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Woo, 21 years old. BOO-YA! BRB, GONNA GET DRUNK OUTTA MY MIND AND DRIVE INTO A TREE TRUNK AT 95 MILES AN HOUR LOLZ!

Well, technically my birthday's on the 12th but according to Last.fm it was today, so whatever. So yea, yay me, another year older. Unfortunately I never cared for alcohol so this isn't really a big deal. I just made this journal because...It felt right. I also need a new profile picture, I look pissed in my current one. God, I've been on this site for a while now. And on a random note, Katatonia recently broke 1,000 plays. Huzzah. Brave Murder Day fur teh win.

No, it's not an overly dramatic journal about philosophy and the frailty of human life, it's simply my rant on the Iron Maiden album "A Matter of Life and Death". I was flipping through my CD booklet while driving today just trying to find something that didn't suck (Haven't bought CD's in a while, got a lotta crappy and outdated stuff in there ) when I saw Iron Maiden's "A Matter of Life and Death" staring back at me.

When I heard this album was coming out, I was estatic. I was stoked. I was convinced it would kick ass. After all, it's Iron Maiden and I do love the Iron Maiden. Well, it came out, I ran over to Best Buy and grabbed it like a rabid fanboy, and after playing it through once, I sort of just sat there unfulfilled.

I told myself it's probably one of those albums that'll grow on me, much like Opeth's "Orchid" did. So I played it again. And again. And again. I'm not overexaggerating when I say I've probably listened to this album 40+ times.

I know what you're thinking, "Wooshmeister, you fucking idiot, the album came out well over a year ago, get with the times! YOU ASSHOLE!". The general consensus among Iron Maiden fans was that it was a great album. It got high reviews and most of the fans on this site seem to love / worship it. I'm a Maiden fan myself and personally think "Seventh Son of a Seventh Son" is one of the best albums recorded in the past two decades. This album however is not, no matter how hard I try to "get" it.

The weird thing is I can't pinpoint what it is that I hate so much about this album. I know one major factor is the goddamn CHORUS REPITITION, the same thing that plagued "Brave New World" and prevented it from being all it could've been is present in this album as well. For the record, my two favorite Maiden tracks are "Sign of the Cross" and a two-way tie between "Phantom of the Opera" and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner". What do all those tracks have in common? Oh! No chorus!

That's not to say I hate choruses, almost every song has a chorus, that's perfectly standard, it's more the way how poorly they were integrated into the music. "Powerslave" is how you integrate a chorus. It flows smoothly and feels like it's a part of the song. "The Longest Day" is how you royally fuck up an otherwise decent song. It sounds like the song's going along and then out of left-field, they just throw in the chorus. It's sudden, abrupt and simply kills the album for me. It's especially bad in "For the Greater Good Of God" and "The Longest Day".

I'm listening to the album as I type this and my mind is literally nodding off. I'm bored out of my mind listening to this album (Just finished Brighter Than a Thousand Suns). The drums also seem especially weak, I usually tap my fingers on my desk when I like the drums in a song, hasn't even crossed my mind this whole time. There's no standout drumming or guitar riffs to be found throughout the album for me, that's when you really know an album's bad.

So to sum it up, what did I LIKE about this album? Well, the album cover was pretty well-done...Also "The Legacy" was a pretty good song. The beginning of "The Longest Day" as well before the chorus dropkicks it into shitville.

I don't want to call it terrible, but I really do think it's rather bad, maybe my least favorite Iron Maiden album (Yes, worse than Fear of the Dark. Even No Prayer for the Dying had a few decent songs.) I reached the conclusion long ago that "A Matter of Life and Death" is a subpar album and I firmly stand by that. I still love Iron Maiden, but no amount of praise can make me enjoy this album. I know I'm going to get torn apart for this "review", but please, while you're doing so, tell me what it is about this album you like. What's so good about it that I'm just not hearing?

A Matter of Life and Death

Yea, I snapped and went out to see Rambo last night even though I promised myself I wouldn't. I was expecting a drunken Stallone with slurred speech mowing down hordes of Asians with flamethrower in hand or something, but most of his kills were sneak attacks, so that was a little disappointing. Rambo isn't supposed to be discrete, he's supposed to be charging headfirst into armies and emerging victorious, drenched in the blood of his enemies while yelling incomprehensible English. Come on, Hollywood...

The plot...Umm...Wow, I already forgot. Rambo's the ferryman of some boat and a few Christian human rights missonaries show up looking to get a ride upriver to help war-torn Burma. Rambo hesitates but eventually takes them upstream and from there, it's basically non-stop, mindless violence. Some people get kidnapped, Rambo saves them, blah blah blah. Even though the violence was excessive, it was still pretty realistic and stomach-turning (Compared to most action movies at least, blood doesn't phase me too much). Heads are decapitated, stomachs are sliced open, entrails and guts falling all over the place, people getting blown into bloody mist by grenades, people getting shot in the head, etc. A fun film for the whole family. Bring the kids!

My only real gripe is Stallone's overly cheesy one-liners ("Live for nothing, or die for something?" Nope, that's not cheesy at all, no sir!) and the abrupt ending. When the credits rolled, the entire theater fell silent. I was just sitting there thinking "What the flux? That's it?". And sure enough, that was it. Made me sad. It was a nice adrenaline rush regardless, not a movie I'd see again or buy on DVD though. Also, what warranted releasing another Rambo? Felt really sudden and random...I guess Stallone had to put those steroids to use somehow.

Was it a masterpiece? Hardly. Was it a nice mindless way to spend $8.50 and just kill a few hours with some friends? Pretty much. Overall, much better than I was expecting, but nothing that special.

7.7/10

And that's my obligatory random movie review, typed up at 2:49 A.M and really just typed straight in about 10 minutes, no editing or forethought, so if it feels like I rambled, it's probably because I did. Thanks for reading. Here's a waffle. (#)

(Also recommend the movie "No Country For Old Men", really good movie. Makes me wonder why I didn't just review that instead. Oh well.)

EDITED FOR EMPHASIZED HARSHNESS. HAPPY!?

So I've seen this journal idea on a few profiles I've visited and decided I'd have a go at it.

20. Sonata Arctica
Except for two songs, I don't listen to these guys anymore, but one thing I never liked about them was simply the lyrics for 90% of their songs. Way too cheesy, and a few lines just make no sense.

19. Machinae Supremacy
Rob's vocals tend to sound overly ridiculous or whiny in some songs. Also they abuse the SID effects in most of their songs, which I simply hate. Lyrics are good, the music gets somewhat annoying after a while though.

18. In Flames
Went from absolutely amazing (Clayman / The Jester Race) to absolutely shite (Come Clarity). How they could possibly drop that much in terms of quality and musical integrity still baffles me. R.I.P In Flames. Take This Life is a terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE song.

17. Hitoshi Sakimoto
Too much of his work just sounds the same. Also the FFXII soundtrack was pretty unremarkable, sounds like something you'd find in a Disney movie, not a FF game.

16. Megadeth
New album feels like Dave is trying to shove his political views down the listener's throat. Also his vocals can get extremely irritating sometimes. Also the guy's just flat-out creepy-looking.

15. Emperor
The vocals in "In the Nightside Eclipse" get drowned out far too much. I thought so when I first heard the album and I still think so. Also asides from the song "With Strength I Burn", Anthems lacks any distinguishing songs and they all just end up sounding way too similar to one another.

14. Windir
Parts of "1184" are borderline techno...That's really all I got, much love for Windir.

13. Behemoth
Vocals on "Demigod" sound overly layered and "The Apostasy" wasn't as great as I was hoping it'd be. Nergal's Forehead should start it's own band, that thing's a beast.

12. Drudkh
Questionable political views (Which I couldn't give two shits about), and the fact that I don't understand a thing that's being said. Curse my lacking knowledge of foreign languages! No other negative points come to mind.

11. Tool
For one, Tool fans are some of the most annoying bastards on this site. Regarding music, "10,000 Days" wasn't as good as most people made it out to be. The Pot puts me to sleep, the whole song just grates on my nerves.

