The Liked Songs Shuffle | Review #1
I live for music: it’s been with me through amazing times and pretty awful times. Metal is my preferred genre, although I really enjoy rock as well. I don’t complain about poppy nostalgia tracks, though!
My Spotify Liked Songs playlist has 1,033 songs, and I don’t listen to many of them. I typically make a yearly playlist and stick to it. So, I’m going to shuffle my Liked Songs playlist and review the first ten songs that play. No skipping!
This review series will be a great opportunity to listen to some forgotten gems and question why others are on the playlist at all! Hopefully, this will inspire you to listen to these bands yourself: there are YouTube or Spotify links for all.
Relevant segue, and something I wanted to mention: There’s a fab, free site I enjoy playing with called Whisperify. (It’s something I use as a grounding technique for my anxiety as I love music and competing with myself!) You select one of your playlists, and you have to guess the song from a short snippet. I like to challenge myself to the two-second limit: Great fun, but not when it’s instrumental progressive metal I’ve listened to once! It would be helpful to acquaint myself with this playlist so I can beat my high score ;)
So, without further ado, let’s jump into the music!
1. Solution .45 — Lethean Tears
Lethean Tears is a melodic metal song I added to my liked songs last December. I’d never listened to Solution .45 before, and it probably came up in my Discover playlist. It has a stunning intro, and the guitar work throughout is awesome. The vocalist has a nice voice, but he gets a little on the high side, so I don’t love it. It also goes on too long with chorus repetitions. The way the drums pick up at the end is really cool, though.
If a song is over five minutes long, it better earn that listening time. And for me, this one doesn’t.
6/10
2. Ad Infinitum — Live Before You Die (Acoustic)
I was so excited to hear this one pop up on my shuffle! Ad Infinitum is one of my favourite bands; they’re symphonic metal with some great twists. Live Before You Die was one of the first Ad Infinitum songs I fell in love with from Chapter I Revisited.
The lyrics on this track are absolutely gorgeous, and Melissa’s voice is just *chef’s kiss*. While I prefer this more upbeat version to the normal one, I miss the cool electric guitar solo.
Don’t you wanna know about the wonders?
Don’t you wanna learn about the stars?
Don’t you wanna see what’s beyond the horizon of your world?
Don’t you wanna dream above the clouds?
Live before you die
9/10
3. Biffy Clyro — Booooom, Blast & Ruin
Ah, another track I love! Only Revolutions is a legendary album, and I love pretty much every track on it. This one is super fun, and I love Simon’s tone on this track. The instrumental part of this song is great.
8/10
4. Vola — Applause of a Distant Crowd
I discovered Vola this year, and they have some standout progressive metal tracks. I always forget about Applause of a Distant Crowd, even though the vocals are beautiful, and it’s so laid back! It’s just a bit boring compared to my favourites from them. It picks up nicely, though, and the outro is gorgeous. It ends as quietly as it began. Nice!
7.5/10
5. Biffy Clyro — Unknown Male 01
Ooh, a recent Biffy addition! I’m currently learning this song on bass (nice and easy, would recommend!), which has added to my love for the track. It starts really calmly and gradually builds up.
Serious Biffy vibes hit around 2:20 with the typical riffs and pounding drums we’re used to. The bass kicks in beautifully then, too. The track structure gives me Opposites album vibes, particularly A Girl and His Cat, which I’m fond of.
This song is over six minutes long. Does it earn the listening time? ;) The last 30 seconds or so are unnecessary as it’s just a repetitive instrumental outro, but overall, yes!
8/10
6. Young Guns — Bulletproof
Woo, a British band! Honestly, the only Young Guns song that I’ve ever really enjoyed, even though I like Gustav’s voice. The others just haven’t grabbed me. I love the lyrics on this track (especially that closing lyric), and the drumming is on point.
7/10
7. Ancient Bards — In My Arms
If you get emotional with music as I do, there are a few tracks on your playlist that you know shouldn’t really be there. That’s one of those for me.
It’s a symphonic metal track about losing a baby. Even though I’m not maternal and I’m incredibly fortunate that it’s not something that’s ever affected me, the strong emotions in the song get my heart. The keyboardist beautifully wrote the lyrics for this track.
Sara’s vocals are beautiful, and the guitar is outstanding, so I’ll be looking for more Ancient Bards songs!
It’s probably one I’ll take off my list, though. Randomly crying in public is something I try and avoid. I teared up listening to it just now, too.
7.5/10
8. The Raven Age — The Grave of the Fireflies
I love The Raven Age. The music is painfully good, and Matt James’ vocals are so unique. These days, they’re melodic or groove metal, which fits them well; it’s more thrashy than the name implies!
I properly focused on the lyrics to this song earlier this year, and I haven’t listened to it again until now. Like the song above, this is an absolutely heart-wrenching track. Thanks, Spotify! If you’ve seen the film of the same name, you’ll know what it’s about and how emotional it is.
You don’t get those vibes from the pounding drums, intense electric guitar and bass, but listen to those lyrics. Or don’t: it depends if you want them to throw you into a world of war, death, orphans, and pain.
It’s an absolute masterpiece, but I don’t enjoy listening to despair and agony. I had to pause it at 4:30 because my composure was long gone. It’s an eight-minute track of sorrow. *Focuses on the thrilling guitar for the rest of it*
I was going to throw some lyrics at you, but I’ll let you choose to look at those if you want to! You know the feeling where you fight the lump in your throat, but it wins, so snot and tears go everywhere? That’s me right now. Real cute.
Please let #9 and #10 be happy!
9/10 (anything that makes me feel this intensely gets many points)
9. Kamelot — Static
Static is not the happiness I was going for. Where’s Busted crashing a wedding when you need them? It’s in the 1,000+ somewhere!
The bass on this track is delicious. Tommy Karevik’s vocals on this are outstanding as ever; I didn’t expect to like a vocalist as much as Roy Khan, but I’ve got there!
Static is probably the most boring track off The Shadow Theory. That’s not to say it’s bad: it’s just not Amnesiac, Ravenlight, or Phanton Divine.
The guitar solo is nice, but it’s a bit hands-off for Kamelot.
6/10
10. The Ferrymen — Eternal Night
Aaah, this is the exact kind of track I was hoping Spotify would remind me of! Eternal Night was the first song I heard from The Ferrymen a couple of years ago, and it’s so good! The band is another one of Magnus Karlsson’s creations, and if you’re a fan of his work in power metal, you’ll immediately recognise it.
The vocals are stunning, the instruments are intense and captivating, and just damn. The Ferrymen is a power metal band, and there are other metal vibes in there too. Great track, very engaging, worth a listen!
I’m afraid to open my eyes
What if the dream won’t disappear?
Will you save me from the starless sky?
Where all light will die
Eternal night
9/10
Well, that was a fun ride! A great mix of songs and bands I’ve listened to recently and others I’ve not heard for over a year. I’ve always wondered if Spotify’s shuffle function truly is random or if the algorithm prioritises bands/songs you listen to a lot. Four songs I listen to regularly, and there are only three bands here that I don’t listen to often. But confirmation bias exists!
In particular, The Ferrymen was a welcome reminder; awesome band! I didn’t enjoy the random burst of sadness in the middle there, but I always appreciate songs that make me feel.
If you listen to any of these bands or songs, let me know what you think. If this series inspires you to do the same with your playlists, drop me a tag and #shufflereview! :)
