Metastaze

Year of release: 2009
Director: Branko Schmidt
Genre: Drama
Duration: 76 min
Language: Croatian (English subtitles encoded in the film)

So far most movies I posted were (surprisingly -_-) from Japan. This time I have something, different from the usual movies I post. Croatia (where I, sadly, live) isn't really known for its film movies. Now that I think about it we aren't really known for anything. Okay maybe for tourism and Nikola Tesla (but that's debatable). Anyway Metastaze (Metastasis in English) is a surprisingly good movie that got out this year.

The story follows 4 friends from Zagreb. A hooligan (Krpa), alcoholic (Kizo), junkie (Dejo), and ex junkie (Filip). 4 types of people that are a very big part of our late post-war society. The ex-junkie Filip returns from Spain after some time of healing from drugs. He comes home and finds the same old story. Overprotective mother who allows too much and over strict father who was raised by the Communist regime (while secretly being a Croatian patriot which was against the law then) both telling him to get a decent job and start living. Of course though like many people here he will never get a job. He just doesn't care nor has any ambition so he starts to seek refuge in the delusion that his friends are having. They also don't have jobs, one is beating his wife and spends the whole day causing trouble, one is trafficking/taking drugs from Bosnia and one is just, well, drunk all the time. Basically everything is sliding down, fast.

All in all the story is not so hard to follow, the plot is simple, it's the details that matter. First and above all this a social commentary about life in Zagreb and Croatia in general. It feels like the director is mocking the general opinion of the government that the country got out of the dark ages and that we are now a European country. This movie proves just the opposite. A lot of people are still tied to their nationalism, xenophobia, homophobia, discrimination and ignorant beliefs. People are falling apart with no jobs and ambition. There's a big gap between the rich and the poor. But is the movie then a picture of reality or overblown imagination? Well I think it's very accurate. I can safely say that I met people that are like characters in the movie and I saw similar situations happening.

So is it worth to watch this movie? I guess it is. I liked it, it's very real and direct. Some people might not understand it because things work differently where they live but I guess they can still watch it out of curiosity. Also a lot of swearing words were not translated and the swearing is abundant here (just like in reality). It's hard to translate them so I won't try because they would not make any sense to you (pička ti materina = your mothers cunt, direct translation :S).

Links:

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8

You need HJ Split to patch this back into one file.

Jedi Mind Tricks - Violent By Design - Deluxe Edition

Once upon a time when I was starting with my teen years I had (and I still have >:|) a friend who would supply me here and there with music. Every time when I would come to his house he gave me an diskette with a list of his music. I would examine that list for hours at home, staring into bands that I had no idea that they exist. So I went through the list marking every band that had a cool name. Vader, Summoning, Isengard, Cannibal Corpse, Iced Earth, Marduk and so on and one. Then one day I saw this funny looking name "Jedi Mind Tricks". Wut? It had a strange name so I told him to give me that "band". To my disgust then I realized it's rap. Filled with my teen angst and furious anger towards anything that's not metal I proceeded to delete it.

Years after I suddenly came to an idea that I should check out rap music since I never really liked it before. I remembered Jedi Mind Tricks and thought I should check them out again. To my surprise I really did like them. Perhaps if I gave that album then a bigger chance maybe I would turn into a true rapper and not metalhead? Who knows. The only certain thing is that this album slays. I'm not really an expert for rap so I can't really tell you if it's good or not because I haven't really listened to a lot of different artists. What I can say is that this album has some really great lyrics (both fun and serious but there are those macho type lyrics as well, if you consider Muslim extremism to be macho type of thing that is) and some great beats. It also quotes some great movies and has a large variety of different samples. I surfed around and from what I heard this is one of the cult albums of underground rap. So if you never listened to rap perhaps check this album out, maybe you'll like it. ;)

Oh and this is the deluxe version so it has some extra songs in it as well.

Tracklist:

1		Intro (0:42)
2		Retaliation (3:44)
		Scratches - DJ Kwestion
3		Contra (3:18)
		Rap [Featuring] - Killasha Scratches - DJ Kwestion
4		Speech Cobras (4:22)
		Rap [Featuring] - Mr. Lif Scratches - Drew Dollars
5		Breath Of God Interlude (0:37)
6		Death March (3:35)
7		Words From Mr. Len Part One (0:58)
8		I Against I (3:49)
		Rap [Featuring] - Planetary (2)
9		Exertions (Remix) (3:14)
		Rap [Featuring] - Bahamadia
10		The Prophecy Interlude (0:36)
11		Heavenly Divine (4:34)
12		Sacrafice (3:20)
13		Permanent Midnight Interlude (0:39)
14		The Deer Hunter (3:41)
		Rap [Featuring] - Chief Kamachi
15		Blood Reign (3:37)
		Rap [Featuring] - B.A. Barakus , Diamondback , Louis Logic
16		Words From Mr. Len Part Two (0:29)
		Producer - Mr. Len
17		Gengis Khan (3:50)
		Rap [Featuring] - Tragedy Khadafi
18		Trinity (3:37)
		Rap [Featuring] - L-Fudge , Louis Logic
19		The Executioners Dream (3:52)
		Rap [Featuring] - J-Treds
20		Muerte (3:57)
21		Heavenly Divine (Remix) (3:20)
22		Army Of The Pharaohs: War Ensemble (4:07)
		Bonus Tracks
23		Untitled (3:38)
		Rap [Featuring] - Jus Allah
24		Retaliation (Remix) (4:23)
25		Blood Runs Cold (3:55)
		Rap [Featuring] - Sean Price

I'm with Allah 'cause he chose me
Broke into the Vatican, strangled the Pope with his rosary
What, what, what

Max Richter - 24 Postcards In Full Colour

Composer Max Richter was born in Germany in 1966 and grew up in the UK. He studied composition and piano at Edinburgh University, the Royal Academy of Music and in Florence with Luciano Berio.

Though he has a strong background in the canons of classical music, his influences were more modern composers and in particular, Iannis Xenakis whose musical compositions applied mathematical and physical laws and Philip Glass whose sound was a major influence on Richter. His influences also include rock bands The Beatles, Pink Floyd and The Clash, as well as electronic music groups Kraftwerk and Autechre.

This particular album holds (as you might have guessed) 24 songs. Each has an different approach and mood change. They really are like postcards. His piano parts remind me of Yann Tiersen for some reason. Quite interesting album.

Tracklist:

1		The Road Is A Grey Tape (1:01)
2		H In New England (1:50)
3		This Picture Of Us. P. (1:36)
4		Lullaby From The Westcoast Sleepers (2:02)
5		When The Northern Lights / Jasper And Louise (1:00)
6		Circles From The Rue Simon – Crubellier (1:04)
7		Cascade NW By W (1:12)
8		A Sudden Manhattan Of The Mind (2:51)
9		In Louisville At 7 (1:03)
10		Cathodes (1:01)
11		I Was Just Thinking (0:59)
12		A Song For H / Far Away (2:08)
13		Return To Prague (1:02)
14		Broken Symmetries For Y (1:00)
15		Berlin By Overnight (1:27)
16		Cradle Song For A (Interstate B3) (2:11)
17		Kierling / Doubt (0:50)
18		From 553 W Elm Street, Logan Illinois (Snow) (0:57)
19		Tokyo Riddle Song (1:00)
20		The Tartu Piano (2:05)
21		Cold Fusion For G (0:35)
22		32 Via San Nicolo (1:23)
23		Found Song For P. (2:24)
24		H Thinks A Journey (0:57)

Download.

Shintaro Kago - Koro Koro Soushi

Haven't posted a manga in a while so here's a special treat. The story is set in feudal Japan. A serious famine swept the land and one certain princess started saving people. But we are talking about Shintaro Kago so of course for people to get rice from her they need to donate their body parts. The Princess then gets very interested in anatomy and the brain so she decides to study internal organs and therefore she is now demanding organs from her people. People get agitated by this organ and body donating. Will they overthrow the princes? Will that guy finally get his penis back? Will they all end in hell? Find out yourself. :P

Personally I enjoyed this one a lot. Many, many funny and original moments and really cute imagination. Like, eye scouting!

Dark humor, making fun of religion (especially Jesus who appears here and there making deals), making fun of feudal Japan and pretty much everything else. The art is also more detailed compared to his one shots. The scenery is more detailed and overall there are more shading and little details like that. Highly recommended for everyone who is into guro (I'd recommend it to others as well but it's very gory so I'm not sure if you'll like it)!

Both volumes!

Flac week over.

I learned one thing from this adventure. I'll never do themed weeks again. I hate the time pressure. The sole thing that this "week" extended for over half of a month is terrible. I'm throwing the idea in the trash, forevar. This however doesn't mean that I won't add flac format from time to time (along with mp3).

Mp3 links and fixing current flac links will occur tomorrow if everything gets uploaded by then.

Until then you must sing this song.

HARU KA NAAAAA

I should really post a movie. Haven't done that in a while.

Coffins / The Arm and Sword of a Bastard God

Last flac post so I wanted to post something really great and not so common among the blogsphere (I think :O).

