Random Thoughts: Bands Pulling Me Out of My Funk

For some reason I have been a bit of a listening funk lately. I have been so busy with work and the wedding planning that I had not been enjoying music as much. This has sort of manifested itself in a dearth of posts from me, other than the Top 100 which I kind of force myself to do. I suppose that is bound to happen every now and again. Anyway, lately I have been a little reinvigorated with the help of three bands that I am finding some new-found joy in.

DESTRUCTION
It was a mistake not to include them in my Top 100. For some reason though they never really grabbed me like their peers in Sodom and Kreator. Until now. Their new material is probably even stronger than their aforementioned countrymen and their old stuff definitely has some impressive riff work. But it's their overall aggressiveness that has drawn me back into them. At this point, they are pretty even with the other two bands.

DEW-SCENTED
Germans just know how to thrash. Dew-Scented is a relative newcomer compared to Destruction, forming in 1992, but all they have done since then is put out great modern thrash metal album after great modern thrash metal album. Their music features a hefty death metal influence adding to their unstoppable brutality, but man nothing gets your fist pumping like "That's Why I Despise You". Their song "Retain the Scars" featuring Kreator's Mille Petrozza is not to be missed.

JUDAS PRIEST
Yes, Priest made my Top 100. They had to. I could not ignore the original Metal Gods. But only recently have I really started to enjoy all of their musical eras. I absolutely love their early 1980's material, when the band really laid down the blueprints to every metal band that came after them. Priest has so much great music that it's hard to pick out just one album, but Defenders of the Faith has recently become a favorite of mine.