Listening Trends for September 2022

September 2022⌗

Another month, and not enough music listened to. However, it also marked the return of gig attendance, with Grumpy Metal Girl and myself attending a gig together for the first time in nearly 3 years. Was a strange sensation to be sure, but also a welcome one, and hopefully the first of many more!

Blind Guardian - The God Machine⌗

I’ve been a massive BG fan since the Imaginations… days, so hearing that the new album was going to be a more stripped back affair brought happy tinglings to this Grumpy Metal Guy. Luckily, the new album was not a disappointment, with some particularly rocking numbers keeping the head nodding quite happily along throughout. The releasing of singles over the course of the last year meant that a good number of the tracks were already familiar, but this didn’t really dent the impact of the album at all. Is it Imaginations or Nightfall? No, of course not. But it’s definitely a fun listen that I’ll come back to more frequently then some of their later releases.

Tribulation - Down Below⌗

While a lot of folks will go straight to Children of the Night each time, Down Below was the album that grabbed me most from Tribulation’s releases when preparing to see them support Watain and Abbath¹. I’d forgotten just how good it is, with their usual blend of gothic and classical themes keeping the air guitars strumming furiously. Lacrimosa really surpises you and smacks you in the face when it kicks in straight after the album highlight Cries From The Underworld. Overall, the whole album is just ridiculously strong.

Iron Maiden - Somewhere In Time⌗

With the announcement of the tour next year combining the Senjutsu and Somewhere In Time albums, my first thought was that I was glad they’d chosen SiT as the carrot to the Senjutsu stick². SiT was the first Maiden album I ever owned, and to this day, I still love every track on it. Alexander the Great has one of my favourite guitar solos of all time, and Stranger in a Strange Land was the first song I played in the new millennium. Listening to it again this month has been an absolute pleasure.

Queensrÿche - Operation: LIVEcrime⌗

I’ve come to realise recently that Live After Death is no longer my favourite live album. When the live version of Eyes of a Stranger came up randomly, I realised just how good Operation: LIVEcrime is. Edited to hell? Yes. Geoff Tate being a bit of an arrogant dick? For sure. From start to finish, a guitar-driven concept album that rocks so hard, you can’t help air guitaring the whole time? Without question.

Jean-Michel Jarre - Revolutions⌗

Not the most obvious of JMJ’s output, but Revolutions is an atmospheric album from start to finish. Industrial Revolution parts 1-3 are a very strong start to the album, and The Emigrant is an absolutely stirring finish to a greatly underrated album.