Iced Earth - Framing Armargeddon - The Story of the Setians...

Iced earth's 9th studio album - Framing Armageddon (Something wicked Part 1) was released on September 11th... It took sometime to find its way to my hand.. and it took some more time for me to sit back and listen to it properly.. thus.. the delay in this article..

Either way... I was doing a bit of snooping around on the internet to see what other ppl had to say about the album... well.. they talk about Scheffar's amazing lyrics.. Tim "Ripper's" vocals... the brilliance of music etc etc... all the stuff that you'd hear about an album on a review... but no one seems to be telling what Schaffer is saying.. the story... So instead of talking about the music and lyrics.. I'll tell the story of the Setians... (of coz this is mentioned in Wki)

The story is set twelve thousands of years ago... on Earth....
Setians are Scheffar's fictional group of beings - direct descendants of the Creator (or God) who were full of knowledge, who called Earth home.
Humans... the greed and war hunger driven race... who were capable of space travelling... attacks earth and the Setians to claim their Unlimited knowledge.

This of coz is foreseen by the Elder (Possibly the high priest of Setians)... who conjures the master plan to secure their knowledge and keep it safe from the humans.
The second track.. "Something Wicked Part 1" kick starts the album introducing this... The Vision of the elder and the prophecy of the saviour... and the Master plan... "Framing Armageddon" for the humans... a twelve thousand year plan.... They choose Ten thousand Setians, one for each year... and thirteen including the high priest to council the chosen. They meet in secret and go in to hiding in the mountains...

Then comes the "Invasion" - The human invasion of Earth... If you listen closely the first 30 seconds of the 60 second track possibly represents the peaceful Setian life... and then starts the sounds of the battle... the gun fires the blasts... the invasion on earth by humans...

The "Motivation of man" is clear.... to obtain unlimited power and knowledge and take over the universe and its galaxy's...
They "Massacre Setians".... burning down temples and cities... What the humans didn't know is that the Chosen are hiding in the Eastern mountains... They've lost their loved ones and their land.. but hope remains if the chosen can survive and put the plan in motion... they overcome the lamenting... finding courage and strength.. a view of the current situation from a Setian's point of view is given in "A charge to keep" and the high priests view and in "Reflections"

Setian's grand plan for humans...
they will brainwash the humans... the humans won't know where they come from... and cloud their minds... and divide the humans by filling their minds with differences... Prophets, Saviors and Priests... religions like Christianity, Judaism, Muslims etc... creating dividing among humans...
"Then thousand strong".. (possibly the most powerful track of the album.. of coz we've heard it on the Overture EP...) introduces the master plan... and then comes its "Execution"...
The Setian's ("Order of the Rose") slowly take over the humans.. hiding among them... and "Contriving human decline Instilling those who lead Seizing opportunities" in Schaffer's own words...
"Catacalysm" possibly symbolises the humans falling in to their plan... being brain washed and instilled with new thoughts and ideas...
Setians succeed... "The clouding" is the the brain washed human's point view, Schaffer paints an agonizing picture of pain and empitiness...
Setians carry on with their plot... "Infiltrating and Assimilating" the human mind... creating a "Retribution through ages"... when thousands of years pass by... humans multiply and scattered throughout the world... taken over by their greed, fighting among themselves.. destroying and killing each other...

The next track... "Something wicked part two".. seems like an ironic name to give... coz.. for me it can mean either one of two things... the coming fate of the humans... or the foretold coming of the saviour... Part one - was when the humans came to earth.. hailing the destruction of the Setian's... and its funny how Schaffer decided to name this track Part two - hailing the destruction of humans... ( Its true... wickedness is wickedness no matter who does it or why its done!!!!)

Over years.. Humans go on dividing among thmselves.. just as the Setians planned... Dominated by the Setians... Falling like dominos... "The Domino decree" and "Framing Armageddon" takes us through this...

Continuing with the prophecy... After a millennium..... All the Setians hail the coming of the ONE... Set Abominae.... (from my knowledge he's in the over of Something wicked this way comes, The Overture, and in Framing Armageddon..) hailing the destruction of the man and reinstating the birthrights of the Setians on Earth... ("When stars collide (Born is he)")

This is where the massive 19 track album leaves us... the story will continue with Revelation Abomination (Something Wicked Part 2).

Which I am looking forward to....

In a nutshell... Framing Armageddon is a brilliant album... not only the musical value.. but its a brilliant way of story telling..... Schaffer and the gang has done it yet again...

Long Live IE.....

what i was doing lately....... (Jade Empire & CnCTW)

Lets see..... I chased away an alien race and freed the planet from them...... and then I saved the Water Dragon the Sheperd of the dead and the Jade Empire from the evil Emperror Sun Li....

Command and Conquer - Tiberium Wars:

It was quite sometime since this was released.... and got my hands on it recently only....

in sequel to the Tiberium series.... CnCTW continues the story of Tiberium started in 1995.
The story is woven very nicely to make it a continuation of the same story... the small plant like tiberium and changed to a crystal form and kane the bad guy is still at large.. its very interesting how they've connected everything together... and once u finish the 3 campaigns you have 3 sides of the same story..... :-)

The game play and graphics has improved marvelously from Tiberium sun... (Renegade was more RPG than stratergy!) The details of the units and the terrains are good.. you get a 3D view where u can rotate the camera angle.. so u know which unit is where... You will not miss out anyone who is behind tall buildings or uneven terrain... You can "zoom in" to a decent distant to see the units and characters clearly too.... and i like the effects of the shadows of the clouds running across the terrain.

Game play... well.. Its not all that CHALLENGING... I finished the game in medium or the default skill level and the game did not have any nail biting tight spots.... and some of the levels were plainly dumb ones... you can really get ur way around easily to achieve the mission objectives.... The Scrin campaign was slightly challenging than the rest.

I played almost all of the CnC series and all the games of Tiberium series.... and I must admit that i've enjoyed them... I think the Music was better when Westwood studios was handling that game... anyone who played Red Alert will agree with me...

8/10 if ur in to strategy games i know that you've already played this...



Jade Empire:
Remember Grey Matter studios??? yes!! the ppl who developed "Return to Castle Wolfenstine" and Bio Ware developed this amazing RPG game....(The X box version was developed by Microsoft)

Jade empier is the extreme opposite of what i've metioned before... Based on ancient Chinese mythical background and traditional martial arts. You start by selecting a character, either male or female. Who is the best student of a grand martial arts Master.

Splendid graphics as you can see from the screen shots i've taken. Thats how it looks on 1024X768, 4XAA (high quality settings), on a nVidia 7300GT, 1Gb DDRII, Windows Vista. For that kinda look the games runs VERY smoothly. way above 20fps unless it comes to some specific places where you have to fight against four opponents who sends flames and other particles. other than that the game is smooth. If I had to compare.. I'd Settle to Prince of "Persia Sands of Time" graphics. Very nice and runs smoothly.

Game play is awsome... you're on a quest trying to full fill your unknown destiny learning about you and your past. The martial arts fighting styles can be learned, upgraded and any combat with an opponant can be turned in to a Hollywood action movie sequence. You get to chooose how you want to continue the story and the development of your character. Good Guy or the Bad Guy... The path of the Open palm - the good way or... the Closed Fist - the Bad way... Depending on how you choose to develop your character and the descitions you make the game will give you several diffent endings. I tried three different ending. Good, Bad and well... rather Ugly too...
Apart from the main all mighty fighting and seriouse quest; you get to play this "Raptor" style flight missions. its fun... I thouroughly enjoyed each and everyone of them...
Its all there... Action, Betrayal, Conspiracy, Wisdom, Romance.....

There are some little bugs here and there... you have to save every now and then coz some times the camera seems to loose its sense of direction and location. All of a sudden you find yourself staring at a ceiling or a floor or some wall... and there is simply no way of fixing it... Unless of coz you reload the game... but it can be easily forgiven....

Overall.. it is a VERY good experiance... Its one of those that will keep you up till 5.00 AM and you go to work after only an hours sleep... If you're in to RPG... try not to miss this one out...
9.5/10

(Click the image for a larger view)

Top 10 Torrent sites of 2007

1. Isohunt.com
   May, 2007: Isohunt has over 400,000 torrents in their database. Also noteworthy: any Isohunt torrent listed as "ISOhunt release" means that it is a file verified by the administrators...a nice feature to help you locate authentic torrents and not fake files. On a sad note: Isohunt is being sued by the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) for copyright infringement. If you want to use this tremendous Canadian site, you better use it while you can.
   January 22, 2007: Although Isohunt was suddenly shut down by its original ISP before the weekend, the administrators have relaunched the service on a new ISP with new hardware. There are still problems, but Isohunt does live for the time being. The MPAA lawsuit is slated for a March summary judgment, so make sure you use Isohunt now, while you still can.
   
   
2. Torrentspy.com offers over 420,000 torrents in its database, the largest torrent index that is readily available to the public. Enjoy it while you can.
   
   
3. Torrentscan.com (a "meta-search" engine, which is a search engine that searches other search engines)
   
   
4. Snarf It! (born from previous Suprnova influences)
   
   
5. Torrentmatrix.com
   
   
6. Mininova.org has 190,000 torrents indexed as of April, 2007. Mininova is the successor to Suprnova, one of the original big torrent databases of the Web.
   
   
7. Demonoid (a personal favorite of many About.com readers, Demonoid is also a major tracker database that supports thousands of swarms around the globe. Even better, the Demonoid community polices itself by monitoring how much each member actually shares files. ("Leeches" are not tolerated at Demonoid). Note: because new memberships at Demonoid are scarce, you will need to be patient and committed if you wish to join.)
   
   
8. Torrentreactor.to (Torrentreactor has made a comeback from a hijacking and an uncooperative hosting service. They have moved to a different server setup and a Tonga country domain outside the USA. Read the details on their home page.)
   
   
9. Torrentportal.com
   
   
10. BTjunkie

Overture of the Wicked - EP

YES!! after the long waiting... It was "Officially" released on the 4th.... even though it was floating around in the internet since April 24th (According to Wiki)

This is ALL what we expect from IE... The power packed pure brutal, heavy slab of technical Power Metal... nothing more... definitely nothing less!!! Of course the fans of ICED EARTH already know that Schaffer and Co. are something special in the world of Heavy Metal and just why some Metal-fans are wholly ignorant of their recorded output is a mystery and disgrace.

"Ten Thousand Strong" is the single track, and it will appear on "Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part 1)", albeit a bit different than the single version. - according to the IE website..-
inline with Ten thousand strong comes the "Wicked Triology" from "Something wicked this way comes" (1998) album!!!!

I first got to hear them in 1995; quite by accident I should say..... and it was one of the best accidents ever!!! loved their music... and the next year.... in 1996 - the KNOCKED me out with Dark Saga... man that was good... I'm sure that each and everyone of you who has heard it will agree.... the power... the complex arrangements, orchestrated passages, emotional interludes, huge choruses and just plain good old fashioned Heavy Metal.... How schaffer has breathed life in to a comic book... gave life and emotions to the beast with music.... was truely AWSOME!!!!! and they continued doing that...

The single - is pure evidence that IE will continue to do what they do the best... knock the bearth out of the listeners and kick them around with sound waves....

LONG LIVE IE!!!!!

Linkin Park - Minutes to Midnight

The loooong awaited album by a bunch of guys who reallly won the hearts of people.... They're a (C)Rap–Rock band who really made a scene... People of all ages, fans of all genres; not only metal or Rock fans.. Hip-Hop and Pop fans equally like them!!!!

I got the album yesterday... Heard it once.. Liked it... but not enough to really write a comment or an opinion about it... I found this track to track review thing somewhere on the internet... thought I'd post it...

(pls try to disregard the word "heavy" that they use in the review once in a while! coz they aren't "Heavy". I listen to Carcass and.... well.....!!!)

1. Wake
To begin their long awaited album, Linkin Park choose to gently set the wheels in motion rather than forcefully kick-starting lively music which fans have come to expect. Instead, they present a slow, short intro track with a synth-heavy melody and a nice building ambiance, which gradually increases in volume. 4/5

2. Given Up
The smoothness is soon thrown out the window however when the scratchy turntable sound of this second track transforms into a gargantuan heavy rock riff. This is possibly the most in-your-face song on the entire record – the punk rock style drumbeats are brash, the guitars thrash and Chester Bennington sings his lungs out. When it reaches the bridge, he goes from singing to screaming the line, “You put me out of my misery” over and over again. It’s heated, emotional and enjoyable, but the track definitely feels like it’s missing a certain something. 3/5

3. Leave Out All The Rest
From one extreme to another, three tracks in and we’re presented with a ballad. It’s very listenable pop rock with tranquil vocals and dominant bass guitar. It seems odd to position such a slow-paced tune so early into the album but it’s radio friendly style is bound to be popular with many. The piece of music does end rather abruptly though and you may be left wanting more. 3/5

