Thunder & Lightning - Welcome to the Darkside

More badass, chugging power metal from this band. Sounding good so far. Yet another cool 2016 album.

edit: This is sounding slightly more polished and commercial than their last album, but also a bit more adventurous in a way too, with some different tricks and melodies used. Pretty cool.

The title track is excellent. Real good, epic shit. For those curious... https://tnlmetal.bandcamp.com/album/the-ages-will-turn

"The Ultra-Violence" by Death Angel

Great improvisation on NWOBHM!

"Coming On Again" -
Tucky Buzzard

Think like a mellowed out Jethro Tull.

Wintersun - Wintersun

I shouldn't have ignored this.

Bolzer - Hero

I haven't listened to them prior to this release so I don't have the supreme disappointment experienced listeners have apparently been feeling about this album, but I do agree that it's nothing special

"Corridor Of Faces" -
Lazy Smoke

Fun Psychedelic Rock/ Pop. What a cool name, too. If they came out today that could totally be something with an Electric Wizard vibe.

Exodus — The Toxic Waltz

I always listen to Exodus when im drunk which is rare, good friendly violent fun.

Nerlich- demo compilation.

What an amazing band. Should be as known as Adramelech.

Bölzer - Hero

Not at all what I wanted, expected or KNEW would be coming after the EPs.
I have a feeling this is better in many ways, but it must be listened to while climbing a mountain or something. It feels a bit like the music is meant to be experienced in a way I haven't found yet. So 10/10 for making me search.

Edit:
Nice post number 500! I'm really getting really eloquent at not knowing what the fuck I'm experiencing with this whole metal thing, fuck yes.

Nothing has summed up my entire year on this site better than this one sentence. *sheds one single metallic tear*

Killing Joke - 'The Death & Resurrection Show'

Fond memories combined with an awesome song in its own right makes for a killer song. Killing Joke are great.

Reptile - Solid Metal Rules

"Stoopid fooker! Moother fooker!"

What the heck am I listening to? This entire opening song relies on like two or three riffs tops and the vocals and lyrics are soooooo cringey

Oh, and SOLID metal? I'm dyin'

Death/doom.


Wintersun - Beyond the Dark Sun

Bro you're British, being drunk is the norm for you guys.

Alice In Chains - We Die Young

This is one of the heaviest songs ever recorded! AIC were the best to ever come out of the Seattle grunge scene imo. Yeah they were considered a grunge band but they also laid down some kick ass heavy metal like this song. They all have metal roots but the difference is AIC wasn't afraid to show it!

Blood Victory - Shadows of War (Demo 1998) obscure classic French black metal with a slight (unintentional?) war metal feel.

Swallow the Sun - The Morning Never Came

Never completely warmed up to these guys until after I saw them play as support for Dark Tranquillity. Some serious winners on this disc.

Absolutely. AiC is easily as much metal as it is grunge, and to name just a few, "Sickman," "Dirt," "Grind" and "Sludge Factory" are also among the band's heaviest tracks.


Symphony X - "Smoke and Mirrors"

Sentenced - Crimson. Their best effort in my opinion.

Hibria - Defying the Rules

This is seriously so flipping fantastic. One of my favorite metal albums.

Verlies - Nouvelles

This is some weird post-black/black/atmospheric black metal from France.

RELICATION

Fans of old Godflesh, Voivod, and maybe old Depressor...
check out this finnish band! Old styled industrial metal without machines, totally analog. Feel the furnace.

Alice in Chains - 'Grind'

In the darkest hole...

Unearth - Sanctity of Brothers

How come I never knew about this song? It kills!

Pyschotic Waltz - A Social Grace

Very weird opener... very cool though.

^ I just got the album in the mail along with Mosquito, so I'm playing the exact same thing. What do you think of it?

Psychotic Waltz - Another Prophet Song

There really is nothing else like this album. Shades of Fates Warning and even older rock/metal, but nothing that you could point to as a direct, whole influence exactly. These guys were megatalented and they'd only get weirder and more idiosyncratic.

