TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2004

DISILLUSION - BACK TO TIMES OF SPLENDOUR
SACRED STEEL - IRON BLESSINGS
VARIOUS ARTISTS - G3 LIVE: ROCKIN' IN THE FREE WORLD
MY DYING BRIDE - SONGS OF DARKNESS, WORDS OF LIGHT
ORPHANED LAND - MABOOL: THE STORY OF THE THREE SONS OF SEVEN
PAUL GILBERT - ACOUSTIC SAMURAI
EXODUS - TEMPO OF THE DAMNED
FINNTROLL - NATTFÖDD
WITHIN TEMPTATION - THE SILENT FORCE
PROBOT - PROBOT

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2005

OPETH - GHOST REVERIES
NILE - ANNIHILATION OF THE WICKED
OBITUARY - FROZEN IN TIME
STEVE VAI - REAL ILLUSIONS: REFLECTIONS
EQUILIBRIUM - TURIS FRATYR
BOLT THROWER - THOSE ONCE LOYAL
PURE SWEET HELL - THE VOYEURS OF UTTER DESTRUCTION
OLD MAN'S CHILD - VERMIN
JOHN PETRUCCI - SUSPENDED ANIMATION
ORDO DRACONIS - CAMERA OBSCURA PT. 1: THE STAR CHAMBER REVIEWS

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2006

DISILLUSION - GLORIA
DELAIN - LUCIDITY
KATATONIA - THE GREAT COLD DISTANCE
IN EXTREMO - RAUE SPREE
RAINBOW - DEUTSCHLAND TOURNEE (BOX)
TRIVIUM - THE CRUSADE
DEICIDE - THE STENCH OF REMEMPTION
MY DYING BRIDE - A LINE OF DEATHLESS KINGS
PAUL GILBERT - GET OUT OF MY YARD
AGHORA - FORMLESS

TOP 10 ALBUMS OF 2007

CANDLEMASS - KING OF THE GREY ISLANDS
DIMMU BORGIR - IN SORTE DIABOLI
MONSTROSITY - SPIRITUAL APOCALYPSE
VITAL REMAINS - ICONS OF EVIL
NILE - ITHYPHALLIC
SYMPHONY X - PARADISE LOST
DEVILDRIVER - THE LAST KIND WORDS
RUSH - SNAKES AND ARROWS
FINNTROLL - UR JORDENS DJUP
WITHIN TEMPTATION - THE HEART OF EVERYTHING

BANDS

Dream Theater
Old Metallica
Kiss
Iron Maiden
Dimmu Borgir
Cradle of Filth
Deep Purple
Old Yngwie Malmsteen
Mercyful Fate
Monstrosity
Therion
My Dying bride
Venom
Slayer
Steve Vai
Obituary
Rush
Vital Remains
Judas Priest
Saxon
Nile

CDS

Deep Purple - "Made in Japan"
Metallica - "...And Justice for All"
Dimmu Borgir - "Puritanical Euphoric Misanthropia"
Dream Theater - "Scenes from a Memory"
Yngwie Malmsteen - "Rising Force"
Jason Becker - "Perspective"
Monstrosity - "In Dark Purity"
Covenant - "Nexus Polaris"
Emperor - "Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk"
Borknagar - "The Olden Domain"
In Extremo - "Sünder Ohne Zügel"
Fear of God - "Within the Veil"
Kiss - "Alive II"
Immortal - "Damned in Black"
Cradle of Filth "Dusk...And Her Embrace"
Obituary - "Cause of Death"
Rainbow - "Live in Germany 1976"
Queensryche - "Operation Mindcrime"
Jimi Hendrix - "Electric Ladyland"

MOST UNUSUAL/UNIQUE/DIFFERENT/AVANT GARDE/INTERESTING BANDS

Nile
Otyg
In Extremo
Pan-Thy-Monium
Opeth
Elend
Sikth

"WHY-DID-THEY-ADD-THAT-SHITTY-TRACK-ON-AN-OTHERWISE-EXCELLENT-CD" SONGS

"Speed of Love" (Rush "Counterparts")
"The Silent Man" (Dream Theater "Awake")
"Magnetic Fields Part V" (Jean Michel Jarre "Magnetic Fields")
"Dreaming (The Romance)" (Anathema "Serenades")
"Waiting for Cousteau" (Jean Michel Jarre "Waiting for Cousteau")
"Glorianna" (Vangelis "Direct")
...and every bit of pointless noise after x seconds/minutes of silence (like, for example, on Nirvana's "Nevermind" and (unfortunately) countless others)

