"Riot" is pretty great, but my personal favorites are "Fall Before Me" and "Sins of the Father."

Wings Are for Angels is still probably my favorite. Riot is a close second, though, and Whiskey Man is fucking great, as well.

"Wings Are For Angels" is fucking wonderful. "Sins Of The Father" and the title track probably come next.

I feel the need for SPEED. Could any of you name the most ludicrously, head-explodingly fast speed and power metal bands you can think of?

I thought 'Whiskey Man' was the best track on Immortal Soul. Riot's always delivered when it comes to rockier numbers, and I really do feel that they're as much as a rock band as they are a metal band. So yeah, I dig their versatility.

it feels weird to say it, but I think Immortal Soul is actually a tiny bit sharper than Thundersteel... May be the diversity, but it has a great energy throughout.

Title track of upcoming Blazon Stone album!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Rq3NqepR9c

Not sure if that's worship or identity theft! Great stuff man!

HEHEHEH!!!!

but listening a few more times now a few hours after vocal recordings I can hear there needs to be some tweaks with the vocal timing... Ah! But that will be solved until it gets released!

The cover art looks fantastic, hail to you, you Swedish bastard!

Vocals were iffy, but the rest was good speed / power metal. Rolf sure as fuck isn't going to make music like that anymore, so someone else ought to do it.

As for the Riot IS favorites, #1 "Riot" #2 "Fall Before Me" #3 "Still Your Man".

For the three worst on IS, #1 the title track (the word "plodding" describes it quite well) #2 "Crawling" (gets a bit boring) #3 "Majestica" (great quickie instrumental, but pretty unnecessary).

My thoughs exactly, waiting a long time for this one.

Here's the obligatory rocker of the album
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgkoUyJCHTI

Great stuff! I've seen them live. They're a great bunch.

The 'new' (slightly re-worked) artwork for Out of the Abyss.

PS, the obligatory rocker is my favourite thus far. You should've called it "Stand By your Man", though.

Haha of course they're as much a rock band as a metal band - as anyone who's heard their Guy Speranza material will tell you. I vastly prefer that era to anything with any of the later singers, too.

Also, could someone fill me in on this Blazon Stone Rocka Rollas stuff? Is Blazon Stone the new Rocka Rollas or is it a separate project that is even more Running Wild worshippy? When are we going to hear the 500000 Rocka Rollas albums that are supposedly finished? Why the hell is he so slow at actually releasing finished material?

Looking for more crunchy heavy metal with lower vocals like these bands....

Iron Savior
Paragon
Rebellion

Great production is a must!

This should get you started:

Persuader, Savage Circus, modern Accept, Agent Steel, Grave Digger, Herman Frank, Imagika, Lonewolf, Running Wild, Manilla Road, Metal Church, Mystic Prophecy, Paradox, Sabaton, Shatter Messiah, Tank, Tarot, The Lord Weird Slough Feg, and maybe Wuthering Heights.

Yeah already know all those bands. Haven't heard shatter messiahs name tossed out in a long time....

Try Abraxas, Angel Dust, Brocas Helm, Destiny's End, Heretic, Omen, Stormwarrior, and Virgin Steele.

Calm down

Blazon Stone is a separate project, just like Mortyr is my separate thrash project. I also have a death metal project and wanna start another solo project in another style soon enough... The only common thing is that I wont sing in any of those projects because I suck at it.

Regarding frequency of Rocka Rollas releases it's now because it seems to take a while for the singer to finish 2nd Rocka Rollas album...
I mean I have done my part on that one, so it's all up to the singer to finish his part.
Two weeks ago I spent a few days in the studio recording another 48 minute album in advance so I'm still ahead
It's WAY better produced and performed than the first two, tighter drumming and better sound overall.

The fourth album is just about ready to be recorded too, but from now on Rocka Rollas is a full band and that means I cannot record
drums alone but the drummer I've find is solid so he could probably record the drums better than me...
We will see when this can be recorded and released, I have planned it for this year, but since it takes so long with vocals for 2nd I doubt it now. But it's not impossible! Also Stormspell has the last word in this too, he can't just release a million albums all the time either

Also except those there's two another albums after that is in the final stages of writing, and one of them is very ambitious and epic, think like Blind Guardian with less medieval instruments and more Running Wild ass kickery... Something like that. Not much speed metal on that one, if any. All songs will be very long and diverse, rarely repeating anything and keep getting fresh throughout the songs. It will easily be over an hour long.
The other one is more of a traditional speed metal affair with a sci fi theme, having a Scanner feeling but more technical

I'm no doctor but it sounds to me that you may have HMADD. Heavy metal attention deficit disorder.

