#reviews — Public Fediverse posts

Lenovo Legion Go 2 Long-Term Review: Versatility, Still Unmatched #gaming #handheld #legiongo2 #lenovo #reviews

https://www.lowyat.net/2026/401335/lenovo-legion-go-2-long-term-review/

Lenovo Legion Go 2 Long-Term Review: Versatility, Still Unmatched #gaming #handheld #legiongo2 #lenovo #reviews

https://www.lowyat.net/2026/401335/lenovo-legion-go-2-long-term-review/

AEG Presents and Japan’s Creativeman Productions enter strategic

AEG Presents has entered into a strategic partnership with Creativeman Productions, bringing together the global live entertainment company and one of Japan’s lea…
#Japan #JP #JapanNews #concerts #gigsinsingapore #indiebandssingapore #jazzbandssingapore #livebands #livemusic #news #reviews #Singapore #sistic #tickets #upcomingconcerts
https://www.alojapan.com/1523388/aeg-presents-and-japans-creativeman-productions-enter-strategic/

https://www.alojapan.com/1523388/aeg-presents-and-japans-creativeman-productions-enter-strategic/ AEG Presents and Japan’s Creativeman Productions enter strategic #concerts #GigsInSingapore #IndieBandsSingapore #Japan #JapanNews #JazzBandsSingapore #LiveBands #LiveMusic #news #reviews #Singapore #sistic #tickets #UpcomingConcerts AEG Presents has entered into a strategic partnership with Creativeman Productions, bringing together the global live entertainment company and one of Japan’s leading concert promoters. 
 Announced on 1

‘The Wrong Girls’ Review: Kristen Stewart & Alia Shawkat Are Co-Dependent Buds Who Can Read Minds (And Coughs) In Heartfelt Stoner Comedy
#Reviews #AliaShawkat #DylanMeyer #KristenStewart #Neon #TheWrongGirls

https://deadline.com/2026/08/the-wrong-girls-review-kristen-stewart-alia-shawkat-stoner-1237032208/

‘The Wrong Girls’ Review: Kristen Stewart & Alia Shawkat Are Co-Dependent Buds Who Can Read Minds (And Coughs) In Heartfelt Stoner Comedy
#Reviews #AliaShawkat #DylanMeyer #KristenStewart #Neon #TheWrongGirls

https://deadline.com/2026/08/the-wrong-girls-review-kristen-stewart-alia-shawkat-stoner-1237032208/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Melanie Lynskey And Sunny Sandler Shine In Heartbreaking Coming Of Age True Story
#News #Reviews #Don039tSayGoodLuck #JuliaHart #MaxGreenfield #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #SunnySandler

https://deadline.com/2026/08/dont-say-good-luck-review-melanie-lynskey-sunny-sandler-1237031849/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Melanie Lynskey And Sunny Sandler Shine In Heartbreaking Coming Of Age True Story
#News #Reviews #Don039tSayGoodLuck #JuliaHart #MaxGreenfield #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #SunnySandler

https://deadline.com/2026/08/dont-say-good-luck-review-melanie-lynskey-sunny-sandler-1237031849/

GamerPauly`s Game of the Month (July)

https://gamerpauly.wordpress.com/2026/08/12/gamerpaulys-game-of-the-month-july/

GamerPauly`s Game of the Month (July)

https://gamerpauly.wordpress.com/2026/08/12/gamerpaulys-game-of-the-month-july/

Game Two daddelt mal wieder auf YouTube:

Die bizarre Welt der Bootleg-Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNLXco1Ndjg

#GameTwo #RocketBeans #RBTV #RocketBeansTv #gaming #review #preview #reviews #bootleg #illegalespiele #verbotenespiele #raubkopie #investigativ #absurdespiele #titanic #harrypotter #dragonball #titenic #hummerteam #hongkong97 #bizarrevideospiele #kriminellespiele #swatpolice #evilstone #hummercheng #harryslegend #crazybus #venezuela #90s #retro

Game Two daddelt mal wieder auf YouTube:

Die bizarre Welt der Bootleg-Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nNLXco1Ndjg

#GameTwo #RocketBeans #RBTV #RocketBeansTv #gaming #review #preview #reviews #bootleg #illegalespiele #verbotenespiele #raubkopie #investigativ #absurdespiele #titanic #harrypotter #dragonball #titenic #hummerteam #hongkong97 #bizarrevideospiele #kriminellespiele #swatpolice #evilstone #hummercheng #harryslegend #crazybus #venezuela #90s #retro

‘The Wrong Girls’ Review: Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat Save the Stoner Movie
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #AliaShawkat #DylanMeyer #Film #KristenStewart #Reviews #TheWrongGirls

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-wrong-girls-review-1235210080/

‘The Wrong Girls’ Review: Kristen Stewart and Alia Shawkat Save the Stoner Movie
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #AliaShawkat #DylanMeyer #Film #KristenStewart #Reviews #TheWrongGirls

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-wrong-girls-review-1235210080/

Tasmania—outside of their famous adorable screaming murder marsupials, I know basically nothing about the island. Recently, though, Tasmania’s The Absolution Sequence seized and held my attention with everything surrounding their debut record, Dread Cycle.1 Sublime cover art by Tasmanian artist Shaun Hyatt. Technical death metal that, according to promo, “balances high-velocity musical prowess with a deeply immersive, atmospheric undertone.” But what’s this? Three guitarists? Two drummers?!2 Is there any hope of hearing a bass guitar on this thing? How big is Dread Cycle really, and are The Absolution Sequence bad enough dudes to hold it all down? I had to know.

To address The Absolution Sequence’s qualifying trait as a tech-death band, I’ll start by stating that Dread Cycle is quite the technical feat. TAS’ three-pronged guitar attack of Stephen Cusato and Steven Mason on rhythm and Luke Tucker on lead deliver all the pressure-cooked heck you’d expect of the sub-genre, spinning busy, knotted riffs that strike and pop at odd times and angles. Hear the gnarly riffage on “This Sordid Miasma” and “Promethean Pilferage” and just soak it in. Rhythmically, drummers Nick Machin and Luke Sanderson deliver mechanically precise blasts and occasional Meshuggah kick-jank (“Ghost Mantra”) while—yes—Alastair Boon’s bass features prominently in arpeggiated leads [“Despotic Ruin (Diet of Worms)”] and popping and plucking beneath the riffs (“Diary of the Emaciated”). These dudes have chops for days, but somehow Dread Cycle is surprisingly reserved. Don’t expect Archspire-scaled showy excess with The Absolution Sequence, as Dread Cycle is the kind of layered technical showcase that’s more than happy to sneak up on you at times.

What sticks out foremost about Dread Cycle is how atmospheric and big it sounds. The Absolution Sequence regularly build these tidal waves of dissonant, discordant chords that make for eerie, cataclysmic atmospheres. Tracks like “The Nightlight Sigil” and “A Mire Caked Nativity,” even amidst it’s deeply frenetic playing, absolutely ooze dense, dreary mood. These movements of cavernous density stand in nice contrast to the typical tech-death chops heard elsewhere, offering cuts like “Despotic Ruin (Diet of Worms)” greater dynamism and balancing out “Idols of Confraternity”‘s wicked fast runs and bludgeoning chugs with simpler, harmonically rich parts. It keeps the audience from growing desensitized to the chaos, as is oft to happen in tech-death. The Absolution Sequence simply sound more focused than a lot of their peers, and with that focus comes weight. Dread Cycle doesn’t blow your mind through exceptional virtuosity but clobbers you with the enormity of its compositions.

But never does The Absolution Sequence’s technical ambitions or atmospheric inclinations ever detract from Dread Cycle’s serious bite. Delivering a varied and hostile vox attack, lead vocalist Shawn Wells drives TAS onto a warpath. Through confrontational and nasty growls on “Grinding the Sphere,” pissed-off Archspire speed spitting on “Diary of the Emaciated,” and downright (Tasmanian) devilish rasps on “Idols of Confraternity,” Wells spells out Dread Cycle’s ill-will in explicit terms. The rest of TAS match that vitriol. Their three guitarists are a restless unit, constantly finding new ways to layer airy leads over feverish riff-craft while the drumming on Dread Cycle never sacrifices punch for flair. This is tech-death of a distinctly modern bent, for sure, but there’s a timeless, plain deathly meanness to Dread Cycle that makes it cathartically heavy as well as dazzingly impressive to behold.

Dread Cycle is a true cyclone of aggression, but far more cogent and less slobbery than the one Tasmania is better known for. The Absolution Sequence found a distinct and deeply enjoyable brand of tech-death that stands out even in a crowded year for the sub-genre. It’s the kind of record that’s just hard to find negative things to say about, and one that has steadily grown on me over the time I’ve spent with it. Check out Dread Cycle if you like your shadowed treks through miasmatic realms of death thoroughly buckwild as well. You know I do.

Rating: Great
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Labels: Bleeding Art Collective and Blood Blast Distribution
Websites: theabsolutionsequence.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/theabsolutionsequence
Releases Worldwide: August 18th, 2026

Tasmania—outside of their famous adorable screaming murder marsupials, I know basically nothing about the island. Recently, though, Tasmania’s The Absolution Sequence seized and held my attention with everything surrounding their debut record, Dread Cycle.1 Sublime cover art by Tasmanian artist Shaun Hyatt. Technical death metal that, according to promo, “balances high-velocity musical prowess with a deeply immersive, atmospheric undertone.” But what’s this? Three guitarists? Two drummers?!2 Is there any hope of hearing a bass guitar on this thing? How big is Dread Cycle really, and are The Absolution Sequence bad enough dudes to hold it all down? I had to know.

To address The Absolution Sequence’s qualifying trait as a tech-death band, I’ll start by stating that Dread Cycle is quite the technical feat. TAS’ three-pronged guitar attack of Stephen Cusato and Steven Mason on rhythm and Luke Tucker on lead deliver all the pressure-cooked heck you’d expect of the sub-genre, spinning busy, knotted riffs that strike and pop at odd times and angles. Hear the gnarly riffage on “This Sordid Miasma” and “Promethean Pilferage” and just soak it in. Rhythmically, drummers Nick Machin and Luke Sanderson deliver mechanically precise blasts and occasional Meshuggah kick-jank (“Ghost Mantra”) while—yes—Alastair Boon’s bass features prominently in arpeggiated leads [“Despotic Ruin (Diet of Worms)”] and popping and plucking beneath the riffs (“Diary of the Emaciated”). These dudes have chops for days, but somehow Dread Cycle is surprisingly reserved. Don’t expect Archspire-scaled showy excess with The Absolution Sequence, as Dread Cycle is the kind of layered technical showcase that’s more than happy to sneak up on you at times.

