too.many.records.too.many.records.A place to talk about records, old and new, good and bad, with no genre restrictions. Suggest your own record, comment on the reviewed ones, participate on top list voting. Articles
a cry from the past
2007-01-23 13:13:01 omen - 'battle cry'released: 1984running time: 36'37"metal bladesongs: 1. death rider 2. the axeman 3. last rites 4. dragon's breath 5. be my wench 6.battle cry 7. die by the blade 8. prince of darkness 9. bring out the beast 10. in the arenatime for some classic heavy metal! quite frankly, you don't get any more classic than omen, who are, strangely enough, one of the severely overlooked bands of the genre's richest period. over time, they have become a sort of a cult thing, name-dropped by every connoisseur worth his salt, and for a reason. the main problem with omen is that they never really took off after this great debut. the sophomore record, 'warning of danger', was still quite interesting, but the following records of their career (which included an 8 year hiatus in the 90s) have been less than essential. so what makes 'battle cry' so special? and whatever it is, does it still hold 22 years after its original release?these questions are actually quite simple, no ne... More About: Past
a leap of faith
2007-01-23 13:13:01 anathema - 'eternity'released: september 2, 1996running time: 57'57"peaceville recordssongs: 1. sentient 2. angelica 3. the beloved 4. eternity part i 5. eternity part ii 6. hope 7. suicide veil 8. radiance 9. far away 10. eternity part iii 11. cries on the wind 12. ascensionsince the follow-up to 2004's 'a natural disaster' is being written as i write, and it won't be too long until its release, it seems appropriate to look back on the career of these liverpudlians and analyze one of their most important records.'eternity' is not such a landmark strictly because of its absolute quality. in fact, purely taken for what it is, it's one of the weakest of the whole anathema discography, even if that is a particular battlefield where the competition is as fierce as they come. the importance of 'eternity' can be measured instead in what it meant for the development of the band's sound and for what it allowed them to do afterwards. before it, anathema were quite safely pegged ... More About: Faith , Leap
labour of love
2007-01-23 13:13:01 david poe - 'love is red'released: june 21, 2005running time: 34'38"ulftone musicsongs: 1. you're the bomb 2. so beautiful 3. love is red 4. wilderness 5. reunion 6. moon 7. settlement 8. you got a reputation 9. doxology 10. love won't last the afternoonmy attention was first drawn to david poe when i was fortunate enough to catch him opening up for a part of ed harcourt's (whose latest record i talked about here) european tour a couple of years ago. there it was, this sleepy-looking new yorker, but surprisingly razor-sharp in his wit, with songs that instantly demanded the attention of an ed harcourt-centered crowd. the merchandise stall had the bold ed harcourt quote that 'love is red' was 'the best album ever!'. i wouldn't go quite that far, but this record is undoubtedly a surprisingly fabulous one.david on record is slightly different from his crazy stage persona. the emotion levels are much higher and there is not so much fooling about, although the sharpness of wit... More About: Love , Labour
satan's work
2007-01-23 13:13:01 gorgoroth - 'ad majorem sathanas gloriam'released: june 26, 2006running time: 31'39"regain recordssongs: 1. wound upon wound 2. carving a giant 3. god seed (twilight of the idols) 4. sign of an open eye 5. white seed 6. exit 7. untamed forces 8. prosperity and beautyas of late, gorgoroth may have been attracting more headlines for vocalist gaahl's tribulations with justice, but that should not overshadow the importance of the norwegian band's new album. despite a long career already, gorgoroth have usually been looked at as part of a second tier of black metal bands by most genre fans (me included, i admit), and even excellent albums like 'pentagram' haven't done much to give them the full notoriety many feel they deserve. however, with this new record, probably their best so far, things are bound to change.the final piece in the gorgoroth puzzle might have been the hiring of frost from satyricon and touring partners 1349 for drum duties. the man's relentless battery would ... More About: Satan , Work
allez la france!
