What are you listening to?

[Thorazine Shuffle]

Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive Nightmare, 2010

[twelveOtwelve]

Again & Again - 2PM

[Thorazine Shuffle]

Mastodon - Oblivion Crack the Skye, 2009

Weirdest concept album ever:
"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way."

[twelveOtwelve]

Kodou - Dir en Grey

[Devilkitty]

Battle of Bodmin Pill, New Model Army
(Thunder and Consolation, 1989, which marked a move to a more folk-rock sound.)

Quite the anthem.

[Devilkitty]

Mastodon - Oblivion Crack the Skye, 2009

Weirdest concept album ever:
"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way."

This intrigued me, but then I like weird stuff like that (as long as it's well-executed).
I've since snagged the album and find it quite reminiscent of Voivod's Dimension Hatröss (1988) with Ozzy-esque vocals.

[Thorazine Shuffle]

Mastodon - Oblivion Crack the Skye, 2009

Weirdest concept album ever:
"There is a paraplegic and the only way that he can go anywhere is if he astral travels. He goes out of his body, into outer space and a bit like Icarus, he goes too close to the sun, burning off the golden umbilical cord that is attached to his solar plexus. So he is in outer space and he is lost, he gets sucked into a wormhole, he ends up in the spirit realm and he talks to spirits telling them that he is not really dead. So they send him to the Russian cult, they use him in a divination and they find out his problem. They decide they are going to help him. They put his soul inside Rasputin's body. Rasputin goes to usurp the czar and he is murdered. The two souls fly out of Rasputin's body through the crack in the sky(e) and Rasputin is the wise man that is trying to lead the child home to his body because his parents have discovered him by now and think that he is dead. Rasputin needs to get him back into his body before it's too late. But they end up running into the Devil along the way and the Devil tries to steal their souls and bring them down…there are some obstacles along the way."

This intrigued me, but then I like weird stuff like that (as long as it's well-executed).
I've since snagged the album and find it quite reminiscent of Voivod's Dimension Hatröss (1988) with Ozzy-esque vocals.

That was my first thought, too, with the Ozzy-like vocals. They're the whole reason my mom appreciated a few of the songs. It did take me a fair bit to gt into this album, but it's really growing on me now.

Oh, and what's a good song from the Voivod album? I could use some new music.

Beck - E-Pro Guero, 2002

[Devilkitty]

This intrigued me, but then I like weird stuff like that (as long as it's well-executed).
I've since snagged the album and find it quite reminiscent of Voivod's Dimension Hatröss (1988) with Ozzy-esque vocals.

That was my first thought, too, with the Ozzy-like vocals. They're the whole reason my mom appreciated a few of the songs. It did take me a fair bit to gt into this album, but it's really growing on me now.

Oddly enough, when I was away at that drum school earlier this month, I saw a younger fellow (13-15 or so) with a Crack the Skye t-shirt...

Oh, and what's a good song from the Voivod album? I could use some new music.

From the liner notes:

Inside a giant particle accelerator, a beam of protons traveling at near the speed of light meets a beam of antiprotons moving equally fast in the opposite direction. The protons and mirror-image antiprotons annihilate each other, creating the fiery chaos of a parallel micro-galaxy. Experiment one complete, the VOIVOD goes into that new dimension, meeting different civilisations and psychic entities, extracting knowledge and energy in the eight programs of this project called:
DIMENSION HATRÖSS

(With a cover of Neal Hefti's Batman theme as a bonus CD track. It wasn't on the vinyl or cassette.)

See PM.

Now that I'm coming to understand a little more of your tastes -- and that we've got some in common... If you like concept albums, or rather concept discographies, check out the complete Bal-Sagoth (six CDs*). The best way I can describe it using "modern" terminology is "Progressive Symphonic Black Metal, but not like Scandinavian Black Metal". Brilliant stuff; I'd start with Battle Magic and The Power Cosmic, then go back and start from the beginning to get the whole picture.

* To wit:
A Black Moon Broods Over Lemuria
Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule
Battle Magic
The Power Cosmic
Atlantis Ascendant
The Chthonic Chronicles

[Thorazine Shuffle]

That sounds similar to what Coheed and Cambria does (Though I haven't actually heard anything by them). Each one of their albums follows the same overall story arc, so each album is akin to a new novel in a series.

On the Bal-Sagoth note, as far as I know I've never listened to black metal, so I'll probably give a few songs on Youtube a listen first before committing to a whole album. Though the metal I do listen to does have progressive elements, like Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Dream Theater, Cynic, etc, so I'll see how I like it.

Voivod - Chaosmongers Dimension Hatross, 1988

[Devilkitty]

On the Bal-Sagoth note, as far as I know I've never listened to black metal, so I'll probably give a few songs on Youtube a listen first before committing to a whole album. Though the metal I do listen to does have progressive elements, like Opeth, Between the Buried and Me, Dream Theater, Cynic, etc, so I'll see how I like it.

Well, it's not black metal in the Emperor/Enslaved/Burzum/Mayhem sense. Metal's been split into so many sub-genres that old-time metalheads like yours truly sometimes have trouble describing a particular artist these days. Web site is http://www.bal-sagoth.co.uk/, which might give you a better idea of what they're about. The whole catalogue should be available on BT if you swing that way.

Would you believe I first ran across them through the "random page" link on Wikipedia?

Current: The Great Divide, VNV Nation (Of Faith, Power and Glory, 2009)

[Thorazine Shuffle]

Really? The only thing I ever find through that link is very, very obscure villages with two sentences on the page.

In Flames - Drifter Reroute to Remain, 2002

[Ocean_Wolf]

Forgive Me - Missy Higgins

[TheAsianWonder]

Mentiras by Los Amigos Invisibles.

[Devilkitty]

Sovereign, Faith and the Muse (:ankoku butoh:, 2009)

"There's a tale told bizarre that's behind every scar
And I'm yours, all ears, tonight."

Oops, just changed...

I've Had Enough, The Who (Quadrophenia, 1973)
A much stronger album than Tommy, if not nearly as popular.

[Sarcasmic Canadian]

Teenage Dream- Katy Perry