Alphabet playlist of metal—the ‘A’ fortnight

Last year, I challenged myself to a monthly video blog post that focused on a new guitar riff that I created in that month. It was a lot more effort than I realised—writing, recording and replicating for video takes time. But it was a challenge that I’m going to say I completed successfully.

2019 needs a new challenge. It needs to be something different and I am looking for a challenge of a different type. Luckily, I worked out that there are 26 letters in the alphabet and 26 fortnights in a year. So the challenge begins.

One of the weird and wonderful things I challenged myself with personally last year—that doesn’t feel weird at all to say on this first day of 2019—was asking my work colleagues to randomly choose a letter for me so I could use that letter to determine the musical artist I would listen to on my drive home from work.

I ended up with a daily surprise and some great variety. It kept my musical experience fresh each and every day. It was also fun. That’s what got me thinking about the new challenge I have now set myself for this new year.

The challenge

I will listen to a playlist of music for a fortnight and each artist or band will have a name that starts with that fortnight’s letter. Some fortnights will have a list that is shorter than others, but I’m also hoping my online friends will help me discover new bands every two weeks.

Please feel free to send me suggestions in the comments below, on Twitter or on Facebook.

By the way, I am aware that the word fortnight isn’t as widely used/understood as it is here in Australia. A fortnight is two weeks in time. It’s not some kind of game that the majority of the world seems to be fascinated with. That would be Fortnite and I can’t play a game that is spelled like that.

I’m also not a big gamer, so there’s that too. Back to the challenge though.

Each band or artist can only have one song in the playlist. I can’t appear to have a favourite after all. The only appearance of favouritism is the individual track I choose for each artist. These are my preferences after all.

To get the ball rolling on this challenge, I begin with my playlist for the letter A. The initial list consists of:

• Alice In Chains—Would?
• Anthrax—Now It’s Dark
• Aerosmith—Dream On
• A Perfect Circle—Judith
• Angels & Airwaves—Call To Arms
• Audioslave—Cochise
• AC/DC—Hells Bells
• AFI—Miss Murder
• Avenged Sevenfold—Beast And The Harlot
• ASHES dIVIDE—The Stone
• Alter Bridge—Black Bird
• Alice Cooper—Poison

Is there a heavy rock or metal artist that you’d include? Let me know. I’m always open to listening to new bands. I just need to be able to listen to their music on Google Play Music.

Let the musical discovery begin.