This is the end...

With all this talk of the apocalypse and the end of the world, it's hard not to get pissed off at News LTD for tying such sensationalism to the recent tragedies we've seen. However, if in ten years I'm eating the hind quarters of a German shepherd over burning phone books while trying to survive in a post apocalyptic world, I'll surely send my apologies to the memory of the Murdoch organisation. The last thing I hope I'll be saying in the future is "in retrospect, all those natural disasters were a pretty clear indication that the end was indeed nigh." All I know is that our civilization has never seemed so fragile.

Post-apocalyptic worlds were primarily the domain of films, some great (Mad Max 2), some terrible (pretty much every other one). But more recently, this genre has become the new hunting ground for game producers (Fallout 3 etc...). Recently, I watched the trailer for a new game called Rage which is some sort of post-apocalyptic-blood-sport-game-show with lots of gratuitous violence and mutant killing. The trailer features a new song by Mark Lanegan (above) and it struck me if there is going to be a voice for the end times, Lanegan is surely the perfect candidate. His smokey baritone seasoned with biblical torment and decay is the perfect voice for the 2012 generation.

I've seen Lanegan perform many a time in different incarnations (Screaming Trees, Queens, solo) and there is something terrifying and other worldly about his stage presence. It is this impenetrable dark focus and intensity that makes every note, every phrase sound like it is the last words you will hear before the lights go out - to be precise, your lights. And if one man must guide us into the darkness make it Lanegan, he seems to know the way...

(Like the song? Download it here.)

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