Iceberglandia

Ha. As I’ve mentioned before, I want need an iPod. Now that the price of the 80 GB one dropped, with the appearance of the 160 GB one, I’m getting closer and closer. In the meantime, however, I’m kicking it old school with my Panasonic Discman. Now, my discman is fully supportive of the mp3 format, but I’m stupid and I always end up making audio CDs. Usually, I’ll be really into a band for a couple of days, and I’ll create a mix CD with songs exclusively by that band. Say, Anthrax, for example. Now, Anthrax is a problem, since so many of their songs kick ass, and the audio format only allows me to record 15 or 16 (they’re lengthier than your average top-40 crap, so don’t tell me “hey Iceberg, I made a mix CD of Fall Out Boy and I fit in 25 songs!”). Of course, in the case of Anthrax, I could just as easily make a mix mp3 CD and get it over with, but we’ve already covered the ’stupidity’ part.

Other times, I’ll feel really ‘metal’ and get into all kinds of bands, listening to a little bit of whatever I happen to have floating around in the ol’ computer, or I’ll tune into a metal radio station and see what’s new.

A couple of weeks ago, during a long weekend in which (surprise, surprise) much alcohol was consumed, I decided to visit my old friends over at www.knac.com and listen for a couple of hours. I made a list of the songs I liked, came up with probably a dozen (between the good shit they tend to play a lot of crap – if by ‘crap’ I can describe Dio-era Black Sabbath, the band I like to call PISS, and, well, let’s just ay I’m not the biggest Led Zeppelin fan).

With a dozen songs at hand, I gave my personal collection a quick look and came up with 23 songs, of which I could only squeeze in 20. And now, for your reading pleasure, I will gladly review the CD I listen to on my way to/from work. These are in no particular order, since I always set my Discman to ‘Random Play’ anyway.

CHILDREN OF BODOM – Lake Bodom
You might remember a couple of months ago I posted a video somebody made in which they made fun of the lyrics to this song. It’s an oldie, but it’s a goodie. Fuck, that was corny. Anyway, it’s a cool song by a cool band. Then again, they are finnish, so they’re bound to be awesome.

BEHEMOTH – Conquer All
By some coincidence, (I’m listening to it on random) here’s another song I posted a video of. The first song I heard from this polish (as in, from Poland) trio, and now I’m hooked. One of the best death metal bands out there, and the only band I included two songs by on my CD. From the album ‘Demigod’, which came out in 2004. I still can’t get over the main riff’s similarity to Anthrax’s “Be All, End All”.

DEVIN TOWNSEND – Ziltoidia Ataxxx!
Ever since Strapping Young Lad’s debut album came out in 1995, I’ve been a fan of Devin Townsend and his million projects. This is from his newest album, “Ziltoid The Omniescent”, and while it lacks the industrial aspect of SYL albums, it’s still heavy shit with interesting guitar parts. The only thing that I don’t really care for is the fact that in some parts of the song he tries unsuccessfully to sing in a high-pitched voice a la Rob Halford. But all in all, a good song.

FEAR MY THOUGHTS – Blankness
A really cool metal song. Not much more I can say, except the keyboard part near the end sounds cool and for some reason fits the song.

DREAM THEATER – Constant Motion
Jesus Christ, I could play this song to some naïve metal fan and convince him that it’s a B-Side from Metallica’s “…And Justice For All”. So much, in fact, that I was expecting the singer to shout “color our world Blackened!”. Well, except for the chorus, which sounds exactly like another band from the early 90’s I can’t really put a finger on at the moment.
The scary part is, it’s not the only song on my CD that sounds like Metallica. Stay tuned.
You’d think that for a supposedly technical and progressive band like DT, they’d be able to come up with original stuff, but hey, at least it doesn’t sound like anything off “Reload”.

SEVENDUST – Face To Face
Another “oldie”, but I had never heard it before. And boy, was I missing out. See, I had listened to the first two Sevendust albums at the height of the nü metal era, and lost them among the Coal Chambers and (hed)PEs… Turns out, they can put out a decent song after all. Except for the part where they go all ‘Disturbed’ and shit, talking in the middle of the song, I fucking love this song. The lyrics rule as well, as you can see with the following example: “there’s not one thing that you can say to make it right, unless you say you’re leaving”.
An angry song, but very well executed.

