Laboratory of Mathematics and Writing

It felt as if we were waltzing in a field of flowers. With the sun shining effortlessly to reveal a spectrum of rainbows dancing below To the wind whistling through the trees To the songs of birds hopping from branch to branch Playfully chirping away As their wings flap and flutter vibrant colors. Trees sway to the rythm of our dance one two three one two three All the way until the sun sets behind smiling mountains. The sky shifts hues from pleasant blues to darker tints of purple Twinkling stars emerge from their daily reserve as once colorful fields and groves transform into shades of grey. The moon rises above it all and begins to croon So that our dance may begin on a sombre tone. The wolves howl and join on this minor key lullaby. The stars begin their accompaniment A choir of enchanting voices of the night. My lover and I clasp our hands and embrace. one two three one two three Trading only a caress and a smile Until our feet grow weary I finally re...

Good evening sir! How are you on such a wonderful night? Oh my! I must say! You appear to be as melancholy as a poor fellow at his mother’s funeral! How is it that such a bright soul became struck with such greif? Perhaps I am in a rather depressed mood But please, let it not worry you so much. After all, are we not all possessed by a hidden sorrow? And it illuminates itself upon gloomy reflections in the water, Beneath nightly stars that flicker incessantly, Yearning for the love of the moon As she directs her pale beam of light unto the water lilies below Giving them an ominous glow on the lake’s surface      And the flowers...      Casting tenebrous shadows      upon the eastern shore.      The stars cry out in anguish      as the sun destroys them once more. But it is the sun my dear friend! The enemy the stars dread the most That casts light upon all Earthly creatures below And warms...

I stand overlooking an abyss Created by the footprints of time As it marches forward callously ignoring All those little lives below Including mine I am only one of them Lost      Like tears that           Disappear in the rain Alone      Like a leaf drifting in the wind           Departed from its source of life Pathetic      Like a warrior fighting           With a broken sword Meaningless      Like a blank page           Drying in the sun After all, where would the world be if I were to cease tomorrow? where would the world be if I were forgotten? where would the world be if I left no mark upon this Earth? Marching on Marching on Never stopping to think about one dead bloke Whom no one may remember, even if they tried      The sands of time, they erroded his memory     ...

Day 20. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you mankind's greatest achievement. Better than the pyramids, better that the great wall, better than fucking tacos. Judas Priest is the greatest band of all time, and this is their greatest album. The band that could be considered the first legitimate metal band is Black Sabbath. The other band is also of utmost important is Deep Purple. If you don't believe me, listen to "Highway Star", "Fireball", and "Hard Lovin Man". It's fair to say that those two bands influenced Priest the most. Judas Priest arrived at a time when both Black Sabbath and Deep Purple where past a peak and declined just a bit. Someone needed to come along and fill the void. Judas Priest did exactly that by essentially fusing the heaviness and darkness of Sabbath with the speed and melody of Purple. It was a match made in heaven. And these lads conducted this marriage in a way that transcends either of their influences. ...

Day 19: Judas Priest is the greatest band of all time and if you disagree with me, you are wrong. Personally, I would rank this as their second best record. And it comes from what I believe to be the best era of Judas Priest: the 70's Priest. At that time, Priest where a new up and coming band that exploded on to the scene. They had to prove to everyone that they weren't just another run of the mill rock band. In order to do so, they pieced together their most musically ambitious masterpieces that set the bar unattainably high. The entire band is in perfect form. The twin lead attack of Glen Tipton and KK Downing is in full force. They're constantly spitting out riffs, licks, and leads with impeccable chops that cannot be rivaled by anyone else. The title track and the album opener "Exciter" are prime examples of this. "Exciter" is pure fucking speed metal that would be copied by every metal band (there's a band that literally named themselves aft...

Day 18. I remember there was a record store close to Indian School and 51st. It was by that old Palo Verde library. A buddy of mine  and I went there with the goal of buying more Slayer records. We obtained two of them: South of Heaven and Haunting the Chapel. We where both kind of just staring at the speakers in awe at how fast, heavy, evil, and awesome it was. Best five bucks I ever spent. My favorite of the two, and my favorite of Slayer, is Haunting the Chapel. It's only t hree songs, but those are the best damned songs Slayer ever wrote. Reign in Blood works better as a whole. It's hard to listen to "Necrophobic" just by itself without the rest of the album. Each song on this EP stands strong when isolated from the rest of the album. They're raw, heavy, and unapologetically evil. Sure, the lyrics are just raw Satanic lunacy. But the riffs and the production values create this atmosphere of pure diabolical murder. I'm still impressed at how vicious the ...

Day Seventeen. At the Gates is my favorite death metal band. While everyone tends to praise Slaughter of the Soul, I personally hail The Red in the Sky is Ours as their best. I would even go as far as claiming that it's the best death metal album ever. I am quite possibly literally alone in this. There's plenty of quality death metal to choose from. Gorgut's Obscura, Demilich's Nespithe, Entombed's Left Hand Path, Suffocation's Effigy of the Forgotten, Atheist's Unquestionable Presence. Hell, not too many people prefer The Red in the Sky is Ours over Slaughter of the Soul. Why on Earth do I rank this album higher than every single one of those? For starters, At the Gates where really the first to constantly play two melodies, sometimes even three, at once throughout the entire course of every song on an album. Well above ninety percent of bands have two guitarists play the same exact riff all the time. Once in a while, they will...

