Tuesday, March 23, 2004
An interesting interview with the old and new singers of Stratovarius, including an icky picture of the new singer.
From the Therion website:
The site is back up, thank gods. It's been a busy few weeks lately, rebuilding this thingy from scratch but who cares! :P Therion have been busy too, the CDs are mixed and final, and currently the graphics for the booklets are being done. "CDs"? "Booklets"? YEP! Not one, but TWO new albums ready to hit the CD shelves! Oh, are you going to enjoy them, they're best of the best of the best that Therion created in the last two years!
The new Therion albums are called "Sirius B" and "Lemuria" and will be released the 24th of May. They will be relesed as two separate albums, but during a period of two months, there will be a double release avaliable, so that people can get them both for more or less half the price. This release will be pressed as much as people buy it during these two months and after that what ever left in stores and distribution channels can continue to sell as long as it lasts. You can consider this special offers as a present from Therion to the fans.
The site is back up, thank gods. It's been a busy few weeks lately, rebuilding this thingy from scratch but who cares! :P Therion have been busy too, the CDs are mixed and final, and currently the graphics for the booklets are being done. "CDs"? "Booklets"? YEP! Not one, but TWO new albums ready to hit the CD shelves! Oh, are you going to enjoy them, they're best of the best of the best that Therion created in the last two years!
The new Therion albums are called "Sirius B" and "Lemuria" and will be released the 24th of May. They will be relesed as two separate albums, but during a period of two months, there will be a double release avaliable, so that people can get them both for more or less half the price. This release will be pressed as much as people buy it during these two months and after that what ever left in stores and distribution channels can continue to sell as long as it lasts. You can consider this special offers as a present from Therion to the fans.
Thursday, March 18, 2004
Just got the new Kataklysm album, Serenity In Fire. Its the total beat-down that I was expecting. Ultra raw death metal.
From the Nuclear Blast Web site, regarding the new In Flames album coming out March 29th.
Hardly any album was expected so excitingly like the new IN FLAMES album. Another step ahead IN FLAMES bring you "The Soundtrack To Your Escape"! Without denying their roots Anders, Jesper, Björn, Peter and Daniel once again create thrilling metal in the right balance of classical death origins and modernity. The logical continuation after "Reroute To Remain", “The Soundtrack To Your Escape” is immense, extreme and mind-blowing. The way metal today is supposed to sound!
Striving to make music he loved, Jesper Strömblad formed IN FLAMES with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström in 1990. After recording a demo, the trio got their first record deal and started to work on their debut album "Lunar Strain", which became a classic in the fast growing Scandinavian Death Metal scene. Exposing the melodic side of the band’s writing proved to be an important ingredient to a highly successful release. A license deal with Nuclear Blast was bargained soon afterwards and IN FLAMES started recording the follow up longplayer "The Jester Race", this time with an unborrowed line up consisting of Jesper, Johan and Glenn and two new additions: Anders Friden on vocals and Björn Gelotte on drums. Another big hit for IN FLAMES, "The Jester Race" got very popular across Europe and Japan, several gigs and a festival tour with SAMAEL, KREATOR and GRIP INC. followed. After the recording of "Whoracle" in 1997 Johan and Glenn decided to leave IN FLAMES, while Peter Iwers on bass and Niklas Engelin guitar filled in the gaps. With that fresh line up the band started off a mini tour with DIMMU BORGIR and afterwards a very successful European tour. Back home in Sweden Niklas quit IN FLAMES due to his wish to put more energy in his other project GARDENIAN. In consequence IN FLAMES restructured considerably; Björn switched from drums to guitar and Daniel Svensson (SACRILIGE) got hired for the skins, and released "Colony" in 1999. Excellent reactions all over the world and full concert venues in Europe, USA and Japan made IN FLAMES one of the most popular Melodic Death Metal acts internationally. "Clayman" in 2000 even topped its predecessor, the band got glutted with commendations and awards. The first IN FLAMES live album, "The Tokyo Showdown", showed up one year later, giving a detailed insight into the band's live competence. Modern and more mature, "Reroute To Remain" (2002) again confirmed the high status of IN FLAMES and marked another milestone in their biography.
If advancement in the world of Melodic Death Metal had a special description, it certainly would be IN FLAMES – the five Swedes outdid themselves once again. Great melodic hymns like the brilliant 'The Quiet Place' or astonishingly hard and demanding neckbreakers like 'F(r)iend' make "The Soundtrack To Your Escape" another essential album of the genre. You don't get around this hammer of a record, so don't even try to escape…!
THIS IS IN FLAMES – THIS IS THE FUTURE!
Hardly any album was expected so excitingly like the new IN FLAMES album. Another step ahead IN FLAMES bring you "The Soundtrack To Your Escape"! Without denying their roots Anders, Jesper, Björn, Peter and Daniel once again create thrilling metal in the right balance of classical death origins and modernity. The logical continuation after "Reroute To Remain", “The Soundtrack To Your Escape” is immense, extreme and mind-blowing. The way metal today is supposed to sound!
Striving to make music he loved, Jesper Strömblad formed IN FLAMES with Johan Larsson and Glenn Ljungström in 1990. After recording a demo, the trio got their first record deal and started to work on their debut album "Lunar Strain", which became a classic in the fast growing Scandinavian Death Metal scene. Exposing the melodic side of the band’s writing proved to be an important ingredient to a highly successful release. A license deal with Nuclear Blast was bargained soon afterwards and IN FLAMES started recording the follow up longplayer "The Jester Race", this time with an unborrowed line up consisting of Jesper, Johan and Glenn and two new additions: Anders Friden on vocals and Björn Gelotte on drums. Another big hit for IN FLAMES, "The Jester Race" got very popular across Europe and Japan, several gigs and a festival tour with SAMAEL, KREATOR and GRIP INC. followed. After the recording of "Whoracle" in 1997 Johan and Glenn decided to leave IN FLAMES, while Peter Iwers on bass and Niklas Engelin guitar filled in the gaps. With that fresh line up the band started off a mini tour with DIMMU BORGIR and afterwards a very successful European tour. Back home in Sweden Niklas quit IN FLAMES due to his wish to put more energy in his other project GARDENIAN. In consequence IN FLAMES restructured considerably; Björn switched from drums to guitar and Daniel Svensson (SACRILIGE) got hired for the skins, and released "Colony" in 1999. Excellent reactions all over the world and full concert venues in Europe, USA and Japan made IN FLAMES one of the most popular Melodic Death Metal acts internationally. "Clayman" in 2000 even topped its predecessor, the band got glutted with commendations and awards. The first IN FLAMES live album, "The Tokyo Showdown", showed up one year later, giving a detailed insight into the band's live competence. Modern and more mature, "Reroute To Remain" (2002) again confirmed the high status of IN FLAMES and marked another milestone in their biography.
If advancement in the world of Melodic Death Metal had a special description, it certainly would be IN FLAMES – the five Swedes outdid themselves once again. Great melodic hymns like the brilliant 'The Quiet Place' or astonishingly hard and demanding neckbreakers like 'F(r)iend' make "The Soundtrack To Your Escape" another essential album of the genre. You don't get around this hammer of a record, so don't even try to escape…!
THIS IS IN FLAMES – THIS IS THE FUTURE!
Sunday, March 14, 2004
Friday, March 12, 2004
This is very bad news.... Doom 3 for XBox gets Co-op, all other platforms, don't.
Doom 3 at Gamespot
Doom 3 at Gamespot
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
A new album from Borknagar, called "Epic", is coming in July.
A new solo album from the former singer of Stratovarius (they have some freaky chick singer now), called "Coldness", is coming April 26. His band is called Kotipelto, which is his last name.
One thing to note, these dates were taken from Century Media's German website, and might not reflect the USA release dates.
A new solo album from the former singer of Stratovarius (they have some freaky chick singer now), called "Coldness", is coming April 26. His band is called Kotipelto, which is his last name.
One thing to note, these dates were taken from Century Media's German website, and might not reflect the USA release dates.
Thursday, March 04, 2004
This is really kinda cool... I am almost tempted to get tickets.. if anyone wants to go (May 10th) talk to me and we'll set something up... it is though $40 a pop.
US Final Fantasy concert confirmed for May - News at GameSpot
US Final Fantasy concert confirmed for May - News at GameSpot
Monday, March 01, 2004
Here are some of the interesting concepts in the new game coming out 'Sacred':
- There are 6 characters to choose from: Barbarian, Seraphim, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, Battlemage, Vampiress
- You can utilize horses for getting places quicker and mounted combat is different from normal combat, different abilities can be used
- There are 2 types of Skills:
* One set very much like D&D skills where the more points, the better you are at it (Unarmed combat, Swords)
* One called Combat Arts, which could be mostly attributed to spells / special abilities (Fireball, Hard Hit)
- You can create combo attacks out of the Combat Arts (Leap Attack -> Stun Kick -> Hard Hit -> Fist of the Gods) and this combo attack will just string out the above listed abilities
- Combat Arts don't have 'Mana' that you have to wait for them to recharge rather each skill has it's own regeneration time. More later.
