The Great of the Greats; the Mindmaker

Akin to my latest blog entry about Gran Turismo this one is going to be god damn long.

Both of these topics are really personal for me and bring back so much memories and writing material that I just can't help but write five million pages worth of text from them.

Proceed at your own patience.

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It all began back when I was still just a little kid, like 10-11 years old and on the 3rd or 4th grade.

I was listening mainly to radio playlists back then, I didn't really have any of my own preferences with music; anything they'd throw at me I'd buy; the kind of persona I absolutely despise and sadly also the most common one amongst the modern teenagers.

I was at home playing on my computer with my friend and suddenly he went to YouTube and began playing some music to me.

It all was music I've never heard of before, songs like Nerve, Stabbing the Drama, Rejection Role, As We Speak from Soilwork and Cloud Connected amongst others from In Flames.
Add Down with the Sickness from Disturbed in the mix too; basically these bands' most popular songs (how you invite people to listen to them anyway ^^).

I damn loved them, they were so much different from the usual crap I listened to.

Soilwork and In Flames would be amongst my favourite bands for years to come; I've liked them ever since and am not showing signs of stopping.

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The topic of this weeks blog is Soilwork: one of my all time favourite bands. One cannot understand how much I love this band and how thankful I am to it.

Just to think that without this band (and my friend introducing me to it) I might still be listening to KPop and similar genres... Durr, gross.

Without Soilwork I would've probably never started enjoying music on the same level as I do now, I wouldn't listen to the same bands that I love now... It's practically crazy and very heartwarming.

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As I already stated, it all started with their newest album back then: Stabbing the Drama.

Since then I've discovered torrents and hence I could discover their other songs too (YouTube did NOT have every single song in the world back then) and really get suckered in.

As a random fact, I own all other Soilwork CDs but The Chainheart Machine, while I only own some other random CDs from other bands.
I don't have a lot of money going around either so that's a pretty big accomplishment for me.

Around the time when I was still beginning to get into metal scene my mother decided to move to a different town.

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Now you know what that's like, right? Moving to a different city when you're like 12 years old, losing all your friends and such.

Around that time, my school performance took a big one up its ass. I got diagnosed with minor depression which was pretty much the cause of it all, I also sank back to the popular music scenes and almost completely abandoned metal, except for Soilwork and In Flames and few others.

My school performance would continue to sink ever so low, I still suck at school... Something's so wrong with me, but no one (me & my gf included) knows what... So fucked up.

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Around the time when the next (8th out of 9) school year started I was lifted of that brief depressive stage, I was rejuvenated mentally and psychically.

I threw the garbage they call music away and re-entered into metal once more.

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After this little back story, let's talk about our band of the day.

What is it that I love so much about Soilwork?
Now that is a fucked up question right there, I have no idea what to answer to that.

There's just something inside of me that clings every time I hear their production.

The melodies are awesome and they have a kick-ass vocalist: Björn "Speed" Strid, who sings in a few other bands also, most notably in Disarmonia Mundi.

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They've made a total of 8 albums thus far: (organized from best to "worst", in my opinion)

Steelbath Suicide (SBS)

Sworn to a Great Divide (StaGD)

A Predator's Portrait (aPP)

Figure Number Five (FNF)

Natural Born Chaos (NBC)

Stabbing the Drama (StD)

The Panic Broadcast (tPB)

The Chainheart Machine (tCM)

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SBS holds the throne with my all-time favourite track from Soilwork, The Aardvark Trail.

I just like the song so god damn much, it's practically crazy.

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Don't get confused here, though. I love every single one of their albums, it's just that if I had to order them to a somewhat accurate list, it'd look like that.

Sweden truly is a great country for metal heads like me, with bands like Soilwork, In Flames, Amon Amarth, Katatonia, Scar Symmetry etc. etc., you will never get bored.


Soilwork also holds the throne in my Audiosurf profile: total of 112 rides, Scooter is the closest second: 98 rides.

I Need Speed & Skindred! WUT?!

If you are anything like me (that is, as old as me; grew at the same environment as I) when you hear the term a Racing Game you probably first think of Gran Turismo.

Now, honestly: who the hell doesn't love this game? Like seriously, you think you don't like it you take one more look at it and think "wow, what a stupid ass I was..".

It all started on the original Sony's masterpiece: Playstation video game console which was released at Q3 of 1995.

'95? It really is so old already. God, I can't believe it!


It feels like yesterday; I picture it in my head; I open the big ass present on the christmas eve and find this beast inside alongside with two games; Crash Bandicoot and Porsche Challenge.

