I agree. https://youtu.be/ZyhrYis509A

Man, I fucking like Christian Mistress and I can't wait to see them at Wings of Metal. Agony & Opium is an outstanding album. Amulet, High Spirits, Angel Witch, Barrow Wight, cool lineup.

I'll have to check out Galloglass.

Crystal Eyes- do yourself a favor and at least give Confessions of the Maker another spin. I agree the rest aren't amazing- but Confessions is REALLY good IMO.

I think Crystal Eyes - Chained is awesome. Super catchy and fun and solid.

I agree. It is very good- something about COnfessions though just really grabbed me.

Listening to Galloglass now. So far I'm really digging it.

Nahsil's review of Chained is pretty much spot on. That's their best one to me. The debut and Confessions of the Maker are also great though. They were never an A-class band but they came pretty damn close.

And now I feel stupid because I just realized I've never heard their debut.

It's actually one of their more old school albums, some of the riffing and leads sound reminiscent of old Scanner or something. Though the songwriting is very much a Gamma Ray type deal - though it's better to me.

I just can't get into Crystal Eyes. I'll come back to them in a few weeks/months and see if my opinion changes.



I guess the Greeks can't afford to pay Sonata Arctica to show up?


Edit: I just found this band and their vocalist is pretty bad ass.

One of my favorite Crystal Eyes songs. 5:25 is one of the best vocal sections ever IMO.

Those vocals are pretty awesome. Daniel Heiman, right?

It sure is. I love his voice, one of the reasons Confessions is my favorite.

I appreciate his talent, but I don't really like his vocals. He's very impressive in Lost Horizon's "Highlander (The One)" though.



Last one before people start throwing things at me.

Holy shit, Black Majesty has a new album coming out today and none of you bastards told me?! To the internet!

Oi, probably should check that out. Black Majesty's pretty ace.

People here need to be more aware of Dark Forest's The Awakening. Surprisingly deep and moving stuff.

I Posted it a while back. I concur, it's perfect. Lyrics, riffs, everything. Deep and moving is a great description of it.

Dude you are right. Not sure if perfect but extremely good and super charming.

edit: original too.

"Sons of England" is a decent song. The vocals are a bit sketchy though.

It isn't that good.

It really isn't.

First the new Symphony X was just alright, then the new Powerwolf was merely okay, and now a dreadfully mediocre album from Black Majesty, who should've been a shoe-in for the year's Top 10?! My god! My god! Why have you forsaken me?!

The new Symphony X was awesome, I thought. Not as good as their best work but still awesome, and it holds up with their 90s work in general.

But yeah power metal has been in a dry spell lately. Bloodbound has perhaps fallen the furthest, but the new Orden Ogan, Virgin Steele, Mystic Prophecy and now Black Majesty albums were all pretty weak for me. Luckily we had Arrayan Path and that Wardrum album, those ones killed. And the new Blind Guardian and Sonata Arctica were exemplary.

Stratovarius will kill it with their new album though.

Here's hoping. I'm a bit apprehensive that they can live up to the last three albums. But maybe they will prove me wrong.

From what I have heard this year there are for sure some albums which could be in many people's top10 list. Like:
Battle Beast - Unholy Savior
Cain's Offering - Stormcrow
Jorn Lande / Trond Holter - Dracula: Swing of Death
Unleash the Archers - Time Stands Still
Darkology - Fated to Burn

I was pretty much OK with Powerwolf's recent album as well...
And there is plenty of stuff I am eagerly waiting to be released this year:
Stratovarius - Eternal
Death Dlealer - Hallowed Ground
Rocka Rollas - Pagan Ritual
just to name a few...

also bands like Heavenly, Sound Storm, Andragonia, Perc3ption, Palantír, Cyclophonia are preparing their recordings to be released.

For power metal, things have been fairly slow for me as well. Octaviagrace (more prog than power), Cross Vein, Jupiter, Mardelas (only half of this counts as pm though), Kelly Simonz's Blind Faith, Nozomu Wakai's Destinia, Mars Brigade, Perpetual Dreamer, Quiet Revolution, Unlucky Morpheus, Carbonic Acid, and Valthus were good. Still waiting for new releases from Galneryus, Aldious, Mary's Blood, Raglaia, Nameless One (essentially power metal with (needless) harsh vocals), Dragon Guardian, etc.

