These Gravely Digs of Mine

This one's for kemidra:

Nothing says "surreal and painful" like a Japanese variety show from the 80's:

What... I don't know how... I can't even... what?



I don't know that there's much crossover between Ozzy and Pink fans, but even if you're not in the center of that Venn diagram, watch that video if you want to see something amazing. Hat tip to kylecassidy.

Apparently there's this thing called "retro-metal" now, which to my ear sounds just like heavy metal that I still listen to. I think what "retro-metal" really means is that "I am a hipster douchebag music critic who likes to pretend that heavy metal disappeared for thirty years because it stopped being cool, but now that some members of my skinny-jeans wearing, PBR-swilling hipster hivemind have started listening to it again, it once more exists so I'm going to dub it 'retro'", but what do I know?*

Anyhow, here's a selection from The Sword, which is an old-school, ever so slightly doom-tinged heavy metal band that cites "George R. R. Martin, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft and Arthur C. Clarke" and norse/pagan mythology as their major inspirations (though personally, I would hesitate to dub them full-fledged fantasy metal or pagan metal, at least as compared to exemplars of those particular genres.)




* a lot.**

** about metal, anyway.

Today's Music Monday entry is by "Trollhammeren" by Fintroll, a Finnish band which hybridizes folk music, black metal and polka*. Yes, that's right: Folk-polka-death metal. By trolls.

Don't say I never got you anything nice.

*Technically humppa, which is a Finnish take on the more familiar oompa, which is the kind of polka you hear at Oktoberfest.

Heavy metal is not a genre known for its sense of humor, but every now and then one slips past the DEATH TO FALSE METAL! corpsepaint crowd. Here are power metal stalwarts Edguy in a departure from their usual fantasy-themed fare with an obvious homage to songs like Love in an Elevator and Hot for Teacher (keep an eye out for Tobias' Van Halen jumping kicks).

I dedicate this one to blanchemains. ;)



ETA: I so want that zebra jacket.

yuki_onna got me thinkin' about prog, and the different kinds of it that there are.

This is the optimistic-lyrics Yes-influenced ten-minute-long oh-my-god-is-that-seriously-an-electric-organ kind. And yes, it is.