And the state I live in, New South Wales, posted it’s highest ever coronavirus numbers 21,151. It’s fantastic to know that two years of stringent lockdowns in Australia led to this.
But it’s also another year working from home, which I’m really enjoying and I don’t want to go back to the office. Never ever.
So I guess I’ll end the year the same way I started it. With a glass of wine.
It’s less than six hours to midnight, so let the countdown begin.
I spent 40,275 minutes on Spotify listening to music.
That equals about 671 hours and close to 2 hours of music on the service alone.
And I have a lot of vinyl which also gets listened to, YouTube also gets some of my attention and various CD’s and DVD’s of artists.
In other words, I’m madly in anger with music.
I listened to 86 different genres. But I’ll take that with a big asterisk as Spotify needs to break down musical styles in many little categories so their algorithms can get down low.
And the top 5 are listed as follows:
It’s a pretty common theme that the music is either Rock or Metal. And who comes up with a genre called “Album Rock”.
What does “Album Rock” even mean?
But in the space of 365 days, I listened to 819 different artists.
And I remember in 1988, I purchased 8 albums and copied about 20 other albums from friends onto cassettes. From those albums, some were from the same artists. For example, I purchased “And Justice For All” and dubbed “Kill Em All” from Metallica.
Even if it was 28 different artists, that number is nothing compared to 819. And any new artist trying to make a dent to get peoples attention is up against the history of music on streaming services plus all the new releases that come out each day.
From a podcast point of view, “No Fucking Regrets” from Robb Flynn was my main one.
It’s cool to see a musician doing different things. Apart from the podcast, Robb also does “Electric Hour Fridays” on YouTube/Facebook in which he drinks beer and plays through songs from Machine Head’s catalog along with cover songs. And he does his “General Journal” posts.
My top five artists vis Spotify are Free Spirits Rising, Coheed And Cambria, Daughtry, Disturbed and Dokken.
These albums came out at a time which is too close to the end of the year to be properly assessed for any EOY list.
Especially when they are up against albums which came out in the first four months of the year and those albums have became part of my fabric.
Volbeat – Servant Of The Mind
The pre releases single “Shotgun Blues” is a great classic Metal song.
It’s on my “On Repeat” playlist from Spotify which is basically designed to help the user keep track of what they’ve been playing most over the past 30 days.
And the “Shotgun Blues” single dropped in September and it’s still on the playlist.
The album dropped on December 3 and on purposely I’ve not listened to it as I’m waiting for my break to happen so I can sink my ears into it.
Black Label Society – Doom Crew Inc.
It dropped in November 26.
But I’ve been heaps busy to devote the time I want to this album.
And Zakk Wylde has earned the respect for people to devote proper time to his music and if they play guitar, to put in some woodshedding to learn some of his riffs.
Crazy Lixx – Street Lethal
The album dropped on November 5.
The pre-release singles all connected with me but I haven’t had the time to fully digest the album. It’s going to happen soon.
They are a Swedish Metal band formed in 2002, who bring back the 80’s Sunset Strip with the aggression of the San Francisco Bay Area Thrash scene and the defiance of Twisted Sister.
And once you add the Brit bands to the mix, it’s a whirlpool of creativity.
Their first album came out in 2007 and since 2010, they’ve been on the Frontiers label, releasing albums on a two year cycle.
If you’ve heard these albums drop your thoughts in the comments.
It’s always unpopular to have an opinion on an album that isn’t favorable.
Liquid Tension Experiment – III
John Petrucci delivered a great solo album in 2020, but when LTE reformed with Petrucci, Portnoy, Ruddess and Levin, the “III” album didn’t have the same impact as the first two LTE albums which I saw as ground breaking instrumental albums.
The first two albums were released in the late 90s and they came out at a time when most instrumental artists brought in an industrial sound to their albums because that sound is what was popular however LTE didn’t conform to what was popular.
Songs like “Acid Rain”, “Paradigm Shift” and my favourite “Universal Mind” which Petrucci borrowed from for “Happy Song” are instrumental masterpieces.
