SolstafirAquilaria already covered many of the best ones but he forgot/didn't know about Agnes Vein - Of Chaos and Law demo which is I think the best Elric-themed release along with Stormblade's Steeler of Souls demo.

http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ag ... _Law/74429

Cool, thanks for the recs, guys, I know plenty of these, but I'll check out the ones I don't, Agnes Vein looks cool and this page is gold!

Oh shit, I didn't realize that City of Screaming Statues was from Elric (I still need to get around to continuing reading all of that stuff). Great link, thanks.

Yeah City of Screaming Statues refers to Hwamgaarl:

"The capital of Pan Tang is Hwamgaarl, the City of Screaming Statues.
Tigers walk among men and feed when they please.
Sorcerers study dark knowledge and summon
awesome horrors from other planes to do their bidding.
The citizens of Hwamgaarl take their pleasure in the Gardens of Pain,
gather their knowledge at the University of Lucid Perversity,
and propitiate the Lords of Chaos at the PalaceTemple of the Theocrat."



and if you wonder what or who are the screaming statues:

"Now they neared the huge walls of Hwamgaarl. At intervals along the walls,
which slanted outwards at an angle to encumber potential besiegers,
they saw the screaming statues—once men and women whom Tagreen Lern and his forefathers had turned to rock
but allowed them to retain then life and ability to speak. They spoke little, but screamed much,
their ghastly shouts rolling over the disgusting city like the tormented voices of the damned—and damned they were."
-Michael Moorcock, Black Sword's Brothers

And now I know where a certain NWOBHM band got their name as well, haha! Thanks for those excerpts.

Man, Black Hand Inn is fucking AWESOME. I usually don't get in the mood for Running Wild, but after hearing their latest catastrophe of an album I was inspired to go back and rock out some of their old ones, and this has always been my favorite of the handful I have heard, with Death and Glory close behind. Great summertime music.

Honestly, I can't choose between Black Hand Inn, Blazon Stone, and Death or Glory as my favorite RW album. Port Royal, Pile of Skulls, and Masquerade are up there, too.

Pile of Skulls is a ton of fun. The first three or four songs are ace and "Treasure Island" is really cool too. RW are one of those bands that always has some filler near the end of the album but then picks back up with a great epic. Seems like most of their albums follow that template. Death or Glory probably the least so, so I'd say that was my favorite except that I just like the good songs on Black Hand Inn slightly more than those on DoG.

The new Sonata Arctica album has leaked already, I'm gonna download to listen and see if it's worth buying, the thirty second samples didn't tell me anytihng.

They can almost do no wrong by me, so I'll check it out. Looks like it's finally time to get torrents and check it out; it's all I've been waiting for lately anyway.

I'm half of the album already and it's eh... the only song that was turning up to be good was I Have a Right and then came that corny sample/whatever of the girl talking and it... just...
Let's hope the second half is better.

The opener was my favorite easily on the whole album, but a lot of it really seems like it will have to grow on me later, like "The Day" and the final few songs.

The ending epic on BHI is the only track I don't love, it simply feels like it could lose 5 minutes and be a lot more effective. My favorite RW epic is definitely The Battle of Waterloo - holy shit, is that track flawless or what? Still, BHI has a very strong second half - Freewind Rider, directly followed by Powder and Iron? Fucking glorious.

Nah those are the weakest on the whole album for me. I really dig "Genesis" personally, love how it rides out its riffs for the whole 15 minutes and has some great vocals and energy to boot.

Freewind Rider, weak? Possibly the best main riff on the album, genius volume swells in the verse, and a fucking awesome solo to boot. One of my absolute favorites.

It's just that the songs before it are better is all. "Fight the Fire of Hate" and "Phantom of Black Hand Hill" are probably my choice picks, but the whole album up to that point is flawless.

My favorite from Black Hand Inn is...well, "Black Hand Inn." It just gets the blood pumping every time.

Started trying to learn to The Battle of Waterloo on guitar. I can make it the whole way through the song but I'm not 100% perfect yet. The pre-chorus is pretty tricky with how many notes he crams in there.

Which brings me to Rolf's right hand movement. How the fuck does he do it, his hand barely moves! He ranks up there with Marty Friedman in the weirdest picking style stakes.

