iTouch Report – November 2011

It’s that time of the month to see what has been burning through your preferred music player. I am not surprised at what I am looking at on my iTouch. Most of these albums were played while working in my office and others selected during workout time; it’s an eclectic mix. I have also been using my workout time to work on a new “Workout Tunes” theme in the coming weeks. Starting from the #10 album down to #1, this is what has been played the most. Computer equipment never lies.

iTouch Report – October 2011

It is that time of month for a heavy metal discussion piece.  As usual, it’s time to look at the play count on your personal digital music player…if you have one.  If you listen to CDs then you can guess what you have been listening to the most.  I will do this again for November and December, but will probably discontinue this post.  Mainly, my iTouch is screwy with its play count.  I am not sure why, but there is no way possible that I listened to one song over 1,300 times in one month.  I am not sure why that happened, but I reset the play count every month and refresh my playlist with new music every month.  So, for the play count to be nowhere near accurate defeats the purpose of talking about what I listened to most this month.  December will be my last post on this topic.  For now, here is what my iTouch thought I listened to the most in the month of October.  I can’t say I disagree…I just disagree with the number of times played.

10.  Symphony X – When All Is Lost – I still can’t get enough of this album.  It is more than likely going to be a top 5 of 2011…easily.

9.  Opeth – Haxprocess – Although not my favorite Opeth album, I don’t think its as bad as some folks made it out to be.  It’s actually great as a 70s prog album.  But we all know what kind of Opeth we want to hear.  Next time…I hope.

8.  Machine Head – I Am Hell (Sonata in C#) – What an amazing opener for Unto The Locust.  This whole album has great potential for my #1 of 2011.

7.  Amon Amarth – Doom Over Deadman – Surtur Rising is another great album release of 2011.  Nuff said!

6.  Nightwish – The Poet and the Pendulum – Not sure how this popped up so much on the playlist, but it is a great song.  We should see something new from Nightwish in 2012.

5.  Nevermore – The Termination Proclamation – I never got into this band until this album.  I am glad I did, but also bummed that they done.

4.  Dream Theater – Outcry – Dream Theater is back!  Can’t wait to see them next year.  In fact, my tickets just showed up today and planning to take my son to his first show.  Nothing like spreading the gospel of metal to the generations 🙂

3.  Megadeth – 1,320′  – This is probably one of my favorites on Endgame.

2.  Chimaira – Scum of the Earth – Chimaira took a bit of flack on some sites, but I dig this album a lot and I am quite happy that they were able to keep the machine working despite a heavy turnover in personnel.  Again, can’t wait to see them next year.

1.  Trivium – Watch the World Burn – Another one that took some flack.  In Waves is not their strongest album, but it’s still good music.  This is probably going to at least be in the top 1o for me at the end of the year.

So what’s been causing the ringing in your ears this October?  Is there anything on my playlist that surproses your or something you haven’t heard in a while?  Whatever is your metal pleasure, let’s hear it.  Perhaps you will introduce me to something new.  Have a great night!

iTouch Report – September 2011

This month has been an exciting month for metal.  My iTouch has been busy playing a wide variety of music; old, but mostly new.  Unfortunately, there wasnt enough time for the counter to rack up counts on some of the most recent releases such as Opeth and Machine Head or even Dream Theater.  This month I will list my top 10 bands/albums instead of songs like I normally do. 

10.  Tool – Aenima

9.  Anthrax – Worship Music

8.  Porcupine Tree – In Absentia

7.  Six Feet Under – Bringer of Blood

6.  The Sword – Warp Riders

5.  Dream Theater – A Dramatic Turn of Events

4.  Megadeth – Endgame

3.  Jasta – Jasta

2.  Chimaira – The Age of Hell

1.  Trivium – In Waves

In Waves turned out to be a good album to workout to, so I can see why that one got so many plays, so much more than the rest.  I am not sure how Jasta got so many plays because I don’t remember intentionally listening to them that much.  So what have you been listening to lately?  For it’s been nonstop Machine Head.  I am sure that will reflect in the October iTouch report.

iTouch Report – August 2011

Much like last month, one particular band dominated my top 10.  It’s no surprise since a couple of metal albums were released in August in the form of Trivium and Chimaira.  Both bands complete albums were the top two bands on my iTouch this month.  Instead of listing the songs out I will do it like this.  My favorite song on the new Trivium album (In Waves) is Caustic are the Ties That bind.  My favorite song on the new Chimaira (The Age of Hell) is Born in Blood.  At least at the moment that’s where it stands. 

So let’s highlight 10 other songs that scored high on the playlist in no particular order

Jasta – Walk the Path Alone

Six Feet Under – Murdered in the basement (good for working out)

Nevermore – The Termination Proclamation

Nevermore – Without Morals (my favorite on the album)

Opeth – Hope Leaves

Stone Sour – Imperfect

Megadeth – How the Story Ends

James LaBrie – I Need You

Pain of Salvation – Of Two Beginnings

Metallica – To Live is to Die

 

iTouch Report – July 2011

It’s time to discuss what we have been listening to this last 31 days.  I am going to do this month’s report just a bit different because 9 of my top 10 songs on my playlist all came from the same album…Symphony X’s Iconoclast.  That wouldn’t make for an exciting or diverse monthly report.  So I am going to take my top 20 non-Symphony X songs and talk about them instead.  But first…

Iconoclast does kick ass and I find myself listening to it everyday since it’s release.  There are songs for all occasions; thinking, exercising, dreaming about being a rock star.  Iconoclast is really an outstanding collection of new Symphony X.  Nine of ten top songs on my iTouch this month go to Symphony X.  Here are the next 10, so there is something more to talk about.

20.  Queensryche – At the Edge – off the album Dedicated to Chaos

19.  Machine Head – Wolves – off the album The Blackening

18.  Amorphis – Mermaid – off the album The Beginning of Times

17.  Katatonia – Sleeper – off the album Viva Emptiness

16.  Katatonia – Burn the Remembrance – off the album Viva Emptiness

15.  Amon Amarth – Destroyer of the Universe – off the album Surter Rising

14.  Megadeth – 1,320 – off the album Endgame

13.  Bullet For My Valentine – Dignity – off the album Fever

12.  Katatonia – Criminals – off the album Viva Emptiness

11.  Evile – Thrasher – off the album Enter The Grave

Other than Symphony X, this is what has been whirling between my ears in the month of July.  Stay tuned, there will be a lot of new metal coming our way in the coming weeks and all of September.  What’s been blasting your brain lately?

iTouch Report (June 2011)

Well, it’s that time of the month 😉 to reveal what I have been listening to most in the month of June.  This is going to be interesting because some of the music that got the most plays I have only had on my iTouch for like three days.  Here goes.

10.  Symphony X – Dehumanized off Iconoclast

9.  Katatonia – Criminals off Viva Emptiness

8.  Symphony X – Electric Messiah off Iconoclast

7.  Symphony X – The End of innocence off Iconoclast

6.  Amorphis – Reformation off The Beginning of Times

5.  Symphony X – When All is Lost off Iconoclast

4.  Evile – Thrasher off Enter the Grave

3.  Symphony X – Iconoclast off Iconoclast

2.  Amorphis – Mermaid off The Beginning of Times

1.  Symphony X – Reign in Madness off Iconoclast (33 plays in three days)

What can I say the new Symphony X is bad ass especially Reign in Madness.  I just can’t get enough of that one.

What have you been listening to lately?  Anything new?  Reminiscing with the old?

iTouch Report – March 2011

This month’s iTouch report would lead anyone to think I was a huge fan of Prog-metal.  I guess I am because computer technology doesn’t lie.  This post is about what I have been listening to regularly for the last month.  For March 2011 there wasn’t a whole lot of variety.  Here goes:

Paradise Lost – Universal Dream – 16 plays

Dream Theater – VIII Losing Time/Grand Finale – 16 plays

Dream Theater – Blind Faith – 16 plays

Overkill – Endless War – 18 plays

Evergrey – Leave It Behind Us – 20 plays

Opeth – The Grand Conjuration (Music Video) – 23 plays

Paradise Lost – Rise of Denial – 37 plays

Opeth – The Baying Of The Hounds – 37 plays

Opeth – The Grand Conjuration – 43 plays

Paradise Lost – Faith Divides Us – 49 plays

Faith Divides us a powerful and moving video.  If you haven’t seen it check it out on YouTube.  The song is great and if you are looking for something uplifting this isn’t it.  I can’t say enough about Opeth. I like them so much that I am considering passing on seeing the Big Four as Sonisphere this year just so I can catch Opeth on the Sunday part of Sonisphere.    I am glad I have more time to think about that one.  I expect Opeth to tour again when their new album is out, but I hate to gamble on whether they will or will not come by England.

