shalotka's Last.fm Journal

Epic Fail Metal

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 14:11:57 +0000

Today I can finally introduce you to the first person on last.fm who officially disliked my charts. Only today, after one year and a half of listening to power metal, pop, death metal and dance.

I was kicked out of the group Epic Death Metal and a new policy appeared:
Thanks to people who joined this group for no apparent reason, membership is only granted with the owner's approval.Well, I got one reason to join this group - to discover some new death metal bands, but it turns out it was the wrong reason reason. The only proper reason to join would be to show the world how br00tal my music is, but that apparently was not my reason.

The tr00 fan of br00tal music hippiedrow wrote:
I have forcibly banished seven members, and executed two for crimes against metal. Let this be a lesson to all peons who think that they can poison our charts with their pre-pubescent filth.Normally, I wouldn't care, I join groups, I leave groups, but I found the language of this post peculiar. "Crimes against metal" &c. You see, every time you listen to Nelly Furtado Thor kills a kitteh!!!!11
The attitude "my favourite genre of music is good, everything else shit or I've never heard (about) it in my life" is also notable. Especially if it leads to conclusions about my "maturity" and what music means to me. Funny enough, many metal fans and even musicians like to know about other kinds of music in the world and don't judge people according to the amount non-metal they listen to. But they are mostly over 20 years of age so that might be the clue.

And I don't know why, but I listen to what I like to and not to what I may be expected to be listening.

I wanted to say, that it was the first time someone didn't like my "taste", but I remember I was told to go and get drowned by one Sonata Arctica fan and all the Within Temptation fans on last.fm. Can't really understand why people care so much about what others listen to, apart from curiosity and last.fm networking style. If I don't like somebody's taste or someone criticizes my favourite band I just ignore it (I only ocassionally defend Helloween with Andi Deris on vocals). Why do people take stuff personally? I wouldn't mind if you even called Sabaton gay or said that Grailknights are not funny and a waste of time as a live act. The fact that you listen to Slipknot or Nightwish with Anette Olzon on vocals doesn't affect my personal kingdom of music ;)

But some users need a few more years with music and among people to learn to approach the things in normal way.

Other connected artists: Amy Winehouse, Tarja, Ari Koivunen, Lordi, Masterplan, Groove Coverage, The Kelly Family, Jorn, Grave Digger, Rage, Blind Guardian.

Seen, heard and often smelled live

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 23:21:39 +0000

The last journal about my concert attendance was posted over a year ago, so now it's time to add some shows. My mental list of bands I'd like to see live is getting shorter.

Here we go (alphabetically, I'm bad with dates):

Acid Drinkers
Angelo Kelly and the Band
Apocalyptica (2)
Archeon
Astral Doors
Avantasia
Behemoth
Big Cyc
Black Majesty
Blind Guardian
CETI (2)
Chainsaw
Children of Bodom
Conquest
Corruption
Crionics
Dark hamsters
Def Leppard
Dragon's Eye
Dream Theater (2)
Dżem
Edguy
Forgotten Souls
Gate Crasher
Grailknights
Grave Digger
GRIMOND
Haggard
Hammerfall
Heart Attack
Helloween (2)
Hermit
Horrorscope
IRA
Iron Maiden (2)
Kat z Romanem (2)
Korpiklaani (2)
Kruk + Grzegorz Kupczyk
Krusher (2)
Lauren Harris (2)
Made Of Hate
Masterplan (2)
Mayhayron (4)
Ministry
Monstrum (3)
Murator (2)
Myslovitz
Lost Soul
Pink Cream 69
Privateer (2)
Sabaton (5)
Saratan (2)
Saxon
Sceptic
Sedes
Silent Stream of Godless Elegy
Sonata Arctica
Sorcerer (2)
Sothoth (2)
Stos
Symphony X
Therion (3)
The Vision Bleak
Thy Disease
T.Love
Totem
Trail of Tears
Tři Sestry
Tristania (2)
Týr
Uriah Heep
Vader
Virgin Snatch (3)
Vypsana FiXa
White Snake
Whorehouse
Wilki
Witchking (4)

October 2004 - December 2008
Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia.

I had a (pretty nonsense) dream

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:08:47 +0000

Of course that's not worth a *journal*, but before I start with these brilliant articles I have in mind, you'll have to read this.

OK, so I layed down, listening to Andi Deris, because I was too tired to read. And as it usually happens in the afternoon, instead of half an hour I slept 3 hours.

What I saw in my dreams was a fan meeting with Jorn, who had released a hit single. It was a part of campaign to save polar bear cubs. What was the most striking about was that it was akshuly a Helloween song (something from The Dark Ride), but in Norwegian. I wondered wtf, but then I thought that the best things ever happen when Jorn works with Helloween guys (vide Masterplan). Anyway I asked him why he akshuly agreed to take part in this campaign to save polar bears and well, he told me how much they paid him. And then he kissed me :P

Now, seriously, I hate waking up from dreams that are very relistic especially when something more could have happened :P

Spank me! I have a bad taste in genres!

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 16:37:58 +0000

Dividing music into three major sub-groups that is METAL, ROCK and OTHER I decided to name one to three genres which I particularly like or not.

The assumptions are that I'm a "power metal bimbo", I don't like some genres that are believed to be "ambitious", but I love everything that has energy.

Maybe not very productive, a little provoking, but here I go.

METAL

LOVES: heavy metal, power metal (1), folk metal (2)
LIKES: symphonic metal, progressive metal, death metal (3)
TOLERATES: black metal, grindcore
DISLIKES: thrash metal
HATES: sludge

ROCK

LOVES: hard rock (4), Polish 80s
LIKES: brit rock (5)
TOLERATES: grunge, punk, reggae
DISLIKES: blues
HATES: nu-metal

OTHER

LOVES: euro dance (6), ethnic, choral
LIKES: cabarett (7), classical
TOLERATES: techno, pop (8), r'n'b
DISLIKES: jazz, hip-hop
HATES: alternative, experimental

Examples:

(1) Blind Guardian
(2) Тролль Гнёт Ель
(3) Nile
(4) Jorn
(5) Manic Street Preachers
(6) Cascada
(7) Ivan Mládek
(8) Isis Gee

And now, to deny everything (or maybe confirm an idea), of course in any genre there can be exceptional artists ;)

STOP listening to Heavy Metal (guessing game)

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 18:02:45 +0000

Monstrum Witchking Mayhayron Running Wild Hammerfall Manowar Iron Maiden TSA Grave Digger Judas Priest

Funny indeed =P

Today my friend, after a short conversation about comming concerts, told me that I should finally STOP listening to Heavy Metal. Seriously, as it is horrible and outdated music genre.

The guessing game is as follow: you have to name 2 main genres my friend listens to and you win a cookie.
(The winner will be announced when the answers are already there or in 2 weeks time. Whatever comes sooner.)

Clue: It is not Heavy Metal and Power Metal :P

Listening:

Heavy Metal
The Gods Made Heavy Metal
Heavy Metal (Is The Law)
Heavy Metal Universe
Heavy Metal Breakdown
Heavy Metal Thunder

LOL.

Some BRAND new artist TAGS =]

Tue, 5 Feb 2008 01:13:14 +0000

I had a good laugh browsing some groups who are anti-tag or telling people they don't know what tags are or what 'indie' means and blah blah. IMHO you are free to tag all the music on last.fm 'emo', 'not emo', 'indie', 'seen live' or 'music my dog likes'. Because last.fm allows you to.

Anyway, I'd like to PRESENT and RECCOMEND to you some tags I use being sure that the band deserve them :D

I can't tell you how I decide which bands to tag heavy metal and/or power metal but I have deviced a few power metal subdivisions:

gay metal - more epic than the UE regulations allow, falseto, orchestrations &c. Saves you ALL the trouble of tagging artists as 'fantasy metal', 'epic metal', 'italian metal', 'symphonic power metal', 'melodic power metal' &c. Tagged: Rhapsody, Stratovarius, Aquaria, Axenstar, DragonForce, Kaledon, Powerquest (with aditional tag ubergay for some who deserved it).

and to balance the things - power metal with manly vocals.
Tagged: Grave Digger, Sabaton.

german power metal is one of few national tags I use and deutsch for German language performance like Reinhard Mey or Mia.

And since we are here, a special anti-nazi tag goes to Sabaton and masterplan for their great lyrics about WW2.

I have also a bunch of tags to indicate good lyrics and positive attitudes such as not evil, positive lyrics, great lyrics, while absolute love goes to Helloween and Masterplan. Funny enough, Masterplan is a top artist in his tag <3

light metal - a special tag for artists bound with heavy metal scene but not being - you know - heavy. Tagged: Sonata Arctica, Ari Koivunen. Sounds really nice.

i really thought it was heavier - Ari Koivunen (whatever he thinks he performs), Michael Kiske (also tagged pop-rock, he left metal scene on his own) and Opeth (I somehow thought they are the blackest emanation of evil but apparently they are not). One of my personally favourite tags, means just what it says =]

melodic pop-rock is a name I deviced for popular groups heavily inspired by melodic metal but not playing metal at all. Tagged: Evanescence, HIM.

Similarly kiddie pop-rock is for popular teenage groups. Don't bother with calling them 'emo' or whatever and never ever tag them 'gay metal' because youre offending well established Italian power metal scene.

solo guitarists is a rare tag though I believe it should be widely used for solo projects of guitarists from bands and others. Many people use the 'guitar virtuoso' tag but I prefer this one. Tagged: Roland Grapow, Steve Hackett.

metal vocalists is for solo projects of artist known from bands. I don't understand why people keep writing 'male voices' or 'went solo'. Well, Justin Timberlake went solo too, but I'd rather not have him tagged together with Bruce Dickinson, Dio, Jorn,Ozzy Osbourne and Andi Deris.

multi-artists project is extremely rare too, but I prefere it to 'metal opera' or what not. Tagged: Avantasia, Russell Allen & Jorn Lande, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Demons & Wizards, Ayreon.

I had some hard time trying to do a tagging justice to Loreena McKennitt who plays rather English courtly music rather than 'celtic folk' or Blackmoore's Night who don't play 'folk' because if they did Candice Night would be the second Dolly Parton. For the musicians who are inspired by renaissance and/or medieval music and ethnic/folk music from a country other than their own I deviced a tag inspirations. It's all I could do. Also tagged: Era, Björk.

And a couple of funny tags to finish with:

beer and motorbikes - Iron Maiden, Saxon, Manowar, AC/DC.

but meh daddy made heavy metal rly - the very essence of the musical career of Kelly Osbourne and Lauren Harris.

new wave of polish lord of the rings metal - my special genre name for Polish band Witchking ;) Influenced by NWOBHM and Tolkien :P

friend bands for some musicians I know. For groupies I'd recommend also 'artists I slept with' tag :P

And if you'd ever liked to show off, say that you particularly enjoy belgian 80s heavy metal. There are two bands in the genre: Ostrogoth and Crossfire. Worth some attention for sure.

------------------------------------------------------
Notka dla Polaków:

ładnie tagujemy znane i lubiane zespoły takie jak Republika, Budka Suflera, Lady Pankjako
polish 80s rock

oraz mniej lub bardziej przypadkowe tudzież mniej lub bardziej lubiane zespoły jako twoja stara. Istnieje już radio tego taga xD

-------------------------------------------------------
References:
http://www.last.fm/user/shalotka/tags/

Conclusions:
er... tag what you like, anyway :P Though I hope some of my tags were fun ^^

Bands that Bother me .

Mon, 4 Feb 2008 22:27:19 +0000

As we all know I like last.fm and I have finally appreciated how it makes you listen to some new bands.

I'm alwas itimidated by profiles of user's out of whose 50 bands there are maybe 3 I've ever heard of. I feel like a mainstreamer, though sometimes I may dig out something extraordinary.

Anyway, there are bands who either happen to appear quite often in my recomendations or in my friends profiles and other people I browse here and there. And I don't mean, lol, Radiohead & their top-of-every-chart company I swear I haven't heard them in my life and I can do without ;)There are just artists I feel I have to check out basing only on the last.fm biographies, tags and the fact that my friends and my friends' friends aand group members appear to be listening to are as follow:

At The Gates
Estampie
God Is An Astronaut*
In Flames
Kiuas
Mediaeval Baebes
Miranda Sex Garden*
My Dying Bride*
queens of the stoneage*
Queensryche
Strapping Young Lad*
Subway To Sally*
Wir Sind Helden*

It is also a nice thing to play your friend's personal radio or personal playlist sometimes. It's not only a chance to hear something new, but it's also tightening bonds and adjusting musical tastes :)

*and what sort of names are these anyway?!

JORN, linguistics and booklets

Thu, 27 Dec 2007 00:29:32 +0000

To make the things clear at the beginning: I love Jørn Lande, Jorn is one of the best voices I know and everything he does simply ROCKS.

Last time I looked into The Gathering* booklet I thought that Jørn is also interested in languages, etymology &c. On the back cover is a linguistic explanation of the title of the song Tungur Knivur. It goes like that:

The word "Tungur knivur" is inspired by the norwegian word "tung kniv" and the islandic word "thúngur hnifur" which means "heavy knife".

I was proud of Jørn... for a moment. He indeed did some research and gave some Viking flavour to the song (at least for people who don't study Old Norse**). The problem is the serious mistakes in the booklet. No matter what "tungur knivur" may be, it's not a "word". It's a phrase, two words. Norwegian should be spelled with capital letter as well as Icelandic. Moreover, Icelandic with "c". The spelling in the booklet was of course influenced by Norwegian.

And that's the whole trouble. To bother to check words in Icelandic and not to check how to actually spell Icelandic. Microsoft Office spellchecker before the official release, anyone?

* Last.fm says there's no such an album. It's mistagged as Gathering. WTF.

** "Knife" in Old Norse was actually knife (pronounced this other way) and the word knif appeared in the English language together with the Vikings and replaced the nice Anglo-Saxon (Old English) word scramaseaxe. Totally unfair.

P.S. Buy original CDs. They have booklets! It's fun ;P

Btw, did Vikings look like just like Jørn? ;D

Paternity Test: Biff Byford & Andi Deris

Fri, 21 Dec 2007 00:45:40 +0000

Peter "Biff" Byford of Saxon :: Andi Deris of Helloween

Some time ago, last spring to be precise, I was attending Masterplan show, who were supporting Saxon and I asked some Helloween fans if it is worth to see Saxon. The opinions were that it is certainly worth seing and a few comments were that Biff looks a lot like Andi, in some concert recordings "they look like brothers" or "more like father and son". Come on, wouldn't you like to see Andi's father on stage?

A funny joke, I thought, and so I went. And I saw guys in their late 50s who truly ROCK. I looked at Biff and he doesn't only look like Andi concerning the face and the hair, but the whole body shape, stage movement and the gestures.

After the show I became a genuine Saxon fan and in the name of Andi Deris Girl Club, the unfamous non-existant paramilitary organization, I proposed the Doctrine #1 of Apocryphical Derisianism i.e. "Biff Byford is the father of Andi Deris".

There's of course a little age controversy since there's barely 13 years of age difference between the singers, but we have to remember that it is old school rock'n'roll and you are free to ask Biff what on earth was he doing in Germany when he was 13, huh?

Few believed and asked what is it all about. We have discussed the possible influence of Byford's earlier performance on Deris, but neither he nor the whole Helloween ever admited to have been influnced by the nwobhm and there were no cooperation nor affiliation between Saxon and Helloween.

Until now, when Andi Deris featured in the new Saxon project alongside with Lemmy Kilmister (Motörhead) and Angry Anderson (Rose Tattoo). I've never associated Deris and his style with old school heavy metal of this particular sort, but apparently he's in his Dad's video.

You can watch it here, on Saxon website. Damn big piece of good old rock'n'roll.

Also, Biff has made a guest appearance in Crack the Riddle, the into to Helloweens brand new ass-kicking album Gambling with the Devil.

After all these years they finally know it and surely they are among the best metal singers, both the Father and the Son.

In any case concerning paternity tests, I've been saying that Biff is Andi's father for many months now, without even checking the DNA ;>

And yes, I'm fine, thanks for asking :)

Bands I've seen (and heard) LIVE

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 21:59:03 +0000

Bands seen live in last 3 years varying from light rock to very hard metal. 'Seing the band live' means that I have spent most of the gig near the stage (what makes me exclude a few good open air shows I spent chatting with some people and dipping my feet in the river 500 meters away). I may not remember all the performances very clearly (*.*) may have forgotten a few names (o_o) and also dropped a couple on purpose (>.<) however I believe did a good research within my tickets.

Acid Drinkers
Angelo Kelly and the Band
Apocalyptica
Archeon
Astral Doors
Behemoth
Big Cyc
Black Majesty
Blind Guardian
CETI (2)
Chainsaw
Children of Bodom
Corruption
Crionics
Dark hamsters
Dragon's Eye
Dżem
Edguy
Forgotten Souls
Gate Crasher
Grave Digger
GRIMOND
Hammerfall
Heart Attack
Helloween (2)
Hermit
Horrorscope
IRA
Iron Maiden
Kat z Romanem
Korpiklaani
Kruk + Grzegorz Kupczyk
Lauren Harris
Masterplan
Mayhayron (3)
Monstrum
Murator (2)
Myslovitz
Lost Soul
Pink Cream 69
Privateer (2)
Sabaton (2)
Saratan
Saxon
Sceptic
Silent Stream of Godless Elegy
Sorcerer (2)
Sothoth (2)
Stos
Therion (2)
Thy Disease
T.Love
Totem
Trail of Tears
Tři Sestry
Tristania
Týr
Uriah Heep
Vader
Virgin Snatch (3)
Vypsana FiXa
White Snake
Whorehouse
Wilki
Witchking (2)

October 2004 - September 2007
Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia.