My email to Nick Clegg:

In the wake of the London riots and the resulting ill thought and ridiculous calls from David Cameron to effectively wage a war on the poor and the idea of collective responsibility, I thought I'd directly email Nick Clegg and request that he actually stand up for what he believes in (or used to believe in before he moronically grabbed at the pretty shiny bauble of power offered by the Tories. Or maybe he never believed in anything he said and truly is a Tory boy). I request that all of you reading to do the same if you care at all about the dire future that Cameron is dragging Britain towards. Nick Clegg's email address is: leader@libdems.or.uk

 

Dear Mr. Clegg,

I voted for the Liberal Democrats in May. However, had I known that a party I felt could create a true impetus for a fairer and more democratic United Kingdom would enter into a draconian coalition with a party who care only for greed and for making life easier for the economic and social elite, I would not have voted at all. I have almost lost faith in you and your party yet now, with the Prime Minister calling for ludicrous prison sentences and removal of the rights to life and liberty for hundreds of people, you are presented with an opportunity to prove that your party still stands for the noble values on which it was founded and not simply for the trappings of power which come to the detriment of, not only your party, but to the values of social liberty and social responsibility for which the progressive majority in Britain stand

I implore you, please defy your political masters in the Conservative party. Stand up against the idea that some in Britain can get away with gross invasions of privacy in the name of "journalism" but a man hastily typing ill-informed but ultimately harmless words can recieve a four year prison sentence.

Disband this coalition that speaks only in violent terms of a "war on gangs" and a "zero tolerance" approach, even as you know yourself that these are knee-jerk reactions that ignore the true cause of the problem.

Abandon a government that has demonstrated nought but a callousness towards the vulnerable in society that eclipses even the darkest moments of Thatcherism.

Rebel against an administration that has destroyed the futures of thousands of young people, now too poor to afford what was once an inalienable right; education.

The time has come to end the delusion that the Liberal Democrats can "soften" the malicious ideology driving the Tory party and the government it controls. You must start the process that leads to true, progressive change for the majority, not a regressive assault on the vulnerable that benefits only a tiny minority and you must do this by breaking the coalition.

Your party was founded to safeguard the liberty of the British people yet so far your first years in government have been marked by a removal of the liberties that matter and the extension of but one: the liberty to be too poor to survive at a basic level of human need.

Please, heed the desires of the British people and bring this brutal and vicious government to an end.

Sincerely,
Thomas Mathieson Gardiner

Reasons to Look Forward to Skyrim!

Well I've repeatedly been feasting my eyes on the new Skyrim gameplay demo fresh from E3 and I can safely say no game has excited me as much as this. Seriously I'm quivering at  the mere thought... maybe it's early onset parkinsons though... anyway, I thought I'd try and add my own humble piece to the general hubbub and excitement surrounding what promises to be a social-life shattering experience:

5) The new game engine and AI: Now I'm not the tech-est of people but even I found the news of the new game engine powering Skyrim pretty damn exciting. For one thing the engine powering Oblivion and Fallout 3 could make a pretty inconsistent gaming experience (at times seemless and inspired, at times flat and, dare I say, tedious). Now don't get me wrong, I cherish both those games and rate them so highly but the new Creation engine has massively improved draw distances, insane levels of detail and extremely beautiful and dynamic lighting. Now for the AI... This drove me mental in Oblivion (For example today, playing Oblivion, a BLIND moth priest uttered "I need to stop drinking ale, I'm SEEING (!!!) things!" then proceeded to walk at the wall non-stop, then when returning through this area at the end of the quest he was still doing it!). Now the new Radiant AI system means civillians will have realistic lives, going about chores and work like a real human, and enemies will make intelligent tactical choices. Yum.

4) The stats/level-up/class/perks mechanic: Remember at the start of Oblivion (and nearly every other RPG in existence) when you chose a character class only to play for 5 hours and decide it was maybe not the best idea to play as a weird barbarian-thief-healer and have to start again? Well Skyrim's done away with that shit. Instead of choosing a class, you decide as you play what kinda character you want to be. Want to be a battle mage? Fine, just act like a battle mage. Decided you'd rather be an archer? Use your bow and you're an archer! Sounds pretty awesome. Stats, as usual, increase as you use them but the interesting part is that as you level them up you unlock perks for that skill! Not character perks but skill-specific ones. This creates so many strategy options. Will you try and be a good all-rounder but gain perks slowly or will you focus on a small skillset and become a highly specialised adventurer, risking some game options being closed to you. Things like this increase replay value, the sign of a truly great game.

