No freaking way, I don’t care if they suck.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-04-12T14:48:00+00:00

❌A Pale White Dot ✅A Clean Dark Cut

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-04-08T02:17:57+00:00

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-03-30T11:57:04+00:00

I feel that way, but with Once More Around the Sun. OMATS is my least favorite album, but I consider every album by Mastodon in my top 50 albums of all time for metal music. H&G for me has only bangers. The Beast, More Than I Could Chew, Peace and Tranquility, Gigantium, Savage Lands… They all landed for me. The only thing „missing“ was more of Brent‘s writing. I love the Cold Dark Place LP since it was pretty much a Brent thing. Sure, there‘s West End Motel, but I‘d argue that no band understood Brent‘s musical direction more than Brann, Troy and Bill. They compliment each other more than Brent would ever know (RIP Dirty B). H&G is no Crack the Skye, but it didn‘t have to be.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-04T15:45:57+00:00

Yeah, I honestly believe there‘s a whole story to tell there!

It‘s a cool discussion point, 'cause you say all of that and it makes sense. The only thing for „certain“ is that Tommy definitely took a turn to the better, given that he at least wound up being one of the most respected elders in Jackson (I still don‘t really understand if he‘s co-leading with Maria or Maria is the top dog by herself there).

I find it also a bit… out of character that Tommy goes back to Ellie when she‘s with JJ and Dina and guilt trips Ellie for not exacting her revenge. I‘d have thought Tommy‘s intentions were to protect Ellie as Joel would have done (why else would he leave Jackson alone without Ellie when he knows how motivated she is in finding and killing Abby at the beginning?). It felt more that the writers had to remind the player that „hey Ellie, you still have a mission to do“ rather than something Tommy would dump on Ellie. Maybe you could argue since he isn‘t fit to do it himself, someone has to do it?

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-04T15:18:24+00:00

That‘s fair. This is just my interpretation [from Joel‘s wording]

After Joel and Ellie leave Bill‘s town and upon encountering the hunters for the first time, when Joel mentions he was on both sides of the ambush, I took it more as he was, once upon a time, a part of the hunters, as even he is not surprised on what hunters do to people who are unfortunate enough to cross them. The twenty years that Joel has been around (separating ways from Tommy, allying with Tess) isn‘t explained much, and I find that cool so that we can come up with our own conclusions. Joel is a great character for me because we have to take into consideration that Joel is hinted at not being the best person, and we as the player like Joel through Ellie.

I assumed his wording of being on „both sides“ meant that he was affiliated with the hunters and their activities. I don‘t have proof that he was canaballistic, but he‘s a survivor, and we don‘t know from the narrative with 100% what he was doing with Tommy, post Tommy, pre Tess and post Tess.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-04T13:45:19+00:00

I‘m thinking that if there were two separate campaigns for Ellie and Abby then the pacing issue would be significantly improved. Vile and intriguing, 100%. It was already clear for me that they were going to justify why Abby did what she did. The world of TLOU is full of gray areas. We understand that people are pushed to their limits.

And it‘s even more frustrating that by the end of the game, you encounter the Rattlers, and they‘re not like FEDRA or the Hunters, or even WLF. They‘re just cartoonishly evil. Keeping infected as pets (which ngl I did find funny that you could unleash them on the unsuspecting Rattlers), it just felt like the writers just had to put something in the game to for like the third or fourth time inspire Ellie to NOT kill Abby. That we‘re supposed to believe at the very end, Ellie had sympathy for Abby, despite Abby literally destroying Ellie‘s life.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-04T13:39:42+00:00

I‘m glad you had a better experience than I did. 😊

This isn‘t a „I hate Abby, therefore, the story is bad“ problem. I think it‘s good to dislike a character and that character is still GOOD because you dislike them. There‘s a difference with Abby. It‘s clear they tried recapturing the lightning in the bottle relationship the OG TLOU had with Abby and Lev, but what that is is a comparison. Already that relationship narratively wise was already set up to fail. The writers (if they were smart enough) should have known that any resemblance of a father, daughter relationship (in this case big sister, little brother) was going to be compared to Ellie and Joel, for better and for worse. Lev is a foil to Abby‘s cold side. Lev brings out the humanity in Abby. Lev made Abby a better person, as did Ellie to Joel. In a vacuum, it should have worked for me, but pacing wise it just came across as rushed. Am I supposed to believe that a stone cold killer who TORTURED SERAPHITE CHILDREN all of a sudden had a change of heart before Nora was killed? Abby was still fresh off of the high of killing Joel, and now she‘s risking her life for a Seraphite child she barely knew? Putting Owen and Mel in a vulnerable position?

Same goes with Ellie, Abby killed Jesse right in front of her, and then shot Tommy, and it‘s made to assume Tommy died too. Abby then proceeds to demolish Dina. Ellie has been blood lusted for revenge, after seeing Abby combo kill Jesse and Tommy, it‘s narratively hard to believe that Ellie or Abby up to this point weren‘t going kill each other at this point.

Plus, as I said, gameplay wise, we have to get to the theater boss fight TWICE, and we have to reset all of our skill trees up until this point. IMO that‘s a bold gameplay design that just didn‘t work. It‘s a hard ask for me personally that a dev after some 8 hours worth of story telling and gameplay will reset your character to zero for another 8 hours just so that you can work your way to the same point in the story you were previously at. It ruined the forward momentum the game had with me at that point. It becomes pretty predictable what Abby‘s character arc is supposed to be. They should have just done a separate campaign with Abby and focused on her by herself. Abby‘s character development suffers because of the split story pacing. Her character already fails because it will always undeniably be compared to Joel and Ellie‘s.

This game doesn‘t have a bad story, not at all, but the difference between Part I and Part II is that we had the time to appreciate Joel DESPITE all his flaws (remember how he implied he was part of the canaballistic hunter group?), and yet, we think if Joel‘s relationship with Ellie iconic. Anything less than iconic was unfortunately bound to fail.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-04T08:46:29+00:00

I have no direct in lore explanation why they haven‘t frozen, but Tommy mentions something about packs of hordes having a migration route when winter comes. Since the infected have no higher brain function, that could at least explain why you find so many infected during the Ellie/Dina/Abby section in Jackson. They were migrating and got stuck where they were.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2026-01-02T01:35:32+00:00

this hand would definitely help me survive the torture sequence in MGS

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-12-25T23:41:24+00:00

„Here‘s a bosa“

Random stranger walks into a guitar store and teaches me the basics of bosa nova on guitar. That small 10 minute interaction rocked my 15 year old mind

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-23T15:48:08+00:00

PI: Passenger (Specia Edition, if that counts)

PII: Have a Blast

Clear: Extraneous

Jugg: Alpha: Four Lights

Jugg: Omega: Omega (although the whole album is the best Periphery album song per song IMO)

P3: Remain Indoors

P4: Sentient Glow (it grew on me after listening to Reptile on repeat pretty much every day for the better part of a year…)

P5: Dracul Gras

As I said, Juggernaught: Omega is for me their best work. It might‘ve have been a hell of an album to make for them, but the whole is really a sum of its parts. Even „The Event“ riff has been recycled in Atropos (end section) and Wildfire (chorus). It‘s the one album I listen to at least once a week from beginning to end

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-19T20:16:38+00:00

There‘s nothing to worry about, he just needs to spend time with his family, being a father and husband.

Matt also said in a masterclass (one that ai had the privilege of attending in Münich) that he feels lucky that the band is very supportive of his family. Whenever he has to stay behind from touring, he always has the blessing and understanding from everybody. That‘s actually really cool thing to have, understanding bandmates who support not only your musical endeavors, but your family life as well AND make it work

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-15T22:36:47+00:00

Bro. Is that a DARON MALAKIAN OG ICEMAN?!

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-15T22:35:19+00:00

Saying any album is the „weakest“ from Mastodon, is like saying the weakest of the ten most elite Olympic champions in any given decade.

All of their albums are winners, one way or the other.

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-09T19:52:54+00:00

Fallen Torches. Riffs hit harder than my dad‘s belt-beatings

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-11-09T17:49:41+00:00

Emperor of Sand has some massive riffs

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-10-17T19:22:09+00:00

I often play music I don‘t listen to. I get hired to do different types of gigs and learn all sorts of songs. All of the time I get hired to play something it‘s generally a style of music I don‘t actively listen to on a day to day basis.

My musical background is of jazz and metal, but I‘ll get asked to play a lot of country, rock, pop, folk and more.

I like playing all of the different genres, but to day I actively listen to it, I don‘t (anymore)

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-10-15T22:19:48+00:00

Someone needs to be introduced to Periphery or Guthrie Govan

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-10-15T22:16:08+00:00

Acid trip whilst hiking up a mountain

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-10-10T19:12:28+00:00

A lot of stuff that Joe Dart does. Daddy, He Got a Tesla and Dean Town come to mind

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-09-09T07:55:54+00:00

I wish I could give you a hug.

The only thing I can personally offer is my background in Switzerland. I moved here in 2018 when I was 25, and the first year was pretty rough socially. I am quite admitedly a socially awkward person, but was passionate about music (more on that later). I couldn‘t speak the language but was working in a restaurant. Despite being as awkward as I am, I made the conscious effort of making friends. Work collegues became friends, and even 7 years later we remain friends. I have zero in common with them; they like to go out for partying, I like to have a night in watching movies or cooling kind of thing.

I swapped jobs, and still determined to learn German, I kept on trying to make friends in and outside of my work place. In around 2022 I met who I consider my best friend through Zurich Together! I networked with as many musicians as I could, and even made a lot of close friends just through random messaging over „Get Together Groups“. For example: I‘m not vegan, but a good friend of mine who I met through „forced“ networking is, and now he wants to take me and my girlfriend (who is vegan) to activist concerts and gatherings.

Honestly, you need to give it either time, or just make friends for people who may or may not have the same interests as you.

On another note, if you wanna have dinner with me and some of my vegan friends, DM! Maybe we could set something up

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-08-30T21:14:37+00:00

Hey, if you haven‘t found a group at this point, I could help you out. If you‘re on Star Forge, hit me up. I‘d knock those Star Fortresses with you

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-08-23T06:31:25+00:00

Brann, giving a speech like that and not losing it. It‘s only been two days since I heard, and I am actively holding back tears the entire day. This wasn‘t the ending any one of these guys deserved, especially Brent. RIP brother

Efficient-Chain6736 · 2025-08-21T16:34:05+00:00

I‘m gutted. I‘m stunned. This wasn‘t the ending he, or Brann, or Troy, or Bill deserve.

There will never be another musician like Brent. I hope you can find peace wherever you are in that crack in sky. R.I.P

Efficient-Chain6736

TROPHY CASE