DEEPFIELD – Get It
To be honest, it sounded better when I decided to include it in my CD. It’s not a bad song, but it has nothing to do with the rest of the album. It’s more hard-rock than metal (although the same can be said about the Sevendust one, at least that one sounds pissed).

BEHEMOTH – Slaves Shall Serve
Another Behemoth one. But, as the other one, it kills. No Anthrax riffs here, this is plain brutal. Starting with the, um, can we call it a ‘chant’? at the beginning (look for it on youtube). There’s a reason why I love this band. There’s nothing you can shrug your shoulders and say “well…” about.
Oh, this one is also from “Demigod”. Check out 2007’s “The Apostasy”, an album which I’m getting into.

(hed)PE – Kerosene
Ha ha. Remember a couple of songs back I mentioned nü metal? Well, here’s (hed)PE with a surprisingly cool song. Not that it’s great, or anything, and fuck, does it reek of nü metal, but the lyrics, oh, the lyrics. They can be used to describe both the city I come from in Mexico, and this here canadian city of Guelph. As in, “there’s never anything to do in this town”, and “there’s kerosene around, I’ll find something to do”. Oh, fuck, he just started rapping. Fuck nü metal.

DEVILDRIVER – These Fighting Words
Very funny, Lady Luck. Now go fuck yourself. Speaking of nü metal, here’s Devildriver. Now, DD is not nü metal, per se, but guess who the singer and driving force behind the band is? None other than Dez Fafara, whose other band you very well might have learned to hate, Coal Chamber.
Even so, it’s not a bad song, and he tries really hard to not sound like Coal Chamber, so he gets a B+ for effort. But that annoying guitar thingie at the end – what the fuck? Does he think he’s Metallica, too?

SYMPHONY X – Set The World On Fire (The Lie Of Lies)
You know, for a bunch of guys from fucking New Jersey, they try really hard to sound like Helloween, a great metal band from the other side of the Atlantic. Which is good, I guess. I mean, it could be a lot worse. They could be trying to sound like Bon Jovi.

3 INCHES OF BLOOD – Goat Riders Horde
If this song wasn’t good as a whole, I wouldn’t have included it. I hate those high-pitched “metal” screamy singers. I find it annoying that someone would put so much effort into sounding like the fat viking lady at the opera, especially during a metal song. I mean, when Rob Halford does it, he can get away with it, because, fuck, man, it’s Judas Priest. But fuck everyone else who sings like this. Especially if, as is the case here, the singer is fat.

DRY KILL LOGIC – Caught In A Storm
Remember the movie “The Fly”, when a fly somehow flew into the teleporter thingie with Seth Brundle, and out came a combination of the two? Now picture putting Sepultura and Soundgarden into the teleporter. Out the other end would come out Dry Kill Logic. I know, a shitty build-up to an even shittier description. But hey, it’s all I can think of.

BLOOD TSUNAMI – Evil Unleashed
Have you finished laughing at the band’s name? Ok, me too. If only they’d put as much effort in naming their band as they do making cool death metal, they’d go places, I’d say. But somehow I don’t picture the name “Blood Tsunami” on many marquees. Blood Tsunami. Jesus Christ, I can’t help myself. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Fuck, sorry about that. It’s just, it sounds like one of those fake “metal” names you’d hear on Beavis and Butthead.
Oh, the song? It’s actually quite decent death metal. Not the greatest, but certainly a good addition to my CD.

THE SHOWDOWN – Temptation Come My Way
Is this the new tendency in metal? That every band has to sound like Metallica? So far, Dream Theater sounded like the Justice album, and that idiot from coal chamber ended his song with a Metallica-style guitar part. And now this. You must be thinking “well, knowing the Iceberg, he must be exaggerating. The music might be slightly reminiscent of Metallica, but not a rip-off, as the Iceberg claims”. Well, my dear detectives, go look for yourselves. Search for the DT song on youtube, and tell me it’s not what I say it is. Then look for the Devildriver one, and listen to the ending. And then look for this one, and try to somehow convince me it soesn’t sound like Black Album-era Metallica. He even sings “until it sleeps”, for crying out loud! these guys love Metallica, and they’re not too shy to show it.