I'm sure anyone who's into metal has heard of Coffins. It's one of those legendary doom bands alongside with Corrupted and stuff like that. But who is The Arm and Sword of a Bastard God? I'll say again, The Arm and Sword of a Bastard God. I love that name, it's so, long. Anyway they are from US (California to be more exact) and they are an relatively new band. So far the only official release is this split. There is a demo available on their myspace if you are interested but it's not really that good as are the songs on this split.

This split is one damn fine bone crushing sound orgy. Slow, heavy and br00tal. It has all that I need from doom metal and associated genres. I'm not really good with explaining so I guess it's up to you to decide. It got good reviews on Metal Archives if that means anything to you.

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Halo

More metal? Why yes, by all means. :P

Halo was always an peculiar band to me. Some records I liked and some I didn't. I still consider their Body of Light to be their best album. I don't know why it's so hated on Metal archives? Maybe because it's not true? Well I don't really care anyway. This is some damn fine drone/sludge/noise whatever. Guattari - From the West Flows Grey Ash & Pestilence is an more musically driven album. The songs have usual song structures, standard sludge awesomeness and pimped out vocals that ties it all together in a nice psychedelic trip. Body of Light on the other hand is more about epic and less about being sludge. It's also less structured and has more drone feeling. Well, the band is pretty much popular (I think :/) so I won't ramble any more because you probably heard about them anyway.

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Burzum - Filosfem

Good old Vargy! I think It's hilarious that his birth name is Christian. Ideology statements and his life aside this album is really good. It's kinda like shogaze but not really, something like that. Filosfem is more or less an album that holds all my favorite songs by Burzum. Which is why I bought this in the first place. I always listen this in the middle of the night while I'm in my bubbly bath. (^o^)

If you are new to Burzum I think this is an great album to start with. It has great atmosphere and the raw essence of black metal (or something poetic like that). Not as raw as his first albums and not as cheery like his later works. The golden middle. The only bad side of this album for me is that cymbals pretty much sounds like someone is shaking plastic bags constantly. It's not annoying or anything like that but when I heard them I always imagine Varg sitting in some dark room singing while an old man stands behind with a huge grey beard grimly shaking his plastic bags full of food supplies that he bought in the morning. Because of that I always break into laughter.

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Dead links

Seems like a part of my links died a hideous death at the hands of Specules (actually mediafire but I just had to make a reference). At any rate if you find a dead link just leave a comment and I'll reupload it (presuming that I still have the content because one of my hard drives died in the meantime).

So far I found out that a lot of Boris releases died out, one uziga one shot and something else I think but I can't remember.

I also fixed that link for that compilation. :3

Oh and:

Every time that blond says "sucking" I get an erection. :D

LET ME HEAR YOU SAY VAHT. JAAAAA

Blind Guardian - Somewhere Far Beyond

Ah, this was the first original I ever bought (if we don't count The Prodigy - The Fat Of The Land tape that I bought randomly (and loved it) when I was about 8 or 9). ^_^

Nowadays I'm not much of a fan of power metal. It got too cheeky and baroque for me. Nevertheless I still tend to spin this album once in a while and remember the good old days of my early rebellious youth. Somewhere Far Beyond was their fourth full length album that got out in 1992. In those days Blind Guardian was much more leaning towards thrash than power metal (I guess the genre itself hasn't formed in its now popular shape) which can be clearly seen in their albums before this one. Despite the high thrash feeling it still holds the power metal vibe of magical thematic and Lord of the Rings references etc. The signature Hansi vocals are present here as well, with a much more harsher sound than it is today. Overall if you are looking for some power metal but not those dragon guitar fluffy masturbation of Rhapsody and Dragonforce you should get this. Also if you are interested in this genre and haven't heard it before I strongly suggest you start with this.

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Boris - Flood

Speaking of great bands how could I not mention Boris? Well here it is, Flood, one of the most unique albums they did. I went through a lot of trouble getting this one. Since the label has a great policy of not shipping their albums to my country I had to order it through a store from my city. Apparently they ordered it as a selling item that they will sell in the shop. The conversation I had with the shop owner was, intriguing.

Me: Hi, I'd like to order a cd.
Owner: Sure, just tell me the name.
Me: Boris.
Owner: Uh? The bands name not yours.
Me: Yes, Boris.
Owner: Are you trying to make fun of me? Tell me the name of the band.
Me: ...Boris.
Owner: The Band is called Boris?
Me: Yes.
Owner: And where are they from? Russia?
Me: No, they are from Japan.
Owner: Rrrright. So this obscure band is from Japan and they call themselves Boris? After a Russian name?
Me: They named themselves after a song from Melvins and they are not obscure.
Owner: I worked here for 17 years and I never heard of this band.

