My Top 20 Albums of 2016 + supplemental lists

2016-year-end

Introduction

Oh, I definitely know I’m late. Believe me when I say that I have no wish to belabor the foul memory of 2016 any further than is absolutely necessary. Truly, it was a vile year, brimming with breathtaking, heartbreaking upheaval on both a political and societal level, and a cavalcade, practically a mocking, extended holiday parade, of unfortunate mortal departures from the worlds of art and film and music, such that I’d never before quite experienced in my own four+ decades on this rock. Eventually, of course, you grow old enough that your heroes die. It’s as incontrovertible as the sunrise. 2016, then, was the year that stated that truism for the record unequivocally, then restated it, reinforced it, and underlined it like an unbalanced grade school teacher a thousand times in neon ink. Continue reading “My Top 20 Albums of 2016 + supplemental lists”

Concert review: Dark Tranquillity

Dark Tranquillity

also appearing:  Omnium Gatherum, Exmortus                                                                              Skully’s Music Diner, Columbus, Ohio – February 11, 2014

Columbus, Ohio is a pretty great town for concertgoing. I’m living, breathing, blabbering proof of it. There is ample opportunity here for both culture and comfort food of all kinds, and a veritable legion of concert venues of varying class, charm and capacity in which to make it all happen. For all the Katy Perry and Michael Buble invasions we periodically endure, the town also has a wonderful, fully independent radio station, CD102.5, that sees its mission, at least in part, to import as many indie rock and alternative bands as possible and put them in front of enthusiastic, relatively adventurous and discerning potential new fans, occasionally at a discounted price. Columbus also has a surprisingly consistent, if not by universal acclaim vibrant, underground metal scene. Continue reading “Concert review: Dark Tranquillity”