Didn't think the new Battle Beast or Cain's Offering was Top 10 material. Haven't heard of the bands in the last two posts though...maybe some of them will be worth checking out. Got to love the underground gems in place of disappointing bigger efforts!

You reviewed Heavenly's last album (Carpe Diem), so you must know them!


It's nice to see someone mention Jorn/Tronde's album. It took me a few months to listen to more than two songs and I was surprised by how good it actually was. I want to pick up DragonForce's new live album. I'm not a huge fan of Marc Hudson's vocals, but they put on an excellent live show.

Edit: If you haven't seen DragonForce with Hudson behind the mic, his vocals are basically a carbon copy of his studio vocals.

I am sorry but I am going to tell you two things which might be disappointing to you...
On that dragonforce album is barely anything recorded from the live show
and second thing is that they are using a lot of backing studio tracks in their live shows so "carbon copy" is the result of that.

So, if his mic went out and no vocals played, they're still using tracks?

Yup, and I almost succeeded in forgetting that nightmare.

I like "Fullmoon" and "Ode To Joy" from that album. I don't mind the vocals, but you could probably make a powermetal parody out of them.

Is Almah any good? I was excited for the newest Angra but I didn't know Edu left the band some time ago, and I don't like the new singers voice.

Edit: I just realized the singer is the weirdo from Rhapsody lol.

When they released Carpe Diem, I absolutely hated it. I listened to it again about a year ago and it was mildly enjoyable, but every other album of theirs blows it out of the water, to varying degrees.

I'm hoping their new album (if it ever comes out) might be more in line with Coming From The Sky/Sign Of The Winner, but I'm not holding out much hope.

With that said, I do regard all of them (bar Carpe Diem) relatively highly for Euro PM. They don't do anything unique by any stretch, but they have been solid throughout their career.

He's also one of the best vocalists in metal (along with Michele Luppi and Daniel Heiman).


I haven't listened to anything else by Heavenly besides Carpe Diem. I'll have to listen to their earlier albums.

Holy shit, that Zierler Projects thing still exists. There was a couple years of silence before an update a couple of days ago (I was asleep at the switch because I assumed that this project was left for dead). In case anyone is unfamiliar, this is the project of Beyond Twilight's mastermind. Been waiting for this for ages now. Man, if I can get this, Timeless Miracle, and Timelord soon, I'll be quite happy.

You're gonna be happy with the new Rocka Rollas album. Only on my second listen, but it's pretty strong. More ambitious than their earlier work though.

Power metal (or even metal as a whole for me) hasn't been that strong this year. I loved new Borealis, Cain's Offering, and Orden Ogan (this one was a grower), but haven't been enthralled by much else. I have a feeling Stratovarius will steal the show again this year, but I thought that about Helloween and their new album let me down.

That Orden Ogan and Blind Guardian I seriously need to play more. Not sure why both are gathering dust. That Cain's Offering I have mixed feelings on (as of this juncture, I strongly prefer the debut) - like, its mechanically solid and played the "way it's supposed to sound", but it just wasn't resonating with me. Not sure if the problem lies with me or the album itself. I will take your word on that Orden Ogan being a grower - every play I've done with it has varied wildly (in terms of enjoyment), which is really bizarre. There seems to be a positive trend overall though - still doubt it'll match Vale or To the End though, but I think I'll prefer it to Easton Hope (which I don't think I'll ever get into and I think I'll probably just give up on that one). It may just be catching me on the wrong mood on the wrong day or something. That Blind Guardian... I just don't have the attention span to slog through an 80 minute album anymore. I get bored of bands, styles, even genres really damn quick these days.

Blind Guardian's newest is so good. Is it 80 minutes? Never feels like it to me...pretty much every song on there is instant classic to me.

I forgot about Helloween's new one; that is one of the better PM albums of the year. Hugely entertaining, with actually great riffing at some parts. Most entertaining album they've done in years.

I hope Orden Ogan goes back to doing more weird stuff with the songs on whatever they do next.

Wow I just realized Gambling with the Devil came out in 2007, I thought that was Helloween's last one. Jeezus.

I enjoyed that one quite a bit though.

How are Gamma Ray thesedays? I haven't paid much attention to their new stuff after Majestic.