Journal

Based on times played

Top 10 artists
1. Adam Lambert - 395 plays
2. Kamelot - 380 plays
3. Diana Vickers - 226 plays
4. The Killers - 207 plays
5. Andre Matos - 171 plays
6. Legião Urbana - 167 plays
7. Céline Dion - 154 plays
8. Calogero - 115 plays
9. Alexandra Burke - 97 plays
10. Lily Allen - 86 plays

Top 10 albums
1. For Your Entertainment - 318 plays
2. Day & Age - 199 plays
3. Taking Chances - 145 plays
4. Epica - 109 plays
4. Mentalize - 109 plays
5. As Quatro Estações - 100 plays
6. It's Not Me, It's You - 86 plays
7. Ghost Opera - 85 plays
8. Kiske - 80 plays
9. Formidável Mundo Cão - 65 plays

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Based on time spent listening (according to normalisr.com)

Top 10 artists
1. Adam Lambert - 2343 mins
2. Kamelot - 1646 mins
3. Andre Matos - 1032 mins
4. The Killers - 845 mins
5. Céline Dion - 659 mins
6. Legião Urbana - 659 mins
7. Calogero - 498 mins
8. Angra - 371 mins
9. Michael Kiske - 354 mins
10. Jay Vaquer - 340 mins

Top 10 albums
1. For Your Entertainment - 1208 mins
2. Day & Age - 726 mins
3. Taking Chances - 599 mins
4. Epica - 441 mins
5. As Quatro Estações - 375 mins
6. Time To Be Free - 373 mins
7. Ghost Opera - 344 mins
8. It's Not Me, It's You - 296 mins
9. The Fray - 219 mins
10. Dois - 214 mins

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This year's best musical discoveries of mine:
1. Lady GaGa
2. P!nk
3. Lily Allen
4. The Baseballs
5. Joe McElderry
6. Stacey Solomon
7. Will Young
8. 30 Seconds to Mars
9. Amélie

Overall, this year has been another step away from metal and another step closer to pop. Anyway, Andre Matos and Kamelot are still one of the best damn things out there for me, and I think next year those two, along with Adagio, will be the only thing metal I'll keep hearing. I predict more songs scrobbled (it's been a pretty slow year for me) and Kamelot, Charice, Diana Vickers, Lily Allen, Adam Lambert, Beyoncé, Andre Matos, Leona Lewis, Lady Gaga and Calogero topping my charts next year, not necessarily in that order.

Of course no one but me is going to read this, but I'm doing it for posterity. I want to have something to look back at when next year ends and make that a yearly little ritual of mine. ;)

Sun 20 Dec – Angra

Seliger (Shaman Cover)


Prog Nois - Right Now
















Angra- Carry On


Angra- Silence and Distance


Angra- Lisbon


Angra- The Course of Nature


Angra- Acid Rain


Angra- Nothing to Say


Ole ole ola Argento


Angra- Spread Your Fire

Sanguine_Sky's top albums (7 days) 1. Betray-Ed - An Everlasting Drift (55) 2. Empyrium - Where at Night the Wood Grouse Plays (45) 3. Avrigus - The Secret Kingdom (30) 4. Estatic Fear - A Sombre Dance (30) 5. Uaral - Lamentos A Poema Muerto (21) 6. Betray-Ed - Woods of Eternity (20) 7. Ensiferum - Dragonheads (18) 8. Empyrium - Songs of Moors & Misty Fields (18) 9. On Thorns I Lay - Crystal Tears (17) 10. Swallow the Sun - New Moon (16) 11. Synthesia - The Time Travellers (15) 12. Orphanage - Driven (14) 13. Kerion - Holy Creatures Quest (14) 14. Björk - Volta (13) 15. Paradise Lost - In Requiem (13) 16. Ebony Ark - When The City Is Quiet (13) 17. Sopor Aeternus & The Ensemble of Shadows - The Inexperienced Spiral Traveller (13) 18. Angellore - Les Promesses De L'Aube (13) 19. Dejafuse - DejaFuse (12) 20. Saturnus - Martyre (12) 21. Nemesea - Mana (12) 22. Arkona - Ot Serdtsa K Nebu (12) 23. Liv Kristine - Enter My Religion (12) 24. Coronatus - Fabula Magna (12) 25. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance (12) 26. Septic Flesh - Ophidian Wheel (11) 27. Ghost Brigade - Isolation Songs (11) 28. Gojira - The Link (11) 29. Battlelore - The Last Alliance (11) 30. Ador Dorath - bestiari (11) 31. Samael - Solar Soul (11) 32. Angra - Fireworks (11) 33. Finntroll - Ur Jordens Djup (11) 34. Moonspell - Night Eternal (11) 35. The Sisters of Mercy - First and Last and Always (11) 36. Deadlock - Wolves (11) 37. The Provenance - Red Flags (10) 38. Ambeon - Fate of a Dreamer (10) 39. Macbeth - Superangelic Hate Bringers (10) 40. Catafalque - Dialectique (10) 41. Crematory - Crematory (10) 42. Collide - Chasing the Ghost (10) 43. Immortal - Battles in the North (10) 44. End of You - Mimesis (10) 45. Ashes You Leave - Songs For The Lost (9) 46. Ram-Zet - Intra (9) 47. Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hyaena (9) 48. Draconian - Turning Season Within (9) 49. Septic Flesh - Communion (9) 50. My Dying Bride - The Dreadful Hours (8)

Here it is.. My top 10 albums of 2009. First of all, let it be known that I'm not exactly good at writing this kind of thing so i'm gonna keep it fairly short and sweet... So lets begin!! :D

10. Primal Fear - 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You're Dead)

9. Elias Viljanen - Fire-Hearted

8. Celesty - Vendetta

7. Alestorm - Black Sails at Midnight

6. Saidian - Evercircle

5. Dream Theater - Black Clouds & Silver Linings

4. Stratovarius - Polaris

3. Adagio - Archangels in Black


...and down to the final two. I had a really hard time choosing between these two albums as my album of the year. They are two of my favourite albums of not just this year, but of all time...


2. Saratoga - Secretos Y Revelaciones

1. Sonata Arctica - The Days of Grays


.................................................................................................................................

So that's my top 10 albums of 2009, overall it's been a great year for metal in my opinion, especially for Power/Prog metal. None of my choices for the top 10 were down to me struggling to think of 10 albums that I even liked from this year (which would have been the case in 2008 if I had written a top 10 journal), I love all of the albums in my list, right from 10th position to 1st.

...Even though Saratoga settled for my 2nd place this year, Secretos Y Revelaciones is probably my favourite Spanish language album of all time! I'd highly recommend it to anyone who loves power metal with lightning fast guitar solos, powerful ballads and huge, catchy choruses! You don't even have to understand Spanish to love this album, although it helps if you do!! xD


On to Sonata Arctica and their 'The Days of Grays' album, this album has recieved a lot of criticism from a lot of their fans and it is quite a change in sound even from Unia, but there's just something about the overall 'feel' of the album that just makes it that little bit more special than the others in my opinion.. I've been a fan of the band since early 2002 in between the release of Silence and Winterheart's Guild and I've loved all of their albums so far (although Reckoning Night and Unia took a little while to open up to me), I think if someone had told me at the beginning of the year that Sonata would have a new album in September, I would have correctly guessed it would become my album of the year, not because of fanboy-ism or any of that crap but just because I genuinely love every album they've released so far!!


So that's my top album list of 2009, with 2010 hopefully seeing releases from some of my favourite bands such as Angra, Symphony X, Mägo de Oz, Labyrinth, Rhapsody of Fire, Blind Guardian, Freedom Call and Avantasia, it seems that next year could be just as good for metal as this year, potentially even better!!

...Until next time!

20. Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

19. Eluveitie - Slania

18. Amon Amarth - With Oden on Our Side

17. Pagan's Mind - Enigmatic : Calling

16. Symphony X - Paradise Lost

15. Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night

14. Enslaved - Vertebrae

13. Kamelot - The Black Halo

12. In Mourning - Shrouded Divine

11. Swallow the Sun - New Moon

10. Riverside - Out of Myself

09. Therion - Sirius B

08. Wintersun - Wintersun

07. Redemption - The Fullness of Time

06. Unexpect - In a Flesh Aquarium

05. Angra - Temple of Shadows

04. Cynic - Traced in Air

03. Mastodon - Crack The Skye

02. Opeth - Ghost Reveries

01. Gojira - From Mars to Sirius

Please Comment :)

So 2009 isn't quite over yet, but here is my top 40 artists chart for the past year, with short explanations for some of the artists:

1 Dark Moor: 569 scrobbles
Still my favorite band, the band that got me into power metal as well as metal in general.
2 Blind Guardian: 489 scrobbles
Maybe a bit artificially high on my charts because of the number of tracks in Nightfall in Middle Earth, but still deserving of a high spot.
3 Dream Theater: 468 scrobbles
Saw them in July in Asheville, and listened to Black Clouds & Silver Linings about a million times before the show.
4 Queen: 466 scrobbles
5 Helloween: 398 scrobbles
6 Nine Inch Nails: 390 scrobbles
I probably wouldn't have listened to NIN half as much if it wasn't for the fact that The Slip is free and Ghosts I-IV is really cheap. Thanks, Trent.
7 Led Zeppelin: 385 scrobbles
8 Opeth: 349 scrobbles
Everyone should listen to Opeth. Even if you don't like metal.
9 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: 342 scrobbles
Easily the most metal artist on my charts.
10 King Crimson: 298 scrobbles
11 Machinae Supremacy: 263 scrobbles
Another good free album, Deus Ex Machinae put this artist high on my charts.
12 Extol: 250 scrobbles
Listened to The Blueprint Dives a lot. If nobody told me, I would never be able to guess that they are the same band that made Burial, which is also great, but in a completely different way.
13 Tool: 247 scrobbles
14 Lacuna Coil: 245 scrobbles
15 Iron Maiden: 230 scrobbles
16 Holy Blood: 227 scrobbles
Of the bands I started listening to in 2009 for the first time, I think Holy Blood is my favorite. I can't wait to hear Oskord once they release something...
17 Nightwish: 222 scrobbles
18 Talking Heads: 206 scrobbles
19 Rush: 196 scrobbles
20 Rhapsody of Fire: 190 scrobbles
21 Yes: 188 scrobbles
There used to be an artist image of Chris Squire with a zebra stripe jacket and triple neck bass with a caption that read something like: "Scientists have determined that it is physically impossible to find a picture more prog than this." That always made me laugh.
22 Angra: 185 scrobbles
23 JT Bruce: 164 scrobbles
I have to say something for all the artists with free stuff - JT Bruce is great if you like technical instrumental prog metal. You can download three albums for free on Jamendo, and you can buy his latest (and best) album, Universica on his website.
24 Sonata Arctica: 163 scrobbles
25 Tourniquet: 153 scrobbles
26 The Allman Brothers Band: 146 scrobbles
27 Theatre of Tragedy: 142 scrobbles
28 Antonio Vivaldi: 141 scrobbles
I listened to a lot more "classical" music this year than I used to, which is something I'm happy about.
29 Cynic: 138 scrobbles
30 Narnia: 134 scrobbles
31 Ensiferum: 127 scrobbles
Saw them at Volume 11 Tavern in Raleigh in November (my car was hit and had to be towed along the way, forcing us to walk part of the way, but it was worth it).
32 Frédéric Chopin: 120 scrobbles
33 Depeche Mode: 118 scrobbles
34 NESkimos: 112 scrobbles
Their albums have tons of short songs, so they are a bit overrated on this chart. Video game cover bands are one of my guilty pleasures.
35 ZAO: 109 scrobbles
I've had The Fear Is What Keeps Us Here for years, but it wasn't until 2009 that I really started listening to it a lot. Usually I'm sort of turned off by metalcore, but I think Zao is pretty good regardless of their genre.
36 XOC: 107 scrobbles
Another video game band with lots of short songs and an unusually high number of scrobbles...
37 Black Sabbath: 106 scrobbles
37 VNV Nation: 106 scrobbles
39 Johann Sebastian Bach: 103 scrobbles
40 DragonForce: 101 scrobbles
DragonForce? How did this get here... I guess when their new album came out I listened to it a lot.

2010 predictions:
Jazz Fusion - I've been listening to Billy Cobham and I'd like to hear more of this. I've always wanted to listen to more Jazz, but I've found it inaccessible. I think I'll enjoy fusion a bit more.

Melodic Death - Since I like Ensiferum and Blackguard, I'd like to listen to more.

Thrash - I really enjoyed Gama Bomb (another artist with a free album available on their website), and I've never really explored thrash metal outside of Metallica/Slayer/Megadeth.

Less Power Metal - I'll probably keep listening to Dark Moor, Helloween, Blind Guardian, and the other artists I like, but I'll probably stop looking into new power metal bands in favor of some of the other genres I listed.

"Hi people, especially my dear Italian and Swiss fans, this is Edu Falaschi, I'm here to tell the truth about the cancellation of the Angra's tour in November! Some motherfucker is telling that I'm with a vocal problem! It's a fucking lie!!! The point is that the promoter who booked the tour doesn't pay the band, don't even buy the flight tickets and don't even sign the contract! Well, with less than a week to the beginning of the tour, this promoter told us that the tour would be cancelled! The band is very sad and still trying to save part of it!!! Thanks for you love and comprehension, we are planning a new album for early 2010 and promise you to make very nice concerts in your countries! Love you all!"

Edu Falaschi