Maybe give the Japanese band Lightning a shot:

Justice Strike

Raise the Sun

Just as a warning, this ain't in English and the videos may be a bit on the cheesy side for some people.

A bit cheesy?! That was Immortal level cheesy!

Haha I think I have an astronomic tolerance of cheese compared to most people.

Can't listen to that because of the singers fucking vibrato...
Also both songs sounded pretty much the same...

Also not a fan of this modern guitar sound everybody uses nowadays...

But who the fuck is that drummer? He looks old as fuck. And that's cool, but still weird haha

What? C'mon bro, metal music videos get way, way cheesier than that.

Without even leaving Japan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8l4D3nhgKE

After chatting with Oblarg today re: Riot, i was hoping we could get a wee bit of discussion here. NO - NOT about their upcoming album, and the merits or apparent pitfalls of them continuing under the Riot moniker, whhich i believe has some individuals rather butthurt, but about the band's early spree of albums.

Narita, Fire Down Under, and Rock City are pretty unanimously held in high regard, while Born in America, and to a lesser extent Restless Breed, are fairly often passed over, or not regarded as essential, cf. the aforementioned 3 records. And i myself hold this opinion - i've frequently suggested those new to the band to check out Narita, Fire Down Under, and Rock City as essential Riot, and pretty much essential heavy metal, but never really felt so strongly about the others. I was hoping maybe we could talk about just WHY these albums don't stand up to the others. In your opinions, why aren't these albums as good as the earlier ones? Cheers.

I know a lot of people blame it on Rhett Forrester, but really I think he's a pretty darn good singer. No Guy Speranza of course, but he has his own personality and he's quite talented. The actual problem is the songwriting - songs on Fire Down Under just CRACKLE with energy. Not only are they faster, they hit you with riffs and hooks left and right. Riot slowed things down and simplified them on the later albums - there's just not much going on. The songs are repetitive and seriously, SERIOUSLY lack good hooks and good riffs. Take "49er" from Narita - immediately it hits you with that cool riff, but in not even 30 seconds it hits you with the verse and the gallop riff. There are also great hooks, like that little descending lead bit at around 0:45, which is exactly the kind of icing on the cake that is sorely lacking from the Rhett Forrester albums. Compare it to Loanshark from Restless Breed; it starts off with some promise, but then when Rhett Forrester comes in the same riff is still going on, and keeps going, without any kind of extra hook or anything. It just keeps that same straightforward rhythm the whole time, with really REALLY basic vocal melodies. I'm bored to tears before the song is half over.

Yeah exactly - i always thought there was a lack of real hooks and catchy bits - feels overall a bit boring compared with the earlier ones - where there are some real balls on display, for example the aforementioned 49er. Overall, listening to Born in America just doesn't pump you up and make you wanna bang your fists like other albums. Theyre not bad albums just pale in comparison, i think.

Haha that's awesome! Great song too!!!

I received that yesterday: http://www.metal-archives.com/albums/Ph ... _Be/366770

I'll review it soon but you guys should really check it out. One of the best trad revivalists I heard recently. It's very NWOBHMish (Raven, Maiden) and very well done. The singer could be better but the vocal lines are pretty nice and he's also the guitarist. Better than Axxion from the same scene, order that EP gentlemen!

I've seen these guys a couple of times and they are wicked! The EP has some of the bass best playing I've heard in a long time. I would agree they're better than Axxion, but I really like both bands.

I still gave a 75% to Axxion's debut EP but I prefer the musicianship here, a bit more intricate. Oh man, I'd like them to come here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7jA6KLbTa0
Pastore is some good stuff for heavy/power metal. I'm surprised that I haven't come across them when the vocalist has a set of pipes like this.

Old Riot talk, might be good timing on this random question, but...

How would you guys stack up old Judas Priest, Deep Purple, Rush, and Rainbow? Should I even group them all up?

Just thinking there's a lot in there I need to dive into more.

Who influenced Iron Maiden? Compared to Priest they've always seemed a bit more aggressive and focused on leads.

Thin Lizzy would be an obvious answer

THIN LIZZY, duh!
and GENESIS! Definitely GENESIS. I can't quite put my finger on it but I was listening to "Nursery Cryme" the other day and in "The Musical Box" I could feel Maiden dipping their fingers.

For the galloping leads i think Led Zeppelin - Achilles Last Stand might have been an inspiration.

Found live material of Virgin Steele in 1996.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtlOcP3Ymbo

I haven't listened to Iron Maiden as much as everyone else, but I always thought some of the riffing in "The Sails of Charon" by Scorpions sounded like it could have influenced Maiden.

Can't wait to hear their full length, awesome band! Great live too. This song is very slow and features very cool vocals from Jean-Pierre and of course, niiice solos!

Is that the cover for the new album? I can't wait for this album. Also to the dude that said he hears some Genesis in Maiden, you are absolutely correct. I've seen a couple interviews where Steve Harris has said he was hugely influenced by Michael Rutherford's bass playing so I think naturally it would come through in some of his music.

