More Tours, More Tours, and MORE TOURS!
I can’t keep up!!! This is insane!!! I figure if I posted all the info for most of the tours, I better post the rest of them, plus a few more have released dates and what not today so let’s do this again.
All Shall Perish have announced a headlining tour featuring support from Carnifex, Fleshgod Apocalypse, Conducting From the Grave, and The Contortionist. Look at the dates HERE.
In addition to a tribute concert for Cory Smoot, GWAR have announced a full tour with support from Municipal Waste and Ghoul. How fun does that sound!?! Not to mention the last date of the tour is right here in Fort Collins!!!! Get info and date HERE.
Dave Mustaine’s brainchild GIGANTOUR has returned and just began this past week. The tour includes Megadeth (duh), Motorhead, Lacuna Coil, and Volbeat. You can buy tickets and check out the dates HERE. If you dish out $250 you can get a “VIP” ticket, including early entry, a photo band members, and other perks. If you have that much money, well, have fun! For us poor folk, just being able to see Megadeth and Motorhead on the same bill would be worth the price of admission!
Finally, this year the U.S. welcomes back Paganfest. The tour took a few years off from the states and will return this year with Turisas as the headliner. Support will come from Alestorm, Ex Deo, Arkona, and Huntress. I’m still kicking myself for missing out a few years ago, so this will definitely be a high priority for myself. Dan and I literally ran to The Gothic in order to watch Turisas play their final 3 or so songs from their set about a year ago, and they were awesome. Check for dates within the next day or two!
Anyone wanna help some broke ass metalheads out!?
-Chris
Behemoth Announce U.S. Dates!!!
The lineup for The Decibel Magazine Tour was announced last week, but hey dates have been announced! The tour will be headlined by Behemoth, the first time the band has returned to the States since front man Nergal was diagnosed (and conquered!) leukemia. Support on the tour will come from Watain, The Devil’s Blood and In Solitude………….dark!
The tour is offering special ticket packages as well as offering every general admission ticket a commemorative laminate as well as lower service fees. Check out tour dates and buy tickets HERE! Let the tours keep coming!!!
-Chris
Mastodon release video for “Dry Bone Valley”
Boing Boing Video have premiered the music video for Mastodon’s “Dry Bone Valley” which can be viewed below. The video was produced and animated by Tim Biskup. This was the track the band opened with on their recent headlining trek in support of The Hunter, and is probably enjoyed best with your favorite recreational drug.
The rumors of a Mastodon, Opeth, and Ghost tour appear to be true as Mastodon’s Troy Sanders confirmed it on a radio interview last week. No dates have been announced but HOLY HELL! What a line-up! We will definitely let you know when those dates are announced!
-Chris
Rolling Stone, you fail, Dave wants to be a preacher.
I thought about titling this post, “Today in ‘WTF?!’ land” because there are two things about this article from Rolling Stone that surprise me. First, it’s that Dave Ellefson (of Megadeth, duh?!) is studying to become an ordained minister in the Lutheran church. Now, Dave being a Christian is not so surprising to me because, well, whatever. Doesn’t change my opinion of his most excellent bass playing. And I do think it’s really cool that he’s following another path that he is passionate about. Nothing against that either. I’m actually kind of for it, because, come on, how cool would it be to say that your pastor is the bassist for Megadeth?! Of course, I neither live in Arizona nor am I a Lutheran, so this won’t happen. Still, I’d go to a church pastored by Dave just to say I did.
So, what about the second thing that makes this article strange? I’m honestly surprised that Rolling Stone is still considered a legitimate presence in the music industry. First, let’s face it; Rolling Stone knows about as much about Metal as I do Country. Which is to say an embarrassingly small amount if I cared. Rolling Stone does not care about Metal, and here’s how I know. Megadeth never wrote an album called Countdown to Destruction and I’m not sure what a “peolel” is, but I think the word the writer was searching for was “people.” I imagine some bespectacled intern hipster typing this up and thinking, “I just want to finish this so I can go fap over whatever Jack White is doing right now.” Or whatever bespectacled intern hipsters are faping over these days. Obviously I give as much of a rip about that scene as I do about Country. ANYWAY…
Dave Ellefson is going to be a Lutheran Minister some day and Rolling Stone makes the kind of mistakes that 16 year old bloggers do. I mean, this blog is no where near perfect and the grammatical structure of this post should be evidence to that, but come on guys! You are Rolling Stone! At least get the name of the album correct! Can I get an “Amen” from all my peolel?!
