Oh, the humanity. Where's the love, people? Do vote. Higher and higher.

why another christian-stuffed video?! WHY?! oh the humanity .... (predicatable humour)

Oh the humanity! The blood...everywhere! So...many...broken...bones. I'm gonna have nightmares.

EDIT - Actually, instead of just listing it, I'll copy out my descriptions of them too since I already wrote this up for another forum:


1. The Flashbulb - Soundtrack to a Vacant Life | Instrumental | 4.5/5

Simply put, a seamless, sweeping epic of genres that dabbles in everything from sombre piano ballads, to upbeat flamenco, caustic electronica, serene ambience, rhythmic percussive tribal drum sections and haunting string sections, imposing every possible emotion on the listener. If anything, the sole weakness is that the rough 2-3 minute length of each of the 31 songs means they don't work so effectively as standalone compositions but as verses in a protracted poem, making the idea of listening to the entirety of it a tad daunting.


2. Protest The Hero - Fortress | Progressive Metal | 4.5/5

Metal that while relatively intricate yet melodic enough and hell, catchy enough to avoid divulging into incomprehensible technical wankery. Lyrics abound with references to goddesses and dethroned kings but it's decidedly tongue in cheek. Perhaps the biggest weaknesses resides in a lack of coherence, a tendency for the album to mesh together as a string of riffs, with little sense of a recurring chorus or verses within songs, but then you can take that as a plus depending on how you look at it. Besides that and a couple of immensely obnoxious vocal lines it's a pretty solid effort all around.


3. Blue Sky Black Death - Late Night Cinema | Instrumental Trip-hop | 4.5/5

One of the least expected surprises this year for me, partly because I generally despise anything that relates in any way to hip-hop or remixes yet I was sold on first listen. It’s just such a supremely chilled out but simultaneously melodically multilayered album which weaves hip-hop/trip-hop styling with a fairly significant utilisation of violins, trumpets, keyboards and an organ, capping it off with a distinct jazz tinge.


4. In Mourning - Shrowded Divine | Melodic Death Metal | 4/5

Genre-wise they’re probably best described as melodic death metal based but with progressive and doom influenced sections, reminiscent of Opeth, but not exactly the same. I initially junked this when I first picked it up but it’s grown on me immensely since then. There’s nothing immediately about them that sticks out as particularly impressive, the riffs aren’t all too complex, the melody isn’t overly diverse. If anything the drumming is quite good and both the harsh and clean vocals are solid. Nevertheless they clearly have a knack for creating memorable melody lines, and many minor touches such as the use juxtaposed clean and harsh vocals of essentially the same lines, coupled with a number of sexy breakdowns and a consistently bleak and permeating tone really make this album memorable in some indescribable way.


5. Transcending Bizarre? - The Serpent's Manifolds | Avant-Garde Black Metal | 4/5

Typical black metal brain mashing, but nicely broken up by violin sections to prevent migraines! Again it really feels like this band just clicks, but that not to say they can’t put out some impressively melodic riffs, and solos or bring it intensity-wise. In terms of criticism, there’s probably too much reliance on violin for a metal album, but that’s a very subjective disparagement, also a select few sections drag a bit ... oh and the intro is obnoxious and highly skipable. Oh and keyboards, oh the humanity! Run for the hills!


6. Thrice - The Alchemy Index - Vol.3 & 4 Air & Earth | Experimental Rock | 4/5

Partially successful but suffers from issues strangely distinct from the first two volumes. Whereas the first two could perhaps be argued to have taken the element concepts too literally both melodically and lyric-wise, this time around there are fairly tentative connections to the elements. With Air there’s simply a heavy use of reverb and echo to create the impression of an expansive soundscape, among a number of other tricks; whereas Earth is merely embodied by heavy use of stripped back and stark acoustic guitar with an American folk grounding. In all, neither really captures the concept as effectively as the haphazard, chaotic, distorting Fire; and if anything the biggest weakness of Air is it doesn’t distance it enough from the seeping smoothness that characterised Water to offer anything particularly distinctive. All in all it still remains an intriguing unconventional attempt with a number of standout songs, particularly the sonnets that outro each of the volumes oddly enough, led by consistently strong vocals.


