Album Commentaries: The GazettE – DIM and Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue

The GazettE and Alice in Chains have been staples of my music selection over the years. I love them both, great bands, great talent, great music. But this year they both let me down. Not in a huge way, but both DIM and Black Gives Way to Blue were disappointments for me.

The GazettE really are a talented band and I’ve been listening to DIM since July when it released but I still can’t see how it’s any better than the band’s previous albums, in fact in may be worse. There is a noticeable difference between the quality of the music between Stacked Rubbish and DIM. Ruki is still as strange and vague as ever but the band seems to have gotten lazy. The three previously released singles on the CD were probably better than most of the tracks on the CD. In fact, The GazettE could have used all nine songs from the the three singles and they would have put out a better album.

I’m not saying the album is terrible but so many things are missing on the musical end. The album is pretty much void of good guitar solos, if they are there they are muddled by effects of Ruki making noise. Aside from Guren there isn’t really any gut wrenching, make you want to cry songs. The heavy songs are more muddled and crazy as ever. It almost seems like some songs were made especially to attract a younger crowd. In fact I felt a few times that Ruki or Kai could not have wrote certain songs since some just seem manufactured to blend in with a increasingly generic visual scene. If DIM was supposed to be the spiritual successor to NIL it did a piss poor job.

I’m also starting to wonder what is up again considering the gazeboys released Before I Decay in October.

Now onto Alice in Chains. There really isn’t too much to say, I’m glad the band is back together, I’m glad their making music again but no one can replace Staley. There is just something missing in the vocals. Though I must say, great job on putting some sort of meaning back into mainstream music. Radio rock has largely shifted from decent angsty music to really shitty party music. We’re at a point where there are hair metal lyrics mixed with grunge music and it makes me want to puke. It’s so terrible, honestly how many songs do we really need about partying?

No Matter What Party You Agree With, Healthcare Needs To Be Fixed

Ok, so yeah, our government in the good old US of A seems to be giving us the runaround again with the healthcare system that every president has said they were going to fix for probably the last 30 years. There is a simple solution to all this and its: screw big pharmaceutical/big insurance. It is a big industry in the US and it will still exist after a nationalized system is passed as long as we’re keeping it so you can still use your private doctor so job loss really isn’t a concern of mine. If anything, the break up of these massive companies who dominate America’s medical world would create even more jobs and more alternative products to the ones we have now and who knows, maybe even effective medicine that doesn’t make you liver rot.

The reason this isn’t happening though and is probably still a long way off is both parties have strong ties to these drug and insurance companies. Years of payoffs and kickbacks and “donations” made by these massive companies has utterly destroyed any chance of a truly effective national healthcare bill. This should be a concern no matter your political affiliation, the people who you have elected for years and years and years do not represent you. When was the last time your representative called you looking for an opinion on what could benefit your district? They don’t, it just doesn’t happen because they’re involved in politics for the perks and the money and sadly enough we pay them big bucks. A political office should be as close to a volunteer job as possible so only people who want to be there are there. The greed of the men and women who supposedly represent us will always outweigh any slightly good intention they had before going to Washington.

The most depressing part about this entire healthcare bill fiasco is we can’t even agree that the people who need coverage should have it. There are people who lose houses over surgeries. Why? Why on earth is this happening in the supposed greatest nation on the planet? I guess its the same reason why people actually have to choose between food or heat and medicine. Things you absolutely need to survive should not bankrupt you. In fact, an effort should be made to help you out in situations like that but alas we’re stuck in the same old cycle of people having their heat shut off or people going without food or losing their homes or working 100 hours a week just to try to make ends meet because the one thing, the one simple fucking thing that is painstakingly engineered to help them survive is making them suffer financially.

There are a lot of people who don’t agree with the proposed “Obamacare” bill and that is 100% okay. I’m not asking you to change your political ideologies or anything of the sort, I’m asking you to look around you and be aware of the suffering in this country caused by our current healthcare system and acknowledge there is a problem and it needs to be fixed. Maybe the nationalized system I envision isn’t right for this country, maybe we need to place regulations on healthcare or maybe we need to allow the creation of more specialized insurance companies and programs more tailored for specific individuals. I, for one, am paying $160 a month for a ton of coverage I don’t need, I have male maternity coverage (single dad I’m hoping haha), I have all sorts of little copays for different specialists I will never use but for the one thing I do need I don’t have enough coverage, I have mental health issues and my insurance only covers 30 therapist/psychologist/psychiatrist visits per year…yeah, I can understand 50 or 45 but with 30 visits I’m missing 20 weekly visits a year. Also my inpatient mental health coverage only covers 25 days so I best be over my psychological break down in that amount of time or I’ll be paying out the ass.