And so on and on. XD I don't really get it. I had to do the same conversation each time I came there and asked if the album arrived and every time they gave me a strange look like I just ate their mothers. Finally after 3 months of waiting it came direct from Japan. :3 Looks like first press too which makes it extra cool.

In any case if you are a bit older follower of this blog you probably remember when I posted the whole Boris discography (it was complete when I posted it, now there are a few releases missing). So I assume pretty much everyone heard of Flood before. There's not much to say. It's their own version of post-rock music of sorts. It's not really pure post rock as in Explosions In The Sky and similar. It actually starts with an really dull (to me at least) intro of one riff repeating and repeating. I usually like this sort of thing but this one just isn't enjoyable to me. So after that it switches to pretty much relaxed and laid back post rock and afterwords a tsunami comes and kills everything. In any case, get this, you'll like it! >:| It's just one long track split into four parts so I won't write the tracklist.

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Tralalala

Can't get this out of my head. Argh!

Translation here.

Bathory

When I was in my prime teen years everybody had their favorite band. We used to sit around school and discuss which one is the most awesome of them all. Those bands and people were prime examples of perfection for us and we fiercely defended them against other perfect bands. My worship was Bathory and thus this post. Sadly at that time I was very alone in my worship club. Nobody else that I knew liked Bathory. ;_; Nevertheless I still proudly collected slowly all of his albums and daily read his website and every other information that I could find. Later on I got his shirt with a picture of his first album. First time I wore it I looked like a complete stereotype of a Satanic kid. It was freezing cold that day but I wore it even if it wasn't a sweater and people looked at me and laughed but I was happy because I had my awesome shirt. 8)

Time passed and bands came and went but Bathory along with Boris will always have a special part in my little life. Those wonderous days when I would listen to Blood Fire Death on repeat the whole day or when I would yell at people "PEOPLE OF ASA BAY IT HAS ONLY JUST BEGUNNNNNNNNNNNN" will never fade away from my memory. I even managed to get Blood Fire Death on cassette so that I could listen it in a car and annoy my parents with it.

So is this any good? Well it's one of the most famous bands in the metal world. Everyone already listened to at least one album who explored metal a bit. If you haven't, well here's your chance to listen his first 5 albums, in flac. :3

Musically (objectively speaking without being a fanboy) each album changes the sound drifting more and more into this viking epic style of music. First album is complete thrash metal highly influenced by Venom (even though Quorthon denied this but I'm not so sure about his story). When it came out people hated it but over time it became a classic and first edition is now a collectors item if I'm not mistaken. :O After the first one shortly after came The Return and In The Sign which were a big influence to the second wave of black metal. It's still thrash metal but very raw and basically it can be called black metal. Blood Fire Death is the turning point towards the viking oriented metal which paves the way for Hammerheart that perfects the vision that was in Blood Fire Death.

That would be a quick guide of his progression in music for the first five albums. If you are new I guess you should start with either the first album or Blood Fire Death. To me those two are the most memorable. Anyway, not to ramble any further...

[...]


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ARGH!

I'm going away to Pag so I won't be able to post anything until next week. This kinda sucks since this is supposed to be a week full of posting. I guess I'll just haft to postpone it for next week. Sorry everyone. xD

I would have made scheduled posts but I got hammered completely yesterday and we were too busy taking a dive in that fountain on the photo so I was unable to do anything. :D

Grivf - Yggdrasil

I love this album for two things. First one is that I got it for free and the guy from Grivf sent it to me. He also paid the postage and was even nice enough to slip in some text of explanation of the name and the album. I felt so special and important that day. xD

The other reason why I love this album is because it's fucking great obviously. Why would I bother ripping it anyway if it wasn't good. There's a fairly good review here so I won't bother with much typing. Someone said it better anyway. :D

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Blader Runner OST (in flac)

Yeah yeah, I know I already posted this before. But this time it's in flac, because flac is cool. Description and whatnot here.


Be sure to check out the huge blade runner post for most of the albums there (in flac as well).

Darkthrone - Sardonic Wrath

This album brings back memories. It was one of the first albums I bought.

This is also the last album before Darkthrone drastically decided to change their sound. Now this new sound caused a lot of butthurt for the black metal fans because one of the most well known black metal bands decided to sell out. Now, let us drift further in this subject because Darkthrone is still is one of my favorite bands and I'll use this chance to discuss about them a little. Selling out apparently means drastically switching from one sound to another to gain a wider audience and cause more profit. Darkthrone did this. But they did that when they released A Blaze In The Northern Sky and switching from DEATH METAL to then new Black metal genre that was starting to get a lot of attention and popularity. I don't really see why people have so much against when a band changes their sound. Bands evolve, get over it.

