#33: Gorillaz – Demon Days (2005) ---TRACKLIST---(1) Intro (2) Last Living Souls (3) Kids With Guns (4) O Green World (5) Dirty Harry
(6) Feel Good Inc. (7) El Mañana (8) Every Planet We Reach Is Dead (9) November Has Come (10) All Alone
(11) White Light (12) Dare (13) Fire Coming Out Of The Monkey's Head (14) Don't Get Lost In Heaven (15) Demon Days
While this might be a pretty odd album to start off my list, it just wouldn’t be right to leave it out. Why? Well, it’s pretty much the album that got me into music in general. I was in like 5th grade when I first got into Gorillaz, and while my musical tastes have definitely grown a lot since then, they’re still pretty awesome. One of the best things about them is they don’t really have a consistent genre; they just do whatever the hell they want to do. With this album especially, you never really know what the next song will be like.
Feel Good Inc. is definitely deserving of the popularity it got when the album came out, alternating between funk, hip-hop, and a beautiful guitar and synth section seamlessly.
El Manaña is a dark, somber, acoustic guitar-driven track, and
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead is one of the most unique-sounding songs you’ll ever hear, throwing so many different elements together it’s hard to keep track of them all. Think the variety ends there? Nope. You’ve got disco, gospel, hard rock and everything in between. There’s even a song where fucking Dennis Hopper sits down and reads a story to you. While I’ve listened this album to death over the years, this album is without a doubt one of the best examples of creativity and variety in all of music.
---FAVORITE SONGS---Dirty Harry,
Feel Good Inc, El Manaña,
Every Planet We Reach Is Dead#32: Meshuggah – Koloss (2012)---TRACKLIST---(1) I Am Colossus (2) The Demon's Name Is Surveillance (3) Do Not Look Down (4) Behind The Sun
(5) The Hurt That Finds You First (6) Marrow (7) Break Those Bones Whose Sinews Gave It Motion (8) Swarm
(9) Demiurge (10) The Last Vigil
On the other hand, here’s a band I’ve gotten into pretty recently. This is their newest album, and they’ve basically taken all of their sound elements from over the years and rolled them up into one. You’ve got the crushing brutality, insane polyrhythms, groovy riffs, speaker-shaking guitars (literally) and everything.
I Am Colossus starts off the album with a very doomy-sounding song, and sounds, well, colossal.
Do Not Look Down has one of the band’s grooviest riffs ever, and
Behind The Sun and
Demiurge have that huge, epic “holy fucking shit the entire goddamn universe is being sucked into a gigantic black hole and we’re all gonna fucking die” sound that Meshuggah does so well. If you’re into brutal, technical metal and you haven’t checked this band out yet… Why the hell haven’t you?
---FAVORITE SONGS---I Am Colossus,
Do Not Look Down,
Behind The Sun,
Demiurge#31: Mastodon – Crack The Skye (2009)---TRACKLIST---(1) Oblivion (2) Divinations (3) Quintessence (4) The Czar (5) Ghost Of Karelia (6) Crack The Skye (7) The Last Baron
This album I picked up because so many people on the forums loved it, and I was initially not really sure what was so great about it. However, it’s grown on me a lot and I can say that it’s deserving of all the praise it gets. Why? Well, it’s kind of hard to say. It has a very unique sound, taking the typical prog-metal elements and merging them with Mastodon’s style to create something that’s hard to describe, but is very original and undeniably great to listen to. It’s also incredibly consistent throughout, with no real filler.
Oblivion starts the album off great, and
The Czar and
The Last Baron are incredibly proggy, lengthy songs that take you on quite the musical journey. There’s not much else to say about this album other than yeah, go listen to it. Most of you probably have already, anyway.
---FAVORITE SONGS---Oblivion,
Divinations,
The Czar,
The Last Baron