ZimbabweDeLeon Here

Hey, this is ZimbabweDeLeon from YouTube. Figured I'd create this blog for music, since I don't have a limit to what I type, unlike YouTube.  Not expecting much activity over here, but just in case I suppose. This post is mostly me talking about myself. Sorry for the length, I didn't think I'd type this much :P


So I'll go by Zimbabwe de Leon. I don't particularly feel like putting my real name out there. And yes, the d in "de" is supposed to be lower case. Zimbabwe de Leon is a nickname that I came up with a few years ago, and I'm starting to use it online. If you aren't allowed to have spaces in the username, I put the d capitalized, so that it's easier to see that it's not a part of Zimbabwe. But if I can have spaces (or underscores), then it's lowercase. Call me Zimbabwe, Leon, Mr. Leon, de Leon, Zim, or Bab (pronounced Bob, since that's how you pronounce Zimbabwe) if you don't feel like typing out Zimbabwe de Leon.

Music is a major passion of mine, although it hasn't always been that way. When I was younger, I didn't listen to any music. Music my parents listened to while I was around doesn't count in my book. Before I knew any music terms, I'd joke that my parents listened to "The alternative to the alternative stuff". My logic being that Jingle-Bell Rock was the alternative to Jingle-Bells, that Jingle-Bell Rock played on the piano was the alternative to the alternative.

Growing up a little, I now know that what they mainly listen to is newage stuff. You know, the music with the birds chirping, wolves howling, orchestral arrangements. Anything soothing basically. I'm not really bashing the genre, it's just not my cup of tea. Now granted, if I actually took the time going through their collection, I could find some of the CD's (or even further back, cassette tapes) that I'd like. Oh the feeling of nostalgia. I may someday do that. Anyways, my parents would listen to the tracks so much, and on repeat, that I always knew how the next track would start off. Of course I never knew the track title, but that's alright. I remember that if it was a Saturday morning and if I heard this one CD from my bedroom, it meant we were going to have pancakes for breakfast, and if heard it any other time, I could just smell the pancakes.

But I never really cared much for their music taste, and figured I didn't like any music. I remember in middle school when asked to share something special about myself by the teacher, I'd say "I don't listen to music" and everyone would be shocked. I was in band class-
(I "played" the flute. A little more on that at the end if you care)
- so people would say
"But you're in band right? Doesn't that count?"
And I'd reply "No, I don't count it. It's like watching a soccer game on TV versus actually playing on the team. There's a difference. I also don't like watching sports, I'd rather play them"
I still think that. I'd rather play soccer than watch a game on TV. It just doesn't hold my attention.

It wasn't until Christmas of freshman year in high school that I asked for an iPod. I don't really remember the reason why I asked for one. It was probably because a lot of my friends had one, or some sort of mp3 player, and there were a few songs here and there that I liked, and thought it would be nice to have all in one place. I mean, sure I didn't listen to bands, but as most people on the Internet, you can't NOT watch some videos. I mean stuff like "Do You Like Waffles?" "BEER! by Psychostick". "Yeah Toast!"

So I 1st got a blue 8GB iPod Nano. Not sure of what type of music I liked, I just put on music my friends had liked. Bands like Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, System of a Down, Thousand Foot Krutch, Marilyn Manson, Disturbed, Linkin Park, Slayer, Green Day and Slipknot. Songs from games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Video game soundtracks. Various songs I heard off of YouTube.  Some J-Pop and other Asian music that my friends had liked. By the time I had gathered a bunch of stuff, I had somewhere around 350 songs. I would sit a listen to my iPod whenever I could, figuring what I liked and didn't like.

I would soon realize I would like Breaking Benjamin, Thousand Foot Krutch, Linkin Park, and System of a Down-
(I remember the 1st song I heard was "Psycho" and at the time, I hated it. It was on a webpage, on a Myspace-like site (Gaiaonline for those that care. Yeah, I was a Gaiafag.) and it would automatically play. Started off nice, then got too loud, for just casually reading posts. Just annoyed me. I then would later listen to "I-E-A-I-A-I-O" on my iPod, and just found it hilarious and awesome, and thus System became my favorite)
- but bands like Slayer, Slipknot, and Green Day I didn't care for (no particular grouping here other than that I didn't like them.)  I would then go to the iTunes store and find related music, or if I had a song by a band that was on Rock Band/Guitar Hero, I would get more of their stuff if I liked it. I knew that EVERYONE knew DragonForce, since they had the hardest song on Guitar Hero, and I didn't want to be that guy who "Oh yeah, DragonForce. I like "Through the Fire and Flames" and I can beat it on expert." So I got their 4 albums that were out. (A little rant about DragonForce at the end too.) Honestly,  at the time, I felt most of their stuff was for listening in the background. Awesome instrumentally, but I couldn't keep up with what they were singing about. Of course I loved songs like "Valley of the Damned" but as a whole, I wouldn't sit through an album while just listening to music.

And they were a start to my metal days. I liked DragonForce, and wanted more like them. I'd search and shift through bands on iTunes. I would discover bands like Kamelot, Power Quest, Nocturnal Rites, and Sonata Arctica. At that point, I knew that I had mostly liked metal (and rock too, but mostly metal.) I remember getting really into Sonata Arctica, liking "Wolf and Raven" "The End of this Chapter" and "Don't Say a Word" ("Don't Say a Word" is still my favorite.), but I was still looking for new music. This is when I stumbled upon Nightwish. Still being new-ish to music, I was surprised by female vocals in my music, in metal no less! (I now know that it isn't that uncommon, but that is now xD) So right there, Nightwish overshadowed Sonata Arctica. I was kinda just listening aimlessly through out their albums, when "Walking in the Air" came on. This song is from my childhood, for my parents and I used to watch The Snowman at least once a winter. That's when I really got into Nightwish, and the next amazing song I heard was "The Poet and the Pendulum" (Although for the longest time, I would skip the last 4 minutes because I thought it had a better ending at the 10 minute mark.) At this time, I was still new to Nightwish, so I had known nothing about the whole new vocalist and Tarja issue. I believe that is why I am alright with both old and new Nightwish. To me, they're still Nightwish, still making good music, but they have some amazing old pieces too. The only thing that would probably bother me, is if I heard Annette sing one of Tarja's songs. She does not have her voice. (I may or may not have a little rant about new versus old Nightwish in another post. I would have it at the end of this one, but I have too many things that I'm promising you guys at the end of this post.)

Around the same time, I met a kid a grade below me, who will later become on of best friends. We had very close tastes in music. He would spend a lot of time on YouTube checking out new bands, and play guitar. He'd give me lists of bands to check out and his iPod, which had soon became like mine, a 160GB iPod Classic (Overkill? Nah, it beats having to continue buying bigger iPods) and I would  put music on it for him. Because of this, a majority of the music was the same, although we do have a little bit of different tastes. I was mostly symphonic power metal and rock, while he was mostly power metal, folk and the extreme metals. He had really only been interest in metal, anything not metal, he didn't care much for. I on the other hand, would occasionally find stuff like the All American Nightmare album by Hinder. Of course there was some stuff he also liked, such as "Porn Star Dancing" by My Darkest Days.

I give this guy credit for helping me discover a lot of bands, and eventually bringing me to start liking some harsher vocals. I remember on one of his lists, which had been about 30 bands long, he put Keldian. I believe he found them in a compilation video of power metal guitar solos. But when I reached them in the list, I did what I did with all the others. I searched for them in Metal-Archives, saw they had 2 albums. I looked at both of them, and picked the one that had the more appealing album cover, their 2nd one Journey of Souls. I received the album, listened.

And wow, what an album it was. Blew me away right from the start. Vocals, instruments, lyrics. It was all there. Next day at school, I told him to listen to switch iPods for the next class, and check out "God of War" by Keldian, that the intro was really awesome, Hell, the entire song was awesome. Since I like electronica, of course I really loved the intro. after class was over I went to talk to him, and said that yeah, "God of War" was good, but he then listened to the album from the start, and that when he started "The Last Frontier" he was like "Now why didn't he tell me to listen to THIS? This is the good stuff right here!"  So he listened to the entire album that day, and we switched back iPods and went home.  After loving their 1st album so much, only disliking "The Devil in Me" (which later on would grow on me to a good song rating.) I had to get their debut album Heaven's Gate. Ironically, my friend not long after would tell me on Facebook "Hey, I looked up Keldian on Wikipedia, and they have another album. GET IT!" Which I had told him I was way ahead of him.

When I was about to listen to Keldian's 1st album, I was psyched, because their 2nd album was amazing. But I also didn't want to put my hopes up too high. I mean, it's their 1st album, so it'll probably won't be as good, and how can anything be as good as Journey of Souls? I kept telling myself that, so that I could either be pleasantly surprised if the album WAS good, or not too let down if it wasn't good. But I was just too excited, and pretty much expected amazing quality. Well, it WAS a good album. It was another AMAZING album. A ballad like "Redshift"? A rocking song like "Heaven's Gate"? I had liked all but "Plains of Forever" (which again, in time, I grew to like it. Love it. An amazing song. A little long, but amazing.) Keldian just blew me away twice. Both of their albums where near perfection. (As at the time I didn't like 2 of the songs.)

Keldian soured to be my favorite band, and to this day they still are. That is why I just had a 2 1/2  (and counting) paragraph tangent on them. I checked out their myspace constantly, to see if there was any news from them. There was talk of a 3rd album being made, but it was a long time since people have heard from them. Had they split up? Were they no big enough for their liking and moved on with their lives? (They are still not that well known.) But now their website, Keldian.com, had gone from redirecting to their myspace, to having a jaw dropping sci-fi picture of somewhere in space, with the text MMXII. Did this mean that their album will be released in 2012? I checked the website even more often, and in the summer, they changed their website again, now where you can download their previous two albums, and a space for their 3rd, yet to be titled, although their is the text "Choose Your Path" which leads people to think that will be the album title. They also had a link to their updates, and now have 2 posts from them. I now check the site every day. Hell, I check it whenever it pops into my mind. I eagerly await their 3rd album. And so I will rest my rant on Keldian for this post. But I still have more to talk about. (Can I keep my mouth shut when it comes to music?)

I also said I credit my friend into liking harsher vocals right? Well, before I didn't really like death/doom/black metal. I would like it instrumentally, but the vocals bothered me. I guess putting so much music on his iPod, I would sample some, or he would tell to check out a song or two from some band, I am starting to grow to like some harsh vocals. I remember he showed me a song by the black/doom metal band Woods of Ypres, which I had liked (and in the suggested videos on YouTube, I saw the music video for "Carnival of Rust" by Poets of the Fall. This made me decide to give them another chance (I had loved "Sleep" on their 1st album, but didn't care for anything else.) It was so worth it. I love Poets of the Fall now.) Later on, my friend would get  the promo version of Woods's Grey Skies & Electric Light. He said it was amazing, and that I should check it out. Songs like "Travelling Alone" "Adora Vivos" and "Finality". I found them on YouTube, and each of them left me stunned.  David Gold's (R.I.P.) voice was so different. Lyrically depressing (I love sad stuff.), topics such as heartbreak, loss of loved ones, death. And it was easy to understand, the vocals were clear, yet harsh. Instrumentally amazing. Guitar solos that I could feel with my soul. Pounding drums. Just an amazing album. I had to get it, and I love a majority of it.

Another band that help ease me into harsh vocals, would be Amaranthe. I had discovered them myself, as I saw them mentioned on some site, stating they had 3 vocalists. 3?! I know 2 isn't that unheard of, but 3 is something different. So I checked out their debut, self-titled album. It started of with "Leave Everything Behind". An electronic-y intro, followed by guitar? Not bad. Starting off with the harsh vocalist, he's not too bad. I kinda like it. Then the clean male vocalist. Catchy. And the female vocalist isn't bad either. I listened to their album and really liked it, my favorite being "Amaranthine". Now Amaranthe is a unique band, not just because of their 3 vocalist, but because of the genre mashup. We got a bit of heavy metal, melodic death metal, electronica, and pop. Yes pop, but it's not bad. And Hell, if you like the music, what difference does genre make?

Besides rock and metal, I also like electronica. I've discovered stuff here and there throughout the entire time I've listened to music, and I've come to the conclusion that I mostly like trance, dance, and drum n bass, although I'm still new to the genre and still exploring it. In general, I do not like dubstep. There's a track here and there that I may like, but that's it. And really, I could apply that to any genre. If I put enough time into it, I'm sure I could find something I like.

I now have over 11,000 songs, and I have different playlists based on how I like them,

______________________________________________________________________________

And now, to the things I promised you guys earlier (...if you care >.> lol)

So I "played" the flute in middle school. Actually, I did in high school as well. By "play" I mean, sit there in class, and play the parts I knew, while everyone else would cover for me (knowingly or not) on the parts that I didn't know. Which would be a good amount (more so in high school than middle school.) I just never really practiced, it never held my attention. I knew my scales which was all I was ever really tested on in class, so I passed class. And there would be like 11 other flutists anyways (I'm not exaggerating, there was 12 of us one year.) I didn't care that I wasn't 1st chair, I was there for the A.

Ah, my rant about DragonForce. Alright, so I don't know whether they speed up in the studio or not. But honestly, I don't care. If they are that bad live (I've also heard they're good too, so I don't know.) just don't see them. Simple. If you don't care how they sound live, go and see them and have a great time. Hopefully they're good too. But if they speed things up in the studio, that's fine by me. The only way you can cheat in music, is by stealing someone else's and claiming it as yours.That's it. All music really is, is sound waves, and if you somehow make it, good for you. Hopefully people like it. If DragonForce sped their stuff up in the studio, that's the way they WANTED it to sound. That's the way they MADE it. Now if your problem is that they never said they sped it up, or claimed it's played by their hands on their guitars, but it's really sped up, I can see your point easier. In that case, a few "shame on them"s but that doesn't make their music bad does it?
Also, while I'm still on DragonForce. Valley of the Damned. I'll be Damned (I know I'm not that funny xD), that was a good album. But they remastered it in 2010 right? I know I heard it before that, and I loved it. Now all I can find is remastered versions, which honestly I don't like as much. Maybe that's because I listened to the old version 1st. Whatever the case, it's impossible to find old stuff. I know Rhapsody (the website ... I feel a tiny rant coming on later) gave the 2010 version even though it claimed it wasn't. >.> And the CD's online are like $60 ... Not worth it >.> Maybe.

Okay, last rant. Rhapsody. Okay, so there's Rhapsody the band, that had to change their name because of Rhapsody the website (unless it was a different Rhapsody that they (the band) had problems with.) So they became Rhapsody of Fire, even though they were around longer. Okay cool, since at least Rhapsody is a music site. They have Rhapsody (of Fire)'s music right? Some. Not all of it. Not even all their albums. WTF? (unless Rhapsody of Fire didn't want to deal with them. But it wouldn't make sense if they allowed them to sell some of their music but not all of it.)  So they name themselves Rhapsody, sue Rhapsody the band for that name (instead of sharing the name) and  then they don't even have all their albums? Bullcrap.
Whatever, done with that rant.  I'm surprised to read all of this xD Um yeah, hopefully I post more soon(™).
Keep rockin' \m/ (-_-) \m/