#i CANNOT escape modern rock as my top genre

[rouxlsthestaars]

[onestowatch]

16 Black Artists You Should Listen to This Black History Month (And Every Month)

A central pillar of the Black experience has and always will be music. From its roots that extend far beyond gospel to modern genre-shaping trendsetters and rulebreakers, Black artists have created the music landscape as we know it today. And in honor of Black History Month, we want to highlight a handful of the Black artists whose music you should celebrate not just this month but every month.  

flowerovlove

Joyce Cissie, more popularly known as flowerovlove, makes music that belies her young age. When the 16-year-old London student isn’t busy studying English, History, and French, she spends every free hour in a nearby music studio, where she concocts a hazy amalgamation of lo-fi pop, dream pop, indie rock, and R&B with the help of her brother Wilfred Cissie. The result is a sound that feels distinctly homegrown yet polished. An iridescent sway between coming-of-age in real-time and a noted musical maturity.

Labrinth

If you’ve experienced the sorrow and beauty that is watching Euphoria, then you’ve undoubtedly become quite familiar with Labrinth’s music. The singer, songwriter, producer, and composer behind one of HBO’s biggest shows leverages experimental, heaven-sent flourishes of production and a genre-spanning touch to create lush, showstopping compositions that feel deeply human yet otherworldly in their spellbinding execution. And while his work on Euphoria cannot and should not be overlooked, his solo work carries with it the same cinematic flair that has elevated the show to timeless heights. 

Meet Me @ The Altar

Meet Me @ The Altar is the pop-punk band the alternative scene has been missing for far too long. Essentially formed over YouTube and crossing state lines, the female and POC-comprised trio takes inspiration from Warped Tour-era punk, easycore, and 2010s pop to deliver a sound that is both refreshingly nostalgic and novel. Equal parts anthemic and heartfelt, Meet Me @ The Altar is the band that 12-year-old scene me, decked in purple jeans yet never seeing myself represented in the music I loved, would have given anything to sing along to in my bedroom while waiting for my AIM crush to sign back on.

TSHA

With co-signs ranging from Annie Mac, Gorillaz, Bonobo, and more, TSHA is easily one of the most exciting acts to emerge from the UK in recent memory. Delivering electronic-laced anthems that speak to the expanse that is the human experience, the London-based producer’s music feels practically bursting at the seams with life. TSHA crafts euphoric house music that is perfect for sunset raves, losing yourself in the enticing thrall of underground dancefloors, or simply serving as the soundtrack for your escape into another plane of reality.

Paris Texas

If you’ve kept your ear to the ground in the past year, you’ve certainly heard murmurs of Paris Texas. Adopting their name from the acclaimed ‘80s film, the South Central Los Angeles duo have earned comparisons to the likes of everyone from early Odd Future, King Krule, to Outkast. Yet, what’s likely the most accurate descriptor for the duo is not found in the specific sounds or genres of their predecessors but how, similar to those before them, they are pushing the very scene itself forward. Inimitable and relentless in their unique vision, Paris Texas is a sonic experience unlike any other that’s come before it.

PawPaw Rod

Cut back to the top of 2021 and you would find us championing burgeoning artist PawPaw Rod, whose debut single “Hit Em Where It Hurts” left a strong enough impression on us to land the Oklahoma-bred artist on our list of Top 21 Artists to Watch in 2021. And while we certainly don’t want to call ourselves psychics (given what little we did to warn everyone of the year to come), the effortlessly infectious artist would go on to cement his place in our hearts with his stellar debut EP, the aptly titled A PawPaw Rod EP. With a groove-inducing swing in his step and distinctive delivery, no matter the year, it’s always a good time to familiarize yourself with the likes of PawPaw Rod.  

Tai Verdes

As Tai Verdes sat in his car recording a teaser for his yet-to-be-released viral hit “Stuck in the Middle,” chances are not even he could predict the whirlwind of success that was to befall him. Thanks to the power of TikTok, the moment proved to be a life-defining one, seeing him go from working at a Verizon store, waiting for his shift to end so he could go home and make music, to living out his dream. Proving to be anything but a one-hit-wonder, the breakout star’s sun-soaked and earnest anthems have found a home amongst anyone in search of an idyllic vibe. Verdes is a pop star in the making.

Bakar

Bakar has “always wanted to be an alternative for the Black kids who don’t fit in.” Taking the sentiment to heart, his debut mixtape, Badkid, embodied the anger and rebellion of a misunderstood kid, and ahead of his hotly-anticipated debut album, Nobody’s Home, the UK artist is reconnecting with his heritage and exploring the notion of the “future immigrant.” Informed by his own experiences as a first-generation immigrant in the UK, Bakar’s music is emotionally expansive, a shimmering reflection of himself that mirrors all the uncertainty, joy, and fullness of the Black experience.

Bktherula

Hailing from Atlanta, Bktherula is dominating the underground hip-hop scene with a punk flair and inimitable, laid-back flow. It is a versatility that allows the 19-year-old artist to boldly carve out a space for herself amongst the stadium-ready sounds of her hometown one moment and explore introspective, otherworldly departures into more melodic territory the next. Following a breakout single and series of acclaimed projects that have seen the artist continue to fully develop and explore the full range of her sprawling, fluid sound, one thing is clear. There is only one Bkthrula.

reggie

reggie’s musical journey starts where most Black music originates — the church. Serving as one of his first inspirations to start writing music, traces of gospel can be found throughout his soul-bearing brand of soul and R&B. Most of his work to date is inspired by lived experiences, the byproduct of being kicked out of home and forced to live a thousand different lives in order to survive. The result is music that resounds like a confessional, a roadmap of an artist’s soul that is equal parts heartbreaking and optimistic.

KennyHoopla

Preceding the nostalgia-induced resurrection of pop-punk, KennyHoopla launched into the scene with a vision that muddled together the connective tissue of pop-punk, post-punk-emo, new wave, and blistering alternative. More than just an exhilarating trendsetter, the Wisconsin native is shaping the scene itself. Creating a new wave of nostalgia with a series of scream-along choruses, rapturous hooks, and lyricism that seamlessly shifts between existential crisis and targeted apathy, it’s little wonder that he’s earned widespread critical acclaim and already dropped a Travis Barker-collaborative EP so early in his career. Long live pop-punk and long live KennyHoopla.

Fana Hues

For Fana Hues, music is in her very DNA. One of nine children and raised in a large musical household, she found teachers in the likes of Nina Simone, Beyoncé, Anita Baker, and her father — a bass, guitar, and piano player who taught her and her sisters to sing. After illness took away her voice for five years during childhood, Hues realized both the healing power of music and her purpose. It is a sentiment that takes form in her music that takes heed from the classics to bring forth a uniquely modern, generation-spanning sound that is delicate to the touch. With a feature on Tyler, the Creator’s Call Me If You Get Lost under her belt and her forthcoming project flora + fana on the horizon, now is the perfect moment to lose yourself in the mesmerizing sonic palette of Hues.

Spencer.

From the unassuming walls of his Bed-Stuy apartment, Spencer. ushers into existence a kaleidoscopic fusion of neo-soul vocal acrobatics, jazz-fueled departures, laissez-faire hip-hop flows, and pop ambition that all coalesce to form a sonic portrait of New York at sunset. It’s a testament to the artist’s peerless DIY vision, which sees him not just recording and producing his own work but singing, creating beats, and playing everything from the piano, guitar, bass, drums, to the trumpet. His full-length debut album, Are U Down?, arrived as the crystallization of all this and more — a beguiling tale of a relationship’s struggles and a pervading sense of longing.

Dreamer Isioma

Dreamer Isioma is stepping into themselves. While their breakout single “Sensitive” signaled the arrival of a genre-spanning talent buoyed by infectious confidence, it is their forthcoming debut album, Good Night Dreamer, that is set to see the Chicago-based phenom chronicling their quest to self-actualization. Breathing life into a dreamlike blur of soul, R&B, lo-fi, hip-hop, and indie rock, Dreamer is making space for those who don’t fit into binaries or play by strict genre conventions.

Nova Twins

To Nova Twins, being black women in punk is inherently political. Touching on Brexit, sexism, acceptance, and more, the English rock duo blends elements of hard rock, punk, rap, and pop to deliver a message meant to galvanize audiences the world over. From sharing stages with the likes of Wolf Alice and Little Simz, collaborating with Bring Me The Horizon, to the legendary Tom Morello calling them the best band you’ve never heard of, Nova Twins needs to be on your radar this month and every month.

grouptherapy.

Los Angeles-based collective grouptherapy. deftly blends daring alternative hip-hop, earworm pop melodies, and R&B to craft a sound that is uniquely their own. Comprised of Jadagrace, TJW, Koi, and Dee Lilly (who produced their independent debut mixtape there goes the neighborhood.), the collective surges forward with a frenetic, infectious unpredictability. Following the breakneck pace of their debut mixtape, the collective returned with “Tangerine,” a laid-back vibe that perfectly captures the idyllic splendor of Los Angeles’ everlasting summer.

[komatsunana]

My Reincarnation Isekai Villainess Rec List

So.  I’ve gone and found myself in Isekai/Reincarnation/Villainess hell.  For those who don’t know Isekai is a genre in which character(s) are transported to a different world.  Initially you might be thinking “oh, she’s gonna share a both a series like Sword Art Online.”  Oh no.  You have underestimated the amount of taste I have.  By which I mean I have none but that SOA is a taste I’m not here for.

Now a very specific sub-genre of that is the reincarnation one, particularly in which a character is reborn as a character from one of their favorite books or games from their previous, modern life.  An even more specific sub-genre of that one is in which the MC is reborn as a villainess from that book or game, thus creating a bit of a challenge as villainesses usually are destined to die in the source material. 

So! Here are my favorites, many of which are all 3 but some combine one or two of the above tropes.  It’s my list so I do what I want.  And most of my faves have a shojo genre tag, or at least a romance tag, because that’s where all the good stuff is: 

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Survive as the Hero’s Wife by Nokki

Canaria is reincarnated as the villainess of a popular cliche novel. Based on the novel, she is destined to be executed but can she prevent this from happening before it’s too late? 

Why *I* like it:  So this one was the one that really got me into the villainess reincarnation isekai genre!  And it remains the top of my list. The huge draw for me in this one is that I actually really like the main couple!  Like not even just lukewarm, I really like it!  I’d read fic for it, if that existed.  A lot of the villainess genre tend to portray the original heroine as vapid, unworthy of their status of heroine, or the actual villainess but in this case Gracie just turns out to be just an amazing strong woman who doesn’t actually need a man.  (In fact I ship the three together full stop tbh lol).  In fact, it’s a subplot that Gracie realizes (because of MC’s words) that if she wants to inherit her father’s title even though the law says a woman cannot... That she just should strive to change the law rather than be a tool with no use outside of marriage.   And not to spoil anything, but she will definitely do just that.

And since I’m mainly finishing the rough draft of this list out of absolute RAGE at being made fun of for being into this genre.... A compilation of the main love interest, Cesar, because he’s absolutely beautiful.  Look at those eyes!  He’s such a great example of the sullen, dark love interest because he’s not those things when he’s with his wife, the MC!!!  He’s so soft for her.  And the whole point is that the love interest shows a different side to their lover right??

And like the great thing is Canaria, the MC, totally doesn’t notice for the longest time.  She read the novel in her previous life so she’s *convinced* that one day Cesar will fall for the novel’s original leading woman, and she makes plans accordingly throughout their early days of their marriage.  She completely hadn’t thought about the fact that since she’s not being a villainess this time around and not abusing him and everyone around her, and makes friends with Cesar... Like of course the course of events change.  It utterly baffles Cesar when his wife keeps bringing up divorce because he’s so completely in love with her and you just gotta eat that shit up with a spoon because it’s so good and perfect drama but also funny.

There’s even a Halloween chapter where everyone wears costumes and basically I believe I was pandered to specifically.

Tbh, the arc going atm is sorta losing my interest but that’s because there’s political intrigue and I’m like just here for the romance lmao.  So someone looking for substance and not just fluff might be more pleased than I. But it’s still on-going so.  It’s just all in all a fun and great introduction to the genre imo.

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I Reincarnated into an Otome Game as a Villainess With Only Destruction Flags by Hidaka Nami (Art) and Yamaguchi Satoru (Story)

Eight-year-old Katarina Claes is the only daughter of a duke, living her life peacefully and without incident until she hits her head on a rock... and then remembers that she is not actually the duke's daughter. She used to be an otaku who died on her way to school after spending the entire previous night playing Fortune Lover, her favorite otome game. After noticing that her current surroundings seem oddly familiar, she is shocked to discover that she has been reincarnated into the world of Fortune Lover as the villainess.

The villainess in the game usually winds up dead or exiled, so Katarina decides to use her knowledge of the game and its routes to avoid any bad situations. But is it even possible for the villainess to reach a good ending?

Why *I* like it:  Ok ok ok, lol. So this one is probably one of the most well-known of the villainess reincarnation isekai genre atm!  Particularly because of the anime currently running.  And for good reason... the MC is so brilliantly stupid in the best of ways.  While she plots on how to escape her fate of being killed or exiled by learning to sword fight and how to garden, she’s more or less seduced every capture target in this dating game... AND all the female rivals to boot AND heroine.  The thing is that she is completely unaware and continues training for the day she is inevitably killed or exiled, as per the game’s original ending.

It’s just a silly, fun series and all the women’s feelings for her are taken about as seriously as all the guys’... Which isn’t much because absolutely no one really has a chance of getting this woman to understand they are all madly in love with her.  Not a series to take seriously which is part of it’s charm, but it retains a lot of heart especially when it comes to the MC Katarina (affectionally called Bakarina by fandom) remembering her friend and family from her past life.  

This series also has a manga spin-off about what if she’d been reincarnated while already in high school and bullying the heroine instead of a child... So basically she’s in hard mode, and yet she still succeeds in getting even more people into her little harem she has for herself.  

Whether you chose to watch the anime or the manga (or the LN, which I haven’t got to) you can’t go wrong.

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It Seems Like I Got Reincarnated Into The World of a Yandere Otome Game by  Hanaki, Momiji (Story) and Setsuri (Art)

As a precocious child, Lycoris suffers from a strange sense of deja vu. On the day her father told her about her fiancé, she realizes that her fiancé was a character from an otome game she once played in a previous life.

“I am the heroine’s rival from the game?

And in the bad ending, I get stabbed to death?

What a joke.”

A story in which the protagonist is determined to avoid a yandere situation.

Why *I* like it: Hear me out! I know what you’re thinking... Yanderes??? But here’s the thing...  Just by the MC being kind and getting 2 of the “yandere” characters out of abusive environments, they no longer end up as yanderes as they grow up.   They aren’t those tropes any more!  While the characters remain protective, they aren’t possessive and are happy to see MC branch out, if a little lonely.  And the yandere that remain aren’t treated as hot, but annoying.   So like sorry to disappoint if you think yanderes are hot but this isn’t the series for you.

Additionally, unlike other series of this trope, the MC is pretty quick to realize she just needs to trust her lover, that he will not turn on her and kill her as he did in the game nor will he fall for the heroine instead of her.  It’s somewhat refreshing, as a huge part of the trope is the MC typically doesn’t realize until it’s spelled out that by not acting as a villain.... the rest of the characters don’t want to harm them... And might even have fallen in love with them.

Another fun aspect is how MC doesn’t remember things immediately, but only remembers things from her past life (and of how the game went) until it comes up.  Additionally, she wonders some interesting things that aren’t even mentioned in other series like... What if she’s destined to be exactly like the game character? Will she be forced to be exactly like her? It’s a fun exploration of some common reincarnation isekai villainess tropes if you have experience with the genre!

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Ascendance of a Bookworm by Shiina You (Art) and Kazuki Miya (Story)

A book-loving student and soon to be librarian ends up crushed to death by the pile of books during an earthquakes and wakes up as a five year old girl named Main in another world where books are scarce only available to the elite.  Main, retaining her memories of her past life, decides to create and print her own books so she can read again.

Why *I* like it:  So here is we depart from solely the villainess sub-genre (but only briefly!)  Because there is another sub-genre of reincarnation isekai and that’s in which the MC uses the things they learned on our planet earth to re-invent things like shampoo and the printing press.  And no other isekai does it better than Ascendance of a Bookworm imo. Main’s love for books leads her to recreating things she took for granted on Earth and starts selling them from a young age... Which might just end up saving her life as she ends up having a terminal disease that ordinarily she’d only be able to survive by being a slave to a noble... But by selling her products she has a chance to save herself!!!  And the products she creates are available to commoners, not just the nobles who of course make it impossible for the poor to have nice things.

Additionally, a majority of this trope centers around nobles and royalty (and all the best ones are historical settings)... The fun thing about this one is that it actually centers around a povert stricken family.  It’s a good break from the noble hierarchy within most isekai.

Finally, this series is the one that hits most closely to my feelings if I were to be reincarnated in another world... Which is to cry at the realization that I will never finish any of the on-going books and manga I had going on.  That’s absolute hell, I don’t know how any of these MCs deal!! ;_;

btw there is an anime and manga both. Also LN but tbh almost all of these have LN.

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Isekai Omotenashi Gohan by  Shinobumaru (Story) and Medamayaki (Art) 

Akane, an ordinary office lady, gets summoned to a different world along with her younger sister and pet dog. There, she ends up treating rare guests one after another with hospitality through meals!! Can she satisfy the citizens of a different world with home cooking...?! 

Why *I* like it:   Continuing our brief deviation from the villainess trope, Isekai Omotenashi Gohan is my favorite example of another subgenre of isekai - one without reincarnation - but one in which a “hero” is transmigrated to another world to save it... The problem? Oppsie, 2 people were taken.  Sometimes in this sub-genre there is a question who the true savior is but in Isekai Omotenashi Gohan’s case they figure that out pretty quickly.  They quickly figure out the MC’s younger sister is the savior.  At first the older sister (Akane) is set aside as unimportant... But her sister only wants to eat the food her sister makes and it quickly becomes obvious that Akane’s role is important.

Akane makes lots of allies and friends by sharing the food from Japan and of course has a very subtle romance going on with her guard.  But honestly I just enjoy this series as a person that likes food manga, like that’s it lmao, so much so that don’t be surprised when I make a best food manga list and yeah sorry Food Wars won’t be on it.

But fr, even if you don’t love the food manga genre try it!! It’s a sweet series and mixes domestic with fantasy in a great way.  Plus only a few series are complete, with the rest being on-going, so if you want a complete and finished series try this one!

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The Duke's Fiancee, Why She Had to Go to the Duke by Milcha (Story) and Golae (Art)

When Park Eunha dies in modern-day Korea, she awakens in the body of Raeliana McMillan, the eldest daughter of a nouveaux riche baron. However, this is no ordinary world; it's the exact same one as a novel she once read. Beloved by her family, it would seem as though she is in a fairy tale. But Raeliana is far from the main character—she is a mere plot device, whose murder at the hands of her fiancé instigates the entire story.

Raeliana has no intention to accept her fate quietly. She sets her eyes on someone in a position of great power—the vieux riche male protagonist Duke Noah Volstaire Wynknight—aiming to completely change the original story. Using her knowledge of future events, Raeliana offers information to Noah on the condition that he acts as her fake fiancé, but the Duke's two-faced nature throws a wrench in her plans! 

Why *I* like it:  This one is a fun one!! It really plays with different concepts that don’t often get explored in reincarnation isekai like where did the original consciousness of the character the MC became go??? Because MC only remembers her life on earth and is otherwise treated as though she has amnesia.... But is it amnesia?  Is she another person entirely?

Also the humor is... great.  Listen I refuse to give the best joke in the series just to make you read it but... the series is worth it just for this running joke.

Of course the romance is good too. The dude is kinda an asshole but she gives as good as he dishes out and it quickly becomes flirting anyway.  I don’t want to say too much and give any thing away... but s’good!

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Who Made Me a Princess? by Plutus (Story) and Spoon (Art)

The beautiful Athanasia was killed at the hands of her own biological father, Claude de Alger Obelia, the cold-blooded emperor! It’s just a silly bedtime story… until one woman wakes up to suddenly find she’s become that unfortunate princess! She needs a plan to survive her doomed fate, and time is running out. Will she go with Plan A, live as quietly as possible without being noticed by the infamous emperor? Plan B, collect enough money to escape the palace? Or will she be stuck with Plan C, sweet-talking her way into her father’s good graces?!

Why *I* like it:  Ok, big sigh.  How do I explain the pull ‘Who Made Me A Princess?’ has on me?  Now a lot of the pull for many people is how cute the budding father daughter relationship the MC (Athy) has with her dad.  But like, her dad is the worst and I want to fight him.  On the other hand, most of the fandom hates Jeanette, the MC’s sister who has done literally nothing wrong except make everyone around her miserable but it’s not her fault ok, and I’ll fight the entire fandom in her honor.  So it pains me to rec this series knowing that more than likely anyone who picks up this series because of me might have Wrong Opinions and I invite you to tell me just so I can shake my head about another wrong person existing in this world.

Never the less, this series is very cute!  All the other series I have recced had the MC remember their past life at early childhood at the earliest, if not as a teenager.  Athy? She has the misfortune to remember as a *baby* and it’s exactly as hellish as it sounds for an adult to be stuck growing up as a baby and suffer through the absolute embarrassment of having people feed and wipe her ass. 

