cyrusr

There's one in the custard factory which is good fun. Generally have a good selection of beer as well.

So sorry to hear that @Seat68

As everyone has said, it is always on personal choice (and I know @maqroll that is what you meant). My main purchases remains CDs for shere quantity and accessibility. I struggle to get the time to sit and put on a vinyl but can easliy play around with CDs. However I still buy vinyl but when it is truly special record or fantastic album (or not available otherwise). 3 of my top 10 from this year are on that category (see other thread) but for a "ten must buy" vinyl list I would probably go for some classics along with some that benefit from the vinyl sound/need to be listened to in their entirety. Classics List: - Black Sabbath - S/T Iron Maiden - 7th Son of a 7th Son Metallica - Master of Puppets Slayer - Reign in Blood Judas Priest - British Steel Mastodon - Leviathan Death - Human Enslaved - Vertebrae King Diamond - Abigail Ramones - Rocket To Russia Are or would be really good on Vinyl: - Electric Wizard - Dopethrone Sleep - Dopesmoker Boris - Flood Sunn O)))/Boris - Altar Mansion - Second Death Ihsahn - After Baroness - Stone Reverend Bizarre - II: Crush The Insects Mammoth Weed Wizard B*stard - Yn Ol I Annwn Bell Witch - Mirror Reaper

Yeah certainly with the earlier albums that is true, although with the latest album the longest track is just under 7 minutes (as the album closer) so a lot leaner!

That Portrayal Of Guilt album looks cool. Remember their debut(?) album came out on Holy Roar which was decent but not really checked in on them since so will give this a nose. Thanks!

Right then, list sorted, gone through and realised how many I had forgotten that were released this year! A lot of good albums from both new and established bands as well; meaning there needs to be a very deserving “honourable mentions” list. That is as follows (no particular order): - Swans – The Beggar Myrkur – Spine Katatonia – Sky Void of Stars Krypta – Outo Laakso F*cked Up – One Day Mutoid Man – Mutants Pigs x 7 – Land of Sleep Primordial – How It Ends Frozen Soul – Glacial Domination Bell Witch – Future’s Shadow 1 – The Clandestine Gate Kvelertak – Endling Cannibal Corpse – Chaos Horrific Boris/Uniform – Bright New Disease Church of Misery – Born Under a Mad Sign Autopsy – Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts Foo Fighters – But Here We Are Cybertronic Spree – Ravage Handcuff – Handcuff The Ocean – Holocene Che Aimee Dorval – The Crowned Going Off – What Makes You Tick? OHHMS – Rot Enslaved – Heimdal I say no particular order, the last 4 nearly made the top 10 and are definitely worth checking out. Those with a singer/songwriter taste should check out Che Aimee Dorval in particular as she has a cracking voice. Without further ado then (spoilers again the shorten the post length than anything in particular): - 10. Cattle Decapitation – Terrasite 9. The Mars Volta – Que Dios Te Maldiga Mi Corazon 8. Enforced – War Remains 7. Blood Star – First Sighting 6. Skindred – Smile 5. Empire State B*stard – Rivers of Heresy 4. Svalbard – The Weight of the Mask 3. Mansion – Second Death 2. Pupil Slicer – Blossom 1. Baroness – Stone So there we are, thank you for reading my musings, hopefully you found something new to enjoy or reminded of great music

Zero points last year (unless someone carks it over the next few days) but happy to go again with same (wish)list with 1 substitution: - Donald Trump Boris Johnson Nigel Farage Vladimir Putin Rupert Murdoch Just a feeling that Rupert might be coming to the end of things (finally) and Piers Morgan is probably going to make us all suffer a little longer yet.

Thanks. I had thought it had gone up in costs etc but I thought that was more to do with Brexit and import fees/tariffs more than anything. Shame as Bandcamp and Discogs had been my recent favourite online music shopping.

Merry Christmas all Thanks for keeping me sane this past year! Always my favourite place on the internet.

What's happened with Discogs?!

Was not aware of any problems at Bandcamp and now looked this doesn’t look great Really like it as a platform and throughout the pandemic they did so much for artists/labels with the Bandcamp Fridays.

It seems she’s realised she is potted and is intent on taking everyone down with her. What a shame

Having tried to see what on earth happened; that video from the Brentford stands seems to have best angle. To be honest, it seems a bit of a soft red and seems very harsh in the circumstances. I didn't get the impression anyone else got booked but looking back it seems Emi and Yarmoliuk (Brentford's no 33) got yellow cards as well. To be honest Emi should have not gone near Maupay and just left him to be an idiot and the rest of them should not have let it descend into the chaos that it did.If we appeal and get it, great. If we don't, well the one we will likely miss him the most in is the Man Utd away game. I have no doubt that Unai will be having words with all of the them about it and that lesson will be the biggest takeaway the players will get from this.

Was watching a best of 2023 video and this came up as that number 1 and its pretty damn good. Finnish doom band based around a christian cult that was active in the 1930s/40s that admonished sexual intercourse (including within marriage) and generally seemed very crazy. Anyway the music is great and you should give it a listen. Smacks of female led bands such as Blood Ceremony but slower (and no flutes) and elements of early Ghost with the anti-religion/mystery about them and of course there is an element of Sabbath worship.

Aren't the Darkness from around Ipswich/Suffolk so probably related to him. Next up will be Dani Filth with them as well*. My condolences anyway. *I seem to remember that there is apparently a collaboration being made with Dani Filth and Ed Sheeran and yeah google tells me that is true so prepare yourself for something truly terrible...