What sticks out foremost about Dread Cycle is how atmospheric and big it sounds. The Absolution Sequence regularly build these tidal waves of dissonant, discordant chords that make for eerie, cataclysmic atmospheres. Tracks like “The Nightlight Sigil” and “A Mire Caked Nativity,” even amidst it’s deeply frenetic playing, absolutely ooze dense, dreary mood. These movements of cavernous density stand in nice contrast to the typical tech-death chops heard elsewhere, offering cuts like “Despotic Ruin (Diet of Worms)” greater dynamism and balancing out “Idols of Confraternity”‘s wicked fast runs and bludgeoning chugs with simpler, harmonically rich parts. It keeps the audience from growing desensitized to the chaos, as is oft to happen in tech-death. The Absolution Sequence simply sound more focused than a lot of their peers, and with that focus comes weight. Dread Cycle doesn’t blow your mind through exceptional virtuosity but clobbers you with the enormity of its compositions.

But never does The Absolution Sequence’s technical ambitions or atmospheric inclinations ever detract from Dread Cycle’s serious bite. Delivering a varied and hostile vox attack, lead vocalist Shawn Wells drives TAS onto a warpath. Through confrontational and nasty growls on “Grinding the Sphere,” pissed-off Archspire speed spitting on “Diary of the Emaciated,” and downright (Tasmanian) devilish rasps on “Idols of Confraternity,” Wells spells out Dread Cycle’s ill-will in explicit terms. The rest of TAS match that vitriol. Their three guitarists are a restless unit, constantly finding new ways to layer airy leads over feverish riff-craft while the drumming on Dread Cycle never sacrifices punch for flair. This is tech-death of a distinctly modern bent, for sure, but there’s a timeless, plain deathly meanness to Dread Cycle that makes it cathartically heavy as well as dazzingly impressive to behold.

Dread Cycle is a true cyclone of aggression, but far more cogent and less slobbery than the one Tasmania is better known for. The Absolution Sequence found a distinct and deeply enjoyable brand of tech-death that stands out even in a crowded year for the sub-genre. It’s the kind of record that’s just hard to find negative things to say about, and one that has steadily grown on me over the time I’ve spent with it. Check out Dread Cycle if you like your shadowed treks through miasmatic realms of death thoroughly buckwild as well. You know I do.

Rating: Great
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps MP3
Labels: Bleeding Art Collective and Blood Blast Distribution
Websites: theabsolutionsequence.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/theabsolutionsequence
Releases Worldwide: August 18th, 2026

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: The Movie Warner Bros. Shelved In 2023 Becomes Their Most Entertaining Film Of 2026 And Best Animated/Live Action ‘Toon Since ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’
#News #Reviews #CoyotevsAcme #JohnCena #KetchupEntertainment #LooneyTunes #WarnerBros #WillForte

https://deadline.com/2026/08/coyote-vs-acme-review-movie-warner-bros-shelved-2023-1237031528/

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: The Movie Warner Bros. Shelved In 2023 Becomes Their Most Entertaining Film Of 2026 And Best Animated/Live Action ‘Toon Since ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’
#News #Reviews #CoyotevsAcme #JohnCena #KetchupEntertainment #LooneyTunes #WarnerBros #WillForte

https://deadline.com/2026/08/coyote-vs-acme-review-movie-warner-bros-shelved-2023-1237031528/

‘The End Of Oak Street’ Review: Anne Hathaway And Ewan McGregor Try To Save Marriage By Battling Dinosaurs In A Rip-Roaring Ride Of A Summer Movie
#News #Reviews #AnneHathaway #DavidRobertMitchell #EwanMcGregor #TheEndofOakStreet

https://deadline.com/2026/08/the-end-of-oak-street-review-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-1237031428/

‘The End Of Oak Street’ Review: Anne Hathaway And Ewan McGregor Try To Save Marriage By Battling Dinosaurs In A Rip-Roaring Ride Of A Summer Movie
#News #Reviews #AnneHathaway #DavidRobertMitchell #EwanMcGregor #TheEndofOakStreet

https://deadline.com/2026/08/the-end-of-oak-street-review-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-1237031428/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Sunny Sandler and Melanie Lynskey Give Genuine Soul to Netflix’s Mother-Daughter Heartbreaker
#Variety #Reviews #AdamSandler #JuliaHart #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #SunnySandler

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/dont-say-good-luck-review-1236832816/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Sunny Sandler and Melanie Lynskey Give Genuine Soul to Netflix’s Mother-Daughter Heartbreaker
#Variety #Reviews #AdamSandler #JuliaHart #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #SunnySandler

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/dont-say-good-luck-review-1236832816/

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: Wile E. Coyote Stars in a Courtroom Comedy That Blends Cartoons and Live Action. But the Fizz of Anarchy Is Missing
#Variety #Reviews #CoyoteVsAcme #JohnCena #WileECoyote #WillForte

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/coyote-vs-acme-review-will-forte-wile-e-coyote-1236832065/

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: Wile E. Coyote Stars in a Courtroom Comedy That Blends Cartoons and Live Action. But the Fizz of Anarchy Is Missing
#Variety #Reviews #CoyoteVsAcme #JohnCena #WileECoyote #WillForte

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/coyote-vs-acme-review-will-forte-wile-e-coyote-1236832065/

‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: End-of-the-Summer Trash That’s Like a Loopier (and in Some Ways Better) ‘Jurassic’ Movie
#Variety #Reviews #AnneHathaway #EwanMcgregor #TheEndofOakStreet

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/the-end-of-oak-street-review-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-1236831473/

‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: End-of-the-Summer Trash That’s Like a Loopier (and in Some Ways Better) ‘Jurassic’ Movie
#Variety #Reviews #AnneHathaway #EwanMcgregor #TheEndofOakStreet

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/the-end-of-oak-street-review-anne-hathaway-ewan-mcgregor-1236831473/

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: Thank Goodness This Clever Comedy About the Evils of Corporate Greed Was Rescued from Corporate Hell
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #CoyotevsAcme #DaveGreen #Film #LooneyTunes #Reviews #WillForte

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/coyote-vs-acme-review-looney-tunes-live-action-comedy-1235209439/

‘Coyote vs. Acme’ Review: Thank Goodness This Clever Comedy About the Evils of Corporate Greed Was Rescued from Corporate Hell
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #CoyotevsAcme #DaveGreen #Film #LooneyTunes #Reviews #WillForte

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/coyote-vs-acme-review-looney-tunes-live-action-comedy-1235209439/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Melanie Lynskey and Sunny Sandler Are Trying to Break Your Heart
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #Don039tSayGoodLuck #Film #JuliaHart #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #Reviews #SunnySandler

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/dont-say-good-luck-review-lynskey-sandler-netflix-1235209747/

‘Don’t Say Good Luck’ Review: Melanie Lynskey and Sunny Sandler Are Trying to Break Your Heart
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #Don039tSayGoodLuck #Film #JuliaHart #MelanieLynskey #Netflix #Reviews #SunnySandler

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/dont-say-good-luck-review-lynskey-sandler-netflix-1235209747/

‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: David Robert Mitchell Delivers the Biggest Surprise of the Summer with the Best Dinosaur Movie Since 1993
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #DavidRobertMitchell #Film #Reviews #TheEndofOakStreet

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-end-of-oak-street-dinosaur-movie-review-1235210068/

‘The End of Oak Street’ Review: David Robert Mitchell Delivers the Biggest Surprise of the Summer with the Best Dinosaur Movie Since 1993
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #DavidRobertMitchell #Film #Reviews #TheEndofOakStreet

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/the-end-of-oak-street-dinosaur-movie-review-1235210068/

Here is the cover and some review quotes for my urban fantasy novel, Blood and Earth.

#book #novel #urbanfantasy #York #reviews #quotes #magic #action #mystery

Google Pixel 11 Pro: The Top Four Creator-Focused Features https://petapixel.com/2026/08/12/google-pixel-11-pro-the-top-four-creator-focused-features/ #Reviews #Mobile

Google Pixel 11 Pro: The Top Four Creator-Focused Features https://petapixel.com/2026/08/12/google-pixel-11-pro-the-top-four-creator-focused-features/ #Reviews #Mobile

Streaming Sleepers: In WICK IS PAIN, Wick Is Everything https://filmcombatsyndicate.com/streaming-sleepers-in-wick-is-pain-wick-is-everything/?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=mastodon #Reviews #StreamingSleepers #chadstahelski

It’s been a minute since I danced with a Rogga project. The man of a million bands is ever industrious and cranks out material like Doc Grier churns profanity in the AMG Slack channels. Megascavenger is one of Rogga’s countless projects, side quests, and diversions. Surprise, surprise, it’s Swedeath, and along with the HM-2 buzz and fuzz, there are a fuck ton of Rogga’s friends, contemporaries, and well-wishers included in the bone broth. We last covered Megascavenger on 2014s At the Plateaus of Leng, which was an enjoyable slab of Roggacore. Since then, the project dropped 3 full-lengths which we slept on, because no one can keep up with the Roggalanche. Now we get to 6th album, Toxic Noxious Undeath, where Rogga is joined by no less than 10 guest croakers of various levels of renown. The style is vintage d-beaty Swedeath, and the effort to stretch that well-trod style is nonexistent because Rogga cares not for progress. Can olde dawgs still provide tasty tricks using predictable tropes?

Surprisingly, yes. While Toxic Noxious Undeath is stock standard Swedeath on paper, Rogga and friends inject enough radioactive half-life into the material to make it an entertainingly brainless batch of grave biscuits and morgue dumplings. The gore party kicks off well with the urgent stomp of “Graveyard Screams and Boneyard Dreams,” where death metal legend Kam Lee (Death, Massacre) sallies forth with his nasty roars and monster noises to support a thrashing, bashing bit of fun with riffs for days. It’s the kind of Swedeath song Entombed or Dismember could have birthed in the early 90s, so the nostalgia factor is strong. What follows is a surprisingly spry collection of death nuggets. “Corpses Below” went in one ear and onto my gym playlist in the blink of an eye as Felix from Crematory powers a weirdly beefy, brawny but melancholic little ditty right into your memory hole. Before you know what hit you, you’re in the third movement, and “Exploding Casket Syndrome” is being guided by Erik Rundqvist of Vomitory. It’s a short and sharp deathster and instantly likeable. It could also fit on the average Vomitory release.

