SLEEP WELL.

It’s that time of year again :D
the time the internet goes crazy for best-of’s and you tend to remember all those things you should of done.
I am no different haha ;]
so here I’ll tell you what I think are the best CD’s for 2008 & why
the CD’s are in no particular order btw, I’m not THAT picky haha :D

I’m pretty picky when it comes to deciding what i think of as worthy of a ‘best of’ title lol
I listen to way too much Neurosis & Converge to warrant anything lower than those with the love I give to them.

Some of here because I love them, others are up because they deserve a mention.

My reviews seem to lag about half way through, I get bored of writing as I have a short attention span haha.

1.
HAVE HEART - SONGS TO SCREAM AT THE SUN

I shall start with Have Heart.
You always know what to expect with hardcore really, it’s not the most original of genres but that being said this album is nothing short of a masterpiece. Long gone are the posi-youth crew tendencies from their last 2 releases here we find a fully matured and progressive Have Heart.
There’s not much I can say about the music as well, it’s hardcore but it seems toned down a little with more perspective being placed on the vocals.
The lyrics are literally some of the best I have ever heard, we find that Pat delves deep into his past and writes about his dad / family and the trouble he had growing up, plus the magnific ‘No Roses, No Skies’ is the only hc song I’ve heard written directly for a girl.
The major stand-out track on this album though is ‘The Same Sun’ which is stunning, really really beautiful. At the end the lines “your sisters are starving, your brothers are begging
your mothers are mourning, your fathers are folding” are sung in the backround in some choir-esque-chant way whilst Pat continues to shout the rest of the song before it’s astounding climax.
If you don’t want this album atleast take the time to read the lyrics as they are fantastic.
http://www.loudson.gs/h/Have-Heart/songs-to-scream-at-the-sun


2.
THE BANNER - FRAILTY

The Banner got dark on this release, very fucking dark it seems.
They dispensed with the Zombie talk and general horror-punk outings of their last two releases and just got down and dirty with the dark times haha.
If you like Integrity, Living Hell & all things Deathwish Inc / Holy Terror infused then you’ll like this I would hope.
Basically this is the best Metal-Hc album I’ve heard in a fucking long time.
The opener is a dirge of broken-stringed acoustic blues entitled ‘Welcome Fuckers’ which leads perfectly into the terrifying ‘The Wolf’ with it’s haunting doom-laden opening chords & absolutely fucking crushing breakdown half way through. The album seems to take a lot from the doomy-bits with tracks like ‘A Hellbound Heart’ especially but just in general it just feels fucking heavy. Stand-out tracks are the previously two mentioned ones along with ‘Sphrenia’ (for the interesting take on a melodic ending), ‘The Father And The Wayward Son’ actually well fuck-it all tracks deserve merit just in their own way. But a mention does have to go to ‘Dusk’ for being breathtaking which I love, it starts off with far-off sung vocals and and ethereal guitar before suddenly (and I mean SUDDENLY) bursting into a climax which lasts the whole song.
Oh and as a last-note if you’re a massive fan of breakdowns then next to August Burns Red these are the best I’ve heard.
One things for sure the terrible Ferret records does not deserve this band.

For Fans Of : Converge, Integrity, The general feeling of Deathwish Inc records, Melancholy and a heavy dose of Satan mixed with a pile of ‘I fucking hate everything’

3.
SYLOSIS - CONCLUSION OF AN AGE

New album from UK based thrash metallers.
Mainly up because they need the exposure!
This is a fairly new one for me, only got it about a week ago but it’s properly grown on me.
Not much to say about it as I haven’t fully taken the time to listen to it properly yet but so far i’d certainly warrant it for best of a best of 2008 place.
The clean vocals in some parts are top-notch.
Just get it and see what you think haha

For Fans of: Thrash, Viatrophy, Himsa etc.