I hate to say it but my fellow citizens we need to wake the hell up. Too much suffering goes on in a country where there should be very little.

RIP Jasmine You

Jasmine You, the bassist of the band Versailles has passed in the early hours of August 9, 2009.  He will always be remembered for the beautiful music he created with his band mates and I look forward to hearing his final recorded work this fall.

I Hate The Wiimote

So I bought my own Wii about two months ago, before then I’d just play Mario Kart or Wii Sports at a friend’s house.  To me, then, it was a neat little gadget with a few games that interested me (I beat half of No More Heroes at my ex’s house) and a lot of potential.  Now, I just don’t know.  I picked up Super Mario Galaxy (you know, the Wii game to end all Wii games pretty much) and was sorely disappointed with the controls especially since its a Nintendo first party game.

At first it took me a while to get used to the camera angles but rarely does it stick with a horrible one, but there are some bad ones and correcting the problem might leave you confused as to where you actually are.  My main beef are the controls.  Some parts of the game, I feel, are muddled and hard solely because of the Wiimote.  While SMG uses the Wiimote to close to full potential, it doesn’t mean its implemented very well.  The worst part are the mini game galaxies and the one star galaxies.  They are often challenging and very frustrating and quite a few times I had to put the controller down and walk away.

The worst part is, besides the motion controls being completely muddled on a FIRST party game, the analog stick seems off too, often sending me in directions I don’t want.  In fact I was experimenting jumping and moving mid air with it which, to me, seemed close to impossible, but lo and behold my second jump into the moving platforms in the Sweet Sweet Galaxy and I went flying right off the edge to my doom.  This happened quite a few times throughout the level.

My frustration with the motion controls cannot almost not be described.  I thought it might just be me so I had a member of my house try it out as well (thinking that being primarily at keyboard and mouse gamer that it wouldn’t be as natural for me) but again, the game was almost inaccessible to my friend who has more Wii playtime in than I do.  The game is by no means hard, but it is rather cheap in spots. I’ve been playing Zeno Clash all week and I find it less challenging than SMG.

What baffles me is how bad the controls are solely for this and a few other games.  I love NMH (besides some hit detection problems) and I love the tacked on controls of Mario Kart, but SMG just takes the cake for flat out, fucking terrible controls and it really shouldn’t considering the game’s charm which obviously glitzed and glammed critics during review time.

I’m willing to give more games a chance but right now I’m feeling sour after have a long time positive opinion about this hardware.

Public Executions Need to Make a Comeback

Public executions really need to make a comeback.  I’ve never been one for capital punishment but the more I look around the more I see how ineffective our current (and by our I mean the US) justice system is with certain crimes.  While I don’t believe every crime is punishable by death, I do believe the fear of death is more powerful than, say, locking a man in a cell for 40 years then finally executing him when he’s 60 or 70.

I bring this up because I see how absolutely terrible our justice system is at dealing with drug dealers and drug cartels.  A lot of people would say that selling drugs is a rather harmless crime and yes, selling some weed to your buds really is not doing any harm to anyone granted you’re growing it yourself but drugs create tons of problems for this country.

These problems often include violent crimes, kidnappings, detrimental effects to communities, income for street gangs, and, most of all, the destruction of lives, not only the life of the user, but often times it rips a family apart.  Parents lose children, children lose parents, its truly a horrible spectacle.

So, what do most of these dealers get as a penalty? A few years behind bars.  May seem bad to someone who doesn’t rely on illegal activities as a source of income but chances are the ex con will just go back to selling anyway because he probably made more connections in jail, learned of new locations that would otherwise be fairly dry.  So tell me, did he learn his or her lesson? No.  Did the jail sentence bring your son, daughter, mother, or father back? No. What the con did learn is not to get caught again.

I want to clear this up before I go any further.  It is not the dealer’s fault when a person gets addicted to drugs.  The user makes a conscious decision (usually) and chooses to buy the drugs. But, and this is a big one, if the justice system was more effective, the dealer wouldn’t be there in the first place.

