Requiem

Dragged out some CDs I haven't heard in ages. Ulver - 'Bergtatt' and 'Nattens Madrigal'. I've just realised that I think 'Nattens' has the quietest drum mix I've ever heard. Shining - '2', '5' and '6' In the Woods - 'HEart of the Ages'

Hello and welcome. My sister lives in California. Do you know her? I hope you enjoy the forums. They're very quiet at the moment for some reason!

I think I would have to go with beach front. Gardens are good, but a rugged beach in the heart of winter is hard to beat. Plus I have a garden here at the Castle and it's a pain in the ass to keep tidy. Would you rather only ever watch TV series or watch movies?

Divine.

Nah, live albums don't count. Also, nah. Interesting! I'm surprised to hear you can't stomach any post-'Pyromania' Def Leppard, but I can definitely see what you mean. I can't believe you're excluding Guns n Roses! Also, I love your account of 'Look What the Cat Dragged In'. Hilarious stuff. I'd even go so far as to say that Bret Michaels is one of the worst vocalists in the scene as well. You left out Warrant!! Poor Jani! I'm trying to think of other 'genres' to write lists about...

Yep, 'Vikinglgr Veldi' and 'Eld' - just magic albums. I haven't heard Skuggsja but I'll check it out.

I was in a store yesterday and I bought the 'Meliora' album that came out last year. I've been listening to it in my car and it's... ok. I was sort of hoping for more but more just doesn't show up. Maybe I just need to give it more spins. I can't believe it's winning awards and things.

I can't believe what I'm seeing.

Requiem's Top 10 Albums That Feature Orchestra and/or Choirs 10. Nightwish - 'Once' I could have gone with a few Nightwish albums, but I've chosen this one partly because it has the mighty 'Ghost Love Score', and partly because I'm in a Tarja mood. Seriously though, 'Dark Passion Play' is just as good and 'Imaginaerum' is not far behind. 9. Sirenia - 'Dim Days of Dolor' I love this (almost one man) band and their latest album is just brilliant. Short catchy songs with a great use of that choir. No true orchestra, but the choir is all over this and just elevates this slab of symphonic gothic metal. I don't know how Morten Veland gets the choir sounding so good, but here it is. 8. Turisas - 'The Varangian Way' I had to double check that this qualifies with an actual choir and that it's not just the lads (and lass) in the band, and apparently it does. This album is a huge epic of viking adventure, and the great choirs here give this a huge Wagnerian quality. Fantastic epic folk metal. 7. Dimmu Borgir - 'Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia' I loved this album in 2001 and I still love it today. It's actually a really early example of a (somewhat) underground band using a full orchestra - I can't think of any bands that were doing it to this extent in 2001 in the studio. It sounded so well produced at the time I couldn't believe it. The intro and outro tracks are some of the best use of atmospheric strings I've heard. This is definitely the best Dimmu album. Haters leave the hall. 6. Tristania - 'Beyond the Veil' Again I'm sliding this into the list because of the choir. I have so much nostalgia for Tristania - obviously Morten from Sirenia's original (and best) band. Absolutely perfect gothic metal back when choirs in metal weren't second nature. 5. Fleshgod Apocalypse - 'Labyrinth' The reason this album sits so high in the list, apart from the jaw-dropping musicianship and staggering execution, is due to the Greek mythological themes that run through it. The use of orchestra and choirs are just perfect for these Hellenistic tales of Mediterranean adventures. World class symphonic death metal replete with fabulous acoustic guitar and piano work. 4. Blind Guardian - 'At the Edge of Time' I almost forgot about this, but the orchestra used here is so effective. This album just shines with fantasy adventure and atmosphere. 3. Septicflesh - 'The Great Mass' And here we go. The first three tracks here are basically untouchable, and if the album carried on in that vein it would be number one. Just staggering anthems of orchestral splendour. 2. Septicflesh - 'Communion' A triumph of an album. This just has a quality running through every track that is freakish. It's the first time they went nuts with the orchestra and it works soooo well. 1. Septicflesh - 'Titan' The number one greatest orchestral metal album of all time. This is where it all comes together: classical music, lyrics, production, depth and songwriting. The theme of gods and godlike behaviour is just amazing too and I highly recommend people read the lyrics if they can, they're truly inspiring. As for the orchestral elements, the choirs singing "Deus ex Machina" in 'Prometheus' just give me chills.

Well, yeah. Plenty of people have traced black metal backwards to the very start of rock n roll, then the blues, then I don't know, slave songs or wherever it came from. Remember how Varg Vikernes renounced metal music at one time because of its roots with black blues musicians? Classic Vargy. So in effect you could keep going back as far as you wanted, but I'm not about to start listening to Sex Pistols and telling everyone they're first first wave black metal. Are you?

Right now we seem to be an amazing wave of great new bands, mostly one-man bands, who are putting out miracle albums of great epic emotion. For examples of what I'm talking about check out: Saor - 'Guardians' (Scotland) Eldamar - 'The Force of the Ancient Land' (Norway) They have this otherworldly quality to them that harkens to history or story (in the case of Eldamar it's Tolkien). As a genre it's as if its taken the emotional aspect of post-black/blackgaze and removed the hipster element and injected it into a more epic world. The result is mesmerising and I haven't been this excited by black metal in years. Does anyone have any cool recommendations or comments to be made based off these two examples?

Eldermar - 'The Force of the Ancient Land'. Amazing one man atmospheric black metal from Norway. Saor - Guardians. Amazing Celtic/Scottish atmospheric black metal. (Hail my forefathers). Children of Bodom - Halo of Blood. I finally decided to buy this because I had a store voucher. It's cool and better than I expected. It's not as good as the downtuned masterpiece that follows it though.

In 1997 I used to work in a small supermarket with my best friend and we would make these mix tapes for our boss. He was a 'regular' middle aged guy at the time yet for some reason he really loved the gothic metal and doom stuff we would put on these tapes for him, along with Korn and Deftones. We would listen to these tapes on a tape deck in the supermarket office, which was always so crazily messy. If you were asked to work in the store room it was great because you didn't have to serve any customers and you could just listen to music and talk while you moved boxes around and checked off stock. The guy would start drinking cans of beer at around 4pm in the office, go out and serve customers, come back in and drink more beer. He used to buy my friend and I alcohol when we were under age and leave it in the empty block next door and we would come back that evening and collect it. Man, it was amazing. On the last day of high school my friend and I hung out in our boss's van while he was in the shop working, drinking Wild Turkey and Cola bottles, listening to Paradise Lost on that tape deck before heading back to school for recess and lunch. One of the greatest days of my life.

Saor - 'Guardians' So many great atmospheric black metal albums out these days. Another really talented one-man band, this time from Scotland. So damn impressive.

Yeah, I remember Hot Metal being pretty good. I might see if I can buy a copy from ebay or something as it would be good to have a flick through for nostalgia's sake. One day we will have to rifle through some of the Terrorizer magazines in my garden shed. There's some cool stuff from back in the 90s in there. Also, I've forwarded your post on to the Doncaster police. They've been after that Sodom guy for decades! Seriously though, that's hilarious!

This is a good one Relentless, because I'm currently living a second life in Middle Earth at the moment (The Silmarillion). I've only seen the Game of Thrones show (first four seasons) and haven't read the books, so technically I'm not qualified to do this if we're sticking to the letter of the law, but I'm going ahead and saying Middle Earth. There are tons of great places to live there: The Shire, Rivendell, Rohan. Obviously I'd prefer not to live at Mt Doom... Westeros by comparison seems really dangerous. Would you rather have a holiday house in Italy or France?

It's great. Positive, polite, slow and great. What's on my mind is how hectic my week has been and how glad I am that it's now over as tomorrow is a day off.

A single solitary beer served in a very long and tall glass.

You haven't played my two favourite Enslaved albums. The only two you haven't played from the 90s!

You could say you dated my mother in the days of yore and it would still sound cool.

Hazzah, a response! Yeah good call on the drummer.

Anyone read this back in the day? I was going to read it to my 5 year old but after flicking through it, it's a touch gory. I'll wait until she's 6(66)....

Macgyver any day! Al Bundy's life would suck. My own life, by the way, much more closely resembles Al's. Would you rather be a one-person black metal band or a full death metal band member?

Eldamar - 'The Force of the Ancient Land My interest in this is definitely piqued by my current Tolkien enthusiasm, but this is genuinely a great release. It's like a cross between Summoning and Falkenbach. It's so emotional and epic. I think I'm going to shell out and buy this. Not bad for a 20 year old solo artist. There are some talented people around that's for sure. For some reason a lot of them are living in Scandinavia.

I love you Macabre, but this sounds like a cockamamie story if ever I've heard one. Why would it be easier for a coachman to drink out of that contraption than a regular pint glass or mug? Macabre, your story sounds less plausible than True Belief claiming he dated that stripper... By far the best part of your post was when you said "days of yore".