#[the best sonic form beatdown]

[bestactualsonicshowdown]

(hyper sonic image was found from this mod, check it out if you think it looks cool.)

[dustedmagazine]

Slept Ons: The Best Records of 2020 That We Never Got Around To

Tattoos and shorts! How did we miss the Oily Boys?

It happens pretty much every year.  After much fussing and second-guessing, the year-end list gets finalized, set in stone really, encapsulating 12 months of enthusiastic listening, and surely these are the best ten records anyone could find, right? Right?  And then, a day or a week later, someone else puts up their list or records their year-end radio show, and there it is, the record you could have loved and pushed and written about…if only you’d known about it.  My self-kick in the shins came during Joe Belock’s 2020 round-up on WFMU when he played the Chats.  Others on our staff knew, earlier on, that they weren’t writing about records they loved for whatever reason — work, family, mp3 overload, etc. Except now they are.  Here.  Now. Enjoy.  

Contributors include me (Jennifer Kelly), Eric McDowell, Jonathan Shaw, Justin Cober-Lake, Bill Meyer, Bryon Hayes, Ian Mathers, Andrew Forell, Michael Rosenstein and Patrick Masterson. 

The Chats — High Risk Behavior (Bargain Bin)

High Risk Behaviour by The Chats

Cartoonishly primitive and gleefully out of luck, The Chats hurl Molotov cocktails of punk, bright and exploding even as they come. They’re from Australia, which totally makes sense; there’s a sunny, health-care-subsidized, devil-may-care vibe to their down-on-their luck stories. Musically, the songs are stripped down like Billy Childish, sped up like the Ramones, brute simple like Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Most of them are about alcohol: drinking, being drunk, getting arrested for being drunk, eating while drunk…etc. etc. But there’s an art to singing about getting hammered, and few manage the butt-headed conviction of “Drunk & Disorderly.” Its jungle rhythms, vicious, saw-toothed bass, quick knife jabs of guitar frame an all-hands drum-shocked chant: “Relaxation, mood alteration, boredom leads to intoxication.” Later singer Eamon Sandwith cuts right to the point about romance with the couplet, “I was cautious, double wrapped, but still I got the clap.” The album’s highlights include the most belligerently glorious song ever about cyber-fraud in “Identity Theft,” whose shout along chorus buoys you up, even as the dark web drains your savings account dry. The album strings together a laundry list of dead-end, unfortunate situations, one after another truly hopeless developments, but nonetheless it explodes with joy. Bandcamp says the guitar player has already left—so you’re too late to see the Chats live—but it must have been fun while it lasted.

Jennifer Kelly

Oliver Coates — skins n slime  (RVNG Intl)

skins n slime by Oliver Coates

2020 was a year of loss, of losing, of feeling lost. Whether weathering the despair of illness and death, the discomfort of displacement or the drift of temporal reverie, English cellist Oliver Coates creates music to reflect all this and more on skins n slime. Using modulators, loops and effects, Coates employs elements from drone, shoegaze and industrial to extend the range of the cello and conjure otherworldly sounds of crushing intensity and great beauty. Beneath the layering, distortion and dissonance, the human element remains strong. The tactility of fingers and bow on strings and the expressive essence of tone form the core of Coates composition and performance. If his experiments seem a willful swipe at the restrictions of the classical world from whence he came, the visceral power of a track like “Reunification 2018”, which hunkers in the same netherworld as anything by Deathprod or Lawrence English, the liminal, static bedecked ache of “Honey” and the unadorned minimalism of “Caretaker Part 1 (Breathing)” are works of a serious talent. skins n slime is an album to sit with and soak in; allow it to percolate and permeate and you’ll find yourself forgetting the outside world, if only for a while.  

Andrew Forell  

Bertrand Denzler / Antonin Gerbal — Sbatax (Umlaut Records)

Sbatax by Denzler - Gerbal

Tenor sax player Bertrand Denzler and drummer Antonin Gerbal released this duo recording last summer which slipped under the radar of many listeners. Denzler is as likely to be heard these days composing and performing pieces by others in the French ensemble ONCEIM, playing solo, or in settings for quiet improvisation. But he’s been burning it up as a free jazz player for years now as well. Gerbal also casts a broad net, as a member of ONCEIM, deconstructing free bop in the group Peeping Tom, or recontextualizing the music of Ahmed Abdul-Malik along with Pat Thomas, Joel Grip and Seymour Wright in the group Ahmed amongst many other projects. The two have worked together in a variety of contexts for a decade now, recording a fantastic duo back in 2014. Sbatax, recorded five years later at a live performance in Berlin is a worthy follow-up.  

