I may praise Jag Panzer's debut more, but it's Titan Force's debut that comes to mind when I'm thinking about Godly Conklin. I kind of forgot about them too, but a second time around after a few years the stuff really sank in that time. The second album is a bit weirder though, still nice, but the debut dominates. Seems like the type of stuff you'd go for.

By saying they weren't riff-centric I meant that, compared to USPM, the hooks are more in the vocals and overall atmosphere than individual riffs. There are definitely a lot of riffs, and I don't think they're bad, but they're less "holy shit that one riff is so awesome, I'm gonna headbang until my hair falls out" and more about laying a foundation for/providing counterpoint to Conklin's vocals and the evil Satanic atmosphere.

It actually reminds me of how the arrangement is handled in Queensryche's The Warning; the riffs are definitely in the background, and I don't think anyone specifically talks up the riffs as the thing that sticks with them from the album (like how people talk about the main riff to "Queen of the Reich"), but they're still good and still essential to the overall structure of the songs.

I mean, Satan's Host are definitely doing something different from regular USPM and not everyone who digs regular USPM is going to enjoy that different approach, but personally I think it works really really well. Everything about them is so sincere; it's great to hear this type of band being deadly serious about all the Satanic trappings. Lots of heavy/power/etc. bands these days soft-sell whatever their lyrical subjects are, especially new bands. Fuck that man, I'd rather have bands trying hard and maybe whiffing here and there than distancing themselves from their lyrical themes just so they don't risk looking stupid now and then.

Alright now that part I couldn't agree more with! I LOVE bands who take it seriously, or at least commit to the point where you can't tell the difference. I haven't heard the NEW Portrait but their second album is a great example. Those lyrics and the delivery sounds heartfelt!

I guess that's where we diverge on Satan's Host a little, because it just doesn't do anything for me in that department. The vocal delivery sounds pretty serious but the rest of the music doesn't hold up it's end of the bargain for me. I tried to listen to Before the Flame earlier because Emp mentioned it and I couldn't sit through the whole thing. I guess I'm just not interested in what they're pushing, and that's okay, I just wish I could hear what everyone else is on this one. I'm not even sure I listen to much USPM these days so it's not like I'm holding them up against that as a standard of excellence. It's just not tripping my switches the way stuff like Midnight Priest/Portrait/Demon Bitch does.

Decided to spin Griffin's Flight of the Griffin today again. No idea why the guitar tone bugged me earlier because I have no issues with that one when I heard it again. ''Heavy Metal Attack''' and ''Fire in the Sky'' are totally top notch songs. I assume the rest will grow on me soon.

My favorite moment on that album is the "HERE WE GO!" tempo shift lead in to a crazy solo in "Hawk the Slayer." Fucking badass.

I'm a sucker for shifts like that, are there any others? I know there are, but I can't think of them offhand. Attacker has one on Second Coming, maybe?

edit: yeah, I'm counting 2:08 in Captives of Babylon as one of these shifts, with that crazy riffing section and then solo.

I tried that album back in the day but I never thought the vocals or vocal melodies were very good at all. Just couldn't get into it because of that; not over Omen, Jag Panzer, Helstar, etc. Maybe some time it'll grow on me.

Flight of the Griffin is one of those records that are just good enough for me to instantly agree that I like it and then immediately remember that I never play it. The guitar tone IS wonky as hell but I think it gives the whole thing a pretty cool sound. No one should be able to write a song called Heavy Metal Attack and have it be that good.

Their sophomore is neat too. Dropped down to a power trio, tightened up, sped up. It's a lot more aggressive.

I'm having a nice little session tonight with some personal classics. Started with Lords of the Crimson Alliance. I still can't believe I actually have a copy of this now. It may be a bootish type release but it sounds excellent to me. Now I'm onto High Power's debut. These guys just GET IT. In every aspect. It's so undersung as an album.

Edit: Comme Un Damné is so close to capturing the magic of a 70s Priest ballad like Beyond the Realms of Death it's uncanny. I don't know how I missed that before now.

Hmm Griffin's second album is alright but I've always felt like it was a huge step down. A bit more generic power/thrash than USPM or something. Still better than some other stuff out there though.

The closest thing to Lords of the Crimson Alliance is probably that Dark Age EP, love both of them.

I always thought Mysto Dysto was sorta like Lords of the Crimson Alliance, but it's probably just the vocals, heh. Crazy as fuck in the best way possible.

Jonpo: Get on that new Portrait, it's definitely AOTY for me thus far. Of course, so was Virgin Sails, but if you liked the second album, I'm sure you'll LOVE this one. Also if you are the least bit interested in checking the latest SH, listen to "Island of the Giant Ants," that song is a monster.

