I was in the mood for Megadeth today, so I looked up for Symphony of destruction, I love that song, it is one of my favorite songs from Megadeth, I think next to Skin of my teeth and A tout le monde, I guess..

So, when listening to it on YouTube, I found a version of Nightwish, cool, I didn’t know Nightwish covered Symphony of destruction, I must say I liked it very much, it has a bit of a particular flavor, the keyboard in particular, sounds interesting and the voice of the bass player matches both the song and the band.

So here it is, Nightwish with Symphony of destruction!

By the way, if you also are in the mood for Megadeth, here’s the man himself teaching us how to play the song:

Enjoy!

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I’ve just found this video with Metallica’s Kirk Hammett trying to learn a riff that just doesn’t want to get in there…

Honestly I amused myself watching this and I remembered about asking myself, years ago, how they did that famous ending part in “One”. I have always considered that part (the speed part) the result of work, not inspiration, because you actually need to count and remember in order to get things right. Especially when that part implies that the whole band stop together, all at once. Imagine how it would have sounded if Kirk would have played one more note when everybody suddenly stopped…

And I love the face he makes at the end…

Now Stumble that!

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I am not a big fan of Rolling Stones, I like them, but they’re not my cup of cake, if you know what I mean. On the other hand, I like GNR, they come closer to what I look for in music.

However, seems that there are some common grounds to all these, there are points where Rolling Stones and Guns connect, beside the fact that the Stones probably represents a milestone for every single rock music lover in the world.

Like for example Sympathy for the devil, I didn’t know Guns recorded their own version, I just found it on YT and I can say it sounds interesting. Not quite GNR, but Axl’s voice gives an interesting flavor to this song, isn’t i?

Let’s see, comparing these 2 versions of 2 great bands, which one you find better? Or let’s say closer to your soul.

I would have personally liked to hear a bit more of Slash on this song, if Slash is actually present here. I can’t tell, is it actually GNR or a later version of Axl without the band?

Or, it’s like one commenter on YT said

“Don’t get me wrong i like guns and roses, but this is just one of those songs you don’t touch. It’s like someone covering thriller “

What do you have to say? Or is it like in that childhood dilemma in the title?

And by the way, somebody DID cover Thriller…

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I love when well known artists reinvent themselves giving us new reasons to love and admire them.

These days, Sting was here, in a concert in Bucharest, capital of Romania. Well, I wasn’t there, but I can tell you from what mass-media said that the tickets were sold out long before the concert and then those who really wanted to be there bought them at 10 times the price!

Sting was accompanied by Edin Karamazov and his lute. Very interesting, I’d say, Sting playing on lute. They both played instruments built in Romania by a Romanian instrument builder, Cezar Mateescu. Sting personally thanked Cezar Mateescu for the instruments, very nice of him. Also Edin Karamazov was a student of the great Sergiu Celibidache, one of the greatest musicians this country gave.

I was a bit intrigued at first by Sting and his lute, so I searched on YouTube for some videos with him playing lute, and I can say it gives a great sound, it is beyond a “regular unplugged” sound. Even the music is different, it is old, from the 16th century. Cool! Sting singing Elizabethan music.

Here’s a sample:

And another one:

And this one, I couldn’t help it, no lute, but man, how beautiful:

Well, do you like it? Is it Sting here or not?

By the way, you can buy from Amazon:
The Journey & The Labyrinth: The Music of John Dowland (DVD & CD)
Fields of Gold: The Best of Sting 1984-1994

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Warning! To guitar players: this post is not about guitars, it is about drums! To drummers: the title is a joke, relax

Well, these days I’ve started to work with my band two songs from Metallica, Nothing else matters and Whiskey in the jar. OK, I must be in the mood for Metallica these days, I guess, but working on these songs made me think of how important the drummer really is.

I mean, if you listen Nothing else matters, with a musician’s ear, you’ll hear Lars Ulrich’s drums all over. His style of playing drums is almost trademarked.

You probably already know it, you know Metallica and you recognize Lars out of 1000 drummers, isn’t it? The fact is that Lars had such a big influence on Metallica’s sound that without him, Metallica would have never been the same, no matter what other drummer would have taken his place.

I mean, from my experience, changing the drummer in a band is a big and I mean REALLY BIG thing! Working a song with a drummer will give a particular balance to that song, that another drummer may not be able to get it. I’ve played with quite a few drummers so far and I can tell you that I’ve felt every one of them as being different.

