Random Music Babbling Post #4

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There's a guy in front of me in one of my classes who always has a shirt on that says something like "Tour of the Thundergod or something." So... I'm going to assume that is Amon Amarth... nice to know, lol.

I'm listening to more country again... but to keep some dignity it isn't shitkicker country. When it is all you can listen to for eight hours a day (as it was this summer) it either grows on you, or makes you hate it more.

It grew,

 

Whoa, we played Hatebreed's Final Prayer a tidbit faster with death vocals, and DAMN, that sounds GOOD!

 

Anyone into Doom Metal? Or at least the death-doom/gothic-doom variants? Like... Katatonia, Paradise Lost, Anathema, November's Doom, Novembre, etc?

 

Chinese Democracy is out on myspace... weak.

 

GAH! How could you forget The Sins of Thy Beloved and Theatre of Tragedy?!?

 

I've been listening to a lot of game music recently. Specifically a lot of Frank Klepacki.

 

Haha DotW, I haven't heard of them, I will check them out.

 

Rule of thumb for both - the old stuff is the best. The first two ToT albums are simply amazing, same for TSoTB's first.

 

Thread revival!

I've been really getting into Saint-Säens. His Danse Macabre led me into the classical world; which lead me to me buying a CD. Samson et Delilia (which I'm listening to now) is absolutely fantastic and is the most-played song on my iPod. It's just so elegant yet wild (a controlled aggression) at the same time. I didn't think much of his No. 3 Organ when I first listened to it, but the main melody has been stuck in my head for ages, and now I think it's glorious (though the Ormandy version is a bit too...artificial?). And I've just finished listening properly to his Piano Concerto No. 2, and...wow.

Really, that tricky French guy has a way of worming into your head and sneaking up on you when you least expect it. His stuff might not be as lush as Beethoven or as insane as Liszt, but it's great nontheless.

 

DM - The only piece I'm familiar with is the Organ Symphony (No. 3). It's incredibly powerful, IMHO. I've not heard the piano concerto, nor any of the other works you listed, but I will try to check them out. One of my favorite piano concertos is the one in A minor, by Robert Schumann.

 

@ Chandos: I like the melody of the Organ, but it's just not very powerful to me. I think it may be the quality of the recording rather than the music itself, though. The organ in my isn't very...organy.

Samson et Delilia is an opera, apparently. The piece I'm referring to is called Bacchnale. You can probably find them all on youtube - I would recommend Danse Macabre first, as it's incredibly catchy.

I haven't heard the Schumann concerto, but I'll check it out. My university library recently put their entire music collection out (before you had to go up to the desk and ask for it), which means that with my new laptop it's very simple to...enjoy music.

Anything else you can suggest? I'm rather new at this classical waffle.

 

DM - I also like "Pictures at an Exhibition," A Night on Bare Mountain, and if you like opera, "Boris Godunov," by Mussorgsky. Also, if you have not already heard "Symphony Fantastique" and the "Damnation of Faust," by Berlioz, they are very good, IMO. Another of my favorites is Rachmaninoff, and you may find "Piano Concerto #2," "The Isle of the Dead," and "Symphonic Dances" interesting as well. All the above are very dramatic pieces, and some are downright theatrical.

Oh, and how can I forget Igor Stravinsky? Try "The Rite of Spring," (which is completely outrageous), and "The Firebird." Great stuff.

 

Ah. I have Pictures at an Exhibition and Night on Bald Mountain, but that came in a double-CD with Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, and I have been rather more taken with the latter. It is, incidentally, amazing, and you should try it if you haven't already.

I've heard bits of the Fantisque - the granddaddy of symphonic poems, yes? I shall give it a proper try when I can.

Rach, yes, Rach - I've been looking for his Isle of the Dead. Got his Piano Concerto #2, love the first movement. Does the opening sound suspiciously similiar to Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody #2 to you? Symphonic Dances I haven't tried, but will.

Haven't heard Rites of Spring, but I'm impressed by Firebird through Fantasia 2000. Good stuff. I suspect opera isn't really my thing, though I do enjoy musicals...

 

DM - Rach's Symphonic Dances:



IMO, it's a really nice piece.

 

The new Heaven & Hell record is amazing.

 

Summer means you can find me cleaning apartments... and because I live in a small town it means that my coworkers all listen to country music. As such, I have sufficiently memorized almost all the new songs. Sad.

 

I can't get this song out of my head, although you may have to be a geezer to remember it.

 

Is there still such a thing, CiG? The only CM I hear these days sounds like warmed over FM Rock from the 70s, played by good ole' boys from the corner truck stop. I mean FM rock was bad enough...unless its Boston.

 

Well I can say that when I go with the carpet cleaner he listens to old school country... "classic country" with the original Hank Williams and that sort of stuff. I'm partial to some of Kenny Rogers stuff, and a little more, but not a fan of that in general.

Today's stuff, is definitely an evolved (for better or worse) version of that. And yes, most of it is like a rock or pop fusion with country. I'm not big on the honky-tonk country, so a little variety is nice... Still don't really like the genre though

 

CiG - As a genre, country presents interesting possibilities, as proven by recordings like Bob Dylan's "John Wesley Harding," Neil Young's "Harvest" and the Grateful Dead's "American Beauty." But I would suppose that afficionatos of the genre may not consider any of the above to be country.