Nahsil: doesn't Attacker's debut have a part where Mitchell is like "WHOA GUITAR" or something? Or maybe it was the sophomore album, but I'm thinking not.

Griffin's follow-up was cool the first time I heard it but just got weak with subsequent listens, except for the last song. The debut on the other hand, just gets better with each listen; I agree McKay isn't the best thing ever and the vocal melodies aren't mindblowing, but he and they are both cool and the riffs are fucking awesome. Definitely top-tier USPM.

Man, I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe either Mysto Dysto or Dark Age sound even remotely as weird or awesome as LoTCA. That album fires on every single cylinder for me. The vocals are weird but I never found them as strange or helium'd as most people. They're just wailing and killer. It's all about the production + composition for me though. That super scratchy guitar tone plus a cleaner bass sound is magic, and they just go off every single song with killer riffs. Well except The Sorcerer, but I love that they stuck that moody little break drenched in 70s keys right in the middle of the album. And the whole thing is only 36 MINUTES??? I'm so honored to own it and love it. I wish someone would make a CD version of Grudge next. I assume that's the closest thing to LoTCA although I'm sure the flavor is shifted.

You better believe I'm gonna get that new Portrait album sooner or later. The second one is so dense I'm still trying to digest it.

Holy shit Jonpo, are you saying you've never heard Dark Age before??? That shit is so far up your alley it's already inside your house making you breakfast. It's definitely not as weird as LotCA but...just really amazingly solid metal. A perfect mix of balls-out USPM rocking and moody NWOBHM - it's like what Angel Witch would've sounded like if they grew up in the USPM scene and really loved Mercyful Fate. Fuck dude, it's so good.



As for Grudge - they're not as overtly weird as LotCA, but they're still really really weird, just in a more subtle way. The song structures just take these abrupt shifts, the riffs don't sound like anyone else's, just the basic songwriting choices make it sound like they were only vaguely aware of other bands. They remind me a lot of Cirith Ungol actually, not that they sound alike, but just how "outsider art" they both are. Also the lead guitarist is definitely on a similar level as Jerry Fogle - and I consider Jerry Fogle my favorite lead guitarist of all time. He just has this really easy, almost effortless-seeming fluency to his playing, flowing from lick to lick seamlessly, without the usual hitches you hear in obscure 80s metal.



Just right from the opening - why is that main riff so fucking slow? Who does that, other than doom bands? Then the song suddenly picks up speed around 2/3s through right as the story heats up, and the entire final minute is just a huge awesome guitar solo. Great shit.

New SANCTUARY song:

http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/sanctu ... streaming/

I hope to hear something closer to their old school style on the rest of the album.

Ahhh god damn it FSM. I already wanted Grudge so bad. That song is amazing, I think I've actually heard it before through the chat. The build up is incredible, and that slow riff really stomps around in a fun way. It sounds so blatantly like the same band as LoTCA to me. I know that's basically accepted/common knowledge now but I'm surprised there was ever any shadow on it. I'm really hoping eventually someone will do a quality CD bootleg or someone like SKR will get the rights to put out a CD version.

Dark Age is also great. I think I've always avoided them because I knew I'd love it and couldn't find it anywhere. The opening to that song put a big stupid grin on my face way before they ever played a note. I was not expecting the quote.

And this comparison is one of the fastest ways to make me stop what I'm doing and give something a listen. Goddamn. Gonna check this entire release out now.

Speaking of Dark Age and never finding it anywhere, wasn't that EP officially reissued a year back or so?

If it was please let me know where I can find that. I checked most of the places I'm familiar with. It's a total pain in the ass to search for because of the generic name hahaha

I hope you're as impressed with High Power as I am. Obviously it's not even close to as good as Beyond the Realms of Death, that's honestly one of my top five greatest heavy metal songs of all time. BUT they pull off some similar tricks and I think you'll hear it too. The real crown jewel of that album is Offrande Charnelle. I really love that early French sound they were pounding out between Sortilege/High Power/Blaspheme. They each have their little differences but there's an overarching feel, sort of nwobhm meets Fate. Driving rhythms and playfully mischievous twists in the songs.

Keltic reissued it and I remember that there was some talk about how they mostly do bootlegs but how this Dark Age one looked legit and was sanctioned by a band member or something... but this was in 2012, it seems. I have no idea where you'd buy it...

Well, I still haven't listened to it yet, but I tend to avoid stuff that isn't in English - it bothers me not being able to understand/follow the lyrics. That's just how I've always been, haha. I end up missing out on good stuff because of it, though.

