Awesome Music of the Aughts - 2000
This here decade is about wrapping up, so fair game to start talking about the highlights, particularly in music (because it's easier than top linguistics of the decade, and I know more about it than I do about movies).
We'll start off with that year that everyone argued about whether or not it was part of the new decade/century/millenium: 2000. These were days when I was listening to almost exclusively metal and in particular was a huge Iron Maiden and Judas Priest fan, so two albums in particular out-shined most everything for me this year: Brave New World, Bruce Dickinson's fantastic return to Maiden, and Resurrection, Rob Halford's best work outside of Priest.
Brave New World was an amazing return to the quality, if not strictly the form, of the band's hay day. The songs had depth, there was great variety, and Bruce was back to where he once belonged, replacing the fairly regrettable Blaze Bayley. Adrian Smith also returned to the fold, but instead of booting perfectly cromulent replacement guitarist Janick Gers, they had a stroke of genius: Three Guitarists. This added new color to Maiden's classic guitarmonies and a larger-than-ever pool of songwriters working on the material. This is also the version of Maiden I got a chance to see live, and they totally rocked my world.
(Unfortunately for things related to Maiden, 2000 also saw the release of the song "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus. Vomit.)
(Can't find a good YouTube clip from Resurrection sadly)
Halford's solo album was way better than his other post-Priest work. More interesting than the blah thrash project Fight, and just higher quality than weird electro thing Two. This had a lot of the flavor of late-Halford Priest albums like Painkiller. This one doesn't stand up quite as well nine years later as Brave New World, but it was huge for me at the time, and I saw Halford at the same show I saw Iron Maiden (and Queensrÿche for that matter but their album this year sucked).
This was the same year I discovered one of my favorite bands, Blind Guardian. Though they didn't put out an album this year, Hansi Kürsch side project Demons and Wizards did, and it totally rocked my newly-power-metal-loving ass.
This album really sums up what I loved about this style of metal. Hansi's voice is perennially amazing, with huge range and immense power, and his sensibilities kept in check the duller tendencies of his collaborator, Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer. This and other songs from the album remain fairly regular parts of my melodic metal playlists. Honorable mentions from this genre this year: Dawn of Victory by Rhapsody, The Dark Ride by Helloween, Thunderstorm by Iron Fire, and V by Symphony X
It wasn't all metal for me this year. I was also way into jazz bass. Enter John Patitucci's album Imprint.
Patitucci was one of my heroes at the time on both electric and upright bass. This album showcased some of the better aspects of modern fusion-inspired jazz. Gorgeous melodies, varied instrumentation, non-annoying use of soprano sax. I still regularly play etudes from a book by John.
Of course, I didn't discover all of the greats that year. High up among my later discoveries from 2000 were Nevermore's Dead Heart in a Dead World and Super Furry Animals' Mwng.
Though it's got stiff competition from its predecessor, Dreaming Neon Black, Dead Heart may be Nevermore's number one album in my book. Huge riffs, huge solos, and the last instances of good production on a Nevermore record. There were several great ballads, a few awesome fast jams, and a zany cover of The Sound of Silence, but The River Dragon Has Come has it all as far as a Nevermore tune is concerned: an epic chorus, some groovy riffing, and maybe the best solo Jeff Loomis has ever played. The only real complaint I have with this album is how completely unhinged Warrell Dane's vocals got, especially on the track Between Four Walls
Super Furry Animals' all Welsh album Mwng is one of my favorite things ever. I get the feeling they figured like as long as they were going to make an album in a language few people speak, they may as well make the music sound a little like it's from outer space. This is weird indie pop at its best. It's got trumpets, accordions, and that wacky Welsh language, and I super love it.
Other highlights from the year: Sprial Architect's A Skeptic's Universe; Sunn 0)))'s ØØ Void; Ulver's Perdition City; The Murder City Devils' In Name and Blood; Värttinä's Ilmatar; The Living End's Roll On; and Devin Townsend's Physicist.
