It's better than masturbating to pictures of Steve 'arris.

I don't really like Assedium too much, but there are a handful of good bands in that style. Obviously Manilla Road, Battle Ram is good too of course. Also check out Longings Past, Epic Irae, Baron Steele, Ageless Wisdom, Graven Rite, and Tales of Medusa.

Don't know. For the most part, the guy doesn't seem to do anything interesting outside of Symphony X.

Seriously? Nothing on The Animal Spirits comes close to the finer moments on Traveller and Down Among the Dead Men. The songwriting isn't up to the same standard.

It was September - October. Assuming the album doesn't get released in January or something, it'll be about 3.5 years, or rounded up, 4.

The songwriting on The Animal Spirits is awesome, it's just not the same as the old shit. They're good for different reasons. TAS has a stripped down, rocking character and great charisma, different from the heavy metal riff wizardry of the old stuff. I like different albums best depending on my mood.

There's something about Slough Feg's current course that makes me think they're never going back to the DAtDM style. I love both so I really can't lose, but they've never been a band where I actively wait for new releases.

In anticipation of xmas I've been spending a lot of time at work on amazon, saving things that would normally be too pricey so I can snipe 'em with a gift card. I just wanted to say: Holy shit Pitts vs Preps have a cool album cover. I'm still on the fence about whether it's an album that would stay in rotation (samples sound really good, just don't know if it'll "stick") but I'm kind of smitten by the cover.

Will also be grabbing the Volture full-length (too scared of the new vocalist to spend my own bread), Trojan Chasing the Storm, Gargoyle (US, s/t), the first two Exciter albums, Saracen Heroes, Saints, & Fools, Blacksword The Sword Accurst...

Don't be skeered, it rules!
http://volture.bandcamp.com/album/on-the-edge-2

Currently, it is still not 4 years, whatever way you look at it.

In other news, I ordered a copy of Hypertrace like 3 weeks ago and it still hasn't arrived. Must have been reissued or something.

Hey there. Any recommendations for something like Cauldron and Enforcer? Looking for any thick juicy speed metal with oldschool heavy metal leanings. That song from Enforcer's latest "Take Me Out Of This Nightmare" has been listened to about 6,000 times.

And to throw another more general Heavy Metal question out there, big fan of Motorhead, Exciter, Accept, etc. Any recommendations for stuff like that? Fast and hard but catchy pretty much. Thanks.

For your second request I have just the thing: Oz's Fire in the Brain! A bastard child of Accept for sure, it's just a bit more dirty and evil but they understand the almighty power of the catchy hook.

Well, I just posted em a little ways up the page but I think they'd fit here so give Stallion a shot. You also need Iron Dogs in your life!

Air Raid
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GgH6j46acg


Iron Curtain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIpX9tMEm-E

There's nothing like the feeling of disappointment when you see Slough Feg on the "Recently Updated" header of the front page only to find it was an added link. :[

My Persuader "The Fiction Maze" CD is in shipping process (I ordered the Japanese pressing from HMV Japan). This album better be good! It appears to have a bonus track "Aftermath".

Any nice heavy/power metal bands singing in west slavic languages, like czech, slovak, polish, ...?
And nothing sang with too much prolonged syllables, something that I can actually hear the languages?

Motorband from Czech Rebublik is cool. Kinda Grave Diggerish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jlu0TR-DV04

Motorband sounds really cool, actually! There must be some sort of decree that every HM band from Eastern Europe has to worship Accept.

I like the Grave Digger "references", but I think the vocals are a bit too "engulfed" by the other instruments, on this album at least.
I tried to look for their other stuff on youtube, but it seems they started singing in english later... Still, thanks a lot.
Any other recs?

Hungarian Omen? Don't really know much about the language but it's the same area.

The language is quite different as far as I'm aware. Uralic rather than Slavic I think, more influence from Mongolian, apparently. But yeah, check out Omen and Pokolgep, anyway. It's weird because Kalapács József and Rudan Joe have very different accents. I think Joe actually sounds closer to Aria's first singer (ie more Russian) whereas Kalapács is more reedy and "asian" sounding (for lack of a better term).

God, that album sounds like something I could really get into, but that snare! It's so annoying, totally kills how good the riffs are.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6P0nLRzOBeU

New Skull Fist, whatya think? I'm not convinced by this song, especially not the drum solo part which doesn't feel like it really belongs in the song, more rushed in to showcase the new drummer. It's not like when Maiden or Priest used Where Eagles Dare or Painkiller as openers with their new drummers, that was genius by both. But here's just some random drum solo...