Now, on to my main point.  The bottom line best way to deal with the current drug crisis in the US is to start executing drug dealers.  I’m not talking about just big time dealers either.  I’m talking about anyone who distributes ANY controlled substance without having the authority to do so.  We shouldn’t handle it how we handle traditional capital cases either.  The execution should be carried out within 5 years of sentencing and it should be PUBLIC.  These people forfeited their right to live when they decided to contribute to this international problem, they are making the world ROT.

This is a brutal way of dealing with this situation but it is the only clear cut way to show that this is a serious crime.  The same methods could be used in other crimes too. Rapes, murders, etc, it all kind of fits neatly into the category titled “How to **** Up Someone’s Life”.  To be comepletely straight with you I feel the the failed bank execs deserved to die as well.  Its not like they lost a friend’s money or took $40 out of your piggy bank, they completely screwed the economy and effected the ENTIRE population.

I’m not one to press morals.  You follow what you follow and as long as it doesn’t hurt the people around you, its fine with me, but, this nation is rotting.  The people are becoming the dumbed down “free” citizens of the Decomposing States of America.  We need to fight for justice to ensure the safety of ourselves and the ones we love.  This country was made so the hardworking, honest people could live happily and equally amongst one another.  No one should have to worry about living or being in the wrong section of a town.  The scum needs to be wiped away so we can have a bright future and so the ones we love can live without fear.

Good luck brothers and sisters.

E3 Big 3 Conferences: My Opinion.

E3 is my favorite week of the year next to TGS.  Every year I look forward to the press conferences and pour over anything that I might be interested.  Please remember these are MY OPINIONS.  I probably have different tastes than most people when it comes to games so please don’t cry if I dislike your favorite game so far this week.

Last year I was very unimpressed with Microsoft’s offerings.  Almost to the point where I didn’t even acknowledge they had an actually conference but rather a multiplat showcase with a “surprise we paid Square Enix for some FFXIII love”.  This year was an improvement but not by much.

Again we have super multiplat showcase.  I understand these games sell the most but E3 isn’t for the general public who will buy anything with Call of Duty on it, this is a showcase for gaming enthusiasts and the lack of a strong presence of exclusives disappointed me.  The exclusives that were shown don’t really interest me either.  It came down to Halo 3 ODST and Halo Reach, neither of which I have much interest in since I’m not a fan of console shooters.  There is also Metal Gear Rising, I would throw that in as an exclusives but we are seeing it popping up as being on PS3 and PC also so we’ll have to wait and see.

Microsoft also unveiled Project Natal.  I’m not going to waste my time on this, if its not standard hardware folks, its almost an automatic fail.  The Wiimote and Sixaxis were standard hardware and they’re almost never used in a way that doesn’t feel tacked on.

Conclusion: Aside from Metal Gear Rising it was a meh-fest for me.  Microsoft does not cater to my gaming tastes on consoles and most 3rd party games for the console don’t either.

Nintendo was another one that disappointed last year.  Their conference was just downright depressing.

This year is slightly different though.  Wii Motion Plus solves my issues with the Wiimote but if it is actually used in more than a few games in another thing.  The highlights for me were Super Mario Galaxy 2 and Metroid: The Other M (developed by Team Ninja).  The biggest Nintendo news, however, came after the conference was over.  Hot on the heels of the questions about the mysteriously absent Miyamoto, a press roundtable was held where a new Zelda was announced with the target release date set for 2010.

Conclusion: Much better than last year where the biggest fucking game announced was Wii Music (seriously wtf Miyamoto?) but I’m still skeptical as to whether Wii is a worthwhile investment.

Sony’s 08 conference wasn’t too shabby.  While there were no real surprises to be had it was a solid showing that showcased what ended up being a great 08 and early 09 for Sony as far as games go.

This year the conference was better for me.  There were a lot of exclusives shown and The Last Guardian (Team Ico’s new project) and The Agent (Rockstar’s new exclusive project) were both made official.  New Uncharted 2 showcase and the first official God of War 3 gameplay were shown.  Some of the bigger news was the PSP Go which is a new model of PSP with a slide screen and 16GB of internal flash memory for downloadable games (they will all be, there is no UMD drive) and the announcements that Gran Turismo Portable and Metal Gear Solid: Peacewalker will be launched alongside it or close to it.