I've literally given it one listen and am struggling to wrap my head around it (especially since this style of weird prog is largely new to me.) It's quite thrash-infused and very dark. The album cycles, seemingly at random, between lulling acoustic breaks and much heavier, off-kilter heavy/thrash sections. Everything from the riffs to the vocals to the structuring of the songs is, for a lack of a better word, weird. The sense of melody sounds off and very odd, the riffs are highly technical and sound off, and the whole album becomes more and more reflective and anxious in tone as it progresses and the vocalist consistently sound agonised and full of dread.

The first song pretty much sums it up; it's one weird, weird album. I can't really trace this back to any influence. I'm sure it sounds like I'm overexaggerating but I'm thoroughly overwhelmed and unsettled by this album, it's unlike anything I've ever heard.

Yeah, it is very odd and overwhelming. They have a real sense of purpose to everything they do though. Extremely well written songs. They should've been huge.

Psychotic Waltz - Shattered Sky

Groovy, rocking songs with catchy as hell vocal lines. I dig this.

"Requiem" -
I Shalt Become

Tie between this and the first for my favourite ISB albums. Great US Black Metal.

Avantasia - Ghostlights

This will be my AOTY.

Ride for Revenge - Your World Against Mine

So weird and awesome

Spiral Architect - A Sceptic's Universe

I think I'd appreciate this more if I didn't have a headache, as it stands right now I'm not feeling it at all even though I can hear that it is good. Super technical prog, nothing more to say really.

"Nihil" -
Altarage

It's just not doing it for me. *shrugs*

Arrayan Path - Chronicles of Light (2016)

After only one play it sounds like very average power metal.

Kreator — Extreme Aggressions

Kreator has the best riffs in thrash IMO

Wrong.


That's debatable. I enjoy Kreator, but I find that a lot of their riffs sound "funny", for lack of a better word, and I'm not sure how to describe it. My favourite riffs are definitely those in "World Beyond".

http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Kr ... ion/417562

The song is called Extreme Aggressions, but the album is Extreme Aggression.


I've gotta agree with Folkemon. Nobody beats Kreator at thrashing.

The Black Mages - The Skies Above

Ya know, I haven't listened to The Black Mages in like ten years so I thought I'd give them another go and man, everything is just a trainwreck. I always joke that I'm an expert on precisely two things: heavy metal and Final Fantasy, so you figure a metal band based on FF tracks and even having the main composer of those songs in the band would be right up my alley, but really all three albums suck out loud. Either nothing sounds different from the original tracks in the game or they add something that completely butchers it. Like, the most obvious example is Otherworld, which is the perfect track to just present as a straightforward metal song. The original version is one of the few in the series that was an unquestionable metal song in its original form, and it's this huge, crunching, pounding, groovy track put against the destruction of an entire civilization, and the way it's presented works perfectly with the imagery surrounding it. Then you get the version on this album, where all of the power is scrubbed clean, the guitars are completely neutered, and they added the worst vocals imaginable. Seriously, the original vocals aren't great, they're just distorted grunts but it gets the heaviness across well, the female vocals in this version are so fucking saccharine and sweet that it saps all of the bullheaded maschismo out of a track that absolutely thrived on it. Even the instrumental tracks (which, to their credit, are most of them) are just pointless. With the weaker guitars and the overly loud early 70s ELP style keys, it just sounds like slightly more rock based versions of the original MIDIs from the games, so what the hell was even the point since most of them aren't even rearranged in any sort of creative ways? (Apart from the few times they are altered, and even then they fuck it up (like the boss theme from FFVI has a metal as fuck intro that could have kicked the song off on a strong note but they cut it completely and just ruined it)). Really, it was cool to keep Nobuo Uematsu around in the spotlight but this project was a total failure in my eyes and I'm glad it died, since these songs would do nothing for people who aren't familiar with the games and they're all pointlessly inferior to the people who are. Really the only good one is their rendition of Clash on the Big Bridge from the first album, but everything else is completely worthless. Fuck this band and this album in particular for being the worst of the bunch. Prog metal renditions of FF is neat in theory but in execution is just reveals itself to be terribly stupid.

Seriously, compare how well this works compared to the nutless drivel found here.

Nerd rant over.

Helmet - Meantime

Groove metal not (completely) derived from Pantera? That's novel. It's also good stuff.

Whoops, I never noticed that. But, again, that's a debatable statement.