Bacon God's free hip hop mixtape

Tony Welter (Eustachian, Skull Vomit, Singaya) has collected more than an hour's worth of his hip hop influenced tunes, and mixed them together to create the Frozen Chains Mixtape. The mix has been released under a new persona Bacon God, and is available as a free download in either mp3 or wav format. 

Sol Invicto - Alma (Free download)

Richie Londres has released a new track under the Sol Invicto moniker to close the year with. Alma contains driving synth lines, and the characteristic groove we have come to expect from the Sol Invicto.

If you like what you hear, check out the rest of the rest of the Tapes series, as well as the Initium EPs.

A santantic video to kick off the countdown to christmas

I don't know how I didn't come across Sock Puppet Parody sooner, but I'm glad I did. The guys behind the puppets have some great parodies, including a brilliant rendition of Static-X's Push it.

It's the latest video however that is most appropriate, a sock version of Immortal singing about the dark lord, Santa! 

There's a new masked band on the block

Terror Universal are a new four-piece, describing themselves as 'metal cannibals.' This is likely due to the band being made up of present and former members of Machine Head, Ill Niño, and Soulfly.

The band's first single, Welcome to hell sounds promising, and is available as a free download.

Sell music on Amazon at ReverbNation.com

Given that there are thirty-odd past and present members of Machine Head, Ill Niño, and Soulfly, I wonder how long it will take for the identities of Terror Universal to be leaked/ revealed?

New side-project from Foo Fighters member

Nate Mendel (Foo Fighters, Sunny Day Real Estate) has a new solo project called Lieutenant. The first single, Rattled, was announced just a few hours before Mendel took to the stage with the Foo Fighters last night for their first ever performance in Johannesburg.

Rattled is available as a free download in exchange for signing up to the mailing list. 

A second track, Belle epoque can be heard via the Winter Sampler 2014, by Dine Alone Records.

Lieutenant's début album is due out in March 2015.

#TBT_01: Designed Deficiency

I've never done a "Throwback Thursday" post on a social media outlet, but after backing up some of my recent music downloads, and subsequently trawling through my older downloads, I came across an old gem of an album. As a result here is the first in a possible series of #TBT posts:

Surachai's Designed Deficiency is a little different from the type of music I usually share (with one possible exception), but I guess it's because my taste in music is quite diverse.

Any way, if you're into some heavy, noisy, electronica/ metal, synth-laden ear porn you can download Designed Deficiency here.  Just remember to play it loud enough so the neighbours can enjoy it too.

Drumcell - Go to Sleep V2.0

Blank Code have released Drumcell's Go to Sleep V.2 mixtape as a free download. If you like techno, you should like Drumcell.

I've been listening to this mix (as well as part one) on repeat pretty much since I downloaded it two days ago.

If you missed the first mixtape, Go to Sleep V.1, you can download it over at Drumcell's Soundcloud page. I think I prefer V.1 more, but that's probably because I've had more time to listen, and appreciate all the sounds sampled.

I really need to get hold of a copy of Drumcell's début album Sleep Complex.

Video of next Assassin's Creed game leaked

While Ubisoft are still trying to sort out the bugs from their first 'next gen.' exclusive Assassin's Creed title, Assassin's Creed Unity, it seems that the team over at Ubisoft Quebec are already getting themselves ready to announce next year's AC title, Assassin's Creed Victory.

News of next years AC release comes through leaked video, and images shared by Kotaku. According to Kotaku's post, Victory will be set in Victorian era London, and will only be released on PC, and new gen. consoles. 

I'll be quite interested to see which famous characters from the era will be included, and in particular if we'll get a chance to interact with Charles Darwin, his contemporary Alfred Russel Wallace, or even his opposer, Sir Richard Owen. Being tasked with hunting down Jack the Ripper, or even finding out that Jack's activities were Assassin/ Templar related, would be a really interesting story sub-plot to 'explain' the inconsistencies in the modus operandi of the Whitechapel murderer(s). 

This is the first time Ubisoft Quebec is heading up the development of an AC title, an I really hope they can bring some innovative new features to the gameplay and story telling. From the video footage described on Kotaku, it sounds like they've done just that, with the addition of a grappling hook device, and fight sequences that take place atop moving carriages and trains.

If the virtual London is rendered with same architectural accuracy as we saw for Unity's Paris, then I'd be really keen to be able to take a stroll down 'Exhibition Road' (and maybe even causing some raucous during the Great Exhibition with the likes of Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, and George Eliot), and explore the British Museum (Natural History).* 

There are no recent releases that make want to upgrade to a new console, and with the exception of Evolve, there are no future releases exclusive to next gen./ PC that could tempt me to upgrade either. I'll be keeping an eye on the development of Victory though, as this may just be the first truly next gen. Assassin's Creed experience, and may just be the excuse I need to upgrade/ build a dedicated gaming PC.

For those of you not so sure about this title because you're still smarting after all the glitches Unity served up, here's an apology from Ubisoft Montreal's CEO, and some news about free DLC.

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* now the Natural History Museum

Header image from Kotaku

Emagon reveal trailer

Whatever Emagon is, it looks amazing!

Could this be the first new gen. release that will show off the true capabilities of next gen.? 

I'm really hoping we'll get an English version of the video (and some more details) on Friday, as alluded to at the end of the video.

In the mean time here's a translation courtesy of Nahuel Graziani,

"20 years... it's a lot of time. Look around you and see everything that you have received (could also be, "Look upon everything given to you"). A kingdom of infinite places. You have conquered this place, you have built and destroyed.Look forward, for the light shall guide and care for you (not entirely sure here, guy's accent is odd).But this time, it's different. This time, the myth is real.For the first time your actions have real consequences. They need your help. Listen, you can hear them.The power to change things is in your hands..."

From the translation I'm speculating that Emagon, may be some sort of open world/ sandbox ["A kingdom of infinite places"] type role-playing game ["Look upon everything given to you"], potentially with elements of online co-operative multiplayer ["They need your help. Listen, you can hear them"]. 

Guess we'll have to wait patiently to see what else surfaces regarding Emagon, which interestingly spells 'No Game' when reversed. Maybe this isn't a game, and more of an experience, perhaps something along the lines of Journey. Alternatively this could merely be a tech. demo to show off the consoles capabilities, similar to what Quantic Dream did with the Kara video for PlayStation 3.

The Goliath guide

First there was the Big Alpha infographic. Now, there's the Goliath infographic:

This new infographic puts into perspective just how powerful a real-life Goliath would be. Except it doesn't really, because it uses imperial units. So for those of you not in the United States, Myanmar, or Liberia,* here's a quick 'translation' of the units to the metric system so that you can fully grasp the magnitude of Goliath's feats.

Height (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath = 22.5' ≈ 6.858 m
Hunter = 6.5' ≈ 1.981 m

6.5' seems a bit tall for the hunters, especially given that the average height of a male, aged 20-29 in the U.S. is only 5'10''.

Perhaps in the future people will have evolved to become taller, or be genetically augmented in a Space Marine manner.




Leap Smash (Distance) (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath = 52' ≈ 15.850 m

52' divided by 8 is actually 6.5'

Red kangaroos (Macropus rufus) can jump as far as 9 m (= 29.528') in a single hop, which means Goliath can only leap ~1.761 times that of a kangaroo. Not quite as impressive.


Bite Force (1 newton ≈ 0.225 pounds force)

The bite force of a Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus) is 22 kN (≈ 5000 lbf), while that of a saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) is 16 kN (≈ 3700 lbf). The data here are a little dubious, as salties are meant to have the highest recorded bite force in a laboratory environment, and the conversions have been rounded up.

However if we take the average for the two crocodile species, we get 19 kN, so Goliath's bite force would be approximately 247 kN, or 56550 lbf!



Weight (1 metric tonne ≈ 1.102 U.S. ton**)

Goliath = 9.6 tons ≈ 8.709 t
Killer whale = 9 tons ≈ 8.165 t

Killer whales (Orcinus orca) are not actually whales, and instead belong to the dolphin family. The recorded weight of largest known male killer whale was ~ 10 t, or 11.023 tons. So Goliath is comparable in size to a large dolphin.

Speed (1 metre/ second ≈ 3.208 feet/ second)

Hunter = 23 ft/s ≈ 7.014 m/s

The fastest recorded speed for a human is 12.420 m/s (= 40.748 ft/s). This was achieved by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt during a 100 m (= 328.084') sprint event held in 2009.

The average walking speed of a human is 1.4 m/s, or 4.593 ft/s.

At a leisurely stroll (1.4 m/s), it would take approximately 17.853 seconds to clear the 24.994 m (= 82') radius of Goliath's flame breath. Therefore minimal chance of survival. At the hunter's speed of 7.014 m/s, it would take 3.563 s to escape, slightly better odds of surviving. At the record speed of 12.420 m/s, it would only take 2.012 s to escape Goliath's bad breath.

Since we don't know how fast Goliath can run, it is difficult to determine exact chances of surviving a flame breath by simply turning tail, and running. Having fire resistant armour, and a nearby medic, would no doubt greatly increase your chances of survival.


Distance (again, sort of) (1 metre ≈ 3.281 feet)

Goliath can lob a projectile 167' (= 50.902 m), which is pretty impressive.

While a majority of pine tree species reach heights of only 15–45 m (= 49.216–147.638'), the tallest ponderosa pine (Pinus pnderosa) has been measured to be 81.770 m (= 268.274') tall. So climbing to the top of this would put you well out of range of Goliath's missiles.

Conclusion

Goliath is pretty mean, but not as mean as the initial figures made him out to be. Still you probably wouldn't want to run into him in a dark alley Shear forest on your own.

I'm really hoping Turtle Rock and 2K release similar infographics for the remaining roster of monsters, as well as some more background stories for the hunters. Actually an infographic detailing the various flora, fauna, and environments of Shear would be great too.

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* These countries have yet to officially adopt the metric system, with the United States being the only industrialised country to not yet have adopted the metric system.

** Also known as a short ton.