|Original video located here. Accessed 16th December 2022
Song title: Save Me
Artist: Queen
Year: 1980
Why I like this song:
I can only imagine this, back in it's day, would've been a surprise for the singles buying public. Here's a band who had built up a career of fun and bombast and they deliver something sombre. But personally, I feel that this song walked so Who Wants to Live Forever/The Show Must Go On/These Are the Days of Our Lives could all run.
Years later, it's that going against the grain that still makes this song work. It also helps that the lyrics do indeed run the whole of phase of emotions dealing with a break up.
Original video locatedhere. Accessed 13th May 2019
Song title: Seven Seas of Rhye
Artist: Queen
Year: 1974
Why I like this song:
Lately I've been listening to Queen's second album (II).
It was a surprise to me as it was so serious: it was devoid of the fun that ultimately defined Queen's work. Indeed, it certainly sounds like a band with their hands deep in progressive rock - which, let be honest, something that doesn't really work for them. Still it has the above song. And it still rocks. So I'll give it that much,
Original video located here. Accessed 22nd December 2022
I like music in all forms - even to a point of going out and exploring unfamiliar territory, Yet metal has always been approached with caution. Sure there have been flirtations (like Led Zeppelin, Queen and to a lesser extent Pink Floyd) but all else came across as intimidating. When I was in Primary and High School it struck me that all the tough kids listened to metal and with good reason. Indeed, it has been said, in order to describe the genre, that 'When drinking blood be sure to have it chilled or else it will curdle". That being said, as Metal attracts the types who approach their love with disturbing seriousness, insisting that the evilness of metal should remain that way (thus making the controversy of Elvis' hips in the 1950's seem tame by comparison). Why, I remember being nine years old, hearing Metallica's Nothing Else Matters for the first time and thinking: 'Who's this?! This song's absolutely fantastic!' - but since then, NEM has been looked down upon by die-hards. Coupled with the disdain the metal community have for posers, it thus isn't hard to see how a card-carrying music geek like myself can be intimidated (additionally, hearing a singer sound like he's channeling Cookie Monster doesn't really help).
Which now brings me to Dragonforce: back in 2002 my friend Al got me to listen to this mp3 he'd gotten a hold of insisting that it rocked. Reluctant at first, I eventually agreed - but what happened next was something I wasn't expecting: Thunderous music accompanied with masterfully executed guitar work, a lead singer who can actually sing and lyrics that dealt with positive and inspiring themes. This was Power Metal in all it's glory and I think I liked it. Finally, here was a metal band that actually made sense! Since then I have heard more metal bands but I owe those walls being broken down to Dragonforce. Plus I have the satisfaction of saying I got into them before Guitar Hero was even invented.
Key Album: Sonic Firestorm (2004) Ridiculous and inspiring in equal portions. Al described it as Battle music and indeed this really does work best as a soundtrack to a video game. Sure that's pretty much it but it does it's job and it does it well. What more can you ask for?