That Jean-Pierre has got such emotion in his voice. So far this year not alot has really grabbed my attention so Ive been mainly purchasing older albums. Looks like some potentially great stuff is coming though. Also ordered that ep by Phantom seems pretty righteous.

Yeah he sounds good, but how much of an arsehole do you have to be to get kicked out of a band that bares your namesake. (Maybe the MA page is wrong)

Seriously though he seems like a pretty good singer. Got a bit of a Bruce/Cyriis thing going, good vibrato.

EDIT: I meant Bruce Dickinson.

Yeah, definitely gonna pick this one up. Borrowed Time are living up to their potential and it's AWESOME.

Completely forgot about that band Sorcery (the US hard rock one) and have been cranking 'Till Death do we Part (1980). Such a rad album. Really dig the vibes. Attitude laden 70s hard rock/heavy metal with some sleazy tude and occult vibes. One of those super old bands it'd be amazing to see reunite - like Hell or something. Arts-kicking.

I have not heard their second album but I love their debut "Sinister Soldiers". Tons of great tunes out othere and a psychedelic proto-NWOBHM/proto-doom vibes there. Guitar jams forming into heavy heavy riffage. Really like it. Someone should reissue that album or both of them (as the last legal CD reissue of "Sinister Soldiers" was in 1995 and "Till Death..." was never released on CD). Really great stuff.

Got one more: Nightmare (Fra)
I've only heard their latest (yet - I will hunt down the rest!) of their 9 albums since 1984.
There's a bit of Angra and a bit of Masterplan's first album in this. And a lot more. I really like the singer (which is the original drummer), who's got a nice raspy voice and belts it out 100% all the time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaUI8psJjSo

You know, about a day after I posted this, what happened to pop up?

Have you heard the new songs? They are terrible!

No, where are they? Or did it leak?

EDIT: I found a song called Millennium Lie being played live: http://youtu.be/VW7CcoU6SY8

Aside from some repetitiveness, it doesn't sound too bad. New guy doesn't hold a candle to Urban breed though.

Yeah, there are a couple of live songs on YT. There are no melodies! The singer has a range that makes Blaze Bayley seem competent.

A little late but finally got around to giving Ample Destruction a spin, then another, and another etc, etc. Fuck if this doesn't just kick ass. Not sure why it never clicked early on, better late than never.

Hey, Blaze Bayley's a good singer!

On a different topic, I have two questions for you all:

1) Anyone here know anything that's particularly reminiscent of Demon? You know, that kind of vintage, simplistic, occult sounding, borderline hard rock stuff, with cool melodies and gruff but catchy vocals. It doesn't have to be actually old music. Just something along those lines.

2) What happened to Crescent Shield? From what I've heard, they were working on the last album, as Grant had already recorded his parts before dying, but have there been any news about the whole thing?

Yeah fuck off Opus, Blaze rules.

As far as Crescent Shield goes I have no idea as well, which is disappointing because I really enjoy both albums and would like to hear more.

My previous thread was locked and I was instructed to post here, so that's what I'm doing. I thought that there was some good discussion going on, so I'd like to continue. For those who missed my thread, I have never been a fan of power metal, except for the bands that influenced what the genre became. So I'd like to hear some ballsy power metal that doesn't have cheesy vocals, melodies or chord progressions. In my original thread I was chastised for using the term "gay". I'd just like to point out that I didn't mean anything by it; it's just the vernacular.... So power metal with balls?

You might enjoy these bands (although they are usually considered to be power metal, they certainly have some thrash elements so they don't sound cheesy):
Communic -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4XjQ6IIWg8w
Thunder and Lightning - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSnUV6gk1Zk
Dark Empire - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVZAX2m9ZYU
Teramaze - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VoQoDosARM
Griffin - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0FHVcxd0ytU
Firewind - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpwPMY0wY2Y
Brainstorm - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=awSaPhT9nXM
Nostradameus - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08w9HT_cVt4
Imagika - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKy7hNeR05U

I know I'm late to the boat, but I just realized the Jacob Hansen from Anubis Gate is the same from Invocator. He had a slight improvement in vocal prowess over the years...

Yeah, asking for help to find stuff you like in a genre you deem "gay" isn't really going to help your case, for one, and its pretty offensive. How much shit would someone here get for saying Immortal or Death was gay?

But, like in the other thread, check out a bunch of the US style stuff. More along the lines of what you are looking for.

Stormwitch's The Beauty and the Beast is growing on me. Less glammy/fluffy than I'd previously thought (actually the glammy stuff ain't bad, either). Spooky hair metal or whatever, haha. It's well written and a lot of fun, though, I dig it well enough. I guess they only went shitty on Eye of the Storm. It's a bit more "cheesy 1980s horror" than before, but still I like it.