EPTForced to be classified, 'Ghost Stories' is Progressive Metal Classical Punk Rock. It is usually intricate, and at times absurdly technically challenging. The simultaneous biggest strength and weakness of the album is its unparalleled diversity: for almost every listener there will be tracks they love and hate.
Classical music is perhaps the greatest single influence (piano performance is what I studied formally in college), followed closely by melodic metal. The single biggest band influence is probably Sonata Arctica. All the tracks are on YouTube, where I would direct those interested to a few that show-case the different styles without scaring people off.
Danse Macabre
(cleanly written and accessible, rock sound and instrumentation)
+ Show Spoiler +
Aubade
(love song, classical instrumentation)
+ Show Spoiler +
Legacy
(melodic metal, great degree of virtuosity required from every musician)
+ Show Spoiler +
Hourglass
(rhythmically complex rigorous classical song, with mixed instrumentation. I have nightmares about trying to play this live since if someone gets separated, game over)
+ Show Spoiler +
The whole album can be streamed in high-quality for free here:
http://temurah.bandcamp.com/
Now for the interesting part.
I've missed Starcraft quite a bit since I stopped playing towards the turn of the year (mostly done to focus on finishing up this album, among other things). I kind of wanted to do one last big thing with it before Diablo III comes out, so I thought I would do something a bit off the wall to motivate me to practice and play one last time, and to get a few people to listen to this music that otherwise wouldn't have. So...
Beat me, win $10
This is an open invite for anyone who has listened to this album and is not in the top 600ish in NA to play me in a Bo3 challenge match, and if you win, I'll just send you $10. Simple as that, no strings attached. I plan on playing until I deplete my PayPal account (which would be about 20 matches due to me being poor), or until I have played 50+ matches whichever comes first. Obviously this will be over the period of a week or 2.
Rules in detail:
-Must have all bonus pool cleared [EDIT: THIS IS BEING TOSSED OUT. If bonus pool isn't cleared, I'll look at profiles on a case by case basis to try to determine if it's not a top level smurf with few games played, but for the vast majority of people this isn't necessary] and must be beneath the rating of 900 rated Master (including adding uncleared bonus pool). I estimate I'll be playing around 900ish by this Monday, and I'd like at least a 50% chance to win each individual match. If there is indication that you are a monster bad ass I have small possibility of beating in my current form (GM last season or something), I'll probably dodge playing against you. Anyone else can play, although if you aren't at least high diamond you would probably have less than a 5% chance of winning the Bo3 (that said you have nothing to lose so why not).
-Map pool is ladder maps. You veto 3 maps then I veto 3 maps. None of these maps can be chosen over the course of the match. You pick the first map, then loser picks the subsequent maps. If for some reason you would prefer to be in my map choosing position instead, we can swap roles.
I will start playing matches most hours I'm available starting next Monday (May 6th), and assuming there are a lot of people who want to take a crack at it, I'll probably be trying to play 8-10 hours a day. Anybody who knows they want to play me should post in this thread or PM, and then when I go to play people I will prioritize from the top of the list. If nobody on the list is there to play when I am looking to start, I'll just play any random person in my clan channel at the time (clan eP). By the way, I'm not going to do anything to test if you've actually listened to the music, I'll just be using the honor system.
Assuming you win, I will pay-pal you $10 right away, or if you reside in the U.S and don't or can't have a Paypal account, I can mail you $9 in cash (-$1 for postage + hassle since I'm lazy. That would also mean that you have to give someone you don't know over the internet your address, and though I would like to think my reputation is good enough that I'm considered trustworthy, that's ultimately your call of course.
I might stream the matches, might not. I can't decide if it's something people would actually like to watch. I'll edit the exact daily times I can play into the post once I know for sure on a night by night basis.
Anyway, to anybody who took the time to listen to the album or even a single song, thanks. Due to the backwards development of the music (it having been fully conceived, composed and recorded before we found musicians that can stick with us and play/tour full time) almost nobody has heard it.
In the meantime I should be practicing...
~ButteryLlama
List of people who want to play (if you'd like to be added just post here or PM me):
+ Show Spoiler +
aztrorisk
ShadowDrgn
LlamaNamedOsama
GenesisX
Nibbler89 (depending how godly you are, what you said about needing to throw games to stay under rating makes me scared)
Foogazi
RAGEMOAR The Pope
smaug81243
ShadowDrgn
LlamaNamedOsama
GenesisX
Nibbler89 (depending how godly you are, what you said about needing to throw games to stay under rating makes me scared)
Foogazi
RAGEMOAR The Pope
smaug81243
