... That's what she said.

No, get your minds out of the gutter... I'm referring to the size of this newspost, it's gonna be a big'un. So you TL;DRers may as well bugger off now.

First things first, I am once again going to divide this newspost into sections, each labelled with the general theme of the news in that section, making it easier for people to read what they care about and skip over anything they don't. Anywho, here we go:

March / April Metal MAC
If you haven't seen it already, I am hosting the MAC ([bi]Monthly Audio Contest) for the months of March and April under the theme of Metal... Because apparently the community thinks I'm some kind of metalhead, no idea where they got that idea.

In any case, if you're at all interested in metal, I strongly suggest you give it a look here. That link leads to the main contest thread, where all the submissions will be... well.. submitted. There is also a discussion thread for questions, WIPs, and general chatter about the contest, generally, anything that's not an actual submission goes here.

The contest is officially sponsored by Newgrounds, so there are some pretty awesome prizes to be had for those that come out on top, I hope to see a lot of awesome submissions!

Music
So, I wanna ask you guys a question. How does a "pay what you think it's worth" album release from me sound?

Why do I ask? Well, I've been getting more and more people asking for me to actually put stuff on iTunes or even just put out an actual album. And while I'm not sure there's enough interest yet to warrant an iTunes release, there is enough that I may do an independent release letting you guys pay pretty much whatever the hell you want for it.
At this point in time, I'm thinking of making it a 6 or so song EP that will feature maybe half songs from my newgrounds profile for familiarity sake (And probably polished a bit extra) as well as a couple new songs that will be exclusive to the EP.
Or I can do a full album and include all 3 of the genres I do often (Metal, Trance, Classical), mixing things up a bit, also with a ratio of old and new songs (Again, exclusive to the album).

At this point, it's just an idea... I want to get an album done either way, but I figure I'd test the interest in it first and get some feedback on how varied or large an album/EP you'd expect.

Album aside, I've released a new song that I've yet to include in a newspost, so here it is along with a few other songs I'd love to get some more feedback on:
Angel Fall (Trance)
Above It All (Feat. Bad-Man-Incorporated) (Metal)
Tick Tock (Trance)
A Taste Of... Version 4 (Orchestral Metal)
Them (Classical)
Final Flight (Updated!) (Trance)
Yin (Classical)

Gaming
Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
So, I recently picked up Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning... Of which I had 0 interest in until the day of release. I looked at some of the trailers and thought, "Meh... Just another Fable disappointment."

But being the open minded person I am, I downloaded the demo to give it a go anyways. And I was pleasantly surprised by what I got... So much so that I bought it. I definitely don't regret the purchase... I've spent probably a good 50 hours in the game, and I've barely touched the main story at all (I think I'm only like 3 quests in). There's so much freaking content that it almost puts Skyrim to shame. From what I've played so far of the main story, it actually seems to have a somewhat unique plot in regards to the cliche stories you often get in RPGs now-a-days. Having tons of fun with the game, an open ended RPG with action combat and the ability to respec any time you choose (Assuming you have the cash)... It's just awesome, and any RPG (Especially action RPG) fans should definitely check it out.

Tera
I've been out of the MMO scene for a while now, having been completely burned out on the traditional mechanics... Point, click, wait, loot, repeat. And I had 1 MMO on my radar... that was Guild Wars 2.
Now I know what you're thinking, "But BFP... This part is titled 'Tera'!"
And you're completely right, it is. Hear me out. I've been looking forward to Guild Wars 2 for a long time, touting it's action based combat system and unique gameplay systems that set it apart from all the other MMOs out there... I was impatiently waiting for this game.

Then Tera jumped out in front of me out of nowhere one day, and it was also touting an action combat system... In fact, there is no targeting in the game at all (Not in the traditional sense of cycling through targets anyways)... Nor is the game "I click my skills" friendly... In fact, it's practically impossible to play without all your skills keybound or play using a plugged in controller. You have to aim your abilities, there's no RNG targeting miss or hits here... even healing has to be done by aiming at your party members.
I went ahead and preordered the game (Releasing May 1st) and got into the second beta weekend event... And it's the most fun I've had with an MMO in a long time... Combat isn't a grind, it's actually entertaining, and the more skills you get, the more awesome it gets as you start jumping, flipping, warping all over the battlefield dodging your enemies while blasting away at their health as you would in a God of War game.

