Trollheart

MAY
Another busy, busy month, as Antonio got us off to a good start with a review of Tyler the Creator's “Wolf” and Chance the Rapper's “Acid rap”, the Batlord had some more words of wisdom for us in our continuing edumucation (sic), as well as an album from Death, why he was sad and some words on Dave Mustaine. In his other journal he was looking at Lou Reed, Sonics and Judas Priest, all fine and good until he fell over and dropped into popland with Britney, Madonna, Kesha and Kylie! Oh Batlord! What happened to you? Maybe the strain of opening a third journal, in which he spoke about the music in the novel “High Fidelity” as he read the book, just made him snap! Bob was coaxed out of hiding for a short while and gave us reviews of The Means and Unsane, and Gavin B reopened the warehouse with slots on The National, Neneh Cherry and The School among others, while also beginning the Atlantic Records Story as well as The Stax Records Story! Wow! It was obvious why he had been absent for a few months!

Janszoon was back with a welcome update to “A night in the life of the Invisible Man”, while Ki triumphantly opened his new, improved journal and hit us with albums from Zanith, Agalloch, Pendulum and Asia in his “15 albums I like” slot, started asking if Radiohead and Daft Punk were “Worth the hype?” threw in some game music and also tried to crossover his journal and Lil's for a short time, but for whatever reason that never quite worked out. Great start though and it was obvious this would be one to watch! Pedestrian tried out her script for a comedy pilot on us, Plankton spoke about Rush as an influence, and Powerstars reviewed a whole lot of albums, including ones from Queen, Paul mcCartney and Richie Sambora. Screen13 looked at the movie “Mondo Bizarro”, and I hit a milestone in achieving one hundred thousand views! Celebrating this I started a new section called “Two sides of the same coin”, looked at the career of Nelson Mandela (RIP) in “Great moments in history”, Rolled the Dice again and continued tracing the life of Rory Gallagher in Guitar Man.

The Onedin Line, as promised, began its run in The Couch Potato, while season one of both Red Dwarf and Love/Hate came to an end, but were flagged to be replaced by Frasier and House of Cards. My second movie, “Dark Star”, got a review, while there was quite some work done in “Bitesize”, with albums from among others, God Is An Astronaut and Tank. Alice Cooper's “Welcome to my nightmare” won the plaudits as US's album of the year for '75, and he also had live albums from Kiss, Grand Funk Railroad and BOC, as well as a lot of other stuff. Urban paid tribute to Cliff Richard! No, it's not a joke! He also decided to look at NME's list of top albums, right at the very end of the month. Vanilla told us about The Pretty Reckless and Zero recommended Three Albums for Walking in the Rain, while also running a special on Ethereal Wave.

JUNE
Another incredibly busy month as we reached the halfway point in the year. Antonio had a spotlight on the Butthole Surfers, but the big news was in the Batcave, where The Batlord's new epic, “The Return of the Kings of Metal”, was to keep us entertained for several months. He also had Hitler review an album, which was hilarious. The random **** he listened to this month included more the type of fare we expect, with Slayer, REM, Exorder and Helloween, as well as metal demos and some more punk. His third journal, however, couldn't take the strain and imploded, this being the last month he updated “High Fidelity”. He had reached page 43. Big Ears was back, with reviews of Ambrosia's self-titled debut and the classic Genesis album “Selling England by the pound”, while The Big 3 made something of a rare appearance and bitched about “When good bands go shittty”.

DJChameleon began his journal “A glimpse inside the mind of a chameleon”, and Duga came back from the dead to talk about Savage Garden, the Offspring and Garbage. Engine wrote the last (so far) chapter in An Equivocal Flail, maybe someday he'll get back to it? Gavin's warehouse, on the other hand, was looking nothing like closing down, with entries on Chicks on Speed, The decline of Western civilisation, the novel Stone free and The Motown story. He also began a new series called “Lost albums” with people like Johnny Thunders, Young Marble Giants and Paul Butterfield Blues Band featured. Pedestrian put a lot of work into “Crosswalking” this month, with the hilarious sequel to “I'm not Drew”, a new series called “Dirty laundry” and a review of the new album from The Knife, while Powerstars reviewed a bunch of albums, including Bowie's new one and Nirvana's classic “Nevermind”, as well as looking at a movie about Kurt Cobain and introducing the concept of “The Song Overthinker”.

Screen13 had a lot happening in “Ghost mall music”, with the Comsat Angels, an introduction to soemone called Crazy Louie and the OSTs to Quadrophenia and Roadie. And more. For me, there was a return for “Crimes against Music” and the almost-forgotten-but-not-quite series on the NWOBHM, with Girlschool, Diamond Head and Sweet Savage. House of Cards and Frasier both began in the Couch Potato, and I reviewed the movie “The odd couple”, while also throwing together some nonsense about ugly spaceships. “Bitesize” had the usual batch of reviews and I began yet another journal, “Classic albums I have never heard”. It did what it said on the tin, and saw a lot of action in its first month, with eleven albums reviewed, including ZZ's “Tres hombres”, Human League's “Dare” and that one from MBV... 1976 began in “Pounding decibels” and US plunged right in with BOC, Ian Gillan, Judas Priest and Double Headers on Kiss and Lizzy.

Urban lost interest in the NME thing and began instead looking at (he said) all the “Now that's what I call shit sorry music” albums, which was very entertaining, but he failed to fulfill his promise to do them all. Made a good stab at it though. Vanilla rediscovered her love for Judas Priest with “Painkiller”, and YorkeDaddy began reviewing albums he had hated in his younger days, to see if his opinion had changed with age and experience. Finally, Zero talked about Strawberry Switchblade and AFI.

JULY
Ah, summer! You'd think people would be out enjoying the sun, wouldn't you? Well, unless they lived in Ireland, of course! But no, another bumper month for journals. Surely it couldn't last? Well no it didn't, but while it did we sure enjoyed it. Anteater proudly brought his new baby in for us all to see, and in his new improved journal we began to hear the detailed history of Crimson Glory, while Antonio ranted about people who wouldn't listen to the music of someone known or considered to be an “asshole” (his words), and Lateralus very cleverly changed her name to Astronomer in order to be near the top of the pecking order alphabetically, with an entry on video game music and a question about how technology is affecting the way musicians work. The Batlord didn't care about technology, fighting goblins and trolls back in a medieval land reminiscent of Lord of the Rings as The Return of the Kings of Metal stomped on joyfully through the pages of the Batcave, while he was also listening to Protector and Death Angel in his other journal, Ah, synchronicity!

DJChameleon's journal got going properly, with the story of Fo' Sho' Radio and a feature which would inform much of his journal over the next few months, Razor's Edge. His first look at this was comprised of Letlive and Mayday. Engine began a short but personal journal detailing his attempts to cutback on his drinking, and we applauded and supported him for his efforts, while Gavin had more Lost Albums, the No-Wave story and a review of a Camera Obscura album before he purposely put his journal on hold. Junkyard Donner, previously known to us as Wolverinewolfweiselpiegeon, came back with “Ego tripping”, and had a lot to say about themes, including "Bikes, Beer and brownies, Prolific Nutts, Someone tell me how to stop this, She was into S&M and bible study, If I'm sinking and laughing at something", and more. She also had a clever little short story and began a review of the Lucius EP.

Ki continued his new journal with another “Worth the hype?” this time on Zep, continued his 15 albums spot and reviewed Tesseract's “Altered state”, Mojo and Mondo Bungle both came back out of the wilderness, the former with a look at local music in Newcastle and the evolution of the Manic Street Preachers, the latter with Shpongle and a spotlight on Mike Patton, Pedestrian gave us some lovely poetry and Plankton continued his guitarist's journey with influences from Iron Maiden. Powesrtars introduced us to Music Forum Flame Wars, had another Song Overthinker and reviewed some more albums, while Screen13 opened up the Singles and Albums Club with Bowie, Big Country and Elvis Costello among others.

Big things happened at the Playlist, with the announcement of Metal Week, three new series beginning and a review of William Shatner's “Has been”, which surprised me. At the Couch Potato both Supernatural and Babylon 5 came to the end of their first season run, ending the reign of the three series which had begun this journal way back in January. Spooks, House of Cards and The New Statesman continued, while it was announced Futurama would soon join them. I discovered an unknown gem and an unknown turd in “Bitesize” and reviewed seven more albums in “Classic albums”, working up to the one I had been baited about for too long now, Slayer's “Reign in blood”. The vultures were circling... and one of those vultures was Unknown Solider, grinning as he dared me to listen to the damn thing. Over at Pounding Decibels he was listening himself to live albums from Zep and Riot, getting aggressive in rock, and featuring a Double Header from Legs Diamond.

Urban ran a very funny rant about lazy posters, which was spot on, and also showed us a great moment in rock history, sort of, with the Moby Game. YorkeDaddy finished up his journal and then moved on to a much more important one, in which he allowed us to follow him and his band partner as they crafted their album, “Frownland”. A thoroughly absorbing read and, as it would turn out, a stupendous album. Zero had more tech news for us, writing about the media player he had designed.

AUGUST
Another busy month, though you could see a definite fall off as certain journals failed to be updated, and not too many new ones were started. Nevertheless, there was a decent level of activity, with Anteater continuing his history of Crimson Glory and also adding in a review of the movie “Tough guys don't dance”, Astronomer reviewed a Karnivool gig and surprisingly there was little to be heard from the Batlord, though over in the Batcave he was writing what would so far appear to be the final episodes in “The Return of the Kings of Metal”: hasn't properly finished yet though. Batty? Batty! We're waiting! What happens next? Big Ears also seemed to have called it a day, with one final review, Big3 spoke enthusiastically about Clutch, and Blackdragon123 started up his Black Sabbath journal, though limited as it was it more or less ended that same month. Very interesting though.

DJ was rockin' though, with no less than five Razors Edges, and Junkyard Donner had a lot to say too, with her top five driving songs, top five makeout songs and more on Lucius, while Ki really got into his stride with his new journal, with a special on Nick Drake, a new section called Heartbreak, more of his 15 albums and asking if Smashing Pumpkins were “Worth the Hype”? Mondo Bungle was the latest one to start a second journal, while in his first he had a spotlight on John Zorn and finished off his top ten listening experiences. His new journal would focus on the benefits and/or drawbacks of drugs, and endeavour to explain the difference between them. Or something.

Plankton's musical journey continued with Metallica a big influence, and over at the Playlist there were two new series in The Hook and Trollheart's Room 101, “Get the Culture Bug” returned with more classical music after more than a year, and Metal Week became Metal Month, as I prepared to spend four whole weeks dedicated to that most heavy of music. At the Couch Potato Futurama began its run and I published my review on the movie “Downfall”, which Unknown Soldier was very effusive about! We now had only three series running, so French horror/drama “Les Revenants”, which had impressed me, became the first series featured that was still running on the TV at the time. Three albums only reviewed in “Bitesize” but in “Classic Albums” I finally bit the bullet and listened to “Reign in blood”. The world failed to end.

Unknown Soldier was looking at Aerosmith, UFO, AC/DC, live albums from Kiss and Rainbow, and “Bad reputation” by Lizzy was his album pick for 1977. Oh yeah, and he also featured “Bat out of Hell”. Urban went for “100 singles, 100 memories”, which lasted for one entry, with Tom Jones, Suede and the Stones, while YorkeDaddy was well into the process of recording the album, releasing tracks and letting us peek at the cover. The album was then released and he waxed disappointed about sales, but got some advice from members as to how to market.

SEPTEMBER
As summer turned to autumn, journal writers began dropping away like flies, as if we were all migrating to sunnier climes, but some of us remained, and the month was kicked off in fine style by Anteater with some “life lessons”, a review of the movie “Meet the Feebles” and music from Geinoh Yamishirogumi (that had to be copied and pasted!) and The Omega Experiment, but nothing at all from The Batlord or DJ, leaving Ki to step up and keep things moving with a review of “Hail to the king” by Avenged Sevenfold, his “hit and Miss” list, a special on Dream Theater, more 15 albums and a head-to-head between two Sigur Ros albums, among other entries. Mondo Bungle wrote what so far has been the last entry in his new journal, ditto fpr PsychedubDude, and I reviewed YorkeDaddy's new album, was very very impressed with it, also ran a special on Dan Fogelberg and had some more laughs at the expense of the Eurovision.

House of Cards ended its first run over at the Couch Potato but Babylon 5 season two began, as did season one of “Les Revenants”. Two albums only reviewed in “Bitesize” as I prepared for Metal Month, and one only in “Classic albums”, at Powerstars's request, Nirvana's “Nevermind”. I didn't. Unknown Soldier had part two of his specials on Queen and Hawkwind and then plunged on into 1978 with Gillan, Nazareth and the Scorpions among others, and his album of the year was Ace Frehley's solo self-titled.

OCTOBER
Even less happening. Anteater remembered Queensryche's "Promised land" , the Batcave remained closed and Batty was descending into Dark Carnival Hell with a look at the Juggalo phenomenon, reviewing the likes of Twiztid and of course Insane Clown Posse. We worried for his sanity, and his reputation but he had to work through this. Meanwhile two new journals opened, one from Briks called “The Poseur Cave”, which must have irked His Batness slightly (!) and the other from Engine, who came back with a journal on heavy music called, well, “Heavy music”, and looked at Siege and the concept of heavy metal hippies.

We were sad, shocked and enraged to hear the treatment Junkyard Donner had to go through, bravely revealed and dealt with in her journal, one of the most harrowing and courageous entries ever committed to screen, and Ki charged on with one of his biggest updates to date. Reviews of Trivium's new album, Don McLean's classic “American Pie”, more game music, more 15 albums, were Nirvana “Worth the hype” and a review of Tool in concert, And that's only the half of it! Powerstars reviewed the Foo's “Wasting light” and decided he had no ideas of his own so would steal mine(!) while I was distracted with Metal Month, which was progressing nicely, wrecking my ears and endangering my sanity at times, but it was great fun, and I think it was well received. At the Couch Potato Spooks and The New Statesman came to an end while Supernatural came back with season two and I spoke about including another current show that had impressed me.

There was one album in “Bitesize”, the excellent “The dream harbour” by Willowglass, and I opened a fifth journal, my “Psychic reviews”, with Heather Maloney being the first one to test my powers. They failed utterly, as expected. Charging ever closer to the eighties, Unknown Soldier looked at UFO, Lizzy, Scorpions, Van Halen and a whole host more, and we moved into winter.

NOVEMBER
Saw something of an upsurge, perhaps engendered in part by my constant nagging in this thread, but at any rate Anteater reminded us how great Seal was or is, Batty continued his descent into the world of the Juggalo with Blaze Ya Dead Homie, Anybody Killa, Dark Lotus and a lot more, plus more ICP and Twiztid, and wrote about his year as a quasi-Juggalo. Briks opened up his new journal properly by facing “Master of reality” off against “Paranoid” and matching “The queen is dead” with “Meat is murder”, while also praising Black Sabbath and looking at Helloween's classic “Keeper of the Seven Keys”, and some Modest Mouse. Buttheaad aka 216 began his own journal, which would prove to be highly entertaining, with much discussion about the “pussification of America”, including what he thought of bullying, gun control and Doctor Phil. And some music! DJ returned with a bang, hitting us with six new Razors Edges, and Engine continued to explore the phenomenon of heavy metal hippies, while also remembering with a tear in his eye one of his favourite bands.

Ki kept going at full tilt, with more of his 15 albums, more game music, a special on Elliot Smith and were AC/DC “Worth the hype” while Powerstars looked at Bon Jovi's “Have a nice day” and introduced his idea for “The 12 Days of Alternative” to lead up to Christmas. There wasn't too much happening over at the Playlist after the exertions of Metal Month, with a new Pet Hates, two new sections and in the Couch Potato season two of Red Dwarf made an appearance, reuniting the three series that had started the journal off. Futurama;s first season came to an end, and “Bitesize” saw me taking a look at Steve Earle's latest. Unknown Soldier had 1979 in his sights, and leaped into it with features on Aerosmith, Rainbow, Gillan, Van Halen and more, with his album of the year being Motorhead's “Bomber”.

__________________
Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018