. After pondering this I had a moment of clarity, a kind of resignation that whatever value this mountian of stuff represented to me, most of it would have to go-personal history be damned.
I got in the mode of "Get rid of anything as long as it hasn't been useful in the last two years"......this amounted to nearly two truck loads. Lots of bike parts got donated to the local "Bike Church" self service bike co-op. A lot of metal got recycled-fancy US made aluminum tubing ,about the equivalent to $ 1,500 worth became $ 38.40 in recycle value. My oldest bike drawings, many of which were from the early '90's went into the dumpster . Old catalogues and magazines got recycled or went to friends. It was a blood-letting of personal accumulation like I had never had-more like something that should happen when someone dies, but I wasn't dead yet. Maybe it was the death of something else, the passing of my inability to cut loose of all the junk that I thought held my identity and told my story. I had the thought , who really cares about this junk anyway ? who wants to know in such rediculous detail the complete and unabridged archeological evidence of my time on earth ? If I had been ignoring it all these years , wouldn't it follow that even I couldn't be bothered to pay attention to it ? I started to feel pretty empty and started thinking in jest about leaving enough room in the dumpster for myself ! After all, nothing lasts forever.
7 comments:
Art, life and the great trash heap are all temporal. Letting go is good (or so I tell other people).ReplyDelete
On the upside, did you get a rent reduction for lost space?
Chin up good man. Stuff, as much pain as it brings to let go sometimes, is just stuff. All temporary, and only bring joy if they are being used for a memory giving experience. But ideas are all but impossible to kill. And you sir, have -and are - great ideas.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 5, 2010 at 12:05 AM
Are u serious....you recycled all that aluminum? How come you didn't give it to some of the budding frame builders out there? You're still a good guy but now you're gonna be in my doghouse for the next two months.ReplyDelete
Paul, you may remember a young slug who poked around your shop over a decade ago looking for bontrager tubing. For part of an afternoon you gave me access to that attic. What I found there changed my life. Now building full time in east bay...loving it. Rest easy knowing that your attic full of junk along with your generosity spawned a generation of builders...Muir, Hartman, Thayer and many others I don't know by name. Now we all have our own attics to deal with! A small price for what we get to do with our lives.ReplyDelete
Hey, anonymous......first of all, the aluminum I recycled was pretty corroded. second of all, anyone who asks can have access to my scrap anytime. Third of all , if I'm in your doghouse for two months, is there enough room in there for two mixing boards and some steerer tubes ? I still have stuff sitting outside my shop with nowhere to put it.ReplyDelete
- AnonymousOctober 7, 2010 at 5:47 PM
I was just kidding, mister. So often ppl forget the "re-use" in "reduce, re-use, and recycle". Always try to re-use before you recycle. I guess if it was corroded then nevermind. I didn't know you give away your scrap like that...not that I am talented enough to make a frame anyways. Hope all is well, sucks that you suddenly got evicted from your storage space.ReplyDelete
If you knew how much tubing still have , even after this episode you would probably think I didn't get rid of enough ! It's a long story how I got all this stuff.....There's a lot of unused material out there-folks just have to get connected to it. I once saw several pallets , about $ 40,000 of steel in back of Bontrager that was destined to get scrapped. Luckily, I don;t think it did.....but I don;t think any of it has gotten used yet after sitting over 12 years !ReplyDelete


text:
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text:
White Helmets in Vancouver
10-04-2018 | New Canadian Media
By: Deanna Cheng in Vancouver, BC Sniffles came from the crowd. Even the children present knew to remain quiet. Syrian journalist Maisoun Almasri said she saw her younger brother get shot by...
nba basketball jerseys
-- Canada's economic development minister Navdeep Bains at a Public Policy Forum economic summit


text:
Slowly but surely, a troublesome, former nemesis for California rice growers is making a comeback.
And the rice water weevil (RWW) is being sneaky about it, at least in trials at the Biggs, Calif. Rice Experiment Station conducted by resident rice weevil expert, University of California (UC), Davis Entomologist Larry Godfrey.
