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Thunder Run at Canada's Wonderland. I can't explain why I have so much fun on this ride, but I do. Plus...it has a dragon!

Last night marked the start of my 2015 concert year. Coincidentally, it started the same way 2014 started with Dark Tranquility! Primalfrost, Valfreya and Insomnium were in support. I ended up loving Primalfrost. How have I not heard these guys before? They were very skilled and put on a great display of fast guitar solos. They're probably the best "random local opening act" I've ever seen at a concert before. Valfreya as always put on a good show. I can never complain about hearing viking/pagan metal. Their lead singer is one of the few women who can do growly vocals well (the other being Masha from Arkona). They also did their awesome foam sword wall of death bit again. Basically, they toss out a bunch of foam swords into the audience and start a wall of death. It's way more fun than it should be. Insomnium put out one of the best metal albums in 2014, Shadows of the Dying Sun, so I was super pumped to see them live. As expected, they delivered a great set that got the crowd very excited. Dark Tranquility is one of the leading voices in melodic death metal and it was nice to see them again. They played a good mix of older songs and stuff of the "new" album Construct which they've been touring for since last year. They didn't play my favourite song, but I was still pleased with their set list. I definitely look forward to seeing them again this summer at Wacken. Here are some pictures! Primalfrost! Valfreya! Insomnium! Dark Tranquility!

I tried my damnedest last night to figure out where this was. the SBF website has a list of their drop tower installations, but none of the photos I could find matched this. The metadata also isn't much of a help either. The file name is essentially "1bf.jpg" or something to that effect.

Just because I really had nowhere else to put this... Last night, Canada won the World Junior Hockey Championships. Which is a huge deal here, because hockey. Anyway, I work with one player's mom. Here's what was done to her door this morning:

Defunct rides: Python (BGT) Big Bad Wolf Skyrider Disaster Transport Wildcat (CP) Opa Rolling Thunder Cyclone (SFNE) Relocated rides: Wild Maus (BGW) - now Sand Serpent at BGT Ragin' Cajun - now Ragin' Cajun at SFA

I also really enjoyed Gilroy Gardens when I was there in June. The various gardens offered a nice break from the normal "omg coasters and rides" pace of visiting a park. It felt like I could just relax and take it easy there. Plus, it's ridiculously beautiful.

Finsterforst - "Fremd"

Skalmold - "Að sumri"

Solstafir - "Otta"

My all time favourite shows are (in no particular order): The Wire Breaking Bad The Simpsons (seasons 1-10 only) South Park Bob's Burgers Top Gear I recently binge watched the first season of House of Cards. Holy crap, is that show awesome. I just started the second season and can't wait to see where it goes.

Here's my top 10 longest coasters: 1. Beast 2. Millennium Force 3. Voyage 4. California Screamin' 5. Steel Force 6. Dragon Mountain 7. Leviathan 8. Mean Streak 9. Bizarro (SFNE) 10. Ride of Steel

Behemoth - "Ben Sahar"

Iron Maiden - "The Talisman"

Revocation - "Anthem for the Betrayed"

Skalmold - "Upprisa"

I absolutely cannot agree with this post enough. Well said.

Obituary - "Visions In My Head"

Gas was down to 98.6 cents/litre this morning. Which is amazing considering we were upwards of $1.30/litre just a couple months ago. On the same token, the collapse in oil prices has hit the Canadian economy pretty hard.

The announcement was months ago. But, new for 2015 will be a new slide and splash pad at Splashworks. https://www.canadaswonderland.com/what-s-new

Enslaved - "Roots of the Mountain"

LaRonde needs a lot more than this to make it a good park. What is needs has nothing to do with the rides, but the people that run them. I cannot agree with this more. La Ronde has a couple of really good rides (Goliath, Vampire and to an extent, Dragon). But, what absolutely kills any fun at the park is operations and the staff.

^ I'm surprised they didn't cancel on you. I may or may not still be bitter about them cancelling their entire North American tour this year.

I finished my 2014 concert season on Tuesday night with one of my favourite acts, GWAR. After Oderus died earlier this year, I thought I would never see them again. But happily, I was proven wrong. The new vocalists, Blothar and Vulvatron were fantastic additions (though Blothar was actually the original Beefcake the Mighty). Like last year's show, I managed to get a spot front and centre. This of course meant I was completely soaked in fake blood by the end of the first song. The entire show was based around "where did Oderus go?" and trying to find him. When Blothar finished singing his first song, the other members said "wait..who the f**k are you?" with Beefcake saying "I think I've seen you before" as an inside joke. At the start of their encore, there was a very touching memorial to Oderus where they carried out his sword and made a memorial out of it. The crowd took that very seriously too as a respectful silence fell over the crowd. As always, it was a great show. The band is in good hands with the two new singers and I look forward to seeing them again. Here are some pictures! American Sharks! Corrosion of Conformity! The after picture! I really needed a shower.

On that particular night, there was nothing the park could have done to really improve things. In all the years I've been going there, I've never seen it that busy. Even with all the entrance turnstiles open, it was still a mess getting in. It also wasn't like the ride ops were slow, it was just that busy. For instance, the line for Leviathan went back to the drink stand by Dragon Fire. Even during its first season, I had never see the line that long. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if the park was approaching capacity limits that night. But the Saturday right before Halloween is always the absolute busiest night of the year. So, I wasn't surprised.