The Holidays Are Upon Us Apparently

So the year is drawing to a close, and Christmas is right around the corner. This will be the last entry before that holiday is upon us so I'll use this blog post as an opportunity to wish you all a happy holidays, whatever you're going to do. I'm sure you've all been hearing the various Christmas songs in near constant repetition, they're pretty difficult to escape in their varying degrees of terrible musicalness. Yes, musicalness is a word, but please don't look it up. There are the odd couple of Christmas song renditions I can bear, but those are oases amid the wasteland of other songs.

Anyway I'll just give a quick update on my musical life. Not much to report, the guitar playing continues, although I don't practice enough. Also I discovered a band called Social Distortion. Well I say discovered, what I mean is I listened to a well established band that I should have heard of earlier. I really like them. I haven't got any of their albums yet but I'll probably pick up one or two after Christmas.
So that's all for now. Have a good Christmas and suchlike and I'll see you (or rather I'll post here), sometime afterwards.

Cheers,

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Things From 2010

So it's pretty much over. The cold is descending (for those who live in the Northern Hemisphere) and December is upon us. We look back on January with feelings of nostalgia for the times gone by. Anyway this post will serve as a collection of the best musical things of the year for me. This will include studio releases, live concerts, and general musical events.
So I think I'll start with studio releases. There have been many good albums released this year, here are some of my favourites (in no particular order, because I'm indecisive like that):

• Iron Maiden- The Final Frontier. Iron Maiden's followup to A Matter Of Life And Death was number 1 in the UK immediately after its release. Quite a good album with masterpieces such as El Dorado and When The Wild Wind Blows. Not their best album but still enjoyable. Although I don't like the Satellite 15 part of the first track, it's too long and the lyrics seem forced. Overall it's pretty good though. In my back catalogue of posts (see the right hand side of this page) you can find my review of this album.
• H.I.M.- Screamworks: Love In Theory & Practice. An utterly fantastic album. The release of this resulted in me listening to H.I.M. pretty much continuously for a long time. I haven't been able to listen to them lately because I listened to them so much earlier in the year. I'll soon be able to hear them again though. The album isn't quite as good as Dark Light, which in my opinion is their best from what I've heard, but it's very good.
• Flogging Molly- Live At The Greek Theatre. The Californian Irish folk/rock band released a stunning live album earlier this year. From the sound of it the gig must have been fantastic (I am envious of anyone who went to it). My only criticism is that it doesn't include the song Within A Mile Of Home which is my favourite song they've produced so far. They're currently working on a new album which I'm very much looking forward to, maybe I'll be able to catch them live as well.
• Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.- Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. The new album from Sam Duckworth (aka Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.) was released this year. I very much enjoyed it. In my back catalogue of posts (see the right hand side of this page) you can find my review of this album.

Ok, onto live performances now. This year's live schedule was dominated by Sonisphere Knebworth which I went to in the summer. Many of the best gigs I went to this year were there. Here's the list of this year's gigs:

• Iron Maiden (Sonisphere)- I finally saw them live! They were really good. Seeing a rarities set was an interesting experience, some great songs were played that wouldn't normally be heard in the usual greatest hits setlist. However I think there were too few classics, I would have liked two or three more. I've booked tickets to their 2011 UK tour, so I'm really looking forward to that.
• Rammstein (Sonisphere)- The Industrial Metal Gods were on form on the Saturday night at Sonisphere Knebworth. The pyrotechnical displays were mind-blowing, as was the music. One of the best gigs I've been to.
• Mastodon- I saw Mastodon in February and they were phenomenal. They played the whole of Crack The Skye as well as a couple of encore tracks from their back catalogue. It was a fantastic gig, well worth the money.
• Urban Folk Quartet- I went to see them at the beginning of the year and was blown away by the standard of the musicians. The music was interesting and it got the crowd going. What made it even better was that the gig itself was local, so I didn't have to go far, although I would gladly travel further to see them live again (but I may not have to, I think they'll be back again, maybe in the same venue as before).
  

So now I've listed just a few of the best gigs from this year so I'll end with a couple of general musical events/whatever doesn't fit either of the other categories. These can be anything that's musical basically.

• The Big Four Film- I went to see the Big Four film this year. It was a full (or near full) recording of the first time that the Big Four (Anthrax, Slayer, Megadeth, and Metallica) had ever shared the same stage. From the film it looked like a great gig. A highlight was when all the members (one or two may have been missing) from the four bands played together for a song. A good film, and a big event in metal history.
• My discovery of I Hear The Bells by Mike Doughty. I've been addicted to this track for months now, and still enjoy listening to it. I discuss it in more detail in a previous blog post called "Songs I've Been Addicted To... I" in fact I think it's in the second post of that series too.

Anyway, so ends my musical review of 2010. It's been a good year for music, and next year looks like it'll be good also. That's it for now.

Cheers,

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Skunk Anansie- Wonderlustre: Review

So I've finally gotten around to it; the Skunk Anansie album Review. Before I being with the review proper, I'll just mention a few words about the band. They were originally around in the 90's but split up after a while. Reforming recently they played some festivals (of which one of them was Sonisphere Knebworth 2010 where I saw them) and are now on tour (or soon to be). Ok, the new album, released September 13th by V2 Records, is called Wonderlustre and has 12 tracks. In this entry I will discuss my feelings about the album track by track.

The first track: God Loves Only You, starts with a melodic intro, shortly introducing a heavier section then returning to a quieter part. This is a classic Skunk Anansie technique, and always makes for a powerful song makeup, where verses of a lower volume are interspersed with louder, heavier, choruses. It culminates in a brilliant opening song, that will be in my head for a while to come.

