Turn It Up To 11: Noble Luke Of Artillerie, Blind Image

Artillerie and Blind Image vocalist Noble Luke on stage at the Rolling Stone Metal Awards 2011. Photo: Monisha Ajgaonkar

Noble Luke, vocalist of thrash/groove metal band Blind Image and progressive/tech metal band Artillerie, knows how to keep things metal, with a growl which commands everyone’s attention. Drawing from Jens Kidman of Swedish prog metallers Meshuggah, Luke was nominated for Best Vocalist in 2011, with Artillerie picking up nominations in Best Band, Best Guitarist, Best Drummer, Best Artwork and Best Album categories for their album, Eradefiled. 

Devin Townsend Project ”“ “Awake”

Devin Townsend is one of my major influences when it comes to vocals and songwriting. This song moves effortlessly between macabre and joy, and that to me is true art. And yeah, Anneke [van Giersbergen]’s vocals on this song are just hair-raisingly beautiful and unworldly. 

Strapping Young Lad ”“ “Love?” 

Maybe I am bi-polar as well, but yes, I love Devin’s older alter ego as much! I have been listening to a lot of Strapping these days, rediscovering a lot of their stuff, but their trademark, heaviest, angriest and best song to me will always be “Love?” 

Foo Fighters ”“ “Walk”

Call them mainstream or whatever, but for me Foo Fighters are a band that command respect. This song has a very sincere, prayer-like honesty, but is unapologetic at the same time. Simple, but brilliant songwriting. 

Africa Hitech ”“ “Lash Out”

I have to thank the makers of Sleeping Dogs for choosing some of the best in-game soundtracks. I ended up discovering a lot of relatively unheard music and musicians through that game spanning across a very wide set of genre. Though electronic, this song is downright hardcore and bad ass. Very metal! 

Meshuggah ”“ “Swarm”

Okay, it is dangerous to do this, and it’s not really advisable, especially for noobs, but I like listening to music and riding my bike. And this is that perfect song which gives me perspective as I fight all the mad traffic. “Swarm”? Yes indeed!