I forgot how much I loved Evangelion

The fusion of psychoanalytic Anime, plenty of Biblical references, and Biomechanical Mechas. If asked, those around me would say that my attitude towards the general Otaku culture, Anime in specific, isn’t exactly optimistic. But this is the one exception I make. I’ll even go further to say that it’s one of the best things that I have encountered in my life so far. Possibly the best I’ve visually encountered. Not to mention that the character Asuka is like my dream anime girl lol. Egomaniac, psychotic, redhead prodigy. Yeap, that’s totally it.

Since I have lived and still continue to live a rather bland life, I allow myself to indulge in some good quality, drug-free psychotic manifestation every now and then. Me listening to Dream Theater is one example of that, whose music I get to be lost with all the dissonant noises. But all that chaos is systematically governed and there is meaning amidst it.

Initially, the series appears to be just another anime with gigantic robots fighting to save the world, but towards the later episodes you start seeing the built up emotional tensions resulting in a breakdown of the main characters. Their unstable mental state leads to some questionable decisions and a mysterious ending to the story.

This is the infamous “Asuka’s mind rape” scene, where she is forced to remember things she ignored from her past like witnessing her mother’s suicide. Though, most viewers end up getting mind fucked themselves after watching this segment. See for yourself.

I hate it, I hate it, I hate you

People worship you, adore you, praise you.

But I'm not convinced, I see better than others.

Kill a man and you're a murderer,

kill many and you're a conqueror, 

kill them all, you're a god

Happy birthday you 2008 year old myth.

United Abominations - MegadetH (2007)

They have been around for nearly 25 years now, and the members are around my dad’s age, but they’re still kicking ass. In my opinion Megadeth deserves more recognition instead of their arch rival, Metallica. Money has corrupted Shitallica over the years and they’re barely clinging on to the title as the greatest, quote unquote, Heavy metal band.

Despite not being the most fucking brutal music makers in their 20’s anymore, Megadeth have regained composure after their failed attempt at matching Metallica’s success by creating a mainstream album “Risk” (1999). They have learnt their lesson and have stayed true to their fans ever since, unlike the money loving Jews in Metallica.

This album is their latest release, and it was very reassuring to the loyal Megadeth fans that they aren’t retiring anytime soon. Most importantly,

SOLOS! SOLOS! and more SOLOS!

Fuck yes! This album was a total landmark due to it being a festival of great guitar solos that are missed on most music these days and it sure as hell pleased a lot of metalheads. The cleverly crafted lyrics touch mainly on political matters in Dave Mustaine’s trademark style.


Some notable songs were:

1. Sleepwalker
The clean guitar intro is a great start to the album, and then gradually picks up speed with chugging guitars. The riffs are reminiscent of the songs from their masterpiece album ‘Rust in Peace’ (1990). There’s also a very cool solo duel too.

2. Washington Is Next!
All round metal goodness. The lyrics obviously cover very controversial but not in an obscene way. Awesome complex riffs, and guess what, more guitar solos!

4. United Abominations
The title blatantly refers to issues regarding the United Nations. Awesome song, both melodically and lyrically. The intro is exceptionally cool as it starts off hollow then it builds up with a guy furiously ranting about the futility of the UN.

5. Gears of War
This song was written for the X-Box game of the same name, but it would have been even better if it was a song for the game ‘Doom’. The overall song gets slightly boring but the Marty Friedman style solo is fucking stunning.

7. Play for Blood
The majority of the song is very similar to their old song “Killing is my business”. It’s not as fast and ruthless as the song but has the meanest kickass grooves. You don’t get that often.

8. A Tout le Monde
A remake of another one of their masterpiece from ‘Youthanasia’ (1997). Personally, I think it was a bad move on their part. The idea of calling in a female vocalist was alright, but the song was too sped up and was lacking of the appropriate emotion.

Overall, it’s clear that Megadeth lost some of its raw brutality but in turn they have greatly matured, like aged wine. They have a musical direction clearer than ever and executing it to perfection. Some say they’ve ran out of ideas and recycling their old songs to make an effortless album, but reality is that artists do that all the time, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. And there are bound to be similarities in the songs made by one songwriter. I mean, that’s how artists get their unique styles isn’t it? Another way of looking at the matter would be that “at least they’ll stick to their good old sound that we love Megadeth for,” and that’s all I wish of them for now.

There was something different about her.

This aura of confidence,
Almost like defiance.
Just your typical prettygirl on the eyes.
But there’s something more to apprise.

Fearful of losing something that was never mine,
I’m secretly hoping our paths will intertwine.
I don’t believe in love at first sight.
But I don’t know why I’m so uptight.

Feeling threatened by something that doesn’t even exist,
I’m questioning why the feeling persists.
I know have to conjure up the courage to say
But I’m the one who stands in my own way.

To my regret and dismay…

[Insert melodic guitar solo here? Hehe]

My head is untrue to my heart,
So this is the only way I can impart.
I pray to the heavens if there is a predestined plan
But At the end of the day, I’m only a silent man.


So yeah... My first attempt at writing lyrics. I've had one song to go with this kind of lyrics for a while now but was never inspired to complete it. The rhymes are rather childish and seriously lacking complexity. But it's my first go after all. I suspect that due to the sudden emo-romantic vibe from the song, there are people wondering: "Are these based on true events?"

Maybe...


PS : I know this really ruins the mood but

PLAGIARISE THIS AND I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU.

Whipped the old guns out

Really, really old guns.

