30 Day Music Challenge, Day 30: My Favourite Song at this Time Last Year

Finally - the end!

I'm pretty sure the songs that were my favourites last year are still my favourites now, if my Last.fm stats are anything to go by. Still at the top of my mental list & my Last.fm Top Tracks list are Dawn of Destiny's "Rain," "Days of Crying," and "Lost"; Sonata Arctica's "Sing in Silence"; and then songs by bands that I've discovered in the last year, like Almora and Sabaton. And we all know of my love for Nightwish, so I won't bother posting anything from them here this time!

Let's go with a band I haven't listened to in ages, maybe even a year: Xandria! Xandria is a German Gothic-ish metal band, also currently without a permanent lead singer. They are a really underrated band, though, and I loved Lisa Middelhauve (she is the original singer who left and was replaced, then that replacement left, and now Lisa is filling in until a new permanent singer is found).This is "Now and Forever," a very cool tune I think I really need to become reacquainted with...



And that ends this meme! Now, on to bigger & better things!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 29: A Song from My Childhood

I grew up on music pretty much the polar opposite of metal: my dad was a military man with Victorian sensibilities, so we listened to an awful lot of military marching band music and waltzes. I AM NOT KIDDING. Also, classic movie soundtracks, like Chariots of Fire. We also listened to a lot of Nana Mouskouri and Mireille Mathieu. Again, I am not kidding! My parents also adored Roger Whittaker and The Irish Rovers. Actually, I can credit the Irish Rovers for interesting me in Celtic music, Irish culture, and folk music in general, and I still have a really soft spot for Roger Whittaker.

I don't think I ever heard any metal until I was about 12 or 13 (which would have been about 1986), the height of hair metal/glam metal. I can't list all the bands from that era that I listened to, but I can tell you the one that amused my parents no end: Twisted Sister. They thought these guys were hilarious! We had this show in Canada back then that came on the CBC at 5pm every week night called Video Hits. They used to play this video every so often and it always got my parents' attention and we all had a family laugh!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 28: A Song that Makes Me Feel Guilty

This was a tough one, which is why I procrastinated so long in posting this. No song really makes me feel guilty, at least no song that I know of so far in my life. But, for the purpose of this meme, we'll go with this track by Gothic metal band Satyrian (this video isn't exactly my bag, however...).

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 27: A Song I Wish I Could Play

I have always wanted to play the guitar, and when I get around to creating a bucket list (which I should stop procrastinating about) learning this instrument I think will be on it.

This is probably my favourite Nightwish instrumental piece, and Emppu does a fantastic job! I would love to be able to play this!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 26: A Song I Can Play On an Instrument

Way back in the mists of time, I used to play the flute. I really enjoyed it, but got out of practice and eventually sold my flute to someone who needed it more than I did, because all I was doing was carting it around wherever I moved and not using it, and I kind of thought it was time to let it go. I don't regret this too much, though once in a while I do wish I could have gotten it together & kept up with it. Ah well.

Anyway, somewhere in those mists of time, I seem to recall "Scarborough Fair" being in my lesson book. I have always loved this old song, and Leaves' Eyes does a particularly good cover of it, both a heavy version and an acoustic version.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 25: A Song that Makes Me Laugh

A while ago, a friend of mine suggested I check out the show, Metalocalypse. Man, am I ever glad I did, because it's so brilliant! I love it so much, and there are certain episodes I turn to when I just need a good laugh because I know they will deliver, no matter how shitty I feel!

This song is from the first episode, and upon hearing it, I totally burst out in a fit of laughter. I mean, a death metal band singing "do you folks like coffee" and "scream for the cream?" It's fucking hilarious!

Here is the video. Enjoy!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 24: A Song I Want Played at My Funeral

There is a bit of a story behind this choice, but I won't go into it here. I'm not a huge Theatre of Tragedy fan, but I do love this song. And it has a funereal quality to it, too.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 23: A Song I Want to Play at My Wedding

Let's get another one over and done with for the day! And this one is tough...

I'll go with Lacuna Coil's "Entwined." Not exactly the most romantic, happy, and positive outlook on relationships, but this song does kind of illustrate the complexity of relationships: the struggles, but also the sacrifices and "the ties that bind." I think this is a really beautiful, powerful song.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 22: A Song I Listen to When I'm Sad

Short & sweet today:

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 21: A Song I Listen to When I'm Happy

Lyriel is a German folk metal band and I totally love their Autumntales album. Although this song has some sad lyrics, I find it to be quite uplifting to listen to, especially the epic instrumental outro that starts at 2:55. That part of the song just gets me going every time I hear it!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 20: A song I Listen to When I'm Angry

Yes, I love Linkin Park. Sue me!

