Moonspell - Night Eternal

 

At first, I thought I'd conclude the short series av Rebel Angel Ramblings that puts the Swedish darkness and the month November in focus with something more grey than black. I thought of Icelandic Sólstafir and their loomy, grey and very autumn-like music.
I even started a post that way.
Then I just completely changed my mind.
Do not know why, but I felt like more darkness would be appropriate.
And I also happend to listen to Portugese metallers MOONSPELL, with their one-off great album "Night Eternal".
It is very strange, as for example the follow up "Alpha Noir/Omega White" is...mediochre. At best.
But "Night Eternal" is a great album!
Weird.

So, there are two songs that holds the flag high from "Night Eternal", the loomy power ballad "Scorpion Flower" (with guest vocals from dutch Anneke van Giersbergen) and the title track. I've chosen the title track, as this was the first contact I had with this record, and it is a great way to conclude the series of November music that has been rolling once a week during this month.
The track hits hard, I think.



So, the band then.

• Fernando Ribeiro  – vocals (1989–present)
• Miguel Gaspar  – drums (1992–present)
• Pedro Paixão  – keyboard, guitar (1993–present)
• Ricardo Amorim  – guitar (1995–present)
• Aires Pereira  – bass (2007–present)

Personally, the thing I like the most with the song (and the record) is the vocals combined with the feeling the guitars and the keyboards create. It is almost a bit scary, but still with that quality that drags the listener in and keep them there.
A great song, a great way to finish this suite of posts from Chief Rebel Angel, with music that really fits the Swedish darkness. Even if it is from Portugal...

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Moonspell Web

Listen to ”Moonspell - Night Eternal" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Dimmu Borgir - Dimmu Borgir

 

Hello.
Today we are going to enjoy the darkness of November, and we are going to be led by a band that used to be black metal and now.... not so much.
DIMMU BORGIR.

With that first coment, I understand that several of you, oh almighty readers, might think that i see this as a bad thing.
I do not.
My relationship with the Norwegian black metallers that have taken their namne from the cliff on Island started quite late. I know that their albums "Stormblåst", and the 3-word-titled-suite "Enthrone Darkness Triumphant", "Spiritual Black Dimensions" "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia" and "Death Cult Armageddon" are considered to be classics within the genre - but honestly... I have little or no love lost for them.
I've heard them, I own "Puritanical...", but they do not speak to me.
They do not touch me.
It was not until the epic first track of "In Sorte Diaboli" that I really understood anything of DIMMU BORGIR (the track is titled "the Serpentine Offering" and begins with a sort of "Lord Of The Rings"-esque intro before blasting ahead with both might and melody) and actually felt that they were a band worth listening to.
And then the 2010 record "Abrahadabra" came along and just turned everything upside down.

This is no longer black metal, and it is a record filled with orchestral arrengements.
The mixing and the production of the album is just poerfect for an audiofile with access to a great stereo (me!), and hitting play to allow this "larger-than-life"-sounding record to fill the room is an amazing experiment.
The band has used a real choir. They have used a real orchester (The Norwegian Radio Symphony Orchestra) , and the use of the real deal instead of keyboards or samples really pays off on this record.
It.
Sounds.
Amazing.

And it also presents us with quite a different tune to accompany the november darkness.
Yes, we are still in the suite of guest posts by me, Chief Rebel Angel, that presents a number of different tunes that can act as sound track to the darkness that we in Sweden call the month of November - and this, with all it's light and easy-listening-qualities somehow fits perfectly in to that cathegory.
It is dark, epic and emotional at the same time as it is bright and hopeful, weirdly enough - and for me, walking along autumn roads during the daytime, kicking large red and yellow fallen leaves cannot be done to a better song.

The band has a core of three members, Shagrath handling the growl and the keyboards,  Silenoz doing the guitars together with Galder, but the guest musicians on this albums are propbably the ones that makes it great. They are Snowy Shaw that handles bass and the clean voices, as well as Daray behind the drums. They do a great job, and it is a bit sad that they are not represented on the band promo pics (on the other hand - take a look at the top picture and think twice... is it really a good thing to be part of..?).

