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Guess what the main news in Brudirect was?

Well finally, someone finally got rid of the old farts. Kudos to the sultan for showing a big bag of steel bollocks, mowing out the trash and injecting new life in what i prefered to call a seriously flawed administrative system. Good knowing that theres nowhere else those lazy-bum-ass motherfuckers in the government could run and hide. HM’s watching, one wrong move… and its “off with his ..job..”

I grew up in brunei, and such a major shake-up does affect me really. Knowing HM is kicking ass and booting those 4 incompetent fools out of the adminstration means that HM is serious in changing the people’s attitude of his government, which till present is infamous for its in-ability to function properly or long immigration queues, endless waiting & last but obviously not least: unprocessed documents! An example of such incompetency would be during the time me and fei chai went to the civil department to pay the water bill, and lo and behold! What do we see? a little sign that says:

For fuck sake.. who the fuck keeps the water payment counter at the Civil Department open for 30mins??!! 30 Yippey-Kay-Yeah-God -Forbidden-Fucking-Minutes??!!!??!?

The sultan booted the chieves of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Telecomunications, Ministry of Sports & Youths and Ministry of Education. Hopefully with the newly appointed chiefs we’re looking at more opportunities for outside investors which would naturally mean more money poured into the country which would mean more jobs which would fix the current unemployment problem and at the same time fixing the problem where most of the population are in debt. I’m hoping for better internet infrastructure and better telecommunications. The booting of the Ministry of Education is long overdue, frankly, the current education system of primary and secondary schools are just absolutely apalling. Stressing malay language in the current education syllabi of primary and secondary schools is another step backwards as well now that we’re entering a world of globalisation and all that crap. There are serious flaws in the education sector, hope some one fixes that!. Hopefully we’ll finally see some quality sportsmen or athletes, though i think the possibility of that happpening is quite low.

Recently i have found interest in JRock. Bands such as X Japan, Malice Mizer, Dir En Grey & Vidolls famous for their visual and sonic effects are in a league of their own really. Most of their works are very well mixtures of soft, melodic ballads and mutated versions of speed metal, thrash metal, punk rock, hard rock, alternative rock, neo-classical and victorian classical music. X Japan and Malice Mizer and 2 of my favorite bands. X Japan practice very well executed traditional ballads then without you noticing it, hard thumping drums and rip roaring guitars flare into the limelight… then back to the soft melodies of ballads once again. Nothing is like it. An audio trip to the unknown really. And my bare understanding of the japanese makes the music even more interesting.

While X Japan takes the ballads + Speed/Thrash/Heavy Metal route, Malice Mizer takes a much more darker approach to their music. Neo Classical and Victorian Classical Music takes center-stage as goth rock, death metal and soft ballads seeps in slowly but surely into their rip-rocking tunes. Their methodology of music is darker, scarier and to a point of being evil. Song titles such as Color Me Dark Red or Beast of Blood reinforces their strong dark, occult influences. Its a well known fact that i absolutely adore Cradle of Filth, a death metal band famed for their vampirism, satanic and occultish themes in their music. Malice Mizer takes those views, adds a softer gentle piece adds in Victoria Classical music… pops it into the microwave and set it to high temperature… What you get is something that is utterly out of this world. Something only the japanese is good add, symbiotic relationship between the new and the old world. All those bands mentioned are damn good at what they’re doing. Its kind of hard to swallow their sense of rock music at first, then when those loose nails in your head gets hammered in: Everything is absorbed very well… as if a wonderful tenderloin steak accompanied by the best red wine. No abrupt lumps, no foul tastes… just one very well mix of several musical influences into one, making one fucking good mixture of fusion rock/death metal/speed metal.

Most of the JRock bands above mention practice what’s called Visual Kei, which basically means their looks are as important as how their music sound like. Check the get-ups of X Japan band members and also Malice Mizer.. shocking really, yet still not painful to the eyes, a sense of dark beauty with a no holds barred “I dont give 2 shits what you guys think about me!” attitude to boot. Marilyn Manson or cradle looks like brutes in comparison to these guys.

Finally after a slump while exploring new music to please my senses, i’ve found something very different and very likeable.

Hard to the point of being painful, yet soft as a woman’s touch with a swirl of edginess, darkness and plenty of attitude to boot.

Favorites at the moment:
Malice Mizer - Beast of Blood
Malice Mizer - Baptism of Blood
Malice Mizer - Color Me Red
Dir En Grey - Mask
Dir En Grey - Umbrella
X Japan - Kurenai
X Japan - Rusty Nails