And the production doesn't help either not saying the production is bad, I fucking love it, but it can be hard to hear exactly what is played sometimes. It's even harder on the Masquerade album, the distortion is overwhelming haha.
I always prefer raw powerful productions over modern overly clean shit...

Those of you who want more classic late 80s-90s RW style stuff check my upcoming project out, Blazon Stone!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-irqZsuseg
I play guitars, bass and drums (up yours, Sasso!) and need a good singer for it. I have some help with
finding vocalist from Stormspell Records who will also release it, hopefully this year already.
What you hear now is just an early mix, but the recording of the album is soon to be finished, except vocals of course.

As I said to you earlier Rollas, move over Rolf this stuff you are writing is what Shadowmaker should have sounded like, I can't wait to hear the finished product.

Yes, even though I love the production on Death or Glory, it makes the songs difficult to tab out accurately. I know I have certain parts of this song tabbed wrong, but I haven't really had the chance to work on those sections. I'm talking about the chorus and the riff just after the second chorus. I have the general idea of them but it's still not quite right. Hopefully get some time this weekend to put some work into it.

And that is pretty cool for a rough mix. I look forward to you getting a singer and releasing this stuff.

Listening to Razorback Killers again today, and failsafeman is right - a lot of these sure are growers. I didn't like Black much at all on my first listen, but it's actually a really cool song. Murderball is still the best, though.

Man, I wish JD Kimball did more.

Any thoughts on this new Omen track?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LA6Knk3JeFw

I hope that's not the final mix. Seems good, although doesn't mesh well when you've been listening to a lot of the old stuff directly before it. Vocals just can't match up to JD at all. lol...

Yeah the chorus is damn hard to hear what the hell is going on... A lot of melodies and vocals all over the place haha.
I guess it's really simple if just listening carefully

I havn't done it myself yet but I would suggest looking up the Wacken 2009 version of Waterloo, since there's only two guitars and one of them or maybe both should be easier to hear

I like pretty much every Running Wild album up to and including Masquerade but I have to say that I feel like after Death or Glory they kind of recycled a lot what made DoG good.

Which for me isn't a problem at all... Masquerades title track was basically a clone of Powder & Iron, but fuck it. Both rule in their own ways.
I just like how they followed a working formula.
For me the great era was from Port Royal to The Rivarly, with Victory there was a definitive change in style.
Grave Digger does it as well, they have tons of songs with riffs that sounds almost the same... ACtually, if you let Jens Becker play a song alone you could not hear which one it is because the basslines are so similar
The same goes for Iron Maiden to an extent. They have at least a lot of pace changes and all that stuff, but almost always "those" notes and rhythms. But it's great!

Post-Death or Glory albums ain't bad or anything but I guess I don't need so many variations of the same thing. Same goes for band like Motörhead. I mostly just listen to the few best albums by the band.

For me the great era was from Port Royal to The Rivarly, with Victory there was a definitive change in style.[/quote]

I think that the three most important albums for me are Branded & Exiled, Port Royal and Death or Glory.

Sounds pretty damn good to me. As long as there are some faster rippers on there, it's set up to be a great album, not as good as the Kimball material for sure but the best thing they've done since. I'll have to wait and see though, this could be the only good song on the album. The vocalist is awesome though, no Kimball but talented and charismatic in his own right. Can't wait for the album now! Looks to be one of the heavier hitters of the year, along with that Hellwell abum.

Branded is the one I still can't get into, even if I love the debut and Jolly Roger. Strange...

I wish 80's Judas Priest were more consistently heavy, "The Sentinel" is so awesome... CONDEMNED TO HELL!

Branded & Exiled is fun, but there's a few iffy songs in the second. It certainly doesn't match Gates to Purgatory for sheer raw power, either. Blazon Stone is a little underrated I feel, and it's got one of my favourite production jobs ever. Definitely all the RW with Jens Becker have an edge, sonically, over the others.

Defenders of the Faith gets a ton of spins here, even more so than Painkiller. The Sentinel is sheer awesomeness and the best Priest song in my opinion but the whole album grew on me over time. And Lyrics aside, Eat me alive is right beside The Sentinel in replay value. Can't touch the other 80's output though, could never get into those other albums.

