If you’ve been struggling to find that all important, all impacting name for your band then look no further for your inspiration than the Heavy Metal Band Names Flowchart.

Breaking up your basic topics of satanic indulgence – like Death and Religion – over the points of a pentagram, each category is then broken down into its sub-categories with the appropriate names following. There’s a section for the trusty umlaut, a bit for names referencing (gothic American author) Faulkner, and a viking section to name a few.

This has set us off at amazingtunes, since amazingtunes obviously has its fair share of gore-inspiring metal acts gracing its pages, so below is a handful of our favourite metal monikers for you to devour.

Rigor Mortis by Dark Pariah
Flesh by Offcuts
F@@k the System
by Kill To Gain
Russian Roulette
by Screaming Blue Murder
Destroy All Humans by Baptized In Blood

…amazingtunes.com

Much to the bemusement of many a music fan the ever modest Noel Gallagher has today come out and stated his band are now in the same league as The Rolling Stones. While not quite ‘in the same league’ as Lennon’s rather controversial “bigger than Jesus” admission, it has begged the question of just how dominant are Oasis in today’s music?

Formed 17 years ago they have just released their eighth studio album – selling half a million copies of their last offering Dig Out Your Sole – with all their albums combined selling more than 50 million records. In 2005, The Guinness Book of World Records declared Oasis the Most Successful Act of the Last Decade and last week the Gallagher brothers stood in as the entourage for Ricky Hatton, carrying his title belts to the ring in his recent fight in Las Vegas.

While it can be argued that they haven’t quite reached Keith Richards or Mick Jaggers heights just yet it seems all too easy for us to overlook the size of their achievements to date.
Obviously, you may beg to differ, in which case you’ll probably enjoy these bands on amazingtunes, influenced by The Stones. But for all you nodding Oasis fans, check out some of these and see if you can spot who will ship the next 50m records.

…amazingtunes

Around 13million people tuned in to watch the final of Britain’s Got Talent last weekend – the largest viewing figures of 2008 to date no less – as George Sampson danced his way to success.

I must admit, I didn’t watch the final, nor have I really been following the series at all. I am relatively opposed to the spiraling number of talent show come phone-in schemes from ITV, seemingly targeted at further lining Simon Cowell’s pockets. However I was intrigued by the aftershock of the event which has seen the song that George danced to, Dancin’ in the Rain by Mint Royale, fly to the top in the midweek charts with some reports claiming it is outselling it’s nearest rival 2 to 1. What got me interested though was the fact that I know this song has been about for some time, 3 years in fact, and to date it has never really achieved any great amount of chart success until its accompaniment to the Britain’s Got Talent winning act. The key to it’s success however lies in iTunes, and it presently resides atop of the iTunes music download chart displaying the convenience for the consumer of iTunes’ presence within every broadband owning home – and what’s, more the willingness the consumer now seems to have in utilising this convenience. The rise of the song that had seemingly long since been put to the side is going to show what kind of impact the digital downloads market can have, and at what point will they start stating within the advert what song has been used in that advert so that a subsequent iTunes purchase can be made? I for one believe that tapping into this ‘whim purchase’ model of selling, through digital outlets – namely iTunes – could soon become a very possible means of generating recording sales for the industry, with cult tracks quickly reflecting their television presence through download sales. Though I do feel concerned this may herald a period of regurgitation of yesterdays tracks repositioned amongst suitable accompaniment.

Before I sign off I’d like to make mention that amazingtunes.com wish all the best to Spokes, the Sound08 winners who go out this Saturday at Rockness to play to the masses in their winners slot.

…amazingtunes.com

It has come about, through what I can only imagine was an interesting period of research, that music can enhance the taste of wine. The claims are so strong that they could lead drinks manufacturers to placing musical recommendations on particular bottles to improve the drinking experience.

Apparently, cabernet sauvignon goes down well with the heavy music – that’s Hendrix or Stones “heavy”, not Meshuggah or Slayer – while Merlot can be washed down with some Otis Redding (Sitting On The Dock Of The Bay).

The study, undertaken by the Heriot Watt University on behalf of Chilean winemaker Aurelio Montes, may not be quite so conclusive when considering that the research employed the wine tasting skills of 250 students – whose payment for this research was a free glass of wine. That said, it at least provides me the opportunity to go home and second the research with my own wine tasting session…

…amazingtunes.com

Being aware of the football fever that has enveloped the office I began thinking myself of the beautiful synergy that lies between the worlds of football and music. I obviously use the word ‘beautiful’ in a loose sense, like when Jarvis Cocker bared his rear at the Brits, or when a baby belches, but seriously, there is a definite place for song in sport. Maybe not quite so befitting when it’s a mullet laden Chris Waddle and Glen Hoddle, but playing some grooving samba over the top of a bit Brazilian wizardry is a bit like putting worcester source on cheese on toast. It works. Take ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ away from the Anfield terraces and you’d be removing the ‘twelfth man’, and what kind of disrepair would the game find itself in if fans couldn’t amend the lyrics of Jeff Becks ‘High Ho Silver Lining’ to ridicule the opposing manager.

Thanks to the wonders that be the Spice Girls found themselves releasing a Word Cup Anthem for England, as did Embrace, and Crazy Frog. Obviously errors in judgement can be made… but who could forget ‘World in Motion’ by New Order with ‘that’ John Barnes rap, and there’s always a place in my heart for the Euro ‘96 anthem ‘Three Lions’ from Baddiel and Skinner and The Lightning Seeds.

Anyhow, the guys at amazingtunes have opened the doors to your own efforts and I’d be lying if I were to say I wasn’t excited about the prospect. I’m – amongst other things reluctant to admit – a Sheffield Wednesday fan, which means I don’t really have much to sing about, but with the lows, comes the highs, and there are some clubs that would be desperate to cap a great season with a bangin’ anthem. I think it’s time to reignite the passion encapsulated in a good old English football anthem.

What if my girlfriend thought that the soccer in some way genuinely encouraged musical endeavors, never would week-night champions league football viewing be deemed counter-productive and “boring” again…. well…

…amazingtunes.com

It’s a given that Sony BMG are fairly active in the world of piracy due to the current state of affairs in the industry, bringing to justice those ‘evil’ propagators and perpetrators of illegal file sharing.

It turns out however that they’ve been busier than you may think; in between the numerous individual court cases and the anti-piracy software that they hid in their CDs – to the outrage of many – they’ve found time to bag themselves a slice of the free illegal software pie.

PointDev, a software company from France, got tipped off to Sony BMG using their software with a pirated license code, with a subsequent raid confirming the illegal usage of the software. To further taint Sony BMG’s image, and illuminate their hypocrisy, the Business Software Alliance suspects that up to 47 percent of the software installed on Sony BMG’s computers could be pirated.

It’s all a bit ironic really.

…amazingtunes.com