Axxis - Owner of a Lonely Heart


No! No No No No! You do not cover a classic Yes song, and you do not cover in such a way that makes me want to release my breakfast through the process of throwing up. This is awful, and I listen to a lot of things that are deamed as bad, but to take such a song and twist it into a power metal version of suck is just uncalled for, especially when the vocalist can't sing a proper chord to save his life.

Owner of a Lonely Heart was the first song I heard by Yes, and i'm sure that's not really out of this world since I think it was for many, and it's one of the easiest accessible song they have i'm sure. However, being that it is very easily accessible and one of the simpler songs Yes has released, that doesn't give other bands the right to cover it. The album this cover comes from was released in 2012, so I imagine their thought process was..."hey, if we cover a popular song, maybe we'll be popular on Youtube and people will hear about us". Well...listening to that cover makes me want to stab my ears and apologize to them for having to be witness to such terrible sound, so yes, it may give you a few minutes of fame, but at the same time, you'll become irrelevant as soon as you try to get people to start listening to your so called original work.

The original should stay the original, and any covers should never be made or deemed as "better", because this song is a classic. JUST because it's a classic, doesn't mean you have the right to cover it.

Hi darling. I know I'm sitting a few feet away from you but we're both busy and I just want to leave this here for you.

Thompson Twins are awesome, and you need to hear this:



And this:



Also this:



Don't forget this:



And I'll be damned if you're gonna miss this:



And this, this, oh my god forever and ever this beautiful song. Synthpop supreme.



Thompson Twins = forever my jam. There are a few LPs in the closet. I'll be at work the next few days, GO LISTEN TO THEM.

^Thanks! I'll make sure to put some on if I remember.

Anyway, I stumbled upon something pretty cool earlier today on pg.lost's Facebook page:

pg.lost / Wang Wen - Split LP

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There's seriously nothing better than what I found with this album. For one, it's a collab with one of my all time favorite bands, and it's also a new album with some new material, even if it is two songs. It's also going to be an opportunity to give Wang Wen a listen since i've never heard of them before, but if they are collaborating with someone as awesome as pg.lost, they must be pretty damn good, or so I hope.

The two songs pg.lost did on this album are titled Desperdicio (part 1) and Desperdicio (part 2), and i'm glad they have this at the start of the album instead of at the end. I enjoy the whole thing and have given it a listen a few times already, but pg.lost really gets me in that mood that I find necessary to just lay back and listen to the entire thing, it also opens up the opportunity for me to hope that they come out with some new material under their name only in the near future. They did say they are planning to write some new material so that also adds to the hopefulness that they may be bringing out some new music. Either way, this is a pretty cool LP and will probably look into getting a physical copy as well as keeping an eye on any news relating to new pg.lost material.

That's all for now.

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This song has been stuck in my head all morning, and I like it. It's catchy and the lyrics are pretty decent.

I would agree that making a progressive rock song into a power metal one is not the greatest idea, and he does an okay but not great job with it. However I would certainly have to take issue with your contention that they did this for attention. Axxis are a huge band --- I have all their albums --- and certainly very well known in the genre. They don't need YouTube postings for "fifteen minutes of fame". I would say (though of course I dont know) they just heard the song, liked it and wanted to cover it. I dont' really see anything wrong with that. It's generally in the same basic genre. What I have a problem with is someone taking a song from one genre and covering it toally outside that, like maybe taking a reggae song and playing it in disco, or a metal song and making a pop tune out of it. "Don't fear the reaper" springs to mind.

But I don't have a massive problem with this. Again --- and I'm not saying you stole my idea, it was probably an unoriginal one anyway --- I do this section in my journal, called "Run for cover", where I look at unusual cover versions. Admittedly, not all are classics, but I would not agree that classics should be exempt from being covered, provided the cover is good and done in respect. What I would have a problem with is someone totally ruining a classic --- like maybe sampling "Stairway to Heaven" or using "Free bird" in a -- oh, wait! --- or using it simply as a way of, as you contend above, getting attention and/or fame. Axxis are not doing this: they have been around since the late eighties, and have sold millions of albums. The one you mention here is a whole album of covers, and I would assume songs that mean something to them, so the idea of using it to get themselves known is completely wrong.

I also have an issue with your assessment of Bernhard Weiß's singing. He's not the best metal vocalist by any means but he's not the worst. He's certainly no Jon Anderson, and really I would agree that his voice does not suit that song. But he's definitely able to sing. Also, can you sing chords? I don't think so: notes yes, chords no. So far as I know.

