Guest Post: Spiral - Black Dwarf

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.

Edit:  Got it to work now, never mind, haha

Alestorm - Drink

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.

Rob Zombie - War Zone

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!

Just a small PSA

Firstly, Happy Thanksgiving!  Let's not get into an argument about genocide, I'm just trying to be nice.

Fear not, there will be a song at the end of this post.

So just a couple of things here, I wanted to let you know that I have.

1.  I have a nice little page that is a running song list of some of my favorite stuff.  Check it out here if you're interested.

2.  I have an About Me page, it's pretty great and stuff.

Ok, that's pretty much it.  Enjoy this song while you read!

Nightwish - Cadence Of Her Last Breath

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 - Hate Me!

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 - Supremacy

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?

Ke$ha - Tik Tok

I really don't like this song.

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 - Your Feet's Too Big

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.

Hope you all like it as much as I do.

Design The Skyline - Surrounded By Silence

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.

Hope you enjoy this, but not really.

Lemmy Kilmister and others - Run Rudolph Run

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.

Portal - Curtain

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.

Gotta love Australia, right?

Judas Priest - The Hellion/Electric Eye

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.

Mushroomhead - Sun Doesn't Rise

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 - Bombshell

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.

Hope you like this as much as I do.

Coal Chamber - Loco

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!

Rival Sons - Torture

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.

Tech N9ne - Straight Out The Gate

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.

Hollywood Undead - Dead Bite

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.

Love And Death - Whip 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.

NYVES - Fall Behind

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.

Here's a Kickstarter link for those interested.

So while we're talking covers... Five Finger Death Punch

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.

From Out Of Nowhere - Originally Faith No More

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.


A New Level - Originally Pantera

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.


Bad Company - Originally Bad Company

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.


Mama Said Knock You Out - Originally LL Cool J

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.

House Of The Rising Sun - Originally The Animals

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.

Hayseed Dixie - Back In Black

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.

I hope you like this at least a little bit.

Lil' Jon Feat. LMFAO - Get Outta Your Mind

So as a metalhead, it's a general rule that we have at least 1 guilty pleasure band/ genre that doesn't fit into the whole stereotypical metalhead thing.  I have Gangster Rap and Lil' Jon.

Now don't ask me why I like this, cause I really don't know.  I'm not a partier, I don't got to the club, and I really don't drink, and I don't do drugs so I have no idea why I love this type of music so much.

Somthing I find kinda funny here though is that Mr. Jon is featuring somebody in his song.  Not the other way around like usual.  Seriously though, this guy is featured in more songs than Pitbull, and that's saying something.

The video is kinda funny to.  I don't know how anybody could take the party life seriously though.  Let's be real, you can only go for so long till you crash hard.

Skrillex - Kill Everybody

So I know that choosing Skrillex is kinda stereotypical.  "Oh, you listen to dubstep?  You must love Skrillex then!"  No.  Not really at all actually.  I enjoy some of his material, but he's a lot more chill then I tend to like for the most part.  If you play his Pandora station, it tends to stick mostly toward the "Cinema" and "Summit" end of it.  This is one of the reasons that when I play Dubstep on Pandora I stick to the Knife Party station.

Still though, this is one of my favorite Skrillex songs because it does fill the style that I enjoy.  It's kinda crazy-ish, and has a driving cathy beat.

Kanye West - New Slaves

Now obviously Kanye is the best thing since anything.  Like, when God created the universe he tapped Kanye on the shoulder saying, "Hey Kanye, this look good to you?" and Kanye was all like, "Now God, Imma let you finish, but Yeezus made the best universe of all time."

This is totally what happened.  Just look in Second Genesis 3:17, it's all written out.

On a more serious note, I'm not actually going to give you real information on this egomaniac, because if you actually really care about that then you can look it up.  It's really a lot more fun to make stuff up about him anyway.

Something I like about this song is the synth.  It kinda has an Egyptian feel I think, and it's really really catchy.  Also Kanye sounds more racist than most KKK representatives in this song, but it's ok cause he's black.

Godsmack - The Enemy

Steps to writing a Godsmack song.

1.  Open with drums and a catchy guitar riff.
2.  Add high guitar lead (optional wah) and bass.
3.  Open verse with "HEY" and end it with "YEAH".
4.  Catchy Chorus.
5.  Direct a lot of hate toward somebody.  Never be specific, just be clear that they suck.
6.  Insert solo here.
7.  Wrap up with another catchy chorus.

(Note:  This technique can also be applied to Metallica and Five Finger Death Punch.)

Now I'm kinda poking fun, but only a little.  They have a lot of songs that follow this pattern.

I'm gonna just cut to the fun fact about these guys.  Their name was chosen when the singer, Sully Erna, was teasing of a guy with a cold sore on his lip.  The next day Erna had one on his own lip, causing a friend to say "It looks like God smacked your face for making fun."  It was catchy enough of a phrase that they decided to make it their band name.

So to be clear about their genre, Heavy Metal is the kind of metal you blast while riding your Harley.  This is probably the easiest way to describe it.

Thelonious Monk - Straight, No Chaser (Album)

EDIT:  I really feel bad, cause I accidentally released this on October 24th when I was writing it and people were trying to read it during the "Week Of Evil".  Sorry if that was you!

Ok, back to the real thing.

You know what's really nice?  Jazz.  I like jazz.  But not crappy jazz.  If there's a girl singing, then she'd better leave right away or else that band hits my list of "I don't like it".

So other than Fats Waller and Dizzy Gillespie, Thelonious Monk is one of my top jazz acts to listen to.  Despite the fact that I've only just started recently listening to them, the band quickly climbed my list of jazz favorites for one good reason.  No singing.

While I like some "singing jazz", I really feel like it distracts me from the music I'm trying to enjoy.  Either way though, instrumental; music is a really nice thing to have on in the background no matter what you're doing.

KoЯn - Twisted Transistor

KoЯn is a really good band even though they're Nu-metal.  Some exceptions must be made to rules and stuff, and these guys would be one of those exceptions.

Basically they were a defining role of Nu-Metal.  There's a slip point where some went in the Limp Bizkit direction and some went the KoЯn direction, and this is definitely in my opinion, the better option.

One fun little thing is that the singer, Jonathan Davis, is a huge conspiracy theorist.  He think the Illuminati control everything and that Obama is using Miley Cyrus as a tool toward world domination.  Kinda crazy if you ask me to be honest.

This track unfortunately is off of the "drum machine" days they had.  Before they got a new drummer, David, their original, get very lazy.  Most of the drums on the album were actually played by Jonathan Davis, and thus sound just a little repetitive.  It fits their sound, but it shows that some of the care as gone.

This is probably my favorite song they did, so I hope you like it.

Green Day - Warning

As fun as the Week Of Evil was, I kinda like the fact that we're slowing back down to normaler music.  It was hard dredging through music I don't listen to as much to try and find the evil and "evil" music for ya.

Back down to earth again, (or climbing back up.  Whatever) we have Green Day with Warning.

Green Day has been around for a very long time now.  Since about 1987 ish if memory serves.  You have probably heard something off of the album Dookie, since that has at least 4 singles on it.  We're playing one of the lesser publicized works though, so that we can be a bunch of freaking hipsters.

Warning was released in 2000, which seems to be the middle of when Green Day was in a pile of anonymity.  Quite honestly, they dropped off of the radar for a lot of people till American Idiot came out in 2004.

One thing I like about this song is it keeps a good pace going without sounding like it's trying.  The fact that it's played on an acoustic helps this a lot, and during the more intense parts it has a really cool sound to it.

It's a really funny video too.  You get to watch a guy literally break all the rules.