I've listened to slough feg's s/t I think it was the first album and I was blown away so I should love this one too! And I'm a huge table-top gaming nerd so this shoul be right up my alley. Thanks!

Iron savior was pretty cool I liked it alot.

Overlapping Nucleotides, double helix is genocide!

What a great album that is. I love playing that one on guitar, along with High Passage/Low Passage.

people who only listen to extreme metal can be so annoying

"This Battle Beast band sounds exactly like Nightwish"

It's best to have a healthy mix of regular and extreme metal to make your collection and your knowledge more well-rounded.

*in before someone calls me out on my listening habits*

In other news, Phantom-X is a pretty cool band. Nothing really groundbreaking, but it's still some punchy modern USPM.

yeah I LOVE extreme metal, but I know a lot of people who listen to like 70% black metal, 15% death metal, 15% thrash and nothing else. Kind of lame imo.

I never get that either. The natural human response - going back to the beginning of time - is to enjoy the sound of another human voice singing. It's strange to me that people can honestly say all they like is screamy, extreme stuff...just a product of the times I guess. I like a fair bit of death metal and some black, but yeah, clean singing is just so deep-rooted and wide-spanning that it's odd not to like it.

The reason I mostly listen to straight up heavy metal more than anything else is because I prefer actual singing. When I listen to death and black, I'm more interested in riffs and atmosphere than vocals.

I love death and black, but I mostly stick to older stuff mainly due to the vocals. Never really got the fascination with growls so deep that their unintelligible. I prefer something that sounds vaguely human, even if it sounds actually closer to a rotting zombie.

To stay on topic...uh...anyone like early TNT? Their first two are decent heavy metal/hard rock albums.


I'd avoid their later stuff though...

I really like the first TNT album. Very good classic hard'n'heavy stuff with a slight power metal flavor. Great vocals too!

As a sidenote - can anyone point me in the direction of modern bands that are in the style of "Tyrants"/"Ample Destruction"-era Jag Panzer? Emphasis should be put on powerful vocals and driving, biting riffing.

The first Dream Evil album?

Nahsil, Battle Beast are Finnish swine-filth, you should feel dirty for liking them.

You sir, are not only crazy, you are also wrong. Very wrong. Completely wrong in fact.

TNT's Intuition is a perfect album. 100%. Maybe they get a 1.5% deduction for the reverby snare drum. So 98.5%!
Tony Harnell's vocals are unreal, the songs, while poppy and catchy (as if that was a negative?), always stay interesting due to the attention to detail in the songwriting. The guitar playing is just out of this world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9mLrxEId4Ws
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuBAGVNFCd0

I'm sure you already know everything I could suggest. Steel Assassin, Overlorde's Return of the Snow Giant, Ballistic, etc. Nobody really has that thunderous midrange Conklin possesses on AD, bar maybe a couple like David DeFeis and Bruce Dickinson. Holy Mother's Toxic Rain might fit the bill. Maybe Razorwyre's full-length? Not that much in the way of straightforward blue collar USPM has come out in the last ten years, at least from new bands, and not that's of any quality. I guess some of the NWOTHM stuff could count; I assume you've heard all of Striker's output? RAM's? Apart from that there's not really much out there, at least that I've heard.

On an unrelated note, I've been digging Midnight's Satanic Royalty lately, anything similar? I'd prefer stuff with strong NWOBHM/traditional heavy metal influence, rather than black/thrash, but give me what you've got. I've already looked through the similar artists without much success and I already enjoy Witchgrave. Thanks in advance.

I'll meet you half-way and say Tell No Tales is a decent pop metal album, but Intuition is the kind of music Winger would call shallow and overly commercial.

For crimes of wrongness, I sentence you to listening to Bride's Fist Full of Bees on repeat for the next 30 days.

In fairness, TNT did know how to write catchy, hook-filled, ultra-smooth glam rock. Whether or not you like that kind of thing is another question entirely, but I for one am occasionally in the mood for it, and you can do a lot worse than TNT.

