Music Reviews

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Symphonic, Gothic, Epic Rockers

Classified as Heavy Metal or Goth Metal, they Defy Classification

Rock music separates itself into broad categories to help fans find their way. One group forced the rock establishment to invent a new category: symphonic/gothic rock.

When listening to the rock group Nightwish, the most striking initial characteristic is the operatic quality of the lead, female vocals. Readers may react that women have been in the world of rock since its inception and that a few have been frontliners: Grace Slick of the Jefferson Airplane, Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart, and Pat Benatar come to mind.

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Muse The Resistance Review

British Alt-Rockers Release Follow Up to Black Holes and Revelations

On The Resistance, their fifth studio album, Muse have created a difficult collection of songs which may take casual listeners time to digest.

Casting off the Oasis and Radiohead comparisons that have plagued them for most of their career, the band’s dense follow up to 2006’s Black Holes and Revelations hangs off intense ideas of corruption, the end of the world and difficult love.
Releasing an album in 2009 is risky business; in a singles-dominated music scene, releasing an album with a theme threading through 11 songs is even more risky.

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Duke Ellington Starring in “The Evolution of Jazz”

Duke Ellington Starring in “The Evolution of Jazz”

Duke Ellington is considered to be one of the greatest figures in the history of American music. Edward Kennedy ‘Duke’ Ellington was born in Washington D.C. on April 29, 1899.
His parents were James Edward and Daisy Kennedy Ellington. They raised Duke as an only child, until his sister, Ruth, was born when Duke was sixteen years old.
Duke, even as a teenager had a great talent for music.

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Classical Music

Classical Music: A Rebirth in Barcelona

Few buildings are as exuberant as Barcelona’s 100-year-old Palau de la Música Catalana (palaumusica.org). The concert hall, designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner (a contemporary of Antoni Gaudí) and inaugurated in 1908, explodes with vibrant color and ornamentation. After a restoration and the addition of a chamber music hall, the Petit Palau, the building is newly resplendent. The intimate auditorium glows beneath a stained-glass skylight and inverted gold-and-glass dome.

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