Here's one of Axxis's better songs in my opinion, just so you can see how he can sing. They have piles of original work; not sure what issue you have with that? :confused: Of choice I would have said no, not this song, though think yourself lucky: on the album I see they do Phil Collins, The Polcie and even Celine Dion!!! :yikes: But the choice to cover a classic doesn't invalidate them as a band, and they have plenty of great albums to stand to them. Maybe you should give them an unbiased listen?

Little piece of trivia: The Thompson Twins/INTO THE GAP was the first cd ever released for purchase along with Def Leppards Pyromania. I bought both. I actually own a Babble album also believe it or not.

I honestly didn't know you did a section for covers :( It's just a coincidence. And to be fair, my opinion about the covers are not to be taken seriously since the whole point is to be overly pissed off, perhaps I went about it wrong.

Dude, that's cool. I'm listening to "Into the Gap" this morning.

Here's another one that Ki should hear:

"You Take Me Up"



And a 12" mix of "Hold Me Now" because 12" mixes are cool. 10 minutes of Thompson Twins? Hell yeah! (I just wish I could find an extended mix of "We Are Detective"! Classic.)

Like I said, I wasnt suggesting you were. GMTA and all that.
It jsut so happens I'm a minor fan of Axxis, and it just rubbed me up a little the wrong way that you thought they recorded OOALH for that reason, when they're already well known.

Like they say, it's all good... :thumb:

Don McLean - American Pie

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This album. This freaking album. I remember hearing American Pie on the radio constantly when I used to drive home with my dad in his Toyota pickup. Years later I found a vinyl copy at a record shop in California, but I had no idea it was a full length album, I thought it was just a single. Upon listening to it, the familiar "American Pie" song came on and was filled with happiness, but then the rest of the album went on, and I was completely blown away. I remember saying "wow, what a freaking great album!", because it really is. I never really knew how much I loved Don McLean's voice until I heard "Winterwood", along with many others. The reason I feel so strongly for this album is mostly due to the fact that it has a lot of memories tied to it completely by coincidence, and the fact that it's a great album overall just makes it that much better.

Updated as of 10/20/2013

Hit:
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Coheed & Cambria - The Afterman: Descension
Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Black Sabbath - 13
Tesseract - Altered State
Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood
Megadeth - Super Collider
City & Colour - The Hurry And The Harm
Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
God Is An Astronaut - Origins
David Bowie - The Next Day
Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Trivium - Vengeance Falls
Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum

Miss:
Bullet For My Valentine - Temper Temper
Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve
Sigur Ros - Kveikur
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
Deep Purple - Now What?!

Still need to listen to:
Blackfield - Blackfield IV
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)
Omnium Gatherum - Beyond
Linkin Park - Living Things
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy

Finally getting around to putting something Nirvana related in my journal, because as far as I can tell, it's lacking in that department. Being from Seattle, I figured a "worth the hype?" of Nirvana would be more than appropriate. However, it's not all that easy, since I hold the opinion that only one out of their three studio releases are even worth a listen more than once. Perhaps that changes my perspective on the band, but I don't really see any reason to listen to any of the other releases after hearing Bleach for the first time. Fantastic album, definitely the grungy garage rock feel that I really would have come to expect from a band like this. It's unfortunate that Nevermind gets held up to such high standard and Bleach just gets left in the dirt, since for me personally, Bleach does a much better job at portraying what the band was going for instead of sounding overly polished, cough cough In Utero. But enough about that, i'm ready for the flame war on that.

Anyway, as a band, Nirvana were incredible successful, and they still lead one of the popular arguments of if they were really the guys behind the structure of grunge, and they are also behind the popular argument of if Kurt Cobain's death was a suicide, or a murder, but who can know for sure. Perhaps somebody does, but I don't. They're a fantastic introduction to grunge if you're looking to get into one of Seattle's most successfully crafted genres, along with many other bands of course. As far as it goes for the hype they receive, it's a tough one, since most of the hype they receive comes along with people holding Nevermind and In Utero in such high regard and leaving Bleach behind. I was once caught in that hype and thought Nevermind would be the best album I ever heard, but then once I heard Bleach, that opinion changed quickly. But unfortunately the verdict comes to this...

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I find them worthy of a listen if you're planning to start with Bleach, and then lead into their other albums to see the changes that were made production wise, but in terms of whether or not the hype for Nevermind and In Utero are worth it? Don't even bother. I mean, yeah, they're great albums, but like i've said before, it's a shame that the band is hyped up so much due to those album instead of being hyped up over the one album that really introduces the sound of grunge. Anyway, that's that.

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Woke up with this beauty stuck in my head.



I've been hearing this song everywhere lately. And I also know that they added it into the soundtrack for GTA V. Everything about it is awesome and beautiful.