3) The Menu system and user interface: Oblivion had usable menus and there was nothing *awful* about them but staring at an alphabetised list of weapons on, essentially, a sepia toned spreadsheet was a little uninspiring. Skyrim has totally overhauled the menu system, taking cues from apple's, admittedly, impressive iTunes interface. The player brings up the menu with B (or circle on PS3) and a four pointed compass appears with an option for each direction: The Inventory, which is neater and renders each item in full 3D to be fully appreciated at leisure, Magic and Spells, which comes with a breakdown of how each spell works, the Skills option which makes the the player gaze to the stars where each skill is represented as a constellation that also functions as a perk tree and finally the Map which is so beautiful it hurts with the camera pulling up and revealing a world fully rendered in 3D as a map. All this shows just what an immersive experience Bethesda are crafting.

2) Combat, enemies and assignment of weapons/spells: Combat in previous elder scrolls titles was pretty tedious... Hack, shield, hack shield, ransack corpse, done. In Skyrim, combat has been beefed up with the general feel seeming to suggest more urgency and more realism. Each hit seems to really feel like it connects.  Plus the player gets special killing moves which cut to a 3rd person view as your character dispatches foes with Batman-like finesse, just like the awesome VATS system in Fallout. Plus there's the GENIUS ability to assign a spell or weapon in each hand, left trigger for left hand, right trigger for right hand, allowing for dual weilding and weapon/spell combos as well as standard sword and shield style setups. Plus you can combine spell effects or assign the same spell to both hands for extra power. Another final dimension for combat is the addition of dragon shouts. These act like beefed-up spells, doing things such as stopping time, calling on a lightning storm to blast foes or drowning enemies in dragon fire. Shouts are learned by learning words in the dragon language then using the souls of slain dragons to unlock the word's power. Which brings me onto the dragons! As well as enemies like giants and Draugr (inspired by the Draugr zombies of norse myth in real life) we face off against these staples of the fantasy genre (pretty much the main premise of the game tbh!) and killing them means absorbing the aforementioned souls. Dragon encounters are random and unscripted so beware!

1) The Graphics: Well I had to mention 'em! I know gameplay is more important but I've literally never seen anything in games as beautiful as this game. The sparse, Nordic landscapes are full of forbidding, stark beauty and the lighting and water effects are unbelievable. Character movement looks fluid and realistic while faces look like FACES and not horse arses like in Oblivion. Truly it's gorgeous.

Well hope you enjoyed reding my feelings towards this game. And honestly, don't expect to hear from me after 11.11.11...

Lyrical abortions Pt. 6

This is a grindcore-y type song with eco-conscious lyrics caaaalled:

Terra Immateria

Gasoline terror

The earth weeps

Weeps black tears

Plastics choking

Suffocate the seas

Til no life remains

Suffer for your sins

Suffer for your hubris

A monument to greed:

TERRA IMMATERIA

Toxic sky opens

Rains down justice

Burns our flesh

Forests consumed

Scorch the Earth’s surface

A pyre for our arrogance

Suffer for delusions

Suffer for your ignorance

A wholly burnt offering:

TERRA IMMATERIA

Liars say they care

But nothing ever changes

Toxic world is born

But you still sleep at night

Sleep at night

SLEEP

AT

NIGHT

An act of murder, your conscience is clean

Suffer in the flames

Suffer , burn your flesh and die

This is the world you’ve left your children:

TERRA IMMATERIA

My Top Ten Metal bass players:

these lists always prove controversial but here goes:

10) Dave Pybus (Cradle Of Filth, ex-Anathema) - I can see me being ridiculed by tr00 metallers here but he's really solid and has this awesome ruble below Cradle Of Filth's riffage and a nice rockier technique for his anathema years. Pretty underrated.

9) Tyr (Emperor touring bass player) - Bit obscure but just watch him on "Emperial Live Ceremony" the dude has some CHOPS! He can more than keep up with Ihsahn's guitar craziness and that's enough for me! =D

8) Orion (Behemoth) - +250 bpm 16th notes with his fingers. Nuff said.

7) Sean Beasley (Dying fetus) - Crazy picking, tapping mayhem while GROWLING! Love this guy!

