Monday 29 December 2014

A Year In Music


Aka my top40 of 2014 songs. So that I maintain a certain variety (and because of 8tracks' limitations) only two songs are included by any artist, which in some cases is kinda cheating - since I've listened to Shadows of the Dying Sun excessively, and WT and Rise Against certainly would have more than two songs if going by my iTunes play count.
You neend't continue, here's the playlist on 8tracks, but if you have loads of free time or are terribly interested in what I have to say (/fangirl) about these, then by all means, do read on. There are also separate youtube links there, for those who'd only listen to a few.

Thursday 18 December 2014

Blogger Christmas

This year I have participated in a Secret Santa-like present exchange among Hungarian bloggers - except everyone knew the identity of the givers and recipients, but it was still really fun.
Mindig is imádtam az ilyen körbeajándékozós karácsonyi szervezéseket, szóval miután tavaly lemaradtam, idén lecsaptam az alkalomra, amint csak lehetett - még sokkal jobb úgy ajándékozni, hogy nyugodtan adhatok tömérdek sminkcuccot. Szóval viszonylag könnyű volt összeállítani, én Pillangólány Olcsinak küldtem a csomagot.
Az enyém előző hét pénteken érkezett meg a beautycrumbs írójától - bontogatás alant.

Monday 15 December 2014

Best albums of 2014

A little sneak peak, bonus points for recognizing all of them.

Now that the end of the year draws near, I finally put together the top10 list of my favourite albums of 2014. Sadly, no-one will really care about it, because I'm not a tough critic guy writing for MetalSucks or Metal Hammer or any other online magazine. Recently I've thought about it, how I should have gotten into journalism and then I could spend my whole day writing about fashion and metal music and identity and the world - who needs money to pay for stuff anyway? But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't really enjoy it as a career.
So suffer my horribly long and unprofessional opinion.

Tuesday 9 December 2014

Mors Principium Est: Dawn of the 5th Era

Some melodeath musings & a short review of the new album of Finnish melodic death metal band Mors Principium Est. (Only recommended to metal fans.)

Monday 1 December 2014

Bienvenue l'hiver


I welcome winter with sleepless nights and general tiredness, being drunk on caffeine and stress. Just as always; I only want to sleep. And we drift far away in our dreams | Gather further distance while we sleep, as they sing.
Arguably, a good majority of my songs are very winter-compatible - I could write up an entire playlist just of Insomnium songs. Think about it, moody melodic death metal and ethereal symphonic metal - definitely puts an ordinary person in a winter mood. As for I, that is my everyday necessity. So I had a hard time choosing only 20, but here it is. It's probably my favourite out of my seasonal playlists, for obvious reasons.
Here is the playlist on 8tracks for easier listening.

Saturday 22 November 2014

Christmas Wishlist

Since it's only a month until Christmas, in lieu of the Saturday Inspiration post, I thought I'd make a wishlist - unless my family wins the lottery, I won't buy more than a few things from this list. I'll note which ones are the must haves, and which are only wishful thinking as of now.

Friday 7 November 2014

MAC Cyber

I finally got one of my dream lipsticks, so here is a little review with swatches.
Also, from here on out, I'll probably write a few entries in Hungarian as well - the ones pertaining to general fashion (not haute couture) and makeup. Everything else will continue to be written solely in English.
Excuse the cheesy graphic, it's a metaphor

Monday 27 October 2014

Metal Halloween Playlist

Last time I did a Halloween playlist was two years ago - now that I'm faithfully doing Music Monday, I thought it was time for a new one. This time, to reflect my changing tastes, one full of metal songs - I tried to choose not-too-obvious ones which still fitted thematically. This would be the starting playlist of my Halloween party, if I ever hosted one.

Monday 1 September 2014

The Autumn Playlist

Yet again another seasonal playlist! I didn't want to wait until the equinox, and September 1st is a fitting date for a little-or-not-so-much melancholic playlist. (Au contraire, there are quite some songs which qualify as happy songs with me.) With the end of September and the new In Flames album and the concert coming, I'll have quite a other music topics to write about anyway.

Wednesday 27 August 2014

7 Sins Book Tag (Spoilers: Guilty of All)


Oh my god, I'm a deplorable blogger. Well, it's not like I have more than a few followers, but I like to make plans for the future, and I don't like it when I can't follow through, because of my own completely illogical mood swings. It's not even that I didn't have any inspiration for blogging - I had, I just didn't want to actually do it. A few amazing shows and films I watched, stuff like that. When the experience is new, I have so many thoughts and such difficulty to actually put it into coherent sentences. And later, I don't have the same emotional drive anymore - see my problem? (I am still planning to make that post, sometime in September, probably.) So I thought a simple pre-conceived book tag like this would work, to get me back into the mood.
(The picture is of Rostlaube Free University's Philology Library by Foster + Partners which is a building I like quite a lot.)


Friday 18 July 2014

Rise Against: The Black Market

Here it is finally, yet again one horribly subjective album review. Of one of the bands of my holy trinity (the others being Nightwish and In Flames), I'm not sure they could do an album I wouldn't like. This time I had my expectations low, because I knew beforehand this was going to be an album with 'personal themes'.

