Here is my first in a never ending series of posts of Bands That Bring The Thunder. These will be me spotlighting bands I think people should know about. The story of me knowing about Grand Magus starts with a band practice a couple of months ago when the drummer of my band Justin shows up to practice with a album he got from Dreadful Sounds, a record store on North High St. in Clintonville go there. Anyway, he showed me the album and told me that the band sounds like all of my favorite bands put together. As tall an order as that is, I gave it a listen. Justin was right on the money.
Grand Magus is a band of three Swedish dudes making some of the best heavy metal I have heard. The album Justin showed me was Iron Will, the band's 4th official Release. Right away I heard some subtle Iron Maiden influence and a definite taste of Black Sabbath. Janne Christofferson's voice sounds like he listened to a lot of Deep Purple. The riffs are catchy, the solos are tasteful and there are big epic choruses.
Grand Magus started out as more of a doom band and on Iron Will came into their own on as an amazing heavy metal band. The group just released the album Hammer of the North and it is the best thing I have heard from them or any other band. The songs are perfect.
Above is the video for Hammer of the North, one of my favorite songs right now. enjoy
Here is the video for At Midnight They'll Get Wise, also off of Hammer of The North
Above is a youtube video of As The Oar Strike The Water, from Iron Will. Not a music video but the cover art is amazing and it's a great song.
So concludes the first of Bands That Bring the Thunder, stay tuned for many more
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Official Thunderpost
I plan on making my posts more frequent so stay tuned...
Did you know that the Rolling Stone used to be a credible music publication? It's true. The magazine that validates Coldplay's music and puts Justin Bieber on the cover used to be the magazine that music groups wanted to be on the cover of, let alone mentioned inside. I use the terms 'music groups' and 'used to' because neither are true any more. Granted there are people regularly featured in the magazine who's music is composed and recorded with actual musical instruments, it's usually indie bands or U2 or Areosmith type bands whose music is more the background of commercials than anything else.
The Rolling Stone just put out their latest 'Collectors Edition' cash grab The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. I knew I was going to be disappointed before I even picked it up, but I did anyway. I flipped through it for the same reason I DVR That Metal Show, I just like to hate things I guess. Anyway, the bottom of the list was pretty predictable, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and so on, but I was more than usually disappointed in the absence of metal.There were only two metal bands on the list Metallica ( 50-something) and Black Sabbath (10 or 20 spots later in the list).Not to mention the amount of rap groups on the list. Including Public Enemy at number 14, that's right the group Flavor Flav was in.
There are many metal bands from any of the sub-genres of metal that easily belong on that list. I don't see why all of the "Greatest Artists of All Time' should be only from the past 60 years and be, for the most part, all of the same genre. No Beethoven, no Mozart, no Bach, no Paganini. I am to assume that the artists in this list have done more for the art than these fine composers. And all of the blurbs about these artists are written by other artists. Just the most popular patting themselves on the back.
The Rolling Stone should be ashamed of themselves. Print is an endangered species on its way to extinction. Many magazines over the years have closed up shop, Metal Edge, Metal Maniacs and Hit Parader for example. All legitimate music publications now out of print. Thank goodness Revolver is hanging in there. It is the best widely available American metal magazine covering a pretty wide stretch genre-wise. So, pick up Revolver or, if you have the money, Metal Hammer or Kerrang to get any decent extreme music cover and leave The Rolling Stone, or as I now refer to it as, Mtv the Magazine, to extinction.
Did you know that the Rolling Stone used to be a credible music publication? It's true. The magazine that validates Coldplay's music and puts Justin Bieber on the cover used to be the magazine that music groups wanted to be on the cover of, let alone mentioned inside. I use the terms 'music groups' and 'used to' because neither are true any more. Granted there are people regularly featured in the magazine who's music is composed and recorded with actual musical instruments, it's usually indie bands or U2 or Areosmith type bands whose music is more the background of commercials than anything else.
The Rolling Stone just put out their latest 'Collectors Edition' cash grab The 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. I knew I was going to be disappointed before I even picked it up, but I did anyway. I flipped through it for the same reason I DVR That Metal Show, I just like to hate things I guess. Anyway, the bottom of the list was pretty predictable, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones and so on, but I was more than usually disappointed in the absence of metal.There were only two metal bands on the list Metallica ( 50-something) and Black Sabbath (10 or 20 spots later in the list).Not to mention the amount of rap groups on the list. Including Public Enemy at number 14, that's right the group Flavor Flav was in.
There are many metal bands from any of the sub-genres of metal that easily belong on that list. I don't see why all of the "Greatest Artists of All Time' should be only from the past 60 years and be, for the most part, all of the same genre. No Beethoven, no Mozart, no Bach, no Paganini. I am to assume that the artists in this list have done more for the art than these fine composers. And all of the blurbs about these artists are written by other artists. Just the most popular patting themselves on the back.
The Rolling Stone should be ashamed of themselves. Print is an endangered species on its way to extinction. Many magazines over the years have closed up shop, Metal Edge, Metal Maniacs and Hit Parader for example. All legitimate music publications now out of print. Thank goodness Revolver is hanging in there. It is the best widely available American metal magazine covering a pretty wide stretch genre-wise. So, pick up Revolver or, if you have the money, Metal Hammer or Kerrang to get any decent extreme music cover and leave The Rolling Stone, or as I now refer to it as, Mtv the Magazine, to extinction.
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