TADA Music have the latest review of nhhmbase up for perusal. Below is a choice quote from an amusing article:

"With track 4, 'PL Network', we're back to straightforward time signatures and Jonny Greenwood guitars. Great little melody, too, again making use of Mamoru's fantastic voice. Clocks in at little over 3 minutes, too, meaning it'd have no problems getting on the radio if this were 1962. Of course, if this were 1962, Nhhmbase would be burned as witches."

For the rest of the article, head over to:
http://tadamusic.org/en/node/315

The review mentions the following artists, labels, albums and songs:

4 bonjour's parties
& Records
Queen
Yes
ANA
OK Computer
Radiohead
Marty Friedman
PL Network
Jonny Greenwood
9/8
Rick Wakeman

Marty Friedman / "Viper" / Loudspeaker (8) / 2006

Artist: Marty Friedman
Original Album: Loudspeaker
Track: Viper

Continuing a frequently re-emerging theme of picking tracks on which Steve Vai guested, here is Viper, one of my all-time favourite instrumental tracks. I highly recommend Marty Friedman's Loudspeaker album to fans of instrumental rock guitar music. The guy is gifted in both his technical ability and feel.

Stay away from his latest, Future Addict, though. On which drummer Jeremy Colson (who also drums on Viper) is given vocal duties on a series of inferior covers from bands Marty used to play with. Colson may be hitting the right notes, but I've yet to find anyone who likes his voice. Probably the less said of the outing the better. Let's hope that Marty hears the feedback from his fans and goes back to kick-ass instrumental albums like Loudspeaker for the next attempt.

This is an ongoing project of which I write a little blurb about CD's I own alphabetically by artist followed by release date, it could take some time. Everything is obviously my opinion and you're welcome to disagree.


Dream Theater - Images and Words(1992): This album is one of my favourites by Dream Theater. Each and every song is great, from beginning to end. While it is hard to pick some favourites off this album, I'd have to say Take the Time,Metropolis Part I: The Miracle and the Sleeper,Under a Glass Moon and Learning to Live.


Dream Theater - Awake(1994): Just like their previous effort, this album has no bad tracks and is enjoyable start to finish. I particularly like the tracks The Mirror,Lifting Shadows Off a Dream and Space-Dye Vest(My favourite track on the album).


Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons(1995): I bought this album only for the song A Change of Seasons which is 23:06min long and the only original song on the record. While A Change of Seasons is an extremely good song, the covers didn't impress me too much (Not because they aren't good covers, but I'm not a huge fan of covers at all). Although I did enjoy Funeral For A Friend and The Big Medley.


Dream Theater - Falling Into Infinity(1997): This album is more 'accessible' and seems like an attempt to enter the mainstream. However, it still has some excellent tracks like Hollow Years,Hell's Kitchen, and Trial of Tears.


Dream Theater - Metropolis Pt. II: Scenes From A Memory(1999): When I first bought this CD, I thought it was the best Dream Theater album. But, in hindsight I've changed my mind and this is still an amazing album but not my favourite. Standout tracks for me would be Act I - Scene Two: I. Overture 1928,Act I - Scene Three: II. Fatal Tragedy and Act II - Scene Seven: I. The Dance Of Eternity.


Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence(2002): I prefer disc two of this album over disc one. It's a great album, but it pales in comparison to Dream Theater's other material. The standout tracks I'd say are The Glass Prison,Overture,About To Crash,and Solitary Shell.


Dream Theater - Train of Thought(2003): A more metal oriented album from Dream Theater which turned off some fans -- but it seems with each new album that is bound to happen. I quite like this album and don't think there are any bad tracks and it is quite easy to listen to start to finish. My favourite tracks from the album would have to be This Dying Soul,Stream of Consciousness and In the Name of God.


Dream Theater - Octavarium(2005): When this album came out it seemed many fans were disappointed, it's a good album but the expectations were really high. It seems like a fusion between Train of Thought and Falling Into Infinity(or at least that is how it sounds to me) but leaning toward the later Standout tracks would be I Walk Beside You,Never Enough, and Octavarium.


Dream Theater - Systematic Chaos(2007): Once again an album which turned off some fans, I actually prefer it over Octavarium. It's a bit heavier and is in the same vein as Train of Thought. Standout tracks are In the Presence of Enemies Pt.1, The Dark Eternal Night and Prophets of War.


