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dreamescapeswriting · 5 years ago

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BTS Reaction || How You Meet

SeokJin:

You met Jin while you were out shopping for a new oven after your best friend decided to break yours over the weekend, you came across an aisle with a bunch of cookbooks sitting on so you decided to take a look at what there was to offer. You were about to take one from the tallest shelf when someone beats you to it, you followed the long arm up to meet a gorgeous face which was staring down into yours, you sent the man a soft smile and then went back to looking at cookbooks, feeling a little uneasy about talking to people you don’t know. It was never really one of your strong points. “Do you need this?” A voice questioned from beside you, you looked at the book he was holding and then up to his face again, instantly wanting to blush from the way he was looking at you. He was stunning, anyone could see that. “No, I was just going to look.” He nodded looking through the book, both of you falling into silence again neither of you knowing what to say to one another, it wasn’t until your name was called over the store radio that you began to leave. “Y/N? That’s a beautiful name.” You smiled brightly at him as you walked over to the counter, he was following beside you as if you knew one another. “Thanks, what’s your name?” You questioned reaching the desk and signing the bits of paper you needed to get the new oven delivered in time. “Seokjin, everyone just calls me Jin.” You nodded at him and handed the pen back over to the man who looked like he was starting to get impatient with waiting for you. “Nice to meet you Jin.” He glanced at the papers in your hand and then frowned a little, “A new oven?” You nodded starting to let out a little laugh at the memory of your friend. “My friend…she’s not really great in the kitchen but she wanted to cook for me the other night. Safe to say that she will never be allowed in there again. She broke my oven door trying to open it, then when it broke she wanted to make popcorn in the microwave and let’s just say, the old microwave, like most, can’t withstand metal inside of it.” He began laughing along with you and you shook your head, looking down at the clock. “Speaking of which, it’s my turn to cook tonight so I should head home.” You quickly wrote your number down on a bit of scrap paper and handed it to him, not understanding where your sudden burst of confidence had come from but enjoying it anyway. “Text me some recipes from the cookbook some time.” You winked, walking out of the store and going to find your car.

Yoongi:

You weren’t the best at photography but you knew your way around a camera, you knew what looked good in photos and what didn’t, after all, it was just a little hobby you had picked up to pass some time while travelling with friends. Some of your close friends had decided to take a last-minute trip to Paris so you, of course, went along with them, wanting to experience everything you could, that’s how it happened. You were snapping pictures of the Eiffel tower when a group of younger-looking men walked in front of your shot, you sighed before going and taking more photos once they had passed, you smiled to yourself going through the pictures, the lights on the tower sparkling in different shots, when you came to one of the group of men you looked through them carefully, all of them were very handsome and one of them was even doing a funny pose, but one of them caught your eye. He was wearing a hoodie, mask and black hair, you shook your head going to delete the photo when you heard someone whine from behind you, you would have dropped the camera onto the floor if it wasn’t for the strap around your neck. “I like that one.” You turned around to see the man from the photo standing behind you, you smiled at him and looked back down at it again he had a kind of mysterious looking vibe to him in the photo. “You could be a model, you didn’t even try to look great you just did.” You said aloud without thinking first, you instantly began blushing and so did the boy. “I’m Min Yoongi, you are?” You smiled taking his hand he was holding out for you to shake and shaking it. “Y/N.” You looked around you before realising all of your friends were gone, probably gone to go and get food and you sighed shutting down the camera. “They do this all the time, I start taking photos and they ditch me.” You laughed looking at the puzzled look from Yoongi, he looked around him and noticed his friends were gone too. “Well how about we go get something to eat together?” You smiled, nodding and walking away with him, talking about more of your photography adventures

Hoseok:

Your uncle was none other than bang si hyuk, you were getting a tour around the new Big Hit building from him when someone came rushing over asking for his help with something, he looked at you before knocking on a random glass door you had stopped outside of, there was some banging before the door opened and revealed a taller guy standing there, he smiled at Bang before smiling at you, the kind of bright smile that could light up anyone’s day without even trying. “J-Hope this is my niece Y/N, can you sit with her while I go and help out Jin for a moment.” He nodded and your uncle left without a word, you were used to being palmed off on different members of staff when you were with him since he was always so busy all the time, J-Hope let you into the office and you sat down on the leather sofa that was inside, he went over to his desk and saved whatever it was that he was working on. “So you work for my uncle?” You questioned trying to make some kind of conversation and not be awkward. “Yeah you could say that,” You smiled looking around the office and seeing different posters up everywhere and that’s when it hit you, he was THE J-Hope, the one your uncle would talk about a lot with his other friends, you were currently sitting in one of the rappers studios while your uncle was off doing something else. “Are you and Your uncle close?” You looked away from the posters and then back to J-Hope he was staring at you, you nodded shyly trying not to act as though you knew who he was, he was probably sick of all the people screaming at him all the time. “Kind of, I don��t see him much but when I do we’re close. He’s like a dad more than an uncle.” You stated, there was a knock at the door and J-Hope got up once again, “Can you finish taking Y/N on the tour, Jin just told me Namjoon’s broken one of the mirrors in the dance studio and I want to get it fixed now.” J-Hope nodded and you got up on your feet. “Let the best tour commence.” He stated laughing along with you as you walked out of the door, going down hallways and in and out of different rooms when you came to another glass door. “That’s Min Yoongi’s studio…we don’t go in there unless we want to die.” He winked linking your arms together and continuing to walk.

Namjoon:

It was like something out of a cheesy romance movie you watched, you never really thought it would happen like this. Of course everyone has it in there minds that they will have this Meet Cute moment with the man they’re going to spend the rest of their lives with but no one actually believes it’s going to happen, or at least you didn’t. You were working in a bookshop you’d worked in for years, the owner had recently passed away and left it to you in his will, since you had been working there almost all your life it seemed fitting to do so. You were in the middle of restocking a top shelf when the bell above the door chimed signalling a customer had walked through the door, you slowly came down from the ladder dusting off your hands and going over to the front desk to greet them, “Hi welcome to, The Little Bookshop, I’m Y/N and if you need anything let me know.” You said with a pleasant smile to the guy who was walking towards the desk, he looked up at you and smiled, you could have sworn you felt your heart starting to skip a beat and it felt as though the world had actually stopped spinning but that was silly, it only happened in movies. Stuff like that didn’t happen in real life, you looked down at the desk to try and avoid his eye contact when a group of people were rushing past the window, he darted behind a shelf and you frowned looking out of the shop window to see a group of girls and photographers all looking puzzled. “Want me to lock the door so they can’t find you?” He stared at you for a moment or two before nodding, you slowly made your way over to the door flipping the sign to closed before locking the door and pulling down the blinds, you weren’t an idiot you could tell when someone wanted to be alone. “I can go wait out back while you do your book hunting if it makes you more comfortable.” You offered as you reached the desk, he was standing by it watching you the whole time, you picked up your copy of the book you were reading. “No…that’s okay. But I would like to take you up on the help…could you recommend some books to me. I’m going away on a trip and need some new material.” You nodded putting your book down once again and looking at him. “What have you read before? Give me some sort of insight into your style.” You said with a smile, he relaxed a little and put down the bag he was carrying. “I mostly read science, or philosophy books but I’m looking to expand my genre.” You nodded again going over to the fiction aisle and going through to find some of your favourites. “See I prefer my fiction but I’m trying to get into philosophy books, any recommendations ?” You teased climbing onto one of the small steps that were around and grabbing some of the books you thought he would like. “I can write some down for you.” He smirked, you smiled back, coming down and taking them over to the desk again and laying them out for him. “Most people think Alice In Wonderland is for younger children but honestly, it’s been my favourite since I could read and I can’t even tell you the amount of times I’ve read this, then if you’re really looking to get out of your comfort zone I got some romance books…started with the easy stuff. Me before You, Dear John, Letters to Juliet, Pride and Prejudice…that sort of thing.” You stated looking up at him to see him staring at you already, you blushed tucking some hairs behind your ear and looking at the books once again. “What are you reading at the moment?” He questioned as you rung up his book total into the till, you glanced down at your book and bit down onto your lip. “How to deal with the lose of a loved one…the owner died recently and he was like a grandfather to me…just trying to move on a little.” You admitted shaking your head and handing him the receipt for him to sign. “I’ll text you my book recommendations.” He winked, you looked down at the receipt and see he’d written his name and number on it. “Thanks Namjoon…I’ll let you sneak out the back door if you want?” He nodded and loaded the books into his bag while you grabbed the keys and headed for the back door. “It was lovely meeting you.”

Jimin:

You were out with your brothers’ daughter for the day, trying to give him and his wife a little break away from her. She was only five years old a real handful, you’d taken her shopping and now you were taking her to go and get something to eat in a local cafe with a playground outback. “Honey you have to stay with me you can’t run off.” You warned as she tried to run away from you to go onto the slide, she was tugging at your arm and you laughed at her. “No, you need to eat something first.” You giggled ordering some food for both of you before bending down and picking her up, the lady behind the counter smiled at you as your niece tried to getaway. “It’s safe for her to play on her own, my grandson is out there watching over them.” You looked out of the door before back at the lady, you knew she was lovely but you didn’t really want to let your niece out of your sight considering she wasn’t your daughter. “Okay, go and play.” You whispered patting her head and sending her out of the door, she sprinted towards the slide and you watched from the window while waiting for your drinks to be done.

“Y/N! Did you see me?!” She screamed as you came out of the door holding a tray with her food on, she was jumping up and down in place at the bottom of the slide laughing as she went back up, you watched her getting back onto the slide and coming down when she fell at the bottom. “Angelina!” You screamed running over to her and looking at her, she’d scraped her knew up badly and you panicked going into your handbag and pulling out a tissue cleaning it up as she cried into your shoulder. “She okay?” Someone questioned, coming over with a first aid kit. “Yeah, just a small cut.” You whispered looking away from her for a second to see a guy around your age standing there holding the first aid kit. “I’ve got wipes, and plasters…princess ones.” He admitted making Angelina laugh into your shoulder, you thanked him and started cleaning up her knee. “My brother is going to kill me for letting her get hurt.” You sighed sitting down at the bench and watching her run off as if nothing had happened. “Kids get scraped it happens.” You nodded turning around to thank him and he smiled at you. “I’m Jimin, my grandma owns the cafe.” He stated, shaking your hand you smiled looking over at Angelina again who was making friends with a girl around her own age. “Y/N.” You said back to him, turns out kids aren’t the only ones who make friends in playgrounds anymore

Taehyung:

You were J-Hopes little sister, you were only three years younger than him but, of course, shorter so you were his literal little sister. You’d been begging him to take you to his studio for months as he’d promised you but he would always make up some silly excuse at the last minute that he was busy, or that it wasn’t ready to be seen. “J-Hope…I want to come and see where you work.” You whined at the front door that morning, he was shaking his head trying to get you to stay at home but you weren’t having any of it. “Hoseok! It’s your last day home! I want to spend it with my big brother.” He looked at you and you were giving him the puppy dog eyes, the ones he could never resit and he grumbled something, you smiled following him out to the car and getting into the passenger side as he drove to work.

“Hope I know you said not to come in but we-” Whoever was talking stopped midsentence as soon as they entered the studio, you looked up to see Taehyung, one of your brothers’ band members in the doorway staring at you, you smiled at him before going back to eating the noodles that J-Hope had made you both, you’d never met any of the boys before because J-Hope said they were always busy with their things and whenever they would come round to the house you were either out or in bed, J-Hope didn’t want you to be around them much since you were his little sister. “You told them not to come in here?” You asked putting down your chopsticks and staring at him, he blinked a few times before turning his gaze over to V who was staring at you still. “Yes…But it was our last day together that’s why.” You heard a chuckle coming from behind V and in walked Jimin who was shaking his head. “You told us all to stay away from Y/N especially V cause he said she was cute!” That’s when he started blushing and you did too, moving over on the sofa so there was room for him and Jimin to sit with you and your brother, who didn’t look very impressed by the situation.

Jungkook:

As cliche as it’s going to sound you both met at the meet and greets, you’d brought them all presents to thank them for their music, you got Namjoon a collection of books, Jin some of your favourite cookbooks/ recipes all together as well as a selection of the best restaurants closest to them at the time. You got Taehyung some Van Gogh art books and art exhibit ideas for him, Yoongi you brought him some comic books, and a stuffed toy that reminded you of him. For J-Hope you got a small manbag like the ones he liked to carry around with him and for Jimin you got him some books as well as a stuffed animal you’d seen. For Jungkook you went and purchased some Overwatch PJ’s and a stuffed version of his favourite character, you just really wanted to thank them for all the incredible work they always did. You’d just finished talking to Namjoon about the books you’d given him when it was time to move on, you slid across to Jungkook who had been watching you the whole time without you knowing, he was watching how calm and collected you were while talking to each of the members and other fans around you. You’d been so calm about everything even when another girl tried to push in front of you, you just let her do it without starting a huge scene for everyone to see. “I just wanted to thank you guys, so I got you all some gifts, it isn’t much but I hope you like them.” You said for the seventh time in the line, he smiled at you looking into the bag and hugging you from across the table, you felt a shock go through your body and you weren’t sure if it was just because he was your Bias or because there was a connection there but you both pulled away and began talking. “I haven’t been a fan for so long but I really did want to thank you all, your music…it helps so many people.” He was watching as you nervously played with the ends of your hoodie strings, he smiled whenever you smiled and kept his eyes trained on you at all times, he’d never seen someone this beautiful and kind before. “I guess I should get going there’s other fans for you all to see.” You said with a small hint of sadness behind your tone, Jungkook quickly wrote something down on a CD cover and slid it over to you, “Speak later.” He winked as you walked away, you frowned opening up the case to see he’d written his number along the inside of the sleeve, you slammed it shut before anyone else could glance over and see, you looked over your shoulder to see him still watching you as you walked away, you sent him a small smile and a wave before leaving the venue and texting the number in front of you.

A/N:

Just a small note, I haven’t written anything fanfiction related in about three years! So I’m so sorry that these suck! I’m trying to get back into the swing of things. Request things for me to do please! I’m begging!!

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davidmann95 · 4 years ago

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Comics this week (11/25/2020)?

Anonymous said: This week's floppies?

Anonymous said: This week’s comics?

Anonymous said: Have you read Red Hood #51 yet? It’s one of the best stories Jason has been in since Under the Red Hood and I don’t think I can go back to his normal stories after this

Anonymous said: God damn the Other History of the DC Universe has a pretty brutal call out of Superman, yet as a Superman fan I wasn’t offended or put off by it at all. Ridley specifically narrowed in on one of the key flaws of Superman, his need for public love and approval. What did you think of the portrayal of Supes?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on "The Other History of the DC Universe" and why it's already one of the greatest comics of all time?

Anonymous said: Thoughts on "Other History"?

X-Men #15: Heck yeah, Quiet Council discussing protocol, this is what I come to Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men for, and Cyclops getting his Captain America in Hickvengers moment.

X of Swords: Destruction: Look this rules and I guess I understood the Arakko story by the end but not the Otherworld/Captain Britain stuff, and it’s the former that’s gonna matter to Hick-Men going forward. But I don’t care if it put a ‘_ of 22′ counter across the top, if a crossover is for real going to demand you buy 22 comics in 3 months for you to see the entire core story you need to be screaming that from the rooftops with every single interview that it’s genuinely the whole thing that’s essential, because editorial claiming that you should totally get everything aside that’s not how crossovers have actually worked since the 90s no matter how many checklists and reading orders may be provided. This whole thing really sorta felt like the Infinity of this run, good stuff but ultimately Hickman serving a master beyond telling his own story - in this case trying to provide a forcible on-ramp from Marvel’s hottest book to all the ancillary related stuff.

Shang-Chi #3: This continues to be a really solid little mini with some poignant bits.

Power Pack #1: Haven’t read much if anything with them in it before, but as good as I could have hoped of Ryan North’s first post-Unbeatable Squirrel Girl Marvel gig.

Fantastic Four: Antithesis #4: Fine, but it would have been so much funnier if Waid’s last Marvel work before finally returning to DC had been that cancelled Squadron Supreme two-shot.

Daredevil #24: God so goooooood. And next issue’s next week?!

The Department of Truth #3: Imagine going literally any duration back in time, handing this to someone who’d read and even enjoyed his work, and explaining “THAT’S the level James Tynion is going to end up operating on”.

BANG!: My shop got the TPB this week of the recent mini by Kindt and Torres, and this is a top-notch reimagining of assorted 80s action/pseudo-pulp archetypes into something modern and strange and delightful, that while technically concluding somewhat tidily if the sales aren’t there is set up to go on for as long as the creative team has ideas for it. It taps into that America’s Best Comics/Planetary/Adventureman energy for a slightly different branch of genre storytelling, and even if like me it’s not an iteration you grew up with it’s definitely worth your money and attention.

Dark Nights: Death Metal: The Multiverse Who Laughs: It’s fine, whatever, just a buncha little Dark Multiverse stories...except for the last story, where the Twilight Zone-esque shocker final twist is that being black in America and thereby constantly experiencing the constant low-grade terror of the background radiation of systemic racism essentially acts as a vaccine against Scarecrow’s fear toxin, which...okay??? It’s written by a black man so it’s not as if I think it’s offensive, but particularly given that given the rules of the Dark Multiverse one of the three characters in there had to have imagined this possibility, and that then The Batman Who Laughs must’ve seen it and gone “Hell yes, all about this, definitely one of the 52 scariest of all possible universe”, it’s a serious candidate for weirdest comic of the year.

Legion of Superheroes #11: This is an excellent kickoff to a 3 or 4-issue arc so I have absolutely no idea how it’s going to reach some kind of season finale next month.

Action Comics #1027: Romita Jr.’s deteriorating by the day but I did like his take on the Phantom Zone, and I feel like this while taking it a bit farther than I’d prefer still convincingly sells the idea of Superman just being absolutely fed up after a truly awful day.

Justice League Dark #28: So is this the end of the run, Future State notwithstanding? Shocking how coherently it held together through the transition in writers, and I really hope it says and so does Ram V to take it in a direction wholly his own.

Wonder Woman #767: Substantially improved now that it’s not working off the completely bizarre and increasingly uncomfortable ‘buddy-cop’ premise.

Red Hood #51: GOOD NOW?! I checked it out because of the rec above and because I was curious how someone would try and salvage the concept post-Lobdell, and while it obviously isn’t literally by him, Shawn Martinbrough and Tony Akins are for all the world doing a Christopher Priest Relaunch with this tonally and aesthetically; I think it’s even a direct sequel to Priest’s Batman: The Hill oneshot from decades ago. I sure hope this isn’t a two-issue filler run with the book either cancelled or reshuffled after Future State, because this has all the makings of an excellent crime comic.

Suicide Squad #11: I’ll probably check out Taylor’s Revolutionaries book once that happens, so I guess mission accomplished. Fine little run.

The Other History of the DC Universe #1: I heard someone on Twitter say this is the best thing that’s come out of superhero comics since HoXPoX, and I don’t know if I’m on that level with it but that is absolutely a fair conclusion. I’ll be honest, I had measured expectations here from having seen some of Ridley’s past comics work - I figured it’d be a perfectly solid book with a few standout moments, but instead it throws out all the haymakers in the world and emerges as one of my favorite comics of 2020, even given we’re only seeing the one issue this year. I can only judge so much because it feels like a lot of what we see in this debut is going to be completely reframed through the perspectives of other characters in subsequent entries, but standalone this is a brutal, intimate, brilliant character study set against the backdrop of a hazy dreamscape vision of the history of DC reformatted as needed to fit the concerns in play here (though the dates presented are so specific I wonder if aspects of this are leftovers of the original version of 5G), and probably as close as we’re going to see to a ‘trilogy capper’ to The Golden Age and New Frontier. That’s why the take on Superman here works, as much a product of the worst of his mass-consciousness image as the Superman of DKR but meshed with a profound understanding of what makes him tick as a character that makes the inherently compromised version on display here palatable, and a believable extrapolation of the Silver/Bronze Age’s version of him when that’s the era this series is thus far working as a contrast to. And god, the art. I always liked him fine enough, but even with finishes by Andrea Cucchi and colors by Jose Villarrubia I never could have imagined Giuseppe Camuncoli putting out the likes of this, and Steve Wands’s lettering is doing at least equal legwork in defining the look of the book. There have been several impressive titles out of Black Label at this point - Last Knight on Earth, Rorschach, Strange Adventures, and especially Harleen - but nothing else has come close to demonstrating the potential power of the imprint as a vehicle for creators taking this iconography and doing something radical and unrestrained and phenomenal with it.

#Week's Comics #Opinion

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happymetalgirl · 4 years ago

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October 2020

Six Feet Under - Nightmares of the Decomposed

I wrote a full-length review of this disaster of an album earlier in the month, and yeah, wow. Between the phoned-in performances from the instrumentalists who have proven themselves far above this joke of a band and the half-assed production this would have been a pretty crappy album even without Chris Barnes’ milk-aged vocals. But he’s here, and he’s managed to actually get worse too, gasping his way through the whole album and littering it with these ludicrous “high” squeals that would make Smeagol sound like a more competent death metal vocalist. It’s the worst thing I’ve heard all year, and what’s worse, I don’t think Six Feet Under is stopping.

1/10

With that out of the way, let’s cleanse the pallet right away with some really good shit.

