I'll check... I hope it can actually contain something longer than a simple sentence. Let's find out. What to incoherently and randomly rant about today? Twilight? Nah, too simple. No vampires, terrible writing, and much better romances exist. I guess that kind of rules out any fads doesn't it? Huh. I could do the close mindedness of people when confronted with music. Yeah, sure let's go with that. Alright, I may have been set up for musical tolerance as a kid because of the artists I initially listened to. I grew up listening mostly to Disney boy bands until I was about six simply because I was expected to and knew of nothing better. Then when I was about 6 my dad got me interested in Rush and I've listened to them all my life since then. I really regret not having gone to that concert when I was 9 though. Whatever, anyway, I was caught up in my musical world that was limited to about 3 artists at the time. NSYNC, Weird Al, and Rush until my uncle sent word that his death metal band would be playing on a local radio station. I listened to that and then found one of his songs from one of his bands called Shadow_Breed and even at the age of 8 I was able to listen to the growls. It was simply new to me and I ended up listening to the single song over 100 times.

(in the interest of not making a typed wall of china here I've made a new paragraph) Anyway, I then got into Green Day and Linkin Park when I was about 9 years old thanks to my dad and the radio. They were popular at the time and as such I was drawn to them because of both the music and the fact that I could talk to other people about them. Then when I was 10 I discovered Disturbed thanks to HMV Hell in which I hear Meaning of Life by Disturbed and instantly tried to buy as much of their work as possible. I then discovered other various nu-metal through AMVs and HMVs. This continued for quite some time. Then, when I was 14 I discovered Dream Theater right before summer break and they instantly became my newest favorite band (a postition currently occupied by Into Eternity [I think]). Then a recurring phenomena happened. They got onto a random rhythm game (this had happened for me with DragonForce, Disturbed, Slipknot, and My Chemical Romance) right after I discovered them. That's pretty dang cool. Anyway, sometime around December last year (08) I decided that I was listening to too many similar things and disliked certain genres for little reason.

So, I made many threads on random forums asking for people to suggest artists of any genre to me so that I might discover new sounds I enjoyed. I then listened to all sorts of new and strange music and discovered that I enjoy not just a few genres, but rather all of music. I listen to music that ranges from Classical to Jazz to Rap to Techno to Rock to Metal to Prog to Death Metal and so on. I listen to anything that is presented to me and yet I can't understand why other people don't take that journey of musical expansion themselves. Instead most around me limit themselves to Rap, Metal, Classic Rock, or other such limited areas in music. Why they do such I don't understand, but nonetheless, I try to give others a bit more music that they may have never heard before simply to try and get them to be more tolerant of music. At this point in my musical life the only things I refuse to listen to are Mainstream rap that is killing the entire genre of hip-hop (Soulja Boy/Lil Wayne are a good example) and Disney Pop...

Now, Disney Pop is just bad music. Why? Because of a few simple reasons. There is no soul in that music, they are manufactured artists and sounds being pushed by Disney because they have a decent voice and can play basic 1st year guitar and (most importantly) have a pretty face and image that Disney can sell. There is nothing put into that music except for what Disney thinks that prepubescent children want to hear and what their parents will tolerate. If they're openly religious and act like little angels in front of the public then you've got a Disney idol. They're quite simply cash cows for Disney to milk for a year or two until they end up doing something bad or grow stale. Then the newer idols come in to take over. Artists such as Hannah Montana, and the Jonas Brothers will almost certainly be dead to pop culture by next year.

Now, seeing as music is subjective there really is no real thing as bad music. There is simply music that doesn't fit your tastes. The only things I call bad music are the songs and artists that are produced or produce music simply to make money or for an image. As such the two things I still dislike are the aforementioned Mainstream Rap and Disney Pop... I suppose I'll just say this now. My favorite genre of music is Progressive because of the obvious thought and soul put into the music combined with the technical prowess that generally accompanies artists in the genre... Well, this seems like the character limit is actually unlimited and I can certainly use this to my advantage. That's all for now.

Well it would appear that I've been requested to make a rant on humans. Now, personally I've got no idea which direction in which to take this rant... so... Just bear with me on this rambling thing. *turns on Into Eternity radio*

Alright then, I'll begin this rant talking about the people near me. Now, at TRHS there are definite little cliques, but they don't tend to stick together as much as they do at other places. Now, the annoying little cliques that bug me to no end are A) The junior/senior jocks (seen easily in hallways blocking entire wings with their bulk) and B) the skaters/wiggers/wanksters. Now, the jocks are basically people who are entirely mediocre in school work academically, but devote most of their lives to social endeavors and sports. I personally detest sports, but that's a much shorter rant for another time. These people tend to walk around with undeserved airs of importance, are content to simply stand still between passing periods right outside of random wings (C and E/F come to mind), and don't care about anything outside of their little circles. They tend to be arrogant, ignorant, and uncaring for the most part and are simply annoying to be around. My P.E. class is full of them. Not fun.

Now onto the wiggers, wanksters, and skaters. These people absolutely disgust me. I'll begin with skaters. Somehow, an entire clique has formed around this second rate sport, its fashion trends, and lifestyle. I'm not entirely sure as to why because even the biggest skaters don't make much money and the only one most people can list off the top of their heads is Tony Hawk. Now, onto the real problem with these pitiful excuses for people. They're conforming (everyone conforms to something) to stupidity. Or perhaps stupid people conform to the clique, I'm not entirely sure which way that goes, but these people are 95%+ complete idiots. Exceptions will always emerge, but for the most part these people will be working in your random fast food restaurants after they drop out of school. There's a reason that there are more jocks as juniors and seniors than skaters whereas the freshman class seems to be 1/3 skaters. These people are quite simply wasting our tax payer's dollars on an education they don't care to receive. These people are an obvious example of how our race is progressing both forward and backward. The smart and intelligent among us continue to get increasingly large amounts of knowledge and as such are advancing our society, but the stupid and idiotic are just dying, breeding, and working in the poverty to middle class. The only reason I tolerate these people is simply because someone needs to do manual labor and run our random restaurants, Home Depots etc. and it's certainly not going to be me.

Now, the wiggers and wanksters... The main problem with these people is that they think they're "gangstas", but Highlands Ranch wouldn't know a gang if one came up to it and shot it in the face. There is NO GHETTO in all of Highlands Ranch. There's a small and pathetic ghetto over in Denver, but really, there are no gangs, no ghetto, or really anything pertaining to the image that these people want to have near us. Basically, we've got a bunch of upper class white kids trying to act like the black poverty class. It's rather pathetic. These are the people who would draw a knife on you for something stupid, but never actually stab you. They travel in mobs and are only dangerous in them. They're really just trying to emulate their idol's perceived behavior. Soulja Boy. I'm quite serious. THAT is what they're trying to be like simply because they've never seen a real gang in their lives. I used to live in Houston Texas. There was a porno shop near my goddamn day care back then. I lived in a strange part of the neighborhood that had a ghetto very close by and a bunch of NASA progeny kids occupying my school. My school was almost half ghetto and half NASA kids and it was very very easy to figure out which side someone belonged to. I've seen gangs, we had gang members in our schools, and we had a ghetto right next to it. Let me tell you, our wiggers and wanksters up here are nothing like the dangerous little buggers back in Westbrook.

That's enough for random cliques and stereotypes in our school. Now onto our tendencies as a race. I'll come out and say this right now. If you're religious and easily offended (which I've already determined a few of you to be) then leave now or risk having your peculiar mindset threatened. We humans basically feel that there is a need for an afterlife. We need to know that after we die we move on as something better for some sort of second life. I understand why people feel that there must be an afterlife. After all, what do you want to be able to say after a loved one dies? He's rotting in the ground or he's up in heaven living in paradise? I'm sure that no matter how nonsensical the prospect of an afterlife is that you're still going to believe in your paradise and hell. Why? Because you need it to justify your actions in real life. You feel that life is pointless if you do not live on. That is what I think anyway. The problem with all of that is that you end up living a lie. You shouldn't be living the way you do because you think that a deity will grant you eternal paradise for your good life. You should live that way because it's the "right" thing to do. You should act knowing the very real consequences of your actions in the real world rather than acting in a way because you fear that a god might damn you to eternal suffering forever.

Now, if you actually believe some of the instances in the Bible actually occurred then let me ask you these simple questions. These will question certain obviously fake myths in Christianity. How did Noah manage to get two of every kind of animal on his ark? Even if that isn't species of animals then how does he manage 2 praying mantis, 2 bees, 2 ants, 2 cats, 2 big cats, 2 dogs, 2... it just goes on. How could he manage to keep them alive for almost a year on said ark? Also, were the world to flood and cover the highest mountains (which would mean Everest) then how would the air not over saturate and cause the creatures to drown? Also, why do the actions of two humans (who were deceived by a talking snake...) condemn our race as a whole? Why should Jesus (who is God...) go to the cross for our sins that were placed upon us by God? And why would it even matter if he came back to life 3 days later? I could take any amount of suffering before death knowing that I'd come back to life later. Simply put, a hell of a lot of stuff in the Bible doesn't make any real sense. Also, if you look at Leviticus then you know what the consequences for certain things are. Man shalt not lie with man and all that. People seem quite content to quote that, but never seem to acknowledge the fact that the Bible also condones sexism (the book is full of obvious sexism) and racism. No Christian seems willing to stone women who aren't virgins on their wedding night, or prevent women from talking in church.

Simply put, your religions don't make sense and you only seem to acknowledge certain parts of your own holy scripture. My question has always been... why do you believe such ridiculous things happened when you have no solid proof? I already have the answer though. In almost all cases your religion is that of your parents. You were indoctrinated (brainwashed) as children to believe in your religion and as such you don't question the obvious fallacies in the Bible, or any other holy scripture. You also continue to believe because everyone around you (most anyway) believe in some religion too and because you have never questioned your religion itself in memory. I don't know why, but almost all Americans (90% or so last I heard) are content to believe in utter nonsense for their entire lives without any shreds of proof behind their beliefs. Now you might be wondering, "Well what do you believe in?" Well get ready to be blown away. I believe that when you die that is simply all that happens. You rot in the ground, decay, and eventually nothing is left of you except for whatever energy living things gained from eating you. That's all that happens. Your brain shuts down and your body decays around you. That's it. Why do I believe this? Because that is all that makes sense. The idea that you have a soul simply doesn't make any logical sense. I have a brain, its function has already been fully explained. When I die my brain will shut down and cease to think because it no longer has blood fueling it and has no nerves to send synapses to. It will cease to work. I will die as a whole. A soul doesn't make sense because it is invisible, can't be examined, and also were it in you and were it what causes you to think then it'd die with you. If not then it's a third party source that perhaps copies down your thoughts until you die and then transcends to another plane of existence and you are then judged by it. But that wouldn't be you just like how if you record a song that isn't the actual song, but rather a copy.

A deity might exist, but in a universe as expansive as ours is I really doubt it cares about us at all. We're a tiny little speck of existence worthy of no real notice in this universe of billions and trillions of stars and planets. To think that we are the chosen race of such a universe is just stupid. There's a huge amount of other planets out there that may have life (even microscopic life that could then evolve over millions and billions of years) and to think that we're all that there is is just a stupid concept. Speaking of evolution, it's been proven. Look up the Canary islands. There's no debating the fact that it exists. I am a creature that believes what it can see, what it can make sense of, and it seems that people such as myself are a minority in this world. If you can't see the obvious flaws in believing in an afterlife, an omnipotent and omniscient deity allowing such a world to exist, and think that any of what your religion tells you to believe makes sense then I pity you. I pity you for not having the initiative to question the world and all the endless possibilities that exist within it.

I think that this was supposed to be on humans originally, but I think it moved a bit past that at this point. I guess I'll have to get back on topic then. Humans are a disgusting race gifted with superior intelligence over the animals of this planet and as such have risen up to be its dominant species. We have strange moral values, attempt to do more than survive, and in doing so we've decimated this planet. Where we now live there once was a lush forest, plains, and nature was in its full beauty. Now it is a city full of despicable humans, perverted, violent, and sadistic creatures that consider themselves to be better than all other forms of life. We are an extremely flawed race that has managed to all but destroy the world and we will soon die if we can not find another world, another planet to live on. We will over crowd this planet and use up all its resources in but a few centuries and then the wars will start. We will all die. If we are to survive as a race then space is our only option. We need to expand or we will surely destroy ourselves...

I really have no idea where I'm going with this so I'll leave you with this quote from King Diamond, a theatrical heavy metal figurehead who's satanic music has long haunted parents.

In an interview from 2006, King Diamond stated that he does not follow any specific religion, and expressed concern that religion has led so many people to kill and destroy each other. He stated that he cannot comprehend why religion has caused so much death and destruction when it is logically impossible to prove the presence or absence of any god. He states that he has reached a point in his life where he has completely given up believing in anything religious and that he simply does not know what to answer when asked whether he is a Satanist or not.

Dreams, fantasies, illusions created in the mind from pent up desire, angst, rage, or other emotion. Such strange things dreams can be. When one sleeps your mind runs amok and your thoughts flow freely. Such dreams are often confusing and have no real meaning. Other dreams, recurring dreams, can easily have a great meaning and affect you life greatly if you allow them to. Night terrors and nightmares are often similar to dreams except that they irrationally frighten you with fears you may or may not really feel. Night dreams are really not very important and do nothing except for make sleep seem longer. Daytime and life time dreams are the two kinds of dreams that really matter.

Daydreams... We've all had these before. They occur when you let your imagination run rampant while you're bored and grant you a few minutes of freedom from the insanity we call real life. They can be directly affected by your thought and as such are far more entertaining than night dreams. Anything you want can occur during a daydream provided something doesn't break your trance-like state brought on by the dream.

Now, life long dreams can also be called aspirations, goals, and other such things. These are the interesting dreams. They can tell you a lot about a person. What they want to do in life, what they want to accomplish, and where they intend to go. These dreams last for entire lifespans and often go uncompleted. These are the goals every child sets in life, the soon to be realized unattainable feats aspired to and the fantasies of all humans. They may change as life goes on, but they never truly vanish. Every grown man can remember what he wanted as a child because it all mattered to him when he wanted it and before he realized the futility of his dream. These dreams can drive people to insanity, cause depression, inspire millions, and crush thousands. These dreams can be the dreams no man should have thought of, the inventions of the future, or cause the death of millions. *Insert Hitler/Nazi reference here*
GODWIN'S LAW!

Ren/Zen/Zak out.

This will be the first of four album reviews done in chronological order. All four albums were produced by my favorite metal band (and possibly favorite band) Into Eternity. They're a Canadian Melodic Death/Progressive Death metal band that makes an amazing fusion of both aggressiveness, growling, clean vocals, harmonizing vocals, and distorted and clear instrumentation.

Dead or Dreaming (2001)

Members of the band when released:
Tim Roth
Daniel Nargang
Scott Krall
Jim Austin
Chris McDougall

Track list (all songs are on YouTube, Pandora, and Playlist):
Absolution of the Soul
Distant Pale Future
Shallow
Unholy (Fields of the Dead)
Elysium Dream
Selling God
Imagination Overdose
Dead or Dreaming
Cyber Messiah
Identify

Individual track review (I'll be writing this as I listen to each song):

1) Absolution of the Soul (3.5/5):
Starts of with a partially dissonant riff and bass line before progressing to some harmonized vocals with sporadic clean guitar and synthetic riffs tossed in before the death vocals begin. The real thing to listen to in this song is the guitar going on behind the noise and the clean vocals and the guitar solo. The death vocals are nothing special in the song, but it's a decent introduction to the album.

