Geschreven

Best lang naar uitgekeken en nu is ie alweer een maand uit. De nieuwe plaat van de Finse band Amorphis. Gaat dat luisteren! Check de review van Angry Metal Guy voor meer.

Amorphis is toevallig ook nog eens de laatste band die ik live zag, vlak voor Corona in 013 Tilburg. In de blogpost was ik nog hoopvol dat het de eerste van vele zou zijn dat jaar. Dat is niet helemaal zo gelopen. Binnenkort gaat het gelukkig allemaal weer een beetje opstarten. Eerst naar Madrugada en daarna naar Dool, die laatste is geloof ik wel 3x uitgesteld inmiddels. Het lijkt er voor nu iig op dat die gewoon doorgaan. Eindelijk weer een optreden!! Sinds mijn 15e heeft er niet zoveel tijd tussen shows gezeten, bizar.. Let's go!

Krijgen we dan eindelijk een nieuwe plaat van Tool? Zanger Maynard James Keenan lijkt het te bevestigen. En met een Thor meme nog wel! Er zijn onlangs 2 nieuwe nummers gelekt die ze live speelden, maar dat zijn vast hele brakke opnamen. Ik ga proberen me te beheersen en wachten tot het album uit is. Bij het optreden van 18 juni zullen ze misschien ook wel iets spelen, maar de focus zal dan toch op oud werk liggen. Ook prima wat mij betreft.

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Ik zag de IJslandse band Sólstafir vorig jaar aan het werk als voorprogramma van Long Distance Calling in Baroeg. Eindelijk eens een goed voorprogramma, dat kan dus ook! Ik had al werk van hen, maar live ging het pas echt leven. Deze maand komt er een nieuw album uit, getiteld Ótta. Ben erg benieuwd, vooral omdat het doorgaans toch betrouwbare angrymetalguy.com het werkje met niet minder dan 5 van 5 sterren beoordeelde.

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Ben momenteel erg gecharmeerd van de nieuwe CD van Audrey Horne, Youngblood. Fijn om bij te programmeren, lekker om hard bij door de stad te fietsen. Niets meer aan doen. Nou ja, misschien een andere hoes. Deze is wel érg lelijk.

Voor een review verwijs ik graag door naar Angry Metal Guy.

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En toen regende het ook nog eens op de terugweg zojuist. Om maar te zwijgen van de domme mevrouw die heur paraplu liet vallen, waardoor het hele fietspad bijna tot een botsing kwam.

Nou ja, nu zit ik lekker met droge kleren te luisteren naar de nieuwe Paradise Lost (Faith Divides Us - Death Unites Us), want die lag op de deurmat op me te wachten bij thuiskomst. Fijn! En het is ook nog eens een bijzonder mooie uitvoering, heel chique in een boekvorm. Absoluut de moeite van het aanschaffen waard!

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I'm a bit surprised by the lack of new albums for this year so far. The only 2 I bought are the new My Dying Bride and the new OSI. Both are great by the way, but compared to last year it's slim pickings.

Did (re)discover some older works though. Like the Ché album (by former Kyuss drummer Brant Bjork) Sounds of Liberation and 39 Laps by Monkey3, which I can't recommend enough. I'm currently looking forward to the new releases by Amorphis (Skyforger) and Katatonia (to be announced), both expected later this year.

I guess I could trail through the Category: 2009 albums on Wikipedia or the Top Albums tagged as 2009 at Last.fm, but they're both not genre specific. How do you keep track of the new releases for bands you like?

There's maybe a dozen bands whose work I'll buy no matter what. One of those bands is My Dying Bride. I just ordered their new release Welcome to For Lies i Sire. Can't wait for it to arrive!

In a recent interview with Beyond The Dark Horizon, My Dying Bride vocalist Aaron Stainthorpe stated, "Naturally, we think it's our best work to date and has a sort of 'new-meets-old' sound; the violins giving a nod to our past and the new riffs and vocals showing the way forward. It is quite possibly the most depressing thing we've created to date, and all the more wonderful for it."

Asked how he feels the new CD differs from My Dying Bride's last studio album, "A Line of Deathless Kings", Aaron replied, "Would you believe it, it's even darker? I've pushed the vocals further, finding more melodies, as have the guitars, and, of course, the violin has added a deep range of feeling. It's quite a fresh, melodic sound despite being utterly despondent."

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I recently finally purchased the Theatre of Tragedy 1996 album Velvet Darkness They Fear. My favourite song on this album, and possibly from the ToT catalogue, is And When He Falleth. It features a dialogue from The Masque of the Red Death (1964) starring Vincent Price. I've never actually seen the movie, but now, thanks to the wonder of YouTube, I can at least watch the fragment with this particular dialogue.

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One of my favourite bands has a new album out today! So after work I rushed to the record store (yes, I'm one of those people who still buy albums) to get a copy of the self-titled album by Madrugada.

Unfortunately the guy working there informed me I was the fifth person inquiring and he was sad to tell me there was no information available about an international release. Even though the website clearly states a worldwide release today. I'm quite disappointed now. Hopefully I'll be able to get my hands on a copy soon.

It's been a bit slow here lately, so I figured now is as good a time as any to mention a recently released album I've been impressed with: Ghost Brigade - Guided By Fire

This is the debut album for this Finnish five piece. The influences apparent in their music are eclectic and wide spread, and they have encompassed a number of styles in their melancholic music. Quoting reviews "the most apparent and easily identifiable influences would be the melding of latter period Katatonia-esque dark rock, with hints of the tempered metal style of latter day Paradise Lost. Mix into that the minor key atmospherics of Amorphis at their most inspired, and lashings of good old fashioned death metal atmospherics and dynamism, and you can begin to see that we're onto a winner here."

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Though it wasn't set for release untill Monday, I got my hands on a copy of the new Type O Negative, called Dead Again. Shiny! Here's a review, on Chronicles Of Chaos or if you'd rather read an interview, try Decibel Magazine. I had hoped to be able to see the band perform the songs on stage, but I recently found out ('European Tour Dates Announced') they're only performing festivals in my neck of the woods. So I'm currently considering attending the second day of Fields Of Rock on June 17th. Details might follow.

Next release I'm looking forward to is Porcupine Tree's Fear Of A Blank Planet, which is due out on April 16th. Good times for great music!

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Almost time for the new year, so that means it's time for a list. This one shows my favourite releases of the past year.

1. Tool - 10.000 Days
2. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance
3. Amorphis - Eclipse
4. My Dying Bride - A Line of Deathless Kings
5. Agalloch - Ashes Against the Grain
6. Novembre - Materia
7. OSI - Free
8. Green Carnation - The Acoustic Verses
9. Moonspell - Memorial
10. Iron Maiden - A Matter Of Life And Death

I recently discovered a band called OSI. It's a progressive metal band formed by Fates Warning guitarist Jim Matheos in 2003. He was joined by (among others) Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy and Kevin Moore (from Chroma Key). They've since released two albums, which I can't recommend enough.

My favourite songs are Shutdown, featuring Steven Wilson (of Porcupine Tree), Hello, Helicopter and Go.

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About 4 years ago I was browsing the 'Metal New' at my favourite recordstore, when I found The Mantle by a band calld Agalloch. It featured a sticker that said Melancholic metal with references from Pink Floyd, Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sol Invictus, Ulver, Dissection, Fields Of The Nephilim.... I wasn't familiar with the band, but the combination of the somber cover and the sticker made me buy it. I instantly loved it and soon purchased their back catalogue.

The new album was announced earlier this year and I ordered it some time in March. Unfortunately the release was postponed untill August. I'd almost forgotten about it when it arrived in the mail earlier this week. It's called Ashes Against the Grain and like all great albums it takes a number of plays to form an opinion. For the time being, you can find a review on Chronicles of Chaos. More good news, as the band is playing in Helmond in November.

Got it! Picked up the new Tool album 10.000 Days at Velvet just now. Got a not so legal version earlier this week, but that's just not the same. After waiting five years for this, I want the complete package, including the groovy artwork. At the moment the title track is my favourite track. The album is called thus because:

As Keenan explains [..], his mother suffered a stroke that left her partially paralyzed and wheelchair-bound. The length of time between her paralysis and her death was 27 years, or approximately 10,000 days.