A RWW herd snuck in over a weekend in Godfrey's research plot at the station. For 95 of the 100 days Godfrey trapped for weevils on the station, he caught nothing.
However, on the weekend of May 5-7, the weevil must have heard there was a party going on at the station with all the workers away, and Godfrey said traps caught 75 percent of the rice water weevil count for the season. The other 25 percent arrived April 26-27. He had never seen that before in many years of RWW work.
With only two flight catches, the assumption would be the total numbers were low. You'd be flying off the wrong handle if that was the assumption.
The two-incident flight pattern was admittedly a first for the veteran UC entomologist, but what was not a surprise was the fact that the count this season was 20 percent higher than 2006.
"Rice water weevil counts have been on an upward trend for the past three or four seasons. It has not reached the peak levels of the mid-1990s, but the numbers continue to go up," said Godfrey.
An ominous sign was made more worrisome by the implied threat of possibly losing, or regulations severely restricting, the use of rice growers' primary pesticide tool, pyrethroid insecticides.
Godfrey told growers, pest control advisors, and others at the annual research center field day that 95 percent of the pesticides used in rice are in the pyrethroid class. Not only is that a cause for concern for resistance, but it is made doubly alarming by the current re-evaluation of pyrethroids by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR).
Product registrants and DPR are jointly evaluating pyrethroid use because the compound has been found attached to organic matter in water. Traces of pyrethroids have not been found in water, Godfrey pointed out — only attached to the organic matter in the water. It is the first major environmental red flag for a chemistry class used in agriculture and urban settings for more than 20 years.
Godfrey said any possible new constraints placed on pyrethroids are at least a year or more away. However, he said it behooves him and the rice industry to quickly find possible alternatives to pyrethroids.
Fortunately, Godfrey is looking at three that offer good RWW control in California.
One is trade-named Trebon — the chemical name is etofenprox. It has had a Section 18 label in Louisiana and Texas last season for rice water weevil control. It is manufactured by Mitsui chemicals Inc. and distributed by Landis International.
Godfrey said the company is pursuing a California registration, but he could not predict when it may be available.
Another product is Steward from DuPont. It has the same active ingredient as a now widely used insecticide Avaunt, indoxacarb. Is it active on rice water weevil, but it is also kills crayfish.
For that reason, the company is not pursing registration in the U.S., but Godfrey said the state's rice acreage qualifies California to pursue IR-4 registration for Steward.
The third promising compound is clothianidan from Valent. Godfrey said the company is looking at it on rice in the South as a seed treatment.
"I do not see it as a seed treatment, but we are more interested using it pre-flood or in a water application," he said. "I have used it in pre-flood in lower and lower rates and it is a very active product. It has a lot of sustainability features, and the university is very interested in getting the product registered. Valent is facilitating that.
"In 2006 these three experimental products applied with various rates and application methods provided as high as 95 percent rice water weevil control and excellent protection of grain yields," he said.
However, all three products showed only moderate RWW control when improper rates or suboptimal application procedures were used. When used properly, Godfrey added, "all three of these have a good fit in California as an alternative to pyrethroids."
Godfrey also continues to evaluate rice varieties for insect resistance. "There are varietal differences in attracting both adult weevils and larvae.It is not enough to walk away from weevil control, but there are differences."
As insecticides continue to be the first line of insect pest control, Godfrey also continues to monitor the impact of these products on invertebrate non-target insects.
This information is particularly useful for mosquito control within rice production areas where biological control of mosquito larvae is critical.
Overall, Godfrey said products registered for insect pest control in rice have a short residual, perhaps two weeks.
"There is no long-term impact on non-target organisms. The products growers use are really short-lived," he concluded.


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Note: this blog is called "Addison County Outside" or "The Great Outdoors." This week's blog entry is not truly "outside". It's not really "inside" either. Addison County Underground sounds like a nightclub, so I'm settling on "Underside."
Saturday I did something that I have never done. Caving.
"Caving?" you might say, "Don't you mean 'spelunking'"?
I have recently learned that the term "spelunker" has fallen on hard times. Though the term still applies to anyone who futzes around underground, serious explorers of the subterranean world call themselves "cavers."
