Damned In Blue

Pain of Salvation - Be Sounds like modern-day Yes (the 70's British Prog Rock band), with the propensity of injecting lame and cheesy philosophical/theological ideas. The music is an amalgam of bombastic sound arrangements, off-kilter time signatures, virtuoso playing, and rich harmonies. But the concept of nature and religion may be too pompous and overbearing even for progheads. A satisfying listen, but a bit too cerebral. --- Last Music Video Syndrome... although 'alang pictures. Just Hate Me Pain I gotta think of something to make you think less of me, that I am nothing to hold on to, cause we are through I dislike you I wish that you could hate me then things would be so easy just get me off your mind if the bitch would have a son then I would be the one so hate me geese, flying from the winter that's what I should do, do, door become a sprinter and run away cause we are through I dislike you I wish that you could hate me then things would be so easy just get me off yo...

shopgirl Agalloch - The Mantle ...is a grey area. --- This is the album responsible for inciting a musical movement called The New Wave of Swedish Death Metal a.k.a. Melodeath, more so than The Gallery, Jester Race, or any other album out there. The melodic, yet crushing sound have become the signature of Gothenburg bands. The album has reached its influences into broad areas of rock/metal music, especially with American bands like Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, Killswitch Engage, etc. etc. However, on the other end of the spectrum, this album is vilified and scorned by metal purists, claiming that the band has sold out from its original sound to create this pop-structured album. This album single-handedly produced a stream of copycats that has diluted the metal scene, which eventually destroyed the movement the band once owned. Now, everybody has their own opinion about this album. But as far as I’m concerned, Slaughter of the Soul is simply one of the better albums released in the 90’s,...

I’m starting a weekly rumination entitled Phoughts to Tonder because I realized that I don’t really share anything substantial on my previous posts, it’s just lame pictures and dodgy English. So, without further ado, here it goes! --- I just realized that I am lame because I’m a hopeless Metalhead, although the artists and bands that I truly love (Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) do not even contain a Metal element in them. All the sites I visit in the net are devoted to Heavy Metal music, album reviews and news. I write reviews for Encyclopedia Metallum. I post messages on rakista.com, and metal-rules.com. I need to get a better life... I am starting to have faith with the band again. The last two gigs at Fairview and Malate were just powerful and crushing, thanks to Laney Hardcore Max amp and Boss MT-2 MetalZone. Ultimately, it’s the music that saved me from losing my mind on this one. Do yourself a favor and buy a copy of Samba Rock by Trio Mocotô. Every...

I saw them perform at CCP Liwasang Kalikasan in celebration of Earth Day 2006. With all due respect to the challenging guitar playing of Mr. Alegre (top middle), Mr. Koko Bernajo (top right) takes the cake with his performance loaded with fills but still keeping check with the song's time signature. Pretty arresting stuff. --- Speaking of drum gods, I witnessed Paul Magat in action with Hellfire Theory at Greenvine, Malate. Hindi siya tao.

There is still a Virgin Beach THE Philippines has long been famed for its beautiful and scenic beach resorts—a magnet for tourists to this part of Asia. Through the years, many of these hotspots have been saturated with commercialization and modernization, thus compromising the authentic experience of a tropical paradise. Where then do you go for a genuine feel of the tropics today? Head out to Laiya in San Juan, Batangas, and try the Virgin Beach Resort. Life & Times recently discovered that privacy and the purity of sand and sea could be found at the resort, the vital combination for a total state of relaxation. click here for the full article Virgin Beach Resort

Vivid in its lifelessness. More than adequate cinematography. Sweet-ass soundtrack , with music similar to Black Tape for a Blue Girl. --- Dockers paints luxurious San Francisco NOTHING gets classier than Dockers. For the past 20 years, this Levi-Strauss apparel brand has been well known for its smart casual wear for men, ranging from khaki pants to functional attires. On April 4 Dockers further underlined its changing image from utilitarian to classy fashion with the opening of Dockers San Francisco, a new luxury-concept store on the ground floor of Glorietta 3, Ayala Center, Makati City. click for the full article

Pwede na rin... :)

How do you spend the Holy Week? JUST before the start of the summer season, when the school year is over and people are already making vacation plans, there is period where we all experience slight changes in our day-to-day lives. This is the time when mornings are usually calmer and more peaceful than usual, since we don’t have to go to work for a few days. This is the time when local television stations tone down the usual jeer and cheer of their programming, replacing their noontime variety shows with special presentations that convey moral lessons melodramatically. Other stations choose to play reruns of wholesome, feel-good TV series, like Seventh Heaven and Early Edition (or at least from what I remembered) for the whole day. This is the time where traffic in the metropolis is nonexistent, for almost all of the commercial establishments are closed, including the malls. The only destination available for people to go to, if not the 24-hour service of McDonald’s and Jollibee, are t...