FILMS (OR 'MOVIES' FOR ALL YOU AMERICANS)

"The Lord of the Rings" trilogy
"The Blues Brothers"
"Gladiator"
"Titanic"
"Blade Runner"
"Jurassic Park"
"Groundhog Day"
"Shrek"
"Independence Day"
"Twister"
"Braveheart"
"Terminator 2"
"Minority Report"
"Amélie"
"Once Upon a Time in America"
"The Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"
"A Very Long Engagement"
"The Island"

SCARIEST FILMS (...)

"Gothika"
"Darkness Falls"
"The Ring"
"Alien" (well, OK, I was 16 at the time)

WORST FILMS (...)

"Zombie Flesh Eaters"
"Tank Girl"
"Splatter: Architects of Fear"
"Master of Disguise"
"Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" (ouch!)
"Darkwolf"
"Honey" (superficial youth-culture-glorifying bling-bling extended video clip, the dancing equivalent of a porn movie - though obviously I wouldn't know what a porn movie looks like :-)
"Lara Croft Tombraider: Cradle of Life" was pretty stupid, too

BOOKS

Stephen King - "The Stand"
Stephen King - "Needful Things"
Douglas Adams - the Dirk Gently books
J.R.R. Tolkien- "The Lord of the Rings"
George Orwell - "1984"
Tad Williams - "Otherland" series
Stephen Donaldson - "Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever" series
John Irving - "A Prayer for Owen Meany"
John Irving - "Son of the Circus"
Hickman & Weis - "Dragonlance Chronicles" series
Guy Favriel Kay - "Fionavar Tapestry" series
Stephen Donaldson - "The Gap" series
Douglas Adams - "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy"
Terry Pratchett - "Discworld" series
Sebastian Faulks - "Birdsong"
Robert Jordan - "Wheel of Time" series

CONCERTS (CHRONOLOGICAL)

Metallica & Queensryche co-headlining - Groenoordhallen, Leiden, Netherlands, 5 November 1988
Joe Satriani "Flying in a Blue Tour" - Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands 10 June 1990
Queensryche "Building Empires" tour - Music Hall, Hannover, Germany, 22 November 1990
Paradise Lost - Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands, 11 March 1994
Yngwie Malmsteen - Nighttown, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 12 May 1994
Dream Theater - Vredenburg, Utrecht, Netherlands, 15 February 1995
Venom - Waldrock, Burgum, Netherlands, 24 June 1995
Dynamo Open Air (with Venom and Slayer) - Eindhoven, Netherlands, May 1996
Orphanage - Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands, 26 October 1996
Mercyful Fate & King Diamond - Melkweg Max, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 22 March 1997
Kiss - Prins van Oranjehal, Utrecht, Netherlands, 11 June 1997
Steve Vai "Ultra Zone" tour - De Vereeniging, Nijmegen, Netherlands 7 March 2000
Within Temptation - Tivoli, Utrecht, Netherlands, 25 January 2001
Dream Theater - Ahoy, Rotterdam, Netherlands, 3 November 2002
In Extremo - Willem 2, Den Bosch, Netherlands, 15 December 2002

CONCERTS I DIDN'T/COULDN'T VISIT BUT WOULD REALLY HAVE LIKED TO

Woodstock (1969)
Deep Purple - Japanese Tour (August 1972)
Rainbow - German Tour (1976)
Kiss - Groenoordhallen, Leiden (5 October 1980)
Aardschokdag (with Metallica and Venom) (11 February 1984)
Venom - Hammersmith Odeon, London (1 June 1984)
Dream Theater - European "Scenes from a Memory" Tour (2000)

ACTORS

Jack Nicholson
Robert DeNiro
Jim Carrey
Kevin Spacey
Bruce Willis
Anthony Hopkins
Mel Gibson
Bill Murray
Clint Eastwood
Sylvester Stallone
Arnold Schwarzenegger

