MicShazam

I really prefer the Deris years, honestly. In fact, I don't even like the albums with Kiske on vocal, but I do have their debut album with Kai Hansen. Better Than Raw remains my favorite Helloween album, but it's hard to explain why. It's got something to do with how it sounds, with the songwriting (although there are a few misses in the tracklist), and how it's the only Helloween album where the band employed a trio of backup singers, which really adds a special vibe to a lot of these tracks. It's a very unusual decision and it seems odd to me that no one ever remarks on it.

MicShazam

Time for another bunch of new (& old) music:

Frequency Drift - Electricity

I found this on on Metalinjection but it's not metal in the slightest. I'm not sure what I think of it. The singer seemed kinda weak at first, but the song grew on me. The band has covered Marillion before, and this does perhaps sound vaguely like something that could have been on the Marillion.com album. Also sort of Anathema-ish, but less boring (Anathema is a boring band, but I'm sure you know that already).

Laura Voutilainen - Mä en kestä

Don't remember where I found this, but it's sorta fun to listen to. I like the Finnish folk music twist it takes on modern pop.


David Sylvian - Robert Fripp / Damage (Full Album)


I read about the influences of the band Dir En Grey somewhere and David Sylvian got a namedrop. I definitely see his dark textures and atmospheres in the band's music. I'm thinking of getting some of Sylvian's albums. Seems like I could dig this and the albums are fairly cheap on Amazon.

Nile - To Walk Forth From Flames Unscathed

I don't listen to a lot of death metal (almost none, actually), but I was reminded yesterday just how good their newest album is. So many fun riffs!

Izzy bizu - Naïve Soul

Immediately fell in love with this song and ordered the album right away. Just ****ing great music!

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.

---

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.

MicShazam

Some fresh new tracks:

DIR EN GREY - 人間を被る (Ningen wo Kaburu)

My boys Dir En Grey just released a new single two days ago. It's typical of the band to release a single without immediately revealing if an album is actually on the way, so I'm still scratching my head on this one. One can only hope.

It's the single edit, most probably, so I'm hoping that the chorus doesn't feel so shoehorned in when an eventual album version drops.

Judging from the style of this track, they're staying the course from the last album, Arche, and I'm cool with that.

KOBRA AND THE LOTUS - Losing My Humanity (Official Lyric Video) | Napalm Records

I loved their 2017 album, Prevail I - and now they're already out with the sequel album. I'm looking forward to getting my hands on this one soon, so I've chosen to not actually hear anything at all from the album. I trust these guys to get it right. I don't even know what I'm posting here.

CRUACHAN - THE HARP, THE LION, THE DRAGON AND THE SWORD | TROLLZORN

In what is nothing more than a total coincidence, Cruachan has a new album out. I just posted about the band above and then I bump into this a week later. Huh. Anyway, cool beans. I'll look forward to hearing the album, even if I have no idea if the band has developed for better or worse over the years. I only know their early material. This one sounds alrright.

In This Moment - "Black Wedding feat. Rob Halford" [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Ok, so this is cheating as the album is from last year. I only got into this band recently though, and this music video is new. Kind of a weird track. Sounds like Katy Perry and has a stolen Billy Idol hook. Not sure what I think of it - but I know I don't hate it.

ZEAL & ARDOR - Waste (Official Audio)

I'm still not sure what to think of this group, but I've got a feeling they'll grow to be well liked in music nerd circles.
Right now, they're only starting to catch some attention, having been around since 2014.
If nothing else, I think they're pretty unique. Every track I've heard seems like something a bit different.

MicShazam

My Mind on Metal - A top 100 of great metal tracks: Part 1

Well, not a top 100 since I don't know how many will be on it and since I won't bother ranking anything. So it's a bunch of great metal tracks as selected by a guy whose perspective on metal doesn't align with anyone else's in here. That will make this list both relevant and profoundly disagreeable to you all, but hey, it's not my fault that most of the stuff people rave about is boring as hell. I'm not really that interested in most traditional types of metal bands. Straight forward death metal, straight forward thrash, heavy metal, black metal... you get the idea. I like metal bands that mash things up a bit. Or a lot. Although a few very genre bound bands will appear on the list. No rules without exceptions!

Now on to the list! I'm gonna start at one since I don't know how high it will go.

(1) Stam1na - Valhe

Oh dear, this is one pretty metal song! The icy guitar chords, soft bass underpinning, those vocal harmonies, the dynamic song progression, the melodies... I love it.

(2) Waltari - On My Ice

Pop thrash alternative? Whatever it is, it's good. One of my all time favorite metal tunes. There's just something about the vibe of this track that hits me right in the... I don't know. Whatever spot that makes me like music. If you don't want to hear the whole track, at least check out the progression from 2:50 and onwards.

(3) Dir En Grey - Juuyoku

I'll probably never be able to shut up about this band, so sorry about that if you're sick of them at this point. I love the weird combo of vocal style and musical style. Can't think of any other band that sounds like this. I guess what I often fall in love with about a band is their overall "feel". I use the word "vibe" entirely too often when describing music, but that's because in the end, it really comes down to something very difficult to put into words for me.
Why I love a specific band so much more than another will have a lot to do with how it feels to listen to their music, rather than something that can be objectively described, such as a band being innovative, instrumentally complex or whatever. This song is an example of the unique vibe of this band and it's not necessarily going to be truthful if I try to explain why I love it in terms of composition or whatever.
The specific sound of the guitars and the other instruments, the combo of vocal styles, the singer's voice, etc... it all combines in a way that sounds like magic to me... for whatever reason. Music is alchemy.

