Friday, October 12, 2007

WWDBD?
http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u314/Liz_A_Beth1/yuri.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f37/pumpkinhead9/myspace004.jpg

http://i188.photobucket.com/albums/z257/blueeyedangel137/Fruits%20Basket/Yuki/1173481723_eschr_yuki.jpg

http://i200.photobucket.com/albums/aa152/Dr_House_Fan/a-ga-007.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/Photo150.jpg
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Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Is this all I will ever use this page for?
BLAME AP ENGLISH 11 FOR PERPETUATING THIS

DICTION

"Like so many other vital pieces of information in my childhood, I was supposed to know without being told."

Lorde details most of her story through what appear to be pure facts. She speaks in a way as if she is trying to lay everything out exactly as it happened, so as to make one's opinions of the events based solely off of what happened, and not influenced by her personal opinion. However, as in the sentence above, she also throws in plenty of almost bitter remarks about her childhood to give the reader a bit of perspective on her mindset at the time/

IMAGERY

"Even the pavement on the streets was a shade lighter in color than back home."

Other than to add to the utter whiteness of every inch of DC, this sentence helps the reader to imagine the difference in social status between white and black Americans. It is evident that the streets in Washington DC are more clean and bright as a sign of a wealthy community. It's to say that white people were living in the upscale cities while Lorde's family had come from the dirtier city.

DETAIL

"There were little violently yellow iced cakes"

The term "violently yellow" indicates that these cakes were unbearably ugly or otherwise difficult to look at. The yellow could have been bright to the point of hurting one's eyes. Lorde insinuated throughout the story her disdain for bright colors, so it is possible that she found the brightness of the cakes actually painful.

TONE

"I was left to write my angry letter to the president of the united states all by myself"

Lorde's story has a very innocent tone all the way through in the way she describes the actions of her young self. Even when she is infuriated and obviously very serious, it is still kind of cute to imagine that she is writing her letter straight to the president of the united states. It also carries the vibe of being just a kid with a limited yet clear view of the world - the age at which one understands things at their purest value and hasn't come to understand why anyone else doesn't do the same. In that respect, the tone could almost be called depressing, though more so for the reader who has to think about it that way.

LANGUAGE

"i started eating as soon as we were comfortable ensconced in our seats."

Lorde has a very descriptive vocabulary and most of the things she describes fall into two categories - unique descriptions and descriptions that use unique words. Personally, I have never even heard of the word "ensconced" before and had to look it up just to know it meant "seated". Lorde uses these intense descriptions to make sure that no detail is overlooked so that her story is imagined perfectly so that one can judge it with every fact on the table.

SYNTAX

"Even though they were all that same problematic color so different from my father and me, even from my sisters, who were somewhere in-between."

In this sentence, through careful use of words, Lorde describes her family situation. One can surmise that Lorde's mother was a white woman and her father was black, and that she took on more characteristics from her father, while her sisters had a mixed look. She never outright says that her family is multi-racial, but this line gives it away.

MESSAGE

"Or because she was "colored," my father said as he told us the story."

The message of Lorde's story is that racism is a problem which people often try to overlook and pretend to be nonexistent. Because many feel that there is nothing they can do to stop it (like Antiguans) they simply ignore it and let it pass around them. Lorde's story of how she came to be aware of racism despite the sheltering of her father is one that details the fact that racism is inescapable unless confronted.
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Monday, October 1, 2007

you are being used
In Disdained Reverie
A close reading of A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Essay by Conrad Collins

In this essay, I have chosen to do a close reading of the final chapter of Jamaica Kincaid's novel, A Small Place. This excerpt consists of pages 77-81 of the novel.

The first half of the last chapter of A Small Place can be easily summarized into it's first 3 sentences. "Antigua is beautiful. Antigua is too beautiful." From this point, she goes into immense detail on the different beautiful things found in Antigua, describing all of these things as impossibly beautiful. All of them are things that no "real" thing resembles, and all are, without a doubt, beautiful beyond reason. Kincaid uses this entire first half of the chapter not only to paint the perfect image of Antigua into the reader's mind, but to strengthen that view to the utmost and thoroughly detail exactly how immensely, intangibly beautiful Antigua is. She does this so that there is no doubt on the part of the reader toward Antigua's beauty. She is exact - so that the reader will feel the most perfect emotion she can create. This is important, because when the time comes that she will appeal to that exactly precise emotion, she is absolutely sure that it is the one the reader feels.

