Desaster - The Oath of an Iron Ritual (3 reviews)

Desacrator - Subconscious Release (2 reviews)

Galloglass - Legends from Now and Nevermore (3 reviews)

Lunar Aurora - Of Stargates and Bloodstained Celestial Spheres (1 review)

Nagelfar - Srontgorrth (3 reviews)

Zephyrous - Towards... (3 reviews and one of them is mine)

Runemagick - Enter the Realm of Death

Heavy-as-%&%* death metal with a great sense of melody and varied songwriting. With the exception of the misleading opener, it's basically flawless.

Anthem - Hunting Time

Anthem's best and arguably the best heavy metal record of all time. Flashy production, focused writing and killer riff after killer riff. Not a fan of the misplaced hard rocker, but again, it's basically flawless otherwise.

Divine Eve - As the Angels Weep / Upon These Ashes Scorn the World

Both the EP and compilation album are incredibly overlooked. Some of the finest doom/death metal out there; gritty, heavy and riff-y as hell!

God Dethroned - The Christhunt

Extremely unique old school death metal. Think of Swedish ''melodic'' death metal meets 80's Bolt Thrower. A real gem of a record.

Flames - Summon the Dead

Elaborated and unique gritty thrash. Side B becomes even more unique; 'Avenger' is basically an early melodic death metal track and the closer sounds like a black metal tune.

Mefitis - Offscourings

My favorite recent-old school death metal record. You cal call it progressive, melodic or technical...but those terms hardly mean anything, since this band has a unique sound that's unlike any other band.

Worm - Gloomlord

Best doom/death metal of recent times. Think of Disembowelment meets...Goatlord? Fantastic stuff, really.

Two favourites of mine. Enter The Realm is the best Runemagick album by a mile. Crushing production as well as crushing everything else.
Given up hope for a new Divine Eve release.

Flames is a great band and this LP a good one but it's not underrated or not that obvious, 89%

Glad to hear, it's so underrated!

I've always been a big defender of Groza. 'Unified in void' had three 0% reviews on here which I think is just ridiculous - how many bands sound exactly like Darkthrone/Entombed/Bolt Thrower etc etc? - but since then a fourth one popped up giving it a much more objective 68%.
Second album 'The redemptive end' is even better but has equally silly reviews on here; one 0% (of course) and one 93% (I wouldn't go that far...).

Ancient Drive - Black Orgies

I am overdue for reviewing this album by 24 years.

Vindictiv- Cage of Infinity
Zero reviews, plus nobody I've ever met knows of this band, or has ever heard this album. It's a shame because I love that record.
Marco Sandron, to my ears has the perfect voice, I would listen to him sing a 1980's telephone book.
Where the hell are you Marco?
His vocal melodies are unforgettable.

first time I hear Surgical Steel by Carcass it was for me just another rock n roll metal, I just pass through intro and stopped. Then i saw them live and everything pop up like magic books. Surgical is one of my favortes albums of last 10 or 20 years, in my top whatever. I mourned old Carcass, fine, that's another, fine.

Then the next one is dispointment, nothing great, nothing bad but all diluted on f*** double plastic is way too much. It is almost desacralizing the previous one!

so why this one is better rated than surgical, that's my point here + the rating by itself

Seventh Omen - "Majestic"

Has one good (87%) review on the archives and that's a shame since this is such a great classic album of early Heavy/Power Metal. The entire album is chock full of great songs both lyrically and musically and it's a shame it didn't get more exposure. If I were to review it myself, I'd give it at least a 95% for how good it is with a few points off for the production having some room to be better.

The follow up album came 4 years later and it was nowhere near as good. It was a clear step down to mediocrity overall to my ears. But I think that first full album is one that everyone should list to at least one in it's entirety.

Wait, they have more than one album?! I think I've only heard Ecstasy and Danger. That's another one to track down and listen to sometime.

Avzhia - The key of throne

After EAD they released Too Hot which is also a classic and their first release is the full moon's eyes EP

Stormwitch's Stronger than Heaven

Such a gold standard release for me: recommended for anyone who loves classic metal with a macabre, gothic touch. The songs are all excellent, the production a big step up from the first two, the energy is infectious and - unusual for German metal of its era - it has really strong, evocative lyrics (thing of the album as a bit of a portmanteau of different tales of mystery and the macabre, and each works brilliantly). Great, great, album - 3 reviews (one's mine, one's 100% and one's a 65% [read: inaccurate ] review). I even travelled to see whatever version of Stormwitch are still active in Bavaria recently... they cancelled the gig at short notice, however.

Motorhead's Sacrifice still has only 3 reviews.

One of the best trad metal bands, these first few albums just hit all the boxes. Cool fucking riffs and catchy songs, it's endlessly enjoyable.

Sacred Oath - A Crystal Vision
Damien - Stop This War
Abyssos - Fhinsthanian Nightbreed
Disharmonic Orchestra - Pleasuredome
Nightfall - Athenian Echoes

In the Woods... - Omnio

Bizarre that this one has so few reviews, given how much better it is than the debut. It wasn't exactly obscure when it came out either.

