On Downloading Music

I'm as guilty of downloading as the next person; I don't do tons of it and I still buy a fair number of CDs as I am able to afford to, but yes, I download.

My main reason for downloading is this: I don't have a lot of discretionary income and if I want to keep discovering & enjoying music & my favourite bands, I simply cannot afford to purchase every CD I want to. Especially because I like stuff that isn't always readily available in North America. I do what I can, though; I enjoy purchasing CDs and when I have the money in my budget to do so, I do buy CDs. In the case of really small bands I like to support, I make the extra effort and purchase the CD right from the band itself, as I did with Australian Gothic outfit Temujin and Canadian power metalers Borealis. I also like hearing a whole album before I commit to purchasing it; that's not always possible on MySpace or with every band.

I enjoy sitting down with a CD cover and listening to a CD as I read along with the lyrics, and I enjoy looking at album art, and I even enjoy reading the credits. However, I have priorities: I have a home, bills, debts, a cat, and many of the usual trappings of adulthood.

I believe artists deserve to be paid for what they produce and release, too. But if you take the example of the legal downloads available off of iTunes and sites like that where you pay a small fee, I seriously wonder how much of that small fee actually gets back to the artist. For instance, I bought Akoma's 3-track EP off of iTunes for $2.97CAD a few months ago. I am truly curious about how much of that $2.97 went to the band, though. Usually, iTunes sells single songs for 99¢; what percentage of that 99¢ goes to the artist? I don't know; I'm just asking. If it's the principle you're interested in, then that's one thing, but if iTunes is taking the majority of the cut, then that's not really helping anyone but iTunes, in my opinion.

What ticks me off sometimes is the attitude of some of the big acts out there who seem to think that downloading is the root of all evil. I was really irritated with Chester Bennington's recent comments about Linkin Park's latest CD sales numbers, found on Blabbermouth. The article says:

LINKIN PARK frontman Chester Bennington told MTV News last October that the
days of the band selling 10 million copies of an album, like its 2000 debut "Hybrid Theory", are long gone.

Bennington explained, "Trying to compare anything to 'Hybrid Theory' in terms of sales is an exercise in futility: It's not gonna happen. That's the reality of the situation. (Second album 'Meteora') did huge numbers the first week, it was like 800,000. 'Minutes To Midnight' was in the 600,000 mark, and this one's at the 240,000 mark; that's a sign of the times . . . people get their music in different ways now."

"Meteora" sold 810,000 copies in its first week of release, while 2007's "Minutes To
Midnight" moved 623,000.

Thanks to downloading and file sharing, Bennington said, "There's probably 10 million people out there who have the record that we don't know about."

Well, I am one of those 10 million people that downloaded A Thousand Suns, and let me tell you, I feel no guilt about this whatsoever. That's because I thought the album sucked and I wouldn't have spent a penny on it anyway. What Chester is perhaps failing to realize here is that LPs most recent CD might not be the quality of their Meteora or Hybrid Theory days, which might also account for poor sales. I don't know; I'm just theorizing here.

Slipknot's Cory Taylor has a bit of a different view, according to this article. He says:

"Seriously, who the fuck wants to risk hard-earned money on music that's maybe 98 percent crap? I'm not going to. And I still buy new albums. People ask what my favorite new album is and nine times out of 10, I don't fucking have one. Music is garbage."

He goes on to say,

"People wanna blame the decline of album sales on downloading, I think it's actually the record companies' fault," he added. "I think it's the quality of the product. If record companies would stop giving any fucking mook on the street with a fringe a record deal or their own record label, maybe you would sell more fucking albums, dipshits."

Fair enough, Corey.

There is a lot of shit music out there for sure, but there is also a hell of a lot of great music out there, too, but you just have to take the time to look for it. That's why I love sites like Last.fm. And this is where illegal downloading can be great for smaller, more obscure bands that could use some exposure. If I didn't have access to downloading, I would never have gotten into fantastic bands like Dawn of Destiny (I own their first 2 CDs incidentally; their 3rd I can't seem to find anywhere and ordering from Europe is way too expensive), Almora (I also purchased a few of their albums), and Atargatis (I purchased two of their CDs). And that's just a few! I might never even have gotten into metal at all if it hadn't been for downloading.