Anyway - here's today's tune. "Dimmu Borgir" by.. DIMMU BORGIR!




More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Dimmu Borgir Web

Listen to ”Dimmu Borgir - Dimmu Borgir" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Moloken - The Titan Above Us

 

Imagine: darkness.
Utter, complete, mindnumbing darkness.
It's quite difficult, is it not?
Personally, I end up with a feeling rather than pictures in my imagination, feelings of being small. Insignificant. Exposed.
At least if I imagine that utter darkness with no hope of light, no hope of dawn on the horizon.
Perhaps this is what we call Black November in Sweden?

This is the third post in a series of five, celebrating the darkness that is the Swedish month of November with fitting music to accompany the darkness. All posts are made by Chief Rebel Angel, as guestposts, and the general idea is simple.
1) Find music that is fitting for this month
2) Create a mix so that the music presented is varied and from different subgenres of metal.
3) Present music that might not be so videly spread in a post

Today, we are going up north in Sweden, to the city of Umeå.
I've lived there. Made my military service there, lived in the student homes there (hey Ålidhem, for thos of you who know the city!) but never actually studied - and worked there.
I have strange memories from that city.
It was a great time, and I was happy and a bit crazy - and still I cannot think foundly of Umeå, due to the rivalry with the citys ice hockey team from my team. That kind of clouds my judgement, and the funny thing is that I know it is silly - but still can't do anything about it!
Musically though, Umeå is a great city.
Having spawned the likes of REFUSED and MESHUGGAH, the  scene is very much alive and vital.
Todays tune comes from MOLOKEN, and it is a very suitable record for this time of year.
It is also a record that gives me that same feeling as when I imagine complete and utter darkness.
I feel... small.
Insignificant.

The music is epic, a bit monotone and cruschingly heavy. MOLOKEN means "dejected" in english, and sums up the bands sound in a good way.
It goes without saying - this is a record that fits perfect in to the small three-step idea of the posts for november. The tune is the first off the album, an album that hit the stores in 2011.
This is "The Titan Above Us"!



The band is working on new material, and for those of you that live in Sweden and have just been shuffling around Sweden as support to NAGLFAR on a club tour. They will also be a part of the Gothenbourg Sticky Fingers-festival Scorched Tundra in december (together with AGE OF WOE, SKITSYSTEM, KONGH and TRUCK FIGHTERS).
"Rural" is the MOLOKENs second full length album, and it is an album you should pick up imidiately if this sort of sludge/doom-metal is to your liking.
After all - this is more or less the perfect soundtrack to the November darkness....

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Moloken Web

Listen to ”Moloken - The Titan Above Us " on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Wolves Like Us - Secret Handshakes

 

 

Oh.
Alright.
You've entered the second post in a suite that comes from the Swedish Darkness, the month that we call... November. It is number two in a short series that is written by guest writer Chief Rebel Angel (normallu at the swedish blog Metal!) here at Tune Of The Day, and the idea is to present music that is fitting and well in line with the month in focus.
First out was the aptly named NOVEMBERS DOOM, but as number two in the series I thought we'd have something that is perfect autumn music...without being especially hard.
It is a very long way from black, doom or sludge metal, something that would otherwise be easy to connect with cold and dark weather.
This, my friends, is one of the really fun things that keeps me coming back to the tradition of making all the "Tip Of The Week" in november as a bit special with focus on such music - and trying to find such music without just repeating the same kind of extreme metal subgenre every week.

So today we are going to Norway, and we are gonig to play music that feels... wet. Not the dark, gloomy, utter hopelessness wet that can be manifested in black metal, but more of a rain-against-the-cost-while-seawater smashes against the cliffs kind of wet.
Steel gray skies.
Naked tree branches against these skies.
Damp air, rain that falls lightly but without an end.
In my imagination WOLVES LIKE US have placed the recording studio in a small wooden house placed at the tip of a cliff jutting out into the stormy ocean, and isolatedf themselves in that hut to record "Late Love", an album that is brimful of emotional rock'n'roll with really high quality.
It is a good soundtrack to the month of november, but even so it is a bit lighter and more easygoing that most of the music I listen to during this month.
Todays tune is of the kind that eats in to your head and stays there.
I would'nt be surpriced if you - after listening to the song - keep humming and singing along to it.
It is the best track off the album, I think, even though the album is quite strong overall.

