FireThunder

Here's a Linkin Park deep cut: QWERTY was written on a plane trip to Japan but didn't get put on Minutes to Midnight because it didn't fit on that album. It was only put out on a LPU fan compilation. It finally gets a worldwide release on the Papercuts singles compilation, out today.

Show was ok, the middle seemed to drag. I'd love to see Sami/Gunther run it back.

Dirtsheets: "Rock has heat backstage because he swears." Rock on Monday afterwards: "This is what happens when you FUCK with the Final Boss." Rock is just on a whole other level compared to ANYBODY else in wrestling. And it isn't the swearing putting him on that level.

Love this deal for both sides. 3 year deal, $30/$30/$20 with opt-outs after each year. Bellinger gets to prove last year wasn't a fluke and can take a shot at getting a longer deal after one of the upcoming seasons, the Cubs get flexibility and also make sure their hot prospects (PCA, Busch) aren't perma-blocked. https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/39596106/cody-bellinger-cubs-agree-3-year-80-million-deal

Ladies and gentlemen, the collab I never knew I wanted dropped.

KNOCKED LOOSE MOTHERFUCKER

BlackBraid is a one man Native American black metal project. Much like Alien Weaponry, the music incorporates a lot of history. Like Bloodywood, the music also incorporates traditional instruments and patterns. Pretty cool stuff.

If you like rogue-like card games, check out the demo for Balatro on Steam. It's a game based on the rules for Poker where you play hands against enemies to collect chips and defeat them. The focal point of the game is the joker cards you collect to give you an advantage in games. It's a fairly simple concept but it's done amazingly well and I cannot wait for a retail version to be released.

OOMPH! enters their post-Dero Goi era. Their original frontman left the band a while back to focus on his solo work (and also because he turned out to be a QANON nutjob). Replacing him is Der Schulz, the vocalist for Unzucht. In the first few singles off the upcoming album, he seems to be a great fit so far.

Laibach is known for two things: being habitual line steppers and producing off the wall covers.

Slaughter to Prevail has a new album on the horizon. In an interview with Revolver, Alex Terrible said he was tired of deathcore and was going to change things up a bit for the new album. ... SIKE

I don't know who needs to hear this today... but somebody does.

A bluegrass cover of What I've Done by the Melodicka Bros.

Some Indian deathcore to lift up your Monday evening.

My condolences to his friends and family. DEAN was a damn good dude and I always loved reading his work.

For the 20th anniversary of Meteora, the surviving members of Linkin Park released a bunch of material that hadn't seen the light of day. You can tell some of them never advanced past demo stage but others definitely deserved a place in their discography. Lost is particularly heart wrenching with the horrible gift of hindsight.

I spent six hours with the Diablo 4 beta yesterday. I enjoyed it tremendously. It reminded me a lot more of D2 instead of D3. The cinematics and cut scenes are all really gorgeous... and creepy as hell. I played as a barbarian and got to level 15 but barely scratched the surface of what the class can do. Barbarians can equip four weapons at once and then, depending on the attacks they use, deploy the necessary weapons (two-handed crushing weapon, two-handed slashing weapon, two one handed weapons). Because I was short on time, I just went for a lunging strike/whirlwind build instead of exploring options. The MMO-lite aspect of the game didn't bother me because the other players didn't seem to be intrusive, even if we were going for the same mission. That could change, though, when the general public gets thrown together on a realm at release. Lots of side quests to get lost in while you're hunting down Lilith, which I can always appreciate. It ran a little choppy on my computer but I'm not sure if that's because it's in beta or because my computer is getting kinda old. Guess I'll pick up the game when it drops later this year and continue tornadoing my way through mobs.

Curse you and your nimble fingers, Dogwelder! "One night without cameras, Dom..."

I wish stuff like this made air on network TV. Really cool show of mutual respect between Rey and Santos.

I've been crushing on HÄMATOM recently. They're... kind of a hard band to nail down. Yes, they primarily do an industrial style like Neue Deutsche Harte, but they have a punky feeliing to a bunch of their songs. They're done orchestral songs, they've done metal covers of classics like I Want It All, they've done folk metal songs with Saltatio Mortis. And a bunch of political songs like Schau Sie Spielen Krieg and Mörder.

Heading into tonight's episode of Smackdown, WWE posted an hour long compilation of the history between Sami and the Bloodline.

https://wowpedia.fandom.com/wiki/Welcome_Bear

My one day off this week, I could be increasing my collection level in Marvel Snap or playing in Magic events... but here I go again, loading up another Vampire Survivors run to find out what else I can unlock on this attempt. Probably the best $4 I spent last year.

On a whim, I decided to pick Gwent back up. I hadn't played in several months but I was kinda bored of the other games I was playing and wanted to do something different for a while. After crafting some of the cards that were released this year, I started at rank 20 on the ladder. Last night, I made pro rank for the first time, the equivalent of legend in Hearthstone. I mainly played Monster and Scoia'tael decks so I probably won't have time to get the 25 games in two other factions required for ranking at the end of the season by the time the ladder resets tomorrow night. But it's a solid finish that I can build on for next season.

I was surprised at the end of Drew/Roman until I remembered that Triple H is the guy who probably booked Roderick Strong's NXT title chase against Bobby Roode years back. Where Strong was booked as an ultra-babyface, working hard to get out of the trailer park and toiling in the indies to get where he was. And now he's fighting for his wife and unborn child! And then Roode, doing his best Dollar Tree version of Triple H, beat him decisively with Marina sitting in the front row at Takeover.