4. LYDIA - ILLUMINATE

Resting up from metal for a minute we have the new release from Lydia.
I’ve liked this band since a friend of mine showed me the beautiful ‘Smile, You’ve You’ve Won’ from their last release.
With this release they have stopped all the cliches it seems to hold back potential alternative music and have gone on to make one of the most stunning, emotional pieces of music I have ever heard. Music to me is all about the atmosphere it creates, the feeling put into it and the feeling you get out of listening to it and so with this release Lydia have really nailed that on the head. The album isn’t particularly exciting just beautiful. The lead singers voice may be girly but in a good way, you can feel every line he sings is genuine. The only gripe i have is that the girl (sorry, im never any good with band members names) who lent so much with her voice the their last release doesn’t really get to shine on this for she really has too good a voice to be left out.
If you’re a fan of post-rock, alternative stuff like Modest Mouse, American Football, Lydia will fit in perfectly.
This album was voted best of 2008 by Absolute Punk. net
http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=753922
so there’s nothing that should stop you from getting it.

This band will lift you to the highest recesses of your heart, no bones about it.

5. Hate Eternal - Fury & Flames

As my previous post on this band states, I fucking love them.
You can sound angry in the death metal but it’s a genuine art to sound fucking terrfying.
And this is definitely their angriest to date. As you might know their bassist who was a very good friend to frontman Erik Rutan passed away before this release and it seems to have infused the band with more Hate that ever. But throughout it all it never loses a sense of melody and meaning, they manage to literally bind together misanthropy and melody to create a fine monster of an album.
I’m always a bit dubious of bands that are on Metal Blade and i really have no reason to be, they always release such fine records and this is no exception.
If you like your death metal brutal then seriously look no further.

6. Flight Of The Conchords - S/T

I’m putting this up purely because being introduced to this band was great moment haha.
Flight Of The Conchords are a two piece acoustic act from New Zealand who sing comedy songs which stem from sketches in their sitcom but can be lifted out and are just as good. If you’re a fan of Mighty Boosh-esque humour you’ll probably already know about these but luckily they dont just fall into that strange non-sequitor style humour the Boosh are famous for. Their songs are accessible to everyone.
Here is “Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros” & “If You’re Into it” to give you a basic idea

enjoy!

7. Krisiun - Southern Storm

Currently one of the finest Death Metal bands out there, I only got this album recently but it’s been a real highlight. Inventive song writing & great vocals.
If you like your Death Metal to have something about it then definitely get this “Sentenced Morning” is one of the finest death metal songs i’ve heard.

8. Life Long Tragedy - Runaways

Fuuucccckk! I love this band.
Life Long Tragedy used to be the epitome of Positive Hardcore, their lyrics were uplifting and songs such as “Sweeet Innocence” with it’s intelligent lyrics & original song structure showed they had enough Modern Life Is War influences to keep them perpetually innovative. Seeing them in Hull was a fucking great moment.
BUT
with this, literally all hope seems to have been abandoned.
This is the sludgiest, dirtiest, most negative, world-weary misanthropic record i’ve ever heard. Deathwish Inc has a habit of doing that to bands haha.
Something bad happened to this band when between their first release and this one, something very bad haha. Whereas you used to get songs proclaiming life as an undisputed long highway for us to all find our way on we have it now perceived as a arduous walk towards death.
But this is no bad thing, if you’re fed up of posi-hc and want to really feel true reality that is waking up to a world properly fucked whilst being haunted by the demons in your soul, this is your record. It’s heavy, in the heaviest of heavy-hearted senses.
If you like what Deathwish Inc does to hardcore bands, which i do (watching it happen to The Carrier was interesting) then get this.

For Fans of: Modern Life Is War, Misanthropy.

Albums I also thought were great this year
- All Shall Perish, Awaken The Dreamers
- Supercontinent, Vaalbara
- Architects, Ruin
- Killing The Dream, Fractures
- Misery Index, Traitors
- BMTH, Suicide Season
- Elysia, Lion Of Judas

I’ll probably keep adding to this, so keep checking back :]
thanks!

Today I am happy, it’s been a relatively normal day but i’m happy nonetheless.
After nigh on 10 years I finally feel like i’ve found out who the fuck i’m supposed to be, it’s brilliant. And it’s only gonna get better over these next few months when I actually start to see results from my frankly over-use of the weight bench & start my tattoo’s :D.

that’s all really, but i’m fucking stoked nonetheless.

Anyway, aside from that today I found a user on youtube called ‘ParryGripp’ who finds other funny videos and makes comedy songs over the top of them.
Here for your aural pleasure are two of the best, childish but hilarious.

