Muzaks! Disturbed

Disturbed, one of my favourite bands, is a Hard Rock group from Chicago. They formed in 1996 when vocalist, David Draiman, joined previously the band was known as Brawl but after recording a demo the vocalist left the group.

Disturbed are a fairly issue-oriented band in that a lot of tracks on their albums focus on sensitive or political issues. The album "Believe" has a lot about the religious differences the band have, four members with four different religions, and how their religions do not affect how they see the world.

A consistent part of Disturbed's music is Draiman's guttural howls and bestial roars, alongside his deep melodic vocals the contrasting roars add a unique yet distinct sound to the tracks.

Down with the Sickness is probably the most well known track from Disturbed and one of the first songs I heard from them. It features a guttural howl that repeats throughout the track and is really a key piece of how the song is structured.

Land of Confusion is a cover of the 1986 version by Genesis. The video has a full figure depiction of "The Guy", Disturbed's mascot, leading a revolution against soldiers of an oppressive regime, to finally lead the way to the Real Power and to topple the corrupt government. It should be noted that this was recorded around the time of President George Bush's reign and was a piece of commentary on his political policies.

Muzaks! Hinder

While at first glance at the content of some of Hinder's song they may look like a generic rock band with songs about sex, love and rock n' roll.

However when you listen to a few of their tracks it really hits you that they are rather unique in their writing. The lyrics are all very entertaining, either funny or thought provoking, and are in no way as generic as you might expect.

There are two very good examples of this.

Room21 is a song about a man meeting a girl in a bar and hooking up with her for the night. It is described in a very funny manner and has a very entertaining thread throughout

Lips of an Angel is about a man who is in a relationship but is still in love with his ex, as she is with him, and I am fairly sure that a lot of us know that feeling rather well... The entire song is very heartfelt and one can only assume that some part of it at least is written from real-life experience.

These two songs are favourites of mine and even if you don't have any interest in Rock you should have a listen to them, at least to appreciate the lyrics.

Muzaks! 3 Doors Down

A band I have known about for years yet never actually heard any of their music (knowingly at least) is 3 Doors Down, A progressive/Hard rock band from the mid 90's.

The first song I actually heard from them was a song called Kryptonite a fantastically written piece about a man giving himself completely to a woman he loves. Giving her the ability to "destroy" him. Something I am sure almost everyone has gone through at some stage.

Now let me clarify the above statement was my FIRST impression of what the song meant. After listening to the song and watching the video (several hundred times) I have realised that there are plenty of different interpretations of what the song can mean.

After watching the video my second impression was that it is about ageing, When you are young you have strength and a sound mind and can do almost anything but as you get older you start to lose that strength and can find it harder to do even simple things.

No matter what your interpretation of the song you have to admit that it is a fantastic piece of lyrical and musical writing and luckily enough it is only one example of this fantastic band.

I would ask everyone to definitely look this band up on youtube and have a listen to several of their songs. I can most certainly appreciate some really talented people and would hope that you can too...

Muzaks! Ayria

Ayria is a solo artist project by Jennifer Parkin.

The name "Ayria" original was mentioned that it meant "Awesome, Yeah Really, I'm Awesome" but later became the female name for the act.

I originally discovered Ayria from LastFM. The first song I listened to was "Post-Apocalyptic Girl". Honestly because the picture associated with it was a really cute girl, but once I started listening I was fascinated with the sound of the group and decided to look for more.

Jennifer's melodic high feminine voice is a great contrast to the heavier rave/metal beats. Surprisingly for a rave/metal group the lyrics actually have a lot of meaning behind them and come across quite strongly in the music. The songs were mostly written from Jennifer's personal experiences and this shows. Each track sounds original and unique, none of the tracks are duplicates of the last, something which a lot of artists find hard to do (Some of my favourite artists included).

While Ayria may not be everyone's cup of tea, she has fast become one of my favourites and will always be on my Mp3 player. I will include a link to Horrible Dream here for anyone who might be interested to listen to a track or twelve.

Muzaks! Eyes Set To Kill

The Post-Hardcore band Eyes set to Kill was formed by twin sisters Alexia and Anissa and their friend and former vocalist Lindsey in '04.

My first impression of the band before I had researched them was very positive as the female singer was able to hold a tune without resorting to the tried and tested growling method (Many female metal singers fall victim to this instead of just using the amazing voices they have.) And the unclean vocalist added the perfect amount of contrast to the song.

After listening to all the albums there isn't a huge amount of variety between the tracks, with a few exceptions. They all have a very similar feel and sound, despite being completely different songs, different lyrics, etc. I know that this does not take away from how great the band is and I still think they are amazing but I know some people would find it to be repetitive and might not be able to hold their attention past a few tracks.

I do have two favourite tracks, the first one I heard was "Broken Frames" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRoY7zAXfcE)
and another one that has a bit of a special meaning for me "Violent Kiss"
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HEJAPQy00PE)

I would also like to add that Alexia and Anissa were both nominated for "Hottest chicks in metal" in 2010. They unfortunately lost out to Maria Brink of In This Moment (Though I don't begrudge her the win).

Muzaks! Neuroticfish

Neuroticfish is a solo project from Sascha Mario Klein. It was originally created so he could experiment with some music styles and it would not interfere with his other work.

Neuroticfish was originally brought to my attention by a cover of a song called "They are coming to take me away" (linked here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1d0QND_24DE) While I had not previously been a fan or interested in Synthpop/Futurepop the musical stylings of Sascha intrigued me and I started listening to more of his (and similar artists) songs.

The project was officially closed in May of 2008 due to achieving what was required from the project and also due to other commitments but the music is still in wide circulation and well worth a listen if Synthpop/Futurepop is your sort of thing.

Muzaks! The Suicide Machines

I discovered The Suicide Machines from a YouTube channel that I frequently watch, a compilation video was put up and TSM was playing a cover of REM's "Its the end of the world". It was very interesting to hear a punk-rock version of the song and I really liked the style. (I'll link it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N3yLtnNF6yM)

Very often covers can sound forced and bad quality but this was very good and remade in a level that suited the music. It was an interesting take on a well known track and immediately peaked my interest.

Having listened to several more tracks they have released in the past I must say I was very impressed. They have that very definite "punk-rock" style across all the tracks and it seems to me that the band had a lot of fun while recording them.

Unfortunately they disbanded in 2006, but in their short reign between '91 and '06 they released six full length albums. They are definitely worth a listen if you enjoy Punk-Rock type music.

Muzaks! Cult of Luna

In a rather strange turn of events my sister, an indie rock lover, contacted me with a band she had heard and thought I might enjoy. She had heard them on (I believe it was) Radio 6 one evening and despite her metal-misgivings thought it sounded good.

Cult of Luna are a post-metal band, Swedish in origin. They have aggressive, deep, guttural vocals on all their tracks. While guttural vocals are not usually my cup of tea, the music compliments them quite well. The instruments used are primarily standard metal style and sound, fairly heavy and giving the feeling of foreboding that a lot of post-metal music inspires. However later tracks are more orchestral in origin using atmospheric sounds to put a deeper feel in to the track, making it a lot less oppressive but still giving a heavy impact.

You can hear several tracks on their myspace page here: http://www.myspace.com/cultofluna
or you can also YouTube them and find a whole lot more of their tracks with some sort of anime or photo slideshow going on in the background.