7. Bar Kokhba Sextet - Lucifer The Book of Angels - Vol. 10 | Jazz | 4/5

I'm not really qualified to comment on or critique jazz as I'm very much a neophyte to it, but this is some excellent stuff.


8. Lights Out Asia - Eyes Like Brontide | Post Rock | 4/5

To me the main element any post rock effort needs to really be effective is a pervasive, consistent atmosphere, which this album abounds with. It doesn't fall into clichés such as blasting you into submission by badgering you with volume changes, or an over reliance on monotonous arpeggios, but builds upon subtle layers of sound to create a vast, rich soundscape of echoing guitars, staccato electronica beats and fleeting vocals.


9. Opeth - Watershed | Progressive Death Metal | 4/5

Disappointingly inconsistent by their standards, but still a pretty solid album all around. Some songs definitely drag massively, and certain parts sound technically overindulging and tiresome particularly the outro to Burden. On the other hand in my humble opinion it also has some of the best songs they have written, the way the progressive acoustic guitar section fades in and out in Porcelain Heart for example is seamlessly mesmerising, Hessian Peel is almost equally memorable. Regardless this is no Blackwater Park unfortunately.


10. Mutyumu - Ilya | Post Rock | 4/5

Post rock doesn't really give this band justice. It's like an odd mix of opera and hardcore Japanese vocals, with heavily piano reliant post rock grounding. Awesome? Somewhat. Half the time its carried by stirring complex but seemingly effortless piano and string sections unfolding at a blistering pace coupled with occasional strangely effective hushed murmurs, yet the other half of the time it cascades into almost unbearable droning repetition. Now given that, Prayer is damn well one of the best post rock songs I have ever heard and it really is a pity that the rest of the album wasn’t equally brilliant. I probably overrate this a tad too but well ... goshdarnit it’s all gotta be about job creation and shoring up our economy.

Oh the humanity! I Lol'd.

Oh no, not rural Alberta or Saskatchewan! Oh the humanity!

Oh, the humanity..

(By the way, all your parents were killed in a fiery crash... but that should pale in comparison.)
*horrorshow

(It's times like these I'm thankful for being single.)

^ Yeah those poor people elected a guy with brains instead this time. Oh the humanity!

I remember that frightful day, when the hijacked-off gayplanes crashed into the innocent World Trade Anuses. Oh, the humanity!

How is it possible that this video gets worse every time I watch it?

I think once someone hits 500 star points, they should be removed from daily Sift activity and placed in the Sift Hall of Fame, where famous Sifters go to die. Then once a year, on Yom Kippur, we all take a field trip (if our parents sign the permission slips) to see the old-timers in all their glory. After returning home, we can lock the probies in dungeons made of cat fart videos, and not let them leave until they promise to submit a thoughtful, inspiring video of the quality that is expected on the Sift. Anything less, and they will be subjected to waterboarding until they realize the error of their ways. Once they submit a video of the highest quality, they will be allowed out of the dungeon in order to vote on a few videos per day. But only a few. That way they don't get a big head and try to become a Bronze Crown overnight! We must control the population through sifting sterilization and enhanced interrogation techniques. After all, I imagine these probies know of other probies who are lurking around, waiting to find a Bill O'Reilly video to vote up. Oh, the humanity!

A real photo! "Un-retouched!"
Oh the humanity!
Wow. Reality is a bitch.

I feel like punching myself in the nuts for watching this whole thing.

No one seems to be taking up the cause of the amputations! A man's leg has far more human attributes than a 50 cell blastocyst! What of the depraved individuals giving up one of their God-given kidneys for a transplant? WHAT IF THE TRANSPLANT DOESN'T TAKE?? OH THE HUMANITY!!!