10. Black Sabbath
A few mediocre albums, especially "Forbidden".

9. Mercyful Fate
King Diamond sounds like a clown on helium and crack-cocaine. (Though I'm not completely sure that's a bad thing...) Also a few unimpressive songs and albums, specifically "Into the Unknown". Just downright bad songwriting, there's nothing more to be said.

8. Katatonia
Some of the newer stuff can be viewed as "emo", though I have no problem with it personally.

7. Trans-Siberian Orchestra
Some of the vocals on the Beethoven album just sound odd, the song Misery for example. Also too many Christmas-themed albums...I also look like I have a screw loose playing it during the Summer. And they're taking their sweet time with "Nightcastle"...Any year now.

6. Iron Maiden
"A Matter of Life and Death" wasn't that great compared to their previous albums. Also, for the most part, their songs all follow the same structure, gets kind of predictable and boring after a while. They've also released far too many "Best of" compilations, most of which in fact lack their best songs. How ironic.

5. Hypocrisy
Peter's vocals sound off on a few songs, and "Catch 22" is a relatively boring album. They've got a good deal of just unremarkable work like the "Abducted" album. Meeeh.

4. Agalloch
...Um...Uhhhhh...Well, for one, I can't sta- *tosses smoke grenade*

3. Opeth
"Damnation" is somewhat boring compared to their heavier work, same with "Ghost Reveries" when compared to the godliness of "Blackwater Park".

2. Nobuo Uematsu
The fact that some people can't appreciate the music because it's "Video game music". Also the FFIX soundtrack has a lot of so-so tracks.

1. Akira Yamaoka
The Silent Hill soundtrack. It's an excellent soundtrack in the context of the game, so it fulfills its purpose, but can't really listen to it outside of the game, just sounds like racket with the exception of three or four tracks.. Also, I don't particularily care much for the Silent Hill 4 soundtrack.

Well, I attended the annual TSO concert, which was last night up in San Jose, and as usual it was incredible. It was me, a group of four or so friends, and six other people I didn't really know (Including one emo-ish guy who decided it was a good idea to down two liquid energy supplements before the ride and was hyper and calling everyone niggers the entire trip.)

We left at 10 in the morning and made two pit stops. Once at a Sandwich joint called Togo's which is easily one of the best places I've ever eaten at. I just ordered plain old Pastrami and it was damn good. Mmmm. After that, we drove straight up to San Jose with no interruption. We got there at 3 o' clock though the concert was at 8, so we decided to look around the mall to kill time. We saw the movie theatre, though the only movie that was showing within our alloted time slot was Hitman, so we decided to see it. It was basically a typical, generic video-game based shooter. I'll probably have completely forgot about it in two weeks or so unfortunately. (Just checked Rottentomatoes, got a 12%...Hahahhahaha....Figures.)

Okay, here's my obligatory movie review. I'll make it brief and to the point.

Hitman:

Pros: They got his tuxedo right, and...uuuhhh...Bewbs.

Cons: Incoherent plotting, is nothing like the games, a blatant ripoff of the much better "The Bourne Supremacy", Cheesy dialogue, terrible acting...Basically, it's devoid of anything that makes a movie good. Don't see it.

Final Verdict: 9%

DONE. MOVING ON.

One thing I've noticed about the TSO concert this year and last, is the majority of the fans seem to be middle-aged, in their forties or so. There were a few teens and people my age, but the majority of the audience seemed to be 30-40 years old. I also saw a stereotypical emo kid (black hair dyed black covering one eye, Misfits jacket, etc), wearing a pair of Converse...Only they had the Iron Maiden "Killers" cover on them. Those were awesome shoes.

The one crap thing about the concert is we had ground seats, which I usually wouldn't mind too much, I'm not picky. I do however mind when the guy sitting right in front of me has a GODDAMN MOHAWK. The 80's are over people, lose the damn Mohawks, that make concert-goers and movie-watchers miserable and pissed. Other than Mohawk-boy, it was an awesome concert, probably better than last year. They played the same songs for the most part, everything off the Christmas album (They need to play Beethoven's Last Night =/ ), though they did play one of my favorite songs, "Old City Bar", so it was okay. They also had excessive usage of strobe lights and pyrotechnics. I love pyrotechnics. Take anything and add fire to it, and it will always be better. This is a concrete fact and cannot be debated.

