Sleep - Dopesmoker

Apparently I forgot to post this blog that I wrote a couple of weeks back...

Finally one of the cornerstones in stoner rock/metal has seen a great re-release. It's of course Sleep's "Dopesmoker" I'm talking about.

It has been released under the name "Jerusalem" earlier as well, and then it was divided into six songs, where it's actually just one. One track spanning over 60 minutes, that's just incredible and nothing for the weak minded.

Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day.

This is the documentation of probably the biggest one-off concert in the history of music, the re-union gig of Led Zeppelin.

You probably all know the story. To get hold of one of the 18 000 tickets to this concert you had to enter a "lottery" to be able to win the opportunity to buy tickets to this concert. Rumour has it that there were two million participants...

I was living and studying in High Wycombe, England, at the time and one night I almost fell of my chair opening my e-mail inbox seeing as I've got the e-mail I never thought I would get, congratulating me on winning the opportunity two buy two tickets. I had to read the e-mail through several times before I could actually believe.

Said and done, tickets bought and on the 10th of December 2007 me and my friend Daniel was witness to my, without a doubt, biggest musical experience of my life (I have a hard time anything will ever come close). The guys really delivered the goods.

Five years later the concert has been released on various formats. I've gotten the Blu-ray version, with a bonus DVD and the concert on a double CD. The vinyl will be released in January apparently. Hopefully it will get the same nice treatment as "Mothership" and the re-release of "The Songs Remains The Same" has gotten.

Iron Maiden - Picture disc box set, pt. 2.

I wrote about the picture disc project of Iron Maiden in a previous blog. They will release the eight first releases starting with the self titled debut album and finish with the 1988 album "Seventh Son Of A Seventh Son".

This month they released "The Number Of The Beast" and "Piece Of Mind". Two major milestones in the heavy metal genre (as are all of the seven (eight if you count "Live After Death", which is featured in this box set) first Maiden albums I guess). TNOTB features some of the best-known metal songs ever ("Run To The Hills" and the title track), and POM features some of Maiden's best work, in my opinion ("The Trooper", "Still Life", "Quest For Fire" etc.).

Essential in any collection!

Now we have to wait until January for the next two records...

The gift of music.

Today is Father's day here in Scandinavia. I'm visiting my parents this weekend so I have the opportunity to celebrate it with my dad. My dad who is probably responsible for my big interest in music.

For Father's day I got him the new Aerosmith album. He's been a fan since the 70s and he had every album on vinyl up until Permanent Vacation and he has the ones after that one on CD. So it was time to get albums on vinyl again.

The gift was much appreciated!

My Bloody Valentine to release a new album this year!

It's been over 20 years since MBV released their latest album, the highly influential "Loveless". Now it seems that we'll finally hear some new material from the band.

Yesterday the news were all over the biggest music sites that Kevin Shields had announced that a new MBV album were to be released before we reached 2013, and also an EP of new material to be released on the new year.

I'm stoked about these news! I've been listening to MBV for over ten years now (long after they called it quits, that is) so I never expected to hear any new material from them. And I was actually quite happy with that, seeing the immense quality of the releases they had managed in their relatively short recording career.

A few years back I had the chance to see them at the Way Out West festival in Gothenburg and it was a great show! I had never expected to see them either so that was a great experience.

I'm trying to be mildly excited about the new release as I don't want to be disappointed. Let's hope we won't be!

New My Bloody Valentine album!!!

Awesome news!!!!!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/07/my-bloody-valentine-new-album?fb=optOut

Witchcraft - Legend

I think this is the record I've listened to the most the past few weeks. Even though it may not be as good as, for example, the new Swans album, it's more accessible. The Swans album is not an album for every occasion, whereas this Witchcraft album works most of the time.

They have a more modern sound now compared to their earlier records, where they really sounded like a band from the 70s. Now they sound like a band influenced by the 70s with a more modern approach to their influences and this makes "Legend" their strongest material yet.

It's a record filled with great riffs and catchy tunes. It sounded promising already from the first taste we got from the album with the song "Because Of You", which was released some time before the album, and the rest of the album lived up to the expectations.

Iron Maiden - Picture Disc box set.

A couple of days ago I received my copy of the latest box set release from Iron Maiden. I love the box sets from this band. I've got three of them so far.

This box set was printed in only a limited number and I bought my copy through Amazon together with the first two records in the series "Iron Maiden" and "Killers".

Iron Maiden is taking the wrong approach to the vinyl market though. Sure they have some of the coolest cover art ever and the picture discs looks great, but what about the sound quality? What they should do is release their entire catalogue on 180-200g high quality black vinyl, especially the albums from "Brave New World" until today that has only got a picture disc release.

Anyways, I'll be getting these records to complete this box set and hope for an audiophile box set next! 

The front of the box set, still in shrink wrap.

The back with all the covers and track listing. Such an amazing collection of albums. Seven of the greatest heavy metal albums there is and also the "Live After Death" double vinyl.

Together with my two other box sets on the wall in my new record room.

Swans - The Seer

Now here's a record that demands your attention. "The Seer" spans over three records and has a total running time of over 90 minutes. It consists of eleven songs, three of which are over fifteen minutes long and one of them (the title track) is over after 32 minutes and 16 seconds. Impatient people have now been officially forwarned!

Swans are 30 years into their career and still creates brilliant and original music. There is practically no melodies at all on the first two and a half sides on this record on the first half on the D-side you can hear glimpses of it. The last song of the second record though is what is close to a singer/songwriter song (featuring Karen O, of Yeah, Yeah, Yeahs) on lead vocals, a beautiful piece that give you a breather before hell breaks lose!

I have to write a few lines about track listing, and the choice of order. The track listing on the vinyl is different from the one on the CD. I listened to "The Seer" a couple of times on Spotify before I got the vinyl, as it was delayed. On the CD (and on Spotify) probably the greatest piece on the album "Mother Of The World" is the second song on the album. On the vinyl version it is the seventh. I guess they did this because of the lengthy songs and they thought this was the best way to divide them over six sides of vinyl. I also like to think that they had the idea to put "Mother Of The World" and "Avatar" together on side D as this pair of songs form probably the best side on a vinyl record you will see this year!

The record ends with the title track spanning one and a half side and finally "The Seer Returns" ends the whole spectacle. After over 90 minutes with "The Seer" your still left with wanting more and that in itself is proof of the greatness of the album. This is without a doubt the most rewarding album of the year!

If you're a fan of monotone and repetitive music you're in for a real treat! Set some time aside, pour yourself a glass of wine and get lost in the soundscape of Michael Gira's creation!

I ordered my copy from the Young God Records' webstore and got it signed by Mr Swans himself!

A beautiful triple gatefold cover including a poster as well.

Things are starting to fall into place

We've lived at our new house for about a month and a half and we're finally starting to settle into it. The second floor living room (where I'll keep the record collection) is also starting to take shape. I have a few ideas about how I want it to look eventually but I don't have the furniture for it yet.

Here are a couple of pictures from when I was sorting the collection, as I have it in alphabetical order. During the move I randomly put records in moving boxes both for convenience and also on purpose as I love sorting and arrangeing the collection. So it took me a couple of nights to get it sorted but now it's almost done. I still have U through Z still left but there aren't too many records.

I've gotten a lot of interesting stuff during the past couple of months or so where I haven't really had too much time to update the blog so hopefully I can catch up on some of those!