Band Spotlight: Midnight Syndicate

This is one band that changed the way I looked at instrumentals. When I was a teen, my then boyfriend gave me a CD from a band I'd never heard of called Midnight Syndicate. Well, the CD was titled Vampyre and I very well couldn't pass up that kind of a CD now could I? The first time I listened to it was a little later when I was taking a road trip down to North Carolina. I popped that thing in and oh man, I zoned out completely. At one point I thought I was on track 4 when in fact I was on track 7. These guys are nothing short of amazing, their music is straight out of old school horror films. Take Vampyre for example, as you're listening to it, it is completely easy to imagine the types of scenes the music would be in, Bella Lugosi and everything included! Not to mention the fact that they use a harpsichord as one of their instruments (I totally get a boner every time someone plays a harpsichord). By the way, this is a harpsichord...

Well Midnight Syndicate is actually American based. Weird considering all that foreign bands I've been featuring lately. So far they have thirteen albums out. Yes, you heard me correct, thirteen! Their most recent one is "Carnivale Arcane" which I'm going to have to get my hands on in the near future. If you haven't checked these guys out already, you should do it soon, and really soon. Until then there's always their official site that you can check out and here's a little tidbit from Vampyre for you to enjoy...

Song of the Day: "Angels in Bondage" by Velvet Acid Christ

I can never, ever get enough of this song. I'm not entirely sure why I can't, but for some reason something just clicks for me with this song. Maybe it's the fact that they have soundbites from the first Resident Evil movie. You know the one with Milla Jovovich and Michelle Rodriguez? Yeah, that one. And it all fits in really well with the music. And personally, I about freaked when I found out that near the very end of the song the narrator quotes from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein... I'm not kidding! At the very end you hear him say "He was soon born away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance." It's totally awesome and you should give the song a shot, if for no other reason than it has a great beat and is perfect to dance to.

When a Goth Has a Bad Day...

Everyone has those days where literally everything that can go wrong has gone wrong or at least some form of complication has arisen to destroy what could have been the average day. I have just experienced one of these... Let me see here: went to bed with a headache, woke up with a headache, was forced away from the comfort of my love's arms in the early hours of the morning to go to work, had to pack a really small lunch since I hadn't gone grocery shopping, got slammed at work, wound up working a 10 hour day, tense back and head all day, pissed at my roomie, need to get my car looked at on Wednesday, and had to go grocery shopping literally right after I got off work... Let me catch my breath here for a second...

O.K. now I think I can continue...

Now when the average person has their bad day, what is the normal reaction? Go out to find something distracting or get right down to the problem and fix it, right? Well, goths tend to take a slightly different approach. If there is no club or concert to be found within our immediate vicinity, Goths tend to take the lock ourselves in our own personal space, usually a bedroom. This is not in an attempt to avoid the situation, oh no, no. This is an attempt to protect others from our unstable moods. We don't like inflicting our bad moods on other people who aren't responsible for the bad mood we're in. Normally in these cases it's best not to ask questions or push too much, just leave us be until we decide it's safe for all involved that we can come out and rejoin the world.

Foamy and Germaine on a Bus

Yup, it's just as random  as you're thinking... Maybe even more so...

I'd Be Less of a Misanthrope If...

I have a very quick and easy example that is going to ring a bell with any and all of my nerdier readers, or just anyone who is into action movies and can't wait for the new Avengers flick to come out. I can honestly say I'd be less of a misanthrope if more people were like Captain America. No, this is not a joke, yes I'm being completely and utterly serious. Although the character of Captain America (at least in the films, not so sure about the comics) lacks the sarcasm I normally enjoy in humanity, he is nonetheless the perfect human. And I'm not talking about because he gets all hot and buff thanks to a military expirement... That's just a plus. I'm talking about his personality. He's not a complete and utter douche, he genuinely likes to help people, he treats everyone as an equal, he's patriotic but not one of these uber "America or Die!" rednecks... What more could you want? Seriously! Just take a look at Movie Bob, he explains it a bit better than I do...

Now do you see what I mean? Even I can't begin to try and say that I'm a good human being, I hate my own species. But yet this one character, who has been picked on, belittled, and taken advantage of his whole life still has the charisma and conscience enough to be this good of a person... I'm sold on him. And notice that Movie Bob calls him the "Ideal American." Yes, you morons, this is what the image of America is supposed to be! Not the psychos who feel the need to go and burn copies of the Qu'Ran, not the neanderthals who probably couldn't even pronounce four-syllable words let alone read them, not these mud-slinging over-hyped celebrities who's main form of entertainment is to rip each other's hair out, not the money-grubbing lowlifes who run the country... You getting my point yet? You want to be on my good side and stay there, aspire to be like Captain America.

Germaine Hunts for a New Job

Everyone knows the pain that comes with the territory of finding a new job. Or at least most people do. For my own part, I was constantly hunting for about six months before I landed the temp position I'm currently working. Germaine's really not having much better luck with it either...

Metal Mayhem Tix on Sale Now!

I'm going to be getting mine soon, you guys had better do the same! And I'll see you all at the Pittsburgh show!

Song of the Day: "Dear Ophelia" by Abney Park

Yet again this is the product of me having just a little too much time to think while I'm a work. I'm scrolling through my mp3 player and I had the sudden urge to listen to this song. Song lead to album and so on and so forth. Enjoy!