WOLVES LIKE US "Secret Handshakes"!



Admit it, the music sounds more or less like the cover (made by Justin Bartlett) looks like, and it is a worthy part of a november music series.
The members of the group are:

• Espen Helvig - guitar
• Toy Kjeldaas - bass
• Larsh Kristensen - vocals/guitar
• Jonas Thire - drums

...and I am especially found of the undertow of panic that can be heard in Larsh's voice. It gives the music a special nerve, and somehow makes me think of... KHOMA.

...to conclude.
WOLVES LIKE US "Late Love" is a good record, released in 2011, and for those of you who read Swedish and want to read a review - Werock.se is the site to look at.
It is a record fitting to the november darkness, but with a bit more light to it than last week.
I'd say it promises.. hope. Hope of a mild winter to come, and a spring afterwards.
Next week we will kill that hope...

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Wolves Like Us Facebook

Listen to ”Wolves Like Us - Secret Handshakes " on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Novembers Doom - The Pale Haunt Departure

 

 

Hi.
Have you missed me?
The incoherrent ramblings and odd thoughts of the Chief Rebel Angel, guest-terrorizer of Tune Of The Day?
Perhaps you have. Perhaps not. Today I am here anyway, and today's topic is tomorrow.
Or, rather, the month that starts tomorrow.
November.
In Sweden called "black November", a month were more or less the entire country staggers around in darkness, dreading the oncoming winter. It is usually before the snow settles, but you are guaranteed to get slett, snow, heavy rains, fog och freezing temperatures.
No wonder there are a lot of metal bands hailing from the north, especially extreme metal bands...

So, to celebrate this, I thought I'd drag one of my habits in to Tune Of The Day.
Every friday, I have something called "Tip Of The Week" on my own blog Metal!, and during November these tips focus on music that suits the Swedish wet autumn darkness.
Dark, dreary, moody and a bit depressing (hey, it's sounds awful when you put it in writing like that, but as we all know - one way of getting the darkness out of your system is enjoying music, so it's actually not as bad as it sounds...).
And guess what?
I'll do the same on Tune Of The Day this year! Yihaah!
Today, we'll start with an excellent band that also has the name to kick off such a small series.
NOVEMBERS DOOM.

This one is from 2005, so it's got jus shy of a decade in this world.
I return to it frequently just because it is a great album in total, and especially the title track is a killer song.
Heavy, moody, dark but still managing to hit that spot within my heart that makes it a joy to listen to, that makes all that heavy darkness seem easier to carry somehow.
In short, a perfect soundtrack to what lies ahead for the next month.

The band hails from Chicago, and the members on this fifth album were:

• Paul Kuhr – vocals
• Vito Marchese– guitar
• Larry Roberts – guitar
• Joe Nunez – drums, percussion
• Mike Lagros- bass

The album produced two singles, besides the title track also the half ballad "Autumn Reflection".
Welcome to the darkness. Welcome to november. Welcome to The Pale Haunt Departure!



More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Novermbers Doom Web

Sorry No Spotify On this one!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Entombed - Chief Rebel Angel

Friends, good & evil people - this is the end.
Well, not for Tune Of The Day, but rather for The Rebel Angel Ramblings.
Tomorrow, Stones and Thetania will be back in the coal mine again, slugging out all these wonderful tunes and little golden nuggets of information, and you will be let off the hook.
The posts will start to make sense again, and follow some kind of logic.
Hopefully, you've enjoyed this week, and not lost all interest in TOTD.
I hope not.

Also, I know I promised that we were going to look into some tunes taken from my All-Star Fantasy Band, but...
a) My nick-name is Chief Rebel Angel. If the rebelling angel was cast from heaven and thus invented hell, you just know a guy called the Chief Rebel Angel cannot be trusted.
b) I thought I was going to do it at the time I promised it, but... I just got so carried away with all the other stuff. Perhaps the planning should have been a bit more thought through, but there you go....

