I think there are actually two amazing things here:

1) “[Y]ou somehow have managed to avoid the calcification of musical tastes that is a basic biological fact of age. How did you do that?”  I agree, this is truly exceptional.  In case you want to know what the near opposite of what you have been able to achieve is, here is a list of the ten albums I have most recently purchased:

• Candlemass — The Door to Doom
• Dream Theater – Distance over Time
• Overkill – The Wings of War
• Visions of Atlantis – The Deep & The Dark Live @ Symphonic Metal Night
• Avantasia – Moonglow
• Beast in Black – From Hell with Love
• Evergrey – The Atlantic
• Within Temptation – Resist
• Ancient Bards – Origine: The Black Crystal Sword Saga PT.

Thank you, my friend! I think the First Listens have had the key effect of keeping my tastes fluid and evolving. I’ll keep that going, as I said, so that I can That, and being in frequent contact with other (younger?) metalheads in my area; these folks are not shy about talking at me about <insert random band or subgenre> at me until I relent and promise to give it a listen with an open mind.

Very nice work, my friend. I’m sorry that I haven’t had the time to fully invest in your project, namely that I don’t know a substantial number of the albums you have reported on. That comes to the most impressive aspect of your project: you listen to a shit ton of albums!

I just watched it the other day—it was pretty sweet, though some of it, especially the end, felt a little rushed.

The parts about the recording of Human and ITP were especially enjoyable. Good stuff!