Daniel Bautista - Symphony No. 1 in A minor, Op. 12

Hey, remember me?  It's been an awfully long time since I've posted here - more than a year, it seems, and even longer since I've posted regularly.  I think I just got overwhelmed with a lot of things in 2010, and blogging was something that had to go, despite a few attempts to get back into it.  However,  I had a wonderful time posting about Christmas music on my other blog last month, so I think I'm finally ready to start posting here again too.

The first album I want to share is Daniel Bautista's Symphony No. 1 in A minor, Op. 12.  If you're a longtime reader of this blog, you might recognize the name from a post I did about three years ago.  This new album has as its centerpiece an original symphony for guitars, drums, and bass.  It sounds like an extremely ambitious undertaking, but I think he pretty much nailed it.  Even though I was already familiar with his work, I still found myself pleasantly surprised by this album.  It's very heavy, complex, and melodic.  It's also very memorable - I have caught myself humming and whistling some of the themes from it on many occasions.  I really hope that the "No. 1" in the title is a sign of things to come - I would love to hear more symphonies from this amazingly talented musician.

After the four movements of the symphony have concluded, there are a few bonus tracks to round out the album, including a beautiful version of Satie's  "Gymnopedie No. 1" and a cool progressive metal track called "Free Guitars Forever".  All in all, I would highly recommend this album to any fans of classical or progressive metal music.

Happy listening!

URL:

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/104855

Song Spotlight: Megadeth - "1,320'"

If you missed out on the free download of Megadeth's "Head Crusher", which was only offered for one day in July, this one is especially for you.  "1,320'", another song from their latest album, Endgame, can currently be downloaded for free from their page at Roadrunner Records.  Like the former song, this one is another dose of old school thrash metal that fans of their older albums will feel right at home with.  The song starts off with the sound of a race car revving its engine, followed by an insane sounding guitar riff that would fit right in on Killing Is My Business... And Business Is Good!, the band's 1985 debut album.  The final minute and a half of the song consists of Dave Mustaine and new guitarist Chris Broderick trading blistering guitar solos with each other, much in the same way as Mustaine and Marty Friedman did on "Hangar 18" from 1990's Rust in Peace.

I'd also like to take a moment to discuss the value of free music here.  Before I downloaded "Head Crusher" in July, the last Megadeth album I had purchased was 2001's The World Needs a Hero.  I could not bring myself to get excited about their next two albums, 2004's The System Has Failed and 2007's United Abominations.  I think the main reason for this was the fact that I didn't really know who the band was anymore - my favourite albums all come from the 90s when they had their most stable lineup with Marty Friedman on guitar, Nick Menza on drums, and co-founder David Ellefson on bass.  One by one, all of those guys departed the band for their own reasons, leaving me doubtful that Mustaine could ever come close to what he produced with that lineup.

All it took was a single listen to "Head Crusher" to make me realize how foolish I was to think any such thing.  In my post about that song, I said that it sounded "pretty good" and that I was considering checking out Endgame once it was released.  Well, I did just that yesterday, and it has been in fairly constant rotation ever since.  I'm very glad to have found my way back to a band I once proudly considered one of my favourites, and to discover that they are still producing excellent music, no matter who may be in the band.  I think it's even more awesome that it was a free download of a single song that led to the band regaining a lost fan - had I not been able to hear "Head Crusher" for myself, I probably would have carried on without even acknowledging the release of Endgame.  Instead, it is now a serious contender for my favourite album of the year.

So to summarize: free music is awesome and bands stand to gain a whole lot by releasing even a little of their music for free.  If you haven't heard any Megadeth before, or if you like their old music but not their newer stuff for whatever reason, you could do a lot worse than to check out "1,320'".  It's a 3.54 MB MP3 file, and no registration, email address, or anything else is needed to download it - just click the DOWNLOAD TRACK button, and get ready to enjoy.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2009/07/song-spotlight-megadeth-head-crusher.html

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/artists/Megadeth/ (go here for the "1,320'" download)

Album Spotlight: Electrocute - Pirates of Thrash

Shiver me timbers - is it International Talk Like a Pirate Day already?  I almost forgot!  I feel like such a landlubber...

