Thursday, February 9, 2017

GFreedom’s 2016 Top-10 album list. (The 5 albums that didn't make it to the Top-10)



Hello all!
  This is the 4th (and last part) of this series of posts. Here, I will write down the 5 albums that made it up to the final draft, but for some reasons didn’t made it to the Top10- list. I will say once more that my lists are based on the albums I’ve listened to throughout 2016, and not on every album's release. (That would be impossible anyway).
In case you are interested to check my Top -10 album list for 2016, here are the links for it:
 The following 5 albums are placed here without any order:
 
        PATCHWORK CACOPHONY: Five of Cups
  This is the 2nd studio work of the English musician Benjamin Bell, and his personal project Patchwork Cacophony. I have both his albums, and I must say that the improvement in this 2nd one is obvious in almost everything. The album is filled with beautiful melodies and piano passages, the compositions are rather complexed, but without becoming boring and tiring to the listener’s ear, and also, this time Ben is singing on most of the tracks. A very nice album that you can listen from the first ‘till the last track and enjoy its quality. In case you are interested to learn more about Five of Cups, here’s a review I wrote about it a few months ago: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/11/patchwork-cacophony-five-of-cups-2016.html


             KANSAS: The Prelude Implicit
  This is an album I really enjoyed listening to! I don’t consider myself as a “fan” of Kansas, but despite that, I have many of their albums in my collection. I wasn’t expecting anything from this album to be honest, especially when I learned that the band’s most important members are not participating here. But despite all those facts, The Prelude Implicit is a wonderful album, which is a pure joy to listen to. In case you want to learn a few more things, here’s the review I wrote about it, almost 5 months ago: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/10/kansas-prelude-implicit-2016.html


         METALLICA: Hardwired to Self-Destruct
  I have been listening to Metallica since the release of Kill ‘Em All, back in the early ‘80’s. I have followed their releases and saw them live on many occasions. As you can understand, (like all their older “fans”), I didn’t care at all for their latest releases; like the horrible St. Anger, or even the - not bad - Death Magnetic. But this new album of theirs, is different than all the previous ones. The band seems to be in a good form, and as it seemed, they tried to return to the sound of their older albums, and especially Master of Puppets. The overall feeling I get is that, the inspiration is long gone, but because of their experience, they are in a position to record good albums still. Personally speaking, I believe that “Hardwired” is a good effort, but it is going to be easily forgotten, especially by their old fans. But despite all those things, it is a good album, and definitely a pleasant surprise.


                 OPETH: Sorceress
This album was one more very pleasant surprise to me! I never cared much for Opeth, but lately they have become more interesting, because of the major turn in their sound. Still, I wasn’t planning to buy the album, but a friend of mine brought the vinyl edition it to me as a present. First of all, the vinyl edition is fantastic! It comes in a beautiful picture double 180gr vinyl, with different paintings on each album. As for the music, I found it really interesting. You can take a look at the review I wrote about this album here: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/10/opeth-sorceress-2016.html
Back then, I gave a rating between 3.0 and 3.5 stars to it, but after many listenings, the album “grew’ in me, and I believe it deserves something better than this.


          MATTHEW PARMENTER: All Our Yesterdays
Matthew Parmenter was the leader of the American underground Progressive Rock band Discipline. After the band split up, he followed a solo career, and All Our Yesterdays was his 3rd studio album. I can’t say that I was a “fan” of Discipline, or him, but I really loved this album! It is a rather melancholic, dark, pessimistic but melodic and beautiful piece of work, that the fans of Peter Hammill will love for sure. The fact that Matthew Parmenter is deeply influenced by the sound of Peter Hammill and Van Der Graaf Generator, is obvious from the beginning. All Our Yesterdays is an album that at some point I was listening to on and on, and every time I was discovering something new in it. Here’s the review I wrote about it, almost a year ago: http://gfreedomathina.blogspot.gr/2016/02/matthew-parmenter-all-our-yesterdays.html

  I really hope that you enjoyed reading these 4 posts, and I was able to help you somehow.
Thank you very much for visiting!  😎



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