Johansson - The Last Viking Not 1 review for this 90's gem where Anders and Jens team up with Michael Romeo and Goran Edmund.

Power - The Justice of Fire 1 review, 85%, fair but should be at least 5% higher and this may be the best thing Alan Tecchio ever did.

Holocaust's Covenant is still my favorite album of all time and it's sitting at 3 reviews. Just noticed bayern did one a couple years back and he gave it a...63? That's the first time I've heard someone talking about it who really just didn't like it. Though you barely hear it talked about it at all, to be fair. This one and Hypnosis of Birds seem to generally be quite highly rated by those who are into this kind of prog stuff. Hypnosis is ineligible at 4 reviews though and still has a 97% average so I guess it's pretty much appropriately rated.

Sons of Crom's Riddle of Steel is also a modern favorite of mine sitting at 3 reviews currently, a brilliant blend of Bathory-inspired Viking-ish metal blended with more melodic and symphonic elements and a sort of cinematic scope that just makes it into a really complete and unique experience.

Hanker's The Dead Ringer is also sitting at 2 reviews and is one of my favorite power metal albums, such a sophisticated and yet heartfelt concept album that explores some really interesting themes both musically and lyrically, definitely overlooked to an extent.

I know these albums are generally pretty beloved by the few who are actually into them but they're just some that are a bit out there or don't fit into a specific era or genre that's really all that popular, a bit more "niche" I guess. It is interesting to look at some of my top favorites and see which ones are barely talked about, though - and since I've reviewed all of these, the number of other people who have talked about them is even smaller than it might look.


Oh yeah, this is a great pick too, fantastic USPM album with its own unique blend of styles that released and just kind of disappeared...not a fan of the band's modern stuff but that album really stands on its own as an interesting addition to USPM.

Walpyrgus - Walpyrgus Nights. While it does have favourable reviews, it only has 3, which meets the quota for this thread.

https://www.metal-archives.com/albums/W ... hts/647540

This is a trad. Heavy Metal album that single handedly got me super interested in the revival of the genre. Bands like Visigoth and Eternal Champion got a lot more attention, but this one is my favourite. The Dead Of Night is one of my favourite metal song of the last 10 years or so, with that huge Thin Lizzy-worshiping ending.

Hell yeah, I love this album. I remember when it came out I was travelling in Estonia and Latvia for a few weeks and I had that thing on repeat. Must have listened to it 15 times just while I was there.

That's a good one. I like it when the new trad bands lean toward the easier, more fun, rocking side of things, it seems like it creates better results more often. The epic stuff needs a certain deft hand.

Last two albums by Selbst have no reviews at all, with this year's "Despondent Chord Progressions" going strongly for the AOTY place. I know it's black metal, but it's tastefully done with a lot of variety in riffing and the general atmosphere

Yep, this thing is a masterpiece. One of my most listened-to summer albums. Just checked their Facebook and they're currently in the studio working on a follow-up!

Great call. It's one of the true masterpieces of the 90s post-black explosion.
And it's stood the test of time quite well.

That's great news, a day 1 buy for me.

There's an obscure NWOBHM band called Kraken that had an EP called Fantasy Reality. It is one of the oddest, low quality recordings I have ever heard. To this day, I have absolutely no idea what the three songs are about, because I can't make out the lyrics. I came across it decades ago, and it still receives regular spins to this day for me. It was re-released by a Greek company a couple of years back, and while it is cleaned up, unfortunately it has not helped the audio quality enough.

https://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Kraken/30585

Heavenwood's Swallow album has only one poorly review, and hell, it deserves much more. Just great music is lying there, collecting dust...

some record are so out of usual you could wonder how this happen, just like creativity blows out exceptionaly for some reason you can't explain... I mean, no surprise for Metallica's masterpieces, no surprise when Megadeth did great over the great when they got full time full money and big help around. But how, for example, the Znowhite Act of god happen to be, mystere!

there's another one, few others but this one : Living Death "World neuroses" ! I like this band, they played quite hysterical thrash alongside other german bands such Mekong Delta, Rage and so on. All of their records are quite good, but this one is just out of the rest, some songs are really crazy, from first track "Last birthday" to main title "World neuroses" and "Die young", "Schizophrenia".... so this got 78% with 4 reviews, that's fine but far from many many others with better reviews imo.

I would say almost the same for Mortal Sin "Face of despair" but with a tiny less enthousiasm because I agree this one is good (to me) because it's a little weak in some way

(and yes it is frustrating this english, it is the break for writing review for many non english I guess)

Bloody Blasphemy by God Dethroned easily. It's rated at an 100 but it only has 1 review.

Great band that rarely gets mentioned. Personally I don't find myself listening to Swallow very often as I prefer the debut, but now I'm kind of in the mood to re-visit it.

Every Lullacry album has three reviews or less. A shame, as I think they were a great band - melodic, poppy, catchy heavy metal / hard rock (although probably too sugary for some). Be My God, Crucify My Heart, and (especially) Vol. 4 were all top notch. Might have to do some reviews to get the average scores up.

And as I've just reported them as active again, I see A Sound of Thunder don't have many reviews. Out of the Darkness in particular is a fantastic heavy metal album (only 1 review, but a fully deserved 90% score).

