Sara Hammerzmith

Today has been a pretty calm day. I went down to my ‘workplace’ to settle some stuff that had happened during the weekend, and while I did so I treated myself with a little treat to what may be a little piece of heaven on earth: Knastret.

It’s a local recordstore that sells CD’s and vinyls second-handly. I had brought the list of CD’s I planned to get, but you know… letting myself loose in a record store like that… Not good. I only came out with three CD’s though, because I had limited myself money-wise, and only ONE of these CD’s were on my to-get list. Typical me, always end up buying THE OTHER albums…

So what did I get then? First of all, the CD that was actually on my list:

Dream Evil‘s “Evilizied“. The full discography of Dream Evil is on my list (aside Dragonslayer, which I already have). It was so fun – I was going through the D section looking for Dionysus, when I saw a Dream Evil album, which was Dragonslayer and I was like “damn, wrong album” BUT THEN – THE VERY LAST ALBUM IN THE CONTAINER WAS THIS ONE. And I’m like “YES! It’s on the list!” One more to scratch off. This is the CD that has “Children of The Night” on it, in case anyone cares. Released in 2003.

Quiet Riot‘s “Metal Health”. This is an album that I HAVE planned to get for a long time, but I have never put it on my list. And today, when planning to treat myself a CD, I decided to go for it, once and for all. I guess I don’t really NEED to tell people this is the album containing “Cum on Feel the Noize” but I’ll mention it just in case. This album was originally released in 1983.

Last but not least – Kittie‘s “Spit“. This is the all-female Canadian bands debut album and I was SO STOKED to find this there! Didn’t really see it coming, SOMEONE who dropped their CD’s there must have a rad musictaste. This is the album that contains “Brackish” and “Charlotte”, for those whom it may concern. Released in 1999.

By obtaining these gems, I’ve also managed to finally fill up the shelf. So tomorrow I’ll take myself the time to re-organize all my CD’s in Mr Blue and let the 32 records waiting to be sorted to be so. Ahh. Seriously, I’m gonna be a crazy CD lady one day.

// Sara

Today has been one of those days completely devoted to dig up old music things by favorite musicians, and I’ll just continue down the road with Joey Jordison. Murderdolls are already in, and I’ve had a taste of The Rejects, so I figure it was about time to check out the band with the funny name – Modifidious. Mod-i-Fi-Dious.

Since this is way out of my comfort-zone, I’m just going to believe the page I found which held a review of one of the EP’s stating they are trash/speed metal. Apparently Joey created the band due to lack of local bands to play alongside bigger bands when he booked them to play in Des Moines/Iowa. They were created in 1991, and split up already in 1995 due to disagreements with bass-player Ryan. Other memebers in this band was Josh Brainard on vocals and guitar, who would later be one of the first guitarists of SlipKnot as well as Craig Jones on guitar, someone we nowadays know as #5, or, 133.

There’s not a whole lot more to say about this band than this, so I’m just going to link to you some of their material, and the rest is up to you. I like it, that’s for sure.

// Sara

Alright! Time for the second part of my year in music according to Spotify. This is the last part of the “series”.

According to the chart, I listen to music the most on Sundays, and average of 2 hours. So not a lot, apparently.

Most popular artist is Amaranthe, no surprise there. Like I said, I spent a few weeks listening through their albums prior to the show here in town.

Here comes reason number two why it actually is as much as six days of music: Frozen soundtrack. The most played album is Frozen Original Soundtrack in SWEDISH, because fuck the english one when you have Annika Herlitz. When making our Frozen cosplay before the premiere of the movie we listened to this on repeat.

Most play playlist is the list “Dreamscaperers”. Yes, I name my playlist after Gravity Falls episodes. Dreamscaperers is my “ultimate” list for me to bring out if I’m visiting someone else, and it’s also the list where I put in songs as a reminder to get that and that album if it’s an unfamiliar band.

Drumroll please for… Top 10 songs!

