en http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/uk/ Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 Thu, 1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 +0000 60 http://www.audioscrobbler.net/data/webservices Last.fm Group Journal: Megadeth http://www.last.fm/group/Megadeth/journal The Last.fm group journal for Megadeth. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. Top 5 Albums By Year http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/30/5b5rgn_top_5_albums_by_year Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:21:01 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/30/5b5rgn_top_5_albums_by_year A list of my top 5 albums from every year. I started with 2011 and will be gradually working backwards. My full lists, counting down from worst to best, can be found on my Rate Your Music Page.

2004

1. Wuthering Heights - Far From The Madding Crowd
2. Augury - Concealed
3. Within Temptation - The Silent Force
4. Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden
5. Mastodon - Leviathan

Full List on Rate Your Music

2005

1. Beyond Twilight - Section X
2. Opeth - Ghost Reveries
3. Аркона - Во славу великим!
4. Demons & Wizards - Touched by the Crimson King
5. Rebellion - Sagas of Iceland: The History of the Vikings, Volume I

Full List on Rate Your Music

2006

1. Beyond Twilight - For The Love Of Art And The Making
2. Pharaoh - The Longest Night
3. To-Mera - Transcendental
4. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death
5. Forest Silence - Philosophy Of Winter

Full List on Rate Your Music

2007

1. Rebellion - Miklagard: The History Of The Vikings, Volume II
2. Vainglory - Vainglory
3. Anubis Gate - Andromeda Unchained
4. Аркона - От Сердца к Небу
5. Epica - The Divine Conspiracy

Full List on Rate Your Music

2008

1. SIG:AR:TYR - Beyond the North Winds
2. Elvenking - Two Tragedy Poets (...and a caravan of weird figures)
3. Ayreon - 01011001
4. To-Mera - Delusions
5. Coronatus - Porta Obscura

Full List on Rate Your Music

2009

1. Anubis Gate - The Detached
2. Transatlantic - The Whirlwind
3. Epica - Design Your Universe
4. Rebellion - Arise: From Ginnungagap To Ragnarök - The History Of The Vikings Volume III
5. Аркона - Гой, Роде, Гой!

Full List on Rate Your Music

2010

1. Star One - Victims Of The Modern Age
2. Haken - Aquarius
3. Winterhorde - Underwatermoon
4. Carach Angren - Death Came Through A Phantom Ship
5. Wuthering Heights - Salt

Full List on Rate Your Music

2011

1. Anubis Gate - Anubis Gate
2. Factory of Dreams - Melotronical
3. Dark Forest - Dawn of Infinity
4. Ancient Bards - Soulless Child
5. Within Temptation - The Unforgiving

Full List on Rate Your Music

I won't be adding 2012 releases until much later, but you can check progress on the 2012 list on Rate Your Music.

2012 List]]> http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/30/5b5rgn_top_5_albums_by_year#comments 2012 Album Ratings http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/18/5akc8t_2012_album_ratings Wed, 18 Jan 2012 10:56:02 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/18/5akc8t_2012_album_ratings 2011 was an excellent year. Logic says that 2012 won't be able to match it but you never know. Welcome to my continually growing list of 2012 albums (mostly metal albums), complete with links to my reviews. This list will only feature albums that I have written a review for. Recommendations encouraged.

All reviews originally written for Heavy Metal Haven.

9.5 - 10.0 - Masterpiece/Classic Album



8.5 - 9.4 - Very Exceptional Album

Pharaoh - Bury The Light - (Review) - 9.0

7.5 -8.4 - Really Great



6.5 - 7.4 - Pretty Good, But Could Be Better



5.5 - 6.4 - Above Average



4.5 - 5.4 - Middle of the Road



3.5 - 4.4 - Below Average/Fans Only

Voices of Destiny - Power Dive - (Review) - 4.3

2.5 - 3.4 - Bad



1.5 - 2.4 - Very Bad

Lacuna Coil - Dark Adrenaline - (Review) - 1.8

0.5 - 1.4 - Utterly Dismal



0.0 - 0.4 - Worse than 50 Cent]]> http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2012/01/18/5akc8t_2012_album_ratings#comments Revamping the similar artists formula, Part II http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2012/01/02/59qar9_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula%2C_part_ii Mon, 2 Jan 2012 05:27:58 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2012/01/02/59qar9_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula%2C_part_ii Last Saturday, I discussed the issues with the current similar artist formula...especially Metallica being top 10 in similarity with The Offspring (like what?).