This is a song I listen to when I'm angry, because it's a song about anger and for me, this strikes a lot of chords. This is also the LP track that initially got me into the band.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 19: A Song from My Favourite Album

OK, two posts for this meme today, because I kind of want to get this challenge over with so I can move on to bigger & better things!

My favourite album: Nighwish's Oceanborn. I have already posted two songs from this CD in other posts here, namely "Stargazers" in my Tarja post, and "Sacrament of Wilderness" in the post from Day 6 of this series. James did post "Sleeping Sun" in his bathtub video post, but I'm going to post "Sleeping Sun", too. It is in my top 5 Nightwish songs, is one of my favourite metal ballads ever, and it was on Oceanborn. This is the 2005 video, which is a little less...um...strange than the old version.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 18: A Song I Wish I Heard on the Radio

Nominees for this category are legion. Because metal is not mainstream here, I could name any song I love from any of my favourite bands, but instead I'm going to have to narrow this down quite a bit so we don't get one long, drawn-out post.

On the more obscure (relatively) end of things, I will put an Almora song here, because this Turkish symphonic power metal outfit is probably completely unheard of in this country. And that's a shame, because they are unique and brilliant. I posted about them previously, here, when I posted "Tilsim" as one of my favourite songs. That track comes from Almora's Turkish language album Kiyamet Senfonisi, which, despite my not speaking the language, is my favourite album of theirs. Here is my second favourite song from that CD, "Sonbahar", which I believe translates into "Autumn" and which I would love to hear on the radio over here.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 17: A Song Often Heard on the Radio

Are you kidding me? Metal is not played on mainstream radio here in Canada! You have to go to a specialty station in order to hear any metal, and out here in the boonies, good luck with that. Besides, I don't listen to the radio much anymore since I have a Last.fm account and an MP3 player. The bus I commute to work on plays a local station that plays mainstream shit music, so I never take the bus to work without my MP3 player!

But, now we get into controversy! Because back when I lived in Ontario several years ago and was working for a large retail company, I had to listen to their satellite radio for 8 hours a day. Of course, because this was retail, it had to be "appropriate" music for a very mixed clientele. And guess what metal got played all the time there?

Evanescence.

Compared to a solid stream of Britney, Beyonce, Jessica Simpson, and other "artists" of that ilk, Evanescence was a breath of fresh air when it came on, let me tell you.

And the controversy? Is Evanescence metal? Well, I think so. Lots of people will disagree. And I will not be ashamed at all to say that I love Evanescence and Amy Lee. So there!

Actually, come to think of it, when I shifted departments at this store I was working at, I was able to play my own CDs at one point, and I did have an Evanescence CD to play. Funnily enough, the guy I had big issues with in the department was a HUGE Eva fan, and even went to see them in concert when they came through town (I couldn't go - long story). So, we were able to connect over something positive in the end, which was nice.

Here is one of the songs that got a lot of airplay at that time.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 16: A Song I Used to Love But Now Hate

When I first discovered Edenbridge, I really liked them. And then, the more I listened, the more odd I found them. It has to do with their lyrics, I think. Lyrics are important to me, and as I read through Edenbridge's lyrics, I started to feel that they have some of the worst lyrics in metal! Cliches, cheesy rhymes, and the lyrics really don't convey much. There is no real cohesion in what they write. Their lyrics remind me of Duran Duran's lyrics: lots of nice words and images, but they are really not saying a hell of a lot, and therefore they don't make a lot of sense.

Edenbridge does have some nice compositions, however, and I wouldn't say I hate them at all, but rather that I have grown out of them. Some of their songs have good hooks and lovely melodies, but their lyrics fail them.

Here are the lyrics to "Shadowplay" found at Dark Lyrics:

Fly upon a brainchild
With unashamed delight
Bending over backwards day and night

Our world's collapsing
Like a house of cards
A stagy farewell waits without regard

We are hanging in the balance
Are we beyond and remedy?
It was taken out of our hands
And we face a tragedy

[Chorus:]
Why, why are we here
On wild soil we roam
And love to call it home
We are vibrant with life
The will to survive
Ways to go astray
In this shadowplay

Skimming stones on water
Only yesterday
Into cosmic dust we now decay
Kindred souls and spirits
Bound by energy
Who can say what is reality?

Do we flog a dead horse?
Just eternal bliss
Leaves us back to hope for
The former times we miss

We are driven by emotion
And pray the bond won't brake
So strong is our devotion
Our being is opaque

[Chorus]

I have seen the cascade
The souls between light and shade
Not a drop in the ocean
Forever we
The spirit of infinity

See what I mean about cliches? And lots of their songs contain them.

Anyway, here is the song.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 15: A Song that Describes Me

Representation in heavy metal of my values, world view, feelings, and experiences is one of the things that attracted me to the genre in the first place. Some artists are so adept at summing up stuff that has happened in my life, or encapsulated an experience I've had personally so well, I've sometimes felt close to tears. Through metal, I have felt heard & understood, and for someone like me, that is incredibly heartening. I have so much respect and appreciation for artists that have done this for me.

One such band is Angtoria, a British/Swedish symphonic power metal band fronted by the lovely and utterly amazing vocalist Sarah Jezebel Deva. To date, they have released one album, the very dark and at times disturbing God Has a Plan For Us All, an album that covers a variety of topics including suicide, sexual abuse by a priest, and cutting. But all is not bleak on this album; there are some very uplifting songs here, and "That's What the Wise Lady Said" is one of them.

Here are the lyrics:

I wish you could be
All you ever dreamed
Move on, no regrets
Try to be the absolute best
Stand on your own
You can make it, be someone
With the war in your head
That's what the wise lady said!
There'll be times, when you can't face
The weary lights of the day
But be strong and believe
You can be anything you wish to be
Don't let your fears hold you back
Life isn't meant to be easy
Find justice for what you lack
Time will heal the scar
Be proud of who you are
Taste the fantasies that you dread
That's what the wise lady said!
I came from nothing, here I am!
I won the war in my head!

I'm not going to go into exactly why I feel this song describes me, you will just have to take my word for it. But it does, in so many ways, and this is a prime example of what I was talking about earlier in this post. Sarah writes the lyrics for Angtoria, and I really want to say THANK YOU, THANK YOU for this song.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 14: A Song No One Would Expect Me to Love

I think people who know me from online wouldn't be too surprised by any particular song I might like, but people in my "real" life might be surprised by quite a few. I'm not exactly a closet metalhead, though I totally used to be. Gradually, in the past year or two, I have been much more open about this, though I still don't advertise it much. I can discuss metal with my brother, who likes quite a bit of metal, but the rest of my family and many of my friends might be a little surprised at what I listen to. I don't think they would judge me, though fear of judgment is, I will admit, one thing that in the past kept me from talking about my musical preferences.

I don't like death metal. But I do enjoy some melodic death metal, and I really like Wintersun's compositions. I was listening to them at the gym yesterday after not listening to them for a while, and I though of this post, because I think if some of the people in my "real" life knew I liked this song, they might be a tad bit surprised.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 13: A Song That is a Guilty Pleasure

Well, I won't post any Celine Dion here I guess.

I first heard of UnSun when their single "Whispers" came out back in 2008. I actually really liked the song and wound up buying the CD. It had its moments with some nice lyrics here and there, and a few songs in addition to "Whispers" that were OK. I didn't mind Aya's voice or heavily accented English, but yes, the reality this is a mediocre band with a heavily commercialized sound, and it's basically a very poor example of Gothic metal.

Still, "Whispers" is catchy and once in a while I need a bit of lighter music if my mood leans that way, and the video is kind of cool.

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 12: A Song from a Band I Hate

Well, I don't really "hate" any band, in the end. I just accept that people have different musical tastes and listen to what I like - and I try not to complain too much.

There are a lot of bands I just don't get, though, and Slipknot is one of them. I don't get the masks for one thing, and I don't get the costumes. I don't get their image. I don't like the vocal style of what's-his-name. I don't like their creepy videos. I don't like their sound. I just...don't see the draw with these guys at all.

But if you do, that's fine. Like I said, it's just a different musical taste, that's all.

Anyway, here is a song from Slipknot to fulfill the requirements of today's installment of the 30 Day Music Challenge!

30 Day Music Challenge, Day 11: A Song from My Favourite Band

Here is a live version of Nightwish's "Wishmaster" from way back in the day! There is such amazing energy in this video!