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,

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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,

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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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