clivemurray.com

I’m actually playing a gig! Last year the first line-up of Thunderhead played exactly one (1) gigs, and promptly exploded.

This year we are back with a new line-up (in actual fact it’s the line-up that used to be Panik Attakk), and this coming Saturday we will play as many gigs in one day as we did all last year. Yes! One!

We’re opening for Hastings stalwarts of old, The Lost Boys, at Phoenix Arts Centre in Hastings. We’re first on of three bands, and we’ll be kicking off around 8:30pm.

Should you be in the area and wish to come along, get advance tickets here and find the venue here.

It has literally been a long time since I rock and rolled, and I for one intend to have a fucking blast.

Get on it,
–c.

Quelle heure et-il?

#080. Racer X – Getting Heavier (2002)

Racer X - Getting Heavier

If you’re anything like me – and I know I am – then you first became aware of Paul Gilbert’s pyrotechnic (such a cliché to use that word in this context, but when it comes to Pablo it really is appropriate) guitar playing during the Mr. Big era, circa 1990 or so. At the time, reaching into his back catalogue and dipping into the older Racer X albums was a bit of a painful experience, to be honest. Dude – so not cool. But in 1998 they got back together and stuck their tongues properly into their cheeks, releasing the awesome Technical Difficulties in 1999, followed by the  if anything more amazing Superheroes in 2000. But I’m featuring Getting Heavier here, purely because I personally like it more, and hey! It’s still MY chart! Fab tracks like “Go-GG-Go”, “Lucifer’s Hammer”, “Dr. X” and the track which named my podcast “Bucket of Rocks” are not only shredmungous, but will also put a smile on your face. Get thee behind me, po-faced widdlers!

TOP TRACK: #6 “Heaven in ‘74″.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Mucho splendido?

#090. Eluveitie – Spirit (2006) [spotify]

Eluveitie - Spirit

So, what do you get if you take poundingly heavy metal, add penny whistles and hurdy-gurdys, and sing over it in an extinct language? Eluveitie, that’s what! Yes, it’s more folk metal – this time hailing from Switzerland (the German-speaking bit, I think) and singing/screaming largely in Gaulish. Bloody excellent fun, this is.

TOP TRACK: #3 “Your Gaulish War”.

» Read the rest of this entry «

So. Away we go. My top 100 albums of the last decade.

Some of them I already reviewed in Rocktober, some of them will get a decent review, some just a couple of lines. Note also that unlike Rocktober, this chart takes in all genres – at least the ones that I listen to, which as mentioned before, is not really what you’d call a broad church of music.

Also, it’s a very rough list, position-wise. Any entry could easily move at least 10 positions or so in either direction depending on what day of the week it is, how much sleep I got the night before, how many drinks I’ve had etc. And it’s my list, my opinion, my party and I’ll scream and cry and kick and scratch if I want to. You may cry out in dismay “What, no (Duffy/Megadeth/Dizzee Rascal/Paolo Nutini/whoever)??? Again, it’s my list. You no likee, you get your own. (Anyway I still haven’t heard Megadeth’s “Endgame”…)

That is how it is, it could never be otherwise.

#100. David Bowie – Heathen (2002) [spotify]

David Bowie - Heathen

Is it cold in space, Bowie? Do you have just one spacesuit, Bowie, or do you have a few ch-ch-ch-changes?

Say what you like about Bowie – go on, say it – but you have to admit he doesn’t just churn out the same old stuff over and over. According to his Wikipedia page this 2002 release falls into his current “neoclassicist” era. I have no idea what they mean by that, but it sounds good. This is (as WP also points out) a very atmospheric album, with a dark melancholic almost ambient vibe running through it. Ideal for driving wistfully through the night along the A66 over the Pennines in February fog.

Do they smoke grass in space, Bowie? Or do you smoke Astroturf?

TOP TRACK: #5 “Afraid”.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Some time back, perhaps December or so, I happened across a link to NME magazine’s top 100 albums of the decade, spanning release dates from January 2000 to December 2009. Unsurprisingly if you know me, I found little to cheer about in this list. My taste in music is not what you would call particularly NME-friendly. But seeing it made me start to think about what my top 100 albums would be from that period. The earlier years were when hard rock started to re-emerge from it’s dormant post-grunge state, and though unbeknownst to me at the time, the mid-00s bore a whole new genre – one that has since captured my imagination in a way that no genre has before – Folk Metal.

I don’t claim to have a wide musical taste. No, really. It’s about 60% hard rock, 25% metal (folk and otherwise), 5% acoustic, 5% ambient/chillout, and 5% classical, according to a recent poll I just took of myself.

So I have spent the last 6 weeks or so compiling my own list. And you know what? I’m going to post it, 10 at a time, with very tiny reviews. Why? It’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.

