Some bands play for one season….others play for some years – 3, 5 or even 10. But there are others who after 20 years of activity are still capable of releasing excellent albums and filling up a whole stadium when touring.

Sepultura is one of them, as after 22 years of playing they just released a new (great) album. Dante XXI – Hell. Heaven. Purgatory. is the album’s name and, as the name says, it is inspired by the famous opera of Dante Aligheri.

The first thing I noticed when first hearing it is the excellent voice of Derek Green, the vocalist that some years ago replaced Max Cavalera. I cannot say I like him more than Max, as Max had a certain something that still makes me consider him one of the best vocals ever, but Derek certainly improved significantly and is now fully integrated in the band. He adds a hardcore feeling to the general sound now and his occasional screams throughout the tracks are excelently integrated in the whole. The entire sound is much more mature now and you can feel them playing as a whole group, not as distinct individuals.

The album definetely adds more thrash to the sound Sepultura had on its previous albums and somehow it reminds me of their first albums. Even though, without Max, it is not the same (yeah, I’m a sucker for him…)

The track I liked most – and is here for sharing – is “Convicted in life“. Starting with the famous “Abandon all hope he who enter here” verse, it is one of the fastest tracks on the album.

Overall, I can definetely say I like Dante XXI most out of the ones Sepultura released recently (post-Max era). Definetely worth a try, worth buying and worth listening for a long time. Congrats !!!

In the last days I noticed a lot of spam comments on posts around musicblog.ro. Maybe you didn’t notice them, as they are usually comments to old posts, but I saw them in the admin tool.

Now, Tina suggested I should install a image verification system for all comments in order to prevent spam but, as I hate this method because it fights spam by adding an extra field / effort for the regular users, I decided not to do this yet.

Meanwhile, I installed a new “intelligent” plugin that should detect spam based on certain patterns (it was quite easy to see a pattern in all the spam comments that appeared until now), so I hope this works and I won’t have to add a plugin which will harden your posting of comments.

From my point of view, Music Blog is determined to remain an open communication tool that all of you can use and freely express your wildest opinions :)

Please feel free to suggest other spam-fighting methods as well.

I happen to have a special attraction to band / artists who, besides playing vocals, also have an important role the instrumental side of the sound they produce. Likewise, Kate Tunstall can be appreciated both for her nice voice and the guitar parts she plays in her songs.

Kate is an Irish songwriter who made her first public recognaisance when performing what later became the famous “Black Horse and The Cherry Tree” song. Still, if you have the ambition not to let yourself distracted by only one or two singles of a certain artist, you will discover a rich a consistent sound throughout Kate’s albums, like “Eye to the Telescope“, her debut album.

Here you can listen to the “Black Horse and The Cherry Tree” track, but please be advised that is strongly suggested that you buy the songs from the shops !!

It seems lately I am in the mood for some jazz…and searching for some new artists in this field I discovered Hugh Masekela.

He is a well-known African Jazz musician, released some 30 albums so far and played the trumpet along with famous other jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong. His music has a powerful African taste, along with some Latin influences as well. A rich and quite powerful jazz sound, with a strong voice and remarkable trumpets.

If you are a jazz fan, you should definetely give it a try. For example, you can try the Send Me (RAM format) track out of his new album to make an impression. Also, if you are interested, just ask and I can provide you more tracks to listen to.

After moving to the new place, I have some issues with the old audio solutions….basically, I do not want to use the laptop anymore for storing and playing music, but I want a more professional solution. And also the speakers should go and be replaced by some more professional ones.

As the new apartment offers a lot of open space, I want to see as less cables as possible, so I am thinking of a wireless solution. The ideal thing would be for a small and compact “device” that is able to store 30-40 Gb of music and is able to send the sound wireless to speakers mounted on the walls. Of course, it has to have a remote control :)

As I have limited time to wander through the shops, the Internet is the best option for me now. After dozens of searches over the web, I did not manage to find too much, so I decided to ask some “professionals”. As Bose was well recommended, I decided to send an e-mail and ask. I told them what I want, I even mentioned a couple of products I found on their website and I asked for the price.

All good until now, I (think I) did my part. But would you think they answered? No. Three days have passed and no reply from them. I was quite determined to buy, I send them all the details, all they had to do was to reply and give a configuration.