Gerbal attacks his kit with ferocity out of the gate, with slashing cymbals and thundering kit, cascading along with drubbing momentum. Denzler charges in with a husky, jagged, repeated motif which he loops and teases apart, matching the caterwauling vigor of his partner straightaway. Over the course of this 40-minute outing, one can hear the two lock in, coursing forward with mounting intensity. Denzler increasingly peppers his playing with trenchant blasts and rasping salvos, riding along on Gerbal’s torrential fusillades. Throughout, one can hear the two dive deep in to free jazz traditions while shaping the arc of the improvisation with an acute ear toward the overall form of the piece. Midway through, Denzler steps back for a torrid drum solo, then jumps back in with renewed dynamism as the two ride waves of commanding potency and focus to a rousing conclusion, goaded on by the cheering audience. Anyone wondering whether there is still life in the tenor/drum duo format should dig this one up.  

Michael Rosenstein

Kaelin Ellis — After Thoughts (self-released)

After Thoughts by KAELIN ELLIS

To be sure, “slept on” hardly characterizes Kaelin Ellis in 2020. After a trickle of lone tracks in the first months of the year, a Twitter video posted by the 23-year-old producer and multi-instrumentalist caught the attention of Lupe Fiasco, quickly precipitating the joint EP House. It’s a catchy story from any number of angles — the star-powered “discovery” of a young talent, the interconnectedness of the digital age, the silver linings of the COVID-19 pandemic — but it risks overshadowing Ellis’s two 2020 solo records: Moments, released in the lead-up to House, and After Thoughts, released in October. It doesn’t help that each album’s dozen tracks scarcely add up to as many minutes, or that the producer’s titles deliberately downplay the results. And some, of course, will judge these jazzy, deeply soulful beats only against their potential as platforms for some other, more extroverted artist. “I’d like to think I’m a jack of all trades,” Ellis told one interviewer, “but in all honesty my specialty is creating a space for others to stand out.”

Yet as with all small, good things, there’s reward in savoring these miniatures on their own terms, and After Thoughts in particular proved an unexpected retreat from last fall’s anxieties. Ellis has a poet’s gift for distillation and juxtaposition, a director’s knack for pathos and dramatic sequencing — powers that combine to somehow render a fully realized world. As fleeting as it is, Ellis’s work communicates a generosity of care and concentration, opening a space for others not just to stand out but also to settle in.

Eric McDowell   

Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry — At the Ends of the World

At the Ends of the World by Lloyd Miller with Ian Camp and Adam Michael Terry

Miller and company fuse the feel of a contemporary classical concert with eastern modalities and instrumentation. The recordings sound live off the floor, and give a welcome sense of space and detail to the sensitive playing. Miller has explored the intersection between Persian and other cultural traditions and jazz through the lens of academic scholarship and recorded output since the 1960s. With this release, the performances linger in a space where vibe is as important as compositional structure. The results revel in the beauty when seemingly unrelated musical ideas emerge together in the same moment, with startling results.

Arthur Krumins

 Oily Boys — Cro Memory Grin (Cool Death)

Cro Memory Grin by Oily Boys

The title of this 2020 LP by Australian punks Oily Boys sounds like a pun on “Cro-Magnon,” an outmoded scientific name for early humans. It’s apt: the music is smarter than knuckle-dragger beatdown or run-of-the-mill powerviolence, but still driven by a rancorous, id-bound savagery. The smarts are just perceptible enough to keep things pretty interesting. Some of the noisier, droning and semi-melodic stretches of Cro Memory Grin recall the records made by the Men (especially Leave Home) before they decided to try to make like Uncle Tupelo, or some lesser version of the Hold Steady. Oily Boys inhabit a darker sensibility, and their music is more profoundly bonkers than anything those other bands got up to. Aggro, discordant punk; flagellating hardcore burners; psych-rock-adjacent sonic exorcisms — you get it all, sometimes in a single five-minute passage of Cro Memory Grin (check out the sequence from “Lizard Scheme” to “Heat Harmony” to “Stick Him.” Yikes). A bunch of the tunes spill over into one another, feedback and sustain jumping the gap from one track to the next, which gives the record a live vibe. It feels volatile and sweaty. The ill intent and unmitigated nastiness accumulate into a palpable force, tainting the air and leaving stains on your tee shirt. Oily Boys have been kicking around Sydney’s punk scene since at least 2014, but this is their first full-length record. One hopes they can continue to play with this degree of possessed abandon without completing burning themselves to down to smoldering cinders. At least long enough to record some more music.