The MC was an orphan in her previous life and the book that she wakes up in is a shitty book even by her standards but then she really only skimmed it it sounds like that’s what interests me.  As Athy makes changes to the original events of the novel and depth is added to the world, I start to wonder if the added depth was in the original novel or if the world had to add its own depth to stand as an actual lived in world?

Additionally, since I made the cover image Athy and her dad you might as well see her with her 2 love interests (and Jeanette!).  People need to know who to ship, I get it.

Also I need a moment to appreciate, up close, the beauty of Athy’s eyes. So gorgeous. 

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Living as the Tyrant’s Older Sister by Aperta (Story) and Chyobab (Art)

When I opened my eyes, I was inside a fantasy novel world! The beauty I see in front of the mirror is the future tyrant’s older sister, Alicia! She’s not even a protagonist or an antagonist, but a character that doesn’t appear much and gets beheaded by the (upcoming) tyrant little brother. My life is all about escaping that fate from the novel. In the end, I seduced the male lead’s merchant friend who also doesn’t appear much and was about to leave the country with him. How-e-ver. The face of the man who spent the night with me was extraordinary, and was the male lead himself!

Why *I* like it:   ……………...keke. Ok so this one is one I like just for the laughs.  The love interest is an arrogant asshole, but see… The important detail the summary leaves out is that the MC’s… cousin (?) wrote the book that she woke up in!  Moreover she’s the one that told her cousin to change the MC of her novel and make him good at everything and also make him a freak in the sack.  Like who is really at fault here??? Lmao.  Especially when she goes out intending to seduce a character she remembers being rich from the novel and accidentally bags the MC from the novel, aka the dude who kills her and her brother in the original novel.

In seriousness though, it really is funny.  The facial expressions of the MC is just… chefs kiss.  She’s got a pretty face but then she makes all these goof ass faces and I love it.  If you need any more reason to at least give it a go, just know that at one point the male lead comes to check on her, expecting to find her crying and instead…. Walks in just as she screams FUCK at the top of her lungs and then begins a tirade of very creative curses including "Bitch oompa loompa ass bitch" which how can you not love her?  Anyway the face the male lead makes after that has me maintaining that’s the moment he fell in love with her lmao.. but this is not Confirmed so it’s not a spoiler!!

EDIT: as of August 2020, I’ve since dropped this series. It remains on the list since I’d still rec it to people looking for a laugh.

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Seduce the Villain’s Father by bia and dalseul

Upon opening my eyes after a bus accident, I found myself in the fantasy world of a webnovel I enjoyed reading... the only catch is, I reincarnated 20 years before the novel begins! Reborn as Princess Yerenica of the small Lebovny kingdom, I'm determined to change the future in order to prevent the series of unfortunate events that will soon occur!

Why *I* like it:   How many times have you yourself had a suuuuuper side character be your favorite in a series and be depressed to see them done dirty?  Well MC has a chance to fix that, to save a character that basically one appeared in prologue and basically prevent the birth of the villain character that later kills his own father… by seducing his dad, before he can marry the villainess!!

Yerenica is just adorable in her attempts to thwart the original novel.  And like, I have to give her lots of respect for seeing the villainess character and having herself a good moment where she had to consider seducing her instead lmao.  She knows when to let well enough alone though so she immediately boards back on the dad train, much to his chagrin because she keeps calling him father……………….. Even though he’s like…. Not a dad yet.

The characters are still relatively early on in their romance, but I have high hopes for it yet!

Edit: As of August 2020, I’ve dropped this series.  It remains on this list because I think it’s a cute series and I think anyone who feels really strongly about the main couple will enjoy it.

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Death Is the Only Ending For The Villainess by Gwon Gyeoeul and SUOL

Penelope Eckart reincarnated as the adopted daughter of Duke Eckart and the villainess of a reverse harem dating sim. The problem is, she entered the game at its hardest difficulty, and no matter what she does, death awaits her at every ending! Before the "real daughter" of Duke Eckart appears, she must choose one of the male leads and reach a happy ending in order to survive. But the two brothers always pick a fight with her over every little thing, as well as a crazy crown prince, whose routes all lead to death. There's even a magician who's enamoured with the female lead, and a loyal slave knight! But somehow, the favourability meters of the male leads increase the more she crosses the line with them!

Why *I* like it:   So this one is another relatively new one added to my list, but it’s shot high up rather quickly!!  The other otome game isekai’s that I have on my list are just like the real world, but the interesting thing about this one, is that it also retains otome game mechanics such as she can see the love interests love meter and also she can chose to use the video game script choices to reply to the characters, in the hopes of raising their love meter.  This adds challenge, since she knows that if she gets any of the dudes to -10 she’ll be killed even as she sort of wonders if she truly would die or wake back up in reality.

What’s interesting also is that while she is the villainess character in the game… It ends up that the character was actually abused for years and that her title as a villain is unfair and that the game can be played as the villainess as even a player as a ‘hard’ mode compared to the heroine character.  It’s up to her to turn things around and it’s actually a fun take on the villainess genre.  I’m really looking forward to how things proceed even as my fears about which dude she’ll end up with continue to increase.

Finally, another layer I enjoy is that the MC lead a similar life in her previous life.  She’d only just escape her own abusive family before she’d ended up here and MC just desperately wants to escape once again… using any means necessary.

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The Villainess Reverses the Hourglass by SanSobe (story) and Ant Studio (art)

With the marriage of her prostitute mother to the Count, Aria’s status in society skyrocketed immediately. After leading a life of luxury, Aria unfairly meets death because of her sister Mielle’s schemes. And right before she dies, she sees an hourglass fall as if it were a fantasy. And just like that, she was miraculously brought back to the past.

“I want to become a very elegant person, just like my sister, Mielle.”

In order to face the villainess, she must become an even more wicked villainess. This was the new path Aria chose to take revenge on Mielle who murdered both her and her mother.

Why *I* like it:   If you thought that this list might be in descending order, guess again!  This one is one of my favorites.  Now this one lacks isekai, but is a reincarnation of a villainess!! Rather the MC was an absolute horrible person in her past life, but finds out at the last minute that her ~pure~ sister had been leading her by nose into acting like a brat just seconds before she is executed.  Now that she has a second chance, she’ll be a proper villainess and turn the tables on her sister.

In her last life, Aria never bothered educating herself so now that she’s a teenager again she actually has to learn things again (it’s not just like she gets to act like she’s a genius and good at everything) but she works hard at maintaining a sweet image and making everyone love her, even as she snickers behind their backs, all the while subtly setting her sister up for failure.

This is a proper revenge story, I’m promised by those who read the LN!! Revenge stories about women are rare to come back, especially one that doesn’t make revenge look like a total evil thing lol.  What can I say, I have my interests.  Anyway, it’s super cathartic to watch Aria slowly unfold her masterplan to foil her sister’s plans and take everything that her sister had cherished in her previous life. And all that not to mention the certain powers that Aria later discovers she has at her disposal... :3c

-

Beware of the Villainess by Bbongdda Mask (story) and Pureunkanna (art)

I became the villainess of a novel! Do I hate it? No! I find it rather nice. A duke’s daughter equals a jobless rich person. How can I miss out on a chance like this?! This is the best chance to just enjoy life. I should throw out the main plot and just live life how I want to! Not long after waking up as the villainess, I witnessed my fiancé, the crown prince and the novel’s male lead, cheating. I saw him embrace a lady other than I and he was smiling so bright. I was brought to tears… Just kidding, I didn’t cry! My tears are worth too much to be wasted on that garbage. Instead of tears, I yelled out, “Your highness, are you trash?”

Why *I* like it:   Listen there are 2 ways to react to waking up as a villain of a series you once read… Either you turn the tables and become a good guy OR you can embrace it!  The world the novel is based on has the basic premise of the pure and good heroine winning the affection of 4 bratty, horrible men.  MC is the fiance of one of them and says fuck that.  She also has some thoughts that none of these dudes deserve the heroine of the novel but this one is still pretty early on so the jury still out on if she’s going to save this poor girl from her fate of ending up with any of these absolute assholes.

This one is along the veins of the previously mentioned Living As the Tyrant’s Older Sister, in that the pull for this series is even less of the romance and more about the comedy aspect… Also MC’s facial expressions are…. Choice.  Just so good. Enough with pretty girls making pretty faces!!  We need more girls being ugly.  It’s what we deserve.  Yell at cheaters!!!!!! Tell them to fuck off!! Yes please.

-

Accomplishments of the Duke’s Daughter by Reia (Story), Umemiya Suki (Art)

Although she had reincarnated as the daughter of a Duke's house, by the time she regained her memories, the Ending was already here.

"After he cancels my engagement, the story would have me confined to a church. Where can I find my happy ending?"

Why *I* like it:  I never read or watched Wolf and Spice but I imagine this is isekai Wolf and Spice… Well it’s got a lot about the economy at least lmao.   That’s literally the only thing I know about Wolf and Spice.  Anyway!!  The twist in this one is that the MC remembers her past life just as she’s about to be exiled, the end of the original game.  What the series focuses on is her life afterwards, as she scrambles to grab at any semblance of a good life… And she does so pretty quickly!

Her past life comes in handy as she sets to work managing a dukedom and fixes the economy!!  Moreover, even though it pains my heart whenever two women are pitted against each other… It does a great job of putting into question the original heroine’s pure shtick as she spends extravagantly on dresses and would rather just donate to the poor one day, instead of Iris the MC who sets to work on fixing the economy and creating jobs for the poor and putting money into bettering their lives in the long run, rather than throwing money at them and running.  Also, she’s grabbed the attraction of a mysterious man who takes a job helping her even though he is a prince aka the brother of her ex-fiance who he is fighting for the crown for.

-

And that’s it!! My list for now!! Tbh by next month there’ll likely be even more faves as I continue to add more and more series to my read list lol.  Because this isn’t even a fraction of all the reincarnation isekai series I’m into, just the best for certain reasons.

BTW, if you’re like... wow this list sure is straight then true unfortunately. I’m waiting for the day “I Favor The Villainess” gets adapted somehow.  Also there are several isekai in which a straight girl reincarnates into a yaoi novel but I haven’t found a true gem among them yet.

[def-initely-soul]

Please, can I have a 10, a 25 and Kim Seokjin (BTS), in a horrorish romance? Thank youuuuuuu!

of course my babeeeeeeeeeeeeee 💖

Bias: Seokjin from BTS

Prompt(s): #10 “Mmm, I appreciated that little murmuring you did in my ear.” “….That wasn’t me.” + #25 “Do you think keeping your eyes shut will keep you safe?”

Genre: Ηorror/Supernatural/PG-15

Warnings: Violence/Blood

Words: 2.5k

“Y/N, come on! I don’t like this place, it gives me the creeps!” your best friend Lucy whines as she rubs her arms in an attempt to warm herself up.

You roll your eyes at her childish fear as you keep going further into the abandoned mansion. “Relax, Luce, it’s just a house. No one’s been inside it for years…”

“And for good reason!” Lucy interjects as if scolding you, “I mean look at this place, it’s a miracle it hasn’t collapsed yet!”

Your eyes rake the lobby, Lucy’s voice like static at the back of your mind as you find yourself more interested in the contents of this house than your friend’s constant whining.

It’s clear the house has been abandoned for several years, mainly, from the lack of electricity and modern devices. The hardwood floors creak with each step you take, the worn-out carpets one step away from being ruined completely but their patterns are intricate, details well thought and you can’t help but wonder what kind of person used to live here. 

They must have been rich, that’s for sure. But who were they? Did they live alone? Did they have a family? Was this place once upon a time full of life or was it some recluse’s escape from society?

“God, this is crazy, even for me…” Lucy mumbles as she still follows you.

You suppose that’s true. Out of the two of you, Lucy is the wild one and you’re the reliable, more responsible one. While you were little Lucy would always drag you countless times in one of her adventures, unwillingly might you add just to come home hours later with cuts, bruises and a bunch of lies to feed to your parents.

Things didn’t exactly change when you were older, you still had to cover for Lucy. Only those times it wasn’t to parents but to other boys Lucy had dallied with and needed an escape from afterwards.

But you didn’t mind.

Okay, actually some times you did mind but that’s what friends are for. And Lucy has been there for you whenever you needed her and you wouldn’t change her for the world.

Although right now, her continuous nagging gets on your nerves.

“Seriously, what’s so great about this house?” Lucy shivers unwillingly, “This place is a dump…”

You don’t know how to respond to that actually. 

Technically, yes, you were the one that wanted to visit the old mansion at the outskirts of town but to be honest you never quite understood that dire urge deep in your belly to step foot into this house. You found yourself drawn to it every time you passed by with your car as if the building itself was calling you. As if it knew you belonged there, among the old furniture and dusty carpets. 

Of course, you know that doesn’t make any sense. 

But still, you couldn’t stop yourself from wanting, needing to come here at least once. To put your imagination to rest about the contents of this house.

Your steps bring you in front of the staircase, leading to the upper floor and you raise your head upwards. The next level is swallowed by darkness, hiding its secrets and all logic flies out the window when you turn to Lucy and say-.

“I wanna go upstairs.”

Lucy’s head snaps in your direction, eyes wide as if she cannot believe what she’s hearing.

“Are you nuts?! No, absolutely not. I won’t let you!”

You sigh, tired of your friend’s constant unsupportive behavior. “I didn’t ask you to come upstairs, I can go by myself well enough! Quit being such a scaredy-cat.”

Lucy lets out an exhausted breath, “It’s not about it being scary, okay? This house is most probably hundreds of years old! What if you go upstairs the floor collapses?!” she explains and you must admit she has a point.

Your answer dies in your throat as you ponder this. She could be right; after all the house doesn’t seem to be in top condition; it could crumble any minute.

But still, there’s something that pulls your attention to the top floor, that drags you forward to investigate, to explore, to find out what it is that’s making you so damn interested in this house.

“For once, you’re the logical one…” you mumble, eyeing up the stairs, already sure your friend is gonna hate you for this.

You hear the chuckle and satisfaction in Lucy’s voice when she says “Glad you could finally see that. Now, I think it’s time for us to- Wait, Y/N! Y/N!!”

But it’s too late as you run up the stairs, ignoring your friend’s calls of your name as you step foot onto the first floor.

You stop, deciding at the last minute to be at least a bit cautious while stepping into this. Your steps are light and airy as you walk down the corridor and Lucy’s voice, currently cursing at you, fades out quickly.

The carpeting from downstairs expands over this corridor as well, numerous portraits being covered by white sheets on the walls, the tapestry ripped apart at the seams. Dust is gathered on top of the sheets, down on the corners of the walls, as well as flying through the air. Up here the air is colder, no doubt due to broken windows you guess. A shiver runs down your spine and you wrap your arms around you to warm yourself when you see a slightly ajar door to your right.

Another chill rattles your bones. It must be the wind. 

You step closer, hair on ends and heart beating irregularly as if it’s trying to climb out of your throat. For some reason, you dread to open that door but at the same time, your body trembles in anticipation. A slight breeze creaks the door open a little wider and you find your hand moving on its own, growing closer to the doorknob, itching to touch it and push the door open when-.

Get out.

Your hand freezes mid-air, eyes wide as you feel your body shaking. Another chill travels down your spine, sending goosebumps over your skin when another breeze closes the door shut.

You jump on your spot, drawing your hand back immediately while frantically looking around for…

You don’t know. Did you hear right? Was someone else in the house? Or maybe it was Lucy.

“Lucy, did you come upstairs?” you shout out loud, suddenly feeling uncomfortable being alone in this part of the house.

“What?” the sound of her voice is distant and you already know her answer before she replies “No, I’m still downstairs.”

You stare at the floor confused. “But I thought I heard…” you mumble to yourself before taking a shaky breath.

Okay. Okay. Maybe you imagined it. It could have been the wind.

“Um, Y/N, I don’t mean to interrupt whatever you’re doing up there, but… You might want to see this…” Lucy’s worried voice reappears and you wonder what might have happened when you climb down the stairs, admittedly a bit relieved to leave that corridor.

You find Lucy in the center of the living room. staring up the wall at some portrait you can’t quite see from this angle. Her face looks shocked and almost… afraid. You quickly go close to her.

“Luce, what is it…?”  you begin to ask, only for your voice to drop silent as you rest your eyes at the painting she’s looking at.

Because there upon the wall, dressed in what only could be described as a 19th-century outfit is a very familiar person.

You.

“What the hell…?” Lucy mutters almost to herself as she takes a step back.

You, on the other hand, are frozen, legs stuck to the floor, unable to move, unable to take your eyes away from the painting. What is going on? That woman… she clearly looks like you. But you’ve never been into this house. And it’s been abandoned for so many years, how could your face be in a painting from the 19th-century?!

“I don’t understand…” you mumble, brows knitted in a frown as you take a step back. The face on the painting, your face, stares back at you, gazes through the pigments and varnish as if to tell you this is where you belong. This is where you should have been all along.

“Okay, this is nuts. I don’t care if you’re not done exploring yet, we’re leaving,” Lucy’s authoritative voice reaches your ears and she drags your hand forward, towards the front door.

“Also, I appreciated that little murmuring you did in my ear. Really mature,” her voice is full of sarcasm but you stop on your tracks as soon as she says this.

She turns to look at you, her forehead puckered. “What?”

“….That wasn’t me,” you whisper.

All blood drains from her face. Her eyes freeze on you, wide and terrified and for once you can’t find it in you to mock her.

Because you know she’s not making this up. Because you heard it too.

“We need to leave. Now,” she states, voice steady as a rock as she makes way to the open front door.

But then the door shuts closed with a bang.

And the mansion is swallowed by darkness.

“Y/N? Y-Y/N w-where are you?!” Lucy’s trembling voice comes from somewhere to your left and you stretch your arms forward in a pathetic attempt to find her.

“Luce, I’m right here, don’t go anywhere!” you yell to her taking smalls steps towards her voice, or where you think her voice came from.

But the darkness doesn’t allow you to do much and you trip, palms finding the floor as you feel your heartbeat quickening with every second that passes.

And then you hear a scream.

“LUCY!” you yell at the top of your lungs, as the screaming continues. Lucy’s pleading cries resonate through the entire house and your vision blurs by the tears that gather in your eyes.

You feel useless, the feeling of helplessness overwhelming you as you can’t find the will to stand from the floor. What are you gonna do?

It’s only when the scream reappears for a second time that you figure it out. Lucy’s voice travels around the house but it comes from upstairs.

You wipe your tears quickly, standing on your feet and rush up the stairs. You feel your heart at your throat as you climb the stairs urgently, wishing for Lucy to be safe.

The corridor seems infinite now, while Lucy’s cries of help resurface but this is the thing that helps you find out where she is.

But as you’re about to rush to her side, another voice reaches your ears.

“Do you think keeping your eyes shut will keep you safe?”

The voice is male, deep, taunting and resentful but also alluring. Sounding like voluptuous velvet, like a siren’s song that calls you to its deep waters to drown.

“You’ve come to my house willingly… And I’m hungry.”

You shake your head, ignoring the deep timbre of this voice or the growl at the end of its sentence as you find the door wide open.

Your steps are careful and silent as you walk into the room, the one you didn’t get to go in before. It’s a bedroom, expensive fabrics decorating the floor and walls, and a massive bed claims the center of it. Where Lucy lies immobile as a man, right about your age, looms over her neck.

You manage to conceal the gasp that was about to leave your lips as Lucy’s panicked eyes find yours. You put a finger over your lips to silence her, to not alert the man on top of her as you grab a candelabra from a table nearby.

Inhale, exhale. You need to do this.

One careful step after the other you get closer and closer to Lucy and the unknown man. You’ve paid him no attention but as you get closer you can see clearly that his face is hidden in the juncture of Lucy’s neck. And he’s kissing- wait.

No, he isn’t kissing her.

Instead, he’s…

He’s…

This time you can’t control the gasp that escapes you.

And it all happens in a flash.

The man retracts his fangs from Lucy’s neck and Lucy whimpers in pain. You yell for her to run as you swing the candelabra to the man’s head but his hand is quicker.

Instead, it grabs your hand and the candelabra and throws you against the nearest wall.

Your head hits the wall with a thud, numbing your senses as your hair falls in front of your face from the force of the throw. The man stands up, or you think he does due to your blurry vision and another figure, Lucy, climbs on his back to stop him. But he throws her against the wall on the opposite side of the room where she remains unconscious.

“No…” you manage to get out, your voice weak as you try to stand up only to fall to the floor once more. Your hand moves to the pocket of your jeans to fish out your phone only to realize the battery has run out.

The man is closer now, his feet right in front of you and he crouches down to your level.

You close your eyes stubbornly, heavy breaths escaping your lungs, wishing you never stepped foot into this house.

His hand nears your face. And it moves your hair aside.

That’s it, you think. This is how it ends.

But as you wait for the sting of his fangs… you realize it never comes.

So you open your eyes.

In front of you stands a young man, probably around your age and you have two words to describe him.

Incredibly handsome.

His skin looks pale, soft, in direct contrast with his jet black hair that falls into his eyes. Those are glowing red and if you didn’t see his fangs merely seconds ago you would’ve sworn you were dreaming.

