What are you listening to? (V)Music
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I can't Handel it.
I worked in a video game store for a while after high school and there was this record store on the opposite side of the street.
The owner of the record store (who was also a drummer for a national semi-known metal band called M.O.B.) used to come over and visit us and I used to go over and visit him and his store on my breaks. His record store wasn't big or anything but he got me into Ted Nugent and a modern prog metal band called Black Bonzo. We also used to discuss Tony Iommi riffs, Rainbow, Wishbone Ash, Metallica, Dream Theater and Symphony X.
I really liked working in that video game store, I was the deputy store manager for a while and it was such a tiny store that I worked solo most of the time. Sometimes there were two of us working at the same time during hectic days but I was alone
for the most part. I thought it was great, I could put whatever music I wanted through the store speakers and there was
rarely any hassle with customers or a boss breathing down my neck. HQ wanted us to sell more games though but that wasn't easy when
90% of the customers were school kids coming in to play demos of new games and not buying anything.
I've been thinking lately about what five albums I would listen to (again) if I knew they were the last five albums I could ever hear before I died.
It's a near impossible task to only pick five when you've listened to hundreds and hundreds of albums through the years in so many genres, genres that I really enjoy like post-rock, metal, hard rock, retro/modern synth, classical, soundtracks, old prog, pop, 50s doo wop, but these are the ones I can think of right now that has the most emotionally and personally attached feelings to them.
First one is just a tragic story. The singer, Aleah Stanbridge (or sometimes credited as Starbridge), passed away at age 39 from cancer
and she never saw her album released. She had worked on the album for about two years with the band and from what I've read she pretty
much knew she wasn't going to survive her illness. She still performed her vocal tracks in the studio and the songs slowly took shape from the demo cuts they were in the beginning. She passed away though before everything was finalised and Juha Raivio (guitarist in the band) took the decision to complete the record in the studio and release it to the public.
You can hear it in her lyrics throughout the album that she is just about ready to leave this world behind, it's a pretty powerful record in my opinion that gets better and better with each listen and with an epic final track, I'm glad I found it and glad I can keep her music alive.
This will forever be a record that I will associate with my old man. He was the one who introduced me to Rainbow, Dio, Zeppelin, Purple, Styx, Sabbath, Scorpions, Kiss, AC/DC and all those 70s rock/metal bands. But Rising was my first taste of it.
From Tarot Woman to A Light In The Black, I learned about the magic of Dio's voice and his lyrics and melodies, Blackmore's amazing guitar sounds and solos, Cozy Powell's ferocious drumming and Tony Carey's immortal synth work. I used to listen to this record so loudly through my headphones my dad had to tap me on the shoulder warning me about permanent damage to my hearing. But I didn't care.
My philosophy was if I was going to go deaf, this was the record to go deaf to.
Here's a band I found not long ago, I started digging through their discography and found a couple albums that
I enjoyed going back to every now and then. I was lucky to go to one of their shows when they visited my city on
a northern european tour earlier this year and they did not disappoint.
I was hiking in Norway this summer and listened to this album among other ones while walking across the marches, mountains and open fields. The sky had actually started to turn foggy, dreary and gray as this album came on so the atmosphere was absolutely appropriate for a musical experience such as this.Wikipedia
Ah yes, the overlooked part of Iron Maiden's 1990s. As Bruce left the band so did many of the Maiden fans. New singer Blaze Bayley had
a hard time being accepted as the lead singer of one of the biggest bands in the world. But he won me over in an instant.
Even though he might have tried to emulate Dickinson in some of his singing, Blaze has a very unique way of singing himself and it's one I have come to enjoy a lot through the years.
Blaze sings with a lot of passion and emotion, with a very raw and powerful vocal range.
Out of all the Maiden albums this is in my opinion Steve Harris's most depressing, bleak, gloomy and sad when it comes to his lyrics, they're about the realisations one can have that the world can be a cold and harsh place with many feeling despair and struggle to find a meaning to it all, be they war veterans with mental scars or average joes with menial jobs.
The melodies and solos on 'The X Factor' are up there with the very best and most successful of the Maiden albums, and this mix of dark, depressing songs with some up-tempo tunes make this a unique Maiden record.
It's also the album which got me into Blaze Bayley's solo career and his albums under the 'Blaze' moniker.
There are some real gems to be found in his solo discography and I can recommend them to any metal fan, especially his first album
Silicon Messiah. I wish Bayley more success really, his shows aren't at very big venues and his albums are very much overlooked.
This album was released in May of last year by a trio of guys hailing from Le Mans, France.
They play instrumental and heavy fuzz rock and it was initially the album cover art and the album name that got my attention, and I actually learned of the album at the same time as I was reading articles about the upcoming Le Mans race in June 2017. I thought that was a sign that I should give the album a chance.
The album is apparently sold out now but I managed to snag a copy on CD last year and the front man of the band had included a personally written note in the inner sleeve thanking me for my support. I thought that was cool.
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U.K., 1978 self-titled debut from the progressive rock supergroup formed by vocalist/bassist John Wetton (King Crimson) and drummer Bill Bruford (Yes, King Crimson) with Eddie Jobson (Roxy Music) on keyboards and virtuoso guitarist Allan Holdsworth.
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Births, Deaths & Marriages, the 2008 sophomore release from Australian alt rockers 26. I heard the opening track "A New Beginning" on the series finale of the NBC cop drama of a different sort Life, which I just finished re-watching.
Top tracks are the aforementioned "A New Beginning", "The Optimist" and "Take Me Home", but far and away the best track on the album for me is "Bear With A Sore Head":
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Vince Staples - FUN!
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Earl Sweatshirt - Nowhere2go
Earl season I'm so hyped.
Earl season I'm so hyped.
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I can appreciate that. When I think of The Sisters Of Mercy, I generally think of their second album, Floodland, and it's hard to deny the commercial success that "Dominion" had. "1959" is my personal favorite from the LP, but it's very far removed from "traditional" Sisters.
For similar, you can look into Play Dead, Gene Loves Jezebel, Killing Joke, Joy Division to some extent, Cocteau Twins to some extent (though they're really more on the etherial end of gothic rock), The Birthday Party...and Shriekback, again to some extent.
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