Greg Puciato - Child Soldier: Creator of God

Ever reliable in his artistically integrity, explosive former Dillinger Escape Plan frontman, Greg Puciato, has been pretty sonically and artistically adventurous since the honorable dissolution of the iconic mathcore outfit, his most notable music project being the ethereal, synth-heavy The Black Queen. This year, however, Puciato has gone fully solo for a full-length project, and something told me to get ready for a wild ride, and boy was I right on that hunch. Borne out of an exponentiated process of songwriting that produced songs Puciato deemed unfitting for any of his current projects, what was planned as a small release to ship these songs out of the writing room eventually spiraled into a full-blown debut solo album clocking in at over an hour. A lot of solo projects play like clearly indulgent amateur hour sessions from an artist whose ego has been boosted pretty well from significant success from their main project, leading them to overconfidently try their hand at music they have no business trying it at. And it’s often approached under the understanding that it is a victory lap, more or less, and a satisfaction of creative impulses for the sake of it. Sometimes the resultant material is clearly inspired and showcases a side of an artist that certainly deserves some spotlight. Other times it feels like being trapped in an awkward situation with an acquaintance where they just show you all their newest pedals and production software and you’re just stuck there watching them fiddle around while you nod along and offer the occasional “wow, that’s pretty crazy” every now and then while they don’t pick up on the obvious cues that you are just waiting for them to finish playing with their toys. While Puciato was open about this album being borne from the very creatively borderless mindset that so often damns solo projects, Child Soldier: Creator of God is an actual realization of the type of grand, genre-spanning album that so many solo artists envision themselves making and set out to create, and it’s hardly a whimsical, amateurish crack at the styles within either. Puciato’s foray into sludge metal, industrial rock, harsh noise, darkwave, synthwave, and shoegaze, (1) makes for a hell of a dynamic and exciting track list, and (2) shows a much deeper than average respect for and relationship with the styles being played here. This isn’t some frontman thinking his charisma can carry him through a whole rap solo album; this is a well-rounded artist (also a hell of a frontman, no denying that) giving the most comprehensive look yet into his creative mind. The album leaps around in patches of different styles, strung together mostly by ambient connective tissue of various types, all with a great attention to detail paid to both texture and progression. We get early patches of smooth ambiance, but also aggressive industrial and sludge metal, eventually moving to more soothing and meditative synthy stuff around the middle, finishing with some serene, Have a Nice Life-esque shoegaze. But really there’s no way to sum up this album stylistically without breaking down every single song on here, and that would just ruin the fun and the experience. You really just have to experience it for yourself.

9/10

DevilDriver - Dealing with Demons I

Embarking on a conceptual double-album, Dez Fafara and DevilDriver’s first installment in the pair is a scoop of the, indeed, slightly above average, but unfortunately still plain and predictable modern groove metal they always offer up. I’ll give the band credit for keeping the pace up and clearly putting substantial energy into the performances on this album, while also trying to squeeze in a few shake-ups to their sound, like the clear Gojira-inspired riffage on the opening track. The album loses steam, unfortunately, as its punches lose their impact as it goes on.

6/10

Anaal Nathrakh - Endarkenment

While certainly cultivating a unique sound, Anaal Nathrakh’s unholy fusion of nasty modern blackened grindcore with sweeter metalcore and melodic death metal elements has its mixed results. And while that might at first sound like a relatively critical assessment of the Brits’ eleventh album, I’d say that there is actually a lot to enjoy and take in for at least the interesting mix of styles, most of which are hits rather than misses as well.

7/10

Enslaved - Utgard

Having been a fan of a good amount of their recent output, especially 2015’s In Times, I came out of Utgard moderately disappointed with how infrequently Enslaved galvanized their potent brand of Viking folky, progressive black metal effectively; the few moments the band do channel their strengths cohesively and purposefully left me wanting more rather than savoring those moments.

6/10

In Cauda Venenum - G.O.H.E.

It’s hard to, and indeed seems kind of in just to, sum up a heaping prog metal serving like G.O.H.E., comprised of two 22-minute halves, in a capsule review, but that is kind of the format my current busy circumstances have forced me into. French outfit In Cauda Venenum made a self-titled debut in similar two-long-track fashion back in 2015, and the band’s gothic and somewhat theatrical brand of atmospheric post-black-metal is continued on their sophomore effort here, drawing the obvious comparisons to Opeth and Katatonia, as well as Der Weg Einer Freiheit, Numenorean, and Sólstafir, and apart from the more frequent sample usage and extra drawn-out songs, there really isn’t that much to differentiate In Cauda Venenum stylistically. The band’s second album, unfortunately, resembles so many others in the field with big aspirations and the same inadequate means of getting there.

5/10

Apparition - Granular Transformation

A much more bite-sized early two-track offering, Apparition’s debut EP offers a more promising glimpse into a heady, atmospheric, yet still visceral manipulation of modern death metal that I would be curious to hear in a more long-form format. In a genre as extreme as death metal in recent years has been, finding artists effective at working with negative space can be difficult, but the two songs on Granular Transformation showcase a formidable dexterity from Apparition that I think can take them places.

6/10

Molasses - Through the Hollow

While indeed marred by some rough performances on songs with sometimes more desert to cross than water to make it there, there’s an undeniable occult hypnotism about the Dio-era-esque doom metal hollow that Molasses ritualize their way through.

7/10

Death Angel - Under Pressure

While certainly an odd choice on the surface, Death Angel’s acoustic EP and cover of the famous Queen song actually comes out pretty alright. The acoustic version of Act III’s “A Room with a View” comes off with the energy of something like Rush whenever they went acoustic, and the original acoustic cut, “Faded Remains” isn’t too bad either. The acoustic format did not, however, mask the drabness of “Revelation Song” from last year’s overall disappointment, Humanicide.

6/10

Necrophobic - Dawn of the Damned

The Swedes’ melodic brand of blackened death metal is nothing if not thorough on the quintet’s ninth full-length, Dawn of the Damned, covering all the ground that their fans expect their style to cover and doing so with more compositional and performative stamina than their average contemporary. While the band’s broader compositional approach is akin to the beating of a dead horse, I can’t deny it produces some tasty motifs in the process.

7/10

Bloodbather - Silence

After coming onto the blossoming metallic hardcore scene in 2018 with a standard, but potent enough 14-minute EP, Pressure, Bloodbather are back with another 14 minutes of similar, yet less promising material, doing little to set themselves apart from or on the same level of the likes of Jesus Piece, Vein, Knocked Loose, or Harm’s Way.

5/10

Infera Bruo - Rites of the Nameless

The Bostonians’ fourth full-length is, at the very least, a rather well-executed forty minutes of modern black metal a la Craft or Watain, but beneath the seams the band’s progressive tendencies twist what would otherwise be a fresh, but standard, slab of black metal into a more head-turning offering of the usual shrieks and blast beats.

7/10

Touché Amoré - Lament

While somewhat shaky in their compositional exploration in their fifth LP, the firmness of their emotive post-hardcore foundation allows for Touché Amoré to build upwards relatively steadily without losing that raw vulnerability that has made them so captivating to begin with.

7/10

Gargoyl - Gargoyl

This is the self-titled debut from Bostonian four-piece Gargoyl; a novel blend of dirty nineties grunge and gothic prog metal, Gargoyl come through with one of the more impressive genre fusions of the year, meeting the lofty sufficiency for dexterity with excessive vocal harmonies in a manner so uncanny that would make habe to Layne Stayley proud. While there is the expected room for improvement on the compositional end that many debut projects come with, Gargoyl have laid the groundwork for themselves fantastically and started off on a good foot.

7/10

Crippled Black Phoenix - Ellengæst

Through creative gothic flair and full-bodied guest vocal contributions that bolster the somber atmosphere beyond the typical post-metal album, the UK band’s most recent offering of “endtime ballads”, despite its few low points that undo its otherwise immersive atmosphere, serves as one of the more engaging releases under the broader post-metal umbrella of the past year.

7/10

Wayfarer - A Romance with Violence

The Denver-based quartet follow up 2018’s strong emotive case for the potential for evoking cathartic power of the atmospheric black metal which has so saturated the American scene to the point of numbness, their Americana-tinged third LP, World’s Blood, unfortunately, with a fourth LP whose compositional homogeneity and mere few intermittent bursts of enthralling atmospheric instrumentation more represent, rather than advocate the merit of, the saturation of the American atmospheric black metal scene.

6/10

Armored Saint - Punching the Sky

Though I think the structural homogeneity and John Bush’s similarly limited vocal delivery holds it back, with crunchy bangers like “Do Wrong to None” and “My Jurisdiction” alongside more tempered tracks the clearly grunge-influenced “Lone Wolf”, Bush and company provide a relatively stylistically diverse traditional heavy metal album for an age that could use more contemporary representation of classic styles (beyond the entire stoner metal genre LARPing as Black Sabbath too).

7/10

Spirit Adrift - Enlightened in Eternity

But it's not just the old guard representing their era of classic heavy metal robustly; a year and a half after their energetically melodic third album, Divided by Darkness, which took a triumphant melodic approach to classic heavy metal and doom metal similar to that of Khemmis on their excellent third album, Spirit Adrift ease up a bit on the hyper-soulful approach to guitar melody that had led me (and others I'm sure) to draw the comparison to Khemmis, and instead dive deeper into the headspace of the genre's earliest progenitors to achieve that unabashedly glorious rallying cry that is evoked by the very front cover of Enlightened in Eternity. While I am personally pretty partial to the very vulnerable and heartfelt melodic approach that characterized Divided by Darkness, the effectiveness with which Spirit Adrift are able to wield the sometimes Maiden-esque, sometimes Testament-esque sounds of the 80’s on this album is undeniably impressive.

8/10

Fever 333 - Wrong Generation

Providing the correction to this generation’s answer to Rage Against the Machine (after Prophets of Rage’s insufficient attempted revival) Fever 333 follow up last year’s debut of heavy, fired-up and modern take on rapcore with another 14 minutes of righteous anti-racist hardcore anger that’s attuned to the issues to a level that I wish more artists would at least express in their art. While the EP is 18 minutes long, the last two songs, “The Last Time” and “Supremacy”, don’t match the sonic energy of the first six tracks. The somber piano-led snippet-length ballad, “The Last Time”, should have been the conclusion of the album, but the closing track, “Supremacy”, while as conscious as the tracks before it, is basically a late-stage formulaic Linkin Park track that flatters neither of the two bands. Despite botching the landing though, Wrong Generation is a ripping batch of songs that well represent the current unrest and provide a positive hypothetical idea of what it might be like if Rage Against the Machine were in their prime and active today.

7/10

Mörk Gryning - Hinsides Vrede

The Swedes return from their 15-year disillusioned absence from the studio with a concise and clearly renewed enthusiasm for the energetic black metal that they put forth on Hinsides Vrede. Dynamically bolstered by folk-metal compositional tendencies and more than a dash of that famed Gothenburg melodicism (I know they’re from Stockholm and in fact their melodic approach often does heaven to that of their close neighbors from Uppsala, Watain), Mörk Gryning’s seamless return to music finds them jumping into the modern black metal scene’s advanced compositional rubric with relative ease.

7/10

Zeal & Ardor - Wake of a Nation

Having covered their output since their debut and being a big fan of Manuel Gagneux’ project, it pains me to say, especially given the noble pretext and occasional momentary flashes of sobering messaging, that this six-song mini release really doesn’t capture the unique sonic pallet that has made Zeal & Ardor such an interesting act to listen to for the past few years in the most flattering light. The title track is possibly the least of the offenders here, but all the songs here function by taking a little snippet of sound that samples Zeal & Ardor’s broader stylistic range, and drawing it out across these short, but all too minimally composed tracks in such a way that they lose their momentum very quickly. Like I said, I wholeheartedly appreciate, sympathize with, and support what Manuel Gagneux is doing to lend his band’s platform to the addressing of the dire issue of today’s racism through musical means with this project, and when its social motivation is at the forefront, it’s at its most potent, but musically, unfortunately, it’s just desperately underwritten in a way that doesn’t fairly represent how accomplished Zeal & Ardor really are with their sound.

5/10

Sevendust - Blood & Stone

The flashes of crushing grooves reminiscent of their earlier work on Blood & Stone that highlight how well Sevendust can harness nu/alternative metal to execute pummeling attacks with the right crunchy guitar tone, unfortunately, don’t come frequently enough on their twelfth LP to mirage the exhaustion that has come of the band’s writing process after such frequent, unrelenting output and the all too apparent desperate need for a recalibrating, refreshing break, which they certainly deserve for their tenacity.

5/10

Undeath - Lesions of a Different Kind

In one of those cases where the ridiculously gratuitous album cover actually represents the album’s sound quite well, Rochester, New York five-piece, Undeath mince neither words nor sounds on their debut LP in their 100% upfront, no-nonsense, and wonderfully nasty delivery of death metal. Eschewing even the slightest sense of snobbery or pretense for aimless ambition, the band simply compile the genre’s tried and true elements of bellowing growls, filthy riffs, mean-ass down-tuned chugging, and blood-pumping double-bass with blast beats into an addictive slab of raw, uncured death metal that serves as a testament to the merit of not overthinking shit.

8/10

Griffon - Ὸ Θεός Ὸ Βασιλεύς

On their sophomore LP, Parisian quintet Griffon channel the world innovative ethos that has become rather prominent in their scene into a somewhat short, but definitely sweet offering of modestly ambitious black metal that captures much more effectively than most albums of similar style and lesser imagination, the divine grandeur that the genre so often tries and fails to embody.

8/10

Bring Me the Horizon - Post-Human: Survival Horror

After taking the hard left into current pop music trends very transparently on their controversial, which was at least partially intentional on their part, and ultimately really patchy, but not wholly awful, 2019 album, amo, Oli Sykes and co. walk it back substantially for this smaller release here, back to That's the Spirit, even Sempiternal, a prospect that might get a lot of the band's more long-time, metalcore-centric fans excited, but I would suggest those fans temper their expectations of Post-Human: Survival Horror. The band reunite with the anthemic metalcore/deathcore that put them on the map for a good chunk of this album, and the intro track, "Dear Diary,", might even give some false hope of the prodigal sons returning home. But songs like the cookie-cutter single, "Teardrops", provide strong evidence that, while the band have re-embraced their old aesthetic, they have not kicked the pop vocal or compositional habits. And the project really does run out of energy in its final third because of this compositional homogeneity. I do want to highlight the song, "Kingslayer", which features a very in-form Babymetal (I loved their album last year), because their fun, not-so-serious approach to the crossing of J-pop and metal music in their feature on this track among the other songs around it provides a contrast to the more formulaic, disinterested radio pop swagger that Bring Me the Horizon have been trying to jam into their sound that could perhaps inform Bring Me the Horizon's artistic approach to integrating pop music if they really are so hellbent on doing so. Ultimately though, as much as they want to move into newer territory, this trajectory-revising release shows just how much more solid Bring Me the Horizon are in their metalcore territory than they were on amo. It had its predictable hiccups, but this thing wasn't too bad.

7/10

Pallbearer - Forgotten Days

With the slow, sludgy, down-tuned riffing of the menacing opening title track and the similar chug of “Vengeance & Ruination” being the sole exceptions, the remainder of Pallbearer’s fouth full-length largely sees them operating in the same niche they have in their three previous albums. And while this could invoke accusations of playing it safe, the brimming heartfelt sorrow and resistance to succumbing to despair across Forgotten Days is enough to wave that away, as Pallbearer showcase just how emotive doom metal can be.

8/10

Bleeding Out - Lifelong Death Fantasy

The very new act and fresh Profound Lore signing, Bleeding Out, certainly display more dynamic capability than your average local grindcore scene’s biggest names here on their 18-minute debut for the label, but as of now it is still just a glimpse of potential for more effective future implementation. It’s a good start, though, and I’ll be looking forward to a more long-form project from these guys.

6/10

Evildead - United States of Anarchy

Every year we get the resurrection of some long-inactive old-school band who seem to have found that missing spark at last; we’ve seen the return of smaller bands to the studio like Angel Witch or Sorcerer and long-awaited revivals of iconic acts like Possessed. This year, Los Angeles’ Evildead has seen fit to make their commentary on the massive ongoing sociopolitical upheaval. Despite my love for the 80’s thrash scene they were born out of, the combination of the utterly lame band name, logo, and covers for either their ‘89 or ‘91 albums never really made me want to check them out, but seeing the horridly cheesy and incoherent cover of United States of Anarchy (I mean how much more on-the-nose can you get), my morbid curiosity got the best of me. Maybe I’d be wrong to have judged them by their cover, plenty of my favorite 80’s albums have particularly goofy cover art. So what do we get from Evildead in 2020 with this fucking album? Well, it’s not as poorly performed as the past few Anvil albums I’ve had to review have been, but Jesus the lyricism is similarly cheesy 5th-grade-level stuff and smacks of silly political incoherence that essentially boils down to “enlightened centrism” with mix of that good ol’ Illuminati-conspiracy-theory belief that no political thrash album is apparently complete without. I mean there’s just basic acknowledgment of the prominent problems of the day and the fact that both major political parties are bad and that corruption is rampant all throughout DC, but Evildead not only barely scratch the surface, they apply the same level cynicism to the “both sides” they criticize with no substantiation to their criticism despite that mindset being a big reason for our being where we are right now, mixed in with the occasional conspiracy-paranoia about the shadowy underworld running everything, so no real solutions or even proper addressing of these problems. Like, the same level of criticism is levied at right-wingers and communists, like communists are at all why this country has gone to shit. And the generic Anthrax/Megadeth type of thrash instrumentation, while rumbly and mixed well to highlight its bass heaviness, doesn’t exactly make it easy to get past the commentary deficiencies on here.

4/10

Emma Ruth Rundle & Thou - May Our Chambers Be Full

Rounding off their year (at least I think), with a long-teased collaboration with Emma Ruth Rundle, Thou finally present their massive sludge-doom sound in a much more flattering light than the previous cover albums this year did. Thou's original material continues to highlight just why their relatively stiff sound is much more cut out for that, original material, than for trying to bend beyond its flexibility to tribute grunge songs. And while Thou being back in their more effective department, Emma Ruth Rundle's contributions, beyond just her gorgeous and ethereally haunting vocals, to the album's atmosphere, dynamic, and structuring really take the collaboration to the next level. Not to say that Thou are completely overshadowed and relegated to the background on this record or that they don't contribute to a fair share of the legwork here; the workload is shared pretty equally, and both collaborators have their moments of prominence, but Emma Ruth Rundle's ever-present gothic/folky influence really directs the music in a way that plays to Thou's strengths in a way I'm not sure they would have been able to on their own. It's great work from both of them, and I'd be eager to hear Thou find more collaborations like this in the future that push them into doing more interesting things with their crushing doom sound, as opposed to the rather tepid collaborations with The Body.

8/10

Auðn - Vökudraumsins Fangi

Sadly, three albums in, Auðn have only barely exceeded the bare minimum for naturalistic atmospheric black metal, with no signs of significant improvement to be found. The Icelandic band earn points for their earnest delivery, but they never seem to fully make it out of the rut that the genre’s many contemporary acts have dug.

5/10

Botanist - Photosynthesis

The black metal traditionalists might have had to accept that the floodgates to bright ambience and serene shoegaze in the genre have been opened and that there's no going back now, but even as an avid Deafheaven fan, I'm sometimes momentarily surprised at just how heavenly some black metal has gotten lately, and this new album from Botanist is one of those albums. And while it sometimes slips into some of the current wave's typical ruts, the sheer blindingly illuminating aura of this album when it reaches those high points (and it does so frequently) is enough to pull it out from those gutters and high into the cosmos. Yeah, another splendid offering of nature worship from Botanist.

8/10

Mr. Bungle - The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny Demo

Making their return after over a decade, Mike Patton recruits both Dave Lombardo and Scott Ian for the long-awaited fourth Mr. Bungle album, which is titled in homage to the first Mr. Bungle demo which it is comprised largely of much clearer re-recordings of. Ever impressive, Mike Patton balances aggression and eccentricity like a tightrope walker on this project too, while his bandmates do the same with thrash metal’s natural adrenaline rush while pushing the genre into new compositional and stylistic territory without sacrificing that crucial whiplash. It’s a great time, and definitely one of the year’s best thrash albums.

8/10

Carcass - Despicable

While they've been much less prolific since their reboot than they were prior, Liverpool's melodic death metal pioneers simply continue to demonstrate their excellence in this seemingly effortless four-track appetizer to next year's Torn Arteries. Anyone familiar with the band's brutal form of melodic death metal will certainly be pleased with the four quite sufficiently pulverizing cuts here; those who may only be familiar with some of the band's many less muscular imitators might be surprised, and pleasantly so, with the Englanders' ability to lay on the infectious guitar melody without sacrificing an ounce of force.

8/10

#metal #heavy metal #death metal #black metal #deathcore #sludge metal #post metal #new album #album review #new music #thrash metal #blackened death metal #blackgaze #experimental metal #mathcore #doom metal #stoner metal #groove metal

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thefanficmonster · 4 years ago

Text

Listener

John (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope) x Reader (Male)

Warnings: SPOILERS FOR THE GAME LITTLE HOPE

Genre: Angst, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort

Summary: He wishes to be fine, he wants to be ok. He only wants to get over that night, bury it in the past and push forward. But you can’t bury what you can’t see or touch - the scars on your psyche, the trauma, the nightmares. He’s not able to battle it...not on his own at least.

Requested by @dark-pictures-until-dawn Hello dear! Sorry to be posting your request so late. I really hope you have stayed patient enough to still want to read the fic because I’m really looking forward to hearing your feedback, especially since it’s my first time writing a male reader. Please enjoy the read! Love, Vy ❤

I can’t go home. I feel unsafe and lonely there. I feel how shallow is the meaningfulness of my existence and am constantly reminded of how quickly and gruesomely it was almost taken from me back in that ghost town. How I was prepared to do anything to shield my life as well as the lives of those I was responsible of from the horrors Little Hope provided for us. Speaking of my companions at the time, I think they’re doing far better than I am. Angela is, well, Angela - unbothered by the real problem, rather focusing on herself, mostly appearance-wise. Taylor and Daniel are each other’s support and have finally made their relationship public and I’m really happy for them. They deserve nothing but the best and I hope they get through this soon. Andrew left for home for a week or two to be with his family until the concussion and the trauma wore off at least a small bit. I was really worried for him and still am, but I’m at ease knowing he’s surrounded by people who’ll take care of him.

I, however, am left to my own devices. Devices I’m not sure I have. I can hear the weak side of me whispering to me whenever I get home, telling me it’s ok to break the streak at a time like this, even encouraging me to do so. Telling me it’ll be alright, that I’ll be able to pick myself back up, but for now, I can turn to my old friend for comfort. I can allow the liquor to pick me up like it did then. But then, thank the heavens, my rational side kicks in right on time - one second before it can be too late. It makes me ask myself if alcohol ever did anything for me except dig me a grave for my own dignity. Did it ever pick me up, or was it always the illusion behind which was the defeat and demise it truly gave me?

This rational side has helped me put down the bottle just as I was about to unscrew its cap, and I’ll forever be in its debt. Lord knows I’d be back in the same awful spot I was in before I started by journey of getting clean. I can’t go through the hellish first months of recovery another time. But the escape is a little too hard to resist sometimes.

Tonight it’s especially bad. This afternoon I had a meetup with the principle of the college during which I had to tell him all that happened that night, all the while enduring his ‘you’ve gone mad’ stare mixed with pity. He doesn’t believe any of us, how could he? I wouldn’t believe it either if I were in his shoes. Still, I’m the one who he bothers the most about it, given the others are students and I’m basically an employee of his and I am not allowed to show any sort of disrespect, no matter how much I’d like to put him in his place, if I want to keep my job. Having to reach to the dark side of my mind for the memories of that night took a toll on me like it hasn’t been able to in the past three days. I sometimes experience rather decent days during which my mind is too occupied to crack under the weight of the trauma. But then come the nights when I avoid sleeping just to unintentionally sink in deep slumber which is interrupted by a nightmare that sends me in a state of absolute terror.

Those are the instances in which I need metal chains to tie my wrists and feet so I don’t go back to old habits.

Why I still have alcohol in my house is beyond me. It’s like I’m taunting myself to fail what I’ve worked so hard for. Like dangling a piece of meat in front of a lion. The problem is - I’m both the person dangling the meat and the lion. I end up hurting myself by seeking comfort. It’d be a straight up lie if I tell myself I’m strong enough to resist temptation. The only reason why I do so is to avoid those first few months of the new attempted recovery. If I even attempt it, that is.

Because of the deteriorated state my mind is in right now and my weakened defenses, I have made the only move I can think of - sleeping in the school tonight. I’m lucky to have a couch in my office which I share with another professor, so sleeping here will at least be comfortable. The weather has been holding up well, so I won’t even need to bring out the heater. Just as long as no one...

“John? You’re still here?“

…sees me.

The familiar voice scares me half to death, bringing me out of my spiraling thoughts. I’ve become really jumpy and easily terrified which I consider to be reasonable. Other people are rather cautious around me and when approaching me, which I appreciate.

The person standing in the doorway with one hand on the handle and a startled expression on his face is my colleague Y/N. He’s the professor I’m sharing this office with. Him and I started working at this college at the same time and we quickly bonded over our first-day-on-the-job anxiety. He is pretty swell guy, about my age and height. He is the laid back professor, you don’t see many of his kind, especially since he is an ECON professor. Some of my students are in his class too, and they have nothing but kind words to say about him and his teaching. While the other professors, myself included, sport suits to work, he shows up in a polo shirt and jeans. He hasn’t missed a single day of work and his class flaunts the highest score in the whole college. That should tell you enough about how professional and well-put-together of a person Y/N is.

“Um, yeah...I just have some things to finish up.“ I wave my hand dismissively, hoping he’d leave it at that. But we’ve been colleagues and friends too long for him to let that slide so easily. He knows me well, people are an open book to him in general. He has told me he wanted to pursue psychology but his parents talked him out of it which explains his ability to tap into a person’s psyche like a literal mind reader. God knows I need a psychologist right now.

Y/N steps inside, closing the door behind him. “I can wait for you. We could get some dinner if you want.“ He suggests casually, shrugging his shoulders a tiny bit.

My eyes go wide, “No!” I answer a little too quickly and too loudly, causing him to frown in confusion, “I mean...don’t wait for me. There’s no need. It’s already late. We could get dinner another time.”

Y/N narrows his eyes slightly as if attempting to read a sign in the distance. I know he’s reading me. I bet he doesn’t even have to try so hard. I’m an open book that has suffered too much damage recently. And I’m not only talking the events back in that God forsaken town.

I try avoiding his gaze but when he says my name I can look nowhere but his eyes, “John, I know you’re still rattled and traumatized. Who wouldn’t be? Just know that you can talk to me anytime, about anything.“ His hand rests on my shoulder, “I’m one of those people who believes you. I believe you 100%” He chuckles, shaking his head, “I’ve researched that stuff probably more than I should’ve when I was a teenager. And it still intrigues me. Though I’m really sorry you had to go through such horrible events. You know you can take a paid leave for a month or two, right? No one will hold it against you. I’d be more than happy to cover for you if you’d like.”

I find myself smiling at Y/N’s words, “I really appreciate that, Y/N, but I’m afraid that if I don’t come to work I’ll end up losing my mind. Hell...“ I motion around the office, “I don’t even wanna leave. ‘Home’ doesn’t seem so homey at the moment.“ I force a melancholic chuckle, deprived of almost all emotion.

“Hey, now that offends me.“ He frowns, showing off just how much I’ve hurt his feelings, “You’d rather crash here than come over to my place? Come on, John, you should know better than that.“ He pauses for a second, eyeing me suspiciously before a smirk appears on his face, “You’re just afraid I’ll bring out the chess board, aren’t you?“

I can’t help but laugh, “Not at all. We both know I’m the better chess player.“

A mock offended expression makes its way onto Y/N’s face as his eyes widen, “Oh, you’re so on now.” He quickly open the door, one foot already out in the hall.

I hurriedly grab my jacket and briefcase from where I left them this morning, “Not before dinner, though. My treat.” I call after him, my arm automatically reaching out for him, taking gentle hold of his wrist, “And, thank you, Y/N. This means a lot to me. Your support, your company, your friendship...everything.”

Y/N turns around, sending me one of his bright, dazzling smiles, “I was on board with you till you said friendship.” He snorts, moving his hand so it can hold mine and give it a gentle squeeze, “Jokes aside, John, I really want to help you and be there for you. So, please, I’m begging you, don’t push me away. At least try not to, ok?”

The warmth seeping from his eyes comforts me, helps me forget what’s been bothering me, at least momentarily. He always understands, he’s always prepared to help, to comfort, prepared to give advice and receive criticism. He’s human, obviously, but a human who understands what it’s like to be let down, brought down and forced to pick yourself back up, I haven’t found many who understand that in my life. He was my support when I decided to get clean, my biggest stability pillar, why couldn’t he help me now too? Why don’t I allow him to make me at least half the person he is?

“I’ll try, Y/N. I promise.“

And this is a promise I’ll keep, starting by discarding all the alcohol bottles in my house.

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surveys-at-your-service · 3 years ago

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Survey #453

“you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave”

What health problems run in your family? Diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol, depression, cancer, a LOT more that I'm forgetting. Where did you last have sex? I have zero memory of the last time that was, so I wouldn't know. But probably a bed? How long have you known your best friend? Since we were around 8 and 11. What’s something people criticize you the most for? That I rely on the computer too much. Are spiders scary? I mean some are, but they're also extremely fascinating animals that I really enjoy observing. Cheetos. Poofy or regular? Regular, for sure. The poofy ones get stuck in your teeth SO badly. What's your favorite music genre? Heavy metal. Be honest. What are you most afraid of? Doing nothing with my life. What's your favourite type of survey to take? The ones with really random questions that you don't see in every single one. However, I don't like "random" to where the questions are just inapplicable to almost everyone. I also enjoy questions that allow me to vent about stuff I have going on. If I'm in the right mood, deep questions are great, too. What was the last topic you read about? In detail? I don't know. What shirt do you wear the most? Besides tank tops, my Cloak "equal in our bones" Day of the Dead shirt. What's your go-to order from KFC? I don't eat at KFC. Did you have hand-me-down clothes when you were growing up? Yes. What was the last song you listened to? Well, NOW I'm obsessed with Violet Orlandi's cover of "Hotel California." I keep finding new songs that I just loop for days, man, lol. I'm still not over her "The Unforgiven" cover. Did you have long hair as a young kid? I did. How many songs do you know by the band you are listening to? I'm still listening to Violet's "Hotel California" cover, which is originally by The Eagles. I obviously know this song, as well as "Heartache Tonight." Probably more, just those are the two I know and like. What podcasts do you listen to, if any? I don't listen to any. What was your most recent binge watch? Gab Smolders' playthrough of Final Fantasy X. What’s the oldest thing currently in your house? Hell, possibly my bed frame. I don't know. If you use Snapchat, do you post to your story or send individual snaps more often? I don't have one. When was the last time you rolled your eyes? At what? Not too long ago. Mom said something that really annoyed me. Do you like mozzarella sticks? No. If you had to name one of your children after a friend, solely based on their name alone, who would you choose? Probably Alon. Everything about her is beautiful, ha ha. Have you ever watched anime porn? I can confidently say I have not... Are ladybugs cute? Yes! Would you wear something made from snake skin? Fuck no. I won't wear anything that comes from an animal. Will you leave the house without fragrance on? Yeah, idc. What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever done for a significant other? In art class, I made an anatomically correct heart out of clay and put it in a shadow box along with a poem as the background. I honestly really hope Jason still has it, because I worked my ass off on it. What do you think of naming your son after the father (ex. Roy Jr.): It's not my business what other parents name their kids, but for me personally, I really don't like it. Like... give your child their own identity. It also feels kinda arrogant to me? Like are you so important that you have to force your name onto your kid? Do you like Death Cab For Cutie? I only know "I Will Follow You Into the Dark," which I adore. Do walking near or past cops make you feel uncomfortable? Yes. I just feel like I'm doing something wrong somehow. Do you think stretching (or gauging) your ears is disgusting? When they get to a certain size, to me it is. Small ones are no biggie. What piercing or body modification do you think is really gross? Oh my god, those corset piercings people get on their backs. Just... no. What would you do if your bf/gf told you they were going into the army? I'd be fucking devastated, in a hypothetical relationship where we're serious. What is the nearest gas station called? Uhhhh... I forgot lol. The second-closest though, which is almost like, RIGHT beside the other one, is Sheetz. Do you think bearded dragons are cute? omg YES!!!!!!!! What is your father’s best friend’s name? Do you know them personally? I have no idea. Ever have a dream you’re being abducted by aliens? Was it scary? No. Are you someone who tends to take a whole lot of naps? Too many, honestly. I'm just like... always tired. What is your favorite nickname you like to be called? Why do you like it? Hm. My favorite I've ever had was "Bee," which Megan called me, but I don't like others calling me that. Ever meet someone whose house has burned down spontaneously? Yes, in middle school. Why aren’t you pursuing the person you like? I kinda am. I reached out to him. What part of a person’s body do you find most attractive? Guys: shoulder blades. Girls: hips. Any friends that you’d go on a date with? Yeah. I think I want to try that with Girt and see how it goes and decide what the fuck I want. Is it cute when someone calls you babe? It's funny, I used to hate that, but now I imagine I wouldn't mind? Do you like Muse? Yeah! "Unnatural Selection" and "Psycho" are especially BANGERS. What’s your favorite flavor of jello? Strawberry. What song is stuck in your head right now? I'm bingeing the absolute fuck outta the song I mentioned earlier, ha ha. Do you have a niece or nephew? I have a lot, but only three I see regularly. Have you ever been caught doing something REAL embarrassing by your parents? idk What did you receive for Valentine’s Day? I think Mom got me a chocolate bar? When was the last time you went to a cemetery, and why were you there? I want to say this was many years ago when I went with Colleen to her church. Her stillborn brother was buried there. Have you ever owned a plant? What was it? I grew habaneros once, along with some sort of succulents from Colleen. What was the most interesting animal you have seen in the wild? I saw a mink jump into the river once when I was out fishing with Dad at our favorite spot. Were you born in the state you live in? Yep. Always lived here. What’s a smell that makes you feel ill? Dog shit. Do you like to sleep? Yes and no. I like falling asleep if it's quick, because I'm all comfy, but I also dread sleep because of my nightmares. Even with my mask, they're starting to become regular again. After last night's, I am legitimately beginning to fear something is psychologically wrong with me. Like, I cried to my mom. Do you like the smell of gasoline? Ugh, no. It gives me a headache. Have you lost contact with anyone you wish you haven’t? Many people. Did you give anyone his/her first kiss? No. Should you ever have gone to the hospital but didn’t? Vice versa? No. Who do you miss the most? Jason. What do you miss the most? Being happy. What is your birthstone? Do you have any jewelry with it? Amethyst. I have a really cute guardian angel pin with one given to me by my grandmother. What is the last dream you remember having? Last night was... awful. I remember Mom and I getting in a MASSIVE fight, and also literally yelling at my late beloved dog something about crushing his head in if he didn't stop barking. Like I mentioned earlier, I'm really scared something is really wrong with me. Have you had a church confirmation, bar/bat mitzvah, or something similar? Growing up Roman Catholic, I had a Confirmation ceremony. What was the last baby animal you saw? I wanna say a puppy on Facebook. A friend just got one.

#survey #surveys #random questions #lyrics: ''hotel california'' by the eagles

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tallstales · 4 years ago

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Day 4 Books (13 Days of Halloween)

There are so many books perfect for reading in the fall. Many people read with Halloween in mind at this time of year and I happen to be one of them from about July through mid November. At this time of year, we gravitate towards Stephen King and now Joe Hill or the latest big name. Sometimes we forget about the classics that started it all or we don’t think to look in our own backyard for new favorites.

Today I’m going to share a list of 13 of my favorite spooky classics mixed in with brand new hits on my to read list. And as a bonus, I’m including a list of Rhode Island authors of Supernatural fiction, Mysteries, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Horror, Thriller, and more to keep you enthralled as we get closer to Halloween.

Let’s check them out!

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

For those who know me well, they know the special love I have for The haunting of Hill House. Last year I even got the crazy opportunity to direct the play at the Rhode Island Stage Ensemble because they knew of my crazy obsession. I might talk about this book too much. That being said, I will keep it brief today. Read it! Go! No, you have not experienced it through Netflix or even the play. They’re wonderful, amazing interpretations, but they are very different.

To truly know Hill House and the people staying there to study it, you need to read this book and get trapped in the mind of its not quite reliable narrator.

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James

Speaking of Netflix, on this list is another psychological haunted house thriller that has just been made into a streaming hit in The Haunting of Bly Manor.

The Turn of the Screw is a short but not so sweet story with an atmosphere of slowly growing tension. This is a great quick read for a rainy day home alone to get your nerves just the right amount of frayed for when the trick or treaters start knocking.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

Another classic is the travelogue Dracula! With any other title, people would question how a travel journal could be scary, but Dracula needs no introduction. If anything, time and popular culture has added so much to this story that when we go back and look at the original tale we are terrified all over again by the simplicity of atmosphere and characterization over props, costumes, and all the other added layers.

There’s a scary bit of truth to this tale as well, one that even connects back to Rhode Island! Did you know that Bram Stoker was inspired by the story of Mercy Brown? Yes, news of her tragedy and horrific exhumation made it all the way to London! Stay tuned this week for our 13 Haunted RI Tales for more on Mercy.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

While we’re in the Victorian Era and talking about classic monsters, we can’t forget about Frankenstein’s monster! This is another one that’s been taken apart and put back together by so many different writers, directors, and actors that we forget how terrifying the original is.

What really makes this story stand the test of time even past the language changes that can make other stories written in the same period slog along, is Shelley’s understanding of human nature.

We all question the meaning of life and death and Frankenstein has a way of helping our imagination come up with the most terrifying answers.

Edgar Allan Poe

How could we discuss Horror classics without the twisted tales of Edgar Allan Poe? I can’t even pick a single story to discuss for this list, just trust me and get a collection of his stories if you don’t already own one. You won’t be disappointed.

Haunted houses? Evil animals? Disease? Death? Human Nature? Poe has covered all of the best horror tropes and even invented a few himself. If I had to choose a favorite to start with… one that sticks with me and makes me shudder to even think about is The Lighthouse. It’s the rats. They get me everytime and unlike the suspense they bring in The Pit and the Pendulum, the rats in The Lighthouse just bring terror and an overall sense of disgust. Happy reading!

His Hideous Heart Edited by Dahlia Adler

While we’re on the subject of the laste, great E.A.P. I bring you a fairly recent edition to his fandom.

His Hideous Heart is an anthology put together by 13 well known YA authors for a new, contemporary audience. Edgar Allan Poe may be gone, but his works and their themes have stayed with us and in our classrooms with a love their surprising and unsettling nature.

Contributors include Dahlia Adler (reimagining “Ligeia”), Kendare Blake (“Metzengerstein”), Rin Chupeco (“The Murders in the Rue Morgue”), Lamar Giles (“The Oval Portrait”), Tessa Gratton (“Annabel Lee”), Tiffany D. Jackson (“The Cask of Amontillado”), Stephanie Kuehn (“The Tell-Tale Heart”), Emily Lloyd-Jones (“The Purloined Letter”), amanda lovelace (“The Raven”), Hillary Monahan (“The Masque of the Red Death”), Marieke Nijkamp (“Hop-Frog”), Caleb Roehrig (“The Pit and the Pendulum”), and Fran Wilde (“The Fall of the House of Usher”).

Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury

Continuing to move forward in time, I find myself thinking of Ray Bradbury. Bradbury has a wonderful way of slowly seeping discontent into the reader but with Something Wicked he seems to put pedal to the metal.

This is the only book on my list to feature a nightmarish carnival and Bradbury might be why. I somehow walked away without a fear of clowns or carnivals but reading about them… still gives me the heebie jeebies. Now that I think about it, this book might have something to do with why mirrors creep me out too.

Readers be warned. Something Wicked This Way Comes has all the marks of a beautifully written coming of age tale, but the themes stick with you like a shadow well into adulthood.

House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

If you haven’t read this book, you have definitely heard of it. That book with the weird typography, with the backwards words and print in the margins and all that weird stuff? Yes, it’s House of Leaves and “all that weird stuff” makes for one exciting and unsettling ride. People I give this book two either firmly LOVE it or HATE it, but I recommend it today because 8 out of 10 are on the love side and passing around their copies to others because it’s hard not too.

As you read, you follow two stories. The main story is about the Navidson family moving into a new home where some very strange things begin to happen. The second story takes place in the footnotes where we follow a man named Johnny as he finds, reads and obsesses over the first story which is referred to in the book as The Navidson Record. Now, I have set out with the mission of not spoiling anything for anyone today, especially since most the books on this list are of the thriller or suspense genre so I will stop here, but know I really, really want to tell you everything that happens and everything I think of it! Go read this crazy work of art and message me. We’ll talk.

Twelve Nights at Rotter House by J.W. Ocker

I said it earlier and I’ll say it again, I have a soft spot for a good haunted house. Now, haunted by people or haunted by spirits… I think both are the best kind. Those who have started reading my series The Monsters Within can probably guess that I love the “Humans are the Monsters” horror trope. And, well, nothing brings out the monsters in humans faster than the particular fear that comes with staying in a haunted house. Or at least, a house perceived to be haunted where your mind can play such glorious tricks on you.

Twelve Nights at Rotter House is admittedly slow to start, but I like and recommend this title because that slow pace is there for a reason. We get comfortable when nothing much is happening, when the pace is slow and friendly. I think it makes everything that comes next that much more exciting. Give it a chance and let me know what you think.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

The Twisted Ones is a delicious cocktail of Suspense, Thriller, Horror fiction, Psychological Fiction, Occult Fiction. It’s everything I wanted M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village to be when the trailers came out back in 2004 and everything it wasn’t for me. Add into it the the main character is cleaning a hoarder’s house in the woods… yeah! Sold, this is creepy and gross and sets off all my alarms, I’m reading it with ALL the lights on.

And somehow, through not being able to put it down and finding myself breathlessly speed reading , I still found time to laugh. There are these little gems in the main character’s personality and the story telling that are so relatable and likeable that it adds an effortless humor on top of the effortless horror. This is the only work I’ve read by this author, but she is absolutely on my follow list and I hope she makes yours as well.

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo

Some might recognise the name Leigh Bardugo from popular YA fantasies but fear not (or do for that matter) Bardugo can write the hell out of terrifying adult themes. Ninth House is almost impossible to out down in its fast paced, constantly twisting and turning mystery and terrifying ghost story.