The man is devastatingly beautiful and you can’t take your eyes away from him.

Soon you realize his eyes look weird.

Besides the fact they’re glowing red.

They look at you full with awe, bewilderment and… relief.

You can’t help but be confused by that but for some reason… he looks oddly familiar. You’re certain you haven’t seen him before but… something tells you you should remember him.

You should know who he is.

His voice breaks the silence.

“Mina…”

It’s just a whisper. A simple word carried through a whisper.

And yet.

And yet.

Something within you awakens. And it swallows you whole. Overwhelms you. Takes over you.

But now you remember.

“Seokjin…”

It’s just a whisper. A name carried through a whisper.

And yet it says everything.

Seokjin’s hand flies to your cheek and caresses it tenderly. You lean in, basking in the feeling of his skin on you after so many years.

“Finally. You’re finally back.” his voice is shaking as he rests his forehead on yours.

Your hand cups his cheek.

“I’m here my love. And I will never abandon you again.”

Never again.

[jinterlude]

Our Second Chance (Ch.3)

↳Story Header © @softjeon (do not steal this header!)

➳ Pairing: Kim Seokjin x Female OC

➳ Genre(s): Modern!AU, Royalty!AU, Modern Royal Family!AU , Enemies turned Lovers, Friendship, Humor, Romance, & Angst

➳ Words: 5.3K

➳ Summary: Have you ever gotten that familiar feeling when you first see someone? That strange connection between yourselves even though you have no clue where that came from. Yeah…that was the sensation that Sumin felt on a daily basis ever since she has come face-to-face with the one and only Kim Seokjin. Despite being named after their ancestors, two people who were madly in love with each other, these two cannot stand to be in each other’s presence. However, that must change or else history will repeat itself. Sounds like an adventure, right?

※ Previously: ch.1 | ch.2

※ Next time: ch.4 | ch.5 | ch.6 | ch.7 | coming soon!

Chapter 3 – You Scratch My Back. I’ll Scratch Yours.

Previously

Seokjin watched her fleeing body with curiosity. He became incredibly confused as to why the stubborn princess suddenly ran away after he explained how he got the painting.

         “What a strange woman…” He thought with an amused yet faint smile.

Minutes later, he snapped back to reality and walked back to his desk. As he picked up the documents, he carelessly tossed onto his desk, and tried to focus on preparing for his meeting. The meeting that he had been over a few hours late. Thankfully, his meetings would never officially commence until he instructed his receptionist an official notice.

His eyes scanned the same line over and over. Why was his mind in jumbles still?

More importantly…

Why did his heart suddenly feel off? Like it felt empty the moment Sumin rushed out. It was if his mind was longing for her presence again.

Seokjin shook that thought away instantly and went back to work.

Yet the image of her beautiful face would forever be etched in his mind.

         “What an interesting day, Kim Seokjin…what an interesting day…”

Unfortunately, Sumin did not share the same sentiments. The moment she exited his office, her phone vibrated uncontrollably. She walked further along the corridor before digging out her smartphone. She held her index finger to the reader and unlocked the device.

Her eyes nearly popped out as she homed in on the 100+ notifications. Why were there so many messages? More importantly—why were a majority of them from her parents?

Wait…

Oh no…

Sumin ignored the messages and instantly dialed her mother’s number. A heavy sigh exited through her nostrils as she tried her best to calm down. The last thing she wanted was to blow up in front of Seokjin’s workers; thus, solidifying his suspicion on her being this easily-tempered princess.

The phone rang and rang until it eventually went to voicemail. Sumin puffed out her cheeks before pulling away the smartphone and locking it again. She then shoved it back in her purse and continued her tiny journey towards the entrance.

Her mother was going to hear a mouthful from her the next time she sees her…

Soft whispers of the wind brushed through the locks of hair. The familiar scent of salty air invaded the nostrils, creating this calming aura all around. Trillions of stars twinkled in the night sky as it surrounded the ever so luminescent full moon, acting as its bodyguard. The waves repeatedly crashed against the cliff as an unknown woman stared longingly out to the vast sea.

Sumin squinted her eyes, hoping to catch a better look at the woman.

         “Hello?” She called out, scrunching the hem of her dress and taking the first step towards the stranger.

Chilling sensations entered through the pads of her feet as Sumin was not prepared to handle the damp rocks, however, she strolled on, desperate to uncover the mystery that was the woman who simply gazed out to the ocean.

         “Excuse me!” Sumin shouted once more as the gap between them shrunk with each movement.  

         “Have you seen my love?” asked the woman; her voice laced with desperation and sadness.

Sumin stopped in her tracks, unprepared for her sudden question. Her brows knitted together as her muddled brain managed to recognize the familiar tone of voice. However, she decided to not say anything as her top most priority would always be to help the people in need.

She resumed her steps until she was practically right behind her. The unknown woman could feel Sumin’s breath on the back of her neck if she wanted. That’s how close Sumin was yet for some strange reason, Sumin could not move away. Something drew her in towards the woman.

         “I’m sorry?” Sumin questioned, wanting a more detailed question from the woman.

         “My love. It has been quite some time since I last saw him. Please. Tell me that you have seen my one true love lingering around the castle grounds… There is something that I must confess to him…” The woman said.

Sumin could not see her face, but she could tell the woman was on the verge of tears. Oh God… Sumin hoped that she would not become like her if she were to fall in love. Love was both a scary yet beautiful emotion.

As she was about to answer, the woman slowly turned, revealing bits of her face, and just as Sumin registered who the face was, she suddenly felt her body being touched. She felt something blanket over her, which was rather odd since she was standing and fully awake.

Unless…

         “You have to be quick. While my daughter is quite the heavy sleeper, she does have her moments where she wakes quickly if disturbed.” A voice warned, alarming Sumin and causing the foreign woman to vanish from her sight.

         “Wait come back!” Sumin shouted, jolting awake and causing the unknown piece of fabric to fall from her body.

Sumin’s mother eyed her with nothing but pure concern, forgetting that she had been measuring Sumin for her future wedding gown.

         “What’s wrong, Sumin?” The queen asked, placing a warm hand on top of hers.

Sumin shook her head and told her mother that it was nothing. She further added that it was just a questionable dream. As she talked her to her mother, her eyes trailed down, noticing a piece of ivory cloth covering her navy-blue comforter.

Sumin slowly grabbed the cloth, letting out an angry sigh. She stared at the fabric and demanded her mother to explain what she had been doing to her while she slumbered.

         “I was just getting a head start on your wedding dress, my precious daughter. Besides, the deadline that your father had stated is soon approaching, so I thought why not,” The queen smiled sweetly at Sumin, “There has been little to no progress between you and that Seokjin fella, and Namjoon is more than a suitable husband for you. You just need to accept it and learn to love him. After all, all great relationships start off with a wonderful friendship.” The queen finished her speech before exiting Sumin’s room with the seamstress trailing behind.

Sumin nearly gagged at the thought of marrying Namjoon. Yes, he had been nothing but a true friend to her, but again, that was it. He was only her dear friend, and there was no way in Hell that she would ever see him in a romantic light.

Letting out a strong huff, Sumin flopped back on her bed; her head lightly landed on the fluffy pillow. She then grabbed her comforter and covered her entire body, her face included.

She closed her eyes and hoped to drift back to dreamland. Sumin was dying to know who the face was, and why the woman looked so familiar to her. More importantly, why had she been having that recurring dream ever since her face-to-face meeting with Seokjin? Ever since that day, Sumin could not shake off this feeling of complete desire. The need for him to hold her nice and close against his broad chest. His hands firmly anchored on her hips; his touch ignited a strange sensation throughout her entire body as he stared at her with nothing but pure love. God, just the mere thought of his fingers softly grazing her delicate skin sent her mind into a frenzy.

It honestly did not help that she had the image of his handsome face, particularly his gorgeous mouth, etched in her brain. That mouth of his was the center of some fantasies that left Sumin satisfied at the end of her self-pleasuring…

As her body and mind slowly succumbed to thoughts of Seokjin ravishing her neck with his plump, addicting lips, a buzzing sound invaded her ears and interrupted the mood. At first, she ignored it but then it got too noticeable. She sighed yet again and uncovered her face. She reached for her phone, that’s currently attached to her charger cable, and detached it.

Unbothered to check the caller-id, Sumin answered the call. Her breath instantly hitched the moment she heard his irresistible, deep voice. Damn, this man had interesting timing.

She quickly cleared her throat, hoping to rid of the shakiness in her tone, before asking,

         “Seokjin? May I ask how you got my number?”

She heard Seokjin chuckle before replying,

         “Oh…that… Well, you see I may have obtained it from Jungkook, who obtained it from your friend, Sowon.”

A heavy sigh escaped her lips as Sumin took a mental note to choke her dear friend the next time she saw her.

         “Sumin? Are you okay?” asked Seokjin, trying to mask the worry in his voice.

Sumin snapped back to senses and replied,

         “Huh? Oh, yes. I’m fine. Sowon is an interesting character to say the least…”

She then heard his chuckles before adding that he knew all about interesting characters. His gang of friends were the prime example of that which caused Sumin to giggle in response. Wait, did she just giggle? Sumin never giggled in her life…what kind of spell did he cast on her? How did he manage to bring out new emotions that she had never felt before? What was wrong with her?

         “I don’t doubt that. I mean, Namjoon is a mutual friend of ours.”

         "Indeed, he is. Indeed, he is.”

Suddenly, a blanket of comforting silence covered them. For some reason, no words were needed right now. The sounds of soft breathing were sufficient. Seokjin thanked the stars that it was just indeed a phone call. If he were to ask a certain question in person, he would be a nervous mess.

Like Sumin, ever since that day in his office, he could not stop thinking about the fiery princess. The princess that had no shame in putting him in his place. The princess that had a rather colorful vocabulary during their loud argument. Something about her, he just could not forget even if he tried—but he knew that he didn’t. Her doe-like eyes that stared at him with pure annoyance. Her innocent smile that covered the snarl she had seconds before. It was a mystery to him how this one princess could radiate pureness yet became this ticking bomb with each passing moment.

Above all…it was a mystery to him on why he had planned numerous of ways to ask her out on a date.

The Gods of romance played a fascinating game with his love life, and Seokjin allowed it—he allowed it.

         “I’m sorry, but can you repeat that?” asked Seokjin the moment he heard her melodious voice speak.

On Sumin’s end, she chuckled softly and repeated her question.

         “I asked, what do I owe the pleasure of your phone call, Seokjin?”

Seokjin’s heart stopped briefly. Shit. All his rehearing went out the window. He practiced in the mirror of his bathroom. He practiced in the mirror of his office. He pretty much took every single chance to practice the perfect date proposal. Why? Well, Namjoon called him a fool.

         “You are acting like a lovesick fool dude…” Seokjin recalled Namjoon’s words. Words that he agreed with unfortunately…

         “Seokjin?” Seokjin heard Sumin say, pulling him away from his jumbled thoughts.

He cleared his throat, calming his mind. Just as he opened his mouth to speak, he heard a door open on Sumin’s end followed by her asking what the person wanted.

The rest of the conversation was muffled, and he could no longer make out the words. He would pick up bits and pieces; sadly, the words that were clear caused this sense of nervousness to surge through his veins. That feeling of anxiety that resulted in his heart speeding up and his breathing becoming sporadic.

The once happy and feeling of love soon became replaced with a foreign emotion. A strange sensation that created irrational thoughts and scenarios that only frustrated Seokjin.

It also didn’t help that the unknown person mentioned his close friend, Namjoon.

The same Namjoon that was engaged to the princess. The princess he had fallen smitten for and wanted to take out on a romantic date.

No…

He couldn’t do that to Namjoon. While, yes, it was an arranged marriage between the two of them. He could not, with a good conscious, take that potential chance of romance blossoming between them away.

Though it was rare for two people to fall in love during an arranged marriage, it was not unheard of. Knowing that, Seokjin could not do that to his dear friend. At the same time, while he was thinking that, he had forgotten that Namjoon expressed discomfort on the arranged marriage on numerous of occasions.

Seokjin was utter and completely confused, and his irrational thoughts were not helpful whatsoever.

Not wanting to hear Sumin’s rejection, Seokjin pulled the phone away from his ear and forced himself to hang up.

He locked his phone and then tossed it to the side before leaning on his office chair; his eyes stared blankly at the ceiling as he became alone with his thoughts.

         “What am I going to do with you, Princess Sumin? What am I going to do…?”

Meanwhile, with Sumin, she had grown tired of the conversation she had with her father. Once again, her father brought up the pending marriage to Namjoon and secretly rubbed the upcoming deadline in her face. She dismissed word after word and hurried her father out of the room as she wanted to go back to her pleasant conversation with Seokjin.

She faked a sweet smile as she watched her father retreat from her room. She waited for the sound of the door closing before rushing back to the phone call.

As she opened her mouth to resume the conversation, she noticed that her phone was back on the home screen. She furrowed her brows and opened the phone app. She clicked on Seokjin’s oncoming call and saw that the call had ended ten minutes ago.

A heavy sigh emitted from her lips as she flung her body back, however, the second she did that, a throbbing sensation entered the back of her head. Well, how embarrassing…

She rubbed the aching area as she contemplated calling Seokjin back, especially since she was even curiouser about what the purpose of his phone call was. Maybe, he was about to ask her out on a date?

Sumin’s eyes widened at the mere thought of him actually giving him a chance. A tiny smile formed while a pinkish tint painted her precious cheeks.

Oh wow…a date with Kim Seokjin.

Without a second thought, she tapped his number and proceeded to call him. Sadly, not even after the second ring, it went straight to voicemail.

Seokjin sent her straight to voicemail…

She didn’t understand why, but that small gesture pierced her heart. Confusion flooded her entire body and mind as she questioned every single thought and pondered her previous words towards the man. She had thought the conversation was going smoothly yet he had declined her call.

With pursed lips, she ended the call and hooked her phone back to the charger. As she did that, an idea appeared to her. Why dwell on this so-called rejection? If Seokjin wanted a date with her, then a date there shall be…

Unfortunately, there were minor setbacks while planning a date with the one and only Kim Seokjin. The first day, Sumin had planned an ideal date for the two of them, where it consisted a walk around the park and a nice picnic with food cooked by her. She had spent the entire weekend making sure every single thing was perfect. With a determined smile, she picked up her phone and dialed Seokjin’s number. Before the phone reached the fourth ring, she heard his voice. Sadly, his voice was less than friendly…

         “Uh…well, I was wondering if you would like to accompany me to the park! I hear that some of our trees are beautifully decorated with the Autumn colors and—” Before she could finish her sentence, Seokjin flat out rejected her date request and then rudely hung up on her.

Sumin’s jaw nearly dropped to the floor as she stared in disbelief at her phone. She clicked her tongue out of annoyance as she picked up her office phone and dialed the mainline to the royal housekeeper. With an apologetic tone, she sadly announced that Seokjin could not make it to their date and told them that they should take the food to the local homeless shelter. The main housekeeper said a quick, “Okay”, before hanging up.

Sumin attached the phone back to the base and sat in her office chair. She slightly swiveled the chair, feeling the slump of rejection. She stared absentmindedly at the ceiling until an idea landed on her like a ton of bricks. She scrambled for her phone and then dialed Namjoon’s number.

If she were going to land a date with Seokjin, then she would need the help of someone who had been nothing but a loyal friend to both her and Seokjin.

Good idea, right?

Yeah…

In the next few days, even with the help of Namjoon, it had been proven useless. No matter what Namjoon suggested, Seokjin would instantly reject her. His words became incredibly colorful each time.

Now, sheltered inside her office yet again, it had been a full-on week since her first attempt of asking out Seokjin, and she had been batting at an average of 0 hits. Every time she went up to bat, she swiftly stroke out before she could even think about swinging.

She needed a different approach. Something that would catch Seokjin off guard—basically speechless.

Wait…

That was it!

Different! She needed to recruit a certain queen to assist.

         “You’re kidding, right? You really want Seokjin’s first meeting with Sowon to be when you’re trying to win a date with him?” Namjoon questioned cautiously.

Sumin glared at Namjoon, “I could care less right now. She’s an expert on capturing the attention of anyone and as you can see, I am pretty desperate right now…” She stated as she texted an SOS to Sowon.

Namjoon could only sigh in response as his little façade threatened to break, like tiny glass shards that fell piece by piece. Every time Sumin would mention Seokjin, and the fact that she had been trying so hard to land a date with the pretty boy, only left a sense of pain within in his heart.

It had been a huge secret that he kept buried deep inside. A secret that hid his true, genuine feelings towards the princess. He had been in love with his best friend for years, and it truly sucked knowing that she could never see him in a romantic light. He would be lying to say that he didn’t honestly try to change her mind. He had dropped subtle hints that he wanted to give them a try, but Sumin only thought that he was simply acting to keep her parents happy.

Every kiss on the lips fueled his love towards her. Honestly, he was the fool in love. A fool to be in love with someone that had her eyes on someone else—his best friend.

Only Yoongi and Hoseok knew about his dark secret and tried numerous of times to convince him to tell Sumin the truth, but Namjoon knew better. He knew better that no matter what, he’d rather stay her friend and have her in his life than not at all. At the end of the day, he lived true to his motto.

         “Her happiness is my happiness…”

With a forced smile, Namjoon sat close to Sumin and wrapped a warm arm around her shoulders, pulling her close.

         “Well, there was one idea that we haven’t tried yet,” He began, earning himself Sumin’s undivided attention, “I have one more idea for a date that would definitely leave Seokjin speechless and saying yes…” He trailed on as he began unveiling his idea.

Unknown to the two of them, Sumin’s father happened to be walking by when he heard sounds of laughter. He quickly peeked inside his daughter’s office, and his heart practically soared at such a sight. The sight of Namjoon and Sumin sitting rather closely and smiling as if they loved one another.

Wanting to share the news with his wife, the King slowly closed the door and hurried towards the garden. As he hurried down the corridor, he failed to notice that Sowon headed towards Sumin’s office.

Sowon’s brow raised as she wondered why Sumin’s father wore the biggest smile she had ever seen. She quickened her pace as she closed the gap between herself and the door.

Unbothered with the whole knocking, Sowon barged right in and announced,

         “You know…from my years of knowing you, my soft princess, I have never seen your dad smile that wide.”

Both Sumin and Namjoon stared at the queen with pure confusion. Their brows were knitted together. Tiny creases formed on their foreheads. Finally, Sumin spoke first, asking Sowon to clarify what she had meant.

         “Well, what I mean is that your dad looked like he had just won the jackpot and ran off to tell someone the news…” Sowon explained, taking a seat on the leather couch.

Sumin’s eyes immediately widened, and she dashed out of the room. She ran down the hallway but came to a halt the moment she saw her dad talking to Seokjin as he shook his hand.

Not good. Not good at all.

Letting out a huff, she stomped her way up to her dad and once again came to a stop. What she heard next left her speechless and further angered her.

         “I knew that Namjoon and Sumin would work this out,” She continued to witness her father shake Seokjin’s hand and beaming in happiness, “I am honestly over the moon that I would live to see my daughter marry, and while I have just met you Sir Seokjin, I am personally inviting you to the upcoming nuptials.” The king finished, finally ceasing in shaking Seokjin’s hand.

Sumin rolled her eyes as she walked up to her dad and tapped him on the shoulder.

         “I can’t believe you, daddy. I thought I have told you that both you and mom need to stop planning my wedding behind my back! I have stated countless of times that Namjoon and I are just friends, and I will never marry him. Okay?” She said; her tone laced with frustration and anger.

Her father waved off her harsh words, “Are you sure? I have heard you and Namjoon laughing and you can’t tell me that the smiles the two of you wore were fake.”

Sumin rubbed the sides of her forehead. Her patience wore thin. She wanted to disappear and just forget about everything and anything that dealt with her stupid engagement.

         “See, Seokjin, she is quite speechless from thinking about her earlier interaction with Namjoon.” She heard her father say. Wait, Seokjin. Her endless frustration made her forget that Seokjin was there as well.

She mustered the sweetest smile ever and turned towards Seokjin. Her next action captured Seokjin off guard.

         “You see, daddy, the reason for the smiles and laughter is because Namjoon was helping me plan the perfect date for Seokjin and I,” She then hooked her arm around Seokjin’s, “And then you just ruined the surprise…” Sumin stated with a cute pout on her face.

Sumin’s father eyed her strongly, trying to find the lie within her words. Then, a short hum left his lips and just as he opened his mouth to say something, what Seokjin said next caught, only him off guard, but Sumin as well.

Her mouth became agape. That’s how shocked she was to hear the words that came out of his lips.

         “I am sure whatever date you have planned for us, sweetheart, it will definitely be one to remember,” He placed a soft kiss on her temple, “I just hope I am not too late to retract my rejection on your offer on the many dates you had proposed earlier,” He then switched his focus on to Sumin’s father, “You see, I felt so bad for rejecting her previous offers since I had important business to attend to, and I honestly did not want to keep standing her up, however, after seeing her humongous effort to keep planning these romantic dates and wanting to spend time with me, I see now that it is incredibly important to find the balance between my work life and my love life.” Seokjin finished with a sincere smile as he eyed Sumin with pure adoration.

Sumin felt her face flush as her heart skipped a beat. Hearing his words made her swoon…too bad her rational side knew that he was merely acting and unintentionally making her predicament worse.

