Bite Strong and Love Religion of the Hammer – Music of December 2021

I slept all morning after working my last night shift for the month and woke once I started to crave some tea.

Before working nights for the first time in October, I read countless tips online about how to survive them. Some people said drink your caffeine or take an afternoon nap prior to the first one. I tried the latter but my body just didn’t want to sleep, so the really the best thing you can do is just listen to your body. If you’re tired, sleep, if not, don’t. If you’re hungry, eat, etc.

I almost cancelled this monthly post because I had a rough start to the holidays, not just because I was working nights on Christmas and Boxing Day, but my remaining cat (the first one died in April this year) got very sick the past week and we made the choice to put him to sleep after we could no longer watch him slowly waste away.

I am devastated still now that both of my furry feline friends are gone to Rainbow Bridge, even if they are reunited. I’m sure I will have another cat in the future because I love cats, but these two were the first cats I ever had for fourteen years of my life. I will always have constant memories of them.

Despite this loss, I still wanted to do my usual post for this month and the final for this year.

Avril Lavigne – Bite Me

Avril is back again! This sounds just like the sound and image I grew up with, oh how I missed it. I mean, her last album was a lot softer and focused more on her piano sound and she had just come back from a break due to personal and medical reasons who knows why she shifted her focus, the point is, I’m happy to see her classic punk rock image resurface with this single.

The music video is definitely something I would expect from her so there’s not much to say on that. I hope her next album has a sound like this, it would definitely give me memories of the time I listened to her first three albums constantly in middle school.

Anette Olzon – Strong

Look who’s making more music! I’ve always loved Anette, and when I got into Nightwish, the albums she sang on were the first ones I listened to. After her departure, she started another band The Dark Element. This song is from her latest solo album.

It definitely sounds different than what I’m used to from her and it makes me want to listen to the rest of the album!

Kylie Minogue – Love At First Sight

How did I discover this song? Oh yeah, I think my coworker was playing it. It’s just a random cute pop song that my ears just took in.

The chorus just makes me think of any time where I get into a metal musician (whether in a band or solo) I become attracted to them without even knowing it until I start to have dreams! The first stage of developing a fictional or celebrity crush for me is having dreams hahaha!

Who is it this time? Well, I’ll let you figure it out, but the first time I heard him, that was it. Anyway, this is a pretty song and I love it.

Lana Del Rey – Religion

I may have come across this artist before, but I never hear her on the radio, so social media is where I turn to.

This song I first heard a snippet of when one of my new friends on Instagram made a video edit about a character we both love using this song. I can see why she uses it to describe her love for the character. So I decided to listen to the full song and it’s very pretty. Lana is very talented, I want to hear more from her.

HammerFall – Hammer Of Dawn

Oh look, a new HammerFall single! I don’t normally drop everything when they put something out, but this time I did.

This song has a great intro and I like the melody and riff. It isn’t perfect, I’ve heard other songs by them that are way better than this one, but it’s still good. Not sure who the girl is in the music video. Let me just say, I rarely use the flashlight on my phone unless I really need to! What was she looking for? But then I got my answer at the end when she found the hammer, which I expected to be bigger, and then before I knew it, she was in the room that the band was just playing in, which looks like the inside of one of a haunted house. Where did they go and what is she gonna do with that little hammer?

Anyway, good song, I like it.

And that’s it, 2021 is now wrapped up. I suffered some losses this year, but I managed to pick myself up again and again. I think I’m going to go to bed now because coming off my last night shift and trying to swap back to a typical routine is tiring. Yeah, I never stay up until midnight on New Year’s Eve anymore. No drinking, no partying, just me in my PJs reading, gaming, writing, or watching a movie and then the lights are out by 2230 at the latest.

Happy New Year everyone, please let 2022 just bring the destruction of this damn pandemic already.

👽Emily