Number 10, “Blame it on the Disco” by Swedish Disco-group Alcazar. I have a weak spot for Alcazar, although I’m surprised to see it on the list since I started listening to it only lately… Hm.

Number 9, “He’s Back” Alice Cooper cover by Swedish death metalband One Man Army and the Undead Quartet. I absolutely LOVE this cover, and I think I recall posting the same cover here on my blog a few months back.

Number 8, “Ferb-Latin” by Phineas & Ferb. This is one of my favorite Phineas&Ferb tunes and I don’t even know why. I don’t care much for the episode with the same name, but this song.. I think it’s the rythm. It’s a fun and cheeky song. Like it.

Number 7, “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” by Meatloaf. Does this song need an introduction? Didn’t think so.

Number 6, “Let it Go”, (Idina Menzel). Well, Frozen-fever what can I say. I love the song, and I think most of you people already know this.

Number 5, “För Första Gången Nånsin (Repris). Frozen-fever, and this song is actually close to be my favorite song from this movie. Believe it or not, but it’s just something about it. “Let it Go” is good, but not even close to “For The First Time” or the reprise of it. It’s especially Elsa’s part I’m just so weak about… “No escape from the storm inside of me”…

Number 4, “Busy Doin’ Nothin‘” by swedish singer Ace Wilder. This was my favorite in Melodifestivalen this year, so no surprise it’s up here.

Number 3, “Dragula” by Rob Zombie. This was after I had discovered this beautiful creature on Sweden Rock and anxiously awaiting “Hellbilly Deluxe” to arrive at my doorstep. Imagine the discipline it took to keep to only this song.

Number 2, “We Drink Your Blood” by Powerwolf. THIS surprises me a little bit, but on the same time, it does make sense it would be this high up.

Number 1, I guess this comes as NO surprise to ANYONE: “Slå Dig Fri”. The Swedish version of “Let it Go”. No matter what you say – I’ll ALWAYS prefer the Swedish to the English, and this is no exception. The lyrics are amazing, and we are not even going to talk about the amazement that is Annika Herlitz. Love it.

Well then. This was my year in music according to Spotify, it does not in any way possible reflect my whole music year as it doesn’t list neither my iPod plays nor my CD or vinyl plays but it was a fun run to see!

// Sara

Alrighty! The new year is coming closer and closer and I thought that now with the days inbetween I’ll do some long dragged out year-resumé. I will start this thing with Spotify’s little feature “My Music Year” or whatever it is called. I had it done a little while ago, but I have waited all up ’til now to post the results!

However, I will split it up in two, and here’s part 1.

First of all, this image show how much music I’ve been listening to on Spotify. I think already by watching this you guys understands how little I use it, and thus why the list doesn’t show proper representation of my music.

But yeas – absolutely nothing on my phone, no surprise, I never listen to music on my phone and I never will do. 8726 minutes translates to about 6 days in total. Six days of music. It’s a little more than I thought, But I’m also not surprised when looking at the other results.

My most played genres throughout the year. It’s very close, percentage-wise to each other. The only surprise to me, personally, is the graph of melodic death metal, but I’ve started to accept the fact that I might have been wrong about the whole genre the whole time, and perhaps it’s not what I thought it was. But aside that, no surprises.

This is my most played artists/bands per season. Winter season features Norwegian singer Lene Alexandra, no surprise at all. Her songs may be stupid, but I effin love them. Can’t listen to brainy music all the time.

Springtime and Summertime has been dominated like hell by Amaranthe. I discovered the band during spring this year, and in an attempt to learn all the songs prior to the concert since I had no way to get the CD’s in time. And this is one of the reasons why I’m not overly surprised by those “6 whole days” since I probably spent AT LEAST a day or two going through Amaranthe’s two CD’s (at the time).

Autumn was dominated by The Haunted by the same reason as Amaranthe. I was about to see them on Nöjesfabriken and wanted to be a little familiar as to what I would be seeing. And when you think about it – going through all these cd’s, ca 50min/a CD (cirka), well, then it easily adds up to a day…

So yes! This was the first part of my year in music. Tomorrow we’ll go over the rest.

