Plaüsible Playlists

Some of the best tracks out there put together to form own theme album entities. I’ve been making compilations for myself for a long time and figured out that other folk must surely find some joy from playlists that consist of masterpieces!

Post-rock Melancholia playlist

Melancholic post-rock slow burners collected to an album like playlist.

1. Moya is a sloooow starter from one of the biggest names of post-rock Godspeed You! Black Emperor. It is a post-rock collection after all, what would it be without some mood buildup :).

2. Glanko’s – 9003 (feat. Mote) is a really surprising sidestep by this idm artist. I repeat, an idm artist, yet its characteristics are of this collection, not of idm. Somehow his quite excellent Telekommand ep came to have this stunning blue ambient tuned piece with some mellow violin work. It is really surprising how close electronic music can get to post-rock.

65daysofstatic have a lot of electronic music influence and elements but 3. Unmake the Wild Light focuses on their organic side. I also can’t recommend their album Wild Light (2013) enough. From start to finish a terrific album which two sentences can’t do justice (duh). Unmake the Wild Light is a bit more hopeful track before the 3 closing tracks of this collection turn damn somber. The end quaternity is very close to my favourite 4 post-rock pieces all time.

4. Mogwai’s – No Medicine for Regret is a real slow burner, quoting some guy from last.fm because he said it best:
nomedicineforregretcomment

5. Dipole Experiment and 6. Les Iris both have endings to die for. Dipole experiments 11:35 minutes feel like 3 minutes to me and the massive orchestral end buildup is definitely among the most emotive I’ve ever heard.

Yes, like Glanko, Alcest is not an actual post-rock band but Les Iris has strong foundations in post-metal / post-rock. Not to mention it is one of the only tracks that can still feel like an ethereal two ton truck after Dipole Experiment’s gargantuanity. And it feels a lot cause I know the end is nigh. Via some gentle blastbeating, and it is funny how blastbeating can sound gentle but it does, Les Iris impeccably traverses to one of the most perfect endings known to man. Alcest has an ability to conjure a completely jaw-dropping melody all the sudden. The last minute of Les Iris is the most shining example of it.

Monumental metal 3 – Finnish Epics

This playlist comprises of epic Finnish metal tracks. It ranges from melodic death metal, to folk influenced metal, progressive rock, post-metal and black metal to industrial.

1. The New Beginning is one of the best tracks of Insomnium but was never released as a “real” full-length track. It’s been released in Where the last wave broke EP and as a bonus track of Across The Dark.

2. On Lonely Towers is the centerpiece of Barren Earth’s 2015 album and welcomes them back into form. Especially welcoming is the great vocal performance by the Faroe Island native Jón Aldará (also known from Hamfero). That is not to say the previous vocalist Mikko Kotamäki (Swallow The Sun) didn’t do a good job on previous albums, but after about 10 albums that I’ve heard him sing on, the more powerful voice of Aldara is a really welcome change.

3. An epic Finnish metal collection without Amorphis wouldn’t be perfect, which is why My Kantele, in my opinion the best track of their discography was chosen for this record. It is also suitable transition from Barren Earth who have their ex-keyboard player and have drawn a lot of influence from Amorphis, to Kingston Wall. Kingston Wall in turn is one of the biggest influencers of Amorphis.

4. You can read more about Kingston Wall from my previous blog post if you are interested further.

After a few greats, I decided to go underground with a lot less known bands (5.) The Chant and (6.) Crib45. Neither is yet classic material but have produced a few fine records, most notably the ones which best tracks are featured here.

7.  Jotunheim is as close to nature Moonsorrow has yet reached. I truly adore most of their longest tracks.

8. Iiwanajulma, with its Finnish lyrics produces a pessimistic, self-hating, melancholic but staggeringly real picture of the current Finnish mentality at its worse. The closing track 2014 album Hallelujah is one of the most fantastic lyrical pieces of Finnish metal really.

