Mr O bought this for me and it’s very different but also very excellent. Radio sounds and news items and speeches set to wonderfully gentle music. Very different from what I would normally listen and quite fantastic.
The Poison – Bullet For My Valentine
Not sure I’ve ever put this on to listen to. Some songs may have come up in a shuffle I suppose.
The Number Of The Beast – Iron Maiden
666. An obscure reference from the drug induced writings of a crazy man and two thousand years later we have people concerned about a number causing bad shit. I know the religious have issues with reality but it makes me laugh just how much they think writing a particular thing or saying a thing can affect the physical world. It’s a bit like them believing that wishing really hard actually does anything.
I’ve had this album since I first got into metal all those years ago. I didn’t get it when it came out, my development occurred a few years after that but by 1988 I was a fully fledged member of the Maiden fandom and totally loved everything they did. This album with Clive Burr on drums is still amazing and something that stands up to time. I know I’m going to be slightly controversial when I say there isn’t a duff song on here as I know there are friends of mine who feel quite strongly about some of them:
- Invaders – As an opener I’ve always liked this song. I sort of consider it a follow up to Invasion. Close friends of mine disagree with its greatness.
- Children Of The Damned – is a fucking masterpiece and I recently played it to get the guitar solos out of my head as they were ear-worming. Bloody marvellous.
- The Prisoner – this song made me seek out the TV show and both are great. Personally I’ve always been slightly irritated that the start-stop gives way to full-blown rampage a bit too quick.
- 22 Acacia Avenue – the follow up to Charlotte The Harlot and possibly my least favourite song on the album. I don’t know why.
- The Number Of The Beast – a song about the beast. Brilliant. I guess it worked into the Satanic Panic of the later 1980s.
- Run To The Hills – a social commentary on the genocide of the native Americans if a bit gimicky.
- Gangland – I really live this. I like the speed and the beat.
- Hallowed Be Thy Name – shiver down my spine. Simple.
The New Leader – DJ Starscream
I bought this album either before or just after I saw this person at the Underworld. This man is the DJ person who appears with Slipknot but this album is not Slipknot. I quite like it as something different but it’s not my usual style.
The Lost Children – Disturbed
Now, I know that The Sickness is an awesome album, and it’ll be reviewed later in this series. This particular album I am less sure of. I don’t think I’ve played it that much. The best thing about Disturbed is the singers voice. It’s very distinctive and really makes every song much better than it actually is.
The Last Sucker – Ministry
I really like the music of Ministry since I first heard “Jesus Built My Hotrod”. There’s a great element of chaos in the songs which I enjoy. They are pretty damn good live too. This album is the third in the series of Uncle Al Hates GW Bush. Quite a few musicians are on the left of politics and Al is there too. Maybe it comes from accepting the strange and odd, accepting those who are different, being more tolerant and having an education? I don’t know. I suspect there are definitely right wing musicians out there, much as there are right wing people in society at large. I think my view is mostly that those on the right are distrusting of difference and broadly selfish – they expect that people should be able to sort themselves out. My view is that I’m trusting and accepting of differences along with understanding that people need help and I’m happy to do my bit.
Can you imagine what Uncle Al has thought about the Trump years? I mean, it is arguable that GW was the worst president ever and entirely useless and thick. Then, Trump came along and makes GW look like a fucking saint. Can you imagine how shit you have to be to make GW look good? Bush Jr was fucking terrible. An absolute shit president. New levels of shitness have to be used when describing Trump. If you want to elevate Trump to some level exceeding “really shit” then I think the education system has failed. It’s like thinking that Johnson in the UK is a trustworthy sensible bloke. We are in the same situation this side of the pond.
I’m not sure of any song particularly sticking out on this album but I do like the sound of Watch Yourself. I’ve been listening to Ministry while playing Minecraft as the both go together. I do wish that Uncle Al would keep going but everyone dies at some point.
See if you can spot me in the crowd.
The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It
I had some time and so I decided to go to the cinema. I almost feel guilty if I don’t go enough as I pay money each month to see as many films as I like and it also gives me something to write here, these are a regular feature of this unvisited site. When looking at the list of films playing there wasn’t a great choice and so I plumped for The Conjuring 3. I haven’t seen any of the other Conjurings but figured it won’t matter a huge amount. I don’t like horror films generally but my reasoning was: why not go?
While driving the approach to the cinema I noticed the state of the tide and it was almost at max height. Whether it was ebbing or flowing was something I would have to wait to find out when I left the cinema – it was flowing. Most of the mud bank was hidden and I couldn’t see any of the channels produced by surface off-run. The weather at the time was low clouds hanging over the top of the Downs with plenty of rain during the day, it had been raining for two complete days, but this was welcome.
After watching this film I rated it on IMDB and there’s a complete guide to my rating system within this communication from a few years ago. I eventually shared the score on Twitter but I need access to my PC for that as I removed Twitter from my phone a long time ago because it doesn’t matter.
I went to see this film and rated it 4/10. The Conjuring 3: The Devil Made Me Do It (2021) – IMDb – https://t.co/lyLnJjzCrO
— Ian Parish (@iparish) June 19, 2021
I gave this film a 4/10 and I think that was quite generous really. This film does not make it into the good-bad film. It is just a bad-bad film. This film is shit. Makes no logical sense. Has no plot that fits together. Is largely bad publicity for a misguided couple of “paranormal” investigators.