DESPISED ICON – Quarantine
Now that’s what I’m talking about! Technical death metal is where it’s at. This song is quickly growing into my favorites on this CD.

LYZANXIA – Ache Power Control
Pure in-your-face metal from… I’ll let you guess on this one.
a) Gotheberg, Sweden
b) New Jersey, NJ
c) Anjou, France
The correct answer, hard to believe as it is, is c). Still, a very interesting song. Sometimes, when you keep your ears open, you encounter bands you wouldn’t have discovered otherwise. Of course, you bump into a lot of shit also, but who cares when you find bands like Lyzanxia?

JOB FOR A COWBOY – Embedded
While the band’s name invokes images of an unemployed rancher riding into the sunset, smoking Marlboros and drinking moonshine, perhaps the sad, bluesy wail of an acoustic guitar comes to mind. But nothing could be farther from the truth, as this band is a complete rip-off of Morbid Angel. And I mean it in a good way, being a Morbid Angel fan and all. But the guy’s voice is identical to David Vincent’s, and the guitarwork is an exact replica of everything Trey Azagthoth has ever done. So, it is to say, I love this band.
I can’t fucking wait for November 12. Job For a Cowboy and Behemoth, in Toronto.
Oh, and I highly recommend the video, also on youtube.

NON-POINT – Bullet With A Name
This is one of the two songs on my CD (along with the Sevendust one) that I’ve set on repeat in my journey to work. There’s something about this song that kicks ass.

HELLYEAH – Hellyeah
If I told you the drummer is Vinnie Paul (from Pantera), you wouldn’t believe me. Now, the song is cool and all, but the version I have sounds like shit. It sounds like I’m listening to AM radio. Or Metallica’s St. Anger (not the music – there are enough Metallica clones as it is on this CD – I mean the production).
As I said, the song is all right, but I can’t get over the fact that I’m listening to the song “Hellyeah”, from the album “Hellyeah”, from the band “Hellyeah”. How fucking unoriginal is that?

And on that note endeth my 80:05 minute sonic adventure. I had to leave out SIXX A.M.’s “Life Is Beautiful”, Airbourne’s “Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast” and Ra’s “Rectifier”, because somehow they didn’t fit the mood of my CD, but maybe someday I’ll overcome my stupidity and make an mp3 CD and include all of them.
Hell, maybe someday I’ll review some more of my mix CDs, including *that* one.

The Iceberg.

Ha, ha. Minus two unread messages. I still haven’t made up my mind on whether that’s cool or it sucks.

The Iceberg.

My, how things change over the course of three years.

I had quite an introspective weekend, in which I compared the 2004 Iceberg to the 2007 Iceberg. The results? not at all inspiring. I couldn’t come up with any optimistic “slogan” that reflected the truth, like ‘new and improved’. Au contraire, I came to the conclusion that the current version of The Iceberg (that would be yours truly), well, sucks in comparison.

3 years ago, my situation, of course, was different. I struggled to sustain myself economically, what with the absolute lack of opportunity back home. See, when I started working at my last job there, things were great for a while. Due to some changes, however, I found myself (as did all the others) working less and less. It’s not that I was fired, or that I quit… it was more of a seasonal thing, and by the time I left said “seasons” had limited themselves to one month out of every six. The monthly pay? The equivalent of $500 USD. Try living on that for six months.
Now, of course, I have a seemingly stable job (as in, unless I do something really, really stupid, I won’t get fired) and am currently thinking of doing something on the side.
That’s one of the changes that leans towards the positive, but has more to do with the environment than with myself.

