I enjoy Snow Leopard but I don't remember any other songs on the album. Hmmm.

You guys heard Visigoth? Flew under my radar but this is pretty awesome, I'd put it up there with Eternal Champion and Stone Dagger for awesome up and coming US trad metal.

After listening to that song, put me firmly in the group that would pan it, assuming this is representative of the whole album. Saccharine and boring with a terrible vocalist. This is like the heavy metal equivalent of lousy radio pop-rock.

Dude...Burnt Offerings slays anything Sabaton has ever done!!

I don't think it's bad, but it definitely sounds like metal for the pop rock fan or under 30 crowd. Stuff like Battle Beast or Steel Panther. Nothing technically wrong with them, just incredibly vapid.

Uh, wait, are you guys still talking about Twisted Tower Dire? I was never a big fan of them and am only just now listening to a few songs from their latest album, but how is this in any way "metal for the pop rock fan"? Steel Panther, really?

Battle Beast is really fun, they're not vapid, just simple.

I've heard of Visigoth but Eternal Champion is new to me. I'm checking them out now, they rock! I'd love to hear an album of this.

No, they're incredibly vapid. I don't like them, but being vapid isn't inherently bad. Early Motley Crue is vapid, but still fun to listen to.



I'm just going off that one song. Don't really care for TTD and the Steel Panther comparison wasn't based on their sound. The super sugary melodies and the sing along verses and chorus is something that would attract someone who likes more mainstream music. Put it this way: I could see someone who likes music like Avenged Sevenfold or Evanescence listening to that song or Battle Beast. I couldn't see them enjoying something like early Fates Warning or Sacred Oath.

I'll accept sugary and sing-a-long, but the same applies to Hardworlder-era Slough Feg and any number of bouncy melodic retrospective metal bands. The song reminds me more of A Sultan's Ransom-era Cloven Hoof than anything, let alone Evanescence (unless I've heard all the wrong Evanescence songs all this time), so I can't see how a fan of the latter would be more likely to be partial to it than the former. There's plenty of vapid traditional metal out there, and it doesn't even have to be a bad thing.

Last I heard they have an EP coming out, not sure what the status is on that.

I'm just happy I got to see their debut live show, OPENING FOR MANILLA ROAD (and Speedwolf).

http://www.last.fm/user/Zelkiiro/charts ... pe=artists
#19 and #44.

Where is your God now?

Haven't heard new TTD but Crest of the Martyrs and Netherworlds are definitely not for pop rock fans. Neither is Battle Beast for that matter.

I bet nobody can beat my #3 Manilla Road and then #58 50 Cent for polar opposites

http://www.last.fm/user/Nahsil/charts

Hahah that's awesome: Agent Steel, Graveyard, *cough50centcough*, Grave Digger, Machine Men, Manowar, Bruce Dickinson, Hibria, Dio, Bathory...

Because of the ubiquitous of the Iced Earth brand, I've checked them out/bought albums/been told about them since like 2001. I've seen them live twice. I even listened to Barlow's new band that was essentially, another Iced Earth. It's not my style of metal at all. Typical USPM, ie. a complete aversion to hooky songwriting. I can group them with the likes of Jag Panzer, Nevermore and any band James Rivera has fronted. Critical darlings but nothing I come back to.

I can't explain it any better. USPM is just bland.

Whoa, Iced Earth are generic power/thrash crap, not USPM, except maybe very early on. And USPM is FULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL of hooks. I mean, what do you normally listen to? You must really hate extreme metal...

Extreme metal I like: Hail of Bullets, last 2 God Dethroned, Bolt Thrower, Ex Deo, Kataklysm, Amon Amarth and a hand full of others...

My normal power metal diet (that I guess is akin to what the States offer) is Sabaton, Tarot, Hammerfall, Paragon, Iron Savior, Accept, U.D.O., Grave Digger, Holy Martyr, Sinner/Primal Fear (though they both have REALLY fallen off in the last 10 years) and I guess Judas Priest and King Diamond if you want to lump it all together.

I will say though...Argus' last album was one of the best of 2013. Totally odd choice for me.

i would like to discover the true genius of power metal, the musicians or vocalists who makes the difference, specially the new ones.
Everybody knows Hansen, Kiske, Kusch, DeFeis, DeMaio, Schaffer and from the last past 15 years there's someone who makes the difference?
Maybe Sammet, Turilli, and . . .

