You know, I get spam messages in my email, just like everyone. But what is so funny about these spam messages is… is the fact that they assume I play World of Warcraft. Which is really hilarious, cuz I don't.

 

And, since I'm being random… I now realize why I don't listen to Linkin Park anymore: they're not actually such an amazing band… instrumentally. Or, at least, their instrumentation is not my style.

 

I mean, actually, I have to say they are an alright band. The cream of the crop of Nu-metal, I will admit. They have some good songs, and their vocalists are talented men. I will say I think they had something really good with all their duets, and I think it's a real shame that so many bands only make use of their secondary vocalists as backing vocalists, and not have them do duets, at least in my experience.

 

However, I'm listening to their guitarwork and… it's really boring. I mean, I think it's alright, but it's boring. I listen to most bands, and I listen to the guitars and if you have boring guitars they you are doing something wrong, in my opinion. Now I will admit, I have only seen truly brilliant and powerful guitarwork amongst guitar oriented-metal (IE most of metal), but that is perhaps a result of just how guitar orientated metal is. I mean, in metal, while your vocalist is still gonna be important, you find the lead guitarist is just as important. Thomas Youngblood is just as important as Roy Khan in Kamelot. Demon Hunter, in my mind, improved a LOT when Ethan Luck left and they got (the more talented) Patrick Judge to replace him. It really made a difference.

 

Funny thing, though, I can listen to other, Rock, music and hear some good, interesting guitarwork, rarely in the vein of metal guitarwork, but still good and interesting nonetheless.

 

Maybe that was why Nu-metal never went anywhere… I mean, I don't like a lot of Metalcore, but I've heard some awesome guitar from metalcore bands. Underoath has good guitarists, even if they have one of the most horrible sounds I've ever heard. On the other hand, Linkin Park had some good songs, two talented vocalists, but bad guitarwork (and whiny emo lyrics, but that's never stopped anyone from becoming popular…). They made 2 good albums (by good I mean popular) and 1 bad one. Now they are kinda… stuck. I don't know what they're doing, if they're touring or whatever, but they are not really important musicians anymore.

 

And, actually, that's kinda funny to think of it. But big rock bands, like Linkin Park and Evanescence, that happens… both released two really popular albums, but they kinda messed up and just disappeared (okay, neither are gone, but they are kinda inactive. Though Amy Lee says Evanescence is, or will be, recording a new album). On the other hand you have more less known bands like Alestorm who are going strong… I guess it really does have to do with Volume… Alestorm NEEDs to keep on touring to make a living, while Amy Lee probably made a LOT of money in royalties alone.

 

And I am rambling… but its good fun. I like to ramble.

 

What is new in my life? Well, not a whole lot… I've been spending my days struggling through school. I think I'm pretty sick of math, physics, and latin now, which is a shame because they are good courses, I'm just sick of them and by this point, even if I got like all As it wouldn't change my grades that much. Okay, it'd change them a little, but not a lot. I'm enjoying my English class, but I have a feeling I'm going to not enjoy the books we're reading now so much. We read The Hobbit and it was a brilliant, masterful, piece of work. Now we're reading The Princess and the Goblin and it's less so. George MacDonald has created a really good story and some fun characters, but his worldbuilding is not up to snuff in comparison to Tolkien, at least in this book, our teacher reminded us that MacDonald did write other books.

 

I guess the bottom line is I like the story, and I like the themes, but I hate the style. It's a children's book, and to be honest, that ruins a lot of the wonders of fantasy for me. Maybe it's because of the times I live in, but too me, the best style of Fantasy is a good combination of dark and gritty and high and mighty, Steven Erikson's work is probably the best example: nitty-gritty characters in an epic, living, breathing world. I enjoy Tolkien almost purely because of his prose, Tolkien was, after all, a professor of Language, and he uses his vocabulary brilliantly. His world is also, to this day, one of the few complete fantasy worlds created by just one man. Sure, you have places like Forgotten Realms, Dragonlance, Azeroth, etc, but these worlds don't hit the depth and breadth (or at least quality) of Tolkien's worlds, plus many of them were built by several authors together.

 

I guess my primary issue is that the plot of The Princess and the Goblin is just… boring. It's not very exciting, I guess. Like I said, good characters, good ideas, good themes, but BAD style. I mean, the story is intriguing and I want to know what happens, but the prose, especially in the beginning of the book, is not my taste.

 

And that was a lot of different things… oh well… that's what's on my mind right now.