GIR , The Mumbai Leg

Well, well well .... wat do we have here .... GIR once again. Being my 3rd GIR, I entered the stadium with great expectations. The venue was jus perfect for an all free gig :) Andheri Sports Complex. Large open space and amazing sound :) The first sight gave a good impression. Lets get on way with how the bands performed, alright? Medussa, the band which was supposed to start off backed out and left more time for the remaining bands, which was absolutely great, cuz i personally hate Medussa and their shitty groove box. So i'd say, the start was good, No Medussa! :P
So the band that started the most insane show in the recent times was none other than, apan ka, mumbai waala Demonic Resurrection. And they were tight ... amazing, melodic, totally kick ass. Sahil's vocals have improved, his growls had more depth this time. The guitaring by pradeep was very good, nothing really exceptional. The guy on the keyboards was amazing. But one person i really went to this gig for was, JP. DR's drummer :D I was backstage, behind the drummer when JP was playing. Irwie got me in, btw. Thanx man. All I was doing behind was just havin a look at JP's footwork and cymbal work, upclose. Learning a lot of things. Their song frozen potrait stands out , I just love it :) Mellow breakdowns and then the brutally fast paced parts. Surely this night was gonna be one of those concerts which i wud remember.
After DR, i came back into the crowd with my friends. And next up was Split. They started off with a U2 cover. I really dont know the name of that song (not a big fan of U2) .... this band was very ok (Edit: the song was Vertigo - Sridhar). They had this really annoying bass guitarist, who kept talking rather than playing songs. Not one of my favs. Their vocalist gets a special mention for sure, he had a really wide range of vocals. Impressed me in every song. Great going man.
The night was still young, and i dint headbang yet :) Though DR was 'headbang'able, I was busy backstage. So the next band was Joint Family. Having watched them live twice before, i was expecting a lot from this band. Last time i saw them, they made the crowd go crazy over RATM covers. So, with those images in my head, I got ready to totally headbang. Even the crowd was expecting some heavy shit. And believe me, the crowd formed the largest moshpit I've ever seen, jus before the first song of Joint Family. And once they started with their original, the crowd jus went crazy and moshed and headbanged. It was as though everyone was suicidal. But it doesnt fucking matter. They were having a blast. The drummer of Joint Family was tight and good. But as their set progressed, they sounded very montonous and boring. This time around they didn't really impress me at all. They were sounding like jus another nu-metal act from my neighbourhood. Vinay of BM came on stage as a guest vocalist for Slipknots PPL=SHIT and the crowd obviously went crazy. Their originals werent that great and all sounded somewhat similar. Bottomline, they were disappointing, though they were tight.
Next band was Prestorika. Ahhh, wat a band. I saw them live a year back in Livewire. I totally enjoyed their set then. I was expecting something good here. And , just when I was mentioning to my friend the kick ass show that they did at livewire, they started off with 'Enter Sandman' and I went crazy, the crowd went crazy and for the first time in the night, I was in the largest moshpit ever in India. It was fun, me and my friends moshed like crazy fanatics. And then they did a few OC's which were totally amazing. Their guitarist Lokesh was one helluva guy, crisp , very fast paced solos. He was amazing. Then prestorika played 'Holy Wars' and 'Hit The Lights'. And they ended their set with an OC. I'd say they were the tightest band tonite. Crowds favs and absolutely mind blowing.
Prestorika gave way to the much awaited 'Freak Kitchen' from Sweden. They started playing their orignals, doing some amazing work. They were tight, and knew what they were doing. Experience clearly showed in their performance. The vox/guitarist Mathias was kinda funny, and the bassist dude was jumping all around the stage, crazy motherfuckers. They were damn tight and wat impressed me was that they were a 3 member band. Pretty crazy huh ? I really didn't enjoy their originals but I can say that they are good. It's jus not something i like , thats all :) Mathias, with his gutti gutti (Edit: wasn't that "Goody Goody"? - Sridhar) chant and some really crazy, funky guitaring, a good drummer, and a funny bassist, Freak Kitchen showed what they were made of. They had marks of a tight international band written all over them and their music. They had some good originals like porno daddy and others which I can't recollect.
So the night ended. 4 hrs of metaldom. There cant be anything better to do on a weekend. GIR was well organised, and had good crowd. Foreign chicks, desi chicks and many metal heads (which make any gig a great gig). There was food, water and to top everything smoke was allowed. Everything was done professionally and perfectly. It was known that the show wouldnt start on time , so we have to leave that one flaw out (its jus an innate quality of Indians, can't really be helped ;) ). To describe the show in few words, amazing, mind blowing and fucking crazy. If you missed this, then go kill yourself .

