Just thought I'd post one of my now all time favourite songs by Norwegian Heavy Metal/Black n' Roll/Blackened Thrash metal whatever you want to call them, band I. With Abbath and Demonaz masterminding things you know it's going to kick ass. Here's one of their best songs Warriors (audio only):
"It's a great day for fire, it's a great day for wrath, man's fate is his own, the world's at an end!!!!!!!!.....YEAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"
Saturday, February 28, 2009
Friday, February 27, 2009
Classics Part Three: Led Zeppelin
Led Zeppelin are the third band of the big three who began it all. Compared to Sabbath and Purple, Zep were a bit more on the folky side of things, with lyrics ranging from LOTR to classic English folk songs. Led Zeppelin got their name from a line by John Entwistle the bassist from The Who (something to do with a possible formation of a super group involving Keith Moon, John Entwistle, Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck going down like a lead zeppelin).
Led Zep aren’t as heavy as either Purple or Sabbath but they definitely hold their own, like being banned for life from the Tokyo Hilton, John Bonham riding motorcycles through hotel corridors etc etc, but along with the excess of rock they had a string of absolute classic albums:
It was around this time that tragedy struck Zep, Robert Plant was in a car accident and he broke his ankle, and his wife Maureen almost died and Jimmy Page’s heroin addiction was starting to become apparent.. Zep had a bit of time off and wrote Presence:
To me that’s when the magic began to dwindle and the shit really started to hit the fan, it was rumored that Jimmy Page was dabbling in the occult, he had even bought Aleister Crowleys castle in Scotland (I think) and weird shit started happening, well, crazy things, Robert Plants son Karac died of a stomach infection at age 7 (All My Love is dedicated to him) Jimmy Page broke is ring finger and couldn’t play guitar and there were more weird things that happened but I can’t quite remember them all .
John Bonham died September 25th 1980 and that effectively ended Led Zeppelin, they had one album post Bonham, CODA, but I am not even going to post that.
Out of the three, Led Zep, Sabbath and Purple they definitely my least favourite, they have some utterly brilliant songs but they just don’t do it for me the way the other do. Plant is easily my favourite vocalist and that scream of his on Immigrant Song gives me chills. Bonzo is a great drummer but for me both Bill Ward and Ian Paice do a better job. Jimmy Page is a genius on guitar some of the things he did on guitar blow my mind.
Those slight negatives aside, Led Zep still row my boat and Led Zeppelin III is an all time favourite for me as well.
Classics Part Two: Deep Purple
Well I thought since I posted about Black Sabbath I might as well post about another influential band that help start the monster that is metal, Deep Purple.
Deep Purple hold a special place in my heart as they are one of the earliest of my metal discoveries, thanks to my Dad. He bought me Machine Head for me on Christmas and I remember listening to Highway Star with him.
Deep Purple had some amazingly talented musicians, Jon Lord on keyboards, his solo’s sound like they are played on a guitar, Ritchie Blackmore, a legendary guitarist, Ian Paice, a brilliant drummer, Roger Glover, a godly bassist and Ian Gillian who sounds like some sort of absolute god on vocals, I love his voice.
Deep Purple went through a number of line up changes and Mark II is considered the classic line up, they put out the all the classic albums:
Child in Time is one of my all time favourite songs and Machine Head is easily my favourite album, every song is killer.
Deep Purple did the whole Symphonic Orchestra some 29 years before Metallica thought of the idea, I’ve never heard it but I do plan on buying a copy very soon:
To me Deep Purple are a bit more refined than Zep or Sabbath, a bit more gentlemanly if you catch my drift. Anyway no one should be without at least one Purple album even if it is a best of.
Classics Part One: Black Sabbath
Ahhhhhh Sabbath, the Godfathers of all things heavy and of course all things Metal \m/. It amazes me every time I play a Sabbath song or album how relevant they still are today, sure some of their songs sound dated but everything else sounds as if it could have been recorded yesterday.
Pretty much every Metal band in existence owes something to Black Sabbath, their influence can be felt every where.
I could hear Paranoid every single day and never tire of it. I remember the first time I heard Black Sabbath, it was coming home from a school trip and this guy put Self-Titled on the bus stereo, and skipped to The Wizard, I was spellbound and I have been a fan ever since.
I love the simplicity of the album covers and the fact that you put an album on you can seem to never want to turn it off:
I would post albums after Sabotage but they just don’t have the same magic.
