Sunday the 16th marked my one year anniversary here at Last.fm (ignore the 'Registered' date to the left, see 'Scrobbling since' instead). Here's a journal to mark the occasion.
Before I get to the albums, just a little bit about what Last.fm has done for me in that time. I can honestly say Last.fm is the site I'm most addicted to, more than any other. You hear of people saying they're addicted to Facebook; I could never use FB again at the drop of a hat (though I do like it) but Last.fm is so much more.
I've discovered some of my now favourite bands, either entirely through or with the help of Last.fm and the people I'm met here.
Machinae Supremacy,
Iced Earth,
Evile,
Sanctity and
Dream Theater to name a few, but there are countless more on my ever growing "list of albums to get". Last.fm also took my music geekery to new heights, given the way I monitor my charts. In fact, here's a look at my chart toppers in my 52 weeks of being here:
http://img2.putfile.com/main/12/35216242760.jpg
And then of course, there's the people. Besides having Roobai breathing down the neck of my music taste (love you really! :-p), I've also met some awesome people here, the closest of whom are of course McMartin and Whitey. I'm not just mentioning you guys out of obligation to return a favour, I mean that, and I fucking can't wait til
Megadeth! \m/ (McMartin, will eventually get around to sending you a pic so you can tell me apart from all the other 'typical metalheads' :-p)
Okay the albums, in an attempted but very vague reverse order.
12. Slayer - Christ Illusion
I know saying this is going to rattle a few cages, but I think I prefer new Slayer to anything they've done previously. Well, thier 80's work is masterful too, but I certainly prefer their 00's material to their 90's stuff.
Christ Illustion starts fantastically with
Flesh Storm; easily one of my favourite Slayer songs now. Other highlights include
Skeleton Christ,
Jihad,
Black Serenade and
Supremist. The album is by no means perfect - songs like
Catalyst are easily forgotten and
Catatonic can be irritating; and perhaps overall it isn't as altogether polished as albums such as
South of Heaven (which was beaten to a spot on this list by a hairline). What can't be denied is how much I enjoy this album, and perhaps it is greater as whole than the sum of it's parts but so be it. Slayer have promised one more album before they call it a day, and if it's Christ Illusion mkII I'll be more than happy.
11. Rob Zombie - The Sinister Urge
I bought this album because a friend recommended Zombie. I later found out that friend had only heard one song -
Dragula... once! But hey maybe it was meant to be, I love this album! I don't listen to much
industrial, but the tight riffs and catchy chorus' on this album had me hooked from the first listen. Songs like
Demon Speeding,
Dead Girl Superstar,
Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy) and
Iron Head are almost impossible not to sing along to, and the crunching guitar sound is always appealing. Again, the album isn't perfect, but nothing beats it for the fun factor. I bought
Hellbilly Deluxe 2 days ago and am loving it so far, who knows, it might be here in a years time...
10. Anthrax - Volume 8: The Threat Is Real
Controvesial! "
Volume 8 over
Spreading the Disease, you're crazy!". Yep, Volume 8 is a fantastic album which reminds me of a crazy mix between
Pantera and new
Metallica, which is odd. Songs like
Inside Out,
Born Again Idiot and
Killing Box could very well be Pantera songs (yes, I know the Pantera boys guest on them), whilst
Catharsis and the brilliant
Harms Way have the new Metallica groove going on. Then we've got the
System of a Down-esque
604 and
Cupajoe, topped off with a fully blown country effort in
Toast to the Extras (also one of my favs on the album). So I guess it's the variety that makes/breaks this album, love it or hate it: I love it.
9. Slayer - God Hates Us All
More of the new Slayer, this time my favourite Slayer album... *dodges flames* GHUA is solid nearly all the way through:
Disciple,
New Faith,
Cast Down,
Exile,
Seven Faces,
Here Comes the Pain,
Payback... okay that's most of the tracks on the album already! Strangely the only song that doesn't appeal quite so much in
Bloodline, which seems really popular even with the haters. To me, it grooves like a
Diabolus in musica outtake, and that isn't a good thing. Oh, and this album is
the ultimate anger release album.
8. Anthrax - Persistence of Time
Couldn't work out whether this should be above GHUA or not... as I said the order is vague. This is probably my favourite 'thrax album,
Among the Living would come close but I bought that more than a year ago. I love most of the songs on this album, the least of which is again one of the most popular -
Keep It in the Family. Don't see the fuss there. Best songs for me are
Blood,
In My World,
Gridlock,
Belly of the Beast and
Discharge.
7. Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
If you don't like Maiden, skip to number 3. Sorry, this is just the way it fell, bare in mind they're my top artist and I bought all 14 of their albums in the past year! SSOASS was the joint second Maiden album I bought after
The Number of the Beast and along with
Powerslave. This album has some weaker songs, namely
The Prophecy, but the overall feel is very song.
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son is almost certainly my fav Maiden title track (and they've got some bloody good ones, think about it!), and I generally like the mellow production of the album coupled with the fantastic song writing. Hey, I even love
Can I Play With Madness!
6. Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Aces High is definitely one of my favourite Maiden opener, it rocks
very hard. Many people complain about the middle 4 songs of this album being filler - whilst I wouldn't go that far, I agree that 3, 5 and 6 aren't as strong. But
Flash of the Blade, filler?! No no no no no!! Possibly my fav on the album, that riff, the chorus, awesome! Elsewhere,
Powerslave rocks with some nice lyrics, and
Rime of the Ancient Mariner holds a place as my first 10+ minute song. Overall this album
just wins out over SSOASS.
5. Iron Maiden - A Matter of Life and Death
Again this will rattle a few cages but I don't care. AMOLAD is tough to get into, but once you do it's totally worth it.
Different World is uncharacteristic of the album but equally brilliant. All the other songs are in a simular style, but the likes of
Brighter Than A Thousand Suns,
The Longest Day,
For The Greater Good of God and
The Legacy are definitly some of my favourite tunes from Maiden. The lyrics of this album are also consistently top notch for me, particually during the softer opening/closing of some songs. I would even rate
The Pilgrim 5 stars :-p
4. Iron Maiden - Brave New World
Here lies my favourite Maiden album. I always feel too generous rating every song on an album 5 stars (
Ride the Lightning achieved it), so
Ghost of the Navigator currently sits on 4 in my iTunes. Put on any other album it would probably have 5; this album is so good! I'm considering very strongely bumping this up to #3 as I type, but I'll keep it with the rest of Maiden for simplicity. Not much more to say, this album is the epitomne of Iron Maiden and the
heavy metal genre as a whole, buy it now even if you think you don't like metal.
The Fallen Angel (linked as it needs some love!)
3. Iced Earth - Framing Armageddon (Something Wicked Part I)
I got into Iced Earth about April time with
Dark Genesis and I really liked them, but it wasn't until it's October release that I found what made me fall in love with them. Every proper 'song' (there's lots of interludes etc) on this album absolutely blows me away... every time I hear it! So so good. I can't wait for '
Something Wicked Part 2', though I'll admit that I'm a little saddened that Ripper as left since he's so brilliant on SWP1 *dodges flames again*.
Setian Massacre,
A Charge To Keep,
Ten Thousand Strong,
Order Of The Rose,
The Domino Decree and
When Stars Collide (Born Is He) take the cake from this album.
2. Machinae Supremacy - Deus Ex Machinae
Probably the toughest choice of this journal was choosing which MaSu album to place first. Yes folks, they really are
that good. Eventually I went with Redeemer, but DXM has to take an equal amount of credit for being the album to get me into them having heard nothing about them previously. Every song on this album ranges from very good to mind blowing. Favourites are
Flagcarrier,
Return to Snake Mountain,
Player One,
Throttle and Mask and recently,
Tempus Fugit. This album is the most SIDtastic of their overall releases, a sound that was to some extent lost with Redeemer in favour for the epic sound...
1. Machinae Supremacy - Redeemer (Underground Edition)
...and epic is the only word to describe this album! Well, along with ridiculously-awesome. MaSu certainly have reason to be arrogant in
Elite.
Rise and
Fury/
Fury 2007 are also fantastic with good riffage. As is
Ronin. I think I'm in the minority of people who think the Japanese works really well in
Kaori Stomp, but I'm certainly not alone when it comes to
Oki Kuma's Adventure.
Rogue World Asylum also deserves a mention, just for that chorus. I think what sets MaSu apart from the rest for me, besides the SID and Rob's voice, is the quality of the lyrics. Maybe they just really appeal to me, but MaSu consistently put out some of my favourite lyrics ever. Same goes for DXM above. Finally, it's not on either album but
Winterstorm deserves a mention, for probably being the single best song I've discovered in the past 12 months!
Well that's that, I'm gonna go make a cuppa tea. If you read all that and you still have a pulse, cheers, let me know! :-)