Number 9 our of 15: Porcupine Tree - Signify



Honestly, as far as Porcupine Tree goes, it's very hard for me to pick a number one favorite album, seeing as how Steven Wilson has always found a way to make each album better and better both musically and lyrically. This one in particular is a very good example of how musically and lyrically it's top notch. A lot of PT's albums have that strong point that I just cling onto, like with Deadwing and Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, and Fear of a Blank Planet with Anesthetize, though that's always up for debate. Signify has the beautiful duo of Waiting Phase One and Waiting Phase Two. Again, all up to personal opinion, but I find those two songs to be the strong points of the album, though as a whole, the album doesn't exactly lack in the strong department. Like i've said before though, it's difficult to say where I would put this album in terms of favoritism, because I could listen to another PT album that I like and it would exceed that favoritism right then and there, so i'll just say that at the moment, Signify is my favorite PT album. If I were asked which PT album I would take on a stranded island, I would probably say Fear of a Blank Planet in that respect, only because I could listen to Anesthetize over and over again and still get chills. Anyway, enough rambling for me.

It's nearing the end of October, which means only two months left of 2013. I've been really pleased with the amount of albums put out this year, the amount of good albums is far higher than the amount of bad. I've already done a few reviews of some of my favorites so I figure it's time to give the albums I have enjoyed this year a proper rating. It will be done as follows:

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I don't want to put too many images into one post, so I will have an album with a rating in the next post.

I may as well do this the ol' fashion way and take albums from top to bottom in my Hit and Miss list, and rate them accordingly. So...first off we have the wonderful, the beautiful, the big hitter...

Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
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I fell in love with this album the minute I heard Give Life Back To Music, in my head I thought..."wow, this is going to be a great album", and that it was. One of the best of 2013. And so with that, it gets the highest rating of...

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No surprise really. This album exceeded my expectations for what I would want to hear from new Daft Punk material. It's definitely one that has received many mixed reviews, but it blew my mind the first time I heard it, and it continues to do so.

Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent

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I know i'm skipping Coheed and Cambria's new album from the list but that's only because I want to give it one more listen before I rate it, so I went to the next one in the list, and it happened to be the next album that I will be giving a highest rating of...

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Just like Daft Punk, Killswitch Engage was a band that I was fully expecting to hear a great album from. I figured from the news that they are going to be with the old singer again would disappoint some people, but it really opened my eyes to how great of a singer he was and is. I can listen to this album fully and never be disappointed. I was very pleased with it the first time I heard it, and that remains to this day to be of the same opinion.

Updated as of 11/1/2013

Hit:
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Coheed & Cambria - The Afterman: Descension
Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Black Sabbath - 13
Tesseract - Altered State
Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood
Megadeth - Super Collider
City & Colour - The Hurry And The Harm
Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
God Is An Astronaut - Origins
David Bowie - The Next Day
Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Trivium - Vengeance Falls
Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy
Paul McCartney - New
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here

Miss:
Bullet For My Valentine - Temper Temper
Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve
Sigur Ros - Kveikur
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
Deep Purple - Now What?!

Still need to listen to:
Blackfield - Blackfield IV
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)
Omnium Gatherum - Beyond
Linkin Park - Living Things
Panic! at the Disco - Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!
AFI - Burials
Ayreon - The Theory of Everything

A bit late but I wish a big happy birthday to the wonderful and beautiful Steven Wilson.

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There isn't a whole lot I can do in response to being one of my all time favorite artists's birthdays, so i'm spending most of the night listening to my favorite albums that he has crafted, with right now being In Absentia. There's really nothing i'd rather be listening to right now anyway, since it's a great way to end the day regardless of if it was his birthday or not. And can you believe he's 46? He doesn't look a day over 30. Rock on, Wilson!

Number 10 out of 15: Blackfield - Blackfield

Yeah yeah yeah, I already did a Steven Wilson project, but hey, I can't put a Porcupine Tree album on a best list without having Blackfield included as well, especially with such a fantastic album as "Blackfield", and even better, I decided to choose the song of the same name as the two mentioned already:



If this album was just this one song, i'd still find it as enjoyable as I do with all the other songs included, this is one of the first songs I heard from Steven Wilson, so I was instantly hooked. The intro sort of hits me in a sensitive spot each time because it just has that emotional feel to it, as does the rest of the song, but the intro most of all.

Lyrically, of course, the album is strong, when isn't an album strong lyrically when it involves Steven Wilson, um...never? I mean come on....

"River glass, cycle past, overcast
I saw it all in the blackfield
Copper sky, shadows rise, bridge of sighs
We had all in the blackfield"

This song is really cool in the way that each time something is said, it's followed up with "so and so in the blackfield" but it's done in such a way that it makes perfect sense. Definitely an album worth listening to if you've got some time, or even if you've never even heard of this Steven Wilson guy that i'm always going on about. It's worth your time, i'll tell you that much.

