Life Begins @ 42

A great year for music, and personally for me a sad year losing two of my musical heroes Chester Bennington and Chris Cornell, but more on that later.  First my top 10: 10. Nothing More - The Stories We Tell Ourselves A major step up for the band, in a few years I could see them filling arenas.  9. Asking Alexandria - Asking Alexandria  Danny Warsnop is back and the band are on top form.  Can't wait to catch them at Download in 2018. 8. Enter Shikari - The Spark Great unique sound with a spot on political message. 7. Prophets of Rage - Prophets of Rage Featuring members of Rage Against the Machine, Public Enemy and Cypress Hill it punches a strong political message to some excellent music. 6. Lana Del Rey - Lust for Life A beautiful ethereal sounds to poetic lyrics. 5. Stone Sour - Hydrograd  A great return for Corey Taylor’s softer alternative to Slipknot. 4. Creeper - Eternity In Your Arms A unique blend of rock, punk, goth a

It's one week since we lost Chester Bennington and three weeks ago since I saw their last concert in Birmingham.  It is weird to feel the loss of someone I never met, and couldn't understand it when people got upset when celebrities died, but with Chester it is different.  He bared so much of his soul in his music, his fans felt like they knew him. There is not a Linkin Park song I don't like, but here are my top 12. 1. Iridescent (A Thousand Suns) I discovered Linkin Park through this song, and the lyrics really mean a lot to me. 2. Heavy (ft. Kiiara) (One More Light) This song divided fans, but I love it.  Classic Linkin Park lyrics which I completely relate to. 3. Papercut (Hybrid Theory) Great lyrics, and excellent harmonies between Chester and Mike. 4. Numb (Meteora) Lyrics which I'm sure hit anyone who has ever experienced depression. 5. One More Light (One More Light) Sends shivers down your spine seeing Cheste

Like millions of others I saw deeply shocked and saddened by the recent death of Chester Bennington from Linkin Park.  I must admit I was late to the party, but when I had a particularly bad phase of depression in 2012 I found Linkin Park's music.  Unlike anything I have heard from any other band I found their lyrics spoke directly to me, it felt they were expressing exactly what I was feeling. If I were to pick the song which most resonated with me it would be Iridescent from A Thousand Suns.  I even ended up getting the lyrics tattooed on my arm: I was luck enough to see Linkin Park live twice.  In 2014 I caught them at Download Festival performing Hybrid Theory in full.  This remains my all time favourite concert. I got to see them again this month at Birmingham Arena, which would end up being their final concert with Chester.  Again a brilliant performance which I'm glad I made the effort to get to after the date I booked for in Manchester was cancell