2001 Archive

BTW, I made some changes to my video games pages. I haven't fixed the picture yet, but if you click on the 5th building from the left, you can take a look at my personal high score page. Not that you care!

Just updated the Viking Metal List. My apologies to everyone who contributed stuff and had to wait this long for me to get it up! (wow that sounds bad)

I also updated Barney's shrine. It's in the What's a Keir? section of my site, which I moved to a new folder. Sorry if you encounter any broken links because of my re-organizing.

I updated the Metal Mondegreens page with several new Rhapsody mondegreens (thanks Dave!) I also added a bunch of MP3 samples. I miss my old MP3 ripper which let me rip exact portions of tracks directly from a CD. Now I have to rip the entire track then clip it, and even then I have to do it by seconds so the end product isn't quite as tidy. I'm also slowly working on a picture tour of my entire video game collection (even though it's always growing). You can check out the work in progress at http://www.oocities.org/svipdaag/vidgames/collection.html. Women in Metal update coming soon!

I recently bought the following 4 CDs for a whopping total of $7!

• Annihilator – Carnival Diablos: I was all set to give this one a bad review, but decided to listen to it one more time. I stopped listening to Annihilator after their second album, but thanks to Silent Anger I decided to give them another chance. There are some really good songs on this album, like the title track. Is that Jeff Waters singing "Carniva-a-al yeah"? If so, he should do all the vocals!
  
• Babylon Sad – 'Kyrie': Ugh. I read a review of this about 8 years ago which implied that it was progressive gothic death metal, and I've wanted it ever since. In reality it's just shitty death metal. I like some death metal, and I can even tolerate sampling, but not when it's someone talking about raping and murdering little boys. What a bunch of crap. I'm just glad I didn't find it until it was sitting in a bucket of $1 CDs.
  
• Cyclone Temple – 'Building Errors in the Machine': This could have been a good album (or EP or whatever; it's only got 6 songs) except that it's seriously lacking in production quality. It's a shame because their other album was really good. What ever happened to them? (Just a thought - the "bonus track" is really good, and sounds like a cross between Sacred Reich and Faith No More).
  
• Dead Horse – 'Feed Me': I must be returning to my old school thrash days! 'Peaceful Death…' was one of the coolest albums. I'm just sad that nothing else they did could live up to it.

Having got that out of the way, here are some recent changes to the site:
Arthurian and Viking Music Lists: Updated with some contributions.
Backpacking with Phil: First update in a year and a half! Some of the links to Phil's Favorite Places are broken though.
Bard's Tale: By popular demand, my item lists for Bard's Tale I, II, and III are back up.
Links: Fixed a few broken links.
What's a Keir?: Updated my cats' page.

A few (but not all) new album purchases:

• Gardenian – 'Soulburner': A bit more death metal than I expected, but still good. There's enough variation to keep it really interesting.
• In Extremo – 'Weckt die Toten': not as good as their newer album, but I still recommend it. Heavy industrial folk metal and a lot of fun.
• Lana Lane – 'Queen of the Ocean': Wow! This album simply rocks. I first heard of her from listening to Ayreon. Oddly enough, my favorite songs on this one are the 3 bonus tracks (although that may be because I already had MP3s of most of the others.)

• Ayreon – 'Ayreonauts Only': As the title implies, this collection of unreleased versions of Ayreon songs is for the diehard fan only. The highlight of the CD is definitely the version of Temple of the Cat with Astrid on vocals.
• 'The Keepers of Jericho – A Tribute to Helloween': Not a bad tribute, there are some winners (Rhapsody, Sonata Arctica, and Luca Turilli) and losers (Vision Divine and Cydonia) and some that don't sound any different than the originals.

In music news, everyone must get Avantasia – 'The Metal Opera'! This is a side project of Tobias Sammet from Edguy featuring vocals by people like Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation), Kaj Hansen (Gamma Ray), Andre Matos (ex-Angra), David DeFeis (Virgin Steele), and best of all "Ernie" (you'll know when you hear him!) It is simply amazing. "What is goin' on?"

Also, a couple weeks ago I went to see A Perfect Circle live at Brandeis College. If you're thinking "Oh, that's new metal crap" or "They're just a lighter version of Tool" you should check them out. You may be pleasantly surprised. I was! I couldn't see much at the show, but they sounded incredible. Unfortunately, Renae (who is the biggest APC fan I know) got sick and had to leave before she even got to see them. : (

Metal Mondegreens: Still can't make MP3 samples, but that won't stop me from adding new mondegreens. "Two dwarves have worn bad socks..." (Thanks Scott!)
Women in Metal: Added Kittie by popular request, and some more updates – see for yourself.
Links:Added a link to Digital Press, and fixed some broken ones.

• After Forever – 'Prison of Desire': Kind of like a cross between Nightwish and Within Temptation. I first heard of them because the singer, Floor Jansen, appeared on Ayreon's 'Universal Migrator' album.
• Dark Tranquillity – 'Haven': DT's newest album is another good one. I fear though that they are turning into generic Century Media band #whatever. It's not that I don't like CM bands, its just that after a while they get this particular "sound" so that if anyone hears it they'll go "Oh, a Century Media band." Examples include Tiamat, Samael, Sentenced, and now DT.
• Grapow, Roland – 'The Four Seasons of Life': A really good solo album by one of Helloween's guitarists. I don't know anything about guitars but I think the guitar work is excellent. Unfortunately, I can't stand his voice! UCK!
• Heavenly – 'Coming from the Sky': Another power metal band like Gamma Ray or Blind Guardian, but they manage to pull off a great album that doesn't sound like just another clone.
• Lizzy Borden - 'Deal with the Devil': it doesn't get any cheesier than this! It's been 10 years since 'Master of Disguise', and this new one is an excellent comeback. I'm hoping to go see them in Hartford, CT on April 1st.
• Therion – 'Theli' and Tristania – 'Beyond the Veil': Two great albums I simply never got around to buying. I got these in a trade with John (aka King Lawnmower) from Silent Anger.
• Within Temptation – 'The Dance': An excellent EP, which I only had a copy of before. Even if (like me) you usually skip EPs, MCDs, and singles, this one is definitely worth picking up.
• Within Temptation – 'Mother Earth': Their best work yet! The most notable difference from their previous albums is that the death metal vocals have been replaced by some interesting atmospheric male vocals. Otherwise, it's just another amazing album from some exceptional Dutch musicians. BTW, the CD-ROM part is really cool too. It even has a video game where you play B.A. (yes, from the A-Team) beating up unruly fans at a WT show!

Chicken Rules!

Beth's mom has surgery today too, so let's all send positive vibes to her… (cat vibes cat vibes cat vibes) ; )

Skyclad Puns: Added many puns from 'Folkémon'.

• Brainstorm – 'Unholy': There are a couple great songs on here (Holy War and Don't Stop Believing spring to mind) but the rest of the album is fairly predictable German power metal.
• Edguy – 'The Savage Poetry': Pretty much what you would expect for a remake. Unless you're a die-hard Edguy fan, I'd wait for the next album (or Tobias Sammet's Avantasia – with great musicians from Kai Hansen to Sharon den Adel, it's got to be good!) If you've never heard Edguy, get 'Theater of Salvation' now!
• Gathering, the – 'Rollercoaster' single: A cool little single I got for $5. It includes a trippy little instrumental (Theme from 'The Cyclist') and an mpg video of Liberty Bell (which is a great video, but it looks better on my TV).
• Gathering, The – 'Always.../Moonlight Archer' LP: A good collector's item for diehard fans like me. Their demo material is much more raw, but still atmospheric.
• Helloween – 'The Dark Ride': I was a little disappointed with this one. If you like Andi Deris, buy it. If you're still waiting for Kiske to come back, give it up! No seriously, I think you would be better off with 'Better than Raw'. That was the album that made me like Helloween again.
• Iron Maiden – 'Out of the Silent Planet' single: Another cool single/CD-ROM.
• Skyclad – 'Folkémon': What can I say? Another great CD from the masters of folk metal. Catchy, heavy, it's all good.
• Sonata Arctica – 'Ecliptica': Actually, I didn't buy this. My friend Dave gave me a copyca. Decenta prog/power metal from Finlandica.
• Therion – 'Deggial': Another amazing album! I must say I was a little disappointed with Hansi's guest appearance. Though I prefer his voice, I thought they did better with Rolf Scheepers.
• Virgin Steele – 'The Marriage of Heaven and Hell part 2': Why do I keep buying their albums? I think they're a great band, but every album is the same! I suppose it was worth the $8 I paid for it, but I would recommend 'House of Atreus' first.
• White Skull – 'Public Glory, Secret Agony': This is a great album, but not much different from the last one though. Maybe a slight improvement.