Rubbing The Magic Lamp

Thanks to Pandora: Intro II
Rubbing The Magic Lamp

The Early Bookmarks

  I had bite marks. It was the Symphonic Metal Bug biting me in my ass. I felt like I had walked into a fantasy world in which all the things that I hated and sucked about the music I had drowning in had been magically turned into all things that are awesome and good. So yes I had rubbed the fabled genie lamp and all my wishes were bestowed upon me. Instead of the huge process I was going through (discussion boards, lists on Last.fm, youtube or myspace (yes a myspace reference in 2011)) and then hoping- just hoping the songs were pleasant enough to my ears to want to add them to my bookmarks. Instead of all that- I just click on my Pandora Player. It digs through the genres for me. Rub the Lamp. Click Thumbs-up. Listen the song for 2 years and decide it's so good I need to write about it in this blog. The best thing in this chronicle, is the time-line. Since I eliminate the abandoned links, the just-ok moments get weeded out and the result is a time-line that just continues to get better and better. Hoping that you follow with me this discovery, allows me to reflect back on each song in its moment of relativity to my whole search thus far.

    In my time-line I am currently just about 1 year and half behind. In 2010 I began to thumbs-up songs in my first official "station" on Pandora. The tracks I thumbed up are dated automatically in my list which makes it a precise time-line. Some of this does overlap with my blog Season 1 so some of what I had found on Pandora did influence me to find more on my own. Now that I am writing this blog, I must recognize what my pandora player means to me and this search.

   What is really great about Pandora is its one-click seamless usability and overall on-target user profiling. But there are minuses. It is by no means a complete collection. The majority of artists with long careers are usually only represented by a portion of their content. The genre-specifics at times are way off. Which really tends to piss off people like myself who are really looking for genre-driven content. So its a little irritating when you see bands that you know well be linked to bands that have nothing to do with them. Some of these labels and associations have been cleaned up but its obviously not Pandora players main concern and use the terms 'other bands like ___" very loosely.

  Having said that, My station of EpicAfterHIM (see link on side panel) was bringing me fantastic, wild, bombastic, some generic and some off-the wall recommends. My player though was in cruise control. The Lamp was rubbed, the Genie was blowing smoke of awesomeness and making my wishes come true. I just had to not forget to Thumbs-up this stuff as it came along.

   This next set are more songs from (now familiar) bands to my bookmarks. Not the A-typical selections neither, which proved to me my plan was working. Pandora was let out of her box, a little chaos ensues and after all the smoke and fire... just burnt timbers of awesome left behind.

Epica - Force of the Shore (NL, 2005 Symphonic Metal)

  From their second release, Consign to Oblivion, this song is such a perfect primer to the genre, that someone who is not familiar with Symphonic Metal would get a good idea rather quickly what its all about. The opening, for example, does a good job of making this song stand out. Even today, years later when this song does come up on my play-lists, it catches me instantly. Yes the choirs, yes the strings, and the divine near-perfect vocals of Simone Simons, all in place, But most just hear this blissful union, along with the death-metal growls (when paired together, is called Beauty&Beast vocals)- but Epica is deeper than just that (see previous posting: Epic Songs from Epica)

 This song, as are most from their catalogs, is drawn in a world of parallel, in symbolism, in perspective. That world allows you, the listener to take from it what you wish. In this case, its the Force of the Shore. I hear awesomeness. The story, the narrative, is just a bonus.

Apocalyptica- Fisheye (Finland, 2005 Symphonic Metal)

  An absolute stand out. 1000% recommended. It's a full listen. It's a complete experience. The Finnish quartet playing only cellos in an original composition along with a drummer, some slick production and songwriting that which can only be described as imaginative and uncommon. No lyrics here. No hot Dutch Female vocalist to steal the scene. Only long-haired prodigal virtuosic Finnish rockstars thrashing- destroying it on their cellos. As if it's done that way- everywhere. No, No it's NOT. This is NOT the real world. In the real world I have to deal with people considering Katy Perry and Lady Gaga as pioneers. This is my fairy-world I reside within, when I breathe the smoke from the awesome Genie. When my Pandora player throws something at me that simply defies that which is expected.