MGS: Peacewalker is a “true sequel” in the MGS story and will feature more jungle crawling as Big Boss/Naked Snake.  It is set in 70’s South America.  There was also new footage of Gran Turismo 5 which was described as “incredibly detailed” and “close to photorealistic”.

The biggest surprise was the announcement of Final Fantasy XIV however, slated for a 2010 release on PS3 and PC.  It is an MMO.

Sony also demoed the new PSEye functions and motion controller.  See my thought on hardware that isn’t standard in the Microsoft section.

Conclusion: Sony was my favorite again this year but that’s only because they had the most announcements that interested me.  I’m looking forward to most of these games.

Other Thoughts: This was a great year so far.  I’m impressed with the new Assassin’s Creed and what was shown for The Old Republic MMO.  However, I’m upset with Valve about Left 4 Dead 2.  It is a game that would’ve made better mod material and traditionally would have been mod material.

There is also a question that has been eating at me since this afternoon.  Why doesn’t 360 have any exclusive or PC/360 MMOs?  The console is constantly praised for its online capability yet it has nothing besides Final Fantasy XI to my knowledge.

My 10 Favorite Villains

I love the villains in most media. That is to say I like the way they portray evil and darkness. Video game villains, book villains, comic villains, movie villains etc. I like most of them.

10. The Joker (comics)

The Joker is one of my favorite comic books villains.  Most of his books make him a sinister killer (especially the latest ones) who is playful with death.  The Joker views his deeds as having no bad outcome even if his plans are foiled or he is caught. This furthers the idea that he puts no personal stake into any of his actions and rather views it all as a big game which definitely makes him one of the craziest, murderous, and amazing villains of all time.

9. Sephiroth (FFVII)

While many younger gamers now regard Final Fantasy characters as emo and girly men, they tend to be ignorant to the stories behind the characters that made the games enjoyable to those who played games before characters who ate steroids for breakfast were popular.  While Sephiroth is a mama’s boy and a cry baby he is special.  Special in the sense that all of his whining and carrying on has to do with genetic engineering gone wrong.  He is not evil just for the fun of it, he is on his own personal mission and the planet is in his way.  All that aside what makes him one of my favorites is he is a hero gone wrong.  Yes, Sephiroth was once a popular hero.

8. Yuri Orlov (Lord of War)

Yuri Orlov is an interesting villain.  Not only is the entire movie focused on him but you almost feel bad for what he goes through.  He is an arms dealer who ends up being pursued by an Interpol agent played by Ethan Hawke (he is the good guy here, though you don’t realize it), loses his brother, is disowned by his parents, and is abandoned by his wife and son.  Yuri fuels wars.  He is an arms dealer and has clients all over the world, most notably in Africa where he supplies wars in two nations.  He even sells weapons that will be used to kill civilians willingly.  He is a hard villain to hate or to even perceive as a villain.

7. Morgoth/Melkor

If you thought Sauron was badass and evil you never met his master, Morgoth.  That’s right, Sauron had a master, in fact, Morgoth is so powerful he became the most powerful being in the Lord of the Rings.  He was never born and existed before earth.  Morgoth was so evil that even when he was defeated and exiled from Middle Earth all creatures still felt his taint.  Morgoth corrupted the entire race of men, leaving them an untrustworthy race that are capable of greed and hate.  He even created some of the most powerful evil beings in Middle Earth including Balrogs and Dragons.

7. Dagoth Ur

He’s not quite as badass or really as evil as some of the other villains but I love him largely due to my love of Morrowind. If I could even begin to explain to you what exactly he is or is trying to do in the game I’d probably be lying to you because I don’t follow exactly what it is Dagoth Ur attempted to do except maybe kill the Gods or end the world.

6. Dorian Grey (The Picture of Dorian Gray)

Dorian Gray, like Yuri Orlov, is not your typical villain.  He is the focus of Oscar Wilde’s The Picture of Dorian Gray in which he has a painting of himself that bares the brunt of his increasingly vile lifestyle which includes everything from opium use to murder.  Gray has no motives though aside from his own pleasure.  The book shows how corrupt a human can be when given liberties such as eternal youth.

5. Vicious (Cowboy Bebop)

Vicious is an interesting villain.  He and the main character of Cowboy Bebop (Spike) used to be in the same crime syndicate.  Down the road one thing led to the next and Vicious took out the leaders of the syndicate to become top dog.  Vicious is vicious.