[Now, I feel the need to mention before we move on that this is an award winning piece and it is loved by too many to count, BUT if you are on my blog then you may be here because I write about mental health and mental illness and all the emotions dark and light that come with psychology. I try my best to do so in an educated and realistic way that relates back to what I’m going through with good intentions. I try my absolute best to write realistically without including triggers. That being said, as someone who has mental health issues, this story did trigger me. Did I still enjoy the read and do I think you would too, absolutely! I wouldn’t have it on my list otherwise. But if you have anxiety, depression, ptsd, or are overcoming assault you may want to do some further research into the adult topics of this novel before reading. Please feel free to ask questions or leave comments regarding this topic. Thank you.]

The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix

Moving into this year’s releases there is the ever popular The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires. This is another one that seamlessly works in some brilliant comedy into the spooky plot.

Some have compared this to Fried Green Tomatoes and Steel Magnolias meet Dracula and I’d just like to throw in Buffy the Vampire Slayer as the cherry on that brilliant summary sundae.

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

I had the pleasure of studying under Emily Danforth while going after my BA in Writing at Rhode Island College. At that point, she had just published The Miseducation of Cameron Post and I was completely enamored. That being said, I have kept up with her writing and oh man am I glad because Plain Bad Heroines was GREAT!

There are so few great additions to their horror genre that I just want to paste gold stars all over this beautifully written, funny, sexy, and utterly disturbing coming of age hit. I hope you love it as much as I did and if you do, be sure to review! This book is brand spanking new and new book sales depend on reviews to help audiences find them. Get out there and post what you liked or even what you didn’t about everything you read. In the end, even negative reviews help new readers find something they will enjoy.

Supernatural/Paranormal

Lorne J. Therrian Sr.

Jeanine Duval Spikes

Alexander Smith

Elizabeth Splaine

D. R. Perry

Sheryl Lynn Kimball

Lisa Jacob

Paul & Ben Eno

Christine Depetrillo

Roland Comtois

Daniel Cano

J. C. Brown

Horror

Alexander Smith

H.P. Lovecraft Lisa Jacob

Christa Carmen

Science Fiction

Rachel Menard

Tabitha Lord

R. K. Bentley

Fantasy

J. Michael Squatrito, Jr.

Lorne J. Therrian Sr.

Angelina Singer

Scott William Simmons

C. K. Sholly

Heather Rigney

Rachel Menard

Paul Magnan

M. A. Guglielmo

Heather Dunn

Susan Catalano

A. Keith Carreiro

Daniel Cano

Noel Anne Brennan

Tim Baird

Mystery

Anne-Marie Sutton

Elizabeth Splaine

Dusty Pembroke

Risa Nyman

Rick Marchetti

Jean Kelly

Sam Kafrissen

Ilhy

Daniel Currier

Judy Boss

Julien Ayotte

Thriller

Heather Rigney

Glede Browne

Judy Boss

David Boiani

David Aiello

DON’T FORGET TO COMMENT BELOW!

13 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN IS A SPECIAL TREAT FOR ME AND MY READERS. ON HALLOWEEN, THERE WILL BE A VERY SPECIAL GIVEAWAY I’D LOVE FOR YOU TO TAKE PART IN. ALL YOU HAVE TO DO TO ENTER IS COMMENT OR SHARE THIS POST TO YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA.

THANK YOU FOR PARTICIPATING AND BEST OF LUCK!

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eeee-lye · 6 years ago

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Metal, Part One

To make this a bit easier on myself, and also because my right hand isn’t working that well right now, I’m going to divide this into multiple posts. So this some of the power, symphonic, sympho-folk, gothic and power-prog artists in my main playlists.

I should note that I am an autistic with auditory processing disorder, so I do not listen to music primarily for lyrics and cannot promise that any one of these songs won’t contain problematic content.

I didn’t include Nightwish or Amaranthe because I know that you know of them, @dps-winston, but if you want my recommendations on either I can provide that. It’s also worth noting that I’ve often gone for bands’ lead tracks to give some idea of what their general sound is like. Also, not all these bands are actively together or recording.

Also, as someone who’s been listening to symphonic metal for a long time, I am not always a fan of the genre’s shift away from gothic metal undertones into pop-metal undertones, so the songs I list demonstrate that. There are other songs by bands like Sirenia, Xandria and Delain that are going to have that pop-metal tone if that’s what you enjoy. It’s just that I--while I shake my cane and ramble on about the good old days--came into the genre when it was paying homage to gothic metal, and I miss that.

Amberian Dawn: Mythological/fantastic gothic power metal. Unlike most of the bands here, they don’t go for anywhere near the same degree of orchestration, but there’s still backing choral pieces. Earlier songs are more often operatic; later songs are a bit less so.

Examples: River of Tuoni (early), Fame and Gloria, Cherish My Memory (Remastered)

Amanda Somerville and Michael Kiske: Two of metal’s famous melodic voices join up in that soft/melodic corner of power metal. Their first album is slow and blah, in my opinion, but City of Heroes has some rocking songs, and the title track is pretty much the Hero’s Journey set to song.

Examples: City of Heroes, Walk on Water.

Avantasia: A long-running (usually concept album) project from power metaller Tobias Sammet and a range of guest vocalists from the power, symphonic and prog corners of metal. More symphonic-power and power-prog than true power metal. Songs like “Runaway Train” are fucking epic.

Examples: Runaway Train, Twisted Mind.

Ayreon: Pretty much the epitome of melodic prog concept album projects, by Arjen Lucassen and another range of famous metal guest vocalists. It’s still power-prog, but it leans more into the prog than Avantasia. I very much recommend listening to Ayreon as a whole album first over individual songs, as much as I adore Day Three: Pain.

Examples: I’ll always recommend first The Human Equation.

Crimfall: Folk-with-a-bit-of-symphonic metal. I’d say something like the later Nightwish sound combined with early Eluvitie and a dash of Howard Shore’s The Lord of the Rings with even more outrageous bombast and shifts between clean and grunt (beauty and the beast) vocals. This band goes all out between softer breaks, so it isn’t just a wall of noise. (Although the start of “Until Falls the Rain” is fucking massive.) If you don’t like grunt vocals or harder folk, this may not work for you, but if you do, Crimfall.

Examples: Until Falls the Rain, The Last of Stands, Wildfire Season, Where Waning Winds Lead

Dark Princess: Gothic metal with ... well, I can only say emo undertones, but a similar sort of pop-metal sensibility as Amaranthe. They’re a pretty accessible entry to the melodic metal genre for folks new to the idea in terms of hardness, comprehensible vocals and song lengths.

Examples: Cry, Stop My Heart, The Key.

Delain: Symphonic/goth metal in their earlier albums; gothic power-pop metal, more like Amaranthe, in their later ones. I prefer their earlier albums, and their songs that lean hardest on the pop metal rarely do it for me so I won’t list them here, but Charlotte Wessels always sounds gorgeous. Damn do I love “Sleepwalker’s Dream”.

Examples: Sleepwalker’s Dream (early), Here Come the Vultures (later), Masters of Destiny (current)

Edenbridge: Symphonic/operatic metal, more like early Nightwish. I don’t like all their songs, I admit. They’re at their best, in my book, when they’re willing to move away from a close adherence to the Nightwish or Epica sound with more diverse instrumentation; “Wild Chase” is seriously good fun.

Examples: Wild Chase, Remember Me, Higher

Elis: Gothic metal. A lot of their songs sound fairly similar to me, but if you want less orchestration and more gothic sounds with grunt vocals, chorus and guitar, they’ll provide. (RIP Sabine.)

Examples: The Burning, Salvation

Elvenking: Folk meets light power metal with some acoustic songs between, and I have to say there’s something a bit Pratchett-esque elvish or Goblin Market about the weirdness of some of their songs, lyrically. But they’re light, fantastic, folky fun; just don’t expect them to always fit the Tolkien mould. High fantasy Elvenking are not, and that’s why they work.

Examples: The Wanderer (acoustic version), The Cabal, Trows Kind

Epica: If you’re looking for a more existential/spiritual/philosophical take on Nightwish, Epica will provide in the symphonic/operatic/gothic metal sphere. They’re bit more classical-feeling than Nightwish and, at the same time, more gothic, with grunt vocals threaded through the operatic elements. They’re big, bombastic and dramatic, with a touch of Therion about their music.

Examples: Our Destiny, The Essence of Silence, Tides of Time

Kamelot: Symphonic power-slightly-prog metal with a fair bit of drama. We don’t talk about Roy Khan, but I do like his vocals slightly better than that of his replacement, Tommy Karevik. (Karevik is still good, though.) They almost always have One Really Big Romantic Power Ballad, often with a guest female vocalist; it’s practically a contractual obligation.

(Epica are named after Kamelot’s Epica album, FYI.)

Khan examples: The Human Stain, March of Mephisto, A Sailorman’s Hymn

Karevik examples: Insomnia, Under Grey Skies (with the aforementioned Charlotte Wessels), Vespertine (My Crimson Bride)

Leah: A one-woman soft/melodic Celtic metal band, often with doom and prog undertones. Not all her stuff is quite as metal as I prefer, but if you want a break from the bombast melodic metal likes to throw at you with vocals more akin to Enya than Tarja, Leah will do that.

Examples: The Northern Edge, This Present Darkness

Leaves’ Eyes: Symphonic Norse metal, most of the time, but there’s a few albums between that are more like symphonic folk or Norse/Celtic rock. I vastly prefer them when they’re leaning harder to metal, like King of Kings. (Their best album, in my book.) We also don’t talk about Liv Kristine, but I do prefer her as frontwoman.

Examples, all Liv Kristine: Halvdan the Black, Blazing Waters, Froya’s Theme, Elegy (which, because pronouns, sounds like a sapphic love song)

Pyramaze: Fantasy-style softer power metal with a slight dash of prog. It’s very traditionally DnD/fairy tale fantastic, but it’s more toned down compared to Dragonforce. You’re all but required to sing “blood will be shed” and “the UNICORN” in the same way Shakespeare demands you holler “dishonour not your mothers”.

Examples: Tears of Hate, Legend.

Serenity: They’re Kamelot’s brand of symphonic power metal with a more power-metal-leaning vocalist and fantasy or historical vocals. They’re pretty much what power metal would be if it stayed power metal in theme but tried for Kamalot’s sound and styling. For all that it’s hard not to see them as a Kamelot knock-off, I do enjoy their music.

Examples: Velatum, Rust of Coming Ages, When Canvas Starts to Burn

Sirenia: Gothic metal evolving to symphonic metal. I vastly prefer their earlier albums; their middle albums have lost uniqueness (in my opinion) as they moved towards the Nightwish-adjacent mould, just with grunt vocals. Morten Velend’s vocals, though, are good: he’s deep and gravelly while still being clear. And the recent album has that discordant note again, albeit now over Amaranthe’s pop-metal base. Sirenia is a Revolving Door of Female Vocalists, though!

(If you like Morten’s vocals and want Sirenia’s orchestral gothic stylings sans female lead vocals: Mortemia’s Misere Mortem. If you prefer the earlier Sirenia songs, see early Tristania below.)

Examples: In My Darkest Hours (early), A Shadow of Your Own Self (early), Sirens of the Seven Seas (middle), Dim Days of Dolor (recent), Love Like Cyanide (recent)

Sonata Arctica: Power metal, sometimes with fantasy or historical themes, but a bit toned down compared to Dragonforce or Rhapsody of Fire. This is why I listen to them a lot more than I do the others, as full-out power metal isn’t really my jam. Also, you have got to listen to “Fullmoon” because werewolves.

Examples: Fullmoon (Revisited), Flag in the Ground, The Last Amazing Grays

Tarja: For the sake of completeness, I should mention that Nighwish’s former frontwoman has recorded several of her own albums, but the first two are only ever okay for me, and I don’t connect to the later gothic-pop-metal tones of the later ones. I really notice the lack of Tuomas in her songs.

Examples of songs I don’t hate: Until My Last Breath, Die Alive

Therion: Unclassifiably melodic? Well, there’s fantasy, symphonic, orchestral, choral, prog, mythological and spiritual elements bound into something that’s wild and unique. Nothing else sounds quite like Therion, and their tracks vary in terms of additional tone, instrumentation, theme and styling. It’s as dramatic and all out as all fuck.

Examples: Call of Dagon, Enter Vril-Ya, Son of the Staves of Time, Adulruna Rediviva

Threshold: Soft power-prog, somewhat like Kamelot but sans orchestration. I do find a lot of their songs to be similar, and their early stuff doesn’t speak to me at all, but the songs I like I really like.

Examples: Stars and Satellites, Small Dark Lines

Tristania: Their early (Morten) albums are discordant gothic metal with doomier-style orchestrations, mostly grunt vocals against a choral background. Their later albums ... they’re just standard goth metal. If you like harder vocals leaning into doom but with more orchestration and symphonic elements, Tristania’s early albums are great. Not a fan, at all, of their later stuff, but I’ll link a song for comparison!

Examples: Beyond the Veil (early), Opus Relinque (early), Year of the Rat (later)

Visions of Atlantis: This is another band that’s had a few different vocalists and have changed tone along with them, but they’re mostly fantasy/mythological symphonic metal. (The earlier albums have a consistent operatic power metal vibe not present on songs like “The Deep and the Dark”.) I don’t mind when autoplay offers me their songs, but they’ve never been a band whose discography I absolutely have to own.

Examples: Mermaid’s Wintertale (early), Return to Lemuria (recent), The Deep and the Dark (recent)

Within Temptation: If you’ve heard Nightwish and Amaranthe, you’ve probably heard WT, but just in case you haven’t, they’re a symphonic metal stalwart. Not all their albums work for me--sometimes they sound far too same-ish and sometimes their more experimental songs don’t hit the mark--but Hydra is fantastic.

(I do love And We Run as is. Ironically, I can’t stand What Have You Done; I wish they’d gotten Mikael Stanne or Morten Veland over Keith Caputo. Just think what that song would sound like with grunt vocals!)

Examples: Edge of the World, The Last Dance, Murder and, because I’m contractually obligated to mention it, Paradise (What About Us)

Xandria: A fairly standard gothic/symphonic/operatic metal band, but they’re another Revolving Door of Female Vocalists Band with resulting shifts in tone, so the mood of their albums shifts from gothic to full-out operatic depending on vocalist. I don’t always like all their songs for this reason! Neverworld’s End is my favourite, probably because it’s the most Nightwish-esque.

Examples of songs I like: The Nomad’s Crown, Forevermore (both from Neverworld’s End), Nightfall, Voyage of the Fallen

#music #metal #youtube #link #long post #very long post #this is nowhere close to all of them #I just have to draw the line somewhere #dps winston #extremely long post #really fucking long post

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grimelords · 7 years ago

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My March playlist is finished and posted on time for once! Please enjoy three and a half hours of my new and old favourite music. A lot of post-hardcore, country of a few different flavours and a thirteen second long song that goes beep beep boop. Enjoy.

Old Money - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez: Who among you will join me on my podcast ‘Omar Podriguez-Locast’ where we discuss one of Omar Rodriguez’s 60+ insane solo albums every week and grow gradually infuriated with the very existence of each other until listeners are just tuning in each week for the episode where one of us finally snaps and attacks the other with a microphone?

America’s Most Blunted - Madvillain: It’s weird that this song about the wild and wacky world of jazz cigarettes opens up with a Steve Reich sample before moving into some real Reefer Madness type lameness at the end. Songs from so long before any type of legalisation are so lame like 'recent research shows that it’s not so darn harmful!’. This song is still very good though. I only found out that Lord Quas was just Madlib recently but I really respect the idea of having a rap alter-ego that’s just you with a pitch pedal.

Love My Way - The Psychedelic Furs: An underrated part of Call Me By Your Name is when Armie Hammer hears this song playing from a car and sprints over to dance with a woman who looks like she’s doing the monster mash.

Seven Stop Hold Restart - Bear Vs. Shark: Despite their bad name Bear Vs. Shark are a very good band and the best lyric in this song is when he says 'I am nine years old with short legs and arms.’ What I like about this song, and this band, is that the screaming is not the sort of affected scream-singing of a lot of their contemporaries it’s just a stocky guy absolutely yelling his guts out, which I appreciate.

Turncoat Revolution - Hot Cross: I think that’s close to what I like so much about Hot Cross too, I’ve never listened to Saetia either (the other band this guy sings for) but maybe I should because I just love this guy’s voice. The central hammery riff is so appealing to me but my favourite part of this song is the ending where the three chords just shrink away as the whole thing mellows down, it feels like realising you’ve been mad at something that happened in a dream this whole time.

Mag11 P82 - Venetian Snares and Daniel Lanois: Venetian Snares is apparently doing an album with Daniel Lanois who produced a bunch of U2 albums so my dream of a Bono/Venetian Snares team up is one step closer to reality. I like collaborations like this where you can very clearly tell who did what part. It’s hard to mistake when and how Venetian Snares is involved in a song a lot of the time. I really like this team up because freeing Snares from any kind of melodic responsibility allows Lanois to give the song a huge amount of space, unprecedented in a Snares song where the melody is often just as frantic as the rest of it.

Cornflake Girl - Tori Amos: Do you remember when Tori Amos had that album called American Doll Posse where she was doing a bunch of characters or something and it’s got one of the worst covers of all time in my opinion and I think about it a lot. Had a song called Big Wheel on it that I get stuck in my head a lot. But this isn’t that song so never mind! I was thinking about the production on this song, and how crazy it is to have whistling as a big part of your song while avoiding having everyone think of it as 'that whistling song’. All the instrumentation on this is great, the mandolin and acoustic next to each other making a huge bed for the piano to move under, then the harpsichord sounding keyboard and the guest vocal near the end, there’s just so much happening I love it.

The Field That Touches My House And Yours - Sarah Louise: This is probably the upcoming album I’m most excited about right now. Sarah Louise (who’s one half of House And Land who I’ve posted about before) is pulling a real James Blake by releasing a lot of amazing instrumental music and then suddenly revealing she’s an absolutely incredible singer and songwriter as well.

Jezebel - The Drones: The Drones have a lot of good songs about how it’s the end of the world and we’re all fucked and we’re all gonna die but this is one of my favourites. The sort of wide ranging scientific nihilism of an opening line like 'strontium 90, removed from milk’ really sets the tone for the rest of this song as it lays out every war like an ongoing nightmare that you have no option but to participate in as your body and the earth turn to muck in their wake.

How Sweet It Is - Karen Dalton: Everyone always talks about Karen Dalton as this mercurial folk phenomenon but I really love her second album where she just does standards with a full band. Hearing her bring her insane, complete chaos sense of rhythm to these regular-ass songs is such a delight to me. The way she just swoops in on the first line with absolutely no regard for whatever else is going on really cracks me up. That the song has backing vocalists for the chorus just makes it better, I imagine them singing while glancing at each other with panicked eyes as she just wildly darts around the microphone and sings absolutely whenever.

Bang Bang - Vanilla Fudge: Pitchfork had some video about the origins of heavy metal and I lasted about ten seconds becuase they mentioned a 60s psychedelic metal forerunner named Vanilla Fudge and my brain went 'funy’ so I looked them up instead. This song is a nightmare I absolutely love it, there’s simply not enough organs around anymore. The organ sounds absolutely immense and balanced against their cursed harmonies it sounds even bigger, what a jam.

Ride For Me (feat. Young Thug & 24 Hrs) - A-Trak and Falcons: Young Thug has finally brought back his insane Harambe voice and I for one couldn’t be happier. I have no idea who 24hrs is but he for real sounds like when Justin Beiber first came out so that’s a thrill.

Space Song - Beach House: This might be the platonic ideal of a Beach House song, it’s just beautiful and I don’t think I really have anything more to say about it. Beach House put out two albums in 2015, they put out the on that this song is on and then like three weeks later they surprise released another one and I was so shocked by the deluge of content that I have never listened to the second one. A powerful lesson for Beach House.

Anna - Will Butler: This song is so good I have no recollection of what the rest of the album sounds like, I just listen to this song over and over and over. Every part is good. The brass, the 'ba ba ba’s, they way he says 'you Got to get Mo-nay’, the piano breaks that sound like he’s just slamming it with flat hands. What a gift.

Hawkmoon 269 - U2: Here’s the straight up truth that nobody wants to hear: Rattle And Hum is U2’s best album. It’s literally just The Joshua Tree except better. It’s every bad instinct of U2 turned up to 11, which is what makes it good. He mentions preachers like twenty times on this album and there’s a gospel choir on two songs, it’s all happening all the time.

Silver And Gold - U2: Here also, is the straight truth: this is U2’s best song. A proper straight up political song about a specific idea, incredible instrumentation and Bono realising halfway through his speech that the crowd unfortunately does not care about Desmond Tutu’s request for economic sanctions against South Africa.

Hunting For Witches - Bloc Party: Post 9/11 war on terror indie is such a good genre. Kele’s always been a bit of a lame-o and he’s really on display here but when the instrumentation bangs like this it’s forgivable. Bloc Party have always seemed like a band where absolutely everyone is pulling their weight and doing the most in every single song and this is a good example. The drums! Matt Tong deserves a trophy!

All Of The Lights - Kanye West: I literally remember where I was the first time I heard the drums in this song, that’s how good it was. I can’t believe I only just found out that every single famous person features on this song. I thought it was just Rhianna but it turns out it’s La Roux in the 'fast cars shooting stars’ bit, Cudi in the 'getting mine’ bit, and fucking Fergie in the 'unemployment line’ part PLUS Elton John and Alicia Keys in the outro? This song is ridiculous. It’s almost a shame that such an incredible song in every aspect features some of Kanye’s most boneheaded verses but I suppose that’s what I love about him.

