Jethro Tull - Aqualung

This has been getting better every spin. A really marvelously constructed work of art.

Afflicted - Rising to the Sun

Strained and hysterical death metal yells; guitars that twist and turn and a soul-searching aura that haunts this record. Certainly one of the most unique Swedeath metal albums out there.

Fates Warning - Pirates of the Underground

Been meaning to check out this band for some time now and i'm impressed so far,especially the singer.He seems to go for it in every conceivable way even inside a single lyric and the intro/first part here is pure class.

That chorus is a direct tribute to Sanctuary and Warrel Dane; Termination Force, according to Nik. "The ultimate metal voice perhaps". One of my favorite songs on the album for sure. Starts off with a Genghis Khan little tribute (this one unconscious according to Nik). Favorite on the album.


One of the best Mercyful Fate covers ever and one of the precious few that have a reason to exist (I would add Metallica's medley and Sacral Rage's Come to the Sabbath). The one I send to people who cannot stand King's vocals (poor souls).


Eh, I know we disagree here but I pretty much think that at least 4 albums surpassed this. Certainly the next two. Still a classic masterpiece in my book.

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Still listening to Noor daily.

Metal Church - s/t
This album always hits (love the Highway Star cover, which is how I found the band), I was never very into anything beyond this and its follow up. Maybe it was the new vocalist, maybe it was the simpler music, not sure. I'm about to marathon the first two and then try out Human Factor again, based on that recent review saying it was good.

I like Hanging in the Balance the best of those early Mike Howe albums. It's easier for me to start there and then work backwards.

Everything up to Hanging in the Balance is pretty essential really. I've been meaning to give their stuff some listens too recently, been a minute...

I'd say first five are essential really.

NP: Tad Morose - Beneath a Veil of Crying Souls
The TM comeback. Loved it but I was in the minority.

Mekong Delta Shadow Walker

Impressive

Iron Maiden - Piece of Mind
Always found it funny that a band whose name refers to something so unbelievably brutal and sadistic has a sound that's so feel-good. Not a huge IM fan but I do like this one, Seventh Son and Powerslave quite a bit.

"Aqualung" is the one I often go to when I need a break from the more recent and less gritty Tull albums. Martin Barre is such a fantastic guitar player but, when he was in the band, he didn't always have a chance to let it rip.

NP: The two comeback albums by Medieval Steel. "Dark Castle" (2013) = relatively old school. Woohoo! Thumbs up. "Gods of Steel" (2022) = relatively new school. Meh. Thumbs down.

After that: W.A.S.P. – "Live… in the Raw": Probably even more essential than "The Headless Children" because its jam-packed with immortal earworms from their first era.

Honestly I've mostly just been listening to a Funeral Doom / Death Doom playlist on Spotify. It's pretty much all I've been in the mood for since January. Right now Shape of Despair's "Reflection in Slow Time" is playing. Cold and dreary music to suit the weather outside today.

Saidan new single

Maybe Euronymous(from beyond)don’t approve but these guys are irresistible…

So catchy

I have to try their later stuff I guess. Aqualung's mellow but that just makes it better when they do let it rip on "Hymn 317" and "Locomotive Breath." Genuine full album experience... love it...

The 2022 Medieval Steel album is cool - a lot of it sounds the same, with a lot of identical song structures, which is a bit of a mark against it - but it's got cool riffs and choruses and it doesn't sound modern aside from the production really. But their original stuff from the 80s is just so much better for sure, so I get it.

Morgana Lefay - Maleficium

Starting to think Vic was right and maybe this is the best one after all.

A friend of mine who we kept in touch via snail mail (not everyone had email in 1996!) has kept my reply to him about Maleficium. I had loved the video for the s/t and bought the album before getting back to the UK. He was saying it's a masterpiece. I replied "it's good. Solid. A 7 or maybe 7.5/10)"

That album clicked hard at the third-fourth listen. Hard! It's an 11 to me, King Diamond level of worship!

