Nadja

Yesterday, I was meandering through YouTube, listening and watching some music videos. I don't know how I got to where I was, but I stumbled upon some really disconcerting, aurally rich, somewhat disturbing music-- Nadja. I like some forms of black metal, and the video image on YouTube looked like it would be black metal, a grey and grainy image of trees heavily laden with snow, so I decided to give it a whirl. What I found was an unusual array of soundscapes, some would characterize this as noise. One must have an open mind, first of all, to click on this, let alone listen for the entire 19 minutes that some of the tracks ask of you. This, I warn you, is not for the faint of heart. I can envision some people turning the music off in fear listening to it in a dark room by themselves. Others, I can envision meditating to this. One has to have an appreciation for something incredibly atmospheric, and much different than anything one has heard before. Personally, I plan on taking a walk through the park with this in my iPod nearing dusk on a dreary autumn day, like today. 

According to the iTunes bio, and yes I am actually on the verge of purchasing, Nadja is a duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff characterized as ambient doom/metal/electronic music, and their first official release was Truth Becomes Death in 2005. They have done other musical works prior. If you click on the link to the Wiki on Aidan Baker, you will see there is quite an extensive music history of experimental music alchemy. Often the music starts softly, like a whisper and it grows as the music progresses. If you close your eyes, block out everything else around you, and listen deeply and carefully, you will begin to pick up on the subtle layers of sounds that build gradually to a climax. If you have synesthesia or are just have a very active mind's eye, this is meditative ear candy for you. This is great for the imagination, and brings forth many new and exciting emotions from music. When is the last time you have listened to something that might be disturbing at times? Meditative at others? The music is atmospheric, and sets a tone as you move through your environment.

I haven't followed up regarding my progress in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, and this is because the progress is painfully slow. This book is not a speed-read, and I am trying to truly absorb the character development. So far, it seems there is a struggle between those whose reason is to succeed in wealth and those whose reason is for the greater good to succeed. I dislike most of the men in the book so far, although I am only in about 180 pages. Francisco D'Anconia is a dirt bag, and Rearden is just icky. It seems that Dagny loves success, and takes massive risks, but has a horrible taste in men. Or maybe Ayn Rand has horrible taste in men, or she just likes to be the s in BDsM. As I said, I haven't got too far yet, I have yet to get to the part where people say "this book will change the way you see the world."  I still keep in mind the icky feeling I got from Anthem, we'll see.

As far as hair goes, nothing much has changed. I am thinking because it is such a crappy day out, and I am a bit under the weather this morning, maybe I will deep condition today. I have to rest up since we are going into Holiday setup at my store and I need my health now more than ever. Way to spend the day off, I know, but my body thanks me. Until next time!

Epic Kings and Idols Tour -- Katatonia & Paradise Lost

I haven't been to a concert in almost a year, and this was certainly well worth it. I had an amazing time at Epic Kings and Idols Tour, in Irving Plaza 9/23/12. Thanks to my wonderful hubby, we upgraded our tickets to the box seats, and were right above the sound board.

The Lineup:
Stolen Babies
Paradise Lost
Devin Townsend
Katatonia

Stolen Babies was pretty decent as an opening act. Their sound was theatrical, similar to Psyche Corporation except much, much harder and metal. The way the music grooved, the rhythms were similar, and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I give them plenty of credit for the show they put on. Opening acts are usually awful, and filler before the show, but Stolen Babies harkened to the days when first encountered Dog Fashion Disco live (until they played again at a festival somewhere in New Jersey and were awful).

Paradise Lost  was delicious. They opened with Enchantment, off of their older Draconian Times album, and the moment I heard the song begin I was taken back to the days when that album came out, I was 17 when I discovered them. I will be frank and say I haven't followed Paradise Lost all that much since after One Second came out, they went far goth and less metal. It is a shame I didn't stick with them, because boy oh boy they came back with a vengeance. Faith Divides Us is a great song, and Paradise Lost's live performance was excellent. Irving Plaza, I must add, is an excellent venue for metal. The acoustics work, unlike in a place like Roseland Ballroom. I will not go to another metal show there, simply because the acoustics have the tendency to make the sound muddy, and that puts a damper on enjoying the full blast of music.  A few glasses of wine and Paradise lost and I was in complete heaven. They played The Enemy, off of In Requiem, and here was where I realized that I was rediscovering a band with a legendary gothic metal sound. This review of Paradise Lost is 100% about rediscovering something that had been lost in time. I went to see Katatonia, but Paradise Lost made the show highly worthwhile as well. Thanks to this show, I am diving into Paradise Lost with renewed interest, and have purchased some of their newer music since! And I feel truly lucky to have had this experience because apparently they don't come to the states that often.

 

Next on the show was the Devin Townsend Project. Look, I thoroughly understand that I may get totally flamed for this review, but I never really followed Devin Townsend. I say I might get flamed because the reaction of the crowd to Devin Townsend was different than my personal impression of the music. I completely understand that with all his well known projects, such as Strapping Young Lad, and Frontline Assembly, that I should be reviewing this with a bowing reverence, but I am not. Frankly  I could care less, and I felt like every song played sounded the same live. Granted, I hadn't dove into the music beforehand to familiarize myself. Clearly there is a great deal of drug-addled humor and parody implied judging from the website and the trippy animations on screen before their live set, and I am sure that's pretty cool. This really just wasn't my cup of tea. I was fairly amused, that besides my husband and I, there was a random Asian girl sitting near us in the box seat area who seemed just as disinterested as we were. But everyone else was completely entranced by Devin Townsend. Different strokes for different folks, I guess.  I don't know. Anyway, I am not ripping them apart, I'm just saying it thoroughly just was not for me. To add, live, they sounded too muddled, and never heard anything like this,below, on YouTube, where they sound like twisted carnival music. I do give Devin credit, he is demented beyond words. Maybe if it didn't just sound like repetitive drum blasting live, it would have been better.

Finally we get to Katatonia. Aaah the band I was waiting to see.  I absolutely love this band on CD, and was a bit nervous about how they would sound live. Those vocals could go one of two ways live. I am happy to say they delivered, and played songs from a wide range of albums. They played The Longest Year, and I actually caught that on video. The Day and Then the Shade was played during encore, I truly love that song and they delivered. July, My Twin also were played solidly. I had hoped they would play Departer, as I see a thread of connection to July with that song, but they didn't. Oh well, they played Dead House, a very very old song, which came out in the late 1990's. Katatonia's sound back then was more doom, and their vocals weren't as refined as they are now. I highly recommend checking out the old version, and then hearing the difference live. All in all, great show.

Infinity through the eyes of Freethinking

          For years, maybe because of the history I have lived, I have moved between atheism and something else. Maybe atheism is a relative term used to define the perspective of disbelief from which one views a said religion/deity. This isn't a scientific post, and is not intended to sound the call of reason, if reason is what one calls it. Nowadays I am leaning towards something else, and is something I can't ever properly describe. I am going to try my best here. It may, to some sound quite simplistic, but it feels quite firm in reality. The FACT, the undeniable FACT, that we are here, along with the Universe around us, is proof that there is a higher power. The FACT that we feel a myriad of emotions, and can be conscious of our existence and the existence of the Universe around us, in all its vastness, is proof. 

          Science will explain how, and I don't deny science, evolution, or the myriad of theories proven. Science, however, is emotionally and morally neutral. The universe is neutral. Humans, however, and who knows what else dwells in the universe, are not morally neutral, but are constantly deciding  (often failing) right from wrong, and feeling joy, pain, anger, jealousy, rage, love, compassion, and sadness.  There. And that is where I will leave it. There was a comment regarding emotions being simply chemical reactions made somewhere on the web and it left me deeply perturbed. I frivolously responded "Oh that's all well and good, but we mustn't devalue all human emotions to being simply chemical reactions, as purely physical manifestations. Go ahead, give everyone a pill and stop all emotion and feeling," and left the post behind.  The whole thing touched upon something I had taken great issue with, the struggle to hold on to morals and ethics in a field which is increasingly devaluing the soul of the universe to chemical reactions-- science. The irreconcilable (or are they?) differences between science and the Soul, and morality. 

          The inability for either side to see a melding, maybe something that isn't either black or white. Something that isn't the Abrahamic Sky God, and not the preposterous notion that just because the Universe creates itself theoretically that there isn't a higher power at work, guiding it, or that it is a part of the All. What is beyond All? Here we are again, staring into infinity. Infinity. Mirrors creating endless halls. I recommend Chris Hedges' book When Atheism Becomes Religion, only so that anyone who has read the Four Horsemen has a counter-argument to moderate the extremes.System of a Down said the spirit moves through all things. In my experience, it does. And I will not debate this any more, as somehow I have developed a deep revulsion for the devaluation of everything to a strictly material existence by science. It is disconcerting, and makes my skin crawl. This is the thing Monsanto is made of. That old movie with Tim Curry, The Fly comes to mind as well. Science setting out to disprove the spiritual existence, destroying all moral compass, will destroy us all. Am I nuts for thinking that it is truly "mystical" that everything exists? Good. I am proud to be a card-carrying member of loonytoons. Most Atheists debate black and white. Extreme religion to extreme anti-god. There is no middle ground between dinosaur-denying 5000 year old earth believing Creationists, and stark mathematical science. Neither of these sides, in my view, see the forest, for the trees.You can acknowledge that science is true, without devaluing the sanctity of existence and recognizing this magnificent manifestation for what it is: a flourishing grandiose miracle. Trillions upon trillions of stars.