That ocean sound is the useful yet annoying Architects player a few posts down btw.

Soccer Ball (In The Face)

Chimpanzee Riding A Segway

ahahahahahaha.
I love the crap that youtube spawns sometimes.

x

yeaaaa that’s right!
I like them, fuck off haha.

comeon, even if you hate them you’ll watch these anyway out of pure curiosity you know you will.

recorded from live concerts

Untitled

The World Is Ugly

Seems they’ve gone back to their roots which is good, as Black Parade was good for what it was but it wasn’t MCR in my view.
Have fun hating. I expect many a ‘fail’ response to this haha.
:p


on lighter news I’m still compiling a best of 2008 list, it’s taking up my time as of late as i can’t for the life of me remember who released what in 2008.
If you’ve got any recommendations then please feel free to share them, I’ll try and have it up by the end of 2008 otherwise it seems pretty pointless lol

I’m off to go drink Hot Chocolate to cure my aching sinuses, fucking cold *curses*

And it seems people do actually read this blog! so thanks :D!
x

This is an A1 size piece I did for my ‘Fine Art’ taster in college, it’s to do with childhood memories and games. The head is from a Clowns mask I got for Halloween
The lines on the left hand side are meant to represent wooden trucks I’ve had since I was a child,
The piece has meaning but I’ll leave you dig at it ;]

Seasons Greetings to you all :]
hope you have a brilliant one!

x

Wasn’t entirely sure how to name this post.
This is a player which contains 3 new songs & the stunning making of the video for ‘Early Grave’ from their upcoming album ‘Hollow Crown’

Next Month! Cant wait.
I often thought BMTH tried to become architects on Suicide Season but failed miserably, these new tracks only compound my assumptions haha.

Here’s the actual video, Blogger seems to be a bit funny with Youtube so just be patient / click the empty space where the video should be if it doesn’t show up.
Or alternatively just go to http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vPLE6D-eVJs

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or what I have learned so far on the matter. From personal experience;

• Sweating it out works well, I took some ‘Night Nurse’ (quite possibley the gayest named product I’ve taken / to have been invented) then put loads of covers on my bed. Agreed you do wake up the next morning and feel horrible being covered in sweat but I feel a hell of a lot better today. By sweating your body is getting rid of the toxins, just make sure you drink enough water to compensate.
  
• There’s apparently always lots to be said about Vitamin C and Zinc helping reduce the time you have a cold, this is the best explanation I found on the matter
  

Recent clinical research has shown that administration of zinc lozenges can cut the time of a suffereing from a cold in half. Clinical research regarding echinacea, vitamin C or zinc supplements have not shown significant significance. The reaeson Zinc works as a lozenge is that it must be present in its raw form (as an ion) at the site of infection (throat/nasal passage). Zinc appears to interfere with rhinovirus fusion with cells, therefore zinc lessens the effectiveness of the rhinovirus to infect cells and replicate, making it easier for your immune system to clear the cold infection. Note that citric acid tends to remove these free zinc ions, therefore eating citrus fruit or other foods high in citirc acid can cause zinc lozenges to become ineffective.

What Helps a Cold

* Vitamin C is imparitive to proper immune function. Unfortunately, vit. C shares the same receptor site as glucose. (All sugars are broken down into glucose.) The more glucose you put in your system, the less chance there is for Vit. C to bind to the receptor sites needed for immune function. People think that taking a massive load of vit. C is helpful when they’re sick. This only works because it helps to increase the ratio of Vit. C to glucose. If they didn’t consume so much sugar, they wouldn’t need to take extra in the first place. The American diet is definitely full of it’s fair share of sugars.

* Maybe. In some individuals, natural remedies and preventive measures seem to help. However, nothing is well proven.

* This is what the latest scientific research shows. Echinacea does not make a significant difference. Vitamin C only helped in a trial done on marines training in arctic climates and it only reduced their cold symptoms by about half a day. Zinc however does help. To get the best effect, it must be used as soon as the first common cold symptoms are felt (achy muscles, sniffly nose etc). The best formulation for the zinc is the gel form that you inject into the nasal passages.

* The first question I always ask myself when reading any ‘scientific research’ is, “Who did the research and how was the research conducted?” I have personally used Echinacea or Echinacea with Goldenseal for cold symptoms, and in my experience it did help. I have not used Zinc. In the study using Marines, I believe the results could be affected by what stage the cold was in when first taking the Vitamin C, how much sugar the study group was consuming (see first post), as well as the amount of Vitamin C given.



And aside from that, you know the rest. If you don’t just ask your parents / self (as i’m not sure what exactly my demographic is here haha)

enjoy.
x

aha, hahahaha.
awesome.

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6755

“Researchers predict there will be a surge in the worldwide dependency of robots during the next decade.

The gap between humans and robots is forecast to become significantly smaller as researchers announced that human’s social and physical reliance on robotic machines looks set to soar.”

On a different note, I’m fucking ill.
But I did order “The Anthology Of Western Philosophy” today, sooo stoked, can’t wait for it to arrive. Nom Nom Nom

x

Accepting the fact that you’ve been made a stereotype
doesn’t get you any further from that stereotype
trying to make yourself look cool with TV adverts stating this, just makes me hate you more.
APPLE MAC FTW.

Salvidor Dali’s ‘The Peristence Of Memory’
is I would say THE painting you think of when you think of Dali, or the whole surrealist movement.

Here’s an explanation behind it

”

The Persistence of Memory is aptly named, for the scene is indelibly memorable. Hard objects become inexplicably limp in this bleak and infinite dreamscape, while metal attracts ants like rotting flesh. Mastering what he called “the usual paralyzing tricks of eye-fooling,” Dali painted with what he called “the most imperialist fury of precision,” but only, he said, “to systematize confusion and thus to help discredit completely the world of reality.” It is the classical Surrealist ambition, yet some literal reality is included too: the distant golden cliffs are the coast of Catalonia, Dali’s home.

Those limp watches are as soft as overripe cheese—indeed “the camembert of time,” in Dali’s phrase. Here time must lose all meaning. Permanence goes with it: ants, a common theme in Dali’s work, represent decay, particularly when they attack a gold watch, and become grotesquely organic. The monstrous fleshy creature draped across the painting’s center is at once alien and familiar: an approximation of Dali’s own face in profile, its long eyelashes seem disturbingly insectlike or even sexual, as does what may or may not be a tongue oozing from its nose like a fat snail.

The year before this picture was painted, Dali formulated his “paranoiac-critical method,” cultivating self-induced psychotic hallucinations in order to create art. “The difference between a madman and me,” he said, “is that I am not mad.”

enjoy :]

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There are always records in your life that you will associate with being a starting point to something bigger, something that you can always look back on an think ‘these were what got me through’ or ‘these were perfect when i was’. The three albums i present to you here are mine.
When i was 14 /15 these three albums were fucking perfection, i didn’t need anything else.
I didnt know anything about the scene or emo or any of that, i just thought the music was brilliant haha.
I still hold all three in very high regard, all three display post-hardcore to perfection:
- The Bled for their chaotic as fuck Converge-esque noise & brilliant lyrics with “I’d burn alive to keep you warm” being possibley the BEST MOST AMAZING lyric i’d ever heard when i was young haha. Plus they had things which i later came to know as breakdowns ;].
- Finch for just being awesome with Perfection Through Silence being one of my favourite all time songs.
- And Thursday who’s Full Collapse is held one of the finest Post-Hardcore albums ever released, full of really raw emotion and this feeling that the music is held together by sticky tape haha.

None of those albums has one bad song between them.

So yea, here’s to being 14 years old and finding your musical feet!
leave comments :]

Thursday - Full Collapse

HERE

THE BLED - PASS THE FLASK

HERE
password: danny

FINCH - WHAT IT IS TO BURN

HERE

hopefully they should all work.
Thanks to a multitude of blogs for these!

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Pictures from my art course :]
Have to take them to document progress so I thought I’d stick them up here.

For this we had to incorporate elements of our last projects
- The straight lines from the first one where we built installations
- Life drawing
- Special Place (the face on the drawing)

Hasn’t really got a meaning, but things have been bad recently so I suppose this is an outcome of sorts. Too much Francis Bacon, Neurosis & Converge on my mind haha

Stage One:

Stage 2:

Stage 3:

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Because I fucking love Wes Eisolds lyrics.

