Saturday, September 5, 2009

My Album Trade

I have a friend who operates his own blog, and is a bit of a social media guru for what will remain an unnamed mega-corporation bent on world domination. I listen to metal, and he listens to sissy stuff like Radiohead and Death Cab for Cutie.

We realized the other day that neither of us had any exposure to the others favorite genre. I've never listened to "OK Computer", and he's never heard "Master of Puppets". Pretty wild, particularly the part about never hearing "Puppets". So we've decided to do an album trade. I'm giving him three metal albums for him to review, and he's going to give me three boy band albums (or whatever it is he listens to), and I will review them here on my blog. All joking aside... the rule is that we are both going to really listen to these albums and review them fairly.

But now I need to pick my albums. I've already chosen the first two, and I'm going to have to think more about the third. The first album I'm sending him will be "Crack the Skye" by Mastodon... not only because it is a fantastic modern metal album, but because I think your average pretentious indie musician might actually find something to love about it. The second album I will be sending him will be "Master of Puppets" by Metallica... purely because of it's insane overall quality. I figure if someone can't find something to love about Puppets, they will never appreciate metal at all.

I don't know yet what the third album will be. I'm considering "Powerslave" by Maiden, "Appetite for Destruction" by Guns n' Roses, and perhaps "Reign in Blood" by Slayer. Slayer would be an wild pick... but he is a musician, and he might appreciate seeing the extremes of the genre.

So this is where I need some reader help. What album should I send the man... and why? Please fill up the comment thread below.

Update: The other side of my album trading experiment can be found at b.radnelson.com. If you give him any feedback... please be nice. We may not see eye to eye on politics or music, but he's a nice enough gentleman and he deserves your respect.