warri0r45

Being so advanced, we often think of ourselves as the most intelligent species to ever walk the planet. Although I think this is true, there is an awful lot of anthropocentrism to it as well. Some higher-order animals are pretty intelligent, especially the other great apes like chimpanzees: [1][2][3]

The Real Thing by Faith No More (album).

King For A Day, Fool For A Lifetime by Faith No More (album).

Anyone else here a Tom Green fan? Anyone watch his old shows and all the crazy antics he used to get up to? Or maybe you're familiar with his more recent project - webovision. For those that don't know, he's got a talkshow set in his livingroom and broadcasts shows over the internet. http://www.tomgreen.com/

"Disavow your god" by Gorod. A new one from their upcoming album! Check it out on their myspace, it's impressive as anything else they've done. Absolutely incredible music.

Is it good? I haven't checked it out yet. To the throne of sorrow by Kataklysm. Edit: Currently listening through Resurrection Macabre by Pestilence! I've been waiting for this album for a while and didn't pay attention to the release date. Sounds great so far - a bit more brutal than their other stuff but that's fine with me. :D

All rap music has at least a beat and some kind of melodic background. It could be a sample of another song, some bass, a simple synth/electronic bit, or something a bit more substantial. You don't just know little about rap, you seem to know absolutely nothing at all. Anyone with ears can hear that rap isn't just an emcee on a microphone, ray. You should really check out some of the recommendations on this thread, because hardly anyone here seems to be into the shallow "drugs, money and hos" kind of rap you're talking about. I'd agree that a lot of modern rap artists are like that, but then again there are some who aren't, and there's a whole history of rap artists from years past that weren't like that either. There's plenty of emotion and substance in some older artists as well - check out Public Enemy for example.

Death got me into death metal. Pretty much no better place to start.

To be honest I closed it when I heard the beat start. Maybe I'm being overly judgmental but it did nothing for me whatsoever.

+1 Well, rap literally isnt music. Music does require instruments/whatever you call whats made from a turntable, or just noises. Rap is *rap* not music. Are you talking about the vocal style of rapping? Because that obviously doesn't incorporate instruments, turntables or any noises apart from the human voice, which some would say is an instrument anyway. But that's really beside the point that 1_man_army was obviously talking about rap music (i.e. hip hop) complete with rhythm and melody. So either you've got poor comprehension skills or you're just being a smart [wagon] because you want to make a cheap point about how you don't like rap music.

The whole album is awesome, really. I even got two of my non metal friends into it :D Hell yes, great album. Ron Jarzombek is amazing. It's great to hear Alex Webster really branch out from the Corpse stuff as well. He's really talented.

I'd say both, to an extent. Many of the friends I hung around with the most were "in" but then again I found some of the "out" crowd to be pretty friendly too. To be honest there wasn't too much of an emphasis on the whole "in/out" thing at my school. It's a stupid categorisation anyway.

The Negation by Decapitated (album).

Red by King Crimson (album).

I'd definitely call some of Tool's newer material prog rock/metal (just listen to a song like "The Patient") and I'd even go so far as to call some Porcupine Tree songs prog rock as well. Anesthetize is a good example of a prog-rock Porcupine Tree song. Having said that, I'm not that well versed in the majority of the bands on that chart and I'd expect many of them to be more progressive than Tool or Porcupine Tree. From the chart, I have heard some Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes, Rush and a few others. Of those, I probably like Pink Floyd the best, having a few of their albums. I definitely need to look into a few of these bands more. Any recommendations for a good King Crimson album other than In the Court of the Crimson King? Edit: Checking out King Crimson's Red. Excellent so far.

Economic Left/Right: -4.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.44

Individual Thought Patterns by Death (album).

Start now? Come on mate, it's not rocket science.

Homework can be great, provided it's tageted at learning what you need to know. It's a fact that the more times you revise something, the better you remember it. You may not appreciate it now, but it really is for your own good.

What's that supposed to mean? Haha, is this a Freudian slip or do you think they're widely considered to be a crappy band? They weren't really a thrash band, more post-thrash. That basically means they wrote thrashy riffs at a lower tempo and gave their songs a "groove" feeling to them, hence the other name for post-thrash - groove metal. As Azvareth said, though, their first few albums were considered to be glam metal.