Jonathan Shaw

 Dougie Poole — The Freelancer's Blues (Wharf Cat)

The Freelancer's Blues by Dougie Poole

A cursory listen might misconstrue the heart of Dougie Poole's second album, The Freelancer's Blues. When he mixes his wobbly country sound with lyrics like those in “Vaping on the Job,” it sounds like genre play, a smirking look at millennial life through an urban cowboy's vintage sound. Poole does target a particular set of issues, but mapping them with his own slightly psychedelic country comes with very little of the postmodern itch. His characters feel just as troubled as anyone coming out of 1970s Nashville, and as Poole explores these lives with wit and empathy, the songs quickly find their resonance.

The album, though it wouldn't reach for pretentious terms, carries an existential problem at its center. Poole circles around the fundamental void: work deadens, relocation doesn't help, spiritual pursuits falter, intelligence burdens, and even the drugs don't help. When Poole finally gets the title track, the preceding album gives his confession extra weight, a mix of life's strictures and personal limitation combining for a crisis best avoided but wonderfully shared. The Freelancer's Blues comes rich in Nashville tradition but finds an ideal fit in its contemporary place, likely providing a soundtrack for a variety of times and spaces yet to come.

Justin Cober-Lake

 Schlippenbach Quartett — Three Nails Left (Corbett Vs. Dempsey)

You might say that this record has been slept on twice. The second recording to be released by the Alexander von Schlippenbach, Evan Parker and Paul Lovens (augmented this time by Peter Kowald) was released in 1975, and didn’t get a second pressing — on vinyl — until 2019. So, Corbett Vs. Dempsey stepped up last summer, it had never been on CD. But this writer was so stumped on how to relate how intense, startling, and unlike any other free improvisation it was and is, that he just… slept on it. Until now. Even if you know this band, if you don’t know this album, well, it’s time you got acquainted.

Bill Meyer 

Stonegrass — Stonegrass (Cosmic Range)

STONEGRASS by Stonegrass

Released on the cusp of a tentative re-opening for the city of Toronto after two months of lock-down, this slab of psychedelic funk-rock was the perfect antidote to the COVID blues when it arrived at the tail end of a Spring spent in near-isolation. The jam sessions that became Stonegrass were also a new beginning for multi-instrumentalist Matthew “Doc” Dunn and drummer Jay Anderson, who reignited a spirit of collaboration after a decade of sonic estrangement following the demise of their Spiritual Sky Blues Band project. Listening to these songs, you’d never know they spent any time apart. The tight, bottom-wagging jams on offer are evidence that these two are joined together at the third eye. Anderson’s grooves run deep, and Dunn — whether he’s traipsing along on guitar, keys or flutes — is right there with him. There’s enough fuzz here to satiate the heads, but the real treat here is the rhythmic interplay. Strap in and prepare to get down. 

Bryon Hayes 

 Bob Vylan — We Live Here EP (Venn Records)

Bob Vylan flew under the radar in 2020 successfully enough that when someone nominated them for the best of 2020 poll in Tom Ewing’s Peoples’ Pop Polls project on Twitter (each month a different year or category gets voted on in World Cup-style brackets, it’s great fun and only occasionally maddening), most of the reaction was “is that one a typo?” Nobody had that response after listening to “We Live Here” — my wife also participates in the poll, so we just play all the candidates in our apartment, and Bob Vylan was the first time both of our jaws dropped in amazement; the song got played about ten times in a row at that point. Bobby (vocals/guitar/production) and Bobbie (drums/“spiritual inspiration”) Vylan’s 18-minute EP lives up to that title track, fireball after fireball aimed directly at the corrupt, crumbling, racist state that seems utterly indifferent to human suffering unless there’s profit in it. Whether it’s the raging catharsis of the title track or the cool, precise hostility of “Lynch Your Leaders,” Bob Vylan have made something vital and essential here, that very much speaks to 2020 but sadly will stay relevant long past it.  

