Ladies and gentlemen!

Here is the second part of my podcast about my personal predictions for the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs. The second part is about the teams from the Eastern Conference and the next potential Stanley Cup champions.

Stanley_Cup_Finals_2[1].3gp

One more night to go until the show goes on!

Sincerely yours,

Sebastian Kluth

Ladies and gentlemen!

Here it is: my very first podcast on my blog. This one is about my predictions for the 2015 Stanley Cup playoffs of the Western Conference. The second part about the teams of the Eastern Conference will follow soon. Please leave a comment and tell me what you think of this little experiment.

Stanley_Cup_Finals_1[1].3gp

Let the show begin!

Sincerely yours,

Sebastian Kluth

Dear readers of my blog!

After an incredible run of 23 victories in the last 31 games of the season, the Ottawa Senators made it to the 2014-15 NHL playoffs! I was able to assist the incredible last home game against the Pittsburgh Penguins last Tuesday when the Ottawa Senators managed to win 3:4 in overtime after a 3:0 lead for the opponent after the first period. Apart of head coach David Cameron, the names of several young players and rookies such as goaltender Andrew Hammond, center Jean-Gabriel Pageau, left winger Clarke MacArthur and right winger Mark Stone must be mentioned to explain this incredible happy end to a problematic season.

The Ottawa Senators finished seventh in the Eastern Conference and are going to meet the Montreal Canadiens which finished second in the first round of the playoffs. The Ottawa Senators eliminated the Montreal Canadiens in exactly the same situation two years earlier and there will be a lot of emotions in the upcoming games due to the new rivalry between the two teams and everybody is expecting a close and tough duel.

Who are you going to root for? Who do you think might win the Stanley Cup this year? Please leave a comment and let the games begin!

Voici juste pour le plaisir ma programmation proposée pour la vingt-sixième édition du festival Jonquière en Musique aux abords de la Rivière-aux-Sables avec plein de groupes québécois et canadiens de tous les âges et genres:

1er juillet: Rush + Southern Cross

2 juillet: Karkwa + Julie Blanche

3 juillet: Marie-Mai + Groenland

4 juillet: Malajube + Les Dales Hawerchuk

5 juillet: Valérie Carpentier + Fanny Bloom

6 juillet: Samian + Loud Lary Ajust

7 juillet: Michel Louvain + Mario Pelchat

8 juillet: Chloé Sainte-Marie + Les Frères Cheminaud

9 juillet: Roch Voisine + Crash Ton Rock

10 juillet: Serge Fiori + PyPy

11 juillet: Vincent Vallières + Dumas

12 juillet: Yoan Garneau + Sweet Grass

13 juillet: Sir Pathétik + The Posterz

14 juillet: Ginette Reno + Florence K

15 juillet: Éric Lapointe + Martin Deschamps

16 juillet: Groovy Aardvark + Mordicus

17 juillet: Bodh’aktan + Florent Vollant

18 juillet: Voivod + Heaven’s Cry

La véritable programmation sera dévoilée au mois de juin. Suivez le festival de près sur Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/jonquiereenmusique

C'était en fait le premier festival auquel j'ai assisté au Québec en 2008. Les festivités célébreront cette année leur vingt-cinquième anniversaire. Quels beaux souvenirs! 

Dear readers of my blog!

The Foreshadowing's Oionos may sound dark, depressive and vile but this excellent doom/gothic metal release from Italy spreads an intense message of peace by showing us among others the horrors of war and a post-apocalyptic world. Lay back, close your eyes and discover the band's melancholic universe.

The Forsehadowing is a gothic doom metal band that sounds so melancholic that one would expect them to come from Finland but they are actually based in sunny Italy. “Oionos” is their second out of three full length releases so far, with a fourth output being recorded right now. This album may sound minimalist at first but it has enough subtle changes to remain interesting even though it takes a few spins to open up for this kind of sorrowful music. The record has a clear guiding line in form of a slow, melancholic and depressive atmosphere and post-apocalyptic memento mori lyrics that are truly worth to be read while listening to this piece of art.

