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

Don't worry, I've got this covered!

Now, apparently. This is my fortieth entry on this blog. This is not by any means the first blog I have written. I used to keep one called Judas Disciple and another called Mind of the Buddha. The former was in Icelandic and the latter in English. Both pretty much died because (A) I couldn't be asked any more and (B) Social Networks took over. I returned back to blogging for two reasons. (1) I enjoy writing (2) because I wanted to hone my writing skills. So the general idea here is just to write. Whatever I feel like, mostly as people have no doubt noticed is that I like to write about music. Do I think that my opinion matters to anyone? No not really, but I don't see why that should really matter either. Do I have anything to add to discussions that are heavily covered? Yes I do. It might not be read always because people have this conception of me that I only ever write about heavy metal music, which is not always true. Yes I do like heavy metal, and it does make up bulk of what I listen to, yes I've written about Queensryche, twice. I've written about Iron Maiden, twice. I've written about Sepultura, twice. I've written about Disillusion, twice. But I'd like to think that my taste is a bit more eclectic then that. The focus for this entry is again on music.  But this time it is in slightly different format. For some reason, and I can't really put my finger on why or when it started, I have always loved cover songs. Not sure what it is, but there is something so deliciously great about a well played cover song. But then again when there is something absolutely horrible when you hear a cover song done really really really badly. But then you hear some real corkers like Tori Amos doing Raining Blood by Slayer!

That is how a cover song should be done. The artist covering the song should make it their own, while still keeping a thread that just about hints at the original version. Like Nevermore doing Sound of Silence. I personally never really realized how dark those lyrics are until Warrel Dane sang them:

But they are not the focus of this blog. No the focus is on those bands that make it their business to make wacky cover songs, especially from Hard Rock/Heavy Metal. No I am not talking about something as generic as classically changed songs that has been done to death since Apocalyptica started doing their Metallica covers. No these are something else.

Hellsongs - Dirty Swedes

Hellsongs. These guys are from Sweden and have chosen to focus on doing lounge versions of famous heavy metal songs. They have consisted of three players, two of whom have stayed the entire time. The Keyboardist/vocalist Johan Bringhed and banjo/guitar/vocalist Kalle. They've had three female singers since their formation in 2004, My Engström-Renman. I've liked them since their first album 'Hymns in the Key of 666'. I've always enjoyed their rather exuberant and playful way that they convey so well through their songs like Symphony of Destruction, The Trooper and Seasons in the Abyss. I always feel that little bit happier whenever I've listened to them. The last album I listened to in full was 'Minor Misdemeanors' where you can enjoy summer and sunlight versions of Heaven Can Wait, Welcome to the Jungle and Youth Gone Wild. The main reason, besides their obvious enjoyment of playing, these song work is because these guys are amazing musicians.

 Since then they've added electric guitars and drums, which I'm a little skeptical of but since I haven't listened to it yet I'll reserve judgement. But in the meantime I'll just swing my hips to the one's I have heard.




Combo De La Muerta, is an Italian band who chosen to cover songs in sort of Latin-Jazz-Mexican way. Unfortunately it would seem that they've quit since they published their only album 'Tropical Steel' in 2008 but it is a corker of an album. Here you can enjoy Breaking the Law, Peace Sells and South of Heaven. They manage to make these songs fit into a very smoky atmosphere, these could be played during the festival in Rio or maybe during Dia De Muertas. These songs are one some level extremely sensual and do make you want to learn how to salsa. Or maybe eat some salsa, or guacamole with popplers. And again as with Hellsongs these songs work because these guys are amazing musicians and obviously love the songs that they are playing.

Van Canto

Van Canto are probably the strangest band on here. Playing something they've chosen to call Hero metal A Cappella. They hail form heartland of power metal that is Germany and have been playing since 2006. This band consists of 5 vocalists, and one drummer. 2 doing the actual vocals whereas the other three replace the guitars and bass. Majority of their work has actually been based on their own original music. But they've received the biggest attention when they've covered Metallica (So they've got similar history to Apocalyptica). They've done Battery and Master of Puppets. But they've also covered Fear of The Dark, Wishmaster, Kings of Metal and Final Countdown They're control of their larynx is amazing to behold, but the star of the show has to be Dennis Schunke who has to be one of the best vocalists I've heard in a long time, could easily be one of the best vocalists going at the moment. If you don't believe me just listen to Kings of Metal again. And like Apocalyptica it might have started out as just another pet project to have fun with, it has now snowballed into something slightly bigger and they are well worth a listen in their own right not just as a cover band.

Lasting Impact: Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of The Seventh Son

Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of the Seventh Son

Iron Maiden is without a doubt my number one favourite band. They are the only band that I am willing to buy an album when it comes out. I've already written on blog regarding an album of theirs that is close to my heart.

Now from memory rather coffee stained memory I seemed to have gone into their career a little backwards, or sideways or hub-wards. The first song I remember hearing was the phenomenal Aces High, the first album I owned was Live After Death (In cassette form!) but the first studio album I owned was Fear of the Dark. Which I really really liked, but it somehow didn't feel like the Iron Maiden I first knew. So I left it for a little bit. Sometime somewhere someone gave me a VHS copy of Made in England which was filmed during their Seventh Tour of the Seventh Tour. And boy, oh man did those spandex trousers left quite an impression and not in a good way.  But the songs. The songs were so so very very very good. There isn't enough wax for me to wax lyrically or poetically about this album but I shall try my best.

Bruce Dickinson and 80's spandex

Then I got this single given:

Can I Play With Madness

Which had two songs from an album I had not listened to by Iron Maiden. That album? Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. The best and one of the perfect albums of heavy metal. It would not be unfair to say that their creative talents had peaked considerably when they put out this album. That is not to say that all the albums that followed were shit... just not as good. I know there are people now probably shouting at the screen mentioning various names but I would argue that they haven't released a bad album, they've done some awful songs but not whole album full of them.  But Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is just completely different. It is the perfect mixture of Wow! and Woah!

For those who don't know. This was Iron Maiden's seventh studio album, they were at their peak in terms of albums sales and touring relentlessly. They were at the top of their game. These guys had been touring together for 6 years at this point. They had released the rather odd Somewhere in Time, which has their best album cover though, which had featured fairly heavily synthesizers but had not really fully incorporated them. But on this one they completely embraced them and put them to great use.

Apparently Steve Harris had been reading Seventh Son by Orson Scott Card. And with Bruce Dickinson's interest in history and Aleister Crowley in particular it was only a matter of time when this would collide. Them two spoke for a while and then decided to make a concept album about the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

The story follows a boy who is the seventh son of the seventh son(Betcha didn't see that one coming). In Moonchild he is being born and there is a fight going on between the Devil and an Angel regarding who's path he will follow. Throughout his life he struggles with his dreams, his visions and generally his life seems to be going down the drain. Fast. He tries, but in the end can't live with the burden. So the album ends on a cheerful note called Only the Good Die Young.

To be honest the concept went right over my head, still does in fact, but the music is impeccable.  As a concept album it is really rather weak, nowhere near like say Operation Mindcrime or Christ.O or Brave. But what it does have a common musical thread running through all of the songs. There are two songs that are blatantly commercial namely Can I Play With Madness and The Evil that Men Do, but they are great. And the former has a video that features Graham Chapman! Apparently the former also started of as a ballad, and listening to it I don't understand how, but the latter could have very easily been a power ballad. But both are equally hard rocking and headbangable.

 

Then you've got the prog element that has always been there. To be honest regarding long proggy songs the best one they've ever done is The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But the title song is an atmospheric masterpiece, but it's by no means the only prog song there, the other contender for prog-metal song on here is Infinite Dreams which has one of the most interesting guitar playing and very unusual song structure, considering that most of the time when they write songs they try to make sure that that the audience can sing along. But that is pretty hard with this one. But it's a great song though and you can feel for the character and the psychosis that is plaguing him. It sorts of meanders from being a power ballad to a fully fledged metal song towards the end with those patented Iron Maiden dual guitar attacks that are just so so very wonderful to listen to. 

With all of this you also get Steve Harris galloping bass playing. I've yet to hear anyone else play the bass like he does, it is quite wonderful to listen to especially when he goes off on one like on The Clairvoyant which for a long long time was my favourite song from this album. Not sure which is my favourite song right now because whenever I put this album on I have to listen to it from start to finish. Each song individually is ranging from great to greatness, but listening to them all in sequence from start to finish just adds that oh so extra special layer on top of all of them. Bit like a smear of Mr. Vikki's BBQ sauce does for ham sandwiches.

Bruce Dickinson goes out of his way to show why he is one of the best voices to come from that Heavy Metal Era (Still has one of the best voices in fact) and mesmerises completely throughout and keeps you captivated in the story that isn't all there. He shows why he's called the Air-Raid Siren with gusto and puts his history degree into good use when writing his lyrics.

Dave Murray and Adrian Smith are the dual guitar players that every other guitar pair, it was such a loss when Adrian left. Though that is not a slight on Janick. But thank the Gods that both Bruce and Adrian returned and kept Janick.

The album ends with the same acoustic ditty and sinister words by Bruce Dickinson (Which he borrowed from the aforementioned Aleister Crowley) that it started with:

Seven deadly sins
Seven ways to win
Seven holy paths to hell
And your trip begins
Seven downward slopes
Seven bloodied hopes
Seven are your burning fires
Seven your desires

They still haven't bettered this album, though Dance of Death came pretty close.

So for people's enjoyments I'll share the album in two different formats.

The curious case of Queensryche.

The curious case of Queensryche. I've been a fairly big fan of Queensryche for a while now, probably as long as I have been a fan of Iron Maiden. Just not with the same intensity. Quite a lot of people will probably recognise them more now due to court case that is happening in November, where it will be decided whether Geoff Tate owns the name Queensryche or whether the founding members own it (You don't really have to guess who I think should win).The first song I ever heard was the classy classic Iron Maiden worshipping song Queen of The Reich with it fantastic Dungeons & Dragons / Highlander video:

But my first album that I bought was Operation: Mindcrime, which has been dubbed the best Metal Concept album of all time. And it still is. What a effing masterpiece that is, not one dud song or needless tracks on there at all, with the particular standout being Suite Sister Mary. For those who don't know, the story of Operation: Mindcrime, revolves around a man called Nikki. Who's become disillusioned with life and society. During one of his many herion induced benders he's recruited into an organization that is dedicated to starting a revolution in the US. This Organization is headed by a mysterious man called Dr.X, who also supplies his followers with drugs and special orders. Nikki becomes an assassin without his knowing, and Dr. X wants him to kill a corrupt priest. During his time, Nikki starts getting friendly with a nun who used to moonlight as a prostitute, named Sister Mary. Dr. X takes notice of this and then orders Nikki to kill both the Priest and Sister Mary. After Nikki the priest, it seems like Dr. X has Sister Mary killed by someone else but lays the blame on Nikki. Nikki loses his mind, goes on another drug and alcohol induced bender, then ends up in a mental hospital. Where the story started.

This album had it all, cracking music, cracking story and cracking lyrics. Shame it never got turned into a cracking movie.

The next album I actually bought was Promised Land. Which just blew me away, big time. The riffs in I Am I and Damaged. Then there was the melancholic meanderings of Out of Mind and Lady Jane, Out of Mind influenced how I approached my job in mental health quite a bit, though it took some time to realise that. Lady Jane is a very very creepy song, and Geoff Tate expresses that creepiness exceedingly well. There's a lot of mental health issues being discussed on this album, and they are very upfront about it. DIS CON NEC TED which seems to be sung from the point of view of someone who's been lobotomised(my interpretation of it anyway), Bridge deals with absent father issues, Someone Else? is about someone(HA!) dealing with depression and stage fright. And so on and so on. The title song is a delightful example of organized chaos in tune form, the only downside seemingly being Geoff Tate's obsession with playing out of tune saxophone for no real reason.

The thing that always impressed me about Queensryche was the fact that they never seemed to repeat themselves. They went from NWOBHM style of their EP and The Warning, into slightly more accessible Duran Duran influence metal in Rage for Order(where Geoff goes full on stalker mode), then Progressive story telling metal of Operation Mindcrime, to pop metal of Empire, slightly more alternative progressive turn in Promised Land, Grunge/Seattle rock in Hear to the Now Frontier.

Hear in The Now Frontier is seen by many as a watershed in Queensryche career, slightly because it was so different from their epic Operation: Mindcrime but mainly because Chris DeGarmo quit after that one. But that is one thing I've hated about a lot of Queensryche "fans", with every album especially after HitNF, the common complaint was "Well it isn't Operation:Mindcrime or Empire", "They need DeGarmo back.", whine whine whine, bitch bitch bitch. Yet, commonly the same fans will say how well shit HitNF is. The problem with that, DeGarmo wrote all the songs bar two(Which also happened to be the rockiest songs on here), Hit the Black and Anytime/Anywhere). I fucking love that album, except for two songs(Cuckoo's Nest and Get a Life). Yes it is different, yes it is stripped down, but it is delivered with style that only Queensryche could do. It does include one very progressive song in the form of Sp00l. DeGarmo mounts the microphone in All I Want. There are great rock tunes(besides the ones I've previously mentioned) like You and Reach, some soulful thinking in Miles Away, desperation in Saved.

But my favourite song has to be this:



Obviously DeGarmo was heavily influenced by what was happening around them in their home town of Seattle. He even played with Jerry Cantrell(he  and did a few gigs with Alice In Chains. But hey, he quit. Get over it. Now he's flying for Lear Jets.

So what should a band do. A band that has a great history, fantastic back catalogue, know how to play and put together albums without what was arguably their most influential songwriter?

Well carry on that's what. Which they did. They bravely soldiered on through many albums that were consistently poo-pooed on. Which again irked me a lot. I like Q2K, with it's relaxed, slightly, jazzy atmosphere. I LOVE Tribe, I'd go as far as to say that it is my favourite album. But then again DeGarmo did come back and wrote a couple of songs with them on that album. But that album is amazing. Again there is a lot of thought gone into the lyrical content behind them, mainly on world peace, harmony, love(in the platonic sense) and generally how life is most of the time good, but we could do more for each other since we are essentially all one tribe. I loved the muddy production behind it(I was heavily influenced by Roy Z's style of music production), the well tribal sound of the drums and Geoff Tate's singing is inspirational. As it always had been. Yes, he isn't hitting the high notes as much, but then again I was never a big fan of falsetto singing. But he does focus on his mid range vocal style a lot, he's got a fantastic timbre and operatic style. 

Then, I don't know what happened. Mainly from what I can gather Geoff's ego got to him. He started treating Queensryche as his baby rather then the bands baby. I mean I didn't dislike Operation: Mindcrime 2, even though it did reek a bit of money grabbing, I did really like Take Cover, but American Soldier had a fantastic concept, but fell flat on extremely boring and basic song writing. And the less said about Dedicated to Chaos the better. Actually no, I take that back.

Dedicated to Chaos, was rank. It was horrible, I tried so so badly to like it, I tried to take it on face value. But sheesh it was bad. There seemed to be way to much U2 worshipping going on. Geoff hired some outside charlatans to write songs instead of... ooohhh I don't know... listen to what his band members were producing outside Queensryche. If he had only taken his time and listened to Rockenfield/Speer's Hells Canyon or maybe Micheal Wiltons Soulbender project. Both of which were rocking and full of ideas. But nnnoooo, he listens to Jason(fucking)Slater instead, who's past was some garbage industrial wanabe The Cure style of 'rock'.  He had a fantastic new guitarist on Tribe in the shape of Mike Stone, but he was gotten ridden fairly quickly after O:M2, for "financial" reasons.

I've still got my copy of Dedicated to Chaos, and I'm keeping it just to remind me there are such things as expensive beer coasters.

The thing is, I liked Geoff Tate's solo album that he released in 2002. It was fresh, it was laid back and very enjoyable to listen to. Now maybe, if he had been honest and actually put out American Soldier and Dedicated to Chaos as solo albums(that they are!) then I might have had more respect for him. But instead he goes on and does this:

So, they were right in getting rid of him. His version of Queensryche shat out this stinking pile a cow shit in the form of Frequency Unknown, which was essentially the spiritual heir to his solo album Kings & Thieves. Both of which are just horrible, absolutely horrible. No Geoff, I won't tell you that I luv it, stick it up your fucking pie hole and be gone. Those Glory Days are over. No just stop. Please.

But Queensryche with the rest put out an album of amazing quality. With a new singer called Todd La Torre, who is close enough in style to Geoff to pull it off, but has enough of a personality to put his own stamp on things. Parker, the man who replaces Mike Stone and Kelly Gray(please just stop playing solos!) and in a sense replaces DeGarmo, does a fantastic job. He might be "The Kid", but he's got talent to equal DeGarmo. They easily reference everything prior to Promised Land, without repeating themselves and although it is short, it is full from start to finish with pure quality songwriting. If they don't win the court case in November, I do hope they will keep on going. Because Geoff has lost my spending money.

Top 15 Artists of all time according to Last.Fm

This is the current list of top 15 artists according to Last.FM as of 10.8.13.

1	Filter
2	Septic Flesh
3	Armored Saint
4	XIII
5	Andrew W.K.
6	Steve Von Till
7	Clint Mansell
8	Aeternam
9	Anathema
10	Kontinuum
11	Be'lakor
12	Queensrÿche
12	Megaherz
14	Diablo Swing Orchestra
15	Squirrel Nut Zippers

Musical upbringing and influences

Suppose most of you will know me as a purveyor of heavier music. Which strictly speaking is true. I do listen to a lot of Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, though I tend to splash that with healthy amount of Classical FM and BBC Radio 3, along with Johnny Cash and Townes Van Zandt. So yeah, I would say that I have got a fairly broad taste in music with a heavy centre of metal. But couple of days back I was listening to The Beatles. I hadn't listened to them for quite some time and I did not realise how much they've influenced my musical choices. And in turn it made me think of WHERE my musical influences came from. My brothers obviously were strong influences. My second oldest gave me The Ultimate Classical Collection, "So you'll stop listening to this heavy metal shit!". I still got that collection, love it to this day and all it did was to expand my horizons. Then the following year he gave me CD's by Miles Davis and Dave Brubeck. Þórður gave me a Ministry(No not the Techno-Dance shit, the REAL ministry) "So you'll stop listening to the Herbert shit!". And again all it did was expand my musical horizons.

But, yeah THE musical influence in my life have been mum and grandma. She had(and hopefully still HAS) the biggest vinyl collection I have come across. And in that collection she had the entire collection of The Beatles, some The Kinks, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, BB King, Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley and many many more, including The Muppet Show Album(which is still a bit of a favourite, especially the songs 'Time in A Bottle' and 'Lydia The Tattooed Lady'(Every time I listen that first song I tend to shed a tear while thinking of grandma)). So from my mum I got a very strong basis in rock 'n roll, along with progressive tendencies and blues and traditional jazz. Mum still has the ability to surprise me with her musical choices as I still remember her tapping her feet to Diablo Swing Orchestra and then recommending The Tiger Lillies to me! I used to spend a lot of time at my grandmas and she would always have at least two radios on, both with different stations on. Radio 1 would generally play classical music amongst other things where as Radio 2 had talk shows and slightly more in the now music, but she herself would also teach me(and others of course) about traditional Icelandic music and poetry. So there came my folky influences.

But my heavy metal journey started when I came across a VHS tape(remember them folks?!) called Kerrang Video Kompilation, which had such superstars as Iron Maiden, Mama's Boys, WASP, KISS, Helix, Armored Saint, Motorhead, Twisted Sister, Queensryche and Madam X! Iron Maiden is still my favourite band, along with Queensryche. And for many many years I would and could not listen to anything but the Melodic side of Heavy metal, couldn't stand growls and such like. But the past few years I have found that my musical tastes have actually gone towards the heavy, darker, murkier side of things. And in some cases it collides into things like Septic Flesh, who play very symphonic death metal and Sear Bliss who play Black Metal with brass instruments. So yeah, thanks for that John.

I am forgetting one element that is a very strong one as well. Musicals. Jesus Christ Superstar still blows me away when I listen to it, and Rocky Horror Picture Show. I like albums that play as concept albums and have either a running theme or a whole story. One of the best one's I've come across was album called Christ.O by Vanden Plas which apparently is based on Count of Monte Christo.

All in all, as can be seen. I love music. So thank you to everyone, especially mum and grandma. It is a journey that is still full of wonderful surprises and delights.