Ian Mathers

 Working Men’s Club — Working Men’s Club (Heavenly Recordings)

It’s been evident these past few years that I’ve retreated from music and committed myself to the slower world of books as a way of giving my mind a break from the accelerating madness outside, but I could never really leave my radio family the same way I could never really leave Dusted. Another great example why: A fellow CHIRP volunteer played “John Cooper Clarke” in a December Zoom social I actually managed to catch, and I’ve been addicted to Working Men’s Club’s debut LP from October ever since. The quartet hails from Todmodren, a market town you won’t be surprised upon listening to discover is roughly equidistant between Leeds and Manchester; the album screams Hacienda vibes in its seamless integration of post-punk signifiers and dancefloor style. It’s easy to bandy about names from Rip It Up and Start Again or even The Velvet Underground in 12-minute closer “Angel,” certainly one of the most arresting tracks of the year, but the thing that struck me immediately is that this was the record I’d always anticipated but never got from Factory Floor — smart, aloof and occasionally calculated, yet still fun enough to play for any crowd itching to move. Until the community of a dance party or Working Men’s Club live set is once again possible, patience and a fully formed first album will have to suffice. You’ll have to imagine the part where I corner you at the party to rave about it, I’m afraid.

Patrick Masterson

[the-nysh]

Waaait uhhh, can I hear about some prominent season one characters; Sonic, Mumen Rider, the S classes (in particular; Tatsumaki) and Lord Boros?

Oho, ok let’s see... :D Again, I read the manga before s1 aired, so I’m basing my honest first impressions off of that (and what I can remember).

Sonic: from his first introductory panels, I remember being excited/intrigued he might be a girl! :O Like, ‘ohh?? A ruthless dark assassin who’s female? That’s pretty fresh/neat!’ Until he was revealed as a dude and I was like, ‘oh. ok.’ Then my interest in him honestly waned. ;o; Simply put, his character’s appeal in the fandom just wasn’t ‘my type’ either. Also because many of his appearances and use in the story were mostly for gags, it wasn’t until ONE finally fleshed out his backstory with Flash (in the webcomic, yes it took that long) that I was like, ‘oho, NOW we’re getting somewhere!’ 8′D That his character finally gained more appeal/substance to me rather than being mostly used as the butt end of a joke. So whew;; I was so glad ONE finally wrote him seriously to be able to appreciate him for real. :’D

Mumen Rider: back then, he went by ‘Licenseless’ in the fandom. A very good, wholesome lad who’s self-aware but also knows what’s best and when to act when it’s the right, helpful thing to do. :’) He feels like the warm comfort of a mug of hot cocoa on a brisk, chill winter morning~

S Class: at first, nothing resonated about them in particular, other than recognizing they were all outlandish & traditional character tropes (on purpose, yes even the offensive/outdated ones to western eyes) that ONE was playing around with and/or deconstructing for the lulz.

Tatsumaki: a little bratty and grating in attitude at first, but seeing how she’s an honest workaholic and asserts her strength brought to the workforce...yes, that’s something I can work with. A bit shockingly heartless in the wc, but the manga fleshing out her character more, and demonstrating both her prowess and efficiently as a hero, now that’s definitely served her well. If it weren’t for Blast’s placeholder then yes, Tatsu would be the top, most active hero! I’m impressed.

Boros: a very flashy and flamboyant dbz parody. Extremely (unfortunately) short-lived too. His presence almost feels out of place in the story looking back in hindsight. But his character marked the end/turning point of opm’s ‘introduction/prologue’ saga, before it could switch from something episodic into something more legit/serious with an ongoing plot~ So I kinda look back at him ruefully, but appreciate how the story transitioned because of him too. :’)

I also wanna hear what you thought about some season two characters other than wolfie; Fubuki, Suiryu (tho I remember going real far back in your blog and you being blunt about not liking the tournament arc, unless I'm misremembering ^^'), Lord Orochi & Gyoro Gyoro. (Also ofc gotta ask if you feel for King's "persona". I remember being genuinely shocked lol.)

