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Fun things in back episodes.

So I was re-watching some old Supernatural episodes for the millionth time - no special occasion, just feeling the vibe - and I came across something funny-in-hindsight in the season seven episode The Girl With The Dungeons And Dragons Tattoo.

For the uninitiated, season seven (around 2012, IIRC) deals with the Leviathans, an eldritch race of creatures locked in Purgatory since the dawn of time because God feared that they would, as Death explains, “chomp the petri dish”. They escape onto Earth and make themselves clones of various people in order to integrate into society undetected. Their leader kills and takes the form of Richard Roman, one of the wealthiest and most politically influential people in America, and begins digging at various sites around the globe to find an ancient tablet written by the Scribe of God.

Well, in this episode, we see some of Roman’s emails regarding the tablet being shipped to him, and there’s a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it email shown that says the tablet is being delivered via private jet courtesy of Mr. Trump.

So in the Supernatural universe, Donald Trump aids and abets a race of primordial, voracious eldritch abominations intent on usurping humanity’s place in the food chain and turning Earth into one big slaughterhouse.

I love this show.

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On buying used games.

No, no, this isn’t a critique of Gamespot/EB’s infamous used game practices. Besides, I already wrote that a couple years ago. Instead, I’d like to talk about an element of used-game purchasing that has kind of left us over the years.

Nowadays, all save files are tied to your console’s internal harddrive. And the PSX, PS2 and Gamecube used memory cards. So when you buy a used game for those consoles, you’re starting fresh. But what about NES, SNES and N64 games, where save data (if applicable) is tied directly to the cartridge? You’d buy a used game for one of those systems, you’d boot it up and you’d see a number of save files already taken.

Don’t select the save file belonging to Ben

Back then, you would buy a used game, and it really felt like you were stepping into someone else’s life: you see exactly where they were when they stopped playing. Maybe there was one save file that didn’t get very far, which might indicate they didn’t like the game and sold it before giving it a long shot, or maybe their mom got angry at them over a bad report card and sold their games as punishment (or something).

But the real interesting ones were the files that were complete or near-complete. I bought Banjo-Kazooie used back in the day, I popped it in and found a file that was 100% complete, and it left off right before the final Gruntilda fight. I’m not gonna lie, I went into that file and looked ahead a couple times. And it was surreal, because walking around in another player’s world felt...bittersweet. Oh, sure, there was the “tee hee, I’m skipping ahead! Eat a dick, Rusty Bucket Bay!” feeling, but at the same time, it kind of felt like I was intruding in a realm where I should not be. I don’t mean it in the creepypasta haunted-cartridge sense, but more in the fact that this was clearly a well-loved game by this person: they had gotten everything. The save file felt like a monument to his or her achievement, and theirs alone. It was their story, the last chapter complete. And then, with nothing left to do, they sold the game, and it landed in my collection, where it stays to this day.

If there’s a point to this ramble, I guess it’s just that I kind of miss that feeling.

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What we got instead of the artistic horror dream-team of Kojima, Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus in Silent Hills, ladies and gents.

Got this ad on my phone while I was listening to my music app.

Nice to know where your gaming priorities lie, Konami.

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So what’s up with Nioh?

So I had been looking forward to getting Nioh on PS4, both for personal enjoyment and because I figured I could make a good video or two out of it for the Youtube channel I’ll be starting when all my equipment finally arrives. I didn’t preorder, because it’s a standard-edition game and everyone tells you not to preorder unless it’s a limited edition, common wisdom that no longer seems so wise now that the cat’s out of the bag on Gamestop and by extension EB Games lying to customers about the new games they have in stock.

But if you live in Canada and can’t seem to find a physical copy of Nioh anywhere, I might have an answer for you: far as I can tell, the Canadian release can only be called an utterly botched launch. No, it wasn’t some Arkham Knight debacle where literally everything went wrong in every way at launch, but instead the problem is that virtually no copies actually got shipped to Canada, and the few that did get here were instantly snapped up. My local indie game stores got no copies; some local EBs got copies, but I’ll explain why that is meaningless now; Amazon.ca says ‘will ship in 1 to 2 months’, with nothing on the Amazon Marketplace; Wal-Mart has none.

I mean, how else could you explain it? I haven’t seen a video game shortage like this since the original Wii. And Nioh is a game that’s been mostly likened to a Feudal Japan-styled take on a Dark Souls type of combat with plenty of hardcore challenge, and while that absolutely has an installed fanbase, there’s just no reason it should be flying off the shelves like the original Wii, which broke through into markets Nintendo didn’t even expect to penetrate. So I have to conclude it’s a botched launch. A conversation with the manager of one of the indie places I went to gave me the impression that the distributor of the game was, for lack of a better word, sitting there wanking instead of doing their job properly.

Now, EB: my local mall EB did get in copies, so I went in on the Friday after release to get one. Just before I left, the website said that it was in the green (IE, plenty of copies - yellow means a couple copies left, red means no copies), so I was confident. When I got there, there were no copies on the shelves. I asked the employee on duty about it, and she looked behind the desk and said they have a couple copies left, but they’re both preorder copies.

Now, I guessed then and now that this was a lie: the site said they were in the green, not yellow, and more tellingly, the game came out on that Tuesday and EB only holds preorders for 48 hours. Now, it could have been that this location was just more lax about holding preorders for people, but now that the word’s out about management bullying EB employees into lying to customers about the availability of new games so that they can sell more used games, I just...guys, I can no longer trust anything EB says. I didn’t push the point, I just left, because if they don’t want my money, they won’t get it.

Of course, I could break and get a digital copy. But fuck that. I’d regret my choice as soon as the physical version became available.

I mean, I might expect this with the new Zelda coming up, given that Nintendo (between certain Amiibos and the NES Classic) seems to have gotten a taste for artificially manufacturing supply-and-demand after it unintentionally happened with the Wii, and Zelda is already super-popular, but Nioh, a new IP most commonly compared to a series infamous for its challenge?

Any other Canadians finding it literally impossible to get this game?

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The one magazine that I’ve ever subscribed to. To this day, I can dive back into old issues of Nintendo Power and be flooded with nostalgia. (Did it right after taking this picture, actually.) My very first issue was the one with the first Turok game on the cover, and from there I gradually ordered a slew of back issues (Including the very first issue, of course) as well as received issues in the mailbox right up to 2008.

My subscription lapsed partway through 2008 and I never received the usual renewal reminder in the mail, so I just went without from that point on. I suppose I just wasn’t as passionate about the magazine at that point; by 2008, gaming news had transitioned to something analogous to the 24 hour news cycle, so a once-monthy mag just wasn’t the prime way to consume the updates any more.

That said, I did get myself out to the newsstand to buy the final issue when it came out. Absolutely glad I did.

PIctured in the bottom-right: a bunch of other random gaming magazines. It says something that NP is the only gaming mag which I’ve bothered to well and truly stock in order. It was always my favourite. Even though I always preferred EGM’s review section, there was always that “special something” about Nintendo Power. Like, I can pick a random back-issue and start talking about a fuzzy memory associated with either the day I got it in the mail or the days I’d spend reading it again and again.

It was also great that there were so few ads. In the later days, they did have ads, but even then they weren’t overbearing. Compare it to the average issue of GamePro, where the reason some of their issues looked so huge is because they’d sell half their pages to advertisers. Granted, these were cool ads for games and not, like, shaving cream or pants, but still - there were some GamePro issues that were actually more ads than content. (I got bored one night and counted a couple issues’ pages.) Whereas with Nintendo Power, it was content, content, content.

And how about those contests, right? I always loved seeing the ones where the winner would get an arcade cabinet. It actually sparked a short-lived obsession in Childhood Me with owning a bunch of arcade machines, although even back then I think I understood how unfeasible that would be.

Incidentally, I know lots of people loved the posters that came with each issue, but I never actually took them out of the magazines. The fact that they had actual content pertaining to other games on the back of the posters made me feel like I’d have an incomplete magazine if I tore them out.

I could go on all week about Nintendo Power. I’d better cut it off here.

On closer inspection, it seems some killer German thrash metal also made its way into the pic.

