Music

If there's anything that has dominated my free time this summer, it has indeed been music. I just got my new pair of proper Sennheiser HD201 headphones (as opposed to earphones) to enable me to enjoy it all that much more.
I must say that my musical taste as diversified quite a lot since the New Year, so I now feel inclined to share some of my new found happiness with you all!
Not so much happiness in some cases, particularly this first one:

Warning: Watching from a distance (Doom Metal) I'm not entirely why I like this album, it has a lot of slower riffage, clear melodic vocals, and a rather depressing atmosphere; but it is very powerful and moving. See what you think. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=774GvRN2yKk

Alcest: Souvenirs d'autre monde (Black metal/shoegaze) Now this, I really love, its a french band spearheaded by Neige a famous black metal vocalist, whose other exploits (Lantlos/amesouers) I have also enjoyed. This type of music I've been delving into for a while now since a friend introduced me to this band, its a mixture of fast lo-fi black metal and melodic spiraling guitar passages; with vocals showing just as much diversity from tormenting black metal vocals to ethereal singing. I really do find it hard to describe this band, but as usual, you'll have to be the judge. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4t1XqYgukd4

Agalloch: The Mantle/ Ashes against the grain (Folk/Black/Doom metal)
Agalloch are a band I discovered while pursuing my newly found interest in metal-gaze type music (Alcest and the likes). They play a nice mix of folk and doom metal with the occasional sprinkling of black metal. They tend to use long (sometimes acoustic) musical interludes and sparse vocals, which are mostly either a rather haunting style of singing or an evil sounding growl. I really enjoy the vast sound-scapes and atmosphere they create with their music.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCAsN09ZAzE

凛として時雨 (Rin toshite Shigure) (Cold rain it could be translated as)：just A moment (J-indie/rock/punk)
Now this is a very interesting album, its not your usual J-indie rock affair in the vein of AKFG and the likes. I really like the interplay of the male and female vocals here and the musicianship. The music itself is astounding I find, i'd say its a mix of Post-rock sounding rhythms to metal and standard rock riffs. The vocals however, are the most interesting part, they seem to be deliberately sung outside of the normal vocal comfort range; its hard to describe, but you'll see what I mean if you listen to them. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rwzsfLeieo0

On the subject of music, i'll be getting up especially early tomorrow morning (edit: this morning) because THE NEW IRON MAIDEN ALBUM IS OUT!!! From what I hear, its amazing, I can't wait to hear it. Well, good night from me, if I can sleep that is.