What are you listening to?

[Syt]

Alestorm, the Sco'ish Pirate Metal band are coming out with a new album: Seventh Rum of a Seventh Rum ( / _bleeding: ). The first single is "Magellan's Expedition."

Surprisingly for Alestorm, generally known for their silly and comedic elements, the song is a fairly straight retelling of the journey.

Still, the song is pretty good, IMHO.

Unfortunately, the video is a bit "eh" (no comparison to e.g. Fannybaws which featured Peter Dinklage as the eponymous diminuitive pirate or even the one for Fucked With An Anchor which was shot in the recording studio).

"Magellan's Expedition" – an epic quest telling the tale of Ferdinand Magellan's historical circumnavigation of the earth in 1522. The official video was filmed on location in a castle, features tons of pyro, and of course, a huge yellow laser-eyed rubber duck fighting a young maiden warrior, transforming her into a real, beautiful duck! Featuring majestic orchestral backing, whirling folky violins and huge Latin choirs, this song is classic ALESTORM like you haven't heard in years – a real throwback to the early days of Captain Morgan's Revenge!

For reference, Fucked With an Anchor (a great earworm and amazing singalong):

And Fannybaws with awesomely bad CGI effects and wonderfully disinterested Peter Dinklage.

[Syt]

I was listening to Alestorm's latest studio album, Curse of the Crystal Coconut when I was taken out of it a bit when in Wooden Leg Part 2 (The Woodening) there's a section I would swear was done on a C64 SID chip.

Cute, I thought, and kept working. On Spotify the album is the 2 disc deluxe version. Disc 2 is the same songs as the main album, but done in C64 8bit sound, and bitcrushed vocals. It's lovely, though now I want instrumental versions.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Finally, someone else who likes Alestorm!

[Syt]

They are quite brilliant. As are associated act Gloryhammer (though not a fan of their Controversies ).

In a similar vein I do like Grailknight and their theatrics

(Yes, these are their normal stage costumes )

One more for good measure, for the retro 80s goodness:

[Syt]

Italian dwarven power metal band Wind Rose are coming out with a new album in June, their second with Napalm Records. They've released two songs/videos so far. If you liked their previous album Wintersaga and its fantasy power metal with dwarven choir vocals, then you will like this.

Last month they released Gates of Ekrund (one for the Warhammer Fantasy fans ) with a rather lovely CGI battle:

Yesterday they released Together We Rise. It's good, but I think Gates of Ekrund is much better; and the CGI is also not quite as good in this:

[The Minsky Moment]

Charles Mingus, Jazz Workshop Concerts 1964-65

Today is the 100th anniversary of Mingus's birth.  His music sounds of his time but still fresh, he pushed against the boundaries of convention but stayed listenable.  1964 is peak Mingus IMO; Eric Dolphy was a key contributor until suddenly dying that summer from combination of an undiagnosed diabetic condition and medical negligence by a Berlin hospital.

[Syt]

Blind Guardian are working on a new album, too. Depending on whether or not you count their latest (2019's Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lords, which was fully orchestral, with Hansi Kürsch's vocals being the only band member performance), it will be their 11th or 12th studio album since the band's founding in 1984.

They were one of the first metal bands I was really into, from 1992 onwards. Their early albums (1988's Battalions of Fear, 1989's Follow the Blind, 1990's Tales From the Twilight World, 1992's Somewhere Far Beyond, 1995's Imaginations From the Other Side) had a steady upward trajectory in terms of quality, culminating in the excellent concept album Nightfall in Middle-Earth from 1998, adapting motifs from the Silmarillion. Personally, I would divide the band's history into two sections: before Nightfall, and after. Imaginations had been a shift in tone, but Nightfall is IMO the real watershed for them.

2002's A Night At the Opera was still great IMHO with several excellent songs, but there was a drop compared to Nightfall, and in hindsight it was "a little" overproduced. But Nightfall had been on a level that would have been difficult to repeat, either way. A Twist in the Myth followed in 2006, and was - to me at least - another drop in quality.

So I was skeptical when At the Edge of Time came out in 2010. However, I loved the album. Yes, the songs are still overproduced and bombastic, but the quality of the songs was just much better than on the previous two outings. Unfortunately this was not quite repeated with Beyond the Red Mirror. It's not a bad album, but I would rank it between Night at the Opera and Twist in the Myth.

Twilight Orchestra: Legacy of the Dark Lands didn't grab me much, though I may need to give it another chance. I like metal/classical mixes, and Blind Guardian have continuously added orchestral elements and experimented, trying to find the balance between sounding awesome and being hilariously overdone. But a purely classical album from them is not really something that grabs me.

Anyways, they've released two songs from their upcoming album so far.

Secrets of the American Gods: It's fine. Listening it one or two more times probably needed for me to "click".

The other is Deliver Us From Evil. And I love this one. It sounds familiar but new, and I enjoy it a fair bit. Blind Guardian is one of those "feel good" bands for me - their texts usually are inspired by fantasy novels and adjacent genres, they have a rather pleasant sound overall, and Hansi's voice is still killing it.

[Malthus]

Italian dwarven power metal band Wind Rose are coming out with a new album in June, their second with Napalm Records. They've released two songs/videos so far. If you liked their previous album Wintersaga and its fantasy power metal with dwarven choir vocals, then you will like this.

Last month they released Gates of Ekrund (one for the Warhammer Fantasy fans ) with a rather lovely CGI battle:

Yesterday they released Together We Rise. It's good, but I think Gates of Ekrund is much better; and the CGI is also not quite as good in this:

Today I learned that Italian dwarf power metal is a thing.

I ... kinda like it. 

[Syt]

They popped up for me a few years back with their cover of "Diggy Diggy Hole" on some reaction channel.

That title is a good link to the meme discussion:

The origins of the song was the Yogscast streaming Minecraft and one of the guys badly improvising a basic dwarf/digging tune. The clip achieved meme status, with some remixes, until eventually the Yogscast made it an orchestral dwarven anthem with a cartoon animation video to go along with it. Which, eventually, was covered by Wind Rose.

The evolution is summarized in this video (it contains full versions of the Yogscast and Wind Rose versions, too):

In short: the internet is weird.

[Syt]

Rammstein have a new video (again) - Zick Zack is about excessive plastic surgery to keep age at bay. Contains some body horror (not too extreme; I assume they're somewhat inspired by the movie Brazil), and a brief flash of granny boobs near the end (therefore not embedding, just in case ):

https://youtu.be/hBTNyJ33LWI

It's not a terrible song, but I liked the title track of  their new album Zeit better.

https://youtu.be/EbHGS_bVkXY (not embedding this video, either, because it contains some VERY NSFW scenes - you'll know what I mean when you get there )

[Duque de Bragança]

As a matter of fact, their new album will be played on select cinemas only once on April 28th in Dolby Atmos (Deutsche Grammophon-style!).

Already booked a ticket.

https://zeit.rammstein.de

[Malthus]

Rammstein have a new video (again) - Zick Zack is about excessive plastic surgery to keep age at bay. Contains some body horror (not too extreme; I assume they're somewhat inspired by the movie Brazil), and a brief flash of granny boobs near the end (therefore not embedding, just in case ):

https://youtu.be/hBTNyJ33LWI

It's not a terrible song, but I liked the title track of  their new album Zeit better.

https://youtu.be/EbHGS_bVkXY (not embedding this video, either, because it contains some VERY NSFW scenes - you'll know what I mean when you get there )

The zeit video is awesome. I really enjoy Rammstein.

[viper37]

Unfortunately, the video is a bit "eh" (no comparison to e.g. Fannybaws which featured Peter Dinklage as the eponymous diminuitive pirate or even the one for Fucked With An Anchor which was shot in the recording studio).

The video is similar to a A rose for Epona.  Young woman marching through the wood, band singing in the ruins of some castle/fortress.

Windrose is pretty funny, as a band

[viper37]

Rammstein have a new video (again) - Zick Zack is about excessive plastic surgery to keep age at bay. Contains some body horror (not too extreme; I assume they're somewhat inspired by the movie Brazil), and a brief flash of granny boobs near the end (therefore not embedding, just in case ):

https://youtu.be/hBTNyJ33LWI

It's not a terrible song, but I liked the title track of  their new album Zeit better.

https://youtu.be/EbHGS_bVkXY (not embedding this video, either, because it contains some VERY NSFW scenes - you'll know what I mean when you get there )

I'm struggling to find a good song from this band since they released Links.

[Duque de Bragança]

Rammstein have a new video (again) - Zick Zack is about excessive plastic surgery to keep age at bay. Contains some body horror (not too extreme; I assume they're somewhat inspired by the movie Brazil), and a brief flash of granny boobs near the end (therefore not embedding, just in case ):

https://youtu.be/hBTNyJ33LWI

It's not a terrible song, but I liked the title track of  their new album Zeit better.

https://youtu.be/EbHGS_bVkXY (not embedding this video, either, because it contains some VERY NSFW scenes - you'll know what I mean when you get there )

I'm struggling to find a good song from this band since they released Links.

I guess you are not struggling enough. 

From the Reise Reise album:

Reise, Reise
Mein Teil   
Keine Lust   
Amerika   

Rosenrot (less good IMO)

Benzin   
Mann gegen Mann   
Rosenrot   
Te Quiero Puta ! (so bad it's good)

Liebe ist für alle da (weakest IMO I remember being disappointed)

Haifisch
Pussy (made it thanks to the video  )

"Deutschland"

Deutschland (absolute classic great video as well)
Auslander (absolute classic great video as wellfor different reasons)
Radio