I strongly encourage people to keep tabs on what their government is doing, things network news stations tend to leave out for unkown reasons, which is highly troublesome. I'll preface this with the fact that I voted for President Obama and support a majority of his policies, however this is one of the few I am against, and in this case very strongly so. Obama is supporting the extension of the spy provisions part of the patriot act. Now, it wouldn't be too bad and I can see the unfortunate necesity of it, except that he is including the "lone wolf" provision, which "allows FISA court warrants for the electronic monitoring of an individual even without showing that the person is an agent of a foreign power or a suspected terrorist". This provision is one of the many reasons I hated President Bush so much, invading our right to privacy is a big no-no for me and may have cause President to lose my vote for re-election.

I managed to put a very slight dent in my ever-growing list of CDs to buy. I bought two CDs of the band Skitliv.

I also got some strings and planet waves cables in anticipation of the new guitar I'm saving for. Already got a Marshall amp and a distortion pedal standing by, I wanted to be good to go when I finally got it.

It's a little late but thankls to Darth-Caedus for taking the time to make me a sig depicting my favorite artist/musician, Devin Townsend.

The new year just started and already it's crazy busy. First a little end of 2009 acknowledgement of Christmas. It was nice and somewhat low-key. Got to spend lots of time with close family and friends plus lots of good food. Also got some great presents from all those generous people I know. Mostly DVDs, because I am a huge film aficionado, but also got Brutal Legend (which I've already beaten), Halo 3 ODST (Firefight mode is awesome), Crysis Maximum Edition, some books, and some gift certificates/checks. Now that that the new year ahs started that nice little break is over. This month is absolutely insane for me as I start school again next Monday, and I'm pleased to say that I feel like I have the most direction I've had in a long time. My job keeps me busy as always, plus I have to balance time between those things and my girlfriend/friends. Plus, this month I am attending three...possibly five concerts. That's definitely a record for me and it's gonna put some stress on me and make me go broke but I think it will be worth it. Then I've got my birthday next month and more concerts throughout the year. Lastly I'm now trying to save money for this bad boy:

Concerts I'm going to this year:

[*=Already have my tickets/**=Not sure if I'm going]

*January 17th-Evangelia Amerika Tour (Behemoth/Septic Flesh/Lightning Swords of Death)

*January 18th-Between The Buried In Me (The only band playing that I'm going for is Devin Townsend, then I'm leaving.)

*January 21st-American Carnage Tour (Megadeth/Slayer/Testament)

**January 28th-Korpiklaani (Korpiklaani/Tyr/Swashbuckle/White Wizzard)

**January 30th-Nile (Nile/Krisiun/Immolation/Abigail Williams/Dreaming Dead)

**Febuary 6th-The Anvil Experience (Anvil)

**March 21st-Kreator (Kreator/Kataklysm/Evile/Lazarus A.D./Lightning Swords of Death)

**April 18th-Overkill (Overkill/Vader/Evile/God Dethroned/Warbringer/Woe of Tyrants)

April 24th-Finnish Metal Tour (Finntroll/Moonsorrow/Swallow The Sun/Surivors Zero)

Summer-Rockstar Mayhem Fest 2010

Anyone who hasn't added me yet on Last.fm definitely should get on that.

Hope everyone's year is an excellent and productive one!

I feel that those who understand my musical taste and the meaning behind it will understand a rather large part of who I am, depending partly on if you take music as seriously as I do. This is in no particular order and does exclude some genres of music I listen to but those genres make up such small parts of my library I didn't deem them worth mentioning as they don't really describe who I am. So go ahead, click the links on the artists/album names and sample some of the music that describes both my taste in music and me as a person.

1. Devin Townsend-Ki

Devin's entire catalog is amazing but I decided to go with his fairly recent release, Ki. It's an excellent album and a genuine masterpiece. His choice to use non-metal musicians paid off with a truly unique sound and his voice has never sounded more pure. Listening to this album is not only a soothing experience, but a rather emotional and potentially spiritual one thanks to the excellent connection Devin makes with the listener.

2. Megadeth-Peace Sells…But Who's Buying?

Megadeth is my overall favorite band if I had to choose one and this is my favorite release from them, so of course it ends up on this list. It's one of the major reasosn I decided I wanted to play guitar. It has the raw emotion and aggression from their debut along with the increased technical ability that comes with experience. The song structures are rather progressive by thrash terms and I consider several songs on here to be masterpieces.

