Turns out it wasn’t the voices in my head I was hearing – it’s the new Disturbed CD.

Don’t know if I was in the perfect mood to listen to this or whether it’s just really that good, but Asylum is a progression for these guys and damn it’s good to hear from ‘em.

With a bloodied grip, “Remnants” leads listeners down a steep path, with (shorter) ghosts of Metallica’s “Orion” or “To Live is To Die.” Bass heavy, slow, mood-setting. As an instrumental it brings you into the album, into the Disturbed environment. The title track (some consider it Part 2 of “Remnants”) punches hard and the dreamscape gets darker and darker.

Every song on “Asylum” pounds home another nail in the buried foundation of a testament to the way the world is in the late summer of 2010. It’s what the band has always been self-tasked with, yet they’ve become more focused and emotionally unrelenting with this their fifth full-length release. Political meanings catch your ears, like spiders grab flies. The band is desperately seeking meaning and even hope, where every direction seems a dead end. It’s a fight against a fatalistic vision many people have as they cling to ropes dangling, breaking strand by strand over the chasm of their lives.

Read more…

Duet: Do it!

Has the concept of “duet” evolved from the classic romantic musical setting of two people singing back and forth? Can’t be sure, but the Judgment Night soundtrack? In its entirety? Yes. That’s where my brain went when I thought of “duet.” (Check the track listing)

(from kouldeliee)

Two modern hits that juice me are Mariah Carey and Ole Dirty Bastard, Fantasy and Eminem’s Stan, performed on the VMAs with Elton John. The song, of course, originally featured Dido. The latter seems obvious, but if you haven’t played the song in awhile the counterpoint and depth of the story being told hits hard again. And, it was an event, in a way, because Eminem had been dragged through a shitstorm backwards for sounding homophobic in lyrics to other songs. Eminem later called the performance, “career roulette” in another song, “Business.”

(from estetsvid)

Generally the unexpected angle of these duets comes from a contrast in styles. A smooth, pristine delivery somehow illicitly brought together with the harshness of heavy metal or with anyone thought of as messed up. Mash-Ups are a whole spin-off of this idea, pushing groups or artists together that you wouldn’t immediately think would work. But it does — through a shared bass hook, melody line, or tone in the voices.

All this is close to the same thrill you get when you get a cover version of a song you may not love from an artist you absolutely love (or vice versa) — Nina Gordon adding grace to the gangsta of “Straight Outta Compton”, Incubus’ “Like a Virgin” or pretty much any cover Seether releases.

There’s a literal beauty and the beast concept going on here, too. Old Dirty Bastard and Mariah, Shane McGowan and Kirsty MacColl, and the ultimate, Sarah Brightman’s starring role opposite Michael Crawford’s phantom of the Opera.