-Dan
New Iron Maiden DVD/Blu-Ray on the way!
Iron Maiden are set to unleash “En Vivo!” to the world on March 27th. The Blu-ray/2 DVD set and album was filmed during the “Round the World in 66 days” portion of The Final Frontier World Tour in Santiago, Chile. The press release describing the filming states:
The concert was filmed digitally using 22 HD cameras and an octocam (a flying camera which captures aerial crowd scenes), recorded in both stereo and 5.1 audio and mixed by Maiden’s longstanding producer, Kevin “Caveman” Shirley, all of which serves to accentuate the incredible atmosphere of this compelling performance. Disc two of the DVD set is a bonus disc containing an 88-minute documentary, Behind The Beast.
If you haven’t seen Iron Maiden’s Flight 666 by now, you’re really missing out. It was an entertaining and very thorough look at how the band and crew functioned during the entire span of the Somewhere Back in Time World Tour. 
From off days with band members, to the work of the crew members and everything in between it was fun to watch, but the live footage was incredible. Dan and I got to see Iron Maiden on the first leg(?) of The Final Frontier World Tour and they were amazing. A lot was being said about their set list and how they weren’t playing this or that, but overall, it was an amazing show. Sure some of their “staples” were absent during the set, but it was still IRON F*CKIN’ MAIDEN! They played “Hallowed Be Thy Name” so I was happy! This new film looks to have an almost identical set list to what we saw, so it will be cool to see some different songs make it to Blu-Ray/DVD. If you’re one of those who want to hear all the “Classics” – go watch Flight 666!!!!
-Chris
Lamb of God release “Ghost Walking” video.
Most likely to build hype for Resolution‘s release this Tuesday, Lamb of God have given us an animated video for their previously released song “Ghost Walking.” It’s animated, which is something I always appreciate, and there is actually a cohesive narrative to it. I’m not sure what it has to do with the lyrics of the song, but I think you could make a case for the video being “topical” in light of all the SOPA/PIPA stuff. Anyway… check it out below.
Resolution comes out Tuesday, January 24th via some label under the control of Sony Music Entertainment.
-Dan
Impending Doom want you to hate them.
No, really. Vocalist Brook Reeves even says so in the bands new ditty, “For the Wicked” which comes off their newbie, Baptized in Filth (March 13th, eOne). As for the song… well… can’t deny the boys haven’t lost their fire for apocalyptic Christian lyrics. Unfortunately, this song is simply more deathcore chugga, chugga that goes no where. That’s my impression at least. Take a listen below.
On a related note, I really wish they would go back to this style;
Or better yet, THIS!
A man can dream. A man, can, DREAM!
-Dan
Veil of Maya and Enfold Darkness; new tunes for you!
Veil of Maya have hyped up the release of their new single for the past two weeks and today it is upon us. And… it’s good. Not amazing or anything, but pretty good. I really dig the melodic (re)turn they did for the majority of the song. It’s nothing groundbreaking, but there’s a really great sense of melody inherent in the track. Unfortunately, the band throw in a totally unnecessary id style breakdown after a nice keyboard passage. I think I’d much prefer the song to end with a fade out of the keyboards and some guitars. Then again, it’s not my song. Check it out below and let me know your thoughts!
And, if that wasn’t extreme enough for you, Decibel magazine has debuted a new track from Enfold Darkness, titled “Lairs of the Ascended Masters.” If you need a little tech-black/death metal in your veins, this will do the trick. I remember listening to this band a few years ago, but it didn’t stick. I’m not going to claim this as the best thing since sliced bread, but the song is pretty killer and the solo is crazy good. So, yeah I’ll be checking their new one out. Go over to Decibel to give it a listen. Veil of Maya’s Eclipse comes out 2-28-12 and I don’t know when Enfold Darkness are releasing a new album or if this will be on it. Both bands are signed to Sumerian, though, which means I’m going to be forced to buy both albums. Natch.
-Dan
The Omega Experiment; prog-happiness!
