As you should have guessed from my previous e-mail, I enjoy at least classical and hard rock/metal. However, it goes far beyond that. I won't tell of much of it, since if you already don't listen, you probably never will.
However, I have been wondering how many others on the list listen to power/ progressive metal. Progressive metal is rather self evident to be at least somewhat extropian. However, power metal is on a different level. Before anyone says "bah, just noise, all of it." You should really give some bands a chance. Some of my favorite bands:
BTW, I'm not affialiated with any of the following, I just love their music.
Blind Guardian:
Their lyrics are far from extropian (focusing mainly on fantasy fiction by the band and famous authors such as Tolkien), though some extropian concepts slip in (i.e. songs inspired by books such as "Blade Runner/Do Androids Dream of Electric Sleep?") The extropianism comes in their music. It is absolutely amazing. They started as a really good straight speed-metal band, but not many of you would care about that. Since their album "Somewhere Far Beyond," however, they have adopted a sound that I've never heard in a band before. They have very powerful and fast music when needed, but also slower, acoustic numbers that have such emotion. Another interesting trait is the giant choair-type vocals used in many a chorus. If you enjoy fantasy, or very powerful and heavy, but still emotional music, you should at least try this band. Unlike most sterotypical metal, they never hold back on melody and harmony, but they also use a lot of time changes, which is what really conveys the extropianism about it. They are a truly difficult band to describe, since they use rhythm, melody, and harmony so perfectly that they do not fall easily into any category. Their new album, Nightfall In Middle Earth, is a concept album based on the first half of the Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (the second half will be continued on an upcoming EP). To anyone who has read this, you konw how much emotion is captured in this book - Blind Guardian expresses all the sorrow and pain *perfectly* IMHO. Also to any classical people, their solos and, now, a lot of their base riffing are very classically oriented.
Great pages about them at: http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f94jowe/bg/
and http://www.blind-guardian.com
For sound samples try: http://www.dd.chalmers.se/~f94jowe/bg/mmedia.html
Of most apppeal to most of you would be the first two Real Audio files and the first three (second one is split) .mp3 files.
If any of you like them, don't hesitate to e-mail me privately, as I have another six .ra files that cannot be found there (sorry, I will *NOT* copy CDs or portions of CDs for anyone).
Their albums are now being distributed in the U.S. through Century Media, who sells even imported CDs for very cheap ($10-$12 American dollars per CD, usually.) However, they are rather slow (both in shipping time (2-3 weeks, usually) and also in updating catalogs, so you will probably have to e-mail them about any Blind Guardian CDs you would be interested in. A bonus about Century Media is that there are many great bands either signed or distributed through this label. For orders over $80, shipping is free.
Iced Earth:
This is a band that is acutally signed on to Century Media, so their CDs are all $10 or $8. Another band extropian in musical style. Lyrics here are mainly dark fantasy, though two notable exceptions are a musical journey through Dante's "Inferno" and a concept album about the "Spawn" comic book, hey, don't laugh, Spawn has a better, sadder plot than many books I've ever read, certainly doesn't fit the name of "comic" book.
This band has a different sort of "atmospheric" quality than most of you are used to. There is a lot of fast strumming and time changes. There is a wealth of good music here.
http://www.icedearth.com has a lot of sound files (a good deal are temporarily down due to server space.)
Samael:
This band used to be straight Black metal. Wait! Wait! They've changed. Just to let them make their own impression, their newest album is entitled "Passage" and the cover is a picture of the moon. How's that for extropian? They are a heavy, heavy metal, almost techno in parts, but with beautiful keyboarding all around. Since the "Rebellion" EP, they have been quite extropian.
This is another band which needs to be heard to be believed:
There is a sound sample here from the keyboardist/songwriter's classical remake of
"Passage"
http://www.invader.de/samael/xy.htm
The sound sample here is not as demonstrative as some others would have been, but you
can see the lyrics of some of their better material: http://www.invader.de/samael/pass.htm
I'll leave you now with some quotes from Samael
"I know how little is the value of that which has a price."
" Profound is the pain from which is born deliverance
Long is the path which leads to the light
And you march alone ..."
" So small in my greatness
I am the one who never wanted to be
So great in my smallness
I am the one who knows he is not"
"I am my Savior"
Interview with Xy / Samael / Dortmund / Ruhr-Rock-Hallen / 01.06.1997
Invader, The Metal @-zine
Invader: So, is it like a sort of resignation about other people?
Xy: I just think the point is that if you try to change somebody and to force him to do so, that will really never work. It's best to choose to show something, and then people change on their own. And it's best that you don't really try to change them. They just make it in their own way. And then, the change makes sense, because then they really change, they know why they change and, you know... this is stronger, I think.
Invader: So, it's still like: ‘Be your own god..'?
Xy: Yeah. Sure. But I think everybody should be, you know. It's just ‘follow yourself, because you've got everything inside'. And you know everything. I'm trusting in that you're ... whatever. Then you don't have to listen to what people say, you just listen to yourself, and that's it. But that's what everybody knows but nobody practices. Most of the people know this, it has been told a hundred times."
"Du bist die Frage, deren Antwort wir haben"
Dave Bradley