2) Distant Pale Future (4/5):
This song begins with a bass line similar to that in "I'm So Sick" and then both guitars enter and do the same riff. Then, more harmonized and pleasant vocals enter before a strange bass line + death vocal rap section begins that I find very intriguing. This song has a central theme of self reflection as you can tell by the emphasis on "look into the mirror" throughout the song. The solo in this song is a bit odd, but still good and doesn't overstay its welcome. The best thing about this song though is probably the strange death vocal rap simply because of how unique it is which is followed closely by the outro.

3) Shallow (4/5):
This is the first song on the album to not begin with bass and instead enter with clean guitar followed by a drum fill and then the first heavy riff of the song. Once the clean vocals enter the guitars begin to play gallops in time with the drums. The death vocals are in the background for the most part in this song with the clean vocals taking a definite lead. There are also many different small portions of this song that change in tempo, key, and style. It's one of their songs in which you can clearly see their progressive side. The solo in this song manages to show off Tim's guitar skill while remaining both tasteful and emotional. This song is just an all around good song, but with no real parts of it standing out above the rest.

4) Unholy (Fields of the Dead) (5/5):
This song begins with the chorus... which I may have to note... is positively orgasmic. There's just something amazing in the vocals in this song and the way in which they are complemented by the instruments. Chris takes a huge lead in this song with the vocals standing out and making this song easily the best on the album and one of my all time favorite songs after only a few listens. The solo in this song alternates between both lead guitars without making any drastic changes and manages to end right as you start wishing for the chorus again.

5) Elysium Dream (4/5):
This song wins the "Most cool/deep title for a song in the album award". It begins with an interesting clean electric intro that progresses to a semi-heavy riff with the drums playing a blast beat in the background. The vocals in the song seem to take deference to the guitar and drums, but at the same time have another interesting melody carried throughout the song. If you haven't guessed by now harmonized vocals were Into Eternity's thing back in the day. When this album was released every single member of the band was able to be a back up singer in some way. The drummer did growls, the second guitarist did clean vocal harmonies, etc. Another simply good song with nothing truly standing out in it. No real guitar solo in this song right until the ending 40 seconds. It makes for a pleasant little outro.

6) Selling God (4/5):
As the title might suggest, this song begins with chapel bells ringing darkly. This morbid silence is quickly shattered by a chorus of death growls and screams. This is the first song on the album in which they take real precedence. They're certainly the highlight of the song. This is probably THE song on the album that'd really get you pumped up or head banging. When the clean vocals do come in you'll probably notice that the background vocals are much more interesting than the lead. And at about 20 seconds before the end of the song you are treated to a drastic change as another chorus of growls erupts, but is quickly interrupted by a responding chorus of female voices. A very interesting outro probably meant to contrast angels and demons.

7) Imagination Overdose (4/5):
This song begins with a rhythmic guitar riff and drum beat that continues on after the vocals come in. This song probably has the most unique vocals on the album as they are all slightly different from the past songs and the harmonies split multiple times throughout the song. The drums still remain in the forefront of the song even when the guitar solo comes in which is a strange choice that works for the song. You may notice if you listen to the album that almost all of these songs would make an excellent soundtrack for the game Ultimate DOOM. Or that might just be me. The outro is the only part of the song that really features much of the band's death vocals. Nothing really special in this song once more with nothing that really stands out.

8) Dead or Dreaming (5/5):
Hey look it's the title song! The intro begins very aggressively with a fast tempo and cymbols and strings being smashed all over the place. When the vocals enter you'll again notice subtle differences from the rest of the songs. Also, if you really listen to the song then you'll be able to hear all of the subtle and intricate things going on behind the vocals and rhythm guitar. It's these subtleties that really make this song stand out and deserve its place as the title song. That and the few style changes made throughout the song including the sudden change to a softer sound focusing much more on the vocals, guitar, and melody. And all of that pretty little section followed by a few death growls and more aggressive guitar.

9) Cyber Messiah (4.5/5):
This song begins with an array of odd sound effects followed by a bass line and similar guitar riff and once again makes me think of DOOM. It just sounds vaguely futuristic. This is another song with vocals featuring primarily death growls until the chorus. The guitar work throughout the song seems to stand out in the album with the vocals also doing so and complementing the guitar well.