Speaking of Beyond the Realms of Death... I only recently had that song click with me. I used to outright find it annoying because it reminded me of two other songs and I don't even know, man, it was stupid, haha! I still far prefer Dreamer Deceiver and Run of the Mill and wish that they (or anyone, really) had more stuff like that. Ashbury and Winterhawk can do similar stuff and Wishbone Ash's Argus album especially is way up there as far as magical sounding guitar-driven rock stuff goes. Manilla Road's Mark of the Beast and some other tracks fit, too. Kind of an odd way to get into a request, but hey, if anyone here can think of anything (even if it's just individual songs) that fits alongside all of that, let me know!

I'm looking for NWOBHM/speed metal with skillful Halford-influenced vocals and Fast Eddie style guitars. The less it sounds like hard rock, the better. It doesn't necessarily have to be from UK or the 80s, as long as the atmosphere is there.

I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to NWOBHM, so while it's a broad request, I'm probably not aware of many of the seemingly obvious answers.

These may or may not hit the mark, but here's a couple that came to mind:

Trojan - Chasing the Storm. NWOBHM/Speed Metal that's fucking great, vocals don't sound much like Halford but you definitely need to check it out, very little if any hard rock influence.

Warfare - Metal Anarchy. Somewhat Motorhead-esque NWOBHM that's just speedy and dirty and awesome. I'll be surprised if you don't like this one.

Some other people will likely have other recs that I don't care for as much, like Blood Money, Atomkraft, Tysondog, and Avenger. By all means check them out, I just can't be arsed to give specific albums for 'em right now.

Thanks! I'll check them all out.

Funny, Tröjan is Swedish for (the) sweater. I don't think they knew that.

Raven?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=It6ffduFECY

Jaguar are an essential piece of NWOBHM speed metal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZCV140DDWI

And as a wildcard obscure recommendation, (Dragon)slayer are not so speed-metallic but still not slow, but their vocalist sounds like a perfect combination of Halford and Eric Adams:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LnMI2lDmQ8

Yeah Dragonslayer are great, I just didn't think of them much as speed metal, but yeah the vocalist is close to what you're looking for. Also forgot Raven somehow, first two albums are quite good.

Yeah I wouldn't call them speed metal but I couldn't pass up the request for Halfordesque NWOBHM with that
And their third!

Malice

"In the Beginning" and "License to Kill" are both very Halfordy 80s metal albums with a dirtier guitar tone. Not really hyper fast and there are some 'hard rock' leanings but it's standard 80s metal through and through.

Maybe Ambush will do the trick.

Regarding Keltic Record's reissue of Dark Age's EP: it's currently available from Warheart Records, I believe, but they're located in Poland so I'm not sure how feasible that option is for all of you folks across the pond.

Why did no one tell me about Heavens Gate before!? Some awesome stuff right here. Should have known to look into the band history of someone who's as ubiquitous as Paeth.

Crimson Glory - Lost Reflection if you don't already know it. It has a similar feeling to BTROD IMO. Creepy and acustic for the most part, and then a crazy and fast section all of a sudden. Good stuff.

Everyone turn off whatever bullshit you're listening to right now and put on the Hell demos. How can this be so good and why had I waited so long since the last spin?

Livin' in Hysteria is great; lots of fun, loads of great songs and stellar performances but I was disappointed by the follow-up, Hell for Sale. Seriously, those guys were spending way too much time with Gamma Ray and it was starting to show sonically (way too much silliness and not as many good songs). I've yet to hear the debut, though.

Thanks for the enormous amount of recommendations! This is definitely one of the better help threads, I can tell. I'll get back to some of you, eventually, probably.

Um. What?

I thought the EXACT same thing but people started snapping recs out there so I just let it go. His nickname might as well have been ironic.

New Wolf! Sounding pretty riffy so far.

"Shark Attack" though? Really? Not like they've ever been a stranger to cheese, but damn, lol.

Like every Wolf album, I found about 3-4 songs I'll ever come back to. Still though...when Wolf are on...they fucking nail it.

If it's as good as the last one, it'll be a top 10 or 15er for the end-of-year list.

Project Arcadia which Urban Breed is involved in right now has released a new song. Sadly it's uninspired though. Urban Breed is whispering half of the time and the song has no real riffs to enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPwjXPTZG3o

Urban Breed, lol. So much wasted potential with him.

He needed to be in something like what early Artillery sounded like along with him not holding back at all and going crazy. Could have been amazing.

They should just put him in Crimson Glory and record an album, would be sweet.

I like him and think he is great with melodies, but his range is nowhere close to what CG would require.

That song wasn't the most exciting thing Urban has ever done but it was certainly pretty good melodic rock/metal. I'm interested to hear more. The whispering vocals transitioning to his usual powerful vocals is pretty damn cool.