Blog Archives
Reggie’s Top 15 of 2012
Just when I thought 2011 was a banner year for metal, I think 2012 might be equal to or better in terms of both quality music and sheer volume of albums released. It surely was not a dull moment if you ask me; it seemed like I was listening to at least a couple new albums each week. Interestingly, I can probably look at half my list and tell you that some of these albums, I had no idea were coming. They completely snuck on me or I never expected them like Kreator…a band I nearly forgot about came out with a killer album. The band at #15 I never knew existed until just a few weeks ago and I am still impressed with them. There are definitely some surprises on my list this year. Some of these bands have been around for years and I am only now getting into them. I hope you had a great 2012 in metal! Here are my Top 15 albums of 2012.
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Reggie’s (Plantera7′s) Favorite Videos of 2012
After looking at my top 10 favorite videos of the year, I can imagine I missed out on so many cool videos. Since seeking out videos on YouTube is pretty much my only avenue for visually stimulating music, I miss out on quite a bit due to lack of time. If the could only be extended a couple more hours…
The other best avenue for checking out cool videos is through you readers, bloggers, and friends on facebook or other blog sites and I thank you for opening my eyes each year to so many awesome bands. Below is a list of videos I thought were cool enough to make my top 10 for 2012. I will keep my commentary short and let the videos do the talking because that’s what they are supposed to do. And if you watch these videos and understand the meaning behind the music, then the video served its purpose. I do have one exception and I will explain that one when I get to it at #5.
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Reggie’s Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time #55-51
This is the part of my Top 100 favorite albums list that seems to be fluid. I have moved these bands around several times trying to make sense of how they can be lumped together. Some of these bands span a generation…perhaps they mean something different to me from two dissimilar time periods even if I don’t really listen to some of these older albums much today. Either way, they made an impression on me either at age 38 or 13. Strangely, it was harder to place these albums in the 60, 50, and 40 range than it was to select my top 20 albums of all time. This all-time list is an ongoing effort started by our friends at The History of Metal page on facebook. Each day we list another album until we get to the end. Below is my next list of five as we near our way to the mid-point and follow-up to #1 several weeks down the road.
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Theme Thursday – Concert DVDs
Personally, I am huge fan of a live show. I love the energy, the performance, the roar of the crowd, and most importantly the decibel level of my favorite songs being played by talented metal musicians. I like being in a crowd of peers; people who have at least one big thing in common with me…the band! I like looking at all the band shirts and sparking up conversation about the shirt you are wearing. It is all well worth going to work the next day red-eyed and ears ringing. The only bad thing about a live show is that the things I love about them rarely translate well to film. Some concerts have serious production value which is always cool, but in the end a DVD/Blu-Ray concert just does not do a show complete justice. Does that stop me from buying them? Hell no, it’s the next best thing to being at the show. The theme this week is about some concert DVDs that I think are so well made that, if you are a fan of the band, these are must buys.
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Reggie’s Top 100 Favorite Albums of All Time #90-86
Continuing on with our Top 100 list at The History of Metal, I bring you my next five with a little bit of justification. If you haven’t checked out The History of Metal or THOM as we call it, please do it’s a cool forum to talk about and share metal. The page creator does a great job as keeping topics fresh and he also takes the time to pose challenges to the group; Top 100 Albums being one of them. I think the best part of this whole challenge besides getting to see everyone else’s choices is to reminisce about why I love these albums so much. It gets me listening to some of these I haven’t heard in a while. Not to mention, seeing everyone elses favorites gets me to explore some things I haven’t heard yet. Enjoy!
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Concert Review: Paradise Lost
Nick/Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost graced the Waterfront in Norwich, Norfolk, on 30 April 2012. I had the fortunate experience of being there, center stage, to watch the veterans of gothic doom perform a wide range of their discography to the loud, albeit sparse Monday night crowd. This concert review is coming from a different angle this time around. Instead of reviewing the show from a distance as a spectator, my review is based on the experience. Not only did I get to meet Paradise Lost, I also got to meet the Finnish support act, Insomnium – double bonus! This is more than just a show review…it’s my awesome VIP experience with veteran doom masters.
Album Review: Paradise Lost – Tragic Idol
After 22 years (since their first release) and 13 studio albums later, what could I possibly say about the new Paradise Lost album, Tragic Idol? For starters it is as obscure and bursting with as much impending doom as their earliest work. Not so much on the gothic side of the genre, but more on the doom metal side. Continuing on with their latest trend (three albums or so), Paradise Lost have again harnessed despondency from the doom gods and created some of the heaviest music of their career. Yet, they still add melancholic melodies that define the genre they helped expand so many years ago. The new album is more or less a continuation of where Faith Divides Us – Death Unites Us left off, however, taking their dejection even further away from the synthesized melodies they have used in the past. Tragic Idol is stripped down metal with no filler!
Themed Thursday – Metal Meets The Zodiac
I am not one to normally contemplate my astrology reading of the day. I do find them interesting at times and often accurate, but sometimes these things can be so vague that they apply to almost anyone. As we know, signs of the Zodiac are represented by symbols, elements, planets, and stones. Why not metal bands? If you know your sign, you should know what band applies to you. This is what my research for this theme of the week is going to do. No longer will you have to say you are Aries symbolized by the ram. Now, you can say I am Aries represented by Arch motherfucking Enemy. Here is my breakdown of what band should represent you and your astrological sign.
