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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