I'm not sure why I haven't mentioned this before. Dennis d'Amour ("Piggy") passed away just about 3 months ago. Who was he? Look around this blog. "Dimension Hatross" is the name of the album that turned me into a metal maniac. The album is by a band called Voivod. How much does this band mean to me?
Before Voivod (and other bands like Metallica, King Diamond, etc..) I listened to Top 40 music of the 1980's. I was reborn. After just a few months of hearing Z-Rock, I realize how utterly shitty the music I had been listening to was. I immediately bought all the Metallica, King Diamond and Voivod albums I could find. The rest.. is history. I now listen to many forms of metal and heavy rock-oriented music. This ranges from "Progressive" to "Death Metal". I don't like "Grindcore/Metalcore/Whateverthefuck" or that shitty noise just made for shock's sake. What am I talking about? Watch Headbanger's Ball. It's sad.
Anyhow, back to Voivod. I think, if I had to rate all the albums I own, or have heard in my lifetime, I would have to rate Voivod's "Nothingface" at #1. Many people may disagree or not understand or like Voivod, but musical taste is largely opinion. In my opinion, "Nothingface" has it all for me. I don't necessarily need screaming vocals, 50 minutes of ear-pummelling bass, or riffs fast enough to break my neck while headbanging. If one thing could be said about Voivod, I think the word would be "original". I haven't heard ANYTHING that sounds like them. What could be better than a few sci-fi geeks from Montreal and metal?
If you have not heard Voivod, check them out. One of my very first reviews on Amazon.Com was for some Voivod albums. The Eric Forrest years aren't as good as those with Snake (Denis Belanger - vocalist). Forrest .. well, I will reserve comments, because the band still sounded excellent and Eric had his own style.
" ... lapse of time ... synchro freeze ... loop rewind ... forward speed ... "
If I have a single regret, for my entire life, it's that I never saw them live. Yes, it's very sad. The main reason was that by the time they were coming to Cleveland with some regularity, I was a little afraid to go to some of the local clubs (I was a late teenager) since I was used to going to the Cleveland Coliseum and such. They came on the Ozzfest Tour last year, and since the rest of the tour was largely uninteresting to me (read: metalcore, etc), I elected not to go. What a mistake. Even if Voivod continues, they will never be the same. Piggy was 25% of what made them unique.
Just a few more comments about my love for this band. I played EverQuest on and off for about 6 years and one of my most beloved characters was a recurring druid toon by the name of Langevin d'Amour. I did sort of a Pink Floyd thing where I took the surnames of the of the band members to create this fictional person. A funny side effect (Subeffect?) of this is that I received many tells from French players asking if I was French. Sorry folks, I am very far from being a Frenchman!
No, i'm not finished yet. Dimension Hatross was also the name of the BBS I ran (and later with my new wife) from roughly 1987 through 1994. It went through many incarnations, but it stayed true to its purpose. The core was the message base activity and it largely revolved around music. I enjoyed theming the BBS after Voivod lyrics, colors and crazy artwork. I tried to re-create album covers in Atari and IBM graphic characters. One day I'll have to dig them up. I did a really killer recreation of the "Nothingface" cover.
Well, here's to one of the best bands of all time - VOIVOD RULES!
\m/ \m/
Yeah, this post is long. Deal with it.
Monday, November 21, 2005
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Pathetic
This blog has now entered into the dangerous realm of Patheticism. I personally hate when I visit places that haven't been updated in ages.
So where the hell did the summer go?
A few miraculous things happened. We quit EverQuest, for good. Okay, so the rest isn't miraculous. We are still in school though, and the list of classes left is getting shorter. We're taking two at a time. There's more work, of course, but so far it hasn't been _too_ overwhelming.
The fall concert season is going to be great for us. We're going to see Porcupine Tree again in a few weeks, and Opeth is coming in November. We've seen both before (at the same show actually), but this will be the first time for Opeth and a "heavy" set. PT is going to play stuff from their entire catalog, not just newer stuff. Pretty cool.
