Death Metal Cafe

The Cafe is Closed...

2006-09-04T22:52:00.000-07:00

... the Deli is Open.

This blog will no longer be updated.

- The Management

Free tunes for March 19, 2006

2006-03-19T03:17:00.000-08:00

Neurosis - Aeon: No other Neurosis song is as epic as this one. From death march (0:00-2:50), to swirling tri-vocal metal assault (2:50-4:40), to spooky spacious ambience (4:40-6:10), to powerful horn-laden doom (6:10-9:00), fading (9:00-10:00) into a melancholy strings-and-piano outro (10:00-11:44). I'd say more about the greatness of Neurosis, but I'll let you listen and judge for yourself.

Amorphis - Alone: This is a band I'm going to check out with my annual CD order later this year. Everything about this band screams mediocrity, especially if you judge them solely within the context of a single genre which they overlap (metal, prog, pop, etc.). However, I've listened many times over to everything I've found from them. Their songs are just so dang catchy.

New Kids in Town

2006-02-24T21:23:00.000-08:00

Two 3-month-old brothers adopted from the local shelter. We lost one of our cats earlier this year (it was likely cancer). Our older male tabby is tolerating them at a distance. We are adoring them up close - a couple of lovable cuties!

Their names are Lingk (left) and Alonzo. This continues our tradition of naming our cats after characters from our very favorite movies:

Yanr (Raise the Red Lantern)
Cecil (A Room with a View)
Ripley (Aliens)
Alonzo (Training Day)
Lingk (Glengarry Glen Ross)

10 of 2005

2006-01-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

A little bit late, but no less lame. As I did last year, I wanted to record ten significant things that happened to me over the last 12 months. "Dreams, Debt, Death - the stains of mediocrity"

Brought Ruoda home: By itself, my time with Ruoda could take over the whole list: listening to music (her current fave: Fear Factory's Transgression); reading books (fave: All the Way to Lhasa); playing the piano together; going for walks; dancing at summer concerts in the park; drawing with colored pencils together; enjoying hugs and kisses. She is a ray of sunshine not just in my own life, but in that of everyone who encounters her smile. Okay, she deserves at least one more slot in the list...
Swimming with Ruoda during the summer: We had to stay out of the sun, and the Oregon summer nights are a bit nippy for swimming, but we still had a blast together almost every night in the pool and hot tub. Her favorite word is still "moon".
My first international travel: Growing up in upstate NY, I can't really count those two Montreal vacations or that unfortunate night in Toronto. Spending two weeks in China was an unforgettable experience (unlike the next seven banalities in this list...)
Video game carousel: I knew I would have to quit City of Heroes in March upon Ruoda's return, but actually quit a month early as the combat was overly repetitive while the leveling was faaaar too slow. I still miss Paragon City like hell... Tried Diablo 2 again for a bit, but it wouldn't run on my PC reliably. Played Age of Mythology for awhile against a friend, but he got too frustrated; I'm still shocked to find someone who is that much worse than I at real-time strategy games! Spent the last few months with Dungeon Siege 2 (comparable to Diablo 2, but more immersive and with a weaker combat system), but that was also too slow-going, and the final battle (required to unlock the higher levels of difficulty) was absurd in execution. I uninstalled it this week, and am now back to giving Guild Wars another go.
Online puzzles: I started solving puzzles regularly at Conceptis Puzzles (free) and Puzzle Japan ($4/month). Between the two sites, there are about six puzzles types I consider essential (and, no, Sudoku - featured on both sites - is not among these). A fun supplement to my pencil puzzle magazine habit.
Played A Game of Thrones CCG: Collected tons of cards, built tons of decks, tested my decks against an opponent, played Friday nights at the constructed and draft events at Rainy Day Games, and even played in a regional tournament up in Redmond. I enjoyed the scene - even if I wasn't crazy about the game - and look forward to doing something similar with another CCG in the future. Everyone else in the area abandoned the game, so I decided to bail as of the latest base set. That didn't stop me from...
Read the first 3 books of A Song of Fire and Ice: C'mon, that's over 2500 pages there! Amazing how much reading you can get in while a confused infant dozes around the clock. My primary motivation was to give me additional enjoyment playing the A Game of Thrones CCG, but now that I'm no longer participating in the CCG, it's TBD whether I'll continue reading this series. That's because...
Started reading the Discworld series: I've made it through 12 books so far (that's another 4000+ pages - I've never done this much reading in a year in my life). I've tried to do this before, but gave up on several titles when they weren't as good as the first one. These days, I find that light reading is a great pastime to have in a heavily interrupt-driven household. I still like the first book (The Color of Magic) a lot more than the others for several reasons: It's more Doug Adams than Three Stooges; it focuses on satirizing Fantasy rather than overall zaniness; I prefer the episodic structure over the meandering chapterless format of the later books; and I found Rincewind's journey to (and over!) the edge of the world transcedental. Of the other titles, the ones I enjoyed most were Mort (Death takes on an apprentice), Pyramids (I was on my Nile kick at the time), and Witches Abroad (a slight satire on the fairy tale genre).
First year as Group Leader: I still manage the same people and projects that I did before, so it's not really that big of a deal. The biggest difference is that I get to provide inputs into department-level decisions, usually concerning employee relations and the like. Having the Group Leader title does give me that extra bit of recognition and leverage on those rare occasions I interface with other folks outside of my area.
Bloggin': Kicking off the Gathering of Engineers blog was a blast; having a restricted pool of potential bloggers makes its long-term viability risky (other gaming group blogs have had some turnover in the first year of operations), but I figure we could either reinvent it if need be, or I could just consider this an audition for another group blog if it doesn't pan out. I really need that group format to be able to commit to posting that often. I also started my Top 100 Albums blog, but I'm stuck at #79. There's actually a good reason for this; this CD was in my 24-pack CD case when it was stolen ~3 years ago. I have been unable to locate the CD either online or in the stores, and it's hard to get properly inspired by thin-sounding 30-second Amazon.com samples. I hope to get momentum on this again some day soon.

