Blog Archive for May 2025

Album Of The Day: Summer Of Darkness by Demon Hunter

Album Art of Demon Hunter's Summer Of Darkness album - On a black background, a white skull of what looks like an animal with large curved horns coming out of the top of each side of the head, the left one curving a bit lower than the right one. The skill is cut in half down the middle vertically, and has a large hole in the forehead area between the eyes. The skill is sitting on a pile of dark gray roses, so maybe it's a black-and-white photo.

Sometimes it's fun to listen to some screaming, yelling and heavy guitars. Released 21 years ago yesterday, this is the second album from long-time metal band Demon Hunter and is the first album of theirs I ever heard. For most of it, vocalist Ryan Clark is screaming about dark-sounding topics, but still doing it with some hope and purpose to the music. "Not Ready To Die" is a great album opener and "My Heartstrings Come Undone" finds Clark singing a bit more in a slower ballad. It's the Demon Hunter album I've listened to the most and I think my favorite album of theirs overall. It's certainly not the type of music I listen to very often, but their brand of metal is fun to listen to at full volume from time to time. Ryan Clark does Graphic Design with his brother Don Clark for many musical releases and other projects as his main job, though Demon Hunter is certainly a side job that keeps him busy. And I love their creative album artwork on all their albums.

Release Year: 2004
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: If You Say Go by Vineyard Music USA

Album Art of Vineyard USA's If You Say Go album - A photo taken from the level of just above the water, a person in jeans and a hoodie is shown walking on the top of the water of a lake. On the left, the far shore can be seen, and on the right, some grasses/reeds are poking out of the water. In the bottom left, a black bar that has the Vineyard Music logo and the words 'USA'. In the top right, it says 'if you say' in blue and 'go' in much bigger red below.

Vineyard Music was one of the pioneers of modern worship music; of recording live services and not using hymns, but instead writing new pop/rock songs of praise and worship to God for services. By the early 2000s, Vineyard Music was releasing a steady stream of albums, and many of them, especially from the UK churches, sold really well. But in February 2002, this recording was made in the midwest of America, at a Vineyard church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. This worship team wrote some new songs and used a few old Vineyard songs for a quality album of worship. Starting with The Violet Burning's "Invitacion Fountain" which is a great opener, the album goes on with beautiful songs like "If You Say Go" and "My One Desire". The musical style is maybe a bit more rock than some other Vineyard releases, and I like it. Sadly, streaming doesn't have the 9-minute closing track "My Everything" for some reason that my CD copy has, but it's still a solid album from Vineyard that I still listen to on occasion, like today.

Release Year: 2002
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: The Chess Hotel by The Elms

Album Art of The Elms's The Chess Hotel album - A mostly black cover with what looks like hand-penciled white corners on it. In the middle in gold-colored lettering is the band name and the album title below it in quotes and a smaller size. The black background is scuffed in parts like it's supposed to be some sort of worn table or something.

"Who puts rock 'n' roll in your blood?" Released on this day 19 years ago, this is the third album from midwestern rock band The Elms. Possibly inspired by The Black Keys, this album has a rougher, blues rock edge to it than their previous albums and Thom Daugherty's excellent guitar work defines the sound of this band. This album keeps the energy and passion up at a 10 throughout and the music and the lyrics work as a soundtrack to middle-class Americans in small towns across the midwest. A favorite track of mine is the epic "The Towers And The Trains" which rocks out for over 5½ minutes. This may be their best album overall, though the lyrical content is a bit dark in spots, and I'm totally looking forward to this fall's reunion concert. "We put rock 'n' roll in your blood!"

Release Year: 2006
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify
Buy the 4-LP set and/or final concert DVD from the band

A photo of a man smiling on the right in a white-gray T-shirt with a green design holding a black vinyl album with four colored circles on the cover in the middle, plus two copies of the CD, with the black cover described separately in the other image.

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Album Of The Day: The Ringing Bell by Derek Webb

Album Art of Derek Webb's The Ringing Bell album - A rough black-and-white sketch of two clean-shaven white men in black suits shaking hands. Above their handshake, the artist's name is scribbled in red. Below their handshake, the album title is scribbled as well in red.

Released on this day 18 years ago, this is the fourth solo album from Derek Webb, who also is a member of the folk/rock super-group Caedmon's Call. I like this because it's a short but fun rock album. Maybe I like Derek because he's a bit of a rebel, but I find it a bit fun and honest to question our politicians and our human leaders. But I'm also a sucker for some guitar and piano-based rock, and this album delivers that in spades. I loved seeing Derek and his wife at that time, Sandra McCracken, at my local live music venue shortly after this album came out on tour. It was like my tribe came to my town and put on a rock show just for me, though there were others there too.

Release Year: 2007
Listen on Apple Music
Listen on Spotify

Categories: 
Album Of The Day
Music

Pages

Browse the blog by category or date