mvikred

Remakes

When I was in 12th (as in, in and around phase of my life), I had a theory that remixes are when you just add new beats and all, and remakes are when you remake the whole song. It seemed kind of sensible, since it followed from the words themselves. Anyway, this post isn't about that :P

Here are a few pairs of songs, each consisting of an original non-rock song and it's interpretation by decently (!) well known bands:

.1. Diamonds and Rust : Original - Joan Baez, Interpreted by Judas Priest.

The Judas Priest version, is well....funny! Unless you've heard Judas Priest exclusively atleast for a few hours, there's no way this version could even begin to compare with the Joan Baez one. Near the ending, when the JP waala starts singing "Diamonds! Diamonds! Diamonds and Raaast!", I almost start laughing. However, if you do get into the feel of things (if you're in the metal mode, so to speak), the irony and biting sarcasm in the song does glimmer a little.

The Joan Baez version, on the other hand, is amazing, to say the least. It's haunting, and the anger, the sarcasm, the sadness, it's all there and you can imagine the pain of the person the song is about. It was supposedly written by Joan Baez for Bob Dylan after their affair. And the pain is all too apparent.

.2. Turn the Page : Original - Bob Seger, Interpreted by Metallica.

This is a tough choice to make. The feel is available aplenty in both the songs. Strangely, however, while the Bob Seger version seems to convey the desperation and hopelessness of the person the song is about, the Metallica song invokes almost the opposite feelings: hope and determination!

The drums in the Bob Seger version are way too cool! They're silent for the most part, simple and totally in sync with the song. I love the way the hi-hat is used in the first half of the song. It's simple enough for even someone who doesn't know how to play drums, but its "value addition" to the song is amazing! Metallica waale drums, are well...normal Metallica waale drums.

Other Metallica "interpretations" : Tuesday's Gone (where they haven't changed much, but they've done a marvellous job), Whiskey in the Jar (the Metallica version rules anyday! Thin Lizzy clearly had no idea how amazing his song - supposedly a folk tune- could be!)

.3. Wicked Game: Original - Chris Isaak, Interpreted by H.I.M.

This song was what prompted me to write this post in the first place. The Chris Isaak version is amazing and all. It keeps playing in Mocha HN btw. Everyone keeps going gaga over the vocals and all. It is a nice peaceful song, and with feel and all. I loved the song and it was almost perfect. Or so I thought.

Then I heard the H.I.M version! It's amazing! The drums, the guitar! Pure unadulterated rock! It's like Chris Isaak got the song all wrong, and the original version (the way it should have been in the first place) is by H.I.M.

Other things I haven't considered:

Pink Floyd and The Ramones - Another Brick in the Wall (it's obvious who's better, but the Ramones did do a respectable job)
Alien Ant Farm and MJ - Smooth Crminal. No real feeling in the song to talk about, so it's ok :)

And Parikrama's version of Sweet Child of Mine at Kala Ghoda with Violin and keyboard and no drums (slowed down, mellow) was also very cool :)

One interpretation I refuse to comment upon is Slipknot trying out Bullet the Blue Sky by U2! :P

Vicious Circle

I've wanted to write about this a while now. In gigs, you always see people who get excited when they hear a band covering Metallica, Pantera, Slayer etc. I'd like to see Indian bands that play more original comps. There are two sides to the issue actually. Firstly, you need a mature open minded audience that can appreciate original music. The second issue is that the music has to be ORIGINAL in order that the crowd likes it. For example, if you take Zero, you see that they have a very distinct sound to their music. You also see people asking for PSP 12, Old Man.., Christmas in July etc. You would also see most people sing along with the band. On the other hand, if you look at Sceptre's originals, it feels like you are listening to another run of the mill average thrash band. Its a totally different thing that the band can play Angel of Death or Reign in Blood note to note. I still feel that the Indian rock scene is in its very nascent stages. When will we see all original setlists at gigs? I don't see it happening in the near future.

