Helloween - "Gambling With the Devil"
Count me amongst the fans who prefer the Deris era over their 80s material. I quite like his "Paul Di'Anno" rasp but really prefer this era's mix of power metal and hard rock. They really pull it off well.

Savage Oath - Wings of Vengeance

Probably the most Twisted Tower Dire thing in years, even more than the last actual TTD record. Sounding cool. Nice galloping Maiden-isms, nice high, aggressive singing.

Necrophobic - Mark of the Necrogram

More fleshed out - more complex. They have a nice bite to everything, so the melodic stuff always comes off the right way for extreme metal.

Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days

I miss Chris Cornell so much man, what a voice, what an amazing singer.

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

Might have to do a mea culpa on this one... it's never gonna be like what I loved about their classics from the 70s or whatever, but they do get the assignment, so to speak, they just write big, heavy and catchy stuff. Not sure I'll always be in the mood but there's really not much to fault it for on its own merits, aside from the pretty safe presentation of it all. But it's a Seinfeld effect thing where they did invent most of the tropes I'm tired of anyway. Rob sounds good - the hooks are impactful. I can see it.

Judas Priest - Sin After Sin

Remarkably heavy and full of presence and gravitas; they really nailed the kind of rock and roll ethos of just making in-your-face music you couldn't forget. Such intricate, bluesy, intriguing melodies on the old shit too.

Altar of Betelgeuze - Echoes

Epic Doom/Death. Yes, that's the rightful subgenre descriptor for this. The riffs are fat and they cycle through some really cool patterns. The growls are there and are serviceable and the cleans are soaring. I'll proceed to check out the rest of the album.

Commoner - Cthulhunaut

Commoner are from England but this plays like it came from Indiana because it sounds like kith and kin of The Gates of Slumber. Pretty cool doom niceness when it's on but nothing singular stands out.

Die Like Gentlemen - Ten Hells

Riffs are alright but the stentorian vocals are what really elevate this. He sells the narrative bit with just the right touch of pomp and croon; the music although largely unremarkable wraps around the vocals so well.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten

This classic is always in the rotation.

I am the Intimidator - s/t

This is like a crazy metallized version of the Sturgill Simpson Sound & Fury album - wild, brash music, completely singular. I love this shit.

Yep absolutely…

And I think that too Angel Rat is genial…

In another way…

I listened to it and can't remember any of it. It was not bad, but none of it stuck. Though I am not a huge FW fan. No Exit is a great album no doubt. But I haven't dug into them all that deep beyond that and Parallels.

Evereve - Regret

One of those usual gothic, electronica driven metal albums from the late 90's, but this is done right. It seems I'm a huge sucker for this kind of albums - melancholic, desperate, and pumping; modern sounding, with tons of background noise, effects and spoken words. As it seems, this one is dedicated to their past vocalist (great vocals btw) who committed suicide prior to this record.

Carcass - Setlist
EyeHateGod - S/T
Usurper - Skeletal Season

The soundtrack to this evenings walk. Seeing Carcass in exactly 2 weeks time, can't wait!

Burzum - Hit helga Tré

Spinning ''Umskiptar'' again today.
It's great!

Vision Master - Wolves in the Shadows

Recently received the CD. Very original, quite weird and diverse, vocals took me sometime to get into and the same goes for the album. A real grower. Wolves in the Shadows is the opener and it kicks ass.

Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Slough Feg - Down Among the Deadmen

The SF is just such an all-timer. I've already said a lot over the years. Aqualung, I hadn't really remembered what it sounded like... not really that different from the folk albums I bought a while ago, but the heavier moments really make it more well-rounded and the songwriting's completely on point, a great work. It's also kind of crazy to me that this kind of outsider music, very niche and not really poppy at all, got so big - goes to show ya. Then again it's almost beyond time - a sort of bard, singer songwriter thing that goes back to the origin of what music even is...

Indeed. That would never happen today.
The early-mid 70s were a magical time for music, before the 'departmentalization', & niches began to emerge.

I was just going to say that. I listen to 70's music and its obvious all the rules didn't exist. Rock radio formulas were not set in stone. I was listening to John Mellencamp and he had a Top 40 hit with a song that had 2 and half minutes of instrumentals and guitar noodling before the any lyrics started. Listen to early Sabbath and Priest and how they are all over. Sure there was plenty of schlock, but it seemed easier to become a star and not play 2.5 minute songs with the chorus having to hit in 16 seconds before the listener hits skip...

