Okay, does anyone feel like helping out a Rath? I need music recommendations, because I think I have just noticed an odd quirk in my musical tastes, and I want to see if there is a real pattern here or just an illusory one...

The thing is, W. was kind enough to give me the first Eisbrecher album (and the second one, but I haven't listened to that one as much yet) and I've been devouring it enthusiastically. My favourite tracks are, without question, Willkommen im Nichts and Fanatica. Schwarze Witwe is hanging around third place, tieing for now with Herz Steht Still (which is gorgeous but being left aside for now cos it doesn't fit the topic under discussion).

Now, what's interesting about these three tracks? All of them are quite heavy, quite crunchy, solidly rhythmical, but they have - either in the backing vocals (Schwarze Witwe), the main vocals (Willkommen im Nichts), or both (Fanatica), a bizarrely conspicuous pop influence. The prechorus of Willkommen im Nichts has a brilliant looping, dipping pattern that really does sound like a pop chorus in a horrible, black, spiky, grinning disguise, and the English chorus of Fanatica probably wouldn't sound out of place on a chart single if it weren't backed by distorted synths and being powered from underneath by a vocalist who sounds like he's snarling through a static generator.

Which got me thinking, now, what other bands and songs do I like that feel like this? And the list is interestingly long. Lordi - are a melodic hard rock band with a harsh lead vocal, using a lot of pop and rock lyrical concepts with a dark twist. Devilish Presley - feel like the Fifties like the Fifties never were, twisted sideways by Johnny and Jacqui's sneering snarls and skewed lyrical concepts. Marilyn Manson covering Sweet Dreams. Children of Bodom covering Bed of Nails. Carpathian Forest covering the Cure. Power metal versions of ABBA songs. W.A.S.P. ballads. The list goes on. And as far as I can nail down, the mystic link between them all is the combination of pop/rock melody structures and/or mirrorverse-style twists on mainstream musical ideas, with vocals that are theoretically too harsh for but nevertheless follow the conventions of the melodic structure.

So. Dear flist, do any of you have any songs that sound like they fit this description (any genre from metal to electronica to goth to whatever, guitars not obligatory!) that you think I should hear? Caveat: I still tend to strongly dislike filks, "novelty" covers or pisstakes, some of which would fall into the description above. Some degree of straight face and musical integrity has to be involved, so the band in question has to be doing this style because it's what they want to sound like, rather than because they're looking at the audience going "are we funny yet?" But that aside, I'm sure there must be more Stuff That Sounds Like This, so if anyone has any, please wave it at me? Thank you!

In other news, a) I am going against the trend and actually kind of gutted at what happened to Jeff Hardy at Extreme Rules (and I really hope his shoulder and finger heal up quick, best wishes Jeff!), b) I think I have a cold, and c) I need more sleep. >_< How are you guys?

Laters,
Rath

Okay! Prompted by rumblings from tribe sternenstaub's general direction, here is a list of Thirteen Films Rath Loves And Will Show At The Slightest Provocation (there are more, but I thought I'd limit myself a little...)

Trick or Treat (being the definition of what one certain strand of the eighties was ALL about, yes. Featuring Sammi Curr, the greatest fictional rock god of all time.)
Streets of Fire (rock opera. Only not. Only gritty and badass and snarky and slashy and amazing. This film makes me want to explode for joy. With added Jim Steinman songs! And Willem Dafoe in black vinyl!)
John Carpenter's Vampires (is sleazy and rough-edged and politically incorrect, violent and sexy and has an old priest, a young priest, a fantastic vampire, and James Woods being utterly brilliant)
Ghosts of Mars (because I want to see it again dammit and nobody ever wants to watch it with me. Primarily a visual-spectacle flick, recommended for anyone who likes glossy-edged, darkish, vaguely incomprehensible SF and anyone with a kink for sharp objects/piercings/body mods/black leather/pain.)
Last Action Hero (anyone who loves the way stories and worlds fit together should see this film. As should anyone who likes their villains intelligent, well dressed and dangerous. Warning: contains Arnold Schwarznegger sending himself up, which is dangerous levels of adorable.)
The Ninth Gate (I normally don't do the Johnny Depp thing, but when he's playing a complete bastard of a book dealer who's chasing down a book co-written by the Devil? Hell yes. Also, Frank Langella does his Bad Guy routine in this to wonderful effect. WIN.)
Batman Forever (because it's so slick and nineties and glossy and ridiculous and eye-candy, and I cannot get enough, ever, of this version of Two-Face and the Riddler - seriously, seeing is believing.)
David Cronenberg's Crash (I love this film and it's a lot more than just the shocker it was made out to be on its release, but just about everyone who has ever reviewed it has managed to make me go "What, no, YOU HAVE NO CLUE" so I always like rewatching it. But it's one that not many people I know have the stomach for, sadly. :/ )
Dracula (the 1979 version, for my money the finest portrayal of the Count ever, courtesy of Frank Langella. Beautifully sensual, ambiguous, subtle, and gorgeously shot, this is a lost classic of the highest order.)
Mortal Kombat (I will not try to be coherent about this film, never going to happen, seriously. Characters/design/fight cinematography/music/EVERYTHING++++++)
Ghost Rider (...obviously.)
Sin City (makes me cry and ache and cheer and gasp out loud every time. Best comic-noir movie ever made except, just possibly, Watchmen.)
The Shadow (most gorgeous America-that-never-was in the universe, Mongol warlords, and Alec Baldwin hamming it up. I love this film not so much for what it straightforwardly is, as for everything I can see just off the edges of the frame.)

If anything on that list sounds like something you want to see/resee/geek about, please leave a comment below and I will see what I can do! :)

Love,
Rath

...and I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of Man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels.

The above from the immortal William Wordsworth, but delivered into my field of awareness by being on the back of a Relentless can (yes, I do drink energy drinks at twelve o'clock at night, you think I got this way naturally?) Thus inspired in more ways than one, I seem to have gone off collecting pretty things - so here, I share!

( Slaanesh-themed art links. )

(If you're commenting on this btw, please be invited to add art links of things that you love (any subject at all) - I want there to be as many beautiful things in this post as will possibly fit. ^_^)

Laters,
Rath

EDIT: I have just discovered the source of the Wordsworth quote above, namely "Tintern Abbey".

Which OF COURSE would also be the one with the line about: Knowing that Nature never did betray / the heart that loved her, wouldn't it. Of course it would. ♥

Calling all stations... come in, England...

IRON MAIDEN have been nominated for the Brit Awards under "Best British Live Act"! (Along with, if anyone cares, Coldplay, Elbow, Scouting For Girls and the Verve - do any of those people do anything interesting onstage? I wouldn't know...)

Now, this category is judged by public vote - and you all know what happens when the words "Iron Maiden" and "fan support" turn up in the same sentence. *grins* So if anyone would like to join me in contributing to the metal scene's greatest mass polling exercise since Eurovision 06, please walk this way and get clicking!

Ithankyou!

Laters,
Rath