The best metal albums, by year

1986
Reign In Blood - Slayer

1989
Beneath The Remains - Sepultura


1990
Cowboys From Hell - Pantera

1991
Arise - Sepultura

1992
Vulgar Display of Power - Pantera

1993
Heartwork - Carcass
Hollowman - Entombed

1994
Far Beyond Driven - Pantera

1995
Slaughter of the Soul - At The Gates

1996
None So Vile - Cryptopsy

1999
Slipknot - Slipknot

2000
Wages of Sin - Arch Enemy
Killswitch Engage - Killswitch Engage

2001
Iowa - Slipknot

2002
In Their Darkened Shrines - Nile

2003
Anthems of Rebellion - Arch Enemy
The Impossibility of Reason - Chimaira

2004
Demigod - Behemoth
The Wretched Spawn - Cannibal Corpse
Epitaph - Necrophagist

2005
Doomsday Machine - Arch Enemy
I, Monarch - Hate Eternal

2006
The Stench of Redemption - Deicide
AssassiNation - Krisiun

2007
Icons of Evil - Vital Remains
Inflikted - Cavalera Conspiracy
The Apostasy - Behemoth
Xenosapien - Cephalic Carnage
The Atrocity Exhibition - Exhibit A - Exodus

2011
Carnival Is Forever - Decapitated

2012
To Hell With God - Deicide

2013
Bu-Tik - Chthonic


2014
Blood Mantra - Decapitated
The Tyranny of Will - Iron Reagan

2016
You Will Never Be One Of Us Nails

2017
Psychosis - Cavalera Conspiracy
Nightmare Logic - Power Trip
Anticult - Decapitated

2018
Posthuman - Harms Way

Heidi Joubert

Maybe this isn't the best video of her, but Heidi Joubert just totally blows me away.  She is an amazing hand percussionist and singer.  So talented and charismatic.  If and when I ever get a cajon, I plan to follow her instructional videos.  She really inspires me!

My favorite things so far this year

It's only March, and there are so many things that I really enjoyed:

Why We Sleep book
Harms Way album
Black Panther movie
The Remains of the Day book
Paramore concert
Love Her Wild poetry book
James and the Giant Peach play

James and the Giant Peach

My son played the role of the Centipede in CTAA's production of James and the Giant Peach this weekend.

I am not a huge fan of musicals.  I've seen maybe 3 professional musicals in my life - A Chorus Line on Broadway, The Lion King in Honolulu, and Big Fish in Chicago.  Oh, and if you count it (I do), I saw Othello: The Remix at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater, so make that 4.

I've also seen too many local productions to count - mostly from my kids' performances in various studios.

It's not exaggerating to say that CTAA's production of James and the Giant Peach ranks up there with some of the professional productions.

First and foremost, the actors and actresses playing the parts were not only perfectly cast, but they were all very talented and entertaining.  On the surface, the story was wacky and whimsical (a boy accidentally spills a magic potion on a peach tree, growing a peach and various insects huge), but the story was a vehicle for the characters to grow, learn to trust, and find in themselves a family.

The songs were wonderful and some were very touching.  I saw the production twice.  I wish I had seen it for all 4 showings - it was that good!!

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby tops a lot of all-time best fiction lists, and since I've never read it, I felt it was time to read the classics.

Fitzgerald is a talented writer.  I found the story to be mildly but not overly interesting.  This is one of those books that has it's intrinsic value in style over the message or story.  I didn't much develop an affinity for any of the characters, certainly not for the narrator Nick, nor did I see a lot of character development other than maybe Daisy.

It was okay.  Not what I would put on a must-read fiction list, but maybe I just don't get it.

Jim Adkins

Despite being a guitar player, I've always been way more into good songs that guitar playing for the sake of guitar playing.  I mean, I also enjoy a good technical shredder and I love playing fast metal guitar, but I just love good songs.

I find that there are guitarists that, instead of being shredders, just write really cool riffs and cool parts.  Jim Adkins, the guitarist and singer of Jimmy Eat World, is one of those guys.  He writes great songs, and his parts fit in so well and are more than just strummy stuff.  Chase This Light is one of my favorite albums of all time, start to finish.

Death Note

I finished the 12-book series.  It was good and I can see why it was so popular in Japan, even though there was a story arc that seemed to dead end with no reason or explanation.  It was a little confusing in the last 4 books, possibly due to my inattention to certain details.  Overall it was a worth reading, though I don't know if I am a convert to manga just yet.