Phebe Meyers, Emma Drucker and Morgan Boyles at the entrance.
(photo: Wyatt Orme)
While cavers rig complex rappel systems, spelunkers clamber down on fraying clothesline. Cavers survey and map their finds; spelunkers carve smiley faces in the rock. Cavers wear Petzl headlamps, rattle off equations about airflow, and use the word karst correctly. Spelunkers have Coleman lanterns, jeans, and tennis shoes.
The author, squeezing through the entrance. Notice the fuzzy calcium deposits above my head.
(photo: Orme)
This weekend, I got the privilege of being a little of both. Yes, we might have been wearing neon party gear over Carhartts and brought a battery powered boom-box into the cave. But, we also had an equalized three-way anchor to rappel from.
Looking up from the cave floor at the top of the rappel
(photo: Orme)
Whatever you want to call the motley crew ("ravers" might be an appropriate term), we descended into the darkness of Weybridge Cave, explored for 4 hours, and then climbed back out to a bright, moonlit night. If you want to read about the whole trip, check out this week's Clippings article, but suffice it to say: one of the stranger and more exciting things I've ever done.
I can't wait to go back to the Weybridge Cave, and to explore other caves in this region. I think if I were a real caver, I might say that the "karst is rich around here." The Champlain Valley is full of limestone and marble, which erode and leach into vast caverns systems connected by constricting pinches. It's a great way to face up to claustrophobia, spiders, bats, heights, asphyxiation, and many other irrational phantasies. It's also totally unexpected. Right now, beneath your feet, there could lie an undiscovered network of dank hollows.
Morgan about to touch down. The author and Phebe beginning the dance party.
(photo: Orme)
But, unlike most of my blog posts, this one won't publish information on how to get there, what specific gear you need, or that sort of thing. You might think that I'm some sort of elitist. This is not so; my first real caving experience happened just two days ago. I'm as close to a "spelunker" as you can get without a birchbark torch. If you want to go to the cave, find someone who has been there and ask them to take you. Better yet, get in touch with the Vermont Cavers Association. Here are some reasons why:
1. You'll enjoy it more if you go with a guide who knows what to expect. This is especially true in Weybridge Cave, where you could fall 40 feet if you weren't careful. Go with someone who can advise you on gear, technique and caving ethics.
2. Caving is dangerous. Just because you CAN get into Weybridge Cave with disco attire and a boombox doesn't mean you should.
3. Caves are a fragile resource – breaking off a 1000 year old stalactite isn't okay, and neither is leaving beer bottles or scratching your name into the wall.
4. Bat populations in the United States are being decimated by a mysterious disease called "whitenose." Cavers may unwittingly spread it between isolated bat populations, and several Vermont caves have been closed by local speleological societies to help contain the pandemic.
5. Just to reiterate the first point: caving is not like hiking. It's not like climbing. There are some very real dangers involved in squirming through tight, wet, confusing passageways far below the earth.
In addition to these reasons, there's a satisfying mystique about the idea of "gatekeepers," local men and women with extensive knowledge who dispense it as they see fit. I imagine these people living in caves themselves, surrounded by musty books, candles and pet bats. The guy who took us in on Saturday is very approachable, though. He even lives above ground and eats cooked food.
All that said, if you truly want to find Weybridge Cave, you probably will. The entire Natural Area is about an acre in area, and if you walked there enough, you'll find the opening. Be careful, bring extra headlamp batteries and enjoy.
Just to be clear, I am not one of these mythic gatekeepers, with "knowledge," "expertise," or other things like that. I am basically ignorant about caving, but am excited about doing more. However, if you want to send me an email anyway, feel free! I'm christianw at addisonindependent dot com.


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East Texas bass nets angler $150,000
The weather was horrible with a combination of a cold front, high winds and rain. Those are three things that will give bass anglers nightmares. Even with the wacky weather, North Carolina angler Bryan Thrift managed a final catch of five bass weighing 25 pounds during last weekend's Toyota Texas Bass Classic held on Lake Conroe, and reeled in a whopping first-place prize of $150,000. Thrift finished with a three-day total of 15 bass weighing 53 pounds, 4 ounces. That's pretty impressive considering he was competing against 50 of the world's best professional bass anglers, including Jasper's Todd Faircloth.