So.
Is there a better way to say thanx than letting the almighty ENTOMBED rock away in the song from wich I have stolen the nick-name?
Probably not.
I can't think of one, anyway.
Well.. maybe I can.

ENTOMBED doing "Chief Rebel Angel" at the  Stockholm Royal Ballet, thus combining beaty and cruelty in a perfect way!



Like it?
It is taken from the Swedish Grammy Awards, and also leads in to the final words of this series.
A bit of a reflection from my side. Some thoughts:

• It is quite difficult to find good quality video material at YouTube, especially if you are looking for something a bit more obscure. in retrospect, all the tunes I have chosen are "safe bets", and you probably know all of them already. Sorry about that..
• It has been FUN! At least for me... :)
• It has been quite a lot of work, perhaps especially as I have not let my own blog Metal! rest during this week... Not the wisest of moves, but then.. perhaps that is not my best charasteristic quality! 

So.
Perhaps we will see each other again, perhaps The Rebel Angel Ramblings will be back. If you want it to, you'll have to say so - especially to the Tune Of The Day guys Stones and Thetania.
Thanks for letting me ramble on, thanks for reading.
See ya!

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Entombed Web

Listen to ”Entombed - Chief Rebel Angel" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Bombus - Enter The Night

Ooooohhh.... it is only just over 4 months left to one of the best days of the year. Every year. Yes - I am talking of the Annual Metal Night (or, as it is called in swedish, "Hårdrockskväll"), taking place every Twelfth Night (Trettondagsafton, again in swedish).
It is quite a simple idea from the start, that has grown to become less simple - and today, I am going to psychoanalyze and ramble on abaout the different personalities that are a part of this.
First off - some background and information so you are all on the same page here.

It started out some 5-7 years ago with a friend of mine that had this idea of a party. He said, "create a burned CD with some 10 songs that you think are classics and join us next friday".
Brilliant idea, as we then proceeded to play through every friends CD and drink beer during we laughed at each others horrible taste and sense of what a "classic" was.
The concept, of course, was way to good to just let go.
That was 2007, if I'm not mistaken.
Now, the concept has grown a lot, and the people have changed some.
The friend that started everything with his idea has not been a part of the Tyresö Metal Society since then (even though I hope to get him on board every year!), and everything is way more organized.
We shift host (best that way, as the neighbourhood tends to get a but sceptic after a day and a night of 15 hours metal on maximum volume) every year, and the host has heavy obligations.
He buys beer, snacks and liquor in advance.
He makes sure there are seatings so that all of us (we are 12 at the moment) can fit in there.
He orders/makes food and the night snack (usually pizza and hot dogs later on, a bit of a cliché but.. hey, we're rockers that are drinking beer. We ARE a cliché!)

The biggest difference has been on the songs though.
We have a spreadsheet with all of the different cathegories we can think of (Best Song Live, Best Black Metal, Best Guitar rif, Best Drumming, and so on), and every autumn we meet up to do the very serious voting.
Each member has 10 points that he can distribute as he pleases (so you can place all of your points on one cathegory, or 2 points on five differnt cathegories each, or.. well, you understand. It is also possible to use them negativily, so you can make sure that a certain cathegory you do not like is winning). Everyone wotes, either remotely or on site, and you have to decide how you are going to vote before it all starts.
In the end, the cathegories with the most points gets to be represented at the upcoming Twelfth Night.
We coose 7 songs, to be completed with the ever present number 8 cathegory "Best Right Now".
So, each member brings a CD with 8 tracks on them.
12 members.
That is quite a lot of music, and we play them cathegory by cathegory (so, everyones number on track first, that is also the cathegory with the most points in the voting).
It is a great evening, and for a lot of us it starts sometime in august or september when we try to decide wich songs we are going to be presented.
It's all a secret to the others, and it is not uncommon to try and find something very obscure that no one has ever heard before (and that is still, of course, kick-ass great).

So - the gang then.