2007-01-23 13:13:01 les sans culottes - 'fixation orale'released: may 18, 2004aeronaut recordssuggested for review by 'the queen of everything'songs: 1. toxico 2. allô allô 3. garçon culotté 4. tout va bien 5. train à grande vitesse 6. li kantu 7. téléphone douche 8. ménage à toi 9. la radio 10. poupée de cire 11. deux boules de glace 12. voyage au bout de l'ennuiles sans culottes play boppy, raunchy, 60s yeh-yeh-influenced pop-rock songs in french (apart from a song in, erm, esperanto), with such profound themes as ice cream. oh, and they're from new york.are you scared? you shouldn't be. the faux-french bop of these crazy americans (apart from the one genuinely french member, singer celine dijon) is actually quite compelling, and taken on a purely musical level, they're a sort of mix of the b-52's and bits of le tigre with serge gainsbourg, whose hit 'poupée de cire' is very amusingly covered here.there's much more to them than that, though. one you get past the joke-band idea, you'll fi... More About: France , Fran , Franc
finnish soul
2007-01-23 13:13:01 amorphis - 'eclipse'released: february 20, 2006running time: 45'28"nuclear blastsongs: 1. two moons 2. house of sleep 3. leaves scar 4. born from fire 5. under a soil and black stone 6. perkele (the god of fire) 7. the smoke 8. same flesh 9. brother moon 10. empty opening 11. stone woman'eclipse' only clicked totally for me when i watched amorphis performing live at this year's tuska festival. on one hand, hearing these new songs effortlessly rub shoulders with the older classics and, on the other hand, witnessing the surprising confidence of new frontman tomi joutsen in tackling songs from every period of the band made me want to go home and listen to 'eclipse' with doubled attention.it paid off - 'eclipse' is one of those records that demands a little extra attention, especially if you're already a fan of the band. even if joutsen's vocals aren't a million miles away from former vocalist pasi koskinen (who, incidentally, is now focusing solely on ajattara, highly reco... More About: Soul , Innis , Nish
sing your sorrows
2007-01-23 13:13:01 william elliott whitmore - 'ashes to dust'released: february 22, 2005running time: 31'39"regain recordssongs: 1. midnight 2. the day the end finally came 3. when push comes to love 4. diggin' my grave 5. the buzzards won't cry 6. sorest of eyes 7. lift my jug (song for hub cale) 8. gravel road 9. porchlight'when you're up to your neck in shit, the only thing left to do is sing' - this samuel beckett quotation is the only verbal cue you get from the black booklet, but it could not have been more accurate. william elliott whitmore's johnny cash-esque tales of death, love, loss and woe feature protagonists who really have got nothing left but to sing.whitmore's gravely voice, a sort of cross between tom waits and the oldest, coarsest country singers you can think of, cuts right through to the heart of rural america again with his second album. his style hasn't changed much since 'hymns for the hopeless', which is a good thing, for william is a rather unique musical presenc... More About: Your , Sing , Sorrow
back in the game
2007-01-23 13:13:01 stratovarius - 'stratovarius'released: august 31, 1005running time: 49'21"mayan recordssongs: 1. maniac dance 2. fight!!! 3. just carry on 4. back to madness 5. gypsy in me 6.götterdämmerung (zenith of power) 7. the land of ice and snow 8. leave the tribe 9. unitedthere would have been much better stratovarius records to inaugurate the finnish band's presence on this blog, their masterpiece 'visions' for example, but i chose this one because it represents a sort of coming back from the dark, after all the personal turmoil that took place, mainly with guitarist timo tolkki. it?s therefore not easy to take this record solely for what it is, after the rollercoaster of events that preceded it, with wild accusations between the two main men, tolkki and kotipelto, impossible-to-understand member changes, surreal happenings with tolkki, the lot. at one point, it was highly unlikely that another stratovarius record would ever even exist. however, with timo tolkki?s mental health probl... More About: Game , Back , The Game , The G
top50 - #20 to #16
2007-01-23 11:59:00 16. enslaved - 'ruun'The towering expectations that previous album 'Isa' created could have been a problem, but not so with Enslaved. their progression seems unstoppable and 'Ruun' is, incredibly, another major step forward in the refining of their by now trademark sound. Enslaved have that rare ability to keep adding elements to their music, which started out in the early 90s as high quality but nevertheless rather straightforward viking black metal. These additions don't just augment their compositions, they seemingly fuse together, creating an immense soundscape to which you'll be irresistibly drawn to. Closer to Neurosis than to black metal as such these days in their all-encompassing scope, on 'Ruun' Enslaved give you roars, rasps and clean vocals, furious riffing and atmospheric passages, orchestral elements and straight-ahead intensity, progressive influences, middle eastern-sounding melodies and tons of standing-on-windswept-cliffs moments. Not so much pushing the ...
