I mean it was in your post anyway. Dumb meme-y way to look at a wonderful piece of music. It's not for you but I just don't think you even tried.

Saint Vitus - Hallows Victim

Crazy, raw feel - dig it.

Ares Kingdom - The Unburiable Dead

This is an interesting one - fucking skull crushing riffs but the songwriting's much more layered and complex than usual. Interesting mix.

Morbid Angel Evil Spells

Nostalgia and Mellon collie

Fates Warning - The Spectre Within

Absolutely gorgeous and powerful album of complex riffs and vocals - demanding but rewarding. Real artistry - everything done up maximalist and it earns it through the quality of the songs underneath. It's a dizzying storm of music and everything is really done with a lot of care for all that.

Judas Priest - Killing Machine

Obviously sounds a lot more shallow and accessible than Priest's earlier stuff, but with these big hooks and Halford's supreme vocals, things turn out well enough.

Faith No More - Zombie Eaters

My fave Patton show of the album. Riffs hard, too.

After Woodpecker from Mars is my second fav song of The Real Thing…

Damn 1989…

The wall was still there…..

