Where were you?

Every generation has it's moments, it's iconic events. The ones people and society won't forget. The ones where you will always remember where you were when you heard the news. Mine has had more than it's fair share...The death of Kurt Cobain, The terrorist attack in the US in September 2001, and the murder of Darrel "Dimebag" Abbott on this day (December 8th) in 2004.

I will remember hearing the news of Dimebag's death until the day I join him there. I was on train on my way to Birmingham for a shopping trip when I received a text message from a friend saying that Dimebag had been shot. I took this as saying that an 'incident' had taken place and nothing more. It was only on arriving in Birmingham and making my way to (the now defunct) Virgin Megastore that I heard on the in-store radio news that there had been a fatal shooting at a live show in Columbus, Ohio and that it had resulted in the deaths of 4 people (5 if you include the gunman - I do not), one of them being the guitarist of the band Damageplan. I remember the whole place falling silent and I remember feeling a cold chill of shock.

I'll never forget where I was. Where were you?

R.I.P. Dime

Saturday Morning

It's Saturday morning. The sun is shining and the weather is cold, but fresh. I should probably be out there, really - There's snow to shovel, recycling to drop off, shopping to do, etc - Instead, I'm sat at my laptop, pot of coffee at hand in what is so far proving to be futile attempt at compiling my top 20 of 2013.

This, people, is an average weekend for me. Whereas most folk might get up, check Facebook (Ok, so I did that too), eat breakfast in front of the TV and then maybe pop out to do some shopping, I just spend mine listening to music and then writing about said music and/or creating compilations on iTunes and blog posts. Too much music, too little life. That's (one of) my problem(s).

As with the past couple of years, 2013 has seen far too many great releases, making it extremely difficult to cut down my list of quality albums to a mere 20...and don't even start me off on the placings of said albums in said top 20.

Oh well, back to the self-flagellation that is my morning.

Album Of The Week

This week's stand-out release has to be the appropriately titled "The Further Adventures Of..." by the mighty Jaldaboath. I have been waiting for this one ever since the debut album blew me away / made me dance and smile like an idiot back in 2010. I have to admit that I was slightly apprehensive about playing it as I was fully expecting to be disappointed. And I was. At first. After repeated listens however, this album just gets better and better. What you can expect is more of the same, unique Jaldaboath brand of "Heraldic Templar Metal", but this time they have ramped up the silliness to a whole new level.

Taking their cues once again from Monty Python and The Holy Grail and Blackadder, but now with even more ridiculous and occasionally puerile lyrics and themes ("Roland The Farter", anyone?) and this time around the band have bolstered their ‘trademark’ Medieval Metal stylings with such diverse influences as (parodies of) Iron Maiden and Metallica through to Eastenders, Black Beauty, The A-Team, Miami Vice, Airwolf and er, Wizbit.

Jaldaboath, the band, is essentially the comedy metal project of one man (The brilliant James Fogarty) and is every bit as clever as one might expect from a man with his musical pedigree (Meads Of Asphodel, Ewigkeit, Bombs Of Enduring Freedom), but it is much lighter in tone and with absolutely NO politics to be found...unless they are very well hidden. If you want an album that is hilarious, catchy and ludicrous in equal measures, you need look no further.

You can pick up your copy directly from the band here:

http://www.deathtomusic.com/JALD2/JALD2.html

An album trailer can be found here:

http://youtu.be/m7l8C_WFaEc

Here's a link to the audio track "Roland The Farter"

https://soundcloud.com/deathtomusic/jaldaboath-roland-the-farter

The rather silly video for "The Wailing Witch Of Mouslecoom"

Hell / Carcass / Amon Amarth Trädgår'n Gothenburg Tues 3rd Dec

Hell (8) unfortunately began right on time. Unfortunately as in typical Swedish fashion, the doors had opened late, so the queue was still large and I was still in it. Luckily, I only missed half of the first song and joined the rest of the faithful down the front for the remainder of the 30 minute set...and what a set it was. In true Hell style, this was as much a visual, theatrical performance as a live show and by the end of it the venue had filled nicely and the band left the stage to a commendable applause. Dave Bower must be the most under-rated vocalist / frontman in metal today. Just don't call them retro.

Next up, Carcass (8) made their presence known courtesy of some typical Jeff Walker wit as he addressed the (now near-capacity) crowd with "Good evening Gothenburg. So, I believe Melodic Death Metal was born here. Is that right?" This got a loud cheer from the crowd, most of whom I suspect failed to notice the sarcasm in his voice. The set was good, if not spectacular, and spanned their entire career with live staples "Corporeal Jigsaw Quandary", "Heartwork" and new track "Cadaver Pouch Conveyor System" being the highlights tonight. Jeff kept up the banter throughout, delivered in his own special, sneering way and the crowd were whipped into a near frenzy with hair windmilling in all directions and beer being spilled all over the floor as the English legends wrapped up their set.

Amon Amarth (9) hit the stage as the conquering heroes they are in Sweden. The sound was near-perfect and Johan seemed to be in a great mood, stomping around the stage with a huge smile across his hirsute face as he bellowed and roared through the band's trademark Viking-themed Death Metal classics. What followed was a pretty much flawless 90 plus minutes of live music from a band right at the top of it's game.

Set highlights were "Deceiver Of The Gods", "Guardians Of Asgard" and the superb "The Pursuit Of Vikings".

All in all, this was an evening of varied, but equally great, confident performances from 3 veteran bands. Definitely worth the trip and if you had the opportunity to be there and missed it, then more fool you. 

On Another Pilgrimage.

Here I am again, making what is now an all too familiar 200 mile round-trip to Gothenburg to see some live music...and yet again, I'm doing it alone, which means another night desperately hanging around looking pathetic so somebody talks to me, another lonely night in a sparse hostel room and another early morning train to work in the morning. Tragic or dedicated (both, perhaps)? And all of this will come at a cost of around £100 (including the price of a couple of beverages). I occasionally wonder to myself if it's worth it? The answer, of course, being...yes! Tonight's bands are Hell, Carcass and Amon Amarth and this is one of those rare gigs where I want to see all 3 bands. In fact, all of them have released albums this year that will be in my 'best of the year' list, 2 of them (Carcass and Hell) at nos 2 and 1 respectively, so that makes tonight extra special. Well, thanks for reading this pointless excuse for a blog post, which I will make up for with a review (providing I remember enough) to come later in the week. Have a good evening, people. I know I will.

It's THAT time of year again...

...No, not Christmas, but rather time for me to bang my head (against a wall, sadly) trying to decide which of the myriad of superb releases this year are deserving a place in my year end round-up. I thought I was at least on the way to compiling a decent little list, until Deicide and Hell dropped a couple of massive bombs - or spanners in my works as I would rather refer to them. Therefore, I'm not going to post the final list until the end of December. Let's face it - anything can happen in the next 4 weeks.

Now, do I make it a top 40, 30 or 20? What would you like to see? I'm gravitating towards a top 20, personally as this won't be too much to read / take in / listen to for you my dear reader(s). I reckon that I will also split them up for the same reason, but do I do so in groups of 5 or 10? See, even the simple things are causing me headaches and that is before I even start on the actual bands.

So far, I have a 'short-list' of around 47 albums - Hey, from over 400, that isn't bad! I will take my leave for now, but watch this space...not right this moment, obviously. Nothing will happen.

Resurrection

Yes, after 7 months or so of inactivity, I have decided that is high time that I got back into this blogging / writing lark. I realised that I still have so much to say, so much to share and too much inspiration and passion to let it go to waste. Even if only a few people read it, it's still a handful of people that are interested in what I have to say. I came to the realisation that Facebook probably isn't the right platform to share videos or to recommend new bands as only a small percentage of my 'friends' on there are even remotely interested in seeing such updates.

To be honest, I became disillusioned when even the ones I thought / knew would be interested, clearly weren't and it felt that I was sharing new music with the same 3 or 4 people. Therefore, from now on I will be using this blog as a platform / outlet for my ravings. I am constantly coming across music, from new bands and old, that excites me in the same way it did when I was a teenager. I still have those "jaw-dropping" and "smiling like an idiot" moments...and it's this that I live for. There is so much out there to listen to, so why limit yourself to the same old albums/bands/songs? You can still listen to them - nobody is taking that away from you - but there are literally thousands of bands out there striving to be heard, to get their music to an audience.

Now, I'm not claiming to be some kind of oracle. That would be arrogant - even for me. Rather, I am saying that I have the time and the interest in trawling through literally tens of new artists / albums each and every week. Some of it is great, some of it not so much, but music is my life and my passion and I just feel that there is too much out there that is not receiving the attention it deserves.

That, my friends, is where you come in. All you have to do is follow this here blog and to click on the links, read my reviews and then go off and decide for yourself if there is anything that is worth your time. Think about it - I'm doing all the foot work (mouse-clicking, frankly), so you don't have to. Don't just let Spotify, Metal Hammer or the radio tell you what is cool - give me a chance too. I won't let you down. I promise. I have a veritable batch of ideas for posts, so I will be updating every couple of days time and inspiration allowing. Everything from reviews, weekly round-ups, band of the week, album of the month, top 10's, YouTube videos. Anyway, enough of my aimless witterings. I hope to see a few of you following and commenting here in the future. Hell, I'd even appreciate a few of you sharing the love...recommend my blog to friends who might be interested, share it on Facebook, Twitter, Google +, etc. See you in the pit. Or something.