Perhaps I’m crazy.
When it comes to music I’m kind of a geek. When it comes to hard rock and heavy metal music I’m beyond the geek-status. Almost all of my listening to music has a purpose. I’m listening to new music to keep focus as an editor for Stargazed Magazine and also when I’m reviewing new hard rock and heavy metal. Mostly I listen to records in its entirity and of course I have total control over what I’m listening to, this month for example I’ve listen to 46 different albums and 10 of those are albums which are or will be released 2019.
There is still very, very good music out there and so far this year swedish bands have been quite excellent. Sabaton released “The Great War” yesterday and earlier this year Soilwork released “Verklligheten”, Amon Amarth released “Berserker”, Grand Magus released “Wolf God”, Evergrey released “The Atlantic”, In Flames released “I, The Mask”, Gathering of Kings released “First Mission” and so on. We have also been seeing new releases from Avantasia, Dream Theater, Queensryche, Tesla, Hardline, Whitesnake and many many more. The hard rock scene is feeling good and people here in Sweden can go to festivals like Sweden Rock, Gefle Metal Festival, Skogsröjet and Sabaton Open Air to mention a few. For me it will be the Sabaton Open Air that I will attend to this year and we will try to cover most of that festival here at Stargazed magazine.
This chronicle isn’t supposed to discuss the reeleases of 2019 or any festival though. I would like to talk about my newest project that I was starting up about a year and a half ago. To start from the beginning Sweden Rock Magazine wanted the readers to vote for the 666 best heavy metal albums of all time and I absolutely love this kind of things. We were called to write down 30 of our favourite albums and they wanted 1000 voters before they would present a result. As far as I know they haven’t come to any result yet and I don’t know if its ran out in the sand. However when I read about this I got this absolutely brilliant idea to rank my own chart containing the 666 best albums of all time. And to do this in a fair way I have to listen to all albums that’s been released. I was thinking how it would be done and I have to restrict it in some way.
My own chart https://stargazed.net/charts/stargazed-magazine-chart-week-22/ here at Stargazed Magazine is the base in my listening because the chart started back in 1986 and up til today over 1300 bands have been on the chart. I decided to do this in alphabetically order and I started listen to the swedish band 220 Volt. Right now I’ve been listening to 53 bands and I have come to the Brazilian Power Metal band Angra. I’m starting to think that this project is kind of to big for me but I’m a stubborn man so I will definitely take this as long as I can. My ambition is also to write down a few chronicles about this project in the future, to keep you updated where I am at the moment in my listening and how I feel about it. The best album right now is the classic AC/DC album “Back In Black” with Accept as a runner up with their “Restless And Wild”.
This is my way of listening to music and if there is anybody out there with the same feeling please contact me at the adress johan@stargazed.net
Maybe you can contribute as a writer for Stargazed Magazine, otherwise you can share your way of listening to music.
Perhaps I’m crazy.