Oh well. Rants aside Sardonic Wraith is all in all a great album. Not raw like their albums from the 90s but it still carries that feeling ov darkness from the 90s. With a bad attitude and grumpy vocals the album rips apart everything and it shows who's still the boss. :P

As promised. This is a flac week so links are flac."

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>:D

<3

FLAC week, next week. (and this week possibly as well)

I decided to rip some of my music into flac (it seems to be the new hip thing to do in the blogsphere so I want to fit in :<). This will take some time so I'm not sure if I'll be done by this week but next week will be a definite flac week.


What kind of music? Oh well, something from my small pile of music:

Its not much but there are some goodies there. :S

Horihone Saizo - Drainage City

I saw and read a lot of weird shit. But this, I have no idea what this is. First of all my dear reader take note that this is hentai. Hentai as in porn with explicit sex. Blah blah, the usual warnings. This is also much, much more than just ordinary hentai. Ironically I'm not really sure what is this supposed to be. All I know this is one of the weirdest things I have ever read in my life and this will stick with me for a long, long time. This is truly grotesque in its perfect form for me. I won't give much detail because it would ruin the fun/vomiting for you. I'll just squeeze one picture and let you decide.


 

Get.

Song Of The Silent Land

Well here's something really nice. A compilation of unreleased material by a bunch of bands. :O This is the first compilation from Constellation to feature unreleased and rare tracks from the label roster. Originally produced to commemorate the Spring 2004 Constellation Roadshow Tour in Europe, this CD-only release includes contributions from every band on the roster up to 2004, ranging from recent recordings and remixes to early material that pre-dates the label’s existence. It also marks a return to earlier Constellation packaging, with textured cardstock paper and metallic foil printing (in two variations). Thirteen of the 14 tracks are previously unreleased.

There are all sorts of bands here and I could go explaining each song but seriously that would be pointless. I'll let you to explore this fantastic collaboration and let you discover new and great bands without me spoiling the fun of surprise. :O

Tracklist:

1.	Elizabeth Anka Vajagic	The Sky Lay Still (6:22)
2.	Do Make Say Think	Winter Hymn Winter Hymn Winter Hymn (4:54)
		Remix - Charles Spearin , Justin Small , Ohad Benchetrit
3.	Exhaust	Wool Fever Dub (3:05)
		Engineer - Alain Tremblay
4.	Hangedup	(Re)View From The Ground (4:30)
		Remix - Efrim Menuck , Eric Craven
5.	Black Ox Orkestar	Toyte Goyes In Shineln (3:44)
6.	Sackville	This Machine (4:57)
7.	A Silver Mt. Zion	Iron Bridge To Thunder Bay (8:12)
		Engineer - Efrim Menuck
8.	Sofa	String Of Lights (5:33)
		Engineer - Paul Drouin
9.	Polmo Polpo	Dreaming (...Again) (4:50)
10.	Re:	Slippage (3:25)
11.	Fly Pan Am	Tres Tres 'Avant' (5:10)
		Engineer - David Smith (2) , Jace Lasek Remix - Christof Migone , Tim Hecker
12.	1-Speed Bike	Fair Warning (5:03)
13.	Frankie Sparo	See My Film (3:57)
		Engineer - Efrim Menuck
14.	Godspeed You! Black Emperor*	Outro (7:33)

Being uploaded.

Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See

Every time I think of the 90s I always picture a blurry rainy day. Actually all the memories from the 90s I have are in rainy and blurry days. I don't know why, it's like the whole decade had no sun whatsoever. My childhood was weird, living in that blur and listening to mad dictators. :S

Mazzy Star creates just that dreamy, foggy music and they were active in the 90s! Lots of guitar sliding notes and lazy sounding vocals. The music itself is a bit depressing but so was everything else back then. "So Tonight That I Might See" was their second and the most popular album in their short lived career. It also contains possibly the most commercial successful song from the whole dream pop era. Fade Into You, at least so the reviews say. In any case if you like shoegaze you'll like this sort of prototype shoegaze music and if you like dream pop you'll adore this.

Thanks Rise for telling me about this band a while ago. :)

Tracklist:

01. Fade Into You (4:55)
02. Bells Ring (4:32)
03. Mary Of Silence (6:02)
04. Five String Serenade (4:24)
05. Blue Light (5:10)
06. She's My Baby (4:25)
07. Unreflected (3:42)
08. Wasted (5:31)
09. Into Dust (5:36)
10. So Tonight That I Might See (7:19)


Won't upload again.