Especially given the most recent Magic Story... Damn!
JAM OF THE WEEK: "Bleed It Out" by Linkin Park
Yeah, the news came out last week that Chester Benington of Linkin Park had committed suicide. The band has always had a reputation for being "whiny", "emo", etc. but as I got older, my knee just didn't jerk as hard, especially once I was dealing with my own mental health issues, and my attitude became less "UGH QUIT WHINING" and more "Yeah, get it all out there, dude". Sometimes a cry for help IS a cry for help! Check in on your friends, kids! It's really easy!
"Bleed It Out" my be my favorite track for them, because it has all the vocal intensity of Linkin Park, but DOES NOT SLOW DOWN. Mike Shinoda's rapping, while not the most intricate, is the perfect flow to make a primo workout track. I would be remiss to not mention Chester, you know, he being the reason I picked this and all. He doesn't do much, but he does it with CONVICTION.
Also, a HUGE fan of the music video. The audience played out the scene as usual, and then the footage was played in reverse, while the band, would be green screened in later as they would be played normally.
HOUR OF DEVASTATION SONG "IMMINENT DOOM" COMING THIS THURSDAY!
God-Bird-Art did the art for this one and it's looking BADASS!
This one is a song inspired by Arch Enemy, both the band and Nicol Bolas Archenemy.
JAM OF THE WEEK: "Square Hammer" by GHOST
For a band with a Satanic, Gothic priesthood gimmick their sound is a lot... lighter than I would expect. Not that that's a bad thing, because "Square Hammer" evokes some of the best of Dio's solo work, an era of heavy metal where it wasn't so much "heavy" as it was "grand", like organs and shit. It's that dissonance that makes the band more inviting.
This song and music video make me want to do an FMV game inspired by
Ghost's work. Hey, if Chuck Tingle can get one, then so can Ghost. Like
Phantasmagoria meets Bioshock. And of course "Square Hammer" would the song in the trailer, in the grand tradition of horror-themed FMV games having really well put together trailers out of their shitty FMVness
SOUNDCLOUD DYING? NOT REALLY? MAYBE?
Either way, I'm starting to shift a lot of my older songs off Soundcloud and onto stuff like Spotify and Youtube.
So, what that means is that I'm looking for people to do cover art for these releases. It could be just for a collection of older stuff, it could be per song, I'm not sure yet. If you're in the market for smaller commisons, shoot me an email.
Once that gets going, I'll do a regular feature where I highlight my older songs.
FIRST FRIDAY SHOW RECAP
I cheated on Magic with Hearthstone this weekend. In my defense, 1. I got paid to play a show and B. I came in second and won this sweet keychain.
All in all it was a fun event with a relaxed atmosphere. There was plenty of games, a bar, a coffee shop next door and did I mention plenty of games? I loved the venue and want to play again sometime!
I played Pirate Warrior and Evolve Shaman. Both decks are great for setting up an early board state, but you REALLY need to do your math each turn, because both decks are about establishing a solid board state, then swinging in for big turns. However, what they lack in tools to help preserve said board state, they make up for in speed, ESPECIALLY if your opponent has no solid plays on Turn 2.
AFTER SEEING #SGDQ THIS PAST WEEK
They should leave Twitch Chat as Emote only for at least 4 hours after they would normally shut it off just to see how long the unfunny shitserfs can hold on to their rage for.
Related statistic:
Percentage of people who've used the phrase "Did you just assume my gender?"
Actual Transgender People- 0%
Unfunny Shitserfs- 100%
Other than that, there were tons of incredible speedruns and Doctors Without Borders got over $1.6 Million Dollars!
JAM OF THE WEEK- "The Last Stop For Us" by Evan Gamble
Another song from the Metronomicon! This week is a fun Rock Jam!
Not a whole lot to it really. It's big, loud and has a tight solo. What's different about it though is that it's about a couple on the verge of breaking up. Like "Hey, are we still doing this or not?" More songs should experiment with different stages of a bad relationship other than "NO WAY THIS CAN POSSIBLY GO WRONG!" and "WELL SCREW YOU I'M JUST FINE, TIFFANY"
"Last Stop For Us" comes to us from Evan Gamble who's an actor on The Vampire Diaries. I've never seen that show, so I'm assuming he plays a plucky young detective who stole a vampire's diary from his ancient crypt and uses it to solve mysteries that somehow relate to those events of 500 years ago!
So, as much as I love this song, it's... not that fun to play in the game. Not fast enough to be challenging, not complex enough to be interesting, this song basically boils down to "Hit Some Buttons While This Cool Song Plays"
Video's also cool, making the most of that one simple motif of Evan Clones spinning around. TURNING AND TURNING INTO INFINITY!
WHAT ARE YOUR DECKLISTS, CHUMP?
Fine, here you go:
PIRATE WARRIOR
2 x N'Zoth's First Mate
1 x Patches the Pirate
2 x Upgrade!2 x Southsea Deckhand
2 x Fiery War Axe2 x Bloodsail Raider
2 x Heroic Strike2 x Southsea Captain
2 x Bloodsail Cultist
2 x Dread Corsair
1 x Spellbreaker
2 x Frothing Berserker1 x Naga Corsair
2 x Kor'kron Elite
1 x Leeroy Jenkins
2 x Mortal Strike
2 x Arcanite Reaper
TOKEN SHAMAN
2 x Evolve
2 x Bloodsail Corsair
1 x Devolve2 x Fire Fly
2 x Flametongue Totem
1 x Patches the Pirate
2 x Jade Claws2 x Doppelgangster
2 x Maelstrom Portal2 x Stonehill Defender
2 x Primalfin Totem
2 x Mana Tide Totem
2 x Jade Lightning
2 x Bloodlust
1 x Aya Blackpaw 2 x Thing from Below
1 x Sea Giant
I was able to get out from under a lot of decks, but the only one that really gave me trouble were the Control decks, Priest Control and Freeze Mage. Those aren't about building up an offense, and me kicking it over, they're more about waiting for me to establish a board state, and stopping it at every opportunity.
Evolve Shaman is great if you can get Primalfin Totem on Turn 1, and Flametounge Totem on Turn 2.
This is going to be cool, because on top of being a concert with two awesome DJs, it's also a Hearthstone Tournament!
7:00 pm - Tournament Sign-Up 8:00 pm - Tournament Starts 9:00 pm - Third Impact Productions (30 min set)* 10:00 pm - Rhythm Bastard (30 min set)* 11:00 pm - DJ TONX (30 min set)* 12:00 am - Spider-Man tickets given away* 1:00 am - Tournament Ends* (*) - Subject to change.
JAM OF THE WEEK: "For The Love Of God" by Rosie
Another song off of The Metronomicon Soundtrack, this is "For The Love Of God" by the band Rosie. This and "Midnight" are both playable.
I gotta admit, 90% of my love for this song comes from that bass and tom rhythm on the second verse. Playing that section just felt right. My one complaint with The Metronomicon was that there wasn't as much "flow" to the note placement as Amplitude, but that ONE section took me back to those heady days of 2002 and that one time I tried it at PAX East 2016.
Not really much to say here, just a song that's part of a really good soundtrack despite the fact that you will know none of the songs. LIGHT THIS WEEK?
Other than my concert this week, there's a bunch of stuff that I have been working on but I either can't mention it or sahouldn't mention it. But keep in mind you WILL have new music soon.