NP: fittingly, Matters of the Dark.
Urban Breed is awesome but when Charles comes in...

He still brings it up when in company, haha!

Grand Materia has a bunch of my favorite songs of theirs, but there's really something to the flow and construction of Maleficium as an album - a really regal, soulful, complete experience. That may really set it up a notch. I'd always liked it but it'd been several years since I listened.

Unextinct by Hideous Divinity. Not as immediately accessible as their previous albums (not to mention the latest offering from their compatriots in Hour of Penance), but still intriguing. A bit long, but a brave step trying to explore some more semi-progressive grounds.

… and the title track and "My God" (heavy…). There's only one later album with a similar amount of raw and gritty guitars: "Minstrel in the Gallery", especially the title track. As for prog: "Thick as a Brick" or "A Passion Play". Folk vibes: "Songs from the Wood" or "Heavy Horses". "Stormwatch" is, for the most part, a guitar-based hardrock album but it never reaches the rawness of "Aqualung", "Minstrel" or "Stand Up" and "Benefit". A quick overview (on one leg *g*).



I was exaggerating a bit but several tracks (maybe "Stargazer", "When Mountains Fall", "Great White Warrior", "Maneater" and "Satanic Garden" if memory serves) are built on a monotonous main riff + kick drum combination instead of something melodic or groovy or swinging. This reminds me of a lot of new school (i.e. post-grunge, post-Tool, post-late 90s industrial) metal albums (e.g. many tracks on newer Saxon albums) that avoid melodic songwriting in favour of something you can cobble together in five minutes: "Let's just do this, over and over again, because it sounds dark and heavy." But in my view it's just hollow and devoid of ideas. The first half of the album is a bit better, a bit closer to their older songs which had a lot in common with Rainbow (and isn't "Rising" often regarded as the first epic metal album?).

Anyway, now playing: W.A.S.P. – L.O.V.E. Machine (Live).

Yeah I did buy the folk albums as well - Stormwatch especially I really liked.

Re: Medieval Steel, yeah, I can see that they did tend away from the 70s style looseness, but it doesn't really sound too far from the old stuff for me, just like they updated things naturally with the times. I don't remember the old shit being overly like Rainbow - interesting comparison.

Anubis - Dark Paradise

Nicely vitriolic and angry. Digging it for sure.

Black Sabbath - Headless Cross
It's amazing how quintessentially '80s this album sounds. Seems like Iommi & Co were definitely going for something with more mass accessibility on this one, a couple tracks are practically straight up rock, but it works damn well. Lots of great hooks, polished production and a great vocal performance from Tony Martin.

High On Fire- Cometh The Storm

Can't believe it's been six years since the last one!

About Us - Fortitude

Sounds like an AOR/Metal hybrid. I am interested to see how this album turns out.

For example: I could swear the vocal line in the verses to "Eyes of Fire" is identical with something either with Dio or Joe Lynn Turner but I can't find it on the fly. Murphy's law… The only similar passages I find are the chorus in "Man on the Silver Mountain" and other parts from that blues-based early metal and classic rock scene such as the verses in "Egypt" by Dio and the verses in "Sail Away" by Deep Purple (now, that's very close...). Oh well.

NP: Rainbow – First album

My favourite Dio recording and the album where his vocals are more multifaceted than usual.

Sentenced - Rot To Dead

Well hello there Raining Blood, how are you? What's up? What is weather like in Finland? Cold? Rotten? Well,eh....

Carcass - Current setlist

Blasting it in the car on the way to see them and Black Dahlia Murder tonight.

Blind Guardian - The God Machine

Went to see them the other night (amazing gig, get to a show if you've the chance) so been going back to this album. It really is the best thing they've done since Nightfall, and I say that as a fan of the stuff from the 00s and 10s. Must have hit repeat on American Gods about 7 or 8 times

Get Songs From The Wood and Heavy Horses. Tull move out to the countryside and make the two best albums of their career. Fantastic and atmospheric records.