It'r really not a pretty sight, but it is a merry bunch.
Instead of naming every one, I'll do my own versions of who we are... from a mocking perspective!
There is The Black Metal Guy, The Power Metal Guy, The Grunge-and-Rock Guy, The Metal Core Guy, The Guy That Always Get Really Drunk, The Other Guy That Always Get Very Drunk, The Guy That Tries To Introduce New Songs As Well As Classics Because He Can Never Decide (that's me!), The Guy Who Looses His Record On The Subway On The Way There...
In short, we are very much unlike each other - even though we are all rockers.
That is probably the key as well, as the night would be boring (musically) otherwise.
After all, 12 records of 8 songs each results in.. some 9 hours ofmusic if every song is roughly 5 minutes. We start at around 3 pm, so we finish around midnight, heads ringing and ears bleeding.

Stones is part of the Society, Thetania is not. At the moment, at least, the difficulty is rather the amount of people than anything else.
Stones is perhaps the type of personality that is best for the rest of us, as he constantly brings two things to the table:
a) the ugliest merch t-shirts
b) new, never heard of and exiting music for the rest of us the check out further

Yes. This is the Stones tee from last time. It is, to be nice, not a heavy metal tee....

However - the tune for today is a brand spanking new song, from a band that Stones have NOT played at anyone of these occasions, but that is something I feel is typical for him and that might just have been something he pulled out of his hat.
It is Gothenbourg rockers BOMBUS, with the new video for "Enter The Night", taken from the new "The Poet And The Parrot".



Excellent song, excellent video - and the perfect way to honour Stones.
BOMBUS has released two records, "the Poet And The Parrot" being the sophomore outing after the self titled debut.
The band consists of the following dudes:

As you can see, these guys are your typical rockers, and I am a bit surprised that Stones have not already pushed them to the Metal Society, especially since he reviewed the debut for Werock.
Interesting to see if he includes them this time, even though I do not think so.
Stones is of another sort.
He wants to surprice.
To reveal something unexpected. I'm half way there but so far have been a bit of a coward and included some known tunes as well, sort trying to eat the cake and have it at the same time...

However - this year, the Society has decided to do something a bit different.
There will be no voting, and instead we will have a free year.
Bring 8 great songs.
That, my friends, seem to turn out an even bigger challenge, as there are no framework at all to relate to, and I have already started fretting about songs that are fan-fucking-tastisc but probably will not make it to the final version of my record...


More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Bombus Web

Listen to ”Bombus - Enter The Night" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast

Do you remember how it started?
That one song that made you into the music lover that you are, regardless if you are into house, metal oor brit pop?
I do.
And that is something we are going to discuss in todays post.

Above, a pic of me. I'm sorry, but that is what I look like. It does not get better, but the reason I wanted to show you that it is quite obvious for anyone that I am a rocker.
That is where my heart is.
And have been since that day my uncle played something called... MANOWAR.
Yes, in hindsight and retrospect it does feel kind of cheezy, and when we had that cathegory at the Tyresö Metal Society ("Song That Made You A Rocker"), I was a bit drunk and a bit ashamed.
Still, the song that definately made it for me was "Metal Daze" from the MANOWAR-album "Battle Hymns".

I think it was something about the riffing, and especially in the beginning of the song, that called to me. After that, he followed with other songs that had a great way of starting, such as SAXON "Crusader" and ACCEPT "Fast As A Shark".
Or at least that is how I remember it, I can't say for sure.
Neither Stones or Thetania was part of the Tyresö Metal Society at that time, so I really do not know wich songs they would name as their "Song That Made You A Rocker/Shocker/Music Freak", but I'll guess.
I know Thetania loves IN FLAMES, but probably that is a bit to new for her to fall in love, so I'll go with something older... let's say something with RUSH?
Stones I guess is LED ZEPPELIN, but the actual song is more difficult... so I'll go the easy way and NOT say "Stairway To Heaven". Instead I think it was from something earlier, and I'm going for.. "Whole Lotta Love". Or "Ramble On".