It's late, i'm tired, so that's enough for now.
Maybe i'll actually update sooner, not that anyone really cares.
So where the hell did the summer go?
A few miraculous things happened. We quit EverQuest, for good. Okay, so the rest isn't miraculous. We are still in school though, and the list of classes left is getting shorter. We're taking two at a time. There's more work, of course, but so far it hasn't been _too_ overwhelming.
The fall concert season is going to be great for us. We're going to see Porcupine Tree again in a few weeks, and Opeth is coming in November. We've seen both before (at the same show actually), but this will be the first time for Opeth and a "heavy" set. PT is going to play stuff from their entire catalog, not just newer stuff. Pretty cool.
It's late, i'm tired, so that's enough for now.
Maybe i'll actually update sooner, not that anyone really cares.
Friday, June 10, 2005
Summer
School. Work. Sleep.
Recent events:
Judas Priest / Queensryche: Excellent show. QR's set was short (1 hour), but it was plainly obvious that most of the people were there for JP. The show was very loud and we were in the pavilion at Blossom. It was basically opening night for the summer there and, what a way to do it. JP played a lot of the standards and roughly about one or two tunes off each album, and four off of the new one.
Porcupine Tree: They played by themselves at the House of Blues. We a pretty nice dinner beforehand as well. The show was just awesome. They seemed to play a decent amount of heavier tunes, which seemed to make some of the older people a little uneasy. We knew most of the songs and the one they played that was ancient (Fadeaway) was excellent. Time to go searching for older PT albums. We bought the DTS DVD version of Deadwing a day or two later.. Sounds pretty good.
SYL: Yeah, this was a hilarious show. They didn't go on until 11pm and we had to sit through 5 absolutely horrible bands. This "new" round of death/hardcore music is just horrible. I'm getting sick of seeing these bands that look like they just walked out of a school talent show trying to be tough and mean. At least SYL came on to kick their asses.
Audioslave: I didn't know a lot of the songs since I'm not a diehard fan, but it was a good show and they sounded decent for the Agora. They played a few Rage tunes (I'm not a Rage fan) but they sounded better w/out the annoying old Rage singer.
... more later ...
Recent events:
Judas Priest / Queensryche: Excellent show. QR's set was short (1 hour), but it was plainly obvious that most of the people were there for JP. The show was very loud and we were in the pavilion at Blossom. It was basically opening night for the summer there and, what a way to do it. JP played a lot of the standards and roughly about one or two tunes off each album, and four off of the new one.
Porcupine Tree: They played by themselves at the House of Blues. We a pretty nice dinner beforehand as well. The show was just awesome. They seemed to play a decent amount of heavier tunes, which seemed to make some of the older people a little uneasy. We knew most of the songs and the one they played that was ancient (Fadeaway) was excellent. Time to go searching for older PT albums. We bought the DTS DVD version of Deadwing a day or two later.. Sounds pretty good.
SYL: Yeah, this was a hilarious show. They didn't go on until 11pm and we had to sit through 5 absolutely horrible bands. This "new" round of death/hardcore music is just horrible. I'm getting sick of seeing these bands that look like they just walked out of a school talent show trying to be tough and mean. At least SYL came on to kick their asses.
Audioslave: I didn't know a lot of the songs since I'm not a diehard fan, but it was a good show and they sounded decent for the Agora. They played a few Rage tunes (I'm not a Rage fan) but they sounded better w/out the annoying old Rage singer.
... more later ...