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Huh, that was odd.

I had a weird dream that an insane orangutan defaced the Statue of Liberty, scratching out "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" and replacing it with “Fuck you.”

I’m sure it means nothing, though.

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Saw the Slender Man documentary on HBO last night.

It was really well-done. The main focus was on the 2014 stabbing in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, which for those of you who don’t know, happened when two preteen girls (one of whom would later be diagnosed with schizophrenia) lured their best friend into the woods and stabbed her multiple times in an effort to please the Slender Man, whom one of the girls had been dreaming about and who believed was hunting her as the stories say. The victim survived, and the trial is ongoing. The event sent shockwaves through the creepypasta community when it happened; I remember this was the reason creepypasta dot com had an age-gate for a time, until it started messing with the site’s functionality and the webmistress removed it.

If you didn’t see it, don’t worry, it wasn’t some “Creepypastas are corrupting our chilluns!” hitjob. It was fair and even-handed, spending a suitable amount of time both on the human-interest angle of the Waukesha trial, and the background and cultural significance of the Slender character itself, including numerous professionals in their respective fields lending their opinions. They even have Richard Dawkins discussing memetic mutation and its impact on society; this doc is super-legit.

If you watched it, it probably made you think about questions of how mental illness should be treated in the court system when that untreated and unchecked illness becomes partially the impetus for a violent crime. I’m hesitant to say too much on the subject, beyond the fact that this girl genuinely believed that the Slender Man existed, and was hunting her, and that the only way to get on his good side was to commit murder. That absolutely doesn’t excuse what she did, but the case is a far cry from the simple “inability to tell fantasy from reality” situation that I thought it was the first time it sent ripples through the creepypasta world.

Anyway, if you can find the documentary again, I recommend watching it. It’s quality stuff.

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Impressions on Nintendo Switch

Will I buy one at launch? It’s doubtful at this point. Oh, I’ll get one at some point, just probably not at launch. When you buy a console, what you’re really doing is investing in future exclusives, and the Switch looks like it’s going to continue NIntendo’s tradition of being the odd one out: it’ll always have its exclusive franchises, and we can expect a good chunk of those games to be of a reasonably high quality, but it’ll be “just different enough” from competing consoles that it will not receive very many multiplatform titles making waves in the gaming world. When it happened with the N64 and Gamecube, it was because of hardware differences (carts and fun-sized discs), but from the Wii onwards, it was because Nintendo decided to no longer keep up with graphical fidelity and processing power. There was a sliver of time during the WiiU launch when they were able to cross over with some other major titles like Mass Effect 3 and Assassin’s Creed 3, but that door closed as soon as the next generation came along.

Zelda: Breath Of The Wild looks amazing, but I think I might just buy the WiiU version, which doesn’t seem like a noticeable downgrade. When Twilight Princess came out, I bought the Wii version, and it’s still a great game either way, but the general consensus is that the Gamecube version was superior - the world isn’t flipped and most people would, in hindsight, prefer precision control over anything to do with motion control. Although granted, judging by the sales figures, statistically you probably didn’t buy a WiiU, so your only option for Breath Of The Wild might be the Switch.

I can’t claim to understand Nintendo’s business strategy with its release schedule. When I said that buying a new console was an investment on exclusives, that was a criticism, and an expectation that the Switch might fall below Nintendo’s expectations at launch. Because Super Mario Odyssey, which will surely be great (Prediction: it’ll be the first mainline Mario title since the first Galaxy that will feel well and truly fresh in its play ideas and execution, if we ignore the inevitable done-to-death Peach-gets-kidnapped excuse plot), but they somehow decided to make it a holiday release to court the Christmas market, leaving their new console DOA for exclusives? After all, can we really call Zelda a system-seller if it’s not an exclusive? I’d go as far as saying that Breath Of The Wild looks SO awesome that I’d have to think long and hard about a purchase if it was an exclusive, but as it stands, I just want the WiiU version. So that means that there is one exclusive and potentially system-selling killer app for the Switch this year, and it doesn’t come out until the holidays. I’m at a loss to explain it.

