2010 in the Rear-view: Jay's Musical Faves for Twenty-Ten

Almost everyone has already done it, and it always tends to cause some interesting discussions, but it's fun to take a look back at the year that was and try to compile a list of your favorite musical releases for the year.

The blog has been pretty vacant the past month, so in an attempt to breathe some life into the old girl (she's really not that old) I've compiled a list of my 10 Favorite Albums and 5 favorite EP's of 2010.

I hate trying to make lists because you always forget something and chances are by the time I put these up here I'll want to change some around. So for that reason I've also put a list of honorable mentions at the bottom.

You may have noticed the album art for Circle of Contempt's album Artifacts in Motion above. Released in November 2009, it obviously doesn't fit in a list of albums for 2010. But I will say it is the one album I've listened to the most this year - and for those who know me, considering some of the albums you'll see below, you might be slightly surprised by that.

So here goes nothing and it's going to get a bit long:

Jay's Top 10 Favorite LP's of 2010

10. Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

I reviewed Dimmu's most recent release about two months ago, describing how the trio of Shagrath, Silenoz and Galder, together with a near 100 member orchestra, released their first album in three years and one of Dimmu's best works in the past decade.

Abrahadabra truly puts the emphasis on the Symphonic and provides a renewed vigor to the famous symphonic black metal practitioners.

Favorite Track: Gateways


9. After the Burial - In Dreams

While the overall sound of After the Burial's most recent release is a slight change of pace from their previous release (Rareform), it was a welcome one. The music is technical, and both melodic and powerful. The vocals are excellent and the production quality of the album is truly excellent. In Dreams was an album I was hotly anticipating and came along providing me with some much needed inspiration during some particular moments during the past month.

Favorite Track: To Carry You Away


8. I The Breather - These Are My Sins

Prior to listening to I The Breather's first full-length, I had only heard snippets of their work. Their album was released only a few short weeks ago, but managed to impress me enough to both make my top 10 list for 2010, but to also surpass a slew of albums that I hadn't anticipated that it would.

The groups first album provides plenty of furious fretwork, chuggy breakdowns and some lovely, meaty djentings.

Favorite Tracks: High Rise & Doomsday

7. Kylesa - Spiral Shadow

Sludge Metal has always been one of my favorite genres of metal. Kylesa is a group I've known for years and remains in my top 3 along with Mastodon and Baroness. Kylesa's most recent work is truly a step up and a standout album in 2010 for many reviewers and metal fans alike. My personal description for Spiral Shadow is a blend of Priestess meets Mastodon and Baroness, and anyone who knows the sounds of those three groups should instantly know how good this album sounds.

Favorite Tracks: Spiral Shadow & Tired Climb


6. Dillinger Escape Plan - Option Paralysis

There's not really much that you can say negatively about the pioneers of Mathcore, especially when with their fourth release they continue to provide the same dynamic mix of technicality, brutality and discord that they are now infamous for. Option Paralysis is DEP's first release in three years and continues to push the bar in terms of the talent that these guys continue to bring to the scene.

Favorite Tracks: Gold Teeth On A Bum & Farewell, Mona Lisa



5. Deftones - Diamond Eyes

The past few years have been difficult for Deftones with bassist Chi Cheng's car accident in 2008 which has resulted in him being in a coma, and the decision to indefinitely delay their sixth album Eros. This year however, Diamond Eyes was released and provided plenty of nostalgia worthy Deftones quality and excellent tracks from start to finish. Their newest release is both refreshing and a great kickback, with tracks sounding familiar to some of their earliest recordings.

Favorite Tracks: Rocket Skates & CMND/CTRL


4. Veil of Maya - [id]

One of the bands I've lauded the most since the spawning of this blog, Veil of Maya released their third album this year. [id] continues to provide the same quality technical, prog death metal sounds that was prominent on The Common Man's Collapse. I was lucky enough to see VoM twice this year and their performance and sound quality is just as great, if not better, live. This is an album that any true prog/death metal fan should not miss.

Favorite Tracks: Unbreakable & Namaste


3. Cloudkicker - Beacons

Ben Sharp has only recently stepped out of the veil of mystery to give some interviews to the likes of Metal Injection and others. Better known as Cloudkicker this one man outfit has continued to provide listeners with intriguing, technical and high quality instrumental works over the past two years. Best of all his work is all free, and now pay what you please. Sharp is one of those rare individuals who truly makes music purely out of a love and enjoyment for it, and it shows.

Favorite Tracks: We're goin' in; we're going down & Amy I love you


2. Periphery - Self-Titled

I know a few people who will probably shit a brick when they see Periphery's self titled debut album at no. 2 on my list, but the decision wasn't simple. Misha Mansoor, and company finally released their hotly anticipated debut album this Spring, showcasing tunes familiar to longtime fans. One of the most recognizeable groups in the Djent circuit, Periphery showcases their talents on each and every track they play, with ludicrous riffs and flawless drumming by Matt Halpern to set the standard.

Favorite Tracks: Racecar, Jetpacks Was Yes! & Icarus Lives


1. The Ocean - Heliocentric / Anthropocentric

Some people would say that including two albums as a number one would be cheating, but in this case it happens to be two phenomenal albums released by the same band.  

The Ocean released their magnum opus Heliocentric and Anthropocentric in 2010, nine months apart. While both albums can be taken in separately, they are both linked and according to the group represent a fundamental and philosophical critique of Christianity, with many central themes prevalent throughout each record.

The double album is The Ocean's first release in three years, since Precambrian and is without any other real way to describe it: a masterpiece. The music is both powerful, moving and unrestrained, and the way the themes are conveyed from one track to the next makes for a very remarkable listening experience. I could easily give away my personal top honors to different groups on this list, but The Ocean are the most deserving by far.

Favorite Tracks (H): The Origin of Species & The Origin of God
Favorite Tracks (A): The Grand Inquistior II & Heaven TV

Honorable Mentions

Ihsahn - After
Parkway Drive - Deep Blue
Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza - Danza III: The Series of Unfortunate Events
Soilwork - The Panic broadcast
Decrepit Birth - Polarity
Nachtmystium - Addicts
Blind Guardian - At the Edge of Time
Bison B.C. - Dark Ages
Fear Factory - Mechanize
The Sword - Warp Riders
ONAN - Hell is Other People

Now for a glance over some of my favorite, somewhat shorter releases of the year.