Yeah it was more rocking in that way, sure.



Oh I do have both - I just meant I'm missing some of the other stuff they did aside from those ones. Those and Stormwatch are all great.

Necrot - Lifeless Birth

Sounds more melodic and more sprightly, aggressive at the same time, very good. Nice blast of crunchy aggressive death metal. They keep the chugging rhythms dead center and it just sounds so good and satisfying.

Do you have Stand Up or the singles collection Living In The Past? Both essential. Benefit is good too, as is Minstrel In The Gallery.

Benighted - Ekbom
Just came out today, new Benighted album. Sounds great but somehow also exactly like I expected it would. I was guessing they'd slightly heighten the previously latent black metal aspects, and it's immediately apparent they did during the first two proper tracks, the liminal spaces-core outro caught me off guard though. Kinda cool they got archspire vocalist on one of the tracks.
Now that I've finished it, the black metal parts are mostly only in those two tracks and only return here and there for the rest of the album (a la most of their discog). Luckily the rest of the album is consistently engaging bdm/grind.

Nah - I'll probably grab Minstrel and some other albums first. Good recs, though.

Neurosis - The Doorway

This and Necrot may seem too heavy for the morning, but fuck it... what a powerful thing.

Fates Warning - Valley of the Dolls

Moving on to the Awaken The Guardian album and the sound has alot more punch to it.Definately more heavier than the previous one with a driving fist-punching riff to kick off here.Still the singer is completely off the leash and apparently his last appearance with the band? oh well.

I caught them live years ago, probably on the Snakes for the Divine tour, which was the only album of theirs I'd heard. But Matt Pike was such an unmitigated cunt on stage that I pretty much stopped listening to them for good. He would not stop bitching about the sound and threatening to walk off the stage and end the show, and when they finally got it where he wanted it, it was so ear piercingly shrill that I walked out about half way though the set. And I listen to bands with people I find reprehensible but man he was a dick.

It didn't help that he looked like Randy from Trailer Park boys with a guitar...

Necrot - Lifeless Birth

Released and shipped so Bandcamp finally had the full album download. So far so fucking good!

Nagelfar - Hellebarn

Really good band, love the riffs!

John Arch returned a couple of times in different guises, not to the band but at least to the music scene. The last two studio albums were collaborations with Jim Matheos, Fates Warning's guitarist and main songwriter. "Winter Ethereal" even has some guest appearances by former Fates Warning members, including Frank Aresti, who played on "Awaken the Guardian".

Vermilion Moons
Wrath of the Universe

There are stunning vocal performances, and there are performances that leave you in a catatonic state because you know that what you've just heard cannot be replicated by humans. I think the old man is even better than the young man.

Now playing:

Savage Grace – Master of Disguise
Savage Grace – After the Fall from Grace

Believe it or not but I've been ignoring Savage Grace for nearly 40 years because of their dodgy album covers. My own fault, I guess, as I realise I quite like their speed attacks. The first one is like Maiden on fast-forward with a gritty production, the second one is more refined and reminds me a bit of early Scanner or "Walls of Jericho" or very early Blind Guardian. Not bad, not bad…

Dokken - Breaking the Chains

A silly hard rock song, but I love it. Gets the day going.

Black Sabbath - Heaven and Hell
Kind of a mixed bag here. It's got some really nice songs but also a couple skippers, and the pace plods a bit through the first half. The performances are admirable. The solo on the closer is pretty sweet. I'll always be an Ozzy-era Sabbath fan primarly, but their later albums are interesting examples of successful self-reinvention.

Attic - The Hound of Heaven

Another great band, looking forward to see them live in August!

Thanks a lot for the info and links there.Much appreciated.After another listen,i'm putting the Guardian album on my shopping list for sure.(Prelude to Ruin was a great track also).

np. Arch/Matheos - Vermillion Moons

Yep,there's that voice again.A tad more reigned in compared to his earlier material but still just as enjoyable.