A nice relaxing evening

These days, it takes both my brother and I being sick to spend a quiet evening home together. A bad way for a good thing to happen, but a good thing nonetheless.

We have stayed at home this evening, listening to new music.

A bunch of cool new albums were released recently: United Abominations by Megadeth, The Physics of Fire by Becoming the Archetype, and Minutes to Midnight by Linkin Park. In my Amazon order, I added one back catalog item: One by Neal Morse.

We started out with the new Megadeth album, and have moved on to the new BtA album.

I've long appreciated Megadeth, but I've really enjoyed their last two albums. This new one is excellent. Dave Mustaine's lyrics just get more and more interesting. I'm absolutely fascinated by his self-expression in his art as he matures in his faith. He's a tremendously talented musician.

I discovered Becoming the Archetype about a year ago. I heard a track of theirs in a Tooth and Nail compilation sampler released on Pure Volume. It was love at first listen. I immediately bought three copies: two to give away and one for my brother and I. My brother has been eagerly anticipating this release; I'm glad it finally arrived. It's very good.

(Note to the RIAA: See, giving away music sells more music. I'd've never heard this band any other way. And I've bought four copies of their album and given two away to others who would have never otherwise heard the band.)

We're just starting One now. It's typical Neal Morse brilliance so far. I've so enjoyed Question Mark, Sola Scriptura, and Testimony that I was curious to hear One.

I just realized that Neal and Dave's stories are somewhat similar: both achieved great success in the mainstream music world, became Christians, and kept doing what they love: using their incredible talents, only in a slightly different way. Neal went solo with a tremendous band, including Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater on drums.

Dave continued with Megadeth, and has had continued success. It seems the new album is very well received, including by die-hard Megadeth fans. That's so cool.

I fell in love with Linkin Park a while back when I had an ultra-cheap subscription to Yahoo Music Unlimited that included putting music on portables. I downloaded all three of LP's albums at the time, and fell in love with them. When YMU went mega-expensive for a portable subscription, I said to heck with them, unsubscribed, and deleted all of my MS-encrypted music. And I bought my favorites in iTunes or CD; three albums of which were LP's. And I haven't looked back. I've read very mixed reviews about this album, and am looking forward to hearing it.

While I'm writing about music, I must mention another of my favorite bands of recent times: Over the Rhine. I love them so much. They make beautiful music. I found out about them on a music podcast, The Bored-Again Christian. I noticed a song by them on one of my favorite TV shows, Bones -- the song and the scene almost brought me to tears; it was on my DVR until I had it on DVD -- and I sought them out with a passion. Thankfully, they had a bunch of free music on their web site. I listened and listened, and fell ever deeper in love. I bought a whole slew of albums last Christmastime: 7 albums, almost have their back catalog. And I fell ever deeper in love over the year, as I slowly digested all that new music.

This past Christmastime I bought the most of the rest of their back catalog; my collection is almost complete, and I buy every new album as it's released. Of course, I'm enjoying working through this second flood of beautiful music. I'm truly in love with this band.

Did I mention that I love music? It's truly one of God's best gifts to us.