Spot on criticism regarding Dissection, dude. My hat's off to ya on that one.
I admit that I was excited that a new Dissection record would be coming out - until I read that story in BW&BK, and realized (as you pointed out so well), that Nodtveit has learned absolutely nothing during his time in prison (even his marketing skills are so, like, 1995). A pity (but I guess that's par for the prison course).
Coulda been an interesting record had he gained a conscience and presented some kind of insight to man's inner demons in his future projects rather than catering to the Beezlebub crowd. I am so fucking sick of religions. Ah well - another one to skip, my wallet will appreciate that at least.
Thought you let the Sonata guy off easy for his explanation of how they're different than Stratovarius. I'm not a fan of either band, but I have one record from each and his story that he sings with more variety is BS to my ears. That "Mother Gaia" (or whatever) on "Infinite" has plenty of soft, sickening crooning on it.
Liiva is a cool cat - I'm glad you give him a forum to speak his mind. I think it's pretty obvious now that Johan got the boot simply because Michael Amott was lookin' for a little stinky on the hang down (and I can't says I blame 'im). C'est la vie - if Hearse sticks around it's all good.
Will order that Provenance CD eventually - sounds interesting.
You're the only person I've seen give Runemagick a positive review, so I went to their site and listened to one of their mp3 clips for the first time - pretty cool, actually.
Matthew's review of Payne's Gray bummed me out - because I bought that fucking CD, listened to it once and loaned it to a friend - who gave it to his teenage daughter and now I'll never see it again. Only thing I remember about it is it was weird and the booklet was some big ass poster that was like trying to fold a road map after it was open.
Your mag coverage got me to go out and get a copy of Unrestrained! and Metal Maniacs (at Barnes & Noble where I went to get the Potter book for 40% off - I thought I was the only dork who listened to Death Metal and read Potter books) for the first time in months and months. I subscirbe to BW&BK, so I read that alla time. Haven't read U! or MM yet... but I figured I'd give 'em a shot. That one dude at MM really gets under my skin - don't remember his name, but he always writes something about himself that makes me never wanna be in the same room with him (the cat who was all hot over Doro).
So how the Hell did you end up with a girlfriend in Finland? Foreign exchange student you wooed with your Napalm Death cassettes? Enquiring minds wanna know.