The unrelenting pace of the material is a big plus, with one burner transitioning into another. “Heading for the Furnace” is a bleak, nihilistic cut with a doomy vibe that works well without actually slowing things down much. While the ever-changing vocalists are noticeable, they don’t actually disrupt the album’s flow or make things feel scattershot. Some frontmen stand out more than others, but all do yeoman’s work. Dave Ingram of Benediction delivers the lumber on “A World of Fire and Brimstone,” and Michael H. Andersen of Thorium brings a crazed black metal energy to “Fleshburner Yearer.” Are some cuts more stock and generic than others? Sure. “As Purgatory Descends” is solid and punchy but feels like I’ve heard it somewhere a million times before, and closer, “The Morbid Rides Again” is big, beefy, and brainless, but kind of rudimentary. These are minor hiccups that don’t disrupt the flow or the fun in a meaningful way. With the album coming in at a wafer-thin 33 minutes and the songs all kept in the 2-3 minute window, Toxic Noxious Undeath is designed to hit hard, beat ass, and flee with your lunch money, and it accomplishes this.

What can be said about a Rogga project? The man handles all the guitar work, and he’s an expert at slapping the listener around with sturdy Swedeath riffs and harmonies. His playing elevates songs like the title track by injecting memorable hooks and ear-catching little change-ups. While not every project of his has a long shelf-life, he can drop successful albums, and this does enough things right to be one of them. The riffs come fast and furious, and the songwriting is good enough to fend off Swedeath fatigue. There’s a raw energy coursing through the album, and Rogga’s playing is the source. The murderer’s row handling voKills add texture and dynamism to the material without knocking things off the rails. It’s a successful, if not world-shaking, combination.

Toxic Noxious Undeath is a good enough example of what Megascavenger is up to these days to make me want to check out the albums I missed since 2014. If you want a 33-minute dose of classic Swedeath goonery delivered by a rogue’s gallery of death vets, you could do much worse than this. Rogga can still deliver the nasty goods when the stars align. Looks like it’s your lucky day.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Xtreme Music
Website: facebook.com/megascavenger
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

It’s been a minute since I danced with a Rogga project. The man of a million bands is ever industrious and cranks out material like Doc Grier churns profanity in the AMG Slack channels. Megascavenger is one of Rogga’s countless projects, side quests, and diversions. Surprise, surprise, it’s Swedeath, and along with the HM-2 buzz and fuzz, there are a fuck ton of Rogga’s friends, contemporaries, and well-wishers included in the bone broth. We last covered Megascavenger on 2014s At the Plateaus of Leng, which was an enjoyable slab of Roggacore. Since then, the project dropped 3 full-lengths which we slept on, because no one can keep up with the Roggalanche. Now we get to 6th album, Toxic Noxious Undeath, where Rogga is joined by no less than 10 guest croakers of various levels of renown. The style is vintage d-beaty Swedeath, and the effort to stretch that well-trod style is nonexistent because Rogga cares not for progress. Can olde dawgs still provide tasty tricks using predictable tropes?

Surprisingly, yes. While Toxic Noxious Undeath is stock standard Swedeath on paper, Rogga and friends inject enough radioactive half-life into the material to make it an entertainingly brainless batch of grave biscuits and morgue dumplings. The gore party kicks off well with the urgent stomp of “Graveyard Screams and Boneyard Dreams,” where death metal legend Kam Lee (Death, Massacre) sallies forth with his nasty roars and monster noises to support a thrashing, bashing bit of fun with riffs for days. It’s the kind of Swedeath song Entombed or Dismember could have birthed in the early 90s, so the nostalgia factor is strong. What follows is a surprisingly spry collection of death nuggets. “Corpses Below” went in one ear and onto my gym playlist in the blink of an eye as Felix from Crematory powers a weirdly beefy, brawny but melancholic little ditty right into your memory hole. Before you know what hit you, you’re in the third movement, and “Exploding Casket Syndrome” is being guided by Erik Rundqvist of Vomitory. It’s a short and sharp deathster and instantly likeable. It could also fit on the average Vomitory release.

The unrelenting pace of the material is a big plus, with one burner transitioning into another. “Heading for the Furnace” is a bleak, nihilistic cut with a doomy vibe that works well without actually slowing things down much. While the ever-changing vocalists are noticeable, they don’t actually disrupt the album’s flow or make things feel scattershot. Some frontmen stand out more than others, but all do yeoman’s work. Dave Ingram of Benediction delivers the lumber on “A World of Fire and Brimstone,” and Michael H. Andersen of Thorium brings a crazed black metal energy to “Fleshburner Yearer.” Are some cuts more stock and generic than others? Sure. “As Purgatory Descends” is solid and punchy but feels like I’ve heard it somewhere a million times before, and closer, “The Morbid Rides Again” is big, beefy, and brainless, but kind of rudimentary. These are minor hiccups that don’t disrupt the flow or the fun in a meaningful way. With the album coming in at a wafer-thin 33 minutes and the songs all kept in the 2-3 minute window, Toxic Noxious Undeath is designed to hit hard, beat ass, and flee with your lunch money, and it accomplishes this.

What can be said about a Rogga project? The man handles all the guitar work, and he’s an expert at slapping the listener around with sturdy Swedeath riffs and harmonies. His playing elevates songs like the title track by injecting memorable hooks and ear-catching little change-ups. While not every project of his has a long shelf-life, he can drop successful albums, and this does enough things right to be one of them. The riffs come fast and furious, and the songwriting is good enough to fend off Swedeath fatigue. There’s a raw energy coursing through the album, and Rogga’s playing is the source. The murderer’s row handling voKills add texture and dynamism to the material without knocking things off the rails. It’s a successful, if not world-shaking, combination.

Toxic Noxious Undeath is a good enough example of what Megascavenger is up to these days to make me want to check out the albums I missed since 2014. If you want a 33-minute dose of classic Swedeath goonery delivered by a rogue’s gallery of death vets, you could do much worse than this. Rogga can still deliver the nasty goods when the stars align. Looks like it’s your lucky day.

Rating: 3.0/5.0
DR: 8 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Xtreme Music
Website: facebook.com/megascavenger
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‘Wandering Trees’ Review: Iconoclastic Director Salvatore Mereu Tries a Newly Minted Fairyale, but Only Fitfully Finds Magic
#Variety #Reviews #LocarnoFilmFestival #SalvatoreMereu #WanderingTrees

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/wandering-trees-review-1236832835/

‘Wandering Trees’ Review: Iconoclastic Director Salvatore Mereu Tries a Newly Minted Fairyale, but Only Fitfully Finds Magic
#Variety #Reviews #LocarnoFilmFestival #SalvatoreMereu #WanderingTrees

https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/wandering-trees-review-1236832835/

On Tolstoy’s War and Peace: I Came for Napoleon, I Stay for Life

“There’s a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for freedom, I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army; but to help England and Austria against the greatest men in the world is not right.” (p. 25)

For so many years, one man from Corsica led thousands of people to think and act as he did. He was there in every man’s deepest thoughts. He was there, either loved by his followers or hated by his opponents. In the 1800s, Europe was fueled by the Great Men Theory, the idea that one man could lead a war and rule from nothing.

How one single man can change the fate of thousands of people.

Napoleon fit this theory. After all, it was only because of him that those Prussian beasts got tamed. It was because of him that the whole of Europe faced war, which eventually led to revolution. Because of him, some paradigms changed.

Until he met Russia.

In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Napoleon’s collective defeats against Russia were a short explanation, but the dismantling of his greatness and Tolstoy’s attempts to make him an ordinary man required Tolstoy’s great effort, which led us through thousands of pages of an extraordinary story. It captures Russia’s struggles to shape itself in the vast, changing Europe. As I try to write my review here, I used Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translation, which kept the most dialogues and speeches of Russian elites in French.

“It’s impossible not to admit,” Prince Andrei went on, “that Napoleon was a great man on the bridge of Arcole, and in the Jaffa hospital, when he shook hands with the plague victims, but… there are other acts which are hard to justify.” (p. 21)

In War and Peace, people of Russia were divided between supporting Russia and the Tsar, or secretly considering that Napoleon was that good. The great men theory’s fever was also seizing some significant part of Russia, in St. Petersburg, to be exact. The faithful supporters of Russia lived in Moscow, or the old Russia. Between those two distinctives society, there was Pierre Bezukhov, whose journey feels like the journey of Russia itself: finding its space in the vast, changing Europe and the world.

The Dismantling of Glorious and Honorable Life

Alongside Pierre, the altered Russia and Europe were also being shown through other characters’ POV: Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova, and Nikolai Rostov. Pierre and Andrei, just like the youth in Russia back then, idolized Napoleon. Tolstoy made them excited to embrace the changing of the world and to leave the old way of Russia. On the contrary, Nikolai Rostov loved his Tsar, Alexander I. Prince Andrei and Nikolai joined the Russian army and entered the Battle of Austerlitz with their original idealization towards those leaders, only to be disappointed and heartbroken.

Prince Andrei joined Russia’s campaign against France with one noble thought: that it would be chivalrous, that it would define the life of Russia’s elite society as their noble tasks required them to, and to let the mundane, artificial life of rich society slide. To have bravery, dignity, and meaning in life. Meanwhile, Nikolai joined the army for the noble faithfulness towards the Tsar, and to prove himself as the future Count Rostov. To bring the old value of Russia, and to finally see the world beyond his idyllic family.

But war is not the place to see the world. Oh what a naïve thinking they had.

Soon they both realized the cost of war, and the true face of their idols. Prince Andrei did actually meet Napoleon during his most vulnerable moment. Lying on the ground, only with the wide sky above him, realizing that he was only one of the chess pieces in the great flow of life and history, realizing that there is indeed a bigger power that works above him, there he met Napoleon, who disturbed him from the realization. During that time, Prince Andrei was able to compare Napoleon with God, and he realized that Napoleon was a mere human just like him. All the great fantasy of war, of the generals, of him, were torn apart. War is not the place to see the world or to chase happiness.

“He had a burning in his head; he felt that he was losing blood, and he saw above him that distant, lofty, and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon — his hero — but at that moment, Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant man compared with what was now happening between his soul and this lofty, infinite sky with clouds racing across it. To him it was all completely the same at that moment who was standing over him or what he said about him; he was only glad that people had stopped over him and only wished that those people would help him and bring him back to life, which seemed so beautiful to him, because he now understood it so differently.” (p. 291)

Nikolai disappoinment’s came longer than Andrei’s. It was until Tilsit Treaty which made him felt betrayed by Tsar. All this time, he thought Tsar would always against Napoleon, and the former alliance which Russia shared was meant something. But then in one morning on July 7 1807, he saw Tsar Alexander I shared a table with Napoleon and agreed to divide European spheres of influence. They soon combined forces to against England.

