What music are you listening to?

Quote by Mendalla
I am sure it will delight Anna to know that I am currently watching a livestream of Eivor's performance at Hellfest 2024.

Not as much as if Anna was watching. 😂

A step back in time, now, though, to the 1980s. From one of the world's greatest guitarists, Mark Knopfler along with his band Dire Straits. This is Private Investigations.

Loved Dire Straits. "Sultans of Swing" hooked me from the first time I heard it. And Mark's done some interesting work on his own, too.

Baby Metal are an eclectic mix of J-pop (Japanese pop) and metal, fronted by three young women; lead singer Su-Metal, and dancers/backup vocalists Moametal and Momometal (there was also Yuimetal for a while). And while they are all the rage right now, currently hitting all the major European rock festivals, I've been a bit meh on them. Then this catchy teamup with German electronicore band Electric Callboy dropped. Yeah, I can't get this thing out of my head and it's joined my "Energize My day" playlist on Spotify.

Dutch singer Floor Jansen has some solo dates happening right now. Tonight she was at the Royal Park in Baarn and then she has a double header in Bloemendaal on Saturday. Fan vids from today are already up and she was in fine form. This is actually a song from Nightwish, the band that is her "day job", but I know it's one that is meaningful to her so it is the only NW song still in her solo sets.

And from her solo album Paragon.

I have been hearing the name "Orden Ogan" for a while but with their new album out today, decided to finally give them a listen. Good listenable German power metal. Not really exceptional in any way, but quite a good listen. This is the title track, which also happens to be the translation of the band's name ("Orden" is German for "Order", "Ogan" is an old Celtic word for "Fear").

Also out today is Pirates II : Armada from Visions of Atlantis. It's after Order of Fear on my listening list but here's the last single from earlier this week.

Going right back to the early days of Pink Floyd. Arnold Layne.

Some fairly dark, heavy Finnish metal

The perfect soundtrack for a creepy fantasy movie.

Labyrinth of Dreams by Nox Arcana

Beautiful ladies with beautiful voices are my poison and I'll happily admit it. And this video, which I saw the premier of, fills the bill handily. You have not one, but two, Dutch metal sirens here. The song is from Charlotte Wessels' upcoming third solo album and features Simone Simons, whose debut solo album is also coming this year. Wessels has a great band backing her for this new album, too.

Just chillin'

No Ordinary Love - Sade

Probably posted this when it came out but it's been close to a couple years and I just heard it this morning on my Spotify "Energize My Day" playlist. It's Avantasia, the ongoing project of German singer/guitarist Tobias Sammets, here featuring Floor Jansen joining Tobias on vocals.