The music industry is so different, and the music habits of people even more so, that its hard to compare now and then. Sure you can say that the top stuff on Radio, or Spotify, is trite, but then you can find a dedicated stream of incredibly niche music. Most of us are off in our own little customized world of music.

NP - Yes - Roundabout

Worth it for that bass alone.

Black Curse - Enraptured by Decay

Demented vocals, tunneling guitars; death metal to the bone!

Yeah. Blue Oyster Cult is another one. Very catchy stuff but at the same time, the weirdest aesthetic and vibe in the world. Totally unlike anything "normal."

Neurosis - Times of Grace

Filling in more of the gaps I never heard from them... this sounds thundering as usual for them. Imposing as fuck.

Rage - Afterlifelines

Sounding great so far.

Darkthrone - Dead Early

Rocking!
Really enjoy newer Darkthrone these days.

Delain - Dark Waters

'Moth to a Flame' was and still is playing a lot in radio over here. Took some time for me to get the album, but it's absolutely catchy and NOT shallow at all. Fantastic!!!! Instrumental tracks are nice way to hear how well it's done as Diana Leah's vice will steal your soul and who cares about the music then?!??!

Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal

Hands down one of my favorite albums of all time. Going on 33 years and I never get tired of these songs.

Order From Chaos - Stillbirth Machine

Killer cult album from 1992 that is further proof that black metal was about more than just fuckin Norway. This band is one of the greats and their discography is outstanding.

Mekong Delta Moderato(from Lurking Fear)

Wow Predator soundtrack plus heavy metal=awesomeness

Witchfinder General - Death Penalty

Classic doom/NWOBHM record.

Gamma Ray- Empire Of the Undead

Happy 10th anniversary, but man they were out of ideas here. I think Gamma Ray should stay broken up at this point. They had a good run. But remaster and re-release Somewhere Out In Space through Majestic first (boy did the Helloween reunion put the Gamma Ray remasters to a halt or what?)

Morrissey- Vauxhall and I

This feels like The Bends before The Bends.

Mom I want Bruce Dickinson for a singer! We have Bruce Dickinson for a singer at home dear.

Bruce Dickinson at home:

Fates Warning- Without A Trace

Completely reductive way to see it.

Judas Priest - Invincible Shield

Fun time. Remembering why they're good, one of those times every few years...

This was an interesting album and a departure for Mekong Delta, Leo Spiegel on vocals gave it a power metal feel which was uncharacteristic and then they had Eric Grosch from Annon Vin engineering and it felt like this album took on some of Annon Vin's sound as well. One of my favorite bands.

Dream Theater - Octavarium

Still one of the greatest progressive rock songs ever made and one of the band's very best!

I am the Intimidator - s/t

This is outrageously good... clearly a singular vision and the vision is just to rock the fuck out. It's brilliant and accomplishes everything it wanted.

Alchemist - Jar Of Kingdom + Demo '91
Alchemist - Lunasphere

I first heard Alchemist and the track Escapism when it was included on the Redrum comp in 1993. Taken from Demo '91 it was like nothing I had heard before, bizarre, unique and a little creepy, it was so fuckin cool and I wanted more but it wasn't until '95 that I finally got the opportunity to buy an album of theirs, which was the awesome Lunasphere. Great to have it back in the collection along with the utterly fantastic one of a kind Jar Of Kingdom album (which includes the excellent Demo '91).

One of greatest performance of a singer in history of metal..

Satanic Warmaster Nuin-Gaer-Faun followed by Winter’s Hunger followed by Funeral Wolves

Ok this man can be controversial(euphemism)but his music is divine

Grave Miasma - Ascension Eye

I could have done with some minutes cut off, but this certainly sounds impressive. What a wall of foreboding sound.

Odori Sepolcrorum is an incredible album

Smell of ossuary

My Dying Bride - A Mortal Binding

Some enjoyable ideas here and there, but overall a pretty standard album for MDB, in line with with their latest albums. At least some songs stand out, contrary with most their records post-Songs of Darkness.

People really need to stop saying reductive like it's a bad thing.


The Green Lung- The Ancient Ways

These are so goddamn good. They better be the next crossover stars.

I'm pretty sure it will be a solid album, as usual for them. Question is why are you listening to a leaked version??

Engulfed - Cycle of Black Altar

More blasting and bombastic death metal mayhem.