Jay's Top 5 Favorite EP's of 2010

5. Tight Rope - The Infinite Being

Hailing from Boston, MA Tight Rope quickly caught my attention when a friend of mine suggested one of their tracks to me. A strong EP from a talented outfit, The Infinit Being showcases some solid and meaty guitar work, and equally strong vocals by Eric Lee.

Favorit Tracks: Legion Atrophic & Ascendance


4. Cloudkicker - A New Heavenly Body (a.k.a. ]]][[[ )

Originally released in early 2010, the EP simply entitled ]]][[[ was re-released by Ben Sharp nearly a month ago, sporting improved sound quality. The slightly improved sound quality (which was already high to begin with) was not the only change. The EP gained a new title, and each track also finally gained a title, having originally been titled #, % and $, respectively.

Favorite Track: What It Is Impossible Not to Know and What It Is No Longer Permissible To Believe in the United States (a.k.a. #)

3. Structures - All of the Above

Hailing from Toronto, Structures is a group I've showcased on the Blaarg before. They've played a variety of shows in Ottawa over the past year, including a headlining performance two weeks ago, and the first time I encountered them, opening for Periphery in April. Their debut EP is powerful and a great foot into the door. This is a band that is definitely going places.

Favorite Tracks: Transitions & Encounter...

2. Volumes - The Concept of Dreaming

Volumes released their debut EP in mid-November, and after catching a few of their tracks early in the summer, it was a release that I was looking forward to. Combining elements of metalcore and groove metal with some fine djentings, and two strong vocalists, The Concept of Dreaming was a pleasant (and brutal) surprise to cap off the year that was.

Favorite Tracks: Intake & Wormholes 



1. TesseracT - Concealing Fate

It may not be the full-length album that fans of TesseracT have been getting antsy for over the past year, but the group did at least finally release something to appease the masses. Concealing Fate is TesseracT's six part masterpiece, finally dispelling question of what parts three through six would actually sound like. The groups debut album One is scheduled to be released in 2011 - leaving a lot of fans skeptical but at least now hopeful, as the band has been signed by Century Media.

Favorite Track: The whole damned EP.


My apologies for the absolutely ridiculous length of this post, but hopefully it gives some people some quality music to not only check out, but enjoy - assuming they haven't already. And that would mean they just need to bust out the jams once again.

And so concludes Jay's first Year in Review, Music Edition. Keep on the lookout for some more new garbage to hit the Blaarg in the coming days/weeks.

- J

Something Wicked This Way Comes

Well after my last final exam - which happened to be on the last day of Finals and in the last time slot of the day - another semester in my academic long haul at OttawaU has gone down the tubes.

There hasn't been too much activity on my part in the past month, as I indicated in my last post about 20 days ago, but needless to say I've been busy with work, finals and this week, Christnukkwanzivus.

I'm expecting to have some new stuff to put up by next week and into the new year while I have a little bit of free time. This includes some album reviews, my own crack at my top 10 albums of 2010 and other perennial junk.

But in the meantime, I'll wish all you fine ladies and Djentlemen a Happy Festivus, and as the image above has indicated, a generous donation has been made in your honor to the Human Fund.

Now for some freedom, exorbitant amounts of food and gratuitous amounts of alcohol. And of course: KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN!



Keep that stick on the ice.

- J

O Jay, Where Art Thou?

So I'm sitting here in one of my friends apartments, unable to sleep, sitting at a laptop that can't play movies and I notice there hasn't really been much going on in the life of Jay - at least according to my recent activity.

My posts have dried up in recent weeks. Fact is that right now it's crunch time in the semester, classes are coming to a close, projects are almost due and Finals will follow. I've also been sick as all hell this past week, so I'm getting my bearings straight.

November was a pretty craptacular month. Despite rocking the Mo for Movember and a trip down to Montreal for a killer show, Suckvember still managed to reign supreme.

December is off to a similar start. The standard school stuff isn't bothering me, I work well enough under pressure and can handle last minute things. But things have a tendency to accumulate. Sufficed to say I have been going through a rough patch, and trying to work on one of my assignments hasn't been helping very much.

Either way I've got about five days to figure things out, to do a lot of thinking and putting some pretty dark and uninspiring past memories into words for an oral presentation that I personally asked to do.

It seemed like a good idea at the time, slightly therapeutic, maybe. In hindsight, I'm starting to think that was a really dumb fucking idea...

When it comes down to it, it'll be less of a question of how I'll do it - but if I actually can. And I think that's the part that I'm dreading the most.

- J

Legacy Tour: A Little Overdue

So last Tuesday was when the Legacy Tour arrived on the scene in Montreal and me and the boys humped it, 5 dudes cramped in a tiny Toyota, for what was to be quite the interesting evening.

Prior to this trip, I'd never seen a show down at La Tulipe. The venue itself isn't bad, average size, average acoustics - hell, pretty plain average, but decent. The one problem is with their advertisement of upcoming shows and a bit of a SNAFU on the part of the tour organizers.

The Legacy Tour was comprised of Darkest Hour celebrating their 15th anniversary as a band, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation. This lineup in itself justified the quick drive down to get our faces melted and heads Djented off.

Remember I mentioned advertising? There's a reason. Apparently the Legacy Tour was, for one day only (I'm assuming) merging with another tour passing through the city and instead became Extensive Fest. This fact brought in some pleasant surprises and some disappointments.

The other tour which merged with the Legacy tour ended up featuring The Acacia Strain, Terror, The Red Chord, Gaza and The Contortionist. Altogether a pretty diverse and strong lineup, with some good performances from all of the headliners and co-headliners.

The problem is when you put this many bands together, you get short sets - and when transitions sometimes don't go as planned, even shorter sets.

This was probably my biggest gripe, as my friends and myself included came down to see four bands and not nine. While that might not sound like a let down (dude, you get MOAR!), the fact remained that the majority of my friends were primarily focused on getting in some quality performances from those four groups.

Prime focus however, were some sick Djentings from Periphery. While we did get some, their set was cut to an abysmally short 20 to 25 minutes, which was probably the low point of the night. Periphery ended up getting yanked from the stage before they could really get a great groove on - and before they could let loose the new version of Frak The Gods which should be appearing on their forthcoming EP.

The trade-off however was that we got to hang out and talk with Misha Mansoor and the other band members in between sets and outside the venue. And got to confirm his lineage and place of origin - grats to me and Luc on totally calling that.