ACTRESSES

Imogen Stubbs ("Erik the Viking")
Claire Keim ("Ripper")
Faye Grant ("V")
Cameron Diaz (who probably nobody can resist in "There's Something About Mary")
Charlize Theron ("Ciderhouse Rules", "The Devil's Advocate")
Bernadette Flynn (not an actress as such, but a performing artist - Saoirse, the Irish Colleen, from Michael Flatley's "Feet of Flames")
Karen Allen (not exactly a vampy model or anything, but she's got something)
Claudia Cardinale (in "Once Upon a Time in the West")
Lesley-Anne Down (in "North & South" - if there was ever an actress I just about fell in love with during my puberty it was her)
Melinda Culea ("The A-Team")
Christina Applegate (I can't help it - "Married With Children" was televised here while I was of an impressionable age)

DUTCH BABES

Katja Schuurman
Chantal Janzen

DIRECTORS

Stephen Spielberg
James Cameron
Renny Harlin
Terry Gilliam
Ridley Scott
Jean-Pierre Jeunet

MALE VOCALISTS

Russell Allen (Symphony X)
Ray Alder (Fates Warning)
James Hetfield (Metallica)
Ronnie James Dio (Dio, ex-Rainbow, ex-Black Sabbath)
Ian Gillan (Deep Purple)
King Diamond (KD & Mercyful Fate)
David Lee Roth
Geoff Tate (Queensryche)
Glen Benton (Deicide) (best death metal vocalist by far)

WORST MALE VOCALISTS

Axl Rose (Guns'n'Roses)
Graham Bonnett (ex-Rainbow, ex-Alcatrazz)
Ozzy Osbourne (Black Sabbath, Ozzy solo)
Dave Mustaine (Megadeth)
Devin Townsend (ex-Vai, Strapping Young Lad)
Jeff Martin (Racer X)

FEMALE VOCALISTS

Floor Jansen (After Forever)
Sharon den Adel (Within Temptation)
Mariana Holmberg (Left Hand Solution)
Vibeke Stene (Tristania)
Anneke van Giersbergen (The Gathering)
Dawn Crosby (Fear of God)
Leanan Sidhe (Beholder)

WORST FEMALE VOCALISTS

Ipek (Wykked Wytch)
The Great Kat
Courtney Love (Hole)
Ashlee Simpson is pretty effing horrible too

GUITAR PLAYERS

John Petrucci (Dream Theater)
Steve Vai
Joe Satriani
Yngwie Malmsteen
Michael Romeo (Symphony X)
Jimi Hendrix
Ritchie Blackmore (Deep Purple, Rainbow)
Ron Thal
Bernd Steidl
Paul Gilbert

GUITAR SOLOS

"The Shed (Subtle)" - Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore)
"Back Seat Driver" - Steeler (Yngwie Malmsteen)
"Stargazer" - Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore)
"Gates of Babylon" - Rainbow (Ritchie Blackmore)
"Moonlight Shadow" - Mike Oldfield
"The Villa" - Dr. Mastermind (Kurt James)
"November Rain" - Guns'n'Roses (Slash) (final solos)

MOST OVERRATED GUITAR PLAYERS

Eric Clapton
Carlos Santana
Kirk Hammett (Metallica)
Dimebag Darrell (ex-Pantera)
Jimmy Page (ex-Led Zeppelin)

BASSISTS

Stuart Hamm
Steve Harris (Iron Maiden)
Billy Sheehan
Cronos (Venom)

DRUMMERS

Neil Peart (Rush)
Mike Portnoy (Dream Theater)
Flo Mounier (Cryptopsy)
Richard Christy (Death, Control Denied)
Stewart Copeland (Police)
Doc (Vader)
Dave Suzuki (Vital Remains)
Gene Hoglan (ex-old Man's Child, ex-Death, Strapping Young Lad)
Brann Dailor (Mastodon)

KEYBOARD PLAYERS

Jens Johansson (ex-Malmsteen)
Jordan Rudess (Dream Theater)
Kevin Moore (ex-Dream Theater)

MOST INDISPENSABLE REFERENCE-TYPE WEB SITES

www.straightdope.com (delivering the straight dope on many questions that have kept people occupied for aeons)
www.snopes.com (the Urban Language reference site)
www.ilovelanguages.com (information about just about any human language, including links)
www.rockdetector.com (one of the best and most extensive metal music reference sites)
www.imdb.com (the famous Internet Movies DataBase)

TV SERIES

"Duckman"
"Red Dwarf"
"I Love the 80s"
"Walking with Dinosaurs"
"Walking with Beasts"
"The Simpsons"
"V"
"Mad About You"
"How do You Want Me?"
"Band of Brothers"

DISLIKES (SOMETIMES STRONG ONES)

