AUGUST - PADRAIG JOYCE (AKA REICH JOYCE AKA PBAP)

1. Daft Punk - Homework (Da Funk)
2. Nirvana - Nevermind
3. Revenge Of Shinobi OST
4. Weezer - The Blue Album
5. Richie Hawtin - Decks EFX 909

PBAP is how this man is known to me, and I'm at the point where I'm not 100% certain I know his actual name. I think it's Padraig. anyways, another streetfighter in our circle of firends who is also a DJ (really? A DJ who plays streetfighter you say?). Must be a common thing. I've not seen Padraig that much at all recently since he moved, so I hope he's keeping well down south. I remember asking him one night late in to August when I said "Jesus Padraig, Rave much?". To which he succinctly replied "YES PLEASE!". That probably sums up all we need to know about this month, and solidifies my feeling that being trapped in a thumping rave fest with black lighting, drugs and thumping subwoofters would be very close to my idea of hell.


Daft Punk - Homework (Da Funk)

Like just about everyone in the known world, I have listened to Discovery, probably the gateway for many in to electronic music.
And whilst I'd heard one or two tracks, I hadn't listened to Homework, the debut by the French electronic duo known around the world.
In the midst of listening to this album, I actually saw the Daft Punk Unchained documentary, which was quite the letdown, but gave some interesting insights to the group in question.
On first listen I thought this album was a little "rave", but it still held my interest for the majority.
It does feel a little disjointed.
In comparison to Discover, where the whole album flows beautifully from one track to the other, this album feels quite disjointed.
Daft Punk have commented that this was more a collection of tracks, and that shows.
It's very interesting however, as by listening to this you can "hear" the bridge from the techno origins of electronic music in to the new melodic sound which Daft Punk is so well known for, it's almost like a history lesson in modern music.
One of my favorite tidbits about it is how when Jean Michel Gondry commented on "Around The World" (which he directed the video for), that the tracks by Daft Punk would take one beat, and repeat to just before the point of which it would be too much, and only then change it.
I guess they are the masters of "dropping the beat", and you can really hear it throughout this album.
Ironically the most important parts of the album are the bits that "miss", and it really highlights the fine line between the catchy chart topper hits Daft Punk have thrown out, and the origins they came from to develop that sound.
I think from the point of view of musical structure, this is actually the best album I've listened to thus far this year.
As Pratchett would say "don't ever confuse simple with stupid"


Nirvana - Nevermind

Whilst massively overrated and over played, I can't honestly say Nirvana are a bad band. This album, whilst not my favorite, is quite listenable and by no means a bad album. There's some nice chunky guitar, and it flows quite well. The influence on modern pop rock is indisputable. I suppose I had more of a problem with the people who listened to Nirvana as opposed to Nirvana themselves. It's not particularly complex, but it's probably in the category of Metallica and the Ramones, pushing a bit of a new sound and inspiring people to get in to music. That said, it's more than a little repetitive. I wouldn't put this on by choice, but if someone else was putting this on as background music I wouldn't feel compelled to leave, or in the case of most of the rest of this list, shoot myself. It's been happily running in the background here for the last few minutes whilst I type this, check Facebook, drink coffee and remark how bloody dark it is now at 1800 in the evening.


Revenge Of Shinobi OST

Jesus, maybe I'm the one who's wrong here. Maybe I'm the only guy this year not taking drugs. There's some decent tracks on here, but listening to this as an album drives me slightly mad. Many would say I'm already far past that slightly stage, but listening to another album of bit tunes is not in any small way helpful to the preserve of whatever infinitesimally small quantity of sanity that somehow hasn't yet escaped my cranium of despair (at bit tunes).
I can't really say anything wrong with this music, there's some interesting licks. But when you listen to that same lick over and over, and then a teeny tiny variant of it over and over, and just when you think you've escaped it's wrath, it's back in the track after next. I really don't think it's fair to include a video game soundtrack in this list by nature of the layout of it, but I'm gonna speak about it as I hear it, without any particular emotional attachment as I've not played the game in the first place. And in that scenario, it does very, very little for me.


