Malignant Narcissist

My 2 pennyworth re: Discovery and Strange New Worlds for what it's worth.... Both good but I think Sonequa Martin-Green's acting is a bit one-dimensional at times. Delivers the lines almost in the same way for every scene. Liked how the season 4 plot panned out - a bit Arrival-esque. Loved Strange New Worlds. I also wish the Kirk actor could have been a bit more Shatner in tone too but the mirror 'Balance of Terror' episode was good fun. I find it funny how the Gorn are now represented as an 'Alien'-mesomorph nightmare type baddy contrasting with the 'man in a suit' representation in the original series which Shatner had a bit of a fist-fight with. I always thought species 8472 from Voyager was going to be the ultimate lizard-type alien-thingy but they're presenting the Gorn now as a formidable foe. Obviously the Federation gets much stronger by the time it meets the Borg and 8472 etc so maybe the Gorn are trivial at that point in time.

Superconductor is a bit of a marmite song - people either like it/don't mind it or hate it vociferously. I like it (and don't mind the RHine voice part) but I think it kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, stylistically, against the rest of Presto in my opinion. It might be noticed more so annoys those who don't like it and gets a bigger beating than it otherwise would. Just a theory.

Hats off to your superior Scorps knowledge!! Just read about it on Wiki P. Seemed like a bit of a awkward situation as they got rid of Mathias J and then got him back '..after intense negotiations...' Hmmm I heard an interview with Michael Schenks saying he wasn't too enamored with his brother (paraphrased) so maybe something kicked off between them during that session. Maybe akin to the Oasis-Gallagher brothers' relationship! I still feel like Lovedrive onwards is 'Jabs' territory but that's just my preference.

Afterimage BU2B

Queensryche - The Warning

Could one say Uli Jon Roth-era and Mathias Jabs era to distinguish them? However, Michael Schenker is on the 1st album which puts a fly in the ointment of my very loose distinction between eras. IMO they were graced by 3 exceptional lead guitarists although I've not listened to the 1st album to know if Micheal had reached his UFO-level yet.

Thanks for this - I'm intrigued. Will investigate further.

Cheers for pointing out this new band. Will check them out.

Opeth - Still Life Porcupine Tree - In Absentia

Breakfast. Just an Oat bar filled with cocoa and hazelnut. And Coffee.

To be honest, I've only heard a few tracks off magazine CD-freebies. I seem to have amassed 4 or so of their songs over the years on these CDs and they're all pretty good. Any suggestions which album(s) to start with?

Did a lazy dump of main bands I remember and (still) listen to. Probably top 10 at the top in bold. Touch on a few different 'metal' areas IMO :- King's X Soundgarden Savatage Opeth Masters of Reality Black Sabbath Metallica AC/DC Voivod Dream Theater Megadeth Saxon Exodus Dokken Rammstein Annhilator Sacred Reich Nuclear Assault Iron Maiden Mastodon Monster Magnet Alice in Chains Kyuss Helmet Tool Gojira Amplifier Monster Magnet Anthrax Sword (Canadian band from 80s) Black n Blue Cinderella Love/Hate Orange Goblin Stabbing Westward Iron Maiden Accept (esp for Princess of the Dawn – forget the later albums!) Extreme Disturbed Blind Guardian Dio Last Crack (if considered metal:- Scorpions Rainbow Def Leppard Van Halen) plus many others still trying to listen to like Trivium, Killswitch Engage, Hakken, Overkill, ....

Cue Bad News (see Ade Edmondson) arguments about whether their music is Heavy Metal or not!! (And yes Goose, I think you were subtlely correcting me - the album IS obviously Fair Warning and not Mean Streets! I'd argue the 1st and Mean..[Gawd, nearly did it again!!], Fair Warning are their (most) metal albums!)

AC/DC Powerage

Cheating like others have:- Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine or Epicloud Sword - Sweet Dreams AC/DC - Powerage or Highway to Hell or Let there Be Rock or Back in Black Iron Maiden - Killers King's X - Dogman or Out of the Silent Plaent or Tapehead Black Sabbath - Mob Rules or Heaven or Hell or Paranoid or Vol 4 Masters of Reality - The Blue Garden Soundgarden - Superunknown or Louder than love Queensryche- Operation: Mindcrime Savatage - Gutter Ballet and to rotate in and out at various points:- Scorpions - Blackout Opeth - BlackWater Park or Deliverance Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley Rush - 2112? Saxon - Wheels of Steel or Power and the Glory Van Halen - 1 or Mean Streets Metallica - Ride the Lightning Warriour soul - Last Decade Dead Century or Salutations from the Ghetto nation Black n Blue - nasty nasty Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy (prob more that I can't think of at the moment...)

Regarding Gavin Harrison and a slight side note, apparently Neil P and he got together sometime for a meal and friendly chat - not sure how it came about or whether they'd just met via drumming circles - but there was some discussion about a 'drum battle'/concert that Gavin and Neil were invited to in order to 'compete' against each other. It was mentioned by Gavin in a 'tube discussion forum about prog music that Gavin was on. He said that Neil had politely declined taking part in it feeling that he would be 'too anxious' to do something like that. Maybe he was scared of Gavin's chops! NB:- I've no idea how to rank and compare drummers. I'm getting to know the names of drummers who have good reputations like Neil and Gavin but wouldn't know how you compare them.

Thanks for this info. I'm seriously considering going to the London one now.

And Ben Harper - lost track of his output after Diamonds on the Inside and desperately trying to catch up with it.

Opeth - still catching up with their recent 'prog' phase but I still can't fault Mikael's band's output. The Blue Aeroplanes - an 80s UK alternative/indie/rock-ish band with crazy Polish dancer at their gigs (see Motorhead without the big breasts and nudity!). Singer mostly talks his lyrics in a poetry style. Kind of a UK non-rap spoken style. Or something. The Tea Party - Canadian power trio. Reformed in the last few years after a hiatus. Powerful modern metal Led Zep-ish style with Middle Eastern influxes up to the max on some songs. Kerrang magazine reviewed their 'The Edges of Twilight' '95 album as '..the equivalent of a good hard shag!...' and who am I to disagree!

Afterimage Then you learn the lesson That it's tough to be so cool

The Shape of Water - good but didn't love it. Certainly well acted and looked good (but gloomy). The Void (2016 Canadian Horror film - Bit silly Lovecraftian-type film and I love Lovecraft but not necessarily this film!) The Batman (2022) - liked it but not sure if it's better or worse than Nolan/Bale-era. Bit more realistic and down to earth I guess whereas Nolan/Bale ended up being a gritty/realistic version of the typical camp mythos.

Fun listen. Geddy got a lot of plaudits over the years for his bass playing but Billy Sheehan must be up there as one of the best rock bassists too.

Entre nous You can drive those wheels to the end of the road You will still find the past right behind you

I'll raise Treeduck with this:- https://youtu.be/0jgrCKhxE1s On a more sensible note, Red Barchetta's is a nice arpeggio pattern in the main verse with a few different techniques going on elsewhere without being too onerous - harmonics, barre chords, solo (if you want). Others I've played a bit that are fun and within an intermediate level - Passage to Bangkok, Driven, Something for Nothing. A few other random ones:- Van Halen's Ain't talkin bout love (an easy-ish and impressive VH one i.e. no tapping and limited harmonics) Manic Street Preachers - A design for life Ben Harper - Please Bleed (or many of his acoustic based songs) Iron Maiden - Prodigal Son (atypical for Maiden) King's X - Summerland And bonus points if you can get up to speed on Motorhead's Iron fist!! The notes aren't had to get but to get up to the right speed is proving tricky for me. Or any other Maiden song with the typical (Steve Harris?) chug - see The Trooper, Powerslave etc. I just can't get the speed going...

Thanks for the that. I love T&L - Lizzy at the heaviest I'm guessing especially Cold Sweat. I actually have Chinatown on LP somewhere but being in that format, it won't get played for a long time. Started listening to Johnny the Fox on some streaming service a while back and was enjoying it - must resume....