Sitting only cause I couldn’t stand to
walk much further under black skies with watered eyes
I was watching the tide rolling in
and I was thinking I should move from here and start again


My legs
barely hold all my heart and soul
My ears hardly hear, only our sound is clear
My mouth merely moves, the words just disappear
My eyes see so clear, a reason to care


Maybe we weren’t supposed to wake up today
Leaving the room only to celebrate that nothing’s changed
If I was there, if you were here
The world could end, I wouldn’t care
So wake me up never, please
Lock the door and lose the keys

To set the record straight- I never could relate and
just when it all went wrong, you sang a different song
Never knew someone that knew how the years had been
And I never thought that I would end up like this
So hidden, for and gone, I’m so crowded alone
And I hope you understand, you fixed my broken plan


x

www.myspace.com/giveuptheghosthxc

ahaha. Brilliant, made my day.
I do kinda feel sorry for him though as I get the feeling that he was more a puppet than an actual president, he was forced into presidency and he can’t string a sentence together to save his life. Why would California (I think it was California?, look up ‘Stealing Democracy’ on Youtube for video evidence on whichever state it was..i forget) rig the elections if they honestly thought he was going to be a good president.

Anyway
here’s the story

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6388

“With less than two months remaining in office, George W. Bush, witnessing a devastating defeat for the Republican Party, worse favorability ratings than those of Richard Nixon at the height of the Watergate scandal, and the most devastating economic situation since the Great Depression, is reported by a number of well-placed sources in Washington as drinking heavily.

After having tried to explain away the collapse of several Wall Street brokerage houses by saying, “Wall Street got drunk,” it appears that it is Bush who is suffering from bouts of drunkenness.”

ahahaha.

x

My all-consuming love for Converge admittedly only began last year with the release of ‘No Heroes’, before then i’d always had Converge songs but could never get into them / had never really tried. Jacobs voice on pre-You Fail Me work (including the seminal Jane Doe) just annoyed me, too screetchy.
So i’ve worked backwards in essence. Which is good at it’s saved me from the hordes of fans proclaiming Jane Doe to be the greatest thing since sliced bread and subsequently over-looking the simple violent-brilliance of later albums.

There’s nothing bad i can say about this band,

everything works together to form sheer genius. They seem to create an atmosphere in their music which goes from being hit in the face with a hammer for minutes upon end to falling into the deepest darkest crevices of the mind & severe introspection.
+ Jacobs artwork is fantastic
www.Jacobbannon.com

Seeing them this year & meeting Jacob was one of the best moments of my life so far lol. So happy.

So, in admiration of the monster that is Converge i present three of their later albums complete with description as to why they’re brilliant.

JANE DOE (2001)

the most critically acclaimed album. Mathcore at it’s absolute finest. Genre-defying.
The title track & ‘Hell To Pay’ represent the haunting side of the band, the title track being a 12 minute long Epic & ‘Hell To Pay’ with it’s heavy base line and Jacobs strange sung vocals.
Whilst tracks like ‘The Broken Vow’ & ‘Fault And Fracture’ punish your ears.
Just get it, you need this album.
http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?upg31dzxy1x


YOU FAIL ME (2004)

This is my favourite album for many reasons.
Jacobs voice reaches a complete new level, on earlier releases his screams are throaty but as i said too high for my taste, but with this. wow. He takes them down a notch but they manage to somehow get more extreme imagine a dog barking whilst being put through a blender and you’re somewhat near.
Secondly the album has a darker atmosphere to it, everything is stripped down (maybe because they only have one guitarist on this whereas Jane Doe had two) & more refined yet still brutally deep.
It starts with the lonely sounding instrumental ‘First Light’ and just gets better. We have tracks such as ‘In Her Shadow’ which you could say picks up where ‘Hell To Pay’ left off and is again depressing & scary at the same time.
There’s t0o many stand out tracks really, Black Cloud, the eternally quotable Last Light, You Fail Me & the single Eagles Become Vultures which has to be one of their most extreme moments.
It does feel like they tried to re-create Jane Doe in some respects & failed but it competely holds its own.
If you’re a fan of the darker side of music get this first.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?b7egjo0nzzl

