2014 - A Look Ahead

So, we've just summarized 2013, no it's time to look a head!

Already it seems like 2014 is promising to be a really good as well in music. There are some albums that have been announced that I have high hopes for, and then there are some albums that haven't yet been announced but that I hope will get released,

Here are a few of the highlights to look forward too:
Tool - When will we see the follow up to the brilliant "10 000 Days"? Next year it will be eight years since the last album and the next album will be the fifth in the bands 20+ years career, they're not the most productive band to say the least...

Foo Fighters - It looks like Foo Fighters will release a new record next year, "Wasting Light" from 2011 was one of the best albums the band has released yet, and that is saying a lot!

Opeth - I haven't seen anytrhing confirmed so far, but a follow up to the 2011 release "Heritage" seems logical. It will be very interesting to see which direction Åkerfeldt takes his band on this one.

Mastodon - Mastodon is another band that I'm really anxious to see where they are headed with the next album. After the masterpiece of "Crack The Sky", they made a "little-bit-of-everything-album" with "The Hunter". A new Mastodon album is always something special though!

Iron Maiden - Do we dare hope for a new album in 2014? They probably won't have time to record it so maybe for 2015? And will this be the last album of their career?

Mogwai - Mogwai is one of the first albums to be released in late January. They just keeps getting better and better so this oughta be good!

Beck - It is always interesting what this man will come up with! The new album is set for a February release.

And there are of course tons of other great albums to be released in 2014. It looks like it could be a good year,,,

A busy summer!

This summer will be pretty awesome! I have quite a few great shows to look forward to.

In June I'll see Neurosis for the first time, two weeks after that Iron Maiden plays in Stockholm on their "Maiden England" tour, one week after that there is the Slottsfjell festival here in Tonsberg and late in July Smashing Pumpkins are coming to Oslo!

The biggest act for me at Slottsfjell is without a doubt, Converge. I consider all four of these bands to be among my, maybe, top ten favourite bands so it'll be an incredible month!

And as if this isn't enough we also have tickets for the Black Sabbath show in November. Quite the year 2013...

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...

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.

Iron Maiden-En Vivo!

The new The Mars Volta album wasn't the only album I picked up yesterday. The band that has grown to be one of my big favourites, Iron Maiden, have come out with a new release for the fifth year in a row.

Two of these records have been compilations, one has been a full length studio album and one of them was a live album.

The new release is entitled "En Vivo!" and this is also a live album (three years after the last one...) and it's a concert they did in Chile. I haven't listened to it yet and I'm not sure I ever will, I still haven't heard the "Flight 666" album... I'm not a huge fan of live albums actually, I prefer to listen to studio albums. I'll probably buy the "En Vivo" blu-ray so I can play it on our TV we'll just have to get a new soundsystem for the TV to make Iron Maiden (and other concert DVDs and blu-rays) justice!

Iron Maiden box set.

I haven't really had a good experience with the Norwegian toll system. First of all they charge a 25% "merverdiavgift" on everything that costs more than 200 NOK, which really isn't a whole lot. You normally can't buy more than maybe one or two used records for that price. This limit has been the same since the 70's and we all know that you don't exactly get the same kind of goods for 200 NOK today as you did 40 years ago...

These last few weeks I've been even more frustrated than ever at the toll system. They have held a package there for over three weeks and I've sent them numerous e-mails and called them even more. I've spent three half hour breaks at work sitting in telephone line waiting for someone to solve this for me without an answer.

This week I finally got a note in the mail that my package was ready for pick-up at the local post office for a small fee. A fee that was smaller than expected since the reason why they hold my package seemed to be that they didn't have a invoice for the goods, which I've e-mailed them three times...

Anyhow... So I finally got my long awaited Iron Maiden box set. It's a compilation of the first ten years and it collects ten double 12" singles. This was released in 1990 and (taken from wikipedia) "each part in the series included a special voucher, all ten of which could be exchanged by mail order for a limited edition storage box.". I guess that there aren't that many boxes out there (considering it's an Iron Maiden release, one of the biggest bands in the world) so it's quite rare, this made it one of my most sought after Maiden records. A complete box set in good condition normally sells on ebay for somewhere between £150-200. I was lucky to get mine at about £75. A real bargain!! :)

So my Iron Maiden collection keeps growing. A very fun band to collect!

Iron Maiden

One year ago I bought the last Iron Maiden album "The Final Frontier". I wrote a blog post in which I mentioned my very small Maiden collection and that it needed to grow.

A year has passed and here's the latest release that I picked up from the store yesterday:

This is a compilation of the band's last 20 years and it's also a follow up to the 2008 compilation "Somewhere Back In Time" which compiled the first ten years.

So, a year ago my Maiden collection consisted of only three vinyls. "Killers", "Piece Of Mind" and "The Final Frontier". Since then the collection has grew considerably and at the moment I've got 31 LPs, 12" singles and 7" singles. I've got at least one copy of every full length album the band has released except for the two albums they recorded with Blaze Bayley in the mid 90s and also Bruce Dickinson's comeback album "Brave New World". These are all quite expensive at around £50 or more, so we'll se when I'll get my hands on those. Iron Maiden is such a fun band to collect since there are so much to collect and luckily some stuff are relatively cheap. So far I'm trying to limit myself to just collecting UK and Japanese versions of the full-lengths. Let's see how long that lasts... The singles I want all copies though;)