Tele-Viper

And as expected, a last-second metal release that has totally blown me away:

Tom Hiddleston is definitely is up-and-coming: http://youtu.be/zNAqtZPA8Rs

40 years ago this Christmas: http://youtu.be/VsA3nxzgK-M Times have changed and audiences have been desensitized and there is competition everywhere for eyes and dollars so movies don't have this kind of impact anymore. But even in 2000, during the re-release, I remember people getting freaked out. One of the greatest movies ever made, easily.

War Master bring the Bolt Thrower worship: http://youtu.be/s2GUnE9_LfA

That's probably too much money for MLB to bite and I don't see Montreal putting up that much cash for a stadium either. Oh well...

RIP, Jim Hall & Chico Hamilton. They made some glorious music together in the 50's: http://youtu.be/HM3ZDNJlo6o

Yeah, Monstrosity. Killer stuff.

3) Immolation -- Kingdom Of Conspiracy Immolation is one of my all-time favorite metal bands. They are brutal, dissonant, and twisted but also thoughtful and intelligent. Ross has such depth and clarity to his voice and Bob Vigna's solos always inspire. This record is a lot more straight-forward and accessible than their previous work but it still kills (the title track especially). 2) Suffocation -- Pinnacle Of Bedlam No album was listened by me more in 2013 (helps that it was released way back in February). Easily Suffo's best post-reunion record. I especially dig Dave Culcross's faster, more fluid drumming. Taking nothing away from Mike Smith but it is a nice change of pace. Really good songwriting here across the board. 1) Gorguts -- Colored Sands Next level shit from the band that defined next level way back when. The level of craftsmanship, musicianship, sick solos, heavy riffs, insane drums, and overall inventiveness is mindblowing. A challenging work that holds my repeated interest on a deep level, I expect this record will be looked upon as another masterpiece of the genre for decades to come. And that's that, though granted there is always a last second release at the end of the December that sneaks up and smacks me over the head resulting in the complete re-think of this list -- when and if that happens, I'll let ya know...

Grandy to Mets sounds good to me.

Group G... words fail as Ronaldo continues to haunt me.

6) Defeated Sanity -- Passages Into Deformity If Candiria had evolved into a full-fledged death metal band rather than a Christian rock band, well, they would've ended up sounding a lot like Defeated Sanity. Lots of odd-twists, off-time, and jazz riffs beneath a blazing blur of brutal/technical death metal. 5) Ulcerate -- Vermis A record as dense and impenetrable as this takes awhile to settle in. Who knows, in a few years this might have grown into my number one. Ulcerate are truly incredible: dark, bleak, oppressive but in an oceanic way, like you're caught in a swirling undertow that proves eternal. This record hasn't hit me quite as hard as their last two but again, they always take their time with me. 4) Nails -- Abandon All Life The hardest band on the planet: sheer heaviness, epic groove, unflinching anger coupled with wrist-slicing despair.

9) Vastum -- Patricidal Lust http://youtu.be/UeMtNLg5Izw Metal lyrics rarely turn my stomach, being either too occult or too absurd. But Vastum's lyrics hew a little too close to reality, engaging in a pinpoint analysis of the most explicit depravity imaginable. That their music taps the vein of early Autopsy and Obituary makes the whole thing all the more unsettling. I dig the dueling male/female vox as well. 8) Conan/Bongripper -- Split 12" I know there's some Conan fans lurking on here. Well, this track is a true culmination of their many heavy talents: a 15min epic of pounding drums, heaving guitars, fuzzed out bass, and echoing vocals. It's fuckin' awesome! The Bongripper track is also pretty nice, very atmospheric, very heavy. 7) Coffins -- The Fleshland Coffins again. As I said, 2013 was a banner year for them. Their songwriting chops improved seven-fold and joining Relapse gave them the production budget necessary to sound absolutely mammoth (but for those of you who miss their older lo-fidelity sound, they released some demos for this album as The Colossal Hole EP). If you dig drinking the intoxicating sludge of a truly death-doom masterpiece, well, dial this one in.