Mannfall Demo complete!
Blind guardian... in a game?
Look for your self, quite funny really.
the video features a new song from their upcoming album.
The making of/motion capture and interviews.
Apparently Hansi and the other band members will also be featured in the game
as NPCs!
Whats next huh?
the video features a new song from their upcoming album.
The making of/motion capture and interviews.
Apparently Hansi and the other band members will also be featured in the game
as NPCs!
Whats next huh?
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Dismember
Dismember, the greatest of all the Old School Swedish Death Metal bands, even Entombed. Reason I say that they are better than Entombed is that Dismember are just so damned consistent. Every album is Swedish DM played to perfection. Melodic like Maiden brutal like Morbid Angel, a perfect mix.
My favourite album is 'Death Metal', it kills from beginning to end as well as having one of the coolest album covers known to mankind:
I am actually considering getting that as a tattoo,
Anyway do yourself a favour and get Death Metal, no self respecting Metalhead should be with out it!!
The Death of the Record Store - An End to Nostalgia
All of my record stores are gone. The Sam Goody where I bought all of my Slayer albums and one of the store clerks introduced me to underground metal has left one of the bigger malls in my state. The Camelot Music where I used to work for the store discount and so I could use the catalog is long gone, now an urban logo clothing store. The Tower Records where I bough Death's "Human", and Mercyful Fate's 'Time" and "Into The Shadows"? That didn't last past high school, in which I graduated in 2000.
I will miss the record store hunting experience. Thumbing through hundreds of CDs just to find one gem. I also will miss the physical entity of a CD. The liner notes with the lyrics and the artwork. I will miss when I'm in a random town for whatever reason and checking out the record store just in case they had something I might want to buy. I will miss the way my eyes lit up when I was in Norway, and for the first time in my life I had tons and TONS of CDs that was in my taste and I had to limit myself on how much to buy because I wanted everything.
Initially, I resisted the change from CD to digital music. After all, I had about 600 albums laying around that represented a lot of money and a lot of time.
The digital age has given me something that the old experience never could. An endless supply of music that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere, ever. CD out-of-print? No problem. Band you found on the sampler CD that doesn't seem to exist in the store's catalog? Someone online not only knows what you're talking about, but has it as well and is a big fan. Who's that band that you saw once on Beavis and Butthead that you can't remember but you know that you liked that one song? There's a list telling you what it is and you'll be able to have it before the toast pops out of the toaster.
What about if you're like me and you like Celtic music? I bought a sampler CD and there was a band on there called "Four yn y Bar" whose song called "Dacw 'Nghariad" caught my ear. The CD notes had very little information about the band. What does this beautiful song mean? What are the lyrics and what do they mean? click click click click...
Four yn y Bar = Four in the Bar (obviously meaning the unit in which beats are measured in music)
Dacw ‘Nghariad = There Is My Love
I have access not only to the lyrics, but also a translation and a phonetic transcript in case I want to learn to sing along. The many joys of being able to experience an old song in a new way is fantastic. The mystique of not knowing is nothing compared to the empowerment of knowledge.
It's fun to remember traveling with a hundred or so albums in my suitcase so that while out-of-town so that I would still have a great selection to go through. It's better walking about with a Zune large enough that it holds my entire collection. It's fun to remember organizing albums in the CD holder in the probable order in which I would want to listen to them on a long trip, then curse myself for being so foolish as to think I could predict my music listening mood. It's better seting up playlists large enough where I don't have to be distracted while driving.
It's also fun to think of thumbing through one's own collection, spinning the CD spinner and knowing just where each album was that you didn't have to look and just pull it out by feel. The extra space in the room is better and worrying about keeping track of such a large collection is different, but much easeir. Finding those limited edition Ulver EP's was also a kick. It's better knowing that nothing is limited anymore and knowing that you can find it, if you look.
This is the just another end of an age in the musical world. There used to be a time when new music was so infrequent that the release of a new album was considered a major event. A regular pastime would be to go over to someone's house and to just listen to an album or two. This is not to suggest that both the former nor the latter do not exist today, the frequency and the impact has diminished greatly. It's hard to believe that either will ever exist again at the same levels because music is so personalized, and so openly available, and I like that.
