Another day another radar dish

Well here we are setting a radar dish at an unlisted Military installation in the middle of no where. At an exorbitant cost to the United States Government. Oh well what the hell do you do. There aren't enough jobs, people are losing their homes, yet government, military, and police are only getting stronger and more powerful. The city in which I reside has potholes and traffic jams so bad it takes forever to get anywhere and yet they can add 6 new radar dishes like this which I am sure are not to inexpensive into a sea of how ever many radars I am surrounded by right now. Not to mention the cost of the crew and contractors it takes to install, and transport these things. Or what about the fact that not only can that crane pick up the radar, but it can pick up the one next to it from the same spot, but because of the insane safety regulations that are requiring the crane to not exceed
60% of its capabilities we have to break down and move 10 feet over to pick up the next one. Which will cost the government close to 5 hours of crane time, drivers to transport the loads and man hours just to move it ten feet. the radar weighs 61,000lbs and the crane is good for 97,000 lbs where it is sitting and they say that is not safe enough. At what point does safety become such a hinderance on production that it is not worth doing. Then I hear on the news that manufacturing has been moved because it is cheaper and the American worker wants to much. That's ridiculous the beuracrats have destroyed manufacturing in this country and the corporations have put greed over their own people. It would seem to me that our priorities were off.

Sepultura 'Chaos AD'

Track listing:
Refuse/Resist
Territory
Slave New World
Amen
Kaiowas
Propaganda
Biotech Is Godzilla
Nomad
We Who Are Not as Others
Manifest
The Hunt
Clenched Fist

Wow talk about a musical life changer. This album litterally turned me from a Kirk Hammet wanna be into a Andreas Kisser worshiping nerd. From beginning to end this album absolutely destroyed everything that was out at the time, and from the sound of bands like Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, and the like this album in my opinion created the style of music that I would spend the better part of my teenage and adult life thus far trying to emulate. The combination of slower guitars, and political lyrics coupled with tribal drumming and insane breakdowns makes this one of my top two metal or hardcore albums of all time. My favorite song on the record was undoubtedly "Nomad" unfortunately they never made a video for this song that I can remember, but I do remember being young as hell and staying up late as shit to watch the propaganda and territory videos on headbangers ball (short haired Ricky
rachtman days). The tone that Andreas pulls off on the solos is a sound that I have never heard before or since, but gives the record a vine that is just unmatched. I seriously can't sing the praises of this album enough and if they still made metal like this (instead of the total garbage can't figure out if its death metal or some wierdo effeminate version of hardcore crap that is coming out on a regular now) then I would still be at every show, horns in the air screaming every word and shoulder bumping along with all the other grits with their battle axe, spencers bought earings and death dealer all over print shirts, and ripped up jeans, tryin to grow our hair long, but still have the hair wings like I was when this album came out. While the album after this "roots" had some good songs they were definitely trying to go the way of the while nu metal thing even though most people to
this day won't admit it. Everything past that was and is total garbage including soulfly, sepulotherguy, and even most of the songs on the cavalera conspiracy. None of them stand up to the absolute sheer brutality and dominance of this record, and I highly doubt we will ever see it again. So alas I will be forver relugated to rehashing it in my mind while I crank the IPOd and blast this record from my car as loud as I possibly can.

Civil Rights and everything nice!

Well today as I stand here pondering the state of our nation I am very disheartened to see the complete apathy with which the majority of people in this nation are living. We all have sat back and done nothing while people who do not have our best interests in mind destroy our country from the inside out. They have systematically destroyed the once proud and honerable nation that we all love, but have kept in tact the belief amongst us common folk that we are still that very Nation. Since the early days of the industrial revolution our country has been slowly being turned into an oppressive regime, however I believe the early changes in the system were made by men who truly believed they were helping the country and its people. I believe the naivete that they showed in opening up the doors for corruption and increased control has let loose the flood gates in which the more modern era
has increased the speed with which it has headed toward complete collapse of freedom. Now this might sound like a bunch of nonsense political ranting, but it has its purpose and motive I promise. I am forever reading and witnessing and may even be taking part in the biker community, and if anyone has been following what is going on in that sub culture as of late then they have probably witnessed an exteme amount of absolute civil rights violations being done by our fine government on any and all motorcycle clubs that they can. Now I know what some of you must be thinking, "who cares their criminals, I saw it on the history channel." yeah yeah yeah I'm sure That the history channel and shows like Sons of Anarchy are perfectly accurate portrayals of motorcycle club life, however no matter what you believe these clubs to be doing it certainly is not all clubs or all members of clubs, and
what is done to the least of us is done to all of us. What would be the reaction if you went to your locally owned grocery one day and it was boarded up? Not only was it boarded up, but there was a sign from the police on the front saying this property, buisness, goods, and profits are all now property of the U.S government? Then you find out that the senior citizen owners who watched you grow up your entire life along with every other employee is now locked in federal prison, and their income is now gone so that means their homes are gone, their families have been taken from them, all their stuff has been siezed as well? Then after that you find out their doors were all kicked in at dawn by stormtrooper ss style shock troops with lazer sights pointed at every man, woman, child, and pet in the home and their entire home and their belongings were destroyed in front of their very eyes?
Then as if all that wasn't enough you find out that the grocery has been deemed a criminal enterprise because two of the emloyees stole a couple cars and got into a bar fight the weekend before. How would you feel about all that? Well that is exactly what is happening at this moment to one motorcycle club in this country right now. This club had not only their personal bought and paid for legally property stolen, the intellectual right to their logo and name were siezed by federal agents. I'm sorry folks but this is not freedom...

