I don't want to write another sad article.
Depressing intro
I'm sitting here head empty, thoughts churning like a brewing thunderstorm -- all gloom and promise of disaster and despair.
No prompts in my head work, can't motivate to play a game -- can't motivatge to do any of the other things I ought to be doing.
The only thing keeping me sane is music: Two Steps From Hell -- Battleborne; check out the album, it's amazing; a movie soundtrack without the movie!
And I don't want to write yet another stupid article about me being down in the dumps even though I admit my opening there wasn't a great way to go about it.
No. I won't. Stop. Right. There.
Instead I'll tell you about the things that lift me up, inspire me, give me direction. In the hope that by the end of this article, it'll all make sense to me as well and I can finally be free of my doubt.
No matter where I am, all I need to do is put music on. Have that one ray of sunshine thought. One warm memory. One bright idea.
Playlists/styles
Music is my one constant escape from darkness.
Metal: Manowar, Dragonforce, Doro/Warlock, Iron Fire, Iron Maiden, Motorhead (& more, this is just highlights)
Gothic: Beyond the Black, Nightwish, After Forever, Epica, ReVamp, The Gathering, Within Temptation ...
Bombastic instrumentals: Ayreon, Stratovarius, Visions of Atlantis, Two Steps from Hell
Synthesizer: Jean-Michel Jarre, Vangelis, Boris Blank (one half of Yello), any number of game composers
Anime soundtracks: Bubblegum Crisis, Gundam, Macross, Robotech (heresy I know), so many memories of Saturday morning cartoons and those title themes ...
Game soundtracks: Guild Wars 1, Aion, Final Fantasy XIV, so many more I managed to get tunes from; either by outright buying sountracks or by liberating them from the game files
Classic pop (80/90s): Yes. Too many to list. Here's a Youtube playlist with just a few highlights (and oddballs)
90s Dance/rave music: Also so damn many influences, here's another playlist to explore, by no means exhaustive
EDM: oh boy, here's another one to go through (so many names that would mean nothing, I can only explain by presenting and letting you listen)
Music is my mood stabilizer. What I put on depends on how I feel, but putting it on instantly improves it.
Having (by now) listened to ~half an hour of Two Steps from Hell has largely cleared my mind - not quite driven out all the clouds, but at least not the angry thunderheads from before. Mentally now sitting under moonlight occasionally partially obscured by a small cloud drifting by ...
I'm sorry I have no revelation or anything actually useful to share, just needed to get this out of my head and my 'therapy' seems to be writing it all out.
Just put on Boris Blank's Resonance album, wrote a prompt for the cover image - first try looked good enough to use.
Thank you all if you got here~
Songs played during writing:
Two Steps from Hell - Last of the Light (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Ultraground (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Release Me (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Freedom Ship (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Amaria (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Flight of the Silverbird (Battleborne Disc 2) *link is an extended version/fan upload, not official
Two Steps from Hell - Sariel (Battleborne Disc 2)
Two Steps from Hell - Star Sky (Battleborne Disc 2)
Boris Blank - Vertigo Heroes Part 1 (Resonance)