Part 2 with s2 characters continued! (Oho other than wolf boy~)

Fubuki: other than her gorgeous face and inferiority complex vs her sister (giving her flaws with which her character can grow), it was specifically her manipulative behaviors (trying to recruit Saitama with ulterior motives, rather than being honest/upfront about it) that honestly put me off about her. Since manipulative characters are not my thing. (Also some trivia: when I showed my mom s2, who yes liked Genos the most in s1 and got feels for Garou in s2, even she disproved of Fubuki too!) So yes, I can honestly say I generally prefer Tatsu over her. However, I feel Fubuki’s strongest character moment is when she finally confronts and asserts herself vs Tatsu in the wc’s post-Garou arc. Which made me honestly proud of her progress. :’) So I hope to see that part (and Fubuki’s true strength) Murata-adapted someday.

Suiryu: so the manga’s tournament arc in general wasn’t my thing either (but I believe gofancy was the one who was most openly blunt about not liking how it overstayed its welcome + real estate.) Simply because it was the first major diversion from the wc, and I remember how Murata’s pace was pretty slow back then too, leading many fans to dropping and/or putting the manga on hold for a while. :’) Suiryu’s initial character wasn’t my type either, for the overconfident, dismissive, sleazy/lazy, self-serving flirty/womanizer traits. Also wasn’t my thing. But I felt his incoming Gouketsu-beatdown was...unfairly brutal. D: Made me feel honestly bad for him. (Yikes, ONE doesn’t hold back at all when characters get their humbling comeuppance.) I’m glad he’s since had a change of heart and seen the value/light of true heroism (which warmed me up to him), but I still don’t know what to think about his wc’s counterpart (which honestly surprised me to see ONE use a previously manga-only character!) Wc Suiryu feels different in vibe, like he’s yet to undergo that same character development. But it seems ONE’s got further plans for Suiryu’s use in the story this way, so I’m eager to see what that’ll be..

Orochi & Gyoro (Psykos): first time seeing Gyoro in the manga I was like !!! 8D because it meant wc Psykos was incoming~ But seeing Orochi I was like w h a t. Because Psykos (Gyoro) was supposed to be the MA’s figurehead, but she was tiny and unassuming compared to...this new guy puppet (??) (She’s now the villain mastermind behind the scenes -played straight- I guess!) So there was confusion at first to what in the world ONE was thinking by presenting them this way! And well, by now Orochi’s inclusion (as the ‘monster king’ to rival what wc Garou would have dominated) has certainly escalated things and wreaked havoc....but we’ve still yet to see how things will resolve following their fusion. So...a big unknown of uncharted territory that’s difficult to form an honest impression about, other than...I’ll wait to see what happens.    

King: I personally found his ‘persona’ reveal to be a brilliant twist. :’D He’s also eternally suffering and can’t easily escape from what others assume of him, so wow, I do feel for him. Also probably one of most self-aware, sound of mind (Reigen-equivalent) characters with the most common sense in opm, so that’s pretty fresh/valuable to have. I also personally find his moments to be some of the funniest/absurd in the whole series (especially his wc staredown vs the MA cadres, that’s hilarious) for how he -an otherwise non-powered but anxious guy- manages to survive and bullshit his way out of increasingly ridiculous scenarios! So yes, a very unique and entertaining character who brings some interesting spice to the opm character roster. :D

[explosionshark]

2017 was a shitty year for pretty much everything but music. it was actually pretty ridiculously good for music, and metal in particular. in fact there were so many killer heavy music albums released this year that when i sat down to do my annual favorite records round-up list i quickly realized a top 10 wouldn’t cut it. so.

here are my 25 favorite metal albums of 2017, tenuously ordered, with a couple write-ups for my very favorites 

Methwitch - Piss (grindcore / beatdown) - the most sickening, nastiest grind this year, easy. criminally over-looked, one of the most ambitious and genuinely fucking good one man metal projects i’ve ever heard. (FFO pig destoryer, anaal nathrakh, the concept of being pushed into an industrial trash compactor)

