Your best bet would be CAULDRON BORN I think.

Thanks but i already have that album. And i don't care about the vocals, just the riffs.



I'll try that, thanks.

Have you checked out all of HELSTAR's material, especially the "James Rivera Legacy" CD? Those VIGILANTE demos were pretty great and sounded like aggressive HELSTAR stuff.

Went ahead and bought a copy of Altered State's Winter Warlock demo, which is pretty cool stuff. It reminds me of Stormbringer's Stealer of Souls, though not as good. Still a fun listen, lots of nice riffs and great vocals.

Now, I'd like to know if you people know any heavy/power metal with the following characteristics; 1) predominantly mid-paced riffing (the occasional speedy number is fine, but I'd like to keep things mostly in grinding, mid-tempo territory) with a rather thick guitar tone, 2) a simple, driving rhythm section and 3) sharp, soaring, somewhat mid-range vocals. Think of Urban Breed, Mike Howe or Jon Oliva to give yourself a good idea of what I'm looking for. Fairly obscure stuff is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

Well, I'm looking to add some power metal to my rather sparse collection regardless of the style, so if you guys feel like, why don't you give me the name of your favorite albums ever and I'll be checking them out this next days?

Skullview's Legends of Valor fits this almost to a T. The singer (his name eludes me at the moment) goes into his upper register at times, but he stays mostly in a gruff midrange, definitely what you're looking for. One of the thickest guitar tones I've heard from HM/PM.

@Oblarg - I don't remember getting that impression from that demo, but I'll give it another try. Comparing it to Stealer of Souls is pretty high praise from my point of view!

So I got my little order in from Howie's Echoes of Crom last night. All I have to say:

HOLY SHIT OFFRANDE CHARNELLE. That is one of the few songs I've ever heard that reaches the same peak of satanic majesty as Fate's Come to the Sabbath.

This Skullview record is pretty awesome Jophelerx. Listening right now to Blood on the Blade, and I'm enjoying it mightily. Guitar tone is insane too..... Extremely thick, muscular and heavy. Thanks a lot for the rec!

Yeah, that song's a total mindfuck, quite unlike anything else I've heard. I still prefer Sortilege, though!

Skullview seems pretty awesome, think I heard this stuff before... I kept thinking you guys were talking about some thrash band or something. Must be some skull or view ... band out there somewhere.

Skullview is always awesome. Their albums are all about the same, but they're all so good and full of first rate riffs, cool arcane vocal melodies and epic songs that it doesn't matter. The newest one literally just sounds like it could have been recorded 10 years ago right after their last album. That's some admirable consistency.

A few more tracks later... yeah, this is absolutely the kind of stuff I really dig thesedays. Loving the vocals.

Really dig this one:
http://youtu.be/0rfse_iR06M

'bout time people start getting into that shit. I've been repping it for 4 1/2 years now. Too bad High Power's second album is marred by a really irritating mix, with the drums way too loud and the guitars muffled and buried.

This song is still pretty sweet, though:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yReCkQyf ... ure=relmfu

Are there any good old school Finnish PM metal bands in the vein of old Nightwish, Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dCZ4AWRO1I

Perfect example of what i mean, those keyboards at the beginning are something that the new records miss.

Dreamtale maybe?

Cheers, they sound pretty good

Actually their first album sounds amazing, just what i wanted

You might also enjoy Keldian, Age of Artemis, Ancient Bards, Delain, Serenity, Theocracy, Sunrise, Sons of Seasons, ReinXeed, Chalice, and HolyHell.

And of course, the best Euro-power metal group ever, Timeless Miracle.

Glad to hear some more people are getting into Skullview, they definitely deserve it. I still don't really dig the newest album, but I need to give it some more listens. The first three definitely rip.

@Folkemon - seconding Dreamtale. I don't listen to much europower but Dreamtale was one of my favorite bands when I was going through my symphonic metal phase.

Try Insania too, they are from Sweden. Their 3rd album 'Fantasy (A New Dimension)' reminds me a lot of Stratovarius.

Looking for heavy metal with clear vocals that gets you pumped up. Sort of uplifting. Not really too heavy as much as just really exciting. It's what I need to listen to for working out. Satan (UK) has proved to be my favorite running music.

Titan Force's debut for sure. Gets me pumped.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5H6h-2lJHg

Insania at times are amazingly good. Fantasy is a great album, maybe a bit long, but the excess is part of its charm.