Now, this is what I don’t understand in Romania. Some people really don’t want to sell. Same happened when I tried to buy a TV from Metro, the guys were nowhere to be found and when I found them they treated me with so little consideration and actually said that both products I wanted were not properly functioning. Why do you display them then ?? Of course, they did not recommend anything else, they just went away. So I went to Altex, where a nice guy managed to convince me to buy a TV twice as expensive as what I was looking for initially. Just by showing me everything, being very nice and detail answering all my questions.

Think I’ll go to Altex again or, for a much more professional solution, I’ll try B&O…. Still, the question remains. Why do some people do not want to sell when the buyer comes?

Today I moved to the new house….which is what I can call a dream come true. Lot of space, great design, great arrangements and everything that comes with it.

Actually, the process turned out much better than I expected, we finished everything in under one day and I also got a chance to throw a small party with close friends.

As this place inspires me an amazing state of calmness and relaxation, the most played tracks today were Erin Bode – Time after Time and David Gilmour – This Heaven.

In the meantime, I am working on the playlist for the big party to come in some days. Any suggestions ? :)

Last year it was probably the last time I went to Stufstock, or a least the last time in that formula….too crowded, too many stupid / rude people, too much litter and so on.

Still, I enjoyed it for having the opportunity to listen to 3 of my favourite Romanian bands: Florin Chilian (not realy a band, I know), Tapinarii and Urma. Even though they are quite close in style, each of them has a different meaning and insipres me different feelings.

I like Chilian for the spiritual and witty lyrics, together with the nice sound, I like Urma for the profound lyrics and for Byron’s voice and I like Tapinarii for their unique approach, sometimes funny lyrics and the “get-away-from-it-all” feeling I get while listening to their music and imagining the empty (as in October – empty) beach in VV. And I also like them for both (Covei and Tanase) pretending to be some genies, just like myself :).

Tapinarii released 5 albums so far, out of which my personal favourite is the fourth one, “Ultimul Super Erou“. Still, as the title of this post says, I think it is best to listen to them live….which reminds me I gave the awful habit of always forgetting / not finding out in time about their concerts.

The last Tapinarii concert has been today (14.03) and I only found out at 23:00, when it was too late…Next one – in Bucharest – is on 1st of April in Yellow Pub. Hopefully, you can find me there. You can find out more about concert dates and info on the band on www.tapinarii.tk. A very interactive site, as it is a 100% forum :)

In the end, I though a lot if puttin up a song for download or not….eventually, here it is. Still, before you download, I strongly (and I mean STRONGLY) suggest you buy the original copy of the album(s). For two reasons: 1) sounds better on CD quality and 2) Maybe 15 EUR spent on a Shakira album won’t make her significantly richer, but 5 EUR on a Tapinarii might mean something to them, at least moral support, for sure !

Enjoy Tapinarii – Doi Bani.

I recently came across this band, called Kudu. Their style is quite hard to be defined (something between electro, pop, alternative and dance), but they sound so good that it needs no definition in the end.

All their albums have something to make you move and it is quite hard to stop listening them. Which proves that creating addiction can generate good sales :)

Today, 14 March, they are officially releasing a new album, called “Death of the Party“. Hopefully, I will get it soon, too, and share some of it. Speaking of which, as I’ve been “criticized” for too few songs available for download, here you are…

Kudu – Suite Life.

Enjoy !

Officially released one week ago, David Gilmour’s album we’ve all been waiting for (well, I have, since the beginning of the year) is now in stores … and in my headphones.

The sound is excelent, reminds me of Pink Floyd (I cannot forget the roots…), but it has something clearly distinctive. It inspires a state of peace of mind, just like being on an island. The album shows a calm, positive sound and inspires the state of a man who is happy, relaxed and peaceful with his life.

The album has been released on the same day David celebrated 60 years of age. What a nice gift to himself :) Even more, right after the release, the album jumped on 1st position in UK Charts and is already Gold in other European Countries as well.

The album features collaborations with a lot of performers, some of them ex-Pink Floyd (like Richard Wright, who will also join on tours). Still, no credits shown to Roger Waters….

My personal favourite track from this album is This Heaven, which you can get from here. Overall, the whole album is a wonderful listening experience, so I strongly suggest you buy it.

Final Note: Check David Gilmour’s blog for learning more about live experiences of this album.

[EDIT]: Download no longer available, for more info please contact us at admin @ musicblog . ro

Do you remember that TV series with the guy who received, every day, tommorow’s newspaper and was trying to save the bad things from hapenning ?

Well, this is what I felt like this morning when I say the news not only for tommorow, but until Thursday !

Here you are an excerpt. Let’s make the world better !