Thursday, December 1, 2011

Anaal Nathrakh - Passion


Anaal Nathrakh’s ‘Passion’ sounds like the final evolutionary step of heavy metal music. It combines unspeakably extreme, wall-of-sound mixing, absurdly fast and intricate drums, searing riffs with the most violent vocals imaginable. Frequently, the shrieking departs from the standard death-metal howls and enters a dark new territory of disturbingly convincing pained-yelps, and hoarse, tearful cries. AN has long been one of the honored and reviled chaplains of extreme metal, and with this release, they have offered up the audio equivalent to a mass-extinction event. It’s the noise of pigs being slaughtered, the treads of tanks shredding through bones and flesh. If music is ever going to be fully weaponized, these British bastards are at the top of the list.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

On OWS and the Notion of Change

Reading more politics has done two things recently; deconverted me from being an Obama supporter and introduced me to a profound feeling that we are just moments away from a cataclysmic event regarding these protests. An event that would irrevocably elevate the protests from being a sisyphean struggle for representation to something just beneath a civil uprising. This would involve actual military police, instead of the regular militarized police that we have seen already. This would mean lethal force and dead protesters and further authorized savagery.

The few good cops have cried out for representation as they are grouped with the barbarians who routinely beat and kill innocent citizens, (I am referring to the blase reaction when drug raids result in dead children, pets, parents, homeowners, because the enforcement invaded the wrong home) but ignoring the evils of another as just as evil as comitting the act. The veil of silence and above-the-law thinking has turned our public servants into a singularly base and exceprionally depraved organism, heeding only the will of their prepurchased oligarchical chieftains.

Recently, officers forcibly open the mouths of protestors and pumped their lungs with pepper spray. Victims of this bizarre cruelty were seen vomiting blood for 45 minutes. Im on a tablet so i will revisit this post later with a link to the story if so desired.

Pepper spray when used for its intended purpose, can successfully dissipate angry mobs. Spraying it on peaceful protestors is not only illegal but immoral and unethical, but using a crowd dispersant to bring about such a gut wrenching pain is almost surreal.

But what will it actually take? How many more veterans will have their skulls cracked open, their guts ruptured, their lives endangered? How deeply do the commonfolk need to be fucked by big business before they realize that both republicans and democrats are almost universally bought and paid for by the highest paid one percent?

And will this ever happen? Will this protest fizzle and vanish like so many others? My inexperienced 20 year old mind wants to believe that my generation will witness the revolution, but i am sure countless others before me have had similar desires.

Will OWS bring about any actual change?

Monday, September 19, 2011

The Red Sound

Hello there.

First off, I haven't forgotten about this site. I'm still very interested in writing reviews, but my attention has been elsewhere recently. I'm working on a new story, and most of my focus has been on that. Additionally, I've been looking for a job, I got a job, and now I'm about to start said job, so things are all a little hectic.

I'll be back with new reviews soon, but for now, I'm going to write on the story.

Thanks for your attention!

Winslow

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Devin Townsend - Deconstruction


Sometimes I listen to a new release and feel like I could fit the entire album in a shot glass. Some bands like to think that they’ve got a unique sound, so they pigeonhole themselves with their style and refuse to change it, lest they be seen as betraying their image. Devin Townsend doesn’t do this. Devin Townsend is on a mission: he has to make everything he records huge—not state-fair-pumpkin huge, circus-freak huge. Landkreuzer P-1500 Monster huge. He mixes his music so that every instrument is playing at one hundred percent power nearly the entire time, while including moments of serenity and softness to tease the listener into turning up the volume, only to be blasted away by the unfathomably low, hydrogen-bomb power chords. This process produces a record that sounds like Devin bought a retired missile silo, filled it with VX gas, set an orchestra on fire and gave his band a Chinook of black tar heroin, and told them to not stop playing until everyone in the orchestra died. ‘Deconstruction’ isn’t just the best death metal album I’ve heard all year; it’s one of the best metal albums I’ve heard in my life.

But what makes it worth your time?

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Another Huge Announcement

I was a frantic Obama supporter from 2008-2010, and as his polls show; he hasn’t delivered as we hoped he would. I don’t think he’s evil, a Muslim, a terrorist, or a new Hitler, and I’m certainly not in with the crowd that believes he is a socialist, communist, Marxist, or what-have-you. That’s non-sense. He’s a democrat, through and through. That comes with all the strengths and faults that democrats have. They’re generally good thinkers, they put people before businesses and they care about human rights, the constitution and preservation of the environment. This ability to think before making obscene gestures or rash decisions comes at the risk of being a spineless, pacifistic weakling. Obama has been molded to fit the corporate willpower. When he ran, I felt that, concerning removing the corporate influence from Washington politics, ‘if he can’t do it, no one can.’ And now that he has proven that he can’t, I realize that I was right. No one can. 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Reggie Watts

Reggie Watts: Why Shit So Crazy?



The line between madness and genius is a thin one, and only a few artists can walk it without their work becoming too convoluted to enjoy. That being said, Reggie Watts doesn’t just walk this line, he waltzes it. In his hour long special ‘Why Shit So Crazy?’, Watts, without any explanation or introduction to his style of humor, dissects both modern comedy and music with an analytical scalpel. Watts examines the most tired pop music clichés and uses them as a kind of lyrical white-noise. We’ve heard these lines so many times that, while Watts is sometimes incomprehensible, the cliché phrases are always easily understood, as they are exactly what we expect to hear.  He improvises with off-the-cuff, apropos-of-nothing storytelling, nonsensical songs and a kind of scat singing that is made up of disconnected fragments of jazz/soul/funk melodies, bizarre advice, and more random stories, all glued together with a spackle of rambling, meaningless noises. Listening to him sing over his live-recorded, looped beatboxing is akin to searching the airwaves for a clear radio signal, only to pass over multiple different stations and receive a garbled mix of static and snippets of programming. His comedy is almost subliminally entertaining; sometimes, you won’t even know why you’re laughing. Quite a few times, without ever telling a joke, Reggie Watts had me laughing hysterically.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

My Big Announcement: Everyone Gets Free Prints

Hey there.

So here is my big announcement: Everyone gets one free 8”x10” print of any photograph of mine, dated and signed. All my photography is open game; anything you see on my website is up for grabs. However, this offer comes with one stipulation: The print must be visibly displayed in your house. You don’t have to frame it; it doesn’t have to be anywhere in particular, just as long as it isn’t hidden away behind a bookshelf or under your fridge.

If you want more than one print, that’s perfectly fine, but after the first free piece, all the prints are $5.00. Shipping is free. I’m open to negotiate prices for larger orders, just let me know. And please, if you’re feeling generous, buy a few shots. I’m a poor college student. You know how it is. Thank you.

The entirety of my published work can be found on my website, http://weeperblast.deviantart.com/.

If you want a print, email me (programmed.and.damned@gmail.com) with the link to the picture and your address (unless you want to meet to pick it up.)

If you’re doing multiple orders, I take check, cash or paypal(it’s the same email).

So check it out! I’ve got an enormous portfolio, I’m certain everyone here could find something that fits their liking. Email me if you have any questions, I check it constantly, I’ll generally get back to you within an hour or two.



This is my fanpage http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lock-The-Doors-Photography-by-Winslow-Dumaine/222476914445522

Like it! I know I'm spamming you with all this, but honestly, without word-of-mouth and fresh work, I'd be beyond bankrupt.





Thank you kindly! And tell your friends!

Winslow Dumaine

Sunday, May 15, 2011

Big News on the Horizon + a Facebook Fanpage!

Hey there.

First off, I've got some big news coming soon. If you're interested in my photography, you should be excited.

Secondly, I made a facebook page for my photography and other art! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lock-The-Doors-Photography-by-Winslow-Dumaine/222476914445522

Check it out, like it, and tell your friends!

Thanks!

Winslow

Monday, May 2, 2011

Psychological Horror/Thriller(Not Goreporn) +Sci-Fi-Thriller Films!

Hey there. A while back, I found a somethingawful.com thread with a load of great psychological horror films, and I rediscovered my love of weird movies. The thread is closed now, so I figured I would give back a bit, by posting summaries and reviews of some of my favorite movies.

The emphasis of this post is on mind-bending psychological horror/thriller, with a particular point to avoid senseless gore and torture that is all too common in horror movies. A post for films that use slow, creeping tension to produce spine-tingling discomfort and horror. Also, Psychological Sci Fi is welcome as well.

