Live music and touring have been on lockdown and fans as well as artists are going through withdrawals. We wanted to come up with something fun to help bridge that distance between fans and artists right now. What we came up with is something called The Lockdown Lowdown and it’s a Q&A session with fun questions for artists to answer. They’re not your typical interview questions, so it gives you a peek inside of the artists themselves. We’re big music nerds here at I’m Music Magazine and we love learning things like this about the artists that we love. We’re pretty sure that you’ll get a kick out of these, so we hope you’ll take the time to read them. In this installment, we sat down to learn about five albums that changed the life of Tommy Mastermind, guitarist for Genus Ordinis Dei.
5 Albums that changed your life:
First of all I have to say that it’s extremely hard to choose only 5 albums, it’s not the first time I do this and every time is a challenge (and I enjoy it so much :))
Let’s make a standing:
1- Nightfall In Middle-Earth (Blind Guardian)
2- Epica/The Black Halo (Kamelot)
3- Brave New World (Iron Maiden)
4- Kings Of Metal (Manowar)
5- Wish You Were Here (Pink Floyd)
Starting from the bottom, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here is a piece of art in each of its parts, from the artwork (WTF?) to the opening (and also ending) song. I don’t know how many times i’ve put this album in my ears, especially during the high school period. So many things come to my mind listening to these songs, and I usually like to play it from the beginning to the end. It’s a journey and I still walk it . I love so much Pink Floyd in general but this one is something special to me.
Kings Of Metal by THE KINGS OF METAL! Well this album is unbelievable, each song is a masterpiece, it has a solemn atmosphere, an unbelievable sound and its created by Manowar at their best: a legendary band at the climax of their artistic and professional path. You can find power in Wheels Of Fire, you can cry with Heart Of Steel and admire greatness of an ancient world in The Crown And The Ring. This will remain forever written in the granite. To me it’s not necessary to play it from the beginning to the end, every song is powerful enough to make my day. We recently made a cover of Hail And Kill, a tribute to this monumental album. This is the perfect description of what Heavy Metal is to me.
Brave New World caught me since the first riff of The Wicker Man. Iron Maiden is my favorite band and this album marks the beginning of a new era for them. That’s how 3 guitars should be used! The sound is clean and powerful and each song is a masterpiece, I played it 10000 times and I still do. Brave New World and Ghost Of The Navigator are Iron Maiden’s best songs ever; I know this can shock so much people, I can hear them scream “What about The Number Of The Beast?! You crazy idiot!” or “Killers’ Maiden are the real Iron Maiden” etc… Well this is their masterpiece to me (I love all of their discography tho) and no one can take it away from me! 🙂
The Black Halo should be considered as one with Epica cause it’s actually the 2nd part of a concept based on Goethe’s Faust so I’ll consider them as one album. It’s true poetry, I can’t even describe it properly. When I have time I love to sit outside and enjoy the entire concept. Roy Khan is my favorite singer and this masterpiece shows all of his greatness. Elegance is everywhere, in the arrangements, in the melodies, in the vocals and the lyrics, nothing is redundant, nothing is “side B”, all is perfect and it creates an epic, dark and melancholic atmosphere. Also the environmental tracks are amazing. It also hosts great guests and it’s produced by the great Sacha Paeth and Michael Rodenberg, what could go wrong? The entire opera is something that can’t be repeated and if you like music in general you must give it a shot at least once in a lifetime. I’m a bit sad that now Kamelot is not that band anymore, their best years are gone and they can’t create such an atmosphere with their music, they lost what made me fall in love with ‘em. I still respect and follow them and their legend still remains in my heart and in the history of Heavy Metal.
Nightfall In Middle-Earth. I’m a real Tolkien fan, I’ve read all his (son’s?) books and I still do, periodically. That said, Blind Guardian simply turned into music the best story ever told and they did it in the best way possible. This album is an absolute masterpiece and it’s my favorite piece of music in general, period. I listen to it in a religious way, not simply to pass my spare time and I only play it from the beginning to the end. I started listening to it in the high school period and I remember that sometimes I looped it for hours, each day for almost a week. It’s all about the atmosphere, it can bring you to Beleriand, for real. We’re completing our new album and this time we could finally make one that is really inspired by NIM-E. I love concept albums (this should be clear at this point) and this is THE concept album. Thank You Blind Guardian 🙂
Also, how are you spending your time during the pandemic?
Fortunately, during Covid-19 quarantine we had a lot of work to do as we launched our crowdfunding campaign of Glare Of Deliverance, ending in June 20th. We couldn’t meet but we worked on the campaign in remote and now that everything seems slowly turning back to normal we’re starting to shoot the videos of the First Metal Music Series and we’re so excited! It’s been a crazy period for everyone and we’ve been lucky to pass it without serious consequences. The same can’t be said for others and it’s a sad truth. Someone is still fighting and nobody knows when this will be actually over but we have to be positive and think about our dreams and that’s exactly what we’re doing.
Download/stream Glare of Deliverance (Release Dec 4, 2020)
View full video series on their YouTube channel.
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