kajota.com

I found this a couple of months ago and figured it really needed to be part of the family music series here.

Outside, it’s the first of May!

I got something to put in you…….

Seriously. I’m diggin’ this song and I don’t know why…

Death To All But Metal!

I own 1 CD from Pitchfork’s top 500 of 2000 and I wish I hadn’t bought it. (Mastadon’s Leviathan – I could never get into that band). Obviously my definition of music doesn’t match Pitchfork’s. So I decided to pick my favorite albums of the last 10 years (more or less). All of these are albums that I couldn’t stop listening to when they came out and that I still listen to often today.

Here’s the list in no particular order

The Black Parade – My Chemical Romance (2006)

Ha! Who’d have figured I’d start this list off with an Emo band? I’d never heard of this band until Guitar Hero 2 came out for the Xbox360. The Xbox360 version had 10 more songs than the PS2 version and Dead by My Chemical Romance was one of them. It quickly became one of my favorite songs in the game so I bought the whole album. The album reminds me a little The Wall by Pink Floyd. (sacrilege!)

Toxicity – System of a Down (2001)

Iowa – Slipknot (2001)

I bought these two albums on the same day in 2001. They came out within a week of each other. It was a good week. I really liked all of SOAD stuff from the last 10 years but Toxicity was their best.

Robot Hive Exodus – Clutch (2005)

This CD did not leave the CD player in my truck for about 4 months. It’s just barely better than Blast Tyrant – Clutch was on a roll in the mid 00s. And seriously, in how many songs can you sing in binary?

Hybrid Theory – Linkin Park (2000)

I’m sure to get grief for picking this album but I really like Linkin Park. Well at least until their last album and the really bad remixes they’ve released.

Better Life – Three Doors Down (2000)

Just a solid rock album. Their later stuff is a bit too sappy for me but this album was very good.

Mushroomhead – XIII (2003)

No one else I know likes Mushroomhead so I may be off my rocker. I’ve liked all of their albums since XX.

Machinehead – The Blackening (2007)

Probably the heaviest music on this list. Aesthetics of Hate is one of my favorite songs of the decade. Too bad I still can’t even get close to being able to play it on drums in Rock Band.

Regina Spektor – Begin to Hope (2006)

What? A non-metal album? - John Scalzi’s blog is a daily read for me. He frequently will post links to music that he’s listening to or likes. Most of the time, I can’t stand any of it. (it’s heavy on 80s pop music – shudder!). Every once in a while he’ll post something good. Regina Spektor’s Fidelity from Begin to Hope was one of those posts.

Eminem – The Eminem Show (2002)
I don’t usually go for rap but for some reason I like this album. I don’t like anything else Eminem has made but I played this album quite a bit when it came out.

All That Remains – The Fall of Ideals (2006)

Every song (except one – The Weak Willed ) on this album is awesome. The drumming is crazy good. This band does something that I wish more screaming metal band would do; they mix singing with screaming. The only song on this album that I don’t like is the one where the vocalist doesn’t sing.

Gamma Ray – Majestic (2005)
A little old school power metal. Vocals are completely opposite of what you usually hear in metal today. I’m sure the singer has to squeeze his testicles to get up that high.

There’s some story that runs throughout this album but I don’t usually pay attention to lyrics so I have no idea what it is. It’s probably best that way.





Sanctity – Road to Bloodshed (2007)

I can’t remember where I heard these guys but their album rocks.



Alice in Chains – Black Gives Way to Blue (2009)

This one barely makes the list. I’m a little hesitant to put it on here because it hasn’t been out that long. But, I figured that since I’ve been playing it nonstop since I got it, it should probably go on here. I really didn’t expect much from this album. I was very surprised at how good it is.



Trivium – Ascendancy (2005)

Another metal band that does a good job of mixing singing and screaming. There’s also a lot of old school 80s type thrash playing on this album.

Worst:

I figured I would mention the two albums I disliked the most from the last 10 years. (other than just about everything on the previously mentioned Pitchfork list).

Metallica – St Anger (2003)

When I saw Metallica on the Summer Sanitarium tour, they opened the show with 4 songs from the 80s. It was awesome. Then they played Frantic. Everyone sat down. It was like an intermission. Time to get a beer, go to the bathroom, pick your nose…

Metallica was going through therapy when they made this album and it shows. The production on the album is god awful. There are no solos. They tuned the guitars way down and then repeat two or three riffs for 6 minutes for each song. Hetfield’s singing is dreadful. They let Bob Rock play bass. Just an awful awful album. These fuckers should send out refunds to all their fans for this mess.

Judas Priest – Nostradamus (2008)

This is a double CD of drone. After Angel of Retribution I was expecting something good. Nope. This album is slow, sloppy and droning. You can tell that these dudes are in their 60s.

When You Were Shouting At The Devil, We Were in League With Satan. This song and video are just dopey enough to pass over into being cool. As a bonus there’s motorcycles in it. Always a good thing. You just can’t beat Metal, Motorcycles and Satan.