It's been a long time since I wrote something here...

So it's been a shamefully long time since I've bored you with whatever musical musings I happen to be dwelling upon. So what about a post? No? Well here's one anyway, you know, if you get really bored or something.

Since it's been so long I think I'll make this another in the series of things articles, where I ramble on about anything. I'll discuss where I'm at and a few things that are going on in the spheres of the musical universe that I inhabit.

OK, first up is Flogging Molly. They've got a new album coming out in May, it's not got a name yet as far as I know, so that should be released soon. However while the album is as yet unnamed the band did release the first single from the album: Don't Shut 'Em Down. So far I've listened to it through once, and it appears to be a continuation of the signature sound that we expect from the band. It's a rather good track, not the best they've produced, but worthy of a listen if you like that sort of music. I'm very much hoping they'll announce a couple of UK tour dates this year; I've yet to see them.

In terms of what I'm listening to at present it's rather varied. This isn't out of the ordinary, by now you'll probably (hopefully) have gotten used to my entirely disorganised music taste, shown in virtually every post I've made here. Anyway, what have I been listening to? This week I've been listening to a lot of Mastodon, the progressive Californian metal band. They're phenomenal; Crack the Skye (they're latest album) is a masterpiece. They've also got a new album on the way at some point this year, and have also been announced as one of the acts for Sonisphere Festival 2011 which I'm going to be attending. If you look in the back catalogue of posts (on the right hand side) you'll find my articles about last year's Sonisphere festival. So that's good.

I also recently bought myself a copy of Iron Maiden's Death on the Road live album. It's brilliant, possibly the best Iron Maiden live album I've got; and I've got most of them... It was recorded in Dortmund in 2003 during their Dance of Death tour. It's got a fair few songs from the Dance of Death album, including (to my delight) Dance of Death the ballad about a man who dances with the Devil. I'm not sure if the selection of tracks as a whole is better than that of Rock in Rio, however the recording quality of the show in Rio is not so good; the balance between the different parts isn't right.

That's it for now, I'll plan something more themed for the next blog post. Goodbye for now.

Cheers,

big_friendly_letters.