What Are You Listening to Now 7.0

Nestor - kids in a Ghost Town

Lovely 80s hommage. Between this, At The Movies and The Night Flight Orchestra, there is no shortage of great summer anthems. Too bad that both Def Leppard and the Scorpions sound like the tired old men they are. :)
 
Xandria - Reborn

Their 2012 album "Neverworld's End" was a fine, if somewhat generic piece of Nightwish-inspired symphonic metal. This new song is fucking terrible. They try for Epica, but land in the symphonic bargain bin. Also, and that's a first, the video made me seasick thanks to all the flailing around the singer does.

Speaking of the singer: Her non-soprano voice is bland, her "death scream" sounds forced and works as well with the diabetes-inducing sweetness of the song as ghost peppers on ice cream.

The mix is a special kind of awesome. Thanks to the insane amount of compression on everything, I can't hear neither the metal nor orchestral instruments clearly. It's one big muddy mess and the only things punching through are the triggered drums and sticky vocals.

I'm no fan of neither Nightwish's nor Epica's recent output - but at least they have good sound guys.
 
Xandria - Reborn

Their 2012 album "Neverworld's End" was a fine, if somewhat generic piece of Nightwish-inspired symphonic metal. This new song is fucking terrible. They try for Epica, but land in the symphonic bargain bin. Also, and that's a first, the video made me seasick thanks to all the flailing around the singer does.

Speaking of the singer: Her non-soprano voice is bland, her "death scream" sounds forced and works as well with the diabetes-inducing sweetness of the song as ghost peppers on ice cream.

The mix is a special kind of awesome. Thanks to the insane amount of compression on everything, I can't hear neither the metal nor orchestral instruments clearly. It's one big muddy mess and the only things punching through are the triggered drums and sticky vocals.

I'm no fan of neither Nightwish's nor Epica's recent output - but at least they have good sound guys.

So you're saying you liked it?



:D
 

Меч Арея - The Sword of Arei​



The Sword of Areya/Arei is a Ukrainian song, originally written for the bandura (nationalists) by the author of Vasily Lyutoy. Written on July 21, 2004 for Bandura performance, it became especially popular after the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine in 2014

The sword of Arei

A thunder rumbles in God's forge.
Warriors with shoulder- long hair are waiting.
The hand of gray-haired Svaroh
Smith a strong sword for Arei.

Now the weapon is ready,
It reflects in the shine of sky.
God Mother blessed it.
And people named it Charkes.

Arei's hand lifts the sword
For the glory of Perun warriors,
For strong spirit, for our defense.
He will kill evil foes!

The Earth shakes because of the Thunder in the Sky,
The sword of Arei brings a freedom for Rus- Ukraine.
Foes will be vanished in Ukraine.
The sword of Arei will bring our land back!

Charkes is the magic sword of Arei,
It has been held by Tur and Sviatoslav.
It has bravely defended
Rus-Ukraine and Borea.

Hatylo, the given by God, has held it,
And great dukes have held it.
The sword was a weapon of knights and hetmans,
And now it's in your hand!

Arei's hand lifts the sword
For the glory of Perun warriors,
For strong spirit, for our defense.
He will kill evil foes!

The Earth shakes because of the Thunder in the Sky,
The sword of Arei brings freedom for Rus- Ukraine.
Foes will be vanished in Ukraine.
The sword of Arei will bring our land back!
 
Love this cover of "Angel Baby" by Shania Yan

Personally, I think she covers it better than the original, but that's just me...
 
Love this cover of "Angel Baby" by Shania Yan

Personally, I think she covers it better than the original, but that's just me...
I like this comparison. Shania wins on vocals, but Troye wins on musical backing and video. Today the video adds so much to the enjoyment of the music that things I wouldn't have listened to, say pre-MTV, are now favourites on my playlist.
This is my favourite Thousand Hands Dance. Thousand Hands Dance.
 
Beautiful Shade of Grey

James LaBrie

From my least favorite part of Dream Theater comes a surprisingly real good solo album. Much more acoustic driven than DT, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a rocker.
 
I like James LaBrie. Granted, I've heard him more on Ayreon than Dream Theater, but the work he does on "Images And Words" is freaking amazing. I've bought his previous solo album, which sometimes sounded a bit like Soilwork (and was a strange, yet fitting style for him) and enjoyed that very much too.
 
Beautiful Shade of Grey

James LaBrie

From my least favorite part of Dream Theater comes a surprisingly real good solo album. Much more acoustic driven than DT, but that doesn't mean that this isn't a rocker.

Must research!

Thanks for the info.
 
Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe's eponymous first album.
Yes' classic Close to the Edge turns fifty this year and Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe were four/fifths of the band then with Chris Squire being the fifth.
This album has Tony Levin on bass as Squire was busy with Yes.
 
And speaking of Yes - Alan White died today :(
Well that sucks. He was the longest running member of Yes, after Squire.
He also drummed for John Lennon and George Harrison
Yes announced earlier in the week that Jay Schellen would be the temporary drummer on the current tour as White was having health issues.
 
Friday already? Time to sift through some stuff the record labels have put up on Youtube.

Blind Guardian - Blood Of The Elves: These guys have a massive studio to play with, yet their mixes grow worse with every release. The guitars are way too mid-heavy, you barely hear the bass and the choir and orchestral parts which could have given this claustrophobic mess some room are compressed to death. This isn't progressive, this is headless flailing. Gone are the times when BG songs were earworms to either sing or headbang to.

Oceans - I want to be whole again: The polar opposite to the above track. The guitar alone has more space than the whole Guardian song. This is heartwrenching, passionate music with a massive sound, everything is distinct and yet tight as fuck. You can even clearly hear the tiny synth lines used to fatten the low end. I'm usually not a fan of the post-everything sound, but The Ocean got me good. Reminded me a bit of Tesseract, only in slow and really heavy. No death growls either. Cool shit.

Fellowship - Until The Fires Die: Please kill me. I never wanted to experience what happened if someone took the song ideas even Rhapsody of Fire found too cringey to play and gave them to Gloryhammer's little cousins. This crap could give Diabetes diabetes.

Krisiun: Serpent Messaiah: Blast beats. Cool. Anything else? Maybe a memorable riff or two? No? Fuck off then. @litfan10 :Death growls. Bad and boring ones. Better avoid.

Some random dudes turned the Soundtrack to Legend of Zelda - Ocarina of Time into a prog rock concept album. Now this is the kind of random Internet magic able to make me smile. I've already heard some shades of Ayreon, Jethro Tull, King Crimson and a lot of neoprog in the first three songs. Amazing way to spend an hour.
 
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Ou

according to a lot of my prog news feeds this is the new big thing - symphonic prog out of China.

I need to listen a couple times. At times I find the vocalist to be a Tarja wannabe which annoys me then other times the vocals are good. The music can be wild and out there especially with time signatures which can be both interesting and annoying.
 
Ann Wilson - Fierce Bliss

I did not expect much from the album when Dani told me "Did you know Heart's guitarist made a solo record just now?" I mean, Heart went from feisty '70s hard rock to glitzy '80s rock to toothless New Age soundtracky stuff.

But Jesus H. Christ on a motorbike, the old gal has teeth! I just zipped through the album once, but I've heard shreds which would go nicely on Dio's '80s output, riffs so heavy Tony Iommy would respectfully nod and some effing epic screams from a lady who shouldn't sound on par with Lizzy Hale at her age. I wish I'll kick as much ass as she does at 71.

So, having said that, I'll go back and have Miss Wilson shred at me some more. It's a delight hearing her tear at her guitar, with a tight and well-mixed backing band by her side. Sure, the '70s/80s nods are everywhere, but the album sounds crisp and alive, without the 70's stuffiness nor the modern overcompression. Yum. Extremely tasty and another bit of evidence that good musicians only get better with age.
 
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