Turn me on to your music

What do you listen to? Is there some band out there I've probably never heard of that really excites you? If so, drop me a link in the comments here, or just a name and I'll look them up on youtube or myspace.

I've asked this favor of my readers before and I got a couple interesting new groups to listen to. For example, Michael (MPhil) turned me on to Cynic:

Cynic - Adam's Murmur

Cynic - Evolutionary Sleeper

Cynic - Integral Birth

Cynic - Traced in Air

sinned34 turned me on to Opeth:

Opeth - Circle Of The Tyrants

Opeth - In My Time Of Need

Shadowstreak turned me on to Mortification and Paramecium:

Look Away - The Paramecium

Just reading Bear McCreary's blog I found a couple interesting groups named, Muse and Ozric Tentacles:

Supermassive Black Hole - Muse

Ozric Tentacles - "Coily"

I don't know what the odds are that you've heard any of those bands but I think I can come up with some groups you've never heard of. For example, here's an interesting little Christian Death Metal band called "The Drama Scene."

They're just now putting out their first album it seems and you won't find them on youtube. They've just got thses samples on myspace. I liked "The Devil's Among Us" and "My Razorblade."

And what are the odds you ever heard of Hawkwind:

Hawkwind - Master of the Universe

Hawkwind - Space Is Deep

Hawkwind was a group I liked when I was in high school but never listened to again after I got to college... until recently when I looked them up on youtube.

Another group you may not have heard of, Eyehategod:

Eyehategod - 99 Miles Of Bad Road

Eyehategod - Lack Of Almost Everything

Of course, obscure groups aren't the only kind I listen too, they're just the only ones I'm noting in this post. But I will mention Ozzy because Ozzy's music has been with me since I first heard Black Sabbath in high school and I've never stopped listening:



So, tell me what music you listen too.

UPDATE:

Wow! Lots of music to check out thanks to all you people. And following your links on youtube and myspace leads to yet more related bands. If you're a Death Metal/Black Metal fan the numbers of groups out there is overwhelming. It's a world wide phenomena.

There is Russian Black Metal and also Death Metal:



There is also Japanese Death Metal and Chinese Black Metal:





And does any of this look and sound familiar?

And here's an interesting artist you can find on Kompoz.

UPDATE 2:

This band recommendation comes from Bear McCreary:



Bear wrote:

Captain Ahab - This guy works with me all the time, but his records are incredible. In fact, I’m actually doing orchestral arrangements on his upcoming album. But, the last two are outstanding. It’s crazy, insane, occasionally very offensive techno and dance music, but there is a sadistic sense of humor to all of it. Like songs by the South Park guys, his music is funny and also intelligently satirical all at the same time.

A summary of Bear's other recommendations with semi-relevant links (see the comment on his own website for more details but no links): Boingo, 1994 album by Danny Elfman’s band Oingo Boingo, also their previous album “Dark at the End of the Tunnel” (1990). (A lot of “BG” musicians (Bartek, Avila, Vatos, Doug Lacy) playing on both these records). Ozomatli, 2001 release “Embrace the Chaos,” especially “Vocal Artillery.” Warning: their most recent record is to be avoided though. Bt4, his brother. Raya Yarbrough, his wife. Buckwheat Zydeco, and then of course bands we all should know: Queen, Pink Floyd, Guns n’ Roses (not so much the new record), Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy, Al Green, Supertramp, The Specials, Elvis, Michael Jackson and The Band. Film and TV scores, his stock in trade, favorites are: Elmer Bernstein: To Kill a Mocking Bird and / or his RPO Pops “Best Of” CD. Jerry Goldsmith: Alien, The ‘burbs, Gremlins 2, Stark Trek: The Motion Picture. Bernard Herrmann. Lalo Schifrin: Enter the Dragon. John Williams, Temple of Doom and Empire Strikes Back were always my favorites.

My Christmas Gift

(Or, the prototype for "Marilyn Manson's War on Christmas Special")


Gather round children, gather round... Now that the Natalis Domini festival is over it is time to learn the dark secret of Christmas. The secret is this: It's not Jesus' birthday. No one knows when, or even if, Jesus was born. The seasonal significance of the winter solstice was celebrated long, long before there was a Jesus, or Christianity. Various cultural mythologies and traditions had arisen long before our culture's religion claimed this day as their own.

Outside the sun has been on a decreasing arc across the Southern sky. On winter solstice the sun ceases to decline in the sky and the length of daylight reaches its minimum for three days. Then, on the night of winter solstice, as seen from a northern sky, the three stars in Orion's Belt align with the brightest star in the eastern sky Sirius to show where the Sun will rise on the morning after.

This was noted long before our religion existed. Saturnalia was the feast at which the Romans commemorated the dedication of the temple of Saturn, a large and important public festival that involved animal sacrifices. The concepts of birth or rebirth of sun gods was common. In seventh century Japan they celebrated the reemergence of Amaterasu or Amateras, the sun goddess of Japanese mythology. Requiems for the dead were held and rituals performed throughout the night as they awaited the sunrise. Aspects of this tradition have continued to this day. The indigenous people of Finland, Sweden and Norway, worshiped Beiwe, the sun-goddess of fertility and sanity. She traveled through the sky in a structure made of reindeer bones with her daughter, Beiwe-Neia, to herald back the greenery on which the reindeer fed. On the winter solstice, her worshipers sacrificed white female animals and covered their doorposts with butter so Beiwe could eat it and begin her flying journey once again.

So, huddle up shivering in your blanket near the crackling fire with a warm cup of Cocoa as the world outside is blanketed in this season's cadaverous snows, crystal and cold and deadly, for tonight you shall have a gift given in the true spirit of the long lost holidays of the ancients, the gift of Heavy Metal Delirium to help you through this the longest, and the darkest, night of the year.

Sweet dreams are made of this:

















UPDATE

If you're confused by the comments here it's because I dropped some requests on other blogs for help looking for more music. I seem to have come down with a strange case of heavy metal musicophilia and you'll note that a lot of the linked music here is decades old. I'm wondering how out of touch I am with what's going on today in heavy metal. It once dominated my life in high school, but then sometime during college I stopped looking for new music. So, I am just getting started to again look for the music like I once did and your help would be appreciated. If you like the music I've got linked on this post and there's some band you think I might like to hear, drop a link into the comments section and share.

And if you're looking for new music yourself, here's a heavy metal critic's site you might find useful: Chad Bowar's Heavy Metal Guide.

My next metal post will probably be called "The Devils Music" and will feature "Hail Satan," Black Sabbath's N.I.B. and the Rolling Stones "Sympathy for the Devil." I'll also be looking for preachers railing against rock and roll.