Please open up this thread, take a look at some movies and tell me what you think!

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN



“Oscar, an overlooked and bullied boy, finds love and revenge through Eli, a beautiful but peculiar girl who turns out to be a vampire.”

Nothing is more touching than the romance of two children too young to understand what romance is. Oscar and Eli make an adorable, awkward pair in this surprisingly dark and touching film about abuse, compassion and sacrifice. Make sure you watch “Let the Right One In” and not “Let Me In”, the bastardized American version.


Saturday, April 30, 2011

Game Review: Minecraft

Minecraft




                Minecraft is a massively open single and multi-player sandbox game where the characters are placed on terra incognito and left to fend for themselves. The entire world is created of meter-by-meter sized cubes. There are a multitude of different types of blocks to find as well as truly infinite possibilities for each particular adventure. The entirety of the earth is moldable; the players can dig enormous trenches or build gargantuan castles that span across hundreds of kilometers of space.  Trees can be felled for wood, sand can be melted down to make glass, and immense cave structures can be discovered where players can spelunk at their leisure. The emphasis of the game is to explore and build your home from the materials you find. The map is essentially infinite (Yes, it does come to an end, but in order to reach the edge of playable space, the player must deliberately search for it) and each one is randomized. There are biomes of different climates and each has differing deposits of materials. There are free roaming NPCs in the forms of cows, sheep, pigs, chickens and most recently, tameable wolves. At night, however, the NPCs are joined by legions of the undead, gigantic spiders and skeletal archers.  Most horribly, bizarre, gangrenous creepers prey upon the player, lest they have built a shelter for themselves. As well as having a large online community, Minecraft also has tremendous single player value.  The replay value is bolstered significantly by the humongous and growing mod scene. New items, cities, maps, beautiful and silly textures, skin packs, and complete overhauls ensure that the game never gets stale. It recently sold its two-millionth copy.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Arthur (Movie; RomCom)


ARTHUR
Release: April, 2011
Genre: Romantic Comedy



I got suckered into seeing this movie recently and lost what could have been two very productive hours of my life.  Even if the time wasn’t used productively, I’d rather have stayed in the parking lot making a tiny beige Stonehenge out of discarded cigarette butts.  Arthur is a remake of the 1981 film, this time starring Russell Brand as the lead unlikable oaf.  Honestly, this film could’ve bit the bullet of self-parody and ran under the name of ‘Two Hours (That You Will Never Get Back) of Adventures by Several Wholly Uninteresting, Unlikable People’, and it might have less staggeringly awful.  I’m not going to write this review with a really nasty, hateful outlook because it’s fun to be mean. I’m going to write an honest, open review. This movie was terrible.



Friday, April 22, 2011

First Post/Leviathan/Mayhem (Music: Black Metal)

Hey there. For the inaugural post on The Snarl, I thought it would only make sense to introduce you to two of my favorite albums. I’ll be reviewing music, movies, art, products, events, people and anything else that comes my way. If you’re interested in having something reviewed, send me an email with your idea and I’ll see what I can do for you. For now, check out these two full reviews of two of the best black metal albums ever recorded.



LEVIATHAN – MASSIVE CONSPIRACY AGAINST ALL LIFE


            Type: LP
Producer: Moribund Cult
Release: March 24th, 2008

                Leviathan is an American black metal project composed entirely of one Jef Whitehead, otherwise known as Wrest. This 2008 masterpiece, Massive Conspiracy Against All Life is an apocalyptic series of grave, ambient tracks detailing not just the end of life on earth, but of the ultimate extinction of all matter in the universe. It begins with a slow, meager growling intro, but quickly picks up pace and turns into a maddening spiral into total oblivion. While it may seem simple, know that this piece is not just about the simplistic Armageddon of flames and devils, but of a microbial destruction, and of the creation of new life from the withered corpse of our universal ovum. Note the microscopic nature of some of the lyrics “Gone, as T-Lymphocytes” and “From a long, flagellated vessel”, and know that the original title for ‘Vulgar Asceticism’ was ‘A Flagellum Raised to the Sky’, a phrase which upends the sperm cell and points it at the ova of the earth.