A Chronological History of my Music Library

Two days after my last release a new band joins my library when 40 Below Summer released their debut album "Side Show Freaks" on July 15, 1999. But who are 40 Below Summer? They are a four-piece nu-metal band from New Jersey consisting of lead singer Max Illidge, guitarist Joey D'Amico, bassist Jordan Plingos and drummer Carlos Aguilar. 40 Below Summer follow the nu-metal blueprint pretty closely with lots of fast, almost rapping vocals and of course some nice heavy music. Let's see what 40 Below Summer is all about! The album kicks off with "Suck It Up" and they dive right into a catchy main riff with some pretty cool guitar. Illidge comes in to sing the verse and he sings in a decent low voice and at times raises things to a nice high scream. His range is pretty wide as he is all over the place, holding notes in interesting ways kind of similar to Korn's Jonathan Davis. The chorus is not as heavy and is still alright but nothing special, but the rest o

A week after my last release a (kind of) new artist joins my library when Derek Sherinian released his first solo album "Planet X" on July 13, 1999. Derek Sherinian, as we know, is a pretty talented keyboardist (from Laguna Beach, California) who was on Dream Theater's last album and EP, but he ended up leaving Dream Theater and this is his first solo album. Joining Derek Sherinian on this album is drummer and co-song writer Virgil Donati, guitarist Brett Garsed and bassist Tony Franklin. With no vocalist Sherinian leads an instrumental version of the same style of progressive metal that Dream Theater plays. Let's see what solo Sherinian is all about! The album begins with a trilogy that totals nearly seventeen minutes, starting with the seven minute "Atlantis: Part 1. Apocalypse 1470 B.C." and they dive right into the first riff with Derek playing some very loud and interesting synths while the rest of the band provides a solid backing riff. Throughout this

Two days after my last release and nearly 30 years since his last appearance in my library, Jimi Hendrix released a posthumous live album "Live At Woodstock" on July 6, 1999. As the name suggests this album has most of Hendrix's performance from the legendary Woodstock festival, but I only have one song, Jimi's iconic version of the American national anthem, "Star Spangled Banner". I'm not a big fan of the American Anthem normally but being instrumental definitely makes it better and Hendrix putting his psychedelic and awesome twist on it definitely makes it a worthwhile listen. He takes a couple extended breaks from the anthem to just go nuts and things sound pretty crazy! This is the last we'll hear from Jimi in my library and this was a fun way to remind us of his greatness. So long Jimi Hendrix!

Six days after my last release a new band joins my library when Underoath released their debut album "Act Of Depression" on July 4, 1999. But who are Underoath? They are a four-piece Christian death metal (yup that's right) band from Tampa, Florida consisting of lead singer Dallas Taylor, guitarist Corey Steger, bassist Octavio Fernandez and drummer and clean vocalist Aaron Gillespie. Underoath's lyrics are pretty religious and praise-heavy, but you can't make them out a lot of the time anyway and they play a very heavy and pretty progressive style of metal with no song shorter than 5:50. Let's see what Underoath is all about! The album begins with it's shortest song "Heart Of Stone" and after a very creepy laugh opens things they kick into a nice heavy main riff with some chugging guitars and Taylor screams in his high voice overtop and he sounds pretty heavy holding some nice long screams. He gives us a taste of a nice low growl as well, but mo

A day after my last release a new band joins my library when Slipknot released their debut album "Slipknot" on June 29, 1999. But who is Slipknot? They are a nine-piece (yes nine!) nu metal band from Des Moines, Iowa and on this album each member was only referred to as a number originally. There's #0, Sid Wilson (turntables), #1, Joey Jordison (drums), #2, Paul Gray (bass), #3, Chris Fehn (percussion), #4, Josh Brainard (guitar), #5, Craig Jones (samples, keyboards), #6, Shawn "Clown" Crahan (percussion), #7, Mick Thomson (guitar) and #8, Corey Taylor (lead vocals). With nine members, including three drummers, Slipknot have a very loud and aggressive sound and they have a very distinct look as well as all members of the band wear creepy, horror-movie level masks! Nu metal was really taking off around this time, but no one else has the intensity and heaviness that these nine guys bring to every one of their songs. After almost the whole album was recorded, guita

A week after my last release and three years since his last album "Bad Hair Day", Weird Al Yankovic released his tenth album "Running With Scissors" on June 28, 1999. This is my first full album of Weird Al's as he parodies and pastiches lots of popular rock and hip-hop from the late 90s. There are five direct parodies and seven original songs that are mostly style parodies. Let's dive into my first full album by Weird Al! The album begins with it's lead single "The Saga Begins", which is a parody of Don McLean's 70s classic "American Pie", only the lyrics in this version are all about the plot of the movie Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace". The music is pretty spot-on to the original and the lyrics are unsurprisingly pretty funny, especially a chorus of "my, my this here Anakin guy, maybe Vader someday later now he's just a small fry". There's lots of great lyrics that put a funny spin on things: &qu