6) Troy Sanders (Mastodon) - Don't even like Mastodon but troy's really inventive with a cool technique and I respect his skills a very great deal =D

5) Rex Brown (Pantera) - Dimebag was the best part of that amazing band but without rex's laid-back groove anchoring THOSE RIFFS down it just wouldn't have been the same...

4) Cliff Burton (Metallica) - I know most people put him higher but I never focussed on the 'Tallica's bass playing too much when I was getting into them. Was too low in the mix! But after gaining more educated ears you can't listen to Burton without appreciating what he did for the bass player in heavy metal.

3) Steve Harris (Iron maiden) - Another case of "don't like the band, love the bassist!" I love his technicality and the rumbling gallop he brings to things, I just don't much like Maiden =P

2) Martin Mendez (Opeth) - He's so awe-inspiring! He slings that fucking Jazz bass and just let's the glorious bass flow... He can play in such a crazy number of styles yet still retain his own unique style. He can do slap, fast metal stuff, folky stuff, jazz... Gaaawd...

1) Alex Webster (Cannibal Corpse) - Could there be anyone else for number 1? Nevermind that he's such a humbke and down-to-earth dude but as a musician he is unrivalled n the extreme metal genre for technique, theory knowledge, innovation and songwriting. He pretty much invented the 16th note, 3 finger pattern within death metal and  has a unique, low treble, low bass, high mid tone that let's his ludicrously heavy rumble breath within the confines of that hyper-blast music he so pioneered. Much respect!

More pointless list-y fun! Fuck yeah!

My 10 favourite songs at the moment:

1) Fredric Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor (The Pianist official soundtrack)
2) Beethoven's 6th symphony, 1st movement
3) The Cry of Mankind - My Dying Bride
4)Faster - Within Temptation
5) Are You There - Anathema (Hindsight version)
6) Hit 'Em Up - Tupac
7)Hunting for Witches - Bloc Party
8) Fatherland - Die Krupps
9)Feuer Und Wasser - Rammstein
10) Dem Wind Geboren - Dornenreich

Technophobic Ejaculations:

Well I decided that I want to write something regarding my feelings towards technology after reading a brilliant Charlie Brooker article about the ups and downs of life with Apple products. I have to say right from the off that it's an uneasy and somewhat one-sided relationship. I am constantly smashing my head off of tables, walls, children, anything really, in frustration at the seeming ineptitude of technology. I thought computers and phones were supposed to be miraculous machines that made life easier and did whatever you commanded instantly. I must have slept through some kind of Glorious Revolution of the Machine Ones that, instead of turning the world into some horrible Terminator-style future, simply turned into a future where computers mock us from their cold, unfeeling screens, slowly driving us more and more insane until eventually we are sobbing over our own keyboards on our knees screaming "FORGIVE ME SENSEI!!!" Why "sensei?" I dunno, you've gone insane, you'll shout any old shit when you've lost it...

But yes, back to my original point. Modern technology, more particularly computers and phones seem to have hindered us more than anything else. I mean, there was a time when if you wanted to buy the latest Justin Bieber, erm sorry, Deicide, CD you went downtown to HMV, bought it and listened to it. Today I tried to download an album from Amazon and was reduced to a blubbering mess as my computer mockingly repeated it's inability to complete the download for an hour AFTER AMAZON TOOK MY MONEY!!! (I eventually got a refund, by the way, from some very helpful staff, showing how computers are evil, people can be nice). Since when was life so complicated? I honestly wish we were all still primitive hunter-gatherers, hunting, shagging, eating and dying at age 27 because a Lion was a wee bit peckish and you wandered along like a Dairylea dunkables box with legs.

But there's the crux; it's a wish that will never be fulfilled. We are all of us, myself included, totally addicted to technology. We suckle at its soothing digital teats like defenseless babies fresh out of the womb. Yeah, that digital milk sure tastes goooood... I know I could never give up technology to pursue the simple life I know will be better for me. If I gave up technology how would I be able to keep with the adventures of The Saviour of Broken Britain and Dealer of Tough Medicine, David Cameron!?! And so we hurtle towards a future where coffe-machines and laptops issue us commands as we all stand in neat blocks like Nazis at a rally, dumbly stroking our iPhone screens like they're Megan Fox's tits. And personally I look forward to this bleak apocalypse as long as I can finally DOWNLOAD STUFF FROM AMAZON!!!