That's it for 2000 as I remember it. Up next: whatever year comes after 2000!
We'll start off with that year that everyone argued about whether or not it was part of the new decade/century/millenium: 2000. These were days when I was listening to almost exclusively metal and in particular was a huge Iron Maiden and Judas Priest fan, so two albums in particular out-shined most everything for me this year: Brave New World, Bruce Dickinson's fantastic return to Maiden, and Resurrection, Rob Halford's best work outside of Priest.
Brave New World was an amazing return to the quality, if not strictly the form, of the band's hay day. The songs had depth, there was great variety, and Bruce was back to where he once belonged, replacing the fairly regrettable Blaze Bayley. Adrian Smith also returned to the fold, but instead of booting perfectly cromulent replacement guitarist Janick Gers, they had a stroke of genius: Three Guitarists. This added new color to Maiden's classic guitarmonies and a larger-than-ever pool of songwriters working on the material. This is also the version of Maiden I got a chance to see live, and they totally rocked my world.
(Unfortunately for things related to Maiden, 2000 also saw the release of the song "Teenage Dirtbag" by Wheatus. Vomit.)
(Can't find a good YouTube clip from Resurrection sadly)
Halford's solo album was way better than his other post-Priest work. More interesting than the blah thrash project Fight, and just higher quality than weird electro thing Two. This had a lot of the flavor of late-Halford Priest albums like Painkiller. This one doesn't stand up quite as well nine years later as Brave New World, but it was huge for me at the time, and I saw Halford at the same show I saw Iron Maiden (and Queensrÿche for that matter but their album this year sucked).
This was the same year I discovered one of my favorite bands, Blind Guardian. Though they didn't put out an album this year, Hansi Kürsch side project Demons and Wizards did, and it totally rocked my newly-power-metal-loving ass.
This album really sums up what I loved about this style of metal. Hansi's voice is perennially amazing, with huge range and immense power, and his sensibilities kept in check the duller tendencies of his collaborator, Iced Earth's Jon Schaffer. This and other songs from the album remain fairly regular parts of my melodic metal playlists. Honorable mentions from this genre this year: Dawn of Victory by Rhapsody, The Dark Ride by Helloween, Thunderstorm by Iron Fire, and V by Symphony X
It wasn't all metal for me this year. I was also way into jazz bass. Enter John Patitucci's album Imprint.
Patitucci was one of my heroes at the time on both electric and upright bass. This album showcased some of the better aspects of modern fusion-inspired jazz. Gorgeous melodies, varied instrumentation, non-annoying use of soprano sax. I still regularly play etudes from a book by John.
Of course, I didn't discover all of the greats that year. High up among my later discoveries from 2000 were Nevermore's Dead Heart in a Dead World and Super Furry Animals' Mwng.
Though it's got stiff competition from its predecessor, Dreaming Neon Black, Dead Heart may be Nevermore's number one album in my book. Huge riffs, huge solos, and the last instances of good production on a Nevermore record. There were several great ballads, a few awesome fast jams, and a zany cover of The Sound of Silence, but The River Dragon Has Come has it all as far as a Nevermore tune is concerned: an epic chorus, some groovy riffing, and maybe the best solo Jeff Loomis has ever played. The only real complaint I have with this album is how completely unhinged Warrell Dane's vocals got, especially on the track Between Four Walls
Super Furry Animals' all Welsh album Mwng is one of my favorite things ever. I get the feeling they figured like as long as they were going to make an album in a language few people speak, they may as well make the music sound a little like it's from outer space. This is weird indie pop at its best. It's got trumpets, accordions, and that wacky Welsh language, and I super love it.
Other highlights from the year: Sprial Architect's A Skeptic's Universe; Sunn 0)))'s ØØ Void; Ulver's Perdition City; The Murder City Devils' In Name and Blood; Värttinä's Ilmatar; The Living End's Roll On; and Devin Townsend's Physicist.
That's it for 2000 as I remember it. Up next: whatever year comes after 2000!
posted by Mike at 9:46 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home