Welcome Whispered to my top 13

the artist died quickly after so nothing more epic could be made

Yea I won't wait another year to say that, in short Sonata bye bye and hi Whispered. A few months ago I was starting to dig Whispered with a thought "oh well, Norther ain't no more, lemme listen to that samurai crap as a replacement". Soon enough my thoughts changed into "man, I think those guys are a bit more serious about their music than I thought". A month ago they started rivaling my dear Kalmah on the way to the top and I had to take an Insomnium-Omnium Gatherum-Swallow The Sun break for a while. After coming back and seeing the demo/single of my favourite song of theirs I just don't care anymore, those guys are totally deserving to be my rear guard of the list.

Fight!

Like the last man in the night,

holding the front alone, and the

Fear!

Shall be no more if the one's prepared

to hold the sword

Hold the sword!

Not the best example of their lyrics but in short- Whispered is a Melodic Death Metal band with a lot of japanese folk elements and very solid progressive elements. Lyrics match those of Insomnium while the sound is heavier, harsher and more extreme. Between the releases (3rd album on the way) the line-up changed drastically but the sound improved a lot, the vocalist did a great job polishing his growls into less saliva-driven ones. Solos are amazing like the Kalmah ones, both albums are great in their field (second one has more folk elements, no keys and more hardcore drums) and the third is gonna be something more, as they showed with Sakura Omen song. Also the music they are making gave me a plenty of ideas to my Dungeons & Dragons sessions in Rokugan and inspired me to write better lyrics. Should I mention reviving my passion to music? Yea, I probably should. Whispered saved my dying flame of passion towards music, and I just can't thank them enough for that.

Silently

the rivers stay still

Nor light or dark

emerges

from the nothingness

Silently

My sword aims for the kill

dancing like a petal in storm

cutting through blight

Sakura slowly fall from the sky

glowing faint dark light

So, my updated list of favourite bands looks like that now:

0. Titanium
1. Delain
2. Trollfest
3.  Pathfinder
4. Babymetal
5. Omnium Gatherum
6. Cain's Offering
7. Galneryus
8. Stratovarius
9. Insomnium
10. Alestorm
11. Wintersun
12. Whispered

And as a bonus free nightmare fuel for everyone, stolen from one of their music videos:

Favourite track as well:

the single/demo version, not the polished album one, both rock

In my heart I've sheltered everything I need

To walk through this blood rain, even if it's me who bleeds

No wasted years behind - this war could never be over

Being still alive makes me feel dead cold inside

New Idol

Everyone needs an idol in their lives at some point, someone to look up too and "be just like him". I wasn't different in that regard, as I always wanted to be like Jim Curry, making people laugh with dumb behavior (from Ace Ventura movies) and faces + be like Leslie Nielsen when I'm old. For middle age I wanted to be as cool as Atos from Three Musketeers (1973 film) played by Oliver Reed.
While I still keep those personas in high regard, I grew up (only a little bit, don't be nervous), and Falk Maria Schlegel became my new idol, thanks to his stage presence, short hair and makeup.
 But now I think I found a new one. Not only he's a main guitarist in 2 bands, main songwriter and lyrics writer for one, a master mixer (better than Tom Dickson) and the best autotune manager money can buy. During the night he dons a turtle shell as a ninja turtle wannabe to fight crime, what he lacks in an apetite for pizza and beer he overcompensates with a lust for bananas and eating smurfs (Gargamel character was based on his appearance, plus he's also a wizard, just like Gargamel).
To add some more awesomeness his cat is Batman

So without further bullshit let me introduce my new idol- Rolka Niama from Fat Phinder!

Bye Sonata Arctica, for now

How many albums have to go wrong till I give up?
How many live shows should I see before I walk away?

My beloved band, Sonata Arctica is testing those borders, with every month. After giving it some though I decided to give it a break. And thank for all those years, wonderful lyrics, solos, vocals, melodies and drums. Tony, Jani, Marko and Tommy started a silly band that evolved not only into a Power Metal legend, but also my personal favourite over Stratovarius. I always respected Strato when I was younger but Sonata was able to deliver stratolike music in a form perfectly fit for younger me- richer lyrics, crazy solos, variety and more poppish, less serious form were perfect. And they hold up, first 5 albums are still as great as ~10 years ago.
 I stayed loyal when haters were smashing Unia for proggish approach, I stayed loyal when Jani left and Elias joined the band, maybe because I knew his solo stuff before and was glad for him to get more popularity and release his album after joining Sonata. I stayed loyal with Days of Grays, even though I noticed that I don't really dig the direction they wanna go.
Finally, I accepted their decision to leave Power Metal and release Stones Grow Her Name (worst album name I've ever seen) and I liked the album anyway- I wasn't expecting Power Metal and what I got instead didn't disappoint me, it was weird but fun, and ended with 2 great, complex songs I didn't expect and I was truly amazed by them.
But in my eyes their approach to music changed recently, promised Power Metal on Pariah Child ended with watered down, simplistic and soft shit (when it comes to the instruments) and overly complicated, melody-breaking vocals + more inconsistent add ups than their previous, experimental albums. Love is the worst ballad I've ever heard, only Helloween can write pop love ballads that fit, Sonata should stay with Letter to Diana, Shy, Gravenimage, Misery, Tallulah, Under Your Tree, In The Dark, Today and others. And they release an album like that after the amazing Nemesis from Stratovarius? A band that makes power metal longer than them, had more difficult times, less fans and still manages to squeeze amazing albums like Polaris, Elysium and Nemesis?
Their live shows also changed, Elias and Tommy are giving their best, Pasi would love to but he didn't improve the always-lacking bass lines in Sonata songs so he can't give his best, Henkka is clearly bored on live shows and Tony.. I don't know if he's sick, has problems with vocals after so many years of overusing his voice or he just doesn't care anymore.

So I leave for now. I can't say that I don't care anymore because look at that ^ , clearly, I do care. I'm also not writing this for drama, as most of my older readers know- my blog is a shit from my brain I wanna have somewhere online to smile and laugh at when I'm older and dumber. And letting my chain of thought go- maybe I am a hipster? Maybe I don't like my favourite bands getting more popular? Maybe I'm just too old for this stuff. Anyway, I leave for now, turn my head to new Stratovarius and maybe Cain's Offering tour. I will look back (and probably buy) their next release to check if I dig it. If not I will say my last farewell, and put them next to Dio and Charon on my shelf.

Picking the favourite from each album was hard with first 5 albums, but here we go, more or less.

No light, only suffocating dark

deep

burning

pain

I'm losing everything I am

remember nothing of my past

Now, it is all gone,

and I fear the Game is Over.