Çarşamba 3 May 2006, 16:14
Welcome back to another weekly installment of my weekly charts. I don't have any fancy introductory bullshit to carry on about this time around, so we'll just cut straight to the chase.
Strapping Young Lad wears the crown of number 1 this week with 69 plays. Most of that came from Alien but i do recall playing City perhaps once through… maybe twice. Strapping is fitting right now. Sometimes life is just frustrating, and one needs some unadulterated brutality to cope with life's daily stresses. That's where Strapping Young Lad comes in. Devin has an amazing voice, plain and simple. His soaring melodics, brutal growls, and nifty wall of sound production all fit quite nicely together. I have to be honest though… wall of sound production does get old after a while. I like it, and it's a head space, but Devin uses it nonstop. I almost wish he'd do a bit more. I'm sure he is a capable producer as he has other bands like Lamb of God under his belt. Though, I will say that this production job in particular was a bit lacking. Anyhow, I'd like to see him branch out a bit.
Kyuss is totally back, and way up the charts too. I love Blues for the Red Sun. Thumb is a great one, and the one most likely to get stuck in my head. It's too bad these guys are no more, though they're all still quite active in other circles. Hermano and Queens of the Stone Age are just a couple of artists I can mention that have some relation to Kyuss. Both artists are rather good as well, if a little different. Hermano bears the most straight up resemblence, but even they aren't as good as the original thing. I really should branch out beyond Welcome to Sky Valley and Blues for the Red Sun, but I just don't know where to go from here and people say these are the best two anyhow.
Devin Townsend is about to overtake the charts. By sheer math, I like Townsend in one form or another better than Clutch. This, of course, is not the case. That's why math is evil. It can't really define your taste, no matter how hard it tries. In any event, Terria and Ocean Machine both got some play this week. Synchestra is truly amazing too. I'm finding more than ever that this work may very well be his best. Pixelate has me presently, with its middle-eastern styled melodies, crunchy guitar, and highly melodic vocals. There are some other excellent tricks in the track too… there's some great double-bass work that sort of fills in some empty spaces later on the track, with Devin screaming over them. I'm not gifted enough to give the specifics of timing or whatever, but it sounds fucking great. With 34 plays, I don't think he's going anywhere anyhow.
Pain of Salvation returns, and with good reason. I gave Remedy Lane another spin, and this time, I was totally sucked in. These are some amazing tracks. There are a few moments of soft rock cheese throughout the album that I don't care for particularly such as in This Heart of Mine I pledge. The emotions are there, but I just don't particularly care for that style. The skill exists, the appeal does not. In stark contrast though, we have the edgie Chain Sling and Beyond the Pale which both communicate very dark feelings without making that their focus. Chain Sling sees a vocal falsetto opening it up. Vocals move in exact time with the guitar, matching it note for note. I find this striking and beautiful. Beyond the Pale is just a culmination of the album in one explosive finale. Those two are probably my favorites on the album. Fandango has some of my favorite drum work on the album, and a funny time change or two never hurt anyone. I'm really getting into these guys. The Perfect Element Part I didn't impress me as much though. I did try out One Hour by the Concrete Lake though, and I do like it quite a bit. Pending impressions coming. What's with the closeness of the charts anyhow. PoS had 33 plays.
Primus finally make their deserved venture onto the weekly charts. I love this stuff. That bass is amazing. I jammed out some Tales from the Punchbowl this week, along with some other assorted tracks. I don't think these guys did too shabby on 29 plays. They also cover The Thing That Should Not Be on an EP. Very fun stuff. Can't remember, but I'd heard that they did another Metallica cover at some point.
We had a tie here at number 6. Dozer and Karma to Burn matched up evenly for 28 plays. I listened through Call It Conspiracy and Through the Eyes of Heathens last Saturday. They sort of got me pumped up for the drinking binge that would ensue. That was the first time I'd had a chance to really listen to Dozer, but I enjoyed it heartily, even if it is just more of the same stoner rock formula.
Karma to Burn is just damn good groove/drinking/smoking music. It's instrumental and I haven't sat down properly with it yet, but I love it for the good atmosphere it lends a room.
Opeth is back once more. Damnation got played once I do believe, but I don't really recall exactly when I jammed these guys. I'm pretty sure I played Damnation though, as I was in dire need of something more relaxing at some point last week. But Damnation doesn't account for all 24 plays, so I'm not too sure about the rest.
Clutch remains, as I do believe they will for most weekly analyses. Last week, it was Pure Rock Fury and The Elephant Riders. Pure Rock Fury is so raw and rugged, completely in your face. Elephant Riders is a little more humorous, a little less serious (though what Clutch record is serious really) and a lot more bizarre. I was talking to another user on here who'd not listened to a lot of Clutch. His introduction was in the form of The Elephant Riders. He didn't get into them on the basis of that album. I also found it kind of inaccessible and I wonder why that is. I can't really put my finger on it. I love it now, but it's still one of my last choices for Clutch. It does deserve recognition for having trombone on it. Anyone know who plays that? I can't find it in any credits anywhere.
Tool is here… again. Damn my roommate for inflating them. I'm still not into 10,000 days. It's just not doing it for me. I went back to some of their older stuff though, just to make sure I still liked it. Haha. They've got 19 plays… so I guess it was a little Aenima and all of 10,000 Days. Anyhow, I still feel like it's stagnant, and my previous entry addressed this album already.
Another fantastic tie at tenth place between Tool and Throttlerod keeps things pretty uninteresting. The verdict is in. I love Hell and High Water a lot. I could swear there's some Corrosion of Conformity worship here, maybe Wiseblood era stuff. Anyway, they rock. Verdict is in.
The rest of the list is pretty uninteresting from where I sit. I don't' really recall Tiamat all that much. I played them late at night one evening while I did some writing and web surfing, but didn't really pay attention. Everyone already knows that I love Queens of the Stone Age a hell of a lot, so there's no surprise there.
The only two artists here further down on the chart that are worth mentioning in my eyes are Sublime with their self titled for one. It's far superior to their other work, as it ditched the formulaic sound of 40 Oz. To Freedom in favor of a more mixed sound. As opposed to being just reggae and punk, this album features reggae, punk, seventies guitar-oriented rock, downright pop, and some other hip hop influenced tracks. It's truly a legendary album and it's too bad we don't have them with us anymore.
The other half of the interesting bit was Aesop Rock. I only have Bazooka Tooth but I like it. This is the hip hop that got me into underground hip hop, I've decided. I'm sort of coming into my own in this genre as I realize that underground hip hop is far more than, "slap dat ho." There are some deeply intelligent and sincerely moving lyrics in Aesop's work. I need to get Daylight as I've heard that it's some of his best material.
Anyhow, there's another week down the pooper. In short, 10,000 Days still sucks, I love stoner rock too much, and I'm obsessed with a guy with a skullet. Oh, and the party fucking rocked… despite the massive hangover on Sunday the 30th. It rained that day too… bummer.