Also, apparently there’s a $200 CE boxset of BotW, which is interesting because Nintendo doesn’t normally do those kinds of Collector’s Edition things. And in the tradition of modern Nintendo, it was sold out in both America and Canada on the same day as the big Switch conference. GG, Nintendo, GG...

I do have to admit, though, I was surprised in a good way to see an honest new Bomberman title. I’ve always had a soft spot for the little guy, and especially Bomberman 64: The Second Attack will always have a special place in my heart for its surprisingly dark and involved plot, large levels with interesting puzzles and cool boss fights. I had thought the franchise to be dead in the water, either because of that one Bomberman title that tried to go for gritty realism and flopped spectacularly, or simply because a protagonist whose entire reason for being is to go around bombing the shit out of everything with bombs, and whose name you can’t say on an airplane, just wasn’t the kind of hero that was held up as desirable in our, um...sociopolitical climate. But it’s nice to see him back in form.

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Forgot to post this when it went up last week, but here’s the second part of my interview with The Hungry Monster, this one a bit lengthier than the previous segment, and focusing on the second Architects book, The Great Scourge. Enjoy!

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Top 2 video games of 2016:

 Don’t take the odd numbering to mean that these were the only games released in 2016 that I liked; far from it. Rather, it’s just that these two both went so far above and beyond everything else that I had to give them both special consideration. Doom is such a complete experience, so utterly confident in its goal and knowledgeable as to exactly what it wants to be. It plays fast, but never to the point where it feels like you lose track of things. This is the kill-em-up genre distilled. And while some fans are divided on the richness of the Metroid Prime-esque lore you can find throughout the game, I absolutely dig it. More worldbuilding is never a bad thing in video games like this, where you can set your own pace by choosing to collect and read the lore, or just rip-and-tear everything in sight.

Dark Souls III is a lovely conclusion to the Dark Souls trilogy, and if you want to hear more about how I think it caps off the Dark Souls experience in masterful form, check out the article I did for Fextralife earlier this year here. It’s easier than me trying to sum it up off-the-cuff. But I do have to say that blending the classic Dark Souls formula with a faster, more kinetic playstyle that feels halfway between old-school DS and Bloodborne was a brilliant touch. It’s super-fun. The basic quality-of-life improvements such as being able to walk while drinking Estus seem tailored towards limbering up the player for a more active playstyle, while still keeping the core of what makes Souls PvE combat so pitch-perfect intact.

Favourite graphics of the year: actually, Paper Mario: Color Splash. The PM games always had a neat look about them, but the lush paper textures in this HD offering are nothing short of breathtaking.

Disappointment of the year: Star Fox Zero. It’s a fucking insult. See my review here.

And for the sake of full disclosure, there are games from 2016 that I just bought on my own or received for Christmas and don’t have time to play them through fully before the year ends, which is partially why I just did the two games that went so far above and beyond this year rather than a formal list.

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My best movies of 2016:

Captain America: Civil War

This is the kind of story that could not be told without several installments’ worth of continuity behind it. It’s a payoff, cashing in on several characters’ long-game developments and the tensions slowly building in the background (bet you won’t view the “Language!” exchange quite the same at the start of Age Of Ultron after this). And while the comic Civil War arc was problematic, often coming off as overly didactic and messy, with characterization that flipped depending on the writer (Was Stark well-intentioned or fascistic? Depends on if you read his scenes in the main Civil War volumes or in Spider-Man’s side of the story), the film Civil War takes care to position the conflict, both ideological (the Sokovia Accords) and practical (The fate of Bucky, who committed numerous assassinations for Hydra, including that of Stark’s parents, but was conditioned and mind-controlled during these murders) such that you can see the reasons behind each side and might find yourself drifting back and forth as the film goes on. That’s good storytelling and directing, and if you’ve ever caught yourself lamenting the lack of moral ambiguity in some superhero films, you owe this one a good, close watch. The big Leipzig fight might be the best action sequence in the MCU thus far, frenetic, creative and fun, especially with Spider-Man finally having formally joined the MCU. If it doesn’t make you smile, just how much of a fuddy-duddy are you? But you might not be smiling as much when Stark and Cap come to blows in the abandoned Hydra base: it’s a brutal, violent, claustrophobic scene based on emotional intensity rather than spectacle. It’s almost as though these two scenes brilliantly juxtapose the two main types of cinematic fight scene. And while the MCU sometimes gets flack for its one-dimensional villains (in the movies, anyway – Vincent D’Onofrio is a revelation as the MCU Kingpin in the Daredevil show), Zemo in Civil War is simply a broken man who lost everything and blames the Avengers. His grand plan involves fracturing the Avengers not by some fantastical mind-control or evil clone shenanigans (time and place for those), but by simply pushing at the fault lines that already existed until they split. It has my vote for the best MCU movie so far.

