Journal Tet's Journal: So that was 2008 5
In the studio
- Mötley Crüe -- "Saints of Los Angeles"
- Blaze Bayley -- "The man who would not die"
- Hanging Doll -- "Reason and madness"
- Liquid Sky -- "Identity"
- Guns N' Roses -- "Chinese democracy"
- Judas Priest -- "Nostradamus
- Into The Woods -- "Into the woods"
- Battlelore -- "The last alliance"
- AC/DC -- "Black ice"
- Firewind -- "The premonition"
Not a great year, but not a bad one either, and a few surprises. I wasn't expecting Mötley Crüe to come out with such a strong album ever again. Nor was I expecting the GNR album to be any good. Indeed, I wasn't even planning on getting it at all, but it was cheap in the Woolworth's closing down sale. While it's not as good as they were 20 years ago, it's not bad. Of course, there's every reason to call the band Axl And The Hired Guns rather than GNR, but that's an argument for another day. Judas Priest had made a great return to form with their reunion album, so it was a bit of a disappointment to see them follow it up with "Nostradamus". There's nothing wrong with the album, but there's not much memorable about it either. In truth, only perhaps the top four albums in the list are really worthy of their place, and while I like the others, they're nothing special.
There are a few albums from 2008 that I haven't heard yet, but had I done so, I might reasonably expect them to make a showing in my list of favourite albums of the year:
- Sabaton -- "The art of war"
- Falconer -- "Among beggars and thieves"
- Avantasia -- "The scarecrow"
- Alice Cooper -- "Along came a spider"
On stage
For me, 2008 saw 151 bands playing at 34 shows. The highlights were:
- Rage, The Underworld
- Sabaton, The Purple Turtle
- Pain, The Astoria
- Heaven's Basement, Bloodstock Open Air
- Blaze Bayley, The Underworld
- Dio, The Astoria
- Hanging Doll, The Underworld
- Liquid Sky, The Peel
- Metalloid, Bloodstock Open Air
- Scorpions, Hammersmith Apollo
- Hellfighter, Bloodstock Open Air
- Liquid Sky, Barfly
- Mantra, Bloodstock Open Air
- Ensiferum, Paganfest, Koko
Another strong year in terms of live performances. I hadn't been impressed with Rage's "Speak of the dead" album, so despite some good performances in the past, my expectations weren't high. Fortunately, they were touring in support of a vastly better new album, "Carved in stone", and on the strength of their excellent performance at The Underworld, I picked up that album at the show. A great choice of setlist, and they even brought out Jen Majura for a few songs, including "Dies Irae", a song I never thought I'd hear them play live.
Sabaton blew me away the first time I saw them, and since then I've been to all of their London shows. Once again, they were outstanding. Pain were something of a surprise. I'd been vaguely aware of their earlier material, but it hadn't really made an impression. But what a live band! They completely blew headliners Nightwish off the stage. Other notables this year were the large number of good performances at Bloodstock, particularly from bands I'd never heard of before (Metalloid, Hellfighter and Mantra stand out there).
Also of note was Liquid Sky's change of vocalist. I thought they'd struggle to replace Hecate, who put in a great performance at Barfly early in the year. Her replacement, Tiffeny, looked competent at Bloodstock, but a bit shaky. Then again, it was her first ever show with the band, and when I saw them again at The Peel later in the year, they were much improved. It was the last date of their tour, and it showed. Having had a bit of practice, she was much more at ease, and far more confident on stage, which made for a great show.
On the screen
This is where I struggle a bit. I didn't see many films this year. Indeed, off the top of my head, I can only recall two. The first was "The dark knight", which was hugely overrated. A decent performance from Ledger, but a poor film overall, and very disappointing after the promise shown by "Batman begins". The second was "Burn after reading". Holy crap. I want those two hours of my life back. How can such an all star cast end up producing such a terrible film?
Since we don't have TV reception, I can't comment on anything there. However, we've been watching a bunch of stuff on DVD. "Heroes" was excellent, and I can't wait to see the second season. I bought the complete set of "The X-Files", which is nearly a week of continuous 24x7 viewing. We've done the first series so far. Also seeing time on the DVD player have been "Magnum", "Dexter", "Doctor Who" and "Torchwood", all of which were good.
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Along Came A Spider (Score:2)
I'm a big Alice Cooper fan, so I'm biased, but ACAS is a fantastic album.
Firewind (Score:2)
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