Thursday, February 03, 2005
I Don't Believe In Love
So.. we saw the Operation Mindcrime '05 show at the House of Blues on Sunday. Uh, that's Queensryche for the folks that listen to NuMetal. Yeah, didn't think you'd heard of them. Anyhow. It was a good show, although the HoB was a bit small. For something so high profile I was expecting more, however the atmosphere inside was cool. The accoustics weren't bad; the guitars sounded clear and the vocals were excellent. I think Geoff sounds better every time I see QR. I've been going to their concerts somewhat religiously (I think this was my fourth time?) over the last 14 years, and I have to say, I've never been dissappointed. There are only a few bands like this.. I've seen a good deal of concerts and have usually come across one show from a band that wasn't so good... Iron Maiden comes to mind. I forget the tour (No Prayer For the Dying maybe?) but they only came with a cloth backdrops for visuals and Bruce had a cold. Blah. Dream Theater is another band that is always 150% on stage. I think I like their live show better than the CD sound. They are one of those bands that are live and need to be heard that way.
This spring isn't looking all that exciting for shows.. however I did here that Therion is making their first US appearance at ProgPower. It would be so good to go to that show, it all depends what the lineup is. Atlanta is one long day of driving (10+ hours I think, maybe 12). Nightwish is coming to the HoB too, which i thought was cool, since HoB has been hosting a lot of US stuff so far. I think my only gripe is the ticket price. I think QR cost $50 each, plus some damned processing fees. Heh.. Processing fees are funny. A database system handles the processing, what the hell am I paying a fee for?
Other than that... it's work, sleep, school, EQ2, sleep, work, eating, ferrets, kids, school, work, sleep, kids, and not necessarily in that order.
This spring isn't looking all that exciting for shows.. however I did here that Therion is making their first US appearance at ProgPower. It would be so good to go to that show, it all depends what the lineup is. Atlanta is one long day of driving (10+ hours I think, maybe 12). Nightwish is coming to the HoB too, which i thought was cool, since HoB has been hosting a lot of US stuff so far. I think my only gripe is the ticket price. I think QR cost $50 each, plus some damned processing fees. Heh.. Processing fees are funny. A database system handles the processing, what the hell am I paying a fee for?
Other than that... it's work, sleep, school, EQ2, sleep, work, eating, ferrets, kids, school, work, sleep, kids, and not necessarily in that order.
Friday, January 07, 2005
EvilQuest 2
Welp.. A new year, a new vice. EverQuest II.
We're on Nektulos as Dalharen (evils), and on Toxxulia as Varekai (goodies). Two different guilds, two different groups of people. We are: Draynor (18 shammy), Ladene (18 crusader) on Tox, and Langevin (22 Fury) and Sarudana (22 SK) on Nek, with a few alts here and there.
It's a fun game.. It's very quest-based, like playing Morrowind with friends. This is a good thing, overall, but it leads to some similarity among players, meaning everyone tends to have the same armor, etc since everyone does most of the quests. This isn't really bad.. Tradeskills are complex and a huge time sink (no surprise there). We play almost daily, but school is starting up again, so it may go down to a few days per week.
I'm at the new building at work now and everything is running smoothly, so it's back to normal business.
The kids and wife are doing well, but alas, the BB store is closed, now. Julie is home but no more free movies... hmmm.. Julie home ... Free movies... *thinks*, ok ok ! Better to have her home ;)
Varekai
We're on Nektulos as Dalharen (evils), and on Toxxulia as Varekai (goodies). Two different guilds, two different groups of people. We are: Draynor (18 shammy), Ladene (18 crusader) on Tox, and Langevin (22 Fury) and Sarudana (22 SK) on Nek, with a few alts here and there.
It's a fun game.. It's very quest-based, like playing Morrowind with friends. This is a good thing, overall, but it leads to some similarity among players, meaning everyone tends to have the same armor, etc since everyone does most of the quests. This isn't really bad.. Tradeskills are complex and a huge time sink (no surprise there). We play almost daily, but school is starting up again, so it may go down to a few days per week.
I'm at the new building at work now and everything is running smoothly, so it's back to normal business.
The kids and wife are doing well, but alas, the BB store is closed, now. Julie is home but no more free movies... hmmm.. Julie home ... Free movies... *thinks*, ok ok ! Better to have her home ;)
Varekai
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