House of Gold and Bones

Album Cover for Part I

Music and nature are the two things that inspire me the most to write. The two of them together are the perfect cocktail for a delightfully dark story from my mind. My music selection is all over the place though mostly in the rock genre. Lately I've been listening to a lot of Stone Sour which is one of my all time favorite bands. Their music paints these pictures of scenes and I can drop my characters into. These scenes then blossom into great stories.

So what does this have to do with bones you ask? Well the newest Stone Sour album is titled "House of Gold and Bones." This is more than perfect for my writing and for this blog party. This album is hauntingly beautiful while being majorly kick ass. The second part of the album hasn't been released yet but they are streaming it on their site now if you want to check it out: http://stonesour.com/albumstream.

Album Art for Part II

They have a wonderful blend of hard rock, beautiful vocals, and dark subject matters. Some of you might know the lead singer Corey Taylor who was previously singing vocals for Slipknot. Just think of Stone Sour as Slipknot minus the maggots and masks. Some of their songs have you wanting to head bang  (which I wouldn't suggest doing in your car while driving down the highway, and yes I know this from experience) where some have to holding up your lighter and swaying back and forth. This range is what made me fall in love with them.

I have the distinct pleasure of seeing them in concert one week from today which is the perfect reason to post this blog entry. The venue is a couple blocks from work so I just COULDN'T pass up the opportunity to see them live for the first time. They're one of the few bands that I am willing to pay any amount of money (well within reason) to see live. Their concerts are known for being a whole show and experience rather than just the singers/musicians rocking away on stage. I know that I will come away from the concert next week being inspired to write a new short story to my "Chronicles of a Freak" series.