Overkill was my outlier of the bunch.  Endless War is a really good workout song,  I used it a lot while running on the treadmill. 

So how did a video get on my list?  I upload videos to my iTouch so I can watch them when I ride the bike at the gym.  They do have TVs to watch, but I would rather watch metal for the 20-30 minutes I ride.  For the month of March I only had two videos uploaded, this one and Porcelain Heart also from Opeth. 

The rest are self-explanatory. I think they are all kick as songs and have yet to wear out their welcome.  This month I should have a wider variety.  I am in the process of adding all my CDs to my iTunes library.  I have uploaded over 1,500 songs far and I am about half-way through.  Before this, I only added my absolute favorite songs, but then I realized I was missing out on some gems.  So my library should go from 4,000 to 6,500 songs by the time I am done.  Cheers!

iTouch Report

Another great month in metal has gone by.  Many bands had great releases and March shows no signs of really slowing down.  At the end of March we will see releases from both Cavalera Conspiracy and Amon Amarth.  I am sure there will be others, but for now those two are big ones in my metal world.

What did your iTouch say about you in February?  They say technology never lies so let’s see what I have been listening to recently.  My iTouch got a good workout this month.  I started this little experiment with 576 songs and 46 bands.  At the end of the month, I had 619 songs and 50 artists.  Thank you to new DevilDriver, Black Label Society (new to me), Ensiferum (new to me), and  new Evergrey for joining the regular rotation.  Here is my Top 10 for the last half of February.  From now on, I will just do this once a month. 

10.  Megadeth – This Day We Fight – 10 plays

          This is a great song and I am not surprised to find it on the list.  I listen to this one usually with every cardio workout I do. 

9.  Black Label Society – Stillborn – 11 plays

          After seeing BLS in concert they have made their way into my regular rotation and this is one of the songs I like most off Skullage. 

8.  Kamelot – Hunter’s Season – 13 plays

          Kamelot is a great band and after possibly getting to see them in April with Evergrey, they have re-entered a regular rotation.  Hunter’s Season was a Song of the Day last week.  Since then I have listened to it intentionally numerous times.

7.  Ensiferum – Stone Cold Metal – 13 plays

          I just had to hear that banjo solo.  Only a band like Ensiferum could pull that off.

6.  Suicidal Tendencies – I Saw Your Mommy – 14 plays

          Another good workout tune here.  This song is like a satire of all those people who say metal is “kill you momma, kill your baby.”  You know the type, I am sure.  I think this song pokes fun at the people who associate metal with death and dismemberment.  Although in some cases “those” people may be right.  This is a fun song as far as I am concerned.

5.  Paradise Lost – At Horizon’s End – 14 plays

          If you are a Paradise Lost fan, then you probably noticed their latest album is much heavier than several previous releases.  I think they have gotten back to their roots a little bit here.   Faith Divides Us (Death Unites Us) is a very worthy Paradise Lost album especially if you were a fan of the Draconian Times era.

4.  Cradle of Filth – Beast of Extermination (bonus track) – 14 plays

3.  Queensryche – Lat Time in Paris – 15 plays

2.  Black Label Society – Bleed For Me – 15 plays

1.  Bloodbath – Devouring The Feeble – 16 plays

          Another great cardio tune.  This is perhaps one of my top 3 all-time favorite death metal songs.  I can only take death metal in small doses.  Bloodbath is a solid death metal band probably because they are made up of mostly Opeth and Katatonia members.  So the musicianship is there; they are very talented.  Bloodbath take the repetitious speed/death snare drum and actually throw some melody into death without compromising anything. 

I was surprised to see DevilDriver didn’t make the top 10, but they were close at around 8 plays for each song on Beast.  I am sure the end of March report will have multiple DD songs on it. 

My favorite song on this top 10 right now is This Day We Fight from Megadeth.  Apart from being a little biased toward my favorite band, this song is classic Megadeth.

So what have you been listening to lately?

Do You Know What I Like?

When I refer to “You” I am talking about my iTouch.  That’s what this article is about; what my iTouch plays on random for me on a daily basis.  I work in a comfortable office so I have my little radio I connect my iTouch to every single work day.  I also use my iTouch every single time I go to the gym.  I DO NOT workout without music.  I will literally walk right out the door if I forget my headphones or something like that.  Anyway, I do listen to some certain bands during the day when I have that desire; However, mostly, it’s on random so I can be exposed to as much metal as possible…because I need it.  If you are not a metalhead you will never understand so stop reading now.

I decided to look at which songs get played the most.  So I connected my iTouch to the computer, opened iTunes and looked at some numbers.  I am going to list the top 10 songs here and talk about them.  Now I can’t remember the last time I refreshed my iTouch so I was a little surprised to see how many times some of these songs played and the disparity between #1 and #10.   If you are a statistician I have 548 songs on my iTouch (cause I couldn’t afford one with more gigs).  So 10 songs represent roughly only 2% of the metal library on my iTouch.  Here goes…

#10 – Hellyeah – The Cowboy Way – 64 plays.  This is a good rocking song.  I wouldn’t throw the term metal out there for this band.  Hellyeah are one of those bands that just rock…like you should be chilling with a beer in a bar with Hellyeah in the background.  Some people give Hellyeah a bad rap because they say they aren’t heavy enough.  I guess heavy is in the ear of the beholder.  I saw Hellyeah at Download 2010 and they rocked it.  Plus, it’s great to see Vinnie moving on and doing what Dimebag would want him to do.

#9 – Nevermore – Emptiness Unobstructed – 65 plays.  This band is fairly new to me.  This song rocks, I like Warrell Dane’s singing style.  It is unique and I think it sets apart Nevermore from other metal bands.  I would like to see them live.

#8 – Dream Theater – In The Presence Of My Enemies Pt. 1:  Prelude/Resurrection – 65 plays.  I can never say enough about these musical geniuses.  I am not surprised they are on the list. 

#7 – Megadeth – Head Crusher – 68 plays.  Head Crusher kicks arse and so does the video.  I would have volunteered to get kicked in the face by that female cage fighter.  Oh me, I’ll do it?  I guess a prerequisite was to look like a cage fighter and that…I do not.

#6 – Dream Theater –  A Nightmare to Remember – 68 plays.  The beginning of this song could have been the intro to a Cradle of Filth song.  It’s heavy then it segways to more classic DT song and style; all 16+ minutes

#5 – Jordan Rudess – The Grand Escapement – 79 plays.  Dream Theater’s keyboardist.  He’s got some good stuff and if you like DT you should try Jordan out.  He’s one talented bloke.

#4 – Stratovarius – Darkest Hours – 80 plays.  This band is still new to me so I can’t distinguish by the song title which song this is as I type this article.  So I will intentionally listen to it tonight and probably go…oh yeah that is a good song.

#3 – Slayer – Dead Skin Mask – 80 plays.  Hello Mr. Gein; nuff said!

#2 – Megadeth – The Hardest Part Of Letting Go; Sealed With A Kiss – 129 plays.  A slow one for Megadeth, but a powerful and meaningful song.  Mustaine (in his book) said he wrote this for his wife, played it for her, and she said she didn’t like it.  I like it.

#1 – Megadeth – Foreclosure of a Dream – 260 plays.  Like a fine wine; classic Megadeth.  No surprise here.

I guess it’s plainly obvious what some of my favorite bands are.  If you know me you know Megadeth is #1.  Statistically speaking this experiment isn’t entirely valid for the simple reason that some bands have been on my iTouch longer than others.  So what I am going to do for fun is wipe my iTouch clean every month and load fresh stuff.  Then at the end of each month take a look and see if my iTouch knows what I like.  I encourage you to do the same if you have a digital player of some sort.  It could bring up some interesting conversation.  See you at the end of February with a new list.  I need to start deleting.