Heavy Blog is Heavy alerted me to the upcoming full length release from this band called The Omega Experiment. Due to the cool artwork, I immediately took a listen to the album teaser, and then proceeded to download the free EP. As I’m listening to this, all I can say, “hot damn!” This is some really, really, REALLY great prog-metal. The coolest thing though? There’s a huge Devin Townsend influence in the music, which you don’t really hear a lot of in prog-metal. It’s always nice to get something different. Be warned though, this band will not live up to your expectations; they will destroy them! Enough of my pathetic bantering! Listen to the band below and get some free music here.
-Dan
Go see Scale the Summit….Seriously.
Dan and I have become accustomed to driving at least an hour to just about every show we go to. The drive from Fort Collins to Denver is never really bad, but it’s basically AMAZING when bands come play in Fort Collins. Scale the Summit did just that last month opening for Protest the Hero. I was going to write a review of it, but spaced it until I saw the draft today…a month after. In short I will say it was awesome. Protest the Hero sounded great and it was awesome getting to see them play those songs live. Rody Walker’s vocals were awesome; much stronger than the first time I saw them. But back to Scale the Summit. It was awesome watching their set. With no vocals except between songs, the crowd was hard to read, but from our vantage point on the side balcony, they had the entire rooms attention by the end of their second song. Their sound is so tuned-in and they are such a solid band, it was definitely a treat to watch.
Luckily for everyone, the guys are heading out on their first headlining later this month, appropriately titled the “Their Strings are Voices” Tour. Check out the dates below!
Go support some awesome dudes in an awesome band!
-Chris
iNuke my ears, and everyone else’s.
As the world moves ever closer to a fully digital music experience, I imagine we’ll see some absolutely crazy products come out to enhance, augment, and play with this new phase of music listening. Enter the iNuke Boom. Produced by Behringer, who have a reputation for producing some good quality music equipment (though I’ve never personally used anything by them), the 8 foot, 900 pound iPod dock is the sheer definition of, “why wouldn’t we do it if we can?!” Seriously, I have no idea why anyone, anywhere would need this thing. It’s pure excess. On the other hand, if you ever what to do this to someone, I guess you’ve got the tool. Just be willing to take out a small loan for it.
You can see the premiere of this beast below, and read a little more about it here.
Man, just imagine Origin or Nile coming out of something like this. Someone should get on making that happen and filming it, stat!
-Dan
King’s X to tour the U.S. this spring!
My perennial favorite, King’s X, have announced a Spring 2012 U.S. tour. The best part (for me at least) is that there is a Denver date. I haven’t talked much about this band because, well, they’ve been pretty quiet since the blog started. That said, this news fills me with so much joy! I haven’t seen the band since the tour in support of Ogre Tones, which was back in 2006. Holy crap, it’s been six years! Check out the dates below and a little live video to give you taste of what’s in store. The official website says that more dates are pending, so hopefully everyone will get a chance to catch a show.
King’s X Spring 2012 tour;
3-28-12 Dirty Dog Bar / Austin, TX
3-29-12 Warehouse Live Studio / Houston, TX
3-30-12 Trees / Dallas, TX
4-1-12 House of Rock / Corpus Christi, TX
4-3-12 The Rock / Tucson, AZ
4-5-12 Key Club / West Hollywood, CA
4-6-12 Brick by Brick / San Diego, CA
4-7-12 The Coach House / San Juan, CA
4-10-12 Don Quixote’s / Felton, CA
4-12-12 Cargo / Reno, NV
4-13-12 The Boardwalk / Orangevale, CA
4-14-12 Pound West Oakland / Oakland, CA
4-17-12 Hawthorne Theatre / Portland, OR
4-18-12 El Corazon / Seattle, WA
4-21-12 Herman’s Hideaway /Denver, CO
-Dan
Tid bits of in-fo-mation for your monday.
Cue exuberant 1930's-esque music.
Just some brief things to digest as you drink your morning coffee and get week two of 2012 under way.
Incantation bassist commits suicide.
Could Jesse Leach be returning to Killswitch Engage?
Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath diagnosed with Lymphoma.
Metallica will write an underwhelming spiritual successor to the Black Album.
Sorry for being a downer, as some of these stories are. Our thoughts go out to Tony Iommi and the family of Incantation bassist Joe Lombardo. I guess if there is no bad news, there is no news at all, right? I’ll post something positive later.
