The Last Sound You'll Hear

 - O lost, and by the wind grieved, ghost, come back again*

Another tough year in America, another list chronicling the demise of people of whom you and I might both have heard. Some of the deaths this year surprised me, mostly because I wasn't sure they were still alive. Some death notices made me consider whether I'd already bought their albums, as the prices would most likely go way up. I was also a little more selective with this year's list. Collecting the death of every famous I'd ever heard of, even if I couldn't recall any context or recollection of their face seemed to cheapen a list of people I did remember, and at least one of whose death affected me viscerally.

Miguel Ferrer

Mary Tyler Moore

Bob Anderson

John Hurt

Packy

Richard Hatch

Dick Bruna

Kuno Maliepaard

Bill Paxton

Judge Joseph Wapner

Chuck Berry

Sib Hashian

Don Rickles

Jim Marshall

Charlie Murphy

Robert Persig

Chris Cornell

Roger Moore

Gregg Allmann

Jonathan Demme

Adam West

Chester Bennington

George Romero

Glen Campbell

Jerry Lewis

Walter Becker

Tobe Hooper

Hugh Hefner

Tom Petty

Gord Downie

Malcolm Young

Charles Manson

Della Reese

David Cassidy

Fats Domino

J Geils

Sue Grafton

Testing the Metal

During the Christmas Season of 2014, my drummer Merlin gave me a book about black metal, a subgenre of metal known as much for teenage misbehavior as for substandard recordings. I'd already read Michael Moynihan's Lords of Chaos, which detailed some of these criminal rampages. This newer book, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, mentions many of the same events, but is also more focused on the steps that these same bands took while evolving from early thrash through second-wave to avant-garde experiments. The author, Dayal Patterson, discusses the boundary-pushing that led to some of the milestones of the genre, such as Burzum's droning masterpiece of ambience Dunkelheit (the first black metal song I'd ever heard) or Wolves in the Throne Room's evolved production on post-black metal tour de force Two Hunters.
In an effort to further understand a genre that I love and in accordance with completist tendencies, I listened to every album mentioned in the book. There were a few more that I came across or were suggested to me while working on this project that weren't listed in the book; I think of them as extra credit.
Keep in mind, each item listed below is an entire album, whether LP, EP, or split. This has been a 2 1/2 year listening project.

Venom - Welcome to Hell

Venom - Black Metal

Venom - At War With Satan

Mercyful Fate - Melissa

Mercyful Fate - Don't Break the Oath

Third One Year Old

Death in the Afternoon

This last year has been filled with disappointing news. Many famous people passed away, some seemingly well before their time. On the other hand, people that may have nothing good left to offer are left behind to plague the rest of us. The randomness of fate, the repercussions of self-abuse, the inescapable hand of death, have cut short the lives of many whom we expected to watch in the future. In a mostly chronological order:

Angus Scrimm
David Bowie
Alan Rickman
Glenn Frey
LaVoy Finicum
Abe Vigoda
Antonin Scalia
Umberto Eco
Harper Lee
Nancy Reagan
Sir George Martin
Keith Emerson
Garry Shandling
Merle Haggard
Chyna
Lonnie Mack
Prince
Morley Safer
Nick Menza
Burt Kwouk
Harambe
Muhammad Ali
Stuart Anderson
Gordie Howe
Anton Yelchin
Scotty Moore
Elie Wiesel
Fred Tomlinson
Miss Cleo
Kenny Baker
Lou Pearlman
Gene Wilder
Arnold Palmer
Steve Dillon
Leonard Cohen
Janet Reno
Ron Glass
Greg Lake
John Glenn
Alan Thicke
Zsa Zsa Gabor
Florence Henderson
Fidel Castro
Dave Mirra
Boutros Boutros-Ghali
Rob Ford
Tim LaHaye
George Michael
Richard Adams
Carrie Fisher
Debbie Reynolds