FOGcon!

FOGcon was great! Our honored guests, Susan Matthews and Terry Bisson, were lovely; the Saturday night banquet was great fun; I acquired 3 books and a massage in the dealers' room (having a massage therapist in the dealers' room - other cons, please steal this idea); and all the programming that I made it to was fun. And I have a huge list of recommended reading.

And, of course, my fellow concom member and all our volunteers were amazing. One of the really incredible things about convention running is that so many people give so generously of their time and talent to make things happen. And it's all slightly anarchic and we all make rookie mistakes, and yet it all comes together in the end.

Anyway, I hope to get some of my panel notes typed up in the next week, but right now I'm still adjusting to the time change and just enjoying the satisfaction of knowing that we managed another successful convention.

Music Monday: Reasons to love heavy metal #438

One reason why I love heavy metal is that it is one of relatively few contemporary popular music genres in which it is entirely unremarkable for an artist to write and record a song about the awesomeness of Gustavus Adolphus.

So here is Sabaton's "The Lion from the North":

Musical Grab Bag

Century Media's online store has a deal where they'll send you ten randomly-selected metal CDs for $25 (plus shipping). Currently, it's on sale for $17.50 (plus shipping). At that price, there only need to be about two decent discs in the whole lot for it to be worth it, so I decided to give it a go.

Here's what I got:

Night In Gales. Nailwork: Never heard of them, but apparently they're a German melodic death metal band.

Vampires Everywhere. Kiss the Sun Goodbye: The "Hot Topic Exclusive Edition". I'm getting a strong "this is aimed at gothy teeny-boppers" vibe off this one. But, you know, I *was* a gothy teeny-bopper back in the day.

Arch Enemy. Khaos Legions: Deluxe edition with a bonus disc of cover songs. Sweet. I haven't listened to a lot of Arch Enemy, but Angela Gossow is a bad-ass.

Divine Heresy. Bringer of Plagues: Never heard of them. Apparently American death metal/metalcore. Most things labelled metalcore tend not to float my boat.

Naglfar. Teras: Never heard of them either. Judging by their unreadable logo, black metal. Which means that I'll have to google them to check that none of them have ever burned down a church, gone to prison for a murder, or espoused Nazi ideology before I have a listen.

In Flames. Rope: A CD single. I don't dislike In Flames, but most of their stuff that I've heard has never really grabbed me. We'll see if this is different.

Act As If. The Iron Is Hot: A 4 song EP. The cover art makes this look like indie rock, not metal. And according to Wikipedia, it is indie rock, not metal. Neat.

Just Like Vinyl. Black Mass: Features songs called "Bitches Get Stitches" and "Dick". Not making a good first impression, bros.

Rotting Christ. Sanctus Diavolos: A band that I've heard of, but not heard before.

Dark Tranquility. The Gallery: Deluxe edition with bonus tracks. Swedish melodic death metal. Sweet!