A dramatic shift is made evident at the end of that description, when Kincaid says "It is as if, then, the beauty - the beauty of the sea, the land, the air, the trees, the market, the people, the sounds they make - were a prison, and as if everything and everybody inside it were locked in and everything and everybody that is not inside it were locked out." This is where the point Kincaid was building to in her description comes out. All of these things, these intangible beauties, are, in fact, a prison. A holding place - something inescapable and used to capture and permanently enclose those within. It is a prison only understood by those within as well, as "everything and everybody that is not inside it is closed out." Kincaid tells us that these beautiful things are things that are only for Antigua and nowhere else. No where could be Antigua and no one could understand Antigua except Antigua. In using the word "prison," though, she makes sure that you know it is not something escapable or something that Antigua brought upon itself - it is somewhere that Antigua was placed.

"They have nothing to compare this incredible constant with, no big historical moment to compare the way they are now to the way they used to be." Here, Kincaid is talking about how the Antiguan lifestyle has never changed. She is telling how, exactly, it is that this place is comparably to a prison - how it exists in a single perpetual state that is unaffected by anything. Antigua is a place that never changes, and whose people have no way or idea of how to make themselves anything other than what they are. Kincaid summarizes this point with the sentence, "The unreal way in which it is beautiful now that they are a free people is the same way in which it was beautiful when they were slaves." Ultimately, this line is the definition of what she has been trying to say throughout the novel - that Antigua is a small island that has been the same way for as long as anyone can see back.

Next, Kincaid once more talks about exactly the way that Antigua came to be the way it was today. "It was settled by human rubbish from Europe, who used enslaved but noble and exalted human beings from Africa to satisfy their desire for wealth and power. Eventually, the masters left, in a kind of way; eventually, the slaves were freed, in a kind of way." This is Kincaid's way of summarizing everything into one final conclusion. By giving the history all at once right before putting her purpose into direct words, she puts things not only into perspective, but all concisely so that this will be the exact cause-and-effect that the reader will see. Branching the cause to effect, she reminds the reader that, "The people in Antigua now, the people who really think of themselves as Antiguans, are the descendants of those noble and exalted people, the slaves."

On the effect side are the last few sentences of the novel: "Of course, the whole thing is, once you throw off your masters yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all the things that adds up to. So, too, with the slaves. Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings." With these sentences, Kincaid not only equalizes the former masters and slaves, but shares her idea of exactly what the problem is with the people whom she complains about, and why there is something wrong with them. The people of Antigua suffer because even though they are no longer slaves, they still live with the mindset of slaves - but as regular human beings, they are the only ones who can do anything about it. As normal human beings, Antiguans are only Antiguans and not anything else - meaning also that nothing else but Antigua is Antigua. This is how Antigua is a prison, and how any place is a prison - it encompasses itself. Antigua is only as much as Antiguans will ever make it to be, and as long as their minds are those of people who who are slaves, that is all that Antiguans will ever be. In reality, this is an absolute universal truth, only concentrated so that one can see it in it's true form.
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More schoolwork
A Small Place - Jamaica Kincaid
Two-Faced Journal
by: Conrad Collins

IRONY

"Sometimes the beauty of it seems unreal. Sometimes the beauty of it seems as if it were a stage for a play, for no real sunset could look like that [etc]" (Kincaid 75).

Kincaid intends for more meaning to be found in these words than simply that Antigua is a beautiful place. It is obvious as well that she does not truly believe the no real sunset could be so beautiful, because it is already a real sunset. It is the sunset of Antigua. Kincaid is being ironic in saying that the beauty of Antigua is not actually possible because she, herself, questions it's ability to be so. With a world that is as distraught as the one she sees, it becomes unrealistic that a place which beholds such glory could exist.
Irony Type: Socratic

"You long to eat some nice lobster, some nice local food" (Kincaid 12).

This is a play on how tourists go to different countries and try to immerse themselves in the culture, unaware that they probably are blind to most of it. Like in America, where foreign food restaurants serve things only found in America, tourists often find themselves eating supposed "local food" which the "locals" probably do not even eat. In a poverty-stricken land such as Antigua, it would be daft to believe that they enjoy such expensive cuisine as lobster.
Irony Type: Comic

"(and the people who would immediately come to your mind when you think about Antiguans; I mean, supposing you were to think about them)" (Kincaid 80).

