Do Not Play Until DoomsDay

Song of the Night #142: “Seasons In The Abyss” by Slayer

Dedicating this song to the memory of Jeff Hanneman. 1964 - 2013

When we were kids, we always closed out our set with Seasons. 

I let out a few tears. I think there’ll be a few more to come.

“We are mere notes in a piece of music played by the angel Death—heard and lost.” – Austin O’Malley

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Song of the Night #141: Room of Angel by Akira Yamaoka feat. Mary Elizabeth MeGlynn

“Music is love in search of a word.” - Sidonie Gabrielle

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Song of the Night #140: “Monstrance Clock” by Ghost

“…So when the last and dreadful hour

This crumbling pageant shall devour,

The trumpet shall be heard on high,

The dead shall live, the living die,

And Music shall untune the sky”

 ― John Dryden, The Major Works

Song of the Night #139: “Hell To Pay” by Deep Purple

A few months ago, my college from which I graduated with a 94% GPA, Nimbus School of Recording Arts in Vancouver, invited me for a group gang vocal session. It was kept very hush-hush, and we were not even permitted to hear the full song. Just the part where our chorus would be featured, but I was secretly told it was a Deep Purple project that Legendary Music Producer Bob Ezrin was producing it for the band.

I had worked directly with Ezrin on my first major professional gig for Young Artist’s for Haiti’s Wavin’ Flag, which to my knowledge has raised over $3,000,000 world wide – so far – for Haitian charities due to the utterly devastating earthquake hitting their country a few years ago.

Aside from the coolness of the fact that my very own voice is on a Deep Purple record for now and all times, in an odd way, there’s a super stoked kid inside giving the middle finger, or at least the Metal Horns \m/ for having actually lent my voice to a key NWOBHM song. GGGarth Richardson produced the choral group sing.

Again, it’s not really that big a deal, but the excitement and surrealism of the scenario awakens my teen self attitude of “fuck the world, listen to Metal.” And Deep Purple and the track itself are pure Heavy Metal, the tradition of Deep Purple bore and directly influenced the NWOBHM in a little American band called Metallica.

“To stop the flow of music would be like the stopping of time itself, incredible and inconceivable.” - Aaron Copland

I honestly, and perhaps egotistically, feel like I’ve unwittingly secured my place in the history of NWOBHM for all time, without even having to travel through time. Beyond cool and kinda surreal. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own this music

Song of the Night #138: “Year Zero” by Ghost

“We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it.” - Jerry Garcia

Song of the Night #137: “Why Write a Letter That You’ll Never Send?” by The Drones

“Joy, sorrow, tears, lamentation, laughter — to all these music gives voice, but in such a way that we are transported from the world of unrest to a world of peace, and see reality in a new way, as if we were sitting by a mountain lake and contemplating hills and woods and clouds in the tranquil and fathomless water.” - Albert Schweitzer

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Song of the Night #136: “I Love You, I’ll Kill You” by Enigma

“I’ve never known a musician who regretted being one. Whatever deceptions life may have in store for you, music itself is not going to let you down.” - Virgil Thomson

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Song of the Night #135: “Inno A Satana” by Emperor

Winter’s death rattle. 

“Perfume was first created to mask the stench of foul and offensive odours…

Spices and bold flavourings were created to mask the taste of putrid and rotting meat…

What then was music created for?

Was it to drown out the voices of others, or the voices within ourselves?

I think I know.”

- Emilie Autumn, The Asylum for Wayward Victorian Girls

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Song of the Night #134: “Ride” by Lana Del Rey

“He took his pain and turned it into something beautiful. Into something that people connect to. And that’s what good music does. It speaks to you. It changes you.” - Hannah Harrington

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Song of the Night #133: “Lovely Creature” by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

“Music takes us out of the actual and whispers to us dim secrets that startle our wonder as to who we are, and for what, whence, and whereto.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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Song of the Night: #132: “You’re So Cool! ♥” by Hanz Zimmer

“I love the relationship that anyone has with music … because there’s something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. … It’s the best part of us probably …” - Nick Hornby

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Song of the Night #131: “Kaifuku Suru Kizu (Healing Wounds)” by Lily Chou-Chou

“Just as certain selections of music will nourish your physical body and your emotional layer, so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind.” - Hal A. Lingerman

Disclaimer: I own this music