I'm really looking forward to the games release now and I've pretty much all but lost interest in Guild Wars 2 as it is still far, far off. I'm hoping the game stays fresh all the way to the level cap, and PvP at end game seems like it'll be quite fun.

Battlefield 3
Not too much to say about this one... you all know what it is, so I shouldn't need to link to a game page... But I do want to say, the game is a lot more fun now that I don't suck horrendously at it.

And honestly, I would probably still suck horrendously at it if it wasn't for this guy.
He's posted a ton of tips and tricks videos for the game, and I've watched almost all of them... Before watching his videos, my average K/D in game was like 0.5 (Gross... I know). After watching, I've been averaging more around 1.5-2.0 (No joke). Surprisingly, the tip that made arguably the biggest impact on how well I play was turning my mouse sensitivity WAY down. I was always under the impression that "pro players" used high sensitivity so they could adjust quickly and pop people in the face behind them before they get a second bullet into your back. Boy, was I ever wrong. My sensitivity in game is about half of what it was prior... and now I'm picking people off like crazy. I can't turn around nearly as fast... but like RivalxFactor says in his mouse settings video... if they're behind you, you're probably already dead anyways.

Now that I don't suck so much, I'm having a blast playing the game... Although I still suck at flying jets/helicopters.

Miscellaneous
Not too much to share in this section... except this one really bad ass song I found on youtube... and immediately got into my playlist:

And just because I don't wanna leave it at just a single item in the Misc. section... Here's a cute gif for your viewing pleasure:

It is with great displeasure that I must inform you all that these two vocaloid songs describe my life to a T.

That is all.

As mentioned a while back, Bad-Man-Incorporated had agreed to do a vocal part for my song Above It All. That was quite a while ago...

However, the wait is finally over, he sent me the track with his vocals on it earlier today, and I promptly got on rerecording a couple lead parts (As well as adding a new riff over the last section of the song that accompanies the ending solo), and got it up on the site.

No more waiting! Enjoy!:

Above It All (Featuring Bad-Man-Incorporated)

PS:
Been a while since I've done a newspost that isn't "TL;DR"... hur hur.

PPS:
I have also just started up a second youtube channel for videos slightly less related to my music, mostly for gaming, so definitely check that out, got a couple videos up already:
PurgatoryGaming
And my official music channel:
BackFromPurgatory

Not gonna be quite as ginormous as my "Last Newspost Before Redesign", so TL;DRers, congratulations!

For starters... what I think of the new site:

PROS
-- Sexy and sleek overall look
-- Notifications for when people you've favorited put up new content
-- 1 vote per user on any given submission on the Audio Portal (Why is this a pro? Because it all but eliminates 0 bombing) ((Or so I thought... seems you can still vote on songs more than once, someone lied to me! *angry faic*))
-- Audio Portal finally has collaborative crediting along with tons of other new goodies
-- More smilies to play with on the forums
-- Larger forum signatures
-- User icons in forum posts as opposed to generic level icons (Personal preference... I prefer the avatars)
-- And probably a lot more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

CONS
-- Still no edit post button on the forums
-- No "Respond to Thread" button at the bottom of threads on the forums (I got a script to fix that)
-- No animated sigs/avatars (More personal preference)
-- Layout can seem fairly convoluted at first
-- Many major features didn't make it in time for release, such as the reworked audio mod tools and approval process, unable to change track names, unable to remove tracks, and unable to clearly view stats/new reviews of your audio, among other things.

I'm not listing bugs as a con, because they can easily be squashed as time goes on.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with the redesign, even if it is still more or less under construction.

Moving on, I very recently put up a thread on the Audio Forum that I'd love for everyone to check out, and if possible, participate in, I won't explain it in detail here, because there's a very in depth explanation in the thread itself. But to sum it up, it's based around the "Betcha Can't Play This" series in Guitar World Magazine, except adapted to more suit the Audio Portal community:
Betcha Can't Do This!

And lastly, with the redesign, and the option to have larger forum signatures, I got right on making myself a new signature to show off last night, so I'm gonna show it off here for those that don't spend a lot of time browsing the forums.
It's a bit more simple than my last one, but I think the simplicity suits the feel, maybe in the future I'll try something a bit more complex.. although even with the size increase, it is difficult to fit much in such a tiny space (inb4sexualinnuendo):

That's right, it's now officially 5:17am (6:11am by the time this was posted... oi...) Friday the 3rd of February... 3 days from the launch of the Newgrounds redesign on Monday. As such, this will likely be my last newspost before the redesign, hurrah!
To celebrate, this post is gonna be massive. Don't like reading? Too bad.

