Wanted to write an article on photography, and an other one about my new Caanan figurine, but ended up doing an article on my top 105 bands instead.

I’m not originally a fan of doing such charts, because tastes change so often (2.5 years ago I listened nearly exclusively to metal), and because my lastfm account (old) give a fairly good insight on my listening tastes. This is why I decided to play around withlastfm API to know when a band first occurred in my stats. This is of course approximative, and offers some problems for bands I’ve listening since the day I opened my first account (12th June 2005), but this only occurs on two occasions,.

I’ve taken the liberty to link some youtube ids for each band, with a quick description and why I like them. Clicking on the band’s name links to their websites, so check them out if you feel like it!

1. Porcupine Tree

Porcupine Tree has been my all time favorite band for the past 2.5 years (since I stopped listening exclusively to metal), and even before was in my top 10. According to my last.fm charts, I listened to PT for the first me on July 20th 2006, which is coming up to four years. Over the albums, they offer different sounds, influences, and Steven Wilson (composer/singer/guitarist) has a gift for experimenting with music that is quite unique.

It’s hard to chose a favorite album, because all of them offer great and lesser great songs. “In Abstenia” and “Deadwing” are some of the albums I listen to the most (Deadwing is a real killer while driving on a nice summer day!), while “Up The Downstairs” offers some really interesting sounds. I’m not a huge fan of their latest album, “The Incident”, but I had the same feeling about “Fear of a Blank Planet” at first, but which I now adore. My fav songs are “Trains“, “Arriving somewhere but not here” and “Pure Narcotic“.

2. Anathema

According to my old last.fm profile, I’ve been listening to Anathema (UK) since the day I opened up the account (12th of June 2005, for those who have forgotten), which means I’ve effectively been listening to them since long before. When I first listened to “Judgment”, I was captivated by the melancholy Anathema’s music could deliver, along with Vincent’s vocals. When my mother died last year, I completely connected with the song “One Last Goodbye” which I listened to over a hundred times in a week.
The are today, along with Porcupine Tree and the next band, my biggest music inspiration while composing/improvising.

I’ve had the chance of seeing them live for their Hindsight tour, which was amazing. Also saw Dany perform a solo concert during which he played some of their greatest songs which was stunning. My fav songs are “Are you there” (the Hindsight version blew me away), “One Last Goodbye“, “Wings of God” and “Lost Control“.

3. God is an Astronaut

Don’t remember how I discovered this Irish band (but I posted an article about them), but probably through last.fm browsing which I did a lot in the day. My first scrobble dates back to the 8th of Feb 2009, which means it’s a fairly new band I’ve been listening to. GiaA (their short name) don’t have any singing in their songs, but as you listen to each album (5th is underway I think), you realise they don’t need any vocals. The music flows perfectly, and is very effective for working/concentrating. I have yet to see them live, but hopefully they are coming to Switzerland for their new album promotional tour!

My fav songs are Echoes, Suicide by Star and Sunrise in Aries.

4. Nightingale

First scrobbled this Swedish band back on the 29th of May 2008. I originally listened to this band after seeing that Dan Swano from Edge of Sanity was the mastermind behind it. From the start, the Progressive Metal, along with Dan’s voice seduced me. I started off with the album Nightfall Overture, to later listen to White Darkness, while only later listening to the older songs and seeing as how Dan progressed in his vocal skills. I listened to this band the most during my heavy Lineage2 playing sessions.

Some of my favorite songs include Losing Myself, Wounded Soul and The Dreamreader.

5. Sentenced

Have been listening to Sentenced since the 12th of June 2005, so this means I’ve been listening to it since before. This was one of my biggest musical inspirations during my metal composing days, and I still know most of “The Cold White Light” album by heart on guitar and vocals. Unfortunately they disbanded, so I’ll never get to see them live.

My fag songs included You Are the One, No One There, Neverlasting and Despair Ridden Hearts.

I was originally going to do my top 10, but I can’t decide on 10 bands to put in the list! Doing the top 5 was difficult enough. Might one day add Insomnium and Pink Floyd as 6th and 7th, but I’m too lazy right now

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