This line is ironic because it is at the very end of the novel. Kincaid has spent the entire 80 pages describing Antigua and Antiguans and giving you an idea of what they are like. This whole time, she makes you think about Antigua and Antiguans, and then leaves the note "I mean, supposing you were to think about them" as if she hasn't been talking about them for (what for me was) 2 hours now.
Irony Type: Comic

"For it is in a voice that suggests all three that they say: "That big new hotel is a haven for drug dealing" (Kincaid 57).

This line is interesting because as much as I searched, I couldn't find the other end of the quotation mark before the word "That". It occurred to me that, unless it's just a typo, Kincaid did not intend to end the quote, because she was quoting the entirety of the rest of the novel. Basically, she used this as a method of changing subjects. She goes from questioning her upbringing to talking about the affairs of the country with only the beginning of this sentence in-between. Thereby, when she says the words "they say" she is actually referring to herself, and saying that she feels as if she might be exactly what she thinks Antiguans to be. This is one of the most easily overlooked but most important lines in the book.
Irony Type: Socratic

"The Syrians and Lebanese are not "white people"" (Kincaid 63).

This is a double-entandeur of sorts. Kincaid is talking about how the people from North America and Europe are called "white people" while the Lebanese and Syrians are called "those foreigners". When she says that "the Syrians and Lebanese are not "white people", it is obvious that she means that the people of Antigua do not refer to them as such. However, it is ironic because the people of Syria and Lebanon actually aren't white, so it wouldn't make sense to call them that anyway.
Irony Type: I'm not sure

THEME

"I look at this place (Antigua) and I look at these people (Antiguans), and I cannot tell whether I was brought up by, and so come from, children, eternal innocents, or artists who have not yet found their eminence in a world too stupid to understand, or lunatics who have made their own lunatic asylum, or an exquisite combination of all three" (Kincaid 57).

This line really sums up all the themes about the personalities or general mindsets about antiguans. To put it into simpler words, Kincaid is wondering if the Antiguans are a people who simply aren't matured to the rest of the world, or if they are people with potential that has not yet come into being, or if they are already past the ability to function properly, or if they are more complicated than any single of those categories.

"(all masters of every stripe are rubbish, and all slaves of every stripe are noble and exalted - there can be no question about this)" (Kincaid 80).

Kincaid shows her opinions strongly in this quote and with the last line of the book where she goes on to say that as soon as these roles are dissipated, so too are their placements. This goes along not only with the theme of slavery, but with the theme of events as well. She is saying how, in the time of an event, the roles of it's participant are always set and are only kept through the course of that event.

"A calypso singer's body was found, with the head chopped off, near the island's United States Army base. To this day, no one has been charged with this murder" (Kincaid 63).

This line, as well as the ones describing other brutal, mysterious deaths on the island, reminded me of a show I've seen called Higurashi no Naku Koro ni in which there is a small town out in the country of Japan where a number of brutal murders occur but are unexplained and not properly investigated. This is a show of just how small and closed off from the outside word Antigua is.

"Antigua is beautiful" (Kincaid 75).

When Kincaid uses her long description of Antigua's apparently unrealistic beauty, she is once again stressing how cut-off it is from the rest of the world. By describing it in such a way that saying that the rest of the world pales in comparison to this beauty n a way that makes it difficult to perceive, she stresses just how different and set apart Antigua is. It fits the theme of unquestionable beauty that Kincaid assures the reader is present in Antigua.

"You must not wonder what happened to the contents of your lavatory when you flushed it" (Kincaid 13).

There is a constant theme of the parallel beauty and ugliness of Antigua throughout the novel. Even though the place is one that is amazingly beautiful, it is a place full of poverty and uncleanliness and bad things. To a tourist, whom is blind to the ugly parts of Antigua, there is no concern for what might be behind the scenes if only they would stop to think about it.

ANTIGUAN ATTITUDE TOWARD TIME

"Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings" (Kincaid 81).

Kincaid notes throughout the book how the people of Antigua have never really moved past the mindset of slaves. Or rather, they have never tried to look past what they already have and try to achieve anything - they just live the life that has been given to them. Once they were free of slavery, it wasn't as if they suddenly became free and had lives to live - they just kept doing things in the way they felt they could - no longer slaves, but regular human beings with free minds that they simply weren't using.

"In Antigua, not only is an event turned into everyday, but the everyday is turned into an event" (Kincaid 56).

