Tag: Pickup

Vinyl Pickups – July 2022

Much to my chagrin I must admit I went a little overboard on vinyl acquisitions recently but nothing too dangerous.

I found most of System of a Down‘s discography for a decent price. Eventually I do plan on getting their first album. What I do have here though is all pretty great. Thinking about whether or not to buy them made me realize just how consistently good SoaD is. They have a distinct sound that drastically evolved across their releases, with each album being listenable all the through.

Pretty self-explanatory, the soundtrack for Banjo-Tooie. I have the OST (or is score the more appropriate word?) for Banjo-Kazooie already so this is a relief to have before it sells out. It actually came as a surprise, I was bored and checked Fangamer and there it was on the first page, impulse beat logic and now here it is. I may end up doing a comparison of the two games OST’s included.

Beyond Creation is a band I’ve only discovered within the past year or so but their brand of technical ambient death metal is pretty palatable. I was introduced via their most recent album Algorythm and then worked backwards. I think Algorythm is more consistent while Earthborn Evolution has better moments.

Finally some pictures for albums i’ve previously mentioned (Archspire – Bleed the Future, Black Crown Initiate‘s – Song of the Crippled Bull and Selves We Cannot Forgive). Then Temple of Void‘s Lords of Death, an absolutely crushing death metal album with some inspired lyrical themes . It can be doomy, ambient, and even speed up to a gallop with some excellently placed clean vocals on one track. I’d really like to do a more in depth review of it some time. Next would be Michael Jackson‘s Thriller. Everyone’s heard the song. It’s one of the best-selling albums of all time at over 50 million copies. Yet I’d never listened to it front to back, let alone any of his music. It’s good 80’s pop, but i’ll have to listen more to form any strong opinions. Lastly we end with A Tribe Called Quest‘s Midnight Marauders, which is a great album with solid vibes all the way through.

Game Pickups – May 2022

In an ongoing effort to tie some things up, I purchased a few easier to acquire items from Estarland. Some games are just rounding out my library; the loose Spyro game is meant to join a case and manual though. Given how easy it is to get loose disc games, I grabbed a CD folio to keep them. Normally I prefer complete games but my tastes have evolved. Hopefully these loose discs I hope to re-unite with a case, but that endeavor requires time and money.

I also wanted to add the few PC box games I care about to my shelf. A few sellers on Mercari helped me find the four pictured. First was Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines which is probably in my top fives games of all time. Inspired by a youtuber I found recently I also wanted to get the first Harry Potter game on PC. My parents had bought me this when I was a kid and a few months ago I played again out of curiosity. Age of Mythology was one of the first games I personally bought on PC and I still prefer it to Age of Empires.

Vinyl Pickups – May 2022, pt. 2

Shadow of Intent – Primordial
Shadow of Intent – Reclaimer
Bolt Thrower – Those Once Loyal

About two weeks ago while looking for new sources for harder-to-find vinyl I came across IndieMerchStore. They sell licensed clothes, music, etc… for many different bands like Archspire, Black Crown Initiate, and Rings of Saturn just to name a few. Here I found a few albums that had been elusive previously. First is Shadown of Intent’s Primordial and Reclaimer their first and second albums respectively. Both are really good listens that keep you on your toes start to finish. I believe these are also my first Deathcore albums, which is fitting given how highly I’d rate them in that pantheon. Now their third album has been released but I didn’t like it anywhere near as much. It was also the album that forwent the use of Halo lore as a narrative backdrop. Next is my third acquisition of Bolt Thrower’s, Those Once Loyal. This is likely the last album I’ll get of theirs but is no less exceptional. According to the what I’ve read from interviews Bolt Thrower won’t release another album so Those Once Loyal is not only one of their best but also their last. Strangely Bolt Thrower also started out using a pre-existing Sci-Fi universe, Warhammer: 40k, as a backdrop for their early releases as well.

Vinyl Pickups – May 2022

Tchaikovsky and Walton
Tchaikovsky inside left
Tchaikovsky inside right
Walton inside
Tchaikovsky and Pops
Pops inside
Replacement sleeves
Johto Legends and FFX

Every once in a while I’ll make trip to a local goodwill to try and find anything useful, usually with an eye for organizational tools. Recently I made a visit and was able to pick up a large cast-iron skillet, some vinyl, and a couple other miscellaneous things. I haven’t quite gotten around to listening to any of them but I did go through my ritual of dusting, cleaning, and replacing paper sleeves with new anti-static ones. As I did this the smell of the larger collections was just like that of older books, so I did some cursory research and found that both were released around 1938. If you look on the inside of the back cover of either they list other vinyls the companies are selling with prices as high as $6.50. The Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 also has a mild fracture in the second and third vinyl. I’ll just have to see how well they play.

Though I haven’t listened to my Goodwill vinyl, I ordered some off the internet. First from iam8bit was Johto Legends, an orchestral scoring of the music from Pokemon Gold and Silver. I’ve listened through all four sides a few times already. The album progresses with the childish and adventure themes giving way to more japanese-folk inspired music and finally becoming more dramatic overtures. Second was the soundtrack from Final Fantasy X from the Materia Collective. First off the packaging is really weird and I was concerned it was a knockoff at first, and this is my first album with picture disc. It gave me weird vibes, but after a few listens I didn’t mind either way. The music is a little ecclectic as it jumps between the different themes but it does give this sense of moving through different locales. The standouts here being all of the village/town themes, as traditionally in JRPG’s village music is the best.

Finally as I was about to post this I remember I also picked up the vinyl for Polyphia’s New Levels New Devils. A good addition to my growing set of albums fit for general consumption.

Edit: After a thorough cleaning the older albums all still pop with some frequency. I intend to hit them with some cleaning solution and a microfiber cloth and see if that alleviates some of it. Also the Tchaikovsky Symphony no. 6 is only the sleeve, it actually holds The Irish Rovers’ Tales to Warm Your Mind.

Polyphia – New Levels New Devils

Game Pickups – March 2022

Recently having felt the need to get out of my house and do something so I can get out of my head I went to my local game store, Phoenix Games, in California’s north bay-area. I’ve been a patron there since I got my first job after moving out to California about five years ago. Even though I haven’t been there in about two years the owner recognized me and we chatted as I browsed around. To be honest it felt really good to have an honest, earnest conversation with somebody else about whatever it is we talked about. Rarely do I relish a chance to conversate but I’ve known him long enough I didn’t feel akward saying what was on my mind. We chatted about games, rising prices in California, other general chit-chat. It goes to show even introverts need socializing.

I was able to find a copy of Dynasty Warriors 3 and Haunted Mansion for PS2, Spider-Man 2 for Xbox, Mutant Football League, Madden NFL ’93, Cyberball, and Revenge of Shinobi for Sega Genesis and finally Killzone: Liberation for PS Vita. Most of these are an attempt to play something from my childhood to re-evaluate them while Killzone is apparently the only FPS worth owning on Vita.

Metal Vinyl – March 2022

Usually I put the music pictures first but one of the albums present has graphic imagery so I want people to be aware of that in advance.

There’s a well-known UK record label that helped popularize extreme music coming out in the late 80’s called Earache Records, and it’s online store is a great source of metal vinyl. Earlier this year I ordered some vinyl from them that are on my must-own list and they came in about two weeks ago, I just haven’t gotten around to writing about it ’til now. Included is an album any burgeoning fan of metal should check out: Iron Maiden’s Powerslave. Iron Maiden is the kind of metal I can still play around my wife without her complaining, which is a sentiment that extends to nothing else here. Next is the second of the three Bolt Thrower albums I wish to own, this one being …For Victory. Their albums IVth Crusade, Those Once Loyal, and the aforementioned are just phenomenal Death Metal. After this is the graphic-warning album Abysmal by The Black Dahlia Murder, who are one of the first Death Metal bands I really got hooked onto. This Abysmal album is in my opinion the last of their great albums but they’re still releasing new material. Last and most certainly not least, a band I will prop up as long as my memory functions: Opeth. My first true Death Metal band, Opeth is a great mix of heavy and soft atmospherics, harsh screams and serene clean singing. I was able to get a copy of Watershed, Ghost Reveries, and Blackwater Park. Watershed was their last album before they switched to psychadelic prog-rock. Ghost Reveries and Blackwater Park are where the band peaked and I believe some of the best albums of any genre. Only partially shown is Bloodbath’s Unblessing the Purity. This 10″ of pure evil is four tracks of exceptional DM though I prefer the dingier sound of their first two releases.

Castlevania Vinyl

Castlevania, Castlvania II: Simon’s Quest, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

I was introduced to the Castlevania games at when I was younger and watched my cousins play games. One cousin was playing Symphony of the Night and everything about it’s aesthetic resonated with my younger self. I eventually worked up the courage to ask to borrow it, and next I knew I was at home in front of my family’s Playstation 2 about to experience one of my favorite games of all time, for the first time. Since then I’ve probably had a dozen or so playthroughs, but I wouldn’t play the other Castlevania games ’til I was in High School or College. Any fan of the series would be one of the first to extol the excellence of their soundtracks, hence my desire to own them on vinyl. If you’re a fan, it’s worth it.