Testament is an American thrash metal band from Berkeley, California. Formed in 1983 under the name Legacy, the band consists of vocalist Chuck Billy, guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick, bassist Steve DiGiorgio and drummer Gene Hoglan. In the 33 years since its inception, Testament has had numerous lineup changes, and Peterson has been the only constant member. Billy replaced former singer Steve Souza in 1986, prior to the recording of their first studio album, The Legacy, and has been a member of the band since. Billy and Peterson are the only band members to appear on every album.

Testament is often credited as one of the most popular bands of the thrash metal scene, having sold over 1.4 million albums in the United States since the beginning of the SoundScan era and 14 million albums worldwide. To date, the band has released ten studio albums, four live albums, six compilation albums, and twelve singles. After signing a recording contract with Atlantic Records in 1986, they released their debut album The Legacy in 1987 to critical acclaim. Many of their subsequent albums — including The New Order (1988), Practice What You Preach (1989), Souls of Black (1990), The Ritual (1992), The Formation of Damnation (2008) and Dark Roots of Earth (2012) — were also successful. Testament is currently working on a new album, tentatively titled The Brotherhood of the Snake, which is due for release in 2016.

The following is a list of Xenosaga characters.

Development

After Xenosaga I, all the character models were redesigned for Xenosaga II. they were all radically altered. MOMO's and Jr.'s designs became "...taller, slimmer and less child-like" with the end result making MOMO appear slightly older. Shion loses her glasses and alters her wardrobe while KOS-MOS gets blue highlights in her hair. When the first two episodoes of Xenosaga were remade in Xenosaga I+II for the Nintendo DS they were altered to two-dimensional computer graphics with sprites and visual novel-style dialogue sequences.

Playable characters

Shion Uzuki

KOS-MOS

Ziggy

Japanese Voice Actor: Masashi Ebara
English Voice Actor: Richard Epcar (all games), Jason Douglas (anime)

The stage of Xenosaga Pied Piper takes place T.C. 4667, 100 years prior to the events of Xenosaga Episode I. Before he became Ziggurat 8, Jan Sauer was a Captain in the 1875th Special Operations detachment of the Federation Police Bureau. He and his squad were deployed to the planet Abraxas (later renamed Michtam) to investigate murders in the U.M.N.. These terrorist acts were caused by a cloaked individual under the hacker alias "Voyager."

Le Testament is a collection of poetry composed in 1461 by François Villon. Le Testament, comprising over twenty essentially independent poems in octosyllabic verse, consists of a series of fixed-form poems, namely 16 ballades and three rondeaux, and is recognized as a gem of medieval literature.

Analysis

The 2,023 verses of the Testament are marked by the immediate prospect of death by hanging and frequently describe other forms of misery and death. It mixes reflections on the passing of time, bitter derision, invective, and religious fervor. This mixed tone of tragic sincerity stands in contrast to the other poets of the time.

In one of these poems Ballade des dames du temps jadis ("Ballad of the Ladies of Times Past"), each stanza and the concluding envoi asks after the fate of various celebrated women, including Héloise and Joan of Arc, and ends with the same semi-ironic question:

Tell me where, in which country
Is Flora, the beautiful Roman;
Archipiada (Alcibiades?), and Thaïs
Who was her cousin;
Echo, speaking when one makes noise
Over river or on pond,
Who had a beauty too much more than human?
Oh, where are the snows of yesteryear!

This is an index of characters from the Guilty Gear fighting game series.

Creation and influences

Daisuke Ishiwatari has cited Kazushi Hagiwara's manga Bastard‼, and the fighting game Street Fighter II as influence to the Guilty Gear series. However, he noted that the majority of other fighting games were just recycling the character's same skins or style, and so he wanted every character "to be unique in their own way."Kazuhiko Shimamoto's characters was also noted as an inspiration for the men characters, with Ishiwatari saying they needed to be "chivalrous person-like characters", and citing Anji Mito "the most closest to this type". The female ones, on the other hand, have not followed a standard, with he only saying that they needed look like real women.

There are many musical references in the Guilty Gear series, including various characters' names and moves, which were inspired by rock and heavy metal bands like Queen, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica. For instance, the main character, Sol Badguy, was named after Queen's lead vocalist, Freddie Mercury. Both his real name, Frederick, and his last name were influenced by the singer, whose nickname was "Mr. Badguy".

+/-, or Plus/Minus, is an American indietronic band formed in 2001. The band makes use of both electronic and traditional instruments, and has sought to use electronics to recreate traditional indie rock song forms and instrumental structures. The group has released two albums on each of the American indie labels Teenbeat Records and Absolutely Kosher, and their track "All I do" was prominently featured in the soundtrack for the major film Wicker Park. The group has developed a devoted following in Japan and Taiwan, and has toured there frequently. Although many artists append bonus tracks onto the end of Japanese album releases to discourage purchasers from buying cheaper US import versions, the overseas versions of +/- albums are usually quite different from the US versions - tracklists can be rearranged, artwork with noticeable changes is used, and tracks from the US version can be replaced as well as augmented by bonus tracks.

History

Bandō may refer to:

People

Other

See also

Bando (disambiguation)

!!! is a dance-punk band that formed in Sacramento, California, in 1996 by lead singer Nic Offer. Its name is most commonly pronounced "Chk Chk Chk" ([/tʃk.tʃk.tʃk/]). Members of !!! came from other local bands such as The Yah Mos, Black Liquorice and Popesmashers. They are currently based in New York City, Sacramento, and Portland, Oregon. The band's sixth full-length album, As If, was released in October 2015.

Background and history

!!! is an American band formed in the summer of 1995 by the merger of part of the group Black Liquorice and Popesmashers. After a successful joint tour, these two teams decided to mix the disco-funk with more aggressive sounds and integrate the hardcore singer Nic Offer from the The Yah Mos. The band's name was inspired by the subtitles of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which the clicking sounds of the Bushmens' Khoisan language were represented as "!". However, as the bandmembers themselves say, !!! is pronounced by repeating thrice any monosyllabic sound. "Chk Chk Chk" is the most common pronunciation, which the URL of their official website and the title of their Myspace page suggest is the preferred pronunciation.