this will be the last best-of-list for this year. this time, i want to list the albums which influenced and intrigued me most during this year. this time, in chronological order.

1. moonsorrow: viides luku: hävitetty.
2. moonsorrow: verisäkeet.
3. timo rautiainen & trio niskalaukaus: hartes land.
4. finntroll: visor om slutet.
5. distorted: memorial.
6. orphaned land: mabool — the story of the three sons of seven.
7. swallow the sun: ghosts of loss.
8. bolt thrower: those once loyal.
9. the 3rd and the mortal: tears laid in earth.
10. rage: lingua mortis.
11. kari rueslåtten: other people’s stories.
12. primordial: to the nameless dead.

after making a best of concerts list for this year, i decided to make a best of albums list for all albums i have bought until now. i divided this up into several categories:

• prog;
• punk/punk rock;
• trip hop, alt rock;
• other non-metal;
• metal: atmospheric;
• metal: death/black;
• metal: doom;
• metal: extreme prog;
• metal: folk/pagan/viking;
• metal: gothic;
• metal: power;
• metal: prog;
• metal: other.

note that this list reflects a snapshot of my current interest and remembrance of most of the albums. it could already be different in a few days. but feel free to comment or discuss this with me.

prog.

1. porcupine tree: deadwing.
2. pure reason revolution: the dark third.
3. frost: milliontown.
4. opeth: damnation.
5. porcupine tree: the sky moves sideways.

punk/punk rock.

1. die ärzte: die bestie in menschengestalt.
2. wizo: uuaarrgh!.
3. die toten hosen: kauf mich!.
4. die ärzte: planet punk.
5. die ärzte: 13.

trip hop, alt rock.

1. kari rueslåtten: other people’s stories.
2. radiohead: ok computer.
3. portishead: portishead.

other non-metal.

1. kari rueslåtten: spindelsinn.
2. nine inch nails: the downward spiral.
3. eläkeläiset: humppasirkus.
4. bohren & der club of gore: black earth.

metal: atmospheric.

1. the 3rd and the mortal: tears laid in earth.
2. finntroll: visor om slutet.
3. tool: 10 000 days.
4. anathema: a natural disaster.

metal: death/black.

note that i took out the prog death/prog black (avantgarde) albums into its own category, called metal: extreme prog.

1. bolt thrower: those once loyal.
2. moonspell: the antidote.
3. wintersun: wintersun.
4. amorphis: elipse.
5. childen of bodom: hatebreeder.

metal: doom.

i think this is the category where i could have made the longest list. there are many really good albums missing, for example down and love and death by sentenced, the other swallow the sun albums, sunn o))) and boris‘ altar, some candlemass albums, unholy‘s the second ring of power, and some more.

1. sentenced: frozen
2. swallow the sun: ghosts of loss.
3. type o negative: world coming down.
4. tiamat: prey.
5. unholy: rapture.

metal: extreme prog.

this category is dominated by opeth; therefore, i decided to list the top seven instead of the top five.

1. opeth: still life.
2. orphaned land: mabool — the story of the three sons of seven.
3. opeth: blackwater park.
4. distorted: memorial.
5. opeth: orchid.
6. borknagar: epic.
7. edge of sanity: crimson (part one).

metal: folk/pagan/viking.

1. moonsorrow: viides luku: hävitetty.
2. moonsorrow: verisäkeet.
3. primordial: to the nameless dead.
4. finntroll: jaktens tid.
5. moonsorrow: voimasta ja kunniasta.

metal: gothic.

1. lacuna coil: karma code.
2. tristania: beyond the veil.
3. lake of tears: a crimson cosmos.
4. poisonblack: lust stained despair.

metal: power.

1. nevermore: dead heart in a dead world.
2. nevermore: dreaming neon black.
3. symphony x: paradise lost.
4. communic: waves of visual decay.
5. nightwish: oceanborn.

metal: prog.

1. dream theater: train of thought.
2. the gathering: mandylion.
3. ayreon: the human equation.
4. dream theater: metropolis pt. 2 — scenes from a memory.
5. dream theater: images and words.

metal: other.

1. timo rautiainen & trio niskalaukaus: hartes land.
2. rage: lingua mortis.
3. samael: solar soul.
4. annihilator: king of the kill.
5. apocalyptica: cult.

i think it’s time to take a look at the list of concerts i attended this year and to list the best ones. at these two links, you can find a pretty complete list of the concerts i attended. i decided to divide the top list into two categories: prog and metal.

prog

for the third place, i cannot decide between three concerts, all which took place in pratteln in the z-7, namely, first, the spock’s beard gig on the 16.05.2007, second, the anathema & moondawn gig on the 31.05.2007, and, third, the fish gig on the 27.11.2007. all three gigs have been very good. most memorable was probably spock’s beard keyboardist, playing with both hands and feet, while his poor technician had to hold the keyboard construction together so it wouldn’t fall apart.

the second place goes to the blackfield & pure reason revolution concert, which took place on the 24.02.2007 in pratteln (z-7). i think this was the first concert where i really liked the opener, so much that i bought one of their albums. actually, i had to order it by mail, as the ones they had with them were sold out at the end of their concert (hence, i wasn’t the only one who liked it alot). the main act itself, blackfield, a collaboration between the porcupine tree frontman steven wilson and the israeli rock star aviv geffen, was also really good.

the first place goes to the porcupine tree & anathema concert, which took place on the 12.11.2007 in zürich (volkshaus). despite several people in the audience didn’t like anathema too much (“too boring”), i was pleased to see them again. for me, their music expresses simply too many emotions to be boring, eating up energy until bursting into the listener’s ear. the main act, porcupine tree, one of my favourite bands, was as good as i expected them to be. even though they played a lot from the current album, fear of a blank planet, which i don’t like as much as some of the older ones, they also played many classics. unfortunately, they didn’t played arriving somewhere but not here, which i would really loved to listen to. but, besides that, i still think this is the best prog concert i attended this year.

metal

again, as before, i cannot decide on someone for the third place, but i have two canidates in mind. the first one is the dream theater & symphony x concert, which took place on the 31.10.2007 in winterthur (eulachhallen). the second canidate is the apocalyptica & sturm und drang concert, which took place on the 09.11.2007 in zürich (volkshaus). all these bands are really good, and the shows they delivered were so, too, featuring many small details, as neat decoration. but both of these concerts also have their sides. namely, symphony x played way too short (but then, i’ll see them again next february as headliner), the location was strange (the wardrobe was outside), and dream theater could have played longer, too (i heard the rumor that the local organizer fucked this up by not registering the concert with the authorities, which in turn resulted in the police ordering the concert to be ended earlier). at the apocalyptica concert, i didn’t like the opener sturm und drang too much; they played really good and professional, but it simply wasn’t the kind of music which i really like.

the second place is filled by the amorphis, swallow the sun & insomnium concert, which took place at the 18.11.2007 in pratteln (z-7). (videos from the concert can be found here.) this concert featured three very good finnish bands, one of them, namely swallow the sun, being one of my favourite ones. their shows were good, the selection of songs was, too (i would have loved to hear some more swallow the sun songs, but then, i would probably have only been really pleased if they would have simply played all songs from their three albums, which is slightly unrealistic to expect from a co-headliner). i was headbanging a lot, met some friends, had a lot of fun.

the first place goes to the moonsorrow & swallow the sun concert, which took place at the 09.04.2007 (easter monday) in pratteln (z-7). actually, there was a third band playing as an opener, whose name i forgot. this concert was one of the most incluencal concert for me this year, not only as it introduced me to two bands, namely moonsorrow and swallow the sun, which i now count as two of my most favourite bands. besides that, the atmosphere was simply perfect, and so was the audience. i still remember headbanging with eric (a guy i met on this concert and on another one a bit later, who’s also an opeth fan), even though headbanging right next to the mosh pit can be pretty painful…

just watched all three indiana jones movies (imdb: #1, #2 and #3). i’ve seen the last crusade before, but not the other two. i must say that it reminds me a lot of james bond. a james bond with a hat and a whip. and a bit more back in time.
featuring plenty of action and humor, brutality and love. makes one think about things, like the problem of to whom antique stuff belongs. the finder? the country in which it was found? the country where it was originally crafted? and it’s also funny to listen to the german (mainly used by the nazi characters), laughing about the fact that it sometimes has a strong american accent. and laughing about how stupid most of the german babbling sounds.
the triology has a nice ending. the holy grail is secured, the bad guys are dead. indy, henry, marucs and sallah ride into the sunset, accompied by john williams‘ great score. unfortunately, in real life, it never has such a good ending.

just watched romeo must die (imdb), yet another adaption of the romeo and juliet theme. this time, two gangs, one black and one chinese, are fighting for domination. differently from the classic story, romeo and juliet (r.i.p.) are not really part of this scenery, but are sucked inside when their siblings are killed. the film features lots of kung fu, has many funny scenes, and plays plenty of hip hop, which isn’t exactly favourite music style, but fits pretty well.
while watching a friend of mine typed on icq that this one is really good. he’s so right.

yesterday, i watched kabhi khushi kabhie gham (imdb), a bollywood movie. in fact, it’s the first bollywood movie i’ve ever seen. on the first glance, this 3 ½ hour epos about a family split-up and reunion looks like a filmed dime novel: the story is pretty straight forward, there’s a happy end, everything is painted in light, great colors, dreams come true, true love wins, it’s obvious what is white and what is black, beauty everywhere, wealth and luxury all around, lots of dance scenes (it often feels like a musical theatre), clichés all over the place.
on the other hand, the movie also covers other aspects. it shows how the father’s egoism, who seems himself as the only and infallible instance of making decisions for the family, destroys the family. it also denounces discrimination of lower classes.
i’m still not sure what to think about it…