 Zootopia

On the surface an utterly irresistible film enjoyable by all ages, and under the surface, a commentary on racism and prejudice that handles its chosen theme with infinitely more tact than a film like Crash, which might as well be shrieking at you, Look at us, we’re handling racial tension! Part of why it works so well is that the whole animal society helps to give it a degree of separation from the real world, but it’s more than just its subtext: the world of Zootopia is absolutely charming, its titular city being constructed as a place that accommodates animals of all types and sizes, which leads to a very unique visual experience. And, of course, none of that would be possible without the perfectly-paced script rife with wit and heart. This is the kind of film that you can love as a teenager and still love it in your old age to show it to your grandkids, and I’m sure they’ll love it too. I haven’t seen Moana, but it’s from the same people who did this, so I’m sure it’ll come up a treat when I finally do. Also – yeah, the DMV scene is slightly overrated, although the overlong nature of it is part of the joke, but it gets totally justified when the proverbial brick falls back down in the last scene and we all just lol forever. (Fun fact: my film, music, book and video game libraries are all alphabetized, which makes Zootopia the very last film in my feature-film library before it starts again from the beginning of the alphabet for the TV-show library.)

 Kubo And The Two Strings

Stop-motion is an odd duck as far as filmmaking techniques go. It’s an astonishingly time-consuming and difficult way to make a movie (even moreso than regular filmmaking techniques), a way to get impossible creatures onto the screen before the advent of CGI. It’s stuck around, I think, partly because it’s so very charming and inimitable when done right. And it is done fucking right on this one. There are scenes in Kubo where I honestly forgot I wasn’t watching CG, that’s how seamless it is. The story itself is a tale of adventure and mysticism set in ancient Japan, and if that sounds good to you, you will like this. It’s so well scripted and acted, and has such a well-done emotional punch, that I knew after one viewing that this would be on my top-3. And from epic setpieces (including the largest stop-motion model ever constructed for a film) to a couple surprisingly intense fight sequences, this one won’t leave you wanting for excitement.

And I didn’t include it in the picture because it’s not exactly a new movie, but special mention goes out to the new Criterion set of Guillermo Del Toro’s Spanish-language films, Cronos, The Devil’s Backbone and Pan’s Labyrinth. Del Toro is one of my favourite living directors, equally at home in adrenaline-fueled blockbusters as he is with quieter mid-budget horror-dramas, and this set is absolutely breathtaking. It’s got a hefty price tag - it is Criterion, after all - but if you love the man’s work, it’s well worth your hard-earned scratch.

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My top 5 albums of 2016:

(Click the image for a better view)

1: Avantasia – Ghostlights

Tobias Sammet remains one of my favourite composers in the rock and metal sphere, and his latest work Ghostlights is an eclectic, impassioned album that has something for everybody. From the euphoric power metal barnstormer of the title track, to the ghostly, ethereal strains of The Haunting to the gothic crooning of Draconian Love, this is an album where all the individual pieces feel both distinct as well as cohesive as a whole. The lush production and wonderful guest performances accent the masterwork. Not every song is ideal; I find Isle Of Evermore, while soothing and palatable on its own, to be very much sub-par from the same composer who previously gave us such inspired ballads like Land Of The Miracle and Farewell. But the best tracks more than make up for it; Let The Storm Descend Upon You has my vote for song of the year. It’s my favourite Sammet epic since The Scarecrow, or perhaps even since Theater Of Salvation. Mechanically, perhaps it has shades of the previous album’s Savior In The Clockwork, but in terms of the emotional resonance of the performances and composition, this one just takes it to the next level. Both an ear worm that obliterates most of what Virgin Radio calls catchy and a magnificent rock symphony on its own, with a stunning chorus that just sweeps completely over you, this is one to hear, and it’s on my personal Album Of The Year. (The rest of the albums on this list are in no particular order, though.)

