Death - Individual Thought Patterns (Progressive Death Metal)
Death is another band that overstepped the bounderies that many bands of a genre fail to cross. This album is one of their most progressive sounding...it's such a different sound than their early albums like Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore, which sounded like Thrash on steriods. This album takes the percussion talents of Gene Hoglan and Fretless Bass skills of Steve DiGorgio and blends them with Chuck Schuldiner's creative genious. Everything comes together amazingly well, thanks to incredible songwriting on Chuck's part. Riffs are plentiful and creative, furious at times, slower and more atmospheric at others. Vocals are a little higher pitched and more understandable this album, a definate plus. The production, aside from being a little low in volume, is absolutely flawless. The bass comes in clearly, letting you hear Steve's skill with ease, but doesn't overpower everything else. Bass drums have an easily heard click, but sound flood the record with a constant beat of bass drums like some metal albums tend to do. Guitar sounds spot on, not high pitched and shrill, but not muddy and that feeling of being mixed with the bass. The production job really adds to this album and how long you can listen to it before getting tired of it. Lyrics are intrrospective a lot of times...they're really original. They're material that makes you think, think about how you act, how other people you know act, they're just interested and thought-provoking.
So quick to judge, so easily we forget,
What it's like to be dissected
Where feelings are tossed aside
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
that live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create individual thought
patterns
Prisoners of mental deception be free within singular judgement
Twisting words to control the masses
To cover up one's self insecurities
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
that live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create individual thought
Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Folk / Accoustic)
Some have heard of Nick Drake. A brilliant and emotional songwriter who died after making a mere 3 studio albums. I've only heard parts of the other ones, but Pink Moon I own and it quickly made itself to be one of my favorite records. Drake sings with a soft and just damn beautiful voice, much better than so many other people I've heard sing with this style. Beautiful and skilled accoustic guitar playing along with a few light touches of Piano here and there. It's just Drake singing and playing guitar for the most part, but it works. It's pretty amazing how some soft singing and accoustic guitar can give you such a sense of melancholy. This is one of the most depressive albums I've ever heard, but that just adds to how incredible it is. Highly recommended.
Dream Theater - Awake (Progressive Metal)
Dream Theater is a band that I really enjoy listening to because they combine really emotional songs with technical, skillful progressive metal playing. Their guitarist shreds like no other and their drummer can pound away on double bass and use his share of odd time signatures, but they still have soft, warm, heartfelt parts to their songs. There are more standard metal type songs like 6:00 and Lie, but they still feature creative song writing and incredibly skilled playing. Their singer uses a normal singing voice as oppossed to a growl style, which is something I generally prefer. He actually sings too, using varied notes, emotion and so forth. There are a couple of tracks that aren't terribly memorable, but most are catchy and well done. At first listen I didn't enjoy this album nearly as much as Images And Words, but over time it's beauty has grown on me. It's now my favorite album from the group, which is saying a lot. If you like well-rounded metal or incredible musicianship, this album is for you.
Franz Ferdinand - Selftitled (Indy Rock)
I was skeptical about this one. I'm at my girlfriends house and we were eating some pizza and watching music videos. We see this bands video for 'Take Me Out' come on, and I think, 'Wow, what a gay sounding name. This video is prettty fucking stupid looking too. Probably just another lame Indy Rock band.' Well, I was wrong. I acquired their album and was impressed. These people are good musicians. They have a skillful way of layering the guitars. The album has a post-punk feel to it and is usually a little poppy and energetic, though there are some softer, moodier parts to FF's debut album. The lyrics are written in interesting ways as well. A lot of them seem to be about love, but in some cases lyrics can have multiple meanings, which is pretty cool. This would make a nice album just to play int he background at a party or get together, but at the same time it's something you could lay in bed, listen to and just enjoy the little things about it that make it as good as it is. You can probably find this for 8-10$ at Best Buy and places that have new releases for a reduced price, so I'd pick it up.
Ayreon - Dream Sequencer Part 1 (Progressive Ambient Metal)
Well, this is some pretty different stuff. Heavy synthesizer usage and some pretty varied guitar playing. Sounds like a cross between modern Progressive music and the more spacey and atmospheric songs of Pink Floyd. Also, all the songs feature different singers, some male, some female. Adds a cool twist. The album follows the storyline of Ayreon. I'm not going to explain how though. Each song has sort of a different theme to it as far as lyrics go, but they don't sound so different that they should e on different albums. They all sound unique though, some, like '2084,' have a deep, depressive, gloomy....a sort of haunting feeling to it. 'The Druids Turned To Stone' is a relaxing song, with simple accoustics, little synth usage compared to other songs and warm, friendly sounding singing. Music-wise things are pretty creative; simple but effective drumming and bass that always fits the current mood, skilled electric solos and accoustic mixings and incredibly varied synthesizers. This album features good variety and songs are more than just stale guitars and drums playing away, the songs have emotion and feeling to them, which really gives 'Dream Sequencer' an edge.
Death is another band that overstepped the bounderies that many bands of a genre fail to cross. This album is one of their most progressive sounding...it's such a different sound than their early albums like Leprosy and Scream Bloody Gore, which sounded like Thrash on steriods. This album takes the percussion talents of Gene Hoglan and Fretless Bass skills of Steve DiGorgio and blends them with Chuck Schuldiner's creative genious. Everything comes together amazingly well, thanks to incredible songwriting on Chuck's part. Riffs are plentiful and creative, furious at times, slower and more atmospheric at others. Vocals are a little higher pitched and more understandable this album, a definate plus. The production, aside from being a little low in volume, is absolutely flawless. The bass comes in clearly, letting you hear Steve's skill with ease, but doesn't overpower everything else. Bass drums have an easily heard click, but sound flood the record with a constant beat of bass drums like some metal albums tend to do. Guitar sounds spot on, not high pitched and shrill, but not muddy and that feeling of being mixed with the bass. The production job really adds to this album and how long you can listen to it before getting tired of it. Lyrics are intrrospective a lot of times...they're really original. They're material that makes you think, think about how you act, how other people you know act, they're just interested and thought-provoking.
So quick to judge, so easily we forget,
What it's like to be dissected
Where feelings are tossed aside
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
that live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create individual thought
patterns
Prisoners of mental deception be free within singular judgement
Twisting words to control the masses
To cover up one's self insecurities
Like a drug it feeds the imagination of minds that go unparalyzed
Followers to the leaders of mass hypnotic corruption
that live their lives only to criticize
Where is the invisible line that we must draw to create individual thought
Nick Drake - Pink Moon (Folk / Accoustic)
Some have heard of Nick Drake. A brilliant and emotional songwriter who died after making a mere 3 studio albums. I've only heard parts of the other ones, but Pink Moon I own and it quickly made itself to be one of my favorite records. Drake sings with a soft and just damn beautiful voice, much better than so many other people I've heard sing with this style. Beautiful and skilled accoustic guitar playing along with a few light touches of Piano here and there. It's just Drake singing and playing guitar for the most part, but it works. It's pretty amazing how some soft singing and accoustic guitar can give you such a sense of melancholy. This is one of the most depressive albums I've ever heard, but that just adds to how incredible it is. Highly recommended.
Dream Theater - Awake (Progressive Metal)
Dream Theater is a band that I really enjoy listening to because they combine really emotional songs with technical, skillful progressive metal playing. Their guitarist shreds like no other and their drummer can pound away on double bass and use his share of odd time signatures, but they still have soft, warm, heartfelt parts to their songs. There are more standard metal type songs like 6:00 and Lie, but they still feature creative song writing and incredibly skilled playing. Their singer uses a normal singing voice as oppossed to a growl style, which is something I generally prefer. He actually sings too, using varied notes, emotion and so forth. There are a couple of tracks that aren't terribly memorable, but most are catchy and well done. At first listen I didn't enjoy this album nearly as much as Images And Words, but over time it's beauty has grown on me. It's now my favorite album from the group, which is saying a lot. If you like well-rounded metal or incredible musicianship, this album is for you.
Franz Ferdinand - Selftitled (Indy Rock)
I was skeptical about this one. I'm at my girlfriends house and we were eating some pizza and watching music videos. We see this bands video for 'Take Me Out' come on, and I think, 'Wow, what a gay sounding name. This video is prettty fucking stupid looking too. Probably just another lame Indy Rock band.' Well, I was wrong. I acquired their album and was impressed. These people are good musicians. They have a skillful way of layering the guitars. The album has a post-punk feel to it and is usually a little poppy and energetic, though there are some softer, moodier parts to FF's debut album. The lyrics are written in interesting ways as well. A lot of them seem to be about love, but in some cases lyrics can have multiple meanings, which is pretty cool. This would make a nice album just to play int he background at a party or get together, but at the same time it's something you could lay in bed, listen to and just enjoy the little things about it that make it as good as it is. You can probably find this for 8-10$ at Best Buy and places that have new releases for a reduced price, so I'd pick it up.
Ayreon - Dream Sequencer Part 1 (Progressive Ambient Metal)
Well, this is some pretty different stuff. Heavy synthesizer usage and some pretty varied guitar playing. Sounds like a cross between modern Progressive music and the more spacey and atmospheric songs of Pink Floyd. Also, all the songs feature different singers, some male, some female. Adds a cool twist. The album follows the storyline of Ayreon. I'm not going to explain how though. Each song has sort of a different theme to it as far as lyrics go, but they don't sound so different that they should e on different albums. They all sound unique though, some, like '2084,' have a deep, depressive, gloomy....a sort of haunting feeling to it. 'The Druids Turned To Stone' is a relaxing song, with simple accoustics, little synth usage compared to other songs and warm, friendly sounding singing. Music-wise things are pretty creative; simple but effective drumming and bass that always fits the current mood, skilled electric solos and accoustic mixings and incredibly varied synthesizers. This album features good variety and songs are more than just stale guitars and drums playing away, the songs have emotion and feeling to them, which really gives 'Dream Sequencer' an edge.