// Sara

Today I wrapped up the very very last assignment for this semester before christmas break, and I feel soooo happy about it. Finally I can focus on other things, like, panicking over random things.

“She’s A Demon” must really be one of the better songs off “Scare Force One”. Like, as most of you know, the album is close to my favorite album off them (I don’t really dare yet to say it’s better than Deadache, I need a bit more time before I can say that) so it’s not very surprising that I’d like most tracks off this album – with that said, it’s really only “The United Rocking Dead” I don’t fancy so much – but hey – there’s a song I dislike on every Lordi album (at least one) so this isn’t weird.

But “She’s a Demon” literally just came on my shuffle on my ipod and I’m just sitting here trying to sing along as good as I can with my mediocre voice, but seriously, the melody in the prechorus? Can we just?

“Dear Mother, this may be goodbye”… Ahhh. I could practically listen to that part over and over again. I seem to have a thing for pre-choruses. Ahh the lyrics makes me shiver a bit. Ahh.  It makes me think of an old Lordi song, but I can’t seem to remember which one. Perhaps it’s “Devil is Hiding Behind Her Smile”, but I won’t promise. But you know – the full song is just… Aside “Scare Force” itself, I believe this is one of the tracks that I could listen to on repeat without getting tired of it. I hope they play it live for Tour Force One.

// Sara
 

Alright, so here’s something different for you.

As some of you may know, my heart doesn’t belong fully to metal. There’s also a big part of it what belongs to popmusic, amongst other things, and one of these artists are Getter Jaani. Getter Jaani is an estonian singer who’s probably most famous for her appearance in Eurovision Song Contest 2011 with her song “Rockerfeller Street” which she got a well-deserved place with.

Anyway, after her mesmerizing appearance on the show I asked my estonian friend Argo to pick up her album for me, which he did in a heartbeat. He’s amazing that way. He also included an autograph by her. Thanks Argo, truly! And the album? Pure estonian bliss.

So, the album is called “Rockerfeller Street” and is filled with twelwe tracks perfect dancemusic. It opens up with her big ESC hit “Rockerfeller Street” and just continues down the block with cheerful tones and nice beats, except from the one slow and sweet moment in the middle. Pretty much everything I’d ask of a dancerecord. All songs but three (“Rockerfeller Street”x2 and “Robot”) are also sung in estonian, which adds an amazing charm to it. I have difficulties choosing ONE favorite, I’m stuck between “Grammofon” and “Teater”.

This is one of the few records, alongside Olly Murs’ “Right Place, Right Time” that I’ve found myself returning to more often than not, much to my own surprise. So, if there is anyone out there who reads this that do like some quality dance music, check out Getter Jaani! I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Amazon |  Spotify

// Sara

Alright, so this past weekend I’ve had my small moments of shuffling through bands on Spotify, and I came across this little band.

(Source: metal-archives.com)

They were called Dionysus, and were a Swedish/German band formed in 1999 by drummer Ronny Milianowicz, who left the band in 2007 and succeeded by Johannes Berg before the band, much to my dismay, disbanded in 2008. This is literally the second time I find a band I like that turns out to have disbanded. WHY.

Anyway. The band released three albums during it’s time – debutalbum “Signs of Truth” in 2002, followed by “Anima Mundi” (2004) and “Fairytales and Reality” (2006). They also released a compilationalbum in 2008. Apparently, this band worked fairly close to HammerFall – seeing Joacim Cans co-wrote a song or two on their albums, and Ronny did some backing vocals on “Legacy of Kings”.

What really got me into them is their EPIC music. I mean, basically – take HammerFall, but add some of the magic from Amaranthe you got Dionysus. Big chanting chorus, loud keyboards and epic lyrics makes this band just perfect, or perhaps, Epic. That’s really the best word to describe them. Judge yourself below!

// Sara