2: Vektor – Terminal Redux

“Sci-fi or die!” The band’s impromptu slogan sums it all up. This third album from these Arizona thrashers brings the band to new heights of sonic madness. Vektor are a walking paradox, managing somehow to be everything at once: melodic yet aggressive, technical yet straightforward, furious yet intelligent. Not everyone can blend thrash metal epics with angelic choral vocals and elegant soft sections effectively. Their vocals wail like a human steam whistle, over jagged riffs that crash upon one another like a choppy tide. If you’re a thrash metal fan, Vektor are essential, and this album sees them at the peak of their cosmic powers.

3: Machinae Supremacy – Into The Night World

Okay, this is going to sound suspicious, since I’m self-admittedly mildly nepotistic when it comes to creators that I personally know, and Gaz – singer of Machinae Supremacy – is an associate of mine, but you’ll just have to take my word for it when I tell you that Into The Night World really is just that awesome. Or better yet, go and check it out for yourself. This dropped right before Christmas, so I didn’t exactly have time to digest it like with the rest of these albums, but sometimes you just have to go with your gut. For the uninitiated, it’s difficult to compare Machinae Supremacy to anything but themselves; blending elements of power metal’s melodic edge with a very “video game-y” sound thanks to their liberal use of the SID sound chip, with lyrics that reference all the stuff you love (previous song titles include Perfect Dark and Killer Instinct, and the final sound on their Overworld album is a Metroid sample). This album doesn’t deviate tremendously from their winning formula, but it does a great job of distilling it. Given time, I think this might tie with Rise Of A Digital Nation and A View From The End Of The World as my favourite MaSu release.

4: Myrath – Legacy

It would be technically inaccurate to call Myrath the Arabian Kamelot, since I don’t know if their native Tunisia would count as Arabia, but just try listening to their new album without the sights of ancient Arabian markets and wisping sands filling your mind. And instead of simply coasting on their unique sound, Myrath use it to craft superb melodies and well-crafted music that would stand on its own no matter which region it hailed from. But it is a consistent sound that carries throughout the album, be it the uplifting strains of Get Your Freedom Back, the ear-wormy Other Side or the majestic swells of I Want To Die. If you’re interested in Kamelot-esque power/prog or simply in music from Myrath’s part of the world, you won’t want to miss Legacy.

 5: Avenged Sevenfold – The Stage

A complex, dense album, but ultimately a rewarding one, Avenged Sevenfold’s latest sees them packing in more ingenuity than some bands do in a whole career. The band’s signature knack for crafting catchy melodies and hooks is still there, like in Paradigm, the closest thing this album comes to being centered around those things, but overall they aren’t the focus. Instead, these layered compositions reveal more of themselves over numerous listens, and headphones are a must. Lyrically the album is themed around issues of futurism and transhumanism (as in, human augmentation through cybernetics, and the sociopolitical issues that it will involve), and anything involving futurism is my catnip, so I’m game. All the musicians are on point, and new drummer Brooks Wackerman, formerly of Bad Religion – from a genre not exactly known for complex Mike Portnoy-esque percussion – demonstrates that he can do pretty much bloody anything, from easy rock beats to the seemingly effortless blastbeats under the surprising-but-awesome tremolo picking in the verses of Fermi Paradox. Roman Sky proves itself an inspired ballad, seemingly about the trial of Giordano Bruno, as also seen in the first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey. Epic album-closer Exist works in three acts: the metal instrumental, a balladic midsection with Shadows singing, and finally the album centerpiece: as the band provides an instrumental backdrop, Neil Degrasse Tyson pops in with an inspired spoken-word section about the majesty of the stars, the petty divisions of humanity and the necessity of space exploration, which he both wrote and performed especially for this album. It’s spine-chilling.