Actually the whole ending part was a lot better than the main song, much more kickass riff!! Love that part, and wished it was used for an actual song instead of just some solo part in the end...

Oh, and the production is really weird too. Head Of The Pack sounded amazing, but this?? It's not really bad, just weird

Yeah the song itself is decent enough but that mix is fucking bizarre. Not unlistenably bad but like...why did they go for that sound

In an effort to remain as far behind the current scene as possible, I finally listened to some Battle Beast. Gotta say, it's as bad as I expected it to be. All of the reasons I hate 80s HM revivalist acts are contained in this one act. They try so hard to be retro it comes across as forced and cheesy. Listening to this song (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38zmdwd5K3E) where you have the JP leather, simple anthemic Accept riffs, fantasy based lyrics and awful widdily solos...it just feels so fake and manufactured. I'm sure most of the band, if not all, are actual heavy metal fans, but that doesn't change the fact the music sounds like it was created solely to cater to the more traditional HM crowd.

Take this act: (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOOWjZPT3d0). The guy can't really sing, the lyrics are some metaphorical nonsense and the production is not what you'd call top of the line even for 1987. I love it for all of those reasons. That aside, it feels genuine. Instead of trying to be poor imitations of their influences, they were merely borrowing/taking from them to make their own similar yet identifiable sound. It doesn't sound like it was created in a board meeting to appeal to some niche crowd and doesn't have a "*wink wink, nudge nudge* we're in on the joke too!" atmosphere. It's sounds like metal fans making metal music.

Also, I'm not saying all newer HM bands are guilty of this. Even though their newest disappointed me, In Solitude come across as genuine folk. As in, they sound like they're actual metal fans instead of some guys just getting together a joke band and having it accidentally take off.

Battle Beast and Sacred Oath are both great bands. I don't hear anything fake or manufactured in BB. Just pure heavy metal passion. It's less subtle than even the goofiest of 80s bands, but it doesn't bother me in the way that bands like White Wizzard or Powerwolf do - because BB have actual songwriting talent and write monster riffs.

In Solitude are good, but they don't really excite me like BB does. That much is just personal preference I'm afraid.

Are you serious, guy? Are you serious?! This is forced and fake?! Are you MAD?!

Even Motley Crue has songs Live Wire and Kickstart My Heart. One song doesn't make up for pap like this, this or this. Still, maybe I was a bit too hard. They seem like late 80s Manowar. Individually greater than the sum. Half commercial junk, half decent metal. That lead guitarist fucking sucks though. Listening to Rain Man again, they have a knack for writing catchy choruses. Maybe more of a shift towards hard rock would make them more tolerable.

The second album isn't near as good as the debut. Steel is the one you should go for.

Pretty Maids is pretty fucking cool. Checked out Future World and now Carpe Diem; it's like a metallized Scorpions. I can dig it. Catchy, attitude-filled, just fun old school metal.

Red Hot Heavy is a very good album, half of it is actually real speed metal too!
However, the Future World title track is the best Pretty Maids song I have ever heard.

Battle Beast are forced, horrible "metal for laffs" shite. Finland's always been excellent at producing terrible metal.

Been enjoying Tad Morose's Revenant the last couple of weeks. Musically about the same style as they did before. Usual midpaced crushing tunes with catchy riffs and fun choruses - some of the latter could have been developed slightly better I think but that's about you wouldn't hear me complain about this album....and this is coming from someone who's not crazy about the band. Great album anyway.

I can't stand female vocals, even moreso with the fake assumed aggressive voice. I push that aside though and pretend I'm listening to a high pitched dude. Even then, Battle Beast isn't very good. I understand why they have gotten more lip service than other similar groups in the past year....but I'll take Accept, Sabaton, UDO, Iron Savior, Primal Fear, Sinner and Paragon anyday over BB.

Another Exigence classic.

Specifically this dude (with tits):

Remember, Sabaton is the greatest band because you can work out to them. Truly the gospel of all music ever according to Exigence.

The riffs may suck, but the PRODUCTION! And those LYRICS! The two most important elements in metal

Can't agree. It's about as cheesy as '80s Stallone, but it's lovely in its own way.

Thanks for the nightmares.

I don't like that hole in his shorts much. It reeks of "easy access".