It is much more straight forward and rocking/catchy than Crest. Big sing-a-long chorus' etc. I think it's done really well in that it's still firmly "genuine" metal (for lack of a better term) and is supremely catchy without crossing into the realm of something like Sabaton that is basically pop music with a "metal" costume on... if that makes any sense.

http://cruzdelsurmusic.bandcamp.com/album/make-it-dark

https://soundcloud.com/ektrorecords/ranger-shock-skull

Fuckin' kick ass, even Exigence will be able to lift weights with the help of Ranger!

Ooh, recommend more music like that please!*

*no chick singers

.. don't leave his nuts this tense.

From HELSTAR's official Facebook;

"we would like to take this opportunity to announce another big surprise for the old-school fans. The new album features an instrumental co-written by a phenomenal and very well respected guitarist formerly of NEVERMORE, SANCTUARY, and founding member of his current project CONQUERING DYSTOPIA. Please give it up for our special guest on track five, "Isla de las Muñecas", none other than Mr. Jeff Loomis!!!!

HELSTAR guitarist Larry Barragan reflected on the collaboration by saying, "This is definitely a highlight in our career! Jeff is such a great friend and to actually be able to join forces to write a song with him is just beyond anything I could imagine for the new album."

1. Fall of Dominion
2. Eternal Black
3. This Wicked Nest
4. Souls Cry
5. Isla De Las Muñecas
6. Cursed
7. It Has Risen
8. Defy the Swarm
9. Magormissabib

This is the first track off the album for those who haven't heard it yet;

UUUUUUUUUUGGHHHHHH Ranger rules so hard. That laugh...


I think I only know who Sabaton is because of you!

That is a realm in which I do not dabble.

I heard "Fall of Dominion" off that Helstar album and while I really want to like it - it's very earnest and spirited - it's just not all that great.

^I kinda felt the same way. It's got some rad parts that locked me in, some cool parts that made me think of Immortal Soul, but then there were parts where I'd lose interest.

The new Sonata Arctica and Delain leaked on the same day?

That's funny...my birthday's not for another 2 months...

Iced Earth aren't USPM.



Hardworlder-era Slough Feg are bouncy and upbeat, but I wouldn't call them "sugary," and they're certainly not vapid. I can't really see much similarity between them and that TTD song at all. That song certainly didn't sound at all like Cloven Hoof to my ears.

It was essentially a trite, substance-less radio pop rock song with heavier guitars. Completely one-dimensional and uninteresting.

Hell, I love some poppy bands (Flow-era Conception, for one), but there has to be substance and emotional depth to match the catchy exterior.

What do you think of their older shit though?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rTq6fnyAje0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBSbzYrSr9k

Hahah, I KNEW one of those tracks had to be Axes & Honor. It took me months and months to warm up to Crest of the Martyrs, and I hardly pull it out often, but there ARE some redeeming qualities and I wouldn't call them vapid. At least not on that release.

"We'll reprogram their children, to fight in our name!" <--- That's killer.

Crest of the Martyrs isn't groundbreaking or anything, but it's a solid, enjoyable heavy-metal romp. It seems to me the band never really lived up to their potential, though - a bit more songwriting ambition and variation would have gone a long way.

There are a lot better bands overall - especially in the 80s - but I just fuckin' love those two albums and consider them prime examples of what trad metal is - they check every box.

Are you turning 15 again?

I'm listening http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ma ... -Linn/4909 and i love how it sounds, can anyone recommend me something like this?

Just heard the new Sonata Arctica. Them saying it's back to the power metal days is a big lie. It's Stone Grows Her Name 2.

They did the same with Days Of Grays when they fooled everyone releasing Flag In The Ground as lead single and say it represented the album. This time with Wolves Die Young.

Sounds good to me, SGHN is awesome. The three songs I've heard are all at least good if not great ("Cloud Factory").

It's still a really good album, but yeah--it ain't no Ecliptica.

Well, none of their other albums are. The closest we'll get is a Reckoning Night kinda sound which I definitely hear echoes of on this album. It's cool with me - there doesn't need to be a second Ecliptica and there really couldn't ever be.

It's closer to SGHN than any other of their albums by far. And after 3-4 listens Cloud Factory is the highlight of the album.

Ouch

For me it's a tie between "Cloud Factory," "Blood," and "The Wolves Die Young." "Running Lights" and "Half a Marathon Man" are pretty fantastic, too.