4. Bleed It Out
This is much more like the Linkin Park we’re used to hearing. Mike Shinoda starts off with a casual rap before trading off with Chester and some insightful lyrics, “I bring it out, bring it in deeper just to throw it away.” The song’s structure revolves around four simple chords with screaming vocals leading up to the catchy chorus. Piano adds an extra dimension to the track but overall it’s a little repetitive and flat, ending abruptly again. Saying that, we can see this being released as a successful single in the future. 4/5

5. Shadow Of The Day
Possibly the most listener friendly song on ‘Minutes To Midnight,’ the style is very soft yet clear with both vocals and bass taking a poppy turn. Percussion comes across clear and dominant, but overall the song remains average in terms of technicality. It seems to offer nothing more than a break-up in the record, but its dreamy nature is quite certain to be a hit with the fans. 2/5

6. What I’ve Done
Generally a hit from the moment it is played, ‘What I’ve Done’ soars with a catchy chorus and likeable verses, before developing into a brilliant bridge and climatic ending. A gentle guitar solo midway adds depth and versatility before another welcome chorus. The haunting piano and synthetic drums combine to create a fantastic addition to Linkin Park’s third album and a perfect choice for their first single. 5/5

7. Hands Held High
The marching drumbeat and simple melody is an ideal backdrop to Shinoda’s poetic rapping and it has certainly developed in the space of two previous albums and his hip-hip focused side project Fort Minor. Again, Chester’s melodic singing comes in later but the central theme of the song does seem to be soldier’s homecoming in the aftermath of war. Maybe it was written to get those arms flailing lighters around at rock festivals. Either way, it’s still an impressive track. 4/5

8. No More Sorrow
Opening up with a creeping lead guitar, ‘No More Sorrow’ rocks heads with a deep double-bass drumming intro switching over to a simple paradiddle on the snare. Definitely the best chorus of the album so far, with an enigmatic riff and emotional shouting from Bennington. The tune flows naturally with a heavy bridge followed by a modulation and even higher pitched screaming. There’s no DJ elements to this song and it has to be said that some of the vocals and drumming becomes repetitive fast – even more noticeable is the fact that the band don’t seem to be stretching themselves in terms of song writing techniques. 3/5

9. Valentine’s Day
After a somewhat depressive two minutes of ballad-laden lyrics and slow-moving guitars, it finally kicks in with another extremely infective hook and harmonious backing vocals. “On a Valentines day” is passionately sung with interesting vocals spoken over the top, before annoyingly ending abruptly and letting the song down. 2/5

10. In Between
If there’s a point in the album where it’s easy to see that the songs are starting to lose their flair, this is it. Those sweetly spoken vocals are back once again alongside grainy drumbeats, but without any differences in tempo there’s nothing exciting here. It’s peaceful, but there’s no denying this is a weak ballad track amongst Linkin Park’s repertoire of excellence. 1/5

11. In Pieces
Thankfully, faith is restored with quite simply the highlight of the album. This is soft yet rhythmic with synthetic drumming you can’t fail to be taken in by. The stirring piano and powerful bass proves to be a winning combination for the band – with vocals at their best only boosting the song further. Another build up after a few minutes adds more magic to the piece, with sweet sounds and eventually more heavily distorted guitars, minus screaming. The song slows down and ends dramatically with a simple beat and ska-style guitar plucking. 5/5

12. The Little Things You Give Away
Acoustic guitar and Linkin Park in the same sentence? You better believe it. One last ballad, with those great mechanical style drums and melodic vocals from Chester rounds ‘Minutes To Midnight’ off fruitfully. When the bass cuts in, the song hits another dimension before ending a reasonably decent record. There’s not many heavy tracks – instead, Linkin Park have shifted to crafting softer, easier listening songs like this one. Despite it not being a patch on ‘Hybrid Theory, ’it still delivers and the fans will almost surely be lapping this up after its release on 14 May. 4/5

PREY - The Earth's Saviour Doesn't Want the Job!!

Yeah... Now that is how I spent my poya day!!! I committed ALOT of sin killing a lot of aliens and basically destroying a whole planet... or a habbitat if I put it correctly!!!

Didn't get what I said??? Let me explain...

Produced by 3D Realms and developed by Human Head Studios along with Venom Games, using the legendary Doom 3 engine (which is not developed by id games though!!) "PREY" is a come back of the original game by 3D Realms in early 90's.

(For those who don't really understand where I'm getting at... its a PC game!!)