   Right from the beginning, this song cranks right in, the intro feeds the first melody, which crescendos into a near death-metal heavy thrashing as drifting melodies are carrying upward. The song quietly breaks for another reprise of this melody; almost like a bassline section would do. But it's the breakdown that knocks this into a scoring position. Another crescendo and a unifying feel of tension as the drums do fountain-fall rolls after roll... you know already this wont end nicely. The last few breaths of this song makes the home-run a grand slam. Thank God for those longhair Finnish guys.

Octavia Sperati- Icebound  (NL, 2005 Gothic Metal, Doom)

  OS; I have featured them here so often I need to refer to them as abbreviations. I'll never forget the first time I heard OS. It was a song called Moonlit. (see previous posting: The First Batch) It was one of those moments that opened my eyes to this fairy-world of where everything is awesome. It took me one passage of the groove, in the first 40 seconds I knew I was onto something good. So when my Pandora player played a song from OS- I practically went into shock. There wasn't a whole lot of songs on youtube from them, most of the links I found were gone and this song completely eluded me once I thumbs-up it. Only recently the link I share here, found it's way to me, one day looking for other songs from OS and boom I said yea I remember this one. Sure enough, it was on my thumbs-up list (along with others I will share here for sure, there's so much I love from them)

 This one comes from the 1st full-length CD Winter Enclosure. Doomy, dark and very Sabbath but very melodic along with the drudgery, multi-layers of Silje's beautiful vocals, almost whispery as her accents flow against the grain and the song simply bursts into a solid heavy stream of bombardment. It's a fairy-world, yes. But not always a perfectly beautiful one. It has dark corners. Disturbingly enough though, is how the song ends. No warning, almost as it began.

  A feeling of "what happened?" comes over and it's perfectly done. The answer of what happened is my pandora player scores again. It didn't just bring up the most common song from OS, nor from Apocolyptica, nor even the heavyweights of Epica, it selected these songs as if to say, "Wait to you hear this one!" It's as if it knew already that I would thumbs-up these. The Genie was working, all I had to do was click play.

Side note: All 3 from 2005.

Next Update: After Forever, Therion, and The Gathering, Pandora brings out the big guns.

Symphonic Metal Saved My Life: Thanks to Pandora

Symphonic Metal Saved My Life: Thanks to Pandora
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)

  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

Unknown, Underrated and Awesome

Unknown, Underrated and Awesome
Songs 58-60... Octavia Sperati and Silentium return

The last of my first group of songs I have my play-lists stop here at songs 58, 59 & 60. Don't think I simply stumbled across 60 only-awesome songs. I've eliminated a portion of songs in my lists from the aspect that they simply weren't as special as the others. So therefore songs 58-60 are actually quite special to me. This was during a time-frame I was convinced that Symphonic Metal was my New Thing, but I was running into less and less of it that I liked and more and more of the darker, gloomier, more death-metal or Gothic Metal influenced sounds. Its just that I was becoming quite picky and there seemed to be more quality from the other genres excluding symphonic metal, and these are 3 more of those that stand out for me.
   I had just begun tinkering around with my Pandora Player during this timeframe and most of my links from songs 60 to somewhere around 90 are directly related from my pandora player. But not these last 3. Both bands have made their appearances very early in my listings and its the the 3rd separate update for each of these 2 bands, who I consider to be criminally unknown. I feel they are both very exceptional bands with worlds of talent, and the world should know about them.
  So lets get to these last 3 for my first season of My Endless Search. Next update I begin my links from Pandora, which will mark season 2. Once I get past the majority of those, I will begin into the releases of 2010-2011 and hopefully catch up to current time. That's when I start Season 3.
Hope you will stick through it all with me... as I continue My Endless Search.