Weezer - The Blue Album

What the fuck PBAP, I feel like this is just a joke you're playing on me. I know we were all young once and made mistakes, but this superpop vibe of these hipsters really doesn't do a damn thing for me. I just listen to them rabbit on and on with their few chords, having flashbacks to that Happy Days music video that was on the Windows 95 disc, and politely (or not so politely the article may make it seem) wait for them to stop their monotone vocals and guitar at the end of 45 minutes. Generic pop indie rock of no interest to me really. This just sounds to me like all the crap I imagine hearing on the radio. And the scary thing is, this is probably the cream of what that current category has to offer. There were girls in the gym this week talking about bands like Snowpatrol and Walking In Cars, and whilst this stuff would probably blow those bands out of the water, they wouldn't care for them as they're not on the radio this week.


Richie Hawtin - Decks EFX 909

"Thank god that's over", the words I uttered after the first play through.
This, to me a least, is deep rave territory. I feel like I'm back in the nineties, watching a DivX rip of Blade in front of a gigantic monitor whilst eating a pot noodle. This is probably the first album this year that I could only stick a few sittings, and whilst I wish I could say different, does not seem to be the last. I'm pretty sure I'm in a deep deficit of the drugs required to get through this album. I don't even know what drugs do I need, nor do I want to know.
It's the same approximate beat, ran through a slightly different synth or timing over and over and over and over until I lose all will to live. It has a psychotic amount of tracks and they all make me question my station in life, and why I even would subject myself to this.
Three times was enough, I don't think I ever need to listen to this album again. Fuck this shit again for good measure.

JULY - MIRIAM WALSH

1. Rory Gallagher - Tattoo (20/20 Vision)
2. Phillip Lynott - Solo In Soho
3. John Grant - Queen Of Denmark
4. Dan Deacon - Bromst
5. Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth


Right this month is my sister's, and whilst some may guess that is part of the reason that I'm not being a total prick about her musical choices, it's also in part because nothing in here is interesting enough to actually offend anyone. Most of it has a reasonable degree of musical competency too, without being toooo standard. Just. Barely. The fact that she has an upcoming wedding and I don't particularly want to do anything to upset her has nothing to do with the general lack of swearing and disgust. I was kinda hoping for some Clash and Ramones albums in here, but I suppose I've probably already heard a few Clash albums, and I'm not sure to be honest why she didn't chose the Ramones, but there you go. I always thought she was kinda more in to punk, but maybe that was her version of the teenage goth rebellion side of things, and now she's starting to turn full hipster.


Rory Gallagher - Tattoo (20/20 Vision)

After my Stevie Ray Vaughan experience with Mike's list, I was not looking forward to this. All I could think was another guitar wanker fiddling lick after lick and showboating. How wrong was I, I thoroughly enjoyed this album. Whereas a lot of other stuff in the category of "modern blues" seems to be a band centered around some guitar virtuoso, just giving the backing whilst he strokes his own ego drunk on Jack Daniels, cocaine and self absorption. Whilst the guitar does have more of a importance to the other instruments here, it's not at the expense of the other performers. I actually find it quite hard to chose my favorite track here, they're all pretty much a the same level. Even the slower songs have their own charm without being too self indulgent, and it's one of the slower ones I've chosen as my favorite, as it really has some nice piano mixed throughout.


Phillip Lynott - Solo In Soho

Now this is a man who can sing and write some music. I really enjoyed this album, and whilst many of told me this is not the Phil Lynott album they would chose, I thoroughly enjoyed it. As for the first track, yes, it's slow, yes it has those token "emotional" strings in a rock-ish ballad with those quaint flute in the background, but it actually all works rather well. I would have hear Lynott and Thin Lizzy from CDs in the past, but I wouldn't have been as familiar with his slower compositions, and this is an album that seems to have most of those. However, it does start to get a little more groove on in the following tracks, with "Ode To A Black Man" be a lot closer to the Thin Lizzy I would expect. And it all flows beautifully in to each other, not a particularly taxing album to listen to but worth a play through. If you don't like it the first time, you're probably ain't gonna like it after that either.


John Grant - Queen Of Denmark

OK, this took me by surprise. I generally don't like the mix of humor and music (whilst I appreciate Frank Zappa, he's just not for me), and slow acoustic guitar with a slow vocal running throughout usually drives me to despair. To be fair, usually when we're dealing with some hippie blonde chick in her twenties playing three chords whilst singing in a slow raspy voice that everyone thinks is amazing, but is the same fucking terrible Carly Simon/Janis Joplin wannabe without any of the actual talent or tune writing ability. But John Grant however, has no beans in making a joke of things, I think he's the kinda guy well capable of having a twitter page similar to James Blunt. It's a fairly relaxed album that does nothing new, but it's pared back just enough to be easy to listen to and enjoy. Doubt I'd ever bother to go to a gig, it's an interesting oddity that I'd probably not listen to again in the future, but I can't say it's bad.


Dan Deacon - Bromst

Meh. The first track straight away is just folksy noise. It's like they're trying to impersonate ELO, without any of the clarity or buildup of which they're know for. Most of the rest of the album has a similar vibe. I don't know whether to blame the band of the mix, it sounds like the whole thing is emanating over a rowdy club's sound system, and we're missing bits. The first few times I thought there was sometime wrong with my HIFI/Phone/Car Radio. It's more than a little distracting at the best of times. It does clear up from time to time, and some of the melodies seem fine, but it feels like I'm listening to the Ray D'Arcy show on Today FM about 10 years ago. This to me is kind of indie pop if you could call it such a thing. It's the new current thing that every hipster thinks they're the shit for listening to, and so far away from the conventional. I mean I can find Take That songs I enjoy more than this (think I'm lying? Go listen to Shine, and seriously tell me that's not a great fucking song. I don't give a fuck who sang it or wrote it, it's got a great danceable groove). Anyways, away from the sexual entities that are Robbie Williams and co., and back to Dan Deacon. Dan, you stay in your corner of the room and I'll be perfectly content to stay in mine. Come back when you find a decent sound engineer, and I can actually have a good idea what musical travesty you're trying to inflict upon me. I assume that tent on the album cover is where you recorded the album? Might want to address that issue too.


Young Marble Giants - Colossal Youth

Jesus. On the bright side, whereas everything was fairly similar and unoffensive this month, last of the pack was definitely the easiest to pick. Guess what, it's some hipster chick that thinks she's the shit whispering sensually and slowly in to a mic with some bassist behind her that is probably miffed that he wasn't enough of a try-hard too cool for school hipster to be considered for Vulfpeck. I mean, just look at the fucking album cover, all you need to know you can probably glean it from that. There's several tracks on here that sound like a bunch of depressed carnies. No, less than that, a bunch of Roma gypsies kidnapped by carnies and forced to play against their will. The girl is some 13 year old who was child-napped and cries herself to sleep at night. I mean are there actual musicians involved in this, I feel like this is some Andy Kaufman joke he's playing on the music scene. Do these people exist? And it's nearly 60 minutes. Did they really think they had enough in there? Guys, ye could have cut this at 30 minutes and just looped it, I don't think anyone would know the difference. Maybe they already have, and I haven't noticed. Dear god, it's track number 5 here and she's trying to raise her voice. Get back those carnies, the whipping must continue until morale improves. Or death. I'm happy with either. The best thing about this album is I don't have to listen to it again.

ADDENDUM
It has since been pointed out to me that Young Marble Giants are from the 1980s, so predate hipsterdom by quite a few decades indeed. Which on the one hand, makes them the godfathers of all the hipster kingdom has to provide, and lends further credence to my suspicion that this is in reality Andy Kaufman in drag. 

Random Interlude

It's 23:37, I'm drunk, just ate a burger, and now I am going to bed.

JUNE - CHRIST OPHER (AKA CHRIS BRENNAN)

1. Refused - The Shape Of Punk To Come (Liberation Frequency)
2. Radiohead - The Bends
3. The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
4. Rage Against The Machine - The Battle Of Los Angeles
5. Meshuggah - Koloss

It's just after 10 right now, and whilst I should go to bed and get ready for the morning, I'm just after spending the last few minutes with a bottle of scotch whilst angrily beating out vague ramblings in F pentatonic. So why go to bed right now when I can stay up and bitch about people's ill chosen taste in music.

Chris seems to be a cool guy, and by all people's accounts a gifted performer and musician. I've not seen him live, but I've been told by several people it's a sensation you will never forget. I do want to make it out to one of Illenkus's gigs sometime, also in part due to the fact that my "coffee guy", Josh, is also in the ensemble. I mostly know Chris from (surprise, surprise), Streetfighter. He was, until recently, a residing member of the Fight House. He seems to be a cool guy, sets his mind to things, and then fucking does them. I have a lot of respect for that.



REFUSED - The Shape Of Punk To Come (Liberation Frequency)

This is probably the second best album I have heard thus far this year, a very close second to Phantasmagorea by D-Styles.
The subtle and not so subtle changes, even fiddling with the volume, filters and so forth, it's an incredible album that you always seem to find something new each time.
John Carberry told me that when the band finished this album they broke up, as they reckoned they could never match it. I'd well believe that feeling, writing this now a few weeks later I want to listen to it all over again.
And probably the fucking first song sets the bar too high, but everything else comes pretty damn close to meeting it!!! A seven minute song that actually justifies the playtime, how rare is that in modern music tell me?
This is music, and this is something incredible that has to be experienced for yourself. I almost genuinely don't know what song to choose, as they all complement each other so incredibly well.
This is an album I highly recommend everyone listens to, it's fucking amazing.

RADIOHEAD - The Bends

Given that another person has nominated another Radiohead album this year, I was pleasantly surprised that this turned out to be a great album.
My only knowledge of Radiohead is seeing their name carved on school desks alongside Therapy, not knowing either band, considering the people who were carving them in to the desks I was in no real desire to find out either.
None the less, it's a beautiful flowing album, just enjoyable to listen to and drift along to. Being so impressed with this album led me to choose Chris's month immediately after, being fairly sure that there would be at least one album in the list I would most likely tolerate.
This album is probably better than OK Computer. I think I may be becoming a Radiohead fan. Maybe it's the scotch talking, maybe it's the mild depression of a breakup, but guess what, I'm wallowing in scotch and depression right now and for some unforeseen reason it seems glorious and uplifting. Not something I ever thought I'd be ever saying about scotch. Or Radiohead. As I said, this guy who's singing must be a depressing motherfucker to be around, because it all comes through in his delivery. This is really beautiful stuff, I've found myself going back to this album every now and again even from last June. It flows excellently. Who would have thought semi standard chord strumming could be used to such excellent effect? I have to admit, Radiohead have really vaulted up the ladder of my appreciation this year. I guess all those knobs in school who used to listen to them actually had a pretty damned good reason to.

The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine

OK, these guys are pretty adamant about killing their vocal chords and our ear drums. I mean I'm replaying track one, and what the fuck am I listening to? It's a guy shouting as loud as he fucking can without going in to a fit, and some guy with and over driven guitar I can just imagine drooling from the mouth as he strums out his power chords as heavy as he can. I remember years ago going to a gig with my sister in Milwaukee for what she called a "math rock" band named I don't fucking know or care. I fell asleep in the middle of the performance, and woke up as if in the middle of a nightmare. It was like waking up drunk (which is worse than a hangover). Listening to this album is like that. It feels like a load of guys playing riffs that should sound good, but ultimately don't. The real problem I have is now  deciding is this album worse than RATM or not. You know, I'm at the point now where I'm starting to hate all music. I've listened to other people's crap for the last 10 months, and I have never been so fucking relieved to be at the end of something in my fucking life than this stupid blog. You want to know what I'm looking forward to now? Silence, fucking silence. I don't want to hear anymore of this pollution of fucking sound waves the haunt me at night, as I go to work, and a I drive home. I'd prefer to hear to monotonous hum of my engine on the motorway at 2500 rpm than listen to someone else's crappy choices in music. Fuck you all.

Rage Against The Machine - Battle Of Los Angeles

This feels like I'm listening to a bunch of entitled upper middle class white guys complaining about societal constructs, as they never had any actual hardships in their upbringing. And I don't even bother trying to decipher what they're saying, but from the sound that's the feeling I'm getting. These guys are trying to channel the depression of blues or the racial inequality of rap, but ultimately the have none of those experiences to draw from. They feel like a slightly better version of Linkin Park (which unfortunately, seems to emanate from our gym speakers far more frequently than I'd like). I don't think I cam really recommend this album, there's far better stuff out there to listen to. But if you've decided that you're mad at society for no reason in particular, and want to have some rhetoric to back you up, this could be the album for you. I'm pouring myself another dram of scotch here and this tool of a singer is singing about the same shit he did 15 minutes ago. There's some nice riffs in here, but that's like saying there's a good looking chick in a Hollywood film, it means nothing. I can't say that I HATE this album, but it does very little for me.

Meshuggah - Koloss

OK, I think we can definitely say this is metal, but it really doesn't do much for me. It's just some randomly kinda heavy licks with the cookie monster constantly going on and on and on until we die of exhaustion, depression, psychosis, boredom, or all of the above. I mean, really, listen to the first track (which I'm listening to right now as I type this previous long drawn out sentence in it's entirety), and nothing musically of interest or note happens. I feel like I could throw five cats in a room, drop their wails down a few octaves with auto-tune and the lyrics would make about as much sense as this plonker going on and on and on and on. And might I add, at least then I'd have the enjoyable spectacle of a few cats beating each other around their heads. It sounds like bad tribal music. Things get a little better as the album progresses, but it still seems to be one phrase per song repeated over and over as fast as a human can physically play it. Which as impressive as it may be, it feels like I'm watching a video I once saw of a man giving himself a blowjob.

MAY - JOHN CARBERRY

 1. Radiohead - OK Computer (Airbag)
2. Robert Glasper Experiment
3. Ghost - Opus Eponymous
4. Opeth - Blackwater Park
5. FZ Side Z


Right, so last night I made two mistakes I said I wouldn't do again this year.
For one, I went to the cinema and paid to see a Marvel film.
It was Doctor Strange, and actually to be fair, it wasn't bad, it was much better than I expected.
The second mistake I made was texted my ex (to be fair, only the second time since we've broken up. Ever have a breakup that made you take up piano? Well there ya go).
I decided to make up for later mistake by deleting all her info, so I can't hopefully make that particular mistake again.
And in order to help with the Marvel mistake, I drank the remainder of a bottle of Jameson.
Didn't make me forget it, but left me with a warm fuzzy depressed feeling.
And then I more or less wrote the blog about Kristijan's choices.
So right now I have Ghost blaring away here whilst about to crack open some Chivas Regal.
Unfortunately I must admit I don't recall many of John's choices doing much for me, but in his defense at the time I did ask him for music that inspired him whilst he drew art, and this is what he gave me.

I've known John for a good few years, and he's a good friend who takes his art seriously. I often refer to him as the Mayor of Don't Give A Shit town, and anyone who's dealt with John will understand. He does things his way and that's the way it's gonna be. On the one side I have the height of respect for that, but I don't regard it as the ideal attitude to all situations in life. But John makes it work for him, and that's all that really matters. He also remarked that if I asked him for the albums that got him in to music, I was gonna get a lot of Earth Wind and Fire albums. I feel a little hard done by that I ended up with this list to be perfectly honest John, what was wrong with some Disco ???


Radiohead - OK Computer (Airbag)

Wow, this took my by surprise and then some!
I think my favorite track is actually the opener, and this album flows beautifully throughout. And the vocals really fit in, I feel like this guy actually believes in what he's singing here. He's got soul, see guys? James Brown ain't the only guy out there who's got soul, this guy is singing from the heart, and whilst it's not as overt as Siekiera, it's definitely there. Highly recommend this album, and was very happy that it was actually good as I have another Radiohead album to listen to this year. And I'm pretty sure this isn't just the scotch talking. If you've not listened to Radiohead, and in particular an album, I think you owe it to yourself to put this one on, sit back, relax and take it all in. It's not fancy, it's not ground breaking, but it's something that is all of it's own. It doesn't feel like it's trying to be anything or anyone else in particular, it's these guys just making beautiful music together, and doing so well.


Robert Glasper Experiment - Black Radio

I'm making this album second, as there's some nice covers on here. But that said, it's all pretty soulless. I keep going on about soul this month, and realise I can't really define it at all. I'm like one of those judges in that Larry Flynt movie "I can't define it, but I know it when I see it". It reminds me of a line in Jerry Maguire, when the babysitter gives them a tape, and has little speech about how this tape of Davis & Coltrane, in the peek of their artform before "sleazy lounge singers" dragged the medium down to the sewer. Whilst there is some nice beats on this, it doesn't really do it for me. But at the same time, I think these guys are trying to do something with the genre, and I very much respect that. I'm not particularly nuts on this jazz hip hop hybrid they've got going on, but hey, if somebody with hip hop predilections listens to this and decides to investigate jazz further, or vice versa, who am I to say this is a bad thing at all?
I think I owe it to myself to listen to this album again in the future, but I'm not 100% sure that my opinion of it will change.



Ghost - Opus Eponymous

Allegedly this album is black metal, but it doesn't sound particularly black or metal to me. Some nice chunky riffs throughout, and by no means a bad album, but doesn't really stand out to me as being heavy in any way. It's a little like Weezer, except not shit. It's not really that heavy at all, I really don't get these metal genre definitions at all.
How is this "black metal", when Guns n' Roses has heavier guitar and bass, along with heavier lyrics, and that's still only hard rock?
I have had this on while I drive around, and it seems OK. But to actually sit and listen to this album without any other distraction, I don't see it. This is just background music again to me, it doesn't really do anything particularly interesting for any substantial length of time. The most exciting bits of each track seem to be the opening thirty seconds, and then it tapers down to nothing interesting in particular at all at all.
And their Hammond organ cover of "Here Comes The Sun" is an interesting novelty, but does nothing really amazing for the song either. It sounds like the Doors. How is that metal???
But if you feel like you want a non-shit version of Weezer in your life, this could be the band for you!

Opeth - Blackwater Park

Ok, now this does sound a bit metal! We've got that driving guitar, those cookie monster vocals, and that double beat drum. Not off to a bad start at all. But of course these guys think they have to have it all in there, the whole kitchen, sink and all it's paloova. Why do we need a 10 minute opening track, which is essentially the same the way through, bar a little interruption with some Spanish wannabe acoustic guitar, polished off with some "sentimental" piano at the end? The first track kinda rubs me up the wrong way, but to be fair the following tracks do integrate the acoustic guitar a little nicer. Still doesn't do anything in particular for me. There doesn't really feel like anything unique here. This could be any random metal band with a video on MTV/Kerrang or whatever the cool kids watch nowadays. I don't really think it's got any soul or bite to it, and just doesn't really click with me at any point the way through.

FZ Side Z

Jesus, this felt like a waste of my time.
Random 8 bit tunes from a video game soundtrack, that has little or no appeal to me.
I could imagine hearing this stuff over an elevator or whilst shopping in Dunnes.
Actually, if they played this in Dunnes I may actually be disappointed.
It's not particularly bad, and that nearly offends even more.
It can coast on in the background without requiring any degree of commitment from the listener whatsoever.
And of course, being a soundtrack as opposed to an actual album, it doesn't really have any flow, and repeats things in different mixes.
Just when I thought I was done with one thing, it's on again, or a thinly disguised version of it.
I have pretty much no desire to be in the same room as this thing again, and even less to play the allegedly amazing indie game to which it is accompanied.

APRIL - KRISTIJAN RESETIC

1. Megadeth - Youthanasia (Killing Road)
2. Metallica - Ride The Lightning
3. Motley Crue - Dr. Feelgood
4. Gorefest - Erase
5. Sentenced - The Funeral Album
6. Tiamat - Wildhoney
7. Motorhead - Orgasmatron

Kristijan is a longtime friend of mine that I made back in the bad old days of college, for the year I was studying abroad in France. Writing this now I'm realising that friendship has extended over a decade, and I'm feeling really old right now. Kristijan is, as you may guess from the list above, a metal head. He's also a librarian, so there's the old sexy wild side of the librarian in glasses confirmed for ye all.

He also could not get his list down to 5 albums. Hell, he couldn't even get it down to 7 albums, I'd heard two of the other albums and that's only way I got out of listening to those. But he did go to the extra effort of writing WHY he choose each album, how much it meant to him and his friends as they grew up, learned together and played together, so screw it, I guess I had to include them all.

Recently I've really let the blogs slide, so I'm gonna up the output a little bit to try to catch up on things. That said I'm not committing to WHEN things are going up - my album listening is now in it's final month, and that has gone according to schedule, the blogs was an afterthought, and will get that at the point whenever I feel the fuck like it. Fuck you Luke.

MEGADETH - Youthansia (Killing Road)

Fucking amazing.
This is exactly every type of metal cliche, and it is absolutely all the better for it.
Fast, aggressive, amazing, I love this fucking album.
Some tracks feel a little flat (Tout le Monde is more than a little meh), but when the highs are this high, it's really very very forgivable.
I've not listened to any other Megadeth albums, but this has definitely opened the doorway.
I have listened to this album over and over (well I've removed Tout Le Monde from the playlist to be fair), it holds up excellently.
There's so many amazing riffs spread throughout.
I listened to Metallica before this a few times, and enjoyed it, but I feel I have absolutely no reason to listen to Metallica when there's some Megadeth on offer.