Really? Pantera weren't nu-metal at all, they were post-thrash. Personally I think they're great. Haven't put on a Pantera CD in a while, though. Interesting you should bring up Obscura as well, because I listened to it a few more times and decided it's excellent (it's definitely the kind of music that requires multiple listens). Despite seeming like a frantic jumble of dissonant riffs there's something remarkably cohesive about it, especially the drums.

The first thing for me would be the competition of it. Even though a test match goes for a max of 5 days, there can be some tense moments of competition throughout. Indeed, the best competitions tend to go down to the final sessions of the 5th day. No doubt there are bland patches throughout a test match as well, but I'll often have the cricket on in the background anyway. As for T/20, it's generally an action packed slog-fest, which is always exciting to watch unless you just really don't like the game of cricket at all. The second thing is seeing players from your team doing well. In a test match there's bound to be some great individual performances, whether it's with the ball or the bat, and those are always good to see. I think most people who like sport are impressed by good sportsmanship, especially when the performance is for your team, and the same goes for cricket. There's almost something artistic about a cleanly hit cover-drive that goes for 4. It's like a perfectly placed kick to a winger to score a try, a goal in soccer, a 3 pointer in basketball or a home run in baseball. Any true sports fan can appreciate those kind of things.

I can't remember the name, but there used to be a bone disorder running through my dad's side of the family. My dad was the only one of seven kids to get it, but luckily me and my brother didn't get it from him. So basically, it dies with him. It's nothing serious though.

How does god existing make life any more meaningful? Because you believe you'll get a reward in an afterlife? Because you need some cosmic father figure to feel significant? If god doesn't exist then we still have something to live for, and that's life in the here and now. Life should be reward enough, especially so if it's the only one we have. We all have hopes and dreams to make something of ourselves, to be surrounded with good people and to enjoy all that life has to offer. We all have things that are meaningful to us and dreams that drive us. Life is not meaningless without god. Life has no purpose without a God. We're here - That's all. I fully appreciate what you're saying, and I agree that we can assign value and significance to things, but without a God humans are just a burp on a useless little planet in a indifferent universe. I know that non-believers can and do live just as enjoyable and worthwhile lives as believers, but ultimately we're toiling in futility. The nihilistic problem can only be escaped through some kind of God. No universal or absolute purpose, sure. I have no problem with admitting that, but my question to you is why should that matter? What matters to me is that this burp on this useless little planet in this indifferent universe can make something out of it. What matters is that the meaning and purpose are mine and not the will of someone else. To me, getting a sense of purpose from god is as good as being a lawyer because your parents want you to be. What does that mean to the kid? Maybe he might like that, but then again he might not. At the end of the day it's him alone who imposes the value on that occupation, it's him alone who dictates that it has some relevance or meaning to him.

I think life with god would be more meaningful than without. If we were just a mere accident, then that implies that there is nothing special about us at all. Sure, there is the fact that we overcame those ridiculous odds, but that's not really for us to gloat about since we had nothing to do with it (in the sense that we did not choose to evolve into humans from microorganisms). We are nothing more than a byproduct of the universe - like dust. If god exists, that implies meaning because there is always a reason for creating something. An artist paints to make something beautiful, a lyricist writes to appeal to the audience's ear, a chef cooks to make a delightfully tasty dish. If there is a god then we can wager that we have a reason for being here. Depends if you believe the reason for god putting us here is a good one. It seems to me that something being meaningful is relative to whether or not you take meaning from it. I could look at the lyrics of a love song and think they're cliche and overly sentimental, but to someone else they could be the most meaningful thing in the world. Or, I could strive to be a scientist that helps humanity and find great meaning and purpose in that, while a religious person may rather see meaning and purpose in praying every day and going to church. What reason do you think god has for putting us here? To give us an eternal reward? To me an eternity of anything is no reward. Or maybe you think the reason is to have a relationship with god? I don't care for that, I'd rather have a relationship with real people that I can relate to on a human level. I'd rather help people in a tangible way and enjoy my life while I'm here. That's what matters to me. I'm not really interested in grading "meaning" on a scale and arguing like that (because as I said, I think it's relative), so I'd just like to say I'm completely fine with the possibility that we're here for no god-given reason.