Music I Liked – Allman Brothers, Amorphis, and Red Fang

Last week I liked listening to the music of the Allman Brothers (new and old), some old Red Fang, and the new album from Amorphis, Queen of Time. It looks like last week was all about the classic rock.

Allman Brothers

Last week the weather turned summery, and to me, nothing says summer like the Allman Brothers and a bottle of Corona. Well, I couldn’t have a Corona last week (there were none in the fridge, and I’m supposed to be on a diet anyway). But I could listen to the Allman Brothers. I saw the Allman Brothers play a stadium concert when I was in high school, back when music meant physical media. Later, when I went digging through the used bins at the record store, I stumbled on the double album Eat A Peach. It was one of the few vinyl records I ever owned, and I continued to listen to it on other formats even after everything went digital.

Last week, when I was looking for Eat a Peach on Google Play, I stumbled on much newer material (though still quite old): Shades of Two Worlds. It came out in 1991. That might even be the album the band was touring on when I saw them. So I gave it a listen. It was still the Allman Brothers, all summertime groove and jam and quite satisfying.

But to me, nothing will ever replace the Mountain Jam. No matter where your head is when you start it, by the end of the jam you will know that all you need in life is sunshine, fresh air, and maybe a cold beer. Everything else is extra.

Amorphis

In the book Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas, Tom Robbins often repeats the line, “Everyone’s got a sob story.” In the heavy metal world, it’s usually a happy ending version of Orpheus and Eurydice, where the teller is Eurydice and Orpheus is a favorite heavy metal band. I think the sob stories are as common and boring as Robbins does, so suffice to say that my Orpheus is Amorphis. Plus, Joutsen’s voice is like a tongue in soft places. No matter what they come up with they will always have a special place in my heart. Even if Google Play does label their new album “classic rock” instead of “heavy metal.”

I haven’t had a chance to give it repeated careful listens yet, but my impression so far of Queen of Time is that they continue to hew to the formula that has worked so well for them since Silent Waters. You’ve got Joutsen’s alternating clean and growled vocals and keyboard fantasies overlaying classic chunky guitar riffs. It’s all seasoned with dashes of soprano, sax, or cross-genre guitar melodies. But I felt like they captured more of the feeling of epic storytelling than in other, more obviously concept albums. I mean “epic” in the traditional, rather than the metal, sense. As in, listening to Queen of Time, felt like reading Kalevala or the Eddas. For that reason, more than any more objective judgement about quality, I suspect I’ll be listening to this album more than Red Cloud or Circle.

Red Fang

Red Fang was one of the first bands I saw live when I started getting back into loud music post-kids. Their classic NW sound was like a homecoming. As I delved deeper into more extreme genres, they kind of dropped off my radar. But last week I was updating some old posts here on the blog, and stumbled on a link to one of their videos. And that reminded me that these guys make truly excellent music videos. I have never watched one without laughing out loud. I listened to their old self-titled album a bunch last week after that.

It’s hard to pick just one video to embed here. Here’s the most recent one, off the album Only Ghosts:

Oh what the hell. Here’s the one with the LARPers, too.