Crowbar 'Odd Fellows Rest'


Tracklisting:
Intro
Planets Collide
...And Suffer as One
1,000 Year Internal War
To Carry the Load
December's Spawn
It's All in the Gravity
Behind the Black Horizon
New Man Born
Scattered Pieces Lay
Odd Fellows Rest
On Frozen Ground

Remember Tomorrow - (bonus track)  

This album is one of those wierd albums that when you first hear it, it isn't what you are expecting so you don't really know what to think. At least it was that way for me. I kept looking for that "all I had I gave" or "existence is punishment", but it didn't have one so I was kinda lost at first. I think I listened to it three times, and then settled in on the song "planets collide" and for a while when speaking about this record that was really the only song I was into. After a while though I picked the record up again, and for some reason this record hit me so hard after the break from hearing it, and all of a sudden all th complex guitar harmonies and the intricate touch of somber melody that is the vein that runs through this entire record just leapt out at me. Kurts voice on this record is very typical Crowbar, but the lyrics and the tortured "fat guy on the toilet after getting his heartbroken and his whole family dying" thing he has going on coupled the definite slow down as far as tempo and the afformentioned guitar work create such a somber and sorrowful atmosphere on this record that I have to say is nothing short of a masterpiece. This record creates a sound that I truly believe can never be duplicated outside of this band, and if you are in anyway a fan of original, heavy, and dark metal do not wait, go out and buy this immediately. I had the pleasure of seeing Crowbar perform at a very small upstairs venue in Norfolk, Virginia about ten years ago, and to this day it was one of the most impressive shows I have ever seen. Their sound onstage was just absolutely massive and flawless. The way they seemlessly blended the songs together made you feel as if you were watching them pour their heart and soul out through their instruments. They did all my favorite songs off all the old records and when they did "December Spawn" live I litterally wanted to slice my wrists open, drink the blood, vomit it back up onto a piece of canvas just to be apart in some way to the art that was being realized in that room that evening. To say that my life was changed by this band that night would be a little much, but the things that I valued musically definitely were


Hatebreed - Under The Knife

Track listing:
Smash Your Enemies 2:12
Kill An Addict 1:02
Under The Knife 1:33
Filth 1:42
Not One Truth 2:09
Severed 2:40
Puritan 3:07

Ok so here it goes. I have no idea how to review this record objectively so I am not going to try. This record was one of the greatest influences on my musical life. The production is terrible, but in all honesty it makes this record one of the most powerful hardcore records of all time in my personal opinion. That may have something to do with the time period that I heard this band and this album. When I was very much a young teenager I was very much into hardcore punk. As I got a bit older (14 or so) that branched more and more into the metal hardcore crossover bands of the time. Bands like Earth Crisis, Deadguy, Strife, Unbroken, Converge, Turmoil, etc. Well at the time hardcore was starting to move in a different direction and a lot of post hardcore bands were gaining a lot of attention and the mood of things started to shift. Hardcore was getting softer and more artistically
oriented (not a bad thing). Then out of no where a friend of mine came over with the Hatebreed split with Neglect. He told me I had to check it out and I did. It was amazing, brutally heavy. The vocals were unlike anything I'd heard, deep and tough as hell, but crystal clear. The lyrics wereuncompromising and brutal and they seemed to be something anyone could relate to. Anyway I was sold I immediately recorded it to tape and Hatebreed became my favorite band. A few months later after sufficiently wearing out the tape I heard a 7 inch comp that had another Hatebreed song "Mark My Words" on it and was just absolutely hooked. Then snapcase came to town and were selling this ep. On their merch table and I instantly bought it. This ep. Changed everything from the very first sound (the feedback and panned guitar that starts this record off) this album blew my mind. It was a continuation of
everything I had heard up until that point and then some. I couldn't get enough of it. It was everything I wanted in a heavy band. About a month later a friend came to me and said he had booked hatebreed at the local skatepark and knew I was way into them and wanted to know if my band would want to open. needless to say I was freakin out man. About a week before the show the venue got shut down and instead of cancelling I went to a friend of mine who had a big backyard and asked him if we could do the show. He was cool with it so the morning of the show I cut the grass and me and that friend stole a bunch of wood and nails from a construction site and built a stage. at show time kids were coming out from all over, we played (and sucked), longshot from Maryland played and killed it, Despair (Scott vogel who later went on to buried alive and then terror) played and everyone went crazy,
and then when the sun went down and we hung a single light bulb from he attic window Hatebreed took the stage. What occured that night was absolute insanity. While I am sure that the guys in Hatebreed probably don't even remember that show it is forever etched in my mind. Kids went absolutely insane and their set was completely unbelievable. I heard every song off this ep. Including filth which had the heaviest breakdown I had ever heard and even included some new songs that I hadn't heard before. Anyway this "review" isn't really a review but I just wanted to emphasize the impact this album and band had on me at such a young age. I have had the privelage of seeing them perform in every single stage of their career and none of those performances will beat the first one for me. The albums that followed are all good so far, but that first record to me is still the one that scorched the
earth.