Day Fifteen. Fates Warning has two albums that are equally as good, perhaps even better, than anything Iron Maiden has done. That includes monumental albums like Powerslave and Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. And John Arch is equally capable as Bruce Dickinson. That's a huge claim for a band that's not nearly as beloved as Iron Maiden. But it wouldn't be anything new for a relatively unknown band to be as good as a more reknowned one. Would you seriously believe Nickelback is better than Rush? Fates Warning was one of the very first progressive metal bands, and they do everything absolutely right. They got your sweet riffs, catchy melodies, soaring vocals, and cohesive song writing to go with it. But these are all average things that make any band sound good.  Fates Warning explore the same topics of daring and adventure as Iron Maiden. In fact, the musical similarities are difficult to ignore.  Iron Maiden focused on writing tight, catchy, yet still musically ambitious s...

Day Sixteen. The "Why?" EP from Discharge is one of the best batch of songs ever. A question some folks might as is "what was the first extreme music band?" You might respond with "well death and black metal" was started by bands like Death and Mayhem. But, really, they where just an extension of what bands like Slayer and Hellhammer where doing before that. So maybe they where the first? Well, Slayer and Hellhammer are really just extensions of Venom and Discharge. So maybe  they where the first. What came before them was Motorhead and Judas Priest. I don't think anybody would consider those guys extreme music. It all depends on what you define extreme music to be and where you draw the line. I personally believe it starts here with Discharge's "Why?" EP. Both Venom and Discharge are probably the bands that influenced extreme music the most. Both had ultra lo-fi raw production. Both where louder and faster than anything that came be...

Day Fourteen. When you first get into extreme metal, you kind of want to see just how far these bands can take it. What's the most brutal, crazy, technical, and extreme thing anyone has ever committed to tape? A number of bands set out to out-offend and out-gross normies in the most predictable manner possible: just downtune the guitars, make the vocals really guttural, and play as load and as fast as you can. It's great fun and all, but it loses its luster after about five minutes. What Gorguts presented here with "Obscura" was a different way to go about it. I first heard Gorguts in the heyday of file sharing programs such as kazaa, limewire, and imesh. Searching for extreme metal, I downloaded the song "La Vie Est Prelude". The first thought that entered my head was "what in the hell?" I was already into some fairly brutal stuff like Cryptopsy, Suffocation, and Deicide at the time. But Gorguts was something else. It goes beyond just being fas...

Day Thirteen. I first started listening to The Chasm back in high school around 2004 for the album "The Spell of Retribution". It would be five long years before the would release another album. But, boy, that wait was worth it. I think this is their best album. I would constantly listen to this album as I was doing my MAT 371 homework at ASU. For those that don't know, that class is tough, man. It was nice to listen to something that motivated to continue when things got di fficult. How could anyone not feel motivated while listening to this? You can easily picture yourself as combatant facing a worthy adversary; determined to overcome all weakness in order to clinch that victory. Most bands play one riff at a time, repeat it several times, then move on to the next one. The Chasm is one of the few bands that will play two or more riffs at the same time throughout the entire song. The riffs themselves are powerful. They carry all of the familiar heavy metal tropes ...

Day Twelve. I used to skateboard back in elementary and middle school. A friend of mine gave me skateboard VHS. The only thing I remember from that tape was an awesome, groovy rock song that stayed in my head forever. There was no way for me to know the name of the band or song. The only way to listen to it was by playing the VHS tape over and over again. It wasn't until years later that I learned that the song was "Spirit of Radio" from the band called Rush. I fell in love w ithout even knowing her name. Now that I know her name, I love her even more. Rush is just one of those bands that everyone needs to listen to. And if you don't like Rush, it's because you're a bad person. The music itself puts you in a good mood. It injects confidence into your soul and the belief that you are in control of your own life. And no matter how tough things get, it will work out in the end. Feels good, man. It's impossible to discuss Rush without addressing the st...

Day Eleven. When I was in my first band, we covered Iron Maiden's "Aces High". The second band I was in covered "The Nightmare Continues". This song was no problem because every single Discharge song is literally just two riffs, a couple of chanted phrases, and one sloppy guitar solo. This is all to the back drop of an utterly simplistic rhythm called the "D-beat". The "D" is for Discharge. And there's literally a sub-genre of hardcore punk dedicated to ripping off Discharge .That's how influential these UK lads are. It's hard to explain to someone how such mindlessly simple music can be so good. Better than even your phrygian modes over 7/16 polyrythm users. Objectively, this is one of the worst albums ever made. What makes Discharge better than everyone lies in the execution of these songs. And damn. That execution is legendary. They performed with such tremendous urgency. The violence of the music would inspire literall...

Day Ten. Let's retreat back into metal. Iron Maiden is one of the greatest bands ever. The only two singers better than Bruce Dickinson are Ronny James Dio and Rob Halford. Adrian Smith and Dave Murray are also a tag team for the ages. No one can forget Steve Harris' galloping bass lines that determine the back bone of the music. It's extraordinarily difficult to choose a favorite Iron Maiden album. The entire 1980s output is solid. For me, it's a close call between Seventh  Son of a Seventh Son and Powerslave. I might be prejudiced in favor of Powerslave because I was in a band back in high school that tried to cover Aces High. I mean, I did my part on the guitar and even played both of the guitar solos, but nobody can sing like Dickinson. Our singer tried mightily. Iron Maiden doesn't really change things up all that much in between albums. They all got your galloping riffs, soaring melodies, and epic lyrics. Usually, they got some theme going on for each a...