The Story

You play the role of Tommy (a Cherokee living on a reservation), having a heart to heart with himself. You hear about the emotional grief he has with the love of his life, Jen. Aspirations of what is beyond the reservation plague Tommy to the core and he is within a hair's width of leaving all together, despite his grandfather's wishes. If only Jen would come with him he knows he would be set, yet she is very content with her life and wishes to stay. Here is where the player enters.

Shortly after here the entire bar they work in is ripped from the ground and teleported to the "Sphere" in orbit near Earth. The Sphere is a living mother-ship occupied by a race that seeks to use the human race as food. A fantastic technology of variable portals and tractor beams allows the Sphere to pick and choose what it wants and incorporate that into itself. Tommy, Jen, and his grandfather Enisi are imprisoned on platforms that curve along tracks in the heart of the Sphere.

Where he manages to break free from what seems like a procuction line of a processing plant with help of a rogue!!! and get a gun in to his hand and starts making his way to free his Grand Pa and Jen...

Mixed in to this whole epic is an underlying story of Tommy trying to find himself in his Cherokee ways. All his life he has been resentful of the superstitious "mumbo-jumbo" that his grandfather has been preaching. The ways of the spirits, his ancestors, and everything Cherokee is simply not something Tommy wants to hear. Though his plight forces him to slowly accept things of his heritage, each step is very painful and met with a lot of resistance.

Game Play


Initially Prey looks like any other sci-fi-themed first-person shooter, you get a basic hud where they display the aquired weapons, health bar, the spirit bar (activates after you encounter your spirit realm) and ammunition.
The guns starting from the crazy-looking biomechanicalAssault riffle ( You start with a Pipe wrench but I recall myself going even 150 paces encountering a few small enemies with that... ) all the way to a rocket launcher... most of the weapons are biomechanical with living parts in them that moves and wiggles about when idling.. and they automatically reload... and the Rifle that i mentioned has a sniper mode to it... most bizaare sniper version i've encountered that the living scope of the sniper comes and plugs in to your eye... giving a decent zooming ability and a heat signature too!!!

The weapons are just part of Prey's unusual design. What's really wild about the game is how it uses direction, gravity, and portals to surprise you, disorient you, and impress you. Basically, "up" and "down" is relative throughout the game; certain types of corridors allow you to run straight up onto a wall and then keep moving "forward." Portals tear through the fabric of the bizarre alien landscape you're fighting in, revealing completely different environments on the other side. You run right on through (and can even fire your weapons through) and just keep going, and you'll be suddenly surrounded by different terrain. It comes to real weired levels where you have to shoot and activate the gravity polarizors to "choose" which side you want the ground to be... and not to forget the "walkers" the gravity paths that lets you walk even on the ceiling!!!

Another cool twist to Prey is that you evidently can't die. Your character may leave his body, traveling in sort of a spirit world. It's reminiscent of the Soul Reaver action adventure series, though we're happy to see that the game's innovative twist finds its way into a first-person shooter. When defeated, it looks as if you'll have to literally fight your way back from death's door, shooting the enemies of your ancestors red demons to regain health and blue demons to regain the spirit health... you'll get only about 15seconds to do this till you're sucked back in to the metal world to fight your way....

The soul or the spirit realm is another added feature... Tommy can go in to the spirit realm anytime he wants to.. this comes in handy to go around in the game.. specially through the force fields... and talking about spirits... you cannot forget Talon. The spirit form of Tommy's pet hawk from his childhood who comes along to guide and aid in his quest. It helps us by attacking and distracting the enemies and perching on important consoles hinting us what to do and to decipher the alien language...

Graphics and Sound.

Its the Doom 3 engine... Heavily modified.. not many options to change and play around with... splendid use of color and great visual!!! No glitches that I encountered... I need not say anything else apart from that...

Conclusion

As expected, Prey was quite a treat to play through. provided enough enjoyment to keep you entertained until the next big thing comes along. My concern does lie with the replay value of Prey. I started to go back and play through again, but didn't feel near as much drive as I did the first time when the mysteries were still to be discovered. This leads me to believe the game is pulled along by story a lot more than it is by actual game play. Despite the replay value, simplistic interface, and occasionally cheesy dialogue, I would more than recommend this game to anyone wanting something new. The gravity defying levels, portals, and visuals make it worth your time.

1. Theme - 10
2. Learning Curve - 10
3. Replayability - 6
4. Fun - 9
5. Sound - 9
6. Graphics -10
7. Compatibility - 10
8. Price - 6 (well it really doesn't effects us here!!)
9. Availability - 10
10. Originality - 10
Total: 90

(with courtsey of Game Pyre)