Metallica - Ride The Lightning

Yep, I'd never listened to a Metallica album. To be fair, I'd not listened to as many albums when I was younger as I probably should have, everything was singles and mix cds from friends, and that's very much a part of the reason why I embarked on this album listening journey. I'd definitely heard at least half this album, and probably can't under emphasize the influence that Metallica has had on the genre (and definitely on how mainstream metal now is). I really enjoyed this album, and was very much ready to make it the choice of the month.
I can see this being like the Ramones for the punk genre, just inspiring people around the world to pick up a guitar and chuck in to some power chords. And that's what we're all about here, the music that inspired people!
Whilst Metallica in particular has had far more influence on to the popular scene than Megadeth, I just have to go with my gut and go with Megadeth. The first listen through of both I had the opposite opinion, but the relative simplicity of Metallica's album doesn't hold up to the more technical album put together by Masitaine's posse. Repeated listening definitely makes Youthanasia better and better. And if you like Metallica and have never listened to Megadeth, you should seriously make it you business to do so!


Motley Crue - Dr Feelgood

When I think of Motley Crue, I guess my mind zips back to when in the states with Kristijan to see them the states.
I'd never listened to them with any intention at all prior, and I guess this album was his way of making me listen in earnest !
I can definitely see where Guns n Roses got some of their inspiration, but it almost feels a little generic nowadays.
Some nice driving guitar, decent rock singing, everything seems good.
This may have been a massive shift in the musical landscape at the time, but now it just seems like another classic rock album.
Good, fairly enjoyable, probably goes in the category of "easy" no brain listening.
not sure I'll ever go out of my way to throw it on again, but I'd never be adverse to it beig in the background.


Gorefest - Erase

The first thing I get from this is that great thumping bass line on from the first track. This shit is old school, makes me think of the Duke Nukem soundtrack from back in the day.
Heavy, but not particularly fast, and some meaty vocals. This is definitely more my kind of metal, just a little on the slow side. Although it does get a bit representative a few tracks in. Not sure I could recommend it in earnest, compared to the other picks this week, but it's definitely above the travesty to my ears that was Motorhead.


Sentenced - The Funeral Album

This is a good fucking album, what an opening. How have I not heard of these guys before. I'm almost tempted to place this above Metallica, but they have a couple of whiny metal ballads in there (I could forgive/forget "Tout le monde" on Megadeth, but the highs here don't reach the highs of Youthanasia). To me this is kind of a soft metal album, it's not really my type of music, but I think Kristijan definitely picked one I could sit through without wanted to drive a nail through my skull. And these guys can lay down some riffs from time to time, so whilst Eagles they are not, they're not some whiny hair metal pussies either.


Tiamat - Wildhoney

You know what's great about this album?
It's only 40 odd minutes long.
That may seem a bit disingenuous, but credit where credit is due, for the style they have these guys had the sense to keep it tight. This is a little like ambient metal, and we all know at this stage my opinions on ambient music. It's probably a little closer to the sentiment "shit or get off the pot". I ain't no stoner, if I want sometime a little slower there's plenty of other genres for me to pick from than some castrated pussified metal.
It does have some heavier riffs in there, but all kind of slow and dragging, not really the thing I like from metal. But that said, for some strange reason I was able to sit through it without desire to end it all. I guess we'll add this again to Thomas's unusual elevator music selection list. Definitely wouldn't want to be stuck in a lift with this for the soundtrack to the ordeal however, that would be quite, quite hellish indeed.


Motorhead - Orgastmatron

Oh god, this was quite the let down.
It's just gravelly loud biker rock, played over and over, the same few chords and drunk shouting.
First time I listened through to this album, I remembering at the start of every track thinking "Oh, this must be the Ace Of Spades", and only realising after listening to the entire album that Ace Of Spades isn't even on this god damned album, and realizing that Motorhead can only play one song with one set of chords, and have most likely done this for the last few decades. It's like listening to Groundhog day, without any humor or Bill Murray. The repetitive nature wears quite quickly, by the third track I'm really starting to ask myself those existential questions again and coming to the horrifying realization that I have to listen to another Motorhead album this year. Definitely bottom of the heap here, and definitely don't want to listen to this again. At least not whilst sober. I'll wait till I'm drunk, depressed and looking for that final straw to make me tie up the noose and get busy.