lördag 7 Okt 2006, 4:09

This is pretty much going down my top artists list, but I'll explain why I like each, and as you can probably see its quite a diverse list.

Sonata Arctica –Favorite band because of the awesome melodies combined with great lyrics to put it simplistically… I guess I can relate to what they sing about very well.

Dream Theater –Dream Theater is awesome because they do things in such a weird way that they're awesome. If you ever watch mike portnoy doing a video about his playing style you'll know what I mean. Train of Thought is by far my favorite album followed by Awake because of the heavy nature of the albums.

E.S. Posthumus is my next favorite band because of their quite "experimental" music that has a very cool rhythm in each song paired with an equally cool orchestra melody.

WarmenIs next up on the list because of their incredible instrumental tracks such as Return of Salieri which are simply incredible to listen to.

ApocalypticaIs next, simply put their music is the most "atmospheric" I've ever heard… if that means anything.

Grim Fandango is really great… I've actually listen to it much more than my chart leads on (mp3 player and such). I really love the smooth jazz style the music captures… another bonus is that its free!

John Petrucci is quite amazing on his solo album Suspended Animation which is all intrumental btw. The style of this album is absolutely stunning, and you gotta love the 7 string guitar on Jaws of Life

Nightwish has some really cool stuff. I mostly like their songs from Oceanborn and some of their later stuff like Over the Hills and Far Away but some of their stuff inbetween was rather meh from my perspective.

Boston Brass is next up. This is one of the first ones that's really not mainstream at all, which was surprising to me when I found out because I absolutely love their work. They do all sorts of songs with all brass instrumentation (no percussion at all) with seeming ease…. and it sound awesome.

Yngwie Malmsteenis next because he can combine classical music with rock and electric guitars… genius.

Weird Alif you don't know who he is…hmmm…well find out lol.

Dark Moor first piqued my interest when I heard the bonus track of Vivaldi's Winter that they play… which kind of warmed me up to the rest of their songs which hadn't really interested me for some reason before that.

Tower of Power is kind of an interesting story. The jazz band I was in played 'what is hip?' which I rather liked (this was before I heard the lyrics, but I still like the song) and I like their musical style, but most of the lyrics to their songs I don't really relate to at all… that's why I mostly listen to the instrumental ones they did.

Symphony X has such a unique instrumental sound that I really dig, but like a lot of other bands I don't really like the vocal style… so I just kind of put up with it to listen to the instrumental parts (I like some parts, just not most)

Proteus 7 is another small jazz type band that I actually saw in concert (where I first heard them) who does a lot of great songs in a cool way.

Masterplan should really be much higher on the list… I started scrobbling kind of on the downside of the initial curve of listening to them a ton. I really like both the instrumental kind of heavy goth metal sound they have and the vocal style they have. Great band that's worth a listen.

Chuck Mangione is simpily put one of the great masters of smooth jazz.

And the rest. There are some good artists down there that for one reason or another I haven't listened to more, but there are some ones down there that I listened to for awhile and didn't like and haven't listened to since.

Hope you enjoyed reading this… :)