Second gripe? Hardcore Dancers. People can argue it's part of the experience, but only to an extent. When 8-12 guys are occupying 75% of the show floor so they can grab for falling coins and flail around like someone with epilepsy on speed, there's a problem.

I've got no problem with getting a little banged up when you mosh or do a circle pit, that's part of the experience. Getting kicked in the shins, elbowed in the ribs and kidney punched by douchebags who need to take the stickers off of their NY Yankee caps, that's not what I call collateral damage - it's what I would call a death wish if I see you lolly-gagging during some gnarly pit movements.

Worst moment goes to Wannabe Dallas Green who dove from above the show floor, into the back of the crowd - yeah, from behind - and knocked over a few people and kicked me in the back of the head. I hope you trip and fall into a vat of piranhas.

Douchebags aside, the rest show was pretty decent, and the rest of the bands we intended to see did not disappoint.

Revocation played a short set early into the evening and despite my prior lack of knowledge of most of their material, still managed to provide a good tone for the rest of the evening.

Once again, Veil of Maya brought on the hurt with their brutal breakdowns and powerful presence. I've said it before that these guys are an easy show stealer on almost any tour, but I would easily place them near the top of my list as being one of the best bands to see live.

Show-stealers or not, the night belonged to Darkest Hour.

It was somewhat sad that nearly half of the venue cleared out when they hit the stage - 90% of the hardcore dancers and scene kids left, leaving a somewhat vacant show floor. But it was all for the better, as you didn't have to constantly keep your eye out for any potential bullshit and focus on enjoying the show.

Darkest Hour played through songs from their entire catalog in celebration of their 15 years as a band and it provided a fair bit of nostalgia, as they're a band I've been pretty familiar with for the past decade.

The highest point of their set was when they pulled out and setup the two acoustic guitars for Veritas Aequitas and played a magnificent extended version of their instrumental classic. They also played my personal favorite track, Demon(s) near the end of their set, which definitely made the prior disappointments of the evening just disappear.

At least until the next morning when I woke up pretty sore, to go into a 12 hour day of class after only four hours of sleep. But as always, no rest for the wicked.

And now for a public service announcement:

Remember, if you see a Hardcore Dancer, show him proper venue and moshing etiquette. If he doesn't listen, kick him into a circle pit - he'll learn eventually.

- J

Tour de Force: The Legacy Tour

November has been a pretty sub-par month so far - in fact I've started referring to it as Suckvember, because it's been pretty much one sucktastic event of suckitude after another for the past two weeks.

I forecasted about 3 good days throughout the entire month. So far there's been about one day and a half, cumulative in the first half of the month. But I do know when the next full day - and probably the only full day of awesome will be and that's next Tuesday.

Luckily for me Suckvember will take a break from sucking ass on November 16th when me and the boys head down to Montreal for what I'm already declaring the show of the year. That show being The Legacy Tour featuring Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation.

I've never seen Darkest Hour live, but I've been a longtime fan of their music. DH is headlinging the Legacy Tour as it is celebrating their 15th anniversary as a band, and they've chosen a great set of traveling minstrels to accompany them on this late Fall tour.

I discovered Veil of Maya nearly two years ago and have been a huge fan of hem ever since. The Legacy Tour will be the second time I see them in the past year, as the same group I'll be traveling with on Tuesday caught them at the the Summer Slaughter Tour, which I shortly chronicled this past August. They definitely stole the show for me on that occasion and I expect nothing less than an awesome performance from them, especially considering the great company they'll be sharing the stage with.

Periphery is one of the first bands to launch me and other friends of mine into what I'll simply refer to as: the Djent-plosion.

I was actually lucky enough to catch them when they were in Ottawa last Spring, at a show that a friends local band (Rising City States) was opening at, along with another of my local favorite groups, Structures. Needless to say I'm excited at the fact that I'll get to see them again, but twice within such a short span is doubly awesome. This time I'll definitely prepared for Misha Mansoor's antics and the djentings that will ensue.

Revocation is the one group of the mix that I'm the least familiar with, but from what I've heard they should be a solid opener for an evening full of destructive breakdowns, djentings of doom and uber-melodic riffage.

You can check out all of the aforementioned bands on their MySpace pages, which you'll find linkage for below: 

Darkest Hour - http://www.myspace.com/darkesthour
Veil of Maya - http://www.myspace.com/veilofmaya
Periphery - http://www.myspace.com/periphery
Revocation - http://www.myspace.com/revocation

So bust out your party hats Ladies and Djentlemen, the Legacy Tour officially kicks off tonight in Worcester, Massachusetts and will be in Montreal in just 4 (hopefully) short days.

Suckvember, prepare to be annihilated - at least temporarily, which is fucking good enough for me, cause you're seriously cramping my style.

- J

Blast From the Past: Gojira

In between discovering new music and listening to my most recent favorites, I often find myself going back in time and pulling out an album or an entire discography of a band and re-immersing myself in the sounds of my past - so to speak. Think of it like hearing a song on the radio from about 10 years ago and just getting hit with a bit of nostalgia, same principle.

Well two weeks ago I was flipping through my iPod at the time and laughing about how lately I've found myself falling on bands between the letters A to D or H and beyond. One of the primary reasons is the ID tags on some of my mp3's, in particular my Dropkick Murphy's albums are just plain awful and have spawned about 12 different versions in the library, so I have the tendency to skip ahead most times.

That was until I was rolling through and a band name caught my eye: Gojira. Time pretty much stopped right then as I rolled back up the list to make sure my eyes hadn't deceived me and surely enough they didn't.

While the word Gojira is the literal name for the iconic Japanese monster better known as Godzilla, the Gojira I'm referring to is most definitely the metal outfit from Bayonne, France.

Gojira is a band I used to listen to a fucking lot back in the day, between high school and my first year at university. I'd often listen to them, with a mix of many other groups during certain specific instances, of ridiculously shameful time wasting that I will not bother mentioning.

That being said I plunged back into their albums and remembered why they were one of my favorite metal bands of old. So it was really funny when one of my friends claimed I had ESP and showed me the following link: http://www.metalinjection.net/upcoming-releases/gojira-record-ep-week.

Needless to say the news piqued my interested and got me excited for yet another future release. Gojira's last release was the album The Way of All Flesh in 2008, so the prospect of new material is awesome.

