2011-06-23 Shuffle (by hurricane_mario)

About: Let's play a game.
1. Turn shuffle (of your entire music library) on
2. Start by playing a song of your choice
3. Save every song that plays onto a playlist, until you reach sub-74 minutes (If the next song puts it over 74 it's not part of the playlist)
4. Upload (link in comments or on your own blog)

That's what I did here. It was my old library on my desktop which has not been touched since March 30th. It has 94,510 songs totalling nearly 600GB and 287 days of playtime. It worked out pretty well. For some reason all of the songs seemed to have a dark and mysterious feeling. I guess I just like that kind of music.

Track List:
1. Yngwie Malmsteen - As Above, So Below
Well this was vocalist Jeff Scott Soto's debut, who has since gone on to sing in bands such as Talisman, W.E.T., and the most well-known being Trans-siberian orchestra. He started when Malmsteen was equally unknown (And arguably still is... he was not even on Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarists... I hate that magazine). It's the only song with vocals on this album, Rising Force. The vocals are just so amazing as well as the guitar solos.

2. Nocternity - Onyx
Never really listened to this band. It's some brutal, raw black metal but theres some nice melodies to be found.

3. The Meads of Asphodel - Weeping Tears of Angel Light
It starts with an 8-bit sounding melody and goes into some decidedly solid melodic black metal.

4. Finch - Mad World (Acoustic Cover)
An emo band with a really nice acoustic cover of this song.

5. Paolo Nutini - Million Faces
Some indie artist I had no idea I had, but I like it alot.

6. Beatallica - Ce So Precisa Sangue (Portuguese)
So this a band I've followed from near their beginnings. They gained popularity due to the fact they do Beatles covers in the style of metallica. They are so good, even Lars Ulrich of metallica encouraged them to continue. This is the song "All You Need is Love" and as you know, Beatles had all kinds of different languages in their song. So Beatallica released a mega-single with the song in about 15 different languages. :) I don't know which metallica song they are spoofing off-hand, though...

7. Ian Stuart And Rough Justice - Having A Good Time
This shuffle continued to get more obscure. Here's an unknown white power rock band. Not sure what more to say.

8. Ring of Fire - You were there
I'm glad itunes picked another one of my favorite vocalists. Unfortunately I had this album in really low quality, but whatever. This is a nice ballad. Mark Boals was ironically also in Yngwie Malmsteen, for three albums I believe. As well as Avantasia, Revolution Renaissance, way too many others to list.

9. Devin Townsend - Life
So itunes crashed here. I hate this program but it remains the best music organizer. I love how it automatically organizes it into subfolders when I add it. Anyway, this is the album it had picked, I'm not sure about the song. But I skimmed through the whole album and I loved this song instantly. Devin Townsend made way better albums when he was on drugs...

10. The Beloved - The Sun Rising
I got this from some compilation. Techincally called "Synthpop" it's just really chill and relaxed.

11. Blutengel - Schmerz 1 - Liebe
German darkwave band, but this song serves more as an interlude than a song. But I like it.

12. Senmuth - Indriyas
Unknown solo artist who primarily makes egyptian and ambient music. Well, that's what this is. Yet another dark, ambient, chillout type song.

13. Johansson - Fading away
I swear the itunes shuffle algorithm is alot smarter than you'd think. This is the solo project of a keyboardist who is best known for Stratovarius, but was in Yngwie Malmsteen's band from 1983 to 1989 and was in fact on track 1 of this playlist. And it's yet another ballad.

14. Vader - Nomad
Here's a well known death metal band. From a live album. I never really got into them but I should.

15. Joe Jackson - Fools in Love
He's best known for songs like "Stepping Out" and "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" but this song more resembles Ska. But again I like it.

16. Talisman - System Of Power
Hey guess who sings here. JEFF SCOTT SOTO. Out of nearly 100,000 songs here's the third song (out of 15, not counting track 1) in this playlist with a member of Malmsteen's band in it. Coincidence? I think not. I think Apple programmed iTunes with a human brain and are preparing to take over the world. >:D

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Symfonia - In Paradisum (2011)

Genre: Neoclassical Power Metal
Quality: 320kbps MP3
About: It is my day off, I choose to spend part of it sharing the awesome stuff I have found in the past few months. First is Symfonia. This is the ultimate supergroup of ex-power metal band members.

* André Matos (ex-Angra, ex-Shaman, ex-Viper) - Vocals
* Timo Tolkki (ex-Stratovarius, ex-Revolution Renaissance) - Guitar , Producer , Mixer
* Jari Kainulainen (ex-Stratovarius, ex-Evergrey) - Bass
* Mikko Härkin (ex-Sonata Arctica, ex-Kotipelto, ex-Solution .45) - Keyboards
* Uli Kusch (ex-Holy Moses, ex-Helloween, ex-Gamma Ray, ex-Masterplan) - Drums

Style-wise, Tolkki continues right where he left off after 2010's fantastic album "Trinity" by Revolution Renaissance. It's power metal, but more deep than classic power "cheese" metal such as Stratovarius's "Episode" or Kamelot's "The Fourth Legacy". So, it's not just "Stratovarius with the old Angra singer". You will hear a lot of power chords held for 3 seconds while there is a power metal beat and soaring vocals. You will also hear slow and introspective parts. My favorite from first listen would have to be the final track.

Still, there are times where you think you've heard it before. Worse off, it doesnt sound like Stratovarius. The beginning of Forevermore sounds like System of a Down's "BYOB". Pilgrim Road sounds like Helloween's "Future World".

As a side-note, look at the flowery-looking thing above the logo.

It first appeared in Stratovarius - "Visions" when they switched from their darker and slower sound they had since Fright Night, to their mainstream power metal sound. When stratovarius peaked.


And every album since.



It increased in importance, as if it was a symbol for the strength of the band. It was featured predominantly on the Elements CD's which I own both of.


Then they broke up after this album.


Then got back together.


Then Tolkki left.


Where's the flower? Here it is.



Changed the logo here, not sure why. This album was great but did have a much grittier sound than all these other albums. Maybe that's why the change.


But it's back again.


Now you have earned your download. LOL.

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Buy

New Angra Song! - Arising Thunder (2010) from the upcoming album "Aqua"

Genre: Power Progressive Metal
Quality: 320 kbps MP3
About: I'd have to say at first listen this new song from my favorite band, their first song in 4 years, is just good overall. Verses are a little boring, chorus is amazing and the manditory power metal speed solos are great as usual but nothing too special there. Well try it and see for yourself, here's a link direct from their site to download the new song. Watch for the new album "Aqua" on October 5! Rest assured it will be on this blog on or before release date.

Download

Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
Pre-order new album at Amazon
Pre-order new album at iTunes (Doesn't work in US??)

Wilds Forlorn - The Great Loss (2010)

Genre: Atmospheric Black Metal/Neoclassical
About: Angry and intense, yet with almost post-rock sounding guitars at times and a lot of melodic piano parts. One track is completely acoustic, in fact. It is so intense and epic that I could not believe when I saw it was just one guy. The drums are clearly from a machine but you'll forget about that quickly as it is the masterpieces of composition that draws you in. This album will slap you in the face then give you a bottle of milk. Then knock it out of your hand and make you cry.

Here we have a band that is so unknown that they have not been added to metal-archives yet (Actually, due to metal-archive's stupid rule that you need a physical CD, it cannot be added). Not a band, rather a solo project. He does not deserve this unknown status, in fact with this album he has proven he can play with the big names of black metal, such as Lunar Aurora, Shining, Dimmu Borgir, just to name a few off the top of my head. It's wrong of me to compare this to anyone, because here we have a very unique black metal album.

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You can download this, along with an album from 2009, free from his myspace! Show your support by downloading direct from there, adding to friends, commenting on the wall, etc!
http://www.myspace.com/wildsforlorn