Avenged Portnoy

As some may know, this man right here is going to be replacing "The Rev"s drumming on the new Avenged Sevenfold album. Now according to "Ultimate Guitar" A7X was voted second best band of the 2000-2009 decade and ahead of them was Metallica. I never have enjoyed this group, ever, I find their music writing terrible, but that is my personal choice. The members of this band is oozing with talent though. Now what i'm curious about is the new album because the most well known prog drummer next to Niel Pert is going to be laying down the drum tracks on the new album. I know their are a lot of people with mixed thoughts on it. It slightly annoys me that now that Mike joins and throws down some tracks they take this new "progressive" feel and start acting like their going to be the next big thing to hit progressive music. Some quick facts, Gavin Harrison has been voted best prog drummer the past 3 years with competing album releases. If you also notice Mikes drumming hasn't evolved much since the first Dream Theater release. I do plan to give this a good listen too though. I really hope it turns out great and it was heart touching to know that rev would put Mike in charge of his throne for the album. The album is recording and is now in production so be sure to check it out when it comes out and hope that the "new sound" is to die for!

Deadwing, just Deadwing

So this is one of my favorite albums by one of the leading bands in psychedelic and prog music "Porcupine Tree". If you haven't had the chance to check out this band i STRONGLY suggest you go and listen to this group. This is in my favorite band hands down. But enough of me, more about you. The album is played live to this day but here is something i found a little interesting, ever since "Fear of a Blank Planet" released and even before that in fact, the title track has not gotten a lot of live play and air play and overall recognition. I actually find this song fantastic! I really love the atmosphere this song puts you in. It really puts this sepia like feel to the music and has this psychedelic solo to it, The ambient interview, the meaningful lyrics and the progressive feel. Now lets compare the title track to "Fear of a Blank Planet". If you take the first two songs out of each album you notice the keyboard typing intro, and they are actually very similar style songs. I think the reason why people like fear of a blank planet more is due to the intricate writing and the dark/real feeling to it too. I think its nice that you can turn to either song totally depending on your mood. That is one thing i love about this band, they can satisfy that heavy metal feeling or that calm acoustic feeling and then some. Just thought I go out on a limb between these songs and say that its not fair that Deadwing isn't being played as much as Fear of a Blank Planet is when they are both equally good songs!

The Swedish Side of Things

So i hope people enjoyed my first post, i should have mentioned that i will also be trying to be on this daily! I guess I can see why people enjoy blogging, when their blogging about what they are interested in that is. I would like to bring to your attention the Swedish prog side of things! Yes bands such as Opeth and Pain Of Salvation. These are the more bigger names of that scene over there but if you haven't had the chance to listen to them you really should! Might i suggest Ghost Reveries for those first time Opeth listeners?

The two bands that i would love to inform you rookie and veteran prog heads about are, Beardfish and In Mourning. Both heavily progressive bands, Beardfish a little more. Now the difference between the two is kind of black and white. Beardfish is a lot more harmonizing and more comical then In Mourning and writes their songs in a entertaining story style. You can definitely tell Beardfish has a lot of fun when they go into the studio. The album i would strongly suggest to start your Beardfish journey would have to be "Sleeping In Traffic Pt.2". You might have heard from these guys when they were first on the bill with Dream Theaters 2nd annual Prog Nation tour but later had to drop off due to record company funds.

In Mourning really portrays a serious sense of style to their music. This group has yet to leave Sweden on any tour, but their production quality is amazing especially on their release album. When you listen to these guys you will really think of Opeth, but hang tight they are actually very original as you progress through their albums. Really heavy and death metal grows and really harmonized silhouette like clean vox. Check out their first album,"Shroud of Divine".

The Welcome Mat

Well here is my first crack at blogging, i really don't have any idea how interested people are in reading ones opinions and viewing their photo's and all that jazz, but people do listen to talk radio and what have you! Since my collage radio show isn't around due to me moving into commercial radio. I thought i try blogging and soon to come.. PODCASTING! I will be posting a blog at least every week, aiming for Monday evenings!

To start off the blogging here's an artist that really brings a lot to the table. He is an artists that goes by "That 1 Guy" (Do not be confused, and you will have a lot of fun telling your friends this name). I did an interview with him after seeing him perform the opening act for Porcupine Tree, i got a chance to meet up with him after the portland show (Yes i followed porcupine tree down the western coast) and got to talking and got his autograph and got in touch with his promotion coordinator and set up a nice 20min interview discussing his style and all that jazz. Pretty much he plays this thing you see here a magic pipe which he made himself, self recorded his first album, created the magic boot and saw and did a rare side project with Buckethead and now has 3 albums, one which released just a few months ago. Do check him out and pick up his albums, this is a man who shouldn't have his music just downloaded but supported with our money. His talent is really that good and his commitment to the music is really that high.