Anyhow, the tune of today has nothing to do with their choices.
Instead, I've been thinking about the importance of a great intro to a legendary song.
If you look at the title track from BLACK SABBATHS debut, it is a good song - but what makes it great and legendary is really the beginning of it. The thunder, the rain and the bell.
That makes all the difference.
Also, almost all of the songs that I can remember from my childhood that really meant something had some kind of intro ("Crusader", "Holy Diver" and especially todays tune) to make it... larger than life.
Kind of.

And the song that has created more rockers than any other song in the world is probably todays tune.
The spoken introduction, the riffing in the beginning, Bruce Dickinsons surpressed singing in the beginning and excellent performance later on in the song, the simple lyrics that still hold some kind of secret and the name of the song... all of it was, of course, irresistable to kids back then.
IRON MAIDEN "Number Of The Beast"!

Parents and teachers hated it.
Kids loved it and wanted to know more (even though the coolest cover and the best picture for a badge was the Eddie-with-the-axe from "Killers") and show other kids that you were part of the heavy metal subculture.
The magazine Okej made rockers and "synthezeiser geeks" (or, in swedish, hårdrockare vs synthare) argue endlessly with each other about who really had the best taste.
Looking back, I'd say it was a tie. Neither of the sides won - because there was no such thing as good taste.
Instead of good taste, those of us who sided with the rockers got a life-long infection.
I still dress in jeans and a heavy metal tee, all of the time (well, that is a bit of a lie as I wear a suite during the days at the office, but whenever I get the chance a roll up my sleeves to scare other office rats with my tattoos). I even remember one time when I visited my sister in the swedish city Lund, a city based solely in the local university and the atmosphere of being stuck-up because of that.
I wore jeans and a WHITESNAKE-tee.
The students I met at the street laughed at me.
Little did these poor kids know that I did not even feel antagonized, I felt sorry. For them, because they will miss a life of love for rock'n'roll-music and being at peace with who you are.
That who you are is good enough.

Oh, okay, perhaps they are music lovers as well and will have a lifetime of pooring out champagne into the sink while dancing to music that has been remixed and recorded - and that is fine.
As long as they enjoy music.
Personally, I try and force metal on my kids.
The result is... somewhat dissapointing, but we can look into that another day.
Today, we'll focus on what one one my friends since back then (Mattias, the globe traveller!) says is the best heavy metal song ever made.
It is part of this album.

"The Number Of The Beast" as an album is, I think, a bit overrated.
It includes a few fantastic songs, but also some that are really not that great.
Time and heavy metal history (the fact that it is the album when the classic vocals by Dickinson was established, and all the stories like this one) has made it into a colossus that usually wins several votes when it comes to "the greatest album ever made".
It is not.
But it might be the album that single handedly created most rockers in the world!



Clive Burr on drums, Bruce Dickinson on vocals, Adrian Smith and Dave Murray on the guitar, and - of course - the ever present Steve Harris on bass guitar.
Thank you, all of you.

For this life-long infection and way of life.

(And, as a cliff-hanger, I'll reveal that tomorrow you will see another picture. One that includes the entire Tyresö Metal Society, together with some completely incoherrent ramblings on the different personalities that makes the society what it is...)

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Iron Maiden Web

Listen to ”Iron Maiden - Number Of The Beast" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Deep Purple - Burn

 

Hi.
Today, I promise that the post will a lot more orderly and structured than yesterday, even though it starts off with two pictures that, really, has almost nothing to do with today's song.
We'll get back to why the post starts with two records named "Made In Japan", but by two different bands (some connection between them though), from two different ages, but first - let me tell you some secret stuff about me and Stones.
Or, actually, very first off - let's do a quick recap of the reason that this post is made at all.
No - you have not come to the wrong place, you're at Tune Of The Day.
No - this is not a hostile take-over of that site.
Yes - they are on vacation, Stones and Thetania, leaving Chief Rebel Angel in charge for a few days.
Normally, I spend my days over at Metal!, writing and mumbling in Swedish, but I now have the oportunity to do some posts here at Tune Of The Day when the guys are off.
If you've read the last few days you know everything abaout it.
If not, you'll have to scroll down and find out for your self. Or not.
You could start here as well.
What we will do is tell some secrets today.
Of me, and of Stones, and probably one of the reasons that he asked me to do these posts.

