From: David Bradley (ibradley@nauticom.net)
Date: Mon Jul 06 1998 - 00:05:33 MDT
As you should have guessed from my previous e-mail, I enjoy at least classical and
hard rock/metal. However, it goes far beyond that. I won't tell of much of it,
since if you already don't listen, you probably never will.
However, I have been wondering how many others on the list listen to power/
progressive metal. Progressive metal is rather self evident to be at least
somewhat extropian. However, power metal is on a different level. Before anyone
says "bah, just noise, all of it." You should really give some bands a chance.
Some of my favorite bands:
BTW, I'm not affialiated with any of the following, I just love their music.
Blind Guardian:
Their lyrics are far from extropian (focusing mainly on fantasy
fiction by the band and famous authors such as Tolkien), though some extropian
concepts slip in (i.e. songs inspired by books such as "Blade Runner/Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sleep?") The extropianism comes in their music. It is absolutely
amazing. They started as a really good straight speed-metal band, but not many of
you would care about that. Since their album "Somewhere Far Beyond," however, they
have adopted a sound that I've never heard in a band before. They have very powerful
and fast music when needed, but also slower, acoustic numbers that have such emotion.
Another interesting trait is the giant choair-type vocals used in many a chorus. If
you enjoy fantasy, or very powerful and heavy, but still emotional music, you should
at least try this band. Unlike most sterotypical metal, they never hold back on
melody and harmony, but they also use a lot of time changes, which is what really
conveys the extropianism about it. They are a truly difficult band to describe, since
they use rhythm, melody, and harmony so perfectly that they do not fall easily into
any category. Their new album, Nightfall In Middle Earth, is a concept album
based on the first half of the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (the second half
will be continued on an upcoming EP). To anyone who has read this, you konw how
much emotion is captured in this book - Blind Guardian expresses all the sorrow and
pain *perfectly* IMHO. Also to any classical people, their solos and, now, a lot
of their base riffing are very classically oriented.
Great pages about them at: http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f94jowe/bg/
and http://www.blind-guardian.com
For sound samples try: http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f94jowe/bg/mmedia.html
Of most apppeal to most of you would be the first two Real Audio files
and the first three (second one is split) .mp3 files.
If any of you like them, don't hesitate to e-mail me privately, as I have another
six .ra files that cannot be found there (sorry, I will *NOT* copy CDs or portions
of CDs for anyone).
Their albums are now being distributed in the U.S. through Century Media, who
sells even imported CDs for very cheap ($10-$12 American dollars per CD, usually.)
However, they are rather slow (both in shipping time (2-3 weeks, usually) and also
in updating catalogs, so you will probably have to e-mail them about any Blind Guardian
CDs you would be interested in. A bonus about Century Media is that there are many
great bands either signed or distributed through this label. For orders over $80,
shipping is free.
Iced Earth:
This is a band that is acutally signed on to Century Media, so their
CDs are all $10 or $8. Another band extropian in musical style. Lyrics here
are mainly dark fantasy, though two notable exceptions are a musical journey
through Dante's "Inferno" and a concept album about the "Spawn" comic book,
hey, don't laugh, Spawn has a better, sadder plot than many books I've ever read,
certainly doesn't fit the name of "comic" book.
This band has a different sort of "atmospheric" quality than most of you are used
to. There is a lot of fast strumming and time changes. There is a wealth of
good music here.
http://www.icedearth.com has a lot of sound files (a good deal are temporarily down
due to server space.)
Samael:
This band used to be straight Black metal. Wait! Wait! They've changed.
Just to let them make their own impression, their newest album is entitled "Passage"
and the cover is a picture of the moon. How's that for extropian? They are a
heavy, heavy metal, almost techno in parts, but with beautiful keyboarding all around.
Since the "Rebellion" EP, they have been quite extropian.
This is another band which needs to be heard to be believed:
There is a sound sample here from the keyboardist/songwriter's classical remake of
"Passage"
http://www.invader.de/samael/xy.htm
The sound sample here is not as demonstrative as some others would have been, but you
can see the lyrics of some of their better material:
http://www.invader.de/samael/pass.htm
I'll leave you now with some quotes from Samael
"I know how little is the value of that which has a price."
" Profound is the pain from which is born deliverance
Long is the path which leads to the light
And you march alone ..."
" So small in my greatness
I am the one who never wanted to be
So great in my smallness
I am the one who knows he is not"
"I am my Savior"
Interview with Xy / Samael / Dortmund / Ruhr-Rock-Hallen / 01.06.1997
Invader, The Metal @-zine
"I don't want to change people anymore, you know, it's just... you just show some
ways. But you should not give like an exact way, you just show a direction which they will follow or
not, if they want to or not. But I don't think that you have to give them everything. So that's why there
are like a lot of different interpretations you could get from the lyrics, from the image of the band and
from everything. It's always like in-between, and that's something I like, because then people have to,
you know, make up their own mind, it's not something (so) precise where they could say: ‘OK, it's like
this'. They still have to make their own idea out of it, so...
Invader: So, is it like a sort of resignation about other people?
Xy: I just think the point is that if you try to change somebody and to force him to do so, that will
really never work. It's best to choose to show something, and then people change on their own. And
it's best that you don't really try to change them. They just make it in their own way. And then, the
change makes sense, because then they really change, they know why they change and, you know...
this is stronger, I think.
Invader: So, it's still like: ‘Be your own god..'?
Xy: Yeah. Sure. But I think everybody should be, you know. It's just ‘follow yourself, because you've
got everything inside'. And you know everything. I'm trusting in that you're ... whatever. Then you
don't have to listen to what people say, you just listen to yourself, and that's it. But that's what
everybody knows but nobody practices. Most of the people know this, it has been told a hundred
times."
"Du bist die Frage, deren Antwort wir haben"
Dave Bradley
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