Posted by carltonstedman in metal, politics.
So, recently got my hands on a copy of The New Dark Age by Kiuas, which comes out on the 12th this month in Finland, later on in Japan with an extra track. Really amazing album, just kicks you in the teeth sometimes, so awesome.
Anyhow, I’ve been looking for the lyrics to the title track, and haven’t found any, so, here’s my first try at it:
It’s a sign of the times,
That dead are the minds of man,
And how long before the world grows cold?
See the scars on your face,
They tell the future that you are blind to again and again…
Sad is the new human race.
Seek ??
Born into this world of chaos,
Rising up from the gray, gray masses,
Amidst the mayhem we must all find our place,
I know my way, just read the smile on my face!
No need for god or salvation,
Stay on my path of dedication.
You seek the light in vain,
I rest my case.
I am prepared for the new dark age.
Have you read the scriptures?
Oh, how they clash with each other!
My will, my heart, the circumstances,
They take my direction,
With no bonds or confinement.
Only a fool needs instructions to tell right from wrong!
??
??
Born into this world of chaos,
Rising up from the gray, gray masses,
Amidst the mayhem we must all find our place,
I know my way, just read the smile on my face!
No need for god or salvation,
Stay on my path of dedication.
You seek the light in vain,
I rest my case.
I am prepared for the new dark age.
The future is owned by those who own themselves.
Their vision are the blueprints of the future,
Their needs ??
Born into this world of chaos,
Rising up from the gray, gray masses,
Amidst the mayhem we must all find our place,
I know my way, just read the smile on my face!
No need for god or salvation,
Stay on my path of dedication.
You seek the light in vain,
I rest my case.
I am prepared for the new dark age.
Are YOU prepared for the new dark age?
So, if you see anything that’s wrong (looking at you Adam), give me a correction.
And as I told Adam, I promise to not just make this another album review blog; I’ll bring back the boring stuff about my life and politics too 
Speaking of which, here’s a libertarian (bitterly) hoping for McCain in 2008. Disagree completely with his social issues, but agree with his economic issues, more conservative, smaller government ideas (sure, he’s no Ron Paul, but he’s not nearly as liberal/socialist as those Democrats), and agree with most of his ideas for global policy, although he definitely can be a bit of war hawk. But then again, Hilary is a liar, cheats on her taxes and would destroy our economy and freedoms and from what she’s said, she’d put the army in the same (or worse, she has stated that the clusterfuck in Kosovo under Bill was actually good, and what we could expect from a “Democratic war”) situation as McCain.
I seriously am worried that socialism could come to America on the backs of the Democratic party this November. Although I strongly disagree with McCain’s policies on abortion, marriage and such, I say get him in there and then fight against him on those issues. It’s better than the alternative of just handing away our freedom and money to socialism and collapsing into economic ruin.
V
Thursday, February 21st, 2008
Posted by carltonstedman in metal.
So, I love Symphony X. They are definitely one of my favorite bands. I mean, the Odyssey is an amazing song (and a good album), but their concept album, V, is just fricking amazing. I’ve listened to it so many times and it just gets better and better each time.
From the beginning Latin lyrics of Prelude and opening chapter of Evolution (The Grand Design), a story unfolds about great gods and goddesses giving birth to man, which founds Atlantis, a civilization expanding and advancing in technology and magic to a Utopian ideal, the Law of One. However, the head of the Fallen, the God of War, Montu-Sekhmet, banished from Atlantis with his Children, starts to lay his plans (Transcendence) to come to power. The prophetic child, Ma’at warns of his coming (Communion and the Oracle) and that he will bring a great weapon to destroy Atlantis. The Atlanteans try to defend themselves against the onslaught, but Montu-Sekhmet is too powerful and Atlantis is destroyed (The Bird-Serpent War/Catacylsm).
Fortunately, Ma’at survives and is swept into the sea across to Egypt (On Posideon’s Breath). The child is hailed as a prophet by the king of Egypt, RaTa (Egypt) and warns of the coming Montu-Sekhmet. Montu-Sekhmet comes with his army of undead and lays waste to Egypt, eventually killing the child (The Death of Balance/Lacrymosa). Montu-Sekhmet with unlimited power and totally in control (The Absence of Light), technology and war expanded together, causing the destruction of human life and civilizations throughout history (A Fool’s Paradise).
The story ends with hope for the future of mankind (Rediscovery Part I) and a question on man’s ability to coexist and eventual survival (Rediscovery Part II).
The story of V: http://www.symphonyx.com/cd_v_story.html.
The album is just amazing. Musically, the excitement builds up to the The Bird-Serpert War, followed by Egypt, which is just amazing. Near the end of the album, The Absence of Light sets up for the speedy masterpiece, A Fool’s Paradise, followed by the slowing, softer Rediscovery songs, providing the final question, “Can we change?”. Lots of influence from classical music is apparent throughout, in my opinion, Symphony X’s magnum opus.
So, yeah, amazing album. I also love their most recent album, Paradise Lost, more and more every time I hear it. Amazing album for one of my favorite bands.
On a related note, Symphony X will be at The Middle East (downstairs) in Cambridge, MA on Friday, April 4th. I think I’m gonna go to that even though I just saw them at the Palladium a few months back at the other end of this tour.
Posted by carltonstedman in atheism, metal, religion.
So, Evergrey is this progressive metal band that’s pretty damn good. I’ve had a bunch of their albums for a few years, but usually whenever I scrolled past Evergrey I just fired up Recreation Day, which is really amazing. Anyway, today I decided to listen to The Inner Circle.
Now, I’m sure I’ve listened to this album before, but today, for whatever reason, as I listened to it I really started thinking about the words. I thought maybe it was my bias, but it sure sounded anti-religion.
Well, did some googling, wikipeddling and searching darklyrics and, turns out, it *is* pretty damn anti-religious. It’s actually a concept album that tackles the issue of cults/religions and child abuse, following the story of a child that is led into religion, molested (The Essence of Conviction) and hides in fear and pain (Where All Good Sleep), tries to still believe (Faith Restored) and finally realizes that god is not there to help or care (When the Walls Go Down). http://www.darklyrics.com/lyrics/evergrey/theinnercircle.html
Very powerful, emotional album. Guess it came out in 2004, so anyone really familiar with Evergrey probably already knows all this, but, oh well. Good stuff.
Posted by carltonstedman in life, metal.
Just a little list of some upcoming concerts I’m interested in:
* Tue Sept 11th – EDGUY, Into Eternity, Light This City, Echoes of Eternity [Webster Theater] — obviously going for Edguy, should be awesome, “the guys” are going
* Fri Sept 14th – SINISTER URGE – A tribute to Rob Zombie, with Sanitary Refuse [Webster Theater] — may be interesting, might be something Jilly’s interested in
* Fri Sept 21st – CRADLE OF FILTH, Cthonic [Webster Theater] — haven’t seen these guys in a while, but will probably wait it out until there next show, which sounds crazy (see below)
* Fri Sept 21st – MACHINE HEAD, ARCH ENEMY, Throwdown, Sanctity [The Palladium] — haven’t seen Arch Enemy in a while, Machine Head is pretty good, Throwdown sucks but Sanctity puts on a fun show
* Sat Sept 29th – SONATA ARCTICA, The Agonist [The Palladium] — haven’t listened to much of their stuff, but I should, and “the guys” are probably going to this
* Fri Oct 19th – PORCUPINE TREE [Webster Theater] — really would love to see these guys, love their stuff
* Sat Nov 3rd – CRADLE OF FILTH, CKY, GWAR, Vains Of Jenna [The Palladium] — sounds like an awesome show, CoF rocks and always wanted to see GWAR, say they put on a ridiculously crazy show
Posted by carltonstedman in life, metal, politics, religion.
The other day in our weekly “Superconductors” meeting, Denis, one of the boss guys was talking about how he got this cassette tape of some metal/punk/thrash (something along those lines) band from a friend a while back. He was listening to it and got all stressed out by the time we had got to work. I said, “That’s how you know it’s good!” with a smile and everyone had a laugh. Seriously, though, I was thinking, I really do like music that stresses out most people; it really just pumps me up. Guess that’s my draw to metal and such.
On a related note, later in the day I was listening to “Die Motherfucker Die”, “Fuck the World” and “Fuck tha Police” by Dope. Good band, good music. Love the first song, just really pumps me up. Would love to see them live and mosh to that song. Another thing also very misunderstood, but moshing really isn’t about “hitting” other people so much as collectively getting pumped up in a group. The adrenaline runs *very* high, it’s just so exciting.
That’s the loud music part. Now for the recycling. I saw Penn & Teller’s Bullshit! on recycling quite a few times; it is one of my favorite episodes. Pretty much thoroughly kills the whole recycling movement, with one exception: aluminum. That really makes sense to recycle, since it’s just got to be re-melted, instead of taken from virgin ore, which is actually becoming more scarce and expensive, unlike paper. Paper is the biggest bullshit in recycling. It takes *so* much more from the environment to recycle than to just use new trees. The gasoline and diesel to power the collection trucks and machinery, polluting the skies, not to mention all the nasty chemicals used with toxic byproducts. Just isn’t worth it.
And we’re *never* going to run out of trees. The trees used for paper comes from “pulp farms,” trees specifically grown to be cut down and turned into paper. It’s a 100% renewable resource! It’s just strictly worse to try to recycle it. The same goes for glass, made from one of the most abundant resources on the planet, silicon (and derivative compounds). If we run out of silicon, that means we’ve run out of the Earth itself. It’s so insanely abundant.
Why do we recycle then? It’s just a tool for the “green” parties to build “make work” jobs and collect more taxes. I frigging hate that I am forced to pay taxes on crap that I don’t agree with. Don’t even get me started on all the money the government is raping out of me to pay for Christian activities, like huge boyscouts rallies and chapels and chaplain in the White House. Gah!
But aluminum, that makes sense. Now, if I could just figure out a good way to store all these aluminum cans and bring them somewhere to get that 5 cents per can thing.
Posted by carltonstedman in books, job, life, metal, movies.
I finished reading Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows late Monday night. Great book and great end to the series. I then realized it really *is* the last of the HP series, that it has all come to an end, and felt a little sad at that thought. Great series, and I’ll definitely read them all many times again in the future, and hope some day that Jilly’s and my children will enjoy them as thoroughly as we have.
Also saw the latest HP movie with Adam and Jared the other night. The most fun of it was reminiscing of old times, crazy Mrs. Rose, Adam and I in middle school and such. The movie was pretty good too, especially the big wizard fight scene at the end. I can’t wait to see how they do the siege of Hogwarts in the final movie; reading it, I was reminded of the epic battle of Helmsdeep. Course, the movie probably only had 20-25% of what was in the book, as was to be expected.
Work at ON Semiconductor continues to go well. The latest project is coming together. I’ve been doing a lot of work looking at error amplifier performance, using network analyzers, getting Bode plots and making sure the DC and AC results are up to specification. My boss is going to have me write up a white paper about error amp measurement, with the intent of getting it published. Very cool.
Very excited about the upcoming Symphony X concert. I’ve been listening and re-listening to their entire discography over the last month and can’t wait; it’s going to be awesome.
A new blog
Monday, March 26th, 2007
Posted by carltonstedman in job, metal, school.
Listening to: Maximum the Hormone – Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei Rei Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma Ma [link]
So, I’ve started up a new blog. Why? Mainly because this is the new and improved Blogger, using my Google account. I will post Interesting and Relevant information regarding my Life, for those who are so interested (or have nothing better to do).
My previous blog, by the way, can still be found here.
So, right now, I’m finishing up my undergraduate studies in Electrical and Computer Engineering at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Mainly, this means I need to finish my senior project in the next few weeks. Besides that, I’m done and I’ll have my B.S. ECE ASAP IMHO BTW.
This band, Maximum the Hormone, is wicked good. Love this CD, Rokkinpo Goroshi. [wikipedia entry] They’re really interesting. Japanese band with aspects of punk, hardcore, death metal and even pop at times. Nice growls and breakdowns. They definitely don’t take themselves completely seriously, and are a fun time. Good stuff.
Speaking about metal, went to a concert last Friday. Saw Scar Symmetry (who we really went for), Into Eternity and Dark Traquillity (didn’t bother to stay for The Haunted, seen them a few times and not overly impressed). Good stuff, DT put on a great show. Into Eternity wasn’t bad either, decent pit too. Course, there’s always a good pit at the Palladium. Scar Symmetry was awesome, but they only played 6 songs, since they were a warm up band. Still, first time in US (they’re from Sweden), and they rock. They’re a melodic death metal band, and their latest CD (from 2006), Pitched Black Progression, really kicks. Definitely one of the best CDs I’ve listened to in quite a while.
Also, I’ve got a job. I will be an Applications Engineer in the Analog Automotive group at ON Semiconductor in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, where I interned over the summer and winter breaks previously. Pretty good money, nice benefits and a great bunch of folks to work with; plus, it’s close to “home” for Jillian and I (nearly two and a half years dating now! Love you, hon!).