No Heroes (2006)

This their latest album, takes Converge once again to a new level.
There’s not much i can say about this album aside from the fact that it’s violent.
It’s fast and fucking heavy.
The first time I heard ‘Hellbound’ I was blown away
take Jane Doe’s ‘The Broken Vow’ and punch it in the face a few times and you get ‘Hellbound’
Jacobs lyrics no longer deal that much with the theme of love and loss more the state of society and his hate for the selfish fucks who run it, in short he sounds fucking angry.
“Give me the strength, to stand up straight, to bear this weight. Spill their blood”

And it also contains one of the most beautiful songs Converge have ever done.
the 9 minute long ‘Grim Heart / Black Rose’ which features Jonah from Only Living Witness.
The first half is a drone-ish song which has Jonahs emotional vocals which is brilliant in itself.
But it’s when that stops that it gets truly terrifying
At around 5:40 the song goes into complete meltdown and starts again, building up over the next 4 minutes into the shortest hardest crescendo you are ever likely to hear.

If you only ever hear one Converge song in your life, let it be that one.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=n3CEVh3DdH4 - youtube link ;]

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?v9gxb4jyny4




So, yea!
there we go.
Wrap your ears around one of the greatest bands in extreme music.

thanks to http://ombie.blogspot.com/2008/10/converge-discography.html
for the links

x

I find it an injustice that the bloke selling Roasted Chestnuts can shout “CHHHEESSSSSTTNNUUTTTSSSSSSS” at the top of his voice, whilst charity workers and Big Issue sellers aren’t allowed to say a thing.

x

Well, I always had a feeling it wasn’t right.
I think it was last month or maybe 2 months back that there was a story saying how America had chased 2 ‘terrorists’ into Pakistan. This then sprouted the talk that maybe America was looking to drag Pakistan into a conflict on websites such as ATS & INFOWARS.
OH BUT HOW? I wondered, well folks! here we are.
I’m not saying you should directly believe this article as ever there is much research to be done, but it offers a different point of view and that’s always helpful.
please read, because after watching the BBC news’ coverage of the Georgia / Russia conflict I no longer trust a fucking word it says.

“

Even though these firsthand accounts indicate the attackers were white, drank alcohol and displayed the steely and professional reserve of trained military men, the emerging story carried by the corporate media blames the attacks on al-Qaeda and specifically Lashkar-e-Taiba, one Arab and the other Asian. “A terrorist group with training camps in Pakistan and strong ties with al-Qaeda as well as a history of mounting attacks in India yesterday became the chief suspect behind the atrocities,” reports the Times Online, pointing to Lashkar-e-Taiba.

As the Times Online admits, Lashkar-e-Taiba is a creation of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI. It “receives considerable financial, material and other forms of assistance from the Pakistan government, routed primarily through the ISI. The ISI is the main source of LeT’s funding. Saudi Arabia also provides funds,” explains the South Asia Terrorism Portal. Lashkar-e-Taiba “also played a part in the ISI organized ‘Bosnian campaign against the Serbs,’ which was directed above the ISI by the CIA and British intelligence.”

What should raise your concern as it did mine is the second paragraph. Lots to look up here! but it does directly quote ‘Al-Queda’ and with that they might aswell have just gone “WE’RE TALKING SHIT!” hah

http://www.infowars.com/?p=6222

See now it’s one thing to be a Death Metal band, but to be audible-y terrifying at the same time is another thing altogether haha.
First started listening to this band when i was 14 because I always saw their ‘King Of Kings’ album advertised in magazines with the caption ‘Christmas is cancelled’ underneath. I loved the name and the eerie cover to that album so i decided to check them out.
And I honestly say they scared the crap out of me lol. The only other band to do that since then is Orphans In Coma.

I went off them for a while as I did Death Metal in general but i’ve started listening to them recently again so here in celebration are two albums for your oral entertainment.
Fucking Brilliant.


HATE ETERNAL - I, MONARCH (2005)

GET HERE

HATE ETERNAL - KING OF ALL KINGS (2002)

http://rapidshare.com/files/90230935/HE_KOAK02www.mediaportal.ru.rar.html


I’ve closed the tab with the blog I got these from in, but yea thanks to someone else for them!
Enjoy

x