ACDC Retrospective: Album reviews and June 25th, 2014

ACDC Retrospective: The Albums

(Super extra longer post on my music blog with all albums)

On my music blog I go through every album, give a star rating, and post the predominant genre the album overall has.  I did not want to flood this post with all that, so I'll be doing it a little different.  I set up some special categories and list what I chose for that category.  I only have my "Ultimate Playlist" post to go and then, aside from talking about music I'm learning to play on guitar, you'll get your reprieve from ACDC.

Best Bon Album
Dirty Deeds(4 stars), Blues Rock
-A direct continuation of High Voltage.  The mature parts got more mature, and the raunchy parts got even more raunchy.  They tried to up themselves and in general I feel they did.  My favorite is a hard choice... but Dirty Deeds is just iconic.  With Dirty Deeds we start seeing Angus take center stage in solos.

Best Surprise Album
Ballbreaker(4 Stars) Rock and Roll
-Really good.  The group revisits what they tried with Blow Up Your Video, but do it much much better and more successfully.  My favorite ends up being Hard As A Rock because the riff is so simple and memorable, like older ACDC.

Least Liked Album and Best Album Cover
Stiff Upper Lip(1 Star) Rock and Roll
-The only album I was disappointed in.  Its the closest thing to phoning in or doing the rock version of elevator music.  There is almost no change in the songs throughout the songs.  The problem of repeating chorus lyrics is finally matched by repeating instrument parts as well.

Best Album
Back in Black(5 Star) Hard Rock
-Duh.

June 25th, 2014

Delver was a game that came out a few years back.  It took procedural world creation and combined it with "Minecraft-like" pixel art to make a rogue like dungeon crawler.  That means that when you die, the world is erased and you have to make a new world.  Anyways, it recently got a HUGE update and barely looks like the game I bought a while back.  The update is free, so if you bought this for your phone or tablet, re-download it and give it a go.  The graphics are closer to "Hexen" quality now, but still cartoony.  There is an outside area with a camp full of "friendly" npc's.  The enemies got lots of new artwork and sound effects, and the world has tons of vegetation and way better artwork.  I miss the style of the older game's art a little, but the new one is much more varied and impressive.

The Dungeons and Dragons Basic PDF that will be free for everyone has been a little misrepresented, and Wizards of the Coast have kind of, sort of worked to get the actual info out.  The Basic version will still be free, and will indeed be a full game, but it will only be released pieces at a time with each core book that rolls out.  What this means is that character creation will come when the Player's Handbook will be out.  The DM's section will come with the DM's guide, and the monsters with the Monster Manual.  This means that it will not serve as a sneak preview to the premium game.  It delays playing Basic for a while, but after the initial few months I'm sure people will forget(just like they forget the books have always been released staggered style except for 4th).

I saw a post someone made about all the flavors of M&M's ranked, and I saw an ommision.  Crunchy M&M's are no longer made.  You can order them from Germany, but I hear those are old stock.  For those that never had them, they are M&M's with a rice crispy like center.  While the pretzel M&M replaces it and is great, I have a soft spot for crunchy M&M's.  See, I worked at a theater for 5 years through my late teens and early 20's, and when it came to bulk candy snacks that we were allowed to have a bit of, crunchy M&M's were my favorite.  It occupies a place with Surge soda as being essential to my memories of working at the theater with all my friends.