Burning Star

Damn flu... Or whatever this is. Not really ill but snotty, sneezing and a soar throat. Have tons to do at work but rather little energy to dig in.

But, Mr Phil Strange was right. Helstar's Vampirio record is absolutely fantastic!!! Another clear candidate for the Top 10 this year. Wonder why it took so long for me to get around to listen to it? I still don't have a clear picture on the rest but there sure are a bunch to choose from.

One dumb thing though is that there's a bunch released next week that I know I will like. Sacred Gate and Attacker for example. How should I be able to listen enough to those before the list is due?
Also, I've missed to get the new Sacred Steel, Vader and Root. The last though I had the fortune to get on promo so I've had the chance to dig into that one at least.

Naah, time to feel a little sorry for myself for a while now before digging into some reviews.

Cheers E

Save yourself

It's actually very frustrating with internet and social media on occasion. No one can have missed that I was super charged before the Michael Schenker's Temple of Rock concerts and the actual shows took it too a freaky level almost. Ok, it's not that I become a stalker or anything I just keep posting and spamming the web with pictures, comments, likes and so on and buy a whole lot of records. There's always some new 7"'s, Japanese versions, rare printings, tour-books, promos, biography's, posters, expensive vintage shirts needed or something like that. There will ABSOLUTELY be a #RecordShoppersAnonymous post with Michael Schenker records towards the weekend. 
What kind of annoyed me the most though was that I got one like on the Schenker picture I posted on facebook while the nonsense pictures of the cats draw 50 likes or so each. Ok, the cats are adorable but come on. Mr Schenker is a legend, one of the best and most original guitarplayers around.

And yes, the shows were absolutely fantastic! Two didn't feel enough though so I'm on a constant lookout for another doze right now.

So, before I give up with the spamming, and since I got a lot of decent pictures from the show, here's another batch.

That flying M (double neck flying V) sure is cool! 

I do have a lot of fun things to look forward to also, especially seeing Lethal again at Up The Hammers will be fun. They've always kicked ass the times I've seen them and I'm sure it will be the same now. Heir Apparent I've never seen them so that will be extra fun. And just to get away from this grey cold weather will be so nice. And there are a lot of other bands as well on that festival which also will be a lot of fun to see.

I normally try to respect all musicians, even if I don't like the music. I don't want to take the art away from someone and I try to just ignore things if it's not my taste, or try to find something positive in it if I have to dig in anyway for a review or a report. But this is too hilarious to bypass actually. There are so many fantastic musicians out there who never get a chance to shine and others, with hardly no natural talent can be a star... In those cases, when it's so obvious and when biting a bit more than one can chew... You've gotta take it;

The video cutting is fantastic, makes it hilarious... And for one to even try to sing Bohemian Rhapsody take a lot of guts... And the complete outclass of Freddie Mercury when he's cut in. Awesome! 

Well, there'll be another long day tomorrow so I guess it's bedtime.

Cheers
E

NP: LETHAL - Programmed

Cat scratch fever

Yep, the kittens has been with us for 6 weeks now and they grow like crazy. Of course they should since they eat like a small Horse. Then they wrestle, chase eachother, fight and play. And sleep of course. Sometimes I wake up because I can't breathe properly just to realize I have a cat over my mouth and neck. Maddox is still very light but Tipton starts to get rather Heavy.
Peter's parentes visited with Hugo (their cat) to see if they all get along. Hugo is very shy so even our tiny furballs scared him for real... No problems though and that's nice. It's worse with the neigbours cat though. She don't like them at all and keep slamming on our kitchen window as soon as she sees Tipton or Maddox.
So now it's a challenge to keep our cats in and the other one out. She still come over for dinner though and that she can continue doing for as long as she likes. Pussy Salmon and Tuna is a Favorite and those portion bags are cheap in Borås so it's just to boost up.

Mr Postman wasn't nice at all the last weekend, no new records at all... Ok, it's not like I'm dried out on new music but I would have wanted the latest Europe release since I'm going to see them on Wednesday. Also, Wasp is coming up next week and it would have been nice to listen to their new release. Hopefully I'll have a huge pile waiting for me coming home Friday.

Cheers E

Cold day in H...

Höör... Yes, coldest som far! I think I better start to heat up the car now already. Engine heater comes in handy days like this.

And yes, I home, vacation until January 7 and it's gonna be so nice. Ok, I have much on my agenda but I think I'll manage and it's all fun things so that's good. I'm finishing guitars on the new Void Moon album, working on Metal Kaoz stuff, updating records list and listen to a lot of great music. Can be worse!!!

Cheers
E

Not much closer

The intention was actually to go through the potential placeings of this year's top 10... Don't think we listened to one new record though... But it was fun and I realized how much I miss to hang out with Uffe and co!

So, now much smarter or closer to set the list but I sure hade a lot of fun!

Tomorrow it's time for Anvil!!!
Cheers
E

Who's getting the votes?

And no, even if it's very actual right now in Sweden, this is not about politics...

So hmmm, it’s just another 9 days before Album of the Year list is due for Metal Kaoz. For some reason I have listened to rather little music this year compared to how it normally is. I’m not sure why but that’s the way it is. This of course mean that the pile of records that potentially ends up at “Could have made it to Top 10 if I’d listened more” is huge and the batch of the ones already qualified to top 10 and the ones that has a potential chance now already is rather sparse. So, this last weekend was spent digging through the vaults of new records that I haven’t listened to yet. 

Because yes, even if I haven’t listened as much as normal it doesn’t mean I’ve been buying less. Nope, not at all. I have almost 2 shelves in an Expedit worth of vinyl’s and 2 full IKEA CD pillars (don’t know the name of it, it’s since long out of the catalogue) almost completely full with CD’s. And of course, Peter has almost the same amount of new-buys for this year. So there’s a lot of music to take in…

 

Right now, the ones that I’m twisting and turning to try to figure out if they’re top 10 are first and foremost these;

Accept, All Seeing Eyes, Astral Doors, Behemoth, Entombed AD, Evil Masquerade, Grand Magus, Grave Digger, Holy Moses, Iced, Earth, Judas Priest, Masters Hammer, Overkill, Portrait, Riot V, Sanctuary, Slough Feg, Steel Prophet, Tankard, Tryptikon, Wolf...

What have I missed?

I’ve loaded a few in my mp3 player to be able to catch up during the week. It’s good to have at work, closing everyone else out and be able to focus. But I really miss the time when I could sit and read on the album cover straight through a record and do nothing but listen to it. That rarely happens these days, there’s always something more going on. 

And as if this wasn’t enough I’d been buying another bunch also (since the rules for putting a record on top 10 is that it should be physically in the collection) that could qualify. But I guess these will end up on the list of good ones I should have listened more to (just got a notification from TPL that they’ve packed 7kg worth of records for me now). We’ll see about that!

I've also been checking around in several forums to make sure I haven't missed out on anything important. As of now it don't seem like it, but it's hard to know what's missing! The thing I reacted on though, which was the most common comment. "Has there really been 10 good releases this year?" Strange I think! There's always good music available. Hellion's "Karma's Bitch" for example, but that doesn't qualify to the Metal Kaoz list since it's just an EP...  

One that really surprised me though and one of few smaller bands in my list right now is All Seeing Eyes. I got it as a promo and normally I don't pay much attention to these links (since there are SO MANY of them) but this one caught my eyes because Ben Jackson was mentioned to be a part of it. I couldn't resist and now, to my surprise it's actually as a candidate to Top 10... Very nice Queensryche, Crimson Glory type Metal...

Well, so many records, so little time.

Cheers

E

NP: ALL SEEING EYES - Trinity Road