Another example: Nightwish. I found Nightwish after listening to Within Temptation on a radio station on iTunes. I downloaded everything NW I could get my hands on. I now own all NW albums, official DVDs, a fucking expensive NW t-shirt, and some other merch. Similarly, because of downloading I have purchased the special editions, EPs, and concert DVDs of other bands whose material I've downloaded, too. That cannot be a bad thing at all.

It always seems to be the big bands that complain about downloading, like Linkin Park and Bono/U2, etc. Those bands are not hurting. But the smaller bands, like Dawn of Destiny and Atargatis - two of my favourites - have actually benefitted from my downloading.

So, I don't know. I'm just saying. It's not a black & white issue.

I don't believe, however, that art of any kind should be so exclusive that it's completely inaccessible to those who might not be able to afford to enjoy it. That's just my 2 cents.

Almora Review x2 (Sort Of!)

When I first stumbled upon Almora last year, I was blown away. I honestly thought it was one of the best musical discoveries I'd made since Nightwish. Combining romantic and fantasy themes with rich classical vocals, classical instruments like the flute and violin, and some Turkish folk elements with wicked melodies made for a powerful mixture. Composer Soner Canozer, like Tuomas Holopainen, knows his shit, even though he lacks the epicness Holopainen produced in songs like "Ghost Love Score"; almost all of Soner's songs are under six minutes long and have fairly simple constructions. But I think the simplicity of the music is its strength. The songs are just so damned pretty and well-executed, and in this case the "more is less" philosophy serves Almora well.

The jewel in Soner's crown, in my opinion, is Kıyamet Senfonisi, sometimes in English translated into Judgement Symphony. I love pretty much everything about this album, even though I don't speak a word of Turkish (this is Almora's only Turkish-language album; previously there have been just a mere scattering of Turkish-language songs on their other CDs). This is a case where the language of the music itself transcends language barriers. I didn't care that I couldn't understand the lyrics; I was just transported by the music, and I loved that feeling.

After looking for this CD in Canada for almost a year now, I finally found it on an American site for a decent price. Amazon.ca doesn't keep Judgement Symphony in stock and will special order it for you at the special price of nearly $40. That is absurd. The site I used, The End Records, sold it for $12 - and it was in stock. Luckily, I had a birthday recently, so I splurged (I also pre-ordered Tarja's new CD from this site, incidentally, as at the time it wasn't available on Amazon.ca).

When I finally got the CD in the mail, I was pretty stoked. Even though I don't understand Turkish, however, I was able to glean a few things from the CD's insert. For one thing, the singer of my favourite song on the album, "Tılsım", is Bilge Kocaarslan, Almora's flutist and long time backing singer. I was surprised because I always remember her as a blonde bombshell with more of a backseat role, but in the video she looks like a completely different person! It made sense, though; the vocal style of the song is not classical and differs from the rest of the songs on the release.

Speaking of the rest of the songs, I also discovered from the CD booklet that Almora went through another vocal change. Gone is Nihan Tahtaişleyen, who also used to play violin. Previous to her departure, lead vocalist Ahmet Söğütlüoğlu left the band in 2005, according to Wikipedia (where I got that piece of info; it's hard to find facts on Almora in English!). According to the CD booklet, the vocalist in Judgement Symphony is Duygu Şahin, and she's really good. I don't know if she's a permanent fixture with the band, but I certainly hope so.

Which brings me to the second part of this post: Soner's solo album with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, Masalcı'nın On Beş Yılı. I have no idea what this translates into, but this CD is essentially Soner's celebration of 15 years in the music business, and the 10 tracks are remakes of Almora songs completely unplugged and performed 100% with a full orchestra. I got this from the same place as Judgement Symphony and for a similar price! It doesn't even make an appearance anywhere on Amazon.ca, so I felt really lucky to get a copy at all.

There are a few interesting guest vocalists here, including Doro Pesch, who guests on a remake of "Princess of Rain" from Kalihora's Song. I really love this CD; it's relaxing, it's beautiful, but it has one weakness: that remake of "Princess of Rain". Even though it features Doro, it's much more boring than the original. The highlight for me was the revisioning of "Candle in the Night"; this is from Almora's debut, The Gates of Time. The original singer was Almora's original vocalist, Ahmet Söğütlüoğlu. I found her voice quite sharp, but this newer version has a much softer-toned classical vocalist named Umut Akyurek, and she sounds lovely. Another song I have always loved is "Kaf Daðýnýn Ardýnda" which I always thought very beautiful, and the version on Soner's solo album is also a treat to listen to.

So there you have it; horns up to both these releases! \m/

I really encourage you all to give Almora a try; they are unique in the metal scene, in my opinion, and I think they need way more attention because they are such a talented group!

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: Heavy Metal Version; Day 01

One blogger I read regularly is Cal of Calvin's Canadian Cave of Cool. Lately he has been running a meme called the 30 Day Music Challenge, and I thought I'd take up the challenge & do a heavy metal version.

Here is the entire list:

Day 01 - Your favorite song
Day 02 - Your least favorite song
Day 03 - A song that makes you happy
Day 04 - A song that makes you sad
Day 05 - A song that reminds you of someone
Day 06 - A song that reminds of you of somewhere
Day 07 - A song that reminds you of a certain event
Day 08 - A song that you know all the words to
Day 09 - A song that you can dance to
Day 10 - A song that makes you fall asleep
Day 11 - A song from your favorite band
Day 12 - A song from a band you hate
Day 13 - A song that is a guilty pleasure
Day 14 - A song that no one would expect you to love
Day 15 - A song that describes you
Day 16 - A song that you used to love but now hate
Day 17 - A song that you hear often on the radio
Day 18 - A song that you wish you heard on the radio
Day 19 - A song from your favorite album
Day 20 - A song that you listen to when you’re angry
Day 21 - A song that you listen to when you’re happy
Day 22 - A song that you listen to when you’re sad
Day 23 - A song that you want to play at your wedding
Day 24 - A song that you want to play at your funeral
Day 25 - A song that makes you laugh
Day 26 - A song that you can play on an instrument
Day 27 - A song that you wish you could play
Day 28 - A song that makes you feel guilty
Day 29 - A song from your childhood
Day 30 - Your favorite song at this time last year

All righty, Day 01 is your favourite song. Already I am feeling challenged beyond hope because I cannot name just one song. According to Last.fm, my most played song is Dawn of Destiny's Lost, which there isn't a clip of on YouTube. So, number two on that list is actually, DoD's "Lost." There is a clip for that, using some uninspired video game footage.



Number three on that list is "Tilsim" by the Turkish band, Almora. I never get sick of this song!



The third song I'll stick on this list (I don't care if it's considered cheating to name three songs) is probably my favourite metal song ever: "Ghost Love Score", by Nightwish. There is no official video for this 10 minute long tour-de-force, but here is the End of an Era version, which always brings a tear to my eye. This was the last time this song was ever performed properly, IMO, and I think that is fucking sad.



What about you? What would you put on this list?

Bad Album Art in Metal

Okay, here are some examples of bad album art in metal (in my opinion):


This is the image for the 2000 re-release of In Flames' first album, "Lunar Strain". Honestly, this is a great melodic death metal record, but yeah I am not too thrilled about this image though. I mean, this is a dead bird!!! There should have been more creativity here with the image for the re-release of their first album! The original album art was much better.

This is the album art for Almora's "1945". Okay, this is just putrid! What is this suppose to be??? It looks like some fantasy Asian looking world with a fairy??!?!?! What does this have to do with 1945? Well, I like Almora and the music of this album, but this image just looks ridiculous!

This is the album art for Atargatis' first full length album "Wasteland". I understand that this is a concept album, but what the hell!? This just looks really silly! I don't know what to say about this. The music is nice, but this looks too strange to me! It looks like a cover to a really bad B movie!

And finally, this album art by the Finnish band Kivimetsan Druidi for their new album "Betrayal, Justice, Revenge" has to be the grand mother of bad album art in general. Their music is decent on this album, but this looks like the cover of a cliche middle ages video game! Seriously, you really cannot get much worse than this for album art!

Note that I am not insulting any of the bands here. In fact, I like the music of all of these bands, but in my opinion the album art is not up to par with the music on these albums. So yeah, no need to think that I am insulting anyone here, just the artwork! ;) And this is just a fun blog post and I think this is something that isn't meant to take seriously! :D