Today’s post will be particularly short. Not only was my day quite heavily punctuated by interruptions, I encountered a rather colossal set of music.
Despite the brevity of today’s post, the music was, in a word, fantastic.

Saigon Kick - The Lizard

If you were alive in the early 90s, you probably remember Saigon Kick as the one-hit-wonders who did Love is On the Way. While technically correct, this doesn’t properly represent the band that was Saigon Kick.
Saigon Kick was, despite the power ballad that everybody knew, a hard rock/heavy metal band with a bizarre sense of humor. Songs like My Dog and Peppermint Tribe will attest to that (as will the silly Peppermint Tribe dance that my friends and I came up with). In all seriousness, though - you truly do owe it to yourself to check this out - there’s probably a lot here that you’ve been missing out on.

Metallica - Load

I remember when this album came out - ie was surrounded by controversy. While some of it legitimately surrounded the band’s expanded musical direction and different sound, I was very surprised at the vitriol surrounding their new haircuts.
Seriously. People were pissed because they got haircuts.
Moving on to the actual music, “Load” did indeed represent a shift in Metallica’s sound. They experimented more with different styles of music and different sounds. For many people, this was high sacrilege. For me, it was just another good album from Metallica. It would be a few more albums before they’d make me say “WTF?”

Howard Shore- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

This beastie was extremely long. 53 tracks long. Not that I’m complaining, but this soundtrack bloody well dominated my day.
Howard Shore did an excellent job throughout the trilogy. This particular episode, being the denouement, features some of the most hugely dramatic music of them all, with particularly heavy use of horns and operatic vocals.
Well worth the time. Well worth it, indeed.

Here we are, the final “Around the ‘Pod” post for 2009 (I’ve taken tomorrow off, and I do most of my listening at work). I think it’s been a pretty cool trip so far. What I’d really like to know, however, is what do YOU think? As the reader, your presence is all that prevents this from becoming an exercise in futility, so please…let me know what you think. There’s a comment link at the bottom of the post, or you can e-mail bookwyrm76@gmail.com.
OK, that’s enough of that - lets get on with the end of the year music:

Fantomas - Fantomas

This is an…interesting…way to start your day. Random metal piped directly into my groggy brain. Or maybe I’m still dreaming…
No, I don’t hate myself to dream that I’m sitting in this lil’ cubicle. This is reality, and it’s very strange.

Amorphis - Far From the Sun

This is probably Amorphis’s cleanest album, in terms of the vocals. While there are growling vocal passages scattered throughout the album, these are still melodic - like James Hetfield’s vocals. Nowhere on this album does one hear a death growl.
The rest of the music follows suit - this album is less heavy than other Amorphis releases, and the songs are a bit more upbeat and progressive-sounding. Unfortunately, there’s really not a lot of variation on this album. It starts to sound pretty repetitive about halfway through. This is definitely not one of Amorphis’s better efforts.

Cake - Fashion Nugget

I see now… “Far From the Sun” was a sorbet of normalcy between two very unusual acts. It’s like I’m having a gourmet musical meal.
Cake’s approach to music is pretty unconventional. As far as I can tell, their method for writing music is “Hey, that sounds interesting - toss it in.” This works for them, and keeps the listener on his toes.

The Prodigy - Fat of the Land

Speeding things up dramatically, it’s apparently time for some hard techno action. If you were alive in the mid-nineties, you know this album. Firestarter, Smack My Bitch Up, and (to a lesser extent) Breathe were all major hits for The Prodigy at the time. Unfortunately, techno’s flame burned very briefly, and The Prodigy fell out of favor rather quickly. That’s really too bad; these guys create some extremely good music that’s all but guaranteed to get your ass moving.
It’s also possible that The Prodigy was hurt by the controversy surrounding the video for Smack My Bitch Up.

Fata Morgana - Fata Morgana

Fata Morgana is yet another side project from Havard Ellefsen (Mortiis). This is certainly his most upbeat album, particularly the title track. It’s almost as if one were to take the early Mortiis albums and subtract the darkness. The songs on this album are definitely his work, but they sound so…happy!

Amon Amarth - Fate of Norns

Viking Death Metal! YEAAAAHHHH!!!! Horns up! \m/
Not to be confused with Viking metal (apparently a whole different sub-genre…whatever), Amon Amarth is a fairly straightforward death metal band whose lyrical themes happen to be centered on Vikings and Norse mythology. They also happen to be quite a good death metal band. They’re generally classified as “melodic death metal,” and that fits. Yes, the music is downtuned and fairly brutal, but there’s also melody to these songs - they may attack your brain with a mace, but they do it with style.

Jordan Rudess - Feeding the Wheel

This album came on during my lunch break (it’s been that kinda day), so I decided to look Mr. Rudess up on Wikipedia. It seems that he was a child prodigy. Listening to this album (and his other work), I can’t say that I’m surprised. He is good. Listening to this album, it’s clear that he isn’t just a good pianist, he’s a good keyboardist. What I mean is that he makes full use of the capabilities of his instrument. Sampling, layered sound…there’s a lot to hear.
I also discovered that this album is just one of his many solo albums. This means that I need to update my wishlist - I’m quite a fan.

Howard Shore - The Fellowship of the Ring (soundtrack)

It’s 2001 again. I’m sitting in a dark theater full of excited nerds and the occasional exasperated/amused spouse. A female voice begins speaking Quenya. Inwardly, I squee with delight.
That’s how I know that this is a good soundtrack.
“The road goes ever on and on…”