“Now he remembered Denisov with his changed expression, his submission, and the whole hospital with those torn-off arms and legs, that filth and disease. He imagined so vividly now that hospital stench of dead flesh that he looked around to see where the stench could be coming from. Then he remembered that self-satisfied Bonaparte with his white little hand, who was now emperor, whom the emperor Alexander liked and respected. Why, then, those torn-off arms and legs, those dead people? Then he remembered the rewarded Lazarev and Denisov punished and unforgiven. He caught himself in such strange thoughts that it made him frightened.” (p. 416)

Contrary to Prince Andrei, Nikolai accepted his fate as one of the troops owned by Russia. He was still faithful to Tsar Alexander I.

“We’re not diplomatic officials, we’re soldiers and nothing more,” he went on. “We’re told to die — and we die. If we’re punished, it means we’re guilty; it’s not for us to judge. If it pleases the sovereign emperor to recognize Bonaparte as emperor and conclude an alliance with him — it means it has to be so. And if we start judging and reasoning about everything, then there’ll be nothing sacred left. Next we’ll be saying there’s no God, no anything.” (p. 416)

The severe and painful realization that their illusions fell apart feels devastating, and it changes something inside of their core belief. But it brought the different results to both of them. Prince Andrei was looking for eternal glory, and Tolstoy brutally crushed his romanticization about the glory itself through Battle of Austerlitz. He realized that he was lost, and he had to find the way to live his life after the philosophical transformations. Prince Andrei begun to be skeptical about the great narration of life and humanity’s fate. Learning that the glory was insignificant, Prince Andrei suddenly losing all his faith at once.

Nikolai, however, was once a romantic young man with an optimistic views about Russia. He loved Tsar, Russia, his own regiment, and the pride as an officer. War gave him an identity, and Battle of Austerlitz did destroy his idealization of war, yet it did not destroy his faith. In one of the most dangerous time of his life, he held his idealism so strong, because it was the core of his identity. His test was Treaty of Tilsit, which gave him some moral crisis. Yet he chose to ignore politics and stay faithful to Tsar Alexander I. He chose faithfulness over interpretation.

False Interpretation of Love

As their life unfolded, love entered three men’s hearts. Prince Andrei, once was a married man before the war, lost his wife during stillbirth. In his early post-Austerlitz life, he was a somber, bitter man, disappointed with how shallow glorious life he chase, and felt guilty for his wife’s fate. Then life gave him another chance to fall in love when Natasha Rostova enter his life.

“She doesn’t care at all about my existence!” Prince Andrei thought all the while he was listening to her talk, for some reason expecting and fearing that she would say something about him. “And she again! As if on purpose!” he thought. In his soul there suddenly arose such an unexpected tangle of youthful thoughts and hopes, contradictory to his whole life, that, feeling himself unable to comprehend his own fate, he fell asleep at once. (p. 422)

Natasha gave him hopes, spirits, and she captivated his soul to finally realize that his life is not over yet.

“Life isn’t over at the age of thirty-one.” (p. 423)
(this line is personally my favorite because I read this novel when I was 31 and it feels like telling myself that my life isn’t over at the age of 31. Thank you again, Tolstoy)

This event was canonical in the book. Natasha has grown so beautiful and at her prime age, and she was falling in love with Prince Andrei the way he loved her back. Yet it was not the ending Tolstoy set to them. The reason for that was way harsher. During that time, Russia was also in the fragile mutual alliance with French, formed previously by Treaty of Tilsit. Then the life of Russian elites and old aristocrats begun to altered. Tsar Alexander I rushed the country to choose liberal-proletarian approach.

“This was the time of the preparation not only of the two famous decrees which so alarmed society, on the abolition of court ranks and on examinations for the ranks of collegiate assessor and state councillor, but also of an entire state constitution, which was supposed to change the existing judicial, administrative, and financial order of management in Russia, from the council of state to the local board.” (p. 424)

During this time, Alexander I and Napoleon shared some new vibrant ideas about those vague liberal dreams, oddly placed in the old aristocratic life of Russia. The country faced an identity crisis they never knew, while the young leader still hadn’t figured out that the mutual was artificial. Yet, this identity crisis was also haunting Prince Andrei. At first, I thought these two issues weren’t relate. I thought Tolstoy was telling me about individuals. Then he kept interrupting their stories with history. Eventually, I began to wonder whether this interruption was the point.

Prince Andrei during that time was a fan and a skeptical one for Mikhail Speransky.

“In general, the main feature that struck Prince Andrei in Speransky’s mind was his unquestionable, unshakable faith in the power and legitimacy of reason. It was clear that the notion, so usual for Prince Andrei, that it was after all impossible to express everything one thinks, would never have entered Speransky’s head, and it never occurred to him to wonder, isn’t everything I think and believe sheer nonsense? And that special cast of Speransky’s mind attracted Prince Andrei most of all.” (p. 432)

Andrei himself was an admirer of Montesquieu (The Spirit of Law). His thesis was basically that nobility is the check and balance systems for monarchy, thus weakening them would make monarch change into despotism. Andrei said to Speransky that if Tsar ignored noble’s thought, Russia would change to despotism. He wished to disagree Speransky and all his liberal ideas, but Speransky’s feature struck him. I think Prince Andrei was once again be fooled with the idea of smart men. He was admiring Speransky, which was like his admiration to Napoleon. He felt honored when a civil like Speransky gave him a title or a job. I think deep down he felt ashamed with the old Russia, with his own father. His father traumatized him, and this was when Natasha entered his mind as his hope for the new Russia. Natasha felt like a last hope he had for the new world.

Sadly, in his love to Natasha, Andrei failed to see it as it should have been: domestic, idyllic life, with mundane activities, and beliefs that the soul of Russia is in their house. But what can be said about Prince Andrei? He got so many privileges: good education, good network, and just like his sister Princess Marie thought, it was not his nature to stop at mundane life.

During this time, love was something stable all the protagonists looked for because all the identity crisis they were facing. Pierre Bezukhov, once an outsider both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, suddenly being in the center of attention briefly after marrying Helene Kuragin. Sadly the relationship was too crowded and Helene was only looking for some money Pierre had after being the Count Bezukhov. After that Pierre was really lost and he felt it, so he joined the Masonry to look for any happiness. But it wasn’t the most ideal solution.

“Are we to favour revolutions, overthrow everything, drive out force by force? No… we are very far from that. Every violent reform is blameworthy, because it will not set evil to rights in the least, as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need of violence.” (p. 435)

He was being a pacifist in the Masonry and it did not end well. More important, Pierre searched for a meaning during the instability of Russia. At least he knew what was missing from his life — which happened by a bad marriage and disastrous money management — and he tried to fix it. In his diary, he was screaming for help.

For Nikolai Rostov, love was a bit different. All his childhood, he spent his times to love Sonya, and saved a thought for himself that Sonya was enough. It changed drastically after Austerlitz, as he went home, still finding Sonya so beautiful, yet not ready for marrying her. The simplicity of his house, of Natasha, was the one keeping him alive until all that time. He aimed for the idleness without he even realized it but Sonya was not in his mind to have it. Or maybe, it was being shaped in his mind and he realized it after the war, but the idleness with Sonya didn’t amuse him. There was still a whole world to be explored, a whole adultness for him to be experienced in order being the future Count Rostov.

“The love of idleness remained the same in fallen men, but the curse still weighs on man, and not only because we must win our bread in the sweat of our face, but because our moral qualities are such that we are unable to be idle and at peace. A secret voice tells us that we should feel guilty for being idle. If man could find a condition in which, while idle, he felt that he was being useful and was fulfilling his duty, he would have found one side of primordial bleedness.” (p. 488)

I think Nikolai also realized that the way his father let idleness live and ruled out the money issue being taken care by some other people had costed them too much. The irony was they were smart and educated, rich, yet they were unable to deal with their financial lives and were in hands of whoever was doing their accounting. Rostovs was offered a safety net with Prince Andrei and Natasha’s engagement. But soon it fell off. Andrei and Natasha’s relationship was fragile from the beginning. There was a gap between them, a gap between knowing and understanding. Natasha wasn’t only his love interest, but also a representation of the life he failed to respect after all this time. He loved the life represented by Natasha, yet he still tried to understand it, miserably, within the grasp of a person who look for a meaning through grand ideas. He would never reach that simplicity.

Tolstoy seemed to spend thousands of pages showing his men trying to escape idleness, only to reveal that what they eventually seek may be another form of it. Natasha’s domestic and seemingly simple life can look idle from the perspective of men who have spent their lives searching for glory, reform, purpose, or historical significance. Yet perhaps Tolstoy’s point is exactly that this kind of idleness is closer to life than the frantic activity of men trying to make themselves significant.

Borodino

As you began to love some of the main characters as they felt more like your friends and family, yet you already knew the fate that awaited them in 1812. The Battle of Borodino hold significant part of the book as entering the third volume and the first thing Tolstoy’s discussed was how Napoleon betrayed Tsar Alexander I. The arcs for all the characters were getting more complicated, as well as the relationship between Russia and the world. As Napoleon tried to enter the country, some found him fascinating, some found him as a threat. The distinctive views both St. Petersburg and Moscow’s elites society held to the war and to the great men were actually more accurate for today’s society. Yet between that great war and between the clash of some greatest generals, human failed to see that they don’t really control history. As the kings are the slaves of history, and so are we. No one is really in control, as history moves through forces far greater than any individual can comprehend.

Pierre, still struggling to find meaning, tried his best to help Natasha and Prince Andrei recovering from the failed engagement. Still a naïve at heart, after funding the regiment, he had a personal responsibility to support the Russian army, while searching for the deeper meaning of life. Pierre was also driven by a naïve and bewildered fascination with the heroism of the common soldiers. After the war, he decided to stay in Moscow after its evacuation, convinced that it’s his job to assassinate Napoleon. After joining the Masonry, Pierre worked himself into a romanticized and messianic state of mind. He believed that assassinating Napoleon will either end his own wandering existence or stop the misery of the entire continent.

During Moscow burning, Pierre was parting ways with the Rostovs, including with Natasha as they fled the city. His adventure in Moscow was one of the most harrowing thing ever written in literature. Pierre wanders a city engulfed in flames and when he tried to save the Muscovites, he was captured by the French troops. In his captivity, Pierre befriended a man who still saw beauty in life even when he was injured. This changed his spiritual journey all at once.

