Tuesday, August 27, 2013

Real Music of the Week (35)

Edguy - Ministry of Saints

Y&T - I'm Coming Home

The Winery Dogs - Desire

Tramps & Thieves - The World Is Waiting

Eric Martin - Sucker For A Pretty Face

Pop Evil - Monster You Made

Alter Bridge - Ghost of Days Gone By

Sunday, August 25, 2013

Top 10 Sister Hazel songs

1. Your Winter - one of the best ballads/love songs I've heard. A song about regret. The intro gets me every time, it's just fantastic. Beautiful and emotional singing.

2. Swan Dive - a complete opposite of the previous song. It's a very happy song, a bit up-tempo with some really funky guitar-playing. The singing is great, fantastic melody and through the verses it's almost with a rap-like feel from the singer.

3. Come Around - a great song that works fantastic both acoustic and electric. Nice lyrics and a cool chorus. Great singing as usual. Electric version has a tasty guitar riff as well.

4. World Inside My Head - another great ballad. It's hard to explain this song, but the lyrics are really good and the chorus feels like sunshine. To be short, the song is self-explanatory inside my head. Pun intended.

5. Your Mistake - An up-tempo song that boosts the mood on any given day. Not because of what it's about, but because of the feeling that the song gives you. It's really a song of, and about, passion. Also, the chorus is addictive.

6. Meet Me In The Memory - another mood-booster that makes a somewhat sad thing (like a long distance relationship?) feel like a happy and hopeful song. The chorus is actually fun. Great lyrics and singing, the break before the last choruses is really cool.

7. Feel It - first, the live version is superior to the studio version. Second, on the album Before The Amplifiers it's introduced as the first Sister Hazel song that ever was. Well, I guess that's what you call a good start. A fun song that is hard to get tired of.

8. Stay Awhile - the most recent song on the list has a little bit more of a country thing going on. Nothing wrong because I really like this one, it's great.

9. Release - a great song with a very nice groove and tempo. Great singing of course. The chorus is sing-a-long friendly, it's just one of those feel good songs.

10. Where Do You Go - last song on the list is another ballad. The verses in this one is what makes it so great, they're fantastic and feels as if performed very emotionally. Nice song to finish off the list.

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And if you by now for some reason haven't gotten any from the girl you're playing this to, then try this album to seal the deal… Before The Amplifiers is their acoustic live album which is just a bunch of great songs made fantastic on stage. Here's three examples: Hold On / Shame / This Kind of Love

Friday, August 16, 2013

Top 10 Avantasia Songs

Avantasia is the brainchild and side project  of Edguy's frontman Tobias Sammet. Under the description metal opera Sammet gathers guest vocalists and musicians to record and tour with the core of the band that is Avantasia. This allows for a wide variety of material, from hard rock and heavy metal to ballads and epic 10-minute songs. With a bunch of great singers to assist Sammet there's a lot of great songs to choose from. SO, here's my pick of the greatest Avantasia songs!

1. The Wicked Symphony (w/ Jorn Lande, Russell Allen) - an epic hard-rocker with a lot of power, two world-class rock singers and a super chorus. Great fun and great talent, which is what this project is all about!

2. Down In The Dark (w/ Jorn Lande) - Jorn Lande is the star in this one with his powerful vocal abilities. Jorn's vocals on this track is actually freakishly amazing, as any hard rock fan could tell.

3. Your Love Is Evil - A track for Tobias Sammet alone, and the man does not disappoint. Great singing and just a very cool rock song, no epicness just simple, fun rock!

4. Forever Is A Long Time (w/ Jorn Lande) - Another outlandish vocal performance from Jorn Lande. This is pure power. The collaboration between Lande and Sammet works perfect on this one.

5. The Scarecrow (w/ Jorn Lande) - Another great epic song about being a little different. It's a perfect metal epic with great vocals. When the song climaxes after the (a bit too long) instrumental break, I have my own ear-climax. Metal!!

6. Shelter From The Rain (w/ Michael Kiske, Bob Catley) - Michael Kiske has a very special voice which fits this track perfectly. An up-tempo metal song with an insane chorus vibrato from Kiske. After the first chorus, you'll want to hear the next one immediately because it's bone-chilling!

7. Stargazers (w/ Jorn Lande, Russell Allen, Michael Kiske) - Another long great epic that has a lot of diversity thanks to the four(!) different singers. Russell Allen is back once again with his perfect rock voice and even though he doesn't have that many lines he really stands out.

8.  Twisted Mind (w/ Roy Khan) - A powerful hard-rocker with a very mean-spirited intro and a guitar riff that melts faces. It's a very 'evil' song and I love it! The only thing I don't really like is the break in the middle, before the guitar solo, which is a bit too long. Other than that, both devil horns up!

9. Alone I Remember (w/ Jorn Lande) - As always a great vocal performance from both Sammet and Lande in a classic hard rock song with a great chorus that gets stuck immediately. But what makes this song one to remember is Bruce Kulick's guitar brilliance in the beginning of the song.

10. Dying For An Angel (w/ Klaus Meine) - A German metal opera with the singer from the Scorpions? That ought to work. And it does because Klaus Meine really lifts this song with his instantly recognizable voice. Great rock song, so… Vorwärts Deutschland!

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Lost In Space - Tobias Sammets only obvious attempt at making a hit-single. Nothing wrong with that because I really like the song. It's not as hard as much of the other Avantasia material. But this is one of Tobi's best vocal performances ever in my opinion.

Angel of Babylon (w/ Jorn Lande) - A powerful title track that's just outside of the list because it's not Lande's best performance. He's relying solely on power here, with no real versatility.

Where Clock Hands Freeze (w/ Michael Kiske) - magical singing from Michael Kiske and the only song from the new album Mystery of Time. 

Thursday, August 15, 2013

The Answer - New Single: Spectacular

The Answer has released the first single from their upcoming album New Horizon. The music video for the song is great, but it was actually shut down by Youtube at first for containing nudity (which is obviously not cool!). The song itself is great, very good song. Catchy and nice guitar work, and to top it off singer Cormac Neeson has a really cool voice!

Original video of Spectacular.

This is the clean version, in case the other one gets shut down.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Real music of the week (32)

Europe - Always The Pretenders

Slash feat. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators - Standing In The Sun

Volbeat - My Body

Allman Brothers - Midnight Rider

Jackopierce - Promise of Summer

Simon & Garfunkel - Richard Cory

Stone Sour - Absolute Zero

The Mowgli's - San Francisco

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Top 10 BEATLES Songs

10. Can't Buy Me Love

9. All My Loving

8. Help

7. Yesterday

6. Let It Be

5. Ticket To Ride

4. Twist And Shout

3. Hey Jude

2. Eight Days A Week

1. I've Just Seen A Face