Our previous drummer was a Limp Bizkit fan, his way of playing drums was modern, energetic, very interesting. When we started to play alternative, his presence was exactly what we needed at that moment.

Our current drummer is an old school rock fan: Whitesnake, Metallica, Maiden, UDO, Accept, etc. Totally different way of playing drums…

Lars has his own style, as it happens with all great musicians and his presence in the band is, I guess, along with Hetfield’s voice, the very definition of Metallica’s sound.

If you want to test this for yourself, ask your drummer to play Nothing else matters, the same way Lars Ulrich plays, and then start a chat with him about it! You may find it interesting…

You know, there is that joke that says the drummer is not a musician, but he is that guy hanging around musicians…Funny joke, but not true at all in this case. Actually, if you think about it, how many drummers can you think of that can be named out of 100 drummers the same way Ulrich can? I know there are thousands great drummers, but how many have their style so unique that you will immediately know who’s playing there?

Well? Who would you name?

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I was reading on MusicRadar.com (via GuitarMX) an article about why Chinese Democracy was not a commercial success.

OK, first of all, I must admit that after writing here a couple of posts about it and listening the tracks on YT, I totally forgot about it so, pardon me but I wasn’t aware of the fact that it was not a success, especially after the album generated that big buzz right before being released. I presumed that, even if I don’t like it that much, other people like it and buy it.

Interesting that after all, it didn’t go that well. Personally speaking, I’m sorry. I’m sorry for Axl and his work of 15(?) years, I presume that when you work that much for a record, you put every single hope in it so, it is not something to joke with.

However, reading the reasons MusicRadar listed on that article, reasons for which the album failed to become what Axl planned, I must admit that some of them were quite pertinent.

I mean, the fact that out of the guys in the office of MusicRadar, none could name all the musicians involved in recording the album, it is a sign that there is no band there.

Come on, GNR was a brand, each guy there was a brand, I mean you knew them, you could name everyone of them, the brand was strong, had continuity and personality. When you can not name the band members, you have a marketing problem, I guess.

They also list there the fact that Chinese Democracy isn’t a masterpiece and people calling on the radio didn’t ask one single time the new song but…old hits like November rain, Paradise city, etc. Sad, but true after all. Is there a song on this album to compare to November rain? I don’t think so.

But the most important reason, and one I have always named here on this blog, is the fact that GNR isn’t GNR anymore. I know it, you know it and maybe the most important, they know it. And they didn’t buy it either…

I already said it but I will say it again: I am sorry about it, I would have liked that, against all odds and against my previous posts and feelings, the new album be a success, for the sake of rock music, for my nostalgic feelings of a long gone period and for the fact that I turned to rock thanks to Guns and thanks to Patience.

The fact is that I don’t know what to say more about it, so, the rest is silence…

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Today I have listened Chinese Democracy on MySpace (the 6 songs that are there, I presume the best on the record), after my friend and band colleague Costin (GNR dedicated fan) victoriously told me on instant messaging that GNR’s latest record is officially the most listened record on MySpace and that the record was already awarded platinum in Finland for the sales in the first day…

OK, I admit, that made me a bit curious since I haven’t listened more than the track that gives the title at that moment, so I ran to MySpace to see what’s the buzz all about.

Remember that article about a Fm chord on the latest ACDC record? Well, I’ve heard, I think, the first official sweep picking (on the song “Better”) and if I’m not mistaken, also the first tapping (I don’t think I’ve heard tapping on Slash’s records, did I?)

Axl’s voice sounds the same and at the same time different. I think he loses his scratches here and there but all together it’s mean and…it’s rock. I also noticed electronic drums and modern synthesized sounds. However, it’s still pure rock, brought in today’s world.

But did the world as we know it change with this new album?

Well, I am not happy to say it, but I am not thrilled, it didn’t blow me away. It is a nice album, but really, it didn’t blow me away.

All together, it’s a new release of an artist with a great voice, somebody who was the idol of a generation, of somebody who personally I pitied for disappearing in such a way from the musical scene, but…you know what?

The sun will rise again tomorrow.

Ah, yes, and finally Axl released his long waited album. Thank God!

By the way, you can buy Axl’s Chinese Democracy from Amazon

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Following the recording I did a couple of weeks ago, last night I started to fool around with Clapton’s song, Layla, in front of my computer. It didn’t take me much to want to record it to see how it sounds. Once that the first notes were recorded, of course, I wanted more. However, it was late, the acoustic guitar sounds kind of loud so I didn’t go too far.

However, something came out of it, a refreshing take, unplugged, a bit faster than the original recording (this is how I hear this song, by the way) based on the unplugged version. Maybe I could give it a bit more air in some parts, but if I will have the time, maybe I will clean it later.

Those of you familiar with the unplugged album will recognize probably parts of the unplugged solos, the tempo and the general feeling, I guess. It’s not a one on one take, since I haven’t listened that song in a while, so it’s just what I remembered, without trying to follow the exact structure of the song.

At the end I wanted to make a video out of it, to upload it on YouTube, but each time I compiled the movie, I don’t know why, some notes ended up scrambled, out of tempo, because of the compression, I guess. So, I stopped and I decided to put the song here as audio only.

So, here it is! Enjoy my personal version of Layla!

[Audio clip: view full post to listen]

Later edit: I managed to have a good quality video, so here it is on YouTube. Enjoy!

Buy Eric Clapton’s Unplugged concert from Amazon!
Record your own songs at home with Line 6 GearBox Silver Bundle with Toneport D.I. USB Recording Interface!

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Following the post about Axl’s new album, I got my hands on Angel Down, Sebastian Bach’s new record.

I must tell you, I am impressed, if you want, at least because of the phenomenal voice of this guy. I have always loved Skid Row and Bach never lost one bit of his voice over the years, sounds like he is still 19-20 yo. Usually, after a certain age, singers cool down and take easier paths, see Bon Jovi, for example. Screaming is not in trends anymore, after all…

Says who!? Bach wasn’t told about it… Don’t ask him to be tender and smooth, cause his voice is not made for this. Instead, he will burn down the house with one single scream. This is what he does and man, he rules.

From my personal point of view, Sebastian Bach is like the perfect voice for metal, next to Eric Adams (Manowar), Michael Kiske (Helloween) and Dickinson (Maiden). And I will add here Mike Matijevic (Steelheart), I really consider him as one of the “might have been” leading rock voices around. He only missed the train, what a pity…(man, if you read this, you rule!)

Coming back to Bach (not THAT Bach, for one of my dear friends who looked at me a bit lost when I showed him a picture with Sebastian Bach in a rock magazine about 10 years ago), I am happy he made that record and I think the friendship of Axl Rose helped here because no matter what he said, he didn’t manage to make that record until this year. I can only imagine them speaking…come on,man, are you gonna put that record out or what? hm…I don’t know…only if you’ll do it too…aa…wtf, OK! Let’s do it!

I recommend you listen Falling into you, a lovely power ballad and Back in the saddle, to see how well his voice works with Axl’s voice…

Here’s another one, this is what I could find on YT

By the way, are the 80′s coming back?

Buy Angel Down, Sebastian Bach’s latest record from Amazon

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These days everybody speaks about Axl Rose and his upcoming album,Chinese Democracy, so I can not stop myself speaking about it.

I have said it before that I don’t believe anymore in Axl, not without the rest of the band, especially after 14 years of pause, 14 years of never ending stories about how he will make the greatest album ever.

But here we are, waiting for the big day, the day when Axl Rose’s latest album will be released.

I am really looking forward to it, to see what it brings, and I will probably buy it. However, I will buy it as a new beginning, a new era in Axl’s musical life, not as a new album of GNR. For me, GNR died the moment Slash and Co walked a new path. I don’t blame them or Axl for breaking up the band. I don’t have the right to do it, they are the band, I am just a fan, so I just take the facts as they are. And the fact is that GNR split back then, Axl went one direction, Slash & Co went another way. Or as my friend and bass player would say, they went the same way, opposite directions…

Now after 14 years, GNR releases a new album. I don’t buy that.

That’s not GNR out there, that’s just a solo album of Axl. And I do buy that, I buy it with a fresh and open mind, waiting for a great release of a proven musician.

That being said, I just ask myself, if Axl wouldn’t have had the legal rights for the name GNR, would have his new album started that much buzz worldwide or would have been just another solo album out there?

So, what do you think about it? And more than this, what do you buy? A new GNR album or Axl’s solo album?

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