When the Rostovs fled from Moscow, all the carriages for their fortunes were ended up being used for the injured soldiers. Eventually, they realized that one of the injured soldiers was Prince Andrei himself, who was dying after Battle of Borodino. A tearful apology from Natasha came, followed by nursing and caring from Natasha to Andrei during his final days. His sister, Princess Marie, came with his young son. During this time, the relationship between Andrei and Natasha, and Nikolai with Princess Marie, were being tested. Previously, Princess Maria was stuck in one of the Bolkonsky’s estate with her ill father. Her father died quickly and the French troops was getting closer to her. All her muzhiks refused to let her go, until Nikolai came with his army and saved her. From there, their relationship begun to grow slowly and it seemed to grow to the right direction. Then after Nikolai was ready to propose her, the news about Prince Andrei came.

But Prince Andrei, came to Borodino with a different perspective before Austerlitz, finally realized that all he seeks before was the lofty simplicity of life, because life itself was already grand without the grand ideas. Finally he was able to forgive people that wronged him, and he realized that his love to Natasha was bigger than ever before, but his final days was getting shorter, as he no longer have the spirit to live in the new world. When he finally being so closed to the lofty fate he could choose, he was unable to have it.

The Rostovs lost Petya soon after Prince Andrei’s death. Count Rostov was dying shortly after, and finally, Nikolai became the new Count Rostov, with a huge debt, an ill mother who longed for her death son and their past glorious days, and a silent love he wished to forget. Even after the war, their fate was not in the best of days. Princess Marie begun to have a friendship with Natasha and during Natasha’s hardest days after Andrei’s death. Peace was formed when Natasha was reunited with Pierre and they both comforted each other after all they had lost. Princess Marie, once devastated after losing her father and her brother, finally had the courage to fall in love with Nikolai Rostov. Her simple, humble and devotion towards religion were the reasons Nikolai loved her and dared enough to eventually married her even though he was impoverished. Soon after both two families were finally in peace and happiness. But even when the war was long behind them, Andrei’s old memories was still intact in both of the families, as Nikolai considered it as the old Russian’s shadow lingering the new world.

I started this book wondering how one man could change the fate of thousands. I finished it wondering why I had ever thought that changing history was the measure of a meaningful life. As I finished this book this year, I realized that life itself is a meaning, life is as lofty as the ideas of life, and even an act as simple as surviving is already meaningful as a human being.

On Tolstoy’s War and Peace: I Came for Napoleon, I Stay for Life

“There’s a war now against Napoleon. If it were a war for freedom, I could understand it and should be the first to enter the army; but to help England and Austria against the greatest men in the world is not right.” (p. 25)

For so many years, one man from Corsica led thousands of people to think and act as he did. He was there in every man’s deepest thoughts. He was there, either loved by his followers or hated by his opponents. In the 1800s, Europe was fueled by the Great Men Theory, the idea that one man could lead a war and rule from nothing.

How one single man can change the fate of thousands of people.

Napoleon fit this theory. After all, it was only because of him that those Prussian beasts got tamed. It was because of him that the whole of Europe faced war, which eventually led to revolution. Because of him, some paradigms changed.

Until he met Russia.

In Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Napoleon’s collective defeats against Russia were a short explanation, but the dismantling of his greatness and Tolstoy’s attempts to make him an ordinary man required Tolstoy’s great effort, which led us through thousands of pages of an extraordinary story. It captures Russia’s struggles to shape itself in the vast, changing Europe. As I try to write my review here, I used Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky’s translation, which kept the most dialogues and speeches of Russian elites in French.

“It’s impossible not to admit,” Prince Andrei went on, “that Napoleon was a great man on the bridge of Arcole, and in the Jaffa hospital, when he shook hands with the plague victims, but… there are other acts which are hard to justify.” (p. 21)

In War and Peace, people of Russia were divided between supporting Russia and the Tsar, or secretly considering that Napoleon was that good. The great men theory’s fever was also seizing some significant part of Russia, in St. Petersburg, to be exact. The faithful supporters of Russia lived in Moscow, or the old Russia. Between those two distinctives society, there was Pierre Bezukhov, whose journey feels like the journey of Russia itself: finding its space in the vast, changing Europe and the world.

The Dismantling of Glorious and Honorable Life

Alongside Pierre, the altered Russia and Europe were also being shown through other characters’ POV: Prince Andrei Bolkonsky, Natasha Rostova, and Nikolai Rostov. Pierre and Andrei, just like the youth in Russia back then, idolized Napoleon. Tolstoy made them excited to embrace the changing of the world and to leave the old way of Russia. On the contrary, Nikolai Rostov loved his Tsar, Alexander I. Prince Andrei and Nikolai joined the Russian army and entered the Battle of Austerlitz with their original idealization towards those leaders, only to be disappointed and heartbroken.

Prince Andrei joined Russia’s campaign against France with one noble thought: that it would be chivalrous, that it would define the life of Russia’s elite society as their noble tasks required them to, and to let the mundane, artificial life of rich society slide. To have bravery, dignity, and meaning in life. Meanwhile, Nikolai joined the army for the noble faithfulness towards the Tsar, and to prove himself as the future Count Rostov. To bring the old value of Russia, and to finally see the world beyond his idyllic family.

But war is not the place to see the world. Oh what a naïve thinking they had.

Soon they both realized the cost of war, and the true face of their idols. Prince Andrei did actually meet Napoleon during his most vulnerable moment. Lying on the ground, only with the wide sky above him, realizing that he was only one of the chess pieces in the great flow of life and history, realizing that there is indeed a bigger power that works above him, there he met Napoleon, who disturbed him from the realization. During that time, Prince Andrei was able to compare Napoleon with God, and he realized that Napoleon was a mere human just like him. All the great fantasy of war, of the generals, of him, were torn apart. War is not the place to see the world or to chase happiness.

“He had a burning in his head; he felt that he was losing blood, and he saw above him that distant, lofty, and eternal sky. He knew that it was Napoleon — his hero — but at that moment, Napoleon seemed to him such a small, insignificant man compared with what was now happening between his soul and this lofty, infinite sky with clouds racing across it. To him it was all completely the same at that moment who was standing over him or what he said about him; he was only glad that people had stopped over him and only wished that those people would help him and bring him back to life, which seemed so beautiful to him, because he now understood it so differently.” (p. 291)

Nikolai disappoinment’s came longer than Andrei’s. It was until Tilsit Treaty which made him felt betrayed by Tsar. All this time, he thought Tsar would always against Napoleon, and the former alliance which Russia shared was meant something. But then in one morning on July 7 1807, he saw Tsar Alexander I shared a table with Napoleon and agreed to divide European spheres of influence. They soon combined forces to against England.

“Now he remembered Denisov with his changed expression, his submission, and the whole hospital with those torn-off arms and legs, that filth and disease. He imagined so vividly now that hospital stench of dead flesh that he looked around to see where the stench could be coming from. Then he remembered that self-satisfied Bonaparte with his white little hand, who was now emperor, whom the emperor Alexander liked and respected. Why, then, those torn-off arms and legs, those dead people? Then he remembered the rewarded Lazarev and Denisov punished and unforgiven. He caught himself in such strange thoughts that it made him frightened.” (p. 416)

Contrary to Prince Andrei, Nikolai accepted his fate as one of the troops owned by Russia. He was still faithful to Tsar Alexander I.

“We’re not diplomatic officials, we’re soldiers and nothing more,” he went on. “We’re told to die — and we die. If we’re punished, it means we’re guilty; it’s not for us to judge. If it pleases the sovereign emperor to recognize Bonaparte as emperor and conclude an alliance with him — it means it has to be so. And if we start judging and reasoning about everything, then there’ll be nothing sacred left. Next we’ll be saying there’s no God, no anything.” (p. 416)

The severe and painful realization that their illusions fell apart feels devastating, and it changes something inside of their core belief. But it brought the different results to both of them. Prince Andrei was looking for eternal glory, and Tolstoy brutally crushed his romanticization about the glory itself through Battle of Austerlitz. He realized that he was lost, and he had to find the way to live his life after the philosophical transformations. Prince Andrei begun to be skeptical about the great narration of life and humanity’s fate. Learning that the glory was insignificant, Prince Andrei suddenly losing all his faith at once.

Nikolai, however, was once a romantic young man with an optimistic views about Russia. He loved Tsar, Russia, his own regiment, and the pride as an officer. War gave him an identity, and Battle of Austerlitz did destroy his idealization of war, yet it did not destroy his faith. In one of the most dangerous time of his life, he held his idealism so strong, because it was the core of his identity. His test was Treaty of Tilsit, which gave him some moral crisis. Yet he chose to ignore politics and stay faithful to Tsar Alexander I. He chose faithfulness over interpretation.

False Interpretation of Love

As their life unfolded, love entered three men’s hearts. Prince Andrei, once was a married man before the war, lost his wife during stillbirth. In his early post-Austerlitz life, he was a somber, bitter man, disappointed with how shallow glorious life he chase, and felt guilty for his wife’s fate. Then life gave him another chance to fall in love when Natasha Rostova enter his life.

“She doesn’t care at all about my existence!” Prince Andrei thought all the while he was listening to her talk, for some reason expecting and fearing that she would say something about him. “And she again! As if on purpose!” he thought. In his soul there suddenly arose such an unexpected tangle of youthful thoughts and hopes, contradictory to his whole life, that, feeling himself unable to comprehend his own fate, he fell asleep at once. (p. 422)

Natasha gave him hopes, spirits, and she captivated his soul to finally realize that his life is not over yet.

“Life isn’t over at the age of thirty-one.” (p. 423)
(this line is personally my favorite because I read this novel when I was 31 and it feels like telling myself that my life isn’t over at the age of 31. Thank you again, Tolstoy)

This event was canonical in the book. Natasha has grown so beautiful and at her prime age, and she was falling in love with Prince Andrei the way he loved her back. Yet it was not the ending Tolstoy set to them. The reason for that was way harsher. During that time, Russia was also in the fragile mutual alliance with French, formed previously by Treaty of Tilsit. Then the life of Russian elites and old aristocrats begun to altered. Tsar Alexander I rushed the country to choose liberal-proletarian approach.

“This was the time of the preparation not only of the two famous decrees which so alarmed society, on the abolition of court ranks and on examinations for the ranks of collegiate assessor and state councillor, but also of an entire state constitution, which was supposed to change the existing judicial, administrative, and financial order of management in Russia, from the council of state to the local board.” (p. 424)

During this time, Alexander I and Napoleon shared some new vibrant ideas about those vague liberal dreams, oddly placed in the old aristocratic life of Russia. The country faced an identity crisis they never knew, while the young leader still hadn’t figured out that the mutual was artificial. Yet, this identity crisis was also haunting Prince Andrei. At first, I thought these two issues weren’t relate. I thought Tolstoy was telling me about individuals. Then he kept interrupting their stories with history. Eventually, I began to wonder whether this interruption was the point.