Very Crappy Radio

2005-12-19T17:03:00.000-08:00

"WVCR - Very Cool Radio"

"WVCR - We don't rock... we pound!"

I wouldn't be who I am today if it weren't for Siena College's WVCR radio station. They used to have a standard metal show (thrash, speed, power, etc.) 2100-0000, and then a very intense metal show (black, death, grind, gore, etc.) 0000-0300. It is that later show that exposed me to many of the artists - and their successors - I listen to today. Early 90's was when death metal was stretching into industrial territory, grind was maturing, and black metal was taking off. Truly a magical time for metal.

Today, it appears that they focus on mainstream "urban" music; the only nod to rock I recognize on their playlist is Nickleback.

Freakin' tragic, man.

Free videos: Lumsk; Nile

2005-10-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Lumsk - Trolltind: Folk metal from Norway. I recommend this video to all readers of this blog. I'll definitely have to check out this band. The lyrics are in Norwegian, and tell the story of a Norse legend. The first Earth creatures (trolls) had a large marriage party for several couples. They got so drunk that they forgot to hide before sunrise, at which point they all turned into stone and became the mountains of Earth. You can also see them perform live another track from the same album; this track has more traditional prog-ish elements to it.

Nile - Sacrifice Unto Sebek: I posted a link to an earlier Nile video in April. Sacrifice Unto Sebek is from their 2005 album, and is one of their more straightforward (and shorter) tracks. If nothing else, you can get a feeling for what I would look like if I kept my hair long. Also, check out the free MP3 for "Lashed to the Slave Stick", which is, in my opinion, one of the very greatest death metal songs of all time - what a chilling ending!

Vice Versa

2005-10-03T00:19:00.000-07:00

Padded out Rouda's "Orc Song" to four verses. The third verse is lame, but it refers to some of my favorite regional foods from the past three places I have lived.

I don't eat dinner with a spoon
And I don't eat dinner with a fork
But you bet your life
I have a knife
Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

I don't eat beef or chicken
And I don't eat fish or pork
Since I thought it'd be neat
To cut out meat
Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

There's cheddar from Wisconsin
And apples from New York
But we better stay clear
Of Oregon beer
Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

Now you say my song is corny,
And you think that I'm a dork.
Well, sticks and stones
will break my bones...
... Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

Silly Lovecraft Songs

2005-09-27T17:29:00.000-07:00

For the record, Ruoda's first death metal experience was Nile's most excellent Von Unaussprechlichen Kulten. But I will probably wait a few years before taking her to Portland's H. P. Lovecraft Film Festival.

