Sounds of a Playground Fading

I’m not the kind of guy to accuse a band of selling out and changing. When Blinded Colony changed to The Blinded a lot of fans were really angry, and felt let down. The new Sonic Syndicate album had a very different sound, and a lot of fans were really up in arms against it. I’ve always been one to embrace a new direction of a band. I love the old Sonic Syndicate stuff, but I’ve got that now, so I’m open to whatever they feel they want to play.

In Flames…. I think they’re my favourite band… With Before the Dawn coming in a close 2nd…. But in 2010 or so the guitarist, Jesper Stromblad left the band on good terms. Big disappointment for me as it meant they pulled out of their UK tour…And I missed seeing them in Cardiff…. But I digress. I was thinking we’d heard the last of In Flames when they did their collaborative track with Pendulum (Self Vs. Self), but I was pleasantly surprised when I learned of the impending new album “Sounds of a Playground Fading.”  I eagerly preordered my copy and awaited the delivery…. It still hasn’t arrived… And Spotify beat me to it. So, it is in Spotify now!

(This has been sitting in my drafts folder for a very long time.. I really need to finish and publish it)

So, on the 22nd of June (Dispite me writing this on the 27th of October, 2011 I still remember the date, it was the same date that I got my degree results) the CD finally arrived. And as it turned out, to my luck, I was working alone in the Inner Garden, so I could slam on the iPod and listen to the album profusely. The Album stuck, and I really enjoyed it, so it was my soundtrack of my summer (*fading):

^ Kept me company during hay making… Yarrr in the tractor!

^ Driving down to Wales…. A very depressing journey leaving behind a very good summer… But made bearable by Sounds of A Playground Fading (Or just 01 Sounds Of A as the dashboard seems to think)

After a lot of listening, I came to some conclusions.  Like much of In Flames there are tracks I love, and others that I just skip…

So, here’s the listing:

1. Sounds of a Playground Fading
2. Deliver Us
3. All For Me
4. The Puzzle
5. Fear Is The Weakness
6. Where The Dead Ships Dwell
7. The Attic
8. Darker Times
9. Ropes
10. Enter Tragedy
11. Jester’s Door
12. A New Dawn
13. Liberation

 

Sounds Of A Playground Fading, Track 1, a very good introduction, and while this isn’t one of my top rated tracks, it is certainly one I will listen to and not skip over. The chorus is very singable, though the theme is a little dark.

Deliver Us, Track 2. This was released as a single before the album was released, and I listened to it a lot… It’s still a good track, and one I’m not likely to skip over in a hurry. Nothing stands out particularly, but it’s still a good track.

All For Me, Track 3. This is one of those tracks that doesn’t really make an impression on me… It’s a skipable one… There is nothing really.. wrong with it, it’s just not one I really want to listen to that much…

The Puzzle, Track 4. At first this was one of those tracks that I skipped… The introduction is a little too chaotic, and I never really heard it out properly. But, when I did… This has become one of my favourites. The chorus…..Oh it’s one of those awesome epic ones… And the instrumental section at 1:40 or so is awesome…. And the section from 3:10, though very simple, is very epic… And lead to some erratic driving while I was listening to it. It’s just a shame the song ends….

Fear Is The Weakness, Track 5. This was an instant hit with e. Love love love it. Very epic.. Not much more I can say on that.. Just love singing loudly and badly along

Where The Dead Ships Dwell, Track 6. Similar to The Puzzle, not an instant hit with me, but it’s one without too much screaming and therefore I can sort of sing along with it in the car/tractor/shower. Very nice guitar solos, good all round track

The Attic, Track 7. This is one I nearly always skip over….The lyrics are just too dark and weird…. Don’t really have anything more to say on the matter……

Darker Times, Track 8. Like the Puzzle it was was one I skipped over initially, too chaotic, but when the chorus kicks in at 1:00, I decided I liked the song. It is one of those epic ones…. Though I usually just hum the bass….

Ropes, Track 9. I think this is my favourite song on the album. The intro is awesome, and it remains that way throughout.

“If this would be your last breath, would you change a thing?”

