Go and live your passion

Every month I'm going to publish a simple top 10 albums personal list out of the albums which have been officially released in the respective month. Now with January in its very end, I present those albums which really have made impact on me personally and I have played them quite often over the past 30 days. Of course this could be much longer list, but I decided to keep it simpler. January kicked off the year with lots of great releases. I must admit that I still haven't had enough time to dedicate to lots of them, and I'll have to catch up in the upcoming weeks or months, along with the rest upcoming albums. There is too much music, and only one life... Some of these albums are definitely contenders in my 2018 AOY chart. Let's make the long story short. Here are my ten for January (and a bonus), in no particular order. Fantastic progressive death album by the Norwegian guys. Pure pleasure for me to listen to their new stuff. It's less angry but more mature...

Вчера Slayer обявиха прощално световно турне, след което спират с музиката. Rush също обявиха края на своята кариера. И докато за канадците беше ясно от години, то за Slayer си бе сякаш изненада. Въпреки смъртта на Ханеман, и сравнително по-слабите албуми след Seasons in the abyss, бандата значи много за всеки фен на тежката музика. Всъщност краят на Slayer и Rush е само един от поводите, които ме провокираха да напиша тези няколко реда. Другият - физическата смърт на многото  иконични поп- и рок-музиканти в рамките на последните няколко години. Няма да назовавам имена, всеки сам за себе си е открил липсата на един или друг творец. Изглежда, че цяло едно поколение от нас остава без своите идоли. Големите все още активни банди изглеждат уморени и дните им също са преброени. Любимата музика значително застарява, независимо, че през последните години преживява ренесанс. Всички ние сме преходни и за кратко тук. Вълнува ме темата за самата музика. Притеснява ме празнотата, която о...

A recent discussions with my peers from the metal brotherhood on Twitter made me write a series of  few posts. About the beginning and the love. Yes, I just want to nail down thoughts about love, personal taste and preferences. I'm going to write down my metal history. It could be boring for somebody, but for me it is so exciting and it means a lot. Simply because the times here were completely different compared to the normal countries and markets. I remember it was very early October 1989. I was 11 and I was in 5th grade at school when I asked a schoolmate for a favour. My schoolmate was wearing some boots and patches on his jacket, had black and white photos of some long-hair guys with him, and all the time was drawing fantastic band logos! His bigger brother was among the most metal guys in the whole school and I asked whether he could draw me some band's logos. I was so attracted to this stuff, that I really wanted it so badly. I had seen some of the logos drawn on wa...

Many things changed in the end of the 90s for the metal music. Electronic influences, mainly driven by the success of The Prodigy, collaboration between heavy metal artists and electronic music stars (Spawn OST or Matrix OST are the perfect examples), as well as predominant presence of Korn-style bands and the nu-metal rising just to enter into the new Millenium. Saying that, I witnessed that the decade 2000-2010 was the "weakest" in terms of great metal releases.  Many bands seemed to be discouraged by the nu-metal trends as well as the rising of metalcore. All this could be sensed somehow in the hybrid last years of the 90s. Still there were released some great records which stands in time 20 years later. I'm going to outline 20 personally favourite records, which turn 20 in 2018. These twenty records were the most important and/or played by me through all the 1998. Some left absolute classics and all-time favourites in the years after up to the present. By looking...

1988 is a very interesting year, especially after 1987 which has a fantastic harvest of releases. They are carrying that feeling or the following change in the heavy music, but still they have this so 80's spirit as well. Still nostalgic, mostly hard'n'heavy and thrashy, and yet already polished and refined, including some new elements and sounding. The death metal and the grunge still to come... In 2018 those '88 albums turn the awesome 30 years of age. As since many things are said in details, I'm not going to put any description. This is a simple list in which I suggest my personal 30, which stands in time. These albums have had major influence on me and played important role in my metal collection. And still they have and kick ass. My first '88 album recorded was Kings of metal by Manowar, in March 1990. It is still among the most beloved albums by all the fans of heavy music. For me it is a groundbreaking record. My favourite is ...And justice for all b...

I 'll try to outline and list down another 50 releases from the already gone 2017 besides my TOP 50 metal albums for 2017 and the missed out albums in the chart . The following suggestions are really nice-to-hear before drowning into 2018 releases. I paid attention to them in 2017 and mostly in December when I had to catch up mainly with the gems from the mines. Anyway for me December was very diverse - besides new stuff, I was listening a lot to 80s thrash, speed and heavy, as well as revisiting many bands from the past. And rediscovering them. A lot more new stuff left unheard in my archives. I'm going to catch up as much as possible through the beginning of 2018. Although, many new exciting releases are ahead of us, and 2018 is going to be another fantastic year for our beloved music.  The list below has no particular order or preference of the albums. Of course there is always a disclaimer - I might have missed out something again. Let me know what I had to include mo...