The next chapter of Forbes' story, "Investigations: The Lightning Man" is now available to read!  Click on the link button below to head there directly, or go to the Stories section of the website to start from the beginning (in case you need a recap).

For future reference, all chapters will be revealed on Mondays from now on.  This includes any future stories as well.

Enjoy!

Ladies, gentlemen, anything in between, we are pleased to announce the most recent addition to our website - "Stories".  A collection of fictional writings by the team (but mainly Forbes).  These stories have a large variety of topics (or at least there will be once more have been written and added to the website).

The first addition to the new page is called "Investigations: The Lightning Man".  Written by Forbes earlier this year, it is about a team of detectives (but mainly one in particular by the name of Campbell McGill) trying to solve the case of a man on a killing spree, who is able to shoot lightning from his arm.

This story has been split into 6 parts.  The first 2 are available as of today, while each of the remaining parts will be released weekly until the final 2, which will be released together like today's batch.  It will be the end of April by the time the entire story will be revealed completely.

To find the Stories page, go to the top of the page on our website and hover the mouse arrow over the "more..." tab.  From there the rest of the menu will appear and it will be there amongst others.

Alternatively, you can click on the button below...

Please remember to leave a comment, etc.  Let us know what you think!

The next chapter will be released on Monday 7 April.

Hello there!

Starting from next week I’ll be bringing you a story called "Investigations: The Lightning Man".  It will be split into 7 parts spanning over 5-6 weeks, with one or two parts every week.

It’s a crime story from a world I have used before called Gosney, and I have written elements of these characters before.  As I have mentioned on Facebook, this is a made for Stuffed Duck Productions release only.  You won’t find it on any of my personal sites on the web, only here and our affiliated sites will you be able to read this!

I hope you enjoy it.  I have plans to release more short stories here providing the feedback I get is positive.

This story is about a detective's struggle to bring a desperate and unique man to justice.

As always, hope you enjoy the things we bring you here and look forward to feedback.

Cheers!

-Weasel-

Howdy there!  Welcome back to another installment of "Weasel Words"!  Hope everyone is having a fantastic day or night?  Well?  Don’t be shy!  You can speak up!  Oh right, sorry.  I forgot about how this whole Internet thang works.  Anyway, I hope that wherever you are and whatever you are doing that you’re doing it well and enjoying yourselves.

Right, down to the business at hand.  Here we have the fourth album in Black Sabbath’s catalogue, aptly named "Vol. 4".  The individual on the cover is none other than the man himself, Ozzy Osbourne.  The font as you will no doubt see and understand is very 1970’s.  The information in the sleeve on my CD (a better quality one) states that this was released in 1976, the year of my brother’s birth.

This is from a heavy point of view the pinnacle of the Sabbath sound.  "Master of Reality" was heavy but I believe this record is heavier in many respects and represents the sound that made them a success.  The biggest difference for me that separates this record from the previous three is the theme of love that etches its way into a couple of the tracks and there are a couple of instrumentals in here as well, but "FX" has to be the most pointless track to have ever been created.  It basically is a minute and forty seconds of Iommi playing around with the frets of his guitar.

The opening track, "Wheels of Confusion" is a brilliant start to the album and indicates that we are about to witness something truly special.  It’s also one of Sabbath’s longer tracks, which makes the fact that the band can turn its length to its fortune quite a credit indeed.  The ending is a brilliant rock out moment with Iommi leading Butler and Ward out of the song well.  I have listened to this song many times just to hear the ending.  Absolutely brilliant.  But as good as this song is, there is better to come.  "Supernaut" is the best song on this album and one of most personal favourites.  Again, it’s the cymbal work by Ward that makes it work so well.  There is a solo in the middle of the song that is absolutely amazing and words cannot describe how awesome it is.  Again, Ward’s work on this song cements his place as one of music’s best drummers of this period of time.  The lyrics are about travelling in space?  I dunno.  The lyrics are a bit vague, have a listen to it for yourself and come up with your own hypothesis.

"Snowblind" is a cool song too, and Sabbath delve into the drug theme once again for this one, but the music is strong and soulful with Iommi provided great, strong riffs.  "Cornucopia" is a heavy song with great work by Iommi and Butler, but once again, it is Ward who steals the show.  You may have noticed a recurring theme here.  Well, I hope so in any case.  The best I can figure out is that this song is about depression and living within the world of man?  "Laguna Sunrise" is a cool wee number largely by Iommi and a keyboard and achieves quite a surreal sound.  You can imagine listening to this song on the beach during sunset, or that’s what I believe.  "St. Vitus' Dance" is a festival-style dance fest song, if that doesn’t make sense, well I can’t describe it any clearer than that.  Lyric wise this is a song about giving love another chance.  "Under the Sun" is a song similar in style to "Cornucopia", at least from a musical perspective.  Lyrically it’s a song about living your life without regrets.  The ending is pretty cool. The song just completely slows down until it finally stops.  Excellent.

All and all, not a bad album.  It has a few good numbers in there, a few knock out blows and shows that Sabbath were really laying the platform for others to follow.  As I said earlier, "Supernaut" is a personal favourite of mine, and "Wheels of Confusion" has a very awesome ending.  Everyone does some good work on this record, but Ward has to receive the award for greatest contribution.  He really isn’t any better than he is here and shows just how good he can be with his manic beating of kick drums, snares and most importantly, cymbals.

I have to say, not a personal favourite of mine.  The albums of either side would be among my favourites, but this one was, for me rather average in terms of general appeal.  I like most of the songs, but apart from "Supernaut", most of the rest are good, perhaps great but not outstanding.  Still, the albums stands as a reminder to the glory days of the Sabbath sound and the peak of their rhythmical style.  After this point the sound gets a little lighter, but I believe the songs get a little catchier and a little more enjoyable.

So, that’s my review of "Vol. 4".  Hope you enjoyed it.  Give us feedback - we always like that - and head to our many pages and links.  Check out the full website and see what we have on offer.

Next up will be a couple of my favourites and in the essence really the last two albums that the band actually enjoyed doing, so I’ll see you next time.  Enjoy yourselves and listen to the album, it really is quite good.

Cheers!

-Weasel-

Just in case anyone was wondering how we run things on this website, regarding new material, what we'll be doing is this.  Whenever either Forbes, myself, or both of us have something new to contribute, the finished product (e.g. a video or audio piece) will be posted on the blog page first.  The item will be added to the appropriate page later on down the line.

If it's just a blog entry, obviously it'll just remain here.  There is a link to the archives to the right, which will allow for you to view older posts.

Have a nice day.  :)

P.S.  A new series is currently being worked on.  Stay tuned.