today i was on the last concert for this year – at least, the last one planned ahead more than a few days. this was probably also my last visit to the z-7 for this year.
this time, three bands were playing, the main act being ensiferum (which is latin and means as much as sword bearing), a finnish (what else) viking/folk metal band. well, as it is quite common for viking/folk metal bands nowadays, a huge crowd of kids was there. i saw the first ones at zurich main station, it was quite obvious that the drunken (or starting to get drunk) teenagers as the same track dressed in black were heading for the same destination. i haven’t felt so old for a long time…
the concert started with the swedish power metallers insania. as i already wrote once, i don’t like that kind of music too much, but it was ok. in particular, the singer made funny grimaces (though i’m not sure if it was intentional that they were funny). after that, a taiwanese symphonic black metal band called chthonic entered the stage, featuring an erhu (“chinese violin”). i liked that one pretty much, and i could stand the screaming way more than napalm death‘s or cradle of filth‘s screaming, which i pretty much hate, even though it was pretty similar (in my opinion).
finally, ensiferum entered the stage. well, one member (markus) sat down on a chair, and some guy announced that he isn’t feeling well, that they just fetched him from hospital and that they’ll bring him back right after the concert. that’s devotion! the result was that their gig lasted only a bit more than one hour, until markus let announce (one of the tech guys was regularly filling in water for him and handling him the cup, and passed on messages from him to the other band members) that he wasn’t feeling good and so the last song was announced. (the last song’s beginning was accompanied by chthonic‘s erhu player.) after that, they gave an encore, without markus though, and maybe even a second, but i decided to catch the train instead.
well. on the way back i was pretty much annoyed by the fact that apparently most of the night bus passengers have no clue how the thing works. they don’t manage to change bank notes into coins (there’s a machine for that), they don’t manage to buy the right tickets (there are instructions all over the place), they don’t manage to use the right bus entry (you have to enter in the front, and not try to enter at the other doors, and waiting for 30 seconds until figuring out that you can’t get in there), they don’t manage to prepare the regular ticket and the night surcharge to show it to the driver (instead, they start to search their pockets for another 30 seconds). i understand that some people don’t speak or read german and thus have trouble following the instruction, but i think this didn’t applied to most of them. well, but that explains why the night bus is always late, and the amount of time it is late increases at every stop (at least, as long as people are entering). but at least i could watch all this while sitting inside the bus, so i could listen to good music (kari, of course, as also during the train ride; a big contrast to the concert :) )…

ingredients:

• the big lebowski (imdb).
• a sufficient amount of vodka.
• a sufficient amount of kalúha.
• a sufficient amount of milk.
• some hardware to play the movie.
• some glass for the white russian(s).
• optionally, some ice cubes.

instructions:

1. pour some of the vodka, kalúha and milk into the glass. add some ice if needed.
2. start watching the movie, while drinking the white russian.
3. as soon as the glass is empty, pause the movie, refill the glass and continue the movie.
4. repeat until the movie is over.

the amounts should be chosen high enough to ensure that you won’t run out of white russian during the movie.

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well. seriously. (as serious as one can be after watching the movie and drinking several white russians.) the big lebowski is a movie by the coen brothers about a hippie slacker, called simply the dude, who is drawn into a kidnapping case which turns out to be a bit more complicated, with a bunch of different parties taking part in the game. the movie features great characters, most notably el duderino, his friends, donny and walter, and the german nihilists (nagelbrett by autobahn!), some great dream sequences, lots of bowling, and lots of white russians, all drunken by his dudeness.

if you’ve never seen it, watch it. and don’t forget the white russians.

friday morning, i shot an overview over the city. the photo is taken from the eth polyterrasse and prominently displays the üetliberg.

today i was on an ärzte concert. actually, the concert took place around five minutes by foot from my appartment, which was pretty nice for the way back :)
die ärzte is a fun punk band from berlin (from berlin!), which is almost as old as me, and still alive after five year long break-up around 1990. well. i’ve already seen them twice, in 2001 in osnabrück and in 2004 in oldenburg, and i also own most of their albums. though i stopped listening to them in the last few years, i still wanted to see them again as i found out that they would play in zürich today, so i went.
the concert started with a support band, which unfortunately was played with way too low volume. i think they were quite good, but it sounded like background music in a pub while too many people are talking, and not like a band at a concert. that was really strange. but it turned out that die ärzte played with the “right loudness.” what was nice was the smoking ban, even though many simply ignored it. i really feel a lot better after concerts (and also on the next morning) if the air is not soaked with smoke…
during the support act, bela and farin appeared on the stage several times. for one song, they played all in panties with their trousers down (except the drummer and the bassist), which was somehow funny. the support played maybe for 30 minutes, and after that followed a around 30 to 45 minutes break. at 20:30, die ärzte entered the stage and rocked the house for the next 2:15 hours. even though i’ve never heard some of the songs before (probably from their newest album(s?) which i’ve never heard), i knew most songs and even remembered the lyrics. they played many classics, like der graf, schunder song, westerland (with wannsee replaced by zürisee), 2000 mädchen, rebell, …
the audience was really enthusiastic, and i had to back up a lot (from maybe 20-30 meters from the stage to something around 100 meters) to escape most of the mosh pit. probably i’m getting old, at least i prefer to stand a bit and enjoy the music without being thrown and pushed around all the time.
to sum it up, it was nice to see bela, rod and farin again. even if it’s just for the sake of reminiscence.