3. Nevermore-This Godless Endeavor

So far this is easily my favorite album from this genuinely genius band, however their upcoming release may change that. It draws from all of their past albums and creates a perfect balance of beauty, aggression/anger, sadness, disdain, and overall song progression. Warrel Dane's lyrics are great and his vocals are at their peak. Jeff Loomis does truly masterful work as always but I think this album has the most clear and balanced vision musically of their entire catalog.

4. Amon Amarth-Versus The World

Amon Amarth was the band that got me into extreme metal, and this was the album that got me into them. As a person of Scandinavian descent I obviously appreciate the subject matter but I also find their music to be a great mix of melodic death metal and thrash metal. They may not be the most technical or progressive but they're always heavy and very catchy. Most importantly, they play the music they want to play, not the music the fanboys dictate.

5. Deicide-Deicide

Deicide has put out some albums that really push the envelope of extreme metal. This is aggression at it's most intense. The music is fast and brutal, the vocals are guttural death growls with some black metal shrieks used as background vocals, the lyrics are in-your-face and very anti-religious/pro-Satan and violence. I don't approve of the satanic crap and think it's stupid but I do love the music and the anti-religious sentiment. Not for the faint of heart.

6. Immortal-Battles In The North

Immortal is easily one of my favorite bands ever. I don't mind when black metal bands go on and on about Satan, I really don't care either way to be honest, but the fact that these guys instead chose to focus on the imaginary world of Blashrykh and its nature and gods says something about their creativity and originality. Abbath is a fantastic musician, my favorite black metal vocalist, and evidently quite a character. Demonaz was a great guitar player but they've managed to keep bringing out fantastic music even without him. Luckily he was able to play on this release which is also my favorite from them.

7. Burzum-Filosofem

This was a really difficult choice to make because I hold all of his black metal releases on a pretty much equal plain of excellence. However, this is his most iconic and for good reason. There's tons of distortion but it really works to bring on the feeling of the album and his vocals are an example of how to properly distort someone's voice. I don't approve of Varg's actions but his music is genius. This album is what black metal is all about.

8. Korpiklaani-Karkelo

Many consider folk metal to be silly but I think it's amazing. It almost always brings a warm, friendly, and energetic feeling and is just pure fun. It also makes me think of a simpler time in which I sometimes wish I existed. I consider this release to encompass all of what I enjoy about folk metal.

9. Wardruna-Runaljod - Gap Var Ginnunga

Again like Amon Amarth I connect with this partly because of my heritage. I can really ffeel my soul connect with this album. If you want an excellent experience play this music in your room and just lay on your bed and listen through the whole album uninterrupted, it's amazing.

10. Various Artists-Lost In Translation Soundtrack

This is part nostalgia, but I still consider this release to be genuinely good. The movie is my favorite movie of all time and the last one I saw with my dad in a theater before he passed away so the music carries a lot of nostalgia and sentimental value with it. On another note the music is, while not something I'd normally listen to, genuinely great. Whenever I play this CD it always make me drift off to another world and traps me in deep thought. It gives off a great atmosphere and brings forth visions of a city at night full of blurred lights, great times with good friends, and and some really good memories.

11. Joe Hisaishi-Hisaishi Meets Miyazaki Films

Ignoring the insanely stupid album art, the music on here is fantastic. I think Joe Hisaishi is a genius composer and this CD is a great compilation showcasing some of his better work. His music brings forth emotions that most others can't.

12. Ornette Coleman-Free Jazz

Jazz is both a fairly old and fairly new musical acquirement of mine. I actually played in a jazz band as a kid for three years. After that I left it totally behind and essentially forgot all about it until recently. While I don't connect with Jazz on an emotional and spiritual level like I do metal I do connect with it on an intellectual level. I have recently reconnected with it and it makes great background music for homework and can really get my brain jogging in terms of creativity and just wanting to get some things done. I genuinely consider the majority of jazz musicians to either be completely musically incompetent or to be just copycats. The ones I have come across so far who I deem to be genuinely good are Miles Davis, The Mahavishnu Orchestra, Ohm, and Ornette Coleman. Ornette Coleman's Free Jazz is an extremely controversial release in the jazz world but I love it and consider it to be my favorite jazz album.

This is a paper I wrote for my critical thinking class in college and I thought I would share it here as well for those of you interested.

Religion's Deathgrip On Society

Religion initially had its purpose. It helped organize man into a society and in a way form laws. However, these times when religion gave us a helping hand have passed, as it now does much more harm than good. If religion is harmful to us as a society we should at the very least put restrictions on it. Since religion leads to the death of millions, deludes people into a false future, and corrupts the many governments of our world, it should be considered dangerous and we should put limits on its influence through the use of law.