This is my Tamiya Sprayworks, which is basically the most basic and cheapest airbrush you can find in the market, although some people tend to say it doesn’t even deserve to be classified as an airbrush… I beg to differ. It has served me tremendously throughout the years and it is much easier to clean than other airbrushes. I originally bought it back around 2002 when I was madly into Gundams and WWII plastic models. I’ve always had expensive hobbies but this was the most costly of all because surprisingly plastic modelling often required absolute concentration and expensive gears other than the kits.

Anyway, back to present day. A week ago, I was commissioned by Allan to do a picture of Marcus and some other guy from Gears of War on a 24 x 36 canvas he had lying around in his garage. This canvas was used in some event last year so it had some writings on it. So I just gave a quick spray over the general canvas to try and even out bumps and dings and after they dried out I gave an extra half a dozen concentrated coats on where the letters were.

I want the paint to completely dry overnight so that I don’t accidentally smudge it or rip the coat while it’s still malleable, so I will begin with the stencil tomorrow.

Meanwhile, an idea popped into my head while I was spraying away. I brought some fresh 10 x 10 canvases and sprayed them like the following pictures so that I can use them later as a pre-painted background:

Since the paint on Allan’s canvas took ages to dry compared to the little 10 x 10’s, I started on the long overdue Billy Corgan’s portrait on one of them. The end result, I love it. Gotta love gradations.

Travis Barker is better than Mike Portnoy?

Why won't people stop being so protective about Travis Barker?

It's obvious as 1+2 that he's not all that but some people just won't fucking get it. Sure, he can play some fast fills, but so can millions of school band geeks, and so can Mike Portnoy. Now to be able to play around 60 time signature changes in a song AND accentuate notes amidst all that, that's fucking true talent. I suck at first-person shooters apparently because I spam too much. Travis Barkers sucks because he just mindlessly spams and doesn't really care when to, or not to hit.

There is a saying: 百聞不如一見 which roughly means "seeing once is better than hearing 100 times". So see for yourself and decide who's the better.

Here's Travis Barker, whacking away retardedly, almost exclusively at the snares...




And here's Mike Portnoy. Notice how he utilises various cymbals and china and how graceful his playing is.




Not to mention the insane time signatures he has to count when playing this particular song.



There are opinions and there are facts. This isn't subjective. It's the truth. Nothing more. What gets me fired up and biased is the douchebags who deny the simple fact. That Barker, as good as he may be, is not better than the likes of Neil Peart or Mike Portnoy. I doubt he'll ever be...

Moving into new territories

Jerry Cantrell of Alice in Chains

Some of you may have noticed already but this piece is the first to have a white background. I already did a very dark picture of his bandmate, Layne Staley, who was always the stoned and depressed, Kurt Cobain-type rock star (he died of overdose). And of course, Cantrell was quite the opposite, well behaved onstage, sober during interviews, and no addiction problems whatsoever. So I settled on this picture with a light background despite it being slightly crap in quality. So I got my pen out and improvised and redefined some lines and cleaned up some blurs. Though I kinda screwed up the eyes a little...

...And none other than Jesus Petrucci himself

This picture was another challenge for me because of three reasons:

Firstly, this was the first not to have background objects ignored (as blurred and unidentifiable as they apear, they're actually stage/lighting equipments).

Secondly, this is the first one where you can tell where the subject is watching. On previous pictures, the shadow was too dominant so the eye sockets were entirely painted black. However on this one, I got the chance to have some whites in the eye.

And also, this is the first tile where I have actually used white - the highlights on Jesus's hair. Until this point I had only used black paint, so all the white surfaces were just unpainted canvas. Normally I'm not big fan of painting white due to the fact I can't be as carefree as when I'm using stronger colours but I think it turned out quite well in the end.

“Why do you hate Blink 182 so much?

Who are you to say they suck. Fuck you, Megadeth sucks even more.” - Anonymous


My turn, asshat.

I would absolutely carry Blink 182’s children if they come up with anything better than their measly fucking one-riff-for-everything songs; the intro, the verse, the bridge, the chorus, the interlude. Tribal drum music could have been more interesting.

Yes, yes, I already know all about the; It’s not the music. It’s the mentality where you don’t get trapped in a frame and think outside the box.

If you ask me what makes a good musician, or any other artists for that matter, my answer would be ‘whoever that can interact with the audience, or viewers’. Now by this I do not necessarily mean that a good musician should have good stage manners, although this is a huge plus… But what I really mean by ‘interact’ here is to make the listener get chills every time they put a record on, to instil an emotion, or to inspire.

Now notice how I don’t have a criterion like ‘to unintentionally bore or piss the fuck off of listeners’ when judging a good musician.

It is my firmest belief that a good artist should have some depth in terms of their musical capabilities, basically meaning they should have a clue of what the fuck they’re doing. If a musician is not going to adhere to any musical theory or rules, that’s fine by me.

But what makes me label some of them as being absolute poo-eaters is the fact that Fall Out Boy can’t play anything but power chords and the Hives simply can’t sing. Probably because they don’t want to, but most likely because they simply don’t have the ability to. I mean, how can you think outside the box when you haven’t even mastered what’s inside the box? And shouldn’t thinking outside the box sound less simple and boring than the norm? I find it pretty funny how cover songs seem to be more popular than their own stuff.

Now you have their pathetic self-reassuring statements such as “we just like to keep it simple and stripped down” in an attempt to convince the mass that this is all actually “Art”. Well guess what. Art comes as a result of hard work and talent, not a contract with a major label company and star-studded music videos.

I make it clear here that I do not typecast indie musicians because there are some really talented people that haven’t moved into the limelight yet, and the underground music scene will constantly be a source of new talent. In my view, there are a few very unprofessional bands that don’t deserve the attention thus bringing the whole genre a bad name.

Shame on all of you.