CONCRETE MASCARA, Excess Takes Its Toll - Out Now Through WOHRT Records

MALPESTE, Self-Titled - Out Now Through WOHRT Records

DREAM HOME - Sick Sick Tale of Real Estate

SHUT UP LITTLE MAN!

Southern Lord To Unleash DOPESMOKER Deluxe Reissue

News of almighty proportions has landed as Southern Lord announce a deluxe reissue of one of the towering achievements in metal history, Dopesmoker by SLEEP.

For the 2012 reissue, there are some very notable changes. The original studio tapes have been remastered presenting the album as the band had originally intended. The audio is clearer, louder, and at last brings a true representation of SLEEP's hour-plus Weedian chronicle. Exclusive to this Southern Lord edition is brand new artwork by long time SLEEP artist Arik Roper, to be unveiled in the coming weeks. Additionally, this reborn version of Dopesmoker boasts an unreleased live recording of one of the band's best all-time performances: "Holy Mountain" from San Francisco's I-Beam in 1994.

Southern Lord is overwhelmingly ecstatic to reissue one of the most important recordings in heavy metal history. This edition ensures that this mesmerizing, incredibly complex document remains unrivaled in the annals of stoner metal.

Dopesmoker Track Listing:
1. Dopesmoker 1:03:31
2. Holy Mountain (Live @ the I-Beam SF, CA. 1994) 11:54
Check out SLEEP's upcoming European tour dates below...

SLEEP 2012 European Tour Dates:
4/14/2012 Roadburn Festival - Tilburg, Netherlands
5/03/2012 Asymmetry Festival - Wroclaw, Poland w/ A Storm of Light
5/04/2012 Amager Bio - Copenhagen, Denmark w/ A Storm of Light
5/05/2012 Betong - Oslo, Norway w/ A Storm of Light
5/06/2012 Strand - Stockholm, Sweden w/ A Storm of Light
5/08/2012 Tavastia - Helsinki, Finland
5/09/2012 Berghain - Berlin, Germany w/ A Storm of Light
5/10/2012 Conne Island - Leipzig, Germany w/ A Storm of Light
5/11/2012 Lucerna Music Bar - Prague, Czech Republic w/ A Storm of Light
5/12/2012 Club 202 - Budapest, Hungary w/ A Storm of Light
5/13/2012 Tvornica Kulture - Zagreb, Croatia w/ A Storm of Light
5/14/2012 Arena - Vienna, Austria w/ A Storm of Light
5/16/2012 Circolo Degli Artisti - Rome, Italy w/ A Storm of Light
5/17/2012 Fillmore Club - Cortemaggiore, Italy w/ A Storm of Light
5/18/2012 Dachstock - Bern, Switzerland w/ A Storm of Light
5/19/2012 Fzw - Dortmund, Germany w/ A Storm of Light
5/20/2012 Gagarin 205 - Athens, Greece
5/22/2012 The Arches - Glasgow, Scotland w/ A Storm of Light
5/23/2012 Button Factory - Dublin, Ireland w/ A Storm of Light
5/24/2012 Stylus - Leeds, United Kingdom w/ A Storm of Light
5/25/2012 I'll Be Your Mirror - London, United Kingdom w/ Slayer, Melvins
5/26/2012 Villette, Sonique - Paris, France
5/27/2012 Trix - Antwerp, Belgium w/ A Storm of Light
5/28/2012 Feierwerk - Munich, Germany w/ A Storm of Light
5/31/2012 Primavera Sound Barcelona - Barcelona, Spain w/ Wolves In The Throne Room

Frank Herbert's Dune Novels, An Analysis: Part II - Dune Messiah

If you started here, you started wrong, or in my opinion thematically, probably right. I suggest you read my analysis of Dune before going through this one. And if you're interested, just click HERE for the truth. Dune Messiah was Herbert's first sequel in his Dune universe, and it tends to be poorly received by most. Not sure why, personally I kind of prefer this one to Dune for certain reasons, though of course you can't ignore the fact that it derives its existence from the first one, which set the entire universe Herbert raped into the ground throughout the rest of the series. It was released four years after its predecessor and started a revolution in literature that the smarter of us are still trying to figure out the reason for. Great book? No, but it's not as bad as people seem to think, and there are several reasons why. I have no need to introduce Herbert all over again, so read through the link up there if you're interested. Otherwise, let's get to it.

Our Second Analysis: Dune Messiah

Dune Messiah largely continues the storytelling style of Dune with its incredibly annoying inner monologues, wooden characters, and laughable, static dialog. It also continues its frustratingly intrigue-focused plot style, and this time around that's about all you get. However, it works better this time, but not entirely. Some action, yes, but not enough, which was a problem with the first novel. Overall, the problem here, and with the others as you'll see, is that Herbert never really planned anything beyond Dune. In fact, he admits this in his author's introduction in book five, Heretics of Dune. This, then, is the issue; if you create an entire universe that's basically set and you don't plan ahead, your only option is to mess with what's there and hope no one notices. Herbert struggled with this throughout the series, but Dune Messiah does a decent job of avoiding it, or sort of. I guess not really.

Dune Messiah: The Good

1. Brevity. One of Dune's biggest faults was it was way longer than it needed to be. Herbert had plenty of space to build his "intricate" plot, which ended up just being plot within plot within plot without substance. But, in Dune Messiah it seems he figured out that people didn't like reading all that inner monologue and boring, unnecessary plot-building that made the first novel such a fucking pain. Dune Messiah is almost exactly half the size of Dune and Herbert successfully manages to cram his plot into every page without dragging it along. It's actually the smallest book in the entire series.


2. New Stuff. Dune Messiah finally outlines a bit about the Bene Tleilax, which are only very briefly hinted at in the first novel. They, in fact, serve to help the plot blossom because one of their Face Dancers is behind the attempt to assassinate Paul. Lots of new features are closely tied into their existence, and it's pretty cool, read further.


3. Face Dancers. Cool concept, they're part of the whole Tleilaxu thing and are basically people who can shapeshift. Nothing new, really, but they're pretty cool. Unfortunately, Herbert thinks they're a little too cool because they start to play a bigger role as the books advance. You only meet one in this novel.


4. The Tleilaxu. Awesome, it's basically a planet that has the focus of doing lots of weird genetic experiments. The Face Dancers are one of their creations, as are the gholas, which are basically clones made from the dead flesh of someone who retain parts of their memories. They also introduce things in Dune Messiah, such as the dwarf Bijaz, who functions almost like a Mentat and can remember names, faces, etc., but can also be implanted with special humming techniques that can be used to cause actions in those who have been 'programmed' to receive it. Thus, to Hayt (the ghola created from the remains of Duncan Idaho, who died in Dune), he performs this chant later to cause the ghola to activate what is basically a program implanted in it to kill Paul. Pretty cool, in his replacement of computers and robots, Herbert has thus assumed that we have all these performances that can be derived from minds alone.


5. Gholas. Already mentioned above, so read again. Great idea, and their creepy metal, insect-like eyes are a great added effect. It's not an original idea by any means, but the way they function in Dune Messiah is pretty cool. The only bad thing is, as you'll see, Herbert is fucking 18-year-old-lover obsessed with them. There's basically a fucking ghola in every book after this one and it gets goddamn annoying.


6. More realistic intrigue. The intrigue in the first novel just felt stale and tiresome, like he lifted it from some classical Roman play. And he pretty much did. But in Dune Messiah there's a conspiracy against Paul that actually feels devious and intricate. Like, you don't sit there thinking to yourself "come on moron, you KNOW what's going to happen next"! This one's sneaky. Princess Irulan, who Paul married as a formality in the first book, is conspiring with the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and the Bene Tleilax to kill him and eliminate Atreides' control of the spice. The navigator from the guild can shield Paul's ability to see what they're doing, Irulan has been giving Paul's concubine (who needs to produce an heir) contraceptives, and all of that. It actually functions much better than the first book because it feels like a believable plot, not something a child could figure out.

Dune Messiah: The Suck

1. The Tleilaxu. Wait, weren't they good up there?! Yes, but big problem, and this is an issue with the remainder of the Dune series. Herbert didn't think it would go further, so he has to expand on an already pretty static universe that's completely tied into the goings-on of a single planet, Dune, and the life of the sandworms, which create the spice, which, to remind you, enable space travel. The Tleilaxu are briefly mentioned in Dune, and I mean like twice and so on-the-fly you forget about it. The most you know about them is that they make "evil" Mentats or something, but you don't see those guys again. Only Piter in the first novel is an example of it, and he's more moronic than evil. There's no real explanation of what the Tleilaxu are, they're kind of a mystery, which can be cool, but they were completely irrelevant in the first novel. Here, however, they play a huge-ass role. The amount of importance they share in Dune Messiah makes it problematic for one important reason, they don't have the same importance in Dune. If they're hugely important in the second novel, they should have at least had some play in the first, but they don't. Thus, their addition, albeit cool, is artificial. It's only 12 years later, and you can't tell me they suddenly got THAT important in that small amount of time. They basically run the entire plot of Dune Messiah!!! Wouldn't they have been used in the first to some degree?!!!


2. The Jihad Shit and Lack of Action. Okay, sure, Paul's followers go out and basically kick the shit out of everyone under the power of their messiah. Sure, probably would happen. First off, yeah, Herbert's lifted that idea from so many religions, myths, and other novels it's not worth mentioning, so it's far from original. Supposedly like 16 billion people have died when Dune Messiah takes place and we barely get to see any of it! Man, all that war and action potential, wasted! You don't get a single battle, there's barely that much action in this one at all. Again, let me say it, good sci-fi makes you think and excites you. This just makes you think, and think, and think, and think, and snoooooreee......