Orc Song

2005-09-27T15:00:00.000-07:00

So, I wrote a little ditty for Ruoda last night, who is now fascinated with orcs:

I don't eat dinner with a spoon
And I don't eat dinner with a fork
But you bet your life
I have a knife
Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

I don't eat beef or chicken
And I don't eat fish or pork
Since I thought it'd be neat
To cut out meat
Cuz I eat my dinner with an orc!

Feel free to help me out with additional verses. Certainly we can get something out of "dork", "New York", etc.

rrrhhhrrr!!!

2005-09-26T10:10:00.000-07:00

Over the past 6 months, we have tried in vain to teach Ruoda to respond to "what does a cat/dog/cow say?". Yesterday, within an hour, she was able to pick up "what does an Orc say?".

The future holds much promise.

New blog

2005-09-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

For the handful of subscribers to this blog that know me outside of the boardgaming world, a bunch of guys from my gaming group started a communal blog @ http://pdxgaming.blogspot.com. My posts are on Mondays (my first two posts are here and here). The RSS feed is http://pdxgaming.blogspot.com/atom.xml.

The title is a tongue-in-cheek reference to the most well known of the private gaming invitationals, Gathering of Friends.

First Impressions: Autechre - Anti; Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth; Prong - Rude Awakening

2005-08-15T09:44:00.000-07:00

About once a year, I make a monster order to Amazon for CDs. Just for kicks, I'll post first impressions over the next couple of weeks or so.

Autechre - Anti EP: I've been on a big Autechre kick the last few months; I've started to appreciate their later, more challenging works, and it's music my daughter enjoys and my wife will tolerate. So, I thought I'd start rounding out my collection. This is from the Amber era, but is a bit faster and more skittish than that dark CD (which means it won't get house play). Not as interesting to me as their great early EPs such as Basscadet and Garbage, but good enough for background music.

Oasis - Don't Believe the Truth: The critics have been calling this Oasis' best album since (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, but, to me, it's just another Oasis album: a couple of really great tracks, mostly decent tunes otherwise, and it will fade after the initial rush of several listens. I think Neil allowing others to pen half the tracks was good to shake up the band, but those tracks are mostly bland and obvious. As perfect as the use of the mellotron in "Let There Be Love" is, I can't shake the feeling that Lenny Kravitz did this tune 10 years ago. At this point, I'm really digging "Lyla" - their best rocker since "Rock 'n' Roll Star" - and "Love Like a Bomb".

Prong - Rude Awakening: I'm a big fan of Prong's Cleansing (you might remember "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck" from the days of Beavis & Butthead); its stripped down production gave the album a man-and-his-guitar feeling - there was no question this band was all about Tommy Victor. In the follow-up Rude Awakening, more room was made for the interesting rhythm section work and industrial-ish noises, at the expense of the vocals and guitars. I think it thins out the impact significantly, and this album ends up somewhat as a disappointment. This is one of those albums that sound great when you're not actively listening to it; otherwise, I'd just assume stick to Helmet or Fear Factory for this type of riff-heavy VCV songwriting. The obvious highlight for me is the opener "Controller", which sounds like it would fit on Godflesh's Hymns seven years later - which isn't too surprising, since Ted Parsons plays drums on both albums. "Caprice" is a nice track too, very moody while incorporating even more industrial sounds.

Free tune for July 19, 2005

2005-07-19T23:55:00.000-07:00

Obituary - Insane: Not that any of my handful of readers would care, but I just found out tonight that Obituary as a new album out (their last studio album was 8 years ago). And that makes me very happy.

But good lord - Allen West aged more over the past 8 years than even I did:

Bonus: Here's the (horrible & low-quality) video for the same song.

God bless the Tardy boys!

3 down, 4 to go

2005-07-06T07:43:00.000-07:00

I finally finished the 3rd book in the A Song of Ice and Fire trilogy (A Storm of Swords). I have already written about the first two books. The third book became swung back a bit towards character development by trying to blur good and evil in several characters. It definitely made me appreciate the series as a whole more, but the second book is still easily my favorite so far.

As for hopes for the rest of the series... I really hope they expand more on some of the "minor" houses, such as Greyjoy and Martell. I'm a bit burnt on Lannisters & Starks, but I continue to enjoy the Baratheons immensely (which probably has a bit to do with them being my favorite house in the CCG). The Night Watch storyline is still easily my favorite; there are some real heartbreaking moments in the second two books.

Free WMV for July 06, 2005

2005-07-06T00:04:00.000-07:00

Machine Head - Imperium: One of the heroes of 90's American metal, Machine Head manages to continue to reinvent itself and stick around well after most bands of that era have retired. One thing they are always good for is a blastin' opening track, and Imperium is no exception. It is a typical non-conformist anthem ("Fuck these chains / No god damn slave / I will be different"); not as good as the best Pantera or Fear Factory, but Rob's roar is impressive, and they employ over a dozen riffs here (although maybe only a couple really good ones).

Sing Me to Sleep...

2005-05-29T21:41:00.000-07:00

Previously, I wrote about being short on lullaby material. I still try to sing to Ruoda a lot, and ended up diving into The Smiths' catalogue; my vocal range matches Morrisey's baritone, the tunes are catchy, and the words are easy to remember (and I don't have to explain what "in the midst of life/we are in debt/et cetera!" means).

In violation of my directive to never post poetry or lyrics online, here's a little song I wrote during her sleepless nights in China:

I went to the store
With $1.24
To buy me an orange cream soda
And next to the chips
With a smile upon her lips
I saw a girl named Ruoda

Ruo Da!
Ruo Da!
Sweeter than an orange cream soda
I left that store
With $1.24
And a little girl named Ruoda

A Game of Thrones CCG Tournament

2005-05-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

I played in the Northwest Regionals this past weekend. Below is my report as I posted it on the official message boards.

It was a fun tourney. I'm what you would call a "shagga" player - I play many CCGs. I don't even really like AGoT CCG - I only play it because it's active and my friend Chuck had invested in it. I started playing with Valyrian, and this was my first tourney. I went 3-2, but had horrible schedule strength, and just missed the cut via the second tiebreaker.

I try to make original decks. My favorite deck is Martell/Lannister icon removal, which is very challenging and beats lots of different types of decks, but I was afraid of Night's Watch showing up. My most dependable deck is Baratheon/Twins (no Frey, just 4 of almost everything, including Standard of the Stag *ahem*) power grab, but it's too vulnerable against Targ (and would have died against the same event cards that killed me in this tourney - what can I say, I'm a sucker for amassing power on a single character!).

I ended up playing my Greyjoy/Night's Watch deck. I saw some recent talk of GJ/NW on this board; I get some needed saves, some good control with Scurvy Cutthroats and Assassin of Pyke, good military breakthru with Balon and Watchers of Ten Towers, and good complements to my high-iniatitive approach with Euron's Crew and Longship Navigator.

My three victories were against GJ/Stark, Martell/Stark, and Stark. I was most worried about Stark going into the tourney - good thing I packed more stealth beforehand to get around those Umber Reinforcements. These matches went off as most of my victories do - my deck is over-the-top, extreme military beatdown (along with the usual, I pack 3 Melee Contests and 3 Relentless Attacks), and it's probably not much fun for my opponents when it works.

My first loss was against GJ/Stark. I was cruising pretty well, until No Prisoners was played, and she had two Immune to Events characters on the board. I lost Jon and his power, and she eventually edged her way to victory. She was gracious enough to give me another shot at her deck, and I was able to beat it easily the second time - I am grateful as it gave me confidence to win 3 of my 4 next matches.

My second loss was my only one against someone to make the cut - Aerysthemad and his Martell/Knights of the Realm deck. I was mowing thru his waves of knights, and I was about to hit 18 or so power when he played I'm Going to Kill That on Jon, who had 10 power on him at the time. I didn't know about that card, but it's hard to say if I would have played much differently otherwise. He then got Arianne and CoS Viper out to outpace me to the victory conditions.

Having both of my losses come down to single event cards with "cannot be saved" is pretty consistent with my attitude towards the game, but it was still fun to be in the competetive environment. Thanks to all for the festive atmosphere! Finally, thanks to my friend Chuck for loaning me two of his Relentless Attacks - that card works beautifully in NW decks for a power rush, not to mention more kills.

Gathering of Engineers Spring 2005: Day 1

2005-04-29T09:33:00.000-07:00

It's time for my gaming group's semi-annual gaming retreat at Sunriver. Doug and I showed up late the night before, and we got some 2-player gaming in before hitting the sack.

First up was Dracula, from the Kosmos 2-player line. Doug took Dracula, and I took Van Helsing. Early on, I landed on his space so I could see whether he had few coffins on the board (I had 2 victims), and he only had 1. He then did some skirting around the board and swapping of cards, which I took to mean he was trying to hide the last coffin, so I worked my way over there and found the coffin; all I had to do next was follow him and keep snagging coffins as he lay them down. He got away from me for a bit, but I player "Battle Lust" which gave me a double-move and time to catch up; after finding the last coffin he laid down, I then played the action card that lets me search his supplies immediately, giving me the instant win as I was able to prove that he had no coffins on the board.

Dracula is a cute game with a little bit of everything. I'm not sure that there will ever be an epic match that will leave you proud of your victory at the end, but I think it's worth pulling our for a quick 30-minute game. Thumbs Up.

Next was Jambo, another in the Kosmos 2-player line. I've played ~12 games of it since it was released, and my record is about exactly .500. In this game, I stuck to my usual strategy of trying to keep 2 wares in my warehouse for maximum flexibility/efficiency. I happened to get a series of ware cards that allowed me to make several trades, rotating goods in and out, and won fairly early. An interesting thing about this match is that neither of us ever took the 1 gold for unused actions!

When I lose at Jambo, I never feel as if I could have done something to improve my chances; when I win, I never feel as if I did something brilliant. Sure, there are a lot of little choices you can make to improve your chances, but it seems that victory is determined by the boons that come your way; in this match, me drawing both Psychics was a big advantage. The game sure is fun to play though, so I have to give it a Thumbs Up.

Last, Doug taught me Al Cabohn, another in the dreaded Bohnanza line. This one is tailored for 2 players, which is weird because the original game is based strongly on trading. Instead, you are competing against the mob, who may be edging in on your bean trade if you are not careful. The mob got an early start in our game, but we were able to come back and keep it close. In the end, the mob had 24, I had 23, and Doug had 20. It turns out we were playing a small rule wrong (we were playing that you couldn't cash in a beanfield before being forced to pay the mob), which would have given me one more point, and possibly slowed down the mob.

I mentioned boons in Jambo; here, they were just obscene. When you are drawing your 3 new cards for planting, if the top card in the discard pile matches one of the cards, then that card gets added to the new card, and this keeps happening as long as there is a match. This means that you could have several new cards of the same type to plant, just from luck-of-the-draw! Also, I thought hand management was much more simplified, since there was no trading. There were a few tough choices in the game, but, overall, I thought it was a bust - Thumbs Down. (Note that it's supposed strength is as a solitaire game, not a 2-player game.) As I told Doug, as with Carcassone, all these expansions and variants of a base game that I used to loathe have the effect of making the original seem great!

More on 24

2005-04-28T01:02:00.000-07:00

Six episodes in now... enough intrigue and suspense to allow me to get past the issues I described in the previous post. I was just about to give up on the series because it dragged too much in the "real-time" format (i.e., it feels like a Hollywood political thriller but extended over 16 hours), but the "twist" at the end of the episode finally got me hooked on this format. By spending so much time in the mundane conversations, you get lulled into a false sense of knowing what's going on, whereas, in a two-hour movie, you're suspicions are proven true or false before you have a chance to disbelieve them yourself.

24

2005-04-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

While I do not own a television, I am not beyond watching collections of episodes on DVD (e.g., The Sopranos). I was at the library today, and saw the first 12 episodes of Season 1 of 24, so I thought I'd check it out. Cool gimmick, but, in just the first episode, a lot of things bothered me:

People are too pretty;
Too much music;
The editing (e.g., multiple panels in the view window) is overly stylized;
If your kid leaves the house, you don't call people right away if it's after midnight, especially if they are strangers;
Keifer looks too much like my gaming buddy Chris.

I'll give it a couple episodes more to see whether I can get past these issues; the first is likely to be a showstopper, though.

Unplayed Games

2005-04-25T23:13:00.000-07:00

With others in my gaming group posting about "unplayed games" (Mike, Eric, Chris), I thought I'd take some inventory. I'm not counting wargames and CCGs. Below is my list - games in bold are games I actually hope and expect to play someday. I was surprised the list was so long, but, for a while, I've stop inflicting games I suspected would suck on the rest of my gaming group.

Africa 1880
Anno 1452
Baker Street
Battlemist (& expansion)
Blink
Clue: the Card Game
Colorado County
Courtisans of Versailles
Deadwood
Delta V
Dungeoneer
Europa 1945 - 2030
Fishy
Heart of Africa
Knights
Lord of the Rings: The Duel
Lunar Rails
Magic Hill
Mamoonia
Pisa (Adlung)
Thieves Guild
Ticket to Ride: Europe
UR, 1830 BC
Vino (although it would best be played online)
Vom Kap Bis Kairo
Way Out West
Wongar
X-Bugs

2 down, 1 to go (or is that 4?)

2005-04-25T00:20:00.000-07:00

Over the past six weeks, I have read the first two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire trilogy: A Game of Thrones, and A Clash of Kings. Some quick impressions (possible minor spoilers):

It was my third time trying to read A Game of Thrones (first time made it about 25% through, second time about 50%). What made me get through it this time was my greater familiarity with all of the characters - even the minor ones - given my increased involvement with the AGoT CCG.
The things that bothered me the first two times were the gratuitous sex scenes involving a 13-year-old girl (even though she's considered a "woman" in that time and place), and how the plot was driven by over-the-top acts of extreme cruelty. My desire to "meet" all the characters I knew from the CCG got me past these issues (as well as Catelyn's endless moaning, the incongruous Daenerys chapters, etc.).
Most folks preferred the first book because of the more complex motivations and dillemas facing the various characters. I agree with the positives, but, overall, my reading experience was marred by two things. First, most (third-person) narration being from the point-of-view of very young children. Second, with so many of the points-of-view being Starks, there is a lot of repetition as the various characters react to the same major events - thank goodness this wasn't written by Stephen King!
It bothered me somewhat that the second book was more simplistic in terms of characters (motivations were either lust for power or survival), but the action came a lot faster, with the battle scenes written in a much more engaging fashion. I really enjoyed meeting the Greyjoys - I cannot wait for the Martells in the next book! - and the narration was more action-driven rather than reaction-driven.
Another difference in the two books is that the first had very few "magic" elements, while there were many more in the second book. I definitely liked having more there.
With the exception of Jon Snow's journey, I find very little in the book to be the least bit transcendent; rather, it's the literary equivalent of a demolition derby. I am surprised to find it ranked #1 on the Internet Top 100 SF/Fantasy Books; if this is as good as it gets, it looks like I'll be going back to classic lit after this one.

It is my interest in the CCG (and, to a lesser extent, the board game) that will keep me reading this series. With my sabbatical ending this week, I am fairly certain that it will take my much longer to read the next in the series.

Clean-shaven

2005-04-25T00:09:00.000-07:00

Although it's looking like it might not make of a difference anyways, I have decided to abandon my annual tradition of growing a Spurs Beard this year. Among other things, with my new position at work, I am occasionally required to go into the fab, and even my love for the Spurs cannot overcome my aversion to beard covers.

Pride & Joy

2005-04-21T22:40:00.000-07:00

Today when I was having lunch with my daughter, we were listening to some piano music. When the disc ended, the CD changer brought up the new Helmet. As the opening riff let loose, Ruoda - for the first time - started headbanging.

You've done Daddy proud.

WMVs for April 11

2005-04-11T10:38:00.000-07:00

FYI, I finally posted #89 on my top 100 blog; hopefully, that will get me primed to update it more regularly.

Mastodon - March of the Fire Ants: Mastodon is one of the "hot" metal acts these days. I just bought their latest album, Leviathan, which has its interesting moments, but overall seems kinda overrated. What convinced me to get the CD was this video from their previous album, which demonstrates their blend of Grind, Death, and Power Metal, and highlights their chief gimmick - the drumming.

Neurosis - A Sun That Never Sets: Neurosis is now one of my favorite bands, and this is the title track from my favorite album of theirs. It is one of their most accessible songs, as it sounds a little bit like a Soundgarden ballad. About 90 seconds have been edited out of the song, but this will give you a taste of what they're about.

Nile - Sarcophagus: Nile's gimmick is that they write songs about ancient Egypt (reading the liner notes is informative and fun), blending top-quality American Death Metal with creepy atmospherics. The low-budget video doesn't do them justice, but it *is* a really good song of their latest, excellent release (see allmusic.com's gushing review for more details).