BlackLiq

“This album slaps, believe “The Lie” by BlackLiq “

- Komatose

Words truer than those have yet to be spoken. Get your vinyl from Man Bites Dog Records bandcamp, check the videos on YouTube, and stream the album everywhere.

I figure someone else may need a laugh today too.

Which do you consider to be the better game, overall?

I usually am not that interested or invested in people’s opinions because I believe you should love what you love despite what others like or don’t like, but this is a tough one for me.

Hear me out:

Super Metroid came first, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. Like most games of the era, its strengths are often defined by its limitations. I love everything about this damn game, except that it ends. And that soundtrack…man!

Castlevania Symphony of the Night: The same above can be said about this masterpiece, but what it has above Samus adventure is a certain charm. The soundtrack is so special, it makes this game more than just a 2d adventure. It feels like a place. It’s also a much bigger game since it came out on a CD, and what it lacks in pushing the boundaries of the hardware and genre that it defines (or redefines) there is an unmistakable character to it that remains undisputed in my opinion. Plus you have #Alucard and the creativity of the weapons he gets and the light RPG elements.

Admittedly I’ve beaten #SotN more times than I have Super Metroid which is wild since I have to beaten them both at least 20 times.

So yeah, which is it for you?

Because I can’t decide.

Oh and both are better than Final Fantasy 7.

Yeah, I said it.

Caught up with some friends today at VPM

Catch me Friday 12/15 9p ET on The Chill Factor with DJ B-Rice 107.3 FM or 93.1 FM on the dial VPM.org for the stream.

Assassins Creed Mirage was good, but it wasn’t great. I already knew what was up with Basim since I had played the bloated murderfest that was Assassins Creed Valhalla so I never was really able to invest in the narrative here, but hey after hearing this was supposed to be a “shorter” Assassins Creed I figured why not.

That said they did do a cool job with creating a medieval Baghdad to run around and as you can see it was a beautiful game.

Coming off Alan Wake 2 to this was a real contrast for sure.

Besides that though it didn’t really offer anything new besides a for once extremely limited skill tree and a parry that I was able to use kill almost every enemy in the game from the start all the way to the last battle. And there were only like 4 enemy types anyway which was weird, especially given the big assassination missions were just as shallow as the enemy AI.

It kind of felt like all the effort for this one went into crafting the environment and historical details, which was probably the most impressive yet boring part about this whole thing.

Those guys deserve a raise.

I hope it’s a long time before we get another entry in this series and that ubisoft takes notes from games like Ghost of Tsushima on how to revitalize such a tired gameplay formula and sandbox model, or that they just tear it all down, start from scratch, and stop trying to make giant environments because they just fill empty which is a problem in most #videogames and not just this. Just make something fun instead of something we end up making fun of.

Also can we please move on from this whole “The Ancients” thing and get to the point?

7/10

Today is Josh 'Freeze' Reed birthday. I was going to post this video I have where he’s talking about life over a pretty view of his yard, but I felt like you all needed to see him. Maybe I did too, even though I see the placard from his life celebration in my kitchen so many times a day.

Sometimes we just need to be reminded.

I was always in awe of Freeze. His courage was second to none. He dressed so much better than me and he was so much better with people than I was. And he loved this rap shit more than me in ways I am still unable to.

I used to love our arguments.

Plans for shows, how we would handle this thing or that. Set lists. Is #JayZ really the greatest? Our different approaches, perspectives, and personalities clashed over little things that seemed like such a big deal at the time.

It’s fun to look back on those moments and laugh, it always makes me smile. It meant the world to me that we both cared enough to argue.

If you know me you know: I don’t argue.

But that was Freeze’s way, he would make you meet him wherever he was at, even if it somehow meant taking you there.

I credit him when people ask me how I’ve kept all this up after all these years. He once told me:

“I’m gonna do this my way, you’re gonna do it your way….Your way is going to work, it’s just going to take forever.”

One of the things I value most though is that Freeze showed me what loyalty is.

It’s one of the things he stood for.

Loyalty isn’t just not talking shit about someone behind their back when everyone else is, or holding it down when you see something that is suspect. And it’s more than just showing up for someone’s show or helping connect a few plays.

It’s pushing someone every chance you get to be the person you believe they can be.

And like a true friendship, it’s a gift that lasts more than a lifetime. Which is why us lucky people who knew him will always say:

Freeze is Forever.

“You’ve got the power to make the skies rumble and the earth shake…!”

“This is your best work yet.”

“I wasn’t expecting something so different from your other albums.”

“I wasn’t expecting your pen to have these rhyme schemes and approaches to records.”

“This vinyl is 🔥”

“This shit different.”

“Those videos are wild man.”

“…Is all of this true?”

All I can say is go listen and decide for yourself.

“THE LIE” is out now everywhere on Man Bites Dog Records and on vinyl via their Bandcamp.

Last night I finished my WDCE 90.1FM show and though I had intended to, I forgot to say “Happy Birthday Strick” on air. I realized this as I was walking to my car, and stood around in the cold for a bit thinking about it.

Ive been sitting here now, thinking about what I “should” say. I even went through my phone, checking each year on this day.

That’s where I found this picture of him and his brother Matt.

It’s easy to miss people, I just have a hard time doing it. I’ve had plenty of unnecessary arguments about that over the years. I think I missed Strick the most when he was still here. When he left us it became more about accepting that he wasn’t coming back, and believing in some way that he was with us now, forever in ways he couldn’t have been up until then.

Last night I went from feeling like I let him down to feeling like I was being selfish. I still feel that way writing this. All these “I”’s when this isn’t even about me. I (there we go again) don’t really talk about how Strick’s passing affected me, I don’t mention how I still talk to him sometimes. How longtime friends and I still bring him up and laugh about something he said or did.

Maybe I’m still processing it.

Sometimes it seems like life is too long. Like we aren’t supposed to be around long enough to go through all the things we experience. All this abundance misinterpreted as loss.

I’ve yet to experience a loss as profound as the passing of Strick, Jammin, Freeze, Sleaze or any of my friends. My brothers. I’ve written songs about them, posted on their birthdays like I am today and will continue to, and I’ve kept them in my heart and mind in all that I do.

I don’t know if it’s enough.

They made me feel like I was enough.

Maybe a journal entry turned into a social media post doesn’t do much for anyone but me. But what it does do is remind me of all the things he did do for me.

Strick saw me when I couldn’t.

Now I see him.

To celebrate we dropped a new video, we put the whole album on the streaming platforms, & the entire album is also available on vinyl!

Im the type of person that needs convincing, so here’s a clip & link to the video to warn you 👇🏿