Stompy's metal roundup for August

Exodus - Shovel Headed Kill Machine

New lineup apart from the guitarist who is the main songwriter. Ex-Slayer drummer Paul Bostaph is on board for this album. It's a mix between "Fabulous Disaster" (their best record) and "Tempo of the Damned" (their last CD, which had 2 great tracks, 2 OK ones and a lot of pus.) The new vocalist is OK, quite good actually. I loved the old Exodus vocalist, but this guy is an adequate replacement - modern thrash style but manages to be aggresive and not suck in spite of probably appealing to Pantera fans etc. A bit of old Kreator vocals too. One song sounds a bit like modern Slayer but moshier and better, the rest is Exodus with a modern production. Less dud tracks than the last album. The fast tracks are fun, the more southern rock riffs thrown into the galloping thrash the better. My favourite track is mid-paced "Shudder to think" with the hilarious refrain "You'd better start filling out your resume." Insert comments from my kids in the back seat along the lines of "Do you want me to start with most recent place of employment and work backwards, or the other way around" and "Dude, I'm only 11."


High on Fire - Blessed Black Wings

The coolest album cover I can remember seeing. Ex-Sleep dude's heavy metal band sounds like Zepplin/Motorhead fans who know how to play but still smoke too much dope. Steve Albini of Big Black fame produces but doesn't compress the guitar sound - its a live rock sounding album (even on mp3.) The best track has a stoner version of Angel of Death riff, and the drums are pounding throughout the album. It's good dirty rocking metal which sounds out of place in my car - it should be echoing through the Lord St bachelour pad while I stagger around drunk urinating on furniture and covering it with a cushion. This album really makes me want to drink, and the danger is after a few beers it would only sound better. Not something I'd expect to keep on high rotation in the car, but a must for the stereo one slab into our next BBQ.

Terry Gilliam's Brother's Grimm

http://chud.com/interviews/4060

Why can't I add links on here today?

Anyway, I haven't read more than 3 lines of the interview, as soon as I read Gilliam's name I had to post it to TML.

Corpse Bride coming soon too, Burton's next stop-motion feature.

Career high

Hello gents,

Just wanted to let you know I found a job here in England. It's right up there as far as jobs go in my humble and self-satisfied opinion.

I am getting paid to distribute porn to hotels with in-house pay-tv movies, across Europe.

Thank you very fucking much, I am now your god.

Demonoid torrents

This torrent tracker site has the best comic selection I've seen. Almost 2 gig of Lobo in one torrent, and 2000AD comics out the whazoo, right from issue 1.

This site does seem to be one of the new breed who get shirty if your ratio (upload/download) is low, ban automatically for it after a while, and request donations. While I wouldn't go donating to these guys in a hurry, the site is worth checking out.

Dudes! Look >> 2000AD comics prog 1106 to 1110. "Enjoy... more to come"
Now that looks promising! I showed my kids 2000AD the other day in the newsagents, it was a big "special" issue, all black and white, 7 bucks or something. Struth.

None of the art looked all that cool, nothing in it grabbed me. I told the boys let's stick with White Dwarf once a month.

Now if some bright spark was scanning White Dwarf and putting out torrents - that would rule.... OH sweet jeebers

Check out this user!!! YAY!! I AM A DORK!!!!

Sorry about this guys, but I figured we all deserved a special prize. You see, apart from the raging spam-bots from hell and some weirdo I picked a fight with online (cause I am a tosser) we've managed between the four of us to rack up 10,000 hits on TML.

That's just fucking sad.

EDIT: Fluffy is now replacing gaint mechanical cocks, because I forgot some of you have jobs until Stompypoos reminded me.

JAGS

Whoah. Free RPG system. I am a dork.

The Official Time Waster's Guide

Cool. And it's "official".

I know it's 3am and everything but the word "official" looks bizzare to me right now.

Fog Creek Copilot

I am probably going to learn to regret this, but the site above is something I have been expecting for a few years now and someone has finally done it right.

Why the fuckpants did no-one tell me this was out?

Tremors 4: The legend begins.

Wedding Crashers

I thought this movie might be OK, it turns out it was one of the fucking funniest things I've seen in a long time. There were several times I thought I might have actually shat my pants. It's nothing new, it's just got some awesomely funny parts

Samurai Champloo - Anime

I have 8 episodes, 1-and-a-bit-gigs worth, and never got around to watching it until today. It's like Ninja Scroll made for 8ball, with cool design on the titles, hip-hop theme song, and medieval dudes with ninja swords busting backspins mid-swordfight. The story is good but they are careful to deliver gratuitous violence and mayhem. They use a handheld camera look and some other cool devices to help make this my new favourite anime.

Art. Lebedev Studio

These guys seem to be doing some pretty cool shit, and their studio is only two blocks from the Kremlin. They have some nice stuff up there, in particular this little beauty, the Optimus Keyboard:



Click on the glowing OLED, programmable, animatable, lush-as-FUCK keys to see the site.

OFFSET

This is apparently a game 3 guys are making out of their living room. I'm downloading the trailer right now, but wanted to post this to ram it home to Skaffen with my nerd post inferno.

Cutting edge 3D features yadda yadda the 3D guys spilt tartare sauce everywhere over this.

I give good phone

I got this game Alestre or something on my mobile, it's basically like Xevious and addictive like an evil bastard. You can set it to autofire which means it's sweet to play on the little joy pad on the phone.

Powerups raining from the sky.

My kids are stoked.

Model Rocket Freaks

Do you think if I save $20,000 and put a 6' rocket up my ass I can realise my dream to go into space?

MORE DIRECT link to his rocket store

I just saw him on some MTV type show, he reckons these crazy-assed motherfuckers are going to end up launching mini satellites into orbit on model rockets. I would build an army of robots, send them to the dark side of the moon and have them drop moon rocks on Earth, enslaving mankind and holding the world in a tiny mechanised aluminium fist.

Resident Evil 4

As you know I had a zombie-filled week last week. Once the kids are packed off to bed it's RE4 time, don't sneak up on me while I'm playing motherfucker because you do NOT want to be mistaken for a creep with a chainsaw and a heshin sack over his head.

This is the coolest game I have ever played. It's like being dropped into a horror movie. More Evil Dead than a zombie film, it's everything the crappy Evil Dead games wanted to be.

I like the story a lot. You feel like you're in a movie. It's hard but not so hard you learn to hate it. I'm told I might want an "Action Replay" (cheat) memory card later for unlimited shotty ammo, but it's cool for now.

I love it when you kill a dude and climb into the building he was in, creepy shit. Like Texas Chainsaw Massacre a bit too, not just because a dude has a saw, but the creepy feeling of being inside where the bad guys live, in their world.

I think there is another RE game due soon on PS2 or something, a bloke at the game shop said to my wife. I know there's RE5 coming on PS3. Does anyone know anything about this other one for PS2 or is the guy mixed up with RE5 on PS3?

RE4 fixes all the problems with the earlier games and then some, it's a whole new level of rad. I haven't gotten around to the bonus disc yet but it has all the cut scenes from all previous RE games. Scary! Creepy! Aim for the head!

New Priest

My wife bought me the CD, because she is a clever girl.
I should add:
- The cover sports a big homosexual robot
- The ballads are the best thing since The Scorpions put pen to paper
- This album rules

LAND OF THE DEAD

(No spoilers)

Mad Max + Zombies = Land of the Dead

Romero comes back 20 years after his definitive zombie trilogy, digs a mass grave and sends all imitators to their final resting place. The opening title sequence is scary, the giggling teens in the cinema quickly shut up and tightened their collective coits.

This film is awesome. I'm still smiling about it. If you even remotely enjoyed Night of the Living Dead, Dawn and Day of the Dead, you will love this.

Zbrush is rad

Zbrush is rad

I got a great zbrush2 training dvd, it moves away from obscure user interfaces like most 3D, and more towards sculpting clay. That said, the UI is finicky at first, they have their own way of doing things, but watching the dvd it's easier than you'd think.

This is the shit they used to detail the cave troll etc in LOTR, and ILM just picked it up too.