Well, since then, I put my programming skills to work and well, I built a little program to test to see it would work with other artists. Results were noticed on several bands/artists as their similar artists over went a make over. However, it did lead to new problems as I tried testing it out super-mainstream acts including our favorite band...Radiohead.


Rage Against the Machine showed up as a similar artist.


...well, apparently. Radiohead's top 250 similar artists currently are all over the place in random genres. A bigger batch of similar artists would be needed to get the best results, but the question is...is my new formula better. I'm going to show you some examples of artists top 25 similar artists...before, and after. You guys make the decision.


Oh, you don't remember the formula? Very well...time for a quick summary
*First, grab all 250 similar artists for Artist A. Obtain them in the given order.
*Next, for each similar artist starting with the one with the highest original rank, look at the first 3 tag and count how many of the tags are similar to the tags in Artist A. Resort based on this. You should end up with 4 groups starting from top (matches all 3 tags, matches 2 tags, matches 1 tag, matches no tags)
*Next, break the ties by resorting each group based on matches among the first 4 tags (which will spawn even more groups)
*Then finally, re-sort again, this time on the top 5 tags. If there are still ties, break the ties based on their original rank.


It's a lot of technical and algorithm stuff that is complicated for the average user, so I won't go that deep. See my example in the first journal entry here for an example with The Offspring (though I work a little backwards here).

Also, I have banned several tags...here are some of them
*Tags that are the same as the artist - not all have been banned, but the common ones have been (ex: for Red Hot Chili Peppers). These tags simply group together projects involving members of a band...but really, they may not have the same style.
*Tags referring to geographical locations..., , , . The geographical location doesn't make sense at all. I haven't gotten into geo-genre tags much yet as they may require research before banning (some countries may have a genre as a specific style).
*Decade tags. Similar artists do not have to reside in the same decade. If there's a Led Zeppelin clone playing the exact same style of music today that Zep played in the 60s and 70s, then perhaps they should be similar.
*Nonsense tags...you pretty much know them..., , , , ....they don't reflect a genre or style
*The tag. To be honest, this tag was holding a lot of stuff back, especially those that are also alternative rock. This tag is incredibly abused as well to hell, so I dropped that tag. Still no decision on the tag...I'll have to run a few more tests through different artists to make that decision.



So there you go...the banned tags. I'll go through several examples...these are the top 20 artists, before and after.


ARTIST #1: RADIOHEAD

CURRENT ON LAST.FM:
Thom Yorke
Johnny Greenwood
Sigur Rós
Portishead
Blur

Muse
Modeselektor
Arcade Fire
Beck
Interpol

Grizzly Bear
Björk
The National
Coldplay
Placebo

Kasabian
Joy Division
Massive Attack
Pink Floyd
The Horrors

BASED ON NEW FORMULA:
#1 Placebo
#2 Pixies
#3 R.E.M.
#4 The White Stripes
#5 Incubus
#6 Weezer
#7 Blur
#8 Coldplay
#9 Kasabian
#10 Arctic Monkeys

#11 Oasis
#12 The Verve
#13 The Last Shadow Puppets
#14 Suede
#15 Primal Scream
#16 Manic Street Preachers
#17 Muse
#18 Arcade Fire
#19 The National
#20 The Strokes

I'm not sure about both lists. Radiohead seems to really have only one similar artist...themselves. But which one is closest?


Lets do another punk rock band other than The Offspring. How about Rise Against

CURRENTLY ON LAST.FM

Sum 41
Billy Talent
Anti-Flag
zebrahead
A Day To Remember

Strike Anywhere
The Offspring
Breaking Benjamin
Three Days Grace
Bullet For My Valentine

Story Of The Year
Papa Roach
Silverstein
Yellowcard
Bad Religion

Nickelback
3 Doors Down
lostprophets
Millencollin
Disturbed

Ugh...I could just puke to hell if I'm told most of these bands are similar...

PROPOSED FORMULA:
#1 Strung Out
#2 Nations Afire
#3 A Wilhelm Scream
#4 Last of the Believers
#5 Good Riddance

#6 Only Crime
#7 88 Fingers Louie
#8 Satanic Surfers
#9 Pulley
#10 Much The Same

#11 Strike Anywhere
#12 Pennywise
#13 Bad Religion
#14 Propagandhi
#15 No Fun At All

#16 H2O
#17 Polar Bear Club
#18 AFI
#19 No Use For A Name
#20 Lagwagon

Not only has every single non-punk rock band has been removed from the current list, but even mainstream punk rock bands like Sum 41 and The Offspring are also gone. The result? More melodic hardcore bands in the top 20. Strung Out is now the most similar. Sum 41 and The Offspring show up between #21-30. And Nickelback? A long way down...at 139. This is probably the main reason why the tag was not removed.