-Dan
New Swallow the Sun! New Swallow the Sun!
So there is a new Swallow the Sun track that debuted on Terrorizer today. It comes off the bands new album Emerald Forest and the Blackbird which sees a release date of February 13 via Spinefarm. It seems weird to be this excited about something that will be so dark and melancholic, but I can’t help it. I love a good brood session! Anyway, the song, titled “Cathedral Walls” is killer, features Annette from Nightwish on vocals, and gets the A+ video treatment. So, I’ll stop rambling and let you all watch. Happy, gloomy Friday!
-Dan
Howard Jones Officially Out of Killswitch Engage
Killswitch Engage just released a statement on their facebook page on the current status of the band and vocalist Howard Jones:
To our family, friends and fans: We have decided to continue on without Howard Jones as the singer of Killswitch Engage. We love Howard and are thankful for the nine years that we’ve had him in the band. Out of respect for everyone involved we will not be discussing the specific reasons behind this decision. Howard is a part of our family and always will be, and we wish him well. He has left big shoes to fill, so we certainly have our work cut out for us to find the next singer of Killswitch, something we plan on making priority #1 going forward. Most importantly, thanks to all of you for all the support throughout the years and for sticking by us for all this time. We really do appreciate it and we very much look forward to having a new record for all of you in the not too distant future that we can all be proud of.
Sincerely, Adam, Joel, Mike & Justin.
Bummer. There were all kinds of rumors with what was going on with Howard after his departure mid tour, now close to two years ago. Between issues with some porn star, to drug and alcohol related things, the internet was slinging out all kinds of crazy stories. At this point it doesn’t sound like we will ever really know what happened, but we wish Howard the best. He is an awesome vocalist both on albums AND live, which is one thing I really admired about the guy.
Like the statement said, the band have some big shoes to fill (literally) – I caught his boot to my face when he was crowd surfing at a show at The Fillmore….it sucked. There’s always that hope that the band would reunite with former singer Jesse Leach, which is basically what happened with Times of Grace – but with that not already happening before I doubt that will be the case. We can hope right!? Phil Labonte took Jones’ place on tour and wasn’t terrible, but it just wasn’t the same. Let’s hope the boys can find someone that can fill those boots!
-Chris
Soul Embraced looking for some funds, yo!
As some of you may know, much of my metal roots rest in the Christian metal category. While I am by now means a fervent consumer of this sub-genre of metal anymore, I do from time to time like to go back and see what’s going on. Usually, it’s just the generic breakdown happy, Jesus loving version of whatever is hip in the non-Jesus loving part of the scene (re: The Great Commission, what Impending Doom have become), but occasionally there’s a bright spot (Believer) and a band that I used to listen to coming back. The latter being the case with Soul Embraced, the side project of Living Sacrifice axeman Rocky Gray (who unfortunately played drums for Evanescence, but I can’t fault the man for wanting that paycheck). Soul Embraced always felt like the more traditional metal version of LS and I remembering enjoying their releases quite a bit. So, when thePRP announced that they started a kickstarter page to fund their new record, Mythos, I thought, “hey, here’s a chance to post about a cool band I used to like!” So, there it is. 2012 is off to a fantastic start, no?
You can click on the appropriate link above and check out some tunes below.
-Dan
Some brief reflections on the new Chimaira line-up.
The band's mascot for 2012. The artwork has taken a major turn since Spicuzza left.
So, I wasn’t planning on posting this soon into the new year, but I feel it’s warranted. Over the last two weeks, Chimaira announced their new line-up and not surprisingly, it includes Daath guitarist Emil Wrestler. The other two string players are Jeremy Creamer (Daath) and Matt Szlachta (ex-Dirge Within). There’s also someone named Austin in the announcement, who I’m assuming is the drummer. I have no idea who this guy is, but there it is.
