So, I’m writing this a few months after attending a metal show up in DFW. I saw Opeth, In Flames, and Red Fang. I got home around 2 in the morning.

I’m nearly 40, and yet there’s something about metal (and especially the subgenre of progressive metal) that appeals to me still ever since my freshman year of high school when Metallica’s black album was released and I also “discovered” Yes’s Fragile album (1972). The virtuosity for one, the ambition for another.

This is third time I’ve seen Opeth (first in 2008 on the Progressive Nation Tour in Minneapolis, and then in Pittsburgh in 2012 on a co-headlining tour with Mastodon), and as I’m writing I’m listening to their most recent album, Pale Communion, which is wonderful. Lots of great guitar work, cool organ and piano parts, rich vocal harmonies, and beautiful acoustic passages. Way more than 3 or 4 chords.

I’m a fan of many genres of music, but the three I listen to the most are classical, jazz, and metal (of various strands, with progressive and death being my favorites). Those three genres contain some of the most complex music, music that invites multiple listens.

With Opeth (and their particular brand of metal) I find that I’m always discovering new things in their music, even after dozens of passes through individual songs. Their catalog of 11 albums possesses a variety, their sounds a rich tapestry that, I’m convinced, no one can match.

  

These are just few of the several dozen photos I took that evening. My iPhone camera doesn’t do justice to the amazing lighting schemes that accentuated their music. It was the perfect experience  to lead me into the semester break.
 

Mikael Akerfeldt is an amazing guitarist, as well as an amzing vocalist who can deliver deep growls as well as pristine clean vocals in his rich baritone. 

Since they were co-headlining with In Flames, Opeth played only 7 songs. Each one was at least 10 minutes though, and their last song, “Deliverance,” was three days long, acccording to Akerfeldt. 

I only wish that they weren’t from Stockholm, Sweden, so that they could play more U.S. shows. 

Will I ever grow out of listening to metal? I don’t know. I kind of thought that I would have by now (being a dad and all), but nope. Power chords, distortion, and double-kick are a part of my DNA.

As I said at the start of the series, I’m not attempting the impossible task of ranking these musical artists.  This entry is focused a more recent musical discovery I made.

God Is An Astronaut

What?  Did he mistype that name?  Nope, I did not, dear reader(s).  I discovered this band while using Pandora as I was steadily compiling a station of instrumental rock.  I then found all of their albums on Spotify, purchasing three of their albums shortly thereafter:

“All is Violent, All is Bright” (2005)

“Age of the Fifth Sun” (2010)

“God is an Astronaut” (2008)

I’ve always been a fan of instrumental music, especially classical and jazz, but I was intrigued to hear a band structure a song as a more “standard” rock composition minus vocals.  But I should add a qualifier.  The main guitarist, Torsten Kinsella, uses vocal effects, “singing” at various points.  And he has about a billion different guitar effects’ pedals that he uses.

Here’s a nice pic of his collection from which he drew for their newest album, Origins, which was released at the end of August.  The new album, just as their previous work, is emotional, melodic, and cinematic.  They can rock, but they can also be soft and subtle.  Another important aspect of their music, is that all of us (the wife and the kids) can agree on it.  A band that can satisfy four different listeners must be doing something right.  🙂

So where might you start?  I’m glad you asked.  Here’s a couple of my favorite GIAA tunes:

“Echoes” from God is an Astronaut

“Remembrance Day” from All is Violent, All is Bright

A full concert from 2011.

Here’s my favorite song from the new album: “Red Moon Lagoon.”

So the blog is in desperate need of regular updates with meaningful (to me, anyway) content. I realize this. I’m going to start regularly posting pieces that are directed toward both influential writers and musical artists, and in no particular order.

THE BYRDS

I’m not 100% positive, but I’m pretty certain that I first heard their rich harmonies and ringing guitars in my dad’s elementary school classroom.  I was 3 or so, and for several years after, whenever I went to my dad’s classroom to “help” him (cleaning chalkboards I’m sure, among other tasks), I regularly asked to hear The Byrds on his record player.

“Turn, Turn, Turn” is, of course, my favorite song of theirs.  On that same album was my other favorite song, “He Was a Friend of Mine,” a reference to JFK.  My dad would also play the Mr. Tambourine Man album, with its title song probably my third-favorite Byrds’ song.

I haven’t listened to The Byrds much since that early time in my life, but their arrangements, their vocals, their sense of melody has stayed with me.  And whenever I happen to hear them randomly on the radio, I’m taken back to that classroom that smells of chalk, of wood floors, of dust, of memory.