Posts Tagged ‘FunCom’
First Artisan interview out on Alternative Matter
I did my first Artisan-related interview recently, it’s out now. Here’s how it turned out;
The rise of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook give bands and artists unprecedented freedom to promote their music without the interference of any record company. Borknagar guitarist Jens F Ryland decided to capitalise on this by starting his own multimedia project, called Artisan. Besides music it features a very informative blog component as well. I had a very pleasant conversation with the man himself about this Artisan project, his other musical exploits with Borknagar and ICS Vortex and about the apparent acceptance of extreme metal in more mainstream circles.. Read the rest of this entry »
Lyrics for “Road to Khitai”
As you might have guessed, Hyboria isn’t a real place. But the universe of Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard is strongly inspired by the ancient world and the geography we know from Mother Earth. This means; snow to the north, tigers in the jungle areas and scorpions in the desert. Age of Conan is based in an era where Conan has become King of Aquilonia, which seems to be like ancient south of England or north-east in France.
The original game Age of Conan allowed the players to explore areas within the nations of Aquilonia, Cimmeria and Stygia. And my journeys in Cimmeria and “Ymirs Pass” led me to the ruins called “Amphitheatre of Karutonia” which was the reason and background to the idea about making this song.
But at this time Funcom had already launched an expansion called “Rise of the Godslayer” which led us into the eastern kingdom of Khitai, and the song then evolved into a story about how the players are sent to Khitai by King Conan to search for the source of Assassins sent to Aquilonia to kill him. If you choose to follow the story-line it’s a quite intriguing story involved which I used a long time unveil.
Artisan- Road to Khitai
Music; Artisan, Text; Jens F. Ryland
WAAAAAAR
I call on you my Cimmerian friend
Head east, put this threat to an end
When you find the source of this flood
Tell them; “Conan is here for your blood!”
Hidden by night, armed to their teeth
With Lotus poison and silent feet
Curse you all, I’ll have my revenge
My blood-soaked sword shall speak for itself
Fear every shadow
An eye for an eye
You can’t hide forever
Behind the walls of Khitai
My Castle invaded by terror unseen
Silent Assassins and Wizards obscene
I showed them no mercy, they didn’t retreat
Repeat, repeat; the Bells of War
Fear every shadow
An eye for an eye
You can’t hide forever
Behind the Wall of Khitai
WAAAAAAR
Tell them; “Conan is here for your blood!”
———————Jens
Two releases in one week, then vacation.
As you already know by now, Asgeir has eloped to Las Vegas and is working hard to bring back all the Dollar he can. He has made two posts this week from his escapades, that you can see;
“Donks on a draw” and “World Series”
I also ran away from Oslo, but I ran the opposite way then Asgeir did. I headed up to Northern Norway to visit my parents together with my family, and while Asgeir is in the boiling dungeons of Las Vegas, I’m driving around in a tractor, fishing and relaxing.
Online games, what is it really?
Are you familiar with the term MMORPG?
As the release of the first Artisan video now approaches, I’d like to share some facts and viewpoints about the universe of Online Gaming and why it attracts so many people.
I always get the same reaction from people who know nothing about Multi Media Online Roleplaying Games (mmorpg), they think I’m rather childish to be playing at my age and they’ve heard only bad things about it, specially when it comes to abuse and addiction. And I have a feeling the Artisan video will create more of the same reactions, let’s say I’m preparing my defence he he.
Online gaming started as soon as the Internet was introduced, and the first online game that was introduced with some actual graphix was “Neverwinter Nights” in 1991.