Honestly, this seems like a fine line up. Emil will fit well, especially since he’s been playing bass for the band for the past year. He’s a great guitarist, great riff and song writer and it makes sense to just move him over to lead guitar. As for the bass, well, anyone would be fine. Chimaira were never known for amazing bass playing. I didn’t like Dirge Within when I saw them live, have no idea if this guy played at the show I saw them at, but I’m sure he’ll be a fine rhythm player. In closing, this line-up doesn’t excite me, but I think it could produce a decent album. Of course, Chimaira will probably just tour behind Age of Hell for the next year and I’ll remain uninterested. We won’t know what this line-up will sound like until we have new music, so I guess it’s just business as usual. On a related note, I wonder what is going to happen to Daath? If there was a band that needs to be out there touring and releasing some music, it’s them.
So, 2012 is off to a spectacularly “meh” start, I guess.
-Dan
Want to stop online piracy? Of course you do! Stop SOPA now!
This is going to be the most political post I’ve ever written, but I feel it needs to be written. For those of you who read us in the United States, you’ve no doubt heard of the Stop Online Piracy Act and the Protect IP Act. I want to emphatically state that I am against these bills. SOPA and Protect IP will greatly change the way in which we all enjoy services like youtube, and peruse websites like Metalsucks. It could also potentially kill this blog. How so? Quite simply, what these bills do is extend the ability of the major record labels and hollywood studios to censor any content that is uploaded without their permission. For instance, if someone includes a youtube video as a comment on this blog, then the record label could easily censor it. Even more insidiously, if for some chance a link is found in the comments or in a link in our blog that connects to a pirate website, then this blog could be shut down.
This bill has grave implications for sites like youtube and upstart websites that don’t have the viewership and resources to fight against this. The below video explains it a lot better than I can, so please watch it.
You can also find more ways to get involved at Americancensorship.org
If you live in the U.S., please harass your congressman/woman. I have, and will continue to do so. There are links to the ways you can do that on the link above, or you can find them, at the White House website.
And, if you are so inclined, you can read the full text of the bill at this location.*
And, our friends at Metal State have written a post about SOPA that includes so thinking of how it might affect those outside of the U.S.
As for another means of action, I’ll just say briefly that I think the streaming music services out there are the best defense against online piracy in the music world. I haven’t even thought about torrent sites in months, and I know many others feel the same. Are they perfect? No, but they are a damn better alternative to SOPA.
Thanks for reading.
-Dan
*Thanks to my friend Jeffery Schreier for sending me this link!
Lamb of God: New song; Lyric Video
Yesterday Metalsucks debuted the first single “Ghost Walking” off of Lamb of God’s forthcoming album Resolution. A lyric video for the track was released today and can be viewed below:
It definitely sounds like Lamb of God which is never a bad thing, the acoustic intro is pretty cool, and of course its got that great headbanging hook that they have really mastered over their last few releases. This track is now available for digital download and purchase. The group’s album “Resolution” drops January 24th. Check out some preorders and get your copy HERE. Looks like 2012 is going to start with a bang!
-Chris
NPR streams Cormorant’s Dwellings, calls it “Best Metal Album of 2011″
NPR has put up the first stream of San Francisco, CA metallers Cormorant, and their new album Dwellings. I highly recommend you listen to it. Considering it’s after Thanksgiving and the band have had a chance to catch up on the crazy amount of pre-orders they had (find them on facebook and you can see some of the pictures from the packaging process), those of us in the press (I suppose you can call this blog that…) can now talk about the album. It’s good. Like, scary good. It’s so good in fact, that Lars Gotrich of NPR calls Dwellings the best metal album of 2011. To be honest, I can see his point, because where as Metazoa was really good, I felt it lacked a certain “something” to propel it to the upper echelon of albums released in 2009. I won’t write a whole review on Dwellings here because I need a little more time with the album, but I will say it is worth the price of admission. Go stream Dwellings at NPR and let us know if you think it’s worth the title of “best metal album of 2011.”