The next time I see someone waste billions of children giving someone a facial, I may have to shoot them. With a gun I mean. Really.

Fucken A. And I just learned to drive M35's, so that's one thing taken care of....

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
haha - Now all you need is a howitzer, some ammo and a big fuckin' truck, eh?

In reply to this comment by calvados:
Now I'm all set!

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ohh, there's a whole lot of SOPs to go through on that one. If you really want to know, I can point you to the technical manual (it's not hard to understand) and it will tell you exactly what needs to be done. (do a search for misfire in the pdf document)

but basically it depends on how hot the tube is. It will get hot from constant firing, and isn't really much of a problem to worry about unless you're in some deep shit and have been firing non-stop. The thermal indicator is green, yellow and red for cold, warm and hot. I've never seen it past low warm.

So basically what happens after you pull the string and nothing happens is that you pull it three more times. If still nothing happens, you try another primer. If still nothing happens, it's the firing mechanism or the firing pin. those need to be replaced. If they do need to be replaced, you just take the powder out of the tube (considering a cold tube) and replace it and fire away.

In reply to this comment by calvados:
What do you do with an arty misfire anyway -- wait 60 seconds and then open the breech and slide the shell back out?

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ha! "Hangfire" - I haven't heard that in a while.

In reply to this comment by siftbot:
Tags for this video have been changed from 'bottle, nutshot, oh the humanity' to 'bottle, rocket, slow fuse, hangfire, nutshot, oh the humanity' - edited by calvados

haha - Now all you need is a howitzer, some ammo and a big fuckin' truck, eh?

In reply to this comment by calvados:
Now I'm all set!

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ohh, there's a whole lot of SOPs to go through on that one. If you really want to know, I can point you to the technical manual (it's not hard to understand) and it will tell you exactly what needs to be done. (do a search for misfire in the pdf document)

but basically it depends on how hot the tube is. It will get hot from constant firing, and isn't really much of a problem to worry about unless you're in some deep shit and have been firing non-stop. The thermal indicator is green, yellow and red for cold, warm and hot. I've never seen it past low warm.

So basically what happens after you pull the string and nothing happens is that you pull it three more times. If still nothing happens, you try another primer. If still nothing happens, it's the firing mechanism or the firing pin. those need to be replaced. If they do need to be replaced, you just take the powder out of the tube (considering a cold tube) and replace it and fire away.

In reply to this comment by calvados:
What do you do with an arty misfire anyway -- wait 60 seconds and then open the breech and slide the shell back out?

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ha! "Hangfire" - I haven't heard that in a while.

In reply to this comment by siftbot:
Tags for this video have been changed from 'bottle, nutshot, oh the humanity' to 'bottle, rocket, slow fuse, hangfire, nutshot, oh the humanity' - edited by calvados

Now I'm all set!

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ohh, there's a whole lot of SOPs to go through on that one. If you really want to know, I can point you to the technical manual (it's not hard to understand) and it will tell you exactly what needs to be done. (do a search for misfire in the pdf document)

but basically it depends on how hot the tube is. It will get hot from constant firing, and isn't really much of a problem to worry about unless you're in some deep shit and have been firing non-stop. The thermal indicator is green, yellow and red for cold, warm and hot. I've never seen it past low warm.

So basically what happens after you pull the string and nothing happens is that you pull it three more times. If still nothing happens, you try another primer. If still nothing happens, it's the firing mechanism or the firing pin. those need to be replaced. If they do need to be replaced, you just take the powder out of the tube (considering a cold tube) and replace it and fire away.

In reply to this comment by calvados:
What do you do with an arty misfire anyway -- wait 60 seconds and then open the breech and slide the shell back out?

In reply to this comment by MarineGunrock:
Ha! "Hangfire" - I haven't heard that in a while.

In reply to this comment by siftbot:
Tags for this video have been changed from 'bottle, nutshot, oh the humanity' to 'bottle, rocket, slow fuse, hangfire, nutshot, oh the humanity' - edited by calvados