10) Identify (4/5):
Yet another song that begins with a focus on bass. This is probably one of the more aggressive songs on the album and again features death growls. The screams are even given a highlight early in the song. When the clean vocals come in the style of the song also changes meshing the multiple styles of rock and metal embodied by Into Eternity. You can easily guess the meaning of the lyrics of the song if you simply think about identifying yourself. Oh, and yeah, a good guitar solo that sounds like it was intended to show off Tim's chops some more before switching to the more emotional, but still technical parts of the solo. Right before the real outro there's an amazing little highlight on the screams that combines both a crescendo of synth and screams into a long held scream and guitar riff that whispers a pleasant goodbye to a good album. A good ending song.

This album, Dead or Dreaming is comprised of good songs overall, but never does it falter, but at the same time it only has a few stand out songs, but with the inclusion of Unholy (Fields of the Dead) it can easily be bumped up to a 4.5/5 stars in my eyes. Thanks for reading, and even more thanks to those who care enough to listen to the actual album. Now get to posting comments down below this monster.

This rant is for all the people who play on LIVE or the PSN network... except for the Halo-ish part. So, whenever you get online ready to hop into whatever random game you feel tempted to play, you just jump into a random game and then hope that your experience is not suddenly tarnished if not destroyed by three certain things. These include lag, squeakers, and douchebags (AKA the general populace). These problems are most prevalent in FPS games, but at the same time... that's the only kind of game people really play now... for the most part.

Lag. Everyone knows it, and everyone hates it. In Halo you get a black screen and are killed without being able to see what happened and then are subjected to the humiliation of extreme wall humping after you spawn and then walk aimlessly about the map. In CoD you suddenly get a message on your screen announcing the lag and start jerking around for ten seconds or so with no idea if you're the only one lagging or not. In Rock Band you simply disconnect from the group and instantly fail your song. Lag is in every single online game and is always present to some extent, but it's the moments when you suddenly realize that every single round from your sniper has been exhausted into someone's skull and they still managed to kill you that you really remember that the lag is there. Lag sucks... period. Oh, and to the hosts in CoD:WaW recently... you all suck.

Squeakers. The main affliction of all FPS games. These are the 8-12 year old brats who cried to their parents until they bought them some random popular shooter and Xbox LIVE and then ran into their rooms, locked their door, and then screamed incoherently into the mic bruising everyone's eardrums in the process. These little kids all seem to think that they're some brand of professional gamer if they manage to even go positive in whatever game they play and god forbid if they win against you. Or if you beat them... They'll curse you out screaming about how they owned you, how you were cheating, how you suck at life, and so on and so forth. The only really good thing about squeakers is that they seem allergic to intelligence. Go ahead and taunt them using a 5th grader's vocabulary and get ready for the hilarious reactions. Or just kill them until they shut up.

The general population on Xbox LIVE is just... ew. Basically, they think that having anonymity over the internet while gaming gives them the right to curse at everyone in the game, and really let themselves go over the mic. You'll never have seen a bigger collection of racists and sexists than when you decided to go and play Halo 3 in Ranked Team Slayer. Basically you get to be treated to a bunch of people who act how they really think rather than how they let others see them. It's rather insulting to the human race really. You just get to see how horrible people really are... and how stupid as well.

Random Halo 3 rant is go: Halo 3 is mediocre at best. It's a lag filled game with perhaps one of the worst online communities ever to grace Xbox LIVE. It's also the most over hyped game of all time. If you ever had the chance to play Halo 2 while it was in its prime then you should know where I'm coming from when I say that Halo 3 subtly raped every aspect of the game you loved in Halo 2. The game suddenly became a slow paced camp-fest decided by power weapons over skill for the most part, and the lag didn't help much. In Halo 2 when you got lag things slowed down. In Halo 3 when you get lag things stop working. Also, Halo 3 is the only game I've ever played in where people don't die consistently when shot in the face by a sniper. Halo 3 just happens to be the most played by the general populace and introduced a new generation of gamers to the online community... which makes it possibly as bad as the Wii attracting 6 year old kids to gimmicky gaming.