Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in hal sinden's LiveJournal:

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Tuesday, December 8th, 2009
10:11 am	twitter if anyone prefers, i'm on twitter: http://twitter.com/halsinden i also tend to use facebook more than any other networking site like here. H (immolate thyself)
Monday, December 7th, 2009
10:57 am	toofy grin (work-safe) http://i.imgur.com/MpUyV.jpg H (1 suffering | immolate thyself)
Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
1:55 pm	name police so can someone explain this? if a person has an unusual name, or not even perhaps unusual but one that might indicate that at some point it's been changed, why is it such a 'thing' for certain types of people to 'out' what their given birth-name or similar is? as someone who has legally changed my name, not only on the grounds that my given birth-name made me hugely uncomfortable due to being bullied over it at school but also having changed it very simply to an accepted abbreviation of my given birth-name, i don't see why it's anyone's business or desire to dig deep enough as if they're unearthing some kind of clandestine scandal. looking back, i've either had or witnessed people having the following thrown at them: - "but what does it actually say on your passport?" - "ok, so that may be in your passport now, but what does it say on your birth certificate?" - "but *name* is such a lovely name, why would you want to change it?" - "but *current name* doesn't suit you at all" - "i prefer *birth-name*, i'm going to call you that" - "oh so you don't like being called that? but it's just a name" - "oh so you don't like being called that? right, i'll remember to call you that when you're in a bad mood" (and then following that with actually doing it) - "what do your parents / family call you?" - "what do your parents / family think?" - or perhaps the most annoying, someone making a game out of trying to guess what my original name is. this seems like great fun to them, and no matter how much i point out that it's not only deeply aggrivating, but actually quite hurtful, they continue. H (25 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Tuesday, October 27th, 2009
6:38 pm	whitby travel plans is anyone driving back from whitby to london on the tuesday, by any chance? H (immolate thyself)
Thursday, July 16th, 2009
10:49 am	terrorizer magazine issue #186 of terrorizer magazine goes on sale today, containing (on page 77) the first official eulogy media ad featuring talanas, dam, beth ryan & elsid with design work by adam at motionless visions. terrorizer magazine H (immolate thyself)
Monday, July 6th, 2009
1:42 pm	underground industries interview, july '09 underground industries interview in which i'm permitted to babble on about a great deal of things (it was actually a great interview) including interlock, eulogy media, talanas, stage performance, remixes, mantronic, shaggability, beth ryan, kharnum, favourite artists, the queen, religion & money. so there you go. H (immolate thyself)
Friday, June 19th, 2009
12:26 pm	syan joins tribazik, and other ex-interlock mini-updates i'm bloody pleased. best to let my ex bassist explain in her own words: I'm happy to announce completion of the TRIBAZIK trinity. Plenty of stuff already happening, like writing a new album, booking tours, blasting cyberspace.......and eating cripsy fish. Next gig to be held at the infamous Slimelight on the 8th of August. Get our flyer and it's only £5 (inc entry to Slimes aftas) myspace.com/tribazik insider info from the poker faced ice maiden (ahem) herself include facts such as the band recording on tape (rather than digitally) at their own studio. things are cracking along for the rest of us ex members, too. tracking is almost complete on the talanas debut EP 'reason & abstract' (featuring joe & hal) with a tentative release date of late july / early august. christina has been writing & recording preliminary ideas for various projects and consulting various highly-placed artists for advice such as a near-hour long brain-picking session with none other than mikael akerfeldt himself. mart has finally received his 7 string baritone from ran custom guitars, amongst other things he's also soon to be helping out on beth ryan's debut release this summer. stay glued. or at worst, sticky. H (immolate thyself)
Friday, May 29th, 2009
4:44 pm	in it again, doing the job i adore... what's this? up until past 4am editing drum prep videos? last minute, replacement parts fast-tracked direct from mapex? it must be STUDIO DAY 2 OF THE TALANAS DRUM TRACKING SESSIONS! tonight will be heavy, watch out for footage www.myspace.com/talanas H (immolate thyself)
Saturday, May 16th, 2009