Celeste - Infedele(s) (black metal / post metal) - pure desolation made sonic. celeste continues to be one of the fiercest, most interesting, most emotionally powerful voices in the french metal scene (FFO year of no light, mgla, departe)

Bungler - The Nature of Being New (hardcore / metalcore) - no other album this year has the same manic, frenzied energy as the nature of being new. the aggression is raw and ugly and unapologetic, wrapped up in sick riffs and frantic (but thankfully intelligable, bc the lyrics are sick) vocals. (FFO every time i die, coalesce, poison the well)

Enslaved - E (black metal / prog metal) it’s enslaved’s best record since RIITIIR. idk what else there is to say. it fucking rocks the entire way through and it deserves your time and money. (FFO anything good come ON)

The Black Dahlia Murder - Nightbringers (death metal) a fine return to form after 2015′s fun but forgettable abysmal. BDM’s best record since ritual, nightbringers finds the band back in their nocturnal-era wheelhouse, but having grown enough to throw in a few new tricks. check out the absolute cock rock licks on “kings of the nightworld” (FFO at the gates, skeletonwitch, horror movies with lots of gratuitous violence)

Employed to Serve - The Warmth of a Dying Sun (metalcore) - 2015′s greyer than you remember was such a solid release that i was a little apprehensive about what the follow-up would look like. a lot of bands can’t keep up the kind of momentum, but with warmth of a dying sun it’s clear that employed to serve isn’t one of them. the combination of technical prowess alongside strong songwriting really sets ETS apart from the tide of kitchen sink metalcore. (FFO gojira, car bomb, the parts of code orange where reba sings)

Converge - The Dusk in Us (metalcore) - these guys have been creating the most emotionally powerful music within the hardcore and metal spheres for nearly 30 years and the dusk in us builds that legacy to dizzying new heights. maybe their most accessible album yet. (FFO the dillinger escape plan, the hope conspiracy, trap them)

Code Orange - Forever (metalcore) - what a weird cinderella story. the little pittsburgh hxc band that could, but didn’t care what you thought about it anyway. code orange drummed up a lot of buzz for this record, but it’s well-deserved. their most mature, dynamic work to date. (FFO all pigs must die, knocked loose, baptists)

The Drip - The Haunting Fear of Inevitability (grindcore) - this album’s a ferocious half hour of non-stop auditory violence and i love it for that. it’s what happens when you take crust, powerviolence, classic grind and every dark thought that’s ever kept you up at night into a blender and then light it all on fire. (FFO vermin womb, fuck the facts, insect warfare)

Propagandhi - Victory Lap (punk / speed metal) 30 years into the game and propagandhi are putting out music that’s as vital, energized, and ass kicking as anything they’ve ever done. if you want a healthy dose of politics with your thrashing, you can’t leave victory lap behind in 2017 (FFO punk rock, metal, beating your MP to death with a hockey stick)

Pallbearer - Heartless (heavy metal / stoner metal)

Darkest Hour - Godless Prophets & the Migrant Flora (death metal)

Full of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy (grindcore) 

Chelsea Wolfe - Hiss Spun (genres are fake dude just take my word for it)

Cloak - To Venemous Depths (black metal / death n roll)

Spirits - Unrest (hardcore, xvx)

Woe - Hope Attrition (black metal)

Origin - Unparalleled Universe (technical death metal)

Fit for an Autopsy - The Great Collapse (deathcore)

The Contortionist - Clarivoyant (progressive)

Mutoid Man - War Moans (heavy metal)

Ne Obliviscaris - Urn (tech death / progressive) 

Tomb Mold - Primordial Malignity (death metal)

SikTh - The Future in Whose Eyes? (progressive / death metal)

Cursed Earth - Cycles of Grief (grindcore)

[crusherthedoctor]

Top 5 Eggman Moments?

Only five, eh?

Well it wasn’t easy, but I’ve managed to narrow it down to that amount. From oldest to newest, as always:

Creating the Death Egg

The Death Egg will always be known as one of the most iconic creations to be built by Sonic’s arch-nemesis. Half of that is because of the beautiful simplicity that is a Death Star with a moustache. But the other half is because of how prominent it was as a large-scale threat during the Genesis days. In fact, it was actually more durable than it’s source of inspiration. Meaning an actual empire had a less durable spaceship than one guy shaped like an egg. Not bad, Ivo.

Because while the Death Star exploded after it’s first and only defeat, the Death Egg merely crash landed on Angel Island, which in turn sent the island crashing to the ocean, yet the ship remained in one piece. And then when circumstances caused it to crash again, on the same island, this time directly in the center of a volcano… it still remained in one piece. And even before it got powered up by the Master Emerald, it was still operational enough to heat up the Lava Reef caverns with the literal blink of an eye. It was only during it’s second time in space in which it was finally destroyed for good. (Only to reappear in various later games anyway. Clearly the Death Egg is the Rasputin of spaceships.)

Creating Metal Sonic

When he’s at his best, Metal Sonic is a true force to be reckoned with. His design is cool, competent, and menacing, and he’s always dead set on his objectives and will never, never, stop for chit-chat. Everyone is wary of this beast, and even Sonic himself has to stay on edge whenever Metal’s about, with good reason. Because like the organic Blue Blur, the metallic one is more than capable of giving you an incredibly painful beatdown, and that’s if you’re lucky, assuming you’re still alive after the fact.

And who was it that created this notorious killing machine?

Yeah. Him.

(He probably wasn’t wearing that outfit when he made him though.)

“Fake Emeralds? Lol.”

“But aren’t you the Eggman fan who doesn’t like Adventure 2 Eggman that much?”

Well yes, that may be true, but despite my grievances overall, I’m still willing to give credit to moments where I think it’s due, and this moment was a genuinely fantastic moment for the doctor. Sonic was so certain that the fake emerald gambit was going to work, to the point where he insulted the doctor by sarcastically calling him a big time villain (even though he’s already done plenty of “big time” things in his career…?), when PSYCH. Within seconds, everything was turned on it’s head, and the hedgehog was completely helpless. Sonic didn’t see it coming, nor did anyone else. And Robotnik plays the whole thing off like he’s having a smooth Winston break.

Then after getting confirmation on whether it was actually fake or not in an exceptionally bastardly manner, he sends Sonic on his way to go and die in the cold abyss of outer space. And if it hadn’t been for what was for all intents and purposes a deus ex machina (Sonic may have had previous experience with the Emeralds, but knowing how to induce Chaos Control right off the bat when he never tried it before, with a fake emerald no less?), he would have successfully murdered his nemesis right then and there.

You tried Super Sonic! It’s not very effective…

As great as it was to finally witness the highly anticipated Eggmanland in all it’s hellish, playful, hotdog-crushing glory, we can’t forget one of the most defining moments that led to it’s creation in the first place, which was Robotnik breaking the planet into pieces via laser. And how did he do that? By getting Sonic - in his super form this time around - to fall for a trap, said trap reverting him back to his regular form in less than a minute.

So this means that Robotnik technically defeated Super Sonic.

Robotnik defeated Super Sonic.

Through nothing but pure cunning.

“Now I’VE got your power!”

After many years of getting screwed over by giant monsters time and time again, Robotnik - with the help of… Robotnik - finally manages to turn the tables and get one of them under his control, in the most literal sense by turning it into his own makeshift mech. And this wasn’t any old monster: whatever it is, this creature had the ability to distort time and space, which is no small matter. And yet Robotnik made it his bitch with seemingly no trouble at all, and put it’s abilities to effective use.

So the next time someone writes the doctor off as a harmless buffoon, remind them that he managed to get a manipulator of time and space to serve his every need.

[ricardosousalemos]

Power Trip: Nightmare Logic

No one throws a party like Power Trip. In the years since their 2008 inception, the Dallas crossover quintet has come to embody the platonic ideal of heavy metal escapism, in person and on record. Genre boundaries get blown to smithereens during their rambunctious, pretension-free concerts; they’ll play with anyone who’s willing to get noisy, be it New Orleans bounce queen Big Freedia, moody post-punk outfit Merchandise, or black metal darlings Deafheaven. Power Trip’s excellent debut album, 2013’s Manifest Decimation, further solidified this reputation by translating their live ferocity to wax. One album on, nine years in, Power Trip have mastered the rager. They now turn their focus to widespread revelry with Nightmare Logic—a mission that goes off with a big, beautiful bang.

Nightmare Logic doesn’t find Power Trip making any significant shifts to the no-holds-barred approach they showcased so powerfully on their debut. It’s an LP crafted in its predecessor’s literal spitting image, from the proliferative gang vocals and thrash beatdowns right down to the eight-track runtime and gory old-school artwork. Frontman Riley Gale still huffs, puffs, and howls like a rabid wolf, a feral intermediary through which the band issues blistering, occasionally loony indictments of corrupt politicians (“Ruination”) and greedy, polluting CEOs (“If Not Us Then Who”). Gale’s bandmates match these screeds with litanies of their own: particularly guitarist Blake Ibanez, a hardcore titan (and occasional shoegazer) whose slithering riffs incessantly run amok. Even the audience can’t escape Power Trip’s leaden censure. On “Waiting Around to Die,” Gale delivers this sputtering, incendiary pep talk with a rage so palpable you can almost feel it shaking you by the shoulders: “You’re waiting around to die, how can you live with it?/Just waiting around to die, AND I CAN’T FUCKING STAND IT!!!”

Thrash has always been a goofy genre with a morbid sense of humor: a direct consequence of the genre’s primordial days in the Reagan era, when trolling the silent majority doubled as a pre-eminent past-time and a form of protest. Like their peers Iron Reagan and Skeletonwitch, Power Trip view the impending apocalypse as a cause for celebration, powered by schadenfreude. Evangelical Christians are treated to particularly hilarious roastings. “Executioner’s Tax (Swing of the Axe),” the album’s best song, sees Gale calling the bluff of all those Bible-Belters who’d so passionately pleaded for the arrival of the man upstairs, only to come face-to-face with the titular killer-for-hire when the End of Days finally arrives. “You’ve prayed for so long, and now you have your chance/The executioner’s here, and he’s sharpening his axe!”

Power Trip’s new attention to detail pushes Nightmare Logic over the edge. It’s abundantly clear that they’ve spent hours at the dissection table with Manifest Decimation, amplifying—but not recycling—its best hooks and theatrics, trimming off the static scar tissue. They’ve chopped a few seconds of extraneous riffing here, a repeated breakdown there; it’s an impressive operation, considering their debut was plenty lean and mean. The nit-picking pays off, as Nightmare Logic outmatches the preceding LP across all verticals, from cohesion and catchiness to impact and atmosphere.

The band’s secret weapon remains producer and Sumerlands guitarist Arthur Rizk, or as I like to call him, the Ariel Rechtshaid of heavy music; Code Orange’s Forever and Prurient’s Frozen Niagara Falls are just two of the bevy of ambitious records he’s worked on. A master of dynamic contrast and sonic feints, Rizk’s the textbook definition of a board-wizard. Under his command, Ibanez’s already-huge tremolo riffs on “Executioner’s Tax”, “Firing Squad,” and the title track become hulking, like a stampede of hellish racehorses against the thundering backbeat. Meanwhile, in the back of the mix, the rhythm section ebbs and flows to accommodate the axework, ensuring sustained impact and easy passage from one ripper to the next. Rizk again runs Gale’s yelps through a heap of effects, rendering every syllable an echo-laden boom from on high. And in spite of its sheer heft, Rizk makes Nightmare Logic a crisp, nuanced listen; like the band themselves, he strikes a rare balance between modern intricacy and old-school aggression, nodding to tradition without over-relying on tropes.

You don’t need to be a metalhead to have a blast with Nightmare Logic. Screamed sardonics, persistent chug, and apocalyptic melodrama are all acquired tastes, sure. But Power Trip’s fist-pumping choruses, ricocheting grooves, and ample charm are so animated that they leave us with something addictive and, well, fun. Just like Metallica, the Texans pitch a big tent, where the only prerequisite for entry is a willingness to splash around in the bloodbath for half an hour. With Nightmare Logic, there’s a good chance you’ll stick around for a good, long soak.

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Best Sonic Form Beatdown underway!

after a lot of time has passed from the original sonic poll, i've finally gotten off my spiny tush and made the new tournament i promised i'd make!

here is our lineup of contestants, a lot of obvious contenders have made it in alongside some less traditional picks. take a look at the contenders, keep them in mind and be sure to vote for them on the upcoming polls!

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