I wonder weather there’s too much in this film. Does the body-breaking look stupid and unrealistic? Do the tunnels seem excessive and un-scary? I wonder if more menace could have been put into this film by cutting out a lot of the “scary” stuff. I used to be terrified by horror films when I was younger. The Omen still makes me shiver – although I haven’t watched it for years and I ponder whether that seems shit now. I have “grown up” in then sense that I understand the reality of the world and don’t believe in god, the devil, demons or supernatural things. It’s funny how most famous ghost cases end up being shown for fraud by the conspirators when they confess but the news rarely gets out. Amityville had the protagonists admit they made it up, that famous Nessie photo was called out by one of the pranksters etc.
I get that people like being scared and I would imagine that if you believed in spirits or ghosts or god or souls or the devil or witches or any of the super-natural then this film would bother you. But the reality is that this film had a poor script, a poor plot and poor logic. A man died in reality and his murderer went to prison. This film is horror glorified wank.
The Headless Children – W.A.S.P.
As I wait for the hottest day of the year, so far there will be warmer I think, I ponder the human experience of enjoying music and sounds. How is it that certain sounds or combinations there of can affect us emotionally? How is it that I like the music I do and not anything else? I have very little brain-time for other forms of music and as much as I know they exist I care not. I think this should be left for another day, there’s music to discuss:
W.A.S.P. were one of those bands that always seemed scary and on the edge of what was acceptable. I felt that they pushed the boundaries of acceptability and purposely went out to shock. I’ve never seen W.A.S.P. live and I should have last October but – Covid – and I still want to see them. I thin it’d be great. Their music has a proper 80s L.A. feel to it. And it also has swear words. Plenty of swear words that offend the older generation. Songs like Animal, Mean Man, DB Blues these are all great if a little immature.
The Headless Children was the first studio album by W.A.S.P. that I bought. It’s also the best studio album by them. Clearly Live . . .In The Raw is the best album. The Headless Children was the result of what happens when you quit drugs but still write good songs. It’s an amazing album.
I can even cope with Forever Free which came on while I was in the car the other day and I didn’t skip it as I would with most ballads.
Land
I went to the cinema. Again. Not really a surprise I guess but given the recent Covid-times I think that maybe sitting in a room with other people isn’t a good idea. But then, I think that the cinema needs money to survive and so far there haven’t been more than 20 people in the films I’ve seen and the distancing is quite good. It’s nice to be back [I’m not counting this film].
I went to see Land and it was in screen 8 of the Cineworld cinema in Rochester. I do like screen 8, it was meant to be the “posh” one many years ago but now it’s just slightly more comfortable than all the others with its better chairs and fewer seats. I’m reasonably sure I’ve seen films in there just because it was in screen 8 and not for any other reason.
As I drove along the riverside towards the cinema I noted the state of the tide and it was low. I could see all of the mudbanks and only the central channel was buoyancy-providable. The weather was actually quite nice given the previous day where it rained the whole day and I was silly enough to go for a walk to see the Medway Megaliths, my shoes were soaked but the sun dried them nicely. After I’ve seen a film I rate it on IMDB and there’s a guide to the rating system within this communication. Normally I would then tweet the result from my phone but I removed Twitter a long time ago so the tweets have to wait for the next opportunity when I’m on my home PC.
I watched Land (2021) and rated it 6/10 – IMDb – https://t.co/NhPYCZb27H
— Ian Parish (@iparish) June 6, 2021
So, I had to reread my IMDB communication to remind myself of the scoring system. Then I rated this as a 6. It was a perfectly fine film but not one I’d watch again. I booked whatever film I thought looked most interesting. I had slight pangs of concern when I entered the theatre as all the people in there were women and I ended up being the only man in the room. All the trailers were for what I would call “emotional” films – as stereotypical it is I like space films and then thrillers and action films I guess although most action films are stupid. These are not my usual style of film to watch but I was here now and so it was time to soak up what was on offer.
For me the star of the film was the Wyoming countryside. It looks just absolutely gorgeous. It made me think of doing the same and abandoning all of the trappings of modern life and to head off and lead what would feel like a simpler life. When I say get rid of modern life this woman still have tinned food, knives and a rifle. I wonder if everyone feels that they would like to survive by their “wits” rather than our current world system?
The film was broadly speaking enjoyable and told a nice story, one of emotional recovery and trying to learn to live again after tragedy. I know it was for the purposes of the film for the main character to survive after the midpoint of the film but I’m not sure she would. You end up wondering “what are the odds” but it is dealt with very well although all films suffer survivor bias.
The only part of this film that irritated me slightly was that it made shooting things look really simple and easy. I’m not talking about the pulling of the trigger or the moral problems of killing life but I am talking about how hard it is to hit a target with a rifle. Films make this look much simpler and easier than it really is. The funny thing is I actually know what I’m talking about here – I’m a weapons instructor, coach and a range officer – hilarious I know but I do have those qualifications and use them regularly. Me, having official qualifications in something extreme, I find it a curiosity.
The Greater Of Two Evils – Anthrax
I’ve got a few Anthrax albums and while I know this one is a good listen I couldn’t tell you what songs were on it or how any of them go.