Starting tonight, I’m going to try and do a short weekly
blog on the bands that I’m currently listening to and the music that is
currently ‘doing it’ for me. This blog will be in addition to my blog take off,
launch edition 2.421a
I’m now finished my masters’ thesis and have time to begin
tending to my blog in a serious manner!
I recently bought the book ‘Enter Night: A Biography ofMetallica’ written by Mick Wall and I have to say that I enjoyed it immensely.
It gave me a really good insight into areas of the band I wasn’t too familiar
with previously – namely the formation years of the band and some of the
different stories behind the recording of and influences behind the albums.
What was most interesting after reading the chapters on individual albums, was
listening to said albums straight through. While you notice the differences
yourself when it comes to the immediately audible sounds, it’s only after
reading that you notice the qualities that Cliff brought to the band in its
earlier years. Yes this is a well travelled road but I just found it amazing
the bass and musical skills he brought to the band. One very interesting point
Mick Wall writes about is a rumour that Dave Lombardo was supposed to replace
Lars in the band pre Cliff’s death. I can’t help but dream about the direction
the band would have embarked on with one of the greatest drummers, thee
greatest rhythm guitarist and such an amazing bassist. Not forgetting that Kirk
was a fantastic lead guitarist also. How would their music have evolved? It
kind of shocked me to read that Lars was still needing drumming lessons even up
to the making of the ‘Black Album’. Fascinating read nonetheless! For what it’s
worth, my top 3 Metallica albums would be:
1.
Master of Puppets
2.
Ride the Lightening
3.
Metallica
In other music news, this last week my top five artists
were:
1.
Metallica
2.
La Strada
3.
The Kinks
4.
Om
5.
Keith Jarrett
Metallica were the outright leaderboard winners in no small
part to listening to nearly all albums. I couldn’t being myself to listen to
anything on ReLoad except Fuel and Memory Remains. I couldn’t bring myself to
listen to anything on St. Anger. Period! La Strada are a Belgian three piece I
came across on a cruise I won through my old job. They were one of my classical
artists aiding me through a long night when spell checking my thesis. The Kinks
I hadn’t listened to in ages! They’re one of those bands that you should listen
to more but keep escaping my mind! Om on the other hand, have impressed me
massively with their latest offering ‘Advaitic Songs’. What a phenomenal album.
They played in Dublin a few weeks back but I couldn’t afford the trip to Dublin
to see them. If you like haunting, slow, bass and cello driven heavy rock –
these are the guys for you. The worst part is that my description probably does
them no justice! They’re in a genre of their own. The standout song on the
album for me would be ‘State of Non Return’. It’s six minutes of ultimate bliss
on a truly amazing album. The heavy slow guitars and bass intermixed with the
aforementioned cello – it’s a different sound from what you’ve heard before!
Trust me!
I’ve recently gotten into Keith Jarrett after I listened to
a fantastic episode of a podcast that
I subscribe to: Witness, available through iTunes and made by the BBC World
Service. It gave the background to a concert he gave in Köln and as the blurb
says, the Köln concert was made possible thanks to this 17-year-old and her
perseverance. I got my hands on a copy of the concert from my local library and
it was truly something. So I’ve acquired a few more of his albums and he got me
through one night of spell checking and grammar checking. Rio is quite an album
also.
Ok so I’ll wrap up this post and hopefully have more music
mutterings next week.
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