A to Z Reflections as a daily blog.

Firstly, let's do my music blog thing and cue some sappy music.

Let's start by recapping what I said yesterday.  It was a lot of fun, and I really can't wait to do it again next year.  I will need a slightly altered theme to be sure (freaking Qs and Xs), but it will be a crap ton of fun anyway.

I feel kinda bad, cause I made a lot of my posts up till the last 8 or so a good time in advance so that I'd have time to visit other people's blogs.  As it turned out, I visited a lot, but didn't comment on too many because, as somebody who isn't a writer, I didn't have a lot in common with you guys.  I'm some "punk kid" who listens to a lot of "screamo" and "hippity hop music", so I really didn't anticipate many of you guys enjoying mine either.

As it turns out, a couple of people did seem to actually enjoy what I was doing.  I had a few people who I had visited early on stop by and say hey, and I had one Stephen Tremp stop by a lot after the half way point.  Honestly, that was probably the coolest thing for me.  I don't care if it's just because he was one of the co-hosts and visited everybody anyway, getting comments is something that I seriously enjoy.

On a different viewpoint though, I already have a daily blog.  I post a song every single day, Monday through Sunday, and what this challenge did for me was possibly a little different than what a lot of you guys did.  I don't have an issues getting out a lot of posts, but I do have an issue getting a semi organized thing going.  I might do theme weeks, but I keep them at weeks cause I don't have the gumption to actually organize myself up any sort of thing that resembles a cohesive thing.

Now though I have plans for recurring themed days, more holiday themes, actually getting more album reviews going, and all kinds of stuff.

I hope that those of you who enjoyed following my blog during the challenge will continue to follow afterword, but if not, I understand.  I play loud noises in a land of writers and since my mom is involved in that community I get that these things need quiet and less chaos than I enjoy in my life.

Happy A to Z everybody, I hope to see you next year, and congrats to everybody else who made it all the way as well.

A to Z Challenge: Z is for Ziltoid The Omniscient

Here we are, the last day of the A to Z Challenge.  I hope you guys had as much fun as I did going through this and everybody else's blogs.  I feel like this was an eye opening experience for me, mainly about how few music blogs there are out there.  I'll make sure to tag appropriately next year.

Aight, back to the real stuff.

Devin Townsend is a very talented musician.  You can tell this because he recorded almost every sound you hear on this album, mixed it, and produced it.  He had a few other people who helped out, but when it came down to it, it's almost an exclusively Devin Townsend album.

The album is a story concept.  The story is that a mighty alien known as Ziltoid comes to earth for "your universe's ultimate cup of coffee".

I'm not gonna pick out any stand out tracks here, because as a story album it all ties together to a certain extent.  What I will say is that this is some really solid music that you will probably enjoy.  I mean, you might not, but I like it, and that's what counts.

A to Z Challenge: Y is for Year Zero

I really like this Nine Inch Nails album, though that''s mostly because it's the only one that I've listen through the whole way.  I like a lot of Reznor's material, but as this is what I have listened to the most I suppose you'll all have to live with that.  Also it's a great album that starts with Y.

It's a bit on an end times concept album, so there's a lot of various world ending scenarios at play here.  You have a Fallout Esq police state, an alien invasion, an act of God, and even a Dystopian future.

If you would, please check the following.

Survivalism

The Good Solider

Vessel

Capital G

The Warning

God Given

Meet Your Master

The Great Destroyer

These are my favorite tracks on this album

I have no clue what is wrong with the second video in this playlist is, but it's actual title is The Beginning Of The End, so just ignore that.

A to Z Challenge: X is for The X Factor

Apologies for anything spelled wrong or weirdly worded.  I decided to try some Finlandia today and had a little more than I had intended.

So there's only 6 albums that start with X.  2 Mushroomhead albums, one Coldplay album, 2 I don't recognize, and this.

I didn't think I knew this album, but it turns out that one of their greatest hits albums has two of the songs on it.

The Sign Of The Cross and Man On The Edge are the tracks I'm immediately familiar with, but it's Maiden.  They don't have any bad songs really, since all their stuff sounds reasonably the same.

I mean, I really like Iron Maiden, and I have not disliked anything they've put out.  I've just enjoyed some stuff more than others.

It's also got a cover song.  My Generation by The Who.

This album was without the singer Bruce Dickenson, who is basically the voice you think of with Maiden.  This album had Blaze on it, who was only around for a short period of time.  Not a fan of him personally, but it's not too bad.

A to Z Challenge: W is for Welcome 2 My Nightmare

Alice Cooper.  I have mentioned him in the past, but I think that was only once.

This album is a sequel of sorts to his album Welcome To My Nightmare, and it takes some musical cues from it.  For the most part though, this is a wonderful example of Alice's lyrical imagery.

With artists such as Ke$ha, John 5, and Rob Zombie this is an album that is genuinely fun to listen to.  I'll mention each track that they perform on in my list.

Caffeine

Last Man On Earth

The Congregation (Rob Zombie)

Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever (John 5)

When Hell Comes Home

What Baby Wants (Ke$ha)

The Underture

These are my favorite tracks off the album, so have at it!

This week's highlights: April week 4 Q - V

Not gonna lie, it was a lot harder than I thought it would be to choose songs this week.  I figured out one of the Queen songs that I was most familiar with, but the other stuff was just a little difficult.  I really like all the other albums this week (except that Nirvana one, it doesn't have as many that I know well), so picking just one song off of each was hard.  I almost went with Qwerty when I got to Mushroomhead, and Slipknot almost got Three Nil.  Ah well, let's not dwell on what has passed, just enjoy the here and now!

Keep yourself Alive

We Are The Truth

No Other Place

Guardians Of Asgaard

About A Girl

Pulse Of The Maggots

A to Z Challenge: V is for Volume 3. (The Subliminal Verses)

I post Slipknot probably once every other month or so, but I don't care.  It's a band I like and you'll have to just put up with that.

Volume 3 was their weird experimental album.  You follow the brutal hatred of Iowa with something that's just...  Different.  It had lower key songs, the subject matter was still messed up, but in a different way, and the had progressed greatly in the realm of sound.

The stand out tracks for me include:

The Blister Exists

Three Nil

Duality

Opium Of The People

Vermilion

The Pulse Of The Maggots

Before I Forget

Vermilion pt 2

Really I do enjoy most all of this album, and it has a really strong beginning half that continues all the way to the last couple tracks.  And honestly, those are good too, but I just don't happen to like them as much.

A to Z Challenge: U is for Unplugged in New York

"Oh my gosh, Nirvana was one of the greatest bands to walk the earth.  Kurt Cobain was taken from us too young.  Look at this album, just hear the diversity in their sound!  This is how you can tell they were real musicians."

These are all things that you'll hear "true music fans" say about anything Nirvana since they were big in the 90s and obviously everything from the 90s was the best thing ever.

This is entirely untrue, but that's not the point.  The point is that this is a reasonably good album and you might like it.

There aren't as many tracks on this that I know, as I am more familiar with the album Bleach.  Still, there are a couple songs off of that album here.

It's a shame, you can really hear that his voice sucks in live settings when he's not singing angry and such.

A to Z Challenge: T is for Twilight Of The Thunder God

Amon Amarth is a Melodic Death Metal band, but don't let that put you off just yet.

These guys are straight up vikings and make some pretty fantastic music.  It's great for pumping up and keeping going, and it's also great because of the lyrical imagery.  They paint stories that, to me at least, are absolutely fantastic.  Fantasy lands and tales of the Norse gods.  It's good stuff.

Let's hit up my favorite tracks now, as has become the pattern.

Twilight Of The Thunder God

Guardians Of Asgaard

Where Is Your God

Tattered Banners And Bloody Flags

No Fear For The Setting Sun

Embrace The Endless Ocean

I'm not gonna specially tag anything this time.  I just really wanted you to listen to that one song a lot.  Whatever though.

A to Z Challenge: S is for Swan Songs

Hollywood Undead is a band that I reasonably like.  They aren't super fantastic, but they have this sleazy yet heavy thing going on that I find enjoyable.

This is their first album, and it's the only one with their original lead, Deuce.

Deuce got fired for reasons, and the band has since moved on.  Unfortunately, I did really enjoy the sound that he brought to the band, so I miss aspects of him in their later albums.

This album though has some fun songs on it that you should check out.

Undead

Sell Your Soul

Everywhere I Go*

No Other Place**

No. 5*

Bottle And A Gun

California*

Pimpin'

The first album here focuses on LA and Cali.  It's kinda ridiculous in my opinion, but people like it, and it's got some fun stuff.  I've starred my very favorite tracks on the album, so make sure to check them out for sure.  More stars means more better.

Fun word fact for ya.  The phrase "Swan Song" usually means the last act before retirement or something like that.  Here's the Wiki page about it.  The funny thing is that they named their album this and it was the first album.  It was however, Deuce's Swan Song with HU.  Conspiracy?

A to Z Challenge: R is for The Righteous And The Butterfly

Here we have Mushroomhead's latest release (aside from that Game of Thrones song) to date.

This album is one that I greatly enjoy, I actually start my day with We Are The Truth almost every single day.  Not sure why, it just kinda gets me pumped and ready to go.

There's a lot of really good songs on this album, and there's even an Adele song.  You guys remember her, right?  She had like 3 hits and disappeared forever.  Good times.

Still though, other than the really cool masks and greatly enjoyable music they've got a really killer stage presence.  My brother got to see them when they came to town in early January and he realyl didn't care for them till he saw them live.

Check out these tracks though, they're really good.

Our Apologies

How Many Times

Devils Be Damned

Qwerty

We Are The Truth

For Your Pleasure

Worlds Collide

Graveyard Du Jour

Out Of My Mind

Rumor Has It

Ok, so I like almost every track on the album.

A to Z Challenge: Q is for... Queen

I'm just gonna lay this out there, I don't listen to almost any Queen.  Seriously, it's just not a band I ever got in to.  What kinda sucks though is that there's only about 17 albums ever to be released with a "Q" title, and I don't listen to The Who either, who are the other band I recognized.

Yep, this kinda sucks.

Enjoy the first Queen album, known as "Queen" and was released in 1973.

Freddie Mercury was the singer, he had fantastic range.  Brian May was one of the guitarists.  He had good tone.

That's all I've got, sorry.

This week's highlights: April Week 3 K - P

First, we're gonna talk about the show I went to on Friday night.  I went to The Agora in Cleveland to see Sabaton and Nightwish.

Let's preface this by saying that Sabaton put on a fantastic show.  They were engaging, funny, and full of energy.  Delain opened the show, and they were kinda like a watered down version of Epica, but it was ok.

Then came Sabaton singing about Tanks and stuff, and I freaking loved it.  The band was even hanging around outside during Nightwish's set to talk to anybody who wanted to say hi.  I know this cause I was so wiped out tired after 3 songs of the Nightwish set that I went out to my car to sleep till my brother came out.  Unfortunately I  have no pictures to share with you.

Nightwish mostly played songs off of their new album, and as it only came out maybe 2 weeks ago I don't know any of them.  What they did play though was spot on to the album quality.  Sabaton was really good about this as well actually, both bands kept it really tight and brought the house down.

Ok though, let's hit what you probably want to hear, which are my personal song highlights from each day.

Let's go, in letter order.

New Sleighs

Gold Digger

Step Up (I'm On It)

Nice Guys finish Last

San Ber'Dino

Candy Man

A to Z Challenge: P is for Primus & the Chocolate Factory

I don't even know where to go with this.

First we have Primus, who's catchphrase is "Primus sucks!"

Then we have the music from the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

This is some really weird stuff you're gonna listen to, though if you liked the original movie you will agree that this is some pretty great music.

Pick your old favorite songs and check them out, it's worth it for the novelty at the very least.

Personally I like Golden Ticket and Candy Man the best.

A to Z challenge: One size fits "O"

I have done really good about not using any of the stupid title names I came up with that almost matched the albums.  I really really did my best to not use them cause they were horrible.  This one was too good to pass up though.

One Size Fits All is a wonderful album by Frank Zappa.  Zappa was a very interesting fellow with a lot of strange life philosophies.  He was also an amazingly talented off the wall musician who made a lot of weird sounds, put them together, and tossed a weird rambling story over top of it.

Tracks off of this album to note are:

Inca Roads

Can't Afford No Shoes

San Ber'dino

Andy

 

If you want to get specific it was Zappa with his band "The Mothers Of Invention".  Just  throwing that out there.  Like the song, "Smoke On The Water"?  That line that says "Frank Zappa & The Mothers" is talking about this guy.

A to Z Challenge: N is for Nimrod

Everybody loves Green Day, right?  Either that or everybody thinks they're overrated, I can never remember which it is.

This is one of their slightly older albums, before the whole American Idiot thing that made them super popular again.

I really like this album a lot, though if I think about it it's super freaking generic.  All of their stuff is though, that's kinda the draw of Green Day.  It's reasonably solid music, and you always know what you're getting in to.

So I like these tracks more than some others though.

Nice Guys Finish Last

Hitchin' A Ride

The Grouch

Uptight

King for A Day

A to Z Challenge: M is for Maylene

No I kinda cheated here.  Maylene &The Sons Of Disaster technically have named each album I, II, III, and IV, so I can't use it for "M".  However one might also argue that this is a form of having a self titled album, so that's what I'm going with.

Maylene is a really interesting mix.  It's Southern Metal, but not.  It's got banjo, slide guitar, and all that kinda of stuff, so maybe you could call it Bluegrass Metal?  I don't know really.

It's a really cool sound though and I'd say you should check out the following tracks.

Waiting On My Deathbed

Last Train Coming

Step Up (I'm On It)

The Old Iron Hills

No Good Son

A to Z Challenge: L is for Late Registration

You know what you need to follow a Kanye parody with?  Kanye Freaking West, that's who!

I mean, this guy is a genius, there's no way around it.  Who would have thought to take a loop of Jaime Foxx singing poorly and looping it, then proceeding to rap over it?  Well plenty of people might now, but Kanye invented this style!

Every album he has released has revolutionized music as we know it, there was nothing good before Kanye.

Listen to all of it, cause it's all better than anything you've ever heard in your life, obviously.

A to Z Challenge: K is for Kreezus

You know what April needs?  Christmas music.

So these guys known as Local Business Comedy made a Christmas themed parody of Kanye West's album Yeezus and it is one of the best things ever.  Not only does it sound an awful lot like Kanye, but it also is hilarious.

If you're familiar with any of the tracks on Yeezus then make sure to listen to their Kreezy equivalent first.  It's the best effect.

This week's highlights: April Week 2 E - J

Woo!  We're 10 posts down, 16 more to go!

I'm really liking this a lot so far and I'm really glad of all of you who either visited or came to stick around for the whole month.  I really hope that you'll stick around for the rest of the times as well.  I know a daily blog can get annoying, but I think I'm worth it, right?  I'm lovable, right?

Ok, let's get the greatest hits of the week out here.  This time it is in no particular order.

Do Me A Favor

The Curse

What I'm Not

Sentenced To Burn

Jesus Freak

I F*cking Hate You