(4) The Agonist - Dance Macabre

Stop rolling your eyes right now! I really, honestly love this track. Again, music is alchemy and blah blah blah. I love the riffs, the vocals (she took a while to adjust to, but now I just think she clicks perfectly with the music), the subtleties of the bass track, the energetic and highly mobile drum patterns... I think it's a great example of modern metal when it evolves into it's own thing that no longer feels much like any of the old, foundational metal genres.

(5) Arkona - На страже новых лет/Na Strazhe Novyh Let

I'm not generally fond of black metal or folk metal, but this track has elements of both and I love it. This track sends chills down my spine every time. I think the singer pulls off a pretty much flawless performance here (she's one of my all time favorite vocalists of any genre btw).
There isn't anything about the sound of this track that I don't adore. Perfect from an aesthetic standpoint. Loaded with atmosphere and fantastic musicianship. The drummer stands out to me as well, with a performance that's as extreme metal as it's subtle. The bass player has a pretty unusual approach too and I can't think of any metal bassist that sounds like this guy does.
Very unique from a folk metal standpoint as well. I really love the direction the band took with this whole album.

MicShazam

My Mind on Metal - A top 100 of great metal tracks: Part 2

A long, long way to go, so I'll try and speed things along (hah! as if I don't fail to return to 90% of the things I say I'm gonna do).

(#6) Symphony X - The Accolade

Actually, I dislike this band. This song is an example of how sometimes, a band just makes that one song you can really get along with for whatever reason. I owned the whole album once and I thought it was lame as hell, but this song has all sorts of good things going for it.

Pretty stellar vocal and guitar performances, especially. It's probaly the song I like that has the most obvious, stylistic ties to old school prog rock.

(#7) Blind Guardian - Bright Eyes

Another band I'm not crazy about. Totally listenable, but this is the one Blind Guardian song I need to have on my HD. Listen to this one a few times and realize what a cool, well constructed progression it goes through. Massively fun to listen to.

(#8) Savatage - Tonight He Grins Again

While we're at it: Yeat another band I don't really like that did one really good song. It's kind of cheesy, but I can't deny that I enjoy the hell out of it. Those high notes especially. The best kind of old-school metal cheese.

(#9) Metallica - Where The Wild Things Are

This might be the only Metallica song to make this list. I'm not even sure it's my favorite, but right now, in this very moment, it is the one I feel like listening to.

(#10) Crisis - Bloodlines

This is more like it! I like those other songs a lot, but this band is one that I honestly really love. Her histrionic vocal performance lends a crazy energy to the track and the drumming is invincible. I love listening to this one LOUD.

Anteater

I'd rethink that opinion on Symphony X. The title track from Paradise Lost is fabulous, and there are scattered cuts from some of their other albums that I think are well-written too.

__________________
Anteater's 21 Fav Albums Of 2020

Anteater's Daily Tune Roulette

MicShazam

I've heard 4-5 full albums from the band, including Paradist Lost, and I felt like the really good moments were few and far between. I remember liking some riffs here and there on Paradise Lost, but jost not really "feeling it" otherwise. That song, The Accolade, is the only Symphony X song I felt taking with me as I moved past Symphony X again.

But then, Prog Metal isn't really my thing 9 times out of 10.
When I like prog metal, it tends to be of a much more modern variety.

MicShazam

More new music:

Alice in Chains - The One You Know

Seems they'll have an album coming out later this year? I guess so, unless it's just a one-off iTunes single or something.
Never been a fan of AIC as such. I'm surprised how much I like this new track. It's really damn good, actually.

Ihsahn - Arcana Imperii

Ihsahn's first 5 albums are invincible, Arktis was allright. Don't know where his new album, Ámr will fall in his discography, but I'm not feeling super hyped based on this single. Is it just me, or is the guitar tone sort of limp?
Plus it's really business as usual. Hopefully he isn't running out of ideas already.

Thy Catafalque - Sárember

New album out from this Scottish avant-metal band. It's an odd mix. I know, because I listened to the whole album on Spotify yesterday. Not sure what to make of it, but it's something unique, that's for sure. I quite like this single. Very unusual vocal and music combo. Also very nice sound quality and production style to everything. I wish I had some real quality headphones.

Lake Street Dive - I Can Change

New album from this American pop-soul band. Sounds very different from the album of theirs that I have heard. I might just give the album a chance anyway and buy it. I just hope this isn't the best song on the album.

MicShazam

Been a little while since any substantial additions were last made to this journal, so I feel like I gotta reach into my pocket and see what I've got:

STAM1NA - Elämänlanka
From an as-of-yet unnamed upcoming 2018 studio album.

Feels kinda flat to be the only one in here who's going to be super hyped about this band's new single, but here it is. Can't wait for the album, but I'm probably going to have to wait until after summer.
I like the direction this single takes. Way less heavy than I'd have expected. Feels very poppy and very "Nordic", in some odd way.
EDIT: The original link was an illicit upload of a Spotify rip. The band put up the official lyric video today, so I've replaced the song link with that.

Dir en Grey - Ash
Not sure there will be an album... but I'll know before 2018 is over.

This is a B-side from the band's new single. It's a remake of a very old song of theirs, from before their debut album. I really like it when it starts sounding more like rock a bit into the song.

Graham Bonnet Band - "Meanwhile, Back In The Garage" (Official Audio)
From the upcoming album of the same name.

Never cared about this guy or his bands ever before, but this new single is kinda fun to listen to. Plus the guy is in his 70's and still belting out stuff like this. Impressive!

Suzanne Ciani - The Velocity Of Love (full album)

Don't remember where I found this, but it's got quite a vibe to it in some places. It's from 1986 and damn it, does it sound incredibly 80's or what!
EDIT: Listened to it a bit more. I'm in love! I simply have to buy this on CD