I wouldn't say I'm more of an attention whore than any other band promoting their music: it's just that I have so fucking much going on which makes a lot of posts and shit about it. Can't help it I just have nothing else to do really

He didn't say you were a whore! He just diagnosed a case of HMADD on the fly. I wouldn't take it to heart, he was upfront about not being a doctor.

If you're taking requests I think you should start a third Running Wild-themed band except this ones called Marooned and every song sounds like Marooned.

Lions Share - Dark Hours
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYIaQv42-GI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QtXdTSnots

I think my post got lost in translation. In the states we have the tendency to diagnose kids that cant sit still in class with this disorder. I was trying to say that you seem to have yourself quite spread out with a million projects at once. Logically it would be more productive,in the long term if you focused on one or two projects at a time. I have no problem with being a whore lol. My parents are musicians as am I so.... I say the more whoring the better
Also,keep up the good work and stay focused!

Keep up the good work, Rocka. I know a lot of us here enjoy your material, or at the very least your potential.

Gave Destiny's End another shot today and it's definitely more impressive than I remembered, I figured it couldn't be too bad given Dan DeLucie's on guitars and Rivera's on vocals. I don't like it as much as Crescent Shield, but it's definitely solid stuff - BDtD, anyway. I'll save Transition for another day.

Everything Rivera sings on is decent but underwhelming.

I beg to differ. Strongly.

Is that supposed to be funny?
He is simply one of the best voices in the underground...and one on whom the years have not taken their toll since there's so many we can all name who sound incredibly diminished. And I know I have Helstar in my name so my knee jerk reaction is to defend him but come on, if you have listened to at least the first fifteen minutes of the albums Remnants Of War and The King Of Hell you wouldn't be so casual with your comments

Are there any other songs built like Iron Maiden's "Rime of The Ancient Mariner"? I probably have listened to some but I just can't think of any right now.
Manilla Road, perhaps?

I'm searching for bands/albums in the vein of Sonata Arctica's "Ecliptica".Can anybody help me?

The debut Liege Lord album is made of awesome. Go listen to it. Now! Bang your head to classics like "Wielding Iron Fists" and the masterpiece that is "Rage Of Angels". NOW!

Also buy the Jag Panzer reissues on High Roller when they come out on the 17th. Maybe if those prove to be good sellers they will finally reissue the Satan's Host debut on CD.

Eeeeeeeh..... Dante's Inferno? Don't know if you'll like it though, as it's significantly heavier than Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

My favourite from that album is 'Legionnaire'. I think it's a very strong album, too, in fact the first two Liege Lord albums don't get enough praise when compared to Master Control. They were great live, too, I hear that they're working on a new album, which should be interesting.

Check out any of Manilla Road's longer songs.

Do not get me wrong - "Master Control" is a great great album of power/speed metal. It sports an awesome production job and sounds powerful even when compared to modern standards. Also most people seem to love Joe on vocals. However the debut has a raw, muscular, wild charm to it. The vocalist cannot hold a candle to Joe and yet he still sounds VERY convincing and powerful. Plus the songs are all awesome, top to bottom. I have it on original CD (Black Dragon 1997 CD issue, the only non-bootleg one) but it should get the reissue treatment like Ample Destruction is going to get. It really needs to be heard by more people.

Also a new Joe-fronted Liege Lord album would be awesome.

Now if someone would finally reissue Satan's Host and Black Death material...

I know everyone seems to prefer Joe Comeau to Andy Michaud, but I really think Andy's perfect for those first two Liege Lord albums... so I wouldn't change a thing. I recently got the first Satan's Host album, too (the Old Metal pressing). It sounds just as good (bad) as it should, to be honest (which means the production's infinitely preferable to their latest album )

I got tickets for next year's Keep it True which means I'll be seeing Jag Panzer doing a special early days set (assuming I live that long).

Gaaaaah you guys are going to end up having me make an exorbitant purchase. Liege Lord is another one of those bands criminally due for the reissue treatment. I...assume, haven't actually heard them yet.

Fuck, I just realized Holocaust's Covenant is a concept album about the Thomas Covenant series! I should have realized this earlier given that failsafe has a review up for it. Always one step ahead of me, fsm! Well, definitely looking forward to this, anyway. I haven't been this excited since Blind Guardian came out with songs based on The Wheel of Time.