Yeah I'm going to the Manchester gig too. It was either their or London and think Manchester a touch easier to get to. Enslaved are great, one of the classic black metal bands but an absolute ton more about them than the rest of them. The "Pink Floyd" of black metal if that is considered a compliment. Thats a lot of gigs as well! Suspect the In Flames is the Rock City one?

Yeah I think if it is more than £50, its got to be something special. Was curious at this and worked it out (as procrastinating from work mainly). Gigs that I went to this year: - Dream Theater Lamb of God/Kreator/Municipal Waste Napalm Death Devin Townsend Mol Carcass/Unto Others/Conjurer Iron Maiden Spiritbox Conjurer Employed to Serve/Pupil Slicer/Going Off Empire State Bastard Lorna Shore Jazz Sabbath All in all this averaged out at about £35 a ticket. Dream Theater/Maiden/LOG all over the average with Maiden/Dream Theater at about £80 each and LOG at about £40 (although that ticket was bought pre-covid and had been delayed until this year). Most of the gigs have been in the £20-£30 bracket with the Conjurer headline show being £7.50 (special offer; normally would have been £15 instead). Next year currently booked up 4: - Enslaved / Svalbard / Wayfarer Skindred Judas Priest Foo Fighters Surprisingly the Judas Priest and Foo Fighters tickets were the same price (well, 5p difference) but again just crept over £80. That has bumped up the average ticket price but got eyes on a few others for next year (just not certain yet/got tickets yet). I am not convinced Priest is worth £80 but it has been a long while since seen them and was contemplating getting Ozzy tickets just to see them support so glad for their own headline show; would be surprised if it sold out though. Foo Fighters are at Villa Park so that was a given in the circumstances and also got it slightly discounted as had tickets for the cancelled 2022 show (no idea how much of a discount though. Definitely feels like getting back to some normality that is for.

I'm saying 69, because, well, it would be pretty funny but I think Sunak is providing more and more evidence how incompetent he actually is. I also think tatical voting will have a huge impact this election as the distain is more "anyone than Tory".

Agree, but I do think it will be better for them to oppose the plan, certainly in its current state. Beforehand, they could get behind it as it was relatively benign and kept other parts of the party content. In its revised state I think it will lose a lot more of the "central" vote that side of the party relies on and those votes will likely go to the Lib Dems or in some instances will go to Labour. I therefore think that, for their own personal political interest, it would be better to go against the policy now rather than support it. If they continue down this path, I genuinely can see the Tories going down to double digits of MPs.

Sunak will be lucky to survive until even a May general election. Even as it stands its ignoring HRA/ECHR; meaning the "One Nation" Tories will rebel, because they are not that insane. Equally, the throbbers are arguing it doesn't go far enough somehow and as such will probably rebel. If he tries to appease 1 set, it will only reinforce the position of the other side and it seems that they each have at 100+ members each and won't get anywhere. Fingers crossed that the letters have gone in to force the challenge on him and undermine him further. It is also utterly bizarre given the legislation/policy is so terribly bad that, even if it managed to somehow beat every legal challenge, will actually have zero impact on what it intends to do.

Baldurs Gate 3 hands down. Towards the end of 2nd playthrough (probably another 10-20 hours) but already wanting to do 3rd playthrough. Nothing else is coming close.

Yeah, I get your feelings @chrisp65 and I think what the fallout has been, whether intended or not, sadly suggests that this might come back to bite him in the long term given how toxic Thatcher is as what @blandy. It is also an exceptionally sad state of politics that she remains such an esteemed figure in politics (much like Reagan in America) rather than being tossed into the "we made a mistake here" pile.

To be honest, i read it more as a slow and steady solution rather than quick fixes. The more stable you make the public finance element, the more secure it will be for the future and actually withstand any future tinkering/manipulation. Quite frankly I am looking forward to some normal politicians actually getting on with the job, not trying to squeeze every penny out of the country for their own benefits. It is not "continuity" its actually doing things properly. And also, you miss that he comments on Atlee and Blair as well. OK, its not Wilson but again he is praising other labour leaders as well in the next couple of sentences.

But he does praise other labour leaders in the exact same paragraph that's in my post that you have quoted... In relation to spending he says the following. i.e. the reason why the money won't be much spending is because the Tories have screwed up the economy so much, they actually need to figure out how that can best be spent to sort it out. If we had the money to throw at everything, well the economy wouldn't be as screwed up as it currently is. Is he going to provide all of the solutions to fixing the country? Probably not. Is Starmer going to be the best leader in the world? Almost certainly not. Is he going to be infinitely better than what we have at the moment? Absolutely. Dem, don't rise to the click bait. The current government/Tory party is probably the most corrupt/ill suited for ruling ever. Almost any incarnation of political party/leader would be better than what we have got right now.

Those criticising Starmer for the comment, have you read what he has actually said rather than articles about what he has said? https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/12/02/voters-have-been-betrayed-on-brexit-and-immigration/ Paywalled sadly but the following is the only reference to Thatcher in question That is it; 1 sentence about "entrepreneurialism" and its "praising" that she tried to do that and then goes onto Blair and Attlee. It's not even suggesting in language that he agrees with her policies or thought she actually did right but of course the language has been twisted by the Telegraph in their front page piece. The rest of the article is basically a PR bit for Telegraph readers to say we are also going to sort out immigration, small boats, finances etc. etc. etc. all what to be expected; and don't forget the audience that article is intended for. Don't just assume the click bait is anything more than that. I think the bigger story is that the Telegraph is actually allowing a different perspective to be held and they seem to know that the writing is on the wall for the Tories right now; might as well get on the side of the winners.