Gojira uses Progressive and more or less uncommon song structures, and with them blends a range of styles together, including Thrash, Death Metal and Groove Metal, culminating in some truly original and awesome pieces of music.

Their entire collection provides great examples of the range of styles that make up their musical repertoire, so fans of any of the above genres who have never listened to Gojira should definitely give them a listen.

Gojira has toured most recently with Lamb of God, in support of Metallica on their North American tour last Fall.

You can check out Gojira by visiting their offical website at http://www.gojira-music.com/ or their myspace at http://www.myspace.com/gojira.

And per usual here's a bit of a parting gift, with some classic Gojira with the tracks 04 and Blow Me Away You(niverse) from their debut album Terra Incognita, released in 2001.

Movember: It's A Shame to Waste A Good Beard

About two weeks ago I made a post about Movember coming up and how I would be participating, and convincing other bro's to don the Moustache.

Well today is Halloween, which means that tomorrow a new month is beginning, a month which according to this weekend will be greeted with cold weather, snow and beardless bro's.

For the first time I five years I am now 100% beardless. And for you fine folks I've taken the liberty of taking some photos of my mug with my previous gen crap-phone, however I expect some people I know might try to take actual decent looking pics of me, since according to someone this is a milestone moment. But I'll leave that up to them, after all I'm not very photogenic, with only a handful of pictures of me in the past 5 years, literally.

Damn you Mother Nature.

It also has to be some kind of bad mojo, that or Mother Nature has a grudge against me, for it to fucking snow on the weekend I get rid of my beard, because now I have no facial protection from bursts of wintery goodness.

In the past two weeks I've also managed to convince a handful of my friends to join in on the cause and support the face of Men's Health by shaving down (if necessary) and preparing to rock the moustache for the month of Movember.

So here's to the next 30 days. Fear not friends, the beard will be back, with a vengeance.

And of course, as I've previously mentioned, you can learn more about Movember by visiting the official Movember Canada website at http://ca.movember.com/.

P.S. A Movember bro without a Mo is not a true bro.

- J

Dimmu Borgir: Review

And finally Review number 3/3 of Review Round-up Edition One.

Dimmu Borgir - Abrahadabra

Grade: 4.0 - Putting the emphasis on Symphonic
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
Release Date: October 12, 2010
Site(s): http://site.dimmu-borgir.com/ | http://www.myspace.com/dimmuborgir

High Points: High budget, high quality orchestrations.
Low Point: Beyond ridiculous wardrobe choices and no Simen (Vortex) backing vocals.

Shagrath and Silenoz, the two mainstay and remaining original members of Dimmu Borgir have returned, once again with Galder (Old Man's Child) in tow for they're first album release in three years. Abrahadabra is also the first album released by the band since the departure of former bassist and clean vocalist Simen Hestnæs (ICS Vortex).

To give a bit of historical perspective, Dimmu Borgir has been recording albums since the early 90's and Abrahadabra is in fact their ninth studio album. Despite always being a Symphonic Black Metal band, this album also represents the greatest leap forward that the band has made in years, if you take the symphonic aspect into focus. Shagrath has indicated that the choice of using a single word title for the album, rather than their previous standard of three word titles, was a decision used to emphasize the changes they have gone through and a step towards the future.

I used to listen to Dimmu Borgir in high school and was familiar enough with their last three releases, however many have been quick to judge that those three albums showed little growth within the band, in between each as a whole, despite being overall solid pieces of work.

Dimmu Borgir's former keyboardist, Mustis, left the group a year ago alongside Vortex. He claims his main reason for leaving the group was because he did not receive the credit he deserved, since he claimed to have written all the music in the group. Whether you actually believe that claim or not is one thing, but if you compare their last three releases (Puritannical Euprhoric Misanthropia, Death Cult Armageddon and In Sorte Diaboli) versus Abrahadabra, you can definitely see many differences. But these are all for the better.

Why? Despite former orchestrations sounding pretty well done, Dimmu Borgir has hired a professional orchestra and choir to record the orchestral sections of their album, a member tally nearing 100 members in total. This fact, which may seem like a moot point to some - they are after all Symphonic metal - is really what makes or breaks this album. And I can tell you, it definitely makes it.

The orchestrations and vocals throughout the album are for lack of a better word, stellar. Songs like Gateways, Dimmu Borgir, and Endings and Continuations truly shine in that regard. Galder's riffage is also kicking ass and taking names, per usual, as he does often with Old Man's Child.

So what's not so great? People used to the old school style of Dimmu Borgir will be, a bit surprised with the changes, especially if your favorite Dimmu happens to be very early in their career. Vocally the album sounds like the Dimmu of old, with Shagrath at the helm, however any real fan can tell you it's missing the clean vocals of Vortex, which would truly put it one notch higher. No criticism to the clean vocals on the album however, the female clean vocals on Gateway in particular are extremely well done.

Dimmu Borgir will be beginning their North American tour on November 5th with Enslaved, Blood Red Throne and Dawn of Ashes. For the locals, the tour will be passing through Toronto and Montreal on December 12th and 13th respectively.

- J

Bring Me the Horizon: Review

Bring Me the Horizon - There Is a Hell Believe Me I've Seen It, There Is a Heaven Let's Keep It a Secret

Grade: 3.5 - Putting the emphasis on Symphonic
Label: Nuclear Blast
Genre: Symphonic Black Metal
Release Date: October 4, 2010
Site(s): http://www.myspace.com/bmth

High Points: Big musical improvement, LIGHTS providing guest clean vocals.
Low Point: Oliver Sykes is still really annoying.

Bring Me the Horizon recently released their third album and once again, their sound has changed, quite a bit.

Their first album, Count Your Blessings, was by all accounts a bread and butter Deathcore album and nothing to special. Their sophomore album, Suicide Season, saw a change to a more straight Metalcore sound and approach, with a larger and improved focus on meaty riffs and chunky breakdowns.

Their newest release, which I'll just refer to as Heaven and Hell, follows suit with their change of pace but kicks it up a notch musically. This album has a weird personality, to put it plainly. Songs which make you want to get up and break something often find themselves being followed by ones which are very melodic and at times 'mellow', in a partial sense. The easiest example I can give is the difference in between the tracks Fuck and Don't Go, the latter featuring guest vocals by LIGHTS, which honestly surprised the crap out of me - in a good way, she has a stellar voice, plus she's Canadian.

Bring Me the Horizon chose the song It Never Ends to be their first single, releasing a video for the song as well, a couple weeks prior to the album's release. Listen to a couple tracks from Suicide Season and then listen to this song and you'll see what I'm talking about when I mention musical progression. But don't take this negatively, the musical progression of the band is huge and I actually enjoy the majority of the album quite a bit.

So if you actually really kinda like this album, why the 3.5 and not a 4.0? Well, this is where I'll be blunt and honest, although I pointed it out at the beginning of the review: Oliver Sykes annoys the crap out of me, 85% of the time. I've heard vocals from a wide range of vocalists and in every genre known in the Milky Way, but there's just something about Oliver that, well, nails on chalk board - not all the time, but it's a deal breaker at times.

If you've never listened to BMTH before, I would suggest you check out a few of their older tracks, such as Chelsea Smile and The Comedown and then venture into this record.

Or you can throw that suggestion aside and listen to this record first, since it definitely is their best.

Bring Me the Horizon is headlining this Fall's AP Tour alongside August Burns Red and will be in Toronto and Montreal on November 21st and 22nd respectively. I would definitely go to that show purely to see ABR, but with this amount of musical improvement, I'd now consider seeing BMTH as being a decent bonus.

- J

Conducting From the Grave: Review

Conducting From the Grave - Revenants

Grade: 4.0 - Another staple in Sumerian's superb stable of bands
Label: Sumerian Records

Genre: Melodic Death Metal / Metalcore
Release Date: October 26, 2010
Site(s): http://www.myspace.com/conductingfromthegrave

High Points: Excellent vocals and the final two-part track.
Low Point: Realizing they're not on tour in Canada.

I first came across Conducting From the Grave when they released their debut album (When Legends Become Dust) through Sumerian Records back in 2009 and needless to say they piqued my interest.

Conducting From the Grave weave elements of melodic death metal, thrash and hardcore together to create, not necessarily a unique metal experience, but rather and most importantly, an enjoyable one. The vocals of Mikey Powell in particular are excellent and flow seamlessly with both the hard charging nature of their tracks, but also with the excellent melodic sections.

The final tracks of the album, What Monsters We Have Become Part 1 & 2 do the greatest justice to this, blending both main elements of their style with a skill that befits them. The breakdown featured in Part 1 and the guitar solo in Part 2 are most definitely, fused together, the highest point of the album, providing a great send off to their sophomore album.

Sumerian is probably my favorite record label at this specific moment in time. Their list of signed bands counts some of the best bands of their respective genres, including names such as: Born of Osiris, Periphery, Veil of Maya, After the Burial and The Faceless. Conducting From the Grave, has now deservedly earned themselves a place amongst them, proving once again just how huge the depth of talent extends into Sumerian's roster.

Conducting From the Grave are on tour in the US, until December, in support of Arsis, alongside another excellent band in Powerglove.

If you're a fan of Sumerian's signed artists, you should do yourself a favor and check them out, post haste. And even if you aren't, you shan't be disappointed.

- J

Review Round-up Edition 1: Music for the Win

It's been a while since I talked about one of my favorite things: Music. Likewise, it's been a while since I've thrown up any info and/or reviews on recent albums that have dropped from the sky.

Well today is the day to remedy that, seeing as how I've had time to fly through some recent material - and some old favorites all at the same time. I'll have more details on my nostalgia moment later in the weekend, in the first installation of what I'll be entitling Blast From the Past.

In the meantime, while I actually write-up these reviews I've been mentioning, I should probably take the time to actually setup some fashion of a rating system. I've only literally reviewed one album previously on the Blaarg and I'm not sure using Brutalisks from Starcraft will serve as useful grading mechanism, except in certain cases.

So for future reference here's how my Reviews will go down, and I even made an example for you fine folks:

E.g.

4.5 Ishmael's

Mastodon - Leviathan

Grade: 4.5 - The quintessential prog metal adaptation of Moby Dick
Label: Relapse
Release Date: August 31, 2004
Site(s): http://www.mastodonrocks.com/ | http://www.myspace.com/mastodon
High Point: All 13m 40s of Hearts Alive.
Low Point: It actually ends.

[Insert Clearly Amazing Review text here]

And here's how the album grading system is going to work:

Jay's Official Album Review Grading System of Doom 

5.0 - Best thing since sliced bread (Perfect)

4.5 - Instant Classic (Excellent)
4.0 - Groovy! (Great)
3.5 - Well Played (Very Good)
3.0 - I Can Dig It (Good)
2.5 - Alright (Average)
2.0 - Meh (Disappointing)
1.5 - Uninspiring (Bad)
1.0 - Are They Even Trying? (Embarrassing)
0.5 - Flaming Heap (Generally Awful)
0.0 - Musical Abortion (Absolute Garbage)

I'll tag the grading system on the side of the blog for easy reference and when I get around to it add a Reviews page, which will catalog any reviews I make appear.

It's like, Magic. OK, time to write these reviews for real.

- J

Toasters: Sometimes Things Don't Go As Planned

It was just under a month ago that I was mentioning the return of the second half of the first season of Caprica, which is basically Battlestar Galactica's prequel (and bastard child). Despite the fact that I somewhat enjoy the series, it was pretty clear from the beginning that it would be an uphill battle for this show.

Despite some superb casting and an intriguing start, the series soon took a spin, far beyond the types experienced in season 4 of it's predecessor.

A lot of BSG fans were left with a sour taste in their mouths following the finale of the series, compared to people who watched Lost, for example, BSG's ending left a lot of viewers split. This reason alone caused a lot of people to not even give the series a chance.

Caprica also has an immense focus on the Drama aspect of the series, and much less on the sci-fi, which put off a lot of viewers of Battlestar. Plot twists and 'quoi de fuck?' moments pop up in nearly every episode of Caprica, and that as well was a bit much for a lot of viewers.

One sad toaster.

Add together enough negatives this early into the 'return' of a series and you end up with what I've been slowly expecting for the past couple weeks. Except the announcement came a lot sooner and a lot more directly.

Syfy announced today that because of ratings (and other reasons) that they would be pulling Caprica off the air, effective immediately.

In a nut shell, there's still five episodes remaining to be aired in the second half of the first season. But SyFy has decided they won't be airing these episodes until 2011, which already has viewers of the series sort of perplexed.