I often hear the sobbing of people who miss the artwork of CDs. This lamentation was also heard when the switch from LP's to Cassettes was made. Miss the artwork of your favorite bands?
http://www.cover-paradies.to/?Lng=IT
The old school was fun. The memories are great. This is better and I'm not very sad to see these stores go. Eventually MP3's will automatically come with artwork, credits, liner notes and lyrics. Eventually someone will figure out how to make digital music much like it was in the past and package their album digitally as they once did physically. In time, perhaps, each track will come with a different piece of artwork to give each track an individual identity. Who knows? Maybe they're already doing that and are already planning a new spin that will make us all but forget the fact that in buying an album once meant something to us and holds us in a grip of nostalgia.
The only difference will be... we can't hold it and don't go somewhere to get it.
I will miss the record store hunting experience. Thumbing through hundreds of CDs just to find one gem. I also will miss the physical entity of a CD. The liner notes with the lyrics and the artwork. I will miss when I'm in a random town for whatever reason and checking out the record store just in case they had something I might want to buy. I will miss the way my eyes lit up when I was in Norway, and for the first time in my life I had tons and TONS of CDs that was in my taste and I had to limit myself on how much to buy because I wanted everything.
Initially, I resisted the change from CD to digital music. After all, I had about 600 albums laying around that represented a lot of money and a lot of time.
The digital age has given me something that the old experience never could. An endless supply of music that I wouldn't be able to find anywhere, ever. CD out-of-print? No problem. Band you found on the sampler CD that doesn't seem to exist in the store's catalog? Someone online not only knows what you're talking about, but has it as well and is a big fan. Who's that band that you saw once on Beavis and Butthead that you can't remember but you know that you liked that one song? There's a list telling you what it is and you'll be able to have it before the toast pops out of the toaster.
What about if you're like me and you like Celtic music? I bought a sampler CD and there was a band on there called "Four yn y Bar" whose song called "Dacw 'Nghariad" caught my ear. The CD notes had very little information about the band. What does this beautiful song mean? What are the lyrics and what do they mean? click click click click...
Four yn y Bar = Four in the Bar (obviously meaning the unit in which beats are measured in music)
Dacw ‘Nghariad = There Is My Love
I have access not only to the lyrics, but also a translation and a phonetic transcript in case I want to learn to sing along. The many joys of being able to experience an old song in a new way is fantastic. The mystique of not knowing is nothing compared to the empowerment of knowledge.
It's fun to remember traveling with a hundred or so albums in my suitcase so that while out-of-town so that I would still have a great selection to go through. It's better walking about with a Zune large enough that it holds my entire collection. It's fun to remember organizing albums in the CD holder in the probable order in which I would want to listen to them on a long trip, then curse myself for being so foolish as to think I could predict my music listening mood. It's better seting up playlists large enough where I don't have to be distracted while driving.
It's also fun to think of thumbing through one's own collection, spinning the CD spinner and knowing just where each album was that you didn't have to look and just pull it out by feel. The extra space in the room is better and worrying about keeping track of such a large collection is different, but much easeir. Finding those limited edition Ulver EP's was also a kick. It's better knowing that nothing is limited anymore and knowing that you can find it, if you look.
This is the just another end of an age in the musical world. There used to be a time when new music was so infrequent that the release of a new album was considered a major event. A regular pastime would be to go over to someone's house and to just listen to an album or two. This is not to suggest that both the former nor the latter do not exist today, the frequency and the impact has diminished greatly. It's hard to believe that either will ever exist again at the same levels because music is so personalized, and so openly available, and I like that.
I often hear the sobbing of people who miss the artwork of CDs. This lamentation was also heard when the switch from LP's to Cassettes was made. Miss the artwork of your favorite bands?
http://www.cover-paradies.to/?Lng=IT
The old school was fun. The memories are great. This is better and I'm not very sad to see these stores go. Eventually MP3's will automatically come with artwork, credits, liner notes and lyrics. Eventually someone will figure out how to make digital music much like it was in the past and package their album digitally as they once did physically. In time, perhaps, each track will come with a different piece of artwork to give each track an individual identity. Who knows? Maybe they're already doing that and are already planning a new spin that will make us all but forget the fact that in buying an album once meant something to us and holds us in a grip of nostalgia.
The only difference will be... we can't hold it and don't go somewhere to get it.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Testament - The Haunting
One of my favourite songs of theirs, I really dig the solo. Just felt like posting this:
Live in London, I really need to get that.
Live in London, I really need to get that.
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