 Honourable mentions:

Epica – The Holographic Principle: This one was really close. Really, really close. Splitting hairs with an electron laser, really. Actually, this probably would have made the top five if Avenged Sevenfold’s Tyson guest appearance wasn’t so spellbinding. This album does everything right, masterful symphonic metal spiced with scorching moments of extremity and moments of beauty to send a chill down your spine. I actually think it might be their best yet.

Helion Prime - Helion Prime: superb sci-fi-themed power metal. Truth be told, this probably would have made the top 5 if I had realized this came out this year instead of 2015 while I was making the list, and I’m editing this in afterwards, but I need to mention it here. For a first full-length album, this is totally awesome. I can only imagine where they’ll be in a few years if they keep this up. I would describe them as a sound similar to Seven Kingdoms, especially their singer, and with a lyrical pallet for fans of Keldian, so if you’re a fan of either band, you need to hear this.

Billy Talent – Afraid Of Heights: The title track has all the makings of an iconic and cinematic anthem, and they even did us the courtesy of including the uptempo original as well as a more atmospheric version on opposite ends of the album. But what strikes me most about this album is how angry and political it is, tempering rage with their brand of energetic, upbeat, occasionally shouty melody: Big Red Gun rails against the politicized lobbyists who refuse to budge despite countless mass shootings, while This Is Our War indicts those who foster anti-Muslim sentiments because of the bad apples (“Seeds of intolerance turn into flowers”), and February Winds counsels simple human kindness instead of nativist paranoia when it comes to Syrian refugees. Trump supporters aren’t going to be happy with this album. Too bad, because it’s one of the best rock releases of the year.

Mary’s Blood – Fate: One of Japan’s best metal exports of the year, Fate’s riffs rip and tear while vocalist Eye proves she can sing like an angel and snarl like a demon. Change The Fate is one of the band’s best songs, right up there with Promised Land and Moebius Loop. Speaking of all-woman metal from Japan, Cyntia’s new album sees them returning to putting rock and metal back in their music on the new album Urban Night, which is great, but I need to listen to that more to form a solid opinion. Speaking of Japan, the new Gargoyle is pretty boss; that album is a skullfucking adrenaline rush. It’s like they hired a dude whose whole job was to stand in the studio and scream ‘SPEED THE FUCK UP, MOTHERFUCKERS!’ into their ear whenever their dropped tempo. It’s good fun. But now I’m just cheating and trying to cram as many different albums into this as I can get away with, and now I stop.

And as far as individual songs go, Spit Out The Bone might be my favourite Metallica track since Disposable Heroes. And I just have to mention Power Quest – Face The Raven for being so obviously inspired by the Doctor Who episode of the same name, and Chthe’ilist – Tales Of The Majora Mythos Part I for being based on The Legend Of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. Awesome.

Whittling down the top 5 was really hard; this was a great year for music, as pretty much every year is if you know where to look.

And in case you were wondering, I took a photo assembled from my collection just because it’s a personal touch instead of just grabbing album art online.

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So I was downtown Toronto on Boxing Day...

Saw one of those really fine acts of kindness, where a woman bought a full takeout meal and gave it to a homeless man. I didn’t see whether she bought it just for him, or bought it for herself and then decided that he needed it more, but it’s really the giving that counts.

Oh, and she was wearing a hijab. Just throwing that out there.

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If you're a Dark Souls fan and feeling down this Christmas season...

Just think about, or look up on YouTube, the people who use the invasion feature in the Dark Souls games to go in your other players' worlds while getting as close as they can to a Santa cosplay, drop an item for the player to receive (sometimes a really great/rare item) without attacking the player, and then repeat this for as many worlds as they can. The Santa cosplayer gains nothing from this, losing the item in the process, and only does it because it'll make some people smile. Christmas cheer, Lothric style.

[camroundabout]

In the early stages of decorating the tree. I am so stereotypically Canadian right now.

[camroundabout]

trying to get your story together like: