Posts

Bring Back the Plague - Cattle Decapitation

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      Now that the pandemic is not such a hot topic anymore, it is a good time to finally address this badass song Bring Back the Plague by Cattle Decapitation . I’ve never really been into death metal or other such genres that rely on growly vocals, distorted guitar riffs and super-fast tempo, but this song just hit me differently. What caught my ear from the very first listen was the vocals. They’re absolutely brilliant! The vocalist, Travis Ryan, makes it sound as if the song was a dialogue between a growly giant and a very angry midget :D. The song starts with the giant making their statement to which the angry midget gets their say (at 0:50 in the video above). Another little detail I love about the vocals is how Ryan rolls his R’s in the chorus (at 2:11). The reason why I noticed this is because he pronounces them in a very Finnish way rather than how an American normally would. I find it hilarious, especially because he sings the chorus in his angry midget voice a...

Spiritual Architecture - Ashbringer

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  I foud this gem in my Spotify suggestions. Almost 10 minutes of instrumental greatness, the song is filled up with emotion and musical talent. Being a pianist myself, I especially enjoyed the super pretty piano melody that was the driving force throughout the whole piece. Also the varying sound environments from the more electric vibes of the beginning to the more rougher part in the end were something that really caught my ear with this one. In the previous post I wrote about a certain songs that have something very emotion-provoking to them. Spiritual Architecture definitely falls into that category. You just get this weird emotional feeling when you sit on your bed and blast these type of songs on full volume through headphones, and just let the music flow through you, giving you major goosebumps. My listening experience with this song was similar to what I had hearing one of the greatest masterpieces in the world, Time By Wintersun (which deserves its own post at some point...

Project Regeneration Vol. 1 (album) - Static-X

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Industrial metal is one of my favorite subgenres of metal and I can’t wait to look more into it during this blog journey. Considering how much I like the industrial sound, I’m ashamed to admit for how little while I’ve been into Static-X, a great industrial metal band from the States. I’ve known the band’s existence for a while, but only recently really got into listening to them.   Indeed, Static-X has been around from the mid-’90s but ended breaking up in 2013, following the death of the frontman and lead vocalist Wayne Static in 2014. Some years after, the remaining original band members got together for a reunion and plans for new music. And boom, after 11 years of silence, Static-X released a new album in the summer last year. The new album, Project Regeneration Vol. 1 is a tribute to Wayne Static, including some unreleased recordings of his vocals that didn’t make to the band’s previous albums. In addition, the role of the lead vocalist has been taken on by a mystery man behi...

Sirppi - Ruusut

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A little shorter review this time: As much of a metalhead I am, I’m also really into electronic music, preferably anything that I can dance to haha. That’s why this song 'Sirppi' by the Finnish electropop group Ruusut caught my ear when I heard it on the radio a while ago. I don’t follow the Finnish music scene that much, which is why this indie band was unfamiliar to me even though they have been on the rise over the past couple years. There are many interesting layers in the song. These layers create a sound environment that make me feel as if I’m entering some sort of a fantasy world. The main verses are sung by the female singer and have an interestingly complex harmony (at least to my ear) which is super cool and contributes to this overall surrealistic feeling of the song. At first, I was going to say that the chorus, on the contrary, has no harmony to it but now that I have the song on repeat as I’m writing, I have to say that I heard wrong! There indeed is a subtle ha...

Catharsis - Machine Head

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Catharsis refers to the process of releasing strong, suppressed emotions that are purged through art (like writing or music), a particular activity or an experience of an extreme change in one’s emotions, resulting in renewal and understanding the emotions better ( Cambridge Dictionary ) . ‘Catharsis’ is also the name of the ninth studio album and its title track by the American heavy metal band Machine Head. Despite being around for a good while and having led the way in the New wave of American heavy metal movement since the 1990s, for me the band was quite unfamiliar. I had previously only heard the name but couldn’t name any of their songs, or what genre they represent. When I first heard ‘Catharsis’ , I was coming home from my dance class and had just parked my car. I was about to turn the power off, when the song started playing on the local Radio Rock station. It caught my ear, partially because I hadn’t heard it played on the radio before and partially because it sounded inter...