What music are you listening to?

Oo, and when I went looking for that, I discovered that Scott Hoying of Pentatonix kicked off the summer with a new solo song and video.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
I am not overly familiar with this band but, as you see from the beginning of the video, their original singer, Nicole Bogner sadly became a member of the '27 Club' in 2012. I find it incredible that so many musicians have passed away at the young age of 27. Coincidence? I suppose so, but even so...

I am mostly familiar with the current lineup which has Clementine Delauney on female vocals and Michele Guatoli as the male vocalist. Terrific band. Their recent album Pirates (and their new live album Pirates Over Wacken) is a fave of mine. But, yeah, Nicole's passing is another one of those "way too young" stories. The band dedicated the album Ethera to her memory.

My new musical discovery right now is Blackbriar. It's a fairly new Dutch band with a marvelously talented singer and songwriter named Zora Cock as its lead. They are now signed to Nuclear Blast, the same label as Nightwish and some other metal greats, and this is from their upcoming first album of that deal.

One of my favourite Joni Mitchell tracks. I can clearly visualise the story as it unfolds. Sheer brilliance!

Raised on Robbery.

Listening to Black Symphony, the live album with orchestra by Dutch symphonic metal greats Within Temptation, and this song just hits me hard in the feels every time I hear it in any form. Sharon clearly has some emotions tied up in it.

Another side of Lissie that shows what an absolute talent she is.

Everywhere I Go (Piano version).

So what might it sound like if the wonderful soprano metal singer Marcela Bovio fronted Nightwish? Kind of like this, I guess. A lovely vocal cover by Marcela of the band's song "Sleeping Sun", a favorite of mine.

And my musical discovery of the month is ... Ankor. It's an alt-metal band from Spain that's a couple decades old. The current lineup features a terrific English singer-songwriter named Jessie Williams on vocals (harsh, clean, and occasional rapping) as well as writing a lot of the lyrics. The remainder of the lineup is mostly Spanish, with David Romeu and Fito Martinez on guitar and Julio Lopez on bass, save the amazing drummer Eleni Nota who hails from Athens, Greece. Guitarist David Romeu writes a lot of the music and directs most of their videos.

A real blast from the past.

Live in 1989, Dave Stewart with Candy Dulfer. Lily was here.

Another saxophonic blast from even further back. From 1978, even. Can you believe this was released 45 years ago?

Gerry Rafferty - Baker Street

In connection with the This or That thread;

Booker T. and the MGs - Soul Limbo.

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Can you believe this was released 45 years ago?

Sadly, I can. I was quite fond of it. Love that opening sax riff still.

Learned about Laufey while in Iceland. Her father is Icelandic and her mother is Chinese. She is currently living in the USA, though, pursuing a career in jazz after doing a degree at the Berklee College of Music. Here she performs live with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, in which her mother played(plays?) violin.

Getting into a genre of music that you have largely ignored leads to interesting things, like listening to albums you largely passed over back in the day. Holy Diver by Dio came out when I was still in high school and I only vaguely knew of it until I got into metal. This morning, I had it on. Not necessarily going to be a favourite, but I can see why it is regarded as an important album in heavy metal. Here's a live performance. Lead singer, and founder, of the band was the late Ronnie James Dio, who fronted several bands over his career, including Dio, Black Sabbath and Rainbow.

Quote by Mendalla

Getting into a genre of music that you have largely ignored leads to interesting things, like listening to albums you largely passed over back in the day. Holy Diver by Dio came out when I was still in high school and I only vaguely knew of it until I got into metal. This morning, I had it on. Not necessarily going to be a favourite, but I can see why it is regarded as an important album in heavy metal. Here's a live performance. Lead singer, and founder, of the band was the late Ronnie James Dio, who fronted several bands over his career, including Dio, Black Sabbath and Rainbow.

When I was a teenager, my cousin was dating a guy who worked for A&M Records. One day, I received a surprise package from him. It contained a random selection of three albums. I hadn't heard of any of them.

They consisted of;

The Tubes - The Tubes

Dio - Sacred Heart

Supertramp - Crime of the Century

One of them has been played so often that I'm surprised it's still intact. The other two are still like new, virtually unplayed. I wonder if you can guess which is my favourite.

Here is a track from one of them. Take a listen, you might never want to hear it again! 🤣

Having dug out the above-mentioned albums, I have found a slight anomaly in my memory banks.

Sacred Heart wasn't released until 1985, which was some nine years after the previously narrated tale!

However, it seems that it must have been Peter Frampton's - Frampton that was the third Album.

So now I am wondering, where did I get Sacred Heart from? 🤔

Anyway, I am listening to it now and finding it awesome. I should have given it more credit way back then.

There are only two songs on the Frampton album that I ever liked. Here is one, Show Me The Way.

One of my favourite metal bands (after Nightwish) is Blind Guardian. They are pretty old, having started when I was just finishing high school. Lead singer Hansi Kursch has an incredible voice both for screaming and clean singing. This is the title track of their fifth album, released in 1995, here done live in 2016. It is one of my favourite Guardian songs at present (though I am still working my way through their extensive catalogue).

More from Laufey. "Bewitched" is the title track of her latest album. While there is an official video of the album version, I love this acoustic "Live from home" performance that she posted to her channel yesterday.

Ad Infinitum is a marvellous band that's now going on 4 years. It began as a solo project for lead singer Melissa Bonny when she was still in the Swiss trance metal band Rage of Light. They now have three studio albums (Chapter I, II, III) plus an acoustic remake of Chapter I (it's amazing in its own right, by the way). While they are definitely in the metal sphere, Melissa's smooth, almost R&B-esque at times, clean singing voice and the melodic style of the music should, I think, give them some appeal beyond the headbanger crowd. At the same, the heavy guitar and rhythm work and Melissa's occasional harsh vocals definitely give them some metalhead appeal.

From their first album:

And the leadoff track from their latest:

I’m listening to The Lonesome Jubilee by John Mellencamp a lot lately. It has aged well - I had forgotten how much I liked it.

Quote by verbal

I’m listening to The Lonesome Jubilee by John Mellencamp a lot lately. It has aged well - I had forgotten how much I liked it.

I am not a huge fan but that's just a matter of style, not quality. He's a heck of a good songwriter.

What do you do when you're both a top metal singer and the mother of a young daughter who is into Disney's Frozen? Record a cover of "Let It Go" of course, but put a bit of a metal spin on it. Dutch rocker Floor Jansen covered the song as the first of her pandemic covers, then incorporated it into her solo setlists when she could start performing live again. This performance is from her "Live from AFAS Amsterdam" video and live album.

Nightwish recently announced that they are currently recording their tenth album, due for release in 2024.

Here, then, is their very first single release,

From the 1997 album, Angels Fall First, this is The Carpenter.

Amazing how adding a little metal makes such a difference.

Just found this version of Miserlou...

Quote by AnnaMayZing
Nightwish recently announced that they are currently recording their tenth album, due for release in 2024.

In fact, Kai (drummer) announced on social media that he is finished laying down the drum tracks (learned this via other NW fans on Floorworld). He seems to be the most active on SM these days since Floor, who used to be fairly active, is laying low right now. The goal seems to be for the guys to get their bits done, then have Floor do the vocal tracks when she's up for it.

And i actually had Ghost on in the car this morning.

I love watching the videos by Sina Drums (Sina Döring). Here she is playing both Drums and Bass! She must have been beside herself!

This is her cover of It's My Life by Bon Jovi

I have been binge-watching Young Sheldon and thoroughly enjoying it. From there, something strange happened. I discovered the name of the actress who plays Sheldon's friend, Paige. McKenna Grace. Since then, she has popped up in so many places. Today, I watched Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Who is in it? Yep, McKenna Grace. But what's more, at the end, this...

The Haunted House by none other than? You guessed it... McKenna Grace. This is one talented kid!

Quote by AnnaMayZing
The Haunted House by none other than? You guessed it... McKenna Grace. This is one talented kid!

She reminds me a bit of someone else but not sure who. Maybe I've just heard other music by her. Wonder if she'll juggle music and acting or go Taylor Momsen's (former TV star who is the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless) route and focus on music.

I've probably posted about these two individually before, but Mia x Ally is now an official joint project. Mia is the violinist, Ally is the piper (in fact she goes by Piper Ally on social media). They toured together in the spring and have a new tour and their debut album coming up in the fall after Mia finishes a European tour as a soloist with the metal string ensemble Two Steps From Hell.

And the wonderful Mexican-born, Netherlands-based singer Marcela Bovio has reunited her old band Stream Of Passion for two concerts (so far, maybe more will come) and a new EP coming out this fall. They originally ran from 2005 to 2016 with some lineup changes along the way. I assume this reunion will be the final lineup.

Quote by Mendalla

She reminds me a bit of someone else but not sure who. Maybe I've just heard other music by her. Wonder if she'll juggle music and acting or go Taylor Momsen's (former TV star who is the lead singer of The Pretty Reckless) route and focus on music.

Forgot to mention, she also co-directs her own videos and writes the songs! I would suggest that she may have been influenced by The Pierces, maybe?

Sounds like Zora Cock of Blackbriar. She's even doing videos for other artists, now.

Stumbled over this young lady a couple days ago. Not sure why her music appeals to me. It is definitely not my usual, even my pre-metalhead usual. Then again, Cannons kind of fits that description, too, and I am heavily into them as well. So maybe I have new usual? Baby Queen (real name Arabella Latham) was born in South Africa but is based in the UK these days.