Music

The Past

During my childhood I went through various phases of musical “taste”, mainly music from the 60’s including The Kinks, The Beatles and others. With 15 years I developed a fondness for bands like The Mission and The Sisters of Mercy.

At the age of 16-18 I slowly drifted into various Metal subgenres with Gothic, Classical, Medieval or Folk influences. Today I am quite open-minded about most music genres, with few exceptions (e.g. stuff from “Musikantenstadl”).

The Present

The three albums which I find most inspiring are concept albums:

Melkor/Morgoth, Feanor, Fingolfin, Beren and Lúthien, and other characters from the Silmarillion come back to life in BG’s majestic masterpiece. I will never forget the goosebumps and shivers when I first listened to this excellent “soundtrack” album.

A man works in the arms industry, takes a look behind the scenes, gets fired, is kept under surveillance, meets a mysterious woman online, and starts fighting for his own freedom while he discovers the slavery of mankind in the New World Order. Progressive Metal with beautiful melodies. “I Believe” is a wonderful song.

Christmas Eve in the year 1994. Katrina, a Muslim girl, meets the young Serbian soldier Serdjan on the battlefield of Sarajevo. The album portrays the cruelty of war that brings profit to a few decision-makers at the expense of tragic human losses - even innocent civilians - and the suffering of survivors. “Christmas Eve (Sarajevo 12/24)” is one of my favourites: terribly beautiful.

As for inspiring songs: Whenever I listen to “Brothers in Arms” from the Dire Straits, tears are welling in my eyes.

Further Recommendations

Some bands which I would like to introduce to you:

Beautiful music. Even after hours of listening I am still fascinated by her angelic voice and the harmonious traditional/folklore arrangements. My favourite song is “Lullaby” from one of her earliest albums.

I only possess one of their albums (if there are more), entitled “The Moors”. A very inspiring combination of ambient, folkloric, traditional and acoustic sounds.

Unfortunately the opera-voice singer Tarja has been kicked out of the band in Autumn 2005. Their five albums however will always be among my favourites. I highly recommend their amazing “Ghost Love Score”.

An extraordinarily friendly Folk-Rock band from Germany. Intelligent lyrics and adorable music pieces. After their great performances they always enjoy speaking to the fans. If you can see them live, don’t think twice!

The folk-metal music sounds a bit rough to my ears, but I think you might find Martin Walkyier’s lyrics and word-plays very inspiring. - What are you waiting for? Go ahead and read them now! :-)

Other bands I like: Alanis Morissette, Corvus Corax, Dargaard, Enya, Estampie, Falkenbach, Garmarna, The Gathering, In Extremo, Opeth, Rhapsody, Russkaja, Subway To Sally, Theatre of Tragedy, Therion, Tori Amos, Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Tristania, Type 0 Negative, Tyr, Vintersorg, Within Temptation, …

Reviews & Interviews

During the years 2001-2005, I wrote a few concert & CD reviews and made interviews with musicians, first at the “Mind Over Matter 2001″ festival and then for the internet music magazine DarkScene. I took up writing again in Spring 2008. Here are some links to my stuff (in German):

- Interview with Sentenced (2002)
- Interview with Lacuna Coil (2002)
- Interview with Darkwell (2003)
- Interview with Hammerfall (2003)
- Interview with Schandmaul (2003)
- Interview with Within Temptation (2003)
- Interview with Schandmaul (2004)
- Interview with Schandmaul (2008)
- Interview with In Extremo (2008)
- Interview with Tyr (2008)

- Live-Review: Schandmaul (2008, Orpheum Graz)
- Live-Review: Tarja (2008, Orpheum Graz)

- CD-Review: In Extremo - “Sängerkrieg”
- CD-Review: Stormlord - “Mare Nostrum”