Anyways, I have a few things to note, in no particular order:

1: Working On Another Cover
Before I reveal what cover it is this time... Yes, I am still planning on doing my cover of Last Night, Good Night, but I've been procrastinating and finding other fun things to mess with that has been keeping me from finishing it.

This time, it's My Dearest (Opening song for a currently airing anime Guilty Crown, which I have not seen any of yet). I found this video (The one linked in the previous sentence) yesterday, and I thought it was absolutely beautiful... So once again, I went looking for a midi file so I could learn to play it. And yet again, I was unable to find one (At least a decent one), so I downloaded the sheet music and will be working from that to create my own midi.

The cool thing about this is... I've been slacking on re-learning to read sheet music, I already know all the notation and what it means, but the note names across the staff is something I've long forgotten, and worse yet, back when I did know them, I only ever had to use the treble clef, as I didn't play piano. So now I'm using this opportunity to help drill the note names into my head while I'm transcribing the sheet music to midi. 2 birds with 1 stone.

2: Above It All (Feat. Bad-Man-Incorporated)
I mentioned this a while back, that Bad-Man-Incorporated will be doing a vocal part for my song Above It All. Yes, it's been a while, and I have had a person or two ask when it's coming, and the answer is "Soon TM".
It hasn't been forgotten, it hasn't been scrapped, BMI is a busy guy. Despite this, he sent me a sample earlier yesterday, and we're working out the verse part. So it is coming, I promise.

3: Skype
Recently, the audio forum has somewhat banded together on Skype to chat, help people with issues related to their songs, feedback, and generally just have a chat group they can log into and shoot the breeze with fellow audio folk.
Given this, my Skype account has practically become my official chat medium for Newgrounds, and seeing as I am an audio mod, I figure I may as well shoot my Skype contact out to anyone that cares to chat, be it about audio issues, games, whatever.

So, here's my Skype name:
BFP
When you search that up, apparently there are like 200 results, but look for the one that has the name Back-From-Purgatory with it, and that'll be me. Feel free to add me, and shoot me a message any time.

4: Butterfly Effect
Ever seen the movie "Butterfly Effect"? Did you enjoy it? Do you enjoy anime?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, I have something for you... If you answered no to the majority of them, move on to #5.
Steins;Gate, watch it.
There are no words to describe how awesome this anime is. As suggested, it is very similar to Butterfly Effect in terms of plot elements, it is centered around the idea that changing things in the past, no matter how minor can have dire effects on the future.
The flutter of a butterfly's wing can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.

The show makes great use of this plot element as it shifts through numerous moods throughout it's 24 episodes. From lighthearted comedy, to suspense, to tragedy. Plot twists that throw you every-which-way, and a satisfying conclusion... This show deserves your attention.

5: Music, Links and Stuff
So, not exactly common knowledge, I do have a youtube account of which I post both gaming videos as well as music (Often mixed together), as well as a Soundcloud account. Why am I mentioning this? Because I'm trying to extend my reach across the internet, as dandy as Newgrounds is, as a musician, I really do need to make use of pretty much all resources available to me if I want to gain fans.

So, profile links below:
Back-From-Purgatory's Youtube
Back-From-Purgatory's Soundcloud
Back-From-Purgatory's Twitter

And now below I'm gonna list off a few submissions on my profile that I'd really love to get a little more feedback on, so listen, rate, and let me know what you think in a review (Ordered from newest to oldest):
Tick Tock (Trance)
Above It All (Metal)
A Taste of... (Version 4) (Orchestral Metal)
Them (Classical?)
Final Flight (Updated!) (Trance)
Yin (Classical)

Any extra reviews are greatly appreciated!

6: Your Opinion
Last but certainly not least... I'm looking for some public opinion.
"On what?" you ask?
My music. No, I don't mean reviews, that's what the last section was for... This time I want to know of the 3 genres I most often do, being Metal, Trance, and Classical.
Which do you enjoy the most?
Which do you think I'm best at?
And which would you like to see more of from me?

If your answer to any of those questions is something that's not metal, trance or classical, that's perfectly fine, those aren't the only genres I ever do, they're just the ones I do most often.

Your opinions are greatly appreciated!

