I have written some long series of posts on various aspects of music in the past (during my time on Steemit) and I have some friends here that enjoy them. I took a hiatus for about two years and only came back to writing a little over a month ago. In that time I haven't touched upon music much other than in comments, replies, or a brief mention in an edit to a post. In the past I often wrote pieces around Metal and it's multitude of sub-genres. I also would write posts about guitarists, bass players, etc. Truly whatever caught my imagination and inspired me to write at the time.
I haven't done this since I have returned. I thought I'd make this post about what I have been enjoying and doing in the past couple of years with regards to this. I will share some video links to some interesting artists and things I found interesting. Most of them will be youtube videos which is unfortunate because often I'll come back later and find out they were pulled and no longer exist in the post. I am still going to do this as these videos are not mine and I can't casually repost them to D.Tube, or some other source.
Quite some time ago I fell in love with REACTION videos. This is where we get to watch someone supposedly react to a song for the first time. This is appealing to me because in my youth I was always seeking new music and I was the one sharing new music with my friends and community. I missed the reactions. Reactions on youtube fulfill some of that need. I would love for some alternative out there to really take off with reaction videos as I'd rather watch my videos on any platform but youtube at this point. Sadly, for this type of topic I haven't found an alternative that has much of a presence. I also can't really do it myself because I likely know about things before I react to them.
This post will now cover a number of artists I've enjoyed in the past couple of years and I'll likely throw in some reaction videos. It will mostly be metal, but is possible some unexpected (if you know my taste) entries could appear. Some of these artists I know I mentioned in the past on steemit when I had first discovered them. My interest in them has only grown over the intervening amount of time.
Jinjer
I mentioned Jinjer in the past when I encountered a reaction video of people reacting to the song Pisces (Live studio Session). I was blown away by the vocalist Tatiana. The reactors were saying "This can't be real" yet it is. Jinjer has gone on to be one of the most entertaining to watch first time reactors react to. The rest of the band is amazing as well but Tatiana is something so unique that at first you can't help but be sucked in by her. She sucks you in and the band keeps you sticking around.
They are a band out of the Ukraine and many people consider them one of the best metal bands to arise for quite some time. I tend to agree.
Here is one I haven't shown that can be a substitute for Pisces and it focuses on Tatiana...
A little Reggae style mixed in with what we have come to expect from Tatiana and Jinjer.
Now for the people that wonder if this is real and can she do this live... This is the LAST song of the set. So she has already done the complete show except for this last song by the time they perform this one.
That is a great performance. Jinjer doesn't have a bad song yet. They are a blast to listen to, and watch.
That is an entire concert and it is pretty great.
You can't do Jinjer without having a laugh over some great reactions. I'll share a few of those. Also one of the best breakdowns on her vocal technique that I have seen.
While not the most amusing of reactions. That one above is the only one I've seen where the vocal coach does a pretty good job of demonstrating the techniques herself.
That is the first one I saw that introduced me to Jinjer in 2017. It is still fun to watch and I know I've shared that before.
I want to move on now...
Spiritbox
Spiritbox is a band out of Canada and is primarily the work of the vocalist, and her husband (Guitar+). It has some similarities with the path that Jinjer has been traveling down, but that appears to be purely synchronicity and Spiritbox still has its own very distinct sound.
The vocalist for Spiritbox is named Courtney LaPlante.
I love the different textures the vocal mixtures give to the songs. The instrumentation does the same. Great stuff. Jinjer and Spiritbox definitely show some pretty heavy influence from the Djent sub-genre of metal.
No cleans in that. Very powerful song and the visuals in that are well done and disturbing.
Live session without the visual stuff from the previous video.
Unleash the Archers
I find it interesting that a lot of the bands in metal I have most been interested in during the last few years have been female fronted. In the history of metal there have been female fronted bands, but they usually were not something amazing and memorable and they seemed to be selling their bodies more than the music. I am thinking back to the Lita Ford days and such. Later there were a few that were interesting but one dimensional like Otep. Good to listen to but not unique enough for me to keep coming back.
Unleash the Archers is another Canadian band.
Unleash the Archers is primarily in the sub-genre known as Power Metal. It has another powerful female vocalist yet they are quite different from the previous bands. This female vocalist always sings clean vocals. They have some growling in some of their songs which are brief and performed by one of the guitarists. Most songs that never comes into play.
I want to show the first song of theirs I encountered and I've shared it in a blog post before. I think it is pretty great though and I want to share it for those of you that may never have seen it. It is a perfect introductory song to this band.
That one shows off the entire band is a very fun to watch, and listen to. They are all very skilled. She is a gamer and role player as well. Most of their songs tend to be inspired by such topics.
Another great song. The visuals definitely have a Mad Max / Road Warrior vibe for that video. She still reminds me of a female Steve Grimmett (Grim Reaper). Some people will say Iron Maiden but if you've heard much of Steve Grimmett she sounds far more like him and his style. The music is also more similar though Unleash the Archers is more advanced which should be expected since it came decades after the other.
Floor Jansen / Nightwish
Since I've been on a female theme now it is worth mentioning Floor Jansen who is the third vocalist for the band Nightwish but she has been in many other musical works and several bands before that. She is also quite popular in some Danish music shows. She is so good at what she does that a nickname for reacting to her singing has been named the Floorgasm. She can sing pretty much anything... She is definitely one of the best female vocalists I am aware of at this time.
I'll start you off with an old favorite to have people react to from a liver performance. This is one people often recommend and it is truly epic in all respects.
Though I want to mix it up straight away. Floor was a contestant/guest in the TV program Beste Zangers. In this show they invited a lot of Danish singers to the show. They would pick one vocalist per show and the other singers would sing to that singer from the singer of that week's repertoire or based upon a song that meant something to that singer in their life. Floor dominated the show. It is interesting because before that song she was relatively unknown to most people in her home country of Denmark. After that show that was a thing of the past... I want to share a few examples why. There will be a lot of NOT METAL for you here for a moment. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.
I like that version way more than the original. Powerful. The vocalist she was singing to in this case was a youtube singer and this was a song that singer had covered before.
How about some Spanish when it isn't a language she speaks. She is singing it to the person who performs this song and he definitely enjoyed it.
The guy that wrote this should be obvious in this performance. He wrote this song for his brother who has lived his entire life in a wheel chair.
The last song of the season. She performs it with Henk Poort who is actually an Opera singer who performed in The Phantom of the Opera over 600 times. This particular arrangement is the Nightwish version. It has a vocal fry male vocal section that Henk actually does which is a big NO NO for an Opera singer and why Floor and others get excited. Henk did an amazing version of Disturbed's version of the Sound of Silence in this show as well.
Back to some Metal. I am going to wrap up this big section on Floor with some more Nightwish that I think shows off some more vocal stylings... It also shows off Marco Heitalla (Bass/Vocals)
I like that one because it is an aggressive song and has some great melding of her voice with Marco's.
Actually from one of her earlier bands *Revamp. Yes she goes there.
She growls in that one too but it is subtle... Marco sings clean "Yours is and empty hope" while Floor is growling it.
Any Floorgasms?
Opeth
Over the years I've spoken about the Swedish band Opeth many times. The majority of their music I am personally most into is from quite some time in the past. I mention them because I know they are a big musical influence on Jinjer and other bands. I'll toss in a couple live performances and one of their newer songs for good measure.
That is one of my favorite songs...
I missed that show... too bad I live very close to there. I didn't know about it until it was over.
One of their newer songs. He doesn't growl on new material and it sometimes is more Prog Rock than Prog Metal though they swing back and forth. It is still quite excellent.
Metal Vanishes Beyond This Point
There has been music that was not metal that I thought was pretty amazing or special. I want to cover some of that here. Many people that probably would have liked this may never see it because I scared them off by saying METAL. If you stuck around consider it your prize.
Dimash Kudaibergen
One of the most amazing vocalists I think anyone has ever seen during ANY generation up to this point comes out of Kazakhstan. His name is Dimash Kudaibergen and he has to be seen to believe. He is something that should be impossible... yet he does it so clearly it is not. Many people consider him the best vocalist alive. They may be correct in terms of sheer ability and skill.
He is in some Chinese singing competition in that show. I would hate to be one of the other contestants and hear that. "Game over man"
Some truly insane performance there. Look at the guitarist who is playing with him standing there with a stunned look on his face. It makes me think he learned the music but had no idea what Dimash would be like.
Remember the movie the Fifth Element has a vocal piece performed by an alien vocalist that was female that was supposedly something beyond the abilities of a human. Yes, Dimash goes there. This guy can do the entire register of a piano and perhaps then some with is voice and it sounds good in all registers.
Tom MacDonald
I have not been a fan of rap since it came out. I never have thought that much of it. The only time I held it much regard was in a rap battle where they had to come up with the lyrics on the spot. I've also considered it a lot of the fuel for what is actually creating the problems that Black Lives Matter misidentifies race as the problem for. I ask myself if your culture admires and elevates thug life wouldn't you expect it to have more negative interactions with law enforcement regardless of your skin color? I considered Rap and Hip Hop to be giving people the wrong messages if they actually wanted to diffuse that.
Also I am what is called a Truther at times (often as a derogatory statement) and I always wondered, "as opposed to what? If I am not a truther would that make me a liar?"
Enter the scene Tom MacDonald but he isn't doing it by himself... Nova Rockafeller his girl friend makes all of their videos. They are not signed by anyone. They don't have an agent. They have no label controlling them. They are killing it. Since no one controls them they can say whatever they want without the threat of being cancelled. People who talk about cancelling Tom just makes him bigger through the Streisand Effect.
His lyrics are way intelligent and he is saying the things many of us want to say. He is also saying things that most people are too afraid to say. If they have a label they'd be forced not to say these things.
He is doing so well and is so influential at this point that like the American Revolution could not have happened without Thomas Paine, I consider Tom MacDonald to be a modern day Thomas Paine.
I'm going to start with his latest song that was #1 within 7 hours of release I believe. Again with no one but him and Nova doing the work. As far as sharing this. Tom wants people to share this.
His videos are very trolling. The female in that video is actually a famous Trans Woman Blair White (yes, she was a man) yet she is a conservative and doesn't like all of this woke pronoun nonsense. It adds a lot to the part where she rips of the mask in that song. TROLL!!!
Tom found his voice and this path with his song "Dear Rappers". Since then he has been a rocket, and person spewing facts...
That is where he took off...
His entire catalog from that point on is gold. I've yet to have heard a bad song and this is from someone who has never liked this type of music...
Let me share you a couple of the gold songs of truth and facts...
That is the first song of his I heard.
The message is clear in that.
Now the next one is fun and it is where I'll leave off this section on Tom. He was being compared to Eminem which is normal for any white rapper. Eminem (big inspiration for Tom) mentioned him not by name but by description somewhere. Tom noticed that Eminem had an NFT for a song. Tom bought the NFT. Then he made a song on it and can say (Produced by Eminem) because the song in the background was made by Eminem. Then he named the song "Dear Slim" which is a song he made for Eminem where he is essentially saying you inspired me and thank you. Eminem is sometimes known as "Slim Shady". The video also copies a lot of scenes and visuals from some Eminem videos.
Burden
I don't like this one as much but it is another person singing/rapping/spitting facts. The message in this song is powerful enough and important enough that I think sharing this video is something I should do and it is how I am going to wrap up this post.
EDIT:
Psyche - I forgot something really cool.
A band out of San Antonio, Texas that has the name Nothing More is quite good. They have a song called "This is The Time (Ballast)" that is quite excellent. I particularly wanted to add them here as I find the vocalists approach to a specific type of vibrato VERY interesting. Watch what he does with his hand in this song.
That was a trimmed down version of the song. I thought I should show you the full official version of that song as well. It is thicker and a bit more powerful but you had to see that vocal technique.
