Recent Runs

I've been running, just not A's much as I'd like. There have been a bunch of runs that I won't talk about but I can remember the last 3.

On Sunday March 28th I ran for 6 miles at 11:00 per mile. I started off with Hank Williams, Sr.'s "Alone and Forsaken" it's not metal but it is heavy and has a haunting tone and is really dark and depressing. I love the raw honesty of old country music. No bullshit or production magic, just simple songs that stand the test of time. Then there was some Sabbath, Zepplin, Across Tundras, Cave In, Crooked Fingers and it ended with an 18 minute Ancestors jam. There was some other stuff I can't remember but it was a pretty relaxed run with a stoner/ country playlist. The variation helped keep my interest as I didn't feel like being bombarded with screaming grind.

Sunday April 4th I went out for 3 miles and and the only thing I remeber is I started with Alice in Chains' "Would". My pace was 10:35 per mile.

Monday April 5th, woohoo 2 days in a row! I ran 2 miles to Brian Posahn, Burzum, East/West Blast Test and Cobalt. I was much faster today posting 9:45 per mile. I then headed to a friends house in west Philly, watched the Phils make Washington look like a little league team, ate Bbq and drank my weight in Kenzingers. Seems sort of counter productive.


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Snowblind

Thursday Feb. 25th. It's snowing so I decided to go out for a run with a black metal sound track. Something in the genre just speaks to winter. It's probably just the influence of the environment that surrounds all of those Norweigen bands. It is so desolate and desperate sounding and made a perfect soundtrack for a snow driven sprint. I started with a short Cult of Luna song (5:45) because I didn't have the patience to find a slow bm track. I covered 3.2 miles in 33 minutes.

Cult of Luna- White Cell. This band kills most other bands in the Neurisis genre. They are just crushingly heavy.

Caina- Requim for Shattered Timbers. The guitars in the beginning sound like they are sampled straight from Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here" and then it gets fast and the Pink Floyd comes back. Pretty interesting but definately doesn't do much as a running song.

Darkthrone- Graven Takeheimens Saler. "Transilvanian Hunger" is far and away my favorite BM record. It's cold, raw and has this incredible sense of urgency that makes it very reminicent of a hardcore record. For whatever reason it always brings to mind Black Flag. Great song for winter.

Enslaved- Svarte Vidder. This is off the record "Frost". Could anything be more fitting for freezing your ass off?

Immortal- Grim and Frostbitten Kingdom. Yes, something is more fitting. I need to get some corpse paint for my next race.

Tombs- Filled with Secrets. Is it obvious that I like this band yet?

This post was written while listening to 1349.





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Oh, Yeah!

I registered for the Broad Street Run today. It is a 10 mile run on May 2nd and it takes place right here in Philly. I feel that once I spend money and can see a goal it kicks me in the ass so I train harder. Fingers crossed.

Winter Lull

Feb 21st 2010. I lost my mother, Teresa Manee on January 29th of this year and I've had a really hard time getting up the motivation to do anything, let alone push myself to be better. This weekend I did my best to change that so i ran yesterday and again today and I'm feeling pretty good .Luckily, I do have AMAZING friends whom have been immensely supportive and all around awesome. Coming up sometime soon I will be organizing a race in honor of my mom and to raise money for the disease she had, Primary Pulmonary Hypertension. For more info or to help go here: http://www.phassociation.org/Page.aspx?pid=197. Thanks.

Sat Feb 20th. 2.17 miles in 23:51. Here is my mix:

Converge- My Great Devastator

Deadguy- Human Pig

Rorschach- Checkmate

Faith No More- Malpractice

Botch-Vietnam

His Hero is Gone- Monuments to Thieves

Agoraphobic Nosebleed- Mantis; Center of the Hive and Glass Tornado

Sun Feb 21st. 2.29 miles in 23:47. I listened to Electric Wizard's Dopethrone. Solid record.

Keeping at it

Tuesday December 15th. I stepped it up a little bit today, running 3.28 miles at 11'06" per mile. last Wednesday it was 11'33" per mile. I'm hoping to run at least once more this week and another 2 runs next week. Baby steps.

Coalesce- Absent in Death. Starts with just a guitar and builds into a heavy plodding sludge. Perfect run starter. Who would of thought that Coalesce would release 2 great records after 10 off?

Cult of Luna- Watchtower. Another plodding slab of heavy. This dude has such a harsh voice.

Struck by Lightning- Collection of Teeth. This sounds like something that he would of done back when he was in Mouth of the Architect. Held out chords with a pretty piano lead part. Doesn't really fit with the Mastodon feel that the rest of the record has but it's a good jam none-the-less.

Young Widows- Old Skin. RIFFS!

Mastodon- Ole' Nessie. More RIFFS. Just played a bit slower. Mastodons first 2 LPs are unfuckwithable.

Down- Lifer. Thought I'd give this a second go. Sweet southern fried sabbath riffage. This really satisfied my inner 15 year old Pantera fan.

sithmic

Metallica- Blackened. They need to break up because they will NEVER even come close to replicating the first 4. Break up.

Shrinebuilder- The Architect. While there are some seismicly heavy parts this whole thing just sounds a bit disjointed.

Ugh

Over October and the early part of November I was running maybe once every week. Not good. Then for about for weeks I stopped completely. Even worse. Worse still since my half marathon I have gained 5 to 10 pounds. Ugh!

Well, on Wednesday December 9th I went out for a short run (2.64 miles). For my mix I kept it slow and stoner. I wanted to have a nice relaxed pace as a warm up to getting back into full training. The day wasn't too cold and I felt really good the rest of the day.

Om- Cremation Gant 1. This band belongs in a temple surrounded by stoned monks. Their records our so meditative and soothing. There is a part with a flute in it on the new record that I have been listening to repeatedly, so sweet.

Across Tundras- ?. Not sure what this song is called but it is off "Heroes of the Fathomless Vallys". Played with these dudes the day before thanksgiving and they stayed at our place for turkeyday. Great dudes, sweet jams, best dogs.

Down- Jail. So I picked the unmetal song on the Down's NOLA. It's hard to get going to a flang drenched acoustic ballad.

Wino- Gods, Frauds, Neocons and Damagogues. Another miss. Noise and GW samples.

Converge- Worms Will Feed. This is more like it. This has a nice mid tempo beat with screech and sung back and forth vocals. This record is sick from start to finish.

Obscura- Universe Momentum. This is not slow. I just started listening to this band so i wanted to run to it. Super technical death metal with some awesome (although very high in the mix) basslines. Again, great record.

Fight Amp- Faith in Man. The fact that this is only half the band from 2007's Hungry for Nothing really shows through. This record is pretty boring and at times sounds flat out amateur, especially in the vocals.

Back in the Saddle

It's been almost three weeks since the half marathon and I've been LAZY! On Wednesday october 7th I went out for my first run since the race. I did about three and a half miles in forty plus minutes. Nice and slow. I had Neurosis's "The Eye of Every Storm" to keep my pace easy. It is an amzing record to just zone out to for relaxed paced runs. I imagione this record is what would happen if Leonard Cohen decided to try his hand at making a doom album. It may not be the band's most brutal stuff but it's sublty and songwriting make up for what it lacks in bone crushing riffs. Definately an overlooked record.