Cav's Place

I was saying yesterday that I’ll probably find a way to post a quick rant about some sort of annoyance during the weekend and it just so happened that somebody posted a link to an Epica song, so it’s as good a time as any for this particular one. After all, Epica may be one of the most notable examples of this problem, in part also because the good messages embedded in many of their songs fail to reach many who can’t get past the harsh vocals, but it is otherwise widespread in metal subgenres that would be expected to be melodic and avoid grunts, growls or, as I tend to call it, belching into the microphone.
It may stem from a belief that metal should sound harsh, which may have been a defining characteristic when the genre separated from rock, but it’s hardly the case anymore. There are some subgenres that are obviously defined by such vocals and others where, while not required, they are often expected, but what about the rest? If you can’t exactly have death or black, which were succinctly described to me as “belching with angry drums” and, respectively, “belching with nice guitars” when I first started getting interested in metal and was trying to learn what to stay well clear of, without growls, why can you have power, folk or symphonic, particularly when female-fronted, with them?
Actually, when it comes to folk metal it’s so bad that I’ve learned to largely steer clear of it even though it should, in theory, be something that I should be drawn to. Definitely not as much as to symphonic and gothic without growls, but for quite some time it was a subgenre that I really tried to look into only to constantly be driven away by the overwhelming number of bands that seem convinced that a guy belching his heart out into the microphone is one of its defining characteristics. Though highly unpleasant, particularly considering the sort of “battle hymns” that could otherwise be produced, I can somewhat understand the temptation to do so when it comes to so-called “Viking” metal, but why does it seem to apply to the vast majority of the rest as well is beyond me.
Personally, I’m also bothered when I hear such vocals in doom that would otherwise sound nice, and far more so when it comes to certain gothic bands that otherwise benefit from great compositions and female vocals, but I’m aware that the first somehow separated from death when it was created and the second was, and for many still is, based on the “beauty and the beast” concept when it comes to vocals, so the end result may remain highly frustrating in certain cases, but at least it is understandable. However, to go back to my main interest when it comes to music, when you even have the symphonic black subgenre to cater to those who desire both those instrumental parts and the growls, why do so many female-fronted symphonic metal bands decide to scatter varying amounts of male growls throughout their songs? It doesn’t seem to do anything other than alienate most melodic metal fans and force such bands to compete on a field terribly overcrowded with traditional “beauty and the beast” gothic and “melodic” black, so why would they want to do this? I just don’t get it, and I doubt I ever will…

Finished Castle of the Winds II earlier this week and then somehow found myself deciding to finally install and start The Witcher two days ago. Delayed that for half a year after winning it, along with the sequel, on GOG.com because I’m not exactly in any mood to like any game I’m playing and I’ve been meaning to play this ever since I first heard it was in development, so the risk of it becoming a huge disappointment is about as high as the expectations, but I guess I’ll see about that now.
Don’t expect any review for Castle of the Winds; just wanted to finally get through the whole thing now that I saw I could, after originally playing the first one some 20 years ago, and it was simple enough and went by quickly enough to work even in my current state of mind. The Witcher, however, is quite the opposite of that, so there will definitely be a review once I’ll finish it, but when or even if that will happen is anyone’s guess right now. After all, I originally started Gothic II in 2005, if not even 2004, Neverwinter Nights in 2007 and Morrowind in 2008, and I’m yet to finish any of them.

This is about it for now, as I’m sort of just trying to make the best of the sunlight and write something on here while I can’t play without pulling down the blinds, but it’s quite cloudy and rain is expected, and in fact has been expected since morning, so it should probably get better from this point of view soon. At the same time, especially considering the fact that the Confederations’ Cup starts tomorrow and the evening matches will be late at night for me, forcing me to somehow try to write in my story during the day, writing this week’s second post will be quite a problem… But I guess I’ll find a way to at least throw another quick rant on here about something, seeing as reasons for annoyance and frustration are everywhere.

It’s been nine months since the previous such post and my list of bands to look into more someday has grown to over one hundred names. Granted, a few of them I know are good, so they’re the ones you’ll be seeing mentioned in this post, but they’re still on the list because I usually only listened to their songs on-line a few times. In fact, it’s quite hard for me to remember more than a few of them at a time without checking, usually getting stuck on the first particularly good one I stumble into when I happen to try to go through a few of them and adding it to the mental list of the last few I got stuck on in the same way until another one “overwrites” it in my mind a few weeks later.
If you’re wondering how come I stumble into all these bands, it’s still largely by keeping an eye on the Female Symphonic Metal and Power of Female Fronted Metal Facebook groups, the latter being the proper splinter group, the one I mentioned in the previous “New Finds” post apparently only being an attempt by some other member which never got far. In some cases, I can find some of them on my own, by following related links on YouTube or even by checking out ads, but these make up only a small portion, so I do recommend joining those groups and making your own selections if you’re interested in the genre.