Wanting to keep the act up a little longer, Sumin smiled sweetly and told Seokjin that he had been forgiven, and she was honestly happy that he had finally found the time to be with her.

Sumin’s father nodded, believing in the words that Seokjin said. His mannerisms kind of reminded of himself when he was pursuing Sumin’s mother.

Ah the good old days.

Yet, being the protective father that he was, he still kept a watchful eye on Seokjin. He then smiled warmly at the two of them and bid them a fond farewell before walking away to attend to his daily royal duties.

Sumin maintained her smile until her father’s backside was no longer visible. The second he disappeared from her sight, Sumin immediately dropped the façade. No longer wearing the sweet, warm smile, Sumin’s lips remained neutral while her eyes bore the emotions. The rather furious emotions. She unhooked her arms from his and then crossed them over her chest. Her jaw clenched in anger.

         “What the fuck was that about?” She asked coldly, demanding an answer from the handsome yet arrogant man.

Seokjin brushed off her sudden attitude and simply shrugged; through, deep down he didn’t know how to answer her question. Why had he chimed in like that? Why did he place a sweet, innocent kiss on her head?

More importantly, why had that ugly, foreign emotion infiltrated his heart once again? He definitely he needed some one-on-one time with Sandeul and Ken. Those two, outside of his inner circle, were his most trustworthy friends—his brothers.

“Look, don't think too much into what I just did. From what Namjoon had told me, the two of you hate the whole wedding talk and since I don't like seeing him uncomfortable, I decided to do you guys a favor. Now, you owe me." He “kindly” explained, smiling smugly near the end.

Sumin gawked. Did she just hear him right? She owed him? Yeah. No. That was not happening.

Her eyes narrowed, practically disappearing, as she breathed heavily. Her temper skyrocketed at that moment.

         “Owe you? Are you kidding me right now?!” Sumin questioned loudly, looking at him in disbelief.

Seokjin shrugged, averting his gaze. The reason behind that was because he eyes homed in on her chest as it heaved up and down. He thanked and cursed the Gods for blessing his eyes, and the fact that Sumin decided to wear a blouse with a v-neckline. Because of that, he got a good look at her chest…

Wow, he became this pervert when it came to her—and it all started that fateful day in his office last month. Since that day, he could not get her out of his mind. Specifically, he could not get the image of her plump lips out his mind. God, he would be lying if he told one of his friends, right now, that he had never fantasized about the princess. How her lips would feel around his cock. How her moans would sound whether he thrusted mercilessly or took his sweet time. Damn, he felt himself hardened at those unholy thoughts, and what made it even worse, practically creepy, was that while he thought about making love to Sumin, she was busy yelling at him.

Speaking of which…what was she hollering about now?

Seokjin tuned back in with a disinterested expression sketched on his handsome face.

         “I don’t owe you shit! Because of what you have done, I have to now devise a whole new plan with Namjoon and some how manage to convince my parents that you and I will never be an official thing!” Sumin ranted loudly, “And to think…I was going to offer you a deal because I have heard about your tiny dilemma with Malaysia and Thailand and out of the kindness of my heart, I had written them both a convincing letter that pretty much hints at you earning the title of “prince” because of your relationship with me. Now. I’m going to burn those letters since you oh so kindly screwed me over.” She added before turning on her heels and storming back to her office.

Before she had gotten completely away, Seokjin reached out, gently grabbed her wrist, and pulled her closer.

Sumin’s eyes flickered to her wrist and then at Seokjin. Her gaze hardened as she demanded him to unhand her or else she’d scream bloody murder.

Seokjin rolled his eyes, unnerved by her threats. He then shot her look that pretty much said, “Sweetheart, you need me just as much as I need you.”

Sumin roughly freed her wrist and sighed loudly, glaring at the duke. She despised that he was right. She hated being wrong.

         “Okay. Fine. Just stop staring at me like that and wipe that smug smirk off your face,” She paused, inhaling and exhaling nice and slow, “I hate that you’re right…Alright, I propose a deal between us. In exchange for these letters that will secure your company’s trading routes with both Malaysia and Thailand, I want a fair chance with you. You will accompany me on these dates and develop a fresh new opinion. What you “know” about me before is gone from your mind, and by the end of the sixth month of my deadline you don’t develop any romantic feelings about me, then we can end things on a neutral note. Deal?” She proposed, holding out her hand for him to shake.

Seokjin remained silent, taking in the deal she had offered before him. In exchange of those letters that would help out his family tremendously, he’d only have to go on dates with her? There’s no way it would backfire right? The royal families of Malaysia and Thailand would back out if their relationship ended? Maybe he should ask…which he did.

Seokjin hummed in response as Sumin gave him her word that she’d make sure that Thailand and Malaysia would not back out of trading agreement if their relationship were to end.

He rubbed his chin, feeling the tiny stumble, as he thought about the different outcomes of this arrangement. His mind came up with mostly positive results. His family would benefit, he could engage in meaningless sex with the princess, and then hopefully sort out his feelings towards Sumin. At the end of this, he’d happily declare that it was never romantic feelings he felt towards her, and it was just lust and then move on with his life.

Yeah…

Lust…

What a load of bullshit…Seokjin knew that it wasn’t lust. Well his heart knew it wasn’t just lust. He was a fool that was completely infatuated with the woman, who patiently waited for his hand to shake. Unknown to him, that woman felt the same way. She too became heavily smitten with him. One could say that she was teetering on the fence of being in love with him. However, her pride had gotten in the way, and she’d never admit that she had some sort of romantic feelings towards him.

With a heavy sigh, he placed his hand into hers and shook it, ignoring the fiery touch that ignited the moment his palm came into contact with hers. That warm sensation that entered his heart, causing it to beat uncontrollably.

         “You got yourself a deal, princess…”

A/N: Okay! We are slowly leaving the train station and heading straight towards the romance and the angst that is Seokjin & Sumin! I hope you guys like this update! I’m incredibly sorry that these updates are tad slow (even more so with the writing process since my motivation/inspiration comes and goes and then I’m juggling an internship, studying for my teacher tests, and can’t forget school work! I hope you guys are understanding!) I shall see you guys in the next update! Maybe you guys will even see never before scene from Fight for Me via flashback!

Don’t forget to leave a like/reblog/comment/ask in my inbox! I love hearing your thoughts! :)

- Kim

[dc-translator]

[ENG TL] 190408 Ananweb Interview

Notice: This translation was completed without any permission or endorsement from the copyright holder. I do not hold the copyright to the original article or the photos used here. As such, a license cannot be specified. This translation will be taken down if the copyright holder wishes so.

Photography: Ogasabara Masaki (stills) Chiba Satoru (Video) Article: Yi Soohee – 2019.4.8

Original article: https://ananweb.jp/column/kpop/225499

Since their debut in January 2017, Dreamcatcher has stood out as a unique group in the K-Pop scene, featuring the “Nightmare” concept while singing and dancing to Metallic rock sounds. Employing heavy sounds and armed with vocal and performance skills to match, as well as music videos with strong story elements, they have gained worldwide recognition. In just 5 months after their debut, they had grown enough to hold world tours that included Asia, Europe, and Latin America. They made their much-awaited Japanese debut last November with 「What-Japanese ver.-」. On March 13th, we interviewed Dreamcatcher members as「PIRI～笛を吹け～-Japanese ver.-」was released. We talked about the charm of Dreamcatcher as a group.

From the left, Siyeon, Gaheyon, Handong, SuA, JiU, Yoohyeon, Dami.

--‘PIRI ~Fue wo Fuke~ -Japanese ver.-’ is your second Japanese single. What is the song like?

JU: ‘PIRI ~Fue wo Fuke~ -Japanese ver.-’ is a song that expresses the loneliness that people face in modern times. The song depicts an attempt to escape the Nightmare, which is also our concept.

SA: To relieve the stress and melancholy of modern life, listen to our song, ‘PIRI ~Fue wo Fuke~ -Japanese ver.-’. We hope it helps reduce stress, even if it’s just a little bit!

--The song was a big hit in Korea as well. Are there any stories from during the recording or the Korean promotions?

SA: This was a song that got us excited even as we were recording, and a song that allowed us to realize just how much we’d grown. We were nominated as a candidate for first place in music shows in Korea, though we sadly didn’t win. Even so, it was a valuable chance for us to get a feeling for our growth. The song also got us excited for our next promotion.

JU: There are parts where we say ‘hey!’ in the song. We say it on stage as well. On one music show, during this part, the voice of only one of us got broadcast. And it was a very threatening voice, too. (Laugh) The fans were also making a big deal about whose voice that was. We actually still don’t know whose voice that was. It wasn’t me, though.

SA: It wasn’t me either! Maybe it’s Yoohyeon.

JU: I think it’s Dami!

SY: Wasn’t it Gahyeon? She said herself, ‘It’s probably me.’

GH: Ehh. But it still could be someone else.

JU: Then let’s just leave it at this being a mystery forever. (Laugh)

SY: When we were recording that part, we thought doing it normally wouldn’t be any fun, so all seven of us did the part in seven different voices. That was fun.

JiU Leader, Sub vocal. Born on May 17th 1994, 167cm, Blood type: B, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you are chased by someone.

--About Dreamcatcher, your concept of catching nightmares is a unique one. Are you happy with the concept?

YH: When I first heard that our concept was ‘Nightmare’, I honestly was concerned. How in the world would we express it? But once we did it, it was so much fun. (Laugh) There really aren’t any other groups that go with such a different concept, so I think it helps us be noticed. In the past, I didn’t really listen to rock on my own, but as our promotions went on, I’ve come to really like rock!

SY: From the time I first heard of the concept, I thought it would fit us perfectly! I also personally like impassive expressions. I knew there would be someone out there who would see the charm of this concept.

SA: I feel that the Nightmare concept goes very well with metal and rock. Also, I think that thanks to this concept, our facial expressions turn out cooler, chic, and scarier. There are people who say they don’t really want to watch our music videos because they are scary. When I hear something like that, I feel just a little bit happy. (Laugh)

JU: Also, while ‘PIRI ~Fue wo Fuke~ -Japanese ver.-‘ is a rock song, it’s catchier than the songs that before it. I think it’s a song that can reach people who haven’t heard of Dreamcatcher until now. Dreamcatcher’s basis is rock. But we think we proved that we can present diverse styles of music to everyone.

Yoohyeon Lead vocal Born on January 7th 1997, 168cm, Blood type: O, Nightmare assigned: The dream where you wander unknown places.

--When I think of Dreamcatcher, the guitar riffs and the beautiful melodies stand out. What are the charms that Dreamcatcher offers as a group?

GH: Dreamcatcher is cool just for being Dreamcatcher! Friends told me that 'your group is good at everything.' Being thought of like that made me really happy, and boosted my confidence!

YH: Musically, our songs are rock based, so the strong vocals and sounds in them are charming.

JU: We think it's great when we can get fans curious! For instance, the story is an important part of our music videos. If you watch them while thinking about the storyline, you'll become a Dreamcatcher fanatic before you know it. (Laugh) In terms of our music, we covered many different genres outside of rock, so there's bound to be one song that you like.

DM: The fact that all of us are eager to learn is another charm of Dreamcatcher! We are never content to stay where we are now.  We train ourselves to do what we want to do and try new things. Even as a member, that's awesome!

SY: I think the gap between us on stage and us off stage is charming! When we do interviews like this, we're often told that we're cheerful and energetic, unlike how we look on stage. (Laugh) I think it’s fun how different we are on and off stage.

JU: Also, the fact that the members are as close as family!

SY: We’re often told that we’re like girl’s school students, because we don’t pretend to be innocent at all. (Laugh)

HD: I think every member is cute off stage. (Laugh) Especially Siyeon. She has a fierce look in her eyes on stage, making her look almost scary. But she’s actually cute and jokes around a lot off stage. Everyone likes eating, and also likes talking.

DM: I think JiU’s like that too. On stage, she’s a perfectionist. But off stage, she’s unexpectedly clumsy. (Laugh) Also, she usually likes to wear comfortable clothes. And though she may not look it, she's the biggest eater among us.

JU: I'm not picky. I eat anything!

SA: Everyone isn't afraid to try new foods. Even when we're overseas, we eat well. We clean off our plates and don't leave leftovers. (Laugh)

JU: Yesterday, we had Tendong, and it was so good. But it felt like I'd gain weight if I ate too much of it.

Siyeon Main vocal Born on October 1st, 1995, 166cm, Blood type: A, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you are confined to a small place

--Yesterday's events were the first you held in Japan in a while. How did it go?

JU: We met our Japanese fans for the first time in a long time. They are always warm. Whenever we meet them, they make us feel happy. We're so thankful!

--You must be realizing how popular you are in Japan by now. Are there any memorable stories?

GH: We were out shopping in Osaka when a fan recognized and approached us. At the time, I was surprised that there were people in Japan who knew us.

DM: Yesterday, a fan recognized us while we were waiting to get on the car, so we waved at them. For me, that was memorable.

SY: With this song, we reached 8th place on the Oricon chart! It's the first time we've entered the top 10 on the Oricon chart. I truly realized how much support our fans give us, and decided that we needed to work harder!

SA: When we went to Tower Records to do autographs, our album was sold out! It made me realize how popular we were. Yodel-ay-hee-hoo! Ah, please include the Yodel-ay-hee-hoo in the article!

SuA Main dancer, Sub vocal, Lead rapper Born on August 10th, 1994, 162cm, Blood type: O, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you can't move your body

--I will. (Laugh) What are you looking forward to during your time in Japan?

JU: The food, of course! The food in Japan tastes good and the plating is also pretty. The bentos are also plentiful. I always look forward to it!

DM: I look forward to the food, too. I really like the convenience store foods! When I go to convenience stores, I'm always checking for new products. Yesterday, I bought two and they were both great. Yoohyeon generally doesn't eat food she hasn't seen before. But this time, she took and ate what I was eating. (Laugh)

YH: It was something made of Sunagimo (Chicken gizzard) I think. It was totally delicious.

JU: There's something that I want to ask. Do Japanese people also go to convenience stores every day?

--The people who go frequently seem to go every day.

JU: So it's similar to Korea!

Gahyeon Sub vocal Born on February 3rd 1999, 160cm, Blood type: AB, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you fall from high places

--Though in Korea, convenience stores have areas to cook ramen, as well as seats where you can eat food. In Japan, stores like that are hard to come by.

SY: Japanese convenience store food is so good, though! Ah, I look forward to talking in Japanese. I like the Japanese language, and when I speak in Japanese, I feel like I get better at it more quickly.

--Is there a Japanese word that you memorized during your stay?

SY: Um... Let's see. (in Japanese) I can't remember... Ah, tonari(隣: adjacent, neighbor)! I memorized tonari.

Dami Main rapper. Born on March 7th 1997, 163cm, Blood type: A, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you get hurt

--You always sport fierce looking makeup on stage. Usually, what kind of makeup do you like to put on? Is there a type of makeup that you want to try this spring?

JU: I like to do my cheeks. I want to try the famous Japanese Igari makeup in various colours. Maybe purple. Wouldn't that be great!

HD: I'm very interested in makeup. This spring, you can't miss pearl colors!

GH: But Handong always likes pearl colors, not just during spring! (Laugh)

HD: Yes, yes. (Laugh) Pearl makeup is the proof of one's resolve. Cheeks are also important. For the color, I like coral.

GH: I like Peach Pink. It looks fresh, and I think it fits my face well. I try to make my makeup look natural.

SA: These days, it feels like matte has become less popular while glossy lips are back in fashion.

JU: In lip care, lip balm has become less popular while lip plumpers are in. They make your lips more pouty.

GH: In addition to lip plumpers, I like putting on glossy lipstick. I can't do it on stage, though. My hair gets stuck. (Bitter laughter)

DM: I'm okay. (Laugh) I'm not that into makeup. Usually, I’m often not wearing any makeup. Still, I don't like my lips being dry, so I never forget using lip balm. Recently, I really liked a honey colored lipstick that a Japanese fan gave me. I ended up ordering more of it online. (Laugh)

YH: Since it's spring, I want to try putting on cherry blossom stickers!

Handong Sub vocal Born on March 26th 1996, 165cm, Blood type: O, Assigned Nightmare: The dream where you are watched by someone

--How do you spend your days off?

DM: These days, I've started composing, so I often stay in the practice room alone, playing the piano.

SA: Awesome!

JU: I generally spend holidays with my family. We have meals, take foot baths, and eat delicious food together. Now I'm talking about food again. (Laugh)

SY: It's springtime, right? So I want to go hiking. The weather's  great too, so I also want to relax on a terrace of a cafe, maybe drinking some coffee.

SA: Again with the hiking talk!

JU: She’s talked about going hiking before, but she hasn't gone hiking yet. (Laugh)

SY: But nobody wants to go with me!

GH: On holidays, I want to get up late. After sleeping in, maybe go get a massage, or go out with friends. I want to eat something good, or go to an amusement park. I haven't been to an amusement park in Japan yet. We did stay in a hotel that was right in front of one, though.

YH: On off days, I don't want to get up from bed. Watching movies in my warm bed is the best!

HD: Whenever we get days off, I go eat chinese food.  Though I usually go with friends, on days when I just have to eat it, I'll go alone. (Laugh)

GH: Handong is the one who makes the most of her off days. By the time I get up, she's already gone. (Laugh)

HD: Not every day's a holiday. I've got to enjoy it!

SA: If we can get a long holiday, I want to go travelling. Though I'll probably just stay in bed while thinking that I want to go travelling. (Laugh)

--Lastly, can you set forth the strong points of Dreamcatcher for readers who haven't heard of Dreamcatcher before?

JU: Everyone, you're really missing out! You're wasting half your life! Not having heard of Dreamcatcher songs. (Laugh) It's still not too late. Please try listening to them once. It might just change your life!

This is Dreamcatcher's Q&A video!

[happymetalgirl]

August 2020

Black Crown Initiate - Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape

Black Crown Initiate are one of those bands who have so much going for them in terms of their potential and so much about them on paper sounds like exactly the kind of thing I could nerd the hell out over, yet neither of the band’s previous two albums really made that connection with me or showed themselves to be anything other than respectful substitutes for albums like Cynic’s Focus, or Rivers of Nihil’s Where Owls Know My Name, or Opeth’s Watershed. Like The Wreckage of Stars and Selves We Cannot Forgive, Violent Portraits of Doomed Escape draws moments of exceptional strength from modern metalcore to produce a few highlights such as “Years in Frigid Light”, “Sun of War”, “Death Comes in Reverse”, and the closing solo of “Holy Silence”, but its awkward balancing of softer passages and smoother clean vocals just serves as a reminder of how easy Mikael Åkerfreldt makes it look. The band again certainly showcase what great talent they have and that they have the chops to hold their own with this sound, but until they take their compositional style beyond Soen-plus-death-metal, they will have a hard time escaping the shadows of the big names in their field.

6/10

Misery Signals - Ultraviolet

Misery Signals’ output has slowed with the NWOAHM it was borne from, but after only gracing the previous decade with a single full-length (2013’s ironically titled Absent Light) with members preoccupied with side projects, the band re-united its original line-up with long-absent vocalist Jesse Zaraska and a reignited commitment to the phased-out version of melodic metalcore that they sported at the movement’s height of cultural relevance. There are some bright spots of greater melodic vocals invigoration like “Some Dreams” and the quick “Through Vales of Blue Fire”, but Ultraviolet sounds as out of place in this decade as it would be obscured into the background fifteen years ago, serving less as a testament to the glory of 2000’s metalcore and more as a reminder of how saturated the movement became with recycled material.

5/10

Year of the Knife - Internal Incarceration

I missed out on it last year, but Year of the Knife put out their debut album, Ultimate Aggression, last February, a half-hour ripper of no-nonsense metalcore that embodies the current movement that has fixated on reinventing metalcore’s grooves while staying in line with its central aggression. While Ultimate Aggression indeed embodied its title thoroughly, I was hoping it would serve as a filling appetizer for the main course of the group’s sophomore album, Internal Incarceration. After such a promising debut, I have to say Internal Incarceration is a bit underwhelming. The band still flex their hardcore muscles to the point of bulging out of their t-shirts and provide plenty of slam-inducing groove, which there are a few especially good highlights of on “Nothing to Nobody” and the title track. Unlike the creative grooves Ultimate Aggression teased an expansion upon, Internal Incarceration is a more generic display of strength, which makes for this longer listen unfortunately much less exciting. It’ll still get the kids in the pit swinging and kicking once that gets re-instituted, but they sound more like your average local hardcore band who heard Knocked Loose than an up-and-coming powerhouse of the genre.