I mean I can understand canceling the series, but pulling it from that time slot and not airing the final episodes for another 6+ months? Anyone who's watched BSG knows how long waits can be between seasons (or second halves of seasons), but why put off the dying episodes of a series for so long? Seems slightly pointless to me.

R.I.P. Caprica.

Adios: Lex Luthor Has Left the Building

Yesterday the mayoral elections for Ottawa took place and the end result was in a word (or two), pretty obvious.

Jim Watson walked away the new Mayor-elect, along with 23 city councillors, 10 of which are freshmen to the city council.

But as one of my friends put it, the most interesting part of all of this is that Lex Luthor is no longer the Mayor of Ottawa.

So congrats Jim, and bon voyage Larry.

I would say you'll be missed, but then I'd just be a big fat liar now wouldn't I.

P.S. - It's been brought to my attention that I haven't been posting enough lately (except about Hockey, which apparently angers everyone). There's new content to come in the next few days, including some album reviews, a potential rant and something to do with the word Derp.

Hockey: Week Two Review

Par for the course with last week, here's a quick review of the highlights and low-lights of the second week of the 2010-2011 NHL hockey season.

I'll stick mainly with the same format as last week also, emphasizing on some of the surprises and disappointments, and a quick focus on who's Hot and who's Not.

Surprises

Rick Rypien an enforcer for the Vancouver Canucks was suspended indefinitely earlier in the week, following a game with the Minnesota Wild where he received a game misconduct and grabbed a fan while being escorted off the ice. On Friday the league suspended Rypien for six games, in what many would consider as setting an example, and also fined the Canucks 25,000$, per league policy.

Holy Hat Tricks Batman! Hat tricks are not a rarity in the NHL, but it always seems that when one of them takes place, a chain reaction soon follows. This Friday night alone saw 3 of 5 scheduled games feature a trick, with Rene Bourque of the Flames tallying three, Daniel Alfredsson doing the same and also scoring his 1,000th career point, and Steven Stamkos rounding out the trio, with a four point night against the Atlanta Thrashers.

Despite my somewhat early doomsaying, a fire must have been lit under the asses of the Anaheim Ducks, whom after nearly starting the season on a 4 game deficit, finally started to see their stars put pucks into the back of the net.

Disappointments

There are still a few teams with high potential who are trying to catch a break. The Buffalo Sabres, despite having some bright flashes in week one, have lost 6 of their last 7 games, including a 5 game losing streak where most games were decided by one goal. Likewise, the New Jersey Devils are having trouble falling into a groove, although Martin Brodeur managed to nab two shutouts, including a decisive one Thursday night in Montreal.

Who's Hot

Teams:
Pittsburgh Penguins - (5-3-0) - 4 Game W Streak
Boston Bruins - (4-1-0) - 4 Game W Streak
Tampa Bay Lightning - (5-1-1)
Dallas Stars - (5-1-0) 
Toronto Maple Leafs - (4-1-1)
Chicago Blackhawks - (5-3-1) - After a bit of a slow start, the Hawks have picked up steam with an early season hot streak by Marian Hossa and some clutch scoring by Patrick Sharp who racked up 3 game winners in a row.

Players:
Steven Stamkos, C (TBL) - 8G 6A +6 - A 4 point night Friday, including a Hat Trick has Stammer on course for what is sure to be a repeat and surpassing of his breakout sophomore season last year.

Marian Hossa, RW (CHI) - 7G 4A +4
Brad Richards, D (DAL) - 2G 8A +9
Daniel Sedin, LW (VAN) - 7G 4A +2
Henrik Sedin, C (VAN) - 10A +1

Tim Thomas, G (BOS) - 4W, 1 Shutout, Save% .978, GAA 0.75 - Thomas has started all four games following the Bruins opening game loss and has been a force, as per usual. 
Kari Lehtonen, G (DAL) - 5W, 1L, Save% .927, GAA 2.60

Who's Not

Teams:
Buffalo Sabres - (2-5-1)
Edmonton Oilers - (2-3-0) - After a breakout start to the season with a 4-0 win over Calgary and a close win against Florida, the Oilers are now on a 3 game skid, which is enough to scare any Oilers fan with memories of last season.

Players:
Simon Gagne, LW (TBL) - No points, -4 in 6 games
Kimmo Timmonen and Chris Pronger, D (PHI) - No points, -4 combined
Tyler Myers, D (BUF) - 1G 1A -9 - Sabres are in a slump and their sophomore defenseman ranks worst in the league on the +/- right now and is not showing an early season strength shown in his Calder nominated Rookie season.

Here's to hopefully another interesting week in NHL hockey.

Movember: Jay Unmasked!

On November 1st men worldwide will join together to change their daily appearance, but most importantly, to change the face of Men's Health, by creating awareness and raising funds for prostate cancer research as they grow a moustache for Movember.

The moustache becomes the symbol for men's health, the means by which awareness and funds are raised for prostate cancer. 

Think of it like the commitment to run or walk for charity, instead Mo-bro's commit to growing a moustache for 30 days.

The rules of Movember are pretty simple.

1) Mo-bro's start Movember 1st clean-shaven and then grow a moustache for the entire month.

2) For the entire month of Movember each Mo-bro must grow and groom a moustache according to the following rules:

• There is to be no joining the Mo to the sideburns; that's a beard.
• There is to be no joining of the handlebars on the chin; that's a goatee.
• A small complementary growth under the bottom lip is allowed

Admittedly I didn't start last year off according to Rule #1, as I began with beard and finished (and continued throughout the winter months) with a full beard. This year however I will begin Movember by adhering strictly to the rules of the cause.

This means that I will be beardless for the first time since 2005.

A beardless Jay, that's kind of a big deal, seeing as how I haven't been without some fashion of beardage for 5 years.

It also happens to mean that I haven't seen my true face in just as many years. And what's funnier to think of, is most of the friends I've made in the past years haven't seen me sans-beard, ever! Which means come Movember 2nd I might have less friends than I started with on Movember 1st.

I'm not a very photogenic person. Hell the standard picture I use of myself is at least three years old by now.

I suppose the challenge then, will be for my friends to try and catch photographs of a beardless Jay in the wild, perish the thought.

While Movember only officially kicks off in two weeks, I wholeheartedly encourage my fellow bro's to join in on the cause and brandish your best attempt at an homage to Tom Selleck and other moustachioed men who have rocked the Mo with pride and awesomeness in the past.

The Canadian campaign, last year, was the second largest in the world with Mo Bros and Mo Sistas coming together to raise $7.8 million for Prostate Cancer Canada.

You can learn more about Movember by visiting the official Movember Canada website at http://ca.movember.com/.

Here's a short promo video that was made last year that sums up the heart of what Movember is all about:



- J

Hockey: Wheelin' and Dealin'

11:59:59 PM of Friday October 15th has come on and gone, which signifies the locking of my current hockey pools player selections.

As I've mentioned before, our hockey pool follows an odd set of rules and processes in order to accommodate players, and groups of players with different levels of experience and knowledge of hockey pools and hockey in general.

The player selection process of our pool is half draft and half open - I know, it sounds ridiculous but works well enough when put into practice. It operates specifically as follows:

1st - 2nd Round: Open Draft - (Any position)
3rd - 4th Round: Draft - (Center only)
5th - 6th Round: Draft - (Left Wing only)
7th - 8th Round: Draft - (Right Wing only)
9th - 10th Round: Draft - (Defensemen only)
11th Round: Draft - (Goaltenders only)
12th - 20th Rounds: Open Player Selections

To put it plainly: Drafted players are locked from the get-go and can only be traded, since a drafted player is owned solely by that participant/team. Players selected in open rounds are up for grabs for anyone and you had a week to finalize those choices - or make trades for drafted players, etc.

During the player draft, there was a bit of wheelin' and dealin' by poolies trying to score some draft positions, despite some protesting. This past week also saw a bit of the same as we had a week to finalize our player selections before the rest of our rosters were locked. Final rosters consist of 12 Forwards (4 C/LW/RW), 5 Defensemen and 3 Goalies - weird I know.

I haven't seen the final rosters for some of the other teams yet but I've heard some interesting things. It's hard to make a decision on a group of players after only one week, since that week can be a poor representation of the next 75+ games that are left in the season. When it came down to the wire I only swapped a couple of names out of my open selections.

My group of drafted players was actually, pretty surprising considering my draft position(s), and the choices people actually made during the draft rounds. I did get shafted by a few people who targeted some of my personal most wanted players right out of the gate, but I'm definitely not complaining about who I did get to draft first because of it. I also traded my 4th round pick for an extra 11th round draft choice, since a lot of Centers were getting taken early on, so I took a gamble on who would be left - but it worked out.

Here's my pool roster with the selections made during our October 2nd draft, before the regular season kicked off:

Team 6 - The Djentlemen

Round 1: Steven Stamkos (TBL)
Round 2: Marian Hossa (CHI)
Round 3: Mikko Koivu (MIN)
Round 4: Traded for Round 11
Round 5: Henrik Zetterberg (DET)
Round 6: Thomas Vanek (BUF)
Round 7: Phil Kessel (TOR)
Round 8: Johan Franzen (DET)
Round 9: Drew Doughty (LAK)
Round 10: Tyler Myers (BUF)
Round 11: Jimmy Howard (DET) & Johnathan Quick (LAK)
Round 12: Jack Johnson (LAK)
Round 13: Derek Roy (BUF)
Round 14: Travis Zajac (NJD)
Round 15: Claude Giroux (PHI)
Round 16: Kristian Huselius (CBJ)
Round 17: Tyler Ennis (BUF)
Round 18: John Carlson (WSH)
Round 19: Pavel Kubina (TBL)
Round 20: Cam Ward (CAR)

Obviously I'm quite happy with a lot of the choices I had available to me in the draft rounds, especially getting to snag Steven Stamkos in the first round, much to my surprise.

Some of my friends organized their choices and trades to be very team centric, or by gunning for a specific list of players. I've gone a little bit all over the board but with a focus on some of my favorite teams and players that have proven themselves to be good choices in the past.

The results overall for the first week of the season have been more than good given this group of players. Except for the fact that Johan Franzen is out indefinitely. Of course we're only an average of 4 games per team, into the season so there's plenty that can change between now and April.

Personally I just want to see last years' winner lose to his girlfriend again, like he did during our playoff pool. Good times.

TesseracT: Music for the Win

I haven't been home in a couple days, and as such haven't had a chance to get my hands on something that I've been eagerly awaiting for the better part of a year.

This past Tuesday, October 12th, TesseracT released their Concealing Fate EP.

The UK based group have captivated the likes of the Djent circuit and metal fans in general with their blend of Experimental/Progressive/Ambient and just plain Amazing metal, over the past couple of years.

Their debut album which was originally set to be released this year was pushed back to 2011, which left a lot of people slightly disappointed. However news shortly broke loose of the release of an EP featuring their six part masterpiece, Concealing Fate, of which only parts 1 and 2 were previously seen in the wild.

When I put the first track of the EP on play I instantly recognized the opening I was familiar with from the earlier version of the song. Cleaner and slightly different (very slightly) from the original I had heard, the first track of this EP instantly draws you in, letting you know you're in for a good bit of aural pleasure for the next 27 minutes.

TesseracT's debut album One is still scheduled to be released in 2011 through Century Media. If this EP has done anything it's just left every one of their fans eager for more, especially considering many of them have been waiting for the release of One for, quite some time.

Regardless, Concealing Fate has proven itself to be one of the better releases in the genre, in 2010.

The Track listing for the Concealing Fate EP is as follows:

1. Acceptance: Concealing Fate Part One - 8:33 
2. Deception: Concealing Fate Part Two - 5:22
3. The Impossible: Concealing Fate Part Three - 4:50
4. Perfection: Concealing Fate Part Four - 2:38
5. Epiphany: Concealing Fate Part Five - 1:29
6. Origin: Concealing Fate Part Six - 4:43

TesseracT just recently kicked off a tour in the US and Canada in support of Devin Townsend - of which I would probably do many nasty, unmentionable things, in order to go to Montreal and see on November 2nd.

You can check out TesseracT by visiting their website at: http://www.tesseractband.co.uk.

If you haven't heard of these guys yet, do yourself a favor and give them a go, you shan't be disappointed.

Hockey: Finalizing Picks and Week One Review

Last Friday I took the time to do a more or less quick write-up of the beginning of the 2010-11 NHL hockey season, including short outlooks on some of the teams and plays that were in the spotlight (or limelight) for the beginning of week one.

I also alluded to the fact that I rejoined one of my old hockey pools, so needless to say for the past week I've been tracking some of the games, keeping an eye on early stats and getting a feel for what changes (if any) that I would need to make to the picks in this particular pool.