Prince Andrei during that time was a fan and a skeptical one for Mikhail Speransky.

“In general, the main feature that struck Prince Andrei in Speransky’s mind was his unquestionable, unshakable faith in the power and legitimacy of reason. It was clear that the notion, so usual for Prince Andrei, that it was after all impossible to express everything one thinks, would never have entered Speransky’s head, and it never occurred to him to wonder, isn’t everything I think and believe sheer nonsense? And that special cast of Speransky’s mind attracted Prince Andrei most of all.” (p. 432)

Andrei himself was an admirer of Montesquieu (The Spirit of Law). His thesis was basically that nobility is the check and balance systems for monarchy, thus weakening them would make monarch change into despotism. Andrei said to Speransky that if Tsar ignored noble’s thought, Russia would change to despotism. He wished to disagree Speransky and all his liberal ideas, but Speransky’s feature struck him. I think Prince Andrei was once again be fooled with the idea of smart men. He was admiring Speransky, which was like his admiration to Napoleon. He felt honored when a civil like Speransky gave him a title or a job. I think deep down he felt ashamed with the old Russia, with his own father. His father traumatized him, and this was when Natasha entered his mind as his hope for the new Russia. Natasha felt like a last hope he had for the new world.

Sadly, in his love to Natasha, Andrei failed to see it as it should have been: domestic, idyllic life, with mundane activities, and beliefs that the soul of Russia is in their house. But what can be said about Prince Andrei? He got so many privileges: good education, good network, and just like his sister Princess Marie thought, it was not his nature to stop at mundane life.

During this time, love was something stable all the protagonists looked for because all the identity crisis they were facing. Pierre Bezukhov, once an outsider both in Moscow and St. Petersburg, suddenly being in the center of attention briefly after marrying Helene Kuragin. Sadly the relationship was too crowded and Helene was only looking for some money Pierre had after being the Count Bezukhov. After that Pierre was really lost and he felt it, so he joined the Masonry to look for any happiness. But it wasn’t the most ideal solution.

“Are we to favour revolutions, overthrow everything, drive out force by force? No… we are very far from that. Every violent reform is blameworthy, because it will not set evil to rights in the least, as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need of violence.” (p. 435)

He was being a pacifist in the Masonry and it did not end well. More important, Pierre searched for a meaning during the instability of Russia. At least he knew what was missing from his life — which happened by a bad marriage and disastrous money management — and he tried to fix it. In his diary, he was screaming for help.

For Nikolai Rostov, love was a bit different. All his childhood, he spent his times to love Sonya, and saved a thought for himself that Sonya was enough. It changed drastically after Austerlitz, as he went home, still finding Sonya so beautiful, yet not ready for marrying her. The simplicity of his house, of Natasha, was the one keeping him alive until all that time. He aimed for the idleness without he even realized it but Sonya was not in his mind to have it. Or maybe, it was being shaped in his mind and he realized it after the war, but the idleness with Sonya didn’t amuse him. There was still a whole world to be explored, a whole adultness for him to be experienced in order being the future Count Rostov.

“The love of idleness remained the same in fallen men, but the curse still weighs on man, and not only because we must win our bread in the sweat of our face, but because our moral qualities are such that we are unable to be idle and at peace. A secret voice tells us that we should feel guilty for being idle. If man could find a condition in which, while idle, he felt that he was being useful and was fulfilling his duty, he would have found one side of primordial bleedness.” (p. 488)

I think Nikolai also realized that the way his father let idleness live and ruled out the money issue being taken care by some other people had costed them too much. The irony was they were smart and educated, rich, yet they were unable to deal with their financial lives and were in hands of whoever was doing their accounting. Rostovs was offered a safety net with Prince Andrei and Natasha’s engagement. But soon it fell off. Andrei and Natasha’s relationship was fragile from the beginning. There was a gap between them, a gap between knowing and understanding. Natasha wasn’t only his love interest, but also a representation of the life he failed to respect after all this time. He loved the life represented by Natasha, yet he still tried to understand it, miserably, within the grasp of a person who look for a meaning through grand ideas. He would never reach that simplicity.

Tolstoy seemed to spend thousands of pages showing his men trying to escape idleness, only to reveal that what they eventually seek may be another form of it. Natasha’s domestic and seemingly simple life can look idle from the perspective of men who have spent their lives searching for glory, reform, purpose, or historical significance. Yet perhaps Tolstoy’s point is exactly that this kind of idleness is closer to life than the frantic activity of men trying to make themselves significant.

Borodino

As you began to love some of the main characters as they felt more like your friends and family, yet you already knew the fate that awaited them in 1812. The Battle of Borodino hold significant part of the book as entering the third volume and the first thing Tolstoy’s discussed was how Napoleon betrayed Tsar Alexander I. The arcs for all the characters were getting more complicated, as well as the relationship between Russia and the world. As Napoleon tried to enter the country, some found him fascinating, some found him as a threat. The distinctive views both St. Petersburg and Moscow’s elites society held to the war and to the great men were actually more accurate for today’s society. Yet between that great war and between the clash of some greatest generals, human failed to see that they don’t really control history. As the kings are the slaves of history, and so are we. No one is really in control, as history moves through forces far greater than any individual can comprehend.

Pierre, still struggling to find meaning, tried his best to help Natasha and Prince Andrei recovering from the failed engagement. Still a naïve at heart, after funding the regiment, he had a personal responsibility to support the Russian army, while searching for the deeper meaning of life. Pierre was also driven by a naïve and bewildered fascination with the heroism of the common soldiers. After the war, he decided to stay in Moscow after its evacuation, convinced that it’s his job to assassinate Napoleon. After joining the Masonry, Pierre worked himself into a romanticized and messianic state of mind. He believed that assassinating Napoleon will either end his own wandering existence or stop the misery of the entire continent.

During Moscow burning, Pierre was parting ways with the Rostovs, including with Natasha as they fled the city. His adventure in Moscow was one of the most harrowing thing ever written in literature. Pierre wanders a city engulfed in flames and when he tried to save the Muscovites, he was captured by the French troops. In his captivity, Pierre befriended a man who still saw beauty in life even when he was injured. This changed his spiritual journey all at once.

When the Rostovs fled from Moscow, all the carriages for their fortunes were ended up being used for the injured soldiers. Eventually, they realized that one of the injured soldiers was Prince Andrei himself, who was dying after Battle of Borodino. A tearful apology from Natasha came, followed by nursing and caring from Natasha to Andrei during his final days. His sister, Princess Marie, came with his young son. During this time, the relationship between Andrei and Natasha, and Nikolai with Princess Marie, were being tested. Previously, Princess Maria was stuck in one of the Bolkonsky’s estate with her ill father. Her father died quickly and the French troops was getting closer to her. All her muzhiks refused to let her go, until Nikolai came with his army and saved her. From there, their relationship begun to grow slowly and it seemed to grow to the right direction. Then after Nikolai was ready to propose her, the news about Prince Andrei came.

But Prince Andrei, came to Borodino with a different perspective before Austerlitz, finally realized that all he seeks before was the lofty simplicity of life, because life itself was already grand without the grand ideas. Finally he was able to forgive people that wronged him, and he realized that his love to Natasha was bigger than ever before, but his final days was getting shorter, as he no longer have the spirit to live in the new world. When he finally being so closed to the lofty fate he could choose, he was unable to have it.

The Rostovs lost Petya soon after Prince Andrei’s death. Count Rostov was dying shortly after, and finally, Nikolai became the new Count Rostov, with a huge debt, an ill mother who longed for her death son and their past glorious days, and a silent love he wished to forget. Even after the war, their fate was not in the best of days. Princess Marie begun to have a friendship with Natasha and during Natasha’s hardest days after Andrei’s death. Peace was formed when Natasha was reunited with Pierre and they both comforted each other after all they had lost. Princess Marie, once devastated after losing her father and her brother, finally had the courage to fall in love with Nikolai Rostov. Her simple, humble and devotion towards religion were the reasons Nikolai loved her and dared enough to eventually married her even though he was impoverished. Soon after both two families were finally in peace and happiness. But even when the war was long behind them, Andrei’s old memories was still intact in both of the families, as Nikolai considered it as the old Russian’s shadow lingering the new world.

I started this book wondering how one man could change the fate of thousands. I finished it wondering why I had ever thought that changing history was the measure of a meaningful life. As I finished this book this year, I realized that life itself is a meaning, life is as lofty as the ideas of life, and even an act as simple as surviving is already meaningful as a human being.

‘The Brink of War’ Review: Reagan and Gorbachev Engage in Unengaging Verbal Battle
#Variety #News #Reviews #AngelStudios #JKSimmons #JaredHarris #JeffDaniels #MichaelRussellGunn #TheBrinkofWar

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/the-brink-of-war-review-1236831938/

‘The Brink of War’ Review: Reagan and Gorbachev Engage in Unengaging Verbal Battle
#Variety #News #Reviews #AngelStudios #JKSimmons #JaredHarris #JeffDaniels #MichaelRussellGunn #TheBrinkofWar

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/the-brink-of-war-review-1236831938/

‘Language Is a Construct, Man’: Why We May Never Get Another Spiritual Sequel Like Richard Linklater’s ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’
#IndieWire #Commentary #Features #EverybodyWantsSome #Film #Reviews #SequelsWeek

https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/everybody-wants-some-best-spiritual-movie-sequel-1235209880/

‘Language Is a Construct, Man’: Why We May Never Get Another Spiritual Sequel Like Richard Linklater’s ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’
#IndieWire #Commentary #Features #EverybodyWantsSome #Film #Reviews #SequelsWeek

https://www.indiewire.com/features/commentary/everybody-wants-some-best-spiritual-movie-sequel-1235209880/

#Splitsville was a weird surprise to watch. Weird drama comedy anchored by Dakota Johnson doing another generic performance.

#drama #review #reviews #NowStreaming #comedy

https://cee.onl/yc9/

#Splitsville was a weird surprise to watch. Weird drama comedy anchored by Dakota Johnson doing another generic performance.

#drama #review #reviews #NowStreaming #comedy

https://cee.onl/yc9/

Holy shit, I thought these dudes were gone forever! A guilty pleasure, Raunchy hasn’t released an album since I last reviewed them in my first year as an idiotic dumbass Angry Metal writer. But no one has heard from them in a long fucking time. When I first discovered their impressive 2008 release, Wasteland Discotheque, I was on a kick to explore the underground who’s who of Danish metal. During that time, I not only came across Raunchy but also Mercenary, Panzerchrist, and Dominus.1 Spread across so many varying musical styles, each band’s discog at the time was on regular rotation in the Grier household. While all but Dominus remain, only Raunchy continues to prove they can make their tried-and-true sound remain relevant.

