Silence and Deserts

For two years now, ever since I bought a guitar amp, I've been diligently practicing and re-learning my guitar skills. Almost every day and night, before I go to bed or get off from it, I'd put at least two hours of playing various licks and techniques I got from the internet. So far, I've been successful of shaking off the rusts -accumulated during a 7 year hiatus- that almost drove my guitar skills into atrophy. Furthermore, as a guitarist, I've also improved a little bit (I'm much better at alternate picking and string skipping now).

These past months, however, I've been putting less and less time into practicing. Partly because I spend more time reading books and playing PC games, and partly because I haven't heard or seen anything inspiring -since The Chronicles of Israfel- that could send me into frenzied practice sessions. So, in order to fix the latter half of the problem, I just got myself a couple of guitar instrumental albums: Silence Followed By A Deafening Roar by Paul Gilbert and Carving Desert Canyons by Scale The Summit. These aforementioned albums are kick-ass, and if they can't inspire me I don't think anything will.

Paul Gilbert

I'm not into hair metal. But Mr. Big is an exception. Mainly because the band members are such great musicians. Paul Gilbert, especially, who is hailed by many to be a guitar hero. I know that he have already released a lot of solo albums as a guitarist but, regrettably, I haven't heard any of it. So I was left mesmerized when I listened to his solo work, his latest album. I'm not sure if Silence... is Gilbert's best album but it's loaded with epic and face-melting string craft that will leave guitarists with glee in their hearts.

Scale The Summit

Scale The Summit is an instrumental/progressive metal band I discovered two weeks ago. Unlike Paul Gilbert, they're not really that indulgent with guitar solos. But, it's needless to say, they're also a pretty talented band. What I really like about them is how their music flows. Their transition from a heavy musical mode to a softer one can be very seamless. One moment, it can be really brutal with thundering drums and assaulting guitars. But, abruptly, they'll shift and slow down to a mellow jazzy sound.

These guys, with their level of skill and technicality, have really inspired me to become a better musician. Scale The Summit, especially. A young band like them usually manages to come up with only a so-so music. But they created a heavy music, a pleasant type of metal, that even regular folks might enjoy. As for my guitar practicing, well both these albums have certainly gave me an itch. The only problem is that I still have two books and a game to finish.

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Steaming Snow

Finally, I've been granted a much needed time off from work for 4 straight days. On top of that, it's also the weekends, and coincided with pay day too. So I made plans on how to spend it and, so far, I couldn't complain. Yesterday, I had a haircut, pulled my comics, and ate at Portillo's (got myself a greasy Double Bacon Burger). Today, my plan was to get a copy of Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II, one of my most anticipated games of this year, and shop for some books and CDs. However, when I woke up this morning, I saw the snow whipping the living daylights out of the day.

Dawn of War II, available on Steam.

But the snow didn't really ruin my day because of online shopping. Yes, thank God for online shopping. I would've been left dejected if I got snowed in, on my 4-day pseudo vacation, without playing Dawn of War II. So, instead of whining about the bad weather, I opened my Steam account, purchased a digital copy of Dawn of War II, and waited for a little less than two hours for the download to finish. It's that simple and fast. Normally, I don't do digital purchases -for the reasons that I like to keep a hard copy of my games (the same goes for all my media). But I needed Dawn of War II, direly. Hence, my first digital purchase of a game.

As for the books and CDs, it was also easy. I just went to Amazon and got them. I already knew what music I wanted, which was Carving Desert Canyons by Scale the Summit. It took me awhile to decide which books to get. But, in the end, I went with The Book of Dead Philosophers and The Next 100 Years. I'll be reading both of these in the next two months. In addition, I also got the hardcover copy of Ayn Rand's Anthem. It is one of my favorite books but I had to donate my copy (a mass market paperback) to make some space for my new library of hardcover books and large paperbacks (see my post here).

Well, that's how I spent day two of my 4-day off. While I won't be able to read books or listen to some new music, at least I'll be able to play Dawn of War II for the next two days. As for the Steam purchase, it was actually a good experience and I might consider of buying my games, digitally, from them.

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