This section is called like it is, because in my case it is true, music really rules. I can't imagine what it would be like without music and I love almost every kind of music from opera to black metal.
As long as there is something in the music that appeals to my emotions, even without knowing the lyrics, if there are any, I'm bound to like it...
This section is split in two parts, first a few links to pages of bands I like and second a piece about MP3-files...read on...

Savatage
this band brings a great blend of metal and symphonic rock. Sounds a bit of a strange combo, but once you've heard them you'll love it...
"From the gutter to the stage"  is a compilation of some of their best songs ever...

Life of Agony
A band that produces great metal, sometimes hardcore, sometimes plain metal, always full of emotions...
This album called "Soul searching sun" is a jewel, make sure you listen to it, especially the song called: "My mind is dangerous". Keith Caputo is God !!!!!

Who hasn't heard of MP3 encoding by now ?
It is a way of reducing the filesize for a regular song of 3 minutes from about 30 Mb to 3 Mb, so you don't fill your harddisk with 20 songs anymore...instead you can store about 2000 !!!!

All you need are a few simple tools.
First you'll need a CD-ripper, an encoder and a player...
I'll deal with each one separately.

The CD-ripper is a program that allows you to record digital audio from CD to a wav-file. There are a few around and if you have a Sounblaster soundcard, you'll get one for free called Creative Wave.
I use Goldwave 3.24 because of its easy use and plenty capabilities.

Then you have to encode the wav-file to MP3 which you can do with a number of encoders...Try MP3.com, they got plenty of encoders that you can download (they also got rippers and players).

Finally, a player.
Again there are lots of them around, but one of the best known players is Winamp, which has a lot of extra options like plug-ins and "skins", a custom look for your player...

Have fun...and if you want to trade some MP3's, just drop me a line and I'll send you a list...