Only 6 albums appear on both my list and NME’s, and those are:

• Muse – Black Holes and Revelations
• Green Day – American Idiot
• Muse – Absolution
• The Coral – The Coral
• Queens of the Stone Age – Songs for the Deaf
• Radiohead – In Rainbows

But where do they appear? And what do I think of them? And what will be in the top 10? Well the answers to all these questions and less are on their way soon for whoever gives a monkey’s.

–c.

Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More

In about 2000 or so, my then girlfriend (now fiancée) moved to London a few months behind me in order to go to South Bank University. She was in halls, and occasionally – despite the smallest single bed in the world – I would go and stay over. She had a little micro stereo bought special to take away to uni, and one of the CDs we would frequently play on it was David Gray’s White Ladder, an album which I still unashamedly love to this day. I always remember a quote which was affixed to the case from some reviewer said something like: “…an album that makes you feel better simply by knowing it exists.”

I’ve always felt that was certainly true of White Ladder, but that feeling is totally eclipsed by the peace and warmth exuded by Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More. This is an absolutely exquisite album from start to finish, and every single note gives me the feeling that I’m sitting round a pub fireplace somewhere in the Cotswolds surrounded by my nearest and dearest, feeling utterly loved and at peace with all the world. From the opening title track to the closing refrains of “After The Storm” there’s not a note out of place, and I challenge even the meanest-spirited of you to listen to songs like “Roll Away Your Stone”, “Winter Winds” and the epic “Dust Bowl Dance” and not feel uplifted. This is without question my album of 2009. (The only question there is whether The Last Vegas tie for the #1 spot…)

If you don’t like this, you don’t like music, and you have no soul.
–c.

So there you have it, 31 albums that I like. Who cares? Dunno really, but if we spent our time asking that question, people wouldn’t have blogs. Anyway, on the offchance that any of those albums sound interesting and you’d like to give them a listen, here are all the Spotify links I can find for them. Not all of them are online at the time of writing though.

I hope it was of some use or interest to some.

1. Blue In The Face – DoubleDrive
2. Tonight The Stars Revolt! – Powerman 5000
3. Confessions – Dweezil Zappa
4. Chickenfoot – Chickenfoot
5. The Resistance – Muse
6. Awake – Dream Theater
7. Wheatus – Wheatus
8. Beyond The Common Ground – Jan Cyrka
9. Whatever Gets You Off – The Last Vegas
10. A Twist In The Myth – Blind Guardian
11. Empire – Queensrÿche
12. Hardcore Superstar – Hardcore Superstar
13. Runnin’ Wild – Airbourne
14. Hi-Fi Serious – A
15. Americal Pearl – American Pearl
16. Sound Of White Noise – Anthrax
17. Skyforger – Amorphis
18. Rest In Sleaze – Crashdïet
19. Infinity – Devin Townsend
20. You Made Me – Josh Todd
21. Inhuman Rampage – DragonForce
22. Youthanasia – Megadeth
23. Making Enemies Is Good – Backyard Babies
24. Karkelo – Korpiklaani
25. Waking The Dead – LA Guns
26. Saigon Kick – Saigon Kick
27. Native Tongue – Poison
28. Thickskin – Skid Row
29. The Return Of The Great Gildersleeves – Danger Danger
30. Slam – Dan Reed Network
31. Ragnarok – Týr

Thanks for playing.

–c.

And to bring Rocktober to a fitting close, please welcome…

Ragnarok – Týr (2006)

Týr - Ragnarok

Yep, we’re ending with more Folk Metal – specifically Viking Metal. Out of all my recent discoveries in this genre and those around it, these guys from the Faroe Islands are still my favourites. Equal parts riffing, shredding, and tale-telling all with what are known in death metal circles as “clean” vocals (i.e. no cookie monster growling), these guys can easily prog it up alongside Dream Theater but without the annoying existential navel-gazing that DT seem to go in for these days. These guys are awesome musicians, and  Terji Skibenæs  (or Terry Skibbens, as some call him) in particular can fucking wail, which always helps. As with many of the bands I’m discovering, Týr like to sing in their native language but they don’t do so exclusivley – and even when they do sing in Farese, Danish or Icelandic, it feels like you’re sitting round a fire being told tales of derring-do upon which great nations were built. In fact a lot of the time you are, since Týr draw from Norse mythology a lot, hence the term Viking Metal. I love all Týr’s albums, and I deliberated for a while over which one to include here. I finally settled on Ragnarok (one of only two they have released NOT to feature the splendid song “Hail To The Hammer”) firstly because it’s 16 tracks long (18 if you get the digipak version, but I hate digipaks), secondly because it features more lyrics in English than 2008’s Land, and lastly because it feels to me like a more cohesive journey of an album than 2009’s By The Light Of The Northern Star. It’s excellent throughout – pour a flagon of ale and crank it up loud.

Standout tracks: Brother’s Bane, The Ride To Hel, The Hammer Of Thor
You’ll like this if you like: Turisas, Iron Maiden, Dream Theater