The Cure - Lullaby

My favorite song about child molestation.

I started re-reading The Dark Tower again in (oh so slight) anticipation of the movie.  I don't give a fuck what Stephen King says or how many times he says it, the original version of "The Gunslinger" is a far different and a far superior book when  compared to the "revised and expanded" version you see in stores these days.  The newer version might fit in better with the rest of the series, but it lacks the raw vitality that is so fundamental to the success of King's early work.

It's still good, but if you like the version you find at Books-A-Million or whatnot, you owe it to yourself to pick up an original version from a used book store.

Game wise, the most recent example of this feeling for me would be Fallout 4.  As a huge fan of Bethesda and Fallout, I was super hyped to play around in Boston.  Then I played it.  I can't put my finger on why, but it didn't click with me at all.  I dicked around with it for a week or so, then promptly abandoned it for The Witcher 3, which is a far superior experience.

Final Fantasy 14 is another pretty good example.  I enjoy MMORPGs, I enjoy most Final Fantasies, but the two combined didn't pull me in.  There is (was?) a total lack of leveling content once you've already gone through an area with one job, and grinding it out felt like a slightly less tedious version of FF12's old "beat on a crab for five minutes" leveling scheme.  Maybe things have changed.  I doubt it, though. :P

I enjoyed the first two Mass Effect games and played them quite a bit.  Mass Effect 3 doesn't still engender the hatred that it did.  I think it's less that I've gotten over the ending and more that I've forgotten about this series very quickly.  I had a talk with an RPGFan editor about Mass Effect the other day over Twitter...or tried to, because I couldn't remember the name of whatever alien race Garrus is, whatever alien race Mordin is, and whatever alien race Wrex is.

I don't think these games are gonna be ones that stick with me over the decades, man.

I don't really think the boards need another half-used subforum.

Greetings.  I don't know how it was in your musical circles, but I think 2015 has been one of the better musical years in recent history.  I had the pleasure of listening to a ton of good music, so much so that I'm having trouble even coming up with a top ten, much less a top five.  But I will, because I'm not an indecisive little bitch.

Feel free to be as wordy as you like.

5.  Enslaved - In Times:  This is the first Enslaved album that I don't feel like is better than their previous album, hence why it's at the bottom of my list.  Up until now there's always been a sense of progression to their music, but this time around it hits just shy of the mark that "RITTIR" made.  Not that that's a horrible thing, being runner up to one of the best metal releases of the past decade.    There's still some great tracks here (and "One Thousand Of Rain" is one of the best they've ever written), but I can't help but be slightly disappointed.  Still beats the vast majority of 2015's metal albums.

4.  My Dying Bride - Feel The Misery:  I've generally been a lukewarm fan of My Dying Bride over the years.  I like bits and pieces of their discography, but they've never released an album that I thought was excellent from front to back.  Until now, at least.  This is wonderful:  it's wretched as hell, yet it's full of beauty and mystique.  There's some great guitar harmony at work here too.  If you're one of the many who think MDB has gone a bit off the rails lately, you should definitely give it a chance.  It's made a believer out of me.

3.  Lucifer - Lucifer I:  Albums like this are why I've gravitated towards doom metal since I was a kid.  This is damn near perfect.  Heavy riffs, interesting female vocals, slow and low.  If Jefferson Airplane had been a Black Sabbath cover band, it would have sounded just like this.  Good for fans of depressants and distortion.

2.  Ghost - Meliora:  Well, more like "Meli", because I only really dig the first half of it...but that first half blows almost everything else out of the water.  A vast improvement over Ghost's second album in all aspects.  It rides the very fine line between heavy and catchy with ease.  It wavers in the bit towards the middle (especially "Mummy Dust", which has the worst sounding keyboard solo I think I have ever heard), but comes back strong at the end with "Desu In Absentia", which has this Jim Steinman-like sense of pomp that I dig.  The strong stuff is VERY strong, and elevates Ghost above almost all the competition.  The only band that bests them this year in my opinion is:

1.  Paradise Lost - The Plague Within:  Impeccable.  Inspiring.  Lofty words, but well deserved.  Paradise Lost has been one of my favorite bands for years now, and I've always been impressed by the ways they're continually reinventing themselves on a musical level.  Death metal, doom, electronica, rock:  they've done it all.  "The Plague Within" seems like nothing less than a band manifesto, a statement of where they've been and where they're going.  This is what a veteran metal band should sound like.  I can't recommend it enough.

And that's that.  Can't wait to hear more opinions.  Unless you listen to pop or something, then I'll just skip right the fuck over you.

(Bonus:  2015's biggest disappointment goes to Iron fucking Maiden.  I never thought I would type these words.)

Type O Negative - Red Water (Christmas Mourning)

The only Christmas carol I need. :P

Fields of the Nephilim - The Watchman

Sometimes the old school goth in me rears its blackened head.

My Dying Bride - And My Father Left Forever

I'm really surprised at the quality of MDB's new album.  The last two albums before this one seemed tired and trite, but this one's got a lot of the old spark.  It's the most miserable thing they've done in a long time, and I mean that in the best way possible. :P

Yet another quality metal release in 2015.  It's a good time to be a fan of the genre.

I'm a few hours into Tales of Xillia 2.  The original was a huge surprise out of left field for me; I'd go so far as to say it's my favorite traditional JRPG since the PS2 era.  Xillia 2 seems like it's gonna be very similar to the first, and I have absolutely no problem with that.

I'm a little taken aback by the...semi-muteness of the main character.  I would have preferred a completely silent main character a la Chrono Cross than this fucker that can talk and just doesn't.  It's weird as hell.

One book that comes to mind is "The Folding Knife" by K.J. Parker.  I'm not gonna do it a disservice by trying to summarize it, but trust me when I say it's excellent.

"The Lies of Locke Lamora" is another one.  There have been a couple of sequels to it that I haven't read yet, but that's a modern gold standard for a well-crafted fantasy novel that wraps up everything by the end.

Katatonia - Brave

Old school Katatonia is great.  Of course, so is new school Katatonia.

Alisha, I prefer to hire loud, opinionated underlings.  Let me know if you ever move to the ass end of the country.

I mean, you won't get rich, but you can be opinionated as fuck. 

Slough Feg - Ape Escape

Man, is the game really that soloable these days, or are you just cutting out the grind for narrative's sake? :P

Keep in mind, I haven't played in...uh...whenever it was we were all playing around here.