Let’s Hear It For The Boy - Deniece Williams: I’d like to invite you all now to stand and give a round of applause for my dipshit miser boyfriend that dresses like shit and can’t sing, I love him. I love this song a lot because I feel like she’s talking about me. This is a great song that’s right at the top of my long list of potential wrestling entrance themes.

Hey! - The Go! Team: I was premature when I said that new Go Team album wasn’t that great because it is in actuality very very good. This song would make a good wrestling theme too now that I think of it.

Monument - Royksopp & Robyn: I put the T.I.E. version of this song on my list last month and that prompted me to give the original another listen because it’s honestly just as good in a totally opposite direction. A long bit of space-jazz instead of a monolith threatening to crush you.

Merrymaking At My Place - Calvin Harris: My friend sent me this song and said it reminded him of Mother! which is very funny in my opinion. Loads of people come to my house, they take stuff inside of my house, and smoke stuff outside of my house, lots of people at my front door, lots of people in my front door, trying to get into my house. At my place [leaning into the mic] Baby. [panicked] Baby at my place.

Precious Lord (Take My Hand) (Parts 1 & 2) - Aretha Franklin: I was searching spotify for a good version of The Day Is Past And Gone and ended up finding this Aretha Franklin album that is absolutely incredible. It turns out it’s her first ever recording from when she was 14, which is mind boggling. It sounds like it was recorded from the back row of the church so it has this incredible amount of space to it and she just completely fills it with immense power. Even her piano playing is amazing. The whole thing is just an astonishing piece of music.

Big Iron - Marty Robbins: I was camping this month and thinking about country music, and so this and the next few songs are the result of that. I think Taylor Swift should not only pivot back to county for her next album but pivot back to this kind of cowboy story-song country. She should, in fact, just cover this song. This is The cowboy album and I feel like Marty Robbins may have been the most American man that ever lived, he used the money he made from cowboy songs to finance a NASCAR career.

Country Dumb - Josh T. Pearson: I spent a long time on the fence about Josh T. Pearson because music like this always raises the question of authenticity. He sort of feels like the country version of Nick Cave to me, straining for a very very authentic thing but in actuality a Berlin art boy. The main difference between Pearson and Cave though is that Pearson is actually very good. So I reconcile it by telling myself he’s a sort of Lana Del Rey character singer or something like that. This song is so great and I especially like his guitar style of letting the words lead and the guitar follow, where the lyrics are at the forefront and every part of the music is purely in support of them.

Angel From Montgomery - John Prine: I’m so glad that John Prine is enjoying a bit of a late life resurgence in popularity among the Youth right now because he really deserves it. He feels like the songwriter that every songwriter loves but nobody else has ever heard of. I love this song, it feels like it was custom built to be some 70 year old country woman’s 'Hurt’.

Bogota Affair - Kid Creole And The Coconuts: A good and tropical song about getting cucked on an island and absolutely loving it.

Mientras La Veo Sonar - Rx Bandits: I figured out the reason I like this song and it’s honestly just that it sounds like watered down Mars Volta and I’ll take all of that you’ve got.

Joan, I’m Disappearing - City Calm Down: The way the first line of this song is an unexpected anacrusis makes me laugh cause it feels like the guy from The National just suddenly stepping into your room and collapsing into a seat to complain. I absolutely love this song, I’ve been listening to it on repeat. It’s melodically brilliant in the chorus, it just keeps giving, and structurally it never gets boring by just getting bigger and expanding the entire time to this huge emotional outpouring. I love the lyrics to this song because they’re so pathetic, which sounds like a strange and cruel thing to say but it’s true. It’s such a specific misguided melodramatic plea for a childish love that went on for too long and it’s just so heartbreaking and pathetic, and when it’s turned up to the emotional peak it’s believable and you sympathise. I wish this song went for five minutes more.

Footsteps - Dardanelles: This album was the critical darling of Australian music in 2006 and then this band just totally disappeared and I couldn’t find it for a long time before someone added it to spotify last year and now all their songs have <1000 plays. Very mysterious. I go through stages of being totally obsessed with this song, every part of it is just my favourite kind of pretentious art rock shit. 'This trail of breadcrumbs below your feet whispers like muscle cars on heat’? That’s good lyrics!

Queen Majesty - Techniques: I heard this song late at night when I was listening to ABC RN to fall asleep and some old guy was explaining how rocksteady was better than reggae and now I agree with him.

Opal (Four Tet Remix) - Bicep: The way this song builds around the central strong chords is just incredible, it’s a really simple motif and the way it comes back and sits foundationally through the whole piece. I love in the later half how the extra off-time melodies that seem to have no relation at all to the just come swooping through and almost destabilise the whole thing before those strong strong chords come through again. Also I have a strong suspicion that the snare sound in this is just Four Tet slapping his desk which I respect.

Jesus Came To My Birthday Party - The Middle East: I can’t overstate how much this song is directly wired to my brain stem. It is just perfect. This song is so simple but it feels like it came from another dimension to impart wisdom to me. It honestly makes me feel crazy. This whole album feels like the long lost brother of In The Aeroplane Over The Sea thematically and it really deserves a similar spot in the canon in my opinion. Please listen to it.

Eden - Talk Talk: The dynamics in the guitar playing is what really gets me in this song. The huge crescendo where it feels like the sound is being pulled apart from the inside dissipating to steam as soon as the groove kicks in. I don’t know, there’s not much to be said about Spirit Of Eden that hasn’t already been said, it’s transcendental music. It’s cliched but this is great driving music, music to space out and think about the universe to.

Outlaw Blues - Queens Of The Stone Age: What a treat to suddenly discover that one of my favourite bands has covered my favourite Bob Dylan song and done a great job of it too!

No Condition Is Permanent - Marijata: Ok this is embarrassing but the way I found out about this song was some goober on the overwatch subreddit had made playlists for every hero (Torbjorn’s was all electo-swing and pirate metal so who knows what the fuck was going on) and this and the next song were both on the Doomfist playlist, which was a lot of 70s afro-funk and highlife music which personally isn’t really telling the full story of Doomfist but that’s a whole other post. Anyway this song is great, and I’m glad I listened to this whole dumb-ass playlist to find it. I have a real affinity for songs like that that feel like the recording only ended cause they ran out of tape or the singer collapsed from exhaustion. This song could go for another 20 minutes and I’d only love it more.

Love And Death - Ebo Taylor: The groove of the drums in this song and the melodies of the horns are just hypnotising, and combined with the lyrics this feels like some very dark magic that I completely love. The guitar is really amazing in this as well actually, especially the solo where he switches back and forth between jazz soloing and just frantically strumming open chords.

Automatic (12" Version) - The Pointer Sisters: Huge fan of the extremely powerful megaman synth that comes in about halfway through this song and just charges the whole place up. I love how rich and deep her voice is, how it’s built on by the harmonies in the prechorus and then unleashed in the chorus. I also love how simple the chorus is, it doesn’t overshadow the rest of the song and the verses are just as good which is exactly what you want from a long mix like this. Huge fan of the deep guy’s voice just saying 'au-to-ma-tic’ during the fade out too, give that guy some more to do.

White Girl - Soul Coughing: Lyrically most Soul Coughing songs sound like somewhere between echolalia and reading out every street sign that you see, which is very appealing to me because that’s essentially how I communicate, but this one feels like a dire warning about an approaching conqueror. Also the ending of this song make me laugh because it’s the same as at the end of New Noise by Refused where he just screams 'THE NEW BEAT’ over and over and over after the instruments have all finished and in my eyes that’s a very very funny thing to do with the phrase 'white girl’.

Tone Tone Tone & Tone Tone Two - Shuta Hasunuma and U-zhaan: This album feels like some real Tiny Mix Tapes-core; a collaboration between two Japanese composers - a found object orchestra composer and a tabla player but against all odds it’s actually good. Unfortunately my favourite part of it is this 13 second piece of music that sounds like the brand ID for a very high-end podcast network.

I Won’t Be Found - The Tallest Man On Earth: I listened to this song eight times in a row and sang along the whole time on my drive home from work the other day. His voice is so uniquely good, a cowboy yodel with a slight swedish accent. I’m hooked right from when he sings 'morning’ as 'morning-AH’.

Now U Got Me Hooked - A.A.L: I can’t get over how good this new Nicolas Jaar side project album is. It’s just wall to wall bangers, a perfect party album. I love the really raw sound of a lot of the drums in this song; the huge clap that’s on the edge of being over-distorted mixed with a huge rumbling kick blowing out the low frequency that eventually cleans up and brings the sample back in and almost eliminates the bass entirely before it drops again and the sequence starts over. I love how long a lot of the songs on this album are, every idea is given so much room to completely stretch out.

Ride - Lana Del Rey: I saw Lana live last night and as soon as the first notes of this song played the girl in front of me absolutely screamed 'BITCH!!’ and I felt a real kinship with her. I really think this might be my favourite song of hers. It makes me so emotional every time and I can’t even pinpoint why. The way she sings 'fucking crazy’ the huge, sweeping chorus. It’s just amazing, I love her so much! Bitch!!

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dfhvn · 7 years ago

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A Day In LA With Deafheaven // Stereogum

Loud Love : A Day In LA With Deafheaven The California screamers open up about real life, baby ducks, and 'Ordinary Corrupt Human Love'

Full article by Larry Fitzmaurice via Stereogum

Everyone has to grow up eventually — even ducklings. “Look, dude — the baby ducklings!” Deafheaven guitarist Kerry McCoy stops as we’re mid-conversation, pointing out a plump of web-footed friends on a small rolling pitch alongside the walking path of Los Angeles’ Echo Park.

“I know! They’re getting big,” the band’s howling lead singer George Clarke marvels, as the two stop to briefly ponder the not-quite-grown, no-longer-young fowl squatting and waddling on the grass.

“I saw them the other day, too,” says McCoy.

“They were more yellow before,” Clarke explains with a level of attentiveness that would make one think he raised the ducklings himself.

I’m here to observe what Clarke describes to me as “what a normal day for us is like,” as Deafheaven luxuriate in the relative calm before the busyness of touring and promo that will accompany the release of their fourth album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love (out July 13 via ANTI-). These days, Clarke and McCoy are sticklers for routine — and as they recount their regular goings-on to me, it’s slightly adorable that these longtime friends’ day-to-day approach bears close similarity: wake up around 7 in the morning, hit the gym, run some errands, meet up in the park for a bit, and watch a movie or an episode of Billions before crashing out. Both spend part of their day caring for others: Clarke for his grandfather who currently lives with him, and McCoy for a few persistently hungry cats. “I have to stay out until 6 or 7 PM, otherwise they meow until they get food,” he mock-complains with a grin.

Earlier in the day, Clarke and I hit up the Echo Lake outpost of crunchy Cali natural-food chain Lessen’s, as he dumps a variety of salad-bar ingredients — corn, beets, kale, shredded cabbage and peppers, and a heaping helping of steamed veggies, if you’re looking to take on the Deafheaven Diet — into a container. We walk over to the sprawling Echo Park and Clarke unfurls a sizable blanket, festooned with the album art for the band’s 2013 star-making LP Sunbather, before stripping to a white tank-top and laying out belly-down to nosh while we chat about the latest mixtape from Oakland rapper All Black. McCoy joins us soon after along with former member Stephen Clark, who stoically sips from a bottle of water and sucks down a few cigs while the trio are quite literally sunbathing under the LA rays.

All it takes is one listen to Ordinary Corrupt Human Love to deduct that this period of respite is well-earned. Since their alluring 2011 debut Roads To Judah, the band’s dark-arts alchemy of death metal’s frigid rush, shoegaze’s impressionistic swarm, and the emotional catharsis of post-rock has somehow only grown more epic with every release. That’s even more true with their latest record, which at times recalls Mellon Collie-era Smashing Pumpkins and Sunny Day Real Estate’s Diary in its ultra-bright melodic sweep. There are female vocals present, courtesy of West Coast occult-rocker Chelsea Wolfe — as well as actual singing, as Clarke shows off a deeper vocal register beyond his signature burned-out bark.

The personal boundary-pushing and overall prettiness of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love doesn’t so much suggest a newer, shinier Deafheaven as it does a natural progression (or a full realization, even) of the genre-blending hard rock sound they’ve spent most of the decade refining. As tempting as it might be to refer to the album as Deafheaven’s “mature” turn, there’s still a youthful passion that courses through it like a lit match dropped into dry brush — but that doesn’t mean the quintet haven’t gone through some serious personal changes in the interim between 2015’s New Bermuda and now (which marks, to date, the longest gap between Deafheaven records).

“We were 24 when Sunbather came out,” Clarke reflects while discussing the intense emotions and personal strain the band’s been through since that record’s release. “We were still sleeping on floors when we were home, but the rest of the time we were on tour with idle hands and free cash.” He pauses for a second and chuckles ruefully. “Some people are smart — but we decided not to be.”

Before their current residence in LA (Clarke and McCoy have lived in the city for about four years now) and Deafheaven’s teeth-cutting Bay Area days, the pair spent their adolescence scrapping about in the central California suburbs of Modesto. “It was normal,” McCoy describes their respective upbringings, “but it’s all relative. I’m sure Bill Gates’ kids have seen some shit, too.” But he’s quick to note that the relative mundanity of their upbringing also made for a normalization of the intolerance the young punks experienced growing up, too: “I’d just accepted that the way the world went was seeing a giant truck with a Confederate flag drive by, calling me a fag.” (In the middle of this parkside recollection, Clarke interrupts to point out something decidedly not normal: a shirtless pedestrian sporting a full-chest Monster energy drink tattoo. “Check out how lit this tattoo is,” he giggles, as we briefly debate its authenticity.)

When he was 15, McCoy’s father took him to a protest against the Iraq War, and he wore a white armband to school afterwards, which resulted in him getting “destroyed” by his classmates. “We recently went to the March For Our Lives,” Clarke mentions, “and I think it’s really cool that kids these days — even if they’re not 100% informed on stuff — are really making an effort to be. Comparatively, there was no one [in high school] thinking about anything else other than the direct narrative you were given in this small town.”

Music had been in both of their lives from an early age — McCoy’s father once worked as a music journalist, and some of Clarke’s earliest memories include leafing through CD booklets with his mother — and the outsider feeling both of them shared only further deepened their sonic interests. “When you’re living in the Central Valley and you’re into ‘alternative’ things, it forces you further into the hole you’re digging for yourself,” Clarke explains. “You’re already a loser with acne, and now you’re painting your nails for a Misfits show,” McCoy follows up with a chuckle. His first band was a punky high school outfit called The Confused, which self-distributed a CD called What The Hell that everyone in his social circle thought “sucked.” Clarke’s inaugural musical foray was in a band called Fear And Faith Alike that, in his words, “was very 2002 metalcore.”

CREDIT: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images

Clarke and McCoy first became friends when the latter saw “this fool” (Clarke) sitting outside in the rain during high school, decked out in fishnet arm sleeves, a Slayer T-shirt, and a white backpack covered with pentagrams and band names scrawled in Bic. They stayed close as the former bounced around high schools, returning to Modesto after barely graduating in San Jose; after a few failed attempts at forming post-high school bands, the two formed Deafheaven in 2009 after McCoy joined Clarke to share a $500/month apartment in the Upper Haight area of San Francisco.

Deafheaven began as a pretty much anonymous project, to the point where the pair created a Facebook page for the band that essentially positioned it as a one-man act. “We didn’t tell anyone we grew up with about it,” Clarke explains. “We knew if we told people it was us, everyone would be like ‘Fuck off.'” In 2010, they recorded a demo with Bay Area producer Jack Shirley for the cost of $500, a sum which Clarke and McCoy (who were scrambling to even make monthly rent) struggled to pay back for six months.

“This man’s patience is endless,” Clarke speaks admirably about Shirley, whom McCoy refers to as “the Ian McKaye of the West Coast” and “like a straight-edge Marine”; he’s produced every Deafheaven record since. “They were broke beyond broke,” recalls Shirley, whose work with Deafheaven has led him to record acts like Wolves In The Throne Room and Jeff Rosenstock. “It wasn’t a huge deal, though. I try to be patient in those situations, and I’m glad I didn’t [let money get in the way], because it would’ve severed my ties with a band that I have a great relationship with now.”

After the demo made the rounds online, Deafheaven expanded to a full-band lineup and signed to Converge frontman Jacob Bannon’s Deathwish Inc. label, who released Roads To Judah and Sunbather — the latter of which received a profile-raising critical response that metal and “heavy” music in general typically doesn’t enjoy. “We went from a band that nobody really gave a fuck about, to … not the world’s biggest band, but a thing!” McCoy exclaims. “I had an apartment, I moved to LA, I got a girlfriend — life got kind of big.”

The success Deafheaven enjoyed following Sunbather’s release was, for a band on their level, a bit dizzying. Their fanbase spanned kindred spirits like Mono and Explosions In The Sky to rapper Danny Brown and Third Eye Blind’s Stephan Jenkins. On the other hand, the band found themselves unwittingly receiving the indie-TMZ treatment after a Swedish blogger spotted them hanging out at the VIP area of Gothenburg’s Way Out West festival with a Sub Pop representative (full disclosure: I was also present for said hang), ginning up a post shortly after speculating about the band’s potential next career moves — a surprise to the folks back at Deathwish. “I felt so bad,” Clarke says in a tone of sincerity about the accidental reveal.

CREDIT: Gari Askew II / Stereogum

Combined with the extensive post-Sunbather touring schedule, the increased attention on Deafheaven — as well as the pressures of writing and recording the band’s next album, which they’d committed to within a tight time frame under new label home ANTI- — was starting to take its toll on everyone involved. “All this touring and great stuff was fun and exciting, but it blows up your personality with regards to things you have when you become middle-class,” McCoy states. “And you have habits that blow up with that.”

As work on New Bermuda progressed, the pressure of following up their big breakthrough began to wear on the band — hard. Shirley states that, as a “habitually sober” person, he didn’t witness any dysfunction in the recording studio; but McCoy describes the ways in which Deafheaven’s members dealt with the situation as “unhealthy,” and he and Clarke started to literally lose sleep over the prospect of what would come next. “I’d wake up in the middle of the night thinking that everyone was mad at me because the record sucked,” says McCoy, “and we’d all have to go back to Whole Foods — everyone was laughing at us.”

Various substances were on-hand and frequently present during this time — a product of bad habits never dropped and exacerbated by the party-hardy temporary lifestyle that touring afforded. “You’d be like, ‘Well, I gotta be in the practice space for five hours today — better bring two 40’s,'” Clarke remembers. “When you’re touring for five years, your body degrades,” explains guitarist Shiv Mehra, who joined the band along with drummer Daniel Tracy while Sunbather was being recorded. “Drinking doesn’t help.”

Clarke recalls a show in Sao Paulo on the band’s first South American tour supporting New Bermuda as a colliding point for the band’s substance use and personal strain. “It should’ve been insane,” he recalls with a touch of regret, “But everyone was backstage burnt that the booze wasn’t there yet.”

“We were all just sitting there staring at our phones, waiting for whoever — or whatever — to show up,” McCoy adds. “Our entire world wants to come backstage and be the guy to hang out with you, and they know there’s a certain way to do that.”

“We were all still bothered by each other from touring,” Clark, who possesses a quiet yet thoughtful demeanor, states. “We didn’t have any time off from each other for years.” Following New Bermuda’s tour cycle — a period of time he says “quite literally ruined his life” — he chose to leave the band and was replaced by current bassist Chris Johnson, but still remains close with everyone.

“I didn’t handle having money well,” Clark asserts with straightforward conviction. “It was so easy to party, and I was never much of a partier — so I was all over the world having fun, with no longevity in mind. It all came crashing down.”

“It was a dark and bad experience,” McCoy states plainly on the time period surrounding New Bermuda. By the end of the album cycle, everyone was exhausted, and the mere act of being in the band had turned into drudgery.

“It stopped being fun,” Clarke states on his view towards the band at that point. “It became a chore.”

I ask if there was ever a point during this period of time in which he thought Deafheaven would cease to exist. Later, when I relay his answer to others in the band, they’re quick to note it was an exaggeration, but it’s a rough reply regardless: “I kind of thought someone would die,” says Clarke. We’re not gonna break up because we don’t have anything else, but something drastic or scary happening was within the realm of possibility. If anything would’ve taken us down, it would’ve been … tragic.”

When I press on if there were any specific close calls that took place, the three demur, nervously laugh, and murmur to themselves, “Maybe — not really,” declining to elaborate. “When you’re fuckin’ around, you’re fuckin’ around,” Clarke says with an uneasy chuckle.

Clarke quickly follows up: “When you have a problem, you have a problem.”

Work on Ordinary Corrupt Human Love informally began in late 2016 around a single piano riff McCoy had been toying around with, but much of the album was written and recorded from October of last year until this past February. Deafheaven camped out in a cluster of Oakland homes and, after an informal jam session during the first day of recording, found that the time off did them good.

“We finally dealt with all the stuff that made New Bermuda so dark — and when we did, we realized that all that other stuff was junk,” McCoy passionately describes. “When we all got in a room together, I was like, ‘This was the juice of life right here.'”

“It was like we’d been holding our breath for three years, finally let it out, took another one, and said ‘Everything’s gonna be OK,'” Clarke adds.

In truth, there was still a ways to go. To this day, Deafheaven’s members describe themselves as living “healthier” than before, but McCoy is the only band member who’s completely sober, a decision he made during recording late last year after an extended struggle with drug addiction. It’s a sensitive topic for him to discuss, and the details he’s willing to offer regarding his path to sobriety are scant — but he makes it unmistakably clear that things could not go on the way they were for much longer.

“I’d come to a point where I was done being out there,” he explains, “And I was willing to try anything to get off it.” McCoy reached out to a friend, who helped put him on the path to recovery; he’s been sober since late 2017. “My favorite thing in the world was to play guitar,” he states, “And for a long time, I forgot that. Ever since I made this decision, my life has gotten immeasurably better.”

Casting aside the past was essential for not just McCoy, but the entirety of Deafheaven to move forwards after the fraught period of time they were trying to leave behind. “I don’t think anyone who worked on New Bermuda wanted to make another record that sounded like New Bermuda,” Clarke states, who goes on to describe Ordinary Corrupt Human Love as the sound of “people enjoying what they’re doing.” If the aesthetic of the new album reflects the emotions of the people who recorded it, then the lyrical content zooms in on the world around them — the splendor and sameness of peoples’ everyday lives.

CREDIT: Gari Askew II / Stereogum

The universal, explicitly humanistic focus was developed after Clarke began collaborating with photographer Nick Steinhardt to, in his words, “photograph people in their natural habitat.” “I told him I didn’t want anything extraordinary — just people in their everyday routine, looking at a snapshot of someone in their day and just drinking it in,” he explains. The album’s cover features an anonymous woman in Los Angeles’ Civic Center area, her scarf blowing in front of her face; the inlay art features a child holding out his hand to his mother as he prepares to cross the street.

McCoy describes the album cover as “a potential alternate version” of the iconic album art for Radiohead’s The Bends, and Clarke cites the tinted-hue portraiture of Belle And Sebastian’s visual art as a parallel — both comparisons serving as reminders that, despite their roots in heavy music, their palettes span far beyond what genre purists might come to expect.

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And if Deafheaven’s genre-agnostic approach seemed polarizing around the time of Sunbather, it seems weirdly prescient now. In a way, the 29-year-old McCoy and Clarke are indicative of the landscape-flattening streaming generation, in a good way. Sure, it’s easy to bemoan the age of the algorithm and the fluctuating state of discovery for budding music fans in the digital age. But it’s even easier to forget that discovering “good” music used to possess a distinct social element not far off from joining the football team in high school: Are the indie kids any different than the jocks if they still bristle at people joining their lunch table?

For Deafheaven’s and younger generations, discovering new music is easier than ever, and if you’re willing to turn discovery into creativity as they have been, the possibilities are endless. And anyway, even though Deafheaven’s earlier work was sometimes overshadowed by the band’s perpetual and ineffective battle with the metal scene, the band’s members have since learned to hang with the genre misconceptions. “My girlfriend sent me a screenshot about how ‘Honeycomb’ has a punk section — that’s textbook Oasis!” McCoy says with an easygoing laugh that speaks to a greater truth when it comes to getting older. Sometimes it’s easier to just let old grudges go.

Despite the cloudy forecast, it’s a bit brighter of a day than we’re expecting. With the threat of sunburn fast approaching, we pack up the blanket, take a leisurely walk around the park, and head to the 826 Time Travel Mart. The Mart’s a funky Sunset Blvd. spot funded by the Dave Eggers-founded nonprofit 826, featuring arch, kitschy items ranging from giant dinosaur eggs to a powdered concoction called “robot milk” — but McCoy’s less invested in the temporally-out-of-whack wares on display than he is in the tutoring courses being offered in the next room of the nonprofit-funded space.

An employee explains the programs offered as McCoy listens intently, and when Clarke returns from grabbing a coffee nearby he does similarly. At first blush, the thoughtfulness and social investment that the pair show during my time with them might seem too fitting of a narrative for a band trying to straighten up and fly right — but such character traits often come with growing up, too.

“Nikki Sixx was 27 when shit got really bad and he tried to clean up for the first time,” Clarke points out as our time comes to a close, before McCoy has to go check on the cats and Clarke’s grandfather needs help getting his computer fixed. “We reached that age too. We want to take what we do seriously and have a career — and to eliminate the things that get in the way of that. If you don’t die at 27, you can do a lotof shit.”

#Deafheaven #Stereogum

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weekendwarriorblog · 4 years ago

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Some Thoughts on Long-Lasting Music Fandom

I've been wanting to write something freeform for this blog that isn't necessarily about movies -- because that was whole reason I started the Weekend Warrior blog in the first place. I got a little more time to do that last year when there weren't too many movie releases. As luck would have it, next week is one of the quietest weeks in many, many months even with what is likely to be one of the biggest movie releases... but again, this is my chance to write about something not movies but something that's very dear to my heart, maybe more than anything else: ROCK MUSIC.

The idea to write this piece came out of a couple hours I spent Friday night on something called "The Alarm Central." I have a feeling that if you were to ask even my closest friends who some of my favorite bands are, some might be able to name one or two, maybe from a T-shirt I might wear, but I'm not sure how many friends would guess that my top band for many years has been The Alarm.

If you don't know who The Alarm are, you're probably very young. Lucky you. The Alarm had their highest acclaim and fame back in the mid-80s with songs like "68 Guns" and "The Stand" and eventually "Rain in the Summertime." When I was a teenager driving around CT from one job to another, my favorite radio station, WLIR, would play The Alarm a *LOT*. They were a mainstay along with U2, Depeche Mode and other bands that I was also inevitably a fan of.

It was a far cry from the Top 40/Beatles stuff I listened to in the mid '70s and the metal/prog rock that I got into in 1979 when I was playing in bands, but The Alarm just had this great spirit to them that really came out when you saw them live. Oddly, I only saw them live twice in the '80s... but that's a story for another time that I'm kind of saving...

The Alarm Central is a relatively new website/app/platform that Alarm frontman Mike Peters and his wife Jules (who also plays keys in The Alarm, but please no Linda McCartney comparisons... Jules actually has a lovely singing voice -- rimshot) put together as an alternative to the YouTube/Facebook platforms that so many bands have flocked to. Actually, The Alarm did and still does have a Facebook presence and last year, when COVID hit, and everything shut down, Mike and Jules started doing a weekly livestream show called "The Big Night In." They started doing it on March 20, 2020 and continued to do it for a few months, resumed in July for a second season.. but anyway, it was a great way to get together with other Alarm fans (or rather, "fams," as the Peters' lovingly call us) to listen to Mike play some songs, tell some stories, enjoy watching Jules poking fun at her famous husband (they've been married for almost as long as the band has been together).

Anyway, I'm getting a little sidetracked, but the point I'm trying to make is that this band and its singer, Mike, have managed to keep their fanbase alive now for 40 years. In fact, this year is the official 40th anniversary. No, they're not the first or only band to make it 40 years... another long-time favorite of mine, Rush, celebrated it a few years back before Neil Peart died -- The Damned also has hit 40 years but it's also gone through so many line-up changes that only the singer has remained that entire time. Another thing that influenced my decision to write this was seeing Edgar Wright's The Sparks Brothers documentary for about the third time, and those guys, brothers Ron and Russell Mael, have been making music together for over *50* years... although as you see in the movie, their popularity and success has fluctuated. Sure, there are some people who heard their first hit "This Town Ain't Big Enough for the Two of Us" and are STILL fans.... some fans dropped in and out, maybe went off to do other things for a while, then came back. I'm not sure if the Go-Go fans who discovered the band when they did a duet with Jane Wiedlin stuck around as they started experimenting with opera and other music genres. But then you see the band playing shows in the past five years for HUGE audiences. About ten years ago, they decided to play all (then) 22 of their albums from beginning to end in a series of shows in London... and yeah, people did go to all 22 of those shows.

The other thing that influenced my decision to write this was seeing another documentary, this one at the Tribeca Festival, about the '80s Norwegian group A-Ha, who to many, are probably considered the epitome of one-hit wonders since every single person on the planet knows "Take On Me" but can you name one other song by them? Can you name any of the many albums they made after that first one? It's interesting because in that movie, you also see the band going through some highs and lows but when they play gigs in Europe, like in Germany or their native Norway, they still play to HUGE audiences, and they still have many devout fans. And yes, many of them have stuck with them since the "Take on Me" days but would you happen to know one of these fans personally?

That brings me back to the Alarm. I will fully admit that I wasn't there as a fan/fam through thick and thin... I was already deviating before Mike Peters left the band almost exactly 30 years ago in a very famous concert in Brixton where he let the rest of the band know he was quitting while ON STAGE PERFORMING. I mean, how punk is that? Sounds like something I might do. ;)

I definitely lost track of the band until an episode of VH-1's "Bands Reunited" in the early '00s, maybe 2002 where the band was... I'm sure you you can figure it out. At that time, I had absolutely zero idea that Mike and various members of the band had been doing annual "Gatherings" in their Wales hometown for the fans they built in the '80s who stuck around for all of Mike's solo albums, side projects like Coloursound with Billy Duffy from the Alarm (album #2 comes out in a couple weeks!), and basically through thick and thin.

A few years later, maybe 2004, I saw that The Alarm were playing at the Knitting Factory down near me and I decided to see what they had been up to and surprise, surprise, what I loved about the band in the '80s was still very much intact, even if it was now Mike and a completely different band. But I was happy to see them again, even more thrilled to learn that the Knitting Factory gig was part of a residency and then also learned that Mike/The Alarm had not only made a new album... but they made an entire 5-album box set called In the Poppyfields and holy shit... it didn't seem like there was a bad song in the bunch! (They played some of the songs at that gig, but they also played ALL of my favorites from the '80s, too!) That moment was kind of a revelation for me and even though I've seen The Alarm maybe twice in the '80s, I've probably seen them live maybe 16 or 17 times since that Knitting Factory gig.

If you've spent even a second at one of these shows with the band's fams, then you know why the Alarm is such a popular band with so many infectious and anthemic sing-along-songs, and you know what? I found that from the very first time I saw the band in the mid-80s as well. But a lot of these fams stuck with the band through thick and thin, once Mike left the band and did his own solo thing (I personally have only been getting into his solo stuff VERY recently)... and then when he was back with a new incarnation. Sometimes, Mike would just go out and perform acoustically and the fams love that, too.

So I was thinking how does Mike do it, and how does he keep those "fams" coming back for more? How does he and Jules convince a good number of them (including myself) to shell out something like $160 a year to subscribe to Alarm Central? That certainly seems like a lot of money and believe me, a lot of long-time fans were not happy with that.

But Mike and Jules also created a lot of good will with the amount of time and energy they put into the Big Night In and into Alarm Central... and frankly, into every single thing they do EVER. I've never been to a Gathering in Wales, but I've been to a bunch of them in New York, and they never disappoint. They're always a full day with all sorts of events -- trivia, a QnA, a meet and greet, maybe a solo set, a full band set... there have even been multiple night shows.

That said, I still haven't really gotten into what makes Mike and Jules and The Alarm so popular that they have fans who go all the way back to Mike's *previous* band Seventeen. (I've met a couple of them last night in Alarm Central, which also convinced me to write this.)

I know what I like about the band and Mike and the music, almost all of it, in fact, but I also have a personal connection since both Mike and Jules are cancer survivors. Not only that but they've also created Love Hope Strength, a foundation whose entire existence is to find stem cell and bone marrow donors. Even if you did not know what a big Alarm fan I was before reading this, there's a good chance you realize that I'm a leukemia survivor myself, that I had a stem cell transplant, and I take everything about that seriously, whether it's to raise awareness or to be there for others when they are going through their own transplants, whatever. It's something that's probably as important to me as the very air I breathe*.

*Yes, that actually is an Alarm reference, actually one of Mike Peters' solo songs co-written with Jules that he still plays with the band.

INTERMISSION (Gotta run out to a movie but will be back later to finish this.)

Let me see if I can get back into my train of thought. Oh, yeah, I was getting into the reason why The Alarm and Mike in particular seems to be able to keep his fambase going for 40 years with some truly diehard sticking through thick and thin. I think part of it is that Mike and Jules are just truly nice and good people. I mean, think about it. They didn't need to spend hours each week during a pandemic putting together the Big Night In show to keep everyone entertained and sane. "Music Will Keep Us Together" was the motto of those weekly music and talk shows with a lot of really special guests and announcements. I'm sure that they have a lot of other things to do, like making music (and Mike's done a lot of that during the pandemic) but they are constantly doing things to keep in contact with the fams, including the Alarm Central and very casual weekly pub updates where fams communicate with each other and can share their thoughts with the Peters. They even invited their fambase to come to their hometown for weekly "Staycations" (that just started this week) where the fams can rent out one of a number of special rooms and be able to watch special performances right in Wales. The first night of it was so fun even watching on the Alarm Central and they'll be doing this for the next five months in lieu of touring. And then early next year, the Alarm is touring all over the UK and making up for shows that were delayed and cancelled.

I just want to tell one more thing about Mike's dedication. A week before the first Staycation, he had a bad accident, falling off his bike and breaking his elbow, and yet, that night, he was on Alarm Central in full cast with Jules, and he even pulled out his acoustic guitar and played a song, much to the shock of everyone watching.

But that's enough about The Alarm. You get the idea, but they're not the only ones. I was a pretty big fan of Nirvana and when David Grohl came along with Foo Fighters, I was a hard pass, but 20 years later, I became a pretty diehard fan, and I realized that there's a reason why the Foo Fighters can fill Citifield two nights in a row (50,000 people a night) and that's because you can tell that David is just as dedicated to his fans... and you can also tell from his docs and appearances that he's also a really nice guy.

And I'm sure I've mentioned Tim's Twitter Listening Parties here, and Tim Burgess of the Charlatans is another guy who could be super-busy and doing lots of things but almost every night, he's on Twitter interacting with musical guests and his fans... and he's been doing that diligently since last March, as well. I'm not sure he makes any money doing that, and I don't think he cares. He enjoys it. He knows that those who tune in every night enjoy it, and like Alarm Central, he's created a community around these listening parties.

I feel like I can even bring this analogy over to the world of movies and some of my favorite directors and people who have just done really well over the years by just being nice to their fans. Edgar Wright is one. Guillermo del Toro is another. Both of those guys could just lock themselves in an ivory tower ala Nolan, but they always get out there to talk about their movies and interact with fans whenever possible, and that's something that really means a lot to people.

We're definitely living in different times than the '70s and '80s, and maybe we're living in times when people just want to be nicer to each other. People have been through a lot even pre-COVID, and I'd like to think that all of us are coming out the other side being nicer or more consideration. I'm not 100% sure that's true, but I do think that musicians/bands/artists who can maintain their fanbase for decades through thick and thin really are something special. I think that any band or artist starting out now or who has been around for a few years can learn a lot from the Mikes and Tims and Dave Grohls because you know what? It takes more than talent alone to keep the fans around through every experiment you might decide to do over time.

(As I did with my 30-minute experiments, I'm gonna post this witohut going back and reading over it and doing any error correction. Like I said, this is the kind of free-form writing I like to do when I have something on my mind but don't want to take too much time away from my paid writing.)

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welovekpopscenarios · 7 years ago

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The Stars Above the Chaos (Space/Halo!AU Mingyu x Reader)

Admin: Mimi

Earth is under attack, and Mingyu is being shipped out to war tomorrow. You don’t know if this will be his last one. Better make the night count. Space/Halo!AU

Fandom: Seventeen

Genre: Smut, teensy bit of angst

Pairing: Mingyu x Reader

Warnings: Language, slight mentions of death

Word Count: 3555

A/N: Don’t let all the terminology or Halo scare you off, it’s basically a smut with a bit of backstory. This was honestly just to feed my need to write for Mingyu seeing as he is my bias and Halo bc it was the game of my childhood and it will always be one of my top games (I even have a big book about it that my ex got me for Christmas haw haw). But yeah, this is essentially just a smut and can be taken as a basic Space!AU, so I hope you still read and enjoy regardless of the space/halo stuff in it! Happy reading! (Low key happy about this one LOL)

I made a little index with info and visuals, if you’re interested in the help!

The sound of mindless chatter and clinking metal sounded in your ears as you entered the canteen to collect your dinner for the day after training, nodding your head in hello at chefs and soldiers alike, the ships A.I Sasha even throwing a sweet wave as you passed the holographic screen. Your eyes searched the large space, table upon table filled with soldiers of every ranking; cadet to captain, private to sergeant, but you were only looking for one table in particular. Tucked away in the corner of the room, you found some of your friends sitting together and chatting amiably amongst one another, as usual around this time in the evening.

Seungkwan spotted you first, his head raising from the conversation to wave you over with his usual sweet smile. You headed towards the spot with hurried steps, ignoring the talks of the ongoing battle ensuing on Earth, the countless number of deaths and casualties occurring while you’re stuck here on this ship, waiting for the day when you get called to join the gruesome fight. Jeonghan greeted you with a smile and moved over on the bench, making room for you to sit, placing you directly in front of Mingyu who fixed you with a small smile and a subtle wink. The others – Seungkwan, Minghao and Wonwoo, to be exact – all gave you their own greetings before returning to their previous conversation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever fixed so much equipment before – seems like there’s something coming in nearly every hour to be worked on lately,” Wonwoo complained, playing idly with the food on the tray in front of him. “So many weapons and vehicles coming in, needing repairs. Some of them are so badly damaged, I don’t even know where to start with them.”

Jeonghan made a noise in agreement, shaking his head. “Tell me about it, the med wards are flooded here. It’s too hectic to keep up with, and we’re nearly running out of supplies.”

“We’re overloaded here,” Seungkwan piped up from beside Jeonghan. “I can’t even imagine what the situation on Earth looks like right now.”

The table grew quiet, the horrible elephant in the room ever present as you thought about the struggle on Earth. Just recently, as small fleet of Covenant ships exited slipspace and began to attack the African city of New Mombasa. During the ensuing battle, a Covenant Assault Carrier breached the orbital fortifications on the city and made its way to the surface. The ship, which carried the Covenant Hierarch known as the High Prophet of Regret, took position over New Mombasa, deploying troops and vehicles which occupied the city, and the city's civilians either evacuated, took shelter, or were killed.

Nobody could talk for too long on those who were lost to the hordes of aliens destroying the city, be it soldier or civilian. You felt useless, stuck on the UNSC Say My Name while others risked their lives to stop the invaders from controlling the city. But another part of you, hidden deep underneath your skin and making you sick with guilt, was slightly relieved your unit wasn’t shipped out to deal with the situation yet. The tales you heard from the returning soldiers; the frightening pincers of the Elites, the raw terrifying strength of the Brutes, even the swarms of Grunts and Jackals becoming too much to handle in the heat of the moment. Nobody knew exactly the intent of the invasion – just that if the Covenant managed to take control of New Mombasa with the fleet they have, more will come, and Earth will soon be in the hands of the enemy.

Minghao made a loud tutting and jabbed irritably at his food, scowl present on his otherwise pixie-like face.

“I wish they’d just send us out already. They clearly need us, and I’m sick of all this waiting. We should be going now instead of tomorrow” he grumbled, shovelling tasteless slop into his mouth hurriedly. Jeonghan gave a derisive snort, fixing Minghao with a level stare.

“You should wish they won’t have to send you out,” he retorted, to which Minghao gave another tut and a slight roll of his eyes. “To send the ODST’s out would mean that the situation really has gone to shit. And that’s when panic sets in,” he explained, picking up his cup to take a sip and raising a brow at the infamous ODST over the rim.

“ODST’s: Orbital Drop Shock Troopers,” you mused quietly, and looked forward to find Mingyu’s eyes already on you. “Things must be getting really bad down in New Mombasa if they’re gonna send out the ODST’s soon,” you said, and all heads at the table turned at your voice. “You’re practically a last resort when these things happen.”

Mingyu nodded seriously, shoulders heaving in a sigh the exited through his nose. “Yeah,” he agreed. “They say the fight’s getting pretty grizzly and they’re losing hope. The Covenant are pushing strong. Coups said we could be shipped out some time tomorrow,” he elaborated, and made eye contact with you to give you a heavy stare that put a dead weight in the pit of your stomach. It was a stare that said ‘I’m going away tomorrow, I don’t know when I’ll be back. I don’t know if I’ll be back.’

You always knew what would happen when one of you gave a stare like that, a sort of tradition between the pair of you after you began seeing each other in secret years ago. But it would have to wait until after dinner. You brushed your leg against Mingyu’s underneath the table.

Minghao gave a humourless smirk. “’Last resort’,” he repeated, shaking his head. “We’re the best of the best. They just don’t want to use us so early in the fight. They wanna see if they can pick them off without using all their resources first,” he said arrogantly, but you saw right through him as if he were glass. He might be an ODST like Mingyu, a soldier who went through tougher training than most, than yourself, but he was afraid. Just like everyone else was. One wrong move, and life as you knew it was gone.

“Actually, The8,” Wonwoo mocked Minghao’s notorious nickname as if it were an insult, and Minghao turned his head to his left to glare at the taller boy. “I wouldn’t consider ODST’s the best of the best. You’re good, yes, but you’re just that bit stronger than the average soldier, like Y/N,” he nodded his head in your direction, and you ducked yours when Minghao’s dark eyes flitted to your form. Mingyu stifled a giggle at Minghao’s enraged face, and instead paid attention to the rest of Wonwoo’s speech. “If you were to call on the best of the best, then the Spartan’s would have been sent. Those were the real super soldiers.”