Love Her Wild - Atticus

Love Her Wild is a collection of poems, separated into three distinct sections - Love, Her and Wild.  I really enjoy his poetry.  I will seek out more by this talented poet.

Nocturnes - Kazuo Ishiguro

Having read and really enjoyed "Remains of the Day", I wanted to explore Ishiguro's other works.  Unfortunately, "Nocturnes" fell a little flat to me.  The book was a collection of five relatively short stories, but they didn't invoke reflection from me, even though the stories were close to my heart.

Despite the lack of resonance, I still think that Ishiguro is a great writer and story teller, and clearly well versed in his technical understanding of music, as well as knowledge of popular music.

Today's guilty pleasure

I used to love this album.  Then I couldn't stand it.  I'm on and off with Gary Cherone's voice, but I've always loved Nuno Bettencourt's playing.  I guess being that Nuno is a huge Beatles and Queen fan, it would make sense for him to have Cherone singing.

Cherone's singing is cheesy to me.  He retains all of the campiness of a larger-than-life singer, with none of the coolness.  I cringe when I watch him perform.

But I don't listen to Extreme for the lead vocals.  They have great songs, the guitar playing is jaw-dropping, and the harmony vocals are sweet.  Nuno is one of my favorite guitar players that was active in the late 80s/early 90s....  and I feel he passed the mantle to Dimebag for badass EVH influenced guitar playing.

I go back and visit this album from time to time, but it's sometimes hard to listen to.  I had to wash my ears out with death metal.  :)

James and the Giant Peach - Roald Dahl

My son will be performing as the Centipede in a production of James and the Giant Peach in a few weeks, so I wanted to read the book.

Roald Dahl also wrote "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", which was my favorite book as a kid.  James and the Giant Peach was equally strange, with interesting but odd characters.  Dahl is a great and imaginative writer, and I enjoyed this book!

The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro

I heard from a friend that Ishiguro won the Nobel prize for literature, and won the Man Booker Prize for The Remains of the Day.  My unfamiliarity with Ishiguro made me wonder how a Japanese man could write about an English butler in a compelling and award winning way.  But my mistake was in assuming that he is Japanese.  Rather, moving to England as a 5-year old, his nationality was British while his ethnicity was Japanese (lesson - don't assume one's nationality by his/her name).


The subject matter of this book was interesting, but there weren't any grand or dramatic occurrences.  I think the mark of a memorable book is how the main character is multi-dimensional and develops throughout the book, and the main character in this book, Mr. Stevens, hits that mark, as he contemplates his life in service as a butler to Lord Darlington and later to Mr. Farraday in Darlington Hall.  The story is based in his present time spent on an expedition to see Ms. Kenton, a former maid in Darlington Hall, though much of the book is a recollection of his previous years working with Ms. Kenton.

It's a beautifully written book.  Though I don't read a lot of fiction, I felt that this was the best fiction I've read since 1984, and I totally understand why it won awards and was made into a movie.

On an odd note....  this audiobook was read by Simon Prebble, who also read the audiobook for 1984 that I listened to last year.  These two happen to be my two favorite fiction books.  But since 1984 had a huge impact on me, I associate Prebble's voice with Winston from 1984, a tortured soul.  To heard "Winston's" voice narrating Mr. Stevens was initially unnerving, but I got used to it.

Alissa from Arch Enemy on veganism

Pretty cool interview from the singer of a band that I love.

Another Paramore post

I was caught off guard.

I listen to metal, almost exclusively these days.  Prior to this album, I was listening to a steady rotation of Harm's Way, Nails, Power Trip, Iron Reagan, etc.

The only time I listen to anything else is when my daughter plays stuff in the car.  I know she likes Paramore, so I took her to the concert (see previous post).

In preparation for the show, I put a playlist together, and just totally got into this band.  Their songs are amazing, and the guitar playing is inventive and unusual, but always appropriate for the song.

After Laughter is a great album.  Like their most recent stuff, the songs are bass driven in a Motown kind of way.  I'm sure this had something to do with producer Justin Meldal-Johnsen, who is an experienced bass player who has played with Beck and Nine Inch Nails.

I think after listening to so much heavy stuff, it's refreshing for me to listen to stuff that has guitar playing that's subtly awesome.  Paramore has that in spades.

Oh, and Hayley Williams is a pretty good singer too.  :)