Tag Archives: music

Flipping Unicorns…

As I just noticed something again, after I had forgotten about it for a while I thought I might as well rant a bit about it. It’s not like I was already trying to sleep and this topic kept creeping back into my mind…
Unicorns are common in different mythologies and stories, yet I don’t even really like/care about them, but for some odd reason they still cross my path time and time again…
Probably the first unicorn I ever came in contact with was the one that was meant to be captured by The Valiant Little Tailor. A ruthless beast that tried to pierce him with its horn, but ended up stuck in a tree.
The other one was obviously The Last Unicorn, the beautiful lost creature that was turned into a human to save it from a ruthless king and his brutal Red Bull. Back when I still regularly played the accordion in music classes we frequently played the titular song. It wasn’t easy and quite long, but worth it.
While I never replied to the unicorn thread in The Forum its portrayed style, that I picked from the get-go is indeed called the „Unicorn Style“, which also uses motives displayed in the movie.
I didn’t think about it much when I wanted to have a more vicious version and ended up adding a black one to my short storiy „Wissen ist Macht“ (Knowledge is Power) and gave it a rather nasty role…
For quite some time I did not really notice any unicorns until one faithful day at Wacken last year, when DarkFairy called out:

„Look he has a…Pony with Horn…a Unicorn!“

If you remember my story about Karl the Moose, who was supposed to be a Pony with Horn you might remember that if it hadn’t been for simple coincidence I would now have a plush unicorn head hanging from my wall…
Again some time past, but the more festivals I attended this year, the more people in unicorn or brownie costumes I saw running around (some of the full-costumes I mentioned here) and it got even worse when Anice and I where at the Gloryhammer concert during the Rockharz and they started talking about

„Undead Unicorns of War“

As I had fun back then I listened to their album „Tales from the Kingdom of Fife“ (which I am going to review one day) and the refrain of the song you can find in the video below became a long running „earworm“ (Ohrwurm; a song that is stuck in your head) for me soon after.

Nearly all throughout my stay at the Book Hotel in July did this line never leave my mind:

„The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee“

I don’t know how many times I told my mum these five words during that weekend, but it was often and I’m still doing it when I’m around her and they are stuck again.
Recently I had a conversation with both Anice and, I think, Unmei (the girl from the bus) about Pottermore and somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered something about my wands core.
Three guesses as to what it is? Well, you probably only need one, as it is in fact Unicorn hair…
Which is quite interesting as my wand wood is Laurel and their abilities seem to be quite contradictory… (Unicorn: Faithful, Laurel: Easily swayed when the user is too lazy for the wands liking).
Anyway, I just re-discovered this and thought I might as well ramble a bit about it, before finally hitting the hay.
Honourable mentions also go to the unreal unicorn from Doctor Who’s Agatha Christy story „The Unicorn and the Wasp“ – with my favourite companion Donna – and In Extremo’s singer „Das letzte Einhorn“ (The Last Unicorn).
I’ll probably remember more unicorns when I try sleeping again…
PoiSonPaiNter
© For the quotes and the video from „Tales from the Kingdom of Fife“ lie with Gloryhammer and Napalm Records.

Crossing Over: Chapter 10

It again has taken me quite some time to finish the next chapter of my Bleach-Naruto Crossover Fanfiction Crossing Over.
You can read it:

When I posted the last chapter I said that I might be able to continue more frequently, but time and again am I surprised at how well I can guess my own writing habits (See this post and this for another example).

As I didn’t want to let my readers wait even longer I did not send it to my usual Beta reader, so if you find any nonsense in the chapter, please let me know.

Just like the other times I can give a little look at the music I listened to while writing, but to understand the references I advice you to read the chapter first.

Well, there is only one definite song throughout the Renji-fight part (SabatonNo Bullets Fly) and for the rest I let my player shuffle through only Edguy’s Space PoliceDefenders of the Crown at first, but added Sabaton’s Heroes soon after.

The howling part is by the way one of the main points I wanted to portray from the get-go, the midnight meeting and the butterfly came soon after, but neither of it as extensive as in the chapter ..

And another thing that might be interesting to know: Only five chapters and an epilogue to go and I have finally finished this monstrosity of a story … While I hope I will do so in 2014 will it probably happen some time in 2015, if not later … (and now let’s hope that this is one of my reverse predictions again 😉 )

Apart from having finally written something/finished some writing I am again on the road.
Not long now and we will arrive in Hamburg to make camp and participate in the MPS again.

Semi-Medieval Spectaculum after writing about Samurai and Ninja, yup, that sounds more than fitting …

PoiSonPaiNter

The Weekend Guess #24

Today I have a double schedule, as I’ll be mostly attending the Burgfest (Castlefeast) in Penzlin, but will also make a short trip back to Neubrandenburg for the cinema screening of Doctor Who’s newest episode: Deep Breath with new Time Lord Peter Capaldi. I’m pretty existed for that. 😀

Regardless I still present to you the twenty fourth instalment of: The Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twenty fourth set of questions

With all three I am looking for both band name and song (Hint: #3 is German).

#1
An Avalon Fantasy of losing ones life for celestial poultry.

#2
The disguise unit of the TARDIS whining about not having a certain hair colour.

#3
The Malicious Tongues and the final movement to music.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Die Ärzte – Dein Vampyr
#2 Powerwolf – We drink your Blood
#3 The 69 Eyes – Lost Boys

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

P.S. This is a scheduled post so it might be that it doesn’t reach my  Facebook or Tumblr page.

The Weekend Guess #23

It’s strange having a weekend without any plans but regardless of that, I present to you the twenty third instalment of: The Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twenty third set of questions

With all three I am looking for both band name and song (Hints: All have a certain topic and #1 is German).

#1
The Medics and someone’s blood sucking monster friend.

#2
Mighty canines swallowing someone’s red liquid of life.

#3
The Helsinki vampires and an eighties horror movie.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Letzte Instanz – Sing!
#2 ASP – Krabat
#3 Feuerschwanz – Der Henker

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

In Concert 2013: Die Ärzte – Rostock

After excessive Blogging throughout the Book-Week I really need to get back into a writing mood and as I do not seem to be able to finish my post for last years Wacken am I trying to change course by finishing this concert review instead.
Originally I did plan on writing this before the Wacken post anyway, as it was before it, but after the WGT.
Anyway, one of the bands I failed to mention in the Soundtrack of my Life are Die Ärzte. I probably mentioned them in one of my other posts and I have used some of their songs for the Weekend Guess, but so far I failed to express what they mean to me.

Everyone starts somewhere…

As impressionable young teenager did I listen to what my parents and peers where listening to, but somehow the things I enjoyed most had guitars and other proper instruments.
Then in 2002 or a bit later did I catch the broadcast of the „Rock’n’Roll Realschule„, an unplugged concert of some of their most famous songs and I got hooked. They became one of the first bands I ever had an actual interest in.
I tried to get my hands on their CDs and pretty much everything that sounded interesting (like their biography „Ein überdimensionales Meerschweinchen frisst die Erde auf“ – An oversized guinea pig is devouring the Earth). For my Confirmation I got a whole package of their old stuff from my cousins and listened to it over and over again. The unplugged album and 13 soon became my favourites. At that time I still haven’t had a MP3 player so I either used a portable CD player or even made my own mix-tapes for my portable cassette player. I think I still have those tapes somewhere…
Besides the main band each of the members has side projects and of course I listened to some of them as well. After managing to see Farin Urlaub twice, we – BlackWolf , a mutual friend and I – finally went off to see them in Rostock in 2008 during their Jazzfäst-Tour and it was a pretty fun concert.
It then took me five years to see them on stage again.

The Medics are in

I don’t really remember how I noticed that they would play in Rostock again, but I was thrilled when I read it and marked it as one of the possible concerts for last year. Discussing them with Black Kat and Mücke it was soon clear that Kat would accompany me for this trip.
Setting off in the middle of the week I picked her up and we made our way to the City Hall (Stadthalle) in Rostock.
The hall is constructed to have a middle (standing) area that is surrounded by tribunes on each side and as there were no cards left for the arena we had gotten some for the sitting area.
It wasn’t until we had found a proper place to sit that we noticed a couple of strange things:

  1. We were surrounded by mostly middle-aged to old people up there.
  2. The younger people in the arena partly looked like they were in a club.
  3. There were barely any Punks in the crowd (DÄ are after all a band with roots in Punk Rock).
  4. We felt like we stood out amongst the people with being dressed semi-punky and in black.

There is a lot of controversy that DÄ are too mainstream to be considered Punk any more, but they still make fun of that in their songs. Other than that does it seem that people are trying to get to a concert of them just to say that they’ve been at an Ärzte concert, before the band retires completely (The same phenomenon happens by the way with Rammstein, where you can see more and more normal people at the concerts).
Regardless of the weird people (who didn’t even move a muscle most of the time) around us and the minimal moving space we had, was it again a pretty great concert. Die Ärzte aka BelaFarinRod are just one of the most fun and ridiculous bands I know. It is not just their songs that give you a good time, but also their conversations on stage and the general atmosphere they create. I didn’t necessarily understand all of their jokes, but that doesn’t really matter as I still had a lot of fun and was pretty much grinning all the time.
What surprised me most, however, was that I still knew so many lyrics, even though I hadn’t heard most of the songs in years… Guess I simply listened often enough to the majority of the pretty well mixed (many old, some newer songs) set list back in the day. 😉

Definitely no lullaby

After a long day at work and a great concert we – or rather I – had to drive back to Neubrandenburg. The most problematic thing on those night rides is to fall asleep while driving. I might not have mentioned this before, but I can’t listen to music – especially not the band itself, though I currently don’t have anything of DÄ on my player, which I should change at some point again – right away after a concert. I need some quiet time to properly enjoy what I just heard.
Regardless of that do I need to listen to something to keep myself awake and that is when I discovered something weird.
When my shuffle brought a Feuerschwanz song to my attention, I thought, I might as well listen to the other ones as well. What I did not expect was that I became more and more awake the longer I listened. I started to actually pay attention to what they were saying, which is in most cases utterly ridiculous and pretty perverted. I do not know why it helped me to become less sleepy, but it did… Kat later said, that she doesn’t really like the singers’ voice as it sounds too faked and she has a point with that. To me it doesn’t sound bad, but I can hear some kind of fakeness in the way he is singing, as if he changes the sound of his voice on purpose. Maybe that’s what kept me awake. 😀
As I am now completely off topic let me give you a short version of what you just read:
It was a great concert with a strange crowd and I’d go right away if I have the chance to attend another of their concerts.
PoiSonPaiNter

The Weekend Guess #22

While I am on the M’era Luna again, I present to you the twenty second instalment of: The Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twenty second set of questions

With all three I am looking for both band name and song (Hint: All three are German).

#1
The last resort ordering you to make musical noises with your vocal cords.

#2
A German branch with p and Otfried Preußler’s raven-boy.

#3
Flaming Richards headsman.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Gloryhammer – The Unicorn Invasion of Dundee
#2 Sabaton – Masters of the World
#3 Hammerfall – Hammerfall

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

P.S. This is a scheduled post so it might be that it doesn’t reach my  Facebook or Tumblr page.

The Weekend Guess #21

As I am struggling to finally finish the post for last years Wacken, I present to you the twenty first instalment of: The Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twenty first set of questions

With all three I am looking for both band name and song.

#1
Nailing tool of splendour and the military entrance of ponies with horn in a phantastical land.

#2
Knight shoes claiming to be the lords of the planet.

#3
A dropping nailing tool times two.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess this time with the topic(/book) they were based on:

#1 Blind Guardian – A Voice in the Dark => A Song of Ice and Fire (G.R.R. Martin)
#2 Blind Guardian – A Past and Future Secret => Le Morte d’Arthur/Arthurian legend
#3 Blind Guardian – Otherland => Otherland (Tad Williams)

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

The Weekend Guess #20

As finale of the Book-Week, I present to you the twentieth instalment of: The Weekend Guess with book-themed songs.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the twentieth set of questions

With all three I am looking for a song of the Eyeless Protector. As the topic this week were books each of them is about one.

#1
Someone talking in the absence of light.

#2
A mystery in historic and coming times.

#3
Different country.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Helloween – Dr. Stein
#2 Korpiklaani  – Vodka
#3 Rhapsody of Fire – I belong to the Stars

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter

The Soundtrack of my life – excerpt

Instead of the 20th Weekend Guess, I wanted to finally cover something Fairy posted over at Darkfairy’s Senf a couple of months ago:

Which song stands for which chapter of your life and why?
(translated from the post)

As I already contemplated the different chapters of my life in a couple of posts and am able to think of a few songs, I guess I might as well do her the favour and write about it – instead of so many other things that are still unfinished, again.

Though instead of choosing a song that would best describe that part of my life in retrospective I chose the songs that have affected me at at those times, which is also why this is only an excerpt as I can’t remember all of them.

Live, PoiSonPaiNter

During my time in the Secondary School (Realschule) I was one of the most avoided people around, but as I described here, was there one song in particular that made me rethink my behaviour: Leb (Live) by Schandmaul.
In particular the lines were they describe a person barely straying away from the flock, unable to lift their head from the road before them and not seeing the nice things that life provides for them. I rarely looked up or went out on my own during that time as the few people I considered friends back then usually had to ask me out. It’s probably not a surprise that I know more about cartoons and anime from that time than about parties and celebrities.

When I changed to Grammar School (Fachgymnasium) my soundtrack changed as well. The defining songs that created my alias (see: link) became more and more important to me. Edguy’s Wash away the Poison and Painting on the Wall became synonyms for how I felt when nearly no one around even thought of interacting with me. During this time the interest for Metal that was spurred shortly before I learned about Leb was broadened to new bands, including Avantasia. This resulted into one of my favourite concerts at the Wacken 2008, my very first festival.

With Avantasia came new songs, most prominent amoungst them Memories. This song accompanied me into the beginning of my studying years, just as the instrumental song Reqiuem for a Dream and Invasion, Treachery and other songs from the Bleach soundtrack frequented my player. The epic-like scoring of the songs just made me re-listen to them over and over again. It just felt like with this „background“ music I could accomplish anything. Even though, in Invasions case, it is still misspelled in the play-list and I still mishear the lyrics …

Fear, Anger, Mighty Canines and Knight Shoes

Towards the end of studying more Metal came into my focus due to me attending a couple of more Wacken (2010, 2011, 2012) and the Metalfest. Through this I re-learned about Powerwolf and Sabaton, but also about Letzte Instanz that would provide me with a song that I can no longer listen to while thinking. For many people their studying years become the best years of their life, I can’t say the same for several reasons. One of which is the fear of losing my mum when she was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, which made Ohne Dich (Without You) such an emotional song for me.

On the opposite emotional scale did Alestorm’s Keelhauled provide me with the needed stress-/anger-relief whenever I turned up the volume while driving and sang along just as loudly.

Powerwolf and Sabaton on the other hand gave me songs that just grabbed me and took me along with so much energy that I do not grow tired of hearing them, even after seeing each band live for several times (six and four times respectively).
Prayer in the Dark and Saturday Satan also managed to get into the Soundtrack for the book project of Fairy and me: Warlords (its own Blog: dfppentertainment.wordpress.com), but the most defining one is Sabaton’s Carolus Rex. It not just perfectly portrays our Nameless King, the whole album reminded me of something I had forgotten for some time: My home town used to be Swedish during the reign of Karl XII. (aka Carolus Rex). 😀 Regardless of that do the songs of both bands, like Ruina Imperi and Amen & Attack, still hold enough power without additional (personal) meaning to them.

Currently my new soundtrack is still in progress, but To Hell and Back and Resist and Bite are some of the songs I currently can’t skip when they start playing.
In a way did my Soundtrack change from moody and relatively slow to fast power numbers with strong lyrics and rhythms. This is also portrayed in the way I am now, as I became more outgoing than I used to be a couple of years ago. I am no longer bound to a flock, I travel or attend concerts on my own and pretty much do things the way I want to do them. And I am fairly certain that music played a major role in this development.

PoiSonPaiNter

P.S. If you are interested to have a go at this again, feel free to use my translation, but don’t forget to mention Fairy as original Blogger.

The Weekend Guess #19

As I am about to return from the Rockharz, I present to you the nineteenth instalment of: The Weekend Guess.

Eine Gedankenblase mit dem Schriftzug "The Weekend Guess" auf blauem Grund und in einem braunen Rahmen

What is the Weekend Guess?

Three riddles formulated by me that are puns and wordplays on the answer itself I put on here for my readers to answer.

Why am I doing this?

For no apparent reason, just because I consider the idea to be funny.

What are the questions about?

Everything I can think of I guess, but mostly song titles and bands that you have to figure out.

What is your part in this?

You can try to figure out my riddles and see if you can manage to get behind them and understand what I am describing.

What is in it for you?

So far: Nothing, but the knowledge that you managed to unlock one of my silly riddles.

Let’s start with the nineteenth set of questions

With all three I am looking for both band name and song.

#1
A misspelled All Hallows Eve and their version of Mary Shelley’s monster creator.

#2
The Wilderness Clan and the Little Water

#3
Epic flaming poetry in music being a part of the night sky.

Leave your guesses in the comments below and I can see if my questions are too easy or to hard to figure out. I will give the correct answer with the next instalment.
Have fun figuring them out! 🙂

Solution for last weeks Weekend Guess:

#1 Bob Dylan – Knockin‘ on Heavens Door
#2 Led Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven
#3 Kamelot – Heaven

This time no one really tried guessing them, so I can’t congratulate anyone.

PoiSonPaiNter