Yarrr, I would have liked to have a more detailed review of this album fer ye, so I hope ye'll forgive me and not make me walk the plank.  Give a listen to Pirates of Thrash (which I found out about from Free Metal Albums) by Turkish thrashers Electrocute and then make yer judgement.

(Okay, please give me a break for just one paragraph - my throat is getting sore even trying to type this stuff!)

"Fall in Hate" opens the album with a brief piano prelude before giving way to a classic thrash metal sound in the vein of Metallica and Megadeth's first albums.  The vocals are a little on the rough side, but they fit the music quite well, and are varied enough to keep things interesting - I like how they descend into a death growl on the last line of the "Fall in Hate" chorus and rise to a falsetto in "Electric Defenders".  There are some fun moments on the album, such as Hell's phone call to the President at the beginning of "Evilsent", and the sound of waves and swords at the beginning of the title track.  If you enjoy old school thrash metal, this album is definitely worth a listen.

I'll try to be more prompt about this next year (and brush up a little more on me lingo!).  In the meantime, I hope ye enjoy this, me hearties!

URLs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk_like_a_pirate_day

http://rapidshare.com/files/74703050/Electrocute_-_2007_-_Pirates_Of_Thrash.rar

http://freemetalalbums.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/electrocute-pirates-of-thrash/

http://www.myspace.com/electrocutethrash

Album Spotlight: Diablo Swing Orchestra - The Butcher's Ballroom

Sometimes I find it difficult to pick something to write about on this blog.  Other times, the choice is obvious.  This is one of the more obvious choices.  Last week, an album called The Butcher's Ballroom by the Diablo Swing Orchestra appeared almost simultaneously on two blogs that I follow - namely, Free Albums Galore and Free Metal Albums (in fact, if you are a regular visitor to this blog, you may already have spotted this album in the sidebar under the Free music from around the web section, as both of those blogs are included there).  Marvin at Free Albums Galore wrote an excellent review of the album - as soon as I read the phrase "an insane combination of heavy metal, swing jazz, a traditional European music smorgabord, and a classical soprano voice that probably broke wine glasses in the studio," I knew that this was an album I had to check out.

 

It didn't take me very long to see that Marvin was absolutely right about this album.  This is probably the weirdest sounding album I've heard since I discovered Thumpermonkey Lives!; I think that if I hadn't already been used to hearing music that is a little on the strange side (such as Thumpermonkey Lives!, Mr. Bungle, and Devil Doll), my own head probably would have exploded upon hearing The Butcher's Ballroom - it really is that crazy.  The Diablo Swing Orchestra have managed to take all of the disparate genres listed above and craft a sound that is utterly unique; instead of sounding gimmicky (which would have been all too easy to do), it just works.  The swing metal of the opening track, "Balrog Boogie", does a great job of establishing the mood of the album; if you haven't been scared off after this song, then sit back and enjoy the ride, as it only keeps getting better.  "D'angelo", one of two short ballads on the album, is absolutely beautiful, consisting only of acoustic guitar and operatic female vocals; the other, "Qualms of Conscience", is a solo piano piece.  One of my favourite moments on the album is the transition between the sitar-infused "Gunpowder Chant" and "Infralove", which starts with an electronic beat before hopping into a number of different styles.  My favourite song overall is the final one, "Pink Noise Waltz", which throws just about everything in the band's arsenal at the listener, going from metal to a piano solo to a flute solo to a chugging NWOBHM groove to a cool jazzy outro.

 

The Butcher's Ballroom really is something that needs to be heard to be believed.  If you like adventurous, experimental music that doesn't conform to any preset standards, this is definitely something you should hear.  It can currently be downloaded as a 76.18 MB zip file from Jamendo.  Happy listening!