So, what about metal? How bout some Metallica?

Megadeth
Slayer
Anthrax
Iron Maiden
Pantera

AC/DC
Black Sabbath
System of a Down
Guns N' Roses
Motörhead

Lou Reed & Metallica
Machine Head
Ozzy Osbourne
Slipknot
Sepultura

Trivium
Testament
Avenged Sevenfold
The Offspring
Exodus

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE OFFSPRING DOING HERE? Literally. Well, for the most part, it looks OK with Megadeth, Slayer, and Anthrax on top first but...AC/DC, GNR...they sure may have been influenced by them, but would you really call them similar to Metallica? Would anyone even consider Slipknot or SOAD similar to Metallica either? Avenged Sevenfold?

Let's see what our new formula has spawned:

#1 MD.45
#2 Black Tide
#3 Megadeth
#4 Anthrax
#5 Testament

#6 Acid Drinkers
#7 Kat
#8 Turbo
#9 Iron Maiden
#10 Black Sabbath

#11 Motörhead
#12 Ozzy Osbourne
#13 Black Label Society
#14 Dio
#15 Bruce Dickinson

#16 TSA
#17 Lordi
#18 Danzig
#19 Steve Ouimette
#20 Slayer


Hmm...kind of strange here. Slayer actually dropped while Testament on the other hand arised. Now...MD.45 comes up #1...I dunno, many claim it's punk rock, but their top tags are thrash. But what the fuck are Acid Drinkers, Kat and Turbo? They're thrash metal bands from Poland. Both shared thrash metal and heavy metal tags with Metallica, thus the high ranking since thrash metal and heavy metal are also among Metallica's top tags too.

Slayer only shared two tags (thrash metal, heavy metal) while the Polish metal bands shared all 3 (since was banned due to location). It's quite interesting to be honest. Similar artists are supposed to get us into new artists. Not sure if they're good or not, but perhaps you might wanna give a spin to those artists.



What bout hip-hop? Let's take a random hip-hop artist....ok, Kanye West (I had to ban the tag in order to get similar artists).

CURRENT:
Jay-Z
Jay-Z & Kanye West
The Throne
Kid Cudi
Big Sean

Lupe Fiasco
j.cole
Drake
Pusha T
Common

Wale
The Weeknd
Kendrick Lamar
Mr Hudson
Consequence

The Game
Rick Ross
Frank Ocean
N*E*R*D
OutKast


I dunno...but I kind of feel most of the similar artist are affiliated in some way to G.O.O.D. Music.


NEW FORMULA:
#1 Diddy - Dirty Money
#2 Chris Brown
#3 Nelly
#4 Nicki Minaj
#5 Timbaland

#6 Pharrell
#7 Fonzworth Bentley
#8 R. Kelly & Jay-Z
#9 Mase
#10 Puff Daddy & The Family

#11 Drake
#12 T-Pain
#13 P. Diddy
#14 Diddy
#15 Twista

#16 Bow Wow
#17 Chris Brown & Tyga
#18 Will Smith
#19 Usher
#20 R. Kelly

Umm...is it just me or did this get a little more on the poppy/rnb side (well Kanye did do more poppy stuff on the last 2 record). LOL at the different version of the guy known as Diddy on there (hip-hop, rap rnb, pop, soul were the top tags for Kanye West after other tags were dumped...including hip hop (duplicate tag for hip-hop), kanye west (for obvious reasons) and...GAY FISH. TBH, most people tend to consider Kanye as a good musician rather than an MC.


One more example. I have also banned the because it referred to a radio format rather than a genre. One band I tested was Queen:

Freddie Mercury
Brian May
Roger Taylor
Queen + Paul Rodgers
Freddie Mercury & Montserrat Caballé

The Cross
Deep Purple
Queen & David Bowie
Led Zeppelin
Pink Floyd

Electric Light Orchestra
The Who
The Beatles
Scorpions
Kiss

Black Sabbath
Genesis
David Bowie
AC/DC
Aerosmith


Well...most of the top 10 consists of random Queen side projects. But do they play the same exact style...or even have a good discography to choose from? Queen & David Bowie only has one song of existence! And the next 10 artists...hmm...feels like Queen takes in a bit of those bands, but they aren't even similar to each other. What bout this new formula?