Oh, I can see the appeal if you're into/don't mind super glossy hard rock. Just a bit of teasin', 'tis all. Plus, I was just looking for an excuse to post that awful Bride song. They're an interesting band due to their career choices. If there was a trend, they'd be there to hop on it. G'nR rock? Check. Grunge? Yep. Rap rock? Got it. Downtuned tuff guy metal? Uh huh. First three are decent heavy metal platters, but everything after is hit and miss.

God, there's nothing worse than a band hopping on a trend that isn't even fresh anymore. Red Warlock, a modern power/speed band from Italy in the vein of Morgana Lefay I actually had pretty high hopes for, ended up changing their name to Negacy in 2012 and turning into a Meshuggah worship band. Seriously, compare this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgGkfB9fGBs

With this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMGhSyv6XWc

That is very sad. Djent is the new metalcore.

Sorry but I have no idea what the hell Djent is.

Yeah pretty much everything you listed I already own and love or listened to and will buy in the near future. Love Striker, RAM, Razorwyre etc. I would not put those beside Jag Panzer though - different type of riffing and approach. But Holy Mother's "Toxic Rain" is an excellent album - people should listen more to that one - it is nearly thrash in it's intensity and Mike is a fine vocalist in his own right.

I have to drone about this again - buy the Jag Panzer reissues from High Roller! They sound great, look awesome and have tasteful, simple packaging - the original artwork and lyrics in the booklet and great bonus tracks.

As for something like Midnight try Bewitched and their album "At The Gates Of Hell". They have a large heavy/power influence and even do a Thor cover on that one. The opening track from that album:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gC9FahnfvA

New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal?? That's really not a good descriptor. Traditional metal is traditional metal. It doesn't come in waves, it has always been here.

How about New NWOTHM

Have you heard Rötten? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cu04xizB9w

Holy shit holy shit holy shit, the new Battle Beast is giving me a gigantic boner. The first few tracks were a little disappointing, but everything since "Out on the Streets" has been awesome, with "Kingdom" being my favorite new song so far this year.

KINGDOM!! A CASTLE IN THE HEAVEEEEENNNNS!!

The first song and the last song aren't amazing, and there are a few clunkers - it should have been 10-11 songs, not 13. But "Neuromancer" has got to be one of their most awesome songs so far, and "Kingdom" has some killer riffing going on. Most of it kills pretty fuckin' hard.

I thought "Rain Man" was a pretty sweet tune, but yeah, you could cut out the first track and have a candidate for Album of the Year, right here.

Eh, I'd give it a score in the low 80s - having a lot of fun with it, but I just think the first one's better overall. Can't beat "Armageddon Clan" and "Justice and Metal." This one really is cool though. Maybe in time I'll like it just as much.

Huh. Holocaust, the NWOBHM band, has a new EP out. It's only about 12 minutes of music, but it's pretty decent and Mortimer thankfully dropped the snarl from Primal. Out of the three songs, I prefer the second track due the mild resemblance of their late 80s/90s sound. The first song has a more rocking vibe and the last song is just a short spacey sounding instrumental.

just EPIC!!!

I don't suppose that has anything to do with the very attractive vocalist:)

...I actually don't know what these folks look like, come to think of it. I usually don't care to know what the band looks like.

Love me some Black Knight. The comp they have out is pretty awesome.

Hey everyone! I have a very specific request in terms of Power Metal. I am a BIG fan of bands like Power Quest, Sonata Arctica and Stratovarius. Can anyone recommend me some band that has allot of big keyboard sounds and/or keyboard/keytar solos within them? I know Power/Folk crossovers like Alestorm and Gloryhammer do those too, so any more Power/Folk bands would be nice to know of too.

I've finally found some long live footage of Conception!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TW1vESetkXY

If people are looking for Jag Panzer type USPM....might I suggest Rob Rock's solo records.

Those actually sort of fit the bill but I have all of those that I am interested in.

Has anyone ever investigated if Timi Hansen was living a double life and also playing in Sortilege as "Daniel Lapp"? Talk about show stealing performances. Between the vocals and bass I forget the guitars exist at certain points.