All posts tagged: metal

Feeling Festive at the Berlin Christmas Markets!

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Berlin is one of the most culturally diverse and artistically relevant cities in the world and there is so much to say about this global capital, but we are gonna save all of that for later… because right now we need to focus on the Christmas markets! This city takes its holiday festivities very seriously, and there are a wide range of Christmas markets for every taste.  We visited a few of the markets, and our favorite is the WeihnachtsZauber at the Gendarmenmarkt, located between the famous Konzerthaus and the French Cathedral.  Our most feverish holiday expectations were met with joyous Berliners occupying pristine stalls selling Glühwein (hot mulled wine), handmade ornaments, gourmet holiday treats, and everything Christmas and Hanukkah themed.   Make no mistake, Santa Claus is definitely coming to this town! ^^^The holiday spirit abounds at this magical marketplace, and we were delighted to see so many festive wares on display in the square.  We spent the entire afternoon perusing the stalls and checking out the goods. ^^^We took a break for lunch …

The Catacombs of Paris

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A lot of people live in Paris, and have been living here for a long time (since 9800 B.C. to be precise).  A practical question arises with this: what happens to all the the dead people?  The Catacombes de Paris is a sprawling underground network of tunnels which stores the remains of over six million corpses.  It’s hard to belive that the beautiful and vibrant city of Paris lies on top of a massive underground grave which contains centuries of  deceased Parisians. Wow this is sounding pretty creepy… can’t the bones just be buried under the ground and then we can leave it at that?  Nope, this is Paris and everything is beautiful, so the bones are displayed in an overtly ornamental manner and tickets are sold to visitors wanting to explore this “curiosity” of Parisian culture, and this is one of the most-visited tourist attractions in the city. Woah hold on a second, isn’t The Alternative Atlas  based on avoiding tourist traps?  What about this is cool and alternative?  While waiting for entry to the catacombs we got …

UK TechFest 2015

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Opalescent.  I overheard this word being used by a concert-goer to describe their experience at UK TechFest 2015, and this is one word that I cannot get out of my head.  At first I was confused by this description, but as more time passes I am becoming more comfortable with it.  About 700 attendees assembled between July 8th-12th this year on the beautiful grass plains of Newark-on-Trent, England to watch their favorite metal bands perform inside huge aircraft carriers which housed two stages. The first large main stage hosted international touring acts like Monuments, Decapitated, Slice the Cake, and Nexilva, and a smaller second stage where I played with my band Kardashev alongside Portuguese tech-death forerunners The Voynich Code and our label mates The Room Colored Charlatan.   I got a kick out of that word.  Opalescent.  At first I would have never used that word to describe the experience.  In fact, nothing about the festival was glamorous; it was truly a rowdy and drunken ruckus from beginning to end.  The Newark Showground was transformed …