Seungkwan cut off Minghao’s retort in an effort to keep the peace once he saw the ODST clenching his fists and flaring his nostrils. Minghao always got too fired up when danger was imminent, snapping at everyone without warning. “Spartans aren’t in use any more. Well, except for the Master Chief. He’s the last Spartan alive, apparently,” he said, checking his surroundings before leaning into the centre of the table, the rest of you following suit as he lowered his voice.

“I heard he was on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn when it exploded. He was supposed to be destroying a new alien threat that was released, something even worse than the Covenant. But that’s all I heard. There were a few units that came into contact with this new threat but…not many people made it back alive,” he gossiped, a grim look upon the nurse’s soft visage. Mingyu groaned, eyes darting to the ceiling, cracking his knuckles loudly that had you cringing at the sound.

“As if we need even more shit to deal with,” he whined, boots tapping yours in silent conversation. ‘I’m worried.’ You tapped back and gave a slight smile, one that felt weaker than intended. ‘I know. Me too.’

“Regardless,” Minghao clipped loudly, sitting upright once more as he spooned the last of his grub into his mouth, “we’re the next best thing. There are more of us than there are Spartan soldiers, isn’t that right, Gyu?” Mingyu nodded wordlessly, eyebrows nearly reaching his hairline as he sipped his water. “We’re the ones who are going to be doing most of the fighting. Master Chief can join whenever he wants, but he better not steal our glory.” And with that, he stood up from the bench, gathered his tray, and stormed away from the table. Wonwoo rubbed his eyes tiredly while Jeonghan shook his head disappointedly.

“Please, ignore him,” Mingyu apologised, resting his forearms on the table. “His feathers get a bit rustled when a fight is just around the corner. He doesn’t mean to snap.” The group just nodded in understanding. Truthfully, tensions were high with everyone now, stress piling on every time a new problem came up, which seemed to be nearly every second now.

The intercom above interrupted the chatter in the room, calling upon all available technicians to return to their work stations immediately, and Wonwoo placed his forehead on the table and gave a pitiful, exhausted groan. Mingyu laughed warmly and reached an arm around his friend’s shoulders, squeezing in sympathy. The leaner male simply sighed, and drug his body out of his seat on the bench. Lifting a weak arm in goodbye, he picked up his tray and headed in the direction of the technician’s labs.

“We should get going too, Y/N,” Mingyu announced, your attention aimed at him once more as he looked at you with a hard stare. “We need our rest as soldiers, don’t we?” he asked, and you nodded in agreement mutely, picking up the remainder of your food and standing up from the bench. Jeonghan gave you a knowing look, one that had you fighting the heat rising to your cheeks and scowling when he gave a light scoff. You curse the day you called him your friend and trusted him with the information about your secret relationship.

Before you could grab him by the throat and choke him out for being so obvious, Mingyu tilted his head in the direction and led you both out while you ignored the teasing “have fun” from Jeonghan’s sugared mouth. Mingyu guided you down the hallways of the ship while you saluted every passer-by, reminded of just how vast and lively this single airship can be. It was essentially a world of its own – each person a cog in the well-oiled machine that was the UNSC Say My Name, another fighter in the galactic war. Turning a corner in the metallic hallways, you came upon a rare occurrence of the hall being completely devoid of life. And just when you thought that Mingyu was leading you nowhere, you were suddenly dragged into what seemed to be a supply closet and promptly pressed up against the newly locked door.

You gasped as Mingyu’s sturdy body was flush against your own, his calloused hands trailing a rapid path across your skin as he attempted to feel as much of you as he possibly could, his hidden fear and his duty as a soldier causing him to panic and rush his actions. You grabbed a hold of his wrists to stop him and stared deep into his wide eyes, so beautifully dark and so tragically frightened. Your thumbs rubbed soothing circles over the veins, and you watched as he gradually relaxed and sighed out of his stiff posture, deflating like a balloon until he looked unbearably small in the cramped space of the closet, the light casting even darker shadows over his weary face. Bringing his wrists to your face, your lips skimmed the smooth surface, his pulse dancing beneath your mouth as he closed his eyes in peace.

Edging closer to you, he moved his arms to wrap around your form as you wrapped yours around his waist, holding him close to you as he rested his forehead atop the crown of your head, breathing in the scent of your hair and keeping you hidden in his longs arms for as long as he could. He’s not stupid. The situation on Earth is way worse than ONI or the UNSC are letting on. But for the sake of keeping their soldiers up for the fight, they’re staying quiet about how bad the devastation in New Mombasa is. And while he knows he’s one of the best ODST’s in the army right now, he isn’t sure if he’ll live to see another battle after he gets deployed and sent feet first into hell tomorrow. He knows when he sits in that pod and gets dropped into the heat of battle, there’s no going back for him. And the only thing that has been racing through his mind since the Covenant invaded the planet was you. Thoughts of you heading into the fight soon, thoughts of you being safe on the ship while he was doing heavy duty, thoughts of if he’ll get to see you again once everything’s been dealt with.

If everything’s dealt with.

And it’s with this in mind that he plans to go through with the unspoken tradition for when either one of you are set to leave. A moment of bittersweet release, one last night in paradise, as he bitterly jokes, a time for you both to feel alive and in love before it’s drained out of him in the coming hours.

He moves first, his lips pressing butterfly kisses to your forehead and moving them downwards; kissing your cheeks, your lids delicately, and even your nose before they finally reach your lips, where they seal over yours in a searing kiss, one that left your mind spinning and perfectly distracted you from the worries plaguing it. Your fingers trail through his hair, tugging at the soft strands and wrenching a delicious moan from deep within Mingyu’s chest.

You felt the ends of your standard tank top being tugged out of the confines of your cargo pants, but couldn’t think on it too long, not when Mingyu’s tongue was sweeping across the seam of your lips so wonderfully. You opened up for him and he dove in like a man starved of everything that was you, your tongues swirling and pushing in ways that had your knees turning to jelly. You think you would have fallen if not for Mingyu’s strong arms keeping you upright, hands working frantically to open the buttons on your pants.

You did the same, hands reaching beneath his shirt and brushing over his toned muscles, honed after years and years of training, your fingertips caressing the little bumps of scars, hard work and even harder memories painted across his skin. He tore his shirt off impatiently, the fabric pooling somewhere on the ground, and he did the same with yours, your arms raised high above your head as he near ripped the piece of clothing off your body, leaving you in your sports bra and pressing you to the door once more.

The cold sting of the metal against your flushed body wasn’t near enough to distract you from Mingyu’s ministrations of trailing kisses down your neck, his thick fingers dipping beneath the waistband of your bra behind your back. You made a light squeak when his lips touched the more sensitive parts of your neck, lust seeping over your mind like a cloud on a stormy day, and you could do nothing more than pull on Mingyu’s hair whenever he did something particularly pleasing. He was placing your pleasure above his own, like usual. He pulled your bra off until you were completely bare from the waist up, and Mingyu took the opportunity to place hidden nips and bites along your chest for only his eyes to see, sucking on your pert nipple and rolling the neglected one with his fingers.

You bit your lip to contain the moan threatening to leave your chest, feeling your arousement seeping through your underwear and your core throbbing annoyingly, desperate to be touched.

Mouth still lavishing your chest, Mingyu worked on getting your pants down and off your legs, pulling until the fabric piling around your ankles until you kicked them off along with your boots. You gasped aloud when his hand flew into your underwear and straight for your slit, fingers rubbing up and down the flesh before moving to your swollen bud, circling around the nub harshly that had stars as bright as the ones you’ve seen out of the docking bays windows flashing behind your closed lids.

But Mingyu knew there was no time, and so he tugged your underwear off and left you as naked as the day you were born, his hands shoving his own pants and boxers down his thighs. Without even taking them off, he lifted you up with ease, your legs wrapping automatically around his waist as his forearms kept you balanced beneath your rear. You reached between your bodies to grasp his member and gave it a few pumps, leaving Mingyu to grit his teeth at the sensation.

Once he reasoned he was fully hard, Mingyu moved his dick to your soaked folds, rubbing the tip up and down your core, drenching his member in your slick before he pushed in, moving you down his length slowly until he was fully sheathed in your heat. He allowed you a moment to breathe, peppering kisses on the underside of your jaw before you gave the go ahead, and next he was lifting you up and down his cock while you clung to his shoulders for dear life.

You could feel the rumble of his chest against yours with every grunt and pant he made, driving you even crazier as you watched him become more ruined the closer his orgasm came. Each thrust caused his abdomen to grind against your throbbing clit, and you were too weak to even keep your eyes open at the feeling, that knot in your stomach growing larger and more intense with each hard plunge of his shaft into your sensitive cunt. The lewd sounds of skin smacking against skin slapped around the metallic supply room, your moans lost to the wind in airy little whispers as Mingyu readjusted his position and hit that oh-so-special spot deep inside of you.

Your orgasm was approaching fast, too fast, but you were powerless to stop it when Mingyu sped up his thrusts and kissed you so hard you lost your breath. Your back arched as white heat washed over you, your nails biting into the bronzed skin of his shoulder blades while Mingyu hissed with pleasure, that knot finally unravelling and dragging you down into a plane of pure ecstasy. Your body twitched in satisfaction, feeling truly spent, and you coaxed Mingyu to his own end with whispers of praise in his ear, and when your walls clenched around him, he gave a whine and pulled out, hand rapidly pumping at his hand.

With furrowed brows and sweat lining his forehead he came, white strings of his seed spilling over his stomach and his hand, and with all the energy you could muster you bent down to grab your underwear for him to clean himself with. It was better than nothing.

You pulled back on your clothes groggily as Mingyu wiped down his hand, chest heaving from exertion, and soon he too was getting dressed in the dark space of the closet. Fully clothed, you stared at him for a moment before he dragged you in for a kiss, one so passionate and desperate, you swore you felt your heart break just a little bit. Pulling back to gasp for air, he leaned his forehead on yours and held you close to his body, rocking you back and forth in a way that seemed more soothing for him than you.

You wished you had more time, had an opportunity to have a proper night together, to lie peacefully in each other’s arms rather than a quick fuck in a dirty closet. You wanted to spend your life with him, a life of serenity, a home, with a child and a pet and-

Fuck, you just wanted a better life for him.

Your hands held either side of his face and forced him to gaze into your eyes, eyes that looked so heartbreakingly dismal that you wanted to cry right then and there. You steeled yourself - for his sake - and took a deep breath. You can do this.

“I want you to win this fight, Mingyu,” you said simply, and he stood still, emotionless, before resolve flooded his face, and with newfound determination and strength he nodded resolutely, pressing one more sweet kiss to your lips. And he’d make sure it wouldn’t be the last.

And when you both exited the supply closet, ignoring the curious looks of other soldiers and workers and watching as you headed in the other direction towards your sleeping quarters, Mingyu was certain of his decision to finally propose to you if he comes back from battle.

When he comes back from battle.

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randomwoohoo · 7 years ago

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Howdy! Here comes the fanfic series of Zootopia Tokusatsu AU!

Tokusatsu = a genre of Japanese live action audio-visual entertainment usually, but not always, involving super heroes/heroines comabtting evil monsters. For example, super sentai (Power rangers), masked riders and metal heroes.

Hope you enjoy it~

Fanfiction.net link

Synopsis: 3 years after Nick and Judy started working together as police partners, Zootopia was encountering a threat, the monsters called Savages. ZPD (Zootopia Police Department) and DIB (Defense Intelligence Bureau) co-founded SCU (Savage Control Unit), the special task force with sole purpose to exterminate Savages. Nick and Judy were senior police officers but they tended to tackle the monsters a lot by becoming one, an armored hero mixed between fox and rabbit, Hybrid. The new cases, chaos and henshin heroes arrived!

A fleeing sports car came to a screeching halt. Officer Judy Hopps and Officer Nick Wilde exited their patrol cruiser then approached a street racer. “Sir, you were going 115 miles per hour. I hope you have a good explanation.” Judy informed.

However, when the driver’s window moved down, the lawbreaker was revealed to be… “Flash? Flash? Hundred yard dash!?” Nick took off his shades to get a good look at the driver. It was Flash the sloth.

“. . . N i c k” Flash called out the brand new cop’s name at a seriously slow pace.

That was the first assignment of Nick and Judy as partners. It felt like yesterday although it had already been three year since back then. In the morning at the Zootopia Police Department headquarters, there were some minor changes here and there, new faces, transferred employees, some… had gone...

“All right. Everybody! Sit! Today, I have an important announcement.” A mammal standing at the podium was no one other than Chief Bogo, a male Cape buffalo and the chief of the Zootopia Police Department or ZPD for short.

“Sir, aren’t you tired from being a chief for many years? Consider settling down?” The fox senior police officer teased his supervisor.

“It’s too early to get rid of me, Wilde.” Chief quipped as a response to the first and still the only one fox cop in the department, Nick Wilde, which got a laugh out of others in the bullpen. This playful behaviour had become a routine at work. It lightened up the mood and helped reinforcing a positive impression towards the fox.

Bogo put on glasses to read the report in his hoof. “Ahem. Y’all might have already known. Just to remind you, the missing mammal cases that occurred these recent years in the Canals, the Meadowlands, the Nocturnal District, Outback Island, Sherwood and Bunnyburrow-” He paused to glance at one officer after he mentioned her hometown. Senior Officer Judy Hopps, who shared a front roll seat with her partner Nick, was listening attentively. Moreover, she seemed tense. It was understandable for Bogo. He breathed in and resumed. “Just now, there is progress in those cases. Police from other precincts found clues that lead to Zootopia. A few of you are needed to work on them. Treat ’em as your priority. Assignments!” The buffalo was about to give assignments but he felt the urge to emphasize current situation. “Oh by the way, if anybody encounters Savage , escort citizens in the area, contact SCU and stay away from Savage. Understand?”

“Yes’sir” Every police in the bullpen burst out in reply, not exactly every single one.

Bogo inspected Judy being quiet. She averted her eyes when they met with Bogo’s. He knew immediately what was on her mind. “Officer Hopps. Parking duty.”

The bunny cop went all alert. “What!? Chief-” She wanted to argue. However, Bogo interrupted. “Now… do you understand?” He repeated intimidatingly.

.--. .- .-. - -. . .-. ...

“This is ridiculous! Can’t believe after all these years, I got assigned a parking duty again!” Judy grunted. At Downtown street, she and her partner, Nick Wilde, were standing next to a patrol car that Chief let them drive instead of meter maid cart because of current city situation… It would be dangerous, not fast enough to escape...

“Chill, Fluff. Besides, if either of us is supposed to complain. I should be the one since I tag along with you.” Wearing sunglasses, Nick swirled a cup of coffee in his paw.

“You don’t have to say that. I’ve felt bad already.” Judy sighed, feeling blameworthy that she was a reason the fox was punished as well… He would not let her go through hard time alone. That sort of made her happy, yet also built up a guilt.

“Hey, we are duo through thick ’n thin no matter what, Carrots. And where is your positivity? Couple of years ago, you still found a way to challenge ourselves doing this kind of tasks. Aren’t ya gonna write hundreds of tickets or something?” This was not the first time they were assigned a parking duty together but as Nick stated, Judy used to bring out a spirit to any assignments.

“I will if it’s possible! Look! There are scarcely few cars on street!” The bunny pointed out their surroundings. Road was clear, not many cars running or parking, which was probably what they expected when Bogo intended to keep them far from the battleground. Therefore, he gave them this disciplinary penalty for acting stubborn.

“Consider this taking things slow then.” The tod sip his coffee. “Snarlbucks blueberry coffee is delish.”

Judy put on a half-smile. She loved her partner’s blueberry obsession but the smile turned to frown. “How can I slow down? The city is-”

“Go ahead, patrol, Judy, my dear.” Old lady voice attracted the doe’s attention, causing rabbit ears to flick. Judy turned around to greet. “Officer Mabel!” An elderly female goat meter maid, walking with a cane, waved the hand to greet back. “Don’t be worried. I can cover for you two. It has been a light work since nobody dares to roam the streets anyway.” said Mabel.

Judy grinned and ran to open the driver door of police car. “Thank you, Officer Mabel! Call us if anything happens! Nick! Get in a car!” The bunny ordered, yet Nick tarried. “Hang on~ I wanna appreciate some peaceful moments more-” He was going to take another sip. A door of passenger seat was opened from the inside, a bunny paw reached out and grabbed his tie. “Hurry!” Judy crawled from driver seat to passenger seat and opened the door to get her partner who struck a pose outside the cruiser. She dragged him in. The fox staggered into a car. “Mah coffee!” almost dropped his cup. They closed the doors in unison then the doe started the engine.

“Good luck” Mabel wished two officers luck as they departed.

- .... .. -.-. -.- / .- -. -.. / - .... .. -.

After hours of patrolling around Downtown and Rainforest district, both arrived at Cliffside Asylum. There were a group of mammals yelling at a guard. Bunny cop turned off the engine to take a look.

“You folks ain’t allowed to come in here!” A wolf guard stopped teenage camera crew at the gate. The crew was consisted of bear, fox, rabbit, raccoon and skunk.

“C’mon! We’re not messing around!” A bear, holding a camera, shouted. A skunk flipped a script and assisted protesting. “We’re here to film a documentary.” Juveniles clamored. A rabbit buck brought out a phone to record a video. “This building is wicked! It was involved in former-mayor Lionheart mammal abduction and Savage-”

“No video!” The guard swatted buck’s phone away, standing ground to say no to the youngsters.

Judy monitored the fuss, speaking nonspecifically. “Ever since then, this place has been forbidden. Suspicious-”

“Hold your horses! Forget about investigation. Even the high ranked police strenuously get a warrant.” Removing his shades, Nick interjected. The mentioned fact distressed the doe. She moaned while staring out the window. Shortly afterwards, Judy jerked, making Nick flinched. He shifted his focus to the same direction as his partner, spotting other raccoon going through the gate when wolf guard was busy dealing with camera crew.

“The thing is, you don’t need a warrant if you have probable cause-” Judy stated then Nick added promptly. “And you saw a potential criminal sneaking in.”

“Bingo~” The doe exclaimed. “Sly bunny~” Tod commented.

“Let’s go. And don’t forget your driver!” She said.

“How can you carry it with you all the time?” He questioned. “I have my own method.” Bunny responded. Nick and Judy got off the car and used this chance while the guard being distracted to sneak into the complex.

Inside the asylum, which had dramatically changed, wrecked and abandoned, demolished walls, ceilings and floors, equipments and stuff scattering all over the place, blood stain…, the raccoon intruder held a flashlight in his mouth as he rummaged through a crumbled laboratory. “Where is it? Geez...” Raccoon expressed annoyance. He kept searching though his jaw felt sore from holding the flashlight. But he turned down the light and ducked under a table when he heard some noise, peeping who or what was coming. Two police officers, fox and rabbit, more than enough to identify who they are, scouted about. Nick pointed at one direction and moved his paw in and out, suggesting he should go that way. Judy shook her head to reject Nick’s suggestion. She pointed at Nick, drew her paw in and tapped her chest with index finger, advising him not to separate but stick together.

Shoot! Cops!! At least, it’s mammal. I can grab it quickly and get out of here before- Speaking of the devil, the most terrifying thing Raccoon wished he did not encounter emerged.

The partner’s ears captured a scream. They rushed to the source of sound, surprisingly bumping against the intruder. Apparently, he was fleeing from something and there was no need to guess because it followed the raccoon not far behind. Its pupils were glowing in the dark. The duo instantly perceived what it was.

“RunRunRunRunRun!!” Judy commanded incessantly. They raced down the hallway, avoiding tripping concrete wreckage.

“Still some left in here? Good grief~” Nick grumbled.

“Savage ...” Judy called a monster that was after them, the mammal-like purple creatures which had threatened Zootopia since one year ago, their behavior resembled the fierce feral animals. Therefore, they were named Savage. This one looked similar to a jaguar. However, it had the exoskeleton covering its body and a strip of long fur lined down its spine. Its saliva dripped everywhere while it was chasing police and civilian on all four.

“Bunny! Aren’t you a cop? Shoot it!” Raccoon bawled.

“I have only tranq gun and it doesn’t work on them!” Judy’s lethal weapon was confiscated when she received an assignment that those types of weapons are not necessary.

“Use mine.” Nick gave Judy a pistol. “H-How?” Puzzled, the doe inquired. Subsequently, tod riposted. “I’m not the one getting punished. remember?” Both beamed at each other. Judy grasped Nick’s pistol. It is a bit too big for her paws but she could work on it. Nick offered his firearm since Judy is a better shooter than him. She started firing on Savage which was pursuing them.

“For the last time, no means no! You can’t go in-” The wolf guard addressed the final warning to the teenagers before ears perked up to catch the roar from the asylum. Wolf rotated to get a glimpse, three mammals running away from Jaguar Savage . “Okay, you kids do whatever you please. I gonna call SCU.” Guard and camera crew split.

“You! That way!” Judy told the raccoon, pointing different direction. They made it out of building, still Savage kept hunting them.

“Don’t leave me, Coppah!” He whined. Nick swiftly corrected raccoon’s thought. “We will decoy that monster. Now, go!” Fox stressed. The raccoon hesitated. He eventually escaped to hide around the corner of the asylum.

“Finally, we’re left alone.” The doe heaved a sigh of relief. “Ready, partner?” She stopped abruptly, so did the tod. They about-faced the monster and brought out the devices. “Here we go again” Nick was mentally prepared. Both put them over the front middle of waist.