#1 Slade
#2 Sweet
#3 Suzi Quatro
#4 Queen + Paul Rodgers
#5 Kiss
#6 The Darkness
#7 Mott The Hoople
#8 Styx
#9 Foreigner
#10 Freddie Mercury

#11 Roger Taylor
#12 David Bowie
#13 Alice Cooper
#14 Bon Jovi
#15 Heart
#16 Jon Bon Jovi
#17 L.A. Guns
#18 Journey
#19 Deep Purple
#20 Led Zeppelin

Well, most of the original British Invasion is gone...some of those arena rock bands though are now in (Styx, Foreigner, and Journey to be specific)...Alice Cooper is in, and he's considered glam rock which Queen sometimes goes into...not bad. Most of the Queen side projects are gone, and AC/DC and Aerosmith seems to belong somewhere else (got to go outside the top 30 to find them). The top band is Slade...based on their last.fm page, they seem to also incorporate glam rock and hard rock together. Same with Sweet as well. Remember Queen still has hard rock influences to their sound as well, which is why not all hard rock band on the original list are gone. Seems to feel like a better list IMO, but what about you?


Well, I'm prolly going to go through more artists and search for more tags. Perhaps I could show you some more examples as well from other genres. It should be known that not all similar artists formulas are perfect. And there will always be artists that aren't similar at all.

Remember, I'm only able to resort the original top 250 similar artists. If there are some that are clearly similar to the given artist, but not in that artist's top 250 similar artists, it may not be caught. IMO, this formula is better applied over a similar artist pool of more than 250...probably a lot more artists.

So take a look and pass me some feedback...whether it be on a formula, tags to include, and perhaps ask me for a few examples.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2012/01/02/59qar9_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula%2C_part_ii#comments Revamping the similar artists formula. http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2011/12/25/59d3wp_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula. Sun, 25 Dec 2011 19:45:00 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2011/12/25/59d3wp_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula. As you've noticed the last several years, similar artists for bands/artists have gotten worse and more unreasonable. Especially if you keep reading on and on through the top similar artists for each artist. The one that has been baffling me for a while is The Offspring, a punk rock band that's not extreme or (though they do have influences and sounds at times). In fact, as of 12/25/2011, these are their top 50 similar artists in order:

Sum 41
Rise Against
Bad Religion
Billy Talent
Pennywise
Metallica
Green Day
blink-182
zebrahead
Millencollin

AC/DC
Nickelback
Papa Roach
System of a Down
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Disturbed
Anti-Flag
Rage Against the Machine
NOFX
Godsmack

Bloodhound Gang
Limp Bizkit
3 Doors Down
Rancid
Farben Lehre
Slipknot
Static-X
Nirvana
Korn
Dropkick Murphys

Ramones
Iron Maiden
Audioslave
Goldfinger
Rammstein
Drowning Pool
Pidżama Porno
Bullet For My Valentine
DragonForce
Rob Zombie

Bowling For Soup
P.O.D.
Dope
Good Charlotte
Guano Apes
Flogging Molly
Tenacious D
Foo Fighters
Three Days Grace
AFI


You guys can puke now. The current formula is based on what people of Offspring listen to more often. But seriously...we know this. If one person listens to two bands, those two bands aren't necessarily similar...especially The Offspring to Metallica. The Offspring to Nickelback. The Offspring to AC/DC (seriously...). The Offspring to System of a Down...The Offspring to Disturbed and Godsmack (seriously...?) The Offspring to Slipknot, KoRn, and Limp Bizkit (when has The Offspring ever been nu metal?). And worse yet, The Offspring to Iron Maiden, Rammstein, Bullet For My Valentine, DragonForce, Rob Zombie...are we supposed to believe that The Offspring is a heavy metal band?

Anyone should know that this method isn't the best way to find a similar artist. It's not. Simple as follows. A topic on the forums discussed that and some people suggested that the bands/artists be determined by tag clouds. That could work, but a few believe that there could be problems, especially when taking the whole tag cloud as a whole and seeing a ton of hard rock and alternative bands become similar to the one artist (The Offspring in this case).




Actually, there is another way I've been looking at, and it was a waste of several hours.

What if we took the current list and re-sorted it based on just the top 5 tags, taking into account the order of the tags. Of course there are questionable tags like , , and for some reason, very frequently and (appears that The Offspring has a huge following in Poland), but for now, let's leave them here (already, the infamous tag was banned from the tag cloud).

This is what I did...I grabbed the top 5 tags for every single band and resorted the list based on how many tags a band/artist shared those tags. Those that shared all 5 tags (in this case, , , , , ) came on the top followed by those that shared 4, then 3, and then 0. Here's how the top 20 now looked like:

SHARED ALL 5 TAGS
Billy Talent
Hoobastank
Pezz
Killradio
Alien Ant Farm
Unwritten Law

SHARED ONLY 4 TAGS (missing tag in paranthesis)
Sum 41 (had , missing alternative rock)
Bad Religion (had , missing alternative rock)
Green Day (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
blink-182 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Bloodhound Gang (had , missing punk rock)
Pidżama Porno (had , missing alternative rock)
Bowling For Soup (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Good Charlotte (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
AFI (had emo, missing alternative rock)
SR-71 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Social Distortion (had rockabilly, missing alternative rock)
No Use For a Name (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
+44 (had pop punk, missing alternative rock)
Strachy Na Lachy (had polish, missing punk)


As you can notice now, all of those metal and hard rock bands like Metallica, AC/DC, Nickelback, System of a Down, Disturbed and Godsmack....GONE from the top 20...actually they didn't even break the top 30 as well. What was more disturbing though was the high number of bands that didn't even share a single tag with The Offspring. These are some of the bands that you could hear when listening to The Offspring similar artists radio, and grab a bucket, you're about to puke hard...no, Justin Bieber is not there, but still...


Bullet For My Valentine
DragonForce
In Flames
Pantera
The Prodigy
Apocalyptica
Slayer
Korpiklaani
Sabaton
Children of Bodom
Nightwish
Sonata Arctica
Hammerfall
Clawfinger
Soulfly
Hollywood Undead
Megadeth
All That Remains
Pendulum
Trivium
Blind Guardian
Volbeat
Five Finger Death Punch
Vavamuffin
Sepultura
Lacuna Coil
As I Lay Dying
Machine Head
Anthrax
Spineshank
Judas Priest
Hunter
Alestorm
Eluveitie
Sonic Syndicate
Eminem
A Day To Remember
Jelonek
Soilwork
Hatebreed
Within Temptation
Fatboy Slim
Frontside
Massacration
Alley Life


Take a look guys...enjoy listening to all that metalcore, symphonic metal, power metal, heavy metal, electronica, nu metal, thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hip-hop stuff. According to last.fm right now, they are really similar artists to The Offspring (actually, all of them except for DF and BFMV come up as medium to low similarity to The Offspring). But seriously, a band that doesn't even share any of the top 5 tags with another band/artist has no reason even being on a list with that band. And there's literally a common thread with the bands/artists listed above. Most of them are pure metal to the point they don't even have a tag (I suspect Priest would get one if classic rock was barred though). Others like The Prodigy or Eminem are from electronica and hip-hop genres...and..really...I can't see a similarity with those bands to begin with.


So there...we managed to filter in bands that are similar...but it's not over yet. Let's now resort the list again, but this time, only compare the top 4 tags for all artists/bands. Tiebreakers for this sort will be

1). Number of tags shared when maximum 5 tags are used...
2). Their original ranking on the old formula, higher goes first


After the sort, the top 20 looks even more different:

Pezz
Killradio
Billy Talent
Hoobastank
Alien Ant Farm

Unwritten Law
Sum 41
Bad Religion
Green Day
blink-182

Bloodhound Gang
Bowling For Soup
Good Charlotte
AFI
Social Distortion

No Use For a Name
+44
Sugarcult
The Distillers
Autopilot Off


Well for the most part, the ordering has changed here. Some other bands now moved into the top 20 as there's more of a focus on the top 4 tags.

Last but not least, I repeated the resort again, but only comparing the top 3 tags for all artists/bands using the same tiebreakers as before while adding another tiebreaker that takes greater precedence (basically the number of tags shared when the maximum tags is used at 3...followed by the 2 tiebreaker rules listed above). And here is the final product:


#1 Killradio
#2 Billy Talent
#3 Unwritten Law
#4 Sum 41
#5 Green Day
#6 AFI
#7 Social Distortion
#8 Ramones
#9 Pezz
#10 Bad Religion
#11 blink-182
#12 Bowling For Soup
#13 Good Charlotte
#14 No Use For a Name
#15 +44
#16 Sugarcult
#17 The Distillers
#18 Autopilot Off
#19 Transplants
#20 Pennywise


Now where did Hoobastank and Alien Ant Farm go? Even though they shard all 5 tags as The Offspring, the ordering on both bands was different (rock, alternative rock, alternative, punk rock, punk), while with The Offspring, the ordering was (punk rock, punk, rock, alternative rock, alternative). As a result, the bands only shared 1 tag among the top 3 tags and ended up going below those that had at least 2 of The Offspring's top tags (punk rock, punk, rock).

As for some of those disputed bands, Nickelback ended up coming in at #69. Much lower on the list, but still quite high as they did share 1 tag among the top 3 (rock). Also, remember we are re-ranking the top 250 bands artists and remember we are already dealing with a good 45 bands that have nothing in common with The Offspring. I do not know whether they strive to get the top 250 bands and cut off from there, or work out some weird formula there, but perhaps maybe they should apply the current formula to get a batch of even more artists, apply the above formula, and then just take the top 250 artists...honestly 250 might be too much...top 200 perhaps? You could see a real shake up on many similar artists lists.

Many mainstream bands like Metallica, Radiohead, Linkin Park and other bands could see a lot of shake-up too. There are still a few other unresolved issues, like will it actually pick up 100% similar artists? Red Hot Chili Peppers for example has their top tags as rock, alternative, and alternative rock. Didn't some of the bands listed above have those 3 tags as well? Are they really similar? But perhaps it could cut bands that aren't alternative to begin with, like AC/DC, Black Sabbath, etc...

Another issue is potential abuse of tags. I'm talking about a bunch of wackos attempting to give something like Justin Bieber the now infamous tag (honestly though, 1 tag isn't really going to be enough and even identifying a brutal death metal band that a Justin Bieber fan listens too is going to be real difficult...especially if it doesn't share a pop or something. Moderators can assist with issues like that.

Also, the removal of tags could have an effect on similar artists. If we remove something like 70s, 80s, swedish, female vocalists, and all those other tags, can we guarantee that the new tags will make things better, or make things worse? What about tags regarding the same thing (alternative is not the same as alternative rock, but hip-hop/hip hop/hiphop? Nu metal/nu-metal? alt-rock/alternative rock?)? Do we merge these tags into one? Or do these duplicates exist because there's no other major tag to classify them as? What about vague tags like "classic rock"? And abused tags like "alternative", "indie"? And bogus tags like "", "", ""? With cases like this, it's all trial and error then, but it's really something that can be done on the go and with the assistance of user feedback.


There is one more thing I thought of regarding my suggested? Perhaps we could start sorting based on top tag for each artist, then by top 2 tags, then by top 3 tags, and all the way until the top 50th tag or something (and if an artist doesn't have a certain number of tags, TOO BAD :P). But that's something that would take a while to look at.

Who knows, perhaps someone might create a last.fm widget tool based on this suggestion. But it is clearly a possibility to use instead of the current formula, which guarantees a ton of similar artists that have nothing to do with each other.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/maplejet/journal/2011/12/25/59d3wp_revamping_the_similar_artists_formula.#comments Best of 2011 (early edition) http://www.last.fm/user/tomcatha/journal/2011/12/19/591sec_best_of_2011_%28early_edition%29 Mon, 19 Dec 2011 09:56:24 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/tomcatha/journal/2011/12/19/591sec_best_of_2011_%28early_edition%29 I was making a best of 2011 list for a website and thought i might as well post it here.
However considering it always takes a few years before a i really know the best releases of a year this will change.

1) Autopsy – Macabre Eternal
2) Manilla Road – Playground of the Damned
3) Orphaned Land – The Road to Or-Shalem
4) Volture – Rulebreaker (single)
5) Septic Flesh – The Great Mass
6) Moonsorrow – Varjoina kuljemme kuolleiden maassa
7) Crowbar – Sever the Wicked Hand
8) Rudra – Brahmavidya: Immortal I
9) Vintersorg – Jordpuls
10) Primordial – Redemption At The Puritans Hand

honourable mention: Arch/Matheos – Sympathetic Resonance

Autopsy
Manilla RoadOrphaned LandVoltureSeptic FleshMoonsorrowCrowbarRudraVintersorgPrimordialArch/Matheos]]> http://www.last.fm/user/tomcatha/journal/2011/12/19/591sec_best_of_2011_%28early_edition%29#comments Opeth - Heritage review http://www.last.fm/user/MinaseTaki/journal/2011/10/03/4rhkyv_opeth_-_heritage_review Mon, 3 Oct 2011 21:16:49 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/MinaseTaki/journal/2011/10/03/4rhkyv_opeth_-_heritage_review

Yep, it seems like it's time to say goodbye to yet another once mighty band. I don't consider myself to be *too* much of a close minded metalhead or anything. Hell, I even listen to Tool, for fuck's sake. The point is, I really, really don't want to critique this record for not being metal, because frankly, I think just about ANY fan of this band should have seen this coming miles away. Mikael Åkerfeldt is simply tired of metal. The poor man just wants to be happy with his grandpa prog rock and do homage to his..."musical heritage" or some bullshit, I don't know. I mean to judge this album with an openminded attitude...it doesn't need to be metal in order to be good, after all. And indeed, when I listen to Heritage, I'm not really looking for metal. I'm just looking for something, ANYTHING that won't fucking put me to sleep.

The boredom is constant throughout, right from the very first track, a completely worthless piano piece that goes absolutely nowhere. Seriously, Silhouette was much better than this crap, and hardly does anybody ever give Anders Nordin credit. Afterwards, The Devil's Orchard kicks in with half assed riffs, WAY too much fucking keyboard and some admittedly catchy vocal lines. Mikael Nietzschefeldt is dead, indeed. He is fucking DEAD.

It's amazing to me how many songs have sections which are basically Mike singing softly, while playing some soft guitar notes. Those are the adjectives that come to my mind: soft, slow, inoffensive, the whole album is like that. Nepenthe, for example, is a fucking snoozefest. You get the feeling that NOTHING is happening in the song at all until some decent solos kick in. Now that caught my attention, alright. Will anything else happen? Nope. Same thing with Häxprocess, which is apparently Mike's new favourite Opeth song. He must really like tracks with a reeeeally slow build-up made of slow, boring melodies and background effects with some woman crying. I too feel like crying at this point. I'm bored out of my mind. Do I need a "deeper understanding", or is this really just a pile of donkey feces?

There's of course the Dio "trbute song", which is made of merely bearable riffs and a vocal performance that surely isn't quite as impressive as the man himself would have liked. Oh, and it's really short, about three minutes long. I know, let's add a completely useless acoustic outro. And cheese it up with some keyboards, too. I'm joking, there are no keyboards, I would have killed myself otherwise. If you really want cheesy shit, listen to Famine and revel in Jetropeth's glory. Jesus christ.

Much has been said about the "disjointed" songwriting, of awkward transitions. Honestly, they are nowhere as annoying as some people make them out to be (except for Famine, fuck that song up the arse). Certainly, the transitions are not what's wrong with this album, in general. The half-assed songwriting is the problem. The impeding and absolute fucking BOREDOM. The total absence of metal doesn't even upset me THAT much, it's just that Opeth is a band capable of so much more than rehashing ideas that were already explored forty fucking years ago.

Heritage is merely decent. Even though it really annoys me sometimes, I can't say that it's a piece of shit because it simply isn't. Indeed, it's not the music itself what pisses me off, it's Mike's new attitude of thinking lowly of metal, and the fact that he's resolute about Opeth's new direction. Really, Heritage should have been a sideproject, but no. Instead, he has ruined Opeth for good.

God is dead, folks. THIS is how he has chosen to "liberate himself from the shackles of metal". Yeah, fuck you too, Mike. Apparently, Heritage has sold quite well too. I hope Mike uses the money to build a time machine so he can go back to the 70s and be all happy. I won't fucking miss him.

R.I.P. Opeth.

Heritage
The Devil's Orchard
I Feel the Dark
Slither
Nepenthe
Häxprocess
Famine
The Lines in My Hand
Folklore
Marrow of the Earth

Opeth
Heritage]]> http://www.last.fm/user/MinaseTaki/journal/2011/10/03/4rhkyv_opeth_-_heritage_review#comments Cool Trip Yazigi http://www.last.fm/user/analuisantos/journal/2011/08/14/4jh5d6_cool_trip_yazigi Sun, 14 Aug 2011 20:23:59 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/analuisantos/journal/2011/08/14/4jh5d6_cool_trip_yazigi Me ajudem a ganhar uma viagem à Califórnia gente! É só entrar no link do meu avião http://www.cooltripyazigi.com/aeronave/aeroenglish e clicar em 'NOS AJUDE COM UM EMPURRÃZINHO'. POR FAVOR, ME AJUDE!

Help me win a trip to California! Just enter the link of my airplane, http://www.cooltripyazigi.com/aeronave/aeroenglish and click on 'NOS AJUDE COM UM EMPURRÃZINHO'. PLEASE, HELP ME!]]> http://www.last.fm/user/analuisantos/journal/2011/08/14/4jh5d6_cool_trip_yazigi#comments ROTTING HILL: Wir suchen Verstärkung! http://www.last.fm/user/Astarot/journal/2011/08/05/4ium21_rotting_hill%3A_wir_suchen_verst%C3%A4rkung%21 Fri, 5 Aug 2011 08:17:44 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/Astarot/journal/2011/08/05/4ium21_rotting_hill%3A_wir_suchen_verst%C3%A4rkung%21 www.rottinghill.at

ROTTING HILL: Wir suchen Verstärkung!

Wir suchen dringend nach Verstärkung in verschiedenen Bereichen:

Redakteure: Für die Bereiche Thrash, Death und Doom Metal, sowie vereinzelt auch Post Rock/Instrumental, suchen wir nach Redakteuren. Natürlich wären Leute, die auch mehrere Genres bearbeiten können, eine feine Sache.

Fotografen: Wir suchen noch nach Leuten, die sich auf diverse Gigs, Festivals etc. begeben, um dort Fotos zu machen. Es müssen nicht unbedingt Profis sein! Wir möchten auch Leuten, die vielleicht neu in diesem Bereich sind, eine Chance geben. Spiegelreflex wäre natürlich von Vorteil, ist aber kein Muss. Handy-Kameras aber bitte nicht! Leute aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz wären wunderbar.

Newshunter: Auch hier suchen wir noch nach Leute, die sich täglich um die News von www.RottingHill.at kümmern. HTML-Kenntnisse sind dafür NICHT notwendig! Unser System zum online Stellen der News ist verdammt einfach zu bedienen und schnell zu lernen. Englisch-Kenntnisse und eine gute Rechtschreibung werden jedoch vorausgesetzt.

ACHTUNG: Wir bieten keine finanziellen Mittel, da wir selbst nichts mit www.rottinghill.at verdienen. Viele verwechseln uns mit einer Firma. Das sind wir nicht, wir machen das alles ehrenamtlich, weil wir einfach Gefallen am Metal und an der Musik im Allgemeinen finden.

Was wir euch bieten können:

Promomaterial verschiedener Bands und Labels
Einlass auf diverse Festivals und Konzerte für anschließende Berichterstattung
Interviews mit lokalen als auch internationalen Bands
Zusammenarbeit mit einem motivierten und freundlichen Team
RH-Shirts und -Flyer als Promotion

Wenn ihr Interesse habt, schreibt einfach eine Mail an redaktion@rottinghill.at ! Wir beißen nicht und freuen uns auf jede Mail und neuen Mitstreiter.

Matthias & das RH-Team]]> http://www.last.fm/user/Astarot/journal/2011/08/05/4ium21_rotting_hill%3A_wir_suchen_verst%C3%A4rkung%21#comments might like to go to the show? http://www.last.fm/user/garandhero/journal/2011/07/27/4icjo9_might_like_to_go_to_the_show%3F Wed, 27 Jul 2011 18:57:10 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/garandhero/journal/2011/07/27/4icjo9_might_like_to_go_to_the_show%3F http://sentientsentinel.com/]]> http://www.last.fm/user/garandhero/journal/2011/07/27/4icjo9_might_like_to_go_to_the_show%3F#comments Top 100 Albums of All Time (July 2011 Edition) (as chosen by voters) http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2011/07/20/4htwqm_top_100_albums_of_all_time_%28july_2011_edition%29_%28as_chosen_by_voters%29 Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:33:44 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2011/07/20/4htwqm_top_100_albums_of_all_time_%28july_2011_edition%29_%28as_chosen_by_voters%29 My website, Heavy Metal Haven, runs on on-going top 100 albums of all time feature for our members to vote in. Here I share the top 10 of the 2nd Edition of the list, published on 15th July 2011.

1. Megadeth - Rust In Peace (156 Points)


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2. Iron Maiden - Powerslave (140 Points)


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3. Metallica - Master of Puppets (114 Points)


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4. Pharaoh - The Longest Night (103 Points)


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5. Metallica - Ride the Lightning (93 Points)


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6. Metallica - Kill 'Em All (89 Points)


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7. Ayreon - Into The Electric Castle (75 Points)


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8. Black Sabbath - Paranoid (71 Points)


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9. Blind Guardian - Tales From The Twilight World (70 Points)


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9. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death (70 Points)


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View the rest of the list here - why? because I don't have the willpower to link all those artist and album pages

RE: This List Sucks!!!

It is a collaborative list, that is open to any genre of music. This edition had 22 contributions. Heavy Metal Haven is always updating it (well, whenever an update is warranted at least). If you are unhappy with the list, then I personally invite you to Register with us and leave a list of up to 30 albums in the appropriate forum topic. Please do not run down the list without at least being prepared to contribute to it. Thank you for your understanding.

I reserve the right to remove any comments on this entry that do not respect this.

]]> http://www.last.fm/user/adg211288/journal/2011/07/20/4htwqm_top_100_albums_of_all_time_%28july_2011_edition%29_%28as_chosen_by_voters%29#comments