The pool itself follows most of the standard rules you'll find in any hockey pool or fantasy hockey league but with it's own tweaks and spins that make it more enjoyable for first time participants, and even allows groups of people to fill slots in the pool roster.

Friday is the deadline to finalize your picks for the season, leaving some moments throughout the year for potential swaps and changes. After all, injuries do happen. But this Friday remains the last chance to give your initial picks (aside from drafted players - they're locked) a bit of a makeover.

As such I've decided I'm going to do a sort of Week in Review of what's gone down in the NHL, including surprises, disappointments and my take on who's Hot and who's Not.

Since this is the first week there's not too much to go on, as for who's really Hot or Cold, give it another week and we'll see who's really sleeping on the job.

Suprises

The Toronto Maple Leafs started last season 0-8 and notched only 2 wins in their first 11 games. In a complete 180 degree turnaround the Leafs have opened up this season at 3-0, including a lashing of the Ottawa Senators and their latest victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight.

Mr. Lady Byng, Pavel Datsyuk, who won the Lady Byng Memorial trophy 4 years in a row (prior to last season) got into a scrap with Corey Perry during their opening game against the Anaheim Ducks, marking Datsyuk's first regular season fight in nearly 10 years in the NHL.

The Lady Byng trophy is given to the player judged to have exhibited the best type of sportsmanship and gentlemanly conduct combined with a high standard of playing ability.

Disappointments

The Anaheim Ducks are off to a disastrous start, currently sitting 0-3 and currently facing Vancouver as I write this. In 4 games, the Ducks have scored only three goals and allowed a whopping 15, though I wouldn't blame Jonas Hiller for that (see below). The Ducks blue line is obviously reeling from the loss of Scott Niedermayer and need to get their act together if they hope to get things back on course early in the season.

I hate Sidney Crosby and the Penguins but luckily this falls under disappointments, which is fine with me. The Kid and his partner in crime, Evgeni Malkin haven't started off the season with much of a spark, having each only 1 goal and an assist in 4 games. Hardly tragic, considering this is only the first week - but like I said, I hate those guys, so good riddance.

The New Jersey Devils began the season with a streak of bad luck, including blowing a lead in their opening game and a blowout against Washington which saw Martin Brodeur surrender 7 goals. They notched their first win tonight in OT thanks to Ilya Kovalchuk's first goal. Their front line has the potential to go on a tear, so I don't expect them to sit in this category for long.

Who's Hot

Teams:
Toronto Maple Leafs - (3-0-0) 

Washington Capitals - (3-1-0)

Players: 
Alex Ovechkin, LW (WAS) - 4G 3A +3
Steven Stamkos, C (TB) - 3G 2A +1 (only two games played) 
Marian Hossa, RW (CHI) - 3G 3A +5
Derek Roy, C (BUF) - 4G 1A +1
John-Michael Liles, D (COL) - 5A +4

Johnathan Quick, G (LA) - 2W Save% .964, GAA 0.96
Nikolai Khabibulin, G (EDM) - 2W, 1 Shutout, Save% .969, GAA 1.00
Jimmy Howard, G (DET) - 1W 1OTL, 1 Shutout, Save% .932, GAA 1.94 

Who's Not

Teams:
Anaheim Ducks - (0-3-0)
Ottawa Senators - (0-2-1)

Players:
Anaheim Ducks, except Jonas Hiller - faced 39/43 and 45/49 shots in his first two games before being pulled before the end of the second period of their third game, after already having faced 35 shots in as many minutes.

Like I mentioned before, it's still very early in the season, but it's definitely off to an interesting start.

Rant: Your Copies Are Not Ready

Considering today is the 12th of October, that means classes at the University of Ottawa have been in session for just over a month, leaving plenty of time for people to get organized. So you can certainly understand my annoyance when the people who haven't managed to get their shit together yet happen to be professors.

One class in particular has been - for lack of a better descriptor - a disaster so far, and things are not looking up. Here's a shortlist of what I (and many more) have had to put up with, just in the first month.

1) In one short month we've covered about half of the material we were supposed to cover, up to date and the presentation has been mildly comprehensible, at best.

2) The professor has canceled class, at the last minute, despite knowing she was going to be out of commission days in advance.

3) The Professor doesn't seem to enjoy questions, unless it happens to be a question that she can easily run off on a tangent with. One such case ran on for nearly 10 minutes until someone plainly asked if the question had anything to do with what we had to learn - which it didn't - and asked to get back on subject, since we were already well behind. 

4) During the first class we were informed of course packs that we would have to go buy with the required readings for the class. Very par for the course, no problem there. That was September 8th. When did the course packs first become available? Nearly a month later on October 4th.

5) These magic course packs of course weren't actually ready. They consisted of solely the first section (of which there are three) of the course. And when I went to pick up my 'prepared' copy, despite being one of first dozen, I had to wait 20 minutes - because they had to make more.

Tomorrow, Wednesday the 13th was supposed to be our first mid-term exam. Note how I said was. I woke up Tuesday morning and checked my university email to find the following particular gem:

"I've just been advised that your exams will not be printed in time for tomorrow, therefore your exam will be next Monday instead." 

Well that's just fucking fantastic, seriously.

It's bad enough our course packs were nearly a month late but now our first exam is delayed because of, what I assume, is the same fuck up - using the same place to print the exams, as you did with the course packs.

I'm not sure if the Professor is in cahoots with the owner of this place but I know for a fact that if my course packs were nearly a month overdue for printing, that I sure as shit wouldn't go back to get anything else printed there in the future.

 

So my suggestion to this Prof is: In the future, use a reliable printing service with a good track record. I'm pretty sure there's one available in the University itself, and there just happens to be about a dozen within walking distance around the campus. Professors get their course packs done there for a reason - because it's what they do and they know what they're doing.  

This class in particular is a first year course, containing a blend of university nubiles and veterans looking for another three credit write-off. For the noobs, news of a canceled exam usually equates to good news and a happy dance.

For veteran students and especially students in their last year, a canceled exam is more akin to cause a headache than a happy dance. 

Wasted time studying aside, you have to move that canceled exam ahead into your schedule, which can often leave you with a result that includes: 2 Mid-terms and a Quiz on the same day that a major Written Assignment is also due.

Let get this fucking party started.