Exodus - Fabulous Disaster(1989): Unfortunately the only Exodus album I own. Not a huge fan of Steve Souza's voice, it suits some tracks but not others in my personal opinion (particularly the AC/DC cover ''Overdose) but usually he's pretty good. I'm also not a huge fan of all the talking prior to the track The Last Act of Defiance. Aside from those issues, I really do like the album. Standout tracks in my opinion are Fabulous Disaster,The Toxic Waltz and Like Father, Like Son.


Marty Friedman - Dragon's Kiss(1988): First things first, Marty's hair on the cover is wicked -- no words can describe his poodle hairdo, aside from poodle-like. Marty's first solo record is great, but his other albums I own are better. Anyway my favourite song on the album is probably Thunder March and the other standout tracks for me would be Dragon Mistress, Namida (Tears) and Jewel.


Marty Friedman - Scenes(1992): A very oriental/relaxing album which reminds me of Colma except with an Oriental side to it. If you like this album or Colma, I'd recommend checking out the other if you haven't heard it as they are both relaxing instrumental albums of high caliber. The only thing I am not a fan of on Scenes is the track Triumph as it is a different version of Thunder March but not near as good in my personal opinion. Anyway my favourite tracks on this album are Valley of Eternity, Night, and West.


Marty Friedman - Music for speeding(2003): I am not usually a fan of electronica type sounds, but this album blended that with some awesome rock. Marty really struts his stuff on this album. My favourite songs on the album would have to be Gimme a dose, It's The Unreal Thing, Cheer girl rampage and Salt in the wound although all the other tracks are still really good.

I'm going to leave some room here for future purchases in this area of the alphabet, I'll continue with Volume 3

This is an ongoing project of which I write a little blurb about CD's I own alphabetically by artist followed by release date, it could take some time. Everything is obviously my opinion and you're welcome to disagree.

Anthrax - Spreading the Disease(1985): A great thrash album that clearly shows it's punk side. This album is very consistent, however, upon listening at first I couldn't differentiate between tracks very well. There wasn't really any standout tracks aside from A.I.R. which is my favourite on the album. The production is raw and not polished but it's best this way I believe. The album artwork intrigued me to buy it along with word of mouth (It is an awesome cover).

Anthrax - Among the Living(1987): I prefer this album over Spreading the Disease, while this album is still very consistent I can differentiate between the songs much easier and upon first listen it hooked me. My favourites are Caught in a Mosh,I Am the Law, and Indians. The production is pretty much the exact same as Spreading the Disease (Meaning it's raw and not too polished -- which suits the style).

Ayreon - The Human Equation(2004): This double disc album is unfortunately the only Ayreon album I own, despite having heard other Ayreon material. When I first got this album I was hooked for weeks and if you had asked me then I'd have said this was a perfect album. However, in hindsight there are many tracks which are absolutely amazing whereas others that just don't hold up as well now and are too cheesy and I find myself skipping them. It's still a great album though with many of my favourite musicians and great guest musicians like James LaBrie,Devin Townsend, and Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth. The standout tracks for me are Day Three: Pain,Day Seven: Hope,Day Nine: Playground and Day Eighteen: Realization.

Johann Sebastian Bach - The World of Bach(1991): A classical album of Bach's works. Honestly, I do not listen to it much. Orchestra music does not do much for me, however, I do like Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, BWV565 which is strictly organ and has a haunting melody. Aside from that track nothing else captures my attention really.

Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn(1988): Jason Becker had so much talent on the guitar it's mindblowing. It's ashame he got Lou Gehrig's Disease not too long after. There isn't a weak song on the album, but I especially enjoy the tracks: Altitudes,Air, and Eleven Blue Egyptians.

Black Sabbath - Sabbath Bloody Sabbath(1974): Many will disagree with me and probably think this album deserves a higher rating, but it just didn't hit it off with me. I do like the entire album, but only the song Sabbath Bloody Sabbath was a standout for me instantly and my favourite song on the album.


Black Sabbath - Never Say Die!(1978): I find this album a bit weak, the songs aren't bad but they are extremely forgettable. The only song I really liked was Never Say Die. I know Black Sabbath experimented with synthesizers but that's not the drawback of this album -- the songs just aren't memorable.

Black Sabbath - The Best Of Black Sabbath: This album doesn't have any of the tracks the last.fm page says it has, it has the same cover though. Anyway, this film only has 10 songs and none of them are Ozzy Era and while I do prefer Dio as a vocalist, a lot of the Black Sabbath tunes I'm familiar with are Ozzy era, not only that -- but the Dio songs on the disk aren't even the best selection in my opinion.


Buckethead - Giant Robot(1994): This was the first Buckethead album I owned, and I think it was a bad starting point. Some songs are awesome, whereas others seem more like filler. The songs that are awesome are REALLY awesome though, some of my favourites are Welcome to Bucketheadland,Binge and Grab (instrumental version) and I Love My Parents. However, the guitar is impressive throughout.