Gnats
Spam
Blacklight
Modern R&B
Computer Viruses, Trojans, etc.
Smoking
HTML email
Organised Religion
G.W. Bush
Women with tattoos
Tau whores in "Halflife"
De Tokkies (if you're Dutch you'll know who these despicable gits are)
Usenet trolls (in particular LIBERATOR)
Bling Bling
MTV culture
$haron Osbourne
Talentless media whores (e.g. Paris Hilton)
Il Divo (nicely packaged medium quality opera boy band for housewives)

COMMODORE 64 GAMES

Wizard
Delta
Fort Apocalypse
Lode Runner (any version)
Uridium
Jumpman
Raid on Bungeling Bay
Gyruss
Summer Games
Rally Speedway
Frantic Freddie
Bandits
Commando
Who Dares Wins I & II
Blue Max
Commodore Soccer
Dino Eggs

ATARI ST GAMES

Blood Money
Bubble Bobble
Gods
Magic Pockets
Llamatron
Rick Dangerous
Arkanoid & Arkanoid II (The Revenge of Doh)
Super Sprint
Lemmings
Super Gridrunner
Wizball
Starball
Crystal Castles

PC GAMES

Halflife
Duke Nuke'm 3D
Gridrunner++
Halflife 2
Carmageddon
Carmageddon 2

PC APPS

Firefox
Soulseek
Winzip
Norton AntiVirus
Ad-Aware
Trillian Pro
STeem (Atari ST emulator)
Google Earth (I am much impressed)

POCKET PC APPS

Pocket Informant
tdLaunch (Today Screen Plugin)

COMMODORE 64 TUNES

Knuckle Buster (Rob Hubbard)
Master of Magic (Rob Hubbard)
Parallax (Martin Galway)
Rambo (Martin Galway)
Monty on the Run (Rob Hubbard)
Delta (Rob Hubbard)
Spellbound (Rob Hubbard)
Lightforce (Rob Hubbard)
Panther (David Whittaker)
Auf Wiedersehen Monty (Rob Hubbard & Ben Daglish)
Trap (Ben Daglish)
Thrust (Rob Hubbard)
W.A.R. (Rob Hubbard)
Comic Bakery (Martin Galway)

CHARITIES

The local dog pound
Jason Becker
World Wildlife Fund
Greenpeace

THINGS I'D LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN

The design of an FPGA-based computer that can be reprogrammed via software to emulate practically any classic computer 100%, entirely based on memory cards
The invention of a gadget that will attract dust from your entire room, which can be easily emptied
The invention of a gadget that *really* gets rid of gnats in a way that is safe for other inhabitants
Digital TV subscriptions that allow total mix-and-match freedom of channel selection

THINGS I'D DO IF I SUDDENLY WERE TO WIN A GAZILLION

Stop working, try my hand at creative writing and buy two "Saarloos Wolfshonden" (which might be called "Saarloos Wolfhounds" in English)
Learn modern Greek, buy an airconditioned (!) place in Greece with a view of the sea
Donate significantly to the charities mentioned above
Get a 1959 "Brock/Sapra" sunburst Gibson Les Paul guitar
Get the 1954 sunburst Fender Stratocaster serial #0387 from Yasuhiko Iwanade's "The Galaxy of Strats", or one very much like it
Get a 1989 Custom Shop 35th Anniversary Stratocaster
Get a MIJ 1997 Ritchie Blackmore signature model Stratocaster with black plastic parts
Get a 1958 korina Gibson Explorer
Get a B.C. Rich Bich double neck
Get a Music Man John Petrucci signature guitar in pearl redburst, with 7 strings, tremolo, JP logo at 1st fret and piezo bridge
Get a life-size replica or even an original of a mature T. rex skull fossil
Get a Volvo XC70 2.5T in Black Sapphire Metallic
Get a Chrysler PT Cruiser 2.4i GT Turbo in Onyx Green Pearl
Make a trip around the world (and at least see Grand Canyon, Taj Mahal, Potala Palace, Great Wall of China, The Shwedagon Pagoda, Mt. St. Michel, Machu Picchu and The Great Barrier Reef)

REASONS WHY I'D LIKE TO BE PAUL GILBERT

He can play the guitar really, really well
He seems to be rather a nice guy
He is creative and has a great sense of humour
He probably has enough money to be able to only do things he likes
He has quite a few guitars
He has more hair than me :-)