Music!

I couldn't play an instrument if someone put a gun to my head and people would probably put a gun to my head to keep me from singing... thankfully this does not stop me from listening to music. Here's a brief tour of my current playlists.

I listen to anything from the darker styles like industrial, classic heavy metal, hardcore, punk, synth, ebm, gothic.... to the lighter tunes of reggae, dub, soul, rock, house and trance.

Right now I'm chilling to the sounds of the Norwegian ambient/house band Ugress. I really like their newest album "Cinematronics", sure it's not "Resound" but it's still damn nice! When talking about chillout music I must mention Groove Armada and Faithless, to bands that never fully leave my playlists.

In the EBM/Futurepop space I'm currently listening to the great new album from Assemblage 23 called "Storm". A23 is a British Industrial/EBM act playing cool trance with industrial base sounds and a calm vocal to put it all together. Real nice! VNV Nation and Covenant should also be mentioned in the EBM spot. And of course the classical EBM sounds of Apoptygma Berzerk, one of my all time favorite bands! Although their latest albums didn't really do it for me.

As for the harder industrial sounds I listen to Funker Vogt, and then especially the great Nuclear Planet compilation mix by Dj Pitch Black. Great industrial techno beats along with brutal vocals merged into nice melodies.

I also found a new album from Velvet Acid Christ, called Vaginismus (think it's a bootleg album). Anyways it's a nice compilation of VAC hits. VAC is somewhat of an acquired taste but there's nothing like the ice cold industrial beats and harsh lyrics of VAC when fighting the machine (read: debugging code!).

Suicide Commando is also on my playlist at the moment, they play industrial techno hard enough to make your head explode much like VAC. Although their latest album (Axis of Evil) has a lighter EBM feel to it. My favorite is anyways the Mindstrip album from 2000.

From the industrial machine hell to the dark world of Gothic music I'm currently listening to the new album of Mortal Love called "I Have Lost". The new album is somewhat lighter and more fast moving than their first album "All the Beauty" but still dark and the female vocal is great. Shellyz Raven is another great Gothic band that I'm currently listening to. And of course there's the first albums of Theatre of Tragedy which forever rules this genre for my part!

I also managed to find the new album of the German darkwave band Blutengel, this is a live album called "Live Lines". I do like Blutengel but this album was disappointing, both the vocals and the music were kinda lost. So I guess Blutengel should stay in the studio and I'll stick with the excellent "Seelenschmerz" album on my playlist.

Seigmen is a Norwegian band that should be mentioned, they played dark, gloomy rock music. Truly a classic and a band on my permanent playlist. Some of the original members are currently playing in another band called Zeromancer playing on the same foundation as Seigmen but more streamlined and electronic.

Back in the punk rock world Bad Religion is king as always. Although I don't listen much to their new album "Empire Strikes First", it's good but it's really just more of the formula from "Process of Belief". The classics ("Suffer", "Stranger Than Fiction", "The Gray Race", etc etc) on the other hand are always on my playlist.

I also would like to mention a punk band called Oxymoron. It's a German street punk band, but they have a completely arch British sound, great party music. I really like their "Fuck the Nineties...Here's Our Noize" album.

A great Norwegian band is Ramalama, das Pönkabteilung. They play hardcore punk with Norwegian vocals. The lyrics quite funny, although you must have grown up in my part of the world to get it. While in hardcore I can mention the sounds of Mob 47, Skitsystem, Totalt Jävla Mörker, Krigshot and Discharge. Hard, angry music best played out loud. Perfect as an alternative for VAC/SC when debugging old crappy code.

Otherwise I listen a lot to classics like Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Nirvana, Dead Kennedys, Bob Hund, Bob Marley, Curtis Mayfield, Depeche Mode, Moby, The Doors, Turbonegro... Damn I could go on forever.. so I'll just stop! :)

I caught Black Sabbath live in Bergen earlier this month, and they kicked ass. 13.000 crazy people in front of Black Sabbath delivering a parade of classics like "Paranoid", "Electric Funeral", "The Wizard", "War Pigs", "Iron Man", "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath"++. Ozzy himself was in great shape (he actually jumped and ran around on the stage, as well as maintaining his voice during the whole ordeal).

In the end a few Hip Hop/Rap bands I drop by from time to time. Absolute Beginner, MC Solaar, Petter, Cypress Hill and of course Warlocks.

Bah.. Well thats a brief tour of what's blasting through my WinAMP 2.82 (Hell freezes over before I'll upgrade my WA! Unless I find a player like amaroK.) July 2005.