8-Album Mind: Stress and Peace

Today's been just an incredibly frustrating and stressful day, and even though I'm going to bed soon, it still isn't over. I just learned that Green Tea, as calming as it's been to me, actually contains 1/3rd the caffeine in coffee. I had about a liter of the stuff... I feel like crap. Lot of other things tying into that, but never mind that.

Today's playlist:

Pantera - The Best of Pantera ♠♠♠♠
Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam ♠ SOLD
Pentagram - Day of Reckoning ♠♠♠
Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer ♠♠♠♠
Pig Destroyer - Phantom Limb ♠♠♠
Pennywise - Land of the Free? ♠♠♠♠
A Perfect Circle - Mer De Noms ♠♠♠♠

Pantera's "Best of" basically was why I decided to buy the rest of the Pantera discography, largely because the "Reinventing the Steel" material was so kick-ass! Not much to say... I've had it since it came out and I still haven't seem the damn DVD!

Pearl Jam's self-titled last album was disappointing. I bought it when it came out in 2006, and it's something I've only listened to a few times. I kept it because it sounded like nothing else I owned and I liked it... and now I'm selling it because I realized that, as cohesive as it is, it isn't anything great. "World Wide Suicide" is the only redeeming track on this disc.

Pentagram... man, along with that Pearl Jam disc, I barely listened to this one! I gave it a spin today... won't say I was overly impressed, but yes, it was todays surprise album. The doom-laden guitars that raise a goblet to Black Sabbath actually won me today.

Meanwhile, the death-grindmetal antics of southern metallers Pig Destroyer gave me a double-shot of entertainment. From "Terrifyer's" pure-fucking-grindcore bombardment through 21 tracks, to "Phantom Limbs" more thrash-metal leaning tracks, Pig Destoryer simply kicks ass!!! Checking out Pennywise's "Land of the Free?" finally had that album click; it was recorded and released the summer before 9/11 and it seems that a few bands (like GWAR's "Violence has Arrived" and Powerman 5000 "Anyone for Doomsday?") somehow was able to tune into the mindset of the evil ones who would hurt America.

Finally, my guilty pleasure, A Perfect Circle's "Med De Noms", or "Sea of Names". Most tracks were based on people that James knew, and the standouts are "Rose", Judith" (Ironically, the name of my grandmother and mother, respectively), "Magedlina", and "Thinking of You". Great band, check them out!

That's it for today. Look for more postings and rants tomorrow. Also, the reason I picked the Pearl Jam pick? Check out Eddie Vader wearing a Plasmatics shirt! KICK ASS!!!!