yesterday i fell in love. again. with a song, called into cold light, the first track on unholy‘s third album rapture. it catches me. absorbs me. makes me feel like floating, like sitting on a boat, moving on the water with high speed, like flying through space, stars passing by, infinitely, monotone, yet never boring, full of power, psychedelic. somehow reminds me a bit of dream theater‘s constant motion, in particular it’s video, as it looks to me as if everything is in motion, no way to stop, no way to rest, no way to look back. reminds me a bit of life. constantly moving forward in time, not able to stop for a moment, no possibility to rest. making decisions in every moment, some of them good, most of them not. what happened cannot be undone. the music’s intenseness increasing every second, then, guitars hitting in, increasing the pace. hell breaking loose. drop-dead gorgeous. stunning. haunting. so intense, so beautiful. then, fade to black. the stream flows away, leaving me in blackness. again.

today i bought altar, a collaberation between boris and sunn o))). a really impressive, very abstract, dark, droning piece of art. making me want to rip off my headphones and keep listening the same time. making me addicted, to keep listening, my thoughts drifting away. having no clear images in my head. just feelings. creepy. noises are floating around, feeling as if the air would be liquid and different currents make the air look like an animated fractal, always changing shape, always in motion. making me want to move along. inevitably swallowing my attention, my thoughts. still, seeing nothing. giving me the creeps. i like it. love it.

during updating my music player, i had to think about which albums to put on it and which ones to delete. my previous playlist was really biased towards heavy and dark music, so i decided to lighten it a bit up. well, at least from the musical side. but nonetheless, i decided to add something more heavy, namely something from sentenced, which was my favourite band for a very long time. i was thinking hard about which album(s) to put on the player. maybe something oldskool from the north from here? it contains the beautiful song northern lights. or maybe the love and death ep, containing classics like love and death (go hand in hand once more) and the way i wanna go. then, there’s the down album, my favorite beauties from this one are bleed (to death), sun won’t shine (on me without your love) and the agressive i’ll throw the first rock. well, then there’s the frozen album, my first sentenced album after all, and in my opinion still the best one. it contains one of my all time favorite songs, dead leaves. besides that (and many other great songs), it contains the slow rainy ballad the rain comes falling down, grave sweet grave and the (almost) instrumental burn (the pain away). but then, there are also beautiful songs like fragile, dead moon rising and my slowing heart on the crimson album, in particular the latter being so expressive through its monotony. it’s a really sad song, only being topped by no one there, the last song on the cold white light. no one there is one of the saddest songs i know. (if you have never heard it, consider watching its video.) besides this song, the cold white light features some more songs i want to mention: namely cross my heart and hope to die (may my end come tonight), the self-ironic excuse me while i kill myself and the ballad guilt and regret. and, last but not least, there’s sentenced terminal album, fittingly entitled the funeral album, which ends the misery with the great, even though more aggressive and more hateful, songs may today become the day (as i plunge into the gray), ever-frost, vengeance is mine, drain me and end of the road. so, there’re a lot of albums to chose from. my final decision was to include exactly the songs mentioned here, instead of a whole album. i’m really looking forward to tomorrow, when i have plenty of time to listen to this great collection of misery. it’s really a tragedy that sentenced is no more. rest in peace.

here’s a list of concerts i’ve been at this year, for historical reasons. not taking in account some classic concerts.

• 07.02.2007: therion, grave digger and sabaton were playing at the z-7 in pratteln (symphonic orchestral metal, and some more thrashy/whatever metal);
• 21.02.2007: amplifier and cloudride were playing at abart in zürich (progressive art rock);
• 24.02.2007: blackfield and pure reason revolution were playing at the z-7 in pratteln (progressive rock, art rock);
• 04.03.2007: …and you will know us by the trail of dead and forget cassettes were playing at the rote fabrik in zürich (alternative rock);
• 29.03.2007: morgana lefay, sacred steel, serenity and bitterness were playing at rock city in uster (various kinds of metal: death, prog, power, true, …);
• 09.04.2007: moonsorrow, swallow the sun and some band whose name i forgot played at the z-7 in pratteln (pagan metal, doom metal, death metal);
• 10.04.2007: circle ii circle, savage circus, tomorrow’s eve and tempesta were playing at the z-7 in pratteln (metal);
• 13.04.2007: moonspell, napalm death, behemoth, gojira and dew scented were playing at the z-7 in pratteln (death and black metal, metalcore);
• 16.05.2007: spock’s beard was playing at the z-7 in pratteln (progressive rock);
• 27.05.2007: trivium, annihilator and some band which was playing before the official opening time were playing at the rohstofflager in zürich (thrash metal);
• 29.05.2007: arena was playing at the z-7 in pratteln (progressive rock);
• 31.05.2007: anathema and moondawn were playing at the z-7 in pratteln (atmospheric rock with metal influences);
• 01.06.2007: machine head, type o negative, cataract and zatokrev were playing at the volkshaus in zürich (thrash metal, doom metal, metalcore and death metal);
• 27.06.2007: dream theater and megadeth were playing at the volkshaus in zürich (progressive metal, thrash metal).

if i’ll find the motivation (and if anyone cares), i might write a few words about some of these.

here’s a list of concerts i plan to attend during the last four months of this year. if i put a link to a bands’ homepage, this means i’m going to that concert to see this band (and as a side effect, also the non-linked ones).

• 13.09.2007: threshold, communic, machine men and serenity are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (progressive metal);
• 22.09.2007: fjoergyn, wolfchant, nastrandir und nuclear winter are playing in the dynamo in zurich (symphonic black/pagan/viking/death metal);
• 27.10.2007: moonsorrow, korpiklaani, excelsis and battlelore are playing at the viking/pagan festival in the stadthalle dietikon (folk/pagan metal);
• 31.10.2007: dream theater and symphony x are playing in the eulachhallen in winterthur (progressive metal);
• 09.11.2007: apocalyptica (with special guest not announced yet) is playing in the volkshaus in zürich (violin metal);
• 12.11.2007: porcupine tree and anathema are playing in the volkshaus in zürich (prog, atmospheric rock with metal influences);
• 16.11.2007: orchester accento musicale zürich is playing in the st. peter in zürich (classic);
• 17.11.2007: boob is playing in the helsinki klub in zürich (alternative/punk rock);
• 18.11.2007: amorphis, swallow the sun and insomnium are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (prog metal, doom metal);
• 27.11.2007: fish is playing in the z-7 in pratteln (progressive rock);
• 29.11.2007: halloween, gamma ray and axxis are playing in the stadthalle dietikon (power metal); (skipping that one because of lack of time)
• 05.12.2007: die ärzte are playing in the hallenstadion in oerlikon/zürich (fun punk);
• 14.12.2007: ensiferum, turisas and insania are playing in the z-7 in pratteln (viking metal).

unfortunately, i will miss finntroll playing in the z-7 on 05.12.2007…