We are both recordaholics.

In a world were more and more people tend to stop bying records, there are people like us.
We could probably have become alcoholics or gamblers or other addictional people, but instead it is the need for records that drives us.
Let's call this Recordaholics.
Some of this you've been invited to under the Record Madness-banner below, but I'll go a bit beyond that today..

You see - Stones in a worse state than me.
Let's say that on a recordaholic scale of 1-10 (1 being that you buy a record every now and then but mostly listen to digital copies and streamed music - 10 being that your spose has left you and your have had to move out of the house and are now living at Shurgard with your records, only eating oatmeal as you spend all of your money on records) I would be a 5 or 6, and he would be one step ahead of me at 6 or 7.
He has a big pile of records that he felt compelled to buy, but have not had the time to listen to.
I do as well, but I'd say my pile is a bit smaller...and I think I go through mine quicker.
Hell, for all I know, he can have the entire Mk II DEEP PURPLE line up stuffed away in a closet at home somewhere - but for sure, he has a lot of records lying around. Vinyl and CD.
So, we are more or less the same in that way.
A great record can turn our life around, more or less, and become the one thing that possesses our minds (that is material for another day though, that complete and total devotion to a record that we both share), and we need to have it in a physical copy.
To read the liner notes, lyrics, facts.
To get that feeling.
To respect history of the classics, something that brings us to the top pictures.

I love David Coverdale. He is one of my all-time favourite singers, and I admire more or less everything he has done.
This year though, he crossed a line.
Not the fact that he produced two live albums (inc DVD) within 3 months, a crazy thing to do in it self, but he named one of them "Made In Japan".
That is not okay, not from a recordaholics perspective. (The other one is named "Made In Britain - The World Record")
That name is forever a registered trademark, sort of, to DEEP PURPLE, and should not be property of WHITESNAKE. Regardless of my love for the man.
Without having any idea of Stones thoughts abaout this, I think it is a good piece of the puzzle in order to get to know a recordaholic.

So. Instead of getting even more agitated and worked up about this, I'll back down to one of the greatest songs made in the seventies.
From banck when Deep Purple had Coverdale as lead singer (well, with good help from a certain Glenn Hughes...).
A classic.
DEEP PURPLE "Burn", live from California -74!




Wow.
Some things to reflect on:
1) They look young at the point, but still... the charasteristic Coverdale-workout with the mike stand is already there. Cool.
2) The rainbow in the background. Symbolic, considering what was to follow with Ritchie Blackmoore...
3) What they call HQ (High Quality, I hope it means, otherwise this point is quite stupid) back in the days is not really what we call HQ today. Still, you can hear that this band is great, and that the musicians are faboulous.

What an album it is!

I recommend the Remastered anniversary version, as I am a recordoholic as well, and not only do you get a better sound with all those great songs (I mean... "Mistreated"... great song as well!), you also get a lot of fun stuff, liner notes and original recordings.
Stones, of course, will have this on vinyl, in original mint condition.
We are the same but different.
Recordaholics....



More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official Deep Purple Web

Listen to ”Deep Purple - Burn" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

Terrortory - New World Order

 

Dudes and dudettes - it is time to reveal a bit more of who this madman Chief Rebel Angel really is.
As you probably know (that is, if you could bother to read through all of the text from yesterdays post), I have decided to give Stones and Thetania here at Tune Of The Day a bit of a vacation, and more or less taken over for a while.
Starting out with some information and rather pointless ramblings, I told the story of how I came to meet the geniuses behind Tune Of The Day, and why they actually gave me the chance to use this space...
...but...
...who the hell am I, then?