Octavia Sperati - Lifelines and Depths  original version


Revised w male drummer

Octavia Sperati- Lifelines and Depths (Norway Gothic/Doom Metal, 2005)
    Simplicity at times, in actuality, can be rather complex. Perhaps simple on the surface, but when you pull back further away, you see (in this case hear) interwoven layers, bits and pieces which stand on their own, segmentation and transition, all which I consider as dynamics.  And in this song all the dynamics of Silje's melodic vocals show through it all, almost outshines in fact. But the music is as beautiful, the variance in the drum parts and how the guitars go quickly over the slower, longer counted drums are a great contrast to the smooth long notes held by the vocals. The quiet breakdown allows to focus on her voice before the return of the pounding rhythm. In the original video this section is in its entirety. If you listen closely, you may even hear some influence that Anneke (The Gathering see previous posting: Falling In Love with An Angelic Voice) had on Silje, who was picked as the new singer for The Gathering, in case you didnt know by now...
   And as of recent, The band has become a little more known since the fanbase for The Gathering is so huge, and their fans are beginning to discover them, but its after the fact, since it appears there wont be anymore Octavia Sperati. Which is depressing because they have provided some truly awesome moments like the next song...


Octavia Sperati- Going North (Norway Gothic/Doom Metal, 2007)
  I think this song and my favorite from OS, which is Moonlit (See previous posting: The First Batch) both won me over very early, like before the song even made it halfway through. Here the bassline grabs the attention as the band simply plows in afterwards. Have I forgot to mention the band is all female? (male drummer did replace the original Female drummer) well I don't care but it really has a great heavy feel to it and even with the band putting out so much power, Silje still finds room to have her moments. At times the song feels like its falling down and raising back over hills which just give it more and more energy, like a roller-coaster, all the while Silje sings just above like in the clouds overhead. The best part though hits at 2:11. The lone bass intros the middle doom-heavy section which is very inspired and should make your eyebrows raise up, then a haunting melody is sung over this slow punching chromatic passage and your hairs on your neck should raise. Then you have no choice but to follow along with the pummeling until the last chord. Makes you want to do it all over again, doesn't it?


Silentium- Hangman's Lullabye (Finland, Gothic Metal 2005)
  Silentium is one of those bands which seemed to take a few releases to fully find themselves, and after a few changes at vocals, find themselves a true songstress within Riina Rinkenen. As Ive mentioned, I have posted songs from Silentium earlier in my blog (see previous postings: Pretty Voices, and Return To Finland I). I cannot emphasis enough what I love about her tone and delivery, and it's a perfect match for the music that the band writes. The overall mood is Eerie and atmospheric, with droning guitars and lightly flighting keyboard parts intertwining with violin and more recently, cello. The drum style stands out a bit more than the a-typical from this genre, allowing for more room, more pacing without overpowering or leaning too heavy.
  After the first few directions in this song change, it is clear that the band is carving out its own niche. Without sounding too happy or too depressive, Riina delivers a sweet melody which lingers just long enough after the pauses to give the song its edge. The best parts are the loudest, at times it feels like Silientium is making a statement whereas their songs feel of huge scope and depth, such as how this song, one that feels of a dark slow ballad, actually picks up steam for a nice solo section at 4:20, then a quick break which Riina gets to shine before the band goes back in at full force.
  One thing that marks this song is a common theme Ive come to realize is my favoritism of songs that have a lot and I mean a lot going on. The last passage feels like a puzzle coming together, all the pieces of the layers, simple in thier own way, form into a multi-textural, complex thing of beauty.

  Now as I move into Season 2, songs 60-90 the next question is, will these 2 bands make another return? Considering how much Ive come to love what Ive shared so far, would'nt you say the chances are pretty good?
 
Next Blog Update: More unknown, underrated, and awesome music - no surprise there... The beginning of Season 2: Thanks to Pandora!