After an unprecedented 11 anglers competed Sunday, Sept. 30, Thrift is the Toyota Texas Bass Classic champion. With a dominating Sunday, Thrift bested second-place angler and 2010 TTBC Champion Brian Snowden at the world championship of professional bass fishing, according to Bryan Frazier with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
"It was a comeback for the ages at the final day, where Thrift overcame a final day deficit of 4 pounds, 12 ounces to win the 2012 TTBC by a staggering 9 pounds, 4 ounces," said Frazier. "Even after finishing the first day in third place with a 16 pound, 12 ounce limit that included a 6.22 pound kicker, the North Carolina pro wasn't very optimistic about his chances of contending for the title.
"The turning point in Thrift's tournament came when heavy cloud cover and wind arrived in the area late on Friday afternoon and lingered throughout the remaining two days of competition. Saturday, Thrift returned to his magical stretch and caught two keepers on a buzz bait in the first hour of competition. He finished day two with a modest limit weighing 11 pounds, 8 ounces and snuck inside the final-day cut in ninth place with a total weight of 28 pounds, 4 ounces, nearly 5 pounds behind day-two leader Brian Snowden."
With less than an hour to go on the final day, Thrift says he pulled up on a brush pile and landed a 6 pound, 8 ounce bass that put him over the top and into some serious bling.
The heaviest largemouth of the tournament, caught by Terry Scroggins, weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces.
Thrift said he used various lures to catch his bass. They included crankbaits, jigs and chatter bait. He fished all over the lake and all types of structure in various depths of water.
"This unique professional angling tournament focuses on conservation and features a catch and release program that highlights the efforts of Texas Parks & Wildlife Department," said Chad Gay, director of public relations with TTBC. "A generous donation of $250,000 was given to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department on behalf of the Toyota Texas Bass Classic to fund youth education and outreach programs. Over the past five years, $1.5 million has been donated to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department through the TTBC."
The final FLW tournament will be held on Sam Rayburn Oct. 11-14.
The FLW Tour will wrap up the 2012 season with the Walmart FLW Tour Open on Sam Rayburn Reservoir Oct. 11-14. The tournament will feature a field of the world's best bass pros and co-anglers casting for top awards up to $125,000 cash in the Pro Division and up to $25,000 cash in the Co-angler Division.
"When we get there, that lake should be on fire," said bass pro Jim Tutt of Longview. "I think there will be a lot of limits caught, some really nice stringers brought in, and I think somebody will have a 10-pound fish."
Tutt indicated that fishing on Rayburn has been tougher than usual for about the last year because of lingering low water levels followed by rapidly rising levels that scattered fish. However, Tutt said that within the past few weeks the fishing at Rayburn has returned to what he would call "normal," the water level has stabilized and hydrilla has emerged. As a result, tournament weights have increased dramatically.
"Last weekend there was a tournament, and the first seven places had over 20 pounds, and it took 26 pounds to win," Tutt said. "Before that it was taking 20 pounds to win."
Tutt said cooler temperatures, a little rain and the hydrilla are the reason for the better fishing Rayburn is experiencing. He predicts over the course of the four-day tournament the winning angler will need about 18 pounds a day, or a total of 75 pounds to walk away with the trophy.
"That's the coolest thing about this particular time of year," Tutt said. "You can fish whatever you feel comfortable with. If you want to flip, if you want to crank or throw topwaters, there will be a number of different patterns going on. Brush piles will even come into play a little bit."
Anglers will take off from Cassels-Boykin County Park located at FM Road 3123 (off State Highway 147) in Zavalla, at 7:30 a.m. daily. Thursday and Friday weigh-ins will also be held at Cassels-Boykin County Park beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, and Sunday's final weigh-ins will be held at the Walmart at 2500 Daniel McCall Drive in Lufkin beginning at 4 p.m.
Fans will be treated to the FLW Outdoors Expo at the Walmart on Saturday and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. prior to the final weigh-ins. The Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and fans can learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public.