Shuffled Playlist Random Thought:2-12-11

Well after long day of doing garage sale stuff I almost forgot to do one of these things. Lucky for you I remembered. I might not be so lucky if it lands on something embarassing. Let's see what we get after the jump.


Katatonia's Distrust from the Discouraged Ones album. This was the first album to feature clean vocals and it takes some getting used to. Jonas riske hadn't refined his clean vocals yet and the whole vibe of this album was kind of a Morrissey thing instead of metal. Lucky for us this band got way better. Here is the track in question.

Blessing has become a curse

I live in a town of 100,000 people smack in the middle between Sacramento and San Francisco. Normally that's a good thing because if a show is anywhere on either side and I have the cash I can go. In that I feel pretty fortunate. September is going to change all of that though. In the span of a week there is going to be three concerts I want to see and all of them are in San Francisco.

September 24th at Thee Parkside


Swallow the Sun is one of the opening acts. I've developed a fandom for this groups music as it is a fusion of Opeth and Katatonia. So to see them open for Katatonia who've I missed out on twice already would be fantastic.This show is why I'm ranting because I just found out about it.

September 26th at Slims


I'm not caring too much about Mutiny Within or the other bands but Nevermore is easily one of my favorite bands of recent years. I'm already committed to going to this show.

September 29th at Slims


I'm already committed to go to this show though I don't have tickets yet for reasons I'll get into. I love Leaves Eyes and Kamelots music so this is a must see.I just hope tickets are still available when I can get the cash together.

Why all of this sucks after the jump.

I'm currently under a Chapter 13 because like so many other home owners I was faced with foreclosure and had to do something to stay off the streets with a wife and two kids. So I have to budget my money every month which does not allow for much of anything else outside of the realm of necessities.
Not to mention three concerts in a week in San Francisco. I don't like driving in the city once much less going three times in the space of a week.On top of all of this is the rescheduled American carnage show with Testament, Slayer, and Megadeth on the 1st because the show I was to see at Cow Palace is on my son's birthday.I just don't have the money it would take to get tickets, gas money,BART money, and shirts and Cd's.
I think the crux of it is this. When the fuck is someone in America with the capital going to put on a festival like they do at Sonisphere or Wacken? I would gladly budget myself to go to one show with all of these bands together under one roof. And I'm not talking fucking Ozzfest or Mayhemfest either. I'm talking a festival that includes many of the European bands under it not the "core" or scene kid bullshit that we have out here.

It's just frustrating as hell and if I wasn't in such a financial bind it wouldn't be such a big deal.I'm just so tired of not being able to do the things I want to do. It's my fault for liking so many bands I guess. Word of advice....get all of this stuff out of your system before you get married and have kids. Because once you do your priorities will change exponentially. The realization that you have to grow up sucks.

Brothers in Katatonia leave the band

So I was up late and caught this on my Facebook from Katatonia's page.

"Sad but true, today’s announcement will be heavy hearted for us to bring to you. We can hereby confirm that the brothers Fredrik ‘North’ Norrman and Mattias ‘Krypt’ Norrman have decided to step off the ride and leave Katatonia. We respect their decision and would like to take the opportunity to collectively thank them both for all the years gone by, all the up’s and down’s we shared out on the road, in the studio and basically the memories and moments we shared of our 20’s growing up together. Fredrik was with us for 15 years and Mattias for 10 years and we were lucky to have the same intact line-up going since 1999, but it’s true what they say – all good things come to an end.

Here’s the official statements from the Norrman brothers:

“This is definitely the hardest decision I’ve ever made. It’s absolutely grievous to say the words “quit katatonia”, even worse to make it happen. It’s been 15 really good years and I would like to thank the guys in the band and all people that I’ve meet on the road. I’ll now watch katatonia from your side…..”

- Fredrik ‘North’ Norrman

“It’s with great sadness I have decided to leave Katatonia after 10 fantastic years. This decision was probably the toughest I have ever made. The reason for this is many small factors that makes it hard for me to be away from home this forthcoming year. It’s going to be a lot of touring in the future so the time for this desicion had to be done now. And I will point out that there is no personal argue between us in the band, just that the time for touring isn’t right for me… This is not what I wanted, but family always comes in the first place. I would like to thank Jonas, Anders, Daniel, Fred and our crew for all those years together. It has truly been the best in my life. And a big thanx to all fans and all good friends I have made out there. You are the best and you will be missed… I really hope that one day when the time is right be able to continue the journey with the band. I wish all the best to you guys!! I’m really gonna miss the life on the road with you!”

- Mattias ‘Krypt’ Norrman

We also know that out of the ashes of a setback new possibilities open up. We’ve already found temporary replacements for the upcoming tours and this will not affect any of our agenda or plans for 2010. Currently filling in for Fredrik on guitar will be long time guitar tech and also guitarist of Bloodbath, mr. Per ‘Sodomizer’ Eriksson while we have Niklas ‘Nille’ Sandin filling Mattias shoes on bass until we decide how to move on with the replaceable positions on a permanent long term"

That has to really suck but I guess if they were going to leave now is the time before the tour starts. Time will tell how much of an impact this will have on future releases. I'm not sure how much of an influence these two had on the creative flow in the band though both were basically there during the transformation of Katatonia from the melodeath band it was to it's current incarnation.

On a selfish sidenote, I got the jump on Blabbermouth on this. Ha!.