Just a little list of what I'm up to in the (near) future - well, and yesterday.

April 13: Katie Melua
April 14: Herman Finkers (Dutch comedian)
April 20: Oceansize
May 15: Ephel Duath
May 30 - June 1: Pinkpop
June 6: Textures
August 13-22: Vacation in Portugal
August 23: Symforce II

And then I rejected concerts of The Boss Hoss, Meshuggah+Dillinger Escape Plan+Between the buried and me, and Queen+Paul Rogers.

So yeah! I'm a happy camper!

And a broke one…

I went to a Katie Melua gig yesterday. And I freaking loved it to pieces!

In a previous journal I told you how I started to like calm, relaxing music. For some reason, Katie Melua has been topping my charts lately. And yesterday, she's showed to the world why.

Support act was Andrea McEwan. Completely unknown, apparently this tour was her first time performing for an audience. Some songs have been posted on her MySpace page recently, but other than that I could not find any information about her.
She's on the same label as Katie Melua (Dramatico) and…

Textures almost have a new album out! :D

'Silhouettes' will be released April 21st, 2008. I'm looking forward to it already, 'pre-ordered' it (claims to be a 6-fold digipak with gold print which sounds promising).

And to make me even more envious, Textures posted a preview track of the new album, Old Days Born Anew, also available on Last.fm.

And I freaking love it!! Seriously, good stuff. First couple of times I heard it I really liked the first part of it, but the second part was a bit too Meshuggy for me (I made that word…

I admit! I'm a metal head! Big time.

But recently I've discovered calmer music. And I have a good reason for it.

Sundays are the reason. Lazy, drowsy, energy-less Sundays. Hung-over Sundays even perhaps. Filled with homework.

Well the homework isn't that much really, but it just takes a looong time on Sundays. And the music I usually listen to doesn't help. Loud angry music distracts me, apparently. So I looked around to find some calmer music, stuff that helps me concentrate better. Because absolute silence drives me mad altogether.

And I found some. I realized how cool the acoustic…

I don't know how many people here know Akercocke, but I loved their latest album, Words that go unspoken, deeds that go undone.
Now they've made a new album, Antichrist (a lot easier to type). It will be released on May 28.

To celebrate the imminent release of this new album, Akercocke presented The Antichrist Code. Some kind of treasure hunt, where you have to find clues to find the next page that provides the next clue. Don't worry, you don't have to get off your lazy ass ;)
The final page should hold something worthwhile, although…

So I've told you about Ryan Van Poederooyens solo project before. But now that the project is nearing completion and more and more details show up, I thought it was interesting enough to tell you more. So hang on tight, here we go!

Ryan van Poederooyen is a drummer from Canada, mainly known for his work with Devin Townsend Band (Accelerated Evolution, Synchestra. But also for a number of great studio-sessions, such as Lalu (Oniric metal, Vivien Lalu (Shadrane) project), Non-Human Level (Non-Human Level, Christofer Malmstrom (Darkane) project) and…

I got a new idea for a Journal! After listing all the albums I own (which is in fact a modest amount), I'm now going to list the albums I would like to have. So if you like me, you know what to buy me! Yay!

So here we go:

Last update: November 09, 2011

1349 (Norway)
2005: Hellfire

3 Inches Of Blood (Canada)
2007: Fire Up The Blades

Agoraphobic Nosebleed (United States)
2009: Agorapocalypse

Akercocke (United Kingdom)
1999: Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene
2001: The Goat Of Mendes
2003: Choronzon

Amatorski (Belgium)
2011: TBC

Amiina (Iceland)
2007: Kurr

Anaal…

Tomorrow, (that's thursday September 14th) I'm seeing Textures. They're a Dutch math-metal band, a bit like Meshuggah but a bit less freaky and with more melody.
I found out of this gig because I was visiting the website of the venue, De Effenaar. Why was I visiting that website?
To order tickets for The Gathering! They're playing the same stage (actually they don't, Textures plays the small stage and The Gathering the large stage) on October 1st. And yes, I'm going there too, and I even managed to drag along 5 or 6 of my friends! Usually when…

So after ranting about why good album kick the living shit out of bad albums (well duh), here's a list of albums that I own (and that means that I have an original copy which I paid for):

Last update: November 09, 2011

A Perfect Circle (United States)
2000: Mer De Noms

Agua De Annique (Netherlands)
2007: Air

Akercocke (United Kingdom)
2005: Words that go unspoken, deeds that go undone
2007: Antichrist

Alamo Race Track (Netherlands)
2011: Unicorn Loves Deer

Alchemist (Australia)
1999: Organasm

Alex Skolnick Trio (United States)
2007: Last Day In Paradise

Aliases (United Kingdom)
2011: Safer Than…

What's better, albums or songs? What do you prefer to listen to? What is more important, a collection of good songs, or a collection of songs that work well together and add something on top of the songs themselves?

I prefer albums, a good album has a great element of atmosphere. It pulls you from the first note in and doesn't let go until the last one faded away… and then some more.

Perfect example: Still Life. In my opinion, it's the best album ever made, by miles and miles. Although there are not really any stand-out tracks on…