Some may say that it still serves a purpose, that it gives hope to people who need it, gives drug addicts the strength to quit, and gives some people a need to follow the law who normally wouldn't. While there is some undeniable good that comes of modern day religion I don't feel that it makes up for the violence and corruption that is now rampant. The people who gain a sense of comfort and hope thanks to their religion have every right to that hope. However this brings up the question, is your hope really worth it? In most cases there is absolutely no real evidence supporting a religion so it is extremely probable that this religion that you have dedicated all of your hope to is completely wrong. All of this energy being devoted to something that possibly doesn't exist could be much better used on things to help advance and maintain our society. As for the drug addicts, I myself have an aunt who was a serious drug addict who turned to god for help and I will admit to it helping her. She is certainly better off now, but she has become obsessed and dependant on Christianity. The countless numbers of people who follow the law because they believe god wants them to and/or want to go to heaven when they die should be removed from society and locked away. They are obviously not truly healthy human beings if they depend on an invisible force to tell them not to steal from your neighbors and don't murder children. The benefits of religion don't come without a hefty price.

If people follow something without question, such as religion, then they can be manipulated to do something they normally wouldn't, which can be very dangerous. On May 25th of 2007 Gallup.com reported that one third of adult U.S. citizens that were polled believed the bible to be literally true, word for word. Some basic science ****s will show you that there are many things in the bible that if taken literally are impossible. Yet these people mindlessly follow a book written by unknown people thousands of years ago that may or may not have had contact with a god who may or may not exist. They also showed a correlation between these bible followers and education. The people who followed the bible were usually less educated while people had received a college education were less likely to follow the bible. Of course we all know the common saying "correlation does not mean causation", but looks at some of the religious world leaders today like ex-President Bush or President Ahmadinejad of Iran and draw your own conclusions there.

Many people, including governments, commit acts that we as human beings normally consider to be unacceptable, but since they do it in the name of religion we feel the need to let it pass. Allowing people to get away with things because they claim that a force nobody else can see or hear from told them it was ok is a fallacy in itself and an incredibly dangerous concept that we allow to happen. A recent law that was passed in Afghanistan is a perfect example of this. It is a law stating that men can starve and beat their wives if they refuse sexual intercourse, and are even allowed to rape them without consequence. Their reasoning for this was that in the religion of Islam, wives are always supposed to do what their husbands tell them. This is atrocious and yet we still do nothing to stop it.

The worst of all the side effects of religion is that millions of people have died as a result of religion going too far. Referring to the war in Iraq, ex-President George W. Bush stated to President Jacques Chriac, "This confrontation is willed by god, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins". This comes across to me as a logical fallacy known as inappropriate appeal to authority. He was simultaneously justifying his actions and trying to recruit others to join in by referring to god. This quote also brings up the possibility of a world leader simply labeling a fellow leader or nation as enemies of god to gain support in taking them down. Israel and Iran are constantly threatening each other witch nuclear war largely because of their differing religions. Let us also not forget our history lesson on the medieval crusades that last for more than two thousand years and in which many died.

We have enough issues with society as it is, we don't need the burden of religion making things more difficult than they already are. Religion no longer helps us. It causes the death of millions, the brainwashing of billions, and the corruption of world government. We need to put limitations on religion. It should be mandatory that you are not a declared member of any formal religion in order to obtain a leadership position such as president. There should be laws penalizing people who push their religion on others. These two laws would be a good start. These aren't necessarily laws against religion, but simply laws that help enforce the separation of church and state, something our forefathers fought and died for.

Before I go to sleep, I Just got home from seeing Marduk and they were awesome. Mortuus was getting insanely pissed though because they had constant technical problems. Then some idiot got on stage and tried to hug him but then Mortuss grabbed him, threw him to the ground, and then pushed him into the crowd. Absolutely crazy show. Merrimack and Mantic Ritual were also great.

I'm gonna need to start saving now in order to see all the bands in January that I want to see. It wouldn't be too big of a deal and I'd just skip some except they're all incredibly awesome. On January 17th Behemoth will be here with Shining and Septic Flesh. On the 18th is Between the Buried and Me (ew), Cynic, Devin Townsend, and Scale The Summit. Now, I hate btbam and have never listened to Scale The Summit, but Cynic is very good and Devin Townsend is one of my favorite artists of all time. Then on the 21st is The American Carnage Tour with Megadeth, Slayer, and Testament which I already have tickets for. Lastly on January 30th Nile is coming with Krisiun, Immolation, Abigail Williams (ew), and Dreaming Dead. Ya...that's gonna burn a serious hole in my paychecks.

Tried it out and Nimatoad2000's house a couple days ago and loved it. So today when I went to buy some new shoes I stopped by the dreaded Gamestop to grab a copy of Dragon Age for the PC. They had plenty for PS3 and Xbox 360, but the only copies they had left for the PC version were the ones still onr eserve. The employee said they had been sitting there for a week and decided he could sell one to me, to which his manager responded "Alright but you can deal with the irate customer". I later realized they had also given me the card that came as a pre-order bonus with codes on it for free in-game stuff.So while I feel kinda bad that some poor guy isn't going to be getting his reserved copy of Dragon Age now, it worked out pretty well for me.

77/100, Gorgorth rebuilds itself with decent results, but they should have taken some more time to create something truly great.

After several listens I have to say it's disappointing especially considering all the hype about Infernus retaking control and the band returning to their older styl*e* While Infernus did indeed write all the music, he only wrote the lyrics for the short little outro, "Introibo ad Alatare Satanas". While Infernus' guitar playing is full of ups and downs, Pest really stepped up to the plate on vocals and proved that he could indeed fill Gaahl's shoes. I still personally prefer Gaahl's unqiue vocal styl*e* but Pest is certainly equally as skilled. The drumming on the album is pretty basic and boring, even moreso when put up against the drumming on the other two big black metal releases in the same month, Immortal's All Shall Fall and Marduk's Wormdwood. The album essentially comes across as some good but incomplete ideas thrown together with some really basic and generic parts used as the glue.

"Aneuthanasia"-Comes in pretty brutal with one of those infamous black metal barks but soon leads into some incredibly monotonous riffing. The first time through I thought it was kinda cool but repeated listens proved frustrating and boring. Luckily it doesn't last too long and is followed up by a really awesome riff that really doesn't last long enough. The song has some good ideas but doesn't really reach its potential. 6.5/10

"Prayer"-Starts off with an extraordinarily short riff that I can't help but feel they should have used way more, it would have been perfect for a bridge section. It gets followed by some generic and simple black metal riffs which then gets followed by a really *c*lassic one that get's interrupted by a lesser albeit good one as they switch off. This pretty much continues until the abrupt ending. 7/10

"Rebirth"-I swear this song is about putting Gorgoroth back together after the whole fiasco with Gaahl and King, but I guess we'll never know for sure since they don't print their lyrics. Anyway this song is a step above the previous two. It sounds a lot like something Burzum would write. It's very dark and moody, a little ambient even, but it's also surprisingly progressive as it goes on. Once pest screams, "Rebirth of Gorgoroth!" things begin to get a bit more epic. 9/10

"Building a Man"-I hate the stupid intro but the song gets pretty solid afterwards. To me the main riffs on this track sound a lot like Immortal, but I guess that's for you to decide. It loses some credit for being extremely derivative but it's a very good song. 8/10

"New Breed"-Starts off a little too overly simple but progressively gets heavier and more technical with some really cool riffing a couple minutes in. Unfortunately the great riffs do get underused and the simpler and more boring ones seem to take priority a little. 7.5/10

"Cleansing Fire"-The first riff is interesting and has potential, but it feels unfulfilled and the extremely lackluster drumming really takes away from it. It turns out to be a relatively heavy and decent song, but not much else. 7/10

"Human Sacrifice"-Easily one of the best tracks on the album, and one of the only ones with competent drumming. Starts off really intense but soon leads into some semi-memorable riffing. If this song had kept that intensity all the way through it would have been awesome. As it stands though, it's still a great track to listen to. 8/10

"Satan-Prometheus"-This has some really cool guitar parts and is the only other track besides "Human Sacrifice" with decent drumming. Besides Pest's more than solid vocals there's some clean background on this track that work surprisingly well. Definitely a great song and a very good way to end the album 8.5/10

"Introibo ad Alatare Satanas"-The point of this little outro eludes me. Not going to score it or include it in the average.

My top tracks fort this album are "Rebirth", "Human Sacrifice", and "Satan-Prometheus". It really feels like Infernus was desperate to put out an album both to prove that he could still write music despite his lack of any serious contribution over the past six years and to compete with his new rival God Seed's release who ironically fell apart before even releasing their first album. It grows on you with more listens, but Infernus should have waited and polished up the album a fair amount more before releasing it. He should have hired a different drummer, written some more interesting riffs, and made a couple more tracks to lengthen this all too short album. It's solid black metal, and if you're a fan you'll definitely find something to like, but it really just doesn't compete with what everyone else has been putting out, or even any of their own back catalog (With the exception of the somewhat lacking Destroyer) for that matter.