In small places like Antigua, people are bored, and word gets around fast about things. Kincaid notes how the events in Antigua can perpetuate themselves, or the everyday can turn into something more important, and both of these things at various times, in rotation. It is as if to say that Antigua is in one perpetual state that never alters beyond the occasional and the mundane. Really, by saying that "event" and "everyday" are interchangeable, she basically means that there really are no events in Antigua. Everything just is what it is.

"And then they speak of emancipation as if it happened just the other day, not over one hundred and fifty years ago" (Kincaid 55).

This is probably the most direct line regarding the Antiguans' idea of time. In Antigua, there doesn't seem to be any real understanding of just what emancipation was. Or if they do, then they don't realize how little it actually meant. Kincaid describes the Antiguan attitude toward emancipation as something that they think of as a sudden freedom which sprang up and saved them all, when in reality it only said that they were no longer owned without giving them real freedom, but convincing them that they had it.

"When the future, bearing it's own events, arrives, its ancestry is then traced in a trancelike retrospect, at the end of which, their mouths and eyes open wide with their astonishment, the people in a small place reveal themselves to be like children being shown the secrets of a magic trick" (Kincaid 54).

Aside from being possibly the coolest line in the book, this piece really brings out he meaning of the last quote. Once again, this is Kincaid's way of pointing out the Antiguan obsession with a past they do not really understand. They view the past as a chain of events which created the place they live in now, rather than as something which still effects them. Though it is not concerned in the story, this really is true for most places in the world.

"In the accounts of the capture and enslavement of black people almost no slave ever mentions who captured and delivered him or her to their European master. In accounts of their corrupt government, Antiguans neglect to say that in twenty years of one form of self-government r another, they have, with one five-year exception, placed in power the present government" (Kincaid 56).

Once more, this is an example of Kincaid showing how the Antiguans have not escaped their slave mindset. They still act as though they have no power, and as if the people above them have all the control, and that they cannot do anything, despite having given power to those individuals.

MESSAGE ABOUT AMERICANS (OR WORSE, EUROPEANS)

"So when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself" (Kincaid 19).

One of the interesting things about Kincaid's incredibly sarcastic writing is that she comes across as completely hating the Americans and Europeans beyond a shadow of a doubt, when really, she doesn't see anything different about them from others. In this passage, it is made evident that Kincaid sees everyone as someone who wishes to escape their everyday lives, and that those who cannot envy those who can. However, she also makes it appear as though those who have the opportunities are inherently evil, and those who are without opportunities are inherently good, though wether she means this or not is something only she knows.

"And so everywhere they went they tuned into England, everyone they met they turned into English. But no place could ever really be England, and nobody who didn't look exactly like them could ever be English" (Kincaid 24).

Kincaid goes on for a while about ho the English seem to all hate each other and their country and want to escape, and therefor go off only to try and transform everyone else into English. In reality, this would be true for any place, only England is the one who wielded the power and thus went forth with these unspeakable acts. Once again, it seems as if Kincaid knows this, but hates them anyway.

"we thought perhaps that the English among them were not English at all, for the English were supposed to be civilized" (Kincaid 30).

Kincaid shows here how, to the people of Antigua, the English seemed to be horribly rude, terrible people who were so un-polite in caparison to them that they could not have been the English they had heard of. In reality, this could be chalked down to a mere difference in cultures, but it shows how poorly the English represented themselves to the Antiguans.

"All they see is some frumpy, wrinkled-up person passing by in a carriage waving at a crowd. But what I see is the millions of people, of whom I am just one, made orphans" (Kincaid 31).

When Kincaid speaks of her hatred of North Americans' view of the English and how her own differs, she makes a point about different perspectives of different groups of people. To one who's life is not effected by the English, it only looks like a people with a rich background on the other side of the world. To a country who's been horribly effected by those peoples' influence, though, they would look like an entirely different sort of being.

"he understands the word "bad" in this way: a fellow criminal betrayed a trust" (Kincaid 32).

Putting a firm meaning behind this line is probably not something I am fully capable of achieving, nor is it something I ought to so adamantly attempt, but simply put, it has me interested, because when Kincaid produces this definition in one of her many tangents (realistically, this book it a collection of tangents and not much more) she is questioning herself and becoming indecisive of her own world view. When she talks about the horror of having only the criminal's tongue to describe the crime committed, she seems to loose the meaning of what point she was exactly trying to make (which is what I probably look like I'm doing right now). However, this line stuck out as especially good to me as one of many 'everyone's to blame' lines featured in this novel (some of which I've used above). In this line, Kincaid is saying that in one's own language, the meanings of good and bad are only decided by that language itself. In the English language, bad is what the English make the word mean. And therefor, when Kincaid says that something is bad with her own mind, she cannot say it meaning that it is something truly bad, for the language she is using does not allow for it. Had she her own language, she could truly detail the crimes of the English and how horrible things are, but really, because of this crime, she is left only with the criminals tongue and nothing to speak the truth with.
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Sunday, September 23, 2007

holding station
Need to store these thing somewhere...

21st Century Digital Boy

Cuz I'm a 21st century digital boy
I don't know how to read but I've got a lot of toys
My daddy's a lazy middle class intellectual
My mommy's on valium, so ineffectual
Ain't life a mystery?

Tried to tell you about no control
But now I really don't know
And then you told me how bad you had to suffer
Is that really all you have to offer?

Join the Circus

WHAT COULD THE FUTURE HOLD FOR ME
TOO BUSY LOOKING DOWN FOR ME TO SEE
WHAT DOES THE CIRCUS HOLD FOR ME
TO BUSY BEING A CLOWN SO YOU'LL LOOK AT ME
WHAT DOES THIS EXISTENCE MEAN TO ME
ONLY AT ITS END WILL I BE FREE
WHAT WOULD THE FREEDOM DO TO ME
AFRAID TO OPEN MY EYES AND LOOK AND SEE

Bill Hicks

The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think it's real because that's how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round. It has thrills and chills and it's very brightly coloured and it's very loud and it's fun, for a while. Some people have been on the ride for a long time, and they begin to question: Is this real, or is this just a ride? And other people have remembered, and they come back to us, they say, "Hey – don't worry, don't be afraid ever, because this is just a ride." And we … kill those people. "Shut him up. We have a lot invested in this ride. Shut him up. Look at my furrows of worry. Look at my big bank account and my family. This just has to be real." It's just a ride. But we always kill those good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. But it doesn't matter, because – it's just a ride. And we can change it anytime we want. It's only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings and money. A choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one. Here's what we can do to change the world, right now, to a better ride. Take all that money we spend on weapons and defenses each year and instead spend it feeding and clothing and educating the poor of the world, which it would pay for many times over, not one human being excluded, and we could explore space, together, both inner and outer, forever, in peace.

MLK Speech

Huey: (narrating) King looked out on his people and saw they were in great need, so he did what all great leaders do: he told them the truth.
MLK: Will you ignorant niggas PLEASE shut the hell up?!
Crowd: (astonished)
MLK: Is this it? This is what I got all those ass-whoopings for? I had a dream once. It was a dream that little black boys and little black girls would drink from the river of prosperity, freed from the thirst of oppression. But lo' and behold, some four decades later, what have I found but a bunch of trifling, shiftless, good-for-nothing niggas; and I know you some of you don't want to hear me say that word. It's the ugliest word in the English language. But that's what I see now — niggas. And you don't want to be a nigga. Because niggas are living contradictions. Niggas are full of unfulfilled ambitions. Niggas wax and wane. Niggs love to complain. Niggas love to hear themselves talk but hate to explain. Niggas love being another man's judge and jury. Niggas procrastinate until it's time to worry. Niggas love to be late. Niggas hate to hurry!...

MLK: (continuing) Black Entertainment Television is the worst thing I've ever seen in my life!

MLK: (continuing) Usher, Michael Jackson is NOT a genre of music!

MLK: (continuing) And now I'd like to talk about Soul Plane...

MLK: (continuing) I've seen what's around the corner. I've seen what's over the horizon and I promise you, you niggas have nothing to celebrate! And no, I won't get there with you... I'm going to Canada.

Shimmy

Education, fornication, in you are, Go,
Education, subjugation, now you're out, Go,
Education, fornication, in you are, Go,
Don't be late for school again girl

I think me, I want life,
I think me, I want a house and a wife,
I want to shimmy- shimmy-
shimmy through the break of dawn, yeah.

Indoctrination, of a nation,
Indoctrination of a nation,
Subjugation of damnation,

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/existence.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/250px-Lain_hacker_small.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/358654026_d5613210c1.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/hot59mom.jpg
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b269/MetalSonic700/Bill_Hicks_Tool_album_cover_-_anoth.jpg
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Sunday, September 9, 2007

Anison Player

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Friday, August 17, 2007

Yellow! (well, orange, but you get my point)
Okay! Well, now to take this seriously! *looks serious* but not too serious, or we'll scare them off! *looks slightly less serious* That oughta do it. Well, I dunno what theO is used for, so I'm just gunna say stuff. Um... go watch anime! It's more fun than my page!
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Thursday, March 1, 2007

Wow, my very own myOtaku account.
Oh, mommy, it's just what I always wanted! So, i've got a myOtaku account. but what to do with it? Should I shamelessly promote my review site?

www.geocities.com/metalsonic700/digitalboyreviews.html

Should I talk about my life?

... what? You expected an example?

Or should I use it to post the reviews I write on my brothers computer since I can't access freewebs... nah, that's almost going too far...
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Dream Theater - Train of Thought

Dream Theater, commonly considered the pioneers of progressive metal, bring the thunder in their seventh and heaviest release, Train of Thought. The word of the day here is: epic.

For those who don't know, Dream Theater is one of the oldest and most successful progressive metal bands. For the most part, their style is classic eighties stye progressive rock powered up with heavier instrumentality. Train of Thought amplifies that heaviness tenfold.

There are seven tracks on Train of Thought and each is unique in it's own way. Most range in the 10-12 minute range, one being slightly shorter and another being downright brief.

The album opens up with As I Am, an anthem-style track featuring a gritty heavy metal sound. As I Am is a head-banging good time and features a high-speed solo in the center. Overall, it comes across almost as your average metal song.

You can kiss that normalcy goodbye at the start of the 11-minute second track, This Dying Soul (considered by many fans to be the best track on the album.) It opens heavily and quickly leads into a massive and well-performed solo that is sure to stick in memory. The vocalism begins lightly then grown in anger as the song progresses. Like many songs of this type, the song comes in multiple parts, the first being about 6 minutes following a regular song structure, and after a musical interlude, the structure is switched. The interior of the song is made up of long and technical riffs coupled with heavy metal throbbing and piano-working. It ends with another big solo.

Next is 11-minute epic Endless Sacrifice. More relaxed in the verses, picking up in the chorus, the song explores many avenues of the heaviness spectrum. It's filled with cool riffs and some excellent drum work. Around 5 minutes in the song kicks into a massive solo with some great unique elements. Afterwards it climaxes wonderfully and finally fades out into...

Honor Thy Father, another 10-minute track, takes my vote for the best on Train of Thought. It's brutal, visceral, full of rage, and powerful all the way through. Around halfway through the song there is a part where climbing guitars and keyboard play for several minutes under recorded lines from a movie coinciding with the story of the song. Afterwards is a keyboard-heavy solo in odd time signatures followed by another awesome climax.

After that is a 3-minute ballad called Vacant. Essentially, it consists of soft violins and piano playing in the background of James LaBrie's somber, poetic lyrical performance.

Vacant leads into the 11-minute non-vocal masterpiece Stream of Consciousness. To describe it easily would be to imagine it as a long, heavy version of YYZ by Rush. I won't spoil it beyond that.

The finale is In The Name Of God, coming in at a towering 14 minutes. This song is the meaning of the word epic. It starts of with a calm riff and snowballs into a massive, exciting piece which peaks on explodes on every chorus delivery. After driving ever upward through brilliant music and passionate verses, the song peaks in a hymn-accompanied symphonic overload of climatic energy before closing off in a fading guitar melody.

The lyrics set to Train of Thought cover all sorts of areas, from self-identity to breaking alcohol addiction, and even getting even with your stepfather. There's also the disgust of religious followings and persecutions.

It doesn't matter if your a fan of metal from any era, any sort of progressive rock, or just a fan of music in general; everyone can find something to love in Train of Thought.

OVERALL: 9.1

TRACKS:

1. As I Am - 7:47 --- 9/10
2. This Dying Soul - 11:27 --- 9/10
3. Endless Sacrifice - 11:24 --- 9.5/10
4. Honor Thy Father - 10:14 --- 10/10
5. Vacant - 2:57 --- 8/10
6. Stream of Consciousness - 11:16 --- 9/10
7. In The Name of God - 14:14 --- 9.5/10

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Or, I could just talk about random stuff. Yeah, whatever.
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