Yea, it's more of a sound cameo than an actual vocal performance, but you gotta admit, it sounds awfully cool.

And for Suffas:

I remember watching a documentary on metal and it's quite amusing to hear them talk about the roots of metal for one of them was classical music. They basically said that if classical composers from the past were alive today, they'd be in metal bands. I think they said Beethoven would be in Black Sabbath and some other guy (his last name starts with an 'L' and he really liked the bass section, so that section was huge for his composistions) would be in Deep Purple.

Of course, the other roots were Blues and 'slave music' as they called it.

Im actually not too surprised that metal has roots in classical. After all, classical is one of the oldest forms of music (of course there is ancient music from different cultures).

House of Pain - Same As It Ever Was [from the same-named LP]

The second H.O.P. album that followed their super-popular debut, "Fine Malt Lyrics", brought more darker song themes and samples that were much more 'underground' than the classical hip-hop which brought them so much fame in the beginning. Needless to say, this album wasn't as popular as their first one, but true fans were blessed with this masterpiece of rap. Needless to say, this song and album, which was the first one I bought as a bootleg in the early 90's, remains one of my favourite rap records.

Right now I'm listening to Shadows That Move by Mastodon. Cool stuff, nice and heavy too lol

Hurray for Saturdays! I picked an excellent "theme" for listening music today. In actuality, it's really just a collection of certain band albums, but listened to chronologically. Here's this weeks list (which will actually be listened to in this order, minus the ones I don't get to:

Remission - Mastodon
Leviathan - Mastodon
Blood Mountain - Mastodon
The Mantle - Agalloch
Ashes Against the Grain - Agalloch
Stained Class - Judas Priest
Screaming for Vengeance - Judas Priest
Angel of Retribution - Judas Priest


I'm really looking forward to the Agalloch albums (though Blood Mountain will also be a VERY enjoyable listen) just because I got them this week. They don't seem to be well known in this neck of the woods, as I had to order them from the CD store to get them. I was really glad it only took a week for them to get in, I was told it could take 8 weeks if it was hard to get.

Agalloch seem to get a lot of comparison to Opeth for some reason. Sound-wise, they are quite different but I guess you can say that they are basically doing the same thing with their genres. Like, Agalloch incorparates long songs with loud and soft moments on a fundalmentally Black Metal background, which is similar to Opeth only they use the Gothic/Death Metal as their backdrop.

Just with the two Agalloch albums I have, they both have different sounds. The Mantle is actually quite a soft album to listen to. There are lots of acoustic guitars, as well as some other instruments that aren't typical of metal music like accordians (and it actually sounds good!), windchimes, booming orchestral drums (I don't know what the official name is), and even deer antlers. Nearly every other song on that album is a beautiful instrumental which reminds me of walking in a light forest in the winter, but the skies are slightly greycast. It really puts you into a mood.

Ashes Against the Grain on the other hand brings back the electric guitars. It's a "heavier" album but it still contains it's soft moments, as they kinda pull a move like Isis does and takes their time to get things loud. Vocal-wise, the singer switches between an echoy clean voice and a very raspy voice that sounds like it's almost whispered. He uses the latter a lot more on this album while the Mantle had much more clean vocals.

Hehe, I'm totally a fanboy

Uriah Heep!

Now that's a damn cool band! I'm listening to their "Best Of Uriah Heep Part I" which includes such smash hits as.

Easy Livin'
Gypsy
Look At Yourself
Return To Fantasy
Stealin'
Bird Of Prey
Lady In Black

Damn that stuff is good! I'll probably listen to it all day long.

She came to me one morning
One lonely sunday morning
Her long hair flowing
In the midwinter wind
I know not how she found me
For in darkness I was walking
And destruction lay around me
From a fight I could not win
Ah ah ah ...

Right now I'm listening to to Machine Head's Through the Ashes of Empires, more specifically Imperium. Great stuff, and it has the added endorsement of everyone else in my family hating it

That album is sooo sweet. Gotta love Vim and Days Turn Blue to Grey as well.

Another Saturday, another weekend music list. Here it is in no particular order:

Panopticon - Isis
The Mantle - Agalloch
10,000 Days - Tool
Frances the Mute - The Mars Volta
Amputechture - The Mars Volta
Sleep is the Enemy - Danko Jones
Blast Tyrant - Clutch
Vol.1 - Hurt

No theme today, other than I guess I'm listening to my entire Mars Volta collection by giving Frances another listen in quite a wile.

It's Saturday! And an excellent one at that. Here's this weekend's list of albums:

Alive or Just Breathing? - Killswitch Engage
10,000 Days - Tool
Blood Mountain - Mastodon
The System Has Failed - Megadeth
Heaven and Hell - Black Sabbath
Holy Diver - Dio
Master of the Moon - Dio
Constitution of Treason - God Forbid
Monochrome - Helmet

Today's basic theme is Ronnie James Dio Day, as the Black Sabbath album and the two Dio records are sung by him. Good stuff, early eighties had some nice metal/rock.

You should check out Queensryche's Operation: Mindcrime II. Ronnie James DIo guests and sings a pretty cool duet with Geoff Tate

Hmm, yea I've heard about that, and since I all ready have the first Operation Mindcrime, I wouldn't feel lost in the plot! Dio is supposed to be Dr.X if I remember correctly.

But yea, I'm holding out buying CDs until Halloween, just because a whole wackload of CDs I want are released before then and on that day. The new Deftones album comes out, the new Isis CD, the new The Haunted CD (though I think I'll have to order that one, or go someplace that isn't a chain music CD store), and there's also the new K-Os CD that just recently came out.

Man, these last two months have been crazy with good CD releases...

Cass Elliot - Make Your Own Kind of Music
I've heard this one first time in a "LOST" episode, where it inspired the feeling of dread but it's quite cheerful, really:

"...You're gonna be knowing
the loneliest kind of lonely.
It may be rough goin',
just to do your thing's
the hardest thing to do.

But you've gotta make your own kind of music
sing your own special song,
make your own kind of music
even if nobody else sings along..."

Damn right.

Saturday's list, today's overall theme is my rap/hip hop collection:

To the 5 Boroughs - Beastie Boys
Blood Music - Dead Celebrity Status
Late Registration - Kanye West
Exit - K-Os
Joyful Rebellion - K-Os
Atlantis: Hyms for Disco - K-Os
Hybrid Theory - Linkin Park
Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation
Vol. 1 - Hurt

The last three aren't really rap/hip hop albums since I don't have much rap and hip hop. I am looking forward to listening to the Green Carnation CD though. It's a single song, that's an hour long. Dream Theatre and The Mars Volta eat your heart out!

Every time I hear that song I'm reminded of a beer commercial that used to air some years ago. Two guys lost their car but didn't really mind it at all since they still had their beer left. The lesson of it all was probaby that beer makes you care less about material possessions.

This post was written to the tempo of "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" by A Perfect Circle.

Been listening to an odd mixture of Sparta and Jethro Tull.

Bought Sparta's new album entitled Threes yesterday when it came out, and it's got some great slow songs on there. It's my official late night driving album. (For those that don't know, Sparta is the second half of At the Drive-In - the half that didn't become The Mars Volta)

I have been meaning to buy Aqualung by Jethro Tull for quite some time, and have loved the album ever since my dad introduced me to them, just never got around to buying it until recently.

Both recommended albums. Go listen. Now.

well right now i am listening to CKY Escape From Hellview

Aqualung is a classic...I listened a lot to it back when I was at University! Gee......imagine young ones still like it! But it´s great I must admit that!

Currently I´m looking for my Enigma-cd but that hubby of mine put it in the car-cd-player.....and drove off...grrrrr

The current song that is playing is "I Don't Believe in Love" by Queensryche. That's because this is my Saturday Work listening:

Operation Mindcrime - Queensryche
Operation Mindcrime II - Queensryche
Light of Day, Day of Darkness - Green Carnation
The Acoustic Verses - Green Carnation
The Quiet Offspring - Green Carnation
Atlantis: Hyms for Disco - K-Os
The Crusade - Trivium
Mutter - Rammstein

Under Dantrag's suggestion I got Mindcrime II. It's fairly different than the first one, but it certainly isn't terrible. Though it is strange to release a sequel 18 years after the first one. I still enjoy it, just not on the level of the first one, the vocals and musicianship are just a bit more exciting and better. Still, I glad for the recommendationi.

I would just like to also note that each of those Green Carnation CDs sound completely different from each other. The first one is a single song, that's an hour long of doom metal with heavy progressive influences. The Acoustic Verses is, obviously, an acoustic CD that I find absolutely beautiful, and The Quiet Offspring is basically a hard rock CD. All good stuff, but since I recently purchased them I'm gonna need a bit of time before I pick favourites between them, but the first one stands a good chance of doing well, I wasn't bored for a single minute of it the first time I listened to it.

Queensryche definitely lost a great deal when DeGarmo left the band.

ON the other hand, if Mindcrime II had a different title, it would probably be considered awesome. It's just that the mindcrime title holds a different standard.