Farewell to a close friend.

I have some good news and bad news today boys and girls.

The Good

Tomorrow(Oct. 19) is my day of class at the Academy of Broadcasting.  It’s hard to believe that the 9 months are up already.  I am going to miss a lot of my classmates, but with the magic of Social Media,(and there was much rejoicing) I’ll be able to keep in touch with them.  Then on Monday, I make my way to Swan River, MB to start my 100 hour practicum, once that’s done, I’m officially graduated.  It’s all, a little daunting, but I’m also very excited to move onto the next step.

The Bad

Today(or rather tomorrow morning) I say goodbye to a dear friend of mine.  We’ve been together for over three years, and I’m very sad that he’s gone.

Burning Beard R.I.P. 2009 – 2012

He will be missed, but to quote a great yet fucked up anime, “The fate of destruction is also the joy of rebirth.”

 

One of my favourite guitar battles

People might think this is lame, but this is one of my favourite guitar battles of all time.  In fact, this is the earliest piece of Metal that I remember liking.  There’s like a seven year gap between me first seeing this and me actually getting into Metal.

Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but I still love this.  Megabyte was one of the coolest villains ever!

Vampire leftovers and Metallica puzzles?

Just had a few vampire things that I wanted to mention before I move on completely.

Movies

Martin(1976): Directed by Zombie Master George A. Romero, is about a young man(who may or may not be a vampire) who lives with his uncle.  The movie is kind of unnerving, because for most of the movie you don’t know if Martin really is a vampire, or if he’s just a crazy person.

Near Dark(1987): Directed by Kathryn Bigelow, is about a young man who is seduced into joining a “family” of vampires.  Will the young man’s real family be able to save him in time, before he’s fully converted?  I don’t know, probably, who cares Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton are in it!  It’s kind of similar to ‘Lost Boys’ which came out the same year.  The difference: Lost Boys had the Coreys and its’ director would later do Batman and Robin, where Near Dark had  Lance Henriksen and Bill Paxton and its’ director would later do The Hurt Locker.

Music

Here’s a song about vampires that I like.

Metallica Puzzles!?!

I don’t know what to say about this.

I know it’s kind of cliche at this point to say that ‘Metallica are sellouts’ but come on. Really?  Puzzles.  that’s the point we’re at.  This is some George-Lucas-Kusty-the-Clown type BS right here.  Don’t get me wrong, I like puzzles as much as the next 85 year-old man, but they aren’t really metal.  No matter what they are of.  If you want to look a blown up album cover, THEY’RE CALLED POSTERS!  Ahhhhh, what do I know, maybe I’m wrong, maybe puzzles are ‘metal’.  All I know is if I ever see St. Anger Home Pregnancy Tests, I’m buying a shotgun.

 

New Album Releases & Sam Dunn

New Dethklok album comes out this Tuesday!  The NSFW video for “I Ejaculate Fire” is pretty funny.  Can’t wait to hear the rest.  The Sword’s new album “Apocryphon'” comes out a week later.  I’m really looking forward to this one.

I wanted to talk about someone I’ve already mentioned here before.  Sam Dunn.  I like the guy, he’s a pretty good director and the topic he’s chosen to cover is very close to my heart.  Heavy Metal.  All in all,Sam Dunn has done a great job of showcasing metal to the mainstream world.  But, herein lies the problem.  It’s not even really a problem, but a matter of personal preference.  For example, on “Metal Evolution” there were plenty of episodes that would leave me saying, ” Wow that’s pretty cool, but what about this band or that band?”  I wasn’t talking about obscure bands either, I’m talking about stuff like ‘Soilwork’ “In Flames” “Lamb of God” “Mudvayne” and System of a Down”.  Now it could be that certain bands were left out because of personal preference, network issues, (like the ‘lost episode’) saving material for another season or just the fact that there’s hundreds of bands in each sub-genre.  I can understand and accept that.

What I have a harder time trying to understand is the lack of Canadian Metal in all of his projects.(minus the Rush doc. of course)  Yes, Sam does talk about Rush in the Progressive Metal episode of “Metal Evolution” and yes…sigh…he does mention Nickelback in the Grundge episode, but that’s it.  No 3 Inches of Blood, no Threat Signal, no Annihilator or Anvil, no Protest the Hero and no Devin Townsend. (or any of his groups)  I’m really hoping that Sam Dunn is saving Canadian Metal for its own Doc. or at the very least, its own episode on next seasons M.E. , but come on.  He’s done two Doc. on metal, one in general and the other on metal around the world.  Plus, a show documenting metals growth from the beginning til now, and all you have to say about Canada’s contribution to the music you love is “I heart Rush” and “Nirvana’s to blame for Nickelback”?  The main reason I bring this up is that Sam Dunn IS Canadian.  Where’s the love, eh?  I really hope I’m just jumping the gun here, and He will get to Canadian Metal soon.  In the mean time, a quote from ‘Jay an Silent Bob Strike Back’, “That’s want the internet is for.  Slandering others anonymously.”

Vampires 3 – 1

3) Christopher Lee (Dracula – Hammer Films)

This guy’s intense!  the story goes that Christopher Lee hated the dialogue so much that he refused say most of his lines.  This led to one of the disturbing depictions of Dracula ever.  He said everything with his eyes.

2) Blade

What started out as a 1970’s Marvel comic character, Blade got mainstream fame in 1998 with the movie adaptation starring Wesley Snipes.  Blade was a half vampire/human who hunted other vampires.  He had all of their strengths, and none of their weaknesses, except for the thirst for blood.  The first two movies were excellent, but the third one…well, yeah it sucked and I never saw the show.

1) Alucard (Hellsing Ultimate)

OH MY GOD! THIS IS AMAZING!  OK OK let me start at the beginning.  Over 100 years ago Abraham Van Hellsing captures a vampire (god only knows how) and binds him into service to his family.  90 years later, he saves Integra Hellsing from her usurper Uncle.  Sir Integra is the director of the Hellsing Organization, which specializes in dispatching the supernatural.  So, what makes Alucard so special?  Well, to but it bluntly, HE’S PIRATICALLY THE DEVIL!  He’s been in fights where one minute he’s nothing but a pile of gore , the next he’s up and LITERALLY EATING THE OTHER GUY!  You know what the really messed up part is?  Throughout the series, Alucard has used different levels of power to dispatch his enemies, in the 9th Hellsing Ultimate OVA Alucard gets “Cromwell Approval” for level zero.  This pretty much means all hell on earth.

Vampires 6 – 4

6) Cassidy (Preacher)

In this case, it’s not so much the character himself, it’s the interaction he has with Jesse and how their relationship changed throughout the run of Preacher.  The journey they go through, first as best friends then  Cassidy’s flaws becoming very obvious (to the reader at least) which turns into Cassidy doing the worst thing he could to Jesse.  But, at the end of it all, Cassidy gets a second chance and, even though it’s cheesy and cliche, everything worlds out.

5) Eddie Murphy (Maximillian – A Vampire in Brooklyn)

“Interesting. I’ve been stabbed, and I’ve been hanged, and I’ve been burned. Even broken on the rack once, but I’ve never been shot before. Kind of itches a little!”  I always liked that line.  OK, I admit, I haven’t seen this movie in a while but what I remember about it was that it had a pretty good blend of comedy and horror.  Hey, it came out at a time where E.M. was still making movies that had some balls to them. 

4) Eric Northman (True Blood)

OK, OK, OK.  I know, I know. ‘ True Blood’ is a guilty pleasure of mine.  There I said it.  I think the effects for the most part, are well done.  I like a fair amount of the characters, and up until the last season or two, I liked the story.  Eric’s character is a good example of that.  From the start he had his own agenda.  All he wanted was to avenge his human family.  He never cared about the Authority, mainstreaming or even Sookie.  He just wanted to have sex with her.  This last season introduced Eric’s vampire ‘sister’, and even though he’s Norse, it looked like he may have a splash of Lannister in him.  🙂

 

A little Extra

Looking for some decent books about Vampires?  Why not try “Wasting the Dawn” (not the 69 Eyes album) written by David Hurwitz or “Fevre Dream”  written by George R. R. Martin (the 12 year old girl inside of me is screaming!…Wait what!?!)

New music & Vampires 10 – 7

Listened to the new Pig Destroyer song “Baltimore Strangler” from the their new album “Book Burner” due out Oct. 22. If you like grindcore, it’s pretty Frigging Awesome.

Pig Destroyer – Baltimore Strangler

A.M.G Top 10 Favourite Vampires
10) Bloodrayne
Hot half-vampire babe with arm blades killing Nazi soldiers. Doesn’t get better than that. The games weren’t very good and the movies were horrible. There’s only one reason she made my list…well two reasons 🙂

9) Vamp (Metal Gear Solid 2 & 4)
Ok, ok I know he’s not really a vampire but come on. His back story is enough to qualify: a man trapped underneath a bombed out church, forced to drink the blood of his family to survive. Add on all the nano tech. so that even a clip emptied into his head only phases him for like a minute. So yeah, he makes the list.
8) Leslie Nielson (Dracula: Dead and Loving it)
It’s Leslie Nielson. Nuff said.

7) Kain (Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen & Soul Reaver)
In a world where Vampires are at the top of the food chain and humans are cattle, Kain is king. A story involving time travel, deceit, double crosses and lots of gore. when one of his lieutenants goes through an evolutionary change before the Big Boss, what does he do? He rips the bones out of his wings and throws him into a pit that leads straight to the Underworld. That’s bad ass!

Happy Thanksgiving Blah!

Hey!

Just got back from Swan River tonight. Ate lots of good food. Babas (grandmothers) make the best food.

Since this is October, I thought I’d talk about something that’s scary, or as least, something that used to be considered scary. Vampires. I know, I know, you’re probably thinking ‘AMG you dumb bastard, vampires ain’t scary! They be mainstream money makers for the pre-teens and the stupid people!’ I say nay. Well OK, vampires HAVE become that, but at one point they were scary to some degree. So, over the next few days I’m going to list off my favourite vampires and we’ll see how scary (or ridiculous) these creatures of the night used to be.

lost episode

Metal Evolution: Extreme Metal 'the lost episode'

Saw this on Blabbermouth.net the other day. It’s cool and all, but does Sam Dunn not have enough money to do the episode himself? Or his company? Season 1 was $40 bucks for 11 episodes and no special features, I think they could afford it. Whatever. I’ll watch it.

First One!

Well, well well.  Social media has finally caught up with me.  I guess it was a matter of time.  I listened to Serj Tankian’s “Harakiri” again.  I like it, it’s better than “Imperfect Harmonies” I just wish the guys would make another System of a Down record.