MicShazam

CD collection deep dive part 1

I did a fairly precise count of my CD's recently and it turns out I have about 630 separate albums, which means I'm counting multi-disc albums as one. I listen to a lot of music, but with this many CD's, there's bound to be a lot of stuff that I haven't listened to in a long time. I thought it would be fun to write a bit about some of these albums as I dig through my shelves and listen to some of my most neglected albums.

Some of this will also be stuff that I probably haven't talked much about on this site, although I admittedly don't have the most expansive music collection. I really, really need to find some more artists to add to my collection, to be honest.

Anyway, I'll just start with what I've been listening to yesterday and this evening:

After Forever - Remagine
Symphonic/power-metal, 2005


Listen to the album on Spotify.

This album has a few things going against it from the outset. For one, it's symphonic metal (at least to some degree) and the cover artwork is pretty bad. However, contained within is a pretty solid, lightly proggy, somewhat power metal-ish album with some strong vocal performances and genuinely catchy songwriting. After Forver is a band that I pretty much consider terrible, but this one album is quite different from their other material. Their main songwriter/composer had basically vacated the premises, leaving the band to stretch their legs a bit and do something different. It's not a very well liked album among fans, but the fact that it doesn't sound like regular After Forever is a plus in my book.

Floor Jansen is a good singer in my book, but this is the only album she's ever sung on that I can really get fully behind (to my knowledge anyway). I've almost gotten rid of the CD several times, whenever I've done a big clean-up of my album collection, but then I hear songs like Boundaries Are Open and Being Everyone and I remember why I need to keep this thing.


The Cursed - Room Full of Sinners
Hard rock/groove metal, 2007


This Bobby Blitz side project isn't available on Spotify and I don't expect most Overkill fans to have even heard of it. It's basically a bunch of bluesy, dirty and heavy hard rock tunes that simply sound like Overkill minus the thrash.

I've never been crazy about this album, but it's survived in my collection for all these years (10ish), so it's not without merit. I think Blitz' rough edged voice has a sort of nuance and swagger to it that makes him a perfect fit for this sort of music. I think overly testosterone pumped, forced "bro-dude" vocals get tiring real quick, so it's really nice to see just how much flair Blitz can bring to the table here.

I don't know exactly who I'd recommend this to, but I guess that at the very least, any Overkill fan ought to give it a spin. I think it's a pretty charming album and the songwriting isn't half bad.


Cruachan - Pagan
Folk metal, 2004


Listen to the album on Spotify.

Despite Arkona being one of my favorite bands, I'm not really a big fan of folk metal. The only other CD I have in the genre is this Cruachan album. I've known about the band for many years, but I didn't get into them until last year, where I found one of their CD's downtown and took a chance with it.

Aside from the crappy sound mix, it's a pretty solid album. I love how there's this very punky edge to a lot of the drumming and the vocal delivery. They avoid this overdone, cinematic style that a lot of folk metal bands go for and indstead shoot pretty straight with some fiddle & bagpipe assisted heavy metal tunes you can nod your head to.

I don't really have any idea of the history of the band or the rest of their discography, but I really dig the (two?) singers on this album, especially (to the surprise of no one) the woman with the clear voice. In a way, I think the relative straight forwardness is what I appreciate the most about the band. Arkona is such an ambitious band, exhibiting evermore knotty and obtuse songwriting, that it's refreshing to hear something on the other end of that scale.


Voivod - Target Earth
Progressive thrash metal, 2013


Listen to the album on Spotify.

It's the only Voivod album that I own and it's only relatively recently that I've begun trying to appreciate it more. It's been paying off and I think I need to take a look at the rest of their discography soon.

I really, really love their riffs! The way they combine these exotic chords with some mildly prog-flavored thrash riffs gives the band such a unique feel. The vocals on this album are spot on as well, despite the fact that this is a 2013 album from a very old band. The album sounds as vital and inspired as anything made by a young band would, so I don't feel that I'm going to have to eat my words if I say that this is a very good Voivod album, even without really having heard their old classics yet.

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I'm currently listening to a Grip Inc. album, but I don't feel like I'll have much to say about it, so this is it for now. I've got a whole stack of CD's to listen through, so there will be more posts like this.