Well, I'm a thirty-something (hmmrpf... for at least like half a year more) rocker with less hair on my head than on my back. I live, as stated in yesterday, in the same town outside of Stockholm as Stones and Thetania - Tyresö. My family is made up of one (1) wife, two (2) kids, two (2) rabbits and more aquirum fish than I care to count, and I normally spend my days being an more or less pointless in an office. Officially I am paid for selling stuff within IT, inofficially I try to educate my fellow co-workers and office neighbours on what music is hot and what is not.
The next copule of days or so, the main focus on the songs being picked will be rock, metal and extreme metal, all in a mess and more or less connected to the subject of the day and the post.
So - why does this post start off with a pic of a building, but-ugly and all?
The building is the head office for Skellefteå Kraft, the local power company in my old hometown Skellefteå.
That town is home to me, and I thought that the subject of the day should be those roots.
I grew up when Skellefteå was a big indie-pop town, and bands like THIS PERFECT DAY, HARDY NILSSON and THE WANNADIES ruled the genre.
THE WANNADIES even made a blistering song that is really the heart and soul of that time and that place, called "My Hometown". That song is still played on the local ice hockey games, and at first I was thinking that it would be a good song to accompany this post.
My second thought was to have something new instead, just not to be an old fart that gets caught up in nostalgia, so I thought better of it.
Or not.
Ahh.. what the hell, it is a great song and I make the rules right now!
This is a bonus from back in the days.
 Man do they look young!



So, I grew up with the imagination of bands from Skellefteå being the best there is.
Local heroes. later on, they turned a bit heavier and harder (STARDOG, CARPE WADE), but somehow I've always kept that special connection with home.
I tend to look upon bands from Skellefteå with tender eyes and open ears.

(Right about now, I feel that this post is rapidly turning into something I hade no idea it would be, and I  apologize for the complete lack of structure. Let's see if we can tuyrn this around to something better!)

Perhaps the reason that I still favour bands from my hometown, as well as tell people that is were I am from even though I haven't lived in Skellefteå in almost 20 years now is that it was such a happy time?
Being allowed to just be a kid. Play ice hockey. See the local bands grow kind of big on a national level. Overdose on rock music. Chase girls and fail.
In short, I am a product of my environment, and the basics came from the northern town of Skellefteå.
Stones tend to love all music with a resemblance to LED ZEPPELIN (or at least that is what we tease him with every time we meet in january, the hole Tyresö metal Society), probably because a) he grew up with it and started to love music to the band, and b) it somehow fitted perfectly in to the environment he was in at the time.
Or not.
I really have no idea, I am more or less trying to save this post.
As you have probably noticed, it does not say a lot of who Chief Rebel Angel really is, just a bunch of political talk around stuff instead.

And there is a reason for that.
It is very hard, if not impossible, to describe a personality in text.
Instead, we'll look at the different perspectives of my persona from a musical point of view over the upcoming posts. Some examples of stuff to come:

• I have kids. I try to influence/indoctrinate them with the correct (distorted) music.
• Obsession. I get obessed/possessed over and by great records. Perhaps more than what is healthy. Something I definately have in common with mr Stones...
• The Tyresö Metal Society (it actually sounds way cooler in english, in swedish we say Hårdrockssamfundet). A psycho-analysis for dummies.
• All-Star band of my mind. If I could rule the universe and force a couple of egos to form a band together.

So. All in all, we can consider this post a shallow presentation, and we'll take it from there.
To accompany this, I have chosen a piece from Skellefteåband TERRORTORY, properly named "New World Order".



The video is taken from the 2013 EP "City Of Ghosts", and it is a kick-ass song of riff-based, neo-classical deathmetal. Kind of. (read: I have no idea how to lable this, and try to cover that up by throwing random words together).
I did an interview with the bands guitarrists Stefan Widmark and Emil Ceder (the band is completed by Johan Norström on vocals, Olov Häggmark on bass guitar and Tommy Nilsson on drums) before the EP was released or recorded, so for me it is extra fun to hear the material that the band spoke of at that time. You might not care (and, as usual, the interview is in Swedish...), but I still think you will appreciate the song, especially if you are into the more aggressive sort of metal.
And if not, you got a bonus with THE WANNADIES. Do not forget that.
Two shades of my hometown.
Of me.

Who are you, described in a song?

More info @

The Rebel Angel Ramblings Blog
Official The Wannadies MySpace
Official Terrortory Web

Listen to ”The Wannadies - My Home Town" on Spotify here!

Listen to ”Terrortory - New World Order" on Spotify here!

Follow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!