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in my guestbook there is one field called "what music do you recommend i listen to?". it's not there for a laugh, it is so easy to find all kinds of music on the net these days that i intend to take it very seriously. if you want to know, here's what i think of the bands you recommended...

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recommended by (nameless): keepsake, caliban

downloaded from audiogalaxy:
keepsake - man-slave, chris, procrastination
caliban - destruction, in my heart, a small boy and a gray heaven

keepsake is obviously a garage band, proper recording equipment being either a luxury they can't afford or a redundant accessory they don't believe in. the songs are rather long, giving them an air of jams (and pickles), nothing bad about it. i think the lousy recording is a blessing in disguise, cause if they had proper recording equipment to polish off all the raw noise, stumbles and garageness, there wouldn't be anything left. "man-slave" and "procrastination" are fine as long as you don't try to analyse anything beyond the garage hollow, "chris" is a rather overblown and monotonous instrumental.

caliban is something completely different, quality death-metal. the usual nooks and crannies explored, shadows cast and blood shed, with some melodies thrown in for good measure. "destruction" is good, that singing guy pissed me off though, "in my heart" is good too, liked the melody sneaking along, "a small boy and a gray heaven" is the best one of these three, starting out threatening to go nu-metal on me and then hammering down with the good stuff. a little more nu than death, but a nice mix.

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recommended by siggi t: AFI, as friends rust, course of action, heaven shall burn, LEIAH, nyari, saves the day

downloaded from audiogalaxy:
AFI - god called in sick today, the days of the phoenix, total immortal
As friends rust - broken brain, half friend town, ruffian
course of action - bro's before hoes, in space noone can hear you scream, you smoke you choke
heaven shall burn - asunder, where is the light, cold
LEIAH - lip colour revolution, aremid, dressed like sharlon
nyari - dsirous of your soul, your nation is dead, war is means to an end
saves the day - i melt with you, rocks tonic juice magic, you vandal

AFI starts out somewhat sickly sweet, suffers a bit of a bad singer, but straightens up nicely into a strange metal/rock mix which is quite appealing. the track titles are rather metal compared to the plain rock-ness of the music itself. i like god called in sick today and the beginning (and corresponding parts) of total immortal. plain rock. not bad.

as friends rust is hard-core with metal bits. nothing revolutional, but good. definately not torturing with regards to track length. obviously more focus put on getting the message across than leaving their imprint on musical history. would probably enjoy it more live, it's that kind of music. i like ruffian, got a bit of the "metal epic" feel to it. good stuff.

course of action is heavy and speeding hard core. somewhat loose, an extra dose of attitude. short tracks a l� anal cunt et al. but c.o.a. probably wouldn't like to be likened to such fuck-heads. there's no way to form a musical opinion, the tracks are too short. as i said on as friends rust, it's the kind of music best taken in live, but not to sit down to enjoy a metal of an evening, it's too sporadic for that.

heaven shall burn is some sort of a metal version of rage against the machine, or something like that. same simple riffs and melodies (ahem), but drawn out and spiced with guitar solo's and such. breaks into pure metal of intermediate quality, a bit too slow or a bit to light, i don't know, there's something not quite catching me here. like the intro to cold. and i'll say the same of this one as i've said before, i think i'd have to hear it live first. but it's not bad.

LEIAH starts good...i'll probably piss somebody off by calling this poppyrock. one thing's for sure, it's not metal. is this what they call indie? it sounds very very melodic after all this hard-core and it's quite catchy. i like it, a heavy shade of suede, emotional and haunting. great stuff this. i like the outro from aremid and the sudden and dispairing end of dressed like sharlon.

nyari, the into to desirous of your soul is strange. like a hardcore band that recruited a loony jazz bass player. then it just melts into the same old same old. this is becoming quite too big a dose for me to handle all at once. it's not fast enough to be energizing and not nutty enough to be interesting. ditto last comments on heaven shall burn.

saves the day, ho! that's different, pop as anything this. nice bobbing stuff. perhaps a wee bit too greendayish for perfect comfort (like hell i'm gonna call it punk). maybe it's just the relief of getting from under the hard core monotony but i think i like this best. don't get me wrong, i've got nothing against hard-core, it just seems that i can enjoy it much better live and i'm a complete scatterbrain when it comes to enjoying music at home on the computer or walkman at work. it has to go from weezer to metallica to mozart to pantera to nick cave to primus to jerry lee lewis et cetera, if i'm not to get bored.

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recommended by siggi p�nk: neurosis

downloaded from audiogalaxy: neurosis - through silver in blood, the tide, locust star

"through silver in blood" starts out industrial, then goes tribal and finally launches into the full metal timbre. At twelve minutes, it�s what I would call "epic", slow but massive in spirit and though I have no idea what he�s singing about, I don�t think it�s exactly a "happy happy joy joy" song.
I don�t know if "pretty" is a word that metal heads would like me to associate with their beloved, but "the tide" is a pretty song. As in "pretty depressed". The vocalist actually sounds a bit like leonard cohen, which I would take as a compliment to this genre. It gains some weight towards the end, going from a somewhat mellifluous tune with weeping violins (reminded me of the dirty three�s "some summers they drop like flies"), to the kind of concentrated heaviness which induces a lot of crawling on the floor and much wailing and gnashing of teeth.
"locust star" is more of the aforementioned heaviness, the vocals both the traditional death-metal roaring and a slow version of n.y.h.c. shouting. The first song being twelve minutes and the second almost nine, this one is practically a midget, not reaching six minutes. and though i'd only listened to the two before i felt it was too short.

It�s very wretched and gloomy. The soundtrack to hunkering hung over under a cold shower and rocking back and forth to the sway of the wicked reality. Very good stuff.

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recommended by bjarkz: superjoint ritual

downloaded from audiogalaxy: haunted-hated, anti-faith, everyone hates everyone

the first thing that popped into my head when "haunted-hated" started was early pantera. but that could be my brain going loopy again. there is a very definate heaviness to this, power with a very thick layer of attitude.
"anti-faith" is faster, a bit more like...uhm...i have no idea like what actually, but it's definately psychotic. to prevent putting my foot in my mouth i won't say any names. suffice to say that it's the kind of stuff that gets moshpits surging with half-naked, metal-tripping geezers who'll mow you down any chance they get. in other words, brilliant stuff.
"everyone hates everyone" is more of the same riveting metal, and if anything it's too short. i felt like screaming and moshing listening to this stuff, though it would probably have resulted in a nosebleed of humongous proportions, and it would have been a fitting scene to this madness.

i like it. i like it a lot.

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recommended by sp�tukubbur: limp wrist

downloaded from audiogalaxy: stabbed in the back, i love hardcore boys, all about that brotherhood

they're certainly not wasting any time here. none of the tracks are more than two minutes, "i love hardcore boys" being barely one. and it is in deed hardcore, and a bit punky too.
so, in the time it takes some bands to get one song started, these guys have gotten to the point of three subjects. not that there is really any more than one subject to hardcore, it is really "all about that brotherhood".
i couldn't really make out the lyrics (surprise, surprise), but i'm thinking gay here. nice to know, if i am not mistaken, that they're not all into barbara streisand. cause this is very good and fast hardcore.
there's really one thing to say, limp wrist my ass.

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downloading tracks from audiogalaxy there is always a chance that i am not listening to what you were thinking of. if you think i'm rambling on about some bollocks you've never heard of either, please let me know at [email protected]
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