top50 - #25 to #21
2007-01-22 01:18:00 21. agalloch - 'ashes against the grain'One of the most important and unclassifiable bands in the United States right now, Agalloch continue to define their own sound while striding confidently into the pantheon of the great unclassifiables of every genre, like Neurosis or Mogwai or even Godspeed You Black Emperor!. What makes every Agalloch release increasingly essential is not a specific, look-this-is-it factor. it is the sheer scale that their intricate compositions hold within themselves. Steer well clear if you want immediate music - 'Ashes Against The Grain' will start to click around the 15 or so listens, but when it does, each and every song will feel like an entire universe where you can explore and discover new details every day.22. ljå - 'til avsky for livet'It is unusual, at least in my lists, for an album that has a very low level of originality to be placed this high. 'Til Avsky For Livet' doesn't have many things that haven't been done before similarly, at ...
top50 - #30 to #26
2007-01-20 02:09:00 26. tool - '10,000 days'Epitomizing the 'progressive' tag while avoiding what bands-who-really-want-to-be 'progressive' do, Tool just keep evolving, mutating, rooting themselves deeper. They progress, in fact. No need here to indulge in pointless 15-minute songs that could easily have been written for 5 and do note scale acrobatics. Tool's music is deep and complex, and at the same time incredibly primal and intuitive - it has the ability to move you at whatever level you choose to take it. At times retrospective ('Vicarious' as a 'Stinkfist' for the new generation), at times introspective and challenging (the two 'Wings' songs), '10,000' days, like the band itself, is always interesting, always exciting and it always matters.27. krux - 'krux ii'The great Leif Edling, doom grandfather extraordinaire, probably seeking a bit of rest from the current problems of Candlemass, re-activated his other band in 2006 to present every doom aficionado with a true modern classic ...
top50 - round two!
2007-01-18 23:28:00 31. m.ward - 'post-war'The constant M.Ward metamorphosis continues. This man can easily sing from either 1906 or 2006, always with the same passion, the same subtlety and the same relevance. On 'Post-War' he has fast-forwarded a bit in time from 'Transistor Radio' (who made my list last year too) while still maintaining a traditional bluesy folk ambiance, making this record comparable to both Neil Young's latest and Springsteen's Seeger Sessions up there. Above all, Matt is a prodigious musical talent. Check out the song 'Chinese Translation' for the most clear piece of evidence.32. stolen babies - 'there be squabbles ahead'The End Records seems to be a safe haven for the oddball bands that don't really fit anywhere these days, and its output in 2006 has been of an unusual standard of quality. From Unexpect to Sleepytime Gorilla Museum (both previously mentioned on this list) to Estradasphere (who barely just missed it), and the best of all, Stolen Babies. Your head hur... More About: Round
top50 - the first batch
2007-01-17 23:18:00 To re-activate the long-dormant too.many.records., nothing better than a list, for all you geeks like me out there.In the next few weeks, I'll be telling you about my 50 favourite records of 2006. I hope you like it, and contribute with your agreements and disagreements, as well as your own lists!Without further ado, the first 10:41. sleepytime gorilla museum - 'grand opening and closing!'Delightfully and endearingly oddball - if rock bands were boxes stored in the big rock warehouse, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum would be a grinning jack-in-the-box springing at you as soon as you open it. Inhabiting a warped mindspace similar to that of Fantômas, Mr Bungle or Primus, the music (not to mention the complex web of serious/jokey -you never know- lyrics!) in 'Grand Opening And Closing!' twitches its way from head-blowing heaviness ('1997') to creepy lullabies to gentle acoustic passages. Hell, they're even capable of belting out a potential radio hit, with the terribly catchy 'Sle... More About: First , Batch
with wings
2006-10-21 22:59:00 falconer - 'northwind'released: october 2006metal blade recordssongs:1. northwind 2. waltz with the dead 3. spirit of the hawk 4. legend and the lore 5. catch the shadows 6. tower of the queen 7. long gone by 8. perjury and sanctity 9. fairyland fanfare 10. himmel så trind 11. blinded 12. delusion 13. home of the knave 14. black tarnbonus cd:1. kristallen den finda 2. ridom, ridom 3. liten vätte 4. värfindar riskaFalconer is one of those permanently underrated bands that make their fans wonder what more will it take to get them more noticed by the metal-or-otherwise musical communities. Their self-titled debut album was a surprisingly brilliant effort (especially considering the very different, more musically extreme past of composer/guitarist/leader Stefan Weinerhall in Mithotyn), and they have followed it with strong and consistent successors.'Northwind' is the fifth album by these Swedes and nothing better to start off this little analysis of it than claiming straight away... More About: Wing , Wings
...and a bottle of rum!
2006-10-05 23:47:00 various artists - 'rogue's gallery - pirate ballads, sea songs & chanteys'released: august 22, 2006anti-songs:disc 11. baby gramps - cape cod girls 2. richard thompson - mingulay boat song 3. john c. reilly - my son john 4. nick cave - fire down below 5. loudon wainwright iii - turkish revelry 6. three pruned men - bully in the alley 7. bryan ferry - the cruel ship's captain 8. robin holcomb - dead horse 9. bill frisell - spanish ladies 10. joseph arthur - coast of high barbary 11. mark anthony thompson - haul away joe 12. david thomas - dan dan 13. sting - blood red roses 14. teddy thompson - sally brown 15. rufus wainwright & kate mcgarrigle - lowlands away 16. gavin friday - baltimore whores 17. eliza carthy - rolling sea 18. martin carthy & the uk group - the mermaid 19. bob neuwirth - haul on the bowline 20. bono - a dying sailor to his shipmates 21. lucinda williams - bonnie portmore 22. richard greene & jack shit - shenandoah 23. mary margaret o'hara - the cry of mandisc... More About: Bottle
the main character
2006-09-20 12:01:00 dark tranquillity - 'character'released: january 25, 2005century mediasongs: 1. the new build 2. through smudged lenses 3. out of nothing 4. the endless feed 5. lost to apathy 6. mind matters 7. one thought 8. dry run 9. am i 1? 10. senses tied 11. my negationIf you want to quickly define this band, you could do far worse than calling them the thinking man's quintessential metal band. In the last decade they have proven themselves to be quite far ahead of mostly everyone else, and consistently so. There is a sense of purpose, of meaning, at every Dark Tranquillity release. Not that there's anything (thematically) wrong with demons or drugs or death, to namecheck just a few examples of overused topics, but Dark Tranquillity go at it the hard way, and you get chaos theory, philosophy, art, psychology and if you read one of their obviously fascinated-with-language-like lyric sheets you will get an idea without me going on about it. The hardest thing about this approach is that you ... More About: Main , Character , Char , The Main , Hara
farewell
2006-09-18 10:24:00 sentenced - 'the funeral album'released: april 2003century mediasongs: 1. may today become the day 2. ever-frost 3. we are but falling leaves 4. her last 5 minutes 5. where waters fall frozen 6. despair-ridden hearts 7. vengeance is mine 8. a long way to nowhere 9. consider us dead 10. lower the flags 11. drain me 12. karu 13. end of the roadNow that the long-awaited DVD 'Buried Alive', containing a host of extras and the entire farewell concert of this illustrious Finnish band (on which, according to reports, there are several shots of yours truly in the front row...), is finally upon us, it's worth remembering their final album, relevant in the context of their influential career.The two short instrumentals present in this record, the savage 'Where Waters Fall Frozen' and the soft acoustic 'Karu', are perhaps the best symbolic summary of Sentenced's musical career, particularly after the change of vocalist, after the album 'Amok'. Since then, their tales of sadness, so... More About: Farewell , Fare , Well
the crack of doom
2006-09-12 11:41:00 yob - 'the illusion of motion'released: october 19th, 2004running time: 50'00"metal blade recordssongs: 1.ball of molten lead 2.exorcism of the host 3.doom #2 4.the illusion of motionUnder this mysterious three letter name lies one of the brightest prospects of doom metal, a band that has been slowly but surely captivating several factions of the more unconventional musical circles. 'The Illusion Of Motion' is their debut, released in 2004 after an already impressive self-titled demo.What is great about Yob is that they manage to create something new out of a concatenation of clear influences. The development and dynamics of the huge songs (the last track clocks in at 26 minutes) bring to mind, if you can quite imagine that, Neurosis jamming with Sleep. There are hazier, more stoner parts in the vein of Electric Wizard or Burning witch, and the rockier moments owe some dues to Black Sabbath and, more contemporarily, to High On Fire. If you're at all into this kind of music, I ... More About: Crack , Rack , Doom
do the black stomp
2006-09-06 11:01:00 ajattara - 'kuolema'released: may 2003playing time: 33'43"spikefarmsongs: 1.antakaa elää 2.surman henki 3.haureus 4.huoran alla 5.ikiyössä 6.musta leski 7.sielun särkijä 8.kituvan kiitos 9.helvetissä on syntisen taivas 10.rauhassa Their new album 'Äpäre' is just out, but before I review it in a couple of weeks I think it's worth it to look back to 'Kuolema', this Finnish band's finest hour so far. Ajattara were originally a side project of Pasi Koskinen, the former vocalist for Amorphis. Before you draw any conclusions, the sole similarity between the two bands (including Pasi's vocal performance) is the usage of ancient Finnish history as their lyrical theme. Even so, the focus here is on much darker topics thereof.Ajattara is a bit like Pasi's evil twin spewing out all the bad blood. Although Pasi (who goes by the name of Ruoja here) was still in Amorphis when this came out, it's understandable why he felt safe enough to dedicate himself 100% to Ajattara short... More About: Black , Lack
the last highway
2006-09-04 23:03:00 johnny cash - 'american v - a hundred highways'released: july 4, 2006running time: 42'53"american recordingssongs: 1. help me 2. god's gonna cut you down 3. like the 309 4. if you could read my mind 5. further on up the road 6. on the evening train 7. i came to believe 8. love's been good to me 9. a legend in my time 10. rose of my heart 11. four strong winds 12. i'm free from the chain gang nowFor all the musically questionable projects which he has been involved with, for at least one thing Rick Rubin must be given an enormous amount of credit for, and that is the revitalization of Johnny Cash. Rubin picked up a rather forgotten and time-misplaced Cash and helped him forge what are arguably the best albums of his career. For someone with Johnny Cash's historical musical past, this re-invention, this diving deep into americana and traditional music, speckled with some impeccably chosen rock covers that exposed cash to an entirely new audience and made him almost universal, i... More About: Last , High , Highway , The Last
grey is the way
2006-08-29 17:35:00 harmaa - 'airut:aamujen'released: december 2004utustudiosongs: 1.saapuminen 2.seitsensarvi 3.lävitseni kaikkeen 4.luopumisen laulu 5.kuvajainen 6.oikea sointi 7.kahluu 8.hiensynty 9.läheltäHarmaa (which, in Finnish, means 'Grey ') is an offshot of the better known Finnish band Tenhi. In fact, 'Airut:aamujen' is the follow-up to a saga first started on a Tenhi record, 'Airut:ciwi'. Therefore, the music is not a million miles away from The tenhi sound, the contemplative, quiet melancholy being the prevalent norm in these compositions.However, Harmaa strips that whole sound to its bare minimum. The 9 songs on this record are a sparse tapestry of piano as the main composition vehicle, accompanied by soft acoustic guitars, vocals and percussion. Unlike Tenhi, the guitars are mainly used for texture, while the vocals (apart from the wonderful male/female duet 'Luopumisen Laulu', the only half-upbeat song of the record) are mostly neutral and monotone, like an emotion-less vers... More About: The Way
spellbound
2006-08-25 12:59:00 the black heart procession - 'the spell'released: may 8, 2006touch & go songs: 1. tangled 2. the spell 3. not just words 4. the letter 5. the replacement 6. return to burn 7. gps 8. the waiter #5 9. places 10. the fix 11. to bring you backEven for indie rock standards, The Black Heart Procession are very unusual. Ever since their mysteriously-titled (just numbers) first albums they have set themselves apart from the norm. Opearating within a very gloomy musical framework, their oddball concept albums have displayed labyrinthine songs that are a mixture of desolation, bitterness but also orchestration and cheeky sense of humour at the same time.With a clear side-stepping evolution process so far, never really rehashing ideas while still maintaining a clear band identity, there was some curiosity to see what they would come up with to follow up the eerily latin-tinged 'Amore Del Tropico', after a worrying silence of four years. In another side-step, they have opted to do slightly ... More About: Bound , Spell , Spellbound
the devil has all the best songs
More articles from this author:2006-08-24 18:05:00 deicide - 'the stench of redemption'released: august 21, 2006earache1. the stench of redemption 2. death to jesus 3. desecration 4. crucified for the innocence 5. walk with the devil in dreams you behold 6. homage for satan 7. not of this earth 8. never to be seen again 9. the lord's sedition 10. black nightAnother day, another ass-kicking return from an extreme metal leading name! With Slayer (see previous post), Mastodon and Deicide, August 2006 is shaping up as a metalhead's dream. As you might have guessed by that, much like Slayer's new album, 'The Stench Of Redemption' is the best thing the veteran Florida death metal outfit has done in many a year.Turns out that kicking out the Hoffman brothers was the creative whipping the band needed. Jack Owen and Ralph Santolla picked up the guitars and, quite frankly, they proceed to shred all over the place on this record. There's no two ways about it - the Owen/Santolla pair deliver the finest riff-fest we've heard since last ... More About: Songs , Best , Evil , Devil , The D 1, 2, 3 |
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