The way of Lira Luis Much has happened in the life of Lira Luis, the US-based architect who is the first Filipino graduate of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture at Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona, the prestigious institution named after the late father of modern architecture. Despite her brilliant accomplishment, Lira is still passionate about making bold changes in her field. On April 4 she officially launched her audio book FRANKly Speaking: It’s the WRIGHT Way—Looking Outside Inside at FLW’s Architecture, and with it has definitely established herself as one of the youngest trailblazers in the world of architecture. Click here for the full article --- IMMORTAL + LEGO = METAL!

The Adicolor Series 2006 Colored individualities For those colors which You wish to be beautiful, Always first prepare A pure white ground —Leonardo da Vinci ART begins from the ground up. It starts from an idea before blossoming into something far greater than itself. A successful art is an ultimate expression of the self, something that is capable of captivating people’s hearts and inspiring a movement. Art is also a celebration of the creativity that one possesses and nurtures, giving way to the endless possibilities in His creations. As all great things start from somewhere, sports brand adidas’s newest line began with its signature canvas training shoes, and for its design, gathered the imagination of some of the most creative personalities to execute their colorful expressions on the footwear. The result is the Adicolor 2006 collection, which according to the brand celebrates “self-expression and customization.” Click here for the full article

Pulpol (pul'poll), n. bobo, oblaks, walang kwenta, useless, worthless, penniless, sh*t, crap. So there.

The Gathering - Home From All Music : Ever since their debut as a fairly standard-issue black metal band in the early '90s, Dutch rockers the Gathering have shifted their sound and style a few times, particularly since adding lead singer Anneke van Giersbergen on 1995's Mandylion . Home, the band's first studio release in nearly three years, comes after the birth of van Giersbergern's first child and is their most overtly pop-oriented album yet. First single "Shortest Day" sounds like an only slightly harder-edged versions of the Cardigans (a good thing), and other songs, like the keyboard-heavy "Alone" and the echoing, atmospheric bass-led pop of "In Between," are goth-oriented alternative rock with no metal influence to speak of. Home may be a bit of a shock to some longtime fans, but it's the logical conclusion to an ongoing trend in the band's music, one that suits van Giersbergen's low-key murmur of a voice quite nicely. ...

Storm Devin Townsend If you wanted to, ...say you wanted to... If you wanted to save the world Where could you start? How could you start? If you wanted to feel like I feel ...like I feel You're running dry... ...I'm flying high We're running on feel You wanted to be, what you've never been before We worked hard for a living We worked hard for it all You run and hide, ...don't run and hide I'm starting to feel OK But I'm wasted And I'm failing Oh Tracy please Can't you see? It's just me I wanted to feel What I've never felt before I was tired of the living I was tired of it all Time, time ...it's only...time. If we wanted to, ...say we wanted to... If we wanted to save our world I'm waiting here, waiting Waiting here baby please... STAY WITH ME We wanted to be What we've never been before But are we tired of the living? ...Are we tired of the war? --- Man, Horgh is just flat out tubby; there’s no two ways about it. That gut-guard ...

A band is not merely a collection of individuals playing their specified instruments. A band does not just perform the music they have created over a period of time with precision like a metronome. A band is not a business venture saddled by constant gigs and looming deadlines. Nor is a band a group, such as ours, heavily influenced by the Gothenberg sound in Sweden (In Flames, At The Gates) typified by harsh vocals coming from a female (!), interlaced with guitar harmonies, frenetic riffing, and ripping leads, as well as a menacing rhythm section. A band is not as simple as that. A band is a unified entity, collated by the efforts and ideas of its members. A band must strive for a vision, not only of one person within the group, but also by everybody else part of it; its members, its listeners, and the non-listeners. Once the vision is established, the band must work towards this vision, and not let the vision walk towards them. A band decides as a group, not because a member says ot...