Friday, November 30, 2007

I found this really good article about one of my new favourite bands, Wolves in the Throne Room. For an article in the mainstream about a black metal band, the writer seems to know what he is talking about. There are a few over-generalisations - a lot of seminal black metal bands dropped the corpsepaint early on, not all bands adopted the traditional lo-fi production aestethetic (listen to Immortal!), few were involved in the church burnings and saying Satanism was proclaimed is a common stereotype (many were anti-religious, while other professed pagan beliefs). However, it's a thorough introduction, and an intelligent piece on a fascinating, progressive metal band.

Unlike this, which serves so little purpose - few Oxford students have any interest in the death metal scene, and this is hardly an introduction (the disc or the review). More annoyingly, the writer goes on about the boundaries of the style, ignoring the fact that extreme metal is one of the most diverse genres of music - that's what extremity is really all about. A portion of death metal bands, of which Severe Torture are one, aim to make the most brutal, heavy albums, and at first listen, they may be a lot of similiarity between different bands. However, it becomes quite possible to distinguish the ones that are playing generic death metal with the ones who show a desire to push the genre forward, of which there are many examples.

Also, the Scandinavian scene never imploded. It exploded and produced several different subgenres, each with a different sound, but ultimately falling under the label of death metal. Which pretty much says everything about the genre's "space for creativity".

Sunday, November 25, 2007

Skimming through Facebook today, I was a little surprised to discover several groups calling for action on fuel prices, by boycotting petrol stations for a period of time, and so forth. Obviously, such campaigns can never work on an effective level, but it seems like while more and more people are becoming aware of climate change problems, there is still a lack of understanding as to the exact effect out own actions on the problem. Higher prices may not have occured entirely because of the deliberate actions of a climate change policy, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be welcomed. In our market economy, the only thing people really understand is prices. Higher prices lead to less usage. The current price does not in any way reflect the actual cost of oil - there are social costs of burning hydrocarbons today that will be incurred by future generations which are not factored into the price at the petrol station. Moreover, high prices also lead to more people putting more money into finding alternatives.

It is a shame that the oil industry will be benefitting so much in the short run from the higher prices - if the price increase had been solely the result of a carbon tax, then that money may have been put to good use in investing in sustainability. But its better than nothing.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/oxfordshire/7110758.stm

Damn right. Insert Voltaire (mis)quote here.

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Don't let the fact that I think football fans are the worst people in the world lead you to believe I am in anyway enjoying any aspect of any particular national sporting teams recent successes or failures.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

I finished watching the West Wing. For those that don't know, I finished watching all but one episode of the West Wing in January. I watched the final episode yesterday. It was time.

Friday, November 09, 2007

I'm fairly sure that just before I die, I will look back on November 8th 2007 as the day I saw the greatest stand-up comedian I will ever have the chance to see live. Comedy is art, and Stewart Lee is the master.

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Measures to give the police more than 28 days to question terror suspects may be neccessary in some situations. For example, if a terror suspect in seriously injured as the result of an attack, rendering them unconcious or comatose, it may be very difficult to question them within a 28 day period. For another example, arresting a terror suspect, then placing him on a plane and sending him to prison in Egypt where he will have the life beaten out of him for a year before mysteriously disappearing from all records, may be very difficult to achieve within a 28 day period.
Decapitated are a Polish technical death metal band that I like. One of the amazing things about the band is that when they released their first album in 2000, to critical acclaim, the average age of the band was 18. High amongst the reasons I liked them so much was the drumming of Witold "Vitek" Kiełtyka, which was always complex and incredibly intricate, while still being utterly brutal.

On 29th October, their tour bus collided with a truck carrying wood in Belarus, injuring Vitek and singer Covan. Vitek died from his injuries on Friday. Though considered one of the best drummers in metal, he was only 23 - he was only 12 when he joined the band in 1996. He leaves behind a wife and two children.

RIP Vitek (24.01.84 - 2.11.07)

We shall remain and dream again,
Our moment of awakening is too short to recognize