Blog Archives
Theme Thursday: The Halloween Playlist To Have Nightmares To
Last year I made up my ultimate Halloween playlist for metalheads looking to dress in motley, down some beer and Jager shots, and have a good time. The songs on that list carried an up beat energy and worked well with a party atmosphere. This year I’d like to make another playlist, but instead of focusing on having a good time, this list is going to contain music made to make the listener uncomfortable and all round f’ with their head. The songs (if you would call some of them that) presented here would fit right at home in one of those really well done haunted hay rides, haunted house, or an abandoned insane asylum that has a few nutcases roaming the halls. Some of the music here isn’t technically metal (or even ‘music’), but one thing it will do is scare the living daylights out of you or any unsuspecting visitor you play it for. Enjoy! Peace Love and Metal!!!
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Some More Cool Games to Check Out
Continuing with a post I made about some cool games to check out if you’re on a budget (but should still check out even if you’re not), here’s some more great games I’ve played that are worthy of your attention. I’ll highlight both great indie games, classics that have aged well, as well as some modern AAA game that you can now find on the cheap. If you have any suggestions on some great games for those of us on a budget give them a shout out in the comments, as with music, I’m always on the lookout for great games to play. And if you are interested in hooking up with me for some PC gaming, you can find me on Steam with the user name RiffRaff79. So without further ado, here are some cool games to check out.
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Game Review: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Ten years ago it seemed that the survival horror genre of games was primed to take off. While it had existed for quite a few years previously, the advent of blockbuster titles such as the first 2 Resident Evil games and Silent Hill gave this terrifying genre a push into the mainstream audience. Using a minimal action, exploration based gameplay mechanic pitting players against unknown lurking evils with limited supplies and their wits as their best line of defense, these games scared the crap out of us all, and we loved it. Then when the PS2 era of consoles came around a little sequel named Silent Hill 2 found its way into horror fans homes. This game took the core mechanics of its predecessors and built on top of it a more twisted, cerebral tale and took the game’s atmosphere into an even darker territory. Everything about the game was perfect and a truly terrifying game was born. Born from its wake were some excellent games such as the Fatal Frame series as well as the re-invigoration of the Clock Tower series. Times were good for survival horror fans.
But on the other side of the survival horror genre there was a game making even bigger waves than the twisted worlds of Silent Hill and its like. I’m sure that just about all of you are well aware of the Resident Evil franchise. While its initial entries were great survival horror games they did have a deeper focus on action and using cheap ‘jump’ scares to make their games scary. You could say they were the Aliens to Silent Hill’s Alien. Their popularity became a huge influence in the genre and before long many imitators were found, even my beloved Silent Hill series which began to take a more combat focused approach after the 3rd entry in the series. Since then I have yet to find another game to go back to survival horror roots and make an attempt to match the tension and fear that Silent Hill 2 had done so eloquently. Then I caught wind of a little independently developed game called Amnesia: The Dark Descent.
Book Review-John Ajvide Lindqvist-Let the Right One In
Why am I writing about a book that seemingly has nothing at all to do with metal here? Well, in general, metal fans often tend to be fans of the horror genre and that is what Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist is. Also throughout the course of the book there are a good handful of references to Iron Maiden and Kiss which gives it metal cred in my book. That, and it is a really good read that you should check out.
Let the Right One In takes a genre of a specific class of horror monster that many have come to utterly despise due to a series of books and movies that hurled literary and cinematic filth all over, and puts an interesting twist on the classic creature. It takes the classic Gothic vampire and brings it to a modern-day setting and tells an endearing tale of puppy love. But before the big “T” word alarm goes off in your head, this is not anything like that literary excrement. Let the Right One In is a story involving brutal murder, alcoholics, shunned and bullied youth, and the most twisted tale of puppy love you will ever hear.