Insania? Like Geoff Tate's wine?

Where should I start with Yngwie? I've heard some stuff that I like and some that I really don't. I'm more into 80's sounding classic heavy metal and less guitar nerd Steve Vai sort of stuff.

Most people tend to enjoy the 80s spree of albums from the debut onward. They're pretty solid, and I enjoy em. Yngwie's worked with some killer vocalists like Joe Lynne Turner and I'm a big fan of Vescera so i like the stuff he did with him in the 90s. That recent stuff with Ripper Owens was okay, if you like that guy you might want to check it out. Plenty of people round these parts seem to think he's a bit of a dick, but I think he's a talented vocalist. Although, when we played with him a few months ago, he did have a Monster Energy cap, and tatoo - just sayin'. Yngwie's albums can often be a mix of wanky neoclassical shred, and anthemic, melodic, and commercial infused heavy metal, with catchy choruses and classically cliche lyrics.

Cap AND tattoo? Monster Energy must've been a life-changing product for him.

I'd say Rising Force is pretty entertaining... for the instrumental numbers (the songs with vocals tend to suck). 'Black Star' is genuinely quite cool. Other than that, I've heard Marching Out, which, although more song-orientated, was also much weaker. I guess 'I am a Viking' is worth hearing, though. I'd say he's not at all a great song-writer, but if you're a guitarist, it is at least worth hearing the debut... it's very inconsistent, but there are a few tracks that are definitely worth hearing.

Yes cap AND tatoo. That was the point. It was mind-numbing. I believe i'd be under contractual obligation to say "Sweet as, bro" anyway. In Tim's defense, and i mean to use the S there, his set ripped and his vocals were amazing. If i can recall before shit turned into an all night tornado, it was the same backing band as Dianno, whom we'd met a year or two earlier. Honestly, if you get a chance to see Owens do it - he's super solid, and his setlists consist of great songs with plenty of renditions of tracks like 'Diamonds and Rust' which he sings pitch perfect. Makes for a good time. The guy is super good live, JS.

I don't think I could ever respect someone who got the name of a soft drink tattoo'd on their person.

"I'd like to dedicate this next song to a fine, fine beverage"...

YOUR AND IDIAT: it's not a soft drink, it's a fucking ENERGY drink, bro. But yeah, that was a thing, man. It happened i guess.

All the cool kids in these parts wear monster energy hats, and hoodies. Always thought it tasted horrible but meh.

I was thinking about this earlier, are there any new heavy metal acts coming out of eastern Europe these days? I know they love their thrash, and black/pagan stuff but I have not come across anything in the H/P/S genres that is not a few years old at best.

Good point. I haven't really come across a lot of it either. There were some good bands from countries like Slovenia, Poland, Serbia etc back in the day, but i don't know of any good recent ones either. I guess a few advanced searches could uncover a few results, i might go do that...

I really like Sacred Warrior's sound. Nice melodic guitars, soaring vocals, excellent lead/solo work. My main problem is the lyrics. Oh, those fucking lyrics. I can tolerate Christian themes as long as they're done tastefully and intelligently. but...

^

Those are laughably bad, fuck that band, what a load of horse shit.

Everybody knows that Mortification's "God Rulz" has the best Christian lyrics:

At least Mortification released a pretty cool OSDM record in Scrolls of the Megilloth, but that kind of garbage up there? Inexcusable. Stupidly preachy lyrical content is one of the only things that can turn me off a band no matter the quality of their music, and that crap succeeds in keeping me away with flying colours.

Yeah, unfortunately USPM has some of the worst Christian metal there is. Good sound or not, I pretty much can't stand any of those Christian white collar USPM bands, except for the few that keep it really low-key.

Yeah, talking about your religion is okay as long as you're rather neutral about the subject. Not to mention the fact that most (if not all) preachy bands seem to emphasize their message over good songwriting, resulting in pretty mediocre or even outright awful music.

Yeah dude. Been listening to Sacred Warrior for like four years and they really do have a nice melodic US power sound but fuck their lyrics have always been hilarious. That track 'black metal' is a retarded classic. You've gotta want to be like Jesus.... the Messiiiiiiiiaaaaaah. Yeah fucking bigotry. They're no better than Torn Flesh with their tracks like 'Gay Rights'. lol. There are a few bands that would have been good if they dropped the Christian thing and focused on kicking arse. Scarlet Rayne's another. Fifth Angel, Last Descendents to name a few. Haven.