John Romero and Both Shawn Green headbanging while making games.

Went to a metal concert yesterday. I thought I’d share some tips on how to enjoy metal.

First of all I like metal because it is music that you have to actively and truly listen to, to experience and enjoy it. If not it will seem like noise to you or it will be too hard or brutal. The secret is that it must be listened with your stomach, balls or heart. Any other way is just fooling yourself. If you listen with your head, you are having an intelectual experience instead of a musical one. To listen properly, the most important thing is to listen LOUD. I cannot emphasize this enough. A good speaker system with a subwoofer is minimum. These are my speakers (apparently Sigvatr has the same ones).

Speakers might be very good but they will never come close to a live concert. That’s when you really feel the music. You feel the vibrations, the percussion beating your heart, the base guitar in your gut and the voice of the singers ripping your soul apart. This is listening to music as it is supposed to be listened to. Because listening is not hearing stuff nor is it something intelectual where you think about it.

Listening to metal is primarily a vibrational experience.

Second point. This is important for matters of discussion.

There are no songs in metal.

A lot of stuff that is out there can’t be called a song. You name a song a lullaby or something written by Mariah Carey. In metal there are pieces instead of songs. Metal pieces.

Third. Take note that as with everything:

There is good metal and bad metal.

For example Cradle of Filth is crap. But Moonspell is awesome. Simple. Every metal band where the singer sounds like a pussy or barks instead of growling is crap. They are missing the point. Which brings me to the fourth point.

Metal is about the dark side of humanity.

There are so many definitions of metal that it gives me a headache. It’s not about painting your face in blood or heavy guitars. This is why Black Sabbath is the granddaddy of metal. Not because they started playing heavy riffs, the music is just there to color the message. The music is about darkness. About embracing the darkness within you. Getting it out instead of hiding. For centuries the dark side of humans has been suppressed by religion and institutions. Nowadays it is simply denied by culture. We do not remember that we are beasts within. Metal teaches us that we should not suppress, hide it or deny it. We should embrace it. And once you do this it will become your source of power. It is great energy that can be used – actually for good.

We are predators and each of us could easily kill and do other horrifying things if given the right circumstance, even the Pope. Or as John Rambo put it “If you’re pushed, killing is as easy as breathing”. This potential is in us. Political and military leaders know this. That is why they manipulate people into joining an army and going to war. But instead of using this power for actually killing we can use it as a source of creative energy.

I’m not going to beat around the bush. I make games in which the soul purpose is to brutally kill other players. And thousand and thousands of people play these kind of games every day. My belief is that it is far better to spend time virtually killing than joining a real army and serving someones political agenda under the disguise of patriotism and freedom. So my message is: ride hard, live free, no war, heavy metal, video games, rock, drink and fuck.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run —
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And — which is more — you’ll be a Man, my son!

 In times of freedom in the game world (which also meant legal piracy) a game came out in Poland 1994. It was called “Franko: The Crazy Revenge”. It was created for the Amiga world by the brave men of World Software with Mariusz Pawluk and Tomasz Tomaszek. I won’t write much about the game itself. Just go download it right now or watch this video.

Nobody makes games like this anymore!!! It’s so simple! You just walk right and kick ass. You don’t need a million dollar script, prerendered intros and voiceover acting with Hollywood stars. And it’s not just the brutal simplicity it’s the overall feeling of the game. I think even from watching the video you get a sense of what this game is about. There is no bullshit here. It is 100% a man’s game. It’s not pussified, mass market appealing donkey crap. Just look at the intro for this game (I added the subtitles).

MobyGames has some nice photo shoots of Franko the game . There’s an awesome interview, just for Polish people though, with Mariusz Pawluk (they made a game they wanted to play, because the only good fighting games were made for the arcades). But if you’re really waiting for Berserker grab this game. It will make the wait more pleasant. Don’t ask me where to download it. It’s either somewhere to be found as a DOS port or as an Amiga file (use an emulator).

This is a testament of how heavy metal rules. Long live Amon Amarth and true viking metal!

Lyrics:
Amon Amarth – With Oden On Our Side (2006)

Gods Of War Arise

Darkness flees the rising sun
The village lies ahead
It will wake to a new day soon
Soon they all be dead

We came in cover of moonless night
Fifty man at arms
Now at first morning light,
The church bell sound the alarm

Sacrifice to Gods of old
Bleed them of their lives
Fresh blood on our swords
Gods Of War Arise!

Sacrifice to Gods of old
Bleed them of their lives
Fresh blood on our swords
Gods Of War Arise!

Hear the tortured screams
Shattering the air
They awake the soothing dreams
Into their worst nightmare

Fire sweeps their homes
They feel the dragon’s breath
Consuming and destructive flames
Agonising death

Some seek shelter in the church
A refuge for those with faith
But we know how to smoke them out
A pyre will be raised

But those who choose to stand and fight
Will die with dignity
For the unfortunate few who survive
Waits a life in slavery

The day draws to an end
The night comes dark and cold
We return to our ships
With silver, slaves and gold

We gave them agony, as they fell and die
The gods have granted victory
For our sacrifice

The day draws to an end
The night comes dark and cold
We return to our ships
With silver, slaves and gold
We gave them agony
As they fell and die
The Gods have granted victory
For our sacrifice

We are no longer the target of mass culture and entertainment. Feminism has secretly destroyed what is most precious to us and what has real meaning. It was secretly destroyed, that’s why you have to learn to see it. It will be good if you remember how things were, in the 20th century, it will help (I feel so old writing this haha).

There is not enough manliness. And it’s fucking awful.

I’m going to head in a new direction with this blog to show the world that we once had and show how it is escaping from us. It will be gone before we turn our heads to realize what happened.

There is only one hope. In individuals who lead us. Let Odin bless Sylvester Stallone and what he gives us – a new Rambo movie this season! First Rocky now Rambo? We are not worthy!!!

Don’t say Sly is too old for this. If you think like that you’re a pussy that’s all and you’ll still be one when you get old. Real men the older they get the better and more manly they become. It’s only women that degrade with age. We have the privilege to become stronger everyday until the day we die.

You may say it is not your business. But do you really want to live in a world where you don’t have a source of good entertainment, a world without male role models and manliness? I don’t think you really do.

I know I’m promoting here a hollywood movie, but before you label me as a puppet, let me say this. I believe we are cultural creatures. We can’t live with out it, it’s like air to us. Hollywood is something we need as species to survive. And because it is a necessity, I would be glad to have at least a choice of what it is. I’m fine with Hollywood’s existence as long as it makes movies for me to watch! So if this movie is going to reach the box office, maybe it will tickle some of the old Hollywood producers hearts (and wallets) and they’ll see that there still is money to be made out of men!

I know we don’t spend nearly as much time shopping and watching TV as women. We won’t ever be nearly as good consumers as them. But we want entertainment in the same way, we are people too.

Hollywood, we men have money too!

I know this is a worthless cry. The machine is already in motion. The best thing we can do is save those old Rambo DVDs and hope they don’t ban them in the future. Who knows.

Anyway let’s get back to games, this is not just about movies.

You might know that I generally hate the mainstream games, but maybe you don’t know that I equally hate or maybe even more the indie games sector. The reason is that there is rarely a good game made by an independent game company or lonely developer. A good indie game is more rare than a good AAA title.

I have an emotional agenda here because it is not that hard to produce something of value, you just have to make games from the heart not from your ass. People want to play a good game and have fun, they don’t really care about anything else. They don’t care about prerendered intros, splash screens, old technology with new cool sounding names and fancy DVD boxes. This is one of the reasons I’m having this blog, I want to communicate that there are different ways of thinking, of seeing the world and doing things. You don’t have to follow any set of rules, rigid laws or make games according to peoples expectations – just follow what you think is best for you.

Especially in a feminized culture which opposes to whatever it is we want to be doing. Not caring about what other people think and following your own heart, is one of the manliest things you can ever do. Again, thanks Sly for still being there for us and showing the way.