Buckethead - Colma(1998): Wow, one of my favourite albums by Buckethead, if you like ambient music and relaxing guitar tones then this album is for you. Each song is atmospheric, I particularly enjoy Whitewash,For Mom,Hills of Eternity,Big Sur Moon and Machete.


Buckethead - Monsters & Robots(1999): This album is a bit like Giant Robot but certainly more polished and consistent. Very upbeat wacky tunes reminiscent of electronica. The songs I enjoy the most are Jump Man,The Ballad Of Buckethead (With Les Claypool on vocals), and Nun Chuka Kata.


Cacophony - Speed Metal Symphony(1987): Wow, is all I can say about this album. Marty Friedman and Jason Becker together is just breathtaking. The only drawback on the album is the vocals but they weren't meant to be the focus of the music. Each song blows my mind, however, in particular I enjoyed The Ninja(Marty's exotic style and Becker's virtuosity=Win),Concerto(The most mindblowing song on the album in my opinion),Desert Island, and Speed Metal Symphony.


Cacophony - Go Off!(1988): This album isn't nearly as good as Speed Metal Symphony but it's still mindblowing and has some amazing songs like Black Cat and Images(My favourite on the album, mainly because the beginning of the song sounds like an oriental music box -- listen to it and you will see what I mean).


Camel - The Snow Goose(1975): Sadly, this is the only Camel album I own. Although I have heard more. It's a nice relaxing album but I found myself mainly listening to Rhayader and Rhayader Goes to Town which are the best tracks on the album in my opinion. While the whole album is good, nothing is as memorable as those two tracks.


Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Safe as Milk(1967): This is probably my favourite Beefheart album, it's accessible but still deviates outside the norm. I love the songs Electricity,Yellow Brick Road and Autumn's Child especially.


Captain Beefheart & His Magic Band - Trout Mask Replica(1970): This album is very out there and it took me awhile to appreciate but it is best described as "organized anarchy" and the music is very beautiful if you listen closely. I like the tracks Hair Pie: Bake 2,China Pig,Sugar 'n Spikes,Old Fart at Play and Veteran's Day Poppy.


Dio - Holy Diver(1983): This is an excellent album, very consistent and a great starting point to get into Dio. My two favourite tracks would have to be Holy Diver and Don't Talk to Strangers.


Dio - Killing the Dragon(2002): This isn't a bad album, in fact it's quite good and consistent. But, none of the tracks really struck me. I'll listen to it if it comes up on my shuffle but I won't seek it out. The two tracks which I was most impressed with would be: Killing the Dragon and Throw Away Children.


DragonForce - Sonic Firestorm(2004): The only DragonForce album I own. It's alright, many of the songs sound similar and I'd have to say Herman Li is one of the most overrated guitarists I can name in recent history. I only really found myself listening to Fury of the Storm.

That's it for volume 1, I wanted to leave some room for future purchases

Firewind / "The Silent Code" / The Premonition (8) / Apr 2008

Artist: Firewind
Original Album: The Premonition
Track: The Silent Code

If you don't know Firewind, they are a melodic heavy metal / power metal band from Greece whose music I highly recommend. Guitarist Gus G should by all rights be on his way to being a star of tomorrow, if not today. I'm such a fan of his playing that I don't think there are even words for it.

Having said that, I was a little disappointed by the fact that there was no instrumental track on this album! The first time ever that a Firewind album has lacked a single instrumental track. Maybe Gus is saving up his instrumental tracks for a solo album? I have no reason to suspect that is what he's doing, but wouldn't that be awesome?

The latest Firewind offering still has a lot of guitar fury to keep fans happy though despite what could very easily be interpreted as an increasingly commercial leaning from the songwriting and vocal perspective. Good luck to 'em if that's what they're after. I don't think it would be a bad thing at all if 14 year old emo kids started listening to this stuff. Sure I'd miss being able to jump to using the name Firewind as a way to prove to non-metalheads that I listen to bands they haven't heard of, but I have other bandnames I can chuck out at these people, I just hope people don't start coming up to me going "You know that band you mentioned three years ago? They sold out, haha!" Which is always the accusation that gets pinned on a band that becomes popular after a couple of albums relatively underground.

To clarify, I don't think they've sold out. Sure, it's more commercial than the first 3 albums, and about equally commercial as the fourth album, but I think it's a change for the better (apart from the lack of instrumental tracks). Seriously, I like the first three albums too, but has anyone ever counted the number of uses of 'fire', 'flames', 'burn', 'hell' and various other incendiary related words in the early songs?

