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 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal The Last.fm journal for SmasherDevourer. Last.fm journals are a place to talk about all things music. http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2008/05/08/20zcpa_paganfest_usa%3A_mokena%2C_il%2C_01_may_2008 Thu, 8 May 2008 03:41:12 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2008/05/08/20zcpa_paganfest_usa%3A_mokena%2C_il%2C_01_may_2008 Thu 1 May – Paganfest USA

I made the eight-hour drive from Omaha to Milwaukee just so I could pick up my girlfriend at the airport the next morning and drive two more hours back to Mokena for this show. It was worth it.

Earthen

I'd never heard of these guys before, and had no idea they were going to be playing, so I was a bit annoyed when they came on stage, especially since by that point it was already half an hour past the time the show was supposed to have started.

They were nothing special. I suppose I should give them the benefit of the doubt considering they're a local band that was added to the bill seemingly as an afterthought, about a week before the show, and were short a member besides. One of their vocalists had to work, so the guitarist sang (or shouted, anyway) and who knows who played guitar. His vocals didn't add anything to the music, but he was in a tough spot. The other vocalist, a woman, wasn't very good either, and she has no excuse since that's her usual role in the band.

Eluveitie

I wasn't expecting a whole lot from this band. I had heard Spirit once before, and all I remembered was thinking that the music was decent and the vocals weren't as good as I would have liked.

Eluveitie's live show took all of about a minute to win me over. This is a big band full of talented musicians who all get very much into what they're doing. Their music is perfectly suited to a live show, and even the vocals that I wasn't crazy about on the studio recording did an excellent job of giving even more energy to the songs. It was great fun to watch these guys play, especially since they use a lot of instruments that I haven't seen at a metal show before. (I didn't even know what the hurdy gurdy was; I had to look it up after.)

It's not too often that I enjoy a band this much without knowing any of their music going into the show. Interestingly, and a little disappointingly, I'm reacting to Spirit much the same way I did the first time, even after being so impressed with their performance. So even if you're not the biggest fan of the band's studio work, don't miss an opportunity to see them live.

Týr

This is one of those bands I never thought I'd have a chance to see live, so I was excited as all hell to see them on the bill. I'm a big fan of Eric The Red and Ragnarok, and their upcoming album is one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year. (I still haven't heard their debut. I know, I suck.)

There's no way that three shirtless guys with guitars could hope to match Eluveitie's outstanding stage presence, and Heri seemed to be missing some notes slightly here and there, but those were minor gripes that didn't keep me from enjoying the show. What really burned me was that they played for less than half an hour! I don't know if that's all the time they were given or if they opted for a shorter set for some reason. Either way, it seemed like they had just gone on when they announced that they had only one song left. What the hell, guys?

Týr opened with a couple of new songs, both of which sounded very promising and heightened my anticipation for the new album. Still, given the extremely limited time they had, I wish we could have gotten some more of the songs I knew. I would have killed to hear Torsteins Kvaedi or The Edge. Luckily, the band did treat us to an excellent rendition of the awesome Wings of Time, plus Hail to the Hammer and Ramund Hin Unge. I really hope that I can see these guys again someday soon, and that they'll play a bit more next time.

Turisas

Turisas surprised the shit out of me last year with The Varangian Way, which turned out far better than I thought it would. At Paganfest they surprised me again; I didn't think anyone would manage to match Eluveitie in stage presence, but Turisas managed to pull it off. My girlfriend sneeringly dismissed their war paint, suits of armor, furry boots, over-the-top theatrics, and thundering, epic-as-hell battle metal as wrestling set to music, but I loved every second of it.

The band did an excellent job rendering their songs live, and they played a great set, too. The opening track was The Dnieper Rapids, one of my favorites off of their latest album. Songs like To Holmgard and Beyond, Battle Metal, One More, and In The Court Of Jarisleif are just incredibly fun to see live and scream along to. I was up on the balcony the whole night, so I had an excellent view of everyone in the band, and the crowd going nuts below. It warmed my metal heart to see the great response Turisas got out of everyone. I didn't realize they were so popular.

At this point in the night, they were easily my favorite act of the show. I like Týr's studio stuff as much or more, but Turisas' highly energetic music benefits hugely from a live setting, and their great stage presence makes it all the more enjoyable. Unless you're my girlfriend, anyway. (I still love you, sweetheart!)

Ensiferum

This is another band that surprised me with their most recent album. I had been afraid that the band's greatness had departed along with Jari, but Victory Songs turned out to be a pretty engaging effort, albeit not on par with their first two, which are both immortal Viking metal albums. As it turns out, Ensiferum sans Jari puts on a killer show as well.

The set started with playback of Ad Victoriam, so I expected that the first proper song would be Blood Is The Price Of Glory, but they surprised me and launched into Iron instead. (They played the former a bit later in the show.) Any doubts I had about how the old songs would sound vanished quickly... for me and everyone else in the room, judging by the crowd's reaction.

Like Turisas, Ensiferum has that epic, fist-pumping sound that makes their music perfect for live shows. And while they don't have an interesting stage show, and their new vocalist looks like a 12-year-old boy, their music is second to none in their particular genre. Incidentally, I never realized that the new singer only did the harsh vocals, and that the melodic ones are now handled by an old member of the band. Why does nobody tell me these things?

They had a near-perfect set list that included almost all of my favorites from Ensiferum and Iron: Guardians of Fate, Token of Time, Into Battle, Iron, and my personal favorite, LAI LAI HEI. Tracks from the new album included Blood Is The Price Of Glory (hell yeah!), One More Magic Potion, Ahti, and Victory Song. I'm sure I'm forgetting some, but it was a phenomenal set. They managed to top everyone who came before them, no mean feat considering the quality of the bands playing that night.

Closing

All in all, this may have been the best show I've ever seen. Every band did a spectacular job (excepting the last-minute opener, Earthen) and left me wanting more, despite how tired and sore I was by the end of the night. The Pearl Room is a great venue, too; anyone who's within driving distance and hasn't checked it out yet should definitely make a point of doing so. I just wish it were a little closer to home.

Paganfest USA is still going on. Check the remaining dates, and if there's one near you, get off your ass! We unlucky bastards in the States don't get to see lineups like this very often.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/12/23/9t0_the_top_75_albums_of_2007 Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:08:10 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/12/23/9t0_the_top_75_albums_of_2007 Gather round, kids! It's time once again for my list of the best albums of the year. And it's going to be one hell of a long list. Last year I had trouble scrounging up enough albums to make a top 25. This year I had trouble restricting myself to 75, if not quite enough to make a top 100. I had a lot of time on my hands in the first half of the year and went on a rampage of musical discovery. My list is still dominated by metal -- particularly prog metal, this year -- but there are more appearances from other genres than in years past. Because there are so many albums on this list, it was a little difficult to rank them, and the further from the top I got, the harder it became. As such, the rankings down there are only approximate.

Along with the huge number of great releases this year, there have been quite a few disappointments as well. Arcturus is gone, and the awe-inspiring lineup of Green Carnation has parted ways; though Tchort intends to continue using the name, it won't be like it was. Royal Hunt lost their vocalist. Long-awaited albums from Wintersun, Augury, Equilibrium, Anathema, and Ásmegin are nowhere to be found. And there were a lot of great bands who released subpar efforts, as we'll soon see.

For my list, I considered full-length studio albums only. No EPs, demos, singles, live albums, or compilations are eligible. You'll see a few icons scattered throughout the list: denotes an album that came out better than I was expecting, indicates an album that failed to live up to expectations, and is for artists who were new to me this year. As always, this list is my opinion only, and not an attempt at some sort of objective ranking. And as always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. If you know something that I've been missing out on, please let me know. And now, on to the music!

Oversights

Before I get into the actual rankings, I'd like to list a few albums that I've been meaning to try this year and just haven't gotten around to for one reason or another. There's so much to listen to that it's inevitable for a few things to get overlooked, and I figured I'd point them out here so I don't get people recommending them. I'll get to them all eventually. And I'm sure there are more that I can't remember, but here are the ones I can, in alphabetical order:

Anaal Nathrakh - Hell Is Empty And All The Devils Are Here
Apocalyptica - Worlds Collide
Behemoth - The Apostasy
Epica - The Divine Conspiracy
Evoken - A Caress Of the Void
Mechanical Poet - Who Did It to Michelle Waters?
Nile - Ithyphallic
Slough Feg - Hardworlder
Spheric Universe Experience - Anima

I wish I could have gotten to these by the end of the year as it's likely that at least a couple of them would have made the list, but what can you do? And now for what I did manage to hear this year...

The Merely Decent

75. Teargas & Plateglass - Black Triage
Here we have a fairly good if somewhat unremarkable collection of electronic ambient music. I could be judging this album unfairly as I haven't been able to spend much time with it yet, but I did feel that it deserved to make the list, which makes it better than a ton of other stuff I've heard this year even if it does have the bottom spot.

74. Spellblast - Horns Of Silence
Isn't Spellblast the name of a Magic: the Gathering card? I feel like such a nerd for knowing that, but I guess listening to power metal makes me a nerd to begin with, so I'm guilty either way. I honestly don't listen to this album much, but it does stand out from most of the power metal being released today.

73. Megadeth - United Abominations
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Dave Mustaine is an extremely talented guy, and love him or hate him, nobody can deny his importance in the history of metal. That said, I fear he's well past his prime. A lot of people will tell you that the band hit bottom with Risk, but I actually enjoyed Risk quite a bit (I liked Metallica's Load too), whereas this simply fails to hold my interest. Dave's political bullshit certainly doesn't help, either. "Amerikhastan" wins the award for the year's most asinine song title. Megadeth was my favorite band for a long time, and it hurts to see them barely making the top 75.

72. Mechanical Poet - Creepy Tales for Freaky Children
Mechanical Poet is a power/prog metal band that had a fantastic EP called Handmade Essence in 2003, and a superb full-length called Woodland Prattlers in 2004 which was one of my favorite albums of that year. They split up, then reformed, but without their vocalist Max Samosvat, and started billing themselves as a rock band rather than a metal one. These things had me worried, but other bands have made that transition successfully. Mechanical Poet just can't seem to manage it. The new singer can't match Samosvat's agility and style, and the new music doesn't really sound like a new style; it sounds like they took their old style and stripped away something essential. I don't know how to describe it any better than that. I was really disappointed by this, perhaps more disappointed in it than any other release this year.

71. Dark Moor - Tarot
I don't listen to much power metal anymore, but these guys do it reasonably well. "The Chariot" is a strong track and a very promising opener, but not representative of the quality of the album as a whole.

70. Dimmu Borgir - In Sorte Diaboli
I've enjoyed these guys quite a bit in the past, largely because I worship Simen Hestnæs as a god, but also because I'm a sucker for symphonic black metal and I think they do it quite well, despite their silly image and their laughable lyrics and album titles. I liked Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia a lot. Death Cult Armageddon was hit-and-miss, but still had plenty of good stuff. This latest album continues the downward trend; it's all right, but it just doesn't have much on it that's really memorable. The fact that the mighty Arcturus is gone and this band continues makes me pretty depressed. Why couldn't it be the other way around?

69. Dial - Synchronized
I was pretty upset when I heard that Kristoffer Gildenlow had left Pain of Salvation. He's a very talented musician, and as he proved on Pain of Salvation's 12:5, a most capable vocalist as well. Now he's got this alternative rock project called Dial happening, and it's OK, but to be honest, I was expecting more. I don't much care for whoever the female vocalist on this album is, which is a big factor in my disappointment. It's a decent album, just not what I was hoping for.

68. Pat Metheny & Brad Mehldau - Metheny Mehldau Quartet
When I'm in the mood for jazz, which admittedly is not very often, I enjoy these guys a lot. "The Sound Of Water" is an especially good song, one of the few on here that I can listen to anytime. Incidentally, if anyone has any recommendations on jazz albums that I should hear, please let me know.

67. Pagan's Mind - God's Equation
What happened here, I wonder? I listened to Celestial Entrance obsessively when it came out, and just couldn't get enough of these guys. "...of Epic Questions" is one of my most-played songs of all time. And yet God's Equation is just completely underwhelming. It's not bad, per se, but it's far below what this band is capable of. An unusual number of excellent prog metal albums came out this year, and this one can't even begin to compete.

66. Serenity - Words Untold & Dreams Unlived
More power metal! These guys kind of remind me of Sonata Arctica, only they don't have any lyrics about the lead singer's ex-girlfriends (that I know of). This one is a pretty solid album that should make power metal fans here. It might even be deserving of a more prominent spot on the list, but I haven't listened to it enough to be sure.

65. Bloody Panda - Pheromone
If nothing else, these guys win points for having an amusing band name. And unlike most other bands with amusing names that I know, this band actually has musical talent as well. They're a doom metal outfit from New York City whose lead singer is a woman with a pretty unusual approach to the job. Listen for yourself -- it's good stuff.

64. Daemonia Nymphe - Krataia Asterope
Neofolk is a genre that's pretty new to me. Before 2007, I hadn't really heard any folk music aside from Tenhi, Nest, and October Falls. This year I heard a ton of it, and this was one of the few that struck a chord with me. I do wish the vocals were better -- and I seem to make that complaint about a lot of neofolk bands -- but this is pretty good.

63. Gernotshagen - Märe aus wäldernen Hallen
This album blends black metal and folk influences and manages to handle both aspects of their sound pretty well, though I prefer the folkier stuff, and the album's production really could have used some more work. If you're not bothered by that sort of thing, you may enjoy this.

62. Sonata Arctica - Unia
Here is yet another band in decline. I was pretty excited for Unia, and the first time I put it on, I was really excited. Album opener "In Black and White" is outstanding, and so is the following song, "Paid in Full." Yet after that, the rest of the album just blends together in my mind. I can't separate one song from the next and I find that I don't really want to. It's a horrible let-down considering how powerfully the album opened. By the way, there's plenty more evidence here to support my theory that Tony Kakko has had his heart broken by every last woman in Finland.

61. Korpiklaani - Tervaskanto
The prevailing opinion when this was first released was that it was some of Korpiklaani's finest work, an outstanding folk metal album. But I'm not hearing it for some reason. Am I the only one who misses Korpiklaani's older stuff?

60. Thought Chamber - Angular Perceptions
Speaking of prog metal albums, here's another one. Not a particularly distinguished one, but it's competently done and should do the job if you're a prog junkie in need of a fix. To be fair, it is a debut release, though these are accomplished musicians. It'll be interesting to see if they mature at all on the follow-up.

59. Arcsin - Oculus Fang
I got this because it was recommended by someone whose taste I respect, and because I just had to know what "instrumental hip-hop" (which is how it was described to me) sounds like. I wasn't really expecting to like it, but there are actually some pretty solid tracks on here. If someone more familiar with this genre happens to read this, I'd appreciate a recommendation or two so I can explore it a little further. Arcsin does some nice work with an electric guitar on the opening track "Dreamcatcher," which may be part of the reason it managed to worm its way into my black, metal-loving heart.

58. Pain of Salvation - Scarsick
Ugh, where to begin? In The Perfect Element, Part I and Remedy Lane, these guys had two of the best prog metal albums of all time. Be had me a little worried, mostly for the ridiculousness of its concept, but that album still had tons of great material, and so I expected better than this. The first two songs do nothing for me; I don't care for Pain of Salvation's take on rap. "Cribcaged" is strong musically, but utterly robbed of whatever emotional impact it otherwise would have had by its embarrassingly bad lyrics. "America" is just obnoxious, musically and thematically. There are very, very few bands in the world that can mix politics with music and come across well, and Pain of Salvation is not among them. Luckily, things pick up a little in the later parts of the disc. "Disco Queen" is absolutely fabulous and almost makes up for the crap that came before it. "Flame To The Moth" and "Enter Rain" are excellent tracks, too. But this album should have been so much more. Instead, it joins Creepy Tales for Freaky Children as a strong contender for disappointment of the year.

57. Masterplan - Mk II
Masterplan still make pretty decent music, better than that of most power metal bands, but I think they lose a lot of their appeal without Jorn Lande. It's too bad; they were one of the better power metal bands out there. All things must end, I suppose.

56. Thunderbolt - Apocalyptic Doom
Despite the name, this isn't really doom; it's a pretty solid black metal album from this now-defunct band of church-burning jokers. I'm not familiar with any of their older stuff so I can't give a comparison for those of you who may be fans, but it's at least worth a listen.

55. Walknut - Graveforests And Their Shadows
While I'm sure it means something else, I can't help thinking that the name of this band sounds like the favorite pastime of a man who enjoys mixing sex and pain. I don't much like the thought of someone walking on my nuts, but I do like this album. It's harsh black metal that does an unusually good job of building a bleak atmosphere.

54. KromleK - Strange Rumors... Distant Tremors
Go look at this band's silly picture on MetalArchives.com, and if you know metal at all, you'll have an amusingly accurate idea of exactly what you're in for. This is pretty decent folk metal with some cheesy synths and vocals that could probably be improved. The opening of this album made me wonder if I was in for something like Turisas, but this band isn't as epic or aggressive as that one, and in my opinion, not as talented either. That's not to say that the album isn't worth a listen, though. By all means, give it a try.

53. After Forever - After Forever
Female-fronted gothic / symphonic metal used to hold more appeal for me. These days it seems like it's all I can do just to tell those bands apart frome one another. After Forever is a pretty decent one though, and I have a soft spot for them since I love Floor Jansen's work with Ayreon and Star One.

52. Naglfar - Harvest
This is a black metal album with a more melodic bent. If you like that sort of thing, well, you could definitely do worse, but you could certainly do better, too. It's a decent effort, nothing terribly special.

51. Empyrean Eclipse - Illumination Undone
The debut album from this American death metal band is pretty damn good. It's melodic, but not overly so. I probably would have rated this higher a couple of years ago, when I listened to more stuff like this. Still, it's worth a look, and you can get some full songs from their page on last.fm.

The Good, If Not Great

50. Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
It might seem a little strange to see that "better than expected" tag on an album that just barely managed to crack the top 50, but I honestly thought this album was going to be horrible. Nightwish have been declining over the years -- their last couple of albums don't even come close to Oceanborn as far as I'm concerned -- and with Tarja gone, I figured that they wouldn't really stand out anymore. But there are some surprisingly good songs here, Anette fits the band well, and Marco is doing an admirable job on his vocal performances too. It's good to see that these guys are still in the game.

49. Bola - Kroungrine
Here we have a very nice electronic album that I'm at a loss to describe, since I don't have much like it in my collection. This is IDM if last.fm's army of taggers are to be believed, but my only experience with that genre has been with bands like Helios and Xela, and Bola is considerably different than either of them, less laid-back with stronger beats and more prominent electronics. Some of it sounds like it wouldn't be out of place in a film soundtrack. Cool stuff; I hope to hear more in the future.

48. Mors Principium Est - Liberation = Termination
I discovered these guys a couple of years ago, after I'd already started becoming disinterested in most of the melodic death metal bands I used to listen to, and found them to be one of the few bands working in that style who still sounded fresh and interesting. Sadly, they seem to be dropping off a bit. Both of their preceding albums were significantly better than this one.

47. Before the Dawn - Deadlight
I'm big on vocals, so stick Lars Eric Si (of Winds fame) in a band and I'm bound to enjoy it, regardless of what they're playing. The music on this album is good, but not great; without Lars it probably wouldn't be anything too exciting.

46. Elend - A World in Their Screams
This dark neoclassical band plays music that sounds like it came off the soundtrack to a horror movie, and is a lot of fun to listen to if you're just lying in the dark sometime. Opening track "Ophis Puthôn" is exceptional, but sadly, the rest of the album doesn't live up to the same standard.

45. Alamaailman Vasarat - Maahan
I don't have any idea what the hell these guys are doing. I can't even identify most of the instruments they're playing. But whatever it is, it's definitely interesting.

44. Virgin Black - Requiem - Mezzo Forte
These guys surprised me with their fairly unique symphonic doom. It's beautiful and it's extremely well executed. Unfortunately I think it also gets a little boring after awhile, but from what I've read, I seem to be in the minority with this opinion.

43. Toroidh - Segervittring
This is solid ambient martial stuff from the prolific Henrik Nordvargr Björkk. It's a genre I've just started getting into this year, and I have to be in a certain mood to listen to it, so I don't know much that I can say about it. Sorry!

42. Civilization One - Revolution Rising
Here's another prog metal debut from a band full of accomplished musicians, kind of like Thought Chamber, except that I like this one a lot better.

41. Nightingale - White Darkness
Dan Swanö never disappoints, though to be honest, I figured that this album would come out a little higher on the list when all was said and done. It's a good album, and there are songs that I still really like, particularly "Wounded Soul." I just think it got a little old after awhile. A prog metal overload this year, perhaps, as you'll see when we get to my top ten.

40. Novembers Doom - The Novella Reservoir
I finally got around to listening to this band this year. Not nearly enough, so there's not much I can say about them, but enough to place them ahead of most of the rest of what I heard this year.

39. Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
I think Dark Tranquillity are the only one of the old "Gothenburg sound" bands that I still listen to. While most of their peers have fallen into sharp decline, these guys are still making interesting music. "Inside The Particle Storm" is my favorite song from them in quite some time.

38. Finntroll - Ur Jordens Djup
I haven't listened to Finntroll in a long time, and for some reason, the last time I tried listening to them, I didn't like them at all. This year I happened to see a review of Ur Jordens Djup in which the writer claimed that it sounded like Moonsorrow playing shorter songs, so I had to check it out, and I'm glad I did. I misjudged this band earlier. They are a fine bunch of trolls.

37. Nae'blis - Sketches Of Reality
Here is another bleak and atmspheric black metal band. "Atmospheric" is a word that's pretty overused, even (especially?) for black metal bands, but these guys actually deserve it, as do Walknut (who showed up a little while ago, for those of you who aren't reading this whole thing). The songs do require a fair amount of attention; the album has only four tracks and clocks in at over 50 minutes.

36. Kamelot - Ghost Opera
Kamelot's new album really should have been top-ten material at least. Here is a band that has gotten consistently stronger with every release in their discography. Epica was outstanding, and The Black Halo somehow managed to be even better, so the expectations for Ghost Opera were ludicrously high. I suppose it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that they weren't met, but it's a disappointment nonetheless. Don't get me wrong; this is a good album, and still towers over almost every other power metal album being made these days. But Kamelot can do better.

35. Crystal Abyss - Word of the Darkest Ages
This is pretty slick melodic/symphonic black metal that reminds me a little of Sinful's Omyt, only it's not in Russian and there are fewer vampires. I can't even remember how I heard about this band. They do seem to be relatively unknown judging by the number of listeners they have here on last.fm, but you can stream some of their songs in their entirety, so go have a listen.

34. Mind's Eye - A Gentleman's Hurricane
I don't know if 2007 has just been an unusually good year for prog metal or if it's just coincidence that I discovered so much, but either way, I'm happy. Mind's Eye -- a band I'd never heard of before -- does a fine job on this album, though I can't really say that there are any standout tracks on it.

33. Ensiferum - Victory Songs
Jari Mäenpää may be gone, but Ensiferum remains, and I was genuinely surprised by how good they still sound. Mäenpää is a hugely creative guy, and as the former lead vocalist and guitarist for Ensiferum, I assumed that he was a large part of their sound and that the band would suffer greatly for his loss. Their sound does suffer -- the new vocalist is good, but not as good, and the music shows less variety than it used to -- but they've still managed to put together an extremely respectable album here. I knew about two seconds into "Blood Is The Price Of Glory" that my fears were unfounded. A very nice surprise.

32. Paradise Lost - In Requiem
These guys have been around for ages, and yet this is the first album of theirs that I've heard. If it's representative of the rest of their catalog, I'm going to have to start digging into their older stuff. This is unusually good gothic/doom metal, not quite as gloomy as something like My Dying Bride (the vocals are noticeably more energetic, for one thing), but it ought to appeal to the same kind of people.

31. Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement
I was anticipating this album pretty highly as I really enjoyed their first two albums, particularly the debut Out of Myself. This one isn't quite on the same level, unfortunately. It's a solid prog rock album, though, and it's got some good tracks. The single "02 Panic Room" is a very nice bit of work, for example. I haven't heard too many opinions from other Riverside fans, so I'm kind of curious as to whether others also found this to be a little below expectations.

30. Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet
A fantastic effort from this increasingly well-known prog rock band, and a considerable improvement over Deadwing in my opinion, aside from what I'd say is a somewhat unfortunate title.

29. Atrium Carceri - Ptahil
Fans of spooky background music, take note! This is dark ambient done right. Not much else to say, really.

28. Fortid - Völuspa Part II - The Arrival of Fenris
This album took awhile to grow on me. Actually, it took most of the year. I must have listened to it ten times before I realized that I enjoyed it, which really makes me wonder what kind of nice music might be out there that I heard a few times and dismissed. Oh well. Fans of black and Viking metal will probably get into Fortid's sound pretty quickly (if you're going to get into it at all), as it should be pretty familiar. Check out the title track as a place to start.

27. Root - Daemon Viam Invenient
I think Root are headed in the right direction again with this album. I wasn't the biggest fan of Madness of the Graves, although it did give the world "The Last Gate (The Story of Demons)," which is wonderfully useful for frightening small children... and adults, for that matter. Daemon Viam Invenient is an improvement, I'd say, although I haven't spent as much time with it as I ought to.

26. Bereavement - The Advent Of Loss
Here we've got progressive death metal reminiscent of Opeth, and apparently being made in the United States, which I thought was pretty surprising. I don't think I know any other American bands who sound like this. A most impressive effort, and well worth hearing.

The Runners-Up

25. Nest - Trail Of The Unwary
Finally, another album from these guys! Nest play an extremely soothing brand of ambient / neofolk music; metal fans may know them from their collaboration with Agalloch a few years back. This album is a bit darker than their last, but is every bit as good, and if you can get your hands on the special edition, there's a whole second disc full of the band's early demos and a few other goodies.

24. Circus Maximus - Isolate
Not too long ago, had someone asked me to describe Circus Maximus, I would have said that they sound similar to Pagan's Mind, only not as good (though with vocals that are less likely to scare people off). Now a couple of years have passed, and this band has moved way up in my charts, while Pagan's Mind has taken a huge slide. It's funny the way things work. This is very strong material, and if they can keep it up, this band may have a very bright future. That said, "Arrival of Love" wins the award for the most absurdly cheesy melody of the year. Every time I hear it, I have to stop and ask myself whether I should laugh or cringe. I end up picking one about as often as the other. But that's just one complaint on an otherwise worthy album, so don't let it deter you.

23. Le Grand Guignol - The Great Maddening
It may not be an established genre, but "circus metal" comes pretty close to the mark for this bizarre album. It sounds something like a cross between Unexpect and Arcturus's La Masquerade Infernale. It's not as good as either, but still, how often do you hear something that can be compared to those singular bands? If you like weird music, you must check this out.

