Top 15 songs over the last 12 months

These are the songs that have had the most listen according to my Last.Fm profile. There is a marked difference from last time with a huge portion spent on The Dear Hunter.

Top 15 played Artists from 2013-2014

Well it's been just over a year since I first published a similar list. This is done using my Last.FM profile. The list has changed quite a bit, but that is probably because I have started using Last.FM more in order to keep track on what I have been listening to. Well enjoy.

1. The Dear Hunter
2. SepticFlesh
3. Joe Hisaishi
4. Samael
5. Rammstein
6. HAM
7. Antonio Vivaldi
8. Queensryche
9. Marillion
10. Bruce Dickinson
11. Long Distance Calling
12. Iron Maiden
13. Fjoergyn
14. David Bowie
15. Devin Townsend

Rammstein: No birds are singing anymore

I have already talked a little about Rammstein in my New German Hardness post but here I want to go into a little more detail. I was 15 years old when I first listened to Rammstein. The debut album Herzeleid to be precise. I had been spending part of that summer in Reykjavik where two of my brothers and dad(for clarification no my parents are not divorced, he was just on a business venture that didn't go so well in the end) were living. This album came at a rather intense time in my life, but I'm not going on some spiel about how it save my life. It didn't that was something completely different. My brother had borrowed this album from a friend of his and played it in the living room. I was fairly quickly completely taken to them. I can't remember if I copied the CD onto a tape(yes a tape) or not. But nonetheless I had found a new musical love in my life. Though what it was I couldn't really put my finger on. They sang in German, the guitar riffs were fairly plain, no guitar solo's(well actually one, Weisses Fleisch and the title song) and the album cover itself was a little bit suspect. But it was crushing in sound and breadth. Yes there's absolutely nothing original about it, but if I wanted originality I would have stuck to listening to Einstürzende Neubauten, whilst wearing my figmented skinny jeans and sipping red wine. But I'm thankfully not a hipster and I can like both Rammstein and Einstürzende Neubauten. And drink my beer.

But no, they were industrial, and as I said before crushing and quite frankly fun to listen to. There was nothing like them around, at least not in my music-o-sphere. The closest thing would be an Icelandic band called HAM. But they had quit many many years previous to that. Primal force that just pulverises you with direct sophisticated and precise musical attacks. That is what Rammstein was about. And singing in German, which was pretty unheard of, well except for in Germany of course... and Austria. But, no, what I mean is that it was unusual to hear a band NOT singing in English. Which also meant that if you didn't understand what was being sung you could use your imagination a lot more with the music, and the vocals became for as yet another instrument. Talking about vocals, Till Lindemann has got one of the best baritone vocal tones I know off. I have no idea what he is singing most of the time, but the emotions he carries are immense and intense. Generally just the one tone, one frequency that he uses, but for example when he wants to sing a ballad like Seemann he has your full attention. Oh and the use of the bass on that song is just brilliant. But yeah Till also writes all the lyrics, and when you actually get them translated you can see that he is a brilliant wordsmith, he's even published a few poetry books alongside his Rammstein career. But with that voice you can easily hear a Sergeant wading into battle on top of a horse with an enemy head in one hand and a sword raised to the air in the other.

Where Herzeleid really really succeeds is in the simplicity of, well everything, but when you start listening a bit more deeply you start noticing these little bits added in the background that make the song really really good. It's in the background where Flake shines. With some interesting samples and well played and well layered keyboards. Listen to Wollt Ihr Das Bett Flammen Sehen, and you get little samples from the classic game Doom. The start of Heirate Mich is also a good song to show Flake's prowess, he even manages to get in a bit of Hammond Organ in there.

Kruspe and Landers do provide the meat of the material. With their relentless riffing throughout every song. They tend to not deviate a great deal from the blueprint, and usually keep to one riff per song. The thing is though that their riffs are good enough to hold up those songs. Doom Schneider is of course the man who keeps this industrial beast in sync with his relentless near-computerised rhythmic beats. Every piece from every member seems to provide a little detail that makes the big picture. Without one, it would all fall to pieces. And the picture would never be finished.

The following year when Sehnsucht was released their popularity exploded! Especially due to the songs Du Hast and Stripped. Even though Stripped wasn't on Sehnsucht. But now I was part of a crowd, rather than a group of one. Which to me was a bit of a novelty at the time. Sehnsucht has a slightly more raw sound to it than Herzeleid, it is probably my least favourite album by Rammstein. But that is not to say that I don't like it. It's got brilliant tunes on there like Tier, Klavier and Engel.

Now the pinnacle of their career. The piece that they will never be able to top is Mutter. This is where their bombasticity became Epic. This is still my favourite album by them. Here they are sophisticated, direct and brutal in their attack, with re-inforcements from Deutsches Filmorchester Babelsberg. Individually the songs are all very good and very strong, but with the orchestral addition that power just becomes overwhelming and envelopes the listener, takes them by the scruff of the neck and pounds the enjoyment into the earholes. From the German marching Links 2 3 4 to loneliness of the title song to the obscure sexuality of Zwitter(this song is also the only one I can think of that makes great use of the outro, which is an aspect of songs that I generally hate with a fucking passion) and the abandonment of Spieluhr. This album is the crown jewel of Rammstein's career.

Now, I'm not saying that the stuff that came out after Mutter are not worth listening to. Reise, Reise and Rosenrot are both very good and are to some extent fairly major departures from the sound that they created in the first three albums. Now Liebe Ist Fur Alle Da, is probably their best album since Mutter, and they are obviously having time of their lifes on that album. Their gleeful poking at porn and shock rock is the perfect example of that.

I remember seeing them playing in Iceland during the Mutter tour and it has to be said that it is probably still the best concert I've ever been to. It would have been that if only Rammstein had played but no, it was also the time when HAM decided to re-unite. But only after lots and lots of peer pressure from the Icelandic nation, which never would have happened if the guitar player of HAM hadn't said that they would only reunite if Rammstein came to Iceland. They had it all, the pyrotechnics(though not as much as it was a closed environment), Flake on a dingy, Flake the Subservient and Till the Master. It was not so much a concert but more of an experience, with all the theatrics that was on show. The band came on like robots, or possibly humans without a soul and Doctor Flake flicked the switch that put the spark back into them.  And they rocked.

Music doesn't have to be super complex or obscure or original. Some times it helps, but the main thing is if the music is enjoyable. Whenever I want to have a little headslamming session these guys are perfect, when ever I just want the hairs at the back of my neck to rise these guys are perfect, whenever I feel like a run or just want to work out a little bit these guys I perfect.

Rammstein - A mass grave,
Rammstein - no escape!
Rammstein - no bird sings ... more
Rammstein - and the sun is shining.

Mother Country Music Loving

Most of my blogs have been about bands from other countries(from my point of view), so I thought it was time to write a little about some bands that come from my country of birth. There are few bands so I'll try to be brief on each. I've already talked about Kontinuum in a different blog, so I'll skim over them. And Solstafir unfortunately isn't my bag, except two songs maybe.

First in line is HAM. This band is legendary in Iceland. They started in the late 80's and quite after a couple of albums in the 90's. just as they quit they participated in songwriting and acting in what is now legendary movie in Iceland, called Sodoma Reykjavik. They didn't reunite until Rammstein came to Iceland to play 2001. During their downtime their reputation grew, and grew and grew. The best way to describe their music is possibly as Classic Heavy Metal with dash of Blackness. They had two singers the ruff and gruff Ottarr(Who is now a city councillor in Reykjavik) and the mighty majestic bassy Sigurjón, these two guys wrote most if not all of the music, acting as sort of an Icelandic Lennon/McCartney couple. As far as I can see they recorded two albums that were never released, one live album and one studio cut off album. Until they reunited of course. Since 2001 they've released a live album and one studio album. The studio album was called 'Svik, Harmur og Dauði'(Betrayal, Harm and Death). And what an album it is. Already a classic. It is just so, so very very good, and rocky, and expansive... and... and... well I don't know any more words that fit the album.



XIII has been my favourite Icelandic band. Ever. Since my friend played me a track called Nowhere, from their phenomenal record Serpentyne. What most people in the world call Six Degrees of Seperation in Iceland we call it Throw the Stone Next Door and We'll Know him. The main guy, and for some time the only guy, Hallur Ingólfson used to drum for HAM for some time, but then decided to branch out with his own project along with composing music for the National Theater and various movies in Iceland. The first album Salt, was very Gothic, akin to Type O Negative, just not as tongue in cheek. From there they played slightly more rocky, Soundgarden-y even in Serpentyne, with it's Grade A artistic case and booklet. Both of these albums are fairly simple, with no overtly progressive sounds or anything like that. Then Hallur decided to go all NIN-industrial on us and out came Magnifico Nova.  An album I love, for all it's faults and quibbles. Hallur Ingólfsson went around construction sites and suchlike in Reykjavik recording the sounds that he came across there and incorporated them brilliantly into the album, with songs like Wishbone, Daisy Chain and Miracle Sun being the perfect examples. He even attempts the high notes on Wishbone, and wrote one of my favourite love songs in the form of Amorica. Briefly the band name was changed to Th1rte3n, thankfully that only lasted this one album, because the publishing company XIIIbis wanted to make them more sellable. Then it all went quiet. So very very quiet....

...Then all of the sudden I heard rumblings of a reunion, just to play in Eistnaflug. Even an album. Which came... sort of... in the form of a Best Of... plus an EP, called Black Box. Seems like Hallur has become all grown up, and decided to play all out Rock Songs. There's even a recreation of Wishbone with out the industrial bits.



Now every country needs their own version of Isis and Neurosis. The Icelandic version is Momentum. This band came as a very very pleasant surprise, as they started of as a rather bland, generic Black Metal band(like Solstafir come to think of it), working into a Progressive Metal Band(like Solstafir, though to be fair any band that works for a long time in the Black Metal field will eventually turn progressive... unless your Mayhem) and into this Post Metal(Unlike Solstafir, saved by the bell). On their album Fixation, at Rest they made this rich textured post metal a la Isis, Neurosis and Cult of Luna. What really does set Momentum apart from other Post Metal bands, besides sounding very original is their use of three singers... sometimes five. And the drummer, sounds like an octopus on LSD. There's this wall of sound with the heavy use of downtuned guitars, with a dark underbelly of the rhythm section. Red Silence is a perfect example of this. If there is such thing as the perfect soundtrack for a beached whale exploding, then Momentum have written it.

So there we have it, a very small dissection of the Icelandic Music Scene. There are more, and I will write about them next time.




PS
It's not that I dislike Solstafir particularly, it's just that I've never really got into them except for their track Love is The Devil.