Stoney

Taxirider, I simply read your review which goes something like this: "oh, this album is beautiful, believe me, there's nothing metal about it, eh, I assure you, you can take my word for it that this is in no way absolutely anything less than metal, I mean, metal has nothing to do with it, got it? It's not metal, I repeat, it's not metal, who said that just because they're Norwegian they're metal? Oh, no one here talked about metal, clear?". You even specified that there's absolutely no growl, which I hadn't even remotely thought about. You made me think of metal, you could've said it was a folk music album, if it actually is. So from all this wanting to be clear upfront, I concluded the obvious, which is that in the end, this is indeed a metal album. The fact that the distortion is at 1 instead of 10 really doesn't change a thing, that's certainly not what makes the difference. Am I wrong?

Here it is, indeed. On the contrary, metal has nothing to do with the petty-bourgeois and is not suitable for the children of the well-off society...

@Panapp, you’re probably one of the few who looks at music in front of an artist like this, but you can’t deny that the “hotness” factor is a bit too influential, let’s say even predominant, let’s say that 90% of the judgment depends on that. In fact, let’s say that if it weren’t a hot girl singing this stuff, nobody would even care. Especially because when a man makes similar music, he gets a ton of crap thrown at him; just read the reviews of the pop posers that show up on this site. The truth is that everything is forgiven for a hot girl; critical capacities are wiped away in an instant by a bimbo who dazzles you with her curves and cleavage while singing catchy tunes. Let’s be clear, I don’t see any artistic merit behind all this singing and musical talent, no more than I see in all the others in the same circle. What should be different? The fact that she doesn’t shove it in your face like the various Britneys, Beyonces, etc.? I mean, is it just a matter of image refinement and a slightly more polished product? I don’t know... and hey, I’m all for hot girls shaking their asses and breasts, but when it comes to “refined music,” I can’t help but have a couple of doubts. Because I would love to see if the same music were made by someone not saying ugly, but average, or maybe a little overweight. Maybe then everyone’s rating would be a star lower; I don’t know why, but I have this feeling. Then again, hey, everyone does what they want, of course...

Uhm... well, this is interesting. I'll listen.

"Nothing growl vocals, no death or black metal accelerations, no satanism and neopaganism. Just the enchanting voice of Kari Rueslatten accompanied by the instruments of the valiant Vikings who played by her side." This sequence of phrases was a one-two punch that knocked me out, first the critique against the clownish satanic metalheads, then the exaltation of the "valiant Vikings." Fantastic, simply fantastic. There's nothing more amusing than a metalhead pretending not to be a metalhead.

Romeo, what you say is correct; the '80s had their icons that helped all of us "think about something else," but we must also take them for what they were: distractions, frivolities, indeed, from which today we are finally starting to fully understand the social dangers. You confuse the culture of a people with mass entertainment shows; these are two very different things. Because you clearly miss the difference between "mass culture" and "cultural industry." The grave mistake you make (not just you; many unfortunately make it) is thinking that these showgirls and these pop songs are part of a common cultural heritage as proverbs and popular sayings once were for farmers in the countryside: nothing could be further from the truth. One thing is a culture that arises from below spontaneously; another is a trend imposed from above with a clear goal of large-scale commerce. Trust me, take five minutes a day away from your university studies and read a few books on the matter; that way, you'll clarify your thoughts. Will you do it? I have a strong feeling that I'm wasting my time...

Aside from the obvious observation that this "review" has nothing to do with DeBaser, it's not pleasant and serves no purpose. But: "chisels solutions and flaunts incredibly high numerical virtuosity"? Oh, human case, did you follow the Analysis course or did you watch a magic show at the circus? "the functions, which are the first difficulties of the course, with all the Cartesian diagrams and all the study, with the domain and the absolute value." Are you sure you understood anything about this exam? No, I don’t think so. I think you took it like one of those weird challenges faced by contestants on Isola dei Famosi: pointless, self-serving, and good only for entertaining a distracted and foolish audience. A speech steeped in that aftertaste of "I hope I manage to get by," that pragmatic and utilitarian point of view I've always hated in conversations among university people, who represent an exam like it's a crossword to solve or a level of a video game to beat, and not a discipline born from centuries of culture (like Analysis) to immerse oneself in, to understand and internalize. If these are the graduates of the future, we should start praying now.

Another one of the countless porn stars in the television-music-pornography landscape that occupies 90% of the media's programming today. It's not like she will ever give it to you, so why bother?

biological literally showing its ass to the ecclesiastical authorities, and I feel disgust and shame. You gave the example of Germany and England, well, there the choice is between a right-wing party and a left-wing party, here the choice is between declared political instability and a stability that goes against the entire country, in other words, the discussion is a millimetric photo finish on which is the lesser evil, comparisons with the rest of the EU are out of place. Sorry for the long post, I hope I didn't bore you, bye.

So, H.B., the speech you're giving doesn't hold up. You say: "Who cares if the left is made up of charlatans and good-for-nothings? Do we really want to compare that bunch of delinquents on the right? Why are we even discussing this?" Well, this kind of attitude IS EXACTLY THE REASON why the left loses and will continue to lose. I want to tell you a story; it refers to the immigration issue, which has been mentioned several times during the discussions. So, it's true that the patrols are deplorable, that racism doesn't solve anything, and all that, but the problem of illegal immigrants does exist and needs to be addressed. Our organized crime relies on the "labor" of immigrants, and that's a hard fact. If the right responds by promoting violence, it's also true that the left has turned a blind eye and has been completely indifferent to the discontent of the population. Here where I live, in Rome, in the peripheral neighborhoods, the ROM issue is extremely serious. Less than a kilometer from my home, there's a shantytown where a ROM community lives under appalling conditions, which is nothing more than an immense oasis of illegality. All the drugs sold in this part of Rome go through their hands; they distribute it, and they pocket the profits. A while ago, there were thefts everywhere, cars and motorbikes disappeared, and my bike was stolen—only to be seen the next day being ridden by one of them with the utmost nonchalance right outside my house. A friend of mine got stabbed in the shoulder while they were trying to steal his wallet. There was even a period when couples were targeted, many years before the scandal of the Romanians in Guidonia, and a lot of people I know were affected by this, and I assure you that bringing your girlfriend home in such an atmosphere is anything but pleasant. The police forces, for their part, have always washed their hands of it, not because they don't care, but because they truly can't do anything about it. Many of these ROMs don’t have an identity; we don't even know how many of them there are; they live completely outside of society. Can you imagine a cop knocking on a ROM's door to conduct an investigation? Now, far be it from me to justify the hunt for ROMs, but we can't pretend that certain problems don't exist. And yet, when the last mayoral elections happened and the challenge was between Rutelli and Alemanno, Rutelli came here to give a speech and talked about tolerance, mutual respect, and integration, in the name of that grand rhetoric that has always characterized the left. There was a chorus of boos, and keep in mind that this area of Rome has always been leftist. The same has happened in historic "red" neighborhoods like Quadraro and Garbatella, but the left seems not to have understood this. The left has shown a total incapacity to read the current situation on issues like this and many others. In my opinion, it is a bit populist to bring up the Moro case, hinting that there are dark powers controlling and regulating political life, especially comparing the atmosphere of the '70s to today's. After all, the left has won elections twice, and on both occasions demonstrated a systematic inability to govern. We can mention Masonic conspiracies, but let’s not deny the truth that the left has always put spokes in its own wheels, being divided among all its factions, with disputes between convinced clericals (not Catholics, clericals, which is a whole different thing) and staunch secularists. It’s not the right's fault that the first Prodi government fell because of the Communist Refoundation, and it's not the right's fault that the second government fell because of a couple of bought senators. As someone who has always voted left, I am forced to witness very sad spectacles such as half of the PD endorsing the law on advance healthcare directives, literally showing their backside to the ecclesiastical authorities, and I feel disgust and shame. You used the example of Germany and England