With this year’s Prisoner, Raunchy remains the best of the bunch—the rest of these Danes reached their peak in the early aughts. But that depends on the ears of the beholder. Raunchy are the masters of one of the strangest combinations of genres, unapologetically mixing groove, melodic death, metalcore, and industrial rock/metal. They are also a rare breed for a band that’s been in existence for over thirty years: they have refused to surrender their core lineup (having replaced two members in their thirty-four years of existence), nor have they ever swayed from their style. Love it or hate it, Raunchy is one of the best of the style, and they are back to take you Prisoner.

Right away, you know Raunchy hasn’t lost a step since 2014’s Vices.Virtues.Visions.. “Frostbite” kicks off with an industrial introduction before the guitars take over the rhythm and punch it forward in a Mercenary way. It’s a safe song to begin the album because it has all of the band’s classic elements: ooo’s and awww’s, cleans and harshies, ferocity and melody, and some of the best choruses out there. The follow-up track, “Stranded,” follows in its predecessor’s shoes, delivering an Evergrey-esque mid-paced groove before alternating between calm verses and harsh pre-choruses. With each iteration, the chorus’s emotion and power grow stronger until the tension finally erupts at the end.

One of my favorite parts about the album is the flow. You might get a half-second after one song before the next begins, making it as fluid as possible. While Vices.Virtues.Visions. was emotionally heavy, some Prisoner’s tracks pack a hefty punch. “Revealing I” is a Fear Factory-infused blast attack that somehow balances each heavy riff with the absolute beauty of the chorus. While not as continuously ferocious, the back half of “Vanishing Act” fuses badassery with tripletty. Its chorus is probably the least memorable on the album, but it’s still very strong. It’s also impressive that this chorus is the “worst,” because each one is worth the time.

For example, the only good quality of the cringey, pop-synth, bitchy-emo “Darkest Self” is the chorus. And, goddamn, it’s a good one. But each time it restarts with its verse and pre-chorus pattern, I’m not sure I can make it through. “Masquerade” doesn’t have the same flaws, but it’s unique to the band, requiring a few listens to appreciate nuances. To conclude this journey of societal growth, missteps, and seclusion, the title track’s breathtaking beauty and hopefulness cap Prisoner perfectly. This new record is at the same level as Vices.Virtues.Visions. in quality and memorability. But what makes them equals is their perfect pairing: one to tear at your heartstrings and the other to empower you to get through it.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Mighty Music
Websites: raunchydk.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ronniband
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

Holy shit, I thought these dudes were gone forever! A guilty pleasure, Raunchy hasn’t released an album since I last reviewed them in my first year as an idiotic dumbass Angry Metal writer. But no one has heard from them in a long fucking time. When I first discovered their impressive 2008 release, Wasteland Discotheque, I was on a kick to explore the underground who’s who of Danish metal. During that time, I not only came across Raunchy but also Mercenary, Panzerchrist, and Dominus.1 Spread across so many varying musical styles, each band’s discog at the time was on regular rotation in the Grier household. While all but Dominus remain, only Raunchy continues to prove they can make their tried-and-true sound remain relevant.

With this year’s Prisoner, Raunchy remains the best of the bunch—the rest of these Danes reached their peak in the early aughts. But that depends on the ears of the beholder. Raunchy are the masters of one of the strangest combinations of genres, unapologetically mixing groove, melodic death, metalcore, and industrial rock/metal. They are also a rare breed for a band that’s been in existence for over thirty years: they have refused to surrender their core lineup (having replaced two members in their thirty-four years of existence), nor have they ever swayed from their style. Love it or hate it, Raunchy is one of the best of the style, and they are back to take you Prisoner.

Right away, you know Raunchy hasn’t lost a step since 2014’s Vices.Virtues.Visions.. “Frostbite” kicks off with an industrial introduction before the guitars take over the rhythm and punch it forward in a Mercenary way. It’s a safe song to begin the album because it has all of the band’s classic elements: ooo’s and awww’s, cleans and harshies, ferocity and melody, and some of the best choruses out there. The follow-up track, “Stranded,” follows in its predecessor’s shoes, delivering an Evergrey-esque mid-paced groove before alternating between calm verses and harsh pre-choruses. With each iteration, the chorus’s emotion and power grow stronger until the tension finally erupts at the end.

One of my favorite parts about the album is the flow. You might get a half-second after one song before the next begins, making it as fluid as possible. While Vices.Virtues.Visions. was emotionally heavy, some Prisoner’s tracks pack a hefty punch. “Revealing I” is a Fear Factory-infused blast attack that somehow balances each heavy riff with the absolute beauty of the chorus. While not as continuously ferocious, the back half of “Vanishing Act” fuses badassery with tripletty. Its chorus is probably the least memorable on the album, but it’s still very strong. It’s also impressive that this chorus is the “worst,” because each one is worth the time.

For example, the only good quality of the cringey, pop-synth, bitchy-emo “Darkest Self” is the chorus. And, goddamn, it’s a good one. But each time it restarts with its verse and pre-chorus pattern, I’m not sure I can make it through. “Masquerade” doesn’t have the same flaws, but it’s unique to the band, requiring a few listens to appreciate nuances. To conclude this journey of societal growth, missteps, and seclusion, the title track’s breathtaking beauty and hopefulness cap Prisoner perfectly. This new record is at the same level as Vices.Virtues.Visions. in quality and memorability. But what makes them equals is their perfect pairing: one to tear at your heartstrings and the other to empower you to get through it.

Rating: 3.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Mighty Music
Websites: raunchydk.bandcamp.com | facebook.com/ronniband
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

What To Watch On YouTube Right Now – Part 150

Welcome back my readers, YouTube viewers and all others who followed this series of articles focused on YouTube videos worth watching.

Have you been searching for something fun or interesting to watch on YouTube? Do you feel bored right now and you crave for something to see on the world’s most popular online video destination?

I recommend you check out the following videos I found.

#1 You, Me and the Movies React to Cloak & Dagger (1984) – As some of you readers might know already, I enjoyed the 1984 movie Cloak & Dagger (starring Henry Thomas) and I also liked playing the arcade game that appeared in it as a fictional Atari 5200 game. When it comes to retro gaming, the film strongly resonates with gamers who were old enough to have seen it and played games related with Atari on console and arcades in the 1980s. As such, it is not surprising to see that there are pretty few movie reaction videos of Cloak & Dagger on YouTube. To my personal delight, You, Me and the Movies posted a reaction video of the film and it is entertaining to watch!

https://youtu.be/O7mAIC4nVRg?si=DBgTYmg9yZztUCDO

#2 Minty Comedic Arts’ Exclusive Interview with Superboy TV star Gerard Christopher – If you were old enough to have seen the live-action Superboy series on TV a long time ago, you would remember that actor Gerard Christopher replaced John Newton as the star. Recently, Minty Comedic Arts posted his exclusive interview with Christopher (who played Superboy in over 70 episodes) and it is not just fun to watch but also surprising and insightful. At the same time, there is a lot to learn and discover from what Gerard Christopher revealed. That said, I encourage you to watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/lG0O5hsPNso?si=GZKJXCIRfTtt5o7S

#3 Yakisoba in Aichi Prefecture, Japan – I enjoy the taste of Yakisoba which is Japanese noodle stir-fried dish and it is often available in Japanese restaurants in the land of the rising sun as well in other parts of the world. In Aichi Prefecture, there is a family-owned restaurant that specializes in yakisoba. The dedicated cooking, careful processes and sound business management the food joint achieved resulted in a loyal customer base. There is a lot to learn and enjoy from the video below.

https://youtu.be/7ci-UXm0mgQ?si=F9w-qcbusnhWSteg

#4 Street Fighter II Is Unfair to Gamers? – Here is something that must be seen. Remember how intensely popular Street Fighter II and its updated versions were back in the 1990s? The original arcade game of Street Fighter II revolutionized fighting games and turned it into a wildly popular genre for both gamers and game companies. Still, there is something about the artificial intelligence (AI) in Street Fighter II that makes it “cheat” which resulted in a lot of frustrating experiences for those who played it. Did Capcom’s game developers deliberately set something up? Watch and learn from the video below.

https://youtu.be/_Roe54EGW08?si=Sw8ZcyQa2nAQhao9

#5 The Death of Criticism with Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Let me ask you this…if the so-called professional movie critics and online influencers unanimously give high praise to a big-budget movie designed to make a lot of money, do you let the critical acclaim influence you into watching it and adjusting your personal standards on judging new movies? In his recent video, Ranting for Vengeance shared a warning about the death of criticism over Spider-Man: Brand New Day which opened with massive commercial success backed with acclaim from the media and a variety of personalities online. By today’s standards, there are many millions of people who got oriented with Spider-Man without ever reading the classic comic books, and there are those who use Spider-Man movies as their main references. What is telling, however, is how some people lowered their standards on judging new movies as a whole. To learn more, watch Ranting with Vengeance’s video below and pay attention to the details.

https://youtu.be/ZHaMy-sX_OA?si=yphvAh4QI0F4AHWj

#6 Assorted Casino (1995) Reaction Videos – I missed out on Martin Scorsese’s 1995 film Casino during its theatrical run and I saw it on home video some years later. Loosely based on real-life events that happened in Las Vegas, the movie was very good with its presentation and the stylized approach on explaining the details regarding casinos and related businesses controlled by criminals. As such, it is not surprising that a lot of movie reaction videos of it were posted on YouTube and I found the most entertaining ones among them for you all to enjoy.

https://youtu.be/c_l1ihn6ch0?si=dxJhcCb7zOLXD9OC

https://youtu.be/J1EPcFPUBwk?si=sk_35J9cVAcpD0Tz

https://youtu.be/gdP6tSOjFAA?si=2TCGKeGDFIDpDZaT

https://youtu.be/UMqbBk8h8Yc?si=TKQtHUHRj6RxXFD8

#7 Game Developers Who Went Woke And Ruined The Gaming Industry – I have been playing video games since I was a little boy. This current console gaming generation has been very disappointing and I can say that it is very disgusting that state of gaming deteriorated a lot over the past several years as many game developers hired Leftist activists (the woke, transgendered, social justice warriors, LGBTQ extremists, rabid feminists, racist minority members and other undesirable people) and let them make new video games that reflected their ugly agenda. Very recently, the very woke Halo Studios got away with ruining Halo with the release of Halo: Campaign Evolved. The wokeness of gaming started many years ago and its disease grew a lot through the years. As such, the woke and Leftists working in video games clearly do not care about making video games fun and they do not care about gamers in general. To understand the wokeness and the Satanic Left’s agenda through gaming, watch the video below.