 

URLs:

http://freealbums.blogsome.com/2009/08/12/diablo-swing-orchestra-the-butchers-ballroom/

http://freemetalalbums.wordpress.com/2009/08/12/diablo-swing-orchestra-the-butchers-ballroom/

http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2008/01/artist-spotlight-thumpermonkey-lives.html

http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/49216

Song Spotlight: Metallica - "My Apocalypse Intro"

Metallica have just released a newly-recorded intro to "My Apocalypse", the closing song from last year's Death Magnetic album.  That song, in case you haven't heard it, is the most furious burst of straight ahead thrash metal Metallica have done since 1988's ...And Justice for All (and, I have just learned, the winner of the 2009 Best Metal Performance Grammy award).  According to the band's MySpace page, they have really been enjoying playing the song on tour, but they just "felt like it could use something extra", so James Hetfield wrote a new intro for the song which can be downloaded for free from LiveMetallica.com.

The new intro stands in stark contrast to the rest of the song; instead of being a relentless sonic assault, this is all about building mood.  The first 12 seconds of the roughly one-minute intro consist of nothing but a tolling bell, a gentle rainfall, and a crashing thunderbolt.  The bell and the rainfall continue to sound for the rest of the intro, while a simple melody is repeated on a keyboard (or a processed guitar - it's hard to tell) over a subdued but steady drum beat.  The final note of the melody is accompanied by another crash of thunder, and the drums continue for another few seconds.  It would have been awesome if they'd just released a recording of the full song including this intro, but this is still quite cool - it adds an epic feel to the song, and I'm really looking forward to hearing the full thing someday (hopefully a full recording of the current tour will surface on the site after the tour is finished.)

If one minute of free Metallica music isn't quite enough for you, be sure to check out the rest of the free recordings on that site in The Vault.  There are now more than 20 full concerts available; my brother wrote a guest post about some of his favourites last year if you need help finding a place to start.  Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.myspace.com/metallica
http://www.livemetallica.com/live-music/0,321/Metallica-mp3-flac-download-7-21-2009-Free-MP3-Download--My-Apocalypse-Intro-Copenhagen-DEN.html
http://totallyfreemusic.blogspot.com/2008/05/guest-post-artist-spotlight-metallica.html

Song Spotlight: Megadeth - "Head Crusher"

NOTE: This download was only up for 24 hours and is thus no longer available.

Megadeth's new single "Head Crusher", from their forthcoming album Endgame, is currently available for free from Roadrunner Records.  According to an article at Metalunderground.com, the song will only be free for 24 hours, although the download page makes no mention of a time limit; if this does indeed turn out to be the case, then you should have until 11:00 EDT on July 8 to download it, so go there quickly if this is something that interests you.

Megadeth have long been one of my favourite bands, and they were the first metal band I became interested in back in 1992 or 1993 when I heard "Symphony of Destruction".  I have to admit that I haven't been very interested in what I've heard from them in the last five years or so, ever since they broke up after Dave Mustaine's arm injury.  "Head Crusher", though, is sounding pretty good to me right now, so I may decide to check out Endgame once it is released in September.  It's a solid piece of classic sounding thrash metal that sounds like it would be right at home on Peace Sells.  Dave's snarling vocals are just as aggressive as they've ever been, and there's a great little spoken section in the middle that reminds me of a lot of old Megadeth songs that I love.  The drums are absolutely relentless, and the guitars sound as good as I've ever heard them sound in Megadeth.

To access the 7.5 MB MP3, all you need to do is enter your email address at the website; the download link will appear on the same page after you've done so.  Happy listening!

URLs:

http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/headcrusher/

http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=45743

Song Spotlight: Dream Theater - "A Rite of Passage"

NOTE: This download was only up for 24 hours and is thus no longer available.

This morning, I woke up to find the kind of email that I love to receive: a new Dream Theater MP3 is available to download, absolutely free, from the Roadrunner website. "A Rite of Passage" is the first single from the band's latest album, Black Clouds & Silver Linings, which is set to be released on June 23, 2009. Dream Theater have been one of my favourite bands for about 15 years now, and I still get excited whenever they release new music.

To access the MP3, a short form must be filled out with details like name, email address, zip code, etc. Unfortunately, the 19.7 MB download has been very slow for me, coming to a complete halt and forcing me to restart several times; I hope that this is just a case of the Roadrunner servers being hammered by Dream Theater fans eager to hear the new song, and that download speeds will pick up soon.