- Combat is very Diablo-esque, you click a lot of times on the enemy to kill it
- Combat Arts are received not through points like the skills but rather you get them through monster kills / quests. They are randomly dropped so you don't always get what you want, but this also works to your advantage at times...
COMBAT ARTS:
- Combat Arts are dropped randomly from monsters, they appear as runes (scrolls) and you right click on them to learn them or upgrade your current level in the combat art.
- The higher level in a combat art your skill is, the longer the regeneration time is.
- You can offset regeneration time by a skill called 'concentration' the more points you put into it the less regeneration time your combat arts have. (I have heard something like 5% less per concentration point put into it, but will reserve my judgement on that)
There are some pretty cool Combat Arts out there, but having played the demo (which limited us to Seraphim and Barbarian) I only have experienced a few.. here are some examples:
- Fist of the Gods (You hit an opponent for like 4x damage, normal hits were in the 40's or 50's this hit for 250!)
- Irritation (Target is stunned for x seconds)
- Attack (Seraphim goes into a special attack art form which makes her hit multiple times [further note: you generally swing 5 times and hit 2 times, with the attack skill I was swinging 7 times in the same time frame and hitting 7 times])
- Look of Daggers[not sure if that is the name] (Basically any creature in the range of your aura takes damage every second, it was pretty good although at higher level it would probably be awesome)
So it really is a give and a take:
If you increase your Combat Arts, you increase your damage, but they take longer to regen
If you increase your concentration, you can use your combat arts more often
This also means that you get more of a benefit from concentration the higher your combat arts level is...
Once I get home today I'll copy this into it's own webpage...
- There are 6 characters to choose from: Barbarian, Seraphim, Wood Elf, Dark Elf, Battlemage, Vampiress
- You can utilize horses for getting places quicker and mounted combat is different from normal combat, different abilities can be used
- There are 2 types of Skills:
* One set very much like D&D skills where the more points, the better you are at it (Unarmed combat, Swords)
* One called Combat Arts, which could be mostly attributed to spells / special abilities (Fireball, Hard Hit)
- You can create combo attacks out of the Combat Arts (Leap Attack -> Stun Kick -> Hard Hit -> Fist of the Gods) and this combo attack will just string out the above listed abilities
- Combat Arts don't have 'Mana' that you have to wait for them to recharge rather each skill has it's own regeneration time. More later.
- Combat is very Diablo-esque, you click a lot of times on the enemy to kill it
- Combat Arts are received not through points like the skills but rather you get them through monster kills / quests. They are randomly dropped so you don't always get what you want, but this also works to your advantage at times...
COMBAT ARTS:
- Combat Arts are dropped randomly from monsters, they appear as runes (scrolls) and you right click on them to learn them or upgrade your current level in the combat art.
- The higher level in a combat art your skill is, the longer the regeneration time is.
- You can offset regeneration time by a skill called 'concentration' the more points you put into it the less regeneration time your combat arts have. (I have heard something like 5% less per concentration point put into it, but will reserve my judgement on that)
There are some pretty cool Combat Arts out there, but having played the demo (which limited us to Seraphim and Barbarian) I only have experienced a few.. here are some examples:
- Fist of the Gods (You hit an opponent for like 4x damage, normal hits were in the 40's or 50's this hit for 250!)
- Irritation (Target is stunned for x seconds)
- Attack (Seraphim goes into a special attack art form which makes her hit multiple times [further note: you generally swing 5 times and hit 2 times, with the attack skill I was swinging 7 times in the same time frame and hitting 7 times])
- Look of Daggers[not sure if that is the name] (Basically any creature in the range of your aura takes damage every second, it was pretty good although at higher level it would probably be awesome)
So it really is a give and a take:
If you increase your Combat Arts, you increase your damage, but they take longer to regen
If you increase your concentration, you can use your combat arts more often
This also means that you get more of a benefit from concentration the higher your combat arts level is...
Once I get home today I'll copy this into it's own webpage...
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