-Dan
Rammstein Premiere New Video, Announce North American Tour
Rammstein will be touring North America in April and May of 2012. The band performed a couple of shows last year, but this will be there first full tour in North America in over a decade! Dates are below:
4/20 – Ft. Lauderdale, FL @ BankAtlantic Center
4/21 – Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
4/23 – Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
4/25 – Baltimore, MD @ 1st Mariner Arena
4/26 – Philadelphia, PA @ Wells Fargo Center
4/28 – Uniondale, NY @ Nassau Coliseum
4/29 – Worcester, MA @ DCU Center
5/01 – Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
5/03 – Cleveland, OH @ Quicken Loans Arena
5/04 – Chicago, IL @ Allstate Arena
5/06 – Detroit, MI @ The Palace of Auburn Hills
5/08 – Minneapolis, MN @ Target Center
5/10 – Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
5/13 – Vancouver, BC @ Rogers Arena
5/14 – Tacoma, WA @ Tacoma Dome
5/17 – Anaheim, CA @ Honda Center
5/18 – Glendale, AZ @ Jobing.com Arena
5/22 – Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
5/24 – San Antonio, TX @ AT&T Center
5/25 – Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
I’ve never gotten to see Rammstein before, but it looks like I’ll finally get my chance! The group also recently released a video for the song “Mein Land” which will be appearing on their greatest hits collection Made in Germany 1995-2011. Check out the video HERE (NSFW). The album drops December 2nd, just in time for you to blow even more money on things you don’t need!
-Chris
New Black Sabbath Music, Shows in 2012.
So…Dan and I try to do our best on posting the majority of big news in the metal world. But this site is mainly for fun at the moment, we make no money from it, and both have jobs and/or school which (usually) come before anything we put on this site. Every so often, something big will happen and we’re a little late to the party but feel like we’d been doing injustice NOT saying anything about a story; even if most of you already know. With that being said: Black Sabbath have a plethora of news!
The legendary Black Sabbath lineup of Ozzy Osbourne, Tony Iommi, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward are back together for a new album and tour for 2012. This will mark the first time in over 30 years that the group will record an album together. The album is to be produced by Rick Rubin. The group also announced they will play at this summer’s 2012 Download Festival.
Last time I saw this lineup play was at Ozzfest 2001. Being a sophomore in high school, I thought they were great. Holy hell! I have so many stories I could tell from that show. First festival show….lots of firsts. I got to deal with this:
I walked toward the stadium and had a man give me a Twinkie and tell me “If you walk through those concert gates; you’re walking through the gates of hell!” – The Twinkie was a great cure for the munchies later that afternoon!! Anyway, from what I remember though, Black Sabbath were great. Even if they weren’t spot-on, they’re BLACK FUCKIN’ SABBATH! That being said, that was a decade ago. A lot happens in ten years, especially the older you get. Seeing Ozzy in February was awesome. Was it the best show ever? No. Was it even close? No. But (for me anyway) just SEEING him still up there and still as active and energetic as he was made for a fun evening. While he couldn’t hit all the notes, he still put on a show. With that said, I think the Black Sabbath reunion will definitely be worth checking out, if not just for the chance to see them (probably) for the last time live. As far as Rick Rubin producing the album?! If he told Metallica to channel their early years and we ended up with Death Magnetic, I’m not sure what the hell he will say to Ozzy and crew. Should be interesting! More details and tour info to come.
-Chris
Machine Head to tour U.S. and they better schedule a Colorado date!
UPDATE! FULL TOUR DATES NOW HERE!
OH, DENVER’S THE FIRST DATE OF THE TOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I love Unto the Locust. Sure, it’s not the masterpiece The Blackening was, but that’s alright, because it blows 95% of what’s considered metal these days out of the water. I’m fairly biased when it comes to Machine Head, but even if I wasn’t I’d still dig the shit out of the album. With that said, Machine Head are planning a U.S. tour in the early part of 2012 (that feels weird to write…) with only three dates and the support acts released as of yet. So… here are the dates and a brief video analysis of the support band’s in question.
Dates with support from Suicide Silence, Darkest Hour,and Rise to Remain;
02/06 Norfolk, VA – The Norva
02/08 Atlanta, GA – Masquerade
02/18 San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
Rise to Remain; Did I step into a time machine to 2005? These guys are either going to be surprisingly good, or the most pretentious, generic youngsters peddling a half decade old sound. Nice solo though!
Darkest Hour; will be the best support band, I’m sure. Unless of course they are somewhat forgettable, as seemed to be the case on the At the Gates tour of 2008 (now who’s dating himself?).
Suicide Silence; get ready for Korn ver. 2012! Let’s get our nu-Deathcore on!*
Still stoked to see this tour. Here’s to lots of beers before Machine Head!
-Dan
*I actually find this video/song to fairly amusing, so I’ll be *somewhat* optimistic.