Oh I do like this track

Enter Tragedy, Track 10. Kind of neutral on this one… There are parts I like, the instrumental I do quite like…. But it’s not really one of my top songs on the album….

Jester’s Door, Track 11. This seems to be a goodbye to Jesper. So goodbye Jesper!

A New Dawn, Track 12. Locates straight after Jester’s Door, this does seem to be a look to the future. And the future looks good! Good song, not a skipable one.

“ And I can’t wait to see the sunrise again”

Was listening to it as I drove through these mountains in North Wales:

It seemed very apt.

Liberation, Track 13. The last track on the album! It is quite a slow moving song, but with some epic moments. Overall, a good track.. Definitely worth a listen.

 

 

Yea, so my overall impressions of the CD…. Very good. Well worth a listen! Go out and buy it! Available in HMV!

-Skip

New T-shirt!

New T-shirt available! Someone on DeviantArt suggested a STALKER Exoskeleton T-shirt. Your wish is my command!

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Exo Skeleton Character by Skipper_is
Browse zazzle for a different shirtzazzle

I’m With Genius T-shirt

For anyone who loves Stargate Atlantis :

I'm with Genius Stargate Atlantis McKay by Skipper_is
View more Stargate T-Shirts

This is basically a replica of the “I’m with genius” T-shirt that Dr Rodney McKay wears in the episode of Stargate Atlantis “Home”. (As seen below)

See, I wore it when I went to see Apophis!

Oh dear
Anyways, buy it from here
For the rest of my products, see my Products page, link at the top of the page to the right

Universe Sandbox - Review

Snazzy little program came onto the Steam marketplace a couple of days ago, called Universe Sandbox. Basically, the premise of the game is you’ve got complete control over all aspects of the universe. You can take our solar system, see what would happen if you dialled the mass of the sun up, or try and set up a Geosynchronous orbit around the earth.
^ In  this one I tried to see what would happen if the earth had a set of rings like Neptune, Saturn, etc etc, at the same point as the moon. The gravity of the moon caused some really cool twists and turns in the rings, and a bunch of asteroids broke orbit and crashed into the planet.
Dialling the gravity up a couple of notches is a fun one too, if you get the gravity high enough the sun turns into a black hole, and everything slowly collapses in on its self. Before then though, some of the planets do a slingshot around the sun and end up reaching the escape velocity and buggering off into space.
Using timing and changes to speed and changing the semi major axis I tried to dock a “teapot” with the ISS (the teapot is one of the random weird objects you can use as they didn't have a shuttle…) It was going quite well, I got the closing velocity down really nice and slow, but when the teapot finally got to the ISS (represented by a piece of rock…) the collision engine picked it up as a crash and smashed my teapot… Doh!

This is quite a fun little game, especially for those who are white and nerdy enough to get out the calculator to figure out all the velocities, forces and radii needed to get objects in certain places, it is still very buggy and has crashed on me a number of times, so hopefully in time they’ll release a patch and fix that all up, also I’m hoping for more models,spacecraft, satellites, gas clouds etc etc. But we shall see.
If you like astronomy, astrophysics and anything else to do with stars and SPAAAACE (Portal 2 reference for you there), I’d strongly recommend this, it’s only a few quid at the moment, so get it!
-Skip

Stripe Scanner

Stripe Spotter: Available Here

Hello there, time for another review.

The stripes on zebras are unique to each animal, and realising that, the development team behind Stripe Scanner set out to create a program to recognise individuals from their stripes.

Now, this is not my area of expertise, I’m a diatoms man rather than a big game man, but I have done a module in African Biodiversity, so I do know a little bit.

Using photographs I’ve taken in South Africa and Kenya, I set out to create my own database of animals using their program. Here are my thoughts:

The UI is very simple, identifying animals is pretty easy, select the body part and press Identify Animal….

Now, here is where I ran into some difficulty.The images I took are from 2007 and 2009, so I have no idea which animal is which… To create the database you need to have a base population of identified zebras, with which to compare the later photographs. I lack this, so my database consists of guess work as to which are new animals.