https://youtu.be/9ZnqX3py76I?si=FX81igPTy7-Y45Nv

#8 Tempura Onigiri and More in Japan – Recently in Japan, a new form of onigiri with tempura was released and it is gaining popularity with customers. Not only that, newer types of onigiri were being offered to customers as a result of unpredictable market forces, experimentation and the changing tastes of the customers. There is a lot to discover in the Nippon TV, and it just make you crave for onigiri.

https://youtu.be/tHYMpRYAx8c?si=4Fvp1501VK_R28XU

+++++

Thank you for reading. If you find this article engaging, please click the like button below, share this article to others and also please consider making a donation to support my publishing. If you are looking for a copywriter to create content for your special project or business, check out my services and my portfolio. Feel free to contact me with a private message. Also please feel free to visit my Facebook page Author Carlo Carrasco and follow me on Twitter at @CarloCarrascoPH as well as on Tumblr at https://carlocarrasco.tumblr.com/ and on Instagram athttps://www.instagram.com/authorcarlocarrasco

Razer Naga V3 Pro Review: Buttons Galore

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/review/razer-naga-v3-pro/

Razer Naga V3 Pro Review: Buttons Galore

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.wired.com/review/razer-naga-v3-pro/

‘Objet a’ Review: Ann Oren’s Spellbinding Tale of Kink, Surgery, and Mushrooms Is a Feast for the Senses
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #Film #Locarno #Objeta #Reviews

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/objet-a-movie-review-1235209906/

‘Objet a’ Review: Ann Oren’s Spellbinding Tale of Kink, Surgery, and Mushrooms Is a Feast for the Senses
#IndieWire #Criticism #Movies #Film #Locarno #Objeta #Reviews

https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/movies/objet-a-movie-review-1235209906/

Metal is filled with reluctant vocalists. Whether it’s Dave Mustaine ultimately deciding to front Megadeth, or Mikael Åkerfeldt hesitantly filling the void in Opeth, or Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds eventually co-voicing Mastodon,1 vocals often exist in the genre as an afterthought. But what happens when there’s no after to the afterthought? You get something like Only Echoes, an instrumental post-metal quartet from Denver, CO. In their promo materials, Only Echoes explain that they formed expecting vocals to play a part in their music, but ‘when the time came to decide who would sing, no one raised a hand.’ This lack of vocals, however, became a staple of the band’s identity, fueling their self-titled EP (2018) and debut LP Sunsickness (2022), both of which were independently released. Arriving via Braeburn Records, sophomore album Born Adrift promises ‘an internal narrative without relying on lyrics to explain it.’ Said promo materials do, however, sketch the narrative: the album charts ‘a journey through survival, uncertainty, and the strange momentum that keeps a person moving through hostile waters.’

Without a vocalist, Only Echoes rely on the versatile arsenals of their instrumentalists to convey Born Adrift’s arc. The band references several acts one would expect as influences on an (instrumental) post-metal album: Russian Circles, Pelican, Isis.2 On the guitar front, Austin Minney and Dustin Yourishin combine for a menagerie of flickering melodies, glimmering clean chords, and chunky chugs. Drummer Zach Sirotkin lays down a bevy of blast beats, d-beats, and double-bass thunder. Meanwhile, bassist Ben Rosenberg periodically pokes through the mix with some upper-fret flourishes. As some elements of this description of Only Echoes hint at, Born Adrift doesn’t quite channel the spirit of the bands cited above. Yes, there are some well-earned quiet-to-heavy, heavy-to-quiet transitions across the album. But by and large, Only Echoes play far less patiently than these groups, swiftly shuffling between blissed-out breathers, punk-rock paces, and core-ish chuggery. Despite their mostly 6–8 minute lengths, the songs tend to sound like bursts of metal grab bag.

Because all but one song on Born Adrift briskly bounces between styles, any sense of album-spanning narrative is hard to detect. My criticism of the grab-bag songwriting notwithstanding, “Born Adrift” and “Tempest” do open the record with excitement, showcasing a band capable of moving melodies and infectious tempos. “So Tightly Bound” seems like it will be compositionally different; it develops an enchanting vibe across three minutes. But then the song quickly jumps into a d-beat-driven punk part, capped off with some obligatory chugging. It’s as if there’s a missing middle between the beginning and the punky outburst. After the aptly titled interlude (“Inter”), the album closes by showing some signs of patient development (“Steps Ahead of Drowning”). But then Only Echoes revert back to their familiar mode, jarringly contrasting serene buildups with breakneck speed (“Shimmering Death”). At 35 minutes, Born Adrift isn’t exactly a chore to get through, but it often feels longer than it is. I almost get the sense that Only Echoes tried to cram an album’s worth of material into nearly every song.

Unfortunately, sonic missteps also become a barrier to enjoying Only Echoes’s sophomore outing. On the production end of things, Born Adrift does seem cognizant of intentional mixing: the drums and bass grow more present in sections where the guitars are textural and ambient. The guitars, however, unpleasantly dominate the mix when Minney and Yourishin turn towards chugging rhythms. The bass, when it sticks to lower registers, gets lost and feels inessential. The big issue, however, concerns the low bitrate of Born Adrift’s audio files (128 kbps). At lower volumes, the album sounds compressed and mushy; at higher volumes, it’s clippy and grating. As a metal album in want of blasting, this latter fact is quite unfortunate.

Born Adrift ultimately disappoints, but not for its lack of vocals per se. As instrumentalists, Only Echoes clearly possess chops, and they show a knack for crafting and connecting affecting passages (“Born Adrift,” “Tempest”). Too often, however, these passages are disrupted by abrupt stylistic changes that come off as contrived. Additionally, the sonic flaws sadly hamper an album that does, at times, sound massive and powerful. In my view, Only Echoes don’t necessarily need someone to step up and command the microphone. They might, however, exercise the kind of restrained patience that, for me at least, tends to make for notable instrumental metal/rock.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Braeburn Records
Websites: Official | Instagram | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

Show 2 footnotes

1. Yes, Brann Dailor also sings for Mastodon, but not at the outset. ↩
2. The band also cite Deafheaven and God Is an Astronaut as influences. ↩

Metal is filled with reluctant vocalists. Whether it’s Dave Mustaine ultimately deciding to front Megadeth, or Mikael Åkerfeldt hesitantly filling the void in Opeth, or Troy Sanders and Brent Hinds eventually co-voicing Mastodon,1 vocals often exist in the genre as an afterthought. But what happens when there’s no after to the afterthought? You get something like Only Echoes, an instrumental post-metal quartet from Denver, CO. In their promo materials, Only Echoes explain that they formed expecting vocals to play a part in their music, but ‘when the time came to decide who would sing, no one raised a hand.’ This lack of vocals, however, became a staple of the band’s identity, fueling their self-titled EP (2018) and debut LP Sunsickness (2022), both of which were independently released. Arriving via Braeburn Records, sophomore album Born Adrift promises ‘an internal narrative without relying on lyrics to explain it.’ Said promo materials do, however, sketch the narrative: the album charts ‘a journey through survival, uncertainty, and the strange momentum that keeps a person moving through hostile waters.’

Without a vocalist, Only Echoes rely on the versatile arsenals of their instrumentalists to convey Born Adrift’s arc. The band references several acts one would expect as influences on an (instrumental) post-metal album: Russian Circles, Pelican, Isis.2 On the guitar front, Austin Minney and Dustin Yourishin combine for a menagerie of flickering melodies, glimmering clean chords, and chunky chugs. Drummer Zach Sirotkin lays down a bevy of blast beats, d-beats, and double-bass thunder. Meanwhile, bassist Ben Rosenberg periodically pokes through the mix with some upper-fret flourishes. As some elements of this description of Only Echoes hint at, Born Adrift doesn’t quite channel the spirit of the bands cited above. Yes, there are some well-earned quiet-to-heavy, heavy-to-quiet transitions across the album. But by and large, Only Echoes play far less patiently than these groups, swiftly shuffling between blissed-out breathers, punk-rock paces, and core-ish chuggery. Despite their mostly 6–8 minute lengths, the songs tend to sound like bursts of metal grab bag.

Because all but one song on Born Adrift briskly bounces between styles, any sense of album-spanning narrative is hard to detect. My criticism of the grab-bag songwriting notwithstanding, “Born Adrift” and “Tempest” do open the record with excitement, showcasing a band capable of moving melodies and infectious tempos. “So Tightly Bound” seems like it will be compositionally different; it develops an enchanting vibe across three minutes. But then the song quickly jumps into a d-beat-driven punk part, capped off with some obligatory chugging. It’s as if there’s a missing middle between the beginning and the punky outburst. After the aptly titled interlude (“Inter”), the album closes by showing some signs of patient development (“Steps Ahead of Drowning”). But then Only Echoes revert back to their familiar mode, jarringly contrasting serene buildups with breakneck speed (“Shimmering Death”). At 35 minutes, Born Adrift isn’t exactly a chore to get through, but it often feels longer than it is. I almost get the sense that Only Echoes tried to cram an album’s worth of material into nearly every song.

Unfortunately, sonic missteps also become a barrier to enjoying Only Echoes’s sophomore outing. On the production end of things, Born Adrift does seem cognizant of intentional mixing: the drums and bass grow more present in sections where the guitars are textural and ambient. The guitars, however, unpleasantly dominate the mix when Minney and Yourishin turn towards chugging rhythms. The bass, when it sticks to lower registers, gets lost and feels inessential. The big issue, however, concerns the low bitrate of Born Adrift’s audio files (128 kbps). At lower volumes, the album sounds compressed and mushy; at higher volumes, it’s clippy and grating. As a metal album in want of blasting, this latter fact is quite unfortunate.

Born Adrift ultimately disappoints, but not for its lack of vocals per se. As instrumentalists, Only Echoes clearly possess chops, and they show a knack for crafting and connecting affecting passages (“Born Adrift,” “Tempest”). Too often, however, these passages are disrupted by abrupt stylistic changes that come off as contrived. Additionally, the sonic flaws sadly hamper an album that does, at times, sound massive and powerful. In my view, Only Echoes don’t necessarily need someone to step up and command the microphone. They might, however, exercise the kind of restrained patience that, for me at least, tends to make for notable instrumental metal/rock.

Rating: 2.0/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 128 kbps mp3
Label: Braeburn Records
Websites: Official | Instagram | Facebook
Releases Worldwide: August 14th, 2026

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