(Warning: This Is A Very Long Review! Proceed With Caution)


Monday 30 June 2014

(Punk) Rock for BP

It's currently LGBTQ+ month, and the Pride March is this Saturday - I thought a little musical contribution would be fitting. I'm seriously considering volunteering as a helper, and I hope a list like this would be okay from a straight ally as well (not like anyone reads this blog anyway though).
Most of the songs are from punk bands - obviously the majority of people listen to pop music, regardless of sexual orientation, but punk bands write seriously good songs about these issues, so listen anyway!

Saturday 28 June 2014

Linkin Park: The Hunting Party

The album came out at the beginning of June - I again failed to write a timely review, and now I can't be bothered with anything thorough, so this is a rather compact little opinion.

Friday 16 May 2014

Epica: The Quantum Enigma


Perhaps one of these days I ought to change the blog description to 'this is a fucking music blog'. I can't help though, I've really gotten into my little unprofessional album reviews - and since 2014 looks to be a great year music-wise, it's to be expected there's a lot more to write.
Epica's and Xandria's new albums both came out on 2 May, but since I barely listen to Xandria, I thought I'd pass that one up - I barely have time as it is. That's the other factor for writing about music - it's faster and takes less effort than putting together fashion-related posts. I do have a few ideas though, but until my most difficult exam is over, I won't be investing that much energy into the blog (that's end of May).


Friday 2 May 2014

Insomnium: Shadows of the Dying Sun

Insomnium's new album came out the previous Friday, and I had to download it immediately. Just to set things straight - I love, I absolutely love it! The previously released tracks like Ephemeral and Revelation weren't my favourites, so I didn't know what to expect, but in the end I found it an amazing record.
(Have a nice, big cover art because I love this too. Minimal but gorgeous.)

Saturday 19 April 2014

Delain: The Human Contradiction

I'm a good week behind this review, but I was so buried under my schoolwork I barely had any time to sleep. (And consequently, I was tired and in a bad mood.) Now that I've got some rest, I quickly put it together - it was already in my head; moreover, I've listened to the album no less than seven times, and several more times to my favourite songs.

Thursday 10 April 2014

Sonata Arctica // Lacuna Coil

Two very short album reviews - just saying beforehand: both are worth a listen, so if you don't have time to read, or you don't want to, just go and immerse yourself in some nice music.

Monday 24 March 2014

The Spring Playlist

I have lots of these Music Monday Playlists in store, but I decided seasonal is going to be a new thing! Each one is going to be posted after the astronomical start of the season - and of course, on Monday, hence the date for this one. It was hard to select songs for spring though, I guess you can imagine - fishing for a few happy songs among the sad metal, it's not an easy task. So it's a bit of a depressing spring. I managed to find a few love songs though, which I guess are season-appropriate.

(The songs are in no particular order.)

Monday 17 March 2014

My favourite Within Temptation songs

I'm still under the influence of the concert, I've been mostly listening to music all weekend, organizing my iTunes library, making lists and searching for new things to listen to. So I though that for Music Monday, a little personal WT top20 would do.

Saturday 15 March 2014

Within Temptation concert

I went to the WT concert for their Hydra album tour yesterday, and it was glorious. I am obviously biased, and I have already concluded my favourite kinds of concerts were the symphonic metal ones - no death walls and the like which are there at punk rock concerts, not too much super muscly-little people crushing-scary dudes (although I do not understand the people who just stand in one place for a whole two hours, seeming like they don't even enjoy it). I have muscle pain even in my stomach (cause I'm weak), and I'm on my fifth cup of honey tea for my sore throat. It's times like this I realize I absolutely adore to go to concerts.
A little gushing below the cut.

Thursday 6 February 2014

Within Temptation: Hydra

One of my biggest faults, or you could say, weaknesses, is that I'm quite a coward in some situations. I can't handle social interactions all that well, and I'm not very fond of crowds. So you can imagine how hard it is for me to actually go to a concert - even if I love them.
I'm pretty sure not going to see Soilwork back in November will be one of my biggest regrets, but I just really didn't want to go there alone. Now I have a problem again: Within Temptation is coming in March, and I'm about 90% positive none of my friends or closer acquaintances will want to come with me.
But while Soilwork is a pretty recent favourite of mine, I loved Within Temptation for quite some time now, I've only seen them at a festival - and I'm much more of a fan of club concerts and arenas than open-air; it just doesn't suit metal that much (especially if the concert is around 7 when it's not even dark out.)
It was pretty obvious that if their new album sucked, I would not have really beaten myself up about not going to the concert. But the albums slays, and now I really, really want to go.

Warning: it's a really long review, and very unprofessional, proceed with caution!

Tuesday 4 February 2014

Against Me! : Transgender Dysphoria Blues

I finally have time to write a bit about some new albums (Hydra's review is coming soon too!). I admit that as much of a Rise Against-fan I am, I'm not that well-versed in punk rock as some other genres. I always, always say I'm not a musical critic in the slightest, so any of this should be taken as a highly subjective, personal opinion.