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posts about frozen.

yesterday i stumbled about the gathering‘s latest live dvd, a noise severe, recorded in march 2007 in chile. a few months later, their singer, anneke van giersbergen, quit the band. (which, in my opinion, is the end of the band; if they will continue, they will be something very different…)
the dvd contains a lot of songs from their older albums, like the “debut” mandylion (their first album with anneke and, in my opionion, their best one), nighttime birds, how to measure a planet? (which i don’t like too much) and if_then_else. the first two can be more categorized as atmospheric doom with progmetal and gothic influences, while how to measure a planet? drifts off into a very experimental alternative rock/prog direction; the last, if_then_else, is more into a trip rock.
well, so much about the facts.
i’ve already mentioned several times that mandylion is really good. and i’ll do it again. it’s one of the few albums (next to sentenced‘s frozen) where i like every track, to which i can listen for hours, again and again. so filled with energy, groove, raw power, emotions. so beautiful. (my favorite song is probably leaves, whose music video you can watch here.)
well, mandylion is their best album, i’d say, but they also have other good ones. one which i don’t really know—shame on me!—is nighttime birds, mandylion‘s successor, which seems to be very good, too. and there’s if_then_else, which has several really good tracks, like the melancholic saturnine or a beautiful instrumental called beautiful war.
somehow it’s really a pity that i never managed to see them.

“the day you went away
you had to screw me over
i guess you didn’t know
all the stuff you left me with
is way too much to handle
but i guess you don’t care”

from saturnine by the gathering.

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 borisaltar, 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.
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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 favorite 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.