Nothing here quite yet — but I will say that I have reverted to a heavy metal phase and as of 2009 I’ve been listening to The Sword (Age of Winters; Gods of the Earth) and Metallica (Death Magnetic) a lot. As well as Arvo Part’s Kanon Pokajnen.
In 2011 I picked up The Sword’s “Warp Rider” and I have to say I’m sort of disappointed. They are going to a very generic rock/metal sound where in their first two records they had a weird and wonderful Black Sabbath-30-years-later vibe.
A couple other of my recent favorites I discovered, strangely, not on the web.
Sunn O))) I had heard about, and was a little surprised to see their CD Monoliths & Dimensions at my local public library. This is glorious, brutal sludgely guitar-based noise at a tempo of like MM=15. I actually bought my own copy of the CD at the local mall.
19 A.D.D. had an ad for their debut “Dead River” CD in the “Prog” magazine. For some reason it piqued my interest and when I heard them I was dazzled. It’s in my top 5 these past couple of months.
As many complaints as I have about satellite radio, I have to grudgingly admit that you can find some interesting new stuff on it if you persist. The “Liquid Metal” channel has some good metal, and the “Chill” channel has some very good electronic downtempo stuff. Incidentally there are several comedy channels with current standup stars and bits from the classics–even back to Bob Newhart vintage.
Even better than that, though, last year I resubscribed to Pandora and generally listen to that while I’m working on the computer. I have bookmarked a lot of artists I would have never otherwise heard. I have the computer output fed into a decent stereo system since I can’t bear to listen for a long time to laptop speakers.
Page#42/last updated 20110222