About half way, they also randomly played the Charlie Brown theme, along with Carmina Burana's "O Fortuna", where they just went nuts with the pyrotechnics. That was easily the best song of the night, aside from the almighty "Wizard In Winter", where I swear I almost had a seizure. It was epic. I got up at 8 and got back home at 4 AM and just went to sleep instantly. Yea, long day. >.>

So yea, all in all, TSO is awesome and I'll definitely be seeing them next year as well.

Thanks for reading this overly-long journal you probably didn't care about and have an awesome Thanksgiving. :P

Trans-Siberian Orchestra

I was sleeping comfortably in my bed until the phone rang at 10:30. Knowing it was my friend, I didn't pick it up and just went back to sleep. It rang again at 10:45-ish. Didn't answer it because that would require me to drag my ass out of bed, which quite frankly wasn't an option. I finally got out of bed and got dressed a little past 11:30 and logged onto XFire chat, where I was bombarded with spam from my noob Freshman friend calling me a lazyass and telling me to give him a ride to the theaters so we can see Resident Evil. He's lucky I'm such a nice guy. ;)

I never saw the first two RE movies out of lack of interest but it was Friday morning and I didn't have anything better to do, so I went to the theaters with some friends and it just ended probably 30 minutes ago.

It was basically what I expected it to be. It was my no means excellent, but as far as Horror movies go, I've seen much worse. Some of the deaths you could see coming the second the character was introduced (Fun Fact: The Black dude ALWAYS dies) and some of them weren't so obvious. I didn't really get what was going on entirely since I didn't see the two previous movies, but I got the gist of it.

(Off-Topic: I also saw Shoot 'em Up about two weeks ago and highly recommend it if you haven't seen it yet. It's one of the worst and best movies I've seen in recent memory. It's basically a 2-hour action scene. And the main character kills people with carrots. CARROTS. That's pretty fucking awesome in my book.)

Alright, back on topic. I never saw the first RE two movies so I don't know what kind of genetic engineering Alice went through or much backstory, but some of the stunts she pulls were just ridiculous. (Not in a good way either. Jumping 10 feet to avoid lasers, killing zombies with a single kick to the head, etc).

I'm all for cool fight scenes, but they all just seemed overly choreographed. She's not so much fighting as she is dancing with blades and slitting zombies all the while looking hawt and sexy. I don't have a problem with that per se, but the entire Lara Croft look is really getting stale now. Every video-game movie heroine is essentially a clone of Lara Croft, but I guess that's what gets the typical gamer off so I'll let them enjoy it. At least it wasn't by Uwe Boll.

Basically, it was bloody, there were zombies and it was predictable, which I suppose is Resident Evil in a nutshell. Also zombie crows are way scarier than zombie dogs. Those things were freaky. Crazy, rabid, eye-pecking birdies of death. There was probably only one character death that wasn't overly cheesy and predictable, but other than that, you could see most of them coming from a mile away, and when the characters died, you really just don't care. And of course, the ending is a cliffhanger leaving the door open for a sequel. I didn't even see that coming!! (*toggle off sarcasm*). Typical Hollywood Horror flick.

Also (and now I'm ranting) I'm sick of crappy Rock bands plugging their music into movies where they don't even belong. It wasn't as bad in this movie as it was in recent movies I've seen, but it needs to end already. Christ. These bands today sound like complete shit and it has no synergy with the scene whatsoever. Thank God these shit bands haven't entered the gaming industry yet. I also had to deal with these two annoying Jr. High kids sitting in front of me who'd go "Oh Daaaaamn!" every time there was a shot of Alice's thigh or ass, but I guess that's just an inevitable part of seeing movies in theaters. Still, show some fucking respect. Ugh. People who chatter that much during movies need to get booted out. Seriously. *shakes cane* Ye damn kids!

I wanted to chuck my soda at them but a large soda costs $5.00. :(

Anywho, that's that! As usual I rambled but if you know anything about me, you know I ramble in my journals. Sorry about that and thanks for reading this irreverent review / vent. I'll let you get back to what you were doing now. :)

Final Rating: 6.2/10

*Tackles his way through Yogi's stomach and emerges covered in blood, giblets and assorted entrails*

HAI GUYZ!

