Since the Baruch blogs don’t allow Grooveshark’s embedded playlists, linking to the playlist is about the best I can do. Also, the assignment word limit needs to be higher. I’m over 800 words, which means I fail my own assignment.
The songs are in (right about) chronological order of when I first heard them, with the exception of the last song. Also, another requirement for the song to be on this playlist is that it’s still in my cellphone.
So hopefully this’ll shed a little light on my history as well as my personality.
1)Stratovarius – The Kiss of Judas
Boy, it must be a good 17 years since I heard this song for the first time… Probably somewhere around the 4th-5th grade. Back when PS1 had just come out and I had a hard time leaving my room because I was busy playing Final Fantasy 7.
2) Nightwish – Wish I had an angel
I put both Nightwish and Stratovarius on the playlist because they herald back to the early days of me listening to metal, and are definitely lighter than most of my stuff these days.
3) Children of Bodom – Downfall
This is the first band that I started to listen to that was… growl-y, probably around 7th grade. I remember I had a really hard time adjusting to the singing style, but because the melody was just so awesome, I couldn’t stop listening to the songs either. Melody-wise, there is a strong resemblance to both of the earlier bands, but the singing is the real difference. It’s thanks to these guys that I’m now able to understand most metal band singers to a varying some degree. It really opened up a lot more bands for me!
4)Turmion Kätilöt – Verta ja lihaa
The name of the song in English is “blood and flesh.” This and #5 are on the playlist for the same reason.
5) Machinae Supremacy – Winterstorm
These two are definitely the first bands that I liked that incorporated metal and electronic music. I was introduced to both bands while I was in the Finnish defence forces (=army), which is mandatory for all men. Sitting in foxholes, getting sleep 3 hours/night, doing your business outdoors, disarming mines… army was an awesome time.
6) Tristania – Opus Relinque
The album I listened to before and after army for a long time. It’s as good as the band ever got, which is sad. I really seem to be drawn to bands that use lyrics with fancy and poetic words, this song being a prime example. “Challenge my own world to chaos/Thoughts to mind becomes my arch enemies.”
7) Cradle of Filth – Saffron’s Curse
I resisted liking these guys for the longest time. But after I borrowed this cd from the library in Finland (yeah, they stock a lot of metal music… pretty awesome) and heard this song, I couldn’t help but like them. It’s brutal, sad, angry, romantic and the lyrics are divine. link to lyrics: link. Even if you dislike the music, it’s hard to resist the lyrics, they read like Shakespearean odes.
“I wished Her back but the dead adored Her
Even wild winds sang in chora for Her
Saffron from my heart, from the start I swore
We’d be together more…”
8) Agalloch – …And the great cold death of the earth
Up to this day, this is the only American band that I like. I’ve always liked nature and anything naturalistic sounding, and these guys sure do deliver. I also like how every single album and song they do seems unpredictable in how they can change from black metal to acoustic guitars to ambient electronic music with ease.
9) E Nomine – Wolfen (Das Tier in Mir)
In 2010, I did a study abroad in Japan for two months for my minor. The program was full-on Japanese studying 5-7 hours a day, 5 days a week. I would have been insanely burned out by school and trying to survive in Japan (which of course was 24/7 Japanese studying) if it weren’t for this artist. Somehow I found that if I listened to E Nomine while studying Japanese, the studying came a lot easier. I think it may have been because listening to a guy sing in German (which I don’t understand) acted as a sort of a white sound that let my brain relax while the fast beat made me work faster.
10) Theatre of Tragedy – …A distance there is…
This song is an old favorite of mine. Mostly I just added it to the playlist because it’s pretty and to show that not everything I listen to makes you want to kill people (*).
Having looked at the whole playlist, I can’t help but realize that all of this music is ridiculously old -_- I mean, most of them HAVE done good recent work, but since I mostly went with songs that I either heard first or liked first, the majority of the stuff on this list is very, very old.
I’m depressed now,
-Jori
*I don’t think my music makes you want to kill people, but that’s what I’ve been told.