Lyrical Abortions Pt.5

These are some lyrics I was inspired to write upon hearing of the plight of the Palestinian peoples of Gaza and the West Bank. They are an exploration of the rage and despair one must feel in such a horrendous situation. I imagine the music for this song to be kind of black metal-ish but I don't really know yet. The song has a working title of "A Lament."

Vast chains hold me

Tied to the ash

A desperate cry given forth

In my heart

I shall never be free

Rendered a shade

Less than man

Driven to the path of war

No quarter given

Until we transcend

My land lies raped

The women and children all dead

Forgiveness impossible

It was burned

With my soul

A ruined life stands here

Tormented

How much pain can a man,

Receive

Until he breaks?

My core is black

Driven to hate by oppression

I will rage eternal

To cast off

My shackles

Carving a giant: Socialism and the realisation of the individual through collective effort.

Something a bit essay-ish now that I hope you'll find interesting. Really, I'm writing this post as a clarification on my own political and philosophical viewpoint and as a dispelling of some long propagated myths surrounding socialist/leftist thought.

Socialist Individualism:
The core idea I want to get at here is that of Socialism being a way of using a collectivist approach to society as a method of self-realisation and individual empowerment. To many (especially to those prescribing to the views of the right, from liberal conservatives to fervent fascists) socialism is the antithesis of the concept of individual freedom. They fear that the individual human spirit will be lost to the emphasis placed on everyone working collectively and in step with each other to advance. However, I would argue that these people do not understand what Socialism actually is (or at least what I would percieve socialist ideals to be, perhaps tempered by the Western political tradition of Liberalism). To me Socialism is about everybody having a stake in the world in which they live and so everybody works together in order to improve the society around them. Doing this, we can provide for the vulnerable and the workers and poor through the state, providing housing, income and, most importantly, opportunities. When socialism provides a man with a job and house where he would otherwise have had nothing under a capitlaist system, that man gains opportunity. He now has the means to educate and better himself, to travel and take in a varied world view. The man now has freedom to do more with an income, whereas under capitalism he may have had nothing and been able to do nothing.

The Role of the state:
Working as a collective, we contribute to the state which, in turn, contributes to us. If we take the above point that control of resources such as an income, home etc. grants opportunities for individual empowerment and growth, the state then becomes the arbiter of this individual growth as the state controls the distribution of resources. Resources come to the state in the form of taxes etc. and the state redistributes those resources through services, benefits, housing and so on, the classic socialist model. Obviously being the controller of our personal growth is a position carrying the potential for too much abuse of power which is where the beauty of democracy comes in; if the state goes to far, the people vote for change.

Conclusion:
This, I would argue, is the clear way in which my own view of Socialism, in it's final stage, is actually about the granting of individual growth and opportunity, not about empowering a collective at the cost of singular human freedom. Together we can work to distribute wealth away from the wealthy capitalist Bourgeoisie who, through controlling a majority of resources and wealth, have a monopoly on opportunities for self-empowerment and instead distribute it towards those who currently lack the resources and wealth to grow as individuals.

Lyrical Abortions Pt.4

These lyrics were cool, dunno what style of music they would fit as they're not written with sort of rhythms demanded by metal and they're not written in the kind of pseudo Romantic-era English as my gothic doom metal lyrics. Also, it's the first time I've written lyrics with the use of a sample in mind right from the start. No title in mind yet but here they are:

I’m standing on the brink

Looking down

Into a meaningless zero

Colossal, jagged

And infinitely cruel

An absurd joke

That no one understands

But I laugh anyway

Because it’s all I can do

When we talk, I only hear screams

That pierce my soul

Shrill and excruciating

We don’t really care

As all we’ve built

Collapses all around us

Don’t even notice

As we crumble

A new zenith

The great age of the random

No plans or hope

Such things have no use

(In this brave new world)

When we touch it sears

Bathed in the red glow

Of a titanic, malevolent sun

And in the stagnant pool

Of this collective apathy,

Amid the gleaming, soulless chrome

Of the modern world,

I scream my tortured heart

Into the wasteland

Vomit my broken soul

Into the hot winds…

… But no answer comes…

… I am alone…

(Patrick Bateman sample as music fades out: “My pain is constant and sharp and I do not hope for a better world for anyone… In fact I want my pain to be inflicted on others… I want no one to escape…”)