RebmevoNovember

So much for getting in the routine of updating this on a regular basis huh? -haha- My schedule has just been getting more hectic as the time goes on. It's all I can do to try and keep up on my 365 photography project -which will probably end up taking about 465. Click here to check all that out by the way.- Some awesome stuff has happened though since my last post. Anyone who has read past posts knows how much i love the band Despised Icon. A few buddies and myself had the chance to go see them at a bar in Toledo this past month. They were on tour with Through The Eyes of The Dead, ABACABB, and Molotov Solution. TTEOD have been on my list of favorite bands for awhile and ABACABB just was added on that list not long before that show. Molotov was a band I've heard of but never really checked out. Before i go into detail about the bands performance let me explain how this show was set up. There was literally only about 20-30 people in the crowd. For all these bands we was right up front next to the guys. ABACABB played first and just got me fucking amped and going nuts. Molotov played next and simply blew my mind. They have some of the sickest riffs mixed in with a groove that's unlike a lot of stuff I have heard. TTEOD stole the show for me though. It was the first time seeing them and I got to hear them with their new singer. Before their set started the singer was just standing up by us shooting the shit about random things until he had to get ready. At one point during "Failure In The Flesh" he was leaning out into the crowd to a couple of us singing and ended up being able to sing with him (epic). Despised Icon played next and blew me away also. It was the second time seeing them and i loved every second of it. About half way through their set I remember just having to chill for a minute because my head hurt worse than I can ever remember -haha- By the time the next song started though I was going full blast. A funny part about the night was going to the merch stand to buy a Molotov Solution shirt and to have it be the singer working over there. He said something along the lines of being able to get it for free if I had a shower they could use or do laundry for them. Made me wish i would have lived up there and been able to just chill with them. When we walked out to my truck we saw a group of the guys from ABACABB, Molotov and TTEOD playing dice out in the parking lot. All in all...was a good show

Update

Once again i have been slacking in the world of this blog haha. I apologize; been super busy with school, work, and photography stuff. Not to mention here lately i've been trying to formulate plans for making money with photography and design. Currently working on ideas for my own page and working on a little logo/header design right now. That's all for tonight, just wanted to show that i'm still alive and kickin! Going to try and get back in the groove and share some things with everyone. Until then I leave you with some metal...

I'll be your Despised Icon

The purpose of this blog if you didn't catch on is to talk about the band Despised Icon. I'm doing this because they have a new album being released on September 22nd called The Day of Mourning. First of all if you haven't heard what the new songs are sounding like i would highly suggest you go to their myspace and check it out. http://www.myspace.com/despisedicon . It is well worth the trip. Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a huge fan of Despised Icon. I had never heard them until their last release, The Ills Of Modern Man, but when i heard their single In The Arms Of Perdition I instantly became hooked on them. That CD killed from beginning to end. It had the perfect range of songs that go from full on brutal and rage (Quarantine, In The Arms of Perdition) to the ones with slower parts that still rip your ears apart (A Fractured Hand, Fainted Blue Ornaments). On that note I want to give you a video to watch. I just found this today and it is their song In The Arms Of Perdition filmed in an little area played live for what seems to be only a handful of people.



I hope you enjoyed that as much as i did -haha-. I was fortunate enough to see this wonderful band live last year at Summer Slaughter Tour 08. Which by the way had an amazing line up featuring bands like Kataklysm, Vader, Black Dahlia Murder, The Faceless and Whitechapel (even though we missed them damn it). Even with those other great bands Despised Icon was probably my favorite of the day. Their sound is just so heavy and brutal live. It's not even natural. You can watch live videos of bands all day long but it will not compare in any way to actually being there. I can't wait for the chance to see them again. Especially now with this new album coming out which sounds fantastic. Both songs on their myspace (MVP, The Day Of Mourning) are awesome songs and did not disappoint at all. As a matter of fact, I've listened to both of those songs repeatedly while writing this. The chorus for The Day Of Mourning damn near gives me goosebumps with that perfect speed of melodic type of chug. Their video for that song is set to be released on September 14th on their myspace page. In the meantime i have for you a making of the video that they have on their page. It looks like it will be a cool video and fit with the whole theme of the song.



-seth

T-minus 10 seconds to crazy

Hello all. It's a Saturday night and what am I doing? Obviously not a thing to be writing this. This week pretty much drained me and I'm not doing a whole lot of anything other than my normal photography stuff. Been working on allot these past few days and they've turned out pretty good. One of the photos i posted on my flickr yesterday already has 100 views. That's pretty crazy to me considering the only one close to that is at 81 and has been up since the middle of June. I did also upgrade to a pro account on there today so that's a good way to set things off. I went to the fair today for a bit in hopes of being able to get some good candid shots of people playing games and stuff but really no one was doing anything other than walking around. So I went to watch the truck pulls and got a few shots. I was wanting to wait till the good stuff got going but it was going to be hours. Still thinking about going back but i doubt it. But enjoy whats left of the weekend. Here is that 100+ views photo.

Figure I'd go ahead and put up a couple of new ones.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/shattereddesigns/

..The Return..

Hello friends. Long time no blog eh? (A recap of the day that is known as Mayhem Fest is below) I know I been slacking off pretty good for a month or two now. It's been kind of crazy times. After my last post I pretty much had a period of a month or two where I didn't even photography work or anything. My life basically consisted of work during the week and partying on the weekend. Then about a month ago the school quarter started (which by the way is bullshit). They go from 10 weeks down to 4. Their attempt at equaling it out was to add an extra hour to each class but they are also only every other day. Make sense to you? Yeah, I didn't think so. Needless to say it's been crazy. Once the quarter started however I did get back into the whole photography groove and everything and have done some kind of cool work.

On another note something very exciting did happen on July 31. A little thing called Mayhem Fest. I must say it was one of the most enjoyable days of my life. Although it was a long ass day and was sore for the next week, it was well worth it. If you don't know what this is, it is a big outdoor metal concert that had somewhere around 13 bands playing throughout the day on a total of 3 stages. The day started by leaving at about 9 a.m. for the trek to Cuyahoga Falls. We got there early and hung out on the road waiting for parking to open up for a half hour. Stood outside listening to metal and was shooting the shit with fellow metal heads. Once parking opened up and we got in line we were about tenth in line. We were able to get right up front to the gate for the second stage for all the bands. The lineup was amazing. Whitechapel, Behemoth, Black Dahlia Murder, Job For a Cowboy, Cannibal Corpse. Come on now, I don’t think you can get better than that. For me the top three of the day were Whitechapel, Job For a Cowboy and the all mighty Cannibal Corpse.

Whitechapel fucking killed it and was a great way to start the day off. The last song they played This is Exile. Before he started he said he wanted a wall of death. I missed my chance to be in one at a Chimaira concert and I kind of looked at my buddy and he just says, do it. After a second I bolt back and make my way to it. As soon as the first note was hit all hell broke loose. After the initial collision the pit turned into a battle zone. Easily one of the best pits I have ever been in. Not to mention there wasn't and little pussies in there moshing all arrogantly doing their whole hardcore dancing shit throwing their arms and legs around. It went on full intensity till nearly the end of the song. Just as quick as it started, it stopped all at the same time with everyone running out of gas. This being the first time seeing them (thanks to getting fucked over at Mayhem Fest by the slow ass people checking tickets) it was a great time.

Behemoths set was pretty cool since they played a couple of the new songs. That was the third time seeing them. They always put on a good show and Nergal is always intense and really connects with the crowd. Sadly, his guitar was cutting out at various times throughout the set. The crew was working on it the whole time trying to figure it out. You could see Nergal was getting pissed about the third time it happened. It did make me smile though when they spit out their blood and he just drenched the douchbag security guards in it.

Next was Black Dahlia Murder. They are easily one of my favorite bands to see live after seeing them five times. They love what they do and you can see it. Trevor is one of the best front men around in the metal scene. You can see his passion as he belts out the lyrics. Not to mention when they came onto the stage they had some 80's pop music playing over the speakers. Ha-ha. That may sound stupid but it was hysterical to me because they are such goofy dudes. Their new song Necropolis sounded amazing.

Job For a Cowboy put on a great performance as well. As soon as they started you could tell we were in for a treat. The sound of all the instruments and Jonny Davys vocals meshed perfectly. Them deciding to start the set off with Knee Deep pretty much made my day. Any time I hear that song I can't help but think of the sponge bob video with that song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue0kCn5YRE0).

But of course the highlight of the day was legendary Cannibal Corpse. You could feel the energy in the crowd before they even got on the stage. Rob, Pat, Alex and Paul were the first to make their way to the stage. As soon as you seen the first one everyone went ape shit. As Rob and Pat turned up the volume on their guitars and let the feedback ring in our ears the man, George Corpsegrinder Fisher, walked out on stage. I will never forget the look he had as he confronted us. It was one of such intensity that you couldn’t help but get pumped up yourself. He starred out into the crowd of loyal fans cheering for them. As he yelled out Evisceration Plague in his signature metal growl the cheers went even louder. The first hit of the kick drum and strum of the guitar ignited a fire under everyone’s ass. I braced myself against the fence, pushed myself back and head banged with all my power. Within seconds I could feel the force of the whole crowd being pushed against me. The pound of the kick drum felt like it was making your insides rumble. Toward the middle of the set in between songs you heard Corpsegrinder shouting to someone in the crowd, "You better not throw that up her or I will fucking kill you". Needless to say you didn’t see anything get thrown up there. Just as soon as their set starting Fisher said that it was time for the last song (Hammer Smashed Face). Of course everyone booed because we wanted more. It being the last song though made everyone go crazy. After it finished he said he lied and they were going to play one more song. The crowd went crazy as he said it would be Stripped Raped and Strangled. Once it started I made my way away from the fence and toward the pit while shouting every word of the song.

After that we made our way to the main stage for a much needed break. The first bands were mushroomhead and killswitch engage. None of us really paid much attention to either of them and were just waiting for Slayer. The things going on in the crowd were more entertaining than the bands were. The first thing was this dude wasted as could be, sitting Indian style passed out with his head between his legs. This wasn't just a short thing. This went on for three or four hours until Slayers set was half over. At one point people started stacking their empty cups on his head, shoulders, and back. One of the other highlights was the girls’ mud wrestling right in front of us. They had more people watching them than the band did. At one point a security guard hopped the fence to get up there and no he didn’t stop it. In fact, he acted as a referee. They were going full on and choking each other out. Another surprising thing happened during Killswitch Engages set. The biggest wall of death I have ever seen. Yes, very weird I know. During Slayer at one point we thought a riot was about to break out when a group of people jumped over the fence from the grass and bolted down into the actual seating and actually knocked over the barrier.

Slayers set was pretty cool because after all, it's Slayer. It would have been better if we would have been up by the stage though. Their sound was pretty bad that night and you couldn’t really make out the guitars most of the time. But it was a good way to end the night. After that we left because honestly, who wants to watch Marilyn Manson. Especially with him being right after Slayer. We defiantly were not the only ones to think this either.

One of the best things though was as we were driving out of there to get to the main road and yelling Slayer out the window. It was great being able to say it after actually have seen them after all these years.

Anyways, it was an awesome day and don't think I could have asked for much better.

I'm going to actually keep up with this thing again. So check back!
Make sure to check in on the Flickr page for new stuff as well.
http://www.flickr.com/shattereddesigns/


.SETH.EPLEY.

One More Day

I am finally almost done with class for this quarter! It's about damn time. So ready for to have some time off class. It's only until the begining of August but it's ok. I'll be working everyday but at least i'll be makin money and won't have to worry about homework. Be able to work on some personal stuff more often. Went and sold my Pysch book today and ended up buying a few books. In terms of just novels and what not i pretty much just look for books that are published by Leisure Fiction. Ended up finding about 5 authors ive never heard of until then. The ones i bought were Found You by Mary SanGiovanni and Covenant by John Everson. Never heard of them but they both seem pretty cool. Also found this sweet book of photographs by Edward Sheriff Curtis. He did this huge study of Native Americans during the late 1800's and early 1900's. He followed numerous tribes across the country learning of their ways and taking their photos trhoughout the process. There are some very amazing pictures in there. It's really cool, wouldn't be a bad idea checking him out. Here is a link if interested, ( http://www.curtis-collection.com/curtis/ ) The best thing was i got all those books for only $25, not bad in my head at all.

For these first two photos i tried a new technique to simulate an old style of of developing photos, its called lith . This is what gives alot of older photos that aged look that we think of with strong shadows and soft highlights as well that orangish tint. I just gave these two monochromatic though and for the "Fallen" one did a little cross prosessing action.

Empty


Fallen


Puddle of Mud


Burning Waters

Almost the end!

It is Thursday, June 11, 2009 which means I almost done with this quarter of class! And it is about damn time. Been getting my ass kicked these past couple weeks. I am done with my video project now and just have a little bit to do for the 3D logo thing. Oh yea. In the realm of music i got a CD called Dead Alive by a band that goes by the name Soul Embraced. It is pretty good. I heard them on AOL's death metal radio station. They get played all the time. It has kind of a melodic style to it but yet stays heavy throughout it all. Kind of makes me think of The Absence or At The Gates. They're worth checking out if you haven't heard them. So even with all the crazy school and work schedule i have done i managed to get a few other personal pieces done. So now is as good as time as any to share them! ALSO, I added some new names over in the photography section to the right of this that are worth checking out. You'll also notice the design and illustration section. I'll be adding more onto that list as the days go by.

Old Barn Out Back

Turn Back Time

Cutter

Leaf Me

Monday Blues

So it's Monday again. Never really enjoy that day. Today is no exception either. I've got my 3D project i have to finish thats due today plus start working on two video projects due this week. Maybe my whole procrastination idea was not a good one. Either way i'll probably be here at the school damn near all day working on this stuff. Right now i'm just sitting around waiting on the lab to open up so I can start doin' work son. But, heres a few other images for you folks to check out.

I think i'll wait to procrastinate

Ah only a week or two until this quarter is over. You know what that means, i'm ripping out my hair due to a mental overload. It would probably help if i didn't procrastinate with everything in life and would actually have started some of these earlier. But what could be more fun than a little bit of procrastination? I've got a 3D version of Beavis to get done by Monday along with this interactive presentation thing about myself. Not to mention my final paper for Psych is due on Friday. Did i mention the video for another class thats due soon? Oh and the other random projects he said he's going to give us. How fun right?.haha. Either way, i've been spending countless amount of time in front of the computer working on stuff. Somehow i have still managed not write anything for awhile. When not actually doing work i've been looking up some cool tutorials to try out once i get done with some of these projects. In a future entry i'll put down some of those site in case anyone has photoshop. I'd do it now but what do you know, im at the school working on projects. I will however leave you with a new creation. I would do more but the uploader is actin up. So you'll get good group next time