Non-gay bro thread a.k.a. Random offtopic stuff.

[DE4life]

A couple of new albums I've been listening to:

Nitrate - Renegade. 80s rock worship. Not bad if you're into that kind of music.



When Darkness Falls - What We Leave Behind. They're American so I wasn't expecting much, but I dig their old school MDM vibe. Plus the album artwork is pretty cool.

 

[DE4life]

Anders Jivarp and Anders Iwers have left Dark Tranquillity.

 

[ThePhobiac]

Anders Jivarp and Anders Iwers have left Dark Tranquillity.

Devastating. First Henriksson, then Sundin, now these two. I can't see how the band lasts beyond a few more years at this point.

Watching one of my favorite bands since high school slowly disintegrate has me gutted. That goes for IF too, ofc.

 

[DE4life]

These bands have had unusually long shelf lives to be fair! IF and DT haven't even had a hiatus at any point - it's nearly 30 years of continuous existence from DT at this point. Very impressive, but I can understand why the band members would begin to look at doing something else.

 

[ThePhobiac]

True true!

I've gone back and listened to some bonus tracks I haven't checked out in many years and damn, I'd forgotten how good this song is. It might be my favorite DT song, or at least in the top three along with My Negation and Tidal Tantrum.



"As in the life of rain
You're only alive when you're falling"

What a good line tbh

 

[eochaid]

I read the reviews for the new Iron Maiden album. Then, I listened to the album. The thing that comes to mind is that the reviewers are embarrassing themselves.

It's not bad in any way. But is boring, too long and has little to offer. After the third song, there was little to nothing to attract my interest. Just repeated formulas from the past albums.

And then, almost all of the notes are 4.5/5 or 9/10.

 

[DE4life]

Yeah I felt the same. The album is just... OK. In a vacuum it would be pretty good, but if you've listened to Maiden albums before there's nothing particularly new here to get excited about. They've done it before and done it better in the past. Unfortunately this tends to be the way with bands who have been around for a long time.

Looks like there's a new Night Flight Orchestra album out already, the second part of Aeromantic. Haven't listened to it yet, but last year's release was good.

 

[eochaid]

It's an ok album. The thing that I expect from people that's been around way too long. A few good new bits and lots of melodies that we've heard before. But the reviewers are treating it as if it is the next big deal in the heavy metal industry.

 

[DE4life]

It's an ok album. The thing that I expect from people that's been around way too long. A few good new bits and lots of melodies that we've heard before. But the reviewers are treating it as if it is the next big deal in the heavy metal industry.

To be fair reviewers were saying that about Siren Charms and Battles. Most of them are just paid shills these days.

 

[eochaid]

I have come to that conclusion too. The fact is that I have read reviews in media that never cares about metal and barely does musical reviews. General newspapers. That makes me think that this is just a marketing campaign by the management and the record label.

 

[DE4life]

It looks like our good friend Jon Schaffer is going to get 3.5 to 4.5 years in prison - conditional on him ratting out the right wing nutjobs he was associating with. Looks like he'll need witness protection once he's released. His life as he knew it is basically over. What an idiot.

Also apparently the two months he spent in jail before being released on conditional bail were "hell". How tragic for him. Maybe he should have thought about that before storming a government building with bear spray. Again, I can only emphasise, what an idiot. He's destroyed his legacy and in many ways the legacies of the bands he was involved with.

 

[eochaid]

Apparently, he was not that brave when facing, alone, the consequences of his own actions.

 

[DE4life]

Yep, he's a coward on top of being an idiot.

 

[The Grayfox]

Yep, he's a coward on top of being an idiot.

Probably why nobody has heard a single peep from him. The statement about his time in county jail was released by his lawyer. It has to be extremely fucking embarrassing. For YEARS, he's been talking about what a patriot he is, how the "revolution is coming" and all this other bullshit and then when the time comes, him and his idiotic cohorts accomplished exactly zero and then he rolls over on the same supposed cohorts so he worms out of doing major prison time. I mean, I am a huge Iced Earth fan. I have been for a very long time. But at what point do you stop taking the guy seriously? Look at what he did to his own legacy. He's nothing more than a laughing stock at this point. It's really sad. He took a 30+ year career and threw it away. And for what? Absolutely nothing. Not one single person of note has gone to bat for him. Plenty of people in the metal scene calling him a moron, but nobody going to bat for him. Even Stu Block said he fucked up really bad and that is one of his best friends. Hansi distanced himself, most of his band quit...

Is he going to put out a statement apologizing for his actions? Either way, he's fucked. If he doesn't, he looks bad. If he does, he looks just as bad because he's going to apologize for something he isn't sorry for and everyone knows it. Anyone who has ever read an interview with Jon Schaffer knows how much he believes in the conspiracies and QAnon shit. The only way he salvages a splinter of his legacy is if he says "I have my beliefs, I channeled them in the wrong manner." And even then, it's doubtful. Then again, Tim Lambesis is fronting As I Lay Dying in 2021, so who knows...

 

[eochaid]

If he's doing a statement, he'll probably blame twitter for the misinformation, as I've read some people do in the past, as if he's not a grown adult who chooses the info that he wants to believe in.

 

[DE4life]

I think there's a good chance Schaffer just disappears to be honest. Once he's ratted out his crew he'll be a marked man. Apparently he's being considered for witness protection. If he does enter the witness protection program then he'll pretty much be gone forever.

 

[The Grayfox]

If he's doing a statement, he'll probably blame twitter for the misinformation, as I've read some people do in the past, as if he's not a grown adult who chooses the info that he wants to believe in.

If he blames anyone but himself, he's just a liar. The dude fell too far down the rabbit hole and couldn't climb out.

I think there's a good chance Schaffer just disappears to be honest. Once he's ratted out his crew he'll be a marked man. Apparently he's being considered for witness protection. If he does enter the witness protection program then he'll pretty much be gone forever.

This is what I expect to happen as well. I just know that Jon Schaffer is a very determined and stubborn human being. At least, that's the impression he's always given. But he also gave the impression that he was anything but a coward, yet here we are. I can't imagine him being in witness protection. Like, how does that work for a lifelong musician? Do they just make him a bag boy at a local grocery store and give him a new name? For somebody as smart as he claims to be, he did a really stupid thing. I'm not even talking about being at the capitol. I'm not talking about him carrying bear mace or any of that. The simplest, yet stupidest thing he did was not cover his face. He may not be an A list celebrity, but he is recognizable in the metal community. As far as I know, he was literally the first person identified. And now his face has been all over the news. How does that work with witness protection?

 

[eochaid]

If he blames anyone but himself, he's just a liar. The dude fell too far down the rabbit hole and couldn't climb out.

That's how cowards behave. He'll probably try to pass the responsibility into others as if he is easily deluded.

 

[drawntoblack]

True true!

I've gone back and listened to some bonus tracks I haven't checked out in many years and damn, I'd forgotten how good this song is. It might be my favorite DT song, or at least in the top three along with My Negation and Tidal Tantrum.



"As in the life of rain
You're only alive when you're falling"

What a good line tbh

That's indeed an awesome song, love that one. I have no idea why they keep their best songs on every album for bonus tracks that most people never get to hear.

 

[DE4life]

Throwback to a random melodic death metal band from the mid-2000s:



These guys were pretty good imo, a shame they never really got anywhere.