A world dedicated to music.
I love rock, metal, and progressive, but you'll also hear classical, Big Band jazz, oldies, and anything else that tickles my ears.
- Created By TimeChaser
Threshold - Fragmentation (Acoustic)
One of the great things about Threshold is that they've done several "fan club" releases, special albums of interest to their fans. These range from live recordings to compilations of remixes and unreleased tracks.
One of my favorites is Wireless: Acoustic Sessions, where the band reinterprets several of their songs in acoustic form. Kicking it off is "Fragmentation", originally from their 2002 album Critical Mass. While the original recording was all right, I felt the song had several flaws, but it feels and sounds much better as an acoustic song, and this version is a personal favorite.
Dark Tranquillity - Cathode Ray Sunshine
So far I've given you some prog, classical, Big Band, and a bit of hard rock. Time to flip the channel to one of my guilty pleasures...
There is a style of heavy metal music often referred to as Swedish melodic death metal, aka Gothenburg metal (named after the Swedish city where it was born). One of the founding bands is Dark Tranquillity, arguably the least changed from their origins than the other groups. They blend heavy playing and coarse vocals with a more neo-classical sensibility that still makes room for melody. If classical music had continued and taken a darker evolution, it might have sounded like these guys.
"Cathode Ray Sunshine", from their 2002 album Damage Done, was the first Dark Tranquillity song I ever heard.
My Music Recommendations
I have quite a sizable CD collection, and I also love to share my music with people, because I think I listen to some incredible stuff and I hope I can introduce people to something that they in turn will find wonderful and want to hear more of. ...Franz Liszt - Liebestraum
Another one of my favorite classical pieces. I first became aware of Liebestraum through Victor Borge (who was one of the most brilliant comedians in the world, if you don't know who he is), and later set out to learn this song when I took up the piano. Of course, the version I learned was simpler than the original.
The Tea Party - Temptation
The Tea Party is, in my opinion, one of the few really great hard rock bands to come out in the last twenty years. Hailing from Canada (just like my heroes, Rush), The Tea Party mixed hard rock, prog, blues, and threw in a heavy Eastern influence into their music as well.
"Temptation", the opening track off their 1997 album Transmission, is a particular favorite, drawing you in with it's intro on the tar (Middle Eastern version of the lute) before the hard rock side comes crashing in.
