The Benja-man Is Verbose

Prior exposure to this band/record :  Nada.   When I first started blogging about music, the premise was that I'd "react" (think of a text-based and less engaging version of the YouTube semi-professional "reactors")  in some simulation of real time.  That way, my reader * could trace the evolution of my relationship with a work of music.  I've moved away from that to a degree, ** but I do hope that these early-impressions posts do capture an interesting moment in time in which a listener hasn't totally absorbed the music yet.  On this occasion, I'd like to work through, as best as I can remember, my basic reactions to  The Shadow Cabinet . First listen, part I (tracks 1-4, while walking) My big summary statement upon starting the first track was "I was not prepared for this!"  I keep expecting folk-metal to be gentler or more lilting, but clearly Wuthering Heights are aggressively metal first.  The keys, used mostly for bombast, got my ...

Unlike pretty much everything that came before it, which has a bit of a reputation ( Sentimental Hygeine  as the one with R.E.M., the sober record, the revival after a down period, etc.) I didn't have any particular expectations coming in to Transverse City  other than some off-peak Zevon.  We're fully mired in the period that's only for the die-hards, where Zevon just wasn't on the world's radar.  He still made music, though! Track One:  "Transverse City" I'm not much of a fan of a lot of things about the '80s, and although some great music happened there, the decade-specific pieces of the overall audio aesthetic rarely fail to make me cringe. *   To me, "Transverse City," both the song and the record, get off to a bad start with the first sound being synthesizer.  Sure enough, synths soon envelop everything, with the analog instruments struggling to get heard.  That type of sound, which I guess once sounded slick and futuristic (especia...

So here I am once more, in the playground of the broken deadlines.. I kinda like that it worked out that there'd be so long between posts #1 and #2, as though I needed days upon days to absorb the record or something.  To be clear, the entire gap since my last blog entry was not, in fact, spent digesting and thinking about  Temple Of Shadows .  (Lots going on, didn't get to listen to any music of any kind for a whole two weeks at one point.)  However, there's a little truth to the idea that this one needed some extra time to percolate.  I have in my head the unwritten rule that if something is proggy enough, it's going to take me one or two more listens compared to a less proggy record to understand it at exactly the same level.  I instantly identified  Temple Of Shadows  as a possible grower. Now, what exactly is and is not "progressive metal" is not a line in the sand that I'm particularly interested in drawing.  However, of the power ...

Prior exposure to this band/record:  Not much.  It's only after I decided to deliberately explore power metal that I heard any Angra songs.  Based on a few listens, I don't get "Angels Cry" (the song), whereas I kinda dig "Carolina IV."  I'm not sure exactly how I'd heard of Angra before that, but I know I knew the name, because it's hard not to.     To be clear, I have no context for the scene they came from; they're one of only two non-Sepultura Brazilian metal acts I can name off the top of my head. *   I don't even actually remember why I picked  Temple Of Shadows  as my representative Angra record; it seems to be a fan favorite and it probably ranked high in Metal Archives when I was browsing.  Most people doing "intro to power metal" lists seem to favor material from when the band was introducing itself to the world - either  Angels Cry  or  Holy Land .  Well, whatever, this is the one I'm writing abo...

I think in previous entries in this series I've established my basic peccadilloes - I like just enough of a veneer of sophistication to keep me entertained whilst I grab on to a big catchy hook.   Epica  doesn't quite fit that, falling more into the category I summarized in the last post - pleasant swells of music that don't leave much of an impression.  I keep wondering if it's going to grab me, like the afternoon I found myself humming a bit of "Farewell" at work.  I consider it a triumph that I can kinda, sorta, remember how that one goes, although all I remember is the vocal part.  "The Mourning After" makes its way into my head fairly often through sheer repetition, but I don't know if that really counts as catchiness so much as just having heard the main lyric three times as often as in most other songs.  The rest... mostly drawing a blank.  Why aren't the songs - songs that, almost universal...

Past exposure to this band/record:   As mentioned before, I had a moment with Austrian symphonic-power-proggers Serenity * around the time of their first two records, at which time anything written about them involved a comparison to Kamelot.  So, with my limited piggy bank money - after getting confused and spending a little time with Katatonia, a very different sort of interesting metal band - I ended up grabbing a copy of  Ghost Opera .  I liked it quite a bit, even if it wasn't an all-timer, and still find myself humming "Rule The World" from time to time.  But then Poetry For The Poisoned  just somehow failed to grab me, and not for lack of trying.  So I drifted away from all things Kamelot, until now.  It sounds like some would argue I picked the right time to jump off that train, but since I never really rode it much to begin with, this is a great opportunity! I'm a classifier when it comes to music just because there's so ...

Released  in 1990, but actually recorded on a whim by Zevon and the non-Stipe R.E.M. guys during the Sentimental Hygiene  sessions.  If I'm a little cursory in my exploration of  Hindu Love Gods , well, the material kinda demands it.  The quip about this record is that they recorded it in less time than it takes to listen to, or something to that effect.  So it's entirely possible that I'll spend more time and effort composing this post then went into recording Hindu Love Gods .   Not everyone involved even agreed to have the session released to the public before it happened.  So... yeah.  I'm never tremendously enthusiastic about covers records in which I don't know most of the originals, but let's dig shallowly in. Track One:  "Walkin' Blues" [Robert Johnson] It's worth noting that most of these songs are blues standards.  My knowledge of the blues is mostly confined to the fact that I lived in Chicago for about ten yea...

A few days ago, I was having a day that wasn't bad, per se, but involved feeling overwhelmed with little things to do of equal unimportance, needing to force myself to do a certain detail oriented task, and just exhausted.  I was absolutley not in the mood for power metal, and needed mopier, downbeat, avant-gard sort of music for the occasion.  Late in the afternoon, I did put on  Falconer , though.  The record as a whole, and "Wings Of Serenity" in particular, hit the spot.  The next day was a much better day for high-energy anthems.  Falconer  fit in well there, too, and "Wings Of Serenity" in particular hit the spot.  I've long been a believer in the premise that good enough music ought not to be limited to one's mood, at least not for me personally.  Sure, certain stuff is a better fit for certain times, but I like to listen to what I like to listen, and listening to what I like makes me feel good.  So I choose to read some...