4. Yagami Light (Death Note)

Light is probably my favorite ambiguous villain.  He tries to do a lot of good with the Death Note but it becomes more obvious as the show goes on that his dream of being the god of the new world is nothing more than him becoming the next crazed dictator as he starts to use the Death Note for increasingly selfish means.  He is a genius though and nearly wins in the end.

3. Ryuk (Death Note)

Ryuk is Light’s “friend” in Death Note and gives the Death Note to Light because he is bored.  He is funny and really doesn’t seem so harmful until you realize that he wanted all the chaos surrounding the Death Note to happen because he was bored.  Yeah, that’s pretty sinister.

2. Pyramid Head (Silent Hill 2)

Pyramid Head is a tormentor born out of townspeople’s idolatrous religious beliefs.  He is also born out of the repressed anger of James and it is said that the pyramid atop his head is meant to represent pain and punishment.  There isn’t much to be said about this villain except he scares the shit out of me.

1. The Colossi (Shadow of the Colossus)

We don’t really know if the Colossi are villains or not but you have to take them down to appease the Gods so they will save your love in Shadow of the Colossus.  They are epic bosses and the game wholly consists of you taking down 15 of these beasts.

Nightmare – Majestical Parade Review

Nightmare is most famous for their songs featured as the first Death Note opener and closer (the WORLD and Alumina) but have a lot more to offer than those two songs as featured in their last two albums. Their latest album, Majestical Parade, is probably their best work yet.

The album is more satisfying than Killer Show in the sense that every track is worth listening to, there is no song that I skip to go to a better one. The vocals are beautiful and I really look to Yomi for a wonderful vocal performance. The album isn’t as fun as Killer Show though, every track is at least a bit serious and nothing really sets the band apart from what can only be described as ‘typical visual kei’ aside from the vocals and song writing. I’d go as far to say this album almost marks the height and stagnation of Nightmare for now.

The album is by no means bad though. The songs are very good, very catchy, and very well written. Some of the songs hit home for me while others are wonderful works of their musical skills. Parade, Can you do it, Naked Love, Cynical RE:actor, Gianism Kyuu, and Nothing you lose are the top songs on the CD for me.

I can’t really tell you to try to buy this album unless you like Nightmare. Its not really good for those looking for heavier visual kei or even a The GazettE or ScReW style music but it will delight fans and may appeal to those who are new to visual kei or don’t like the horrifyingly depressing lyrics of other bands.

I’m Tired of Everyone

I’m tired of everyone, I’m tired of the games everyone plays, I’m tired of honesty being a rarity, I’m tired of common human decency being shit on, I’m tired of those who ridicule others’ beliefs, I’m tired to people hating on one’s personal practices, I’m tired of being categorized, I’m tired of being seen as clothes and skin rather than the person I am inside, I’m tired of those who hate based on gender, race, or sexual orientation.

I’m tired of people being deceptive, I’m tired of never getting a straight answer, I’m tired of being treated like I’m not sick, I’m tired of taking medication, I’m tired of being talked about, I’m tired of friends leaving, I’m tired of being alone, I’m tired of not being respected, I’m tired of being depressed because of all of this, I’m of people dying, I’m tired of those who judged based on what music you listen to, I’m tired of dirty politicians.

I’m tired of sex on TV, I’m tired of crappy songs, I’m tired of people who just can’t get along, I’m tired violence (especially against me), I’m tired of being forgotten about, I’m tired of seeing the same faces, I’m tired of seeing the same places, I’m tired of trying to belong, I’m tired of being fake, I’m tired of people hating me, I’m tired of trying to relate to other people.

I’m tired of having emotional cycles, I’m tired of writing songs, I’m tired of putting myself out there for others, I’m tired of being jaded, I’m tired of being distant, I’m tired of being shot down, I’m tired of people not listening.

But most of all I am tired of living. I’m not sure Existence is meant for everyone and I think it may be time for me to move on, whether it be moving away or dying.

Final Fantasy XIII Confirmed for Winter 09 in Japan

The latest promotional event for Final Fantasy XIII revealed that there will indeed be a Winter 09 launch for the game in Japan (remember it is PS3 only in Japan). Personally I will be importing this game when it is released. Let’s hope the localized version is released soon after for those of you who do not understand Japanese.

And since this was a relatively short post, eye candy: