I know today would usually be Jeff's day to post, but since the end of the year can only be party music (and he really doesn't listen to that really) he went yesterday and I shall post as usual today.
The thing I like about Pitbull is that he's a really simple writer. Like, really though. Allow me to give you a list like I did with Godsmack.
Announce that you are "Mister Worldwide"
Begin repetitive music
Sing the hook
Sing the hook in Spanish
(repeat)
Sing the verse with some Spanish and some English
Hit that hook again in English and Spanish
Maybe another verse of the same type
And now that hook again
I know this may seem like I'm over simplifying, but come on guys, look at his songs and tell me I'm wrong. Also it's fun to strip an artist down to their stereotypes.
Honestly I still hate the fact that I really enjoy this music sometimes, but it's stuff that other people actually sometimes like, so that's nice, right?
I first head about MGK when I learned that his song "Wild Boy" was banned cause the night crew played it and broke the no swearing in work music rule. After that I obviously had to check that song out after that and I liked it enough that I bought the album.
Listening to the album I realized that it really had a lot of good songs on it. It even had my favorite rapper, Tech N9ne on it. The best part though was when I found this song, cause it introduced me to DMX. I really don't know too much about him, but I have enjoyed the songs I've heard and I like his voice a lot.
MGK on the other hand sounds like he's trying to me Eminem, which he actually does really well, so I'm looking forward to hearing what he ends up doing with his career.
Jeff here, back again.
Soilwork are a Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal act who've released 9 studio albums since 1998, and are in the works for another one to come out soon.
As is typical for a band with so many releases, their sound has changed quite a bit since their first, "Steelbath Suicide", in '98. That's why I'm giving you 3 songs today, to illustrate that change.
We're starting with Bastard Chain from "A Predator's Portrait" (2001).
It's more fast-paced, and much more focused on the "Death" than the "Melodic".
Next up, the title track of "Figure Number Five" (2003)
This album was obviously different, parts of it are strongly focused on the aggression, others more on the groove (See Overload for more of the groove).This is probably the most aggressive track, it also has one of my favorite guitar solos ever.
From "Stabbing The Drama" (2005) we have Nerve.
You can see now that they have built a very different musical identity for themselves than they had had at first, being far more melodically inclined, still with the aggressive riffing, but that aspect of their sound is applied very differently.
Three links is probably enough for now, so I'll leave it here, but if you want to check out "The Living Infinite" (2013) I would definitely recommend it if you like the more melodic side of their sound.
Metallica was one of my first metal bands I ever got into, followed quickly by Iron Maiden. While I really don't enjoy any of their new stuff post Black album (which is a little hypocritical cause of this being off of Reload), the album they put out called S&M is without a doubt in my top 10 albums.
Basically the album is them playing a concert with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. It may seem like an unoriginal idea since a lot of bands seem to be doing things like that, but it's seriously amazing to listen to. Enter Sandman and Battery wrap up the show and they are seriously jaw dropping.
I picked Fuel for this because if you're familiar with the original you'll know that this is a purely enhanced version. I feel like there is literally nothing wrong with this track.
Caravan Palace is a group from France that my dad introduced me to over the course of this last week. It's not often you find new swing acts, but when you combine swing with EDM it makes a really good combination for sure.
I've included a clip from their live show and a studio track so you can hear the difference in the sound they have, it's really interesting.
Live:
Studio:
These songs aren't as different as some of the other ones I've heard, but it's all pretty good, wouldn't you say?
Happy day after Christmas! I hope all of you had a great time with friends and family and that in general the day was peaceful.
I figured that since it's kind of a slower day we'd start out with a nice quite song to play in the background while you recover and clean up.
This is a guy you may or may not have heard of before. A little while ago he had some song covers hit it really big. Some ukulele metal songs and a Slayer song on banjo. Believe it or not there is more to this guy than just Ukulele/Banjo covers.
Rob Scallon is a YouTube musician who's been making some pretty quality music for a few years now. With unorthodox things like playing Funk on an 8 stringed guitar, Metal Madlibs, and many other things of equal creativity.
This is one of his "older" songs he released a while ago and it's really pretty sounding. I don't really know what else to say, because he's still evolving as an artist. He did release an EP very recently though, and that's really cool! You can check him out on Patreon if you want to. For a small donation per video or a monthly limit you get all of his songs for free! I like that a lot personally.
He's really fun to watch too. Look at his funk solo video for the best "guitar faces" you've ever seen.
Let's think for just a second about how messed up this song is. This poor reindeer with a deformed mutant nose is ostracized from his peers because of a situation beyond his control. While this is actually something that would happen in real life, we're gonna be horrified, ok?
After a while, they find his deformity is useful, so they act like he's a hero and welcome him with open arms. Wow, bipolar hypocrites much?
You know what though, it's Christmas day and now is not the time to be talking about a facially handicapped mammal. This is a time to spend with your friends and family, so get off of this blog and go enjoy each other's company!
Happy Christmas Eve everybody! I hope you all have had a great day so far and a great week.
This is a song being performed by a friend of mine, Zach. Also the other guy in the video is my Friend Caleb, and the place they're filming is my church. It's pretty cool, don't you agree?
Zach is a Pop Acoustic artist and has some pretty catchy tunes. It's not stuff that I like usually, but for the style I feel like it's pretty good. Unfortunately I only just met Zach this summer so I can't tell you too much about him other than this. Still, check out his Facebook page!
So while Michael Bublé may not be my favorite singer ever, I can't deny that he has a pretty good Christmas album. On top of that, he covered my favorite version of White Christmas, so that makes me reasonably happy.
I don't know what about this version of the song is my favorite, but it really is. Mister Bubbles doesn't quite do it as well as te original, but it's still good, so here it is.
This is one of my favorite versions of this song I've heard, and there are a lot of good versions of this song.
The person singing this song is Ronnie James Dio, who is dead now. It's kinda funny he'd be singing this song since he was very into demons and such. He died in May of 2010 though, so it's a bit of a moot point.
Hey now, 2 days of YouTubers in a row! Dang, I feel like I'm falling back to my old vlogging days with all the YT plugs I'm putting in right now.
I just found this the other day via Carach Angren's Facebook page and it made me laugh enough that I thought I'd show you guys. Hope you enjoy it, cause it's only like 1 minute long.
I'm gonna be honest with you. For some reason I've had a lot of issues finding good Christmas Music. Like, there's a lot out there, but I don't want to overload a single artist, you know?
In my desperation, I reached out to a friend of mine asking for recommendations. Unfortunately she only suggested Trans Siberian Orchestra songs, and I already added them once so I felt weird doing it again.
She did mention this song though, and while it may not have been this version she was referring to, it is definitely a good one. Or as a friend of mine might say after listening to it, "That was a good one." This will be where I find out if any of my real life friends read this blog, haha.
You know what? We need another comedy Christmas song after these mildly serious ones. Let's go with Busta Rhymes!
This was for the soundtrack to the Grinch movie released in 2000, hence the name.
This came up on a Pandora station one of my superiors at work made. He was looking for Christmas Rap and found "The Christmas Rap" as a station. Playing such classics as "Be'Claus' I Got High" and "The Real Slim Santa" you can be sure that this was an interesting station. It did get banned after the manager complained that it was "dark music". He was referring to it as a pollution to good "Christian Christmas values", but we decided to take it as a racist statement.
I feel like this is one of the Christmas songs that almost everybody has one their "special Christmas music" list, but I still like it a lot cause it's a bit of classical and a bit of metal tone all wrapped up in Christmas.
Hey, still though, if you haven't heard this song before you really should listen to it. It's a bit of a classic I suppose. It was released in like 1996 after all.
Enjoy, and keep listening your way through Christmas music with me!
I don't listen to Ludacris (with the exception of one song), but this song is hilarious.
Like I've said before I really like songs that don't take themselves too seriously. Christmas Rap may be the easiest music to not take seriously that I've heard yet though. Mostly because I'm sure that they don't actually mean to be this dumb but they really are.
I hope you all are enjoying the 10 days of Christmas, I feel like it's a lot of fun.
You know those songs that you listen to all the time and you have no clue who they are? Well this is my example of that.
Christmas music is stuff that just blends together for me. It's just kinda there, and the radio plays it. A little while ago I tried to track down all of the songs I was familiar with for a playlist, but as it turns out I was majorly unable to actually find them since searching song titles on YouTube turns up about a billion results that may or may not actually be useful to me.
Turns out I never even thought of asking my parents who grew up much closer to this era of music. Yeah, they were able to direct me right to what I needed.
You know, yesterday talking about songs that killed my fingers reminded my of this song. Because of this we will be starting Christmas week 3 days early! Yay!
We played this at church last week and it's probably the most involved thing we've done yet. The song is really easy, don't get me wrong. Remembering all the cuts, half time moments, and accent hits on the other hand are not as much.
To make maters worse I had a blister on one of my main playing fingers from practicing this song and it made it bloody difficult to play. Not a normal blister either, but one that was underneath my calluses. It really sucks cause now I'm gonna have to rebuild an entire finger's worth of callus to keep playing at the same level. That is hard and it hurts.
The song on the other hand is still really fun and worth a listen. I enjoyed it enough to put it on my Christmas Spotify playlist, so that may or may not tell you something.
You know what? It's Sunday, let's post some Jesus music.
This is a song we do at church a lot and it's one of my favorites. It's really freaking hard to lay since the entire song is 8ths on bass with the exception of the chorus. You can hear it best in the verse, but that's how it goes the whole times. Honestly it probably goes like that through the chorus a bit too, but my fingers can't quite handle that. After 1 rehearsal and two services my fingers feel about ready to fall off. Basically the worst thing ever, but the song is so much fun that I don't even care.
If this isn't your cup of tea then I'm sorry. I'm sure some of the Satan stuff that I posted during Halloween wasn't everybody's favorites stuff either.
This is the original version of the song I posted a while back. You may recall the Kesha mashup thing?
This song is probably one of my favorite songs by LoG, though that does bug me since it's one of their singles and the hipster in me wants to like the song that isn't as commonly enjoyed by people. Ah well.
The song has some pretty trashing lyrics if you listen to it. It talks about the singer of a band being a total.. Well, Redneck. In some interviews the band said that it was about any singer who you thought acted like that and that is still a pretty good explanation. However, it is not entirely true.
Turns out the song is actually about LoG's singer, Randy Blythe. The band tends to take their frustrations out in music, and apparently some of the band had some issues with their singer's attitude. I'm not sure if Randy knew about it right away, but it is public knowledge now and whatever came from it is long past. They still play it, so he either doesn't care or has matured enough to know that it's just a song.
Back in the early days 5FDP was a legit good band. They weren't too "bro" and they had a solid angry sound that really majorly killed it.
This is one of the songs off of the first album when Ivan Moody was still kinda singing like he was is Motograter, which is a really good thing. In my opinion, this was probably his best sound he's ever had. It was raw, unpolished, and had this punch that you just can't beat. Unfortunately the band has moved past that point, so we'll not get to hear this anymore.
I'm really not sure how this song is supposed to be interpreted, because it almost sounds like an apology song, but then it's an I hate you song, and then it's just a pile of confusion. It's kinda weird, but I can dig it cause it's super powerful feeling.
We've got Powerman 5000 back with a song you may or may not have heard of. This song is possibly my new favorite by them, so you should also enjoy it if you like any of the stuff I tend to post.
I know I've been revisiting bands I've already talked about, but really people I am only one man. By myself I can physically only listen to so much music. When I'm in an artist rut for example, I find it hard to talk about more than that one artist to anybody, much less actually think of things to say, ya know?
Also, can we please talk about his highlighter yellow hair? Dude, come on now.
So my computer is currently down. I have two more posts scheduled but it will be a lot harder to get things together without my laptop being available. I'm sorry if this puts me behind in posts, I will really try to get them out on time like usual, but there's a strong chance it's won't happen.
Thanks for your patience, hope you still enjoy the blog!
Three Days Grace is a band that I almost feel bad for liking. They are the radio rock that I am opposed to on general principal, but because of that I do at least find it really catchy and fun.
This song specifically is one that get's a lot of radio play. Or at least got. I don't tend to listen to the radio because it doesn't play songs I really like that much, ya know?
Days like today I kinda feel like I'm basically just posting a song with me saying a short nothing, but I hope you guys understand. I don't always have much to say and when you post every day it can sometimes make things a little slow at times.
Machine Head has a really really killer sound. They've got harmonies, they've got killer leads, and just in general are things I like.
This album specifically has some amazing stuff on it, but today I'm just showing you this cause it's one of my favorites on the album.
One thing I don't like about the band though is that the singer is a gigantic a-hole. An excellent example of it would be the statement he made when they canceled a tour with Children Of Bodom so they could work on their album.
So I mentioned that Tech N9ne is one of the fastest rappers I've ever heard, but that's not like the only thing he does. Like many artists, Tech has more than one song style he does.
This song is a much slower, darker sounding song. I suppose that's a good thing for a sogn called Boogieman, but I still thought I'd mention it.
Also, the more I listen to him the more confused I am as to whether he runs a cult or not...
You remember Hollywood Undead, right? Well this is the singer that got fired after the first album. He apparently just stopped showing up to things.
This song is pure gold in my mind because it just sounds like him complaining that he got kicked. Actually the entire album really sounds like that to be honest.
If you watch this video you can see a guy who looks like a redneck d-bag heroin junkie put on at least 700 different masks that all look equally bad.
It's a really catchy tune though, so it does have that going for him. It's not bad material, it's just whiney sounding a lot of the time.
The other stuff he does is actually a lot better, so he does at least have talent. Saving grace Deuce.
Yo, what the heck is so special about this post, it's hands down one of the more boring posts I've written, so it's not like that's the attraction. Is it literally because it's borderline impossible to get a link of this song anywhere? I mean I know I had a hell of a time finding it, but it can't honestly be that hard, right?
Well either way thank for swinging by. I'd advise checking out different posts, this one is hella ghetto.
****
Again with the cover songs? Yes. Yes and for very good reason.
Primus isn't really that great of a band. The best thing about them is Claypool, the bassist, and that's just cause he plays like a madman. Still though, this Black Sabbath song they covered? It's killer.
[Edit: 4-5-17 Geeze, calm down guys, I just don't care for Primus as much as you all seem to. Chill. I have a few of their songs that I like, I just feel they're incredibly overrated as far as the fan base goes.]
So in 2000 12 or so bands got together and made Nativity In Black Vol. II. The first album, released in 1994, was absolutely amazing, and this album was just as good. It helped introduce me to a bunch of Sabbath classics and songs that didn't get as much attention as they could have before.
Pardon the non-standard link, YouTube is being weird about hosting this song.
I may have mentioned this in the past, but Mashups are some of my favorite kinds of music. Seriously, there's no beating a good Mashup, especially when the two songs really shouldn't mix. This is one of those.
Tik Tok Redneck is a mix of Ke$ha and Lamb Of God. These artists should never be in the same event, much less the same song, but for whatever reason this worked really well.
The creator of this song, Isosine, has done some seriously good work with Mashups, but this is without a doubt one of my favorites.
Edit 9.17.17: Adding this version to anybody that wants to hear the song still since it's been blocked
This may seem like a novelty to your guys, but in my heart it is amazing.
Call me weird, but as I sit at 5:30 am and hear sappy Christmas music, I kinda want to kill myself. Don't get me wrong, I like a god deal of Christmas music, but this early in the morning I want to just sit and enjoy my coffee with generic rock in the background.
That's the main problem here is that during December all you can get anywhere is Christmas. To combat this, I will refrain from any more Christmas music until the last 7 days before Christmas, kinda like what we had going on Halloween.
So Faith No More was a kinda big deal a long while ago, and by "big deal" I mean they had a unique sound and some singles that went big.
Funny thing though, they have just written an album and plan to release soon, so any fans of the band should be happy. By all reports I've heard it seems to be doing well.
I learned about these guys literally yesterday, but I like them. Canadian radio may be the best thing ever, cause where I live doesn't have the best selection of music stations ever.
Turns out I forgot to write this post yesterday, so I'm not going to add much since I'm writing it at 1am and I'm supposed to wake up for work in 3 hours. This is how much I love you guys. Also this is how much I can procrastinate. It's impressive, eh?
But like I said before, I learned about this song on Sunday and I just happened to like it a lot. Check it, maybe you will too.
Yay, it's December! December means a mild upswing in Christmas music, and by mild I mean it will actually happen at least 4 times. Hooray!
Continuing the tradition of non-traditional christmas music this is another kinda metal Christmas song. By that, I mean it was on a metal christmas album even though it's just a harder rock song. Eh, whatever, it's a good song.
Alice Cooper is one of my favorite artists from like 5 years ago when I first got into music, and over time he's kinda been one of my regular favorites. His live show is hands down the best thing ever and ironically, the older he gets the scarier he looks an sounds, which makes everything in his show work out even better.
John 5 on the other hand is a fantastic shredder of the very metal field. He's played with both Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie and has a very cool and distinct playing style. He also can play country style music, which seems to be really weirdly different thing than his standard thing, but it works really well.
The internet is probably the greatest human achievement of the last 30 years, since it allows the general population to access to basically all human knowledge and accomplishment, or listen to any music made by anyone, no matter how unknown or underground they may be. Without it, I probably wouldn't have heard about half of the bands that I enjoy.
So behold, through the miracle of the internet, today's band: Spiral.
Spiral is a Post-Rock/Alternative/Maybe-Prog band from Poland. They released their first album (Urban Fable) in 2009, and this past April they released their second, titled Cloud Kingdoms. These guys are currently one of my favorites (I've basically had this album on repeat for the last week), so I'm gonna give you more links than usual.
This is a live performance of "Black Dwarf" from Cloud Kingdoms, just because I like the live version. I'm also giving you the link to their Bandcamp page (which has links to their website, Facebook, etc..) so you can support them, because I think they deserve more attention than they get.
Apologies for the formating problems. I don't know how to work HTML, but that was the only way to get this video in. The YouTube search on Blogger is a little lacking but I needed this specific video.
Alestorm, the band you want when you've decided to have a pirate themed party where all you plan to do is get drunk. Heck, you could even make a drinking game out of it. Take a shot when they mention rum, and when they say beer drink some beer. You'd get plastered about halfway through an album, guaranteed.
These guys have an interesting genre. Depending on who you ask, they are either Folk Metal, Pirate Metal, or (my personal favorite) Beer Metal.
This song is off of their newest album, and it's absolutely amazing. All the piratey stuff they sing about is really amusing to me, and it's good music to listen to while you play games like Assassin's Creed 4, or Sid Meier's Pirates! since it's all pirate based.
In the spirit of Black Friday I thought it appropriate to post one of the songs off of my "Gears Of War/Halo Multiplayer List" that fits the competitive atmosphere that is today.
Personally I have never gone Black Friday shopping, and since I work in food service I only have to show up to work about an hour early to get things done rather than work all night or something like that. It's not too bad actually, and I get to listen to my music all day, which is a huge bonus.
This track is off of the film of the same name, Punisher: War Zone. It's a really bad movie really, but if you want something that's pure straight violence for about 1.5 hours, it's the best thing ever.
Remember, don't kill anybody and have a good day all!
So you might remember Nightwish from lst time I posted about them. The Symphonic Metal band? Yeah, they're a really good band.
This song is one of the same songs off of the album from last time, to be honest, it's one of my top albums I think I've heard.
Just listen to that intro. Listen to it. Isn't it great? Then there's that part after the first chorus where it's just bass for a second. Gold.
I don't have too much to say about these guys other than that meaningless sentence though. I really don't know anything about these guys other than the fact that they are yet another killer band on Nuclear Blast Records.
Children Of Bodom is a Melodic Blackened Powermetal band. I think at least, it's kinda complicated because they're kinda a mix of all 3, but not really.
This is the band that Alexi Laiho is from. You may remember him from the Amon Amarth song I posted a little while back as the guy that played the shredding face-meltingly fast solo. In Bodom he is also the singer, so imagine the fact that he's playing most of these killer leads at the same time as singing. Dude, that's intense.
Also they have a killer keyboard player who can follow the lead lines the guitar plays. He plays them well enough that sometimes they switch out who's playing the lead and you might not even notice.
Hate Me! is one of my favorite songs too, because it has the best intro ever. Seriously, that synth line makes me super ready to kick off the song.
Hope ya like this song like all the other.
Also, please comment, cause in the last week I got something like 60 views on this blog from somebody in France. I'd love to chat with you, cause this is a kinda cool thing.
Muse is a band that I tend to really enjoy. At the same time, I have only listened to their most recent album, so I'm not the est person to ask about how good they are. I do like what I've heard so far, so that's gotta count for something, right?
This song was released around the same time that the James Bond movie Skyfall was released, and at the time many fans wished that this had been the films title track rather than the Adele song that was used. If you listen to it you can really feel how it would fit, ya know?
There is however, a reason I am showing it to you.
This song torments my very being with it's into line, "Wake up in the morning feelin' like P-Diddy"
...
This is a line forever stuck in my head whenever somebody says "(2 syllable something) in the morning" that stupid song starts playing.
Always.
It never leaves.
I was in church last week and the pastor said, "you get up in the morning and feel..." But I don't know how it finished because that song started playing in my head. It was horrible.
I hope to make the rest of you as miserable as me now.
Fats Waller was one of the great jazz piano players, and has held a special place in my heart for many years.
With a face like that though, can you blame me? This guys amazing.
My dad used to play this guy and a few other people all the time when I was really young, and they've all held a special place in my heart ever since.
This song in particular used to play a lot because it was stuck in the tape deck of my dad's truck for years. This and some other artists I believe. Not sure what it all was, but it was a really good tape.
So I'm giving a disclaimer here. This song sucks hard, and if you watch the video at the same time it sucks even harder.
I'm not sure what these guys are trying to prove really. They look like a bunch of emo kids that got a hold of neon paint and decided to make a band. In interviews they talk about how they are serious about their art and they wish haters would leave them alone.
Also, their other songs really aren't this bad. It's only this song that is a fantastic steaming pile of crap. The rest are only kinda bad.
So it started snowing here about a week ago (does schmoney dance) and quite honestly it's been kinda annoying. I've lost hours at work, had a 25 minute drive home turn into an hour and 45 minutes, and had to find my only coat that is most definitely not a winter coat.
On the other hand, one thing that snow is good for is getting me into a Christmassy mood. And you know what's the best thing about Christmas music? Weird Christmas music.
This is a track of of a metal Christmas album that has a pile of metal stars all set up with different songs to play. It's amazing and I'll probably hit it up a few more times, so I won't spoil it too much.
This song is being performed by Lemmy Kilmister of Mötorhead, Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, and Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters. seeing that I've posted the first two bands, and the last one is way too famous, I'm sure you know who these guys are.
Hope you enjoy the beginning of a very weird Christmas.
You may remember these guys from the Week of Evil. The guys with the clock headed singer? Yeah. Them.
This is one of the weirder music videos I've seen, and definitely one of the darker ones.
Even if you didn't like the band the first time around, please watch this. If you enjoy older horror film styles, then this is something that would be right up your alley.
Judas Priest is a wonderful example of US Power Metal, which is ironic, considering they are a british band.
Forming in 1969, this makes them one of the oldest metal bands, only being beat out by Black Sabbath by 1 year. Also they are the currently longest touring metal band, considering Sabbath took a 5 year leave of absence in 2006. Judas Priest only took a 4 year leave of absence from 1992 to 1996.
Other than simply putting out some real quality music, these guys have helped refine the fashion sense of metal early on. They were some of the originators of bringing leather and studs into the wardrobe of metal musicians everywhere.
So this song is one of their classics, but I figured I'd post it anyway. No undiscovered classic, no hidden gem, just one of their solid hits.
So I'm on a bit of a Nu-Metal kick right now, and I though what better band to continue with then the only band I listed the other day that I haven't made a post about yet.
So as you can see, these guys bear a reasonably similar look to Slipknot. There's 9 of them, they've all got masks, and they play very similar music. Also, like Slipknot, they change what their masks look like reasonably regularly.
They have a funny fan fight story though, which you can watch here.
Musically, I am both hot and cold with these guys. Sometimes I'm really into them, then at other times I might hear a song that I don't like as much and I drop them for a good few months. Eh, whatever though.
As a heads up, they have some really weird music videos. Also this was a different mask era where they all looked the same. Just as a heads up.
Powerman 5000 is an Industrial Metal/Nu-Metal band, and the singer is the younger brother of the one and only Rob Zombie.
Actually that's one of the reasons I chose this track. Out of the few I listened to tonight this was the one that sounded the most like Zombie to me, and I'd have to say that I might like this better.
These guys have an insane amount of energy going on that makes them a really catchy and fun group to listen to. They started with some really good local success, and then managed to gain some large attention when they played the second stage at Ozzfest in 1996, following up with a main stage show the next year.
You know what we need? Some more Nu-Metal up in this!
One thing you'll notice about a lot of Nu-Metal bands is that they sound very similar. These guys are along the Motograter/Slipknot/Mushroomhead/Korn end of things, though leaning more toward Slipknot/Mushroom Head.
Coal Chamber is kinda one of those bands that had a hit or two, built a cult following, and then vanished. It's kinda sad, but at the same time the more I listen to them the more I realize that they really don't have too many great songs. Due to the language in the songs I can't add them to my work playlist really so it tends to put a damper on what I listen to the most. Also I don't have one of their CDs, so I can't listen in the car, haha.
As good as these guys may have been in the day, and as good a weird video as this is, if you look up the video from their reunion show a few years back you can tell that most of them don't care anymore. The singer moved on to Devil Driver and the rest of the band faded away for the most part and the performance looks just like you would expect it to.
On the other hand, this song is still catchy as far as the genre goes, so check it out!
Don't let the name put you off, it's not horrible violent music. This is some good classic rock sounding music that is really killer.
Rival Sons is a Blues Rock band from Long Beach California. They're actually reasonably successful so there's a good chance you've heard of them. If you're into good guitar work and Zeppelin-esque vocal work, this is a band you should check out.
I first came in contact with Tech N9ne when he did a song with Five Finger Death Punch. At that time, I kinda assumed that he was a small time person, considering very few of my friends knew who he was and such. I was just a little wrong.
I have come to realize that Tech N9ne is one of the fastest rappers around, and that his music is reasonably weird.
This song for example features Serj Tankian, formerly of System of a Down. Serj likes him some political tunes, and after reading what his part would be in this song he probably said something like, "Oh look, an establishment! Let's protest it." The video seems to play off of the whole Don't Drink The Kool Aid cult stereotype, and the lyrics definitely are critical of people who don't question what is handed to them.
So I've been hung up on this band since last time I posted one of their songs, but I don't really care cause it's fun music to listen to sometimes, right?
Now this really sounds a lot more like a Halloween song cause of all the... Halloween-ish sounds in it. But hey, it's still catchy and stuff, right?
So an interesting little thing about these guys is some info on Johnny 3 Tears. He kills people. Seriously, just listen to any of his verses in almost all of the songs he's in. He always talks about killing people, and he always refers to himself in the third person.
Something else you should know is that the guy who made this lyric video is generally the best for figuring out who is singing the verses. He's really good about it.
So I don't know how many of you ever listened/listen to Devo, but they are a rather interesting musical group. Early New Wave music.
Now for anybody unfamiliar with Love and Death, they are a band formed by Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch. They are nothing like Devo. Metal/Nu-Metal music.
Devo, as seen with their mojo retaining hats.
Love and Death, as seen standing against an old wall.
So seeing the difference in bands and eras these guys come from, you'll probably be as surprised as me when you find out that Love And Death covered one of Devo's songs. Actually you probably won't, but it's still a cool thing to tell people.
And so, in continuation with the last few cover songs I've posted, we have Whip It.
So unfortunately these guys are really new to the extent that they haven't even released an album yet, but I'm really freaking excited about it so I figured I'd tell you about it.
NYVES is a project by Ryan Clark (Demon Hunter) and Randy Torres (formerly Project 86). It's a dark electronic album and vastly different from the type of music that they usually play. For the record, both of these bands are really good.
Here's the Soundcloud link so you can check it out. It's only the one track that's officially released right now, but if you back them on Kickstarter you will get another track and this as an instant download for helping them out.
So while we're talking covers I thought it would be a good idea to bring up 5FDP.
Now for the most part I have grown past these guys. They started really strong with their music but over the years I would say they've become... Bro Metal, be that a thing. The solid musicianship is there, but all of the lyrics are just angry and juvenile.
On the other hand, they make some freaking great cover songs, and here's what they are.
So if you listen to Faith No More at all you'll know that they really aren't the same as Death Punch. They come from two very different eras of rock and metal, but this is a really good example of 5FDP taking a song that doesn't sound like them and just making it their own.
This one I only found out about recently, but it's really not that bad. I mean, Pantera is really their own style, ya know? Southern Metal is really not 5FDP's thing, but they manage to do this song really well. I'd say that the vocal style just doesn't quite fit the song in this case, but by no means is it a bad cover.
Speaking of different styles and eras, let's just look at this. I mean really, the original is mostly a piano driven song and they turned it into a really rocking tune. This song ranked as one of maybe 5 songs in my old Halo playlist and my brother and I slaughtered each other to it for hours.
I'll be honest, I hadn't listened to the original till the time I was writing this post. And if truth is told, I really don't care for it too much. It's not that it's bad, but it's also really not a style that I usually listen to. This cover though is really freaking cool. On the second verse (which is the third verse in the original) they even have Tech9 featuring his vocal work which is an amazing change up to the usual Death Punch line.
Funny things going down here, Death Punch's drummer didn't like playing in 3/4 timing so they re wrote the song into 4/4. I mean, 3/4 can be annoying, but honestly it's not that hard.
So the main thing I miss from the original is the absolutely killer organ solo. This was made up for with a pretty decent guitar solo that really helps draw this song together. I like it a lot.
So yeah, that's the list. How you all enjoyed it, cause there's more of this to come yet.
Since 2001 Hayseed Dixie has been giving bluegrass tribute to AC/DC and other such classic rock acts.
If there's something I like more than Mashup songs, it would definitely be cover songs. But not crappy covers like what a good number of tribute medleys turn out like, really good covers. But still, Hayseed Dixie is one of those fin niche bands that you didn't know you needed.
Seriously though, Bluegrass is a really fun type of music to listen to sometimes and when it's covering AC/DC and you can get a laugh out of it it's even better.
