Frank Zappa

Wow. I haven't posted in a long time. It doesn't matter though, because only two people (if that) read this thing. But I should care about my two readers so I'll keep posting.

Anyways, at school I'm in this AP Music Theory Class. I'm trying to improve my music writing skills. I really don't think they're that bad, but I had the room in my schedule so I said why not. I probably shouldn't have taken it though because I have a feeling I'll fail.

This is all beside the point. What I'm tryin' to get at here is that a few days ago the teacher said that 300 years from now people will still be listening to and studying Mr. Zappa like they do Beethoven. Then he played for us a bit of one of his songs. It was the Black Page. I must say, it was quite interesting. It sounded very different from anything I've ever heard before. It had lots of notes going all over the place, but at the same time they seemed to be in the right place.

If that makes sense at all. :-P

My teacher did bring up an interesting point. What will people be listening to 300 years from now? Will they still be listening to Beethoven or will they be listening to Zappa, the Doobie Brothers, Led Zeppelin, etc.? I hope they will listen to all of it.

But for all I know the earth will blow up before then. :-P

Why I like King Diamond

I am a big fan of Kevin Smith's movies. The clerks movies especially. They are by far the funniest movies of all time. Anyways, in Clerks 2 there is a part when Jay and Silent Bob are jamming to a crazy metal song playing on their radio. Later on in the movie Randal and Jay scare Elias with a song. I was very curious as to who made these songs. So I looked them up. It turns out they were by the same artist. King Diamond. The songs were called "Welcome Home" and "The Invisible Guests." Both of those songs are of the album "Them." Them is a concept album about a house posessed by evil spirits known only as "Them." All of King's albums are concept albums. Which I think is pretty cool.

King is known for his unique style of singing in which he sings extremely high and then goes back down in these death metally style vocals. Technically you could call King Diamond a Death Metal band. That makes sense to me, but I'd call them a progressive Death Metal band. You will not hear any bands that sound like the King (except for the band he was in before, Mercyful Fate).

The guitarists for the band are simply amazing. Their riffs are original and the solos are just amazing.

The bands latest album "Give me your soul...Please?" is not nearly as good as the older albums. King doesn't get very high, and the riffs aren't also aren't as good as they used to be. It's still a decent album though. Highlight tracks include "Neverending Hill" and "Give me your soul." I do encourage you guys to pick it up and his other albums as well.