2009年 07月 3日 金曜日 07:03
Again a year has passed and it's time to take a look back. During my first year here I counted that I found 20 new artists and there were 28 bands that I really liked. This year the numbers aren't that great, partly since I have already discovered so much great music and partly since playing any station costs me nowadays. So all the new music pretty much comes from my brother. But let's get this thing going.
In my last yearly survey I mentioned Diablo and KYPCK as newest up and comers. Especially Diablo hit me big time and quickly made it's way to my top 8 (that clearly stood out of the rest). Looking at my lastgraph (which is a great service, I love it!) after the Diablo's peak there's a rush of In Flames before the rise of a new dominance. I'm talking, of course, about Saattue. Both of these artists I found thanks to my brother and as I have previously marked I really got caught up with Saattue because of the striking similarity of Into the Sea and Hyiseen Veteen which I both absolutely love. Saattue quickly rounded my top 9 up and things have been that way ever since. Naturally rotating a 7-track album as much as I did made my most played tracks chart look a bit dull: in the 12-month chart Saattue has the top 7 and overall all the tracks are in top 13. That's just sick, but Saattue is my new favourite, right there with Kelly. I'm even waiting their new album Vuoroveri even more than the new Rammstein album and that's a lot said.
Compared to the discovery of Saattue everything else and since looks so insignificant. Of course new albums from my favourites made their mark in my scrobbles. Albums like Soundscape of Silence (I actually started listening to The Ghost at the same time), Painstained, Ukonhauta and Skyforger. And All I Ever Wanted from Kelly, how could I forget! Please forgive me :(
Through Before the Dawn I also discovered their head man's (Tuomas Saukkonen) other intriguing projects. I had been drooling to hear some Dawn of Solace for quite some time without finding the album The Darkness anywhere! I finally found one in their merchandise stand during their gig here in Tampere. The album isn't easy to listen to but I liked the darker and doomish atmosphere and so Saukkonen's next project Black Sun Aeon jumped to the top of my hype list. Especially with the visiting vocalists from some of the bands I've been listening to: Sinamore, Moonsorrow and Amorphis. The album wasn't a disappointment and travelled firmly in Dawn of Solace's footsteps.
After In Flames I started to look deeper in the Swedish melodic death metal scene. I know what some hardcore fans think about In Flames' genre nowadays but let's just pretend that they are mdm. Next stop was Dark Tranquillity but the only songs that really stuck with me were the Sentenced cover Broken and Monochromatic Stains. Scar Symmetry on the other hand got me pretty well and I've been scrobbling them a lot for quite some time. Apparently my listening habits have changed towards a more moderate approach so they have to wait for their spot in the top 10.
The year also witnessed a rebirth for some of my smaller and older discoveries. Timo Rautiainen & Trio Niskalaukaus got a lot of plays all of a sudden without ever having any songs in my shuffled playlist. Evanescence got some new plays, Don Huonot got some memorable scrobbles and Poisonblack made a comeback to the top with the album A Dead Heavy Day. To top it all there were some nice discoveries from AC/DC, Naildown and Swallow the Sun, nothing big time but good music nonetheless.
Mentally and apart from music last year was a disaster. So I won't be hoping for great new bands this year but for a better year outside. Of course I'm drooling for Saattue's and Rammstein's new albums to come out closer to the end of the year. See you all next time!