Let me start with Seed of Sadness, which didn’t release much so far, but which nevertheless shows much promise, largely thanks to Stellaria’s powerful and memorable voice. I’m going to put a link to Remnant of a Dying Smile here, but if you click it you’ll see it’s in a playlist containing all five songs on their self-titled EP and I do recommend that you listen to all of it because that’s very good stuff and it won’t take too long either. If you want, you can also download it all, as it’s essentially a demo that the band is freely releasing.
Next comes ShadowIcon, which released their first and, so far, only full album, Empire in Ruins, back in 2011. I have to admit that I didn’t look into them particularly thoroughly and didn’t even try to find and listen to all the songs on the album, but End of Days clearly convinced me that they deserve much attention. It’s possible that the album as a whole isn’t quite at this level, since it wasn’t too hard to pick the best song out of those I did listen to, but those other ones were good as well, so they’re definitely a band to keep an eye on.
Last but definitely not least in this group of bands I’m adding here simply because I’m very pleasantly surprised by how good they can sound is Analgesia. They’ve been around since 2006, so they have far more material than the others, but they’re from Morocco, which explains why very few ever heard of them in Europe. A few of their older songs are quite harsh, their lyrics often reflect a far from perfect grasp of English, occasionally coupled with quite questionable views, and their male vocals leave something to be desired, but the songs based on the outstanding pairing between the music composed by “mastermind” Ahmed Zine and Youssra Atmen’s voice, occasionally aided by choirs as well, make it easy to overlook the problems noticed in the others. Try checking out Amphion, Four Candles for Five Corners or, for a change of pace, Tell Me.

Moving on to, shall we say, special interests, I have to mention a Romanian band called The Hourglass. Despite recognizing Alma Vomastek’s obvious vocal qualities, the first songs I heard initially made me dismiss them, but then out of nowhere came Away, which marks the first time they were able to make use of a professional studio, and it changed everything. If this is how they can actually sound when poor equipment doesn’t get in their way, there should quite clearly be a place for them out there. They are trying to make it more or less on their own, however, so the release of their first actual album at the moment depends on the success of their Indiegogo campaign to fund it.

On a different note, some time ago I happened to click an ad for a band called Angelic Foe. Considering the obvious similarities in sound, I wasn’t surprised when I eventually learned that it’s the side project of Arcana‘s lead vocalist, Annmari Thim, so that should give you an idea about what to expect. It’s not something I’d regularly listen to, but there are certain moments when this type of songs seem to fit particularly well and I actually had Out Lilith on repeat for some time after I first bumped into them, so I’d recommend listening to that first.
And while I’m at songs I wouldn’t regularly listen to, I have just these days stumbled into BrunuhVille, who I gather is well known to those interested in that type of music. Since, with very few exceptions, we’re talking about entirely instrumental pieces, I need to be in a very particular mood to pay much attention to it, so it’s not impossible that this isn’t the first time I bump into this, but simply the first time I don’t dismiss the music as soon as I see someone mentioning it. Either way, while The Eternal Forest seems to be by far the most popular piece there, after listening to a few songs selected almost entirely randomly I’d point you towards Vampire Tales (Blood, Love and Dust) even before that, if you think you may be in the mood for something like this.

But this is long enough already, so I’d better stop here. I’m sure there will be a part five in this series of posts at some point, but that will require actually going though more of my list or just happening to stumble into yet more great acts. At this rate, the latter is perhaps the more probable option, so that post may come sooner rather than later, but until then I leave you to enjoy what I posted above, if any of it also happens to match your particular tastes.

Sunday’s first event meant to show solidarity with the Turkish protesters felt quite weird, since it was just a few of us joining members of the Turkish community from here, and those definitely knew why they were there. It wasn’t more than two or three minutes past 5 PM when I got there and they were already gathered, with flags and banners and chanting in earnest, but I had to wait a few more minutes and then go around the group before I recognized three regulars from other protests and joined them, mainly just sitting and watching, since we didn’t understand anything. At one point, a girl started telling me something in Turkish, which made me just stare at her, but since after that she climbed on the fence I was standing on the bottom part of and leaned on me, I assume she was asking if she could do that to take some pictures or something.
It was probably around 5:30 PM when Claudiu and a few others finally arrived and made their presence known, with a couple of chants in Romanian which were met with applause by the Turks, so I made my way over to them at that point and joined in the second brief round of chants, a few minutes later. That was pretty much the end of our involvement, however, since even they seemed rather confused and largely just talked among themselves until 5:45 PM, when the police asked everyone to clear the area, seeing as the event had only been announced the day before and therefore had no approvals or official protocol… Which sure makes me wonder why can’t our events, announced a week or more in advance, organized by NGOs and with leaders which should be quite experienced by now, turn out like that as well…

Speaking of our events, Wednesday’s World Environment Day one was quite a fiasco, seeing as the actual protest part basically didn’t happen at all. It also taught me that going there with a good sign is a very bad idea if you don’t want too much attention, especially when nothing much is happening and people aren’t exactly otherwise occupied.
The last version of the schedule, which was changed multiple times and caused a fair amount of confusion, mentioned some sort of exposition on environmental themes between 4 PM and 9 PM, with the “Environment Night” event, which was advertised as a funeral ceremony for the environment in Romania, apparently between 5:30 PM and 6 PM and the otherwise unapproved protest tentatively scheduled between 6 PM and 8 PM, though everyone knew people were more likely to arrive after 7 PM. Still, when I got there at 5:30 PM, work on setting up the few items that were supposed to be on display was a long way from being completed and the only signs of the “funeral ceremony” were a funeral wreath, a small coffin and a cross made of plastic pipes that was just then being pieced together with duct tape, so I just wandered around and got bored while nothing happened for quite a long time.
I don’t remember when something that was supposed to be a press conference started, but I’m quite sure it was at least 6:30 PM, maybe more like 7 PM, and the name was rather inappropriate due to the almost complete lack of media presence. Since that seemed to be the official, staged part of the event and that was when they at least mentioned anything of the scheduled funeral, I guess this was what the “Environment Night” ended up being, probably due to the otherwise entirely expected complete lack of interest in the ceremony they had mentioned, as I didn’t see people show up in mourning clothes and with candles and other funeral props, as they had asked. The whole thing pissed me off from the beginning anyway, seeming like nothing more than a tasteless and pointless attempt at dark humor which would do more harm than good, so I went there determined to let my anger show in some way if it’ll actually be acted out and was actually rather pleased when it wasn’t, but overall it’s still something to file under failures. The same goes for certain moments of the press conference itself, but this is still largely a personal post and that requires a fair amount of background information related to the movement and the NGOs involved, so I won’t get into that.
It was only after this part that I pulled out my sign, and almost immediately started having people take photos of it. Actually, at first it was an older woman who congratulated me for the side she read of it, then looked at the other (mouse over for translations), told me to turn it over because that was even better, and started calling those she could see with cameras to take photos of it. A little later, she tried to pull me to the front so somebody could “film” me, she said, even though I later realized she was still only referring to a photographer. Either way, when I resisted being pulled forward, she asked for my sign and I gave it to her so she could be “filmed” with it, and then she told me that God made me write that after giving it back. Meant to say that I’m not Christian, but just smiled and walked away, only to have her follow me to congratulate me yet again and tell me to keep it before finally leaving me alone.
After that, we were all largely just wandering around and waiting for the start of a protest that nobody seemed willing to initiate, so people had nothing better to do than talk to each other and, in case of those with cameras, take pictures of signs. Obviously, this meant that I wasn’t left alone after getting rid of that woman, but instead I had several more people ask to take pictures of it, congratulate me for it or ask whether I came up with it myself. As such, it was quite a relief when Alex finally decided to pick up the loudspeaker and say something, but unfortunately he was angry when he got there and became even more so when seeing the low turnout and the lack of initiative, so instead of trying to lead us he basically just ranted about freedom of expression and lashed out at both those who didn’t attend and those who were attending but not doing much else, which of course just pissed nearly everyone off. The fact that some other guy got in the middle of it and started a rant largely praising Communism and Ceausescu, appearing unaffected by nearly everyone else trying to boo him away, definitely didn’t help, but by that point I was largely just wandering around yet again, which I kept doing for a while longer, getting more and more uncomfortable whenever somebody else was taking a picture, until I eventually left at 8:30 PM.

The last event was the properly scheduled and planned one in support of the Turkish protesters, which took place yesterday morning, from 11 AM, in front of the Turkish embassy from here. As expected, considering the time, the turnout was low, though still well above the few people that’d have taken part in any such protest until a year and a half ago, but this and the fact that it was actually organized by a Romanian NGO meant that the participants seemed rather evenly split between Romanians and Turks this time around. It also was quite quiet, probably because we were stretched out on the sidewalk and mixed, so neither the Romanians nor the Turks could keep chants going and nobody seemed to try to start any in English.
It was definitely far less uncomfortable, however, even if I felt rather out of place there, not standing next to anyone I knew, and it seemed like all the media was there. In fact I just tried to sit towards the end of the designated protest area that wasn’t obviously in plain view of the many cameras, so a few steps away from where most participants had gathered, but there was a girl who arrived after a little while and exchanged a few words with me, which also meant that I could sign the petition they were passing around, as she asked to read it and I could do that too, because I wouldn’t have signed something without reading first and I couldn’t get myself to ask for the text instead of simply the sheet to sign on that was passed around. She moved away after a bit and spent the rest of the time talking to one of the photographers who were there, but it was a comfortable interaction that made me feel slightly less out of place and kept it manageable until 12:05 PM or so, when we all left, even though the previous day had already taken a whole lot out of me.
What didn’t sit well with me was that there were people with very young children there, but that certainly also provided a rather interesting moment when the one who had brought her very young daughter along simply started breastfeeding. At first she turned towards the wall and seemed to try to hide somewhat, but that happened just when I was looking that way and I therefore got an eyeful of boobs before quickly turning away. After a short while she seemed to give up on trying to hide, however, so she simply turned back around and kept right on breastfeeding, which put the camera crews and the photographers in a rather amusing predicament.

As you should already know, things are getting ugly in Turkey. If you want more details, I have seen a New York Times article being shared as explaining some things reasonably well, and the Al Jazeera live blog on the topic was indicated as a way to keep track of events on the ground. I picked up this view from “a ringside seat” from there, detailing the events as seen by someone living in the area and looking out the window.
It all started from the plans to destroy one of the few remaining parks in Istanbul, which already has extremely few green areas left, but that should probably only be noted as an encouraging development, being an environmental “spark” instead of an economic one, but otherwise it was obviously only the proverbial last straw. It likely still wouldn’t have been enough if the police wouldn’t have been so violent in trying to clear the protesters from the area, but they were and it all escalated and spread from there, because many people were already unhappy about many things. Worse, anti-government protests attempted a month ago by workers and unions were also violently stamped out by police, so many were itching for another opportunity.

As I understand it, past the localized issue of the park itself, the main complaints have to do with the increasingly authoritarian regime, which controls a large part of the media and tends to stamp out any contrary opinions, with the fact that State policies are increasingly rooted in Islam, going against the concept of separation of Church and State, with the government’s drive for economic development at any cost, creating a potential real estate bubble and destroying ecosystems in the process, with the construction of a third bridge over the Bosphorus and with the lack of protection for minorities, be they ethnic, religious, sexual or of any other kind, all of which are definitely worthy goals. However, to quote another analysis I read last night, the protesters range “from anarchist, socialist, and communist groups and parties, trade unions, feminists, environmental activists, LGBT activists to a huge number of soccer fans and nationalist-secularist groups”, so disagreements between the many groups are very likely once anything moves past the one common goal, which is to bring down the government.
The protests also appear to be against the Turkish government’s support for the Syrian rebels, which is the one issue that I have trouble with, as whatever few true rebels are left on the ground in Syria deserve all the support they can get, caught as they are between the regime’s forces and the fundamentalist al-Nusra group and being largely leaderless, seeing as those who try to lead them end up losing themselves in endless bickering. Still, it may well be that the problem the protesters have with this is that Turkish people are starting to suffer as a result of the government’s stance, considering what’s been going on close to the border, so it may be that they’re asking to be better protected, which is an entirely legitimate concern, but I guess I’ll need to look more into the specifics of this particular request.

Today, people across the world are showing their solidarity with the Turkish protesters, as the events taking place in cities such as New York, Brussels, Madrid, most major German cities or Helsinki prove. One such event is scheduled in Bucharest as well, so I’ll be heading there now, after posting this. As citizens of the world, we are in this together and, while it’s always difficult when many groups with very different goals join together, worthy causes are worth fighting for and regimes that treat their own people in such a manner are worth fighting against, no matter where it happens or who’s involved.