Of course, having all that free time in 2004/05, I got to exploit my creativity a little bit more, something which, alas, I’ve noticed I haven’t done in a while. I used to spend a lot of time writing (not “the great american novel” or anything of the kind – more like talking to myself via Microsoft Notepad). I spent even more time – I guess you could call it a hobby – learning and playing around with Photoshop, creating images, toying around with pictures, and whatnot… Hell, I even tried my hand at making music. Not that I can actually play an instrument, mind you (I’d say I can’t even whistle my way out of a paper bag), but fucking around with mp3 songs and sounds on CoolEdit Pro. Now, in 2007, I barely open photoshop anymore, and if I do, it is only to resize a photo, or to add a caption to an image. And it’s not only because of the lack of time, it’s more because I now lack inspiration. I’ll think about changing my desktop wallpaper (I’ve had the same photo of myself and my daughter for the better part of two years now), or create some new images to display on MSN, or even have some fun altering the facial features of people in my photos, and end up saying “Meh”, and doing something else.

Although I’ve always been somewhat of a loner, I managed to develop quite a network of friends and acquaintances while back home. It’s funny how, despite not living there for two years, every time I go back I can go to the supermarket, or just walk down the street, and end up waving at, or stopping to chat with lots of people. It’s as if I were famous down there. Even when it came to the opposite sex, I had little trouble approaching somebody I had focused my attention on. Whether I ended up turned down or not is irrelevant. I was more adventurous, and more willing to “open up”. I was frequently invited to parties, or even hosted my own (back home, a case of beers and a group of 3 people is considered a party).
Now, it could be argued that I’ve become a fucking hermit. With an almost absolute lack of acquaintances outside of work, I hardly ever leave the house if not for work or to the store. To give you an example, in all of 2007 my social life has been limited to the one time I went to a friend’s house to watch a fight. In 2006 I went twice to play pool, and on my birthday I went to a bar. And let’s not talk about the opposite sex. And the worst part is, I don’t care. I’ve become so used to being alone, that I’ve cynically shut own socially (pardon the adverb overdose). Other than whatever goes on at work, and the two or three people I haven’t scared off my Messenger list, I barely interact with people anymore. In two years, the only people that have come to my house  are related to me (i.e. my sisters, their husbands, and my dad).

Even with the things I used to love, and still do, I’ve noticed a couple of changes for the worst. Take music, for example. This is kind of embarassing for me to tell you, but it serves as a perfect example. Back then, I’d play a cd on my stereo, and “perform” along to the music (of course, I only did this when I was alone). As in, if I was playing, say, Slayer’s “South Of Heaven”, I’d mimic the pose of Tom Araya and pretend to play bass and sing. Now, even the most brutal death metal, or the catchiest industrial, or even those peeks at my 80’s pop collection serve a purpose no greater than background music. The air guitaring is gone, as is the headbanging, and I don’t even bother to sing along anymore. Fuck, I’m becoming bitter.

Is it my own fault? Is it a product of the frustration of trying so hard for so long and never accomplishing anything? Is it the result of the environments I’m in? Fuck if I know. All I know is that I’m heading full-steam in a direction I really, really do not care for. I’d much rather be happy, satisfied, socially active. But it’s not just up to me, and in all reality, I’m tempted to just give up. It’s a vicious circle, really. No, it’s a fucking vortex of doom more than a mere circle. The few times I have tried to interact socially haven’t turned out the way I’d expected, and that pushes me even farther towards not wanting to interact anymore.

Back in 2004, I stressed out over everything. And reasons to stress out, there were a-plenty. Now? I’m apathetic for the most part. While it is healthier not to stress out, I believe I’ve taken it a bit too far. And I don’t even stress out about taking it too far. Ha Ha, talk about vicious circles.

Then, there’s the thing about aging. Back then, at the “tender” age of 30/31, I was still far from feeling old. As of today, it’s not that I feel any older (for fucks sake, my mind is still 14 years old), but the numbers game plays tricks with your mind. Take the advertising industry, for example. See, in a little over a month, I’ll be 35. One of the age brackets in advertising is 18-34. It is to this group that video games, music, movies and magazines are targeted. In exactly 45 days, I’ll be officially “too old” for my PS2, my cd collection, and most brands of beer. Sure, age is just a number, but talk about benchmark numbers. At least at 35 I can justify my personality traits with the phrase “midlife crisis”. Whopee-doo.

So yes, I came to the conclusion that I’m becoming a bitter, cynical, lonesome, not-a-care-in-the-world Iceberg. Is there hope for me? I’d say there is, and I promise to try, but any and all help is welcome.

The Iceberg.