My apologies for the delay on this section. Had a couple other things I wanted to get out of the way, but let's just get right into it shall we?

Dream Theater is up next. I'm very happy to do an entry on them since they played a very important role in the music I listened to in high school, and really opened my mind to other bands that related to them, thus opening more passages in my musical journey. I know exactly why I have the amount of plays that I do on my last.fm, and i'm sure it's increased since I took this photo, it's because, yes...I am a humongous fan of them, and I'm not going to let this forum be a reason to not express that. They are great, and they continue to get better.

When I first heard them, it was actually a close friend of mine that lent me one of their live DVD's, and I believe it was Score

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I'll admit, it was very weird seeing live footage of a band that I wasn't too familiar with, because that was just it, I wasn't familiar with any of the music, nor did I know what to expect from anybody in the band, so if anything, it led me to want to check out their studio albums, and that led me to listen to Images & Words

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which to this day remains to be one of my all time favorite Dream Theater studio albums, but that's only in terms of studio releases, what I really love and will cherish as a key part of my music collection is their Live at Budokan DVD, mostly because of the beautiful Petrucci solo at the end of Hollow Years:



Not only the solo, but the whole song is performed so beautifully that it's such a key part of the DVD, as is a lot of the others on the DVD.

While I have hit on the albums and DVDs that I enjoy, I don't think I've hit on why I enjoy them so much. Reason being, there really isn't much to it, I like their sound, I love the way they compose their music, and I love the chemistry you can see when they perform live, especially since i've seen them perform, which for me was a huge weight off my shoulders to finally be able to see one of my all time favorite bands.

Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream

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I know i've been adding a lot of Porcupine Tree / Blackfield stuff to my journal, but I've just been on a constant binge of listening to both projects in it's entirety, and this album is what I chose for tonight, and i'm so happy I did. It's been a long time since I last attempted to listen to this album, and at the time I wasn't too interested, as I felt it was boring and lacked anything interesting. However, that has completely flipped around this time around, i'm finding a lot of beautifully structured material in this album, and although i'm not all the way through it just yet, it has not gotten stale, each song adds it's own individuality. There is one that sticks out the most so far, and for good reason:


Don't Hate Me

I am in love with this song so much already, and I can tell it will be a repeated listen for a long time. Not only does it follow the traditional sound of Porcupine Tree, it adds that brass near the middle which makes it shine that much more. It's mellow proggy sound also makes it very easy to listen to without getting bored, because I know there's a lot of mellow prog that can get boring after a while, however it being 8 minutes long just makes it easier to enjoy it without feeling like it's dragging on and on.

I'm very impressed with this album, and I don't know why I haven't listened to this sooner, because now I feel like my list of favorite Porcupine Tree will be shifted a bit due to how much I am enjoying this. There are constant surprises at every turn with this album, but it still has the beauty of one amazing Porcupine Tree album.

Going waaaaaay back to the first post in my journal, I feel I should expand on it and post some more game soundtracks that I have enjoyed. Here's the first one: http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1315730

And now...

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil had one of the most badass soundtracks I have ever heard. The music to Port of Adia really made the game so much more intense. Still to this day I find it to be one of my all time favorite shooter games.



How can I make another post about game music without mentioning one of the coolest songs in the Pokemon industry. You all know what i'm thinking, but i'm going to tell you anyway. The original track for Champion Lance and Red is seriously the best battle music that i've heard so far, though i've heard some others that I really like:



And they even made it sound ten times better in the remakes of Gold and Silver:



Last but not least, I wanted to add one that I really have come to love more and more as I play the game. It was the first Minecraft song I ever heard when I first started playing, and it's just so soothing and lovely to listen to, as is the entire OST:

And since I couldn't get enough of it, here's some more game music. I will be posting more of it more often since there's so much of it that I like:

To my surprise, I have yet to post a song from Ocarina of Time, and because of that, my game music posts are seriously lacking in some great tunes, especially the song for the spirit temple:



There's actually a lot of songs that I enjoy from that game, perhaps all of them, but that one just sticks out the most. The first time I played through that game by myself, it instantly became my favorite song, followed by this one:



What? You were expecting me to post Song of Storms? In all fairness, I do think it's a very catchy, but it's the same rhythm over and over again with nothing really to it. I like it, it's one of my favorites, but it gets boring.

Which brings me to the next game...

I mentioned this OST in the first game post, but I never really dove into it too much:



Yep, Binding of Isaac. Easily one of the best soundtracks I've heard for a video game. This game alone is one of the most fun and difficult games i've played in a long time, but the added awesomeness of the OST really adds to it. I could listen to the entire soundtrack for a whole day and it would just add so much epicness to the day.

More to come probably, those were just at the top of my head.

And here we are, at the final five albums of the long running 15 albums that I wish to talk about, but don't worry, this doesn't mean this is the end of this type of thing. I've got something in the works for the near future, just need to work out some kinks and it may be ready tonight if i'm feeling up to it.

But since we are at the final five, I feel just posting the five albums and talking a bit about them would be appropriate. Don't expect a super excessive amount of review on these as this whole section was just for me to post 15 albums that I really like. I've never been great at reviews. So first off we have...

Devin Townsend Project - Ghost

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Devin Townsend, one who continues to find time to release consistently great albums. It's a rare situation when I say "man, I don't really like this album of his", but that's beside the point. Ghost is the 1/2 of the duo albums that he released in the same year, completely polar opposites to the 2/2 Deconstruction. If you're looking for more of his mellow side with some fantastic lyrics and great guitar work, this one is a great album, but that's not saying Deconstruction is bad, but you know, it's always up for debate.

Next up we have...

Dark Moor - Tarot

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It took me longer than necessary to finally sit down and listen to this album as a whole, and for that I am sorry, however, for whatever reasons, it did take me a few listens to really feel what this album was trying to accomplish, but once it hit me, I came to really like it. Especially with the addition of The Moon. Which also quickly became my favorite song by them. The album as a whole really does shine, and it's worth a listen if you're into the whole power metal thing, which to be honest, I'm really not crazy about, but this album shows that it does have some good qualities.

Up next...

Elliott Smith - XO

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This album is probably the most special to me in all the 15 albums that i've talked about. Why you ask? Well let me tell you. Listening to this album did a lot of things for me, one being that it really gave me a feel for what Elliott Smith was like. The first song I ever heard from him was High Times, which was on a different album entirely, but this album really got me to see what he had to offer, and at the same time made me feel really sad that he was no longer around. There's a lot that I could say about this album, but to put it short, it changed my life. It opened my mind to what beautiful lyrics one person can come up with, which simultaneously programmed my mind to really focus on lyrics, which also simultaneously, made my music listening experience so much better. I will be getting "XO" tattoo'd somewhere on my skin as my second Elliott Smith themed tattoo.

Up next...

Jon Anderson - Animation

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Man oh man, what can I say? This album was the first album that I heard Jon Anderson as a solo artist. I had experience with Yes already, but listening to this gave me a completely different view of how creative he was. No, the lyrics aren't the best part of the album, what I really like is how it continues to be catchy throughout the entire album. It's also the first vinyl record I was able to call my own, thus pushing me to buy probably close to 100 more. My copy still has the shrink wrap and everything. I listen to it every now and then, and it always reminds me of my time in California.

Last but certainly not least...

Alesana - A Place Where The Sun Is Silent

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I was skeptical at first about posting this but then I realized this is my own journal and I can do whatever the **** I want. Anyway, out of all Alesana's records, I find this one to be the most flawless work they have ever done. It starts off as if you are sitting their watching it in a theater, but then it just gets really going and you can't help but try to listen for the lyrics. Hearing the singers actually sing was also a surprise since I went from The Emptiness to this, it was a huge difference, but a good one. It really opened my eyes to how talented this group is, even if most or all people at this forum would disagree. One of my all time favorite albums, and definitely one that helped open my eyes to another genre that I wasn't entirely used to.

Well...it's been a long run, but that about does it for my 15 albums. But don't fret, as I said, there will be more coming. But for now, just enjoy whatever else I post whether you know it or not.

Now, it's no surprise to anybody that ACDC have a large following and continuously growing. But is it really worth the amount of hype they receive? Is their music really as great as people say it is? Well...let's find out.

I don't really need to tell you much about the band that people have not said already. They are a rock band from the 70's that have gained and continue to gain a following of both fans of rock n roll and bands/artists looking to try something a little bit different.

They are obviously well known for songs such as Thunderstruck and Back In Black, which...don't get me wrong, are great tracks. But...are they the greatest? Honestly, I coincidentally heard Thunderstruck earlier today and it still has that pure rock n roll sound, so yes...I wouldn't mind putting a "one of the best rock n roll songs" tag onto that song, because in my opinion, it really is. Starts off with a repetitive riff, and just blows your mind with power and all sorts of awesome.

I will note that I am more of a Brian Johnson kind of a guy, not to take away the fact that Bon Scott was a fantastic vocalist for ACDC, but he just wasn't with them too long, although Highway To Hell is a fantastic album.

Anyway, enough of that, let's get right to the verdict that everyone is eagerly waiting for. From personal experience, when I first heard about ACDC, I expected to hear some amazing rock n roll, and you know what I heard? Exactly that. I heard some headbanging worthy pure rock n roll, and it just really stuck. It made me feel like I too could finally get into rock n roll, taking into consideration that they were one of the first rock bands I heard, thanks to my dad. So the verdict comes to...

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Please, if you have yet to decide whether or not you want to give the time to listen to ACDC, do yourself a favor and give them a thorough listen, because I can promise you that you won't be disappointed. I can't say you will absolutely love them upon first listen, but you won't hate it. The vocals will probably be odd at first if you aren't used to it, but I do understand a lot of notoriety they received and still receive. They are fantastic, and worth your time. And definitely worth the hype.

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Currently:

It has been brought to my attention that I have yet to do an Elliott Smith entry, and what kind of craziness is that since the freaking title of my journal is directly influenced by the line shown above from his song Waltz #2.

Elliott Smith entered into my life very unexpectedly, but in a way that was both comforting and painful. Every song I heard of his, I was relating to it. All the pain and suffering you can hear through his voice, I was feeling it. He's one of those artists where I felt that I could feel their emotion as if they were standing their right in front of me telling me about the issues they were having. There was a lot in my life that I couldn't quite figure out, and listening to this man's music made it somewhat easier to deal with knowing someone out there had dealt with the same problems. I know some may say things like "well...we're you like depressed or something? And if so, how did a depressing man help you?". You know, it's not an easy thing to answer, but it just helps. The pain you can feel from certain things offers closure, at least in my own experience.

Onto the music side of things. The first album I remember hearing from him was XO:

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I remember first hearing this album and thinking "holy crap, I need to listen to this again" and so I did. And I listened to it again, and again, and again. After that, I decided to do the natural thing and just get a copy of everything he ever recorded and just listen to it all. And the same happened. I listened to his material once, and again, and again, and again. It seemed to happen so naturally, and just felt like it was something I owed myself to do. And it really was worth it, because I really got a feel for the mind that was Elliott Smith, and I grew to just love him more and more until it was painful to the soul to listen to his music, but I mean that in a good way.

After I went through the beautiful journey that was being introduced to him, it dawned on me that he was a huge part of my life, even if it had happened so quickly. It was so important that I decided to get a tattoo to remember the beauty that it was to be able to sit and listen to everything he did:

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Yes, I chose this song in particular, because I remember listening to that song over and over and over again. I think my iTunes calculated at least 200 plays alone just for that song. I just loved it, and still do. It's one that really stuck to me and hit me deep, but it left a permanent mark that will never go away.

I have many other ideas for Elliott Smith related tattoos, some big, some small, but overall, he was and is one of the most important parts of my life, and will continue to be until the day I die. I find he helped me in times that I needed it, and it does make me sad to think that I will never have a chance to see him perform, or even give him a simple "thank you" for the beautiful music he created.

First of all Ki, just want to say I'm loving all your posts here. Now I need to go revisit Jon Anderson's 'Animation' for myself: its been a few years lol! :tramp:

Secondly, Eliott Smith is someone I have never spent enough time with to call a close musical friend per-se, but I appreciate you taking the time to bring him up. As I post this I'm contemplating a good place to leap into his catalog.

But again, great posts man. As far as singer-songwriters go, I've always felt that emotional connection with guys like David Sylvian and Gino Vannelli. Devin Townsend too (and I know you and I aren't the only ones in that regard, lol!), and I think everyone who gives a rat's ass about music has an artist like that for them. I know two guys in fact who worship Jeff Buckley and Morrissey respectively. xD

If Eliott were still alive today, I know he'd be in awe just how many people whose lives have been affected in some manner by his output, including yours. :thumb:

Thanks for the kind words, Anteater. Always nice to have such a fellow prog head reading along. :)

Yeah, yeah. I know. ANOTHER member is doing a 100 albums list. But hey, this one is different, I promise. This is going to be a challenge and it's going to be fun. I will be posting about 100 albums, but the catch is, I have to have enjoyed that album in it's full. That doesn't mean the deluxe version etc, it means the album by itself that it was released as. I may include some deluxe versions, but i'm not focusing on those. It needs to have had a 100% positive rating in terms of songs on the album, and my overall opinion of it. It can't be albums where I say "I really liked this album except for a few tracks". It needs to be 100%. You also may be thinking "do you even have enough albums like that?". Well...yes and no. Yes in terms of, I know that I have listened to more than enough to include on this list, but that doesn't mean I can't revisit albums that were close to 100% to include on the list. Don't worry, I have plenty of albums before I have to revisit others. So...sit back and enjoy! It's going to be a fun ride.

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Let's start things off on the right foot, shall we? And what better way to do that with an album that I instantly 100% fell in love with the first time I heard it. As the image says above, we are definitely talking about The Sword's Gods of the Earth. You may be wondering why I chose this one out of all the other possible albums I could have chosen to start this off. Simple, because I wanted to. I was craving this album all day, and I am finally giving it a spin for what feels like the 1000th time since I first heard it, but rightfully so. It's perfect in every way. When I first heard it, it was when I was just starting to get into The Sword, so I instantly found some enjoyment out of it, not to mention the fact that I have seen them perform plenty of the songs off this album live, and what an experience that was! The vocals are what really keep me wanting to listen, though it's always good to mention the fantastic guitar work throughout the entire thing. This is one doom/stoner album that is well worth a listen or two, especially if you're really feeling like you want to give the genre a chance.

As I said when I introduced this concept, the album will be 100% positive rating, and this one definitely fits that bill, in which case I will not be posting youtube videos to songs to showcase favorite songs, because i'd have to post the whole album. If I were to choose one though, it'd probably be Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians.

I know they've only released 4 albums to date (i think), so maybe saying this is my favorite album of theirs isn't entirely fair, but it is. It's my favorite album of theirs, and it's also one of my favorites in it's entire genre.

Good on you, bringing up Pokémon! One of my personal favorite tracks is Twinleaf Town from DPPt. I gave a midi of it an acoustic soundfont once and it was awesome...I'll show you sometime.

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And continuing on the journal of 100 100% albums, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band comes next up, why? Because it's the only Beatles album that I actually like 100%. There is not a single track on this album that I don't like. The first three tracks are some of my favorite "introduction" tracks because they all fit together making it seem like it's one big long introduction, but it isn't, of course.

The thing I find to be one of the cooler aspects of this album is the fact that about 95% of the songs on the album don't even meet three minutes. I think that's rather impressive when I think about the fact that each song has it's own way of making me feel like this is one of the best albums I've ever heard, and it just makes it even better knowing they just did what they do best, and in a short amount of time no less.

As mentioned before, this is easily the only Beatles album that I 100% like, and i'm not saying I don't like their other albums, trust me, I own their entire discography, however I just don't find that they put as much thought into a lot of their other albums as they did this one, maybe i'm just being overly positive about this album that it shows the negatives for their others, but nonetheless, it's my favorite.

When I first heard the album, I don't think it was the first Beatles album I ever heard, I think it was one of the last few that I had heard before I could say i've heard all their album, but this one in particular had a lot of songs that I was already familiar with, and it just made the experience ten times better. Songs like When I'm Sixty Four, and Getting Better, were songs that I knew about, but had no idea the whereabouts of them album wise. Finding them on this one really made it more of a worthwhile and exciting experience to listen to this album. Thus leading into listening to it again and again. I could listen to this whole album right now, and again in ten years, and probably still give it a 100% satisfaction rating.

And wouldn't you know it, i've got some more video game music to talk about. There's seriously enough music out there in video game world for me to talk about that my whole journal could become a video game music journal, but I wouldn't do that. Anyway, here's some I really like:

More recently, i've been playing Paranautical Activity and the OST in that game is ****ing fantastic. There's nothing than a FPS rogue like game with drum n bass as the full soundtrack.



Another one i'd like to mention is Vanquish. I remember playing through that game and really diggin the music along with the gameplay. It was very fun and enjoyable and the fast paced storyline and gameplay just made it that much better. Really killer soundtrack that is worth mentioning.



The last one i'll mention is one that I find to be a cool way to enter a game. I got Duke Nukem 3D on Steam, and hearing this upon getting to the menu just made me feel like kicking someone's ass. Really cool menu song.



More to come probably. I have a lot that I like.

Yes, yes, I as well will be partaking in the spreading of holiday cheer, and what better way to do that than through music. I want to make this a thing that will literally take place from now until Christmas, but that doesn't mean my non Christmas related posts will seize to exist, they'll just be whenever I feel I want to post them, but fret not, this won't just be the classic Christmas music posted over and over again, i'm making it interesting and will be posting songs from bands in the Christian Prog genre, all the way to death metal that has some relation to Christmas. Some may enjoy it, some may not, but hey, it's the holidays.

Now that the introduction has been done, I want to post some music from one of my all time favorite Christian Progressive Rock bands "Theocracy". I remember when I first heard about them it was an accidental stumble upon a video on Youtube. I wasn't familiar with the band name and all that led me to click on it was the album cover. This exact song was the one I found:



Still by far one of my all time favorite Theocracy songs to date, I mean...that intro! The whole song is groovy and honestly, I would not have known they were a Christian prog band had I not looked them up, mostly because they don't overwhelm you with Christianity. Obviously they are all about Christianity, but listening to it with an open mind, you wouldn't know.

And then we come to their most recent album "As The World Bleeds"...

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...which honestly has to be one of the best progressive metal albums I have ever heard, and trust me, there's a long list of prog metal that I enjoy and love and would probably put close to number one if I brought them up. All the tracks are good, and it's all made so much better with the powerful guitar chords along with Matt Smith's fantastic vocal range. Definitely one album always worth checking out.

It is the holidays, why not enjoy more prog, right?

If there's anything I grew to love most about prog, is the Christian Prog side of it. It's got such amazing music coming from all sorts of bands. I've already mentioned Theocracy, but another i'd like to mention is Harmony. A bit of a cliche'd name, but hell, you can't blame them. They've had three albums so far, one of which being Chapter II: Aftermath,

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which was one of the first christian prog albums I heard and loved simultaneously. It's about an hour long, but it really does feel longer with the amount of creativity and proggy aspects thrown into the mix. One of my favorite tracks off the album would have to be...



I don't really have a whole lot to say about this band other than the fact that I really dig their sound and they've really got to put out some new material, because it's been since 08 that they released something, and i'm eager for more.

Updated as of 11/25/2013

Hit:
Daft Punk - Random Access Memories
Coheed & Cambria - The Afterman: Descension
Killswitch Engage - Disarm The Descent
Rob Zombie - Venomous Rat Regeneration Vendor
Black Sabbath - 13
Tesseract - Altered State
Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood
Megadeth - Super Collider
City & Colour - The Hurry And The Harm
Avenged Sevenfold - Hail To The King
Dream Theater - Dream Theater
God Is An Astronaut - Origins
David Bowie - The Next Day
Riverside - Shrine of New Generation Slaves
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Trivium - Vengeance Falls
Joe Satriani - Unstoppable Momentum
Eminem - The Marshall Mathers LP 2
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
A Day To Remember - Common Courtesy
Paul McCartney - New
Alice in Chains - The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here
Blackfield - Blackfield IV
Steven Wilson - The Raven That Refused To Sing (And Other Stories)

Miss:
Bullet For My Valentine - Temper Temper
Bring Me The Horizon - Sempiternal
Streetlight Manifesto - The Hands That Thieve
Sigur Ros - Kveikur
Depeche Mode - Delta Machine
Asking Alexandria - From Death To Destiny
Deep Purple - Now What?!

Still need to listen to:
Omnium Gatherum - Beyond
Linkin Park - Living Things
Panic! at the Disco - Too Weird To Live, Too Rare To Die!
AFI - Burials
Ayreon - The Theory of Everything

Video Game Music Special

I wanted to talk about a game that is both near and dear to my teenage memories as well as a game who's music I will cherish for as long as I live. That game is Runescape. Yes, I was a Runescape player, but hell...at least I was inside playing a game that I loved instead of going out and doing drugs and alcohol. I spent most if not all my teenage years playing this game. I believe I started playing it around 2006, and finally stopped playing in late 2011 due to not liking the changes the creators were making to the game. It was no longer about the fun, it was more about the in game economy, but that's not why I am bringing this up, the main reason for this post is the music that would play during many events of the game. I can honestly say that every song I heard from the soundtrack of this game fills my mind and heart with so much nostalgia that it's almost unbearable (in a good way). I'll post a few that really hit me in the heart and fill me with nostalgic sadness:



I remember playing Castle Wars for hours and this music really put me into the right mood for the setting.

But of course, the most nostalgic music comes from the music you hear from the cities you would stand in for countless hours talking to other players about trading items, doing quests, and god knows what else, here's a few that I remember clearly:



However, with posting the music from the towns, and Castle Wars, there will always be that one song that really hits it home, and that one is titled "Autumn Voyage", not only does this song fill me with the most nostalgia out of them all, it is the first Runescape song that I actually really liked. I remember going to the song list and always choosing that one. I just liked it. I liked how catchy it is, etc etc. It got to the point that I was at school and I would hum it all day.



Anyway, if I keep going, i'm going to be filled with so much nostalgia that I may explode so i'll keep this one short. Runescape played a huge role in my life in being literally the first MMORPG that I really worked on, really loved, and really miss. I would love to go back in time and just watch myself enjoy the game as much as I did. The unfortunate part about it is...if I started playing again, it just wouldn't feel the same. The game has changed so much that I really would not find any sort of enjoyment out of it. I still have my character and everything, but it just grew stale, and it's unfortunate that it got that point because it made me not want to play the game that I grew to love so much. But...that's what makes a good game, I guess.