6/10

Mesarthim - Planet Nine & The Degenerate Era

I feel like such a fool for taking this long to catch on to the prolific Australian project Mesarthim, whose expansive catalog has been all over Bandcamp in the five years since the band’s first release, with this year’s The Degenerate Era being their fifth full-length and Planet Nine being their seventh EP! I may be late, but I made it to the party to see what Mesarthim is all about. I’ve seen a few bands on Bandcamp tag their sound with the “void metal” label, and of the bands I’ve heard, I’ve not really found it to mean much beyond atmospheric black metal with a bit of a space-related aesthetic associated with it, but after hearing Mesarthim, I can see now that this migh be a genuine sub-genre branch of ambient black metal, the subtle but fearless incorporation of shimmering, chime-like electronics and synthetic choral elements really does evoke the vastness of space and the divine wonder of the cosmos. And the band’s two-song EP release this year, Planet Nine, definitely captures that with its bright melodic progressions and expansive synthetic whirring. It’s definitely very atmosphere-based, very dependent on the lushness of the sounds, which are unfortunately hampered in a few of the softer spots by some messy production, but the band’s smooth transitions do help them make up for the flaws in production quality (which I’m amazed they haven’t ironed out this many albums in), and the fixation on gorgeous atmospheres and intentional transitions makes me strongly suspect they take some notes from fellow celestially themed black metal ambient innovators Alrakis.

7/10

Clocking in at around 44 minutes, The Degenerate Era isn’t that much longer than its EP co-release this year, nor is it all too disparate in style, although the band do dip into more traditionally heavy black metal territory here and there, but otherwise it’s lots of expansive synthetic orchestral elements, lots of spacy guitar-playing, and a pretty gutsy dose of the kind of electronics that would send any already-squirming black metal purist over the top into a full blown temper tantrum. The greater range of emotional diversity on this LP in comparison to Planet Nine puts it a little bit higher for me, although both have a similar appeal and are indeed definitely worth checking out.

7/10

In the Company of Serpants - LUX

In the Company of Serpants continue their culinary tinkering with the latest melting pot of metallic styles on LUX, stirring various chunks of 90’s New Orleans sludge, modern death metal a la Rivers of Nihil, and even late-80’s thrash into a broth of atmospheric post-metal (which serves as a gratifying climax specifically to the opening track, “The Fool’s Journey”) that may not be the most groundbreaking dish in the planet, but the freshness of whose ingredients and the skill of whose chefs comes through in the good consistency of the project. I liken it to a soup in that it’s based heavily on atmospheric post-metal and that it’s hard to get a bite of this album without it, and that there are various pieces of meatier genres in there usually popping in one spoonful at a time. Personally, it’s a soup I enjoy and one I think anyone who enjoys some dynamic post-metal or likes their atmospheric metal with a spiritual feel would enjoy.

7/10

Terminal Nation - Holocene Extinction

Terminal Nation are a five-piece from Little Rock, Arkansas who make their full-length debut through the excellent upstart curators 20 Buck Spin, and the band’s aptly titled debut meshes death and doom metal in a flurry more angrily condemning than the average record in the field, occasionally unable to keep from spiraling into grinding blasts of fury in their rage against the capitalism whose very design has oppressed so many and ushered in ecological catastrophe and a new wave of fascism. 2020 has made political commentators out of many, and Terminal Nation are not shy about where they stand and where they place the blame for our world’s ills, targeting the military industrial complex on “Death for Profit”, for-profit medicine on “Caskets of the Poor”, and capitalism as a whole on “Master Plan”. Despite the songs being easily stylistically categorized, the band refuse to let one hybrid genre label define them as a whole, exuding old-school grindcore through filthier guitar tones on songs like “Thirst to Burn” and “Leather Envy”, while slower tracks like “Cognitice Dissonance” and “Expired Utopia” opt for a slow roast kind of scorched Earth, borrowing the occasional nasty metalcore breakdown along the way. Covering a relatively wide range of styles and an array of apocalyptic topics, Holocene Extinction is as blunt in its delivery instrumentally as it is lyrically, and it hits as hard as an album of its nature should, setting this band up on a great start. Fight on!

8/10

Krallice - Mass Cathexis

Already the eight LP for New York’s prolific black metal experimentalists, Mass Cathexis finds the ordinarily forward-thinking band at a loss for major ideas beyond doubling down on he technicality of their sound to the point of stepping on a few of the land mines in the techdeath minefield. They still work in plenty their of their usual progressive song structuring and cerebral atmosphere, and I do enjoy it enough, but I know Krallice can do better than this. And I’m sure they will, and it’ll probably be pretty damn soon too.

6/10

Drouth - Excerpts from a Dread Liturgy

On their sophomore effort through Translation Loss Records, Portland-based quartet Drouth dress up their abundant competence with the basics of blackened death metal as a grander artistic statement than it really is with five epic, yet dragging, showy, yet shallow songs of rather generic material for the genre. I respect the band’s commitment and I give them credit for the performative abilities they showcase on their second album, but I can’t pretend to be wildly excited about 40 minutes of run-of-the-mill blackened death metal.

6/10

Faceless Burial - Speciation

This is the second full-length record from Melbourne three-piece Faceless Burial who have kept a pretty steady pace after their first demo release in 2015 and their independent full-length debut in 2017. Released through Dark Descent Records, Speciation is a refinement of the blunt, bellowing death metal that the band presented on their debut. Packed with delicious low-register guitar riffs, rumbly bass lines, and manic blast beats, Speciation is a candid portrait of much of what makes modern death metal what it is, and what makes it so delicious even looking up at its top tiers. I think Faceless Burial could certainly one day reach those top tiers, and Speciation is a strong step in that direction.

7/10

Avatar - Hunter Gatherer

Swedish quintet Avatar are nothing if not creative, and their decision to go all-in on the circus-freak aesthetic seems to have catalyzed the wildness with which they reimagine and remold melodic death metal. And they’ve certainly been actively prolific over the past decade that saw their emergence into the spotlight, releasing consistently every two years, and they’re right on time this year with Hunter Gatherer. Coming off of the bombastic tale of 2018’s Avatar Country and knowing that the band have a penchant for concept albums, I was eager to see what Hunter Gatherer’s might be, and while there’s no connective narrative, the album generally sticks to a theme of gazing into a chaotic future. The sensational Swedes kick off this year’s effort with its most uncharacteristically generic display, the standard melodeath “Silence in the Age of Apes”, but the album doesn’t take long at all to get to Avatar’s usual extravaganza as the second track, “Colossus”, immediately kicks of with a punctuated siren wail and from the get-go you know you’re in for a ride, and the track’s swaggering mid-tempo march is headbanging as fuck. Oh the invigorating melody just keeps coming too; “A Secret Door” balances alternative rock’s soaring triumph with the natural tendencies toward that feeling from melodeath. The song “Child” captures Avatar’s essential traits with its risky stage-production sway, its soaring chorus, and it’s rumbling low-tuned foundation that all serve the band’s grand ambition in spectacular fashion, and the subsequent “Justice” only soars even higher from there with its palm-muted-backed chorus and Johannes Eckerström’s absolutely fist-raising vocal melody. And the Swedes keep the high-stakes moves coming with the grippingly candid piano balladry of “Child”. As with every Avatar release, though, there are some songs that don’t fly over so well, but only two out of the ten. The band’s switch into half-measured seven-stringed eccentricity on “God of Sick Dreams” is just one of the moments that feels like it could have been a bigger display of creativity, while “Scream Until You Wake” is a clumsily cheesy collision of melodic heavy metal and arena butt rock that unfortunately puts the band’s theatricality in a bad light. The album finishes on two powerful notes, though, with the quick thrash of “When All But Force Has Failed” that immediately reminded me of Bullet for My Valentine’s “Waking the Demon”, and the epic eight-stringed cinematic finale of wormhole. While I still may not have been in love with an Avatar album from start to finish, I still look forward to reviewing their music whenever they have a new album out because even if not everything they do on a particular record, the group’s zealous drive to put on a good show always yields an eccentric and exciting track list and the enthusiasm the band has for whatever imagination it is they’re realizing comes through in their performances. So even if there are a few acts during the show that don’t dazzle me personally, I stay for the whole performance because there’s never a dull moment, and there really is nothing else like it, and Hunter Gatherer has proven sticking around to be worthwhile, because the band have struck their most consistent effort yet, and one I can say I really do love as a whole even with its momentary flaws.

8/10

Moloken - Unveilance of Dark Matter

This came out way earlier in the year, but this is the fourth full-length album from Sweden’s version of Ulcerate, Moloken. I totally kid with how reductive I’m being there, but I mean that comparison as a compliment because Ulcerate are one of death metal’s most interesting acts at the moment and their album this year definitely bolsters their already-high reputation for post-death metal alchemy, and I’d say Moloken’s new album this year showcases how they perform similar sonic sorcery with the vile, grungy sounds of old-school sludge metal, transforming the heroin-intoxicated street babblings of depression into a cleaner, progressive form. And while some of that hyper-perceptible mental anguish is suppressed in that evolution, there’s still enough vibrant torment there inthe clangy bass lines and the yowling screams of agony underneath the layers of more complex, heavy, and modernized instrumentation. I think the song “Hollow Caress” probably highlights the span of older and newer sludge elements on this album best out of the tracks here, but really this whole album is an enthralling window into the spasms of the tormented psyche that might look all too familiar.

8/10

Ingested - Where Only Gods May Tread

Ingested cook up nearly 50 minutes of crusty blackened death metal similar to that of Ancst with a punchy deathcore edge a la Despised Icon or Venom Prison on Where Only Gods May Tread, and for as predictable as the results are, they do pack a solid punch that presents the rhythmic battery of deathcore as a worthy tool of death metal aggression rather than a purist-discredited development. And the band have even tapped a few members of the new and old guards to endorse their metallic campaign through collaboration; Crowbar’s Kirk Windstein joins in on the sludgy barn burner “Another Breath”, while hardcore advocates Matt Honeycutt and Vincent Bennett contribute their talents as well. While it’s, again, not the most groundbreaking of releases, Ingested certainly get the job done satisfactorily beyond what any reasonable purist could gripe about.

6/10

Thou - A Primer of Holy Words

After dropping their compilation of Nirvana covers just a few months prior, Thou hit us again with another compilation of cover songs they’ve done over the years that exemplifies their greater aptitude for the cover song when it comes to styles closer to their wheelhouse like the hardcore punk of Minor Threat and Born Against and the doom metal of Black Sabbath as opposed to the lo-fi grunge of Nirvana, though the band still insist on trying their hand at sludgifying a couple of 90’s grunge classics on a misguided cover of Alice in Chains’ “No Excuses” and Soundgarden’s “Fourth of July”. Like Blessings of the Highest Order, A Primer of Holy Words more or less just runs all the songs on it through a Thou processor to churn out a rather homogeneous mush of sludgy cover material out the other end. It’s a more complimentary batch of songs to the machine the band puts the songs through than the Nirvana covers were, but it’s not something that revolutionizes the originals or outshines Thou simply doing their own thing enough to have me itching to return to it.

5/10

Halestorm - Reimagined

Halestorm take all the punch out of their best hits like “I Get Off”, “I Miss the Misery”, and “Mz. Hyde” in this unnecessarily partially stripped back, partially minimally electronic remix/re-recorded EP of their gutsy modern hard rock catalogue, along with a passable cover of Whitney Houston’s classic “I Will Always Love You”. The unplugged mix of these songs spotlights Lzzy Hale’s booming voice even more than usual, but, again, unnecessarily removes her from her most fitting and supportive context. The neutering of the songs’ instrumental rock swagger to back Hale’s attitude-rich vocal delivery has mostly unfavorable results, the still-vibrant swoon of “I Miss the Misery” coming out the most unscathed, but the most butcherd of the bunch has to be the band’s most storied hit, “I Get Off”, which is about as lifeless as re-dos get. Honestly, the only point I can imagine the band attributed to this project would be the center Hale’s already very centralized voice, which is, not to be a broken record here, just unnecessary. I doubt it was her actual motive, but it’s like she didn’t want anyone else around her sounding good too, so she could stand out better. But more likely it was just another poorly conceived misfire of an acoustic EP of many, not the first or last of its kind. Perhaps my sharp distaste for this one is the impressive display Breaking Benjamin showed on their acoustic re-do album earlier this year.

3/10

Batushka - Raskol

Despite being lambasted as frauds by most fans of the original incarnation of the band after the legally-backed and Metal Blade-released Hospodi was embarrassed by the rushed, but clearly more artistically sound, Панихида (Panihida) from Krystov Drabikowski’s unofficial version of the Batushka project, and more or less exposed as such through the side-by-side release of the two albums, Bartłomiej Krysiuk’s version of Batushka still managed to strike a deal with Witching Hour Productions to release more material this year. I reviewed both Batushka projects last year and despite Drabikowski’s album feeling a bit rushed due to the circumstances of its release, it still blew Hospodi out of the water. Whereas Krystov’s album captured the aesthetic and compositional essence of the seminal Batuska debut, Bart’s album sounded like a generic blackgaze imitation of the real thing, which put the debate to rest for me and most of the Batushka fan base as to who was the deserving artist of the Batushka name. Nevertheless, Bart is giving it another go with the Batushka project in an attempt to earn back the trust he squandered amid the feud that boiled over last year. Biting off a smaller piece of material this time with the modest half-hour slab of Raskol, Bart actually does refine his craft to a slightly more respectable level after shamelessly pimping the band’s name out last year. Fans embroiled in the feud on Krystov’s side seem to forget that even if he wasn’t the driving force of the band, Bart was a part of Batushka from the start and for a long time, so it’s not really that outlandish or surprising that he would actually get better at doing the Batushka thing. While it does still lean on standard shoegaze elements to bide time when Bart’s imagination (or whoever he might have brought on to assist him this time around) runs dry, Raskol is a vast improvement on the cheap, inauthentic-sounding Hospodi, feeling like a much more believable part of the Batushka canon. I still understand fans’ skepticism of the validity of Bart’s incarnation of the Batushka project and I myself still don’t feel totally comfortable lending my full support to a man who hasn’t done much to contest the allegations of unethical actions against him. If this is to be the legal version of Batushka, so be it, at least it’s a little more believable now.

6/10

Primitive Man - Immersion

Denver’s Primitive Man have been the poster child for gargantuan, muscular death-sludge-doom for their entire career, whether it be on their various splits and collaborations or on their full-length projects. The band have played around with harsh noise as a supplement to their absolutely merciless core metallic sound, especially on the lengthy demo, P//M, but the hulk-powered trio have largely kept their main projects free of bells and whistles, which has certainly not led them astray. The band’s 2013 debut album, Scorn, was a sweat-inducing warm-up of direct, no-nonsense, hate-filled sludge metal, and the band quite literally doubled down on it on 2017’s 77-minute Caustic, whose undeniably captivating and fearsome ferocity and tapped so simply yet so tangibly into the core ethos of metal music in this day and age made it one of my favorite albums of that year. This year, the band trimmed it back to six songs clocking in at just 36 minutes, and despite its relative shortness, Immersion spends its time savoring the band’s doom at its usual slow-burning pace. Aside from the noisy two-minute interlude, “∞”, Immersion is another unyielding slab of the vibrantly hateful doom metal that made Caustic such a monolithic album. Despite its being built similarly to it predecessor, Immersion’s half-length feels like a half measure, checking all the boxes, but not really giving the band enough time to vary up their very thick but very homogeneous style except for the harsh noise interlude and the anticipatory buildup of “Entity”. The band are definitely powerful enough to doom-slam their way to finishing the mission though, and Immersion is by no means a failure to showcase that raw power.

7/10

Atramentus - Stygian

Donning your funeral doom metal debut album with a Mariusz Lewandowski art piece after 2017 is a pretty gutsy move in at least that it immediately draws comparisons to Bell Witch’s masterful Mirror Reaper, yet that is the first move Atramentus have opted to take (plus it’s not like a hundred other bands haven’t commissioned the Polish surrealist since then), but they were a bet that 20 Buck Spin has had no problem pitching in to for the Québec-based band’s long-awaited emergence onto the scene. The band’s sudden arrival with a sole release deceptively suggests they are a super new act, but the project has been on the shelves of vocalist/guitarist Philippe Tougas since 2012, who composed the album and kept it in the vault until 2018 (perhaps inspired as many of us were by Mirror Reaper) to finally record it. Stygian is a less melancholic doom metal album than a first impression of the cover might suggest given how many bands have adopted much of Mirror Reaper’s aesthetics. Instead, the debut album’s three tracks offer a refreshingly frightful mix of thundering, mega-chambered drums, Halloween-ish organ hums, dark ambient echoes, and deep rumbling growls and augmented throat chants that are similarly hellish, but also divinely ceremonial hums and emotive soloing during the last of the three movements that serve to maintain the vastness the album invokes. Indeed, the third song (which is half of the album’s length) rolls back some of the menace in favor of some more familiar mournfulness. And of course, this is all delivered at an absolutely tortoise-ish pace as is the key feature of the genre (save for the final burst of blast beats three minutes before the album ends), and of course it can very easily be reductively summed up as a condensed version of Four Phantoms or Mirror Reaper but I really do think Stygian will stand out from the largely homogeneous doom metal crop for what it does do differently with its more ominous elements and hopefully inspire Atramentus to stay active.

8/10

Innumerable Forms - Despotic Rule

The Boston five-piece are back with a two-track demo after a smashing debut in 2018 that captured the vile sludgy doom of Primitive Man and the adrenaline of brutal death metal. The first song on this year’s short offering, “Philosophical Collapse”, explodes out of the gate with deathly quick pace and fury until like a fatigued distance runner after a minute-long burst of speed, it succumbs to doomed sluggishness for the bulk of its runtime. The second and titular track is based on a slower Iommi-esque doom riff that slowly takes the modernized sounds of Sabbath into thrashy territory over the course of its nearly five-minute runtime. Both songs capture the aggressive doom at the heart of Innumerable Forms’ sound that made me love Punishment in Flesh so much, and I hope these songs are at least a sign of what is to come from the band.

Innumerable/10

Unleash the Archers - Abyss

I feel like for power metal especially, putting out a boring record can be worse than an incompitent or poorly executed album, and Unleash the Archers definitely provide strong support that with Abyss, whose moments of mild euphoria (which is an extremely generous description) are much too few and far between the slog of totally formulaic and under-delivered melodic autofill. Vocalist Brittany Hayes showcases her capacity for power metal drama on the epic “The Wind That Shapes the Land”, which only makes her utterly bland, zero-effort delivery across the rest of album that much more offensive. Yeah, I’ll keep it short and keep myself from going too in on this album, because, yeah it’s just boring, which is a massive and avoidable mistake to fulfill an easy baseline requirement for power metal, which, to me, is grounds for failure.

3/10

Incantation - Sect of Vile Divinities

Good ol’ Incantation are back with another 45 minutes of doomy death metal, the likes of Ossuarium, for example, have harped on, which, to give a ratio for clarity, is like 80/20 death/doom. Definitely more death metal gusto than doom metal void-gazing to avoid that pitfall of lethargy, the trade-off for this clearly minimally ambitious album being the numerous pitfalls of death metal. Sect of Vile Divinities definitely gets the job done and it’s sometimes pretty savory along the way, but it’s definitely not an above-average slab of meat from this particular slaughterhouse.

5/10

Kolossus - The Line of the Border

Kolossus is the one-man atmospheric black metal project of Genoa-based creator “Helliminator”, who released this debut LP back in March to relative silence. And with how saturated bedroom ambient black metal is, I get how easy it is for things to get lost in the weeds, but for anyone who stumbles upon this one, it’s definitely a good few leagues above your typical atmospheric black metal release, and Satanath Records did well to catch wind of Kolossus after the independent split release with Manon in 2018. The Line of the Border is a confidently dynamic record whose fluidity in its shifts from acoustic melancholy to post-metal sludge and somber, yet seething, black metal agony showcases Helliminator’s and his collaborators’ compositional ability. It’s a hard album to sum up, and that’s a good thing for an album in a field so easy to reductively describe.

7/10

Humavoid - Lidless

Lidless is the patiently-awaited sophomore album from Finnish four-piece Humavoid, who’s 2014 independent debut album caught the attention of up-and-coming German label Noble Demon through its bold, progressive approach to experimental death metal that, when even just competently executed, gives off such a naturally heady vibe. But Humavoid are not about taking the path of least resistance and not about just creating the appearance of innovation with metal music, and their second record’s thrilling firestorm of Meshuggah-influenced djenty jaggedness that puts Veil of Maya and Jinjer to shame and jazzy eccentricity that fires a warning shot past Imperial Triumphant in the larger-than-life swirl of sounds that would make Devin Townsend cream his britches make for quite the decisive statement. Lidless may be comprised of very familiar ingredients, but the compositonal ingenuity the band wield and the constant headlong drive into the unknown make the combination of sounds on this album. The frightful, falling-stalactite-feeling piano-playing and synth work especially keep the mood of the album ever-shifting and the rest of the band excitedly on their toes, along with anyone hearing their overachieving madness. This is definitely one of the year’s best, and I am so eager to see what lies ahead for Humavoid.

9/10

Expander - Neuropunk Boostergang

Of the bands partaking in this past decade’s thrash metal revival Austin, Texas’ Expander are one of the less hokey, more serious-sounding bands to emerge recently, but of the handful of (2) EPs the band have released and the debut they put out in 2017, nothing the band has done has really sounded any alarms in my ears that they might be one of the bigger movers of the genre in the coming, now-current decade. Reliable underground curators Profound Lore and little-guy-supporter producer Kurt Ballou, though, disagree with my doubt in the band’s potential and have backed their sophomore release here, Neuropunk Boostergang. Harnessing some industrial elements and aggressive shouting that hearkens to American Head Charge and labelmates Lord Mantis and angular riffing reminiscent of both nasty sludge metal and crossover thrash with a more futuristic technicality, Neuropunk Boostergang is definitely a significant step up from Endless Computer, and an album that finds the band zeroed in on an attractive sonic identity. Not many thrash albums beckon the descriptor of atmospheric, and if so it’s certainly more of a generous way of saying it’s boring and blends into the background. Yet Neuropunk Boostergang manages to touch on meditative chords with its immersive and fascinating take on thrash metal, forward-thinking and avant-garde with an early version of the genre that most bands think simplistically to nostalgia-trip over. I wouldn’t have backed Expander to put out anything of major value based on their entire back catalog, and I wouldn’t have guessed that they would actually carve out a little niche for themselves to really blossom in. But the gnarly Texans (and Profound Lore) have proven me wrong in my favorite way with my favorite thrash release of the year.

8/10

Seether -  Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum

Seether have not been doing so well, at least creatively, for the past several years, their last album before this one, Poison the Parish, being a completely unmemorable late-career display of the creative dryness within the band and the expiry of the post-grunge they capitalized in the early 2000’s. Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum is not a full return to form, but it is a step in the right direction that the band desperately needed, which just comes from more meticulous songwriting this time around. The opening track “Dead and Done” is an energetic and vibrant start to the album and “Beg” revisits that “Fuck It” type of energy that the band need to embrace more frequently, while the silky “Wasteland” adds a scoop of Deftones’ shoegazy guitar work and captures the emotive potency that makes post-grunge so appealing when it’s at its best. The swinging “Bruised and Bloodied” offers a taste of the wackier side of Seether, while the more traditionally grungy “Pride Before the Fall” shows just how much the band appreciate Alice in Chains, and they actually help diversify the largely dragging energy of the album. Indeed, the bulk of the album is still unfortunately rut-entrenched filler that could have been better trimmed. It’s passable filler, but it just means that this album is still one that I’ll only be partially returning to to visit its best tracks.

6/10

Powerman 5000 - The Noble Rot

I have never been too big on electro industrialist project Powerman 5000, which wouldn’t even make a B-team picked by frontman Spider One’s own big brother Rob Zombie. My introduction to them was through their 2009 album, Somewhere in the Other Side of Nowhere, an astonishingly character-less and generic caricature of the industrial metal Zombie so exuberantly champions. The band have their better projects like Tonight the Stars Revolt!, but nothing they’ve put out so far has really ever convinced me that I should be paying them more attention. This year’s The Noble Rot is a pretty non-offensive outing, but also typically devoid of imagination. Not to stoke sibling rivalry that’s not there or anything, but it’s like if Rob Zombie were trying really hard not to upset suburban parents from the 90’s. It’s a lot less butt-rocking than the band have shown they can be at their worst, and it’s overall passably listenable. The metropolitan swagger of “Black Lipstick” is a notable highlight where Spider One’s sultry delivery actually works in the track’s favor. But unfortunately there really aren’t any other significant positives to speak of, and listenable is about as kind of a thing as I can say about this album.

4/10

Gulch - Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress

San Jose’s Gulch definitely get points for their all-out work ethic and for leaving everything on the stage or studio, but the band’s sophomore effort this year simply echoes the same need for continued growth that their debut did. The group’s exaggerated but still-maturing take on hardcore punk is thrilling in the short moment it occupies, but entirely forgettable.

5/10

Venomous Concept - Politics Versus the Erection

Like Gulch, Venomous Concept definitely get points for the effort they pour into their very similar brand of aggressive, off-the-wall hardcore punk, but theirs turns out to be another similar case of too little of that effort directed toward really arranging their outlash in an efficient way. It works for the stages and getting kids kicking in the pits that aren’t around anymore for the time being, but only at that baseline level that all good punk music in this vein does. Unfortunately, there’s simply not enough creativity in this project, or traditional punk ethos done exceptionally well for me to be all too enthused about it.

5/10

John Petrucci - Terminal Velocity

Show-off.

7/10

Pain of Salvation - Panther

A lack of ambition has never been a weakness for Swedish prog zealots Pain of Salvation, who love biting off sometimes a bit more than they can chew with their consistently lengthy and overly galaxy-brained concept albums. I definitely respect the massive inspiration the band always seem to tap into and I find them quite capable of fulfilling their creative mission more often than being too heady for their own good. The band do insist on integrating a perplexing degree of early 2000’s nu metal into their sound, and including some rapped verses that seem like a quota they just have to check for some reason. And Panther is, for the most part, another solid display of talents from Pain of Salvation, whose impressive compositional prog chops do more than enough to obscure the odder choices that pop up here and there.

8/10

Ulver - Flowers of Evil

I don’t know why but for some reason I thought Ulver’s venture into synthwave was a one-day stop before they moved on to whatever was next for them. I wasn’t expecting the genre-polyamorous visionaries to make another album in the same synth-y new wave vein as 2017’s The Assassination of Julius Caesar, yet Flowers of Evil is an unexpected and welcome sequel to an album that opened up a whole new avenue of sultry smoothness for the band, and it’s just as cool as it’s predecessor. Are Ulver the new Depesche Mode? I don’t know, if they are, I’m okay with that.

8/10

Necrot - Mortal

Necrot are a recently established trio from Oakland, California who have certainly generated a lot of buzz around their sophomore LP release here since their announcing it a few months ago. I mean I saw memes about the cover relating to coming home and taking off your pants or bra after a long day back in July. The band’s straightforwardly deathly 2017 debut, Blood Offerings, certainly didn’t seem to drum up too much hype around the time of its release, but the band are certainly releasing Mortal this time around to quite a captive audience, and after all the anticipation for their second album, Necrot show the world that can definitely play some death metal. Honestly, I went into this with a pretty open mind and eager to see what Mortal would be al about for the new group with the spotlight on them, but apart from a more old-school approach to riff-writing that does indeed come as a breath of fresh air in today’s death metal landscape, I don’t really see what else about it is such a big deal. I’m not saying there aren’t some tasty grooves or even a good few attention-grabbing solos on here, but I really don’t get what the death metal world is getting all hot and bothered about for this album beyond its checking off all the usual boxes and maybe doing a little smoke and mirrors to present themselves like a modern incarnation of Death or Morbid Angel. I mean I like it as much as, if not a little bit more than, any other average death metal project and I really do like what they band are doing with vintage riffs in this context, but I just don’t see what it’s doing with the very typical elements of the genre that it employs so much better than their average contemporaries that’s ramped up such astronomical hype.

7/10

Pig Destroyer - The Octagonal Stairway

Probably the EP I have been the most pumped for, it’s nice to hear some new Pig Destroyer not so long after their 2018 release, Head Cage, which took some getting used to for me, but I can say I regard it pretty highly as a step toward a more full-bodied sound for the band. I mean they’ve never been short on the shrapnel-spraying volatility needed to wholly carry a project, their groundbreaking creativity with the building blocks of grindcore setting them at the top of their field to look down at the grindcore masses far far below, and J. R. Hayes’ impressive poetic lyricism being a hefty bonus, and Head Cage wasn’t really that big of a stylistic departure for them apart from adopting the sound pallet of their contemporaries. The Octagonal Stairway is definitely more of an interim project for the time being, the first three tracks continuing the band’s mass-building with their sound; they’re as hard-hitting and representative of Pig Destroyer as any song off Head Cage, the title track in particular. I can grant to the pickiest Pig Destroyer Fan that there still isn’t as much slasher-film gore being invoked through samples of such, overtly grotesque lyricism, or scraping guitar tones that mimic the sharping of rusty bone saws. The last 14 minutes of the 25-minute EP are consumed by sample-driven ambient industrial music that the group have definitely had more creative and immersive experiments with. The 11-minute closer, “Sound Walker”, has its flashes of cool industrial manipulation, but given how high Pig Destroyer have set the bar for their ventures into this kind of territory with the cinematic horror of Natasha and even Mass & Volume, this massive track, while a respectable slab of industrial noise ambiance that flows as well as the aforementioned projects, lacks that narrative immersion and grandeur the band have shown to harness so well to bolster their music. For what handful of their talent the band offer here, it’s just enough to remind us of their immense prowess and that they’re still there, watching, waiting.

7/10

[shipinthewoods]

look.ship Presents: The Best Music of the Year, 2017 -- I’m sat in my office trying to sum up 2017 as a whole. So far, all I’ve come up with is: Like 2016, but worse. Which, while reductive, is true. I don’t think it’s worth either my or your time to hash out why 2017 was mostly trash, because, frankly, it’s totally obvious, and will be covered ad nauseam in other year-enders. I do think it’s worth pointing out that, for all the bad, it’s possible that we’ve already begun a long, laborious course correction thanks to the hard work and bravery of those who will no longer accept the status quo nor remain silent. 2018 will be interesting. And difficult, but difficult isn’t always bad. Although, it could be bad. Like, really bad. Who knows? Musically, this was a phenomenal year. Culturally speaking, the underground was vital, galvanized, queerer, and less commodifiable than ever--awake, engaged, prodding gleefully at the fringes of human experience. As most of you know, I occasionally write for The Quietus. Over there, they’ve spent much of the year exploring what they’ve termed New Weird Britain, an amorphous, loosely defined movement of diverse, idiosyncratic artists engaged in exploring the complete potential of their specific place and the experiences they might have in it. It’s a holistic approach, in terms of both topic and execution. There’s room for everything from the landscape to history to alternative religion to politics to sex to etc. It’s brilliant. The real deal--not just white-bread garage rockers playing at being strange-o. But what I think--or at least, what I hope is that what John Doran, Luke Turner, &co. have identified is their regional variant of a global phenomenon. Maybe 2018 is the year New Weird bubbles over. New Weird Everywhere. We’d all be better off. This year, we’ve decided to do things a little differently here at look.ship. In lieu of breaking down our albums-of-the-year list into shortlists organized by genre, we’ve ranked the top 25 of our 75 selections in order to give you a better idea of what dominated our editor’s home stereo (and make the list a bit more digestible). The remainder of the selections are arranged in alphabetical order. It should be noted that these are not runners up or honorable mentions or somehow lesser than. Though definitively not comprehensive--how could we listen to everything?--this is our list of the best records of the year, period. On some level, given the constant apples and oranges comparisons inherent in such an endeavor, we still think ranking albums is a little bogus. Ranking beyond 25? That becomes a frustratingly arbitrary exercise. However, selecting our album of the year was easy. Nothing came close to Hiro Kone’s Love Is the Capital, 38 nearly perfect minutes of desolate soundscapes, crystalline industrial techno, and incisive political bangers. A supremely confident record of rare grace and generosity, it demands the listener’s complete attention and begs to be repeated, proving more rewarding with every listen. (For more, feel free to click through to my interview with Hiro Kone -->here<--)   In addition to our albums of the year, you’ll find our top ten live recordings, compilations, and reissues; top ten EPs & 12″s; live performances of the year; and labels of the year. Where possible, we've included Bandcamp embeds. Otherwise, we've used Soundcloud or YouTube, which really mucked up our formatting. Read on to explore the wide array of sounds that made 2017 worth tolerating.

-- Albums of the Year, 2017: Top 25 -- 1. Hiro Kone – Love Is the Capital (Geographic North)

Love is the Capital by Hiro Kone

2. Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas – Square One (Smalltown Supersound)

Square One by Bjørn Torske & Prins Thomas

3. Fever Ray – Plunge (Mute / Rabid)

4. Equiknoxx – Colón Man (DDS)

5. Perc – Bitter Music (Perc Trax)

Bitter Music by Perc

6. Virginia Wing & XAM Duo – Tomorrow’s Gift (Fire)

Tomorrow's Gift by VIRGINIA WING and XAM DUO

7. Bicep – Bicep (Ninja Tune)

Bicep by Bicep

8. Country Florist – Waveland (Drawing Room)

Waveland by Country Florist

9. Moon Diagrams – Lifetime of Love (Geographic North / Sonic Cathedral)

Lifetime of Love by Moon Diagrams

10. Andrew Hung – Realisationship (Lex)

Realisationship by Andrew Hung

11. Forest Swords – Compassion (Ninja Tune)

Compassion by Forest Swords

12. Colleen – A flame my love, a frequency (Thrill Jockey)

A flame my love, a frequency by Colleen

13. NoinoNoinoNoino – 8 (Caoutchou)

8 by NoinoNoinoNoino

14. The Cyclist – Sapa Inca Delirium (Hypercolour)

Sapa Inca Delirium by The Cyclist

15. Clark – Death Peak (Warp)

16. Mount Kimbie – Love What Survives (Warp)

17. Lindstrøm – It’s Alright Between Us As It Is (Smalltown Supersound)

It's Alright Between Us As It Is by Lindstrøm

18. James Holden & The Animal Spirits – Animal Spirits (Border Community)

19. JASSS – Weightless (iDeal)

20. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Kid (Western Vinyl)

The Kid by Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

21. Blanck Mass – World Eater (Sacred Bones)

World Eater by Blanck Mass

22. Ninos Du Brasil – Vida Eterna (Hospital Productions)

Vida Eterna by Ninos Du Brasil

23. Expressway Yo-Yo Dieting – Undone Harmony Following (Type)

24. Snapped Ankles – Come Play the Trees (The Leaf Label)

Come Play The Trees by Snapped Ankles

25. Gnod – JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT-WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE (Rocket Recordings)

JUST SAY NO TO THE PSYCHO RIGHT-WING CAPITALIST FASCIST INDUSTRIAL DEATH MACHINE by Gnod

-- Albums of the Year, 2017: 26 - 75 -- Auburn Lull – Hypha (Azure Vista)

Hypha by Auburn Lull

Basic Rhythm – The Basics (Type)

The Basics by Basic Rhythm

Ben Frost – The Centre Cannot Hold (Mute)

The Centre Cannot Hold by Ben Frost

Blondes – Warmth (R&S)

Warmth by Blondes

The Body & Full of Hell – Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light (Thrill Jockey)

Ascending a Mountain of Heavy Light by The Body & Full of Hell

British Sea Power – Let the Dancers Inherit the Party (Golden Chariot)

Coldcut & On-U Sound – Outside the Echo Chamber (Ahead Of Our Time)

Outside The Echo Chamber by Coldcut x On-U Sound

Dale Cornish – Aqal (Entr’acte)

Aqal by Dale Cornish

Dalham – Waves (Public House)

Waves by Dalham

Dominowe – SiyaThakatha (Gqom Oh!)

Dominowe - SiyaThakatha by Dominowe

Downtown Boys – Cost of Living (Sub Pop)

Cost of Living by Downtown Boys

Emptyset – Borders (Thrill Jockey)

Borders by Emptyset

Escape-ism – Introduction to Escape-ism (Merge)

Introduction to Escape-ism by ESCAPE-ISM

Feature – Banishing Ritual (Upset The Rhythm)

Banishing Ritual by FEATURE

Golden Teacher – No Luscious Life (Golden Teacher)

No Luscious Life by Golden Teacher

Great Ytene – Locus (Faux Discx)

Locus by Great Ytene

Grey Hairs – Serious Business (Gringo)

Serious Business by Grey Hairs

H. Hawkline – I Romanticize (Heavenly)

Hey Colossus – The Guillotine (Rocket Recordings)

The Guillotine by Hey Colossus

Institute – Subordination (Sacred Bones)

Subordination by Institute

Jack Cooper – Sandgrown (Trouble In Mind)

Sandgrown by Jack Cooper

James Place – Voices Bloom (Umor Rex)

Voices Bloom by James Place

Jon Brooks – Autres Directions (Clay Pipe)

Autres Directions by Jon Brooks

Karen Gwyer – Rembo (Don’t Be Afraid)

Rembo by Karen Gwyer

Kedr Livanskiy – Ariadna (ариадна) (2MR)

Ariadna (ариадна) by Kedr Livanskiy

Kelela – Take Me Apart (Warp)

Kelly Lee Owens – Kelly Lee Owens (Smalltown Supersound)

Kelly Lee Owens (Extended Version) by Kelly Lee Owens

Kemper Norton – Hungan (Self-released)

Hungan by Kemper Norton

Kevin Morby – City Music (Dead Oceans)

City Music by Kevin Morby

Liars – TFCF (Mute)

Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun (Temporary Residence / Rock Action)

Every Country's Sun by Mogwai

Nathan Fake – Providence (Ninja Tune)

Providence by Nathan Fake

Nidia Minaj - Nídia É Má, Nídia É Fudida (Principe)

Nídia é Má, Nídia é Fudida by NÍDIA

Panayotis – Hawaiiprus (Honest Electronics)

Hawaiiprus (HE04) by Panayotis

Part Chimp – Iv (Rock Action)

Phillippe Hallais – An American Hero (Modern Love)

The Proper Ornaments – Foxhole (Slumberland / Tough Love)

Foxhole by The Proper Ornaments

Protomartyr – Relatives in Descent (Domino)

Relatives In Descent by Protomartyr

Richard Dawson – Peasant (Domino)

Shackleton & Anika – Behind the Glass (Woe To The Septic Heart)

Behind The Glass by Shackleton with Anika

Shinichi Atobe – From the Heart, It’s a Start, a Work of Art (DDS)

Spoek Mathambo – Mzansi Beat Code (Teka)

Mzansi Beat Code by Spoek Mathambo

STILL – I (PAN)

I by STILL

Teengirl Fantasy – 8AM (Planet Mu)

8AM by Teengirl Fantasy

Terry – Remember Terry (Upset The Rhythm)

Remember Terry by Terry

Tim Darcy – Saturday Night (Secretly Canadian)

Saturday Night by Tim Darcy

TLC Fam – Isbethelo seGqom (Gqom Oh!)

TLC Fam - Isbethelo seGqom by TLC Fam

Turinn – Eighteen and a Half Minute Gaps (Modern Love)

Ulrika Spacek – Modern English Decoration (Tough Love)

Modern English Decoration by Ulrika Spacek

The World – First World Record (Upset The Rhythm)

FIRST WORLD RECORD by The World

-- Top Ten Live Recordings, Reissues, & Compilations -- 1. Blood Sport – Live at Café OTO (Howling Owl)

Live At Cafe Oto by Blood Sport

2. Normil Hawaiians – More Wealth Than Money (Upset The Rhythm)

3. Bamboo – The Dragon Flies Away (Upset The Rhythm)

4. Maximum Joy – I Can’t Stand It Here on Quiet Nights (Silent Street)

I Can't Stand It Here On Quiet Nights: Singles 1981-82 by MAXIMUM JOY

5. Dub Syndicate – Ambience in Dub: 1982 – 1985 (On-U Sound)

Ambience In Dub 1982-1985 by Dub Syndicate

6. Hood – The Cycle of Days and Seasons / Rustic Houses, Forlorn Valleys (Domino)

7. Jay Glass Dubs – Dubs (Ecstatic)

8. Various – Mutual Ground (Honest Electronics)

Mutual Ground (HE03) by Various Artists

9. The Knife – Live at Terminal 5 (Rabid)

10. Pye Corner Audio – Sleep Games (Ghost Box)

-- Top Ten EPs & 12″s -- 1. Blood Sport – “Harsh Realm” / “Boiled in Dust” (Return To Disorder)

2. Dale Cornish – Cut Sleeve (Halcyon Veil)

Cut Sleeve by Dale Cornish

3. The Bug – “Bad” / “Get Out the Way” (Ninja Tune)

Bad / Get Out The Way by The Bug

4. Panayotis – Sawaiiphur (Honest Electronics)

Sawaiiphur (HE06) by Panayotis

5. RAW SILVER – Thanatos (Honest Electronics)

Thanatos (HE05) by RAW SILVER

6. Forest Swords – “Congregate” / “Free” (Ninja Tune)

Congregate by Forest Swords

7. Total Control, Laughing at the System (Alter)

Laughing At The System by Total Control

8. Café Ale – Transformative Nature (Geographic North)

Transformative Nature by Café Ale

9. Holy Fuck – Bird Brains (Innovative Leisure)

Bird Brains EP by Holy Fuck

10. Fujiya & Miyagi – EP3 (Impossible Objects of Desire)

FUJIYA & MIYAGI by Fujiya & Miyagi

-- Live Performances of the Year -- Steven Warwick and Benjamin Wardell performing "Figuring Space (on the Mezzanine)" to close out Lampo's season at the Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago -- Cattle live at Supernormal, Braziers Park, Oxfordshire, UK

-- Labels of the Year -- Geographic North Gqom Oh! Honest Electronics Smalltown Supersound Upset The Rhythm

-- Label of the Year, Emeritus -- Faux Discx

-- In the next couple of weeks, keep an eye out for special episodes of SHIP/SHAPE/SUNDAY featuring our favorite recordings of 2017. – Bernie Brooks is the editor-in-chief and bloggist of look.ship. *Everything* he writes or compiles or otherwise makes–or has *ever* written, compiled, or otherwise made–for A Ship In The Woods is editorial content, and as such reflects his opinion alone, not necessarily that of Ship as an organization. Actually, this applies to all the content on look.shipinthewoods.com, regardless of who wrote or said it. He can be e-mailed: bernie [at] shipinthewoods [dot] com -- Image of Steven Warwick and Benjamin Wardell performing at Stony Island Arts Bank by Bernie Brooks.

[sweetymutant]

Since that's what we both seem to want, ma chère, let me ask you all the questions for the movie asks! :D

, -Thank you my dear!!!

1: Favourite movie(s) -I’ll do a top five, otherwise it’s gonna take ages.

-The Great Escape - John Sturges

-Kaos - Paolo & Vittorio Taviani

-Once Upon a Time in the West - Sergio Leone

-The Rocky Horror Picture Show - Jim Sharman

-My Own Private Idaho - Gus Van Sant

2: Favourite actor(s) 

How can I answer this question? Honestly I love so many actors, ranging from well-known-still-alive stars dead-and-partially-forgotten actors. How? Who? What? 

Okay, Dame Maggie Smith then. Cate Blanchett. Sigourney Weaver. Carrie Fisher. Brigitte Bardot. Hedy Lamarr. Marilyn Monroe. 

3: Favourite genre(s)

Horror

Sci-Fi

Musicals

Film Noir

Drama

4: Favourite director(s)

I honestly don’t know. It’s difficult to pick a director or even a few to be my favourites. But I guess some safe names would be Ozu, Akira Kurosawa, Sergio Leone, Roberto Rosselini, Pier Paolo Pasolini… and 100 others. 

5: How often do you go see movies in theatres?

Before quarantine, once a week. It’s one of these things that walks the fine line between tradition and ritual for me. 

6: Opinion on remakes

When they are useful, yes, Yes, YES (like for example, updating a story that would not cater to younger generation so they change the era, or adapting to a certain culture, or giving a new artistic take and point of view). But, for the reamkes that are just copies that bring nothing new at all OR when they take something that was interesting or in case of old movies, quite modern for its times and go backward and kind of retrograde it for the sake of money and cowardice, nope. Honestly nope. So it all depends on the remake.

7: Favourite era(s) of film

I cannot really answer, since I have come to love each and every era -not all the films of course- but each era has something interesting. Well, I guess studying cinema did ruin me a bit.

8: Spell your first, middle, and last name out in movie titles

Well, I’ll do my first name, and the first letter of my last name:

Aguirre, the Wrath of God

U

Requiem for a Dream

One Hundred and One Dalmatians

Ring

El Topo

M– Eine Stadt sucht einen Mörder

9: Favourite film series

The Lord of the Rings, of course :p Closely followed by the Indiana Jones trilogy. Yes, I said trilogy :p

10: Favourite remake(s)

I guess it’s a tie between The Magnificent Seven (1960) and Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) although I am stupidly biased towards The Magnificent Seven (1960) and I will never forgive how straight The Man from U.N.C.L.E. reboot/remake was.

11: Favourite film character(s)

Gimli -Lord of the Rings

MacDonald -The Great Escape

Ellen Ripley -Alien

Indiana Jones (And yes, I was raised by archeologists.)

12: Favourite movie(s) per genre

Per genre? How many genres are there? And what about movies that have more than one genre? What about movies that I like outside of their genre? I hope you have all the time in the world, because it’s going to be very long. Ok, for the five genres I picked earlier:

Horror: Jacob’s Ladder

Sci-Fi: H2G2

Musicals: Hair

Film Noir: Brighton Rock 

Drama: Dead Poets Society

13: Movie(s) you remember as part of your childhood

On top of my head, The Lion King, Le Roi et L’Oiseau, L’Aventure c’est L’Aventure and The Princess Bride were a very important part of my childhood. The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter too. And Star Wars.

14: Movie character(s) you identify with

I should not be proud but: Ferris Bueller (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off). Also, Louis Sedgwick (The Great Escape), because you asked for it darling Amy.

15: Prizes of your movie collection

It’s not a prize as in it’s not worth much in term of actual money, but it’s a tie between my DVD of The Great Escape that I’ve owned since I was a teen and the Kaos DVD my grandfather gifted me.

16: Blu-Ray, DVD, or VHS?

All three. all three is good. Everything that allows me to keep a movie close to me in physical form is good.

17: Movie(s) you hate

Anaconda. Oh, I am sure there are worst movies, but it’s the first one that crossed my mind. Oh, Prometheus and Alien Covenant also. 

Oh, yes, a movie actually hate with a passion and which deserves every bit of hate it gets (I will die on that hill): Gone With The Wind.

18: Actor(s) you hate

Steve McQueen. No, actually I love him. No I hate him. I love him more. I love to hate him.

More seriously, many actors from my country like Gérard Depardieu, Dany Boon, Fabrice Luchini, Frank Dubosc, Christian Clavier… do not spark joy in me. At all. 

19: Director(s) you hate

For very very different reasons: Roman Polanski, Michael Bay & Luc Besson.

20: Your pet peeve(s) in movies

When a movie feels like there is a NEED for romance when it would actually not benefit from it.  Even worse if it is straight.

21: Movie character(s) you have a crush on:

So, to avoid a 20 feet long list, I only pick one, and I have been crushing extra hard on Victoria ever since the movie came out:

22: Last movie you saw

23: Favourite film adaptation of something from another medium

For all its flaws, The Great Escape. Also, read the book folks. It’s a gem.

24: Movies you think you probably should’ve seen but haven’t for whatever reason.

The ultra-realistic remake of the Lion King. 

25: Worst experience you’ve ever had in a movie theatre

People making out not discreetely at all on the row in front of me. Eeew.

26: People whose opinions on movies you value

People, as in critics and youtubers and stars? NAH XD The two people whose opinions really really matter to me are my friend Oscar and you my dear @amethystsworld. (Well, to be fair, @psychicwhisperywitch and my friends Salomé and Océane too.)

27: If you could make a movie, what would it be and why?

As stupid as it might sound, I would make movies about my original stories like “Our Last Day Off” and my Drame Romantique. It sounds so full of myself, to want to do that, but I envision them as movies more than as written stories. A little side effect of my studies I suppose. So yeah, I don’t know if they would be good movies (a teen drama/thriller and a historical romantic drama… with the stupidest characters on earth) but I wish I could make them.

28: If you could adapt something from another medium into film, what would it be and why?

As much as it would probably not make good films because the prerequisite are so different, I would love to adapt many larps I have been to into movies. (Walpurgis for example. Make it into a 5 hours long surrealistic movie with no plot but full of dance, music and magic and blood and love.)

29: If you could remake any movie to improve what you felt was wrong about it the first time around, what would it be and why?

As much as I want to scream The Great Escape, i do have the belief that this movie cannot be remade and SHOULD not be remade. It holds itself together as a movie by sheer luck, some thread, some glue, and something that is so 1960s that it would not work today. Adapting the book once again could be worth it and interesting, although i cannot say what is best, go for biographical-realist genre or go for fictional like Sturges did… but remaking the movie as in “let’s shoot it again, try to fix broken stuff and add today’s star” is not a good move. Anyway, now that this case is closed, I would remake The Man From U.N.C.L.E. (2015) to make all the characters LGBTQ+  

30: Movie character(s) you find attractive

[maneatingbadger]

Review - Wonder Woman (2017)

TL;DR: Wonder Woman is good. It has problems. See it, and discuss the problems. Also, airplanes. 

Wonder Woman (2017) is a good film. If you haven’t seen it yet, you should. (Trailer)

Wonder Woman is an important film. Women led and directed it. The character is a feminist icon and welcome change from ongoing male dominance of the superhero genre, at least on the big screen (can’t comment on comics). 

Wonder Woman is a long film. At just over 140 minutes runtime it never drags, but evening theatergoers may be shocked at the lateness of the hour when they exit, as I was last night. 

Now for some rambling thoughts (mild spoilers ahead). 

Wonder Woman is set in the waning days of World War I, a change from her Second World War origins that initially gave me pause. The mainstream moral authority of the Allies in WWII has its complexities, yet they pale in comparison to the more prominent clash of competitive imperialism a couple decades earlier. But Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), aka Diana Prince, is a superhero. Her joining the Allies is a foregone conclusion, and my apprehensions were almost immediately justified (and remained so almost to the very end) when downed pilot Steve Trevor (Chris Pine) calls himself “a good guy” and points at the Germans on the beach as “the bad guys.” Then he explains how the Ottoman Empire is keeping the Kaiser supplied with munitions, so now the faceless, menacing Turks join the evil German monolith. WWII at least had Nazis to punch, but you can’t read All Quiet on the Western Front and come away feeling the German Army in WWI was total evil. 

Then again, maybe you can. Rows of women sitting behind me fucking applauded and cheered as Diana cut swaths through German infantrymen. Never mind that some of them were undoubtedly conscripts, never mind that a German soldier was as patriotic as a Brit or Frenchman, never mind that war is hell and both sides learned that quickly. I can’t believe I’m praising this aspect of Captain America: The First Avenger, but at least Red Skull’s Hydra soldiers were basically Star Wars Stormtroopers circa Original Trilogy: totally made up and combat ineffective. It didn’t matter how many Hydras Steve Rogers and his Brooklyn Boy Band killed, because they were Bad Guys™ and also usually faceless behind masks. But they chose to set Wonder Woman in the actual fighting of WWI, not Marvel’s faux war within (and beyond) a war, and wanton slaughter is rarely a point of satisfaction in the far-from-perfect Hollywood war genre. I certainly never cheered as Tom Hanks’s unit outflanked and suppressed German bunkers in Saving Private Ryan, or when Japanese defenders repeatedly ambushed Marines in Letters from Iwo Jima. Yet we’re supposed to feel inspired by Wonder Woman singlehandedly disposing of fifty poor German boys because she looks good doing it?

Of relevance: The PG-13 rating (and associated lack of gore and violence you might expect from a dedicated WWI period piece) may contribute to some viewers’ lack of empathy for the wounded or dead. I’m not saying Wonder Woman should have been an R-rated war flick, because 1) that’s not what it was ever going to be, and 2) the audience most urgently needing this movie is young girls, so the more accessible the better. But the end result is still a fairly tame view of Western Front conditions. And the lack of blood from Diana cutting her way through German squads with a sword is desensitizing and immersion-breaking. 

Also of relevance: Diana at one point accuses a Scottish sniper (Ewen Bremner)—and more general practitioners of fighting from a distance, e.g., artillery—of fighting without honor because they do not necessarily see those they kill (or, in the case of generals and other REMFs, those they send off to die). There’s a lot to unpack here. The Amazons are a warrior society that worships leading from the front. An obvious drawback to that is when General Antiope dies on the beach: The Amazons lose their top commander (among others) in a skirmish to a small bunch of German sailors. Considering the qualitative and quantitative differences, that is not a favorable exchange ratio. Beyond that, snipers (like drone pilots) arguably see their targets in a much more intimate fashion than any other soldier does, thanks to their scopes (or camera turrets) and the long periods of observation that can precede pulling the trigger. We’ll cut Diana some slack because the Amazons have no concept of ranged warfare beyond the bow, but the notion of “honor” is also complicated. Michael Moore and others have voiced their hatred for snipers as cowards, as if war is a gentleman’s duel. Ethics in war usually applies to noncombatants and enemies who surrender: Those, in other words, who aren’t fighting you, are vulnerable, and have been found throughout history to merit protection. Killing them is cowardly, a point Diana also makes, but killing enemy combatants isn’t. If it were, what “honor” exists in racking up body counts against foes that cannot physically harm you? A sniper hides, a demigod is, well, a demigod, both are practically immune from preventative counters or immediate retaliation. Whither honor, Diana?

Diana’s concern for civilians hit by indiscriminate weapons like artillery and gas is curious in light of Gadot’s compulsory service in the IDF and support for Israel’s bloody 2014 Gaza campaign. This deserves more attention than I or anyone will give it, and I apologize for a level of compassion fatigue those in Gaza, Jordan, and the West Bank surely recognize all too well. Fans are forced to choose between a white feminist cinematic triumph and a marginalized and oppressed community (that this is a conundrum itself speaks volumes), no one wants to tackle Israel-Palestine on top of misogyny, and those sympathetic to Palestinians are losing the PR fight. It shouldn’t be a binary solution set: I gladly join the chorus hailing the film as an important cultural touchstone, and I embrace criticizing Gadot for her support of apartheid, occupation, and, ironically, civilian casualties, especially as she somehow manages not to choke on lines like “I’m willing to fight for those who cannot fight for themselves” or “only love can truly save the world.” Again, when Israeli fighters bomb hospitals, whither honor?

The above point also touches on larger intersectionality concerns that I’ll let other takes explain. 

Captain America aside: Like The First Avenger, Wonder Woman is an origin story about a gorgeous, invincible hero fighting the Germans for the Americans in Europe that ends on a multi-engined doomsday-device-carrying German bomber—hijacked on a suicide mission to save the day by a guy named Steve!

Back to WWI: I was fully prepared to write this movie off as “The Western Allies are good, the Central Powers and Turks are evil, and justice wins in the end.”  But Trevor neatly resolved my qualms in a short monologue while trying to convince a disillusioned Diana to keep helping him. Can’t find it online yet, but it goes something like “Maybe we’re all at fault! Maybe none of us deserve saving!” Diana gradually realizes that humans don’t need the malign influence of Ares, the Greek God of War and primary antagonist, to keep fighting and killing each other, that WWI was never divisible into “good” and “bad guys,” and this is after Chief (Eugene Brave Rock) the Blackfoot character’s almost throwaway line that Trevor’s people drove his off their land “in the last war.” Before those moments, Wonder Woman’s WWI setting was terrible; after them, it was at worst imperfect, a hit-and-miss attempt to address violence as a human phenomenon waged by problematic protagonists. I wish they’d addressed that earlier and more inclusively (the Germans and Turks still resonate as one-dimensional “bad guys”), but I’m impressed at how centrally and effectively that message played out in the end. 

The WWI setting brings us to the level of realism, continuity, and historical accuracy, oft-losing propositions for Hollywood in general at the best of times that tend to fare even worse in the superhero genre. To this day I will not forgive Marvel for its patently ridiculous modern-day helicarriers. But Wonder Woman misses the mark by less than I feared. Here’s what I was able to catch in one viewing: 

The Fokker Eindecker that Trevor flies to escape from Ottoman Turkey was the first operational fighter with a gun synchronized to shoot through the spinning propeller, allowing fixed guns on the centerline for improved accuracy. 

Eindeckers were deployed in the Middle East between 1916 and 1917, though they were mostly replaced by Fokker D.7’s when Wonder Woman rolls around a year a later. Still, props (get it?) to the movie for spotlighting a lesser film star and not the cinematically overused Camels and triplanes.

Note that Trevor escaped from Turkey in a light aircraft with a top speed of 76 knots and endurance under two hours. Even assuming a generous range of 200 miles from the Turkish coast, he can only splash down in the Black Sea or eastern Mediterranean, a rough clue to the location of the edge of Themyscira’s shield barrier. Then he and Diana take a small single-masted sailing vessel from there to London, a voyage of nearly 3,000 miles depending on where he crashed. 

The internet speculates that Themyscira may not exist on our temporal or spatial plane and therefore lacks a permanent location. This 1) could mean the island was closer to the UK when the two set out by boat, and 2) accounts for the island’s obscurity in a heavily trafficked area until Trevor’s fighter and the pursuing German warship blundered into it. Still, you’d think Zeus could have done better than a shield blocking only visible light.

Speaking of that warship, the ensuing beach battle has holes. The novelization disposes of the Kriegsmarine surface combatant on a coral reef, and I do recall wondering why the ship seems to roll and rise at an angle in the background at one point, but this was only a few frames and barely registered on my fellow viewers. Then its rowboats hit the beach in a horrifying demonstration of what happens when technological superiority is overwhelmed by the numerical variety. Passages came to mind from The Gun by CJ Chivers about the use of rapid-fire Maxim and Gatling guns against native tribes in European colonies, specifically the change in outcome when those guns jammed and a handful of soldiers confronted tribal human waves with muskets, bayonets, and bare hands. Similarly, the German riflemen open fire to deadly effect, but the Amazons overwhelm their rate of fire with a frontal cavalry charge. It doesn’t hurt that the Amazons are Made in Olympus, pursue a ridiculous fitness and training regimen, and fight like badasses. 

But they don’t confront Trevor until after the Germans are slain, though he wears a German disguise and grabs a rifle from a sailor in the melee. He is an armed male intruder, and only Diana recognizes his actions as friendly, yet he isn’t killed in the confusion or even threatened at sword- or bow-point afterward.

Speaking of swords, bows, and horses, the Amazon way of war could be much more effective if they emerged a century or even half a century earlier, in the heyday of post-Napoleonic fighting. Queen Hippolyta’s claim that they have nothing to fear while hiding in paradise already failed as an argument to shelter Diana from training; unexamined is what that level of sheltering applied to Amazon society as a whole portends if and when Themyscira finds itself exposed to an ever-advancing outside world. If Diana had come out a quarter century later, she would have confronted heavier and more destructive weapons probably beyond the protective envelope of her shield (unless it’s vibranium, though Wikipedia says an indestructible goat hide, which I like even more) and wrist/ankle bracelets. Her run through No Man’s Land was remarkably devoid of shrapnel, explosives, and weapons fire despite the whole trench line of German regulars shooting at an upright target, and she was stopped cold by machine-gun nests: Imagine 88mm shells from a line of King Tigers or 500lb bombs from diving Stukas. 

She may be a rapid-healing demigod immune to poison gas, but we also see her bleed and block bullets rather than take them. Modern weaponry can hurt and even kill her. And I haven’t even mentioned nukes.

Back to rivet counting: I can’t find any good images yet of the large German bomber from the climactic scene, but it appears to be a fictional version of the so-called Riesenflugzeug or “giant aircraft” bombers produced by Zeppelin-Staaken. 

Like the historical Zeppelin-Staaken R.VI, the movie version appears to have four engines (one Giant was even fitted with a fifth in the nose), but the movie plane has them arranged in four separate forward-facing engine nacelles. The R.VI by contrast had twin-engine pairs with one “pusher” and one “puller” propeller each. I’ll probably also come back to this once that scene is posted online.

The tank whose tracks are used to restrain Wonder Woman at the climax seemed to have the rhomboid shape of a British heavy tank, though the setting is a German-held airfield. 

The Germans captured a number of British heavy tanks of various marks and genders, so perhaps this is a pre-owned model. Again, I’ll be better able to confirm that once the scene is uploaded.

Poison gas is the movie’s most salient and best-realized WWI characteristic.

That about does it for first-runthrough nitpicking (IMDB has more on wristwatches and trouser zippers).

Oh, Rupert Gregson-Williams’s soundtrack is typical superhero fare that didn’t leave much of an impression, but the end credits piece before Sia’s single sounded awful familiar. I later thought I heard elements of Jeremy Soule’s Supreme Commander and Forged Alliance, Ramin Djawadi’s Pacific Rim, and Tom Holkenborg’s Mad Max: Fury Road OSTs, but maybe that’s just me. 

[linaliveshere]

My Top 15 albums

Music to me is a stress relief. It is something that reflects your mood, no matter how you are feeling. It transports you back in time, almost as if you are living and breathing in a different generation. Music liberates you, its helps you connect with the cores and values that you have and continues to help you grow. Music gives you the fondest memories, is the soundtrack to your life and much of the reason why we connect with others on an intimate basis.

For me, a university student who is at the cusp of starting the next chapter of her life, music is an incredible escape from reality. Over the years, my knowledge and acceptance of music has allowed me to collate and enjoy many artists of many genres. On twitter and Tumblr, I asked what you guys would prefer for me to talk about, and my top 15 albums of all time came in at number one. Below, with much difficulty may I add, I have sought out my top 15 albums of all time!

1. INXS: Kick

I honestly cannot fault this album in the slightest. INXS was such a powerhouse for Australian music and they bought our industry to the mainstream across the world. Michael Hutchence was such a prolific singer and songwriter, a true artist who could grasp the concept of emotion and reality and put it so well into a song. Kick was an album that kick-started (pardon the pun) the juggernaut, headed by the smash hit Never Tear Us Apart. This whole album from start to finish is pure genius, and honestly makes you feel like you’re on a never-ending roller coaster. If you have never listened to this album, you should.

Top 3 songs:

-Never Tear Us Apart

-Kick

-Need You Tonight

2. The Weeknd: House of Balloons

Known to most of us by his stage name The Weeknd, Abel Tesfaye has become one of the biggest superstars in the world. From record breaking singles and albums to top collaborations with artists such as Daft Punk and Lana Del Ray, his discography has come a very long way since his first proper release- House of Balloons. Everyone seems to say that the first release is always the best and I will dispute that, but not in this case. Every album Abel has done has been so different and incredible, but something about House of Balloons stands out. The raw stumbling’s of drug abuse and sexual desires that he was singing about was something next level. Others had done it before him, but the way he produced this album was next level. It was a considerably short LP for the XO, only 50 minutes long. But it is enough to transport you back to his harsh Canadian upbringing and why he is like he is.

Top 3 songs:

-Wicked Games

-Coming Down

-High For This

3. Kendrick Lamar: To Pimp a Butterfly

First thing I want to say about Kendrick and this masterpiece of an album was that HE WAS ROBBED ALBUM OF THE YEAR AT THE GRAMMYS!! Kendrick has always been very popular online- much like counterpart Chance The Rapper, and made his mainstream debut when this album- To Pimp A Butterfly, flew up the charts around the world. Along with doing the infamous festival circuit which include headlining iconic festivals such as Glastonbury, Coachella and Australia’s very own Splendour in the Grass, To Pimp A Butterfly gained more traction. It brings to the surface all the issues that we as a society are too reluctant to talk about or see the truth about- racial tensions, the police brutality, the treatment of people of colour in general- especially women of colour and so much more. What elevated this album though for me was when Kendrick did a mash up of ‘The Blacker the Berry’ and ‘Alright’ with him being tied up in shackles singing behind a jail cell door. America at that time was in the grunt of the presidential campaign, making it even more dramatic and brought the album to a new audience.

Top 3 songs:

-The Blacker The Berry

-King Kunta

-These Walls

4. The Killers: Hot Fuss

The Killers are one of those bands who continually fly under the radar but remain so popular. Having two older sisters with quite a big age gap between us, my introduction to The Killers was through them blasting this album in the car non-stop; but I didn’t mind that. Hot Fuss is the best debut album of any artist I have listened to. The Killers weren’t punk rock or rock and roll- they were alternate rock. It was good enough for the music geeks and to be played on top 40 radio. This album holds two of the catchiest choruses ever with the songs ‘Mr Brightside’ and ‘Somebody Told Me’. Every time I listen to Hot Fuss, it sparks a little flame inside me and I sing at the top of my lungs. Along with this, the lyrics to the songs on the album are absolutely phenomenal and from start to finish take you on a journey. There are tales of heartbreak and regret with ‘All These Things That I Have Done’ and ‘Jenny Was a Friend of Mine’, love and adulation with ‘Midnight Show’ and ‘Everything Will Be Alright’. This album is honestly timeless and no matter how old you are, is pure enjoyment.

Top 3 Songs:

-Smile Like You Mean It

-Midnight Show

-On Top

5. Coldplay: Viva la Vida

I have been to a lot of concert, shows, gigs and festivals in my almost 23 years of life, and Coldplay has come out on top every time. Much like others on the list, their entire discography is something that I will listen to over and over and not get bored of it. Despite my favourite song of all time coming from their album X&Y (Fix You), Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, or the stadium stomper as it is known as by music geeks, is an album that cemented Coldplay a stadium tour status. The massive drum and guitar, as well as incorporating orchestra was the first of its kind that I had heard, and I fell in love with the album immediately. Chris Martin is one of my favourite singer/songwriters of all time, and his ability to take something usually so hectic and not usually incorporated into mainstream music and make it his own is something that I admire him for. What really made this album pop of course was the stadium vibe and the enormity of the sound.

Top 3 songs:

-Viva la Vida

-Cemeteries of London

-Lovers in Japan/Reign of Love

6. Rihanna: ANTI

Robyn Rihanna Fenty is and always will be my woman crush. After doing 7 albums in 7 years, my babe Rihanna took about 3 years out of the spotlight to create her latest and most bold album to date- ANTI. There is something about the authentic of this album that puts this above the rest. Having that time off and going back to her Caribbean roots brought this album to the next level. The mix of her old-school reggae and more modern r’n’b, along with the improvement of her vocals along the way helped elevate it, but her bad girl persona did remain- especially with the inaugural song from the album ‘Bitch Better Have My Money’. The song ‘Work’, with rapper Drake, sent this album to elite status. It is fun and makes you feel like you can take on anyone and anything, and in contrast, will pull at your heart strings with songs such as Love on The Brain’. I am still upset that she did not tour Australia with the album, so thanks RiRi!

Top 3 songs:

-Love On The Brain

-Kiss It Better

-Woo

7. Fleetwood Mac: Rumours

I have always known who Fleetwood Mac were, but I was introduced to this album only a short while ago. Stevie Nicks is an absolute boss. Fleetwood Mac became dominant at the time where social constructs were a lot different to how they are now. The fact that this album not only challenged music minds and records, but created the shift for social change as well. Artists like Madonna and Cindy Lauper were aided by the success of Stevie Nicks and the fact she was a main vocal in a genre dominated by white males. One of the reasons I love Rumours so much is because of the massive influence it had on the music industry. It also included the catchy songs like ‘Dreams’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’. Fleetwood Mac and especially Stevie Nicks are timeless and a once-in-a-generation artist who has as much influence as they did.

Top 3 Songs:

-Go Your Own Way

-You Make Loving Fun

-Oh Daddy

8. Michael Jackson: Thriller

Carrying on from the influence of Stevie Nicks, there is no one better who broke down barriers in terms of race, gender and sexuality like Michael Jackson. There are so many of his albums to choose from, but Thriller is the one that I enjoy the most in terms of music. The title song caused so much controversy, and everyone thought with this controversy that Michael or the album wouldn’t be successful. Boy, people were wrong. After having filmed the first feature-length music video and being an African-American, there were bans put in place. Michael defied the odds and became and even bigger star. Some personal favourites, which I enjoy belting out during a boozy night out like ‘Wanna be Startin’ Something’, ‘Billie Jean’ and ‘Beat It’. Another reason why I love this album so much is that it produced one of the most iconic moments in pop culture- the introduction of the moonwalk at the Motown 25 special on May 16, 1983. And yes, I am still trying to perfect the move.

Top 3 Songs:

-Beat It

-Billie Jean

-Human Nature

9. Ed Sheeran: +

Ed Sheeran is possibly the best singer/songwriter of the past 5 years. With his most recent album ‘Divide’ and the inaugural single ‘Shape of You’ breaking all kinds of streaming and charting records, it is no surprise that his music beforehand would be top-notch as well. Enter Ed’s first proper LP- Plus. This was such a raw album that spoke about Ed and the difficulties that surrounded him and other people, much like The Weeknd with House of Balloons. This album came into my life at a time where I was struggling, with songs like ‘The A Team’ and ‘Lego House’ indirectly playing with my emotions and opening a light to a lot of the problems that I was having. Ed toured this album twice, and his presence on stage reflects how people such as myself interpret the album as well. Oh, and I’ve also had the pleasure in meeting Ed and telling him how thankful I am for him!

Top 3 Songs:

-Small Bump

-Kiss Me

-Drunk

10. Beyoncé: Lemonade

This would not be a top album countdown without the mention of the most famous women of the modern era. Beyoncé has delivered hit after hit. When her latest album Lemonade dropped, it caused hysteria of all sorts. She has been the campaigner of the visual album as well after her Beyoncé release, and Lemonade was no different. Much like Kendrick Lamar, who features on one of the standouts of the album ‘Freedom’, Beyoncé used her audio and visual platforms to seek out the injustice that is happening. She also includes her daughter, Blue, in a lot of them and it makes it that much more personalised. Her vocals are still red hot, as proven by hits ‘Formation’ and ‘Hold Up’, which now boasts the infamous bat and car scene. This album is honestly one in a million and I can never get bored of it!

Top 3 Songs:

-Freedom (feat Kendrick Lamar)

-All Night

-Hold Up

11. Maroon 5: Songs About Jane

The first concert I ever went to centered around this album. Maroon 5 have been around for as long as I’ve been alive, and their music continues to adapt with pop culture. Adam Levine, the front man, was my first real celebrity crush, and this album did solidify that. Songs About Jane was a forefront in indie music at the time of its release, headed by She Will Be Loved and Sunday Morning. Their cover of Harder to Breathe and the inclusion This Love gives you Adam’s sensual voice right to your very core. the use of the guitar in this album is impeccable- in one song it will make you get up and dance when in the next it makes you feel like you could cry for days about your ex-lover. The lyrics and the execution of this album are timeless, and no matter what decade or era it is brought into, would be successful.

Top 3 Songs:

-She Will Be Loved

-Harder to Breathe

-Tangled

12. Taylor Swift: Red

I feel like Taylor Swift has been around for every turning point in my life. 13-year-old me found out who she was through my love of the Jonas Brothers and her guitar-twanging smash Our Song. Through the country phase to what is her best album to date- pop alumni Red. This album, like many of her others, tells a story of love and heartbreak, but also celebrates having the right people in your life. ‘22’, one of the biggest selling singles by Taylor, is one of my favourite songs of all time. Despite being noted by a lot of people as ‘pop trash’, the significance of this song resonates with a lot of people. It is about being care-free and living your life to the fullest no matter what. ‘All Too Well’ and ‘Red’ talk about heartache and how love in all forms can manipulate you in so many ways. This album is raw and full of emotion, no matter the genre it is placed under. The Red Tour was also my favourite Taylor concert as well.

Top 3 Songs:

-State of Grace

-All Too Well

-22

13. Kanye West: 808’s and Heartbreak

Say what you want about Yeezy, but he definitely knows his sound and his music. 808’s and Heartbreaks is an album that took Kanye out of the hip-hop world to the more mainstream. The mellowed down sound with the use of the heavy drop verberating in the chorus’ of most of these songs brought the genre and the album to another dimension. ‘Heartless’ and ‘Love Lockdown’, the two main singles from this work, are so well put together though the emotion elicited in Kanye while he is singing and rapping, as well as the tremendous loops in the beat. I have never witnessed music before or after this album that makes you want to get up and dance but cry your god damn eyes out at the same time. If you are one of those people who loves a continuous bop, this album is right up your alley.

Top 3 Songs:

-Love Lockdown

-Paranoid

-Say You Will

14.  Adele: 25

What a woman. I don’t have enough words to describe the feel, emotion and powerhouse vocal that is Adele. Unless you were living under a rock over the past 18 months, her song ‘Hello’ was everywhere and definitely set the scene for the whole album. Adele is one of very few people who can stand on a stage with little to no movement around her and manage to captivate millions. Her amazing voice capitulates almost every other artist in the industry right now. Listening to ‘25’ is honestly an out of body experience every time you listen to a song.

Top 3 Songs:

-Send My Love (To Your New Lover)

-I Miss You

-Water Under the Bridge

15. One Direction: Midnight Memories

This wouldn’t be a countdown without my absolute favourites of all time, right?! Midnight Memories by far is my favourite album from One Direction. They had a lot of song writing and production influence on this album, and it is very noticeable compared to their first two albums. The boys having that much influence on this album shone through, especially with the rock undertones and the sophisticated lyrics laced through all the songs. Alas, they did make this album with the fact that they were about to embark on a stadium tour, and this album is a massive stadium stomper. Harry, Liam and Zayn all shine vocally, whilst Niall and Louis’ songwriter impressed throughout the whole album. I honestly love this album with all my heart, and my eyes still water every time a song comes on because I miss One Direction so much. I am still bitter that I missed out on seeing this tour.

Top 3 Songs:

-Strong

-Happily

-Through the Dark

SPECIAL MENTION to Harry Styles and his new solo album, which would have been on the list if it was out already :P

[scoutess-blog]

Summer Project

Tasks

Once I was accepted into graphics course, the class was set a task to introduce us to our first new topic. Which was poetry. To help us get stuck into the tasks we were first asked to look at some poets: Sylvia, Walt Whitman, Eminem and many others. 

Sylvia - Lady Lazarus

I have done it again.   One year in every ten   I manage it—— A sort of walking miracle, my skin   Bright as a Nazi lampshade,   My right foot A paperweight, My face a featureless, fine   Jew linen. Peel off the napkin   O my enemy.   Do I terrify?—— The nose, the eye pits, the full set of teeth?   The sour breath Will vanish in a day. Soon, soon the flesh The grave cave ate will be   At home on me And I a smiling woman.   I am only thirty. And like the cat I have nine times to die. This is Number Three.   What a trash To annihilate each decade. What a million filaments.   The peanut-crunching crowd   Shoves in to see Them unwrap me hand and foot—— The big strip tease.   Gentlemen, ladies These are my hands   My knees. I may be skin and bone, Nevertheless, I am the same, identical woman.   The first time it happened I was ten.   It was an accident. The second time I meant To last it out and not come back at all.   I rocked shut As a seashell. They had to call and call And pick the worms off me like sticky pearls. Dying Is an art, like everything else.   I do it exceptionally well. I do it so it feels like hell.   I do it so it feels real. I guess you could say I’ve a call. It’s easy enough to do it in a cell. It’s easy enough to do it and stay put.   It’s the theatrical Comeback in broad day To the same place, the same face, the same brute   Amused shout: ‘A miracle!’ That knocks me out.   There is a charge For the eyeing of my scars, there is a charge   For the hearing of my heart—— It really goes. And there is a charge, a very large charge   For a word or a touch   Or a bit of blood Or a piece of my hair or my clothes.   So, so, Herr Doktor.   So, Herr Enemy. I am your opus, I am your valuable,   The pure gold baby That melts to a shriek.   I turn and burn. Do not think I underestimate your great concern. Ash, ash— You poke and stir. Flesh, bone, there is nothing there—— A cake of soap,   A wedding ring,   A gold filling. Herr God, Herr Lucifer   Beware Beware. Out of the ash I rise with my red hair   And I eat men like air.

I particularly enjoy this poem as I feel it has a lot of history and emotion to the point that I feel like I know the person well enough, like I can see her life through her own eyes in just one poem. It uses many illustrative words and phrases to create a very clear picture, almost like a movie. Personally, the poem is a extraordinary piece of work as even though the topic is extremely morbid it almost gives way to a hopeful ending. It uses no rhymes, long phrases or even heavy descriptions. Yet, it can communicate powerful, emotional feelings through single words or small phrases. Especially, once I read it out loud. 

Walt Whitman - One’s-Self I sing

One’s-Self I sing, a simple separate person, Yet utter the word Democratic, the word En-Masse. Of physiology from top to toe I sing, Not physiognomy alone nor brain alone is worthy for the Muse, I say the Form complete is worthier far, The Female equally with the Male I sing. Of Life immense in passion, pulse, and power, Cheerful, for freest action form’d under the laws divine, The Modern Man I sing.

This poem is much shorter than the previous one but uses longer and more complex words and phrases. I believe the poem is communicating the fact that even if society dictates whom is stronger, worthier he will not bend to them as all are equal in life with their own choices. He has freedom of speech as is the modern way. The changes that were currently happening during the time the poem was written. 

Eminem - Lose Yourself

Look, if you had, one shot, or one opportunity To seize everything you ever wanted. In one moment Would you capture it, or just let it slip? Yo His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy There's vomit on his sweater already, mom's spaghetti He's nervous, but on the surface he looks calm and ready to drop bombs, But he keeps on forgetting what he wrote down, The whole crowd goes so loud He opens his mouth, but the words won't come out He's choking how, everybody's joking now The clock's run out, time's up, over, blaow! Snap back to reality. Oh, there goes gravity Oh, there goes Rabbit, he choked He's so mad, but he won't give up that Easy, no He won't have it, he knows his whole back's to these ropes It don't matter, he's dope He knows that but he's broke He's so stagnant, he knows When he goes back to his mobile home, that's when it's Back to the lab again, yo This whole rhapsody He better go capture this moment and hope it don't pass him [Hook:] You better lose yourself in the music, the moment You own it, you better never let it go (go) You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime (yo) You better lose yourself in the music, the moment You own it, you better never let it go (go) You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow This opportunity comes once in a lifetime (yo) (You better) The soul's escaping, through this hole that is gaping This world is mine for the taking Make me king, as we move toward a new world order A normal life is boring, but superstardom's close to postmortem It only grows harder, homie grows hotter He blows. It's all over. These hoes is all on him Coast to coast shows, he's known as the globetrotter Lonely roads, God only knows He's grown farther from home, he's no father He goes home and barely knows his own daughter But hold your nose 'cause here goes the cold water His hoes don't want him no more, he's cold product They moved on to the next schmoe who flows He nose dove and sold nada So the soap opera is told and unfolds I suppose it's old partner, but the beat goes on Da da dum da dum da da da da [Hook] No more games, I'mma change what you call rage Tear this motherfucking roof off like two dogs caged I was playing in the beginning, the mood all changed I've been chewed up and spit out and booed off stage But I kept rhyming and stepped right into the next cypher Best believe somebody's paying the Pied Piper All the pain inside amplified by the Fact that I can't get by with my 9 to 5 And I can't provide the right type of life for my family 'Cause man, these goddamn food stamps don't buy diapers And it's no movie, there's no Mekhi Phifer, this is my life And these times are so hard, and it's getting even harder Trying to feed and water my seed, plus Teeter totter caught up between being a father and a primadonna Baby, mama drama's screaming on her Too much for me to wanna Stay in one spot, another day of monotony's gotten me To the point, I'm like a snail I've got to formulate a plot or I end up in jail or shot Success is my only motherfucking option, failure's not Mom, I love you, but this trailer's got to go I cannot grow old in Salem's lot So here I go it's my shot. Feet, fail me not This may be the only opportunity that I got [Hook] You can do anything you set your mind to, man

Eminem is one of my favourite rap artists because he makes all of his songs realistic since it is usually what is going in his life at the time. however, they still seem to relate to everyone like this song as it speaks to people about not missing your chance at life. The language is mainly modern slang but is easily understood and much easier to rhyme with. When I tried to speak it out loud it didn't really sound as good as the original as I found it difficult to just speak it when it should be rapped. 

Step Right Up

For the second task our main objective was create some poetry verses based on advertising, signs and pictures that are around shops and roads. The task is based off from the song “STEP RIGHT UP” from 1977. Honestly, it is not to my taste but is certainly catchy and made it much easier to create verses by using the song as a reference. 

Leave it to dame

Touch you must pay

Only £1

To make a house a home

Spend it all to get it all

Because you’re worth it

I’m lovin’ it

Every little helps

Maybe she’s born with it

Just do it

Karaoke Poetry

Task 3 was slightly more difficult as we had many more choices of content since we had to use our top 10 favourite songs. I chose my favourite songs first then i cost songs that a similar theme like genre or just the topic.

Once  I chose my favourite songs I listened and picked out my favourite lyrics so I could have a variety of choices for the poem as the lyrics could be mixed to create differently themed poems. 

1. Take It Out On Me

-Thought i had it under control

-You wanted it to be picture perfect 

-You don’t have to throw it away

-Just let it go

-Take it out on me

2.Stressed Out

-Nw I’m insecure and i care what people think

-My name’s blurry face and I care what you think

-Wish we could turn back time 

3.Superhero

-Hands up if you’re ready for the fight

-I don’t need you to believe in me

-I know how to change my destiny

-We can change the whole world 

-Tell me that you’re in it

-Don’t you wanna be a superhero

4.Nicotine

-You’re worse than nicotine

-I’ve lost control and I don’t want it back

-Just one more hit then we’re through

5.Satellite

-You have to cross the line

-I’m passing over you like a satellite

-So shine your light on me

-It’s not too late, we have the rest of our lives

-This is the life you can't deny us now

6.Immortals

-They say we are what we are

-I’m bad behaviour but I do it in the best way

-I’ll be the guard dog of your fevered dreams

-Cause we could be immortals

-I am the sand at the bottom of the hour glass

-Pull the black out curtains now

7.I miss the Misery

-I miss the misery

-I’ve been a mess since you stayed

-i’ve been a wreck since you changed

-I’ve tried but i just can’t take this

-I’d rather fight than just fake it

-Don’t let me get in your way

8.The Resistance

Am a soldier, I won’t surrender

-Who’s gonna stand up, who's gonna fight

Heavy as a hurricane, louder than a freight train

-Heart beating faster, feels like thunder

9.Blood

-And rid myself of all my sin

-I swear I have sense

-We will gain nothing from this

-If you come closer I will lose control

-Cause you’ve been asking for it

10.X Gon’ Give To It Ya

-It’s what hearing, listen

-X gon’ give it to ya

-Fuck waiting for you to get it on your own

-I’ll do it again cos I’m right

-Ain’t never gave anything to me

By inserting the key phrases I found it easier to complete a poem and I experiment with different orders.

Poems

CONTROL UNCHAINED

Thought I had it under control

I don’t need you to believe in me

Now I’m insecure and I acre what people think

I’ve lost control and I don’t want it back

I’m passing over you like a satellite

I’m bad behaviour but I do it in the best way

I’d rather fight than just fake it

Heavy as a hurricane, louder than a freight train

If you come closer I will lose control

There is a beast inside, breaking free

[Insert photo sketches]

IMPERFECT TIME

They say we are what we are

You wanted it to be picture perfect

You can change the whole world

We will gain nothing from this

It’s not too late, we’ve have the rest of our lives

Don’t let me get in your way

You’re worse than nicotine

Ain’t never gave nothin’ to me

Heart beating faster, feels like thunder

Wish we could turn back time

DEATH’S DOOR

I’ve tried but I just can’t take it

Take it out on me

I swear I have sense

Am a soldier, I won’t surrender

I am the sand at the bottom of the hour glass

Its what your hearing, listen

Tell me that you’re in it

Wish we could turn back time

Just one more hit, then we’re through

This is the life you can’t deny us now

ME X YOU

You don’t have to throw it away

Now I’m secure and I care what people think

I know how to change my destiny

I’ve lost control and I don’t want it back

You have to cross the line

Pull the black out curtains now

I miss the misery

Who’s gonna stand up, who’s gonna fight

Cause you’ve been asking for it

X gon’ give it to ya

Evaluation/ Reflection 

When I first looked at the starting brief I was surprised about the topic since it was not something I previously associated with graphics. however, once I started completing the tasks it became more obvious that the point of the brief was to introduce us to the relationship between text and image. A graphic artist is not only someone who creates art pieces on the computer but instead communicates through their artwork with a message. Whether that is from product design, advertising or simply creating a comic.