Oh what mindless entertainment ensued. That Porsche game was so damn awful: what with its repetative races (like three or four tracks total; all that changed was the difficulty went up. Beat all the tracks, do it again on higher difficulty. Rinse and repeat, that shit was mindless as all hell but I didn't care, I was innocent back then) and stupid ass and absolutely oversized Porsche models.

Crash on the other hand was quite good. I never actually beat it (without the infamous four-line cheatcode) but I still enjoyed it.


This all changed when I first got my first Gran Turismo game. I looked at the cover and I immediately got excited. I popped it inside the toaster and I was hooked for life.

First time ever in my life did I get to experience what I enjoyed most; drive beautiful and ultra-fast cars around real tracks; that shit was better than life itself and just thinking about it makes me teary-eyed...

I still remember the images of that Mitsubishi GTO Twin Turbo, the car I managed to break 400 KM/H with, now that I think about it; I never succeeded on that afterwards, not in any of the later games. Quite dramatic.

And the soundtrack; it was just magnificent! It didn't have any great orchestral scores or real manufactured tracks but boy did they kick ass.

Never before had entering a shop been such a eargasm inducing experience, it was just wonderful.


Now there were some problems, too. The game CD broke... A lot. I vaguely remember having to buy like 5-6 new CDs just to finish the game. That's bullcrap.
To be honest, I bought a new one just last year when I found one on discount, I haven't played it much though; lost my memory card for PS1.


Now the next milestone on my childhood is when I recieved my next console: Playstation 2.

This, changed everything. Again.

Not only did the games now come with unearthly visuals, their quality was on an neverending rise.

Crash Bandicoot on PS1 was a cute little game with what you wasted some time every now and then but Crash Bandicoot 2: the Wrath of Cortex on PS2...

It left an everlasting impression; the boss battles in particular. They were just brilliant.
See some crazy unnameable monkeyrabbit thingy planting TNTs and NITROs and getting blasted by them, itself? MORE OF THAT, PLEASE!


Likewise, Gran Turismo 2 on PS2 was a noticeable improvement over the first one.

I prefer the first one's "feel" over the second one's, personally, but there were some big leaps on the second game.

For one the car selection from the first game got its sorry ass handed to itself.

GT2 just thought to itself "lol, you have what, a hundred cars? Well I have over five hundred! Suck it!" and it became instacool.

It also added many new tracks but, for some fucked up reason, removed one! Special Stage 12 no less! WHY?!!?

It also had these tracks like Redrock Speedway and Rome, two tracks that haven't returned to a GT game to date, sadly.


After these two games they announced the third one. Taking into consideration these first two games' wide success you can only assume how high the expectations were... And judging from the fact that up 'till this point the games have steadily improved from the last ones and been steadily better and better, you can only see what kind of a masterpiece we are talking about.

Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, the second last GT game for PS2, was released on Q1 of 2001 and with it your GT experience would be blossomed to even greater heights.

No longer did you ride with cars with squarish tires or on pixelated tracks and shit; this game looked beautiful.

Up 'till this point I had never seen anything so sharp in a videogame.

The visuals still were but one of the many great improvements over the last game.
Car selection was steepened, many cars removed but I believe what they tried to do was optimize the car pool; remove useless ones from the mix.

Race competition system was improved, kind of; at least I feel it was a step in the right direction.

Instead of them being categorized under European, Japanese etc., they were put into categories Beginner, Amateur, Professional, Endurance and Rally, like so.


This would be optimized even more on the next game Gran Turismo 4: a game I decide to not touch due to my inability to do it justice.

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Good lord, I opened my blog and was supposed to write a musical article about NFS UG2's OST, I guess I leave that for another day though.

For Yew #2

If there was just one thing, just one, that I would want. It would be You.

You, are the fuel that keeps me going.
You, are the sole reason I began smiling outside my room.
You, have resurrected my will to live.
You, have stolen my ability to sleep at nights.
You, have made me realise who I really am.
You, are the single most important person in my life.
You, have made my daily life oh so much better.

Without You, I would be just another nerdy nerd that no one cares about.
Without You, I wouldn't be writing this.

I, will do whatever I possibly can to ensure that we will always be together, always.
I, am anxiously waiting for the day you get out of the damn orphanage, and all our dreams will come true.
I, really miss you.
I, really care for you.
I, want to know how you feel.
I, want to help you on your journey that some people call life.
I, want to hold your beautiful hand, and never, ever let go.
I, haven't lied to you, ever. Everything I've told you has been true.
I, want to thank you for everything you've done to me, and all the good things that future holds for us.