Onto the second song. Opening with a lovely guitar riff, My Ugly Boy, is reminiscent of We Love Your Apathy from the album Stoosh. Skin's talent is shown here, her ability to deliver crisp vocal tones whilst making every word cry out is very well executed. A fantastic second song.

Onwards to Over The Love. There's some nice guitar work in the background of this track, nothing too difficult but exactly what the song needs, it really fits well. A relatively short song at 3:27, but then in relation to the album it's pretty average. Most of the tracks on Wonderlustre hover around the 3:30 mark, meaning each song has to be punchy to have an effect. So far all the tracks have done so admirably.

Fourth track now; Talk Too Much. The guitar work in the long introduction is exquisite, as is the build up that follows; with vocals, guitar and drums bringing the tone of the song up and down seamlessly- another Skunk Anansie classical technique. There's some violins playing in the background of the song in places, which is an interesting choice. It works well in my opinion.

The intro to The Sweetest Thing is rather interesting, incorporating a very trebley guitar and a pounding drumbeat. In fact, the whole song is interesting, seemingly a break from the tone of the album. The style is quite different to any of the songs before it on the album. Also the song incorporates backing vocals which complement, rather than compete with, Skin's lead vocals. Different, but by no means a bad choice.

It Doesn't Matter- the sixth track, is a crowd pleaser. I can imagine this getting the crowds on their feet, not that they wouldn't be already. Dynamically this piece works very well, with loud chorus complementing quieter verse and vice versa. A great song, a bit short though in my opinion at 2:46; it could have done with an extra half a minute or so. I'm guessing it'll be played longer at live shows.

The seventh track is called You're Too Expensive. It's got some great lyrics: "Tell me to how to fall out of love with you" being one of them. More good guitar work on this track, similar to that on some of the rest of the album.

The next song, My Love will Fall starts with a bass intro which initially reminds me of Twisted on the album Stoosh, but it doesn't launch into a heavy section right away. It's a good track, but could possibly have done with a heavier chorus, I'm not sure.

Starting off with a quite intro without drums, You Saved Me starts off in a quiet mood for quite a while, but ascends to a peak at one point. One of the softer songs on the album, but still a good listen.

Now here we go with a more Stooshlike track, Feeling The Itch begins with heavy guitar and that guitar returns again and again. More than a good track, Feeling The Itch is definitely one of the best tracks on the album, if not the best itself. The ascension to soaring vocals and climbing guitar is fantastic, all the while the bass and drums pounding the beat. A brilliant track which would definitely be good live.

The penultimate song, You Can't Always Do What You Like, starts with a long stretch of double picking guitar. After this intro the song changes somewhat before reverting back to the original guitar. The chorus is great, the vocals flying perfectly. There's a few seconds of lead guitar, the closest the album comes to a guitar solo, which have a nice effect. A really good song.

And then there's the finale. I Will Stay But You Should Leave brings the album to a close nicely. All parts fit together perfectly to make a track that seems to act as a fade out for the album, not to say it's not as good as the rest, it's slower tempo brings the album to an end nicely.

Overall impression? Really good, not a bad track on the album which is always a good thing. My favourite track is Feeling The Itch, and I think that's my only real criticism of the album, I would have liked one more track like that, although I suppose It Doesn't Matter (the sixth track) is similar in some respects. So I'm not really sure, it could have done with another track on the heavier side of the album, but equally it's a great album anyway. I'm not going to go an give it a mark out of ten, because I'm not entirely sure what I would say. As for how it compares to previous albums, the only other Skunk Anansie album I know well is Stoosh, which I have to say is my favourite of the two, but this is by no means a bad album, quite the contrary.

Anyway, that's all for now.

Cheers,

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Songs I've Been Addicted To... II

Right here we are, another entry about songs that I haven't been able to stop listening to, usually meaning that I listen to the tracks at least daily. I'll submit a new post in this series from time to time whenever I feel the need to.

First up is Nothing Else Matters by Metallica. I've been addicted to this song for a long time, but recently I listened to the version of the song from a live album. I was instantly hooked and I've been listening to it everyday for the last week or so. I love the song, the guitar picking introduction followed by the ballad style main section adn the solo are brilliant, and on the live track it's even better. It's probably my favourite Metallica song.

Next is Estoy Clavado En Un Bar. I mentioned this track a little while ago in an entry in the Notable Artists series. It's from the album Arde El Cielo by Maná. If I remember correctly I said that it was one of my favourite tracks from the album, but not quite my favourite. This has now changed, it's my most listened track of the album I reckon, and it's utterly fantastic. I can't pick up all the lyrics (they're in Spanish) but I can understand some of it. It's a really good song, from a great album. Like the Metallica track I just talked about, the version of this track I'm addicted to is live; I've heard the studio version and it's good, but I think in the case of this track the fact that it's live really enhances the power of the song.

I'm still addicted to I Hear The Bells by Mike Doughty. This track is racking up a hefty playcount in my library, I listen to it several times a week, not as much as when I first got it, but still a considerable amount. Its lyrics are creative and in places amusing, do check it out along with the others.

There you go, there are probably some others, but this'll do for now. I finally got around to purchasing a copy of Wonderlustre by Skunk Anansie; their new album, so that should be arriving in the post soon, I'll review it when I get a chance. Anyway, that's all folks.