And the deeper you dig into the first two albums you’ll hear other awesome tracks like “Kindred Spirits”, “Freedom Of Speech” and “When The Water Breaks”.
But if you do want to press play on a track from this album, then “Blink Of An Eye” is the one. It’s got this groove that it’s intoxicating and it sets the foundation.
Trivium – In The Court of The Dragon
I’m a big fan of Trivium and in April 2020 just when lockdowns started around the world, they dropped the excellent “What The Dead Men Say”.
And they couldn’t tour behind it. Matt Heafy did a side project and the band got together and wrote another album.
Which didn’t have the same impact as “What The Dead Men Say”.
Dream Theater – A View From The Top Of The World
I will buy it as a Dream Theater fan so I can have it in my collection but it didn’t connect with me.
But like previous releases there are some nice instrumental sections.
I’m also not a fan of riffs created on the super heavy gauge of an 8 string guitar. It’s too low and muddled for my ears.
Black Veil Brides – The Phantom Tomorrow
It’s their third rock opera.
I really want to like it, but I couldn’t wait for each song to finish.
Bullet For My Valentine – Bullet For My Valentine
We fall in and out with our favorite artists.
At the moment I’m out with BFMV who I think are suffering an identity crisis.
George Lynch – Seamless
I purchased it as I have all of his recordings and while it was okay, I was expecting something else.
Sometimes albums don’t capture me in their entirety but there is something there that keeps me going back.
Tremonti – Marching In Time
The debut album, “All I Was” from 2012 caught me by surprise because of its slant towards Classic Heavy Metal and Speed Metal.
“Dust” and “Cauterize” from 2016 and 2015 are my favorite albums, especially the song “Dust”, it’s a masterpiece.
“A Dying Machine” from 2019 brought a concept story to the mix and now we have “Marching In Time”. In between Mark Tremonti also did Alter Bridge, so no one can question his work ethic.
I listened to this a lot the week it came out and while each song has a section or a riff which floors me, I only press “like” on four songs, “A World Away”, “Now And Forever”, “Under The Sun” and “Marching In Time”.
It doesn’t mean the other songs are crap.
Far from it. I just need to find the connection.
KK’s Priest – Sermons Of The Sinner
I heard it once and I was impressed.
KK Downing is still a beast on the guitar and we all know that Tim Ripper Owens has an awesome set of pipes on him and is technically better than a lot of the vocalists doing the rounds including his idols.
Before all the JP fans tear me apart, this isn’t meant to be a slight on Halford at all, it’s just progression that people surpass their idols in technicality. Halford is still the “Metal God”.
I remember a Bruce Dickinson interview in which he said, he was floored when he heard Ian Gillian signing “Child In Time” and he started practicing like crazy in his bedroom to mimic what Gillian did on the recording, without knowing that Gillian’s vocals were dubbed in and recut a lot of times and heavily delayed. But Bruce was doing it all naturally. Progression.
For a bit of backstory, K. K. Downing got the idea of forming KK’s Priest after doing a one-off show billed as MegaPriest in 2019 with David Ellefson (my, my, how far has he fallen since his sex scandal) on Bass. As a band, KK’s Priest is somewhere between a solo project of Downing and a reunion with his former Judas Priest bandmates Tim “Ripper” Owens and Les Binks. However, Binks left the band just before the making of “Sermons of the Sinner” because of health issues.
So joining K.K Downing and Tim “Ripper” Owens is A.J. Mills on Guitars, Tony Newton on Bass and Sean Elg on Drums.
And I was a fan without even hearing a track.
My favourite track from JP is “The Sentinel” and when I saw that the last track is called “Return Of The Sentinel” I was sold. Even though the songs sound nothing alike, the nod to a classic sealed the deal.
Blacktop Mojo – Blacktop Mojo
They won a competition to open up for Bon Jovi who at the time were picking local acts from each city to open for them. Thats how they came to my attention.
And they do a mean cover of “Dream On” from Aerosmith and a drunken YouTube cover of “In The Air Tonight” from Phil Collins.
From Texas, so they have this blues southern rock vibe happening but there’s also a Soundgarden and Alice In Chains vibe as well.
Actually Black Stone Cherry comes to mind here as well.
This is album number 4 and it’s slowly growing on me.
All of this were close to being in the Top 10 list.
Architects – For Those That Wish To Exist
I’ve heard the name but never really listened.
And they started to come into my life circa 2018 with the “Holy Hell” album, which I liked some songs on, but when “For Those That Wish To Exist” came out in 2021, I was liking a lot more songs.
I was even half way through a review, before I got side tracked with other posts and never went back to finish.
It’s album number 9 which goes to show that artists will never know which album makes a person a fan. They just need to be in the game, a lifer, producing music.
If charts still matter these days, then this album did great business around the world, hitting the number 1 position in Australia and the UK, while achieving Top 10 positions in Austria, Germany, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland and the Billboard Hard Rock Charts.
While the band was known as a metalcore act when they started out, this album is not. It’s a stadium rock album with elements of all different kinds of metal thrown in and orchestral electronics.
Lord – Undercovers
An Aussie Metal band.
How can you knock back a covers album that has metal re-imaginings of songs like “To the Moon and Back” from Savage Garden, “Message In A Bottle” from The Police, “Playing to Win” from Little River Band/John Farnham. “(I Just) Died in Your Arms” from Cutting Crew, “The Sun Always Shines on TV” from A-ha, “On a Night Like This” from Kylie Minogue, “Break the Ice” from John Farnham, “Send Me an Angel” from Real Life and “Touch the Fire” from Icehouse.
And to top it off there are sizzling metal and rock covers of “Hard to Love” from Harem Scarem, “Reckless” from Judas Priest, “Wild Child” from W.A.S.P and “Runaway” from Bon Jovi.
Plus faithful renditions of “Judas be my Guide” from Iron Maiden, “Of Sins and Shadows” from Symphony X, “Shattered” by Pantera, “Someone’s Crying” and “I Want Out” from Helloween, “Creeping Death” by Metallica, “Silent Jealousy” from X Japan and “The Whisper” from Queensryche.
Otherwise known as “Nothing Is Real And This Is A Simulation” and it’s one of their best albums in the last 10 years, a concept album that deals with interstellar travel, mistrust in leadership, loss and looking back at the past.
It’s more accessible then some of their previous works, with bigger Chorus’s.
Plus there is some great artwork from Boris Vallejo.
Iron Maiden – Senjetsu
It’s great to have Iron Maiden in our lives. The album is a bit bloated but then again, Maiden from the 2000’s onwards have done things their own way and catered to their own creative muses. Which I respect and still purchase.
The End Machine is listed as a supergroup consisting of guitar player George Lynch, bass player Jeff Pilson, drummer Mick Brown and singer Robert Mason.
Frontiers basically wanted a Dokken sounding album and with 75% of the band being from Dokken plus a singer who worked with Lynch in Lynch Mob, the possibilities of a Dokken sounding album were high.
The self-titled debut came out in 2019 and in 2021, “Phase 2” came out. The difference here was that Mick Brown vacated his drumming gig due to his retirement and his younger brother, Steve Brown took the spot.
I also had a review partially written on this however other posts took my interest and I never went back to it.
But it did have comments like, “’this song reminds me of <insert Dokken song here>.
For example, “Dark Divide” is “The Hunter”. “Blood And Money” reminds me of “Tooth And Nail”. “Crack The Sky” has this “Stop Fighting Love” meets “It’s Not Love” vibe.
And to tell you the truth, I wouldn’t have it any other way, because while Dokken is on hiatus for new music, The End Machine definitely fills the void and Mason’s pipes are in fine form, while Mr Don is struggling a bit.
So if you like classic Dokken, then do yourself a favour and press play on this.
The debut album “The Hymn Of A Broken Man” came out in 2011.
Have I mentioned that Adam Dutkiewicz is a great riff meister?
All different musical roads lead to here. A combination of country, blues, metal and rock.
For those looking about positive messages, this isn’t the album for you. It’s melancholy lyrics and metal like riffage is music to make you crash your car. You can feel the sadness, a pain at the world, society and the various demons within the mind.
It’s gloom and doom, but inspirational as well.
The album title is indicative of the theme. And having gone through loss recently this album is becoming my companion, riding shotgun with me.
So I press repeat.
Free Spirits Rising
An Australian artist who releases a song every 6 weeks or something like that and plays all the instruments.
Its raw sounding hard rock but the music is melodic and catchy even though the vocals can be hit and miss.
James Durbin’s covers of Judas Priest on American Idol got me interested. The YouTube videos got some traction here in Australia.
His debut album released in 2011, “Memories Of A Beautiful Disaster” rocked hard and I was a fan. “Celebrate” in 2014, lost me as it went way to poppy.
Then he hooked up (surprisingly) with Quiet Riot and he made me a fan again with the very underrated and forgotten “Road Rage” album released in 2018. “Space Cowboys” came out a year later but shit was going down in the Quiet Riot camp, as Durbin left the band before the album was released and drummer Frankie Banali was fighting for his life but we didn’t know it at that point in time.
And here we are with Durbin.
Durbin possesses a great vocal range and his prowess on the guitar is evident on this album. As a songwriter, all songs are written by Durbin.
If this is his first entry into the realms of Metal, then I will eagerly await his next.
In 2012 Chris Daughtry had a decision to make after “Break The Spell”.
Should he stay with the same sound?
Should he change the sound completely?
Should he stay with the same sound but experiment with a few songs by bringing in different sounds?
“Baptized” came out in in November 2013 on RCA Records and it was an electro synth pop sounding album, a significant departure from the hard rock sound on their first three albums.
Like the previous albums, RCA farmed Chris Daughtry out to work with different writers. But while the writers previously had some rock pedigree, the writers on “Baptized” album specialized in other styles.
There is a song called “Long Live Rock N Roll” and it doesn’t even rock, as it’s more in the vein of “I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker”, an acoustic folk song which tells a story of growing up with a certain type of music.
Then came a “Greatest Hits” album in 2016 with two new songs called “Torches” and “Go Down.
“Torches” is actually a good bridge between the old sound and the “Baptized” sound,
The song “Go Down” has your typical catchy Daughtry vocal melody but it’s instrument sounds are routed in synth pop and electronica. Think of the band “Garbage”.
“Cage To Rattle” came out in 2018. 10 songs that total 38 minutes. RCA again was spending a lot of money for Chris Daughtry to write with so many outside writers in the quest to find hits.
But the record executives failed to understand is that Daughtry’s audience is predominantly made up of rockers. And there is a saying, when you’re chasing hits it don’t mean the hits would come.
Then Daughtry and RCA parted ways.
And Daughtry was back, louder and meaner.
“Dearly Beloved” is a return to form which shows the world that Daughtry still knows how to rock!!
In October, Machine “Fucking” Head made 30 years! It’s a long time in the business. Music is a lifers game.
In the early 90s, Robb Flynn decided to quit the band he was in, to start Machine “Fucking” Head, so he could call the shots and not have to answer to anyone.
Throughout the years he’s had different versions of the band with “The Blackening” line up being the most favored and then the “Burn My Eyes” line up.
Over the last three years, Robb’s motto is simple. If he has a song, or two, he’s going to get it recorded and released.
In 2019, “Do Or Die” was released.
In February 2020, “Circle The Drain” came out.
In June 2020, the “Civil Unrest” single, featuring the tracks “Bulletproof” and the Jesse Leach collaboration “Stop The Bleeding” came out.
In November 2020, the stand alone “My Hands Are Empty” was released.
And on 11 June 2021, the 3-Song digital single, “Arrows In Words From The Sky” dropped.
In total 8 songs have been released. They could represent an album that came out today, but we all got to spend time with these songs when they came out and make em special at that particular point in time.
Centuries of pain, under a paper sword Arrows in words from the sky
I am a Russell Allen fan. I knew of Allen long before I heard of Joel Hoekstra. Allen has a voice which can suit power symphonic bands, metal bands, melodic rock bands, hard rock bands, nu-metal bands and blues rock bands.
And I’m also a Jeff Watson fan, so I wasn’t too thrilled with any Night Ranger version without Watson. Then again Watson hasn’t done much being away from the band and I still want to hear new Night Ranger music.
So I still listened to Night Ranger and Hoekstra impressed but I felt he was restrained within that band as Blades and Keagy are the alphas.
And with Whitesnake, Coverdale has two great guitarists to write tunes with but they need to comply with what Coverdale desires.
Which means that Hoekstra 13 is the true Joel Hoekstra.
“Running Games” is album number 2 for his Frontiers label contract.
The band for the album is a supergroup are Russell Allen on vocals, Tony Franklin on bass, Vinny Appice on drums and Derek Sherinian on keyboards with Jeff Scott Soto doing backing vocals. Yep, you read that right, the great JSS is doing backing vocals.
Overall Hoekstra’s songwriting is top level and the performances from the guys are excellent.
I suppose it’s that time to start providing some EOY lists.
I’ll start with what I see as my favourite ten albums, EP’s or Singles released for the year. And then there will be another posts on my Spotify listening habits for the year.
So here it goes.
Here is Part 1, which features my go to artists with 2021 releases and it’s not an numerical order.
Two of my favourite Kiss albums are “Dynasty” and “Unmasked” because they brought in other styles of music into the Kiss rock sound and somehow Kiss still made it sound like hard rock.
So I wasn’t surprised to hear that “Dynasty” and “Unmasked” are also the favourite albums for the guys in TNFO and how they see the song “Easy As It Seems” as the blueprint for a TNFO song.
And how can you knock back a song called “How Long” which has been described as “90s Deep Purple on cocaine”.
So if you grew up in the 80’s listening to hard rock and melodic rock, then you need to listen to this.
Tom Englund is the mainstay, the founder, the main writer, the vocalist and also one of the guitarists.
Opener and first pre-release single, “Forever Outsider” showcases the power of the band at its metal best, while the second pre-release single “Eternal Nocturnal” showcases the power of the band at its hard rock best with sing-along Choruses and Henrik Danhage stealing the spotlight with his unbelievable, shredalicious and memorable solo spotlight.
“In Absence Of Sun” is heartfelt, melancholic, mournful and emotive while “You From You” has this Michael Schenker ballad like vibe in the intro.
A simple dare from Jamey Jasta, brought forth “For The Love Of Metal” and it caught a lot of people by surprise.
“Leave A Scar” carries forth the metal torch.
With tracks like “I Gotta Rock (Again)” the intro riff from Bellmore is excellent and the drum groove smashes you awake.
Be a lifer til I’m done
But “Silent Battles” is my favorite track on the album.
The guitar riff to kick off the song reminds me of all the good things I like about the 80’s. I’m hearing George Lynch, EVH, a bit of Vito Bratta and Nuno Bettencourt.
Don’t leave your mark, leave a scar
There aren’t a lot of artists in their mid-60’s producing quality music like this. Dee Snider is doing it and he’s making it look very easy.
The Bellmore brothers are underrated talents as songwriters and instrumetalists, on the guitar and drums.
Chris Daughtry (and as a byproduct Daughtry) had a decision to make after “Break The Spell”.
Should they stay with the same sound?
Should they change their sound completely?
Should they stay with the same sound but experiment with a few songs by bringing in different sounds?
“Baptized” came out in in November 2013 on RCA Records and it was an electro synth pop sounding album, a significant departure from the group’s hard rock sound from their first three albums.
Like the previous albums, RCA farmed Chris Daughtry out to work with different writers and to record with those different writers like the debut album. But while the writers previously had some rock pedigree, the writers on “Baptized” album specialized in other styles.
There is a song called “Long Live Rock N Roll” and it doesn’t even rock, as it’s more in the vein of “I Wish I Was A Punk Rocker”, an acoustic folk story telling song of growing up with a certain type of music.
But lead single “Waiting For Superman” did stick around and is at 83.7 million streams at the moment on Spotify.
Then came a “Greatest Hits” album in 2016 with two new songs called “Torches” and “Go Down.
“Torches” is actually a good bridge between the old sound and the “Baptized” sound,
The song “Go Down” has your typical catchy Daughtry vocal melody but it’s instrument sounds are routed in synth pop and electronica. Think of the band “Garbage”.
Most artists who found success playing a hard modern rock style in the 2000’s started to experiment and bring in sounds from Adele, Maroon 5, The Fray, Train, OneRepublic and Imagine Dragons.
Shinedown was in a similar predicament as Daughtry but I believe they did a better job at bringing in those new sounds, while still staying true to their old sound.
“Cage To Rattle” came out in 2018. 10 songs that total 38 minutes. RCA again was spending a lot of money for Chris Daughtry to write with so many outside writers in the quest to find hits.
But what the record executives failed to understand is that Daughtry’s audience is predominantly made up of rockers.
And there is a saying, when your chasing hits it don’t mean the hits would come.
Then Daughtry and RCA parted ways.
And a new look was in play for a dystopian story called “Dearly Beloved”, released in 2021.
Plus the hard rock distorted guitars are back with a vengeance, something which Daughtry hinted to in 2016 when the “Greatest Hits” album came out but then the label got in the way.
The band for the album is Chris Daughtry, Josh Steely and Brian Craddock on guitars, Josh Paul on bass, Elvio Fernandes on keyboards and Brandon Maclin on drums.
Desperation
Written by Chris Daughtry.
It simmers in the verses, with Daughtry singing in the lower registers as he blends his voice with the synth and guitars.
It’s a slow rocker before soaring in the Chorus.
And the heaviness of the guitars definitely captures my attention.
It also sets the lead in for the next track “World On Fire”.
World On Fire
Written by Daughtry and producers Scott Stevens and Marti Frederiksen.
The film clip for this and “Heavy Is The Crown” is set in a dystopian future while Chris Daughtry looks like an “Assassin’s Creed” character.
Heavy Is The Crown
Written by Daughtry, John Cummings, Elvis Fernandezs, Scott Stevens and Marti Frederiksen.
It’s a song writing committee. John Cummings is from the band Mogwai, who is accomplished on guitar, as well as keyboards.
The guitars dominate here along with Daughtry’s voice. Check out the Chorus.
Changes Are Coming
Written by Daughtry, Stevens and Frederiksen.
More of the same 120bpm, guitar heavy modern Arena Rock.
Dearly Beloved
Written by Daughtry, Brian Craddock and Mark Holman.
It’s a ballad and Daughtry knows how to deliver em.
The guitars are load and so is the electronica and keyboards.
Cry For Help
Written by Daughtry, Stevens and Frederiksen.
Acoustics and piano give way to loud distorted guitars and another hooky Chorus.
Asylum
Written by Daughtry, Cummings, Fernandezs, Stevens and Frederiksen.
Its sort of gospel heavy rock cut and why wouldn’t it be, with lyrics like “the lunatics have taken the asylum.”
Evil
Written by Daughtry, Stevens and Frederiksen.
Check out the bridge.
The Victim
Written by Daughtry, Stevens and Frederiksen.
If you like hard rock you will like this.
Somebody
Chris Daughtry is the songwriter and he delivers vocally on this while the guitars get loud in the Chorus.
Call You Mine
Written by Chris Daughtry in and his wife Deanna.
The Intro with the palm muted chugging acoustic guitar is the best.
Lioness
Written by Chris Daughtry.
Check out the Outro.
Break Into My Heart
Written by Daughtry, Stevens and Frederiksen.
A piano and a voice to close the album.
“Dearly Beloved” is a return to form which shows the world that Daughtry still knows how to rock!!
destroyerofharmony 