Due to this, when I came to adding an individual from thousands of kilometres away, from Kenya, what should’ve been distinctively different stripes, the similarity is much higher than it should be. (0.46)

All in all, I think this is a valuable program for those who need to process a large local herd of individuals if you have a base number of photographs of identified individuals to work from. My example has a poor collection of disorganised photographs, of quality too low for a proper identification, so this test of the software was not really sound.

But all in all, worth checking out if you’ve got a lot of zebras to identify!

Download Here

Before the Dawn–Deathstar Rising

The playlist is available here, or by searching Deathstar Rising or Before the Dawn in Spotify.. or you know.. buying the CD! I think it’s on Itunes…

Okie dokie, another little review. This s a music review of what is probably my current favourite Melodic Death Metal album.

The first 2 tracks, The First Snow and Winter Within really give a feel to the rest of the album. Very epic guitar, nice mix of clean vocals and growling, (I got stuck there.. what’s the opposite of clean vocals? I was going to say filthy vocals! but that suggests inappropriate language) Unlike a lot of the Death Metal out there, the singer can actually sing clean vocals well.

Deathstar, the 3rd album on the track has a very catchy guitar part, which I often find myself humming along to, and the chorus I’ll often burst out into growls “ONE BY ONE!” ..then forget the rest of the chorus and wonder why everyone is staring at me.

Another of my favourite tracks on this album is Butterfly Effect, another great example of very catchy melodies, and an awesome mix of harsh (AHA! that’s the term for it!) vocals and clean. I think the whole album has an interesting change to the usual Before the Dawn format. Most other songs have quite harsh choruses, and clean vocals in between, like one of my other favourites by Before the Dawn: End of Day from the album “Decade of Darkness.”

Overall, Butterfly Effect is an awesome song, I’ve no idea what the harsh vocals are saying but the chorus is awesome: “Can’t define, what has caused this chain reaction. Wings of a butterfly, brought the storm to my direction”  - It’s an awesome chorus!

The bonus tracks, available on the later commercial release of the CD include an acoustic version of “My Room,” which is another one of my favourites by this band. I’m not sure about the live bonus tracks…. I prefer the studio recorded ones, they’re more… polished.

I ordered the CD on preorder, and got it a couple days before it was released with a rather nice T-shirt.

Overall impressions of this album are very good, I do love it, and it has helped me get through writing my dissertation, so that’s always a bonus! So yea, check it out, link is ^^^ Up there for Spotify.

A couple of their songs are on their facebook page:

BOOK OF FACES!

Enjoy!

Skippy, signing out 1216 Zulu.

Bzeek!

I feel I should share this little discovery of mine with the class. But I should preface it with some back story first. I live in Botton Village in North Yorkshire, it’s in the middle of nowhere, and the buildings are made of mahusive bits of rock. The internet that we do have had to be forged from the raw… CAT5 cables… It’s wired basically is what I’m getting at. Now, I have a phone, it’s a shiny Android, a HTC Hero to be precise. It uses WIFI, something that we lack with all the… stone, it’s just not a practical method of connecting to the internet. So I have a slight problem with updating everything and synchronising all my music off Spotify onto my phone. (BTW, Spotify is awesome… just to let you know. I’d highly recommend it if you live in Europe, if you dont live in Europe…. MOVE TO EUROPE! We’ve got… rain, and…. land, and shops and stuff, it’s amazing!) But I am getting side tracked.

So, the problem is I need wifi to sync Spotify on my phone. Survival basics, what do I have, and what do I need?

I have: Laptop, wired internet and a data hungry phone

I need: Wifi…

Solution: Bzeek

What this little rascal does is creates a local Wifi network around your computer, which you can then use to access the internet with all your little devices.

There is a slight downside of this in that the WIFI is available to anyone else who is near, but the upshot is that if anyone uses your internet, you get paid. So all in all, it’s not too bad! It’s all secure and tight, and when you’ve finished synching your phone, you can just turn it off.

So far it does seem a little slow, but that is partially due to the slow internet here…. I’m trying to sync 9 songs up, started 10 minutes ago.. and it’s still on 9 songs left to sync… but I have every faith in the technology!