Cheers,

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Notable Artists... IV

Right, here we go with another helping of Notable Artists. Tonight's choice? Jeff Buckley. He's pretty famous; doubtless many of you will have heard his cover of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah, it's one of the most famous covers of that song in existence. Jeff Buckley was a singer-songwriter born in 1966. He produced one full and one unfinished studio album before his tragic death in 1997.

His first and only completed album, Grace, is a masterpiece in my opinion. Buckley's vocals and guitar playing are superb and combine to create a thoroughly mesmerising and emotional album. As I already mentioned, the album contains Buckley's cover of Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen, which is probably the song that Jeff Buckley is most famous for, but there are many other great tracks. One of my favourites is Grace, the track of the same name of the album. The balance of the various parts is exquisite, all joining together to create an entirely profound effect. Other tracks worth listening to are: Last Goodbye, So Real, and in fact the rest of the album.

There are a couple of live albums out there as well; one of which is entitled Mystery White Boy, which is the one I have. It's pretty good, definitely worth a listen after you've checked out Grace. The unfinished album is entitled Sketches For My Sweetheart The Drunk; I admit I don't know much about this. I've got it but haven't listened to it extensively. From what I've listened to it's got some good things on it.

Well that concludes today's foray into the mismatched world of my music taste. Feel free to comment on this or anything. Do check out Jeff Buckley's music if you get a chance, it's really powerful stuff. Anyway that's all for now.

Cheers,

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Notable Artists... III

Ok so it's time for a new post. Today I'm posting another in the "Notable Artists" series where I write about a group that may or may not be well known but that I think is worth a mention. This entry is all about a band called Maná. Maná began in 1987, but before that they were known under a different name and had a slightly different set of members. They sing in Spanish and originate from Mexico.

So the first time I heard Maná was about a year ago, I heard one or two tracks and later bought the album Arde El Cielo which was the album which my then (and current) favourite Maná track was from. My favourite song by this band is Arde El Cielo from the album of the same name. The music they play is a lovely blend of rock and Latin American music, a combination that works really well. I admit that I'm not an expert on the band, I only have the one album, but I plan to get more in the future. The problem is that most of the CDs have to be imported for sale in Britain, so that has an affect on the price tag. Anyway, I try to understand the lyrics as best I can (they're in Spanish) and I do ok, I'm picking up phrases here and there.

The album is really good, it's got a lot of great tracks, I'll try and translate names of songs where I can, but I may be wrong, I'll do my best. Some of the highlights for me are: Dejame Entrar, Clevado en un bar (Stuck in a Bar), Arde El Cielo (Burn the Sky). Most of the album (including the first two tracks listed in this paragraph) is live, Arde El Cielo and one other track are studio recordings. Overall it's a great album, and I enjoy the fact that it's from a different culture, it adds even more variance to my already varied music taste. I enjoy listening to music from other cultures; bands from other countries that I've mentioned include Rammstein the German Industrial Metal gods and The Fifth Ocean from Russia. Anyway, that just about wraps up this entry about Maná. I thoroughly recommend that you check them out, they're very famous so if you want to find out more they'll show up in a search engine. So this is goodbye for now, until next time which I will try to make fairly soon.

Cheers,

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Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly (Album): Review

You may remember I wrote an entry about albums that I was looking forward to, well now I have one of them, it came in the post today. The album in question is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's self titled album, his third album to date. The first two: Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager and Searching for the Hows and Whys are very good, although my favourite of the two is his first album, Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager. Anyway, I've been of fan of his (Sam Duckworth's) music for a few years now, and have seen him live once. So there's the background, onto the album.

The opening track is called Hand Me Downs, and it's perhaps my favourite track of the album. The song is very similar to a lot of the tracks from the first album, predominantly using an acoustic guitar and vocals and little else. This has turned out to be a great formula for Get Cape's tracks, the absence of too many other parts allows the listener to concentrate on the lyrics more.

Collapsing Cities is the second track of the album. It starts with a nice acoustic guitar line, soon to be joined by an electronic section comprising of (as far as I can tell): drums, bass, and trombone. The combination, while it may sound unusual, works well, I particularly like the use of trombones, they were used on tracks from his earlier work and they fit really well in my opinion. Overall it's a good track.

The third song; Nightlife, starts with an electronic feel, and this continues throughout the song. There's a really nice melody comprised from a xylophone and a trumpet which works really well.

All Of This Is Yours is the fourth track, and it features Baaba Maal. It has a cultural feel, especially in the intro. The song contains an interesting electric guitar line that has hints of funk music in my opinion. There's a trumpet line that's utterly brilliant, quite simple, but it works very well. It's quite a varied song, but this seems to be a good thing.

The next track; Queen for a Day has a indie/punk/rock feel to it, and has a faster pace than some of the other songs on the album. The lyrics to this song are nice, and are interspersed with instrumental fills. A good track.

The sixth track is All Falls Down starts with a few great lyrics (not that the rest aren't good, I just liked these in particular): "You, you only reap what you sow. Stick to the things that you know." It's a pretty solid track.

The next track is called Where Will You Stand?. It starts with a symphonic feel, and this continues throughout the song. The electronic elements added in this track fit in well with the calm atmospheric feel that the track has. I think this is a really nice song.


Stitch By Stitch (it took me so many attempts to type that for some reason, I must be tired) is the eighth track of the album. It's pretty good, I don't think it sticks out as one of the best of the album, but it's certainly very good. This track also contains Interlude which is actually very nice.

The ninth track on the album is called The Uprising (not to be confused with the Muse track of the same name), and it's brilliant. It's got a great tempo, and the way all the instruments fit together is fantastic. The way it switches between periods of loud and soft works really well, and the effects added are very well done. Another of my favourites from the album.

The penultimate song is The Plot is very similar to songs from the first album. The guitar line isn't too complicated, but sounds great all the same. The song has some really good lyrics, and the notes the vocals use work really well. This is surely one of the best songs of the album.

The final song from the album is Morning Light. It starts with a great acoustic guitar introduction. In fact the guitar throughout this piece (and all the other songs) is brilliant; Sam Duckworth is a very talented guitarist. It's a nice song to bring the album to a close.

Overall I think it's a great album. The vocals are well done, the guitar is tight, and the effects and electronic additions fit well with the other parts. The lyrics are clever and are delivered well. In terms of how it compares to the other two albums, I'd say that it's better than the second album; Searching For The Hows And Whys, but isn't quite as good as the first album; Chronicles Of A Bohemian Teenager. Still, it's a great piece of work.

I'll be back with a review of the new Skunk Anansie album Wonderlustre when I get hold of it, but I'm not sure when that will be. But I'll continue with other posts where I provide the usual musical nonsense I usually talk about. Thanks for reading, if you've read this whole post I applaud you, but if you've read some of it I applaud you anyway. Feel free to comment as usual, anyone else heard this album? Anyway, that's it for now.

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters.

Songs from TV Shows... I

Before I start I will just clarify the title. This blog entry is not about TV show theme tunes, it's about songs featured within TV shows. For being featured in a big hit TV show can give instant fame to a band, because all the people who like the song on the show will then go and hit the "search" button on whatever search engine they use to find out what the song is. So I thought that I'd share a couple of tracks that I've heard on TV shows that I quite like.

The first song I'll mention, is I Hear The Bells by Mike Doughty, I won't elaborate on this too much because I've already mentioned it in the previous entry. Anyway, I first heard it when I caught an episode of Grey's Anatomy, but I didn't really pick up on the song at that time. I happened to see the same episode a while later and heard the song, and instantly it was in my head. I found out the name of it not too long later.

Another song, in fact I heard this song first out of the three I believe, is Dreaming of You by The Coral. It featured in an episode of Scrubs and like I hear the Bells it was only when I saw the episode for a second time that I searched the track afterwards. It's a great song, I have the album that it's from; their self titled debut album The Coral. It's a very addictive song in my opinion (in hindsight it could well have been included in the previous entry about songs that I've been addicted to, but what can you do?), and it has some great lyrics. An example of a really clever line from the song and probably my favourite is:

"When I'm down and my hands are tied,
I cannot reach a pen for me to draw the line."

So it's a great song with some great lyrics, really worth a listen, although it may not be to everybody's taste, but that's the same with every song ever written, there will always be somebody that doesn't like it.

The final track I'll mention in this post is Now We Can See by The Thermals. I only recently searched this track despite having seen the episode it was on many times. The TV show it was on is one of my favourites, so I've seen the episode a fair few times. Anyway, it has a really addictive intro, but I still haven't decided how much I like the song, it may be a while before I know how much I like the track as a whole, but it's interesting anyway. If you're interested the TV show I saw it on was Chuck.

Well that's just about it for now, I'll be back soon with a review of Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's new album (I pre-ordered it today, it's out tomorrow), and I have another blog entry planned for a review of the new Skunk Anansie album. There'll be other stuff but I'm not entirely sure what yet. Anyway, take care, and feel free to comment as usual.

Thanks,

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Songs I've been addicted to... I

Pretty much everybody gets addicted to songs, it's the way it is. I am not exempt from this. I think it's an interesting distinction to make between a song that gets stuck in your head, and one that you listen to all the time. I propose that there is a difference, although there can be some crossover.

I'll elaborate. So on the one hand a song can get stuck in your head. This can be because you recently heard it, and it's catchy or maybe you just remembered it. The thing with this is, the song might stay in your head even if you don't listen to it, and you don't have to like the song for it to stay there. In my experience it's often the songs I hate that stay on replay in my head the longest. On the other hand you can have a song that you like so much that you feel that you want to play it again and again, so it stays in your head, but the difference is you want to play it again and again. So it seems that the latter is the more positive one. All this is probably pretty obvious, but I thought I'd have a ramble about my musings before I start listing tracks that I've been addicted to in the past, after all, this is a malfunctioning guide to the world of music. I did warn you, it says so in the title.

So, songs I've been addicted to. This probably won't be in chronological order, but I'll list try and put the most recent songs last.

Rip Out The Wings Of A Butterfly- H.I.M
I listened to this a lot, and I mean a lot. I can't listen to it any more, in fact there are a fair few of this band's songs that I either can't listen to at all, or have to limit the amount of plays, simply because they got overplayed. One day I'll be able to listen to all of their songs again. I can still listen to their latest album yet, that hasn't been overplayed yet. I reckon in about a year's time I'll be able to listen to this track again. I recommend you listen to it though, it has one of the most iconic and memorable guitar lines I have ever heard. On playing the song it will be immediately apparent why I became addicted to it.

Fear Of The Dark, The Clansman, Aces High, Powerslave, and many more- Iron Maiden
I have been addicted to many Iron Maiden songs over the time I've been listening to them, I won't go into detail but I thought I'd list a few of the songs I've been addicted to.

Within A Mile Of Home- Flogging Molly
This is a great song, and the great thing is I'm not sick of it. I'm not sure I ever will be. Sure I don't listen to it as much as I used to, but I still love it. I imagine it's great live, and it sounds it from the live recordings I've listen to. I have yet to see this band, as they haven't been to the UK in a while. When they next play in the UK I will try very hard to get to see them. They are at present (and have been for a while) my second favourite band.

I Hear The Bells- Mike Doughty
This is probably the most recent song addiction of mine. When I first heard it I didn't know the song title or artist, so I looked up some of the lyrics I remembered and found out what it was. Since then I've listened to it a lot. It's a great track, I particularly like the chorus, although there is one bit of the song which occurs twice or so in the the whole track that I wasn't keen on. Although now I'm beginning to warm to it. But as a whole track it is very good. Check it out, but be warned, it's addictive.

So there you have it, a few of the songs I've been addicted to. I didn't list them all, because that would have taken ages and I would have inevitably forgotten a fair few. Why not comment and tell me a few of the songs you've been addicted to. If you have read this, or any of my other entries, you have my thanks, and my apologies.

Thanks,

big_friendly_letters.

Albums I'm looking forward to... I

Greetings all. Today I thought that I would say a few words about a couple of albums I'm quite looking forward to. Both happen to be released on the 13th of September, they are Wonderlustre by Skunk Anansie and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly by Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Both of these artists have been mentioned before in my various bloggings so I won't ramble with a lot of background like I usually do.

Oh no, but that means I'll have to find something else to ramble about, hmmm. Anyway, I'll deal with them one at a time. Skunk Anansie are a band that I've liked for a long time, their vocals (courtesy of their Frontwoman, Skin) are harsh, clever, and perfectly delivered, and combine cleanly with the parts played by the rest of the band. I had the pleasure of seeing them live at Sonisphere UK 2010 (see previous entry) and they were very good, their stage presence, especially Skin's, was amazing. So due to all of this I'm expecting good things. I've heard one of the songs from the new album (they played it live), and it was very good, although I'd need to listen to it again to elaborate much further. I think that it could be a very good album. It may not turn out to be one of my favourites but I think that it may manage to find a place in my top 5 albums of 2010. At the end of the year I will (attempt to) make a list of my favourite albums of the year, although I fear I may be more indecisive than ever, I'll have to see how it goes I suppose (ugh that rhymes, oh well I'll leave it there). If you're interested in hearing some Skunk Anansie I recommend you check out the album Stoosh, it's my favourite of theirs, although I haven't really explored many of their albums, I have a couple of others somewhere I think. What I'll do is I'll give them a listen before I post a review of the new album and I'll mention them in the critique. That sounds like a good idea. Anyway, onwards.

The second album I'm looking forward to at the moment is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly's new self titled album. I've been a fan of Get Cape's music for a few years now, and I managed to see him live at a one day festival in a small venue. He was great live, and I have been trying to see him again ever since but none of his gigs are rarely near where I am and I missed the only time I could have gone to see him due to prior arrangements. Anyway, he currently has two albums released, the first being The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager and the second being Searching for the Hows and Whys. Both are very good albums in my opinion, with beautiful guitar picking along with clever and very political vocals. Personally I prefer the first album, but the second also has its moments. It's been a little while since the last album was released, it was released in 2008, so it'll be interesting to see how his music has progressed since then.

So that concludes this entry, I'll review both these albums when I manage to get hold of them. I'll try and acquire them either on or around the release date, and I'll post reviews as soon as I've given them a listen. Comments are welcome as usual, why not let me know what albums you're looking forward to this year?

Cheers,

big_friendly_letters.

The Final Frontier: Review

Recently I managed to get hold of the new Iron Maiden album- The Final Frontier, in fact I went and got it the day it was released. In this entry I aim to review it in full. As you may well know I am an Iron Maiden fan, so I will be biased, but I will try and make this an accurate critique of the album.

Ok, here goes. The album starts with a track called Satellite 15..... The Final Frontier. This is a two part song. The first part (Satellite 15) is a very atmospheric song, with roughly the first half being instrumental. It's not bad, but I feel it is too long. It should be shorter, acting as an into to The Final Frontier. The second half of the song, The Final Frontier is a straightforward Iron Maiden classic, it's got the clear chorus, and would easily fit into a live set.

El Dorado, the second track of the album, was previously released as a free download from the Iron Maiden website. I downloaded this the day it was available I believe, but it took me a couple of listens to really get into it. After about two or three times through it dawned on me that this is actually a fantastic track. The lyrics are tight, creative, and the vocals are well delivered. Overall this is one of the best tracks on the album.

The next two tracks: Mother of Mercy and Coming Home are both good tracks. The former is solid track with a lovely intro. The lyrical content is alike to something from A Matter Of Life And Death, with a war related subject. It's a good track, not a classic, but I quite like it. Coming Home is one of the songs that Maiden do very well, those that start dark and slowly, picking up pace as they go. The chorus to this track is brilliant, well suited for live performance in my opinion. A really good track, very catchy.

The next three tracks are The Alchemist, Isle of Avalon, and Starblind. All of them are the tracks that are not designed to be hits, rather they are meant to fill the album while still being solid tracks. These manage that task well. I particularly like Starblind, it's my favourite of the three at the moment.

After that the next two tracks are The Talisman and The Man Who Would Be King. The Talisman starts slowly with a lovely guitar part creating a melody to work in conjunction with the vocals. After a couple of minutes the heavier riff begins and the song picks up speed. I have to admit that the chorus gets a little repetitive after a while, which you notice because it's a very short line. It's a pretty solid track, a good song. The Man Who Would Be King is another track that is up there with the best tracks of the album. Like so many others on this album it starts with a lovely intro. It's a bit of a weird song, but it's especially good towards the end.

The album ends with an 11 minute epic called When The Wild Wind Blows. It is, for me, hands down the best track on the album. It takes a ballad like form, with a lyrical content of an impending disaster. The lyrics fit in beautifully with the guitar to form a fantastic song. It's definitely one of the best tracks of it's type Iron Maiden have written, a great way to bring the album to a close.

Overall it's a fantastic album, it's a little different to what they usually produce, but it's still a brilliant piece of work. My top three tracks of the album have to be (in order of appearance): Satellite 15..... The Final Frontier, El Dorado, and When The Wild Wind Blows. If I had to give it a rating I'd have to say it hovers around the 9/10 mark. It's one of their best albums, but it's not quite on the same level as The Number of the Beast, but then that's not really a fair criticism because I think that it's nigh impossible to match that album. So in my opinion this album is one of the best I've heard in a long time, certainly the best so far this year.

Thanks for reading, as usual leave a comment if you want.

Cheers,

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Sonisphere: After

Well I'm back, I'm barely awake, but I'm here to give my thoughts on Sonisphere UK 2010. I arrived on the Thursday, as I had chosen early entry as opposed to arriving on the friday, which turned out to be a good thing as the campsite was much quieter and it mean that those of us in our group could get a good spot to pitch our tents. As there were no bands on the Thursday and none on the Friday until 5pm, we sat in our tent circle and spent a little while exploring the festival grounds. Ok, but what about music? Well here's my report:

Friday:

The first band I saw on the Friday was Delain, in fact this was the first act of the festival. The genre of this band was had a sort of symphonic rock/metal feel to it, similar to H.I.M., I thought they were ok, a couple of their songs were quite good. The next band I saw was Turisas, they are classified as battle metal, and perform dressed as war painted warriors. I really enjoyed their set, they got the crowd moving and their music was great, I loved the presence of an accordian in their band, I think I have a soft spot for rock and metal bands that have accordians, I'm not sure why. After Turisas was Europe. I was somewhat surprised by their set, as I didn't know their music very well. I quite enjoyed it, but the last track was the best, as it was the track I, and doubtlessly a lot of the crowd had been waiting for: The Final Countdown was awesome, it had the audience leaping into the air and was a great end to their set. The next act was Gary Numan. His set was just awesome, again I didn't know his music but I enjoyed it all the same. The final act I saw on the Friday was Alice Cooper, Friday's headline act. He put on a great show, he performed his Theatre of Death performance where he dies several times whilst delivering all the hits of his career. He started and finished with School's Out, it really was a great gig.

Saturday:

I saw many acts on the Saturday, so I shall only describe a few in detail. I thought Anthrax were brilliant, they were really tight musically and seemed on even better form than at the Big Four Show at a European Sonisphere that was broadcast in cinemas. Joey Belladonna showed his skill as a frontman once again. One of my favourite acts of the day was Skunk Anansie. This band were the first metal band I ever listened to and I never expected that I would see them live until they reformed last year. At Sonisphere they played for about 45 minutes, with Skin the lead singer performing with such skill and energy. It was a truly awesome performance. The headline act of the Saturday was Rammstein. Their stageing consisted of 200 tonnes of stuff that had to be hauled in several lorries. They put on a show of staggering pyrotechnics that you could feel on your face even far from the front row. The frontman of Rammstein- Till Lindemann, captivated the audience and his talent was obvious. The music was faultless and the show was entertaining to say the least.

Sunday:

Sunday began with me catching the last half of Karnivool's set. I hadn't heard them before, but I had heard many good things about their music, it turns out that the rumours were correct, they were pretty good. I also saw The Fab Beatles, a Beatles tribute as you might expect, they were pretty good, I quite liked it when they played I'm Fine and then changed into Run to the Hills half way through. Another band I saw on Sunday was Skindred, and they were utterly brilliant. Their frontman Benjy has such a stage presence and they are fantastic. I predict that they will make it big as a live act in the future. Later on it was time for the thrash gods Slayer, and they did not dissapoint, their set, while short, was brilliant. With Tom Araya delivering great vocals and Kerry King, Jeff Hanneman, and Dave Lombardo playing to an excellent standard the gig was great. Later on that day I got to see Alice in Chains, one of my favourite bands, and they did not dissapoint. This was a band that I had been hoping would be announced for Sonisphere this year as they played last year when I wasn't there, so I was very pleased when they were announced. They played a fair bit from their latest album with songs like Check My Brain and Your Decision, all in all a really good performance. I saw many other bands that day that are worth a mention: Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum and Converge as well as others. But now the matter of Sunday's headline act must be addressed. Yes, Iron Maiden played brought Sonisphere UK 2010 to a close. Their stageing was a futuristic space set with a starry background. They played a lot of tracks from their last few albums, so while a few of the classics were missed, for example Can I Play With Madness, The Trooper, Aces High, 2 Minutes to Midnight and Run to the Hills, they did play a lot of awesome tracks that they wouldn't normally play, for instance: These Colours Don't Run, The Reincarnation of Benjamin Breeg, Dance of Death, Ghost of The Navigator, Brave New World and many others. It was a fantastic gig, with all members playing to the best of their ability (including Eddie the eight foot tall mascot at one point), I throughly enjoyed it, but then they are my favourite band, so I'm a little biased.

So there you have it, my review of Sonisphere UK 2010. I have tried to mention most of the bands I saw, but I have only scratched the surface of what went on, I haven't mentioned any of the banter we had in our tent circle at all. But I leave you with a quote from Bruce Dickinson, which I think sums up the whole experience:

"SCREAM FOR ME KNEBWORTH!"

Cheers,

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Sonisphere: Before

Gosh, it's been forever since I last posted. Apologies, I've been very busy. Anyway, on with the post.
This post is the first of a two part series about Sonisphere festival which I will be attending next week. It runs from the Friday to the Monday morning and is being headlined by Rammstein and Iron Maiden. I write this article before the final announcement of the last few bands so I won't be able to talk about any of them.
As you may well know, my favourite band is Iron Maiden, so already I'm excited about going to Sonisphere, I get to see my favourite band live that I've never seen before. Yes, it's safe to say I'm looking forward to it. I'm also quite interested to see what they'll play, because during their latest tour they have played a lot of rare tracks, I have no problem with this as I love a lot of their lesser known tracks. However, I wonder whether they'll keep these rarities for the Sonisphere gig, or whether they'll go back to their usual set of mostly classics. The problem is that at a normal Iron Maiden concert it's safe to play lots of rarities because the crowd will be mostly die-hard Maiden fans, but this won't be the case at festivals, so it'll be interesting to see what they do. Their recent concerts have included tracks like Dance of Death and These Colours Don't Run which are some of my favourite tracks of theirs, but on the other hand they haven't been playing classics like Aces High, Two Minutes To Midnight, and Powerslave. I don't mind much either way, but I can imagine that some people would.
Another band I'm really pleased about seeing at Sonisphere UK is Skunk Anansie. Skunk Anansie were the first metal band I ever listened to, and I grew up listening to their music. So when they reformed last year I was very pleased as I never thought I would get a chance to see them. The song Twisted from the album Stoosh is my favourite track of theirs.
I'm also looking forward to lots of other bands, including: Alice in Chains, Slayer, Iggy and the Stooges, Pendulum, Anthrax, Papa Roach, Skindred, Apocalyptica, Alice Cooper, Polar Bear Club, Gallows, and so many more. In short, it is going to be an awesome three days of music.
Also, this is my first proper festival, so I am very much looking forward to the atmosphere of it all, and the excitement and atmosphere.

I'll be back sometime after the festival with a review of it, where I'll talk about the various bands and the general feel of the festival. Anyway, thanks for reading and your comments are welcome as usual.

Thanks,

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Notable Artists II

Greetings to you all, and I give my usual apologies for the lack of any posts recently, I am sorry. Anyway, today's post is another entry in the "Notable Artists" series. Today's post is a piece about the band Megadeth. They aren't the usual non-famous band I pick for this series, but they aren't that well known outside the genres of Rock and Metal, so that is why I thought them appropriate for this article. Anyway, on with the post.
I've had one of their albums for ages, but I have only recently properly listened to it. The album is Rust in Peace and I very much like it. The combination between great bass lines, good guitar riffs, brilliant lead guitar, and good singing to boot, makes this a band of accomplished musicians from the start. This is true, the talent is evident in the music. However I like the music for more than just the presence of talent, for there is much more to music than just a load of talented musicians playing in the same room, this has been the problem for some past supergroups. The different parts of Megadeth fit together very well and the resulting sound is brilliant. So I recommend you listen to them if you haven't already. I shall be getting some more of their albums in the near future.
As always feel free to comment about this, another article I've written, or in fact anything you want to share.

Thanks,

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The joy of discovering new music

As you may know, it is a truly delightful feeling when you listen to a band you haven't heard before and find out they're awesome. This feeling is particularly pronounced when the band is not known by anybody you know and/or they aren't a famous band. I know this, and from time to time, I browse the net for new and interesting bands, or sometimes I just find something by chance. Not every band I find is good, but there is often one or two that stand out every time I look. The process of searching can often be time consuming, as I often search for bands that offer an album or two for free. But although long, and sometimes unsuccessful, it is a great feeling when you find that band with a great, and often original sound. Anyway, I thought I'd share with you a couple of the bands that I found using the above methods.

The Fifth Ocean

This was the first band that I really liked that I found using these methods as I remember. I was browsing a collection of metal and heavy rock bands that someone had posted in a list, saying they all had free music. This band caught my eye, because in fact their name was written in Russian. Anyway I saw their album, and listened to it. From the start I really liked it, my favourite song being the first track on the album. I listen to it now and again, all in all it's a pretty good album, and the fact that they sing mostly in Russian makes the songs interesting due to their difference from most of the stuff I usually listen to.

Fireland

I actually only discovered this band yesterday, that's what prompted me to write this blog entry. I found this band on Classic Rock Magazines Track of the Day pages, so most of the effort of finding this band should be attributed to them. So I listened to them and liked them a lot. Their guitar riffs were good, standard heavy metal technique but with something else. The lead guitar, especially in the solos was brilliant, and that is one of the reasons I liked them so much. The melody seems to complement the rhythm section very well. All together a great EP, and I'll try pick up one of their albums next time I visit a music store.

Well that's all for now. I hope you enjoyed this account of my musical findings. As always feel free to comment.

Thanks,

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Things From This Year

Gosh it's been a while, so I apologise. To be honest the delay in posting something new is as much to do with being busy as it is to do with not having anything to say. But I hope to rectify that now. Anyway, onwards. Today's blog is going to focus on things new to me in music this year, whether new albums from bands I like, or listening to something old that I'd never listened to before.

I'll start with new albums.

As you may know if you have read my top five (or rather more as it turned out) bands' blog entry, you may know that I quite like a band called H.I.M. (don't worry if you didn't read that blog as I have just told you all you needed to know). Anyway they released a new album in February called Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice. On first listen I could tell it was going to be an album which would take a large stake in my 25 most played songs on my iPod. This has turned out to be true. The album is utterly brilliant, a mix of great vocals and guitar lines, as well as the usual variance in styles that H.I.M. feature in their albums. My favourite tracks include Venere Veritas, Scared to Death, Heartkiller, and Love, The Hardest Way. But the rest of the album is still just great as well. All in all a great piece of work.

Another album I have listened to recently is Fever by Bullet for my Valentine. I quite like this band, not one of my top favourites, but I like them all the same. This new album, released very recently, is ok. I like Scream Aim Fire quite a lot, and this new album is a little different. I haven't listened to this new album enough for a full review, but I would say it's not too bad, but nothing compared to previous albums, it's worth listening to if Bullet are your thing, but don't expect too much.

Finally I have discovered, well not discovered as such, but I have listened to a band I haven't heard before after recommendation. I had been familiar with their name before but had never listened to any of their music, but after their music was recommended I decided to listen to some. The band in question is The Mars Volta. On first listen (which is currently my only listen because of various factors that contribute to make my life busy) I liked them a lot. I enjoyed the blend of effects with metal riffs as well as good vocals. I look forward to listening to more of their music as I have only listened to five or six tracks as of yet.

Well that just about wraps it up for now, as always feel free to comment, and I'll be back, hopefully within a couple of weeks (I apologise, I know I say this every time).

Thanks,

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Urban Folk Quartet: Review

Hello all and welcome to yet another edition of Malfunctioning Musical Madness. I'm now going to stop talking like a gameshow host, and get on with the topic in hand. Today's blog entry is a review of the performance of the band Urban Folk Quartet, who I had the pleasure of going to see last night.
Urban Folk Quartet (UFQ) are a folk band (duh) made up of four musicians:

• Frank Moon (Oud, Guitar, Percussion, Vocals)
• Tom Chapman (Percussion, Vocals)
• Joe Broughton (Fiddle, Guitar, Mandolin, Vocals)
• Paloma Trigas (Fiddle, Vocals)

They play a mixture of music that encompasses traditional folk sounds, Middle Eastern music, and Latin American music. This is all incorporated seamlessly into their songs, and the result is fantastic. All four are very talented musicians, Joe is both a brilliant fiddle player but a very good guitarist. Paloma is a fantastic fiddle player, and her vocals were great. Frank Moon plays the Oud, and interesting middle eastern instrument with a lovely sound that was demonstrated on a song they played in which he took the lead. Finally Tom Chapman, the percussionist who uses an interesting set of percussive instruments including a cajon, his talent for percussion was very high and his vocal appearance on one song was very good.

The performance was fantastic, all members looked like they were having a good time, and the audience did too. Having only heard about the band at the beginning of the week, I'm glad I took a chance and went to see them. As a band they function faultlessly, without a wrong note. They are one of my favourite folk acts about, and I thoroughly recommend them.

Anyway that's it from me for now, I don't know when the next entry will be, but I'll try and submit one soon.

Thanks,

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Notable Artists I

This is the first in a series of posts where I will discuss a favourite artist of mine, or just one that catches my ear at the time. Now the point of this particular series of posts is to talk about artists that I like, but mainly artists that are not all that famous. So while I very much like bands like Iron Maiden and the Foo Fighters, these posts will feature lesser known artists. Anyway, on with the post.

Ok, well the band I'll give a special mention to in this post is Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Now I have actually mentioned this band before, but I plan elaborate on whatever I said before.
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. (I shall refer to the name as Get Cape for short) was originally a single musician called Sam Duckworth. His first album consisted of him playing guitar and singing, with other instruments added via a computer. When on tour he plays with other musicians that play the other parts.
His genre is difficult to define in my opinion, I reckon he falls somewhere around the alternative/acoustic mark, but his second album has more of a rock-like feel to it in certain places.
Anyway, his first album is called The Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager. This is my personal favourite of his two albums. My favourite tracks on the album are War of the Worlds, and Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly. Through his songs Get Cape aims to target issues such as social injustice, and corporate giants.
His second album is entitled Searching for the Hows and Whys. Again this is a very good album which features Get Cape's brilliant guitar playing.
In terms of live performance Get Cape is great. So far I have seen him once a couple of years ago, but I plan to go and see him live again this year.

So I hope I've been of some use here, if you haven't heard any of his music I urge you to check it out. That's all from me for now.

Thanks,

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Band

So, I'm now in a band. This is not a terribly new occurrence for me as I have been in a band before. However, the last band never took off. This time I'm hoping things will be different, and there is much evidence as to why it may be more successful this time. So far we haven't had much practice together as a band, but we regularly communicate and write songs when we are not at practice. This works by a process of one person (there are four in total) starting a track, then others will provide feedback and add bits and pieces. Over a week or two the song will take shape and we learn it ready for when we practice as a whole band. This may seem like an unusual approach but it seems to be working for us as we are all terribly busy people and as such can't always make frequent practice.
Anyway, our genre is complicated. We're instrumental for the most part, although we plan to play the odd song with vocals. The music we're currently writing is probably closest to the rock genre, but quite progressive. So I'm very much looking forward to having our first song recorded- which may be in the next few days.

Anyway, that's me up to date.

Feel free to comment,

Thanks,

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