Jesus H Christ, Stephen Colbert was really onto something; Those bears are goddamn killing machines! Sure they look cute and all fuzzy, but they’re the spawn of Lucifer himself. Don't be fooled by their cuddly demeanor!

...Heh, It's funny. I'm gone for what, three days, and I come onto Last.fm to see:

OMG WHERE'D WOOSH GO!?
I FINK A BAER ATE HIM!!!1
WOOSH GOT RAEPED!!!

Here I am. So yea… I'm sorry to disappoint you guys but I'm not dead. I wasn’t raped, I wasn’t beat, I wasn’t slaughtered, I was simply out of town for a few days. Thank God for Ipods, eh? And I grabbed some Nest which you recommended Smasher, really nice stuff. Sort of reminds me of Ulver and Agalloch but without the vocals. Also makes for good sleeping music, Silvershade Lynx especially. That track is love.

"It says that he was last seen an hour ago" ...Hmm, that’s strange. Looks like someone was using my computer while I was gone... Even though everyone in the household has their own computer. That's very suspicious... suspicious indeed... *probes and interrogates*

And rest assured Sev, Satan reserved the toastiest seat in hell for our good friend, Yogi. Christ, can't a guy just stroll through the forest without getting mauled and devoured by a rabid bear anymore? Goddamn Yogi. I always hated that bear. I hope he suffers for eternity in the flaming pits of Hell.

"So apparently the bear that killed Woosh has stolen his computer as well, and doesn't like metal."

That's because Yogi's a little bitch! I find it funny that I’m gone for a few days and everyone assumes I was killed or eaten by a bear. Guess I’m more of a computer junkie than I realized. xD

Nice to come back to such a concerned/unsettling shoutbox though. If any of you are gone for an extended period of time, I’ll be sure to return the favor and intricately fabricate your deaths as well. ‘tis good to be back. =)

(Hmm, Audioscrobbler doesn't seem to acknowledge I played any tracks while I was away. Gayness.)

WEWT, TWENTY YEARS OLD!

Well, not technically. My birthday's tomorrow but I'm not sure I'll be online then so I'll just post my self-proclaiming Happy Birthday to myself here.

On their birthdays, a lot of people I know tend to go to strip clubs, down a 40 or smoke pot with their friends, seems like the norm. Fun. Not really actually, I never saw the big deal with getting wasted and throwing up your last meal with your hair dangling in shit-filled toilet water. Maybe some people have a fetish for shitty toilet water, so more power to those folks.

Maybe I'm not "cool" but I'd just prefer staying home with my PS2 and computer and just waste my time on Last.fm eating Digiorno's pizza while replaying old games. Good times, good times...

Presents or no presents, I don't really care. I'll probably just get 20's from my friends and that's fine, I already got everything I need. That and most modern games are complete TRASH. Nice looking trash, but uninspired trash nonetheless. Plus I don't own any next-gen systems. By choice, though. Xbox just sucks and the PS3 has no good games for it. (How predictable...LOL PSP WTFROFLMAOBBQ!) And also, the Wii...Who named that damn thing!? I avoid talking about it whenever I'm around others, and here's why:

"Hey Josh, wanna come over and play with my Wii?"

Eavesdropper: "... O_O;"

Yea...Maybe I'm just growing tired of the same game clones coming out month after month or maybe I'm just tired of gaming altogether. I occasionaly play WoW though I'm on the verge of quitting altogether and also recently started playing Zelda which is a nice change from the sea of shit out there.

...Holy fuck, I'm even derailing my own journal entry! WHAT'S WRONG WITH ME!? Gah...

Okay, I'm going to just end this journal by saying this. If you read this journal entry, I expect replies and it's mandatory you leave either cake, pie or chocolate donuts. Eclairs will suffice as well. If you did not bring any pastries with you, you have a one minute headstart to sprint for your life before the hounds are released. (Yes...The E-Hounds...Be very afraid.) Good day, chaps.