7: Quest Complete!
As a reward for reading all the way through this ginormous newspost, I am proud to present a fucking awesome metal song:

Until next time,
Back-From-Purgatory, out.

Tick tock goes the clock... as well as my latest trance(ish) song.

I've been wanting to write a song that featured the ticking of a clock for a while now... so today I finally broke down and did just that... It was also the perfect opportunity for me to try out my newly acquired NI Massive (Props to FatKidWitAJetPak).

Every synth in the song was created from scratch within Massive... And while the lead is more or less just another cheesy supersaw, I like to think the bass and pluck are uniquely my own.

This song also has a slightly different flavor than my older trance stuff, seeing as I don't make use of any chords or automated arpeggiation... The lead also has it's own melody in this one as opposed to doing the climbing chords thing I usually end up doing.

Regardless, I look forward to your feedback, give it a listen, leave a review, let me know what you think!

The Song (Also uploaded to my Soundcloud and should be up on my Youtube profile within the next day or two with a video of the project file playing back):
Tick Tock

PS:
Yes, I realize the song title isn't very creative... What can I say, I spent all my creativity on actually writing the song. soz.

Update:
Youtube video is up:

I'm on a roll... Not only did I just finish releasing a new original song (Above It All) which should soon be featuring Bad-Man-Incorporated's vocals... I also transcribed a song that I've been wanting to learn how to play for ages... but I couldn't find any sheet music or midi files for it.

Again... "Last Night, Good Night" is still in the works... I promise it's coming... sooner or later...

In any case, not only did I upload a cover of the song I previously mentioned to my Newgrounds profile, found here:
World (Cover) (Originally composed by Makoto Miyazaki for the Dragon Crisis! OST)

I also ran the MIDI file created from FL Studio through Synthesia with Fraps running and uploaded a tutorial of sorts to youtube (Which you can see below). The reason for this is like mentioned above, I couldn't find any sheet music or MIDI for the song... So I figured why not share my hard work with the world which provides both MIDI and ghetto sheet music.

Enjoy!

Once again, sorry, "Last Night, Good Night" is not yet finished. Partially due to the reason I'm making this post.

And that is... I've triumphed over my writers block and have a new original song to bring to you guys!

Info:
Using a new guitar tone (Used for both the rhythm and lead parts, just changed the pick up between the two), the bass guitar, in reality, isn't a bass guitar, it's actually a synth, because my bass desperately needs new strings and it really hates being tuned down to Drop C, which is what this song was recorded in.
Drums... Much, much more active than you'd usually hear from me.
Solo (OMG, BFP did a solo?! Inorite?!) is pretty damn short, but it's definitely the fastest solo I've ever played. Just ignore the fact that I missed a note and we'll all be good.

The Song:
Above It All

PS:
I would love to hear someone take a stab at vocals on this song, the lead part in the "chorus" is pretty much how I envisioned the vocals would go. If you want to give it a shot, just shoot a PM my way and we'll work something out!

Enjoy!

UPDATE:
Looks like Bad-Man-Incorporated is going to be taking a shot at vocals, will have a link for you guys as soon as it's done!

Ok, so I'm not done Last Night, Good Night yet... but I did work on something today that people have been bugging me about.. which is redoing Final Flight, the biggest complaint I got was that it was too slow... So, I sped it up, as well as made numerous other changes which are listed in the description.

Enjoy!:
Final Flight (Updated!)

I also uploaded the new version to youtube with it playing back inside FL Studio in case you want to see what it looks like:

Be sure to like/comment/subscribe!

So, as I mentioned in my previous newspost, seeing as I have been struggling with writers block lately, being unable to come up with anything new... I decided to do a cover. In this case, I'm remaking Last Night, Good Night by Hatsune Miku (Arranged by livetune).

So, I spent a few hours working on it today, I've more or less got the drums done, tweaked a bit of the piano, added a celesta in the middle break section of the song, spent half of the time trying to level/EQ everything properly, etc. etc...

So it's coming along nicely so far... But I've still got a long way to go if I want to include everything from the original song. I have decided to try my hand at putting in the "jumpy synth" that plays throughout the majority of the song, which should be interesting (Read: A real pain in the ass), and I still have to figure out the piano and strings part for the vast majority of the song... But at least it's getting done.

Hopefully the next time I make a newspost, it will be with the finished song.

Also:
I just updated Final Flight, be sure to give it a listen!