Bears and metal: what you read, what you expect, what you get.

It turns out that a lot of what I have to do at work is read about the machines that we use and look up articles in primary literature in order to determine whether the paths we wish to take with our research are viable.  This means that my eyes are occupied with reading, while my motor facilities and ability to feel sensations through my skin are occupied by typing notes.  This leaves olfaction (which affects taste), taste, and hearing free to do whatever they wish in the workplace environment.  Hot damn, it's multitasking time.

As such, it has been my (sometimes) pleasure to sample musical groups that have been recommended to me by sources such as friends, wikipedia, pandora, etc.  In addition, this is also a great time to rediscover bands that I already know are good, but perhaps have not explored to the extent that I should have.

Some recommendations!

For non-metal fans:
Images and Words by Dream Theater (Album) - the album that has received the best critical acclaim by the mainstream, also the only album of theirs that had an actual "hit" in ten studio albums (Pull Me Under).  If you like this album, then I highly recommend continuing to Metropolis pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory.  It is a concept album that picks up from Metropolis pt. 1: the Miracle and the Sleeper on Images and Words.

The Crooked Vultures (Band) - Josh Homme (from Kyuss) is frontman and guitarist.  Dave Grohl (from Nirvana and the Foo Fighters) drums.  John Paul Jones (from Led Zeppelin) plays bass and miscellaneous instruments.  They've got some fun songs.  How can you go wrong?  Warning: semi-hard rock.

Tl;dr: Images and Words by Dream Theater: Listen to it.
Them Crooked Vultures: Listen to them.

For metal fans:
Kyuss - borders the line between hard rock and stoner metal.  They get a nice thing going, though.  Fun to listen to, kind of groovy, not very loud.
Bal Sagoth - I especially recommend this one to Flask.  For black metal (black the metal style, nothing racial about this), they are surprisingly easy on the ears.  There is a lot of ham-fisted epicness to be found in their grandiose music and delivery of nerdy lyrics.  What can be better than album titles like Starfire Burning Upon the Ice-Veiled Throne of Ultima Thule or The Cthonic Chronicles?  Answer: song titles like Into the Silent Chambers of the Sapphirean Throne (Sagas from the Antediluvian Scrolls) and The Dark Liege of Chaos is Unleashed at the Ensorcelled Shrine of A'Zura Kai (The Splendour of a Thousand Swords Gleaming Beneath the Blazon of the Hyperborean Empire Part II).


Tl;dr: Kyuss - easy listening metal
Bal Sagoth - EPIC



Also, bears:

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