4:42 am	TALANAS: NEW PAGE, VID & PICS etc. what happened next? we did. behold - the fruits of our labours, we have indeed been busy little bees. that is, if bees had only two legs each, weren't exclusively reliant on pollen and incapable of flying when sober... FORTHCOMING MATERIAL rather than whack off a quick 'rush job' since confirming the new lineup and spurt out a paltry two minute riff-o-rama over your pretty & expectant faces, we've decided to cancel our beer funds, call off our boat trips, get the sherry in and spend some time together in the studio making sure we write you all some decent, firm & obstreperous tunes. the 4 songs (masquerading as the 'reason & abstract' EP) are now ready to record, and we'll be doing so over the next month or two at berry street studio under the watchful ear of the reassuringly tall james dunkley (he does have ever such nice hair and a lovely car, you should see it). you can hear some of the new material, in demo form, in the video posted below. NEW PHOTOS & MYSPACE in the meantime, we've had some available hours to whip out a photo shoot & myspace design. the young, talented and inexplicably blonde ross wildish pointed his lens at us in a public park and it all turned out wonderfully (thanks also to donna stapley for painting our faces with pretty-dust), he also supplied some positively fantastic shots of our then immediate surroundings which you can now see incorporated into the new design of our myspace page, skillfully rendered, tweaked and pinched by adam cutler of motionless visions designs. our 'design chap from across the water' has also fashioned us a nifty new logo which you'll hopefully be seeing a lot of in the future. PRE-PRODUCTION VIDEO BLOG never give people like us a camera. having sifted through the hours of anatomical footage, we've finally managed to pull together enough that will provide a good idea of what we've been up to all this while and what's ahead, interlock's mart anthony has been kind enough to lend his midas touch to the editing & post production (he was responsible for the 'parasite' podcast & 'straight' video). there'll be plenty more like this to follow over the coming months leading up to the release of the EP, alongside some predictably pointless ridiculousness. SANDWICHES nice, aren't they? we like the cheese ones. hal, ewan, duff, josiah & joe (immolate thyself)
Tuesday, May 5th, 2009
5:50 pm	not so much of a whinge, just a moment picking up my guitar today from graham noden repairs in denmark street, i'd walked there from my office in kings cross. things were dragging a tad and i had my eye on the time, somewhat understandably. we have a lot of deadlines on at the moment. i'm known there and have been providing business for years. pat (who works there) says: "um, actually mate if you want to give it about twenty or thirty minutes perhaps" i said that i can't as i really have to back by 2pm. "oh right, are you... you on tour or something? is it a soundcheck?" no mate. no. i'm um... i'm on my lunchbreak. i work in an office at the moment. arg. still, a nice moment was the chaps demanding links to talanas material, them saying they had to hear the result of what such a completely mental guitar could be making. H (5 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Monday, April 27th, 2009
2:42 pm	syan's gig / other post-interlock mega-updates i'm as pleased as punch to give the news of another of my ex-colleagues from interlock confirming a forthcoming live date. interlock's last bass-mistress, syan, will be lending her low end rumble to none other than london's electronic-tinged metal vandals tribazik for their album launch on april 28th in central london: the old street-based noiseniks will be releasing their album 'all blood is red' through eastworld recordings and is currently available at such places as amazon, featuring guest vocals from industrial legend jaz coleman (of killing joke fame). syan tells me she'll be playing through her now somewhat notorious warwick rig for the show and has otherwise been dallying with her own brand of programming alongside her regular appearances throughout the capital as DJ request denied. ------ and what better time would there be to update on what myself & others from the ex-interlock camp are currently up to... HAL the main pursuit-du-jour currently flipping my lid is talanas. this is the prog/death outfit that joe & i had set up around late summer last year, in order to flex some musical muscles and scratch some tech-metal itches, and that on the advent of the interlock split took over as our main project. we're set to record throughout may at berry street studios (the last home of interlock) with james dunkley and will shortly be launching a new myspace & series of video blogs covering the recording process. gig offers have already started rolling in with the first confirmed being fusion '09 at the elgiva theatre in september. next up is my work with beth ryan, also featuring mart from interlock and noise:tek / bad sekta / anticulture recording artist tom whiston. beth is currently writing for her debut release through eulogy media this summer and has been performing several new songs at various venues in the UK, she's also confirmed to play fusion '09 this september. a number of other projects are on the go including some black metal nastiness with ex members of dam & horrid face, some breakcore / noise / death metal crossover with tom whiston and something of a strictly hush-hush 'meeting of minds' with a few metal veteran / pie-eating types (cryptic isn't yet my middle name, but i'm working on it). the now award-winning signature series 7 string from roter custom guitars has seen a lot of work over the past few months, to say the least. weirdly enough, as has my gormless visage for such companies as spiral direct & attitude clothing in the likes of metal hammer & bizarre magazines. JOE still holding the mantle of having the single largest kit ever custom ordered in one piece by a mapex europe endorsee, joe has been honing his talents for a more organic (as in, not tied-down to a backing track!) approach for the talanas material. expect some big sounds over this summer. CHRISTINA since interlock's demise, christina has been fielding a wave of requests for guest vocals. her continued guest work with london-based black metal legends abgott has fulled yet further interest in the appearance of her rasps, roars & ramblings, however she's executed fair selection in her decisions and is now working with a particular few artists, not to mention developing her instrumental skills and working on her own material. people can expect to hear christina's vocals in some pretty surprising formats over the coming months, best to stay glued to her myspace blog, needless to say it'll be bloody & brutal. MART joining us on beth ryan's work, mart has been part of the live set for a number of months now and has already performed at a number of beth's shows. those wishing to see the results of the infamous forthcoming ran custom 7 string guitar he has arriving some time soon this year can hopefully expect to see it at shows such as fusion '09 at the elgiva theatre in september. following the response to his cinematographic work on the latter interlock video output (the 'straight' video & 'parasite' blog etc.), mart will also now be pursuing future audio-visual work. i'm also stoked to say that he's handling the editing & post production of the forthcoming talanas pre-production video blog. H (2 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009
1:49 am	um... is klaus kinski actually gary numan? klaus kinski gary numan H (2 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Tuesday, April 21st, 2009
1:15 pm	yep NOT WORK-SAFE (contains a swearing wordage) H (5 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Thursday, April 2nd, 2009
2:03 pm	NHS: "hal sinden = professional guitarist" and there you have it; not only have the NHS confirmed that they like my guitar playing so much they class it as "professional", but i'm also a gentleman too! berklee? G.I.T.? M.I.T? royal academy of music? you can all bugger off - i have my certificate of professionalism from UCLH!!! H (2 sufferings | immolate thyself)
11:13 am	anarchy query i’ve been trying to hold back on this, but i’m sorry - i can’t hold it down at the moment. i’m aware that i’m treading on the dodgy ground of me arguing my own political views (something i’m not comfortable doing), but all this G20 business has been causing a lot of thought. i’d appreciate honest insight here, as i think i know some people on here who are qualified to answer this. so, anarchists. can someone please tell me, if we’re delving straight into the very deepest intentions and wishes of yer hardcore anarchist (given that, by their essence there should be no such thing as a living nihilist since they’d want to destroy everything which would include themselves, so i mean anarchist and nothing else), what exactly does an anarchist want? perhaps i should put that better - what exactly does an anarchist expect to happen if their objective is achieved? anarchy, ok, but… what replaces it? as humans we tend to gravitate towards some sense of organisation; it’s actually a fairly primal, pack-mentality instinct to develop a pecking order and coordinate / synchronise even the most basic of tasks such as feeding & protection. additionally, if the contemporary aim is to ‘bring down’ the bourgeoisies or rampant profit-mongers inherently placed / working in the capitalist system (am i right? please say if not) then what does an anarchist think these people will then go on to do? they’re not going to disappear, right? so you’ll then have the majority of the middle class of a country like ours wandering around without purpose, people who (already extremely compelled to organise themselves and others) who will inherently then want to re-enter a similar work bracket… which, in order to STOP them going straight back in and setting up a system again, would surely necessitate some sort of organisation? ergo - not anarchy. anarchists would have to police the people who have effectively been policing them, would that not put an anarchist in danger of fast becoming what they riled against originally? as a final point, if the ideal is to have a non-structured society absent of established order, standardised practice & tradition (which, ok, if you’re of a certain age & physical prowess might work to your advantage temporarily) what then happens to the young, old and/or infirm? lex talionis is something i vehemently defend in certain lights, but to bring the matter home a tad - what if an anarchist has a child? who is then in place to protect them, and should some other self-deserving anarchist come along and choose, as i assume will be their right, to wreak merry havoc for no particular reason in the child’s home and cause damage to them in some way - who then is there to pick up the pieces or exact some kind of retribution? my father always taught me to ask of myself, if i’m complaining about something i want to stop, - “what’s the alternative?”. so in this instance i’m asking the same: speaking absolutely pragmatically (not idyllic situations here) what, practically, will replace the system being fought against? if there is one, is there an example anywhere of it working and being capable of sustaining itself without evolving / progressing into an organised system? H (10 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Wednesday, April 1st, 2009