Counting down my twelve favorite metal records of 2013 (three per day): 12) Grave -- Morbid Ascent EP It's Grave, so you know what to expect: pulverizing Swedish death with lots of crushing grooves and old-school morbid atmosphere. And Grave delivers. This EP picks up right where last year's full-length left off and consolidates Grave as the best of what's left of the old Swedish scene. 11) Carcass -- Surgical Steel How funny that my favorite song on this sounds the most like their most reviled album. It's the Swansong moments that get me the most on Surgical Steel, an insanely overrated but still solid record. Wish they'd been a little more adventurous and filthy with this but that's just me being non-conformist since apparently most people worship this record front-to-back already. 10) Coffins/Noothgrush -- Split 12" Coffins may be 2013's most improved band, dropping an impressive slate of releases (this split, an EP and LP) that all killed. Just listen to that fat slab of a death-n-roll riff, the brute swing of it is madness. I love it! The Noothgrush side is their first new music in 17 years and it's pretty dope: dark bluesy sludge ala Eyehategod but with a crustier vibe. Try "Humandemic" on for size: https://soundcloud.com/user3105090/noothgrush-humandemic-6

Glad to have you back. Having your body turn on you (even briefly) is more terrifying than any outside force ever.

All Is Lost is the best performance of Redford's career.

Incantation-a-thon:

Moon Knight had some great covers back in the day:

They put out three more records after that but only Choir Of Horrors and Rotten Perish are worth a listen. A little more generic, yes, but still pretty killer.

I am obsessed with these sonnet readings: Fiona Shaw reading Sonnet 154 The little Love-god lying once asleep Laid by his side his heart-inflaming brand, Whilst many nymphs that vow'd chaste life to keep Came tripping by; but in her maiden hand The fairest votary took up that fire Which many legions of true hearts had warm'd; And so the general of hot desire Was sleeping by a virgin hand disarm'd. This brand she quenched in a cool well by, Which from Love's fire took heat perpetual, Growing a bath and healthful remedy For men diseased; but I, my mistress' thrall, Came there for cure, and this by that I prove, Love's fire heats water, water cools not love.

Euro Thrash Friday:

Checked out the draw simulator. Did four draws and boy did the USA get hosed in each one: Brazil, Ivory Coast, USA, England Uruguay, USA, Nigeria, Netherlands Spain, Ghana, USA, Netherlands Germany, USA, Chile, Italy. Yikes! Here's hoping we draw something more our speed like Switzerland, Algeria, Bosnia or something like that...

You common cry of curs, whose breath I hate As reek a’ th’ rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air—I banish you! And here remain with your uncertainty! Let every feeble rumor shake your hearts! Your enemies, with nodding of their plumes, Fan you into despair! Have the power still To banish your defenders, till at length Your ignorance (which finds not till it feels, Making but reservation of yourselves, Still your own foes) deliver you as most Abated captives to some nation That won you without blows! Despising, For you, the city, thus I turn my back; There is a world elsewhere. -- Coriolanus, Act III, Scene 3

All you Henry V lovers better sit down and watch the entire PBS/BBC Hollow Crown cycle: Ben Wishaw as Richard II Jeremy Irons as Henry IV Tom Hiddleston as Henry V

Dominic West reads Sonnet 112 Your love and pity doth th’impression fill Which vulgar scandal stamped upon my brow; For what care I who calls me well or ill So you o’er-green my bad, my good allow? You are my all-the-world, and I must strive To know my shames and praises from your tongue; None else to me, nor I to none, alive, That my steeled sense o’er-changes right or wrong. In so profound abysm I throw all care Of others’ voices, that my adder’s sense To critic and to flatterer stopped are. Mark how with my neglect I do dispense: You are so strongly in my purpose bred That all the world besides me thinks you’re dead.