The devices are identical, arm-sized black machine with purple 1.25 inch diameter flat circle at the center, maroon motorcycle handlebar on the right half and silver syringe having a 45 degree tilt. The devices extended the belt to wrap around the wearer's waist.

Nick pulled the syringe which has spring mechanism. It was drawn back automatically after he let it go. “ DRAW BLOOD ” Nick’s device spoke robotically. Blood filled in Nick’s syringe then it teleported into the syringe of Judy’s device. Judy pressed the syringe which sprang out on its own. “ INJECT ” Judy’s device spoke robotically as well. Fox’s blood was injected into rabbit. He fell asleep standing up, lying unconsciously on the ground.

Savage was charging at the duo. Rabbit uttered. “Transform!” Then she twisted the device’s handle anticlockwise with her right paw. “ IGNITE ” Judy’s device spoke. The handle was twisted back by the spring mechanism. It released purple steam, followed by the hot purple mist explosion. Savage halted, viewing the mist swallowing the bunny whole. In the thick fog, device core illuminated, two amethyst headlamps shone up where Judy eyes are. The mist was fading, revealing a flamingo red full suit head-to-toe bio armoured Hybrid between a fox and a rabbit, obvious Judy’s body type, soft metal long rabbit ears, red long fluffy fox tail made of spikes instead of fur, light green torso with blue stripe on front dividing left and right, grayish-tan lower body except flamingo red feet, stylish headlights for eyes and fangs with a pair of buck teeth pattern on muzzle.

Savage ’s instinct commanded it to assault the new threat. The monster stormed towards the armoured figure. Hybrid sprinted off, dodging to the right side, landing a right hook on Jaguar Savage ’s shoulder, knee bashing its throat. Savage angled its head upward. Hybrid palm struck monster’s chin.

“You punch like a bunny.” Judy jestingly criticized Nick who chuckled at a pun. How can he help it? He was literally in the bunny body…

The monster bounced back, trying to attack the fox-mixed rabbit once again. Judy protracted the right paw claw, pivoting 360 degree, lacerating Savage’s face. It bellowed in agony. “And you are ferocious.” Tod remarked. “Like a fox~” Doe added. “Oy! That’s all you. Tenderness runs in my blood.” He protested.

Savage veered off, hurtling toward a defenseless sleeping fox. Nick gasped “It’s going after my body!” He panicked. Judy pushed the syringe. “ ACTIVATE ” The belt voiced. Hybrid zoomed at an incredible pace, breaking through the wind, each step sent the dust flying everywhere, catching up with the monster in a trice. Hybrid hopped, trampling on Savage ’s back. It paused due to a severe blow, giving an opportunity for Hybrid to retrieve Nick’s body. Judy was carrying the fox to the side of building. She laid him down where it must be safe from harm. “Dang! I look good even when I’m napping.~” Nick complimented his presence. He rubbed his chin but Judy intervened. “Cut it out already! We’re far from done with that Savage.”

When Hybrid returned, the monster had disappeared. “See! We’ve lost it!” The doe blamed the tod. “Relax, Carrots.” Nick pushed the syringe. “ ACTIVATE ” Hybrid’s ears perked up, harking the sounds of environment, tracing its location. “That way!” Duo shouted.

- .-. .- -. ... ..-. --- .-. --

Jaguar Savage escaped from Cliffside Asylum and reached South Canyon. However, a trope of armed mammals were blocking a road. They were wearing tactical gears, bulletproof uniforms and face shield helmets, SCU logos are embroidered on back and right chest.

“Ready!” A white stallion signaled. SCU agents rifles properly. He continued. “Aim!” They target Savage . “Fire!” Horse bawled. The agents opened fire on the monster. It stood sideways to avoid the probable damages. Its shell deflected the bullets yet it began to fracture after the several hits. SCU team is specialized in exterminating Savage. They hastened to track down and eliminate the target as soon as they were contacted by a wolf. The jaguar was about to withdraw. “Quick! If it climbs up that hill, we won’t be able to follow it!” Stallion warned.

“Mine Mine Mine Mine~” The repeated yelling earned agents’ attention. It was as loud as or even louder than the gunshot noise. They stopped shooting to take a gaze. A weird rabbit knight was heading towards their way. Actually, it was the running bio armoured bunny fox hybrid. “Don’t ya steal my kill!” said Nick. Judy twisted the device’s handle anticlockwise again. “ CRITICAL BREAK ” Hybrid accelerated to the point of becoming a red blur with amethyst light lines alongside from the eyes. Hybrid leaped when getting close enough to Savage and roll front flip in mid-air. The partners double kicked the monster’s flank. The impact shattered its exoskeleton. The protracted bunny feet claws were inserted through the shell cracks, digging in Savage ’s flesh. Hybrid shoved the monster away, landing backflip on a ground. Every part of Savage was evaporating as it was dying.

SCU gaped at an armoured mammal. “Applause~ Applause~ No need to thank me~ Just doing my job.” Nick babbled. “Freeze, Hybrid !” They did not get a round of applause. Instead, the agents were pointing the rifles at Hybrid . “I would love to stay but… Gotta dash!” Nick waved a paw. Judy, giggling at a fox’s frisky nature, took control of the body, skedaddling. Horse directed. “Fire tranq dart! Fire!” They shot nonstop at Hybrid, who pressed the syringe, “ACTIVATE” vanishing into thin air. “We lost them again!” White horse neighed after Hybrid evaded the special force once again without any traces.

“Let’s meet at the car.” Judy advised, holing up over the hill despite being on the road below merely second ago. “Roger~ See ya, Carrots~” Nick agreed. She pulled the syringe. Blood was drawn and teleported to other syringe as Judy detransformed. The suit let out purple steam then disappeared. Her body and clothes were back to the state before Nick and she fought the monster together.

.- --. .- .. -.

“Hello, this is Jim Tuck.” Just invading the prohibited area, saved by police and hiding behind the side of asylum from the monster, the raccoon made a phone call. “No, I haven’t got a thing yet-” He jerked away from his phone because his interlocutor brawled aggressively. “What was I supposed to do!? Savage almost killed me! Look! Just give me more time, okay?” He stayed silent for seconds, hearing the answer. “Good! Deal! Bye!” He hung up and sighed.

“Tough luck huh?” The voice startled Jim. He turned to find the fox officer. Jim tried to bolt but the tod could seize raccoon’s wrist first. “Chill out~ I’m not here to arrest you. In fact, I think I can lend you a paw...” Nick apprised.

- --- / -... . / -.-. --- -. - .. -. ..- . -..

#zootopia #zootopia tokusatsu au #zootopia fanfiction #zoomorphia #As a wildehopps shipper The moment will come This story gonna long and wild #100th post

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happymetalgirl · 6 years ago

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In Flames - I, the Mask

Since the band's shift toward a more alternative metal sound that began with Reroute to Remain, In Flames has gradually become the Anders Friden show as its founding members have departed one by one and been replaced with more-or-less session instrumentalists, the most dramatic departure of which probably being that of lead guitarist Jesper Strömblad, who largely developed the melodic style of death metal the band played in previously and taps into occasionally now. Now I have no problem with that on paper; plenty of bands I love either started out as the brainchild of one singular creative mastermind or became that way over time: Death was the genius of Chuck Schuldiner, Marilyn Manson is of course the leader and artistic compass of his eponymous band, while Opeth has become the Mikael Åkerfeldt project, and Behemoth has largely become driven by Nergal's creative inspirations. And I have stated plenty of times that I quite enjoy plenty of alternative metal, including the most mainstream-accessible stuff, given it hits the right musical G-spots for me. In fact, I got into In Flames after hearing "Deliver Us" from Sounds of a Playground Fading, a song I found to be a fantastic blend of heavy guitar-driven melody and emotive alternative metal that I still hold as one of my favorite moments of the band's. Other songs from this alternative metal-leaning second half of In Flames' career like the heart-wrenching blaster "Take This Life", the beat-driven "The Quiet Place", the choral "Alias", and the cathartic anthem "Drained" from their previous album are all great examples of how In Flames indeed has the potential to make inspired music in this style. The problem is that all those highlights are diluted by unimaginative, wash-rinse-repeat filler on the albums they come from. Consequently, the only In Flames albums I have returned to in full recently are the early albums like Colony, The Jester Race, Clayman, even Lunar Strain, and (to a lesser degree) Come Clarity, because In Flames has now become consistent only in providing a few bright moments among the dim alternative haze of their recent albums to keep them passable. With this album, however, what was really a long time coming finally happened, and no, In Flames didn't go full pop like Bring Me the Horizon or douse the mix in trashy electronic nonsense, which I'm still dreading the likelihood they later do, though I sure am glad they didn't do it here. This time, In Flames finally put together a consistent snoozer of an album devoid of any major highlights.

Formulaic, neutered, and dull instrumentally, I, the Mask is essentially background fodder for the slightly more nasal clean vocal style Anders Fridén has moved toward. Drumming up the same riffless mid-tempo beats and time-wasting gruff vocal verses for the choruses to fall flat on afterwards, these songs show just how crucial the instrumental insight of the band's original members was to their transition to this style and far the band has veered off the side path they were doing okay on, and now they are lost.

I really don't want to get too bogged down in the track-by-track analysis on this album. From front to back it's a pretty straight shot through a slough of material akin to the lowest of lows of In Flames' output with this alternative metal style. The only difference is the slight worsening of the tend toward hypercompressed production and the decrease in fervor in exchange for nasal-y whininess with which Anders Fridén performs his vocal parts on this album.

Still though, I will point out a few of the mild highs and some of the dreadful lows on here. The single "I Am Above", while nothing phenomenal and still a victim of Fridén's unflattering new vocal direction, ended up being one of the more emotionally invested cuts on the album, albeit only marginally. The song "Deep Inside", with one of the better guitar motifs, is another one of the album's more vibrant cuts, though the clean chorus is still nothing but a detraction from the song's verse's build. The bonus track, "Not Alone" is a decent alter metal chugged, but even as a heavy coda to the previous tracks it's not much more invigorating in the long run.

As for the more notorious low points of the album, the flopped soaring vocal melody on the chorus of "Call My Name" sounds like it was ripped from a shitty late 2000's alt metal song I can't put my finger on, but it just shows how unoriginal In Flames have become, and the children's chant at the end of "(This Is Our) House" comes off straight-up corny to a degree which means that you will never catch me listening to that shit in public, it's that embarrassing. The following track, "We Will Remember" is a pretty exceptionally uninspired alternative pop-punk-flavored cut processed through the same simplistic formula as the rest of the songs on board this album. The repetitive chorus refrain on "Burn" is pretty corny too, and even the down-tuned guitars at the bridge can't bring the Meshuggah fanboy in me to see that song positively.

This album is just so consistently flat, formulaic and predictable, it's undoubtedly In Flames' worst to date (in my eyes). There is so little that is salvageable from the soggy ashes of this once brilliantly blazing beacon of creativity so representative of the glorious melodic death metal movement from Gothenburg, reduced now to a regular schedule of lackluster alternative metal. At this point, this has really gone on long enough; there really anything else to say about this album. It’s an uninspired, mediocre, modern alternative metal album with little of the appeal of the genre or of the In Flames of better days.

So falls Real Madrid/10

#in flames #i the mask #alternative metal #medolic death metal #alternative rock #metal #heavy metal #new music #new album #album review

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kwispayne · 5 years ago

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The Top 10 Albums Of 2019

This year for music was spectacular. One of the better in a while. Usually I do a mini list of albums that were the worst that I don't release, but even the bad albums this year were just a bit bland or misguided (although this is from what I've heard, I know there is mountains of bad music out there). This year's top 10 is very much a list of artists who I have enjoyed or who was aware of who just completely laid out their A game. Some of these guys have been in my lists before and have barely scraped the top and this year they have just pushed their way in or completely floored me. Choosing this years list was hard as there are a lot of honorable mentions. You'll have to ask me which ones they are yourself.

Now before I go on I must explain that…

1. Yes, this is very biased, off course.

2. I haven’t listened to most great stuff which has came out this year. In fact, I have alot of CDs and stuff I still need to listen to, so this is of what I’ve heard so far. I really don’t have time to listen to alot of music and stuff at the moment.

3. All recommendations would be helpful for stuff that I should have listened to or reconsidered.

10. King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Infest The Rats Nest

Genres: Thrash, Progressive Rock, Progressive Metal, Stoner Metal

Country of origin: Australia

For some strange reason I have kept these guys off my radar for a long time. I do not know how or why. These guys literally are for me. A group of crazy Australians who change their genre willy nilly and have experimented with some of my favorite sounds. So this year I decided to buy their first album for this year Fishing For Fishies (not in this list, but an honorable mention), a glam rock psych folk freak out. And then for them to turn around and release a progressive thrash metal concept album about sci fi and the environment...it just confused and intrigued me. The production on this album is one of my favorite little quirks. With less focus on modern compression, there's a very retro late 70's sound added to the early 80's thrash metal vibe, and it works perfectly. I'm also really impressed at Stu Mackenzie's ability to adopt a gruff thrash timbre when comparing to the voice he uses for their lighter material. Lyrically they have also been able to add a great niche to the eco metal trend, being not afraid to be honest with a good sense of satire and imagination.

9. Devin Townsend - Empath

Genres: Progressive Metal, Progressive Rock, Extreme Metal, Experimental Rock, Art Rock, Djent, Comedy

Country of origin: Canada

This proves how great this year is. Usually Devin gets a higher position, and while I have preferred his most recent material to this album, this is still an exceptional piece of work. Having disbanded the Devin Townsend Project, Devin decided to really take his sound and expand it to heights he hasn't been fully to achieve within the context of a band. With orchestras, choirs and harder compositions, Devin is the perfect example of an individual who under the stress of having too many big ideas, that he's able to create a piece of art and come out alive and well at the other end. Lyrically again we see Devin constantly seeking balance in the difficult world we live in, and as always Devin's approach to this is almost childlike, to the point where he even has a narrator reading out parts of what seems to be a children's story. Epic, grandiose, heavy, groovy and incredibly successful at pulling on the audience and the performers heartstrings.

8. Periphery - Periphery IV: Hail Stan

Genres: Djent, Progressive Metal, Extreme Metal, Experimental Rock, Pop Rock

Country of origin: USA

For a few years Periphery have always been on my radar and I have enjoyed a lot of their music, but as an albums band they have never really blown me away (the closest they got was Juggernaut: Alpha). But they are back again with their heaviest and most powerful album to date. I remember reading an interview with one of their old producers who claimed that these guys are their own worst enemies because they are obsessed with following their own path without the help of others and I'm glad that on this album they have stuck to their guns from what they've been building on for the past few years because it has all finally paid off. Musically brilliant as always, the real shining moment has to be Spencer Sotelo's vocals and lyrics. The range this guy has, from cleans, screams and growls, it really covers the full gamut of a metal vocalist. I think if this career doesn't work, he definitely could be an easy replacement for Chester Bennington from Linkin Park. I'm glad to finally have these guys in my top 10 lists, proving that djent isn't just a meme and can produce some great art.

7. Billie Eilish - When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?

Genres: Pop, Art Pop, Experimental Rock, Electronic

Country of origin: USA

This was an artist I really didn't see to blow up as big as she did. Whenever she was originally presented to me, I thought she would be massive in the indie world with a potential for crossover. But wow, this really has been her year. I think the hype around this album is as true as it could get, but I'd like to think I get a little bit more our of her music as most people would. Being a big fan of artists like Björk & Imogen Heap, I thought this would be a lot more like a modern version of what they are doing, but she definitely will be the next big thing over the next few years. Production wise, this album is in a complete league of its own. In many ways its very quiet, but the quietness of it very much adds to a certain level of dangerous. In many ways you could say the effect of her music is a bit like an electronic version of Pixies. The song writing and lyrics on this album are fantastic and really are impressive as this whole album is very much just an experiment between 2 siblings. Billie's vocals too are also very unique. In many ways she is like a less dynamic Björk, where she has this childlike quietness, but unlike Björk, she has an added sinister undertone. Worth the hype and whatever she comes out with next will interest me.

6. Bring Me The Horizon - Amo

Genres: Pop, Hard Rock, Art Pop, Post Hardcore, Electronic, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: England

3 years ago, these guys were able to slowly morph their way into a poppy sound, but keep the angst and metallic vibes they were presenting years previously. Now on this album, they have very much gone full force into the pop world. Now, in many ways this could be seen as a band selling out, but with Bring Me The Horizon it very much isn't, because the version of pop that they have decided to enter into, isn't very much a cash grab. Instead, the band have experimented with a murkier electronic tone and whenever the album moves into more radio friendly stuff, they are seen experimenting with indie electronic artist's like Grimes, beatboxer Rahzel and even Dani Filth from Cradle Of Filth. Bring Me The Horizon in my opinion now are part of what I believe to be a new level of artist (along with other artists like Enter Shikari or Jamie Lenman), where genre lables are unimportant, but sound is very much a focus. Lyrically also, the band deals with some some rather unpoppy subject matter, so I can't see these guys going down the Take That road just yet. In my opinion this is their greatest work, and I'm hopefully for whatever they decide to experiment with next.

5. The Claypool Lennon Delirium - South Of Reality

Genres: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Experimental Rock, Comedy, Art Rock

Country of origin: USA

I am so glad that this wasn't a one time thing. A few years ago, this album was also able to find a place in my top 10, and I'm glad that they're 2nd album is even better. Musically as always, Les Claypool's bass playing is out of this world, but Sean Lennon has to be one of the most underrated guitar players out there. While their first album was very much a very well crafted experiment, this album is a tiny bit maturer, with a great focus on the songwriting and clearer production. Lyrically the album is very much full of humor or odd stories, but overall they add to the psychedelic sound (Like Flea's though is a great piece of environmental satire). In many ways, choosing this album to be in my top list is mainly just to confirm bias, because the sound these guys make is very much just a box tick list of sounds I like.

4. Vampire Weekend - Father Of The Bride

Genres: Pop, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock, Adult Contemporary, Hipster

Country of origin: USA

I have been a fan of these guys for a long time now, and while they've never made I've been unhappy with this, I do believe this album to be their masterpiece. The quirkiness of these guys is still very much an important part of their sound but the best quality of this album would have to be a bigger and better focus on the songwriting. At times this album is very much a bow down to the past, but at times the production can change to a more modern and experimental feel, with the added flourishes of vocoder and electronics. In many ways you could say that the band have successfully been able to make a millennial album for boomers. But jokes aside, the songwriting quality, the catchiness of the material and the surprisingly at times complex song structures and musicianship make this album and Vampire Weekend a band that sticks out in both the popular and indie sides of music.

3. Motorpsycho -The Crucible

Genres: Progressive Rock, Psychedelic Rock, Heavy Prog, Hard Rock, Stoner Metal, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: Norway

Each year these guys make an album, they always just scrape the barrel to be left off my top 10. I always feel back about leaving these guys off, because these guys really are one of the best prog bands out there. The best way I can describe this album is that it's like a modern version of Yes' Close To The Edge...but in reverse. This time around, the band only have 3 tracks, with them all being within the 8-20 minute mark. But each one is very much a different mood or mindset, moving from epic suites, crushing riffs, beautiful crescendos and insane freak out sections. I also love how vocally imperfect the guys in this band can be. They sometimes tackle things outside their range, but it's done in a way which adds to the emotional impact of the music that they're making. In my opinion this is their masterpiece but it also keeps me excited for whatever project they next have in store for us.

2. Neal Morse - Jesus Christ: The Exorcist

Genres: Progressive Rock, Hard Rock, Musical, Christian Rock

Country of origin: USA

I have been a Neal Morse fan for over 10 years now. Even after his exit from Spock's Beard, I have always followed his career, from his prog rock carefree to his Jesus loving aftermath. Now, to be honest, when I first heard about this project...I thought it was a joke. The title...come on...Jesus Christ and The Exorcist. But, it's not a joke at all. In fact it might be the greatest piece of work Neal has done. Apparently this project has been a few years in the works, and I'm glad that Neal has graced us with the release of the music itself. In many ways you could say that musically it is Neal by numbers, but it is a genuinely well crafted musical that I hope Broadway or the West End can snap up, because there is a wide audience for this (I'm not religious, but I can jam to this message). The voice cast he assembled for the recordings is great too, but the real fan boy moment was being able to get all 3 vocalists who have been in Spock's Beard, and in one song even to get them all to sing. The smile I still have stuck to my face from listening to this is not an easy one to get rid off.

1. Elbow - Giant Of All Sizes

Genres: Pop Rock, Progressive Rock, Indie Rock, Experimental Rock

Country of origin: England

England have won again for creating an artist which takes the top spot of my favorite album of the year. Now Elbow have been on my lists before, but I definitely think they are band who is getting better and better, and this album only proves it, as I think this is very much their greatest work. While they're previous 2 releases saw the band experimenting with different sounds, this album in many ways is a mire grander and experimental album with a conceptual feel. One of the elements that has always drawn me to this band is how in tune they all are musicians, made especially focused on this album. Production wise it is pretty much clear and crisp, but there is the odd experiment heard throughout. One of the best elements of this album is that it is very epic in scope, but behind it there is a a raw heart to it, which very well bodes to the concept which I perceive to be a working class emotion to the chaotic times that we live in. Guy Garvey's vocals and projection of his lyrics are always one the strongest feats of the band (I don't think I've ever met anyone who could hate his voice). Elbow are very much a band that I could say are very much a modern Beatles, where they go deep into the pop stratosphere trying to make their music as perfect sounding, but never losing the quality of their songwriting. Also, the album cover is dope too.

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