I got one or two more suggestions than I expected, so decided in order to make some sense of them, and to figure which I need to remember and return to, I would blog them. I've not decided exactly how to do this yet, it's a bit of a work in progress... It may be one entry that I come back to, or the start of a series. I quite like the idea of a series, all with Jon related titles... God, I need more to do with my life!
This is the whole list, up to yesterday, likely to be updated I'm sure before long:
Poison The Well
Every Time I Die
Refused
Unearth
Throwdown
August Burns Red
Alexisonfire
Norma Jean
The Rise
Bleeding Through
From Autumn To Ashes
The After Dinner Playback
Boy Sets Fire
Walls Of Jericho
The Chariot
Horse The Band
Gutworm
Fugazi
Botch
Bane
Blacklisted
Hondo Maclean
Darkest Hour
Hopesfall
Dillinger Escape Plan
Open Hand
As Friends Rust
As I Lay Dying
The Bled
Daughters
Atreyu
Caliban
Waterdown
Cave In
The Chariot
Coalesce
Converge
Coalesce
Pig Destroyer
Give Up The Ghost
Kids Near Water
This Girl
Inhale Exhale
Old Man Gloom
Stampin Ground
Stretch Armstrong
Senses Fail
Shai Hulud
Unearth
Thursday
Throwdown
Johnny Truant
Shadows Fall
Lamb of God
Parkway Drive
Pitchshifter
Eden Maine
Far
Old Man Gloom
Eve 6
Evergreen Terrace
Man, that's a long list.
Okay, so here's the one's I've listened to and my thoughts:
- Poison The Well - I bought You Come Before You in 2003, liked it, but it never impacted massively on me as I've not bought anything since. Courtesy of Wikipedia, I know they had some kind of mass hiatus from the band late 2000's, so was curious to hear if there's an obvious impact on the music at all. Listening to The Tropic Rot, the moments of melodic singing have a nagging familiarity to them. In a good way I mean. In some ways it's reminiscent of Gavin Rossdale, but with a touch of something else I can't quite grasp at the moment. I like the album, in fact I liked it enough to buy it, and I think it'll become a regular player. It's a good mix of screamo, catchy chorus's, a heavy beat that I can imagine being really pretty fucking driving when seeing them live. Antartica Inside Me reminds me of Deftone's eponymous Shut Up and Drive, which can only be a good thing, surely?!
- Every Time I Die - I'm of the opinion that everyone should own a copy of Hot Damn!. From the first furious beats of Romeo A Go Go to the sputtering fuzz out at the close of Pornogratherapy, it's a classy album. I'm not sure how I've got to 31 not knowing about these guys, and even more, how I've not seen them live. They feel on CD like the kind of band that really comes alive when playing to an audience. They've such an energy that's almost palpable even through our sanitised and polished music productions of the 21st century. Live that must just be insane.
- Refused - The Refused I've liked for a while, but kind of forgotten about. I worked in a bakery when I was in school and college, and a lad there used to play them a whole lot. This was a good opportunity to get reunited with them. The Shape Of Punk To Come stands a pretty good chance of becoming one of those included on the '501 albums you should own' lists. The thing about punk is that it often suits me politically. But newer, American punk in particular, doesn't fit so well musically. Refused blends the two though. It has the message that I like - dissatisfied and pissed off and angry about it. But with the raw metal edge and reasonable amount of screamo riding the heavy bass work. I know I just said everyone should own Hot Damn!, but everyone really really should own this gem. It's the kind of level that the likes of The Gallows can probably only dream of reaching.
- Alexisonfire - I bought Alexisonfire and Old Crows/Young Cardinals after having heard .44 Calibre Love Letter from the former and Young Cardinals from the latter just once. I'm a fairly impulsive CD buyer, so that in itself isn't really that big of a deal. But it's rare that I buy two from the same band on the strength of one or two songs. Alexisonfire are addictive. The more I listened to, the more I wanted to listen. And the louder I wanted to listen to it. It's angry, passionate, rich, and leaves you wanting more. It's the musical version of sex. Enough said!
- August Burns Red - I could go on about ABR for some time. I'm a little bit in love with Mariana's Trench. I couldn't tell you how many times I've played this live gig recording. Their melodic riffs are just incredible. You know how sometimes when guitar playing is so intricate but seemingly effortless you just get captivated watching it? Yeah, that. The guitar that kicks in around 1.45 on White Washed and just keeps going and going is beyond (that's a Welsh thing, I'm not sure if it translates well elsewhere. It's too good, too much, it's beyond).
- Norma Jean - Norma Jean were described to me as 'punch people in the face music', which is a fairly accurate description I'd say. I can imagine seeing them somewhere dark, intimate, hot and sweaty. And I can imagine it being one of the most intense and powerful gigs that you could experience. Sometimes songs that open the way Face:Face does are too hostile and they lose me before I can get a hold of it or understanding of it. But Norma Jean hook you in instead, they drag you into their tracks and it somehow becomes in sync with you, with the rhythms and pulses of your body. Perhaps that's why that description of 'punch people in the face music' is so apt. Because when I listen to it, it becomes part of me, takes me over to a degree, but in a way where we're in time. Like how I'd imagine a boarder feels when they're riding that seemingly impenitrable wave with nothing guiding them but the feel of the wave beneath their feet and the beat of their heart.
- The Rise - You have to have time for The Rise, if nothing more than for the amount of time and thought they must have put into their song titles. But a good title, does not a good track make. Luckily for them though, on the whole the fancy title is worth the track inside. I'd imagine these guys spent a bit of time listening to Nine Inch Nails in their youths. That touch of electronica, and not being scared to mix chunks of something that wouldn't be amiss in an edgy dance track, with some detailed and complex guitar and drum work works well. It's genuinely not an easy mix to get right, and many band have fallen short. They're bit like Sybreed if Sybreed had a clearer idea of who they are. Having said that, there is a point in An Automated Response If You Will where I think for a moment in time I'm listening to Less Than Jake.
- Parkway Drive - According to last.fm if you like August Burns Red, and we've ascertained that I do, then I should also be liking Parkway Drive. And I do. But just not in the same way as ABR. They feel a little bit more mainstream. A bit more ten-a-penny. Talented and enjoyable, and I'd not mind owning their stuff. But there's others I'd much rather buy first. They feel a little bit like the filler tracks that the likes of Metal Hammer or Kerrang! used in and around the bands that they really thought were worth promoting and were that extra level of special on their promotional CD's.
- Pitschshifter - One of the things I love about Jon's band suggestions is part of what gives his knowledge that level of provenance in my opinion, and that's that it's a broad range of bands in style and in time too. He didn't just suggest new bands for me to discover. He suggested older one for me to rediscover - and that's helpful for my bank account! www.pitchshifter.com has a lovely familiarity to it despite my never really listening to it before. It was released in 1999, the same year we were literally rocked by classics like RATM's The Battle of Los Angeles, NiN's The Fragile, American Head Charge gave us Trepanation and Slipknot smacked us over the head with their mask covered metal gifts. And you can feel that in the music. It feels 1999 but not in an old, relevant only then kind of way. More in an it's comfortable and familiar and I understand where it's coming from and what it is kind of a way. I missed out on them 14 years ago, but better late than never!
- Cave In - I saw Cave In probably about ten years ago at Reading Festival. If I'd not been there seeing them they'd probably have made more of an impact on me than they did. I was a bit too absorbed with who else I was seeing that day to pay much attention. So I clicked on the highest listened to track in the last six months on last.fm: Inspire. It's friendly and welcoming from the start. It's that kind of music I could have on for a long journey - sing along with, enjoy but not really pay much attention to or feel the need to break a speed limit, or play bumper cars on the motor way to. It's family friendly, spouting out lyrics like 'who inspires you?'. But scratch a little deeper, and by which I mean earlier, and you find Jupiter. It's still got that wholesome, bit to clean and tidy sound to it, but it's also a bit quirky. It has a north African, Morroccon shisha den riff going on that I really like. But then it's also got the lyrics 'the metronome was wrong again, my heart has surely gone and skipped a beat, now the rhythm is all right, and I can understand your point of view'. Ultimately Cave In, I like you, because there's nothing to dislike. But I wish you'd get a bit angry, get a bit pissed off with the world and scream a bit. I don't want to hear you understanding their point of view! Maybe another day I'd like them more, but tonight, I'm pissed off with the world and this just isn't hitting the button for me.
- Pig Destroyer - Hmm. Technically I expect these guys are amazing. After asking why so many songs were less than a minute long, the response I got was 'probably to give the drummer a rest'. This makes sense. It's mental. Like proper mental. Everything is fast and furious, and in a good way. I would say it's a bit too much screamo or growling or whatever the fashionable term is for that these days. I like a fair bit of that, don't get me wrong. But I also like to be able to sing along to something. I guess there's also something there about me having been brought up on a hell of a lot of prog rock. 40 seconds into a prog rock song and the intro hasn't really begun, let alone the whole song being over. So, I'm sorry Pig Destroyer, while I appreciate you, you're not being added to my collection. Also, you've a fucking ridiculous name.
- The Dillinger Escape Plan - yep yep, like like like. I was aware of them in the late 1990's, they were quite regular in Kerrang! for a while there. Another band who's changed lined up's quite distinctively over the years with the swapping of lead singers. They're obviously a talented bunch of musicians. 43% Burnt is like a showcase of all the different styles, genres, and sub-genres they've mastered between themselves. It's a little messy, a little, um, like they're trying too hard I think. But it's interesting, and intriguing, and sounds a bit like how my head is feeling - disjointed and chaotic. Which is oddly comforting. That was a live version I've been listening to though, probably should listen to the album version too... I'm fairly sure The Running Board has become one of my new favourite songs. Skipping forward to Ire Works, and I'm impressed with their newer stuff too. I'm not sure it's really too comparable with their earlier stuff, it's cleaner, smoother, crisper, funkier. But I'm a fan of both. Sadly, I won't be owning Calculating Infinity any time soon as I'm not a fan enough to spend £40 on an import. Pity.
- Walls Of Jericho - I have issue with girls singing. I'm trying to get over it. I blame Kitty myself. I am a Distillers fan, and love a bit of Snake River Conspiracy and going old school Tura Satana. But Walls of Jericho? Nope. She's hot. But that's about it. Infact, they make me quite angry, and I think it's fairly irrational, so I'm walking away now. I do wonder if I'm doing them a bit of an injustice, and maybe should listen again some time. But for now, they can do one.
- Eve 6 - I thought I'd listened to these guys. Turns out I've only listened to one song. And that's not enough to comment on. So they'll appear later.
