I enjoy music, as most of you know, so I thought I'd post a song everyday during the week using my Blip.fm station and tweet it at the same time (if you wanted to follow at home.) Every week, I'll recap my choices and write a little blurb about them.
Check this tag for my other “Songs of the Week” posts.
Hopefully, it's a good chance to hear some new music (or old music) and get my take on it. I do tend to lean towards Heavy Metal and Hard Rock, so most songs will probably be in that general area, but I will veer from time to time. I know music is very much like religion and politics, so I'm not pushing anything onto you. If you don't like something, I respect that. But, if you do, I'm more than happy to get you more info on it, just let me know.
Most entries will have a Wikipedia and Last.FM link at the end for you to get more information and listen to other songs at your leisure.
Monday
Machine Head – Aesthetics of Hate – Machine Head's last album “The Blackening” got great reviews and rightfully so. This song was one of the first singles and probably the first Machine Head I got to listen to the most. It was available in one of the first metal track downloads for Rock Band and it's still one of the songs I have trouble finishing on drums on Hard or above. The song itself is a response to an article written about the death of Dimebag Darrell of Pantera. The author of the article wrote that Dimebag was “an ignorant, barbaric, untalented possessor of a guitar” among other things. I've heard of Machine Head before this point, but I needed more! We also were very lucky to see them open for Metallica at their Milwaukee show in 2009 and they put on an extremely energetic performance. [ Wikipedia | Last.fm ]
Tuesday
Black Tide – Shockwave – Black Tide is another band I had no idea about until we downloaded one of their songs in Rock Band. They do a great, classic metal sound reminiscent of Metallica and Megadeth. What is somewhat unique about them is that 2 brothers founded the band in 2004 when they were only 11 and 14 and they play very good metal. Their cover of Metallica's classic “Hit the Lights” is pretty good. This song also goes down as one of my favorite songs to play on drums in Rock Band. [ Wikipedia | Last.fm ]
Wednesday
Lamb of God – Laid to Rest – It almost seems like the theme this week is songs I became fans of because of rhythm video games, but it's not. Not to be confused with one of the titles that was given to Jesus in the New Testament, I was aware of Lamb of God before I heard more of them when this song was in Guitar Hero II and then later in Rock Band 2. I picked up a few albums and thought they were great with a great “groove metal” feel to them, in the vicinity of Pantera. This is another one that I love to play on drums in Rock Band. [ Wikipedia | Last.fm ]
Thursday
Lacuna Coil – Spellbound – I've listened to Lacuna Coil for a few years, while never becoming a massive fan. I enjoy it here and there. Though, they are usually lumped into Goth or Emo music due to the fact that they have a female singer, I would personally put them in Hard Rock and possibly Metal, depending on the song. The mix of Cristina Scabbia's great vocals and Andrea Ferro's deeper vocals, make it a unique sound. Just to follow the supposed accidental theme, they do have some songs in Rock Band. [ Wikipedia | Last.fm ]
Friday
Dethklok – Murmaider II: The Water God – Nothing completes a weekly list like a cartoon death metal band. All cartooniness aside, Dethklok's music is extremely good. Brendon Small knows what he's doing when creating these songs. We've had the privilege of seeing them live when they toured with Mastodon last year and they put on an amazing show. When you get to have metal royalty like Gene Hoglan play drums in your live band, how can you go wrong? Plus, the fact that they are also stars of one of the funniest cartoons I've ever seen just makes it better. [ Wikipedia | Last.fm ]
