New Album: Queensrÿche - American Soldier

I like Queensrÿche, I've seen them live with Alice Cooper and Heaven And Hell (Black Sabbath with Dio) and it was a good show. But I have only really listened to two of their albums repeatedly, throughout my life; Empire and Operation: Mindcrime, both simply superb albums. A few months ago (maybe a year ago at this point), I listened to their debut EP/album (depending on the version), Queensrÿche, and more recently I listened to their cover album, Take Cover, and last week it was Operation: Mindcrime II, which was pretty decent, a far cry from the original, but who really expected something of that level?

Completely Unrelated: Birthday Time Again!

Another year, another birthday. I'm 23 today and I have rocked harder then most on this world.

Thanks for reading, and until next time...

The Klepto

New Album: OSI - Blood

Just finished listening to the new OSI album, Blood, and I am disappointed. After so many months of nothing but really good music (with the odd stinker thrown in occasionally) it feels odd to get so many lackluster albums in a short time (Wolfmother, Austrian Death Machine, and Transatlantic).
OSI (standing for Office of Strategic Influence, so says their debut album) is a progressive metal band sporting two main members; Kevin Moore, originally from Dream Theater, and Jim Matheos, from Fates Warning, which has released three full-length albums and one remix EP. Along with Moore and Matheos there is a hefty collection of guest drummers, guitarists, and vocalists coming from a varied collection of bands ranging from another Dream Theater alumni, Mike Portnoy (which is how I found OSI to begin with), members of Porcupine Tree, Opeth, No-Man, and many others. An eclectic group and a great lest of great performers.

New Band: Sunstorm

Sunstorm is a new supergroup project by some heavy names in the industry. I discovered this project looking through the album lists on the blog The Metal Minute. You see, ever week Ray Van Horn, Jr. compiles his list of albums listened to and posts them as Whattya Listenin' to Wednesdays (I did not steal his idea, we had it independently), he also gets alot of other people to post what they have been listening to as well. Every week I post my list and look through all the others posted and if any bands tickle my fancy, I look them up. Anyway, this past week I saw one of the posters had listened to Sunstorm, and hearing the cool name I looked them up.

Albums Listened To In October

Wow, a month with record numbers. 112 albums in 31 days! Apparently all I did this month was listen to music, and I'm quite alright with that.

Unintentionally I focused on entire (or large portions of) discographies by classic rock groups; Cream, Traffic, Blind Faith, Kiss, The Jeff Beck Group, Styx; and alot of modern bands; Alestorm, Ogre, Primus/Les Claypool, Blind Dog, John Mayer, and Disturbed. All fell beneath my mighty (albeit slightly worn) speakers.

With brand new releases (or soon to be released) by Shrinebuilder, Transatlantic, Wolfmother, 3, Diablo Swing Orchestra, Black Robot and Austrian Death Machine, this month was also rife with unheard music, some to be future classics, some to fall forever from grace. I'm going to try to write reviews for most of these, at least the Wolfmother and 3 releases, in the near future. I want to listen to them again to get a better understanding of the works.

One Year!

Today, October 15th, makes The Klepto's Guide To Awesome Music one year old. I made it! I have never followed a hobby for a year, hell I barely make it three months (like my previous website). I have been trailing off a bit lately, but I hope to re-emerge with more articles and more eclectic bands. I think I bring something a little different with my odd musical tastes, something between a metal fan-page and a pop site. I hope you all have enjoyed the past year, and I hope you grab friend to follow me for another one.

Much thanks, much love

The Klepto

Albums Listened To In September

Another month down, and another month of me posting this article way late. It's almost been a full year for me on blogger, and through that this site. I've enjoyed what I've done tremendously and I plan to continue it for another year. Thanks to all my readers.

The best albums of this month are Baroness' Blue Record (read more about that here), Cheap Trick's live tribute to The Beatles, aptly named Sgt. Pepper Live, and the self-titled debut EP from the Australian rockers Mammal (more on that EP here). I really like when band's do tribute albums, even when live. Sgt. Pepper Live sounds enough like the original to be a proper tribute, but just different enough to be Cheap Trick. A good performance to be sure. Other tribute live albums I like are the official bootlegs from Dream Theater of Master of Puppets (Metallica), Number of The Beast (Iron Maiden), and Dark Side of The Moon (Pink Floyd). All of these capture the essence of the original bands as well as Dream Theater's prog feel. One more live album tribute, which will be on next month's list is Colonial Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade's redition of the entire Animals album (Pink Floyd again) on their Live Frogs: Set 2 album.

New Band: Ogre

I've been continuing my trend of listening to mostly stoner rock/metal (except for the discography of Kiss I've been enjoying) with several new bands; among them Beaver, The Mushroom River Band, and Ogre. Out of these three Ogre is by far my favorite The Beaver album, 13eaver, was pretty bad).

Ogre is an interesting band that follows the stoner mantra of mixing doom, psychedelia and hard rock, but focuses a bit more on the doom. Most of their songs are long and a little on the slow side (but often have quicker intros or breaks), and their lyrics are either very deep or plain silly, I can't really be sure.
Reading what I've written above, Ogre sounds like just an average band. Like any stoner band out there, but they are not. I don't really know how to explain it, but I really enjoy this band - above many of their more known competitors.

Blind Dog's Final Album Available For Free

One of my favorite stoner rock/metal bands, focusing on the psychedelic brand of stoner, is Blind Dog. I really like their mix of droning vocals and guitars, and long passages of music. I am currently re-listening (except for the new album, which will be a first-time for me) to their entire discography (only three albums), and I am enjoying it more now then the first time.

New Album: Candlemass - Death Magic Doom

Another new album, another new article - I am having a productive week.

This edition is all about Candlemass' new album Death Magic Doom.

I haven't heard much of Candlemass' newer works. I love Epicus Doomicus Metallicus (it really got me hooked into Candlemass, and even more so into doom metal), and have enjoyed many a listen to Nightfall, Ancient Dreams, and Tales of Creation, all stellar works within doom. And besides some tracks from King of The Gray Islands, that is it. So that means that I have a 20 year break within the Candlemass I know and the Candlemass of today.