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

 

 

I know how men feel now...

Because I think I caught a man-cold... I feel very miserable and frustrated, sneezing and coughing like crazy. Also, I was stupid enough to not listen to Peter on Monday morning so I actually drove to work and now I'm stuck in my shoebox flat in Borås. No records and nothing in the freezer. And worst of all NO COFFEE in the morning... (The Horror)
Even if I'm not well I've decided to take a few meetings over phone for work, mainly because it's easier to live with that than to rebook all other busy people in the near future. 
But without coffee in the morning I felt like this;

(yes, I stole it from internet...)

Lucky for my colleagues they weren't close before I could go out and shop for a cup of coffee I tell you...

 

I've boosted up for tomorrow though to not have to go through the same thing again.

 

Anyway, I'm not completely out of Metal here even if the selection is very limited to what I brought to listen to in the car. New The Haunted, sounds amazing, disappears a bit in the middle though, songs just becomes a big mash but beginning and end of the record is kick-ass. Also, I think it needs more than 2 spins to settle so I shouldn't say to much about it yet. Same thing goes for Entombed A.D. and Wolf, that I shouldn't say too much but both sounds amazing and will easily make it to the selection for album of the year (the pile for that should be extensive this year and there's so much more to come).

 

Else I'm working hard on catching up. My new computer is installed at home with a new monitor and the Photoshop CC as well as Lightroom 5 handles .raw files from both my cameras. And damn there's a difference. 

 

Deep Machine from Keep It True with my old camera;

And Kansas from Gothenburg with the new one;

Perhaps not the best way of checking to add pictures adjusted for web to compare but the feeling with the new camera is so good. Also, to be able to push the ISO has showed to be very efficient for concerts to get faster shutter-speed and increase the sharpness in the picture. And no, the grain is not that huge pushing it as it was with my old camera. So of course the EOS 5D MkIII wins but I really like the EOS 50D still, the built in flash comes in handy still, since it is very dark in smaller clubs and flash is a necessity to get any pictures at all. Now, to complete my wishlist is to get a real fish-eye lens. Have my eyes on a Canon L 8-16 which can't fail but the guy at Rajala Photo really recommended the Sigma 10-20 also as a very good one and more usable (Peter still looked a bit bothered when I tried it out in the store though, camera was a bit too close to his face to be ok...) Price is half off on the Sigma compared to Canon so the main question is if I want the lens NOW or I can wait for next years Festival season and save some money and buy the Canon...

I really want this week to be over now, first because I hope that my cold will be gone to the weekend. Also that we have a Void Moon rehearsal planned. Dutch Doom Days are coming closer so we really need to get in shape NOW! Also, one big package from Pure Steel (Project Terror and more) and from TPL should have arrived until then!!!  

Now I'll go back to self-pity here!!

Cheers
E

NP: Serpent Venom - Of things Seen & Unseen

 

 

Sabbath Bloody Sabbath

Just middle of the week still but I feel like I've been working two weeks straight now. But that's of course not the case but the weekend passed way to fast and I didn't find time to do even half of what I thought of doing. But at least I've finished off a few things at least. 

During the Easter weekend I started off with a bit of a Health mission, make good food and boost up with some extra vitamins, i.e. fruit smoothies for breakfast. Those were really nice and very simple to prepare. And they actually work. Need to find the same for the cat... For Easter Friday he was passed out on the couch most all day. 

But since the sun showed up a little at least we decided to take the cat for a walk outside. He really liked it and walked around on the patio and law sniffing most everything. He also tried to crawl into the hedge, when I poked him he hissed at me that little yellow-belly. After an hour outside he slept like a log the rest of the afternoon. 

And of course, no Metal Head in Sweden can have missed that Black Sabbath is coming to play in the winter (huh, don't want to think about that now when it finally starts to feel like spring here). I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will be Black Sabbath this time and not Ozzy with Friends even if that was a very nice event too. Tickets are released on Friday, will be interesting to see if Ticnet will survive this one...

In the Live Nation news mail I got it mentioned pre-pre-purchase for some Mobile Operators event manager. Go Live I think it was called for Tele2... Tickets available now already so I shopped until I dropped... Or at least one for me and one for Peter. MUAHAHAHAH!!!! So I'm not bothered if Ticnet crashes on Friday now!

The Easter Weekend started off with a concert, Saint Vitus and Mos Generator played at Loppen in Copenhagen. Awesome gig really! But the lights at Loppen is almost non-existent so I decided to go for (almost) Black & White's for this report since that looks better if the pictures becomes grainy. The flash was still needed though. And since the place doesn't have a Photopit and the place was rather packed so it was hard to move. Which means the pictures are all from the same angle so I'm not all happy about the result. But I got a few cool ones.

But what was even worse was the light at the Helloween and Gamma Ray concert. There were absolutely no lack of lights but these modern spots are really evil and the colors messes up the digital camera. Normally it is just in red light the camera gets blind but now it was for almost everything. Or, when it was Green the pictures got Super-green, same with Blue as well. Really annoying. So again, (almost) B&W to get anything at all out of it. The report will be up on Metal Kaoz in a few days.
  

Is there anyone who has any tips on how to behave in situations like these ones. Let me know. I really would appreciate some tips... 

During Easter I also amused myself with sorting out the vinyl shelf. The big Expedit ones hold 25 pockets each and 2 of those is almost filled with LP's... To sort alphabetically I had to take down all apart from the first two pockets and put them up again. Worse than a long pass at the gym I tell you, damn my legs and arms were hurting after that! BUT IT LOOKED COOL, very massive. 
Of course, for the last few weeks both me and Peter has gone on shopping sprees when it comes to records. I got 15 or so from the Ginza sale (good one and there's still a few I really want), Peter got another package and then we went to Skivesset i Malmö and picked up some 2:nd Hand vinyls. And hopefully I will receive a really FAT package from TPL before the weekend... So I guess it is time to start all over again...

And now Keep It True is just a bit over a week away! Everything's sorted out and for the weekend we'll have our own Warm-Up party! 
But before I can relax in Germany it is a few more days of hard work!!! (but at least I got a raise last week, quite good one too)

Cheers
E

NP: Liege Lord - Master Control