wonderful news, the old forum has returned. now to remove the superfluous smf one, as everyone is doubtlessly eager to return to their old haunt.
it's a shame that the old forums still appear to be offline, but more ppl appear to be finding their way to the new forums. smf is a pretty sweet package, so perhaps it is serendipitous for the forums to re-emerge phoenix-like in this manner.
and on that note, nycto is regrouping his Epic Spheres disk--please check in if you were involved w/ that project.
well, the old forum sadly is not working atm, so i quickly set up a new one, a simple machines one. it's current, php/database-driven rather than the old perl/flat files version. it has a nice calendar which seems like it could be handy for ppl's projects. check it out, give it a spin.
i'm all for decentralization. there is some redundancy in the community, which is not really a bad thing, as there are then some options for ppl to fall back to. i have no desire to supplant the old forum, and it could very well be back online soon (and i hope it does--there is some great history in there!). but if this new one is useful to ppl, then great.
old news, but i finally installed unrar on this relatively fresh ubuntu install and checked this out. grindire and the xmas garage team have emitted a wonderful xmas song. it compliments the vomiting sfx from dismal's holiday exertion to round out the season nicely.
nycto has extended the deadline for the epic spheres disk to his birthday, january 5. bwahahaha i only noticed that ten days after he announced it.
interest in the cannibal corpse tribute is picking up, look like.
work on digideus' bathory cover disk is coming along. cthu has graciously offered to host it, b/c he's cool like that, even though he still won't give those mountains back to s.o.a.d.
my favorite nile-posturing pol dismal has formed a "death-grind hybrid" group called anal deep strike, and they're juuust released a small christmas disk. it's typical dismal tuneage, quite lovely, w/ the addition of wonderful sound effects and vocalizations for the holiday season. super-short songs. nice growling vocs.
lashmush scraped together some older material into a disk entitled chapter 9. he's got a torrent up at piratebay, but the tracker doesn't seem to be responding atm. don't forget, ppl, as another option i've got a torrent tracker set up at http://www.mellowland.org/bt/ for you to host your releases. it has an auto-upload thingy for windows users which automagically creates and uploads the torrent for you, so it's all quite nosepickingly easy.
Some currently open projects in the scene:
I notice that sometimes people are looking for places to host their songs. Sometimes, download links are unavailable.
I've opened up my torrent tracker to metalscene public use. You can register and upload torrents of your tracked metal songs. If you're running windows, the creation of torrents is handled automagically--so conveniently, in fact, that I leave my linux box & get onto the fam's xp box to do it.
Two of my loves, Doom and Tracked Metal, have joined together. OverClocked ReMix have released the Dark Side of Phobos. Not all tracks are metal, but they are all tracked and Doom-inspired.
You may have already noticed this, but I was digging around in TA's musty old basement, and found this moldy box of Red Rain interviews. They're a bit raw atm, but I do mean to put them into a database so they'll be searchable.
Nycto is organizing an open disk, Epic Spheres. The deadline is December 2005.
The Cheap-o-Disk voting is done, and ansgaros has won for best song. Nihq won the worst song category, and Nycto won most original.
Well, I for one am happy that Hurt has returned, and with no less than 2 disks to herald his comeback. His Gore - Depraved disk isn't downloading properly, so there's a torrent here.
Nycto's Ultimate Cheap-O-Cheap Disk compo votepack is out. You have until May 30 to vote.
I actually dragged myself from my catatonic state long enough to update the lists of releases for March and April. I am still questioning the feasibility of having any voting for favorite songs. Heh, apathy's contagious.
In between bouts of languor and apathy, I learned that Nihil has released the votepack for his oldskool compo (btw voting deadline is April 9):
VOTING RULES:
Send mail to niilonihilisti@vituttaa.net or PM user Nihil (Niilo N. Lihanisti) at the boards.
In your mail you must type the following:
- your nickname
- your #1 preference, will get 3 points
- your #2 preference, will get 2 points
- your #3 preference, will get 1 point
Mention the artists' names too, since there are some similar titles in the songs. Anyone is free to vote. You can also vote for your own song if you honestly believe it's the best. Pussy.
I caught up with Suva. The Priest compo was cancelled due to only receiving 2 submissions.
Vote for your favorite release from the first week of March. Only five songs--even Y`go can do it!
The week-long voting period for February's releases is over, and Buried's The Delicate Arts emerged as the winner. The voting turnout was sparse, possibly due to the dauntingly long list of a month's releases.
Suva's Priest Compo is overdue, and he appears to have dropped out of sight. Suva, where are you?
Force's VG Cover Disk now has 4 entries.
Nihil's Oldskool Compo 2005 is currently at 6 entries.
The end of the month sneaked up on me again, but fortunately I only had a little bit of coding left to do, and now the somewhat improved voting is up in time for the February Releases. It now requires login to vote, and once the artists are set up with accounts, then the proper voting protocol (whereby you cannot vote for your own song) can be fully realized. Plus, artists will be able to add their own songs to the releases list (once I code that part).
The January poll only checked IP addresses to prevent multiple voting--that was no doubt exploited, but who knows for sure.
Accounts are set up. You will need to create an account in order to vote for the best February 2005 release, or to add your own releases.
Forgot to mention two active compos:
The people are up in arms, and they have begun to release their goatse-themed songs which were intended for the apparently now dead tribute disk.
Grindire's Chiptune compo completed, with Barfington taking first.
In other news, community pillar Cadaver has released the Tribute to Playlists II disk. Seven tunes, with Cadaver involved in three of them!
Force is organizing a Video Game Cover Disk which is getting a lot of attention--it seems to have gotten Libby out of her hiatus, even! :-)
The news module is operational. Hooray!