In my book, the most outstanding element of this band is the vocals. Marco Benevento is one of the very best singers in the doom and gothic metal genres. His clean vocals remind me a little bit of Amorphis’ Tomi Joutsen, especially when he was still active in Sinisthra. Fans of depressive rock and gothic metal bands like Anathema, Katatonia, Moonspell, Opeth and Paradise Lost should also immediately appreciate Marco Benevento’s elegant, low and rich singing style. His charismatic and charming organ almost works like an additional instrument that complements the sometimes lethargic, at other moments dominatingly heavy drums, the low and oppressing bass sounds, the melancholic and sad keyboard tones and the longing and numbing guitar sounds. In the melancholic ballad “Survivors Sleep”, his vocals along with the inspiring lyrics and the hypnotizing piano melodies make this simplistic tune actually incredibly intense.

The band adds some smooth diversity in several tracks by decently adding male choirs that aren’t a far call from Gregorian chants which give some tunes like the sacral instrumental “Solilo Uium” a more epic and symphonic touch. Sometimes, Marco Benevento himself chooses an almost meditative approach for his vocals, as in the middle passage of “Lost Humanity”. The keyboards add some subtle symphonic elements in the epic “Chant of Widows” that constantly changes and turns out to be not only the most diversified but also most representative track of this band for this album. A few narrative vocal samples also add to both the consistent atmosphere and the thoughtful lyrics, for example in the great title track “Oionos”. We can even here excerpts from Roosevelt’s famous speech from his declaration of war after the attack on Pearl Harbor in “Hope. She’s in the Water” and from Oppenheimer’s speech about a post-atomic world in “Revelation 3:11”. The chosen excerpts always perfectly fit in each song.

And now it’s time to kneel down for one of the very best cover songs ever done. Sting’s “Russians” is an emotional track with intense and truly meaningful lyrics that are maybe more meaningful in 2015 than ever before which is actually a sad thing. The Foreshadowing transformed the timeless original into a gripping and tear-jerking song that perfectly fits the atmosphere of the record somewhere between despair and hope. The track is a little bit slower, more melancholic and epic than the original. The introduction and closure features hypnotizing keyboard sounds and a thunderous drumming that sounds like exploding bombs. The vocals in this track are simply incredible. If you still doubt Marco Benevento is one of the very best of his kind, listen to this song.

What kind of rating does this album deserve? It’s definitely not a record which is easy to digest and which I could listen to all day long but that automatically comes with its genre. The only other thing I could criticize is that the band’s other albums are somehow more diversified than this one but on the other side, this minimalistic approach makes Oionos really stand out and there is still a high amount of creativity in each tune. Objectively said, this record has a crystal clear production, an intriguing cover artwork designed by Septicflesh’s Spiros Antoniou, a clear and coherent guiding line, meaningful and outstanding lyrics, a fitting musical performance and absolutely charismatic and outstanding vocals. Any doom and gothic metal fan should worship this band and record and spread the name of this overlooked and underrated band.

Final verdict: 9 out of 10 points

Please support the band and check out the following link:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/theforeshadowing

Sadly, the lyrics of Sting's "Russians" almost seem to be as relevant today than back in the Cold War:

In Europe and in America,
There's a growing feeling of hysteria
Conditioned to respond to all the threats
In the rhetorical speeches of the Soviets

Mister Krushchev says, "We will bury you!"
I don't subscribe to this point of view
It'd be such an ignorant thing to do
If the Russians love their children too

How can I save my little boy
From Oppenheimer's deadly toy?
There is no monopoly on common sense
On either side of the political fence

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology,
Believe me when I say to you
I hope the Russians love their children too

There is no historical precedent
To put the words in the mouth of the president
There's no such thing as a winnable war
It's a lie we don't believe anymore

Mister Reagan says, "We will protect you"
I don't subscribe to this point of view
Believe me when I say to you,
I hope the Russians love their children too

We share the same biology
Regardless of ideology,
But what might save us, me and you,
Is if the Russians love their children too