ANA: Took the words out of my mouth. I think "Blazon Stone" is indeed pretty underrated. It's all around one of their most consistent albums I think and as you said, it has by far one of the better mixes. "Pile of Skulls" was then kind of muddy and raw, and "Black Hand Inn" has that explosive overpowering bass that you gotta be in the mood for, but Blazon was just clean and really balanced.

Yeah I seriously think I need to check out "Defenders of the Faith" again.

You do. It's not just The Sentinel and Eat me Alive. You got Rock Hard Ride Free, Jawbreaker, Freewheel Burning and Night comes Down. The album fucking slays. It's right behind Painkiller for me.

Been on a King Diamond/Mercyful Fate binge lately. Quite a lot to digest from the solo albums I haven't heard yet, but damn this is some good stuff.

I have been listening to Conspiracy by King Diamond for the better part of a week, and while I will admit that the Kings vocals made me cringe initially, after repeated listens I may have found the perfect album to help break me into the whole KD/MF world. I can probably thank the new Swedish stuff out there like Ram, Portrait, et all for that. Those bands have been kicking my ass for the past few months.

Man bringing up Judas Priest now is so funny since I've been listening to some Gamma Ray again actually... the influences are so obviously strong it's crazy. Totally forgot about "Jawbreaker". I want to say there was a Gamma Ray or Iron Savior song that was like the same damn thing... haha (or a few songs!? lol).

Damn this is weird. Defenders seems heavier than "Ram it Down", which was definitely pretty lopsided. Has some killer tracks here and there though. I still can't get behind the "Painkiller" love nowadays though, it's not all amazing, but some good stuff in there. Maybe Defenders will grow on me and become a new favorite, haha. Just need a really good and consistent Priest album to love. I'm still no expert on their old stuff though outside of "Unleashed From the East", which I guess you could say is just like a compilation pretty much.

EDIT: Yeah ... seriously "Ram it Down" isn't terrible. "Blood Red Skies" anyone? Holy shit.

EDIT EDIT: Oh yeah... I think I sometimes mistake "Ram it Down" for "Turbo" for some strange reason. Yep, I tend to completely forget "Turbo" exists, lol. Ram still isn't all that consistent though, but not bad.

My favourite 80's Priest is Screaming for Vengeance with Defenders coming close second. But in general I don't care for 80's-to-00's Priest nearly as much as I care for 70's Judas Priest. Painkiller is good but not great. It has it's pounding, heavy metal up your ass moments but it doesn't really touch me. The production is so dry and lyrically it's mostly catch phrases and stuff. It can be uplifting and somewhat cool but also kind of hollow and unfulfilling. Well at least for me! The only song on it that really gets to me is Touch of Evil. Damn it's good! But then again Sad Wings of Destiny, Sin After Sin and Stained Class are full of songs that move me so I rarely listen anything else from the band.

Really? I hate "Touch of Evil".

I think it's the lyrics and production that makes me uninterested in "Painkiller" nowadays, plus in comparison to his older performances, Rob just doesn't sound as passionate. Sure he's screaming his lungs out on the self-titled track and stuff, but damn I love his voice and dynamics so much more in the older stuff.

Yeah, Painkiller is a good album, but I never understood how people could single it out as the absolute best of their discography when such passionate and unique albums like their 70s ones existed.

Painkiller is a fine album but I don't love it as much as I used to. Give me Sad Wings of Destiny over it anyway. I agree with the vocal performence of Rob. He sounded better on the 70's albums.

Hi guys, I've never been a power metal fan, but right now I want to expand my music library and give it a chance. The only power metal band that I really like is Dragonland, I'm not a fan of neoclassical influences, they tend to be kind of predictable.

So I want power metal that isn't cheesy, fats and heavy riffing is what I'm looking for, great vocal melodies but not too much falsetto and high pitched screams, they are fine but not all the time, symphonic elements are also welcome, if they are used with moderation, again, think of Dragonland. Drums should be varied, please not the same beat all the time.

Thats pretty much it. Heavy riffing, not exagerated vocals and decent drums. Thanks