Suomi on maa jossa eksyneen lapsen silmissä loistaa 666 – se laskee maailmanloppuun ja kansansairaudessa on Suomen tulevaisuus

Suomi on maa jossa ahdistunut kansa nukuttaa lapsensa yhä tukenevassa jurrissa ja herää joka päivä pahenevassa darrassa

Suomi on maa jossa kiputiloissa tehdään töitä opiaateissa – meillä on historia ja se opettaa lukihäiriöistä kansaa maan tavasta

Kaikki samassa raamatussa, icd-10 -tautiluokittelussa, yhteiskunnan bipolaarisessa mielialahäiriössä

Kerro kerro kuvastin ken on on maassa ahkerin – muotihuumepäisissä duunipäivissä saisko olla sun kaltaisesi ronex, tenox vai venlaflaxin

Ritalinia saa äidinmaidosta ja kaikki on hyvin täällä meidän lintukodossa.

P.S. Not translatable by Google Translate

MonuMENTAL Metal oddities

MonuMENTAL Metal oddities collection is wrapped around bizarre bands BUT NOT humour music. Odd turns, eccentric elements, milestones of human vocal capacity and also some instrumental extremities. This collection ought to surprise and bewilder the listener, however its middle point is still great compositions.

1. The starting track, Dysrhythmia‘s probably most rhythmic and meaningful song, Room of Vertigo starts with a lot of groove. Dysrhythmia excels in making seemingly random mess that starts to make sense on further listens. Room of Vertigo is one of the easiest tracks to grasp as it has immediately catchy dreamlike melodies and a steady beat.

2., 3., 4. Next to follow are tracks from Pryapisme’s Futurologie epic, which is one track divided to 11 different movements. At best Pryapisme is masterful in combining everything possible in their soup and yeah, they are French. Obviously the last track of Futurolgie release is a 23 minute orchestrative version of the release. Figures.

5. Havoc Unit started as Festerday in the beginning of 90s, quite a regular grindcore/death metal hybrid. They switched their name to Cardinal in 92, to Peacefrog in 93, to Raw Energy in 93 and 95 they finally slid off to oddland by becoming …And Oceans, symphonic black metal electro hybrid.

Their second album The Symmetry of I / the Circle of O was a double release with a symphonic black metal album + a electronic/ambient/noise album. Which is really quite boring to be honest. Later on they incorporated more electronic and industrial elements and kept having extremely weird track titles in various languages. How about Äcid Sex and Marble Teeth (You-phoria), I Wish I Was Pregnant, Mikrobotik Fields / Uråldrig saga och sång or Angelina: Chthonian Earth: Her Face Forms Worms. The list goes on.

In 2005 …And Oceans became Havoc Unit and released a brilliant brutal death / industrial / experimental album h.IV+ (Hoarse Industrial Viremia) 2008, along with a few splits. Klan Korps [Volkssturm & Erregung] (feat. Strom EC.) is a piece from this album. The circle (of O) closed in 2013 when Havoc Unit became… you guessed it, Festerday!

6. After Havoc Unit there are a few milestones. First Demilich’s When the Sun Drank the Weight of Water. A finnish progressive death metal band which is musically magnificent and also has a distinctive feature. Their singer Antti Boman (un?)officially has the deepest growl in human history. His growl goes so deep that in the 90s when they were active Terrorizer hired an expert to state that the growl cannot have been made without pitch shifting. But apparently it is! Demilich is also known for weird track titles. Some of my favourites are. The Sixteenth Six-Tooth Son of Fourteen Four-Regional Dimensions (Still Unnamed) and Inherited Bowel Levitation – Reduced Without Any Effort.

7. Fleurety is exactly the opposite extremity in pitch. Their singer Alexander Nordgaren ruined his vocal chords by shrieking like a fucking eagle. It sounds really painful and it is incredible singing like that is even possible. Profanations Beneath the Bleeding Stars is also a surprisingly solid track, however their next release Min tid skal komme is the real jewel of their discography. One of many “lost” metal releases that many consider a classic but most people have never heard about.

