Lengthy Introduction?

This blog is basically going to document the ongoing and ever intensifying obsession of music shared by two males in their mid 20's. Being obsessed with music demands a bit of an explanation I suppose and therefore I will give you one. For starters I will tell you what being obsessed with music is NOT. Being powerfully moved by music is not simply loving a song on the radio or having strong sentimental ties to a mixtape of songs from your first girlfriend. Being obsessed with music isn't being obsessed with bands per se, and concert events aren't all that important either. If you walked up to me in a smoky tavern and asked me about favorite bands, I would offer you a seat at my table and talk to you about my favorite records instead. I supposed we're obsessed with listening to music, we're music listeners, fans of albums and songcraft. Most of the music we will be discussing/referencing in here can be summed up in this clumsy list.

1.Heavy Metal:Embracing the golden long gone years of 80's heavy metal, NWOBHM and whatever amazing forgotten records that slipped through the cracks. Early thrash and death metal, black metal, bizzaro metal, speed, power, progressive. Of course we will also be worshiping at the megalithic altar of traditional doom metal. Most of the albums we like are older, the original "this sound" or "that sound" perfected back when we were toddlers/pre-teens. Not to say that there aren't, or haven't recently been, praise-worthy heavy metal albums released but the best metal is buried in the past.

2.Progressive Rock:Next to the buried metal resides a whole bunch of bones. Dinosaur bones. An orgy, a cluttered stew of dino bones: krautrock, psychedelic rock, early electronic music, left field folk and jazz..mind expanding yes, pedestrian...no thank you.

3.Both Zach and myself listen to classical music but I don't posses the writing skills/terminology/historical knowledge to get very in depth and I don't believe Zach is currently planning on writing anything at length on the subject.

Most of what we will post within Shattered Imperium will be essays, reviews and expansive lists. You will not find any MP3's on here. Though I am willing to share out of print digital records, I have very few and they are probably already ripped beautifully and hanging out in mp3 format in a blog somewhere. The reviews can be expected to be analytical, personal, and long winded. So I guess you will have to enjoy reading and/or also be obsessed with music to appreciate them. I am a bumbling idiot when it comes to writing a "shopper's review." I don't really care to sell, or even encourage a download, with a review. It's all about how the album interacts with me and how it may interact with you, but primarily it's all about me. I have a feeling Zach will be writing 22 paragraph essays........