SAME. I pretty much *only* listen to it in the summer, but it is always up there with Jailbreak, CCR, and Van Halen as my most played stuff in the summer. So great to hear a follow-up is coming finally.

The big ones for me are:

Dressed in Streams.
Their entire discography has at most two reviews, but the majority have none or one. Very unique atmospheric black metal. I like all of their stuff, but these are my favorites:
https://colloquialsoundrecordings.bandc ... -for-blood
https://colloquialsoundrecordings.bandcamp.com/album/-
https://colloquialsoundrecordings.bandc ... de-mataram

Standing on a Floor of Bodies. Very visceral, dirty, and noisy bass and drum grindcore by Mike Stitches, who did thousandswilldie. All of their releases have zero reviews.
Here's their only full-length:
https://7degreesrecords.bandcamp.com/al ... ficient-12

But all of their stuff is great, especially once BVNNY did additional vocals.:
https://standingonafloorofbodies.bandcamp.com/

Mike Stitches does KAGENEKO now, which has similar vibes, but no female vocals and also zero reviews:
https://getmerked.bandcamp.com/album/me ... neko-split
https://bentwindowrecords.bandcamp.com/ ... ngue-split
https://soundcloud.com/kageneko/ichiban-demo

Oh, there are tens of those... Some that spring to mind:

From the 80s and if I had to pick just one answer; one of my favorite heavy metal albums of all time and my favorite female vocalist and one of my favorite songs ever (top ten): Zed Yago - The Fear of Death. From Pilgrimage.

Another one one of my favorite US Metal albums, with one of my favorite vocalists, the triple axe attack of Leatherwolf. Their '87 s/t imo is the crown jewel of their 80s run (that and not Street Ready, which is of course awesome too).

From the 90s, the entire Memento Mori discoghraphy. One of the decade's best bands with some colossal musicians like Mike Wead, Messiah Marcolin and Snowy Shaw.

The exact same thing goes for Morgana Lefay but at least Maleficium has 4 reviews. However, the scandal is the Lefay discography (one great re-recording included), which is the normal continuation of Morgana Lefay during the name dispute. Power/thrashy DOOM, Candlemass meets Metallica and King Diamond with the European Jon Oliva on vox. One of my favorite bands.

Parallel Minds is one of the best prog/power albums of the 90s and quite possibly the best album featuring Roy Khan and that is saying a lot. Just 3 reviews.

Twilight Kingdom - Guardian demo
Well, this is an obscure demo so it's not exactly accurate to call it underrated. But the song linked here is one of my favorite songs ever recorded. Magnificent power/prog with exceptional melodies and wonderful vocals (by the drummer!)

More recent stuff:

Demoniac's discography. Those dudes with the clarinet. Deathrash from Chile that oozes character. I'll specifically name So It Goes for the topic but it's the same for all three of their albums.

Same thing goes for Ripper (from Chile as well). Deathrash awesomeness with killer bass. I think I'll give the edge to Experiment of Existence (more Arise/techier Sadus) but Raising the Corpse is also awesome (more Pleasure to Kill/Schizophrenia/Beneath).

Trallery - Catalepsy (my favorite Spanish metal album, one of my favorites in the new wave of thrash).

The two Kenn Nardi albums, which are basically 4 albums worth of excellent Anacrusis material. Mostly a continuation of the Screams and Whispers era, which is quite broad in the musical spectrum and so are these albums. Absolutely brilliant and unique stuff.

This is only a few months old but I am obsessed with it. As are quite a few of my countrymen, including the Up the Hammers organizer who invited them to next year's UtH, two days after their album was uploaded on the NWOTHM channel. Fucking Noor. Vocals and guitars are divine.

Another one of my favorite songs ever, certainly one of my favorite of the millenium is Isles of Ice by Heart of Cygnus. Old school proggy protometal, with Rush, Uriah Heep and early Maiden influences. I've seen quite a few individuals love them but never really discussed or appreciated outside those people (which include Mike Portnoy by the way). 4 albums, 1 review.

My favorite Greek metal band. 2 reviews on the album Fenriz was gushing over (check that solo!). Tech US power/thrash or hi-tech metal lunacy as they say!

Doomocracy from Crete. One of the best Solitude Aeturnus-styled doom metal bands out there. With touches of Memento Mori and US Power. Brilliant vocals and sound.

Agreed on both counts. Memento Mori's debut is one of the best albums of the 90s, IMO.

Damn right! And I have a very hard time choosing between the first two and the last, for as long as they are playing they sound like the best album. Mike Wead's guitar tone is godly.

I also see I wrote triple thrash attack for Leatherwolf, intead of triple axe attack, obviously thinking about the triple thrash treat on Headbanger's Ball!

with my girl we enjoy Warkings "Revolution", which here got 20% for one review, and is compared to Sabaton - I can't say because Sabaton is a band I never found any interest in.

yes, that's easy music, catchy choruses, and even Fight is a cover hidden with lyrics, that's what we expected

Checking out that Zed Yago album, killer stuff.
Damn her voice is so good