A Black Metal Hurricane

Genre: (Atmospheric) Black Metal
Quality: Mostly 256 or 320kbps
About: I was up one night last week, feeling alone and slightly drunk. I decided to make a playlist for my girlfriend which I've been meaning to do for quite some time. Basically she used to listen to Black Metal but not enough to know bands by name. I also do not know what specific subgenres she listened to... I mainly listen to atmospheric/ambient/melancholic types of black metal, songs that make me FEEL.

So this playlist has songs that I feel are really easy to get into. It's aimed at people who have never tried the genre much or at all. Most of the songs are melodic, atmospheric, folk, and post-black metal... rather than raw, depressive, extreme, etc. If you're a fan of black metal you probably have all of these with the exception of Azeroth, an unknown Russian melodic black metal band (who you should definitely check out - I have the discography on this blog). Or, if you just want to hear a good playlist.

More actual albums coming soon hopefully! My life has been hectic lately. Just wanted to get this playlist on here cause... it's amazing :)


Track List:
1. Moonsorrow - Ukkosenjumalan Poika ... One of the first black metal songs i got into

2. Azeroth - Great Warriors Of Shadows ... This band was so amazing live, and the production is much better than on the studio albums! Also, this song's somewhat boring 3 minute intro is left out.

3. Woods of Desolation - Darker Days ... Current nominee for best song of 2011

4. Agalloch - Falling Snow ... Another band I got into when I first discovered black metal

5. Alcest - Ciel Errant ... Same as above, but it took me quite a while before I started to like this specific song, now it's my favorite by him.

6. Lunar Aurora - Die Quelle Im Wald ... Favorite BM band, really hard to pick a song, I picked it because of the clarinet solo.

7. Drudkh - When the Flame Turns to Ashes ... Again hard to pick a song but I picked this one because of, well the whole song sounds like flame gradually turning into ash!

8. Lantlôs - These Nights Were Ours ... One of the best songs of 2010 especially within this weird ill-defined post-blackened shoegaze genre.

9. Dimmu Borgir - Kings of the Carnival Creation ... I've tried their old stuff (its ok), their new stuff (its ok), but never thought to try the stuff in the middle before now. OH MY GOD.

10. Austere - Just for a moment... I was thinking for a long time that Black Metal and Emo would be complementary, then I found this. I'm not the typical emo/poser-hating metalhead; I listen on occasion. And the line between metal and metalcore is pretty blurry, as is the line between metalcore and posercore... So I just try not to think about it and listen to whatever I like.

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2011-06-23 Shuffle (by hurricane_mario)

About: Let's play a game.
1. Turn shuffle (of your entire music library) on
2. Start by playing a song of your choice
3. Save every song that plays onto a playlist, until you reach sub-74 minutes (If the next song puts it over 74 it's not part of the playlist)
4. Upload (link in comments or on your own blog)

That's what I did here. It was my old library on my desktop which has not been touched since March 30th. It has 94,510 songs totalling nearly 600GB and 287 days of playtime. It worked out pretty well. For some reason all of the songs seemed to have a dark and mysterious feeling. I guess I just like that kind of music.

Track List:
1. Yngwie Malmsteen - As Above, So Below
Well this was vocalist Jeff Scott Soto's debut, who has since gone on to sing in bands such as Talisman, W.E.T., and the most well-known being Trans-siberian orchestra. He started when Malmsteen was equally unknown (And arguably still is... he was not even on Rolling Stone's top 100 guitarists... I hate that magazine). It's the only song with vocals on this album, Rising Force. The vocals are just so amazing as well as the guitar solos.

2. Nocternity - Onyx
Never really listened to this band. It's some brutal, raw black metal but theres some nice melodies to be found.

3. The Meads of Asphodel - Weeping Tears of Angel Light
It starts with an 8-bit sounding melody and goes into some decidedly solid melodic black metal.

4. Finch - Mad World (Acoustic Cover)
An emo band with a really nice acoustic cover of this song.

5. Paolo Nutini - Million Faces
Some indie artist I had no idea I had, but I like it alot.

6. Beatallica - Ce So Precisa Sangue (Portuguese)
So this a band I've followed from near their beginnings. They gained popularity due to the fact they do Beatles covers in the style of metallica. They are so good, even Lars Ulrich of metallica encouraged them to continue. This is the song "All You Need is Love" and as you know, Beatles had all kinds of different languages in their song. So Beatallica released a mega-single with the song in about 15 different languages. :) I don't know which metallica song they are spoofing off-hand, though...

7. Ian Stuart And Rough Justice - Having A Good Time
This shuffle continued to get more obscure. Here's an unknown white power rock band. Not sure what more to say.

8. Ring of Fire - You were there
I'm glad itunes picked another one of my favorite vocalists. Unfortunately I had this album in really low quality, but whatever. This is a nice ballad. Mark Boals was ironically also in Yngwie Malmsteen, for three albums I believe. As well as Avantasia, Revolution Renaissance, way too many others to list.

9. Devin Townsend - Life
So itunes crashed here. I hate this program but it remains the best music organizer. I love how it automatically organizes it into subfolders when I add it. Anyway, this is the album it had picked, I'm not sure about the song. But I skimmed through the whole album and I loved this song instantly. Devin Townsend made way better albums when he was on drugs...