Again, there are multiple sides to this issue. Firstly, bands that do create good original music move on to other stuff for lack of market/audience/sales/record label backing and other assorted shit. A band making a brilliant album might end up selling a few hundred copies. This again depends on whether the Indian rock fan base is loyal or not. If you heard a good album by an Indian band, would you buy it? Do you like any Indian band? If so, do you own their CD? Or are you happy listening to the mp3s on your computer? Secondly, Indian bands don't stick around for too long for some reason or the other. One needs time, patience and experience to write good music. And the ones that stick around for too long suck :) Some bands like Parikrama and Vayu that have existed forever and have yet been able to write just one or no decent song all their life. While I cannot claim to have heard all the bands in the Indian circuit, I've heard bands like Zero, TAAQ and Zebediah Plush that have written good "original" music. I have also heard some promising original singles from bands like Acrid Semblance and IIIrd Sovereign. Only time can tell us if they can actually come up with a good full length album. What is frustrating is that all this is a vicious circle. Bands might not even get gigs to play if they went with an all original setlist.

Lets just hope that the scene just gets better. I hope next time I go to a gig, I wont hear people shout Metaaalllica, Slayaaar and I also hope the bands play good originals. Vicious Circle you see..

Valentine Massacre

We reached the place on time, but the gig started two and a half hours late! I was cursing myself for going on time, but it didn't matter at all, because the gig was a killer. One of the most brutal gigs I've been to.

The first band to play was "Amidst the Chaos". I don't remember much of their setlist, except for a very ok-ish nu-metal original and some covers which included a bad cover of Tool's Stinkfist.

Second up were Bruteforce a band that claims to play old school thrash. Their setlist included more than just old school thrash. They played some kick ass covers like Domination (Pantera), Holy Wars (Megadeth), Children of Decadence (COB) and some song by Ensiferum, if I remember right. There were violent moshpits during Domination and Holy Wars. While they nailed all the originals perfectly, their original was again, not a very memorable one. It was about some reservations in the private sector or some such bull-shit. The drummer deserves a special mention. He was good. The vocalist needs to improve though.

Next up were Exhumation. This is the second time I'm seeing this band . And unfortunately both the times, the band had some problem with the sound.
I'm not very familiar with the kind of music these guys play, but they were awesome. I hear that they played some Vader. The vocalist was just brilliant.

Next up were Redemption. I was seeing them for the second time. Despite all the hype, I didn't like their music too much. The vocals were too monotonous. I don't remember the setlist except for one *hold your breath* Meshuggah cover. That was just very bad in my opinion . First of all, how can you cover Meshuggah with just one guitarist? The song just didn't have that punch. And secondly, the vocalist was screaming away in one constant pitch. I'd say first get your act right and then cover Meshuggah.

Time to smoke. It was weird that smoking was prohibited in the hall where the gig was taking place. Anyway, I think we should be happy that we have some place in Bombay where we can have metal gigs. By the time we came back, Infernal Wrath was on stage and this was the band of the night for me. They just destroyed. They covered Cannibal Corpse (I cum blood is the only song I remember), *OMFG!!!* Cryptopsy's Phobophile and played a Slayer medley which was just insane. JP, the man on the drums was just mad. This was also the first time I saw a vocalist walk into the moshpit with the mic (you need balls for that!). People ripped his shirt off and the guy kept singing like a mad dog.

Sadly, we couldn't stay for the last two bands Metakix and Bhayanak Maut, the band for which we went to the gig! Anyway, it was one hell of a gig. Metchulll!

Storm of the Beast

Its 3 AM. Here I am listening to possibly the greatest thrash metal band to have come out of Europe. Yes biyatches, its Kreator!!!!!!!! You listen to the first few riffs of the album and instantly know that its a classic Kreator album. I remember the first time I heard the band, which was about 2 years go. I was listening to Endorama and I never really gave the album an other listen thinking it was some Gothic shite. About 1 year after that, I heard Extreme Aggression and I was completely blown away. I knew it. That was the shit! I now know their first three albums note to note :D I have to explore their other albums. I've heard that they experimented quite a bit on their later albums (damn!). Anyway, I'm hoping that the rest of their catalogue kicks ass too and shit I have to fuckin sleep. later...

Acoustic Dusk

Looong time since I posted :D

Anyway, here's what I thought of this time's AD. Views are of course, strictly personal, and shouldn't be taken seriously if they go against your own views ;) Maybe the Staccato group is a better place to post this, but I like this blog far more!!

The first meeting (that I attended) : People were discussing publicity etc. and I knew I wouldn't be working for this AD. Acoustic Dusk for me (and Pursha) was this place where people who liked music just came and sat down (or stood up and shook their heads and drank like mad) and listened to music. This whole stuff about slots and lights and big posters (it actually did seem like a copy of InSync) was totally against the feel I had for AD. Especially the slots, which I'll come to later. I remember, in my first year, this guitarist fellow (don't remember his name) generally came up on stage and said he wants to play Babe I'm Gonna Leave You. NCR got up and said he could do the drumming. So they played that song and they played Tunnel of Love. The whole informal atmosphere, everyone having fun (Golu's antics!), it was all so amazing!!! From the first meeting, I could see that wasn't going to happen this time. People were thinking big :(

The subsequent meetings: I didn't attend any. Didn't do any work since I believed it was all against my principles (Ok Fine! I was just lazy!). Just concentrated on trying to prepare for my songs. For Why Not?, I was playing some 9-10 songs, all simple, straight 4X4 beats, except for Fade to Black.

Acoustic Dusk: The first band I played with, halfway through Fade to Black, before the lead, we were told that that the song was going to be cut off midway! I couldn't concentrate at all after that! I kept losing the beat. To add to my trouble, the rhythm guitarist (which was the only thing I could hear clearly on my monitor) was constantly losing beat as well! Anyway, we were stopped this way. NCR's band couldn't play Romeo and Juliet. Why Not? played 5 of our 10 songs.

But overall of course, it was a grand AD, with proper organization etc. It wasn't informal at all. I mean, every band was practically shooed off stage! Maybe it was necessary, maybe they could have spanned it across two days, whatever. But AD Rocked!!

Now for the music :D

I loved my band the most, obviously! We played simple songs, but we played them well :) I was happy I got praise for my extremely complicated drumming (maintaining a 4x4 beat for 5 minutes!!! That's gotta be hard!) on one of our originals! 2 AM came out very well. Atleast I enjoyed it thoroughly. People said I was actually smiling and shaking my head on stage. I didn't notice it, of course :) Playing on stage is amazing!!!! I made, on an average, two mistakes per song, but I'm the drummer, and almost no one notices the drummer ;)

Of the other bands, there were lots of amazing people playing! Songs that I remember as being the best of the lot:

1. Brimful of Asha
2. Hallowed be thy Name
3. Bulls on Parade
4. Cliffs of Dover (I just looovvee the song!)
5. Shiver
6. Losing Shine and Bad Poem (our original! :D)
7. Tubthumping (from the girls)

The worst song: With or Without you. This might seem biased, since U2's my favourite band . Basically, the band meddled a little too much with perfection, adding a lead, changing the drums, etc. I just couldn't handle it ;)

This was the first time I paid attention to double bass when it was being played live. Thanx Reddy! :D It sounds amazing! Raj ka original was amazing! He'd said you would play Quit Playing Games. But Rahul kicked you off stage, didn't he? =))

There's so much that can be done with double bass! But, like you said, there's still I lot I have to learn with single bass. I do hope I get an app. When I get back here after my PhD, I'll be the best drummer in the world :D

So anyway, it was an amazing AD for the audience, I guess, with lots of bands putting in amazing performances. But I still think we lost more than we gained with a well publicized and well organized Acoustic Dusk.

Ahh commercialization ;)

Bastard

I first heard Ocean Machine around 8 months back, when I was doing my summer internship. Ocean Machine is one of Devin Townsend's (the Canadian mad man responsible for Strapping Young Lad) side projects. I again heard the album a couple of days back. Its one of the greatest albums ever made, I tell you. People talk about genius all the time, but this is pure fuckin genius, believe me. There is one track (titled "Bastard") on the album which might just become my all time favourite track! I think it already is my all time favourite. Devin Townsend might become my all time favourite vocalist too! Never before has any song moved me so much. It feels just incredible when I listen to the album. The album is simply brilliant. The music is very unique, bordering on rock, metal and ambient. I have been trying to get hold of everything that Devin has ever released. I'm just 2 or 3 albums short of completing the discography. You have to listen to the music to believe me, he is one heck of a musician. I say again, pure fuckin genius!

My Idol

Billy Cobham ... he's my idol ... an amazing jazz drummer , with many techniques in his pocket . Jus check out his work in Mahavishnu's Orchestra ... totally mind blowing stuff

mvikred 

Twisted Music

Wow, this has been one really long break from blogging. In the meanwhile, I have been listening to bands like Isis and the like. Ever since I heard Mastodon, which was a few months back, I have been on a quest to find bands with similar water-y themes. So I ended up downloading a bunch of albums by Isis, Pelican, Godflesh, Converge, Botch and Neurosis. While not much technique goes into writing the kind of music that Isis writes, it does take a vision to make music like that.
One band that has been on my playlist for a while is Necrophagist, a German death metal band. Believe me, music doesn't get more technical. They play the most twisted tunes. They are extremely fast and the most demented mind on the planet wouldn't come up with guitar solos as sick as the ones these guys play. So, if you think you've heard all, you should listen to Necrophagist.
Recently, I came across a thread on the forums of last.fm about extreme vocals in metal. Its really sad that a lot of people don't listen to metal because of the vocals. It takes getting used to the vocals before you start liking the vocals. Even in the end, its not necessary that you like the vocals, but thats the small price one needs to pay to enjoy some of the most beautiful music ever made. Before I digress into some other random topic, I stop here! More later..

Down with the 'Death'ly Pschedelia

Yeah , that was the exact feeling when i heard Cynic's 'Focus' . I've heard it a few times earlier, but this time it was beautiful, amazing and spectacular...totally mind-blowing. It was like I was lost in some kind of a beautiful world. And death metal bringing out this kind of effect was truely unique. The cover of Focus makes one feel, as though lost in some kind of a trance. Well no wonder the music had the same effect on me. The artwork precisely described the music. I've got only one album of Cynic, but after this album, I would try to get hold of some more. The growls along with some 'chant'ly kind of voice giving backing vocals sent me through the dizzy lanes with colours changing every now and then. The feeling was wonderful. One should listen to this album to know what i exactly mean. I dont know much abt the band or the members, but now i am gonna read up on them. Its really strange that jus one Good album in a band's career makes all the fans retrospect their earlier work, which if they dint get a break would've gone un-noticed. Who would have heard of earlier works by Edge of Sanity before Crimson, who heard of Nile's works before Black Seeds of Vengeance ... many such examples can be quoted within 25 years of metal. They are so many bands that do amazing work but are not known to everyone. Hence i request all the metal-heads to give these new and up-coming bands a chance, listen to their music and 'if' done well spread the word around. Untill you come across such a band , keep listening to metal and listen to 'Focus' for sure :)

mvikred

I took a nice little break after my exams. All I've been doing in smoke and listen to metal (and ofcourse, get drunk every night). I've been playing Sadus, Kataklysm and The Crown repeatedly like a fuckin retard. Sadus for those of you who don't know is the band of the almighty Steve DiGiorgio. That was before he started recording with Death and others. If you are into thrash metal, you will love this album. Needless to say, the bass on this album stands out. I love the album. Hope to get hold of more Sadus albums.

Kataklysm is one of those insane Canadian bands. Canadians are really mad aren't they? Strapping Young Lad, Cryptopsy, Rush are the ones that come to my mind immediately. Anyway Kataklysm is a very neat death metal band. The drummer is frighteningly fast. Is he fucking machine gun or what? The vocals are pretty ok and the guitarist churns out good riffs. One thing that I didn't like about the album "Serenity in Fire" is that there are absolutely no guitar solos. But the band fucking destroys because of the drummer. Overall, its a must check out band.

And finally The Crown! One more Crown album on my list. First it was "Deathrace King" . Now its "Hell is Here". Groovy death metal with amazing guitar and drum work. Any metalhead will love it.

Green Carnation

Have you ever heard about this band ?? . If you did, then i'm sure you wouldve also heard about their album called "Light Of Day, Day Of Darkness" . So whats special about this album. For starters, this amazing album has one song, and one song that lasts for 60 mins. Its the best Prog metal i've heard after Edge of Sanity's Crimson(Its the best...40 mins of pure bliss). Green Carnation is not metal exactly, its basically more on the heavy rock side, but few of their albums have a metal touch , especially this album has double bass rippin the speakers a no. of times. Though not really heavy like the death metal double bass, but , something jus enough to give it a heavy feel at the right moment. The song starts of with cries of a baby, and some avantegarde sounds which take one into a world of trance. This is as though the song is speaking to the listener. Setting the mood for the next 60 minutes to come. The next hour, is a scintillating ride on the rollercoster of the writer's emotions. He talks abt the weak , the strong , death, life and many philosophical doubts that linger in every humans head. Its more like a battle between hope and disappointment. The song ends with a rhetorical question, where he says

"If what I wrote was real
Could I then a God be?
Would what I see
Then be part of reality?
Would I then reach divine entity?"

The song has all the elements for a top notch, progressive metal song. The song has flute going on somewhere in between, a female vox which brings out sadness to perfection. Change of timing, melody, and one important thing for me especially was that the music changed according the mood of the lyrics. This especially has its effect when one sings along the lyrics. Trust me , its a journey you would nver regret. Once 60 minutes are over, you wonder how time has passed by. How come one hour jus slipped through as though it were 5 mins. Thats the effect of this song. I get lost in the song so much, that time blurs out of my senses every time i listen to this album. The bottom line being , this album is a MUST for any progressive metal fan (atleast someone who seriously thinks he/she is)

It feels like this song has a heart and brain of its own, it will interact with you on a personal scale. It's fucking hypnotic ppl. Dont believe me... then you should try it yourself. Go grab this album !!!

mvikred

I'm backkkk

I totally forgot abt posting here after my exams. But the latest news is that i started my drumming classes and i hope to get better once these classes are done. I am all enthu now and mostly i would be playing some nice stuff next sem. So sridhar , be ready dude :) . wats on my playlist ? , well ..... now i am listening to dark tranquillity's "The Mind's I" . A very good listen. Nothing spectacular , but a nice listen once in a while. Drudkh's The Swan Road has been growing on me. So is Mastodon's EP "Lifesblood" and their album "Leviathon" . Mastodon is very different from other bands. Got to know that , they define the genre - noisecore , along with The Dillinger Escape Plan and few other bands. Mastodon has killer riffs with some really intricate drum work by bran dailor. Yeah .... intricate, thts wat i said. Intricate cuz his rolls are so fast , and almost no roll is repeated in one song. Its like , his hands are moving all the time , there is no simple roll in any of mastodons songs that i;ve heard till date. enuf said abt mastodon, now i'm listening to morbid angel's blessed are the sick :) ... a classic death metal album. cya guys later.

Book of Saturday

Got hold of Tommy finally and gave it a few listens. The song "Sparks" is stuck in my head. Especially the part where John Entwistle starts his crazy bass line. Apart from The Who, I've been listening to some of my favourites like King Crimson and CCR. I think CCR and King Crimson are two highly underrated bands. These guys made some amazing music. CCR is the funkiest rock and roll band I've ever heard. Their riffs are just too cool. They were probably one of the earliest "jam" bands. Who can ever forget their classic jam on "Heard it through a grapevine"?! John Fogerty's vocals are just awesome.

And coming to King Crimson, this band is the best prog-funk-psychedelia combination ever. Its definitely one of the most innovative bands ever. All the members of the band amazing at what they do. Robert Fripp's riffs are crazy. There are just too many good songs to mention any one. Some of my favs would be Cat Food, Dinosaur, 21st Century Schizoid Man, Walk on Air, Sex Sleep Eat Drink Dream.

The Dillinger Escape Plan (DEP) is another band that I've been hooked to for a couple of days. Their music is mostly hardcore with lots of jazz thrown in. This is the first hardcore band that I've liked so much. My earlier attempts to "like" a very famous hardcore band, Orchid, failed miserably. I didn't understand what the hell these guys were doing. But then there's a time when the band or the music just clicks with you. DEP is not another average run of the mill handcore act. For starters, these guys are incredibly talented. I've been listening to two of their EPs. The first one is called "Under the running board". The EP consists of 3 songs clocking 7 mins 33 secs in total! All 3 songs are brilliant and the album leaves you exhausted at the end of the 7 mins 33 secs. I think less is more in this kind of metal. Mastodon's EP Lifesblood did the same exact thing to me. Its like a mind blowing hailstorm which makes you want to listen to the album again and again and again! The second EP titled "Irony is a dead scene" has the eccentric Mike Patton (of Faith No More) on vocals. He is one of my favourite vocalists. This guy comes a close second to Devin Townsend in the "most insane musician awards" :) Just listen to any of his records with Fantomas, Tomahawk or Mr. Bungle and you'll go bonkers. Too bad Patton didn't stick around with DEP for their later albums. The jazzy breakdowns in all their songs make the music very interesting. Anyway be sure to check out these three bands and I'll be back with info about more bands that no one wants to listen to :D

Six Songs

I've been to these six songs over and over for the whole of last week. What they have in common is hard to explain, so I won't even try. Figure it out for yourself :P

.1. Harsh Kale feat. Ustad Zakir Hussain - Milan. This has to be the best fusion song I've ever heard and it's all the more better because most of it is based on the tabla, flute and drums (accompanied by lots of other instruments). The song is slow, but it's energy is amazingly contagious! I couldn't help trying to make a silly and corny story out of it, so I did. It's about this fellow in jail who escapes and all to meet his girlfriend. No one's sad even when he's in jail, everyone's just hopeful and not happy then. When they meet, they have everything (i.e. each other) and they run away to settle down in Sikkim.

.2. Dr. Alban - It's My Life. This is a GOD song!! The story: A girl running away from home to do her own thing (whatever it is). The scene is at the railway station when she's about to get into the train. Instead of everything being sad, the sun is rising and "It's my life" is playing :)

.3. Judas Priest - Breakign the Law. The ultimate rebellion song! The instruments get along together well to bring out rebellion with "hypnotic cool". The video's extremely funny with everyone looking like cartoon characters. The song is amazing anyway.

.4. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger. Now why would I say anything about this song? Anyone who's ever seen Rocky when he's training will know the song. If you're feeling down and need inspiration, this song is what you've got to listen to so it'll all be okay.

.5. Dido - White Flag. Her voice is good and there's lots of feeling in the song. The lyrics are very nice too in their own way.

.6. Gary Jules - Mad World. People who've seen Donnie Darko will relate to this song better. It's the song that plays at the end of the movie. It fits in perfectly even though it wasn' t meant to be in the movie and was actually the second choice (U2's MLK was first). The lyrics are amazing and you can fee the amused sort of frustration in the singer's voice.

Ok, this post turned out to be much more pointless than I thought. Sorry :P

The Crown

I've been spending a lot of time posting on this blog lately. This time its about an other Swedish death metal band called the "The Crown". Their album "Deathrace King" grows on me everytime I play it. Its definitely one of the catchiest death metal records of all time. I've heard a lot of people call their music "Death Rock". People have written about their obvious Motorhead influences. Well, I haven't really heard Motorhead, but I think I'm gonna have to start. Coming back to The Crown, their riffs are too catchy. With classic heavy metal solos and very good vocal performace by Johan Lindstrand. I think all those guys who hate/are afraid of/don't care for death metal would do good by listening to this band. A lot of the music on this album is more like heavy metal than death metal, except for the vocals though. I was searching for some album reviews on the net, and found this interview of their bassist on metalstorm. An excerpt from the interview:


10: According to your personal experience, what would you advise a young band that is just starting in metal music?

Quit! It is not worth it! This is only for those who HAVE to do it. For the possessed who have no other choice or option...and they do not take advice.


Wow! That was interesting. Anyway, I got hold of 2 other albums of this band. But this album is so catchy and it won't leave me...

Storm

I've been writing code ..well, atleast trying to write code for about 10 hours. All the while I had Devin Townsend's Accelerated Evolution playing in the background. I've heard the album a few times before but today it really kicked me! Hence the post. I'm a big fan of his other projects Ocean Machine and Strapping Young Lad. Its very difficult to pin this kind of music to a particular genre. It has elements of rock, prog, metal and techno music. If you are a Strapping Young Lad fan, then you'd be utterly surprised at how different Devin's other side projects are. Devin's voice is excellent throughout the album. In fact, sometimes I feel that this guy has the most powerful voice in the realm of rock and metal. The only other vocalists that I can thnk of, with such commanding voices are Chuck Schuldiner, Phil Anselmo, James Maynard Keenan and probably Eddie Vedder. If there was such a thing as "the most insane voice ever" award, it would go to Devin anyday. (I love giving these awards for some reason :) He sings beautifully along with the music and suddenly double bass kicks in and Devin goes berserk, after a few seconds everything is pleasant again! The music is almost surreal. This is not the kinda music that you'd want to sit down and analyze. This isn't even the kinda music that has cool guitar leads and drum work. Its really emotional music. You can hear it in Devin's voice and in the melodies. It might take a while to start liking the music. Needless to say, this music is not for everybody.

OPETH

GOD

Deliverance >>> GOD

My Arms , Your Hearse >>>> GOD

Blackwater Park >>> GOD

Morningrise >>> GOD

Damnation >>> GOD ; In My time of Need >>> GOD GOD GOD !!!

Ghost Reveries >>> GOD

Melody, Lyrics >>> GOD

Martin Lopez >>> GOD

Micheal Akerfeldt >>> SUPERGOD

OPETH >>> GOD

I've been listening to this band a lot recently and one word that keeps coming to my mind all the time is 'GOD'

Listen to them first and then comment.

mvikred

Fever Dog

Watched the movie "Almost Famous" for the 4th time last weekend. Crazy movie. My rock n roll spirit is back again! The Stillwater song "Fever Dog" is stuck in my head. Love the vocals and the riff and the intro. A fuckin cool song! Pearl Jam's McCready played the guitar in the movie. For one full day, I heard just Led Zeppelin and Hendrix. I so desperately wanted to listen to Tommy, but couldn't get hold of it. I love the scene where young William takes out the record of Tommy and finds a note in it which says "Listen to Tommy with a candle burning, you will see your future".
Today, I watched "Atom Heart Mother - The Ultimate Critical Review". More Floyd. Looks like Floyd had done everything way before their time. Ron Geesin is the mastermind behind all the weird stuff that you hear on Atom Heart Mother. For some reason, his name does not appear on the disc's credits. This post is more like a movie review. Anyway, saw this other movie last weekend. Its called "Dead Man" starring Johnny Depp. The movie was awesome but what was more awesomeo was the guitar playing in the background in all the scenes. All throughout the movie I was thinking that the scene wouldn't be the same without the guitar. Later I found out that Neil Young played the guitar. Neat! Enough of rock n roll. Back in the Opeth mode. Listening to Blackwater Park. Hail Satan!

Pelican

This is a recent discovery. About a month back, I downloaded a couple of albums of this band called Pelican. I had obviously read the reviews of the band before downloading the albums. I always do. And I always make sure that I read lots of them, because I believe that I can trust the collective opinion of 10 reviews. Anyway, one of the two albums is a self-titled EP and the other is a full length album titled "Australasia".

To start with, there are no vocals on the album! Its all instrumental. I was initially very unsure of what kind of stuff to expect. Because instrumental metal albums come by very rarely (I'm not talking of the Malmsteen types here) I thought I'd try this out. And it turned out to be one of the most innovative bands I've ever heard. They don't have lightning fast leads. Infact, they don't have any guitar leads on their songs. Neither do they have amazing drum work. But what they do have in all their songs can't be put into words! Its beautiful heavy, downtuned, crunching guitar riffs. Some of the most mesmerizing riffs I've ever heard. Yeah thats the word! Mesmerizing. I've hrd the two albums countless times until now. And everytime I listen to the songs, get lost. I have visions of ships, oceans, far away lands, wars and giants! Brilliant stuff.

Now thanks to reddy's 2 day subscription to rapidshare, I could get hold of a couple of albums of this band called Isis, pioneers of this kind of music. These guys have vocals though. I can't wait to listen to the new stuff, but I'm still hooked to Pelican. I'm alone in my wing, almost everyone's at home. And my speakers are blaring Pelican. Its an awesome feeling :)