"A Rite of Passage" is mainly a mid-tempo rocker along the lines of the band's greatest hit, "Pull Me Under", at least until the breakdown is reached and the tempo picks up for John Petrucci's guitar solo, which is followed immediately by Jordan Rudess's keyboard solo. There's not a lot in this song that Dream Theater have not done before, but I have always found that their lead singles are rarely their most innovative songs. There are some nice layered vocal effects throughout the entire song, and at the very end a choir can be heard, which sounds quite cool and is a welcome addition to Dream Theater's sound.

Whether you're a Dream Theater fan already or are completely new to the band, "A Rite of Passage" should make a nice addition to your MP3 library.  For my part, it has me anticipating the new album more than ever.  Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/ariteofpassage/

Artist Spotlight: JT Bruce

Happy New Year! This spotlight is one that's long overdue, as I began listening to this artist about a year ago (in fact, he was one of the first artists I came across when I began searching for free music) before getting sidetracked with other things. He recently released a new album, though, so that makes the timing of this post at least somewhat appropriate.

JT Bruce is a solo musician who makes primarily instrumental progressive rock/metal music. Think an instrumental version of Dream Theater (so, basically Liquid Tension Experiment) and you'll have a pretty good idea of what to expect. Ever since I discovered him on Jamendo, his albums have been among the most popular on that site, and with good reason. His songs are lengthy, technical, extremely well-written, and expertly produced. Listening to one of his albums is like being taken on an epic journey, whether it is through the mind of a dreamer in The Dreamer's Paradox or through the cosmos in Universica.

I have spent more time listening to The Dreamer's Paradox than any of his other albums. It is a true concept album, complete with an overture and recurring themes, and it ends with a spoken explanation of the entire concept. I have also really been enjoying his latest album, Universica, which features 9 tracks each named after a star and shows a continuing evolution of his sound.

You can download JT Bruce's music directly from his website, although he recommends getting it from either last.fm or Jamendo, as that will save him some bandwidth. Whichever option you choose, you're in for a great experience. Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.subjectruin.net/MUSIC.htm
http://www.last.fm/music/JT+Bruce
http://www.jamendo.com/en/artist/jtbruce

Album Spotlight: Christmas Carnage Vol. 1

NOTE: This download is no longer available.

Hey there! With Christmas now past, I guess it is time to start posting about free music of the non-Christmas variety again. If you decided to check out some of the Christmas music I posted about in the last month and a half, I hope you enjoyed at least some of it; if not, then thanks for your patience in the meantime. I've had a great time discovering free music this past year and helping to make it available to people who might not have otherwise discovered it, so it's nice to be back here again.

Oddly enough, though this is my first post on this blog after Christmas, it was one of my "free Christmas music" searches that initially caught this offering, and no wonder - the compilation is called Christmas Carnage Vol. 1 and the cover art features a skull wearing a Santa hat. At first I thought that this would be a collection of Christmas songs done metal style, but a quick look at the track listing revealed otherwise. Rather than being a compilation of Christmas songs, this is a Christmas gift of a compilation of metal songs from artists on the Indie Recordings label - and a pretty cool one at that. Here's the catch, though: it's only available for a few more days - until January 1, 2009, to be exact. So this post will be a slight departure from my usual style - instead of offering a detailed review of the album, I'll just point you to the website so that you can download it yourself.

With 14 tracks clocking in at nearly 80 minutes, Christmas Carnage Vol. 1 is an excellent compilation of independent metal with a good range of styles - much of it is quite heavy, as you would expect, but there are also some mellower moments and some progressive moments that add a nice variety to the album. The entire compilation can be downloaded either as MP3's or a lossless format (not sure which one, as I went for the MP3's) and includes full artwork for a CD jewel case should you decide to burn your own copy. Check it out, and happy listening!

URL:
http://www.myspace.com/indierecordings

[Guest Post] Artist Spotlight: Metallica

The following is a very special guest post from my brother, Mike, who has kindly written up a few posts for me to use when I don't have a lot of time for blogging.

Whether you’re a Metallica fan, a former Napster junkie, or a keen observer of the music industry, you’re probably familiar with Metallica’s Napster lawsuits. In a nutshell, Metallica found out that people were stealing their songs via Napster, then proceeded to take legal action against both Napster and their own fans. And then the music world crucified them.

So for Metallica to offer free music on livemetallica.com is quite a miracle! And 17 full shows, not just a few songs! What’s the catch? None, really. You have to sign up for a free account with livemetallica.com, and then you’re free to download the free shows categorized under “The Vault.” Not sure why these shows were picked to be free, other than the fact that songs occasionally cut out early or start halfway through.

But who needs 17 free, Metallica concerts of varying sound quality? Well, probably no one. So unless you just want to go gung-ho and download all 17, I’ll just tell you about the ones I have downloaded and why.

1. San Francisco, October 18, 1982. The mix is all over the place, and James sounds like a 13-year-old girl sometimes. So why get this one? Well, for one thing, this features Dave Mustaine (!) on lead guitar, as undermixed as he may be in several songs. The following April he was kicked out and started Megadeth. For another thing, you get a good selection of Kill ‘em All tunes back when they were really new. Plus you get James’ incredibly stupid stage banter. I won’t spoil it, but it’s really childish, funny, repetitive, and often METAL to the core.

2. San Francisco, March 15th, 1985. Other than a few tuning problems, this is a good recording from the Ride the Lightning era, which many consider to be the defining Metallica period. James' vocals are more mature, and Cliff's "hungry grizzly bear" backup vocals in several songs are quite the spectacle. For a young Metallica at the very beginning of metal greatness, this show is a must.

3. Austin, TX, February 3, 1989. This is from the …And Justice for All tour. Metallica were poised to become kings of the music world within just a few years. There's much more confidence from the entire band onstage, and they were also learning how to control their tempos as well. James introduces bassist Jason Newstead as "Jason Newkid," of course, marking the beginning of a 14-year hazing period. This show is an excellent performance that stands midway between the "old" Metallica and the "new" Metallica of the 90's.

4. Middletown, NY, June 17, 1994. Metallica on top of the world, before their fans abandoned them the following year with the Load album. Truly “live album” quality with five great tunes from the Metallica album. Also essential for a really neat Kill ‘em All / Ride the Lightning medley. Metallica was a well-oiled and very professional metal machine at this point.

5. Orlando, FL, July 13, 2003. St. Anger tour this time. Virtually identical in many respects to the NY show, but this time with Robert Trujillo on bass, the third great bassist in a row for Metallica. Also features two songs (!?) from the grossly underrated and overhated St. Anger album and one (!?) from Load/Reload. Wish they could have played more!

So there you have it. Take my suggestions or make your own choices. The above five shows span every major era and lineup of Metallica. I don’t know about you, but I sure am looking forward to downloading the next Metallica album illegally on Limewire (kidding!).

1. Official website: www.metallica.com
2. Live Metallica: www.livemetallica.com

Thanks, Mike! Those are some awesome picks. I had already downloaded a few of those shows, but I went back and downloaded the other ones you mentioned and have been really enjoying them. The only show I downloaded that wasn't mentioned here is the August 23, 1995 show from London, UK, which I think is pretty special because it features some Load/ReLoad songs performed nearly a year before Load was even released. "2X4" and "Devil's Dance" are both performed in their entirety, "Better Than You" is jammed on a little bit, and "Seek & Destroy" features an extended jam section that wanders deftly in and out of "The Outlaw Torn". Pretty cool stuff.

Artist Spotlight: Thumpermonkey Lives!

Who are these guys? They are awesome.

That's a direct quote from the notes I made whilst listening to some new music recently. Doing this blog has enabled me to hear all kinds of interesting music, and occasionally I discover an artist that really blows me away. In this case, "these guys" are Thumpermonkey (also known as Thumpermonkey Lives! on their latest releases - I'm not sure why the name changed), a British band that absolutely defies categorization. As of January 2, 2008, all of their music can be downloaded freely from the Internet Archive.

Their music is primarily progressive rock-based, twisting and turning its way through all kinds of tempo and time signature changes; where it will end up from one minute to the next is anyone's guess as you're taken on an epic journey through musical lands both familiar and unfamiliar. For example, I think that fans of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle will love this band; the vocals in particular show a strong Mike Patton influence, and the music has the same out of control, chaotic feeling that was often present in the music of those bands. "Shchrodinger's Cat Lives!", in particular, sounds like a mutated resurrection of Faith No More's "Surprise! You're Dead!" Other parts of the album remind me of Tool (the instrumental section in "Slug City"), Fates Warning (the main riff in "Asymptote", although it is much groovier than anything I've ever heard from Fates Warning), and Steve Vai (some harmonized guitars near the end of "My Reality is Stronger"). None of this is meant to say that the music is unoriginal in any way; I am merely trying to describe it in terms of music that I am familiar with so that people who are also familiar with those artists may have some idea of what to expect. Thumpermonkey Lives! have definitely managed to forge their own sound, which is something that's not always easy to do.

Bring Me Sun for Breakfast is the latest release from Thumpermonkey Lives!, and so far it is my favourite. But their older albums and EPs are well worth checking out as well, and it is amazing to hear how far they have progressed in such a short time. Links to all of their releases are included below. From what I've heard so far, Thumpermonkey Lives! will definitely be a band to watch out for; I'm already looking forward to hearing more from them. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

Happy listening!

URLs:
http://www.thumpermonkey.com/
Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates [EP - 2001]
Alpha Romeo [EP - 2003]
Pigheart [LP - 2004]
Chap With The Wings, Five Rounds Rapid [LP - 2006]
Bring Me Sun For Breakfast [LP - 2007]

Free CD: The Pax Cecilia - Blessed are the Bonds

NOTE: The offer for a free CD is no longer available, but the entire album can still be downloaded in MP3 format.

For nearly a decade, it has been really easy to find music for free on the Internet. A lot of this music is not legally available for free, a fact which got early filesharing services like Napster into trouble. But there is also a lot of music that is legally available to download for free; for example, a lot of artists offer a few free songs on either their official website or their MySpace page. If one looks hard enough, it is possible to find entire albums available for free; they may not be the latest releases from the most popular artists, but oftentimes an album by a little-known artist can end up becoming an all-time favourite. When treasures like this can be found for free, they are even more special.

One of the biggest, most pleasant surprises I found in the past year was an album by The Pax Cecilia entitled Blessed are the Bonds. The album is available for free from the band's website. What makes this offer extraordinary is that they are giving away the CD for free - as in, not a digital download, but an actual, physical CD with packaging, artwork, and liner notes. I don't know how often they send out the CDs; mine took somewhere between a few weeks and a couple of months to arrive - long enough that I was wondering what a CD was doing in my mailbox when I found it there.

That's all well and good, but what about the music? Getting a free CD is nice, but surely it isn't worth much if the music isn't any good, or if it's poorly produced. Thankfully, Blessed are the Bonds suffers from no such problems. The entire album sounds beautiful, with plenty of dynamics that allow the quiet and loud parts to stand in contrast to one another, avoiding the "wall of noise" that plagues so many modern albums. The music is basically metal, but there are enough acoustic, piano, and string-based passages to give it a very unique sound that is quite unlike anything I've ever heard. There are parts of the album that remind me of Devil Doll and Tool (for example, on the first track, "The Tragedy", some of the string arrangements and the vocal style, respectively), but these parts are brief, and soon the music spirals out into some new sonic territory. It's definitely not the type of music one normally runs across, so for that reason alone it is worth checking out; the beautiful packaging and artwork are a great bonus.

Blessed are the Bonds is currently available from The Pax Cecilia's website; just click the Contacts link for their email address so you can send them your mailing address, and then keep an eye on your mailbox. Once your CD arrives, please come back here and post a comment to let me know what you think of it.

Happy New Year everyone! I hope 2007 was a good one for you and that 2008 will be even better; I'll do my part to help out by continuing to provide you with great music all year long.

URLs:

http://www.paxcecilia.com/index.html