22. Svarrogh - Balkan Renaissance
I guess these guys are a black metal band, according to last.fm, but there's no metal on this album, just my favorite neofolk of the year. Why do so many metal bands seem to be so good at this sort of thing? No doubt someone who knows more about music could tell me.

21. Vintersorg - Solens rötter
Vintersorg's last album wasn't all that great in my opinion, so Solens Rötter came as a very pleasant surprise. It sounds a bit more like the old Vintersorg we all love (or hate). The folky elements in his music are better and more prevalent, the songs are less hit-and-miss, and best of all, all the lyrics are in Swedish so I can't understand what the fuck he's saying.

20. Mael Mórdha - Gealtacht Mael Mórdha
This is great folky doom from Ireland that took me awhile to get into for some reason. I can't really think of anyone to compare them to, and I suck at describing music, so you'll just have to hear this album for yourself. "Atlas of Sorrow" and "Curse of the Bard" are particularly good.

19. Nahemah - The Second Philosophy
Progressive death metal, or melodic death metal, or whatever you want to call it, doesn't sound this good very often. Apparently these guys released their debut album about six years ago, then went silent until now. I've heard their debut, and it's not bad, but it's nothing like this excellent piece of work. The Second Philosophy is brooding, melodic, and filled with all kinds of interesting ideas. Fans of bands like Novembre or Opeth will doubtless find plenty to enjoy here.

18. Liholesie - Videniya
I'm honestly not sure what year this was released, as I saw it on a few year-end lists in 2006. The band says that it came out in "Winter 2007," so I suppose it might have just leaked onto the Internet in late 2006, or maybe it actually was released in December or something, and the band includes that as part of Winter 2007. Whatever the case, this is too good to leave off my list, so here it is. This is an outstanding dark ambient release that manages to be subtle enough to leave on in the background, yet interesting enough to listen to intently, a hard balance to achieve.

17. Therion - Gothic Kabbalah
Therion is back with another double album, their thirteenth if I remember correctly, and it's pretty impressive how strong they still are. This one is a bit different from their previous works. Gone are the growls that made a few reappearances on Lemuria and Sirius B. Gothic Kabbalah takes a bit of a different vocal approach, sounding almost like power metal at times. Therion have always been a bit inconsistent with their songwriting, but when they get it right, they can be pretty amazing. In particular, "Son of the Staves of Time" easily stands among the best songs the band have recorded in their long and storied history.

16. Samael - Solar Soul
I didn't like this album the first time I heard it, or the second time. I think it was just the vocals that put me off. I'm glad I stuck with it, though. Of the few examples of industrial metal I've heard, this is one of the best. Think something similar to Cypher by ...and Oceans, only less repetitive.

15. Senmuth - [Various albums]
This is the only entry on my list that's not for a particular album. Senmuth is a one-man project from Russia, and the guy is insanely prolific. He has released at least ten albums this year that I know of, and every one of them is very good. His stuff is all instrumental, but it varies quite a bit aside from that. He does industrial, ambient, doom, and probably more genres whose names and descriptions I don't know. This guy deserves some kind of special award for the sheer volume of good work that he manages to put out.

14. Behold... the Arctopus - Skullgrid
The full-length release from this fabulously talented trio has been a long time coming, and it was worth the wait. This is extremely technical instrumental metal, and nobody does it better. Don't be scared away even if you don't normally go for this sort of stuff. There are lots of bands out there labeled "technical" and most of them bore me to tears. Behold... the Arctopus are something else entirely.

13. Novembre - The Blue
I was pleasantly surprised to hear that Novembre were coming out with another album this year. There had been such a long silence prior to the release of last year's Materia that I assumed we'd be doomed to wait through another one. Instead, only a year later, we've got The Blue, and I'm liking it a lot. Nothing tops Novembrine Waltz as far as I'm concerned, but it's great to see these guys still going strong after so many years. Recommended for fans of Agalloch or Katatonia, or just doomy stuff in general.

12. Turisas - The Varangian Way
This album kicked my ass! 2004's Battle Metal was a great album in its way, sounding like something halfway between Ensiferum and Bal-Sagoth, but I thought it was too inconsistent for my liking. I'd pick and choose a few songs from it and rarely listen to the whole thing. Add to that a number of lineup problems -- their guitarist was paralyzed in a car accident, among other things -- and I was curious about this album, but not terribly hopeful. Happily, I think it's actually a stronger effort than Battle Metal, a ridiculously epic and entertaining bit of good old Viking metal.

11. Winds - Prominence And Demise
Here's another album that I've been awaiting for years, and I'm happy to say that this one does not disappoint. Not too much, anyway. Winds are still a very respectable outfit whose members hail from some of the finest metal bands out there, and I really enjoy their neoclassical approach to the genre. But I still like Reflections of the I better than anything they've done since.

The Top Ten

10. Russell Allen & Jorn Lande - The Revenge
Russell Allen (of Symphony X) and Jorn Lande (formerly of Masterplan) are two of my favorite vocalists, so to have them collaborating on another album is almost too good to be true. The music is consistently good prog metal. Not great (not usually), but the vocal performances from these two tremendous performers are enough to lift the album into my top ten for the year. Lande is positively superb on Master Of Sorrow, and Allen follows it up with the equally great Will You Follow. I wish the whole album were as strong as those two tracks; this album could have grabbed a much higher spot. Not that #10 isn't respectable or anything, especially in such a great year.

9. Ulver - Shadows of the Sun
Ulver's neverending metamorphosis continues on Shadows of the Sun, and the band's creativity shows no sign of running dry. This time around, the guys have given us something more on the ambient side, with plenty of string arrangements behind the electronics. Compared to 2005's Blood Inside, I'd say it's more relaxing, more subdued, and more consistent -- sometimes to the point of seeming repetitive, which put me off at first, but I came to love this album after giving it a few more listens. The general consensus among the few Ulver fans I know seems to be that this is a step up from Blood Inside, but I always have a lot of trouble comparing one Ulver album to another. They're all so different, but they're almost always wonderful experiences, and this album is no exception.

8. Swallow the Sun - Hope
It took me a long time to realize how good this album is, probably because I never gave their last one as much time as I probably should have. Thankfully I had an opportunity to see them play live a few months ago, and their performance impressed me quite a bit, so I started giving the album a little more play time. And this is damn fine doom metal, the best I've heard this year, with plenty of crushing riffs and atmospheric interludes, guttural growls and beautiful clean vocals. The highlights for me come in the middle of the album, with the haunting "Don't Fall Asleep (Horror Pt. 2) and the awesome "The Justice of Suffering," featuring a superlative guest appearance by Katatonia's Jonas Renkse.

7. Darkwater - Calling the Earth to Witness
Thank you, Amazon.com! Most of the time its recommendation system gives me nothing but old Dream Theater and Blind Guardian albums, but every once in awhile, there's some brilliant band waiting to be found in there, and Darkwater is definitely one such. This is the band's debut album, and it already shows them to be among prog metal's most talented and promising new acts. Their mostly lengthy compositions stay engaging throughout. I suppose I'd say they sound a bit like Circus Maximus if I had to compare them to anyone. Check out "The Play - Part II" or "Tallest Tree" for a taste of what this band can do.

6. Moonsorrow - V: Havitetty
How many bands could release an hour-long album comprising only two songs and have it be so uniformly enthralling? Not many! Moonsorrow's latest is a definite masterpiece, stronger than 2005's Verisäkeet in my opinion, possibly even on the same level as the phenomenal Voimasta ja kunniasta and Kivenkantaja. If you like your folk metal dark and heavy, you won't do much better than this.

5. Threshold - Dead Reckoning
I don't know how it is that I managed not to hear this band until this year, since apparently they've been active and well-known for quite some time, and their old vocalist was Damian Wilson, who I know from Star One, my favorite of Arjen Lucassen's many projects. Whatever the reason, though, I found them this year, and that's good enough for me. Once you shake the feeling that you've heard the vocalist before -- I think he reminds me of the guy from REO Speedwagon, but I can't be sure -- this is some of the best prog metal you're likely to hear this year. Slipstream kicks things off with high energy and catchy melodies, and the album doesn't let up. Pilot In The Sky Of Dreams is one of the best songs of the year. Oh, and Dan Swanö makes a guest appearance, but really, is there even a metal band out there that hasn't had Dan Swanö show up once or twice? (Not that I mind.)

4. Dalriada - Kikelet
Where the hell did these guys come from? At a time when I've been struggling to find folk metal that I really like, Hungary's Dalriada hit home with some of the best I've heard in years. The band has a female singer with a very pleasant voice which, thankfully, is distinctive enough to set her apart from all the other women in metal that I can call to mind. They've got a male vocalist too, and while he's not as good, their voices go extremely well together. There's not a weak song on the whole album, and it's lost none of its charm through many listens. Not as dark as Moonsorrow, not as bouncy as Korpiklaani, Dalriada have a sound that's all their own. I'm really looking forward to hearing more from these guys in the future.

3. Sieges Even - Paramount
These guys were another Amazon.com recommendation, surprisingly. Though I've heard their name before, this band was new to me this year, and now I'm kicking myself for not finding out about them sooner. This is prog rock at its best, with gorgeous melodies, great drumwork, and an excellent vocal performance (very important to me). There are only a few weak spots. "Eyes Wide Open" seemed pretty forgettable to me, and "Mounting Castles In The Blood Red Sky," a mostly instrumental piece featuring Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, doesn't quite work. The music just doesn't suit it as well as it should. Generally speaking, political or historical voiceovers in a song just irritate me (see Fear Factory's "Timelessness," or even better, Darkwood's "Conquer We Shall" for a few counterexamples). Still, this is first-rate material here, not to be missed.

2. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
Much anticipated and well overdue, this ass-kicker of an album makes it abundantly clear that Symphony X are still at the top of their game, with killer songwriting and virtuoso performances all around. Michael Romeo effortlessly pulls off shit with his guitar that would make lesser men weep with frustration. Russell Allen's vocals are stronger than ever, if you can believe that. And for my money, Jason Rullo is perhaps the most interesting drummer in metal. Unfortunately there's no monstrous epic the likes of "The Odyssey" on this disc, though album closer "Revelation (divus Pennae Ex Tragoedia)" does revisit some themes from "The Divine Wings Of Tragedy," as is evident from its name. And while I love the band's aggressive side, I wish they'd do a few more neoclassical-style songs, like the absolutely stunning title track. Had there been one or two more standouts on this album, it would have been the best release of the year. As it is, it comes pretty damn close.

1. Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omniscient
This latest release from Hevy Devy isn't perfect, and I don't think it quite stands with the top couple of albums from last year, but I'm still comfortable giving it top honors for 2007. Musically, it's an outstanding fusion of the heaviness of Strapping Young Lad and the charm and diversity that makes the stuff released under his own name, in my opinion, so much more interesting. Townsend's wonderfully bizarre sense of humor permeates the whole album, about an extradimensional guitar hero who comes to Earth in search of the ultimate cup of coffee, and destroys the planet when he doesn't get his way. And while it does weaken a little towards the end, it's my favorite work of his in a long time, at least since Terria.

Other Awards

Song of the Year: Symphony X - "Paradise Lost"
This is the side of Symphony X that I like best, because it really showcases how talented the entire band is. The guitar-driven stuff is great too -- Set The World On Fire (The Lie of Lies) is an absolute killer of an opener -- but Michael Pinnella is such an outstanding keyboardist, and it's nice to hear him take a more central role sometimes. This is the sort of song that most prog metal bands can't pull off half so well, with songwriting that is really beautiful and not just technical or complex. And this particular song has arguably one of Russell Allen's finest vocal performances to date, which is what really clinches it for me as the song of the year. If you can listen to him sing this song and not be amazed, then I'm sorry, but something inside of you is broken. I really wish the band would do this more often.

EP / Demo of the Year: October Falls - The Streams of the End
The last thing I heard from October Falls was the beautiful, minimalistic EP Tuoni, which was acoustic guitar and not much else. On The Streams of the End, October Falls uses that same distinctive acoustic guitar sound, but they throw drums and distortion and black metal vocals into the mix as well, and the result is a fabulous EP reminiscent of early Agalloch or Ulver's Bergtatt. Supposedly there's a full-length in this same kind of style coming, and if it's this good, then it could enjoy a place of prominence on my year-end list in 2008.

Live Album / Compilation of the Year: Tenhi - Folk Aesthetic
One of the first folk bands I ever heard, and still among my favorites, Tenhi gifted us this year with a three-disc compilation of songs written over the course of the last ten years. There are rare tracks from their demos, alternate versions of known songs, and a lot of stuff that has never seen a release until now. There wasn't much in the way of competition in this category this year, but had there been, it would have had to be fierce indeed to take the honors from Tenhi. This is a glorious compilation with a wealth of great material that all good-hearted folk fans will want to have.

Closing

Finally done! I sure hope somebody gets something out of this, because it's taken me all day to write the goddamn thing and I think my hands are about to break off. Let me know if you discover anything interesting in my list, or if you know something that you think I missed. Thanks a lot for reading, and happy holidays to all.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/11/26/9sz_spreadsheet_for_building_year-end_lists Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:19:50 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/11/26/9sz_spreadsheet_for_building_year-end_lists I just whipped up an Excel spreadsheet to make it a little easier to build my top albums list when the end of the year rolls around, and figured I'd share it here for anyone who's interested. It contains macros, so you'll need to have your Office security level set to Medium to use it. This was a pretty quick job, so I don't promise that there are no bugs in it, but I do promise that it won't melt your computer.

http://ironblayde.com/temp/bestof2007.zip

Here's what it looks like:



It should be pretty simple to use. To begin, simply enter a list of all the albums you've enjoyed in 2007 in the Unsorted column, as shown below. They don't need to be sorted alphabetically; I just happened to have a list that was arranged that way.



Once you've got your list, click the Run button in the upper-right corner of the sheet. You'll be presented with a series of dialogs like this one:



Simply choose the album that you liked better and click OK. As the spreadsheet figures out where each album ranks, it moves the albums from the Unsorted column to the Sorted column. If you ever choose "Not sure yet," the spreadsheet skips over the album it's looking at so you can sort it later. If you click the Cancel button, the program stops running completely.

Once you have some albums in your Sorted column, you can click the Last.fm button, and the spreadsheet will format your list for posting on last.fm. The results will appear on a separate worksheet, which you can access by clicking the Output sheet on the tab control at the bottom of the Excel window. The output will look like this:



You can simply copy and paste this text into a last.fm forum post or journal entry. In order for this to work properly, each item in your list of albums needs to be formatted as "Artist - Album" as in the screenshots above.

For the curious, the spreadsheet places albums into the Sorted column using the binary search algorithm, so that when you are placing a new album into an existing list containing n items, the maximum number of choices you'll have to make is log(2)n.

So far I've sorted fewer than half of the releases I've enjoyed this year -- mostly I've just ranked the metal ones, along with a few others. So I've got a lot more listening to do, and I'm sure that these will change in the next month, but here's what my top 25 is looking like so far:

1. Symphony X - Paradise Lost
2. Devin Townsend - Ziltoid the Omniscient
3. Sieges Even - Paramount
4. Threshold - Dead Reckoning
5. Darkwater - Calling the Earth to Witness
6. Dalriada - Kikelet
7. Le Grand Guignol - The Great Maddening
8. Russell Allen & Jorn Lande - The Revenge
9. Swallow the Sun - Hope
10. Winds - Prominence And Demise
11. Vintersorg - Solens rötter
12. Mind's Eye - A Gentleman's Hurricane
13. Nightingale - White Darkness
14. Samael - Solar Soul
15. Turisas - The Varangian Way
16. Nightwish - Dark Passion Play
17. Nahemah - The Second Philosophy
18. Nest - Trail Of The Unwary
19. Moonsorrow - V: Havitetty
20. Therion - Gothic Kabbalah
21. Kamelot - Ghost Opera
22. Liholesie - Videniya
23. Circus Maximus - Isolate
24. Finntroll - Ur Jordens Djup
25. Sonata Arctica - Unia

Please post here if you have any problems with the spreadsheet, or questions about how to use it, or suggestions on making it better, or if you just want to make fun of my taste in music. Although I'm already aware that I listen to too much prog metal. :)

Enjoy.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/03/29/9sy_idiotic_journal_entries Thu, 29 Mar 2007 06:04:47 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/03/29/9sy_idiotic_journal_entries I read a fair number of journal entries. After all, a journal that mentions a band I like might lead me to something new I'll enjoy, and I'm always looking for new music. So I can't help but notice how many people are writing the same few entries over and over again, while managing not to communicate the smallest hint of interesting or useful information. Journal topics don't have to be original to be interesting -- "My Top 10 Bands" is perfectly fine as long as you're writing about why you like them as much as you do. That might actually entertain or inform someone. But please, before posting something, ask yourself: is there any conceivable reason why a correctly functioning human being might want to read this? All too often, the answer is "No." Cases in point:

Mainstream scores. Honestly, who gives a shit? The entire content of one of these posts comes down to a single number, and it's a number that nobody cares about. I can see wanting to know your own out of curiosity, but when was the last time you were looking at a random user's profile and thought, "Ooh, I wonder what his mainstream score is?" Somebody who knows the bands you listen to probably already has a very good idea what your score is anyway, and somebody who doesn't know those bands probably doesn't care how mainstream they are. If you really need to share this, why not just stick it in your user info instead of using a whole journal entry on it? You're not in school; you don't have to show all the steps, and nobody's going to check your math.

Put your music player on shuffle! This is one of the dumbest ones I've seen, and yet it comes up constantly. What's the attraction in using song titles that are chosen more or less randomly to answer a bunch of questions? They're inevitably stupid questions too, whose answers people wouldn't care about even if you put some thought into them instead of answering them with random phrases. It's like the last.fm equivalent of mad libs, only less likely to be funny by a few orders of magnitude. That said, if you should happen to get a few that turn out to be eerily true, please feel free to share those. For example:

Q: What would most people rather be doing than reading another "random songs" journal?
A: Licking My Sperm Off A Pigs Cunt

Q: Will the people who write them ever be kidnapped by a group of escaped mental patients, beaten with hammers and left to die in the desert?
A: May Today Become The Day

Top artists surveys. What was the first song you heard by 7? What's your favorite song by 2? How many times have you seen 4 live? Which member of 6 has the hairiest ass? Who gives a fuck? If you're considering writing one of these because you're bored and want to kill some time, here's a better idea. Why not spend the next half an hour repeatedly punching yourself in the face instead? It would use up just as much time, and it's not as if there's anything inside that thick skull of yours that might get damaged. Better yet, try picking a topic yourself and writing something substantial about it instead of filling out an idiotic "survey" with answers that say nothing. Maybe you wouldn't be so bored if you tried actually forming coherent thoughts now and then. It's hard, I know, but it gets easier with practice.

Music lists. For some reason I've been seeing journal entries lately that contain nothing but a list of bands the person listens to. No explanatory text, no numbers, not even any dumbass survey questions. Just a list of bands. Guess what? Your profile already contains a list of the bands you listen to, and even provides some statistics and charts to go along with it, which makes it a hell of a lot more useful than your pathetic excuse for a journal entry. Why would someone waste time making a shittier copy of something that already exists? This also goes for people who write journals that contain one or two lines of imbecilic text and then stick a hundred artist connections in with it so their dumbfuckery will be spread to as many people as possible.

Why should I care? You may wonder why I care whether people want to write stupid journal entries. One reason is that bands' pages have short lists of journal entries regarding that artist that have been written recently, and I hate seeing those lists full of mindless shit; all they achieve is to bump journal entries that contain actual content, and may have even been written by someone whose neurons are still firing, further down the list. (Hopefully the hundreds of people who write journals weighing the pros and cons of "Licking My Sperm Off A Pigs Cunt" won't be too upset with me for bumping them down the list.) But the primary reason is simply that I'm an asshole. I felt like bitching about something, and these stupid journals were the most obvious target. Good night.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/03/03/9sx_branching_out%3A_some_non-metal_recommendations Sat, 3 Mar 2007 00:05:01 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/03/03/9sx_branching_out%3A_some_non-metal_recommendations So far, 2007 has been a great year for me as far as discovering new bands. I've been a metal addict since I first heard Metallica in the early 90s, and while there's always been some non-metal stuff in my collection, typically I've discovered such bands only once or twice a year, so they've always been few in number. This year I'm finally starting to explore a little more actively, so I thought I'd share a little of what I've been getting into lately.

Since the kinds of music I'm talking about here are mostly new to me, in most cases I've simply used the most common tag(s) associated with the artists to provide genre names. So if any of them are wrong, blame someone else. :)

Arcana - Le Serpent Rouge (dark ambient)
While browsing last.fm one night I happened to come across this band, and thus was I introduced to ambient music. Whereas several of the other ambient bands I've taken a liking to lately have a more modern feel, Arcana's sound has definite medieval qualities to it. Knowing as little as I do about this sort of music, the only way I can think to describe it is as a cross between the Gladiator soundtrack and something you'd expect to hear in Legacy of Kain. If that sounds at all interesting to you, don't miss this. It's the only album of theirs I've heard so far, but I'm trying to find others. [Samples]

Bohren & der Club of Gore - Sunset Mission (jazz)
I came across this album in a black metal topic on another forum I visit. Apparently the band started out that way, but there's nothing metal at all about Sunset Mission. This is quiet, atmospheric jazz music, with lots of gorgeous piano and saxophone parts and little else. It's got a very film noir feel to it; if this music appeared in a movie, the scene would probably feature a prostitute and an unshaven private eye in a dimly lit office somewhere. If nothing else, some of the interesting tags people have applied to this band ought to convince you to at least give them a try. "Doom jazz?" "Funeral jazz?" Sign me up.

Danny Elfman - Serenada Schizophrana (classical)
Unless you're far too religious for your own good and have sworn off popular media of all kinds (in which case, what are you doing on the Internet?), chances are you've heard something, probably many somethings, by Danny Elfman. He's one of the most sought-after composers in Hollywood, with over 100 movies and television shows to his credit, including most of Tim Burton's films. Serenada Schizophrana is his first orchestral piece intended to stand on its own, and it's really excellent. His familiar style is very much apparent, and you'll probably recognize it right away even if you don't know Elfman's name or what he's worked on in the past -- a friend of mine who heard me listening to this immediately asked what movie it was from. Highly recommended if you enjoy anything Elfman has worked on, or orchestral film scores in general. [Samples]

Darkwood - Roggenfelder (neofolk)
Fairly minimal and quite beautiful, Darkwood's music is exquisite neofolk music that I can (and often do) listen to for hours at a time. I don't know many similar artists, but the little I've hard from Of the Wand and the Moon is pretty close. Tenhi might be somewhat similar if you stripped down their sound a little and made it more guitar-centric. As for parallels to metal, anyone who enjoyed Ulver's Kveldssanger is advised to check this out.

GOG - Noriah Mills (doom?)
I'm pretty certain that the artist description last.fm has for Gog is talking about someone very different from the band I recently discovered, and I can't find much in the way of information about them online, except for an interesting review you can read here. These guys definitely have something of a doom metal sound going, but it's strange enough that I'm including it in my "non-metal" journal anyway. No conventional song structures here, no vocals -- the drums don't even come in until about 15 minutes into the album, and when they do they're only faintly heard, buried under this impossibly slow, droning, distorted monster of a sound that's either coming out of a guitar or possibly the third circle of hell, with plenty of disquieting electronic effects thrown in to complete the atmosphere. That this stuff manages to develop so gradually and yet remain interesting the whole time is really quite impressive. Find this if you can. [Samples]

Helios - Eingya (ambient/IDM)
Let me just say that IDM -- intelligent dance music -- has got to be the dumbest genre name ever conceived, and whoever came up with it deserves to be punched in the brain. For a long time I've avoided everything associated with that tag just because it sounded so stupid, and because virtually all the dance music I've ever heard irritates the hell out of me. Imagine my surprise! How the fuck is this dance music, intelligent or otherwise? You can't dance to Eingya. If you think you can, post a video of yourself doing so on YouTube, because I'd like to see that shit. Genre names aside, this is one of the most beautiful albums I've come across in a long time, and very calming. [Samples]

Jääportit - Avarrus (electronic/ambient)
More ambient stuff here, this time from Finland, and rather synth-heavy compared to the other bands I've mentioned so far, so it has a more electronic flavor. Jääportit's website describes their music as "electronic ambient drift" if that means anything to you -- it doesn't to me! The closest thing in metal I can think of to compare it to would be the last few minutes of Fear Factory's "A Therapy For Pain," only not as creepy, so if you like Fear Factory's less abrasive moments and are up for something new, this might be something for you to look into.
[Samples]

Loitsu - (no albums yet) (folk)
If you've heard Agalloch, you may be familiar with a Finnish band called Nest who released a split with Agalloch some years ago. Nest is kind of what Agalloch would sound like if you dropped the vocals and replaced the electric guitars with a kantele. I recommmend them very highly, and Loitsu sounds pretty similar, so needless to say, they're also a band you should look into if you enjoy that kind of music. I don't know what it is about Finland and folk, but a ridiculous number of great bands seem to come out of that country. There must be something in the water. Anyway, it seems Loitsu haven't had any proper releases yet, so until they do, you'll have to settle for some free downloads. [Samples]

Rukkanor - Requiem For K-141 Курск (martial industrial)
K-141 Курск was a Russian submarine that sank not too many years ago after one of its torpedoes exploded; everyone on board was dead by the time rescue teams could reach them -- if you're at least in your early-to-mid 20s, you ought to remember hearing about it. This album is dedicated entirely to that incident, and does a hell of a job creating the cold and despairing atmosphere you'd expect from music associated with such a tragic event. To paraphrase the guy who introduced me to this, if you've ever wondered what it's like to be trapped onboard a sunken submarine, this album is probably the best you can do, since living the experience yourself -- assuming you lived through it -- would likely produce some very uncomforable attention from your country's navy.

Taival - (no albums yet) (folk)
This is yet another Finnish folk band along the lines of Nest and Loitsu, recommended to me by Last.fm user wintersundream. (Thanks!) Like Loitsu, I don't think they have any albums out yet, but you can get some free songs online. [Samples]

Thee Maldoror Kollective - Pilot (Man With the Meat Machine) (avantgarde)
Here's a strange band if ever I've heard one. Like Bohren & der Club of Gore, these guys apparently started out playing metal, but these days they're something else entirely. The album starts with a nice melodic track that I thought somewhat reminiscent of Ulver's Perdition City, but then the second track begins with a two-second burst of chaos and, "My name is Pussy Galore." What the fuck? From there the album is an assortment of samples and genre-bending craziness with plenty more movie quotes peppered throughout. Again, I'm reminded of some of Ulver's stranger work; I can't think of anyone else to compare with TMK. Whatever it is, it's certainly interesting.

Xela - Tangled Wool (IDM)
This band was recommended to me by a fan of Helios who said that Xela was similar, but even better. I personally like Eingya better than Tangled Wool, but if you like one, you ought to like the other.

That does it for today. Hopefully something in this list will interest you. And of course, if you have any suggestions as to similar artists that I may be missing out on, please share them with me! I'm always looking for new music.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/01/01/9sw_favorites_of_2006 Mon, 1 Jan 2007 01:02:27 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2007/01/01/9sw_favorites_of_2006 It's that time of year! I won't call this the "best" of 2006 since I haven't heard nearly enough releases this year to attempt any sort of objective judgment, if such a thing is even possible. And I don't know enough about music either. So this journal will simply cover the albums that I personally enjoyed most in the year of 2006... and a few that let me down.

Disappointments

I won't waste your time and mine by listing all the albums I heard this year that I didn't like, as they are many indeed. But there are a few disappointments that were released by bands I enjoy and expected better from, and here they are. These are in reverse order by how much I was looking forward to them, with #1 being the place of honor... or dishonor, in this case.

5. Rhapsody of Fire - Triumph or Agony
I'm not sure if these guys are dropping in quality now that they've officially got the cheesiest name in power metal, or if I'm just getting tired of them, but either way, I couldn't get into their latest offering. Power metal gets a hell of a lot better than this -- see Angra's latest for details.

4. Optical Illusion
The first two Time Requiem albums were pretty decent, and since Richard Anderssen is consistent to a fault, I figured this one would be too. And it is, musically. The only problem is that the new vocalist annoys the shit out of me. Why did they get rid of the old guy? He was doing just fine! Oh, well.

3. A Twist in the Myth
Something's lacking on this album, and I'm not quite sure what it is. Blind Guardian have always been reliable in the past, even if they're not one of my favorite bands. Their earlier albums all have a certain energy to them, plus a few tracks that really stand out, and A Twist in the Myth doesn't seem to have either.

2. Solefald - Black For Death: An Icelandic Odyssey, Pt. 2
The follow-up to last year's Red For Fire struck me as being a significant step below its predecessor. I don't think any of Solefald's albums are brilliant all the way through -- they usually have some hits and some misses. Black For Death, though, seems merely average all the way through.

1. Disillusion - Gloria
In 2004, Disillusion released one of the most brilliant metal albums to come along in years, Back to Times of Splendor. So I was expecting a lot from them this time around. Gloria is totally different, and not in a good way. I really, really wanted to like this, but the album simply never evoked anything beyond boredom from me.

Honorable Mentions

All right, on to the good stuff, again in reverse order. This far from the top of the list, it's really hard to be sure about what order I want these albums in. It changes slightly from day to day, particularly since I haven't listened to these as much as I have my favorites. It suffices to say that I enjoyed all the albums on this list, just not enough to let them into the top ten.

25. Persefone - Core
This is an interesting album, featuring three prog/death songs over 20 minutes each. I like everything except their female vocalist, who scares me a little. Thankfully she doesn't show up too often.

24. Ruun
I like Isa better than this, but it took me a very long time to realize how good Isa was, and I haven't had RUUN for very long. I expect it will grow on me.

23. I - Between Two Worlds
It's good to hear from Abbath again. I prefer the more limited vocal style he used with Immortal, but at least he didn't try to change things up too much.

22. The Black Waltz
These guys are new to me this year, and this album is pretty solid. I'm not the biggest melodeath fan, but I make exceptions occasionally.

21. Galar - Skogskvad
A young and promising band, Galar remind me of Windir, and that can't be a bad thing.

20. The Chthonic Chronicles
Fucking finally! I've waited five years for this album, and it's... decent. Nothing earth-shattering, but I wasn't really expecting it to be. These guys peaked on Starfire, I think.

19. Into Eternity - The Scattering of Ashes
There really are a lot of interesting metal bands coming out of Canada these days. I haven't had much time with this album yet, but it's certainly promising.

18. Draconian - The Burning Halo
I really liked 2003's Where Lovers Mourn, but I kind of lost track of the band after that. Apparently they still kick ass.

17. A Line Of Deathless Kings
If you've heard any of MDB's other work, you know what to expect here. It doesn't surprise, but it definitely doesn't disappoint either.

16. Amon Amarth - With Oden On Our Side
I'm not the biggest fan of this band, so I got this without expecting too much. I was pleasantly surprised. I'll have to give their older albums another chance.

15. Materia
Here's another long-awaited album, and a good one, even if it's not on the same level as Novembrine Waltz or Dreams D'Azur.

14. Tales Along This Road
If you want a band that will provide you with plenty of quality folk metal drinking songs, look no further.

13. Anaal Nathrakh - Eschaton
Seriously, I can't see how any fan of metal could fail to enjoy Anaal Nathrakh on some level. I have to be in a certain kind of mood to listen to them, but when I am, there's nothing better.

12. Falconer - Northwind
Mathias Blad returns in fine style! The band is sounding as good as they ever did with him back.

11. The Adversary
Ihsahn never disappoints, and his first solo album is no exception. It's good enough that keeping it out of the top ten hurts me a little, but there was so much good stuff this year...

The Runners-Up

It's getting exciting now! 2006 saw lots of strong releases, and these are the ones that really struck a chord with me. If you know of anything similar to these bands that I may have missed out on, please let me know. I try to keep up, but there's so much music out there, and every year there are albums that slip past me somehow. Anyway, on with the countdown.

10. Angra - Aurora Consurgens
There are a few power metal bands out there that everyone should look into even if they normally dislike the genre, and Angra is one such. Their latest is another very solid effort despite being something of a step down from their 2004 masterpiece Temple of Shadows.

9. Synchestra
Here's another guy who never seems to disappoint, and keeps himself extremely busy as well. Devy actually has three new albums that I know of out this year: one with Strapping Young Lad, an album full of ambient stuff that's only available from his website, and this one. I haven't heard the first two, but Synchestra kicks ass.

8. Tenhi - Maaäet
Tenhi are a bit out of place on this list as I think they're the only band on it that has nothing to do with metal. Imagine something like Agalloch without any electric guitars or screaming, and you're pretty close. Atmospheric as hell, and extremely beautiful, this album should be heard by all.

7. Týr - Ragnarok
I just discovered this band this year, and am damn glad that I did. I usually hear them called Viking metal, but while there's a bit of similarity between Tyr and the usual suspects in that genre, Tyr tend to go for slower songs without any harsh vocals. Their sound is fairly unique among bands I've heard, and it's quite excellent.

6. Murder Nature
You can't go wrong with Garm, or whatever his latest alias is. I'd listen to 60 minutes of pigs taking a shit if they had Garm singing for them, but thankfully that's not necessary, as this album is damn good musically. I hadn't heard of Daniel Cardoso before, but I'll have to check out his other stuff.

5. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
Agalloch achieved the nearly impossible this year and managed to release an album that lives up to the bar set by The Mantle. I don't even mind that it took four years, not when the results are this good. Their brand of doomy folk metal has always been a favorite of mine, and nobody does it better.

4. Axamenta - Ever-Arch-I-Tech-Ture
Why haven't I heard of these guys before? This is really great stuff, kind of like a weird mix between Dimmu Borgir and Mechanical Poet, energetic and interesting throughout. Oh, and a guest appearance by Daniel Gildenlow certainly doesn't hurt. I only hope their older material is as good.

3. Borknagar - Origin
Others may disagree, but for my money, Borknagar's acoustic album is also the best thing they've done since The Archaic Course. The music is outstanding all the way through, and Vintersorg does a fine job on Vocals, as does Lars Nedland, especially on "White." I wish they'd use him more!

2. Unexpect - In a Flesh Aquarium
Their EP We, Invaders was amazing (and amazingly strange), so my expectations were high indeed, and this album fulfills them all. Avant-garde metal, or whatever you want to call it, simply doesn't get much better than this. That they can make songs so twisted work so well is really impressive. In a Flesh Aquarium misses Album of the Year by only the smallest of margins.

Album of the Year: The Acoustic Verses
While certainly not as complex or challenging as uneXpect's album, The Acoustic Verses is a virtually perfect effort, with not a weak moment to be found. I get so caught up in these beautiful songs that the album seems to end five minutes after it begins. It's easily their best since Light of Day, Day of Darkness, maybe their best ever. Even after several dozens of listens in the past year, it's lost none of its appeal for me. Really outstanding work, and my pick for the best of 2006.

Live Album/DVD of the Year: Arcturus - Shipwrecked in Oslo
I've said before that I'd murder my entire family with a battle axe for a chance to see Arcturus live, but until that chance comes, I'll settle for a recording. I loved Garm's vocals on the band's first few albums, but I love Simen too, and it's cool to hear him performing those older songs. It would have been nice to hear a few more cuts from The Sham Mirrors, but mostly I just wish they'd come to the States. Come on, guys. My axe is sharp and ready. Please?

Song of the Year: Torsteins Kvaedi
Týr are a great band, and I thoroughly enjoy all their original work, but I think their best songs are the ones they've adapted from traditional folk songs. Not knowing anything about the Faroe Islands or its music (aside from the fact that Týr come from there), I don't know exactly how drastically they're reworking those songs, but they do one hell of a job. I've been listening to this song obsessively all year and it never gets old.

That's it for another year! Feel free to leave recommendations if you think I've overlooked something, or flames for not including your favorites. Happy new year to all, and here's hoping that 2007 has just as many musical treasures in store for us.]]> http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2006/10/28/9sv_twenty_overlooked_and_underappreciated_bands Sat, 28 Oct 2006 02:19:47 +0000 http://www.last.fm/user/SmasherDevourer/journal/2006/10/28/9sv_twenty_overlooked_and_underappreciated_bands Most metal fans looking over my top artists list will probably recognize most of the bands therein, but buried among the big names are a few that, for whatever reason, aren't as well-known as they could be. I'd like to share a few of these with everyone today.

Some of these bands will be very familiar to fans of their particular subgenres, and just haven't attained real popularity. A few are truly obscure. Most fall somewhere in between. The majority of them play metal, but a few other genres make an appearance as well. If you've had a look at my lists and like what you see, I hope you'll consider looking up a few of these bands. You just might discover something you'll love.

1. Augury
What the hell are these guys playing? "Progressive death metal" kind of comes close, but there are so many different musical influences and vocal styles at work here that ultimately, you just have to hear it for yourself. Listen to the opening track Beatus on their debut album and you'll see what I'm talking about. It's not often you find a band with something truly unique going on, so don't miss this one.

Recommended album: Concealed

2. Age of Silence
Another Norwegian supergroup? Sounds good to me! Age of Silence features keyboardist Andy Winter (Winds), vocalist Lars Nedland (Borknagar, Solefald), and the always prolific Hellhammer (too many bands to list), among others, and the result is quite awesome, if rather odd at times. If you enjoy Winds and are interested in something a little more unusual, look no further.

Recommended album: Acceleration

3. Circus Maximus
This is a pretty good progressive metal band I only heard about recently, very similar in style to Pagan's Mind. PM is the better band for my money, but that doesn't mean that these guys aren't worth checking out.

Recommended album: The 1st Chapter

4. Coprofago
Aside from the rather unfortunate dietary habits these guys may or may not participate in, this is a very talented outfit, playing excellent technical death metal with cool jazzy interludes. I've heard these guys compared to Cynic, but I've never heard Cynic (I know, I suck) so I can't comment on that. Wherever their influences come from, this is a very solid band.

Recommended album: Unorthodox Creative Criteria

5. Evoken
I actually don't listen to too many doom bands, but Evoken is one of my favorites. The brand of doom metal these guys play is about as slow and soul-crushingly heavy as it gets, and just oozes despair. If you're thinking of killing yourself anytime soon, I highly recommend getting one of their albums. At least you'll be listening to something appropriate when you die.

Recommended album: Quietus

6. Lamented Souls
I bought an album by this band because it involves a man for whom my love knows no bounds, Simen "ICS Vortex" Hestnaes (Arcturus, Dimmu Borgir, ex-Borknagar). I was not disappointed. As far as I know, they've only released one disc, which is more of a compilation than a proper album. The songs were recorded in four separate sessions over a period of five years, and several of the songs appear in more than one form. There's some damn fine doom metal here, though, and even if there wasn't, Simen's vocals alone would still make it worth checking out.

Recommended album: The Origins Of Misery

7. Lautari
Here we have the first non-metal band on my list, and easily the least-known as well, at least among last.fm users. Hailing from Poland, these talented musicians play a very appealing kind of folk music which, according to the band, is "inspired by the traditional music of the Polish lowlands, the eastern and southern regions of the Carpathian mountains, the Balkans, and the Black Sea coast." If you have any interest in folk music, you should try this out. If you're looking for their CD, it can be found here.

Recommended album: Muzica Lautareasca Nova

8. MD.45
I'm not sure if people just don't know about this, or if everyone knows and nobody likes it but me. MD.45 was a side project by Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) and Lee Ving (Fear) that released one album back in 1996. Jimmy DeGrasso also appears, who joined Megadeth a couple years later after Nick Menza left the band. Mustaine handles the guitars while Ving provides the vocals, and it's quite a collaboration. Mustaine released a remastered version of this album a couple of years ago, on which he replaced all of Ving's original vocals with his own; I recommend staying away from that. The original, though, is good stuff.

Recommended album: The Craving

9. Mechanical Poet
I love these guys. Mechanical Poet is a very cool progressive metal band from Russia. They've released a pretty good EP called Handmade Essence, and followed it up with the excellent full-length Woodland Prattlers, which is basically a comic book in metal form. The band broke up for awhile after that, but later re-formed, and are currently working on a new album. Hooray! Samples can be had on the band's website.

Recommended album: Woodland Prattlers

10. Nest
I first found out about these guys after hearing a split they released with Agalloch a couple of years ago. The two bands are definitely similar, but whereas Agalloch plays folk-influenced metal, there's nothing of metal at all in Nest. Their songs are beautiful, soothing, and atmospheric, featuring a traditional Finnish instrument called a kantele. Very highly recommended.

Recommended album: Woodsmoke

11. October Falls
Speaking of excellent atmospheric bands from Finland, if you like Nest, then you should also check out October Falls. This is just the sort of thing you want for lying outside on a cool autumn day, or if you've listened to too much Anaal Nathrakh and need to calm yourself down before you kill somebody. Samples are available on the band's website.

Recommended album: Tuoni

12. Ohm
Lots of people know Chris Poland as the lead guitarist on Megadeth's first couple of albums, but before he joined Megadeth, he played mostly fusion, and he went in that direction again after Megadeth gave him the boot. Ohm is his latest project, an excellent jazz-rock fusion band with great melodies and excellent playing. Just don't expect it to sound anything like Megadeth. There's a recent interview with Poland here.

Recommended album: Ohm

13. Root
This respected and influential Czech band has been around for something like twenty years now, and black metal fans ought to know the name, so I was surprised to find that they don't have many listeners on last.fm. Their more recent albums have moved away from what you'd normally think of as black metal; I've seen them described simply as "dark metal" in a few places, and that seems to fit. Big Boss' vocals are like no one else's that I can think of. (If nothing else, you should give these guys a chance just for having a band member named Big Boss.) Head over to their website and grab a few samples.

Recommended album: The Book

14. Royal Hunt
I don't remember how I was introduced to this band, but I'm glad I was. Somewhere between prog metal and hard rock, their songs are highly melodic, keyboard-heavy pieces that are very easy to get into. An excellent introduction to the band is the compilation The Watchers, which features fresh recordings of a bunch of their older songs performed with then-new (and still current) vocalist John West.

Recommended album: The Watchers

15. Scholomance
Technical/progressive death metal fans, rejoice! Scholomance has got a serious ass-kicking in store for you. I actually only have one of their albums thus far, The Immortality Murder, but it's one hell of an album. Unfortunately they've got a drum machine instead of an actual drummer, but if you can deal with that... wow, this is good stuff. And if anyone out there likes extreme metal music but hates extreme metal vocals, disc 2 of The Immortality Murder features instrumental versions of their songs, which is a very nice touch.

Recommended album: The Immortality Murder

16. Sinful
Of all the Russian symphonic black metal bands that I know who play songs about vampires, these guys are the best. How's that for a ringing endorsement? Seriously though, this is metal territory that I don't venture into very often, so I'm not sure what to say here. Just have a listen and see what you think.

Recommended album: Omyt

17. Star of Ash
This band is the side project of Ihriel, who is married to Ihsahn of Emperor fame, and who provided the vocals for Peccatum. I really liked Peccatum's later work, but I think Star of Ash is even better. Their music is a lot more orchestral and a lot less metal, and Ihriel's vocals fit perfectly. Don't miss it.

Recommended album: iter.viator.

18. The Lord Weird Slough Feg
Honestly, with a name like The Lord Weird Slough Feg, can you afford not to at least give these guys a try? No, you can't. This is metal, my friends -- kickass, old-school metal. My favorite album of theirs that I've heard so far is probably Traveller, which is based on an old RPG of the same name. If that scares you, fear not. The cheese factor isn't nearly as high as you'd expect from some other bands I could name. (Rhapsody of Fire, anyone?)

Recommended album: Traveller

19. Time Requiem
This is another keyboard-heavy progressive metal project headed by keyboardist Richard Andersson, who's also responsible for Majestic and Space Odyssey. Andersson has guested for Adagio as well. If any of those bands are familiar and enjoyable to you, then Time Requiem is worth taking a look at. Think of them as a less-cool version of Symphony X (but still pretty decent).

Recommended album: The Inner Circle of Reality

20. Unexpect
This journal began with an insane Canadian metal band, and it ends with one that's even crazier. Honestly, I don't know what these guys are thinking. My only thought is that their songwriting process is probably a drinking game of some kind, but amazingly, it works really well. If you enjoy extreme bands that defy categorization, uneXpect is for you.

Recommended album: We, Invaders

That's it for now, guys. I hope that something on this list catches your interest. All comments are welcome and appreciated, especially if you know of other bands along the lines of anything here that I might be missing out on. Thanks, and enjoy.]]>