8. Amesoeurs can be thought to belong to what some people not all unscornfully regard as hipster metal. Their only full length from 2009 is in my opinion not too great but it appealed to a lot of people. Sure enough it has some brilliant bits. La Reine Trayeuse sums it up well by starting as a weak pop track. In the middle of its length things turn so bewildering I’m not sure any other except French people could pull this off so magnificently. First the pop base turns to fast paced black metal then the female vocalist puts on quite a lot more a torturous shriek you’d ever expect this band to be capable of. And I mean its not just 3 seconds, it lasts about half a minute. The end of the track is also damn excellent.

9. Meads of Asphodel and 10. Sigh are rare breed who both formed to monsters of mixing different genres to their mostly metal basis on their own. Just listen how My Psychotic Sand Deity switches between hard hitting metal and dreamy interludes turning into angelic female singing to hard rock soloing to black metal. Or how Amnesia Blues’s away with growling vocals and the smoothest piano jazz solo in metal history.

11. More monumental vocal and instrumental extremities with You Suffer by Napalm Death. The shortest track ever recorded and also one of the fastest lyrical outputs ever. “You suffer, but why?”. All this in exactly 1.316 seconds.

12. Behold… The Arctopus annoys me quite a bit when listened in large quantities but they work well served in careful small doses. Like the short bursting Putrefucktion. They are one of the most extreme bands in terms of the amount of different sections every track contains. Putrefucktion is more just a mindfuck, a very entertaining and peculiar mindfuck.

13., 14., 15. Meshuggah the old odd groovemonster that somehow influenced one generation of teens to create an own popular genre, Djent. The album Catch-33 is clearly my favourite bit of Meshuggah discography with its lovely rhythmic background. It is nearly a one track album as it flows from one track to another so smoothly. Just when you think you get the rhythm, it changes to something else! The last four tracks are all diamond, but in this collection I left out the last one, ending it with Shed, Persona Non Gratae and Dehumanization.

I am getting an unsubstantial amount of satisfaction about the unpredictability of these tracks, especially the end of Dehumanization. I tried to further help the listening mood by placing the tracks in rather eccentric order. The plan was to fuck with ones brain, but also to deliver logical transformations too. This was probably the funniest compilation to do and I think it transfers well to listening experience.

MonuMental Metal Collection II

Another collection focusing on epic metal masterpieces. This collection goes from symphonic death metal (Septicflesh) to progressive thrash (Vektor) to black metal roots leading into different directions (Tribulation, A Forest of Stars, Oranssi Pazuzu) and melodic metal (Atoma, Enshine).

Septicflesh’s Mad Architect is a brilliant unison of death metal and majestic, mentally symphonic orchestration with a chorus to die for. Truly an original kind of a death metal track fit such a fitting title.

Accelerating Universe is the finest piece of the world’s finest thrash metal band Vektor‘s first album. My statement may seem preposterous but Vektor. Is. The. Shit. I don’t say stuff like this lightly. Metal simply does not get much better. This is how you make modern thrash metal. Both of their albums are absolutely killer and 3rd one is coming up in May. My most anticipated release of 2016.

Apparitions is a true grower-type of a track. The ending track of Tribulations The Formulas of Death from 2013. Tribulation is yet another original band combining both black and death metal with progressive compositions. I admit it, I’m a sucker for original bands that compose brilliant music.

Drawing Down the Rain is the masterwork of A Forest of Stars. They embarked from black metal background but nowadays add psychedelia, melancholia and progressive elements with otherwordly lyrics. I wasn’t supposed to use the same band twice in collections this soon but Beware the Sword You Cannot See was one of the very best releases of 2015.

Hole in the Sky by Atoma somehow manages to be even more epicly tuned and majestic than its predecessors while being less metal.

Ympyrä on Viiva Tomussa, like Apparitions took me a while to grow. A brilliant way to sum up Oranssi Pazuzu is their first promo letter where they stated that (roughly translated from Finnish): “Oranssi Pazuzu makes churchburners and bluntburners hold each others hands”. They combine psychedelic elements with black metal; Ympyrä on Viiva Tomussa nears a shamanistic ritual.

It was supposed to be the closing track as it leaves me utterly empty, but I realized that the beautiful melodics of Constellation by Enshine actually light up the feelings instantly. After Slumber broke up in 2011, the members formed Atoma. However Jari Lindholm left and formed Enshine. It’s only natural to have them on same collection.

Did I say Epic Metal Collection I was my favourite. I feel that this one is even stronger, 100 % killer tracks.

f922429ebfaf9bebaa664c8149d10261You can also find all playlists from playlists.net:
http://playlists.net/epic-metal-collection-ii

 

 

MonuMental Metal Collection I – From Progressive Metal to Doom

First playlist of the MonuMental Metal Collection series. Of all the half a dozen playlists already complete for this serie, this may be the strongest one.

The Origin Of Species and The Origin of God by The Ocean can really be counted as one 12 minute track. The first track is probably the worst on this playlist but still stunning. It also gives a good basis for the collection to grow better. The Origin of God contains some divine saxophone melodies with also interesting philosophical lyrical content

Apparition By Spawn of Possession unites technical death metal and symphonic elements in an unique fashion. Yeah I’m looking at you Fleshgod Apocalypse.

Grand Gathas of Baal Sin starts as black metal blaster but in the end turns to titanic rhythmic drumming with shamanistic chanting and some middle eastern stringwork. Simply extraordinary song by an extraordinary Israelian metal band Melechesh.

As Rome Burns‘s beginning is also very rhyhmic and the track develops to one of the strongest endings in metal history powered by gutwrenching shrieks and supremely powerfully delivered vocals by Alan Nemtheanga. It is a grower which should keep getting better for years to come.

Waiting For You took me a few years to realize. Originally I considered it a tad boring, but one day when walking on snowy roads the incredible relaxing tension of the first half opened up.

Synagoga Satanae by Celtic Frost is one of the heaviest tracks ever made full stop.

A lot of these tracks are growers that took me years to grasp fully. If you don’t seem to get them at the first go don’t worry, listen them 10 more times!

9bf574f152e095f29c0c83dc917880ddYou can also find all playlists from playlists.net
http://playlists.net/epic-progressive-collection

MonuMental Progressive Collection I – from Progressive Rock to Black Metal to Breakcore

The first MonuMental Progressive Collection playlist starts with suitably uncommercial Finnish Progressive rock, advances to black metal and finally ends with modern breakcore classics. It’s idea is to progress naturally from genre to genre and also ramp up the quality track-after-track. It is a challenging ride, but when you are in contact with masterpieces, that’s what you bound to get.

1. For someone whose mother tongue is not Finnish the first track Kuha. – Tohtori Krabolan Telekineettinen testilaboratorio (From Telekineettinen Testilaboratorio, 2005) might seem like an odd bit. To be honest it was a slow starter for me as well. But from that Kuha. emerged as the best pure progressive rock band in Finland since Kingston Wall.

2. Dillinger Escape Plan‘s best instrumental, always surprising When Acting as a Wave (From Ire Works, 2007) serves as a small bridge to Chapter I: Introverting Dimensions by The Fall of Troy (From Phantom On The Horizon, 2008).

3. I know what you are thinking here, what is that half-emo band doing on a metal playlist. But that’s the thing, they are only half-emo, the other half is firmly rooted in Progressive rock, and most so on their EP Phantom On The Horizon. Give it a listen and you will see. Thomas Erak’s guitar playing is truly mesmerizing. At some point you may get mixed up and think you are listening to bastard cousin of The Mars Volta instead of an emo band.

4. A Prophet For a Pound of Flesh by Forest of Stars (From A Shadowplay for Yesterdays, 2012) is the first step to metal. On of the many bands who builds their flavour from black metal but has grown a vast amount of tentacles since their first efforts.

5. The Fecal Rebellion is by Mirrorthrone (From Gangrene, 2008) which is one of many Vladimir Cochet’s project. This one man powerhouse has such an amount of talent it is ridiculous. All his projects have only a few albums which I must take as the main reason of the fact that he has only advanced to cult classic status so far. If you mix modern classic music with complex black metal this is something you may get. Plus there’s harpsichord!

Waters of Ain by Watain (From Lawless Darkness, 2010) is a track that leaves me speechless every time. For me, this is the ultimate black metal track, mixing elements of black metal, progressive rock, Celtic frost and heavy metal perfectly. It is everything.

6. The only way to top Waters of Ain is to abandon metal completely with Venetian Snares – Integraation (From My Downfall (Original Soundtrack), 2007). Integraation is from Aaron Funk’s neoclassical releases where he mixes complex electronic beats with classical music elements. Also at best Integraation is actually as heavy as any metal track.

7. Venetian Snares – Miss Balaton (Bonus track) (From Detrimentalist, 2008). I know you aren’t supposed to put two songs of the same artist into a compilation. Whateva I do what I want. In truth I could not exclude Miss Balaton as it is even better than Integraation and fits perfectly after it. I won’t even start describing the goosebumps.

P.S. The playlist originally had Kuha.’s 25 minute Kalifi Myy Mustaa Valoa as a starter but it is not in Spotify.

266576-1449435327You can also find all playlists from playlists.net
http://playlists.net/epic-progressive-collection

Great Music Videos – Fall 2012 – A Forest of Stars, Swallow The Sun, Agalloch

Something different for a change. Music videos and fan videos that I have enjoyed lately.

A Forest of Stars – Gatherer of the Pure (official music video) (61 000 views)

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy, I will still label this as the best music video I have ever seen. It was released in June 2012 and made an intense impact. In fact with the second view. The first was stunning but after the second view I had time to focus on the other aspects besides the plot and music. Since then I must have rewatched it over 20 times.

The video is very game-like reminding of the beginning of a masterful game, Braid. It also has a Limbo-like dark colour and character scheme. But still does it uniquely that its clear its not a rip off of any single influence. The track Gatherer of Pure is a good one. First time ever, when listening the track from the cd; I actually wish I was watching the music video instead. Without the music video the track just isn’t complete. It even works to that extent that for a lyrics freak like me, the lyrics of track are just a minor point. The most important point is the balance of the dramatic composition and dramatic events in the video which are very well adapted together.

The graphic illustrations are of course nothing short of stunning with absolutely beautiful shots from an imaginary place. The clever use of yellow and black and white colour scheme with at times sparked with red, blue and other effectcolours is a remarkable effect. After the video looks like just a misshapen love story, do not miss the end. It is such a distorted piece of plot-twists that will blow you away.

Swallow the Sun – Emerald Forest And The Blackbird (Unofficial Video) (4800 views)


In fact, it is a fan video of clicheic forest photography. But, the photography is so stunning that it doesn’t bother at all. Absolutely beautiful forest shots encompassed with one of the best songs of 2011. A stunning view that takes you away for a wintery forest walk in Finland. Very topical as the winter is coming…


Agalloch – The Sowilo Rune (“The Sowilo Man” fan video) (2300 views)


A fan video, named “The Sowilo Man” is of course a take on the events from the move The Wicker Man (1973). One of my all time favourite movies. Taken from The White EP that encompasses a lot of elements and voice clips from the movie. For everyone who loves the film; this video is a welcome revisit to the lovely looking, beautiful yet in the end dark schemes of the movie.

And a word of advise for everyone not familiar with the original Wicker Man. Do not watch the Nicholas Cage version (2006). Find the classic Wicker Man of 1973 or better yet, the extended edit. It has lots of great scenes that were cut out of the theatrical version without the agreement of the film creators. Some of these parts are in this video as well.

Sergeant Howie: “And what of the true God? To whose glory churches and monasteries have been built on these islands for generations past? Now shall what of Him?”

Lord Summerisle: “Oh, He’s dead. He can’t complain. He had his chance and in modern parlance. Blew it.”