11:11 am	new talanas pics & other shiny things now up - shots taken by robert marchosias late last year featuring our unmerciful gurns and an ill-placed fire exit sign, what more could you ask for? ice cream, probably. depends if you like that sort of thing. keep your eyes peeled & glued to your interwebs for news in the next few weeks on: - a pre-production / studio video blog featuring info and previews of material from the forthcoming 'reason & abstract' EP - live dates for 2009 (one of which is already up for september!) - new logo & myspace layout by adam cutler of motionless visions designs - new photos (featuring the now complete lineup) by ross wildish - fish in your toaster keep it large, TALANAS www.talanas.org (3 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Saturday, January 24th, 2009
12:52 pm	my new peavey rig arrival ( pics etc. ) (2 sufferings | immolate thyself)
Monday, January 12th, 2009
12:49 am	UK: talanas (ex-interlock) seek keyboardist BACKGROUND hal sinden (vocals) & joe butterworth (drums) from interlock have formed a new band since the split. both have experience as signed artists and have toured the UK & US extensively as well as having performed at european festivals, with a number of internationally distributed releases to date. the new band sees hal transferring to vocals & guitar, joe continuing on drums, ewan from sredni vashtar on guitar and duff from no heroes on bass. talanas is based in london, although several members travel in from outside the capital. STYLES / INFLUENCES - influences include: akercocke, morbid angel, evergrey, stam1na, gojira, scar symmetry, cynic, porcupine tree, necrophagist, meshuggah, mudvayne, immolation, tears for fears, dām, aborted, the police - there is existent material which is currently being finalised for a studio recording shortly - the general feel is progressive death metal, however not the style for keyboard solos (a la dream theater) CURRENT / FUTURE PLANS - the band have a slot each week at berry street studio in central london from friday 6pm until saturday 9am, this includes practice space, storage and full use of recording facilities - currently, practices run from 7pm until 10pm every friday - recording for first promo is penciled to start in approxinately 2 months at berry street with production from nathanael underwood (dam, candlelight records) - label negotiations to follow with managerial representation from eulogy media ltd. - 1st album to be recorded ASAP - touring tentatively scheduled for summer '09, overseas gigging offers have now been received REQUIREMENTS - own hardware essential, although the band have a (coal powered) sampler if needed - ability for sound & sample manipulation - strong stage presence - regular funds for upkeep of studio (this is an equally shared cost amongst all members) - time / practice commitment (things are flexible at this stage, but will inevitably tighten) www.myspace.com/talanas management@eulogymedia.com (immolate thyself)
Friday, December 19th, 2008
1:52 pm	this weird sexual persona test thing. quite funny, if not inaccurate. The 5-Night Stand Deliberate Brutal Sex Master (DBSM) Compassionate, loving, and understanding, but only for one business week, you are The 5-Night Stand. Sex is your primary objective, and you are a skilled manipulator. Therefore, you get LOTS of ass. Most likely, you juggle many women at once; you care about all of them a lot, but each of them a little. It adds up, right? One love. You're not dishonest with people, exactly. It's unlikely, for instance, you'd actually say "I love you," just to get laid; and you might even go as far as explaining "I'm not ready for a commitment" to a potential partner. Of course, when you say it, you'd smile that special smile, like you two have an inside joke. Her. The secret of your success? Every nice person has an instinct to fix the broken dirtbag within you. Women especially have this instinct, because deep down they want their sons to be evil, a genetic advantage. To wit, your most likely occupations are stock broker, lawyer, and photographer. You are a hard worker, because power and success turn you on. "While the breadwinning, gentle husbands of the world are mowing their front lawns, you are literally fucking their wives." Your exact male opposite: The Boy Next Door Random Gentle Love Dreamer Always avoid: The Battleaxe (DBLM), The Sudden Departure (RBLM), The Dirty Little Secret (DGSM) Consider: The Stiletto (DBSM) Link: The Online Dating Persona Test | OkCupid - singles | Dating My profile name: : asradel (immolate thyself)
Friday, December 12th, 2008
2:40 pm	want want want researchers develop method to transmit brain images to computer screen H (1 suffering | immolate thyself)