I, really, really love you. I have never felt like this before. If this isn't what people call love, then there is no such thing.
If the talk about soulmates is true, I have found mine.

Others may not have faith on us yet, but I do. And I know you do as well.

You, are the one I've been waiting for, the very reason I was born.


We, will be together. Forever.

For Yew #1

Meri, I cannot find the words to describe how much you really mean to me nor how hard I wish this will last.

There is no feeling even remotely comparable to the one I experience when I lay my hand on your back and just sit there and talk with you, not even close. You have made me realise how valuable it really is to have someone you really love and care for. I can talk with you like with no one else, and talking with you feels so good, if only we could just sit there and talk for ever, I'd be as happy as I can be.

I know, that you feel just the way that I do. With you, I don't worry about anything, your very presence calms me down. And when we are forcefully seperated every night, only thing I can do is think about you, I can hardly even stay still, let alone sleep. You have truly, and rightfully revolutionised my whole life. I can't thank you enough, my love. I hope... No. I know, we can last. We will never be seperated. We will always be there. Oh how I have longed to find someone, just like you. You are everything I will ever need, and more.

I, have finally found my truly significant other. I am lost no more. I am finally happy. We are united.


@Meri Rönkkö
-18.10.2009 -->

Inside #1

Lost and dampened; I who always had my perspectives straight, path determined.
So lost I was knowing not should I approach or just wait; I knew not what would happen.
What happened to me, why couldn't I foresee the great future that was set before me?

Why is a man - a man like me no less - so smart when it comes to other people's problems and lives?
Why cannot the same man -- bestowing all his wisdom -- not see happiness rushing towards him?

And what about fate, is that real? Why everything always seems so destined when you look back
on your life?
Why would a man believe in something so utterly dictated from any logic as fate is?
Why would a human with all the wisdom bestowed upon himself believe in that?

Yet there is no choice; everything is always so easily explained by just thinking "it was destined".
But what happens when a man refuses to think so, when he wants to know the real truth?
How does a man find out the real answers when no spiritual foretelling is satisfactory?

Lost and disoriented; traits of a man who found eternal happiness from just around the corner.
Why me, why does a man like me who has hardly done anything good in the past deserve such a precious,
heartwarming gift as a lifepartner, a lover whom you can always depend on?
Why is a man like me rewarded with so much generosity and people who have done much good and bettered
people's lives in different ways are left in the dust, wondering the same question, although reversed?

You just can't help but wonder; if there is a god, why would he decide these kind of things so
randomly and recklessly, one would expect a little more judgement, let alone fairness!
Then again, what do we humans know in the end? Nothing. We cannot say anything for certain.

I didn't even do anything to pursuit my happiness, it was given to me; just like that.
Why, why do I deserve this?!

All I know for certain is that I have been given eternal bliss, of which I am forever thankful.
I am no longer lost; I am found and never have to worry again.

By havo to meh

For the people of Ancaria

Band | Blind Guardian
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Album | At the Edge of Time
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Year | 2010

"Remember fellow Ancarians: this world is Sacred"

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I got this album today. I started Audiosurf up, I listened the first four songs with it. I fell in love.

Probably the most famous and anticipated track on this album is "Sacred Worlds" or "Sacred" as it was previously known.

I had already fallen in love with the older and shorter -- 6.12 minutes in duration -- version of this song, I heard it very first time on the intro in Deep Silver's game "Sacred 2: Fallen Angel" (a game I never got around to play afterwards, the song literally took all the fame) and I was immediately suckered in to its awesomeness.


So you can only assume, it had become one of my favourite audio compositions, ever which in turn raised the expectations for the "proper album extended version" sky high.

How could such a masterpiece on the auditory department possibly be made even better?
I have no idea, but heaven above they succeeded.


The album edition contains some pretty neat keyboard compositions as heard at the intro and outro, I can safely say that they are amongst the best intros and outros I've heard in a while.

They have modified the original song with carefully planned, subtle modifications which makes you beg the question: just how much better can this song get?

The number of instruments used was heightened; horns and deep, low bass only add to the epicness.

The vocals are the same as in the original version, so that is meant to sound familiar.

The big selling points on this song were always the first 2-3 seconds of the later choruses. I just love how they made the transition from verses to choruses, it's so brutal, yet so fluid. It's the kind of effect you have to hear to understand, hint hint.

I don't know what it is, but somehow I see the last chorus on the extended version seemingly less powerful than on the original, might be only my paranoia, you never know.

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All in all, the song is freaking awesome. I loved the first version and I equally love this extended version.

Hear it, for your own good.

These first few entries are copy-pasted from my PlayDotA's blog;

dates and such are most likely dated.