Even Pandora Player Knows These Bands
Welcome to Season 2
Flashback more than 15 years ago when the viability and accessibility of the world of promises made by online services and the 'its free' movement - Internet radio was the buzz. Obscure, obscene, rare, genre-driven, mindset apparent, age-appropriate channels were among the diversity of internet radio. It never kept my interest. In all fairness, I am someone who despises all radio. It's done nothing but bring me down, narrow my perspective and remind me that if I was happy listening to a station, it only meant I fit into their targeted demographic. The truth is the content of programming must eventually reflect the stations need to raise profitability. How can this business model work on the internet which is based on listening for free? The answer is the same. Remember when radio was free? (it still is, in 2011 but paid-for satellite radio is gaining popularity) So somehow every internet radio station Ive listened to, even with all the narrow-marketing, still felt like regular radio. I mentioned in the beginning of this blog I was listening to an underground web radio station that totally played every goth-club/80s underground song I love- but even that got boring for me. Thankfully, there is something better. Its Pandora.com
Ive heard that listening to Pandora.com is so 2009. Which is about the year my bookmarks for this entire blog begin at. It took me about a year into this that I started messing around with the settings for my own station on pandora.com (my pandora player)
The stations' name is EpicAfterHim which refers to Epica, After Forever and HIM. What in turn I get as content is pretty much based off those 3 bands. I get Symphonic and Female Fronted Metal seeded from Epica, which includes some symphony only seeds, I get Powermetal, Progressive and instrumental jazz directly rooted from After Forever and I also get alt/dark/doom metal, mostly from Finland, based on the fact I have included HIM.
Right off the bat I was hearing a nice selection of songs I didn't know, but from artists I was beginning to be familiar with. My first 3 thumbed up songs are below and yes they are from some of my favorite bands. So I began to become mad and irritated all over again. Mad @ Radio - Not Pandora, but radio because all I needed to do was plug in a few words to this thing and BOOM- my eyes opened up. This THING knows EPICA and every other band that has taken me up to this point about a year and a half to get into, by researching, by reading, by trying practically EVERYTHING, well except this THING. So needless to say I felt like I was in the dark all this time. I was just getting into Symphonic Metal, and whatever that can be lumped in there just getting to know that I LOVE After Forever, that I LOVE Epica and this website HAS them. It made me kinda sulk back into my chair in disbelief. The internet and all this tech is so unbelievably ONE-CLICK away. (hint-you can click my player and experience some of this right now)
The stations' name is EpicAfterHim which refers to Epica, After Forever and HIM. What in turn I get as content is pretty much based off those 3 bands. I get Symphonic and Female Fronted Metal seeded from Epica, which includes some symphony only seeds, I get Powermetal, Progressive and instrumental jazz directly rooted from After Forever and I also get alt/dark/doom metal, mostly from Finland, based on the fact I have included HIM.
Right off the bat I was hearing a nice selection of songs I didn't know, but from artists I was beginning to be familiar with. My first 3 thumbed up songs are below and yes they are from some of my favorite bands. So I began to become mad and irritated all over again. Mad @ Radio - Not Pandora, but radio because all I needed to do was plug in a few words to this thing and BOOM- my eyes opened up. This THING knows EPICA and every other band that has taken me up to this point about a year and a half to get into, by researching, by reading, by trying practically EVERYTHING, well except this THING. So needless to say I felt like I was in the dark all this time. I was just getting into Symphonic Metal, and whatever that can be lumped in there just getting to know that I LOVE After Forever, that I LOVE Epica and this website HAS them. It made me kinda sulk back into my chair in disbelief. The internet and all this tech is so unbelievably ONE-CLICK away. (hint-you can click my player and experience some of this right now)
Ok I have the breathe again and get back on track here...
Overall I feel Pandora is on the right track. Randomized free internet radio with program-ability and user-end social media integration and an exceptional database that certainly feels as eclectic as you seemingly wish it to be. So let's get to the first 3 songs I share here, which I discovered directly from my Pandora player, on My Endless Search.Of course there are pluses and minuses with using the Pandora Player, which I will get into as I share with you, in order, the songs I have thumbs-up'ed..
Epica - Feint (NL, Symphonic Metal 2004)
In a very weird parallel, the first song I Thumbs-up'ed is this hugely popular song from Epica, which is so similar to the very first song I found from Epica (see previous posting: Pretty Voices FFM). This song, a gentle flowing vehicle for Simone Simons' voice to float effortlessly over. In the video, she is as breathtaking beautiful as the song is as she shows off just portions of her range, and the long pads of violins flow and ebb underneath. As was the first song I found from Epica (Solitary Ground), this song is a bit understated in contrast to the other songs yet to come... Also, I do know it wasn't the very first song my programmed station first played which was Nightwish (not included here for certain reasons)- go figure!
Kamelot - Wander (USA, Powermetal 2003)
I have a lot of Kamelot songs in favorites. Only "Ghost Opera" so far I have included here (see previous posting The Others III, Violins) This song I have managed to keep listening to, thanks to Pandora. It's from the 2003 release, "Epica" (Where the band Epica got their name from) I thumbs-up this one I believe somewhere 1:54 when the drums first kick in and there is a great moment before the solo where the outstanding vocals of Roy Khan break the silence. The whole song, again is quite understated from what I will be featuring here but the seed has been planted. More songs with outstanding vocals, more wandering piano and violins underneath. Songs like this though you need to break up some of the ultra-furious pace of Power Metal or the over-dramatics from walls of symphonic choirs, or dizzying arrays of vocal acrobatics. So I recommend this song, just a nice breather before you delve deep into something by a band like say, After Forever....
After Forever - Beneath (NL, Symphonic Metal, Progressive 2003)
Pretty impressive start, now that I look back that my first 3 thumbs-up were from Epica, After Forever and Kamelot. Now if I am introducing to you these songs, I can only assume you are freaked out by Simone's beauty and talent, by Roy's (Kamelot) strength and range and delivery. But I can only prepare you for this one by saying I consider her (Floor Jansen) to have the greatest voice in all of metal (see previous posting After Forever Blows My Mind). This song is a huge collection of hugeness with Floor's huge voice filling it up all over the place. The sheer volume with the instruments, the pounding drums, the chugging guitars and she just slays it. It begins out innocently enough though this song is about a quite violent event that occurred in Holland and the song eventually begins to express all that rage and aggression, there are beautiful passages before a talk-over from news reports, cluing you into the gravity the song has and then Floor just blows the walls out through the last passage.
If I was to just stop at this point, it all would be good enough for me. Thank you Pandora. I do recognize though "Terrestrial Radio" is good for 1 thing... getting traffic on my way to work but besides that... I hate it.
Next Update: More from some now-familiar names