10. The Beloved - The Sun Rising
I got this from some compilation. Techincally called "Synthpop" it's just really chill and relaxed.

11. Blutengel - Schmerz 1 - Liebe
German darkwave band, but this song serves more as an interlude than a song. But I like it.

12. Senmuth - Indriyas
Unknown solo artist who primarily makes egyptian and ambient music. Well, that's what this is. Yet another dark, ambient, chillout type song.

13. Johansson - Fading away
I swear the itunes shuffle algorithm is alot smarter than you'd think. This is the solo project of a keyboardist who is best known for Stratovarius, but was in Yngwie Malmsteen's band from 1983 to 1989 and was in fact on track 1 of this playlist. And it's yet another ballad.

14. Vader - Nomad
Here's a well known death metal band. From a live album. I never really got into them but I should.

15. Joe Jackson - Fools in Love
He's best known for songs like "Stepping Out" and "Is She Really Going Out With Him?" but this song more resembles Ska. But again I like it.

16. Talisman - System Of Power
Hey guess who sings here. JEFF SCOTT SOTO. Out of nearly 100,000 songs here's the third song (out of 15, not counting track 1) in this playlist with a member of Malmsteen's band in it. Coincidence? I think not. I think Apple programmed iTunes with a human brain and are preparing to take over the world. >:D

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Woods of Desolation - Torn Beyond Reason (2011)

Genre: Atmospheric/Depressive Black Metal
Quality: AAC @ 256
About: So, I had heard of this band before but not gotten into it much, similar to Lantlos last year. It was formed in 2005 by a person simply known as D. (not to be confused with Desolate AKA Mitch who was the third member of Austere) as well as a few Austere members. Now, it is the exact same two members as Grey Waters, who had a fantastic debut EP last year. While that is symphonic depressive rock with emo vocals (you read that correctly), this is a pretty straightforward black metal affair. I say "pretty" because you will have surprises all over the place, the biggest of which being "November" (which I will not ruin).

So, this pretty much is still the heart and soul of Austere, it feels like a natural progression of their sound, similar to how Timo Tolkki has progressed since leaving Stratovarius (last blog post). Instead of about an hour of blast beats with howling (majority of Austere songs), there are 6 songs each with different themes creating an album which will take you to the depths of your soul and back.

There are ambient parts (such as synthesizer or acoustic guitar) serving as an intro to the next section of a song, something I have not heard since Lunar Aurora broke up in 2005. Then your face is melted off. And it happens in nearly every song. Things like this that make this album so great. Every time I listen, I hear new things.

Yet within the darkness and madness you find strands of hope, a melody which soars towards the sun...

Keep on the lookout for the new Grey Waters release, although a completely different style, it's the same two members.

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Buy (CD. Vinyl coming later 2011, which I will probably buy.)

Symfonia - In Paradisum (2011)

Genre: Neoclassical Power Metal
Quality: 320kbps MP3
About: It is my day off, I choose to spend part of it sharing the awesome stuff I have found in the past few months. First is Symfonia. This is the ultimate supergroup of ex-power metal band members.

* André Matos (ex-Angra, ex-Shaman, ex-Viper) - Vocals
* Timo Tolkki (ex-Stratovarius, ex-Revolution Renaissance) - Guitar , Producer , Mixer
* Jari Kainulainen (ex-Stratovarius, ex-Evergrey) - Bass
* Mikko Härkin (ex-Sonata Arctica, ex-Kotipelto, ex-Solution .45) - Keyboards
* Uli Kusch (ex-Holy Moses, ex-Helloween, ex-Gamma Ray, ex-Masterplan) - Drums

Style-wise, Tolkki continues right where he left off after 2010's fantastic album "Trinity" by Revolution Renaissance. It's power metal, but more deep than classic power "cheese" metal such as Stratovarius's "Episode" or Kamelot's "The Fourth Legacy". So, it's not just "Stratovarius with the old Angra singer". You will hear a lot of power chords held for 3 seconds while there is a power metal beat and soaring vocals. You will also hear slow and introspective parts. My favorite from first listen would have to be the final track.

Still, there are times where you think you've heard it before. Worse off, it doesnt sound like Stratovarius. The beginning of Forevermore sounds like System of a Down's "BYOB". Pilgrim Road sounds like Helloween's "Future World".

As a side-note, look at the flowery-looking thing above the logo.

It first appeared in Stratovarius - "Visions" when they switched from their darker and slower sound they had since Fright Night, to their mainstream power metal sound. When stratovarius peaked.


And every album since.



It increased in importance, as if it was a symbol for the strength of the band. It was featured predominantly on the Elements CD's which I own both of.


Then they broke up after this album.


Then got back together.


Then Tolkki left.


Where's the flower? Here it is.



Changed the logo here, not sure why. This album was great but did have a much grittier sound than all these other albums. Maybe that's why the change.


But it's back again.


Now you have earned your download. LOL.

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Please support the musicians that spent so much time, effort, and money to make this great music for you - Buy their albums and go to their concerts (if possible)!
Buy