3. The Ghola. Okay, cool idea, but it gets reaaaal annoying after this. The idea is the Face Dancer named Scytale gives Paul his ghola (remember it's made from his once-friend and helper Duncan Idaho) in hopes that it will confuse him and get him to ignore what they're trying to do. But, ummm, who in the hell could ignore the fact that it's fucking got creepy insect fly eyes and is made from a dead body? I mean, I understand human attachments and all, but man, eyes are important to people, and if you see fucked up eyes you tend to see a monster, so not sure if it would be that effective. But let's let that go. Big problem is Herbert gets obsessed with these things later on, so much so that they're all over the fucking place. If they're so important later on, why weren't they important at all in Dune? Seems it would have been a better way to infiltrate the royal family in that one then a paper-thin conspiracy that read like a elementary school rendition of Hamlet. Again, issue is that he's adding things that play a huge role now, but not before. Doesn't work like that.


4. Still Piss-ass Confusing. One of Herbert's problems that he still doesn't get past in Dune Messiah is his tendency to get wordy when it's unnecessary, masking the plot and major details in a sludge of pointless dialog, opening , enigmatic vignettes, and someone speaking to themselves in their own mind back and forth. In spite of the coolness to the overall plot, which you can easily read online, you don't get the major details that make it cool just by reading it. Paul loses his sight and can still see after a nuclear-type device is used to kill some people, he now has the ability to truly see the future for some unstated reason. Okay, still cool. If he sees the future, however, he is powerless to stop its flow. Unfortunately, as cool as that may sound, it's never really clear what's going on. I'm a careful reader, I tackled Being and Nothingness in a week and understood everything I was reading, but somehow in Dune Messiah I was totally lost at several points, had to go back, read again, and then sort-of grasp what he was trying to say through needlessly esoteric wording. We get it, myth, legend, Paul, write clearly ass. Jeez. The major details under the surface are rarely easy to grasp because Herbert was too interested in appearing high-style when he didn't have true ability. Look at Kafka, look at Chekov, those guys knew how to give you huge thoughts in artful prose. Yeah, and I've read them in the originals too, so save it. Dune Messiah is false-high-style, a forced artfulness that's about as artful as a child's watercolor in comparison to Titian. There's some high-style referencing for you, that's how you do it Herbert. Guy just can't write, get over it.


5. Deification and More Superborn Children. Okay, so Paul is basically man-god now and we expect him to die in some way. But, sigh, yes, his wife gives birth to twins, and though the scene where Paul switches his mind into them is kind of cool, the idea that they have all of the memories of those before and shit is getting stale. How did it really happen this way? Herbert basically makes it this megamind idea without the Water of Life that's just not very believable. The whole idea was closely tied into the Water of Life in the first one, but it doesn't play a role here. Was Herbert trying to avoid the consistency he relied on before? Yes, and it causes him to make shit up. Somehow, to save his children, Paul sees through the eyes of one of them and times a perfect dagger attack and is now prophetically blind and wanders into the desert because the blind are condemned to there because of how the Fremen traditions work, so he's also avoided become a deity. Herbert never explains what 'being a deity' means in Dune Messiah, he never did it in Dune, and you only get to finally figure it out near the never end of Children of Dune. Just more additions, more pulling a plot out of a pool that's already dried up.

Again, overall the major issue you see with this one is Herbert keeps on tagging new shit that plays a huge role in this novel, but not in the one that came before. You can't do that. If something plays a big role in a sequel, you better believe it would to some degree in the predecessor. This is why true writers doing a series plan on it beforehand, otherwise their work looks like shit. Herbert, admittedly, didn't know Dune was going to pick up, but because his other writings sucked, well, he really had nothing else to go on so he milked it. Kind of like how Stoker's wife milked Dracula after he died. That eventually became a worldwide phenomenon, but Dune has yet to reach that level other than amongst a bunch of fanboys who refuse to see its faults. And it doesn't work well in film or anything because by virtue of the depth Herbert foolishly created, it requires at least 5 hours or so to properly pull off. That's why the Lynch version failed so bad. As for the books, horrible series, no, but not a great series, average at best. Dune Messiah reveals some of the greater faults that plague the rest of the Dune novels that follow, but at least it keeps it in a more realistic page count. It doesn't feel nearly as grueling, but it still can't get past the fact that one, Herbert can't write well, two, the plot has many derivative elements, and three, it's just extra pimples tagged onto an already bigger boil that's about to burst. He never gets past this, and it basically goes downhill from here. More additions without true background, more confusion, and fuck, more pages. Damn it...

MIXTAPE 2 - 70's Prog Rock

A few weeks ago Richard Nossar, guitarist for peruvian doom band Don Juan Matus, made this mixtape for a Latin american blog. The mixtape contains tracks by 70's prog bands that did not record more than three albums. 

Enjoy here...

ESKORBUTO, Cerebros Destruidos

Bad audio, distorted video quality, kickass music...

BOBBY FISCHER AGAINST THE WORLD

Not that I can relate to people this brilliant...but...fucking awesome... Smart guy, weirdo, hero, anti-semitic jew, Fischer was truly one of a kind.

TAKE SHELTER - Crazy Eyes

Michael Shannon has a face like he's about to poop gods...

SUBMARINE - Awww, that was sweet...

I am a total sucker for this kind of well-done bullshit...

GOATSNAKE at HELLFEST