Blog Archives
Reggie’s Top 15 Albums of 2013
Initially, I was going to limit my best of 2013 list to just my top 10. My reasoning was to make my list as tight as I could only highlighting the very best of what moved me during the year. After looking back at how many albums I listened to or was exposed to, that number hovered around 270 albums. So, I decided to expand my list to the same standard as previous years. Despite increasing my list to 15, it still only highlights about 5% of all the albums that graced my ear drums this year. So, what I present to you for the year 2013 my top 15, plus five more honorable mentions that will be posted in the vicinity of this list.
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Concert Review: Death Angel, 3 Inches of Blood, Battlecross, Revocation, Diamond Plate
It’s been a very long time since I had the opportunity to catch Death Angel in the splendor of a live setting. If my memory serves me, it was August 19, 1990. Seven of us piled into some type of small white hatchback never meant for seven people and made our way an hour down the road to Boston, MA to this little dive called The Channel. I am not sure if this place it still exists and there was nothing particularly exciting about the joint other than Death Angel was playing there. They were in support of their Act III album and in tow were Forbidden along with two local bands called Cardinal Sin and Candy Striper Death Orgy…the latter was as entertaining as their name, I promise you that. I believe this may have been the place where I got my first taste of the pit…because, well there wasn’t anywhere else to go; the entire place was a pit. I also bought my favorite concert tee from that show and had that thing until it fell apart 10 years later. The only things that remain from that evening are fond memories and a ticket stub which was hand-written from a local music store called Strawberries Records and Tapes. Yeah, they are out of business now. All in all, it was highly memorable for many reasons. So, to see them again after more than two decades was highly anticipated to say the least. To make the evening even better were some quality opening acts; 3 Inches of Blood, Battlecross, Revocation, Diamond Plate, and local band Artemesis. Here is my story.
Album Review: Self-Titled by Revocation
Why do I like heavy metal music? To get into the specifics of it would really lead me to writing a long-winded, boring, self-serving dissertation on psychology, the human condition, and the release of more inner feelings than I would ever care to put onto the internet. But to sum the question up nice and concisely, I love the energy of heavy metal. Whether it be electric-like energy of thrash metal, the aggressive energy of death metal, the groove energy of stoner/doom, or the mish-mash of all energies in prog. Everything about the energy of heavy metal and its various genres effect my being more so than any other style of music. But regardless of genre, more often than not, bands/albums don’t reach their full energy potential and after listening to so many albums that don’t reach that 100% energy level one tends to become complacent and 90% becomes the 100%. Ya, follow?
What am I getting at here? Well, even though there have been many superb albums released this year, after listening to the new self-titled album by Revocation ad nauseam for the past couple weeks, it feels like those albums that felt like 100% energy at the time were just 90%ers. Nothing against those brilliant records, but now that the ‘energy bar’ has been raised, it a tad difficult to go back to them and not ask for that next 10%. So, as you probably guessed by now, the new Revocation album is a record that oozes with energy, pure, raw, uncompromising energy that don’t take no shit from no one.
A Metal State of Mind 