On Forged by Fire five of the album's ten songs feature one or more of these words, not to mention 'Fire' is in the album title and the band name. At least two of the songs that don't have flame related lyrics have the word 'war' in them, and one of the tracks not to mention flames Feast of the Savages is an instrumental (featuring Marty Friedman, and it seriously rocks - Marty fans take note)!

There's just the half of my cd's :D


when i'm not too lazy i'll post the 2nd part.

NOW, LOOK:




(Right Click, see Image)

From left to right they're! D:

Norther - N
Muse - Absolution
Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
Sentenced - Amok
Sentenced - Down
Sentenced - Frozen
Sentenced - Crimson
Sentenced - The Cold White Light
Sentenced - The Funeral Album
Dark Tranquillity - Projector
Dark Tranquillity - Fiction
In Flames - Whoracle
In Flames - Come Clarity
In Flames - A Sense of Purpose
At the Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Carcass - Symphonies Of Sickness
Carcass - Heartwork
Carcass - Swansong
Carcass - Choice Cuts
Carcass - Wake Up And Smell The... Carcass
Children of Bodom - Something Wild
Children of Bodom - Hatebreeder
Children of Bodom - Follow the Reaper
Children of Bodom - Are You Dead Yet?
Skid Row - Skid Row
Kalmah - Swamplord
Sonata Arctica - Silence
Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night
Guns N' Roses - Appetite for Destruction
Guns N' Roses - The Spaghetti Incident?
Guns N' Roses - Live Era: '87–'93
Bon Jovi - Bon Jovi
Bon Jovi - 7800º Fahrenheit
Bon Jovi - Slippery When Wet
Bon Jovi - New Jersey
Slayer - Show No Mercy
Sebastian Bach - Angel Down
Poisonblack - Lust Stained Despair
Kreator - Extreme Aggression
Testament - Live At The Fillmore
Machine Head - The Blackening
Marty Friedman - Introduction
Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn
Iron Maiden - Killers
Iron Maiden - Powerslave
Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
Iron Maiden - Virtual XI
Genesis - Genesis
Genesis - Invisible Touch
Tarja - My Winter Storm
Hypocrisy - The Arrival (but you can't see it because of the flash lulz, don't worry it'll re-appear in pt.2)
Dream Theater - A Change of Seasons
Pantera - Reinventing Hell
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon
Shadow - Shadow (i know you're jealous of this one ;D)
Heaven & Hell - Live At Radio City Hall


Pheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew that was a shitload of connections, so you better comment! D:

see ya later biatches ;D

Fri 6 Jun – Megadeth

Credicard Hall had some serious sound problems since the beginning of the concert, which led Mustaine to leave the stage right after the fourth song. 20 minutes later, the band returned, yet the sound was still kinda muffled.

Megadeth had to shorten their setlist because of this trouble, but they still were able to perform some good old classics on stage such as "Wake Up Dead", "In My Darkest Hour", "Hangar 18", "She Wolf", "Tornado of Souls", "Ashes In Your Mouth" (my favorite of the night), "Sweating Bullets", "Peace Sells" and "Holy Wars...The Punishment Due". Of course there were many songs missing, they played "Five Magics" the night before and my hopes were high they'd do the same here, too bad they didn't.

Now concerning the band, I must admit they surprised me. I was very skeptical about this show because, after the break up of the classic line up, Dave Mustaine had never really found good replacements for Marty Friedman, David Ellefson and Nick Menza. However, the current line up is actually pretty good; Chris Brodderick (ex-Jag Panzer, Nevermore) is a very virtuoso guitarist and could play Marty's solos with perfection, James Lorenzo (ex-Black Label Society) is also very accurate and had an awesome stage presence and Shawn Drover (Eidolon) is another musician who, despite lacking a bit of energy, could handle the drums very well. So even though this wasn't the "true" Megadeth, it was a great gig.

Oh yeah, during the mosh pits of "Holy Wars", I accidentally broke someone's glasses. If that was you, I'm sorry, I swear I didn't mean to. :(

Setlist:

Sleepwalker
Wake Up Dead
Take No Prisoners
Skin o' My Teeth
waShInGtON iS NeXt
Kick the Chair
In My Darkest Hour
Hangar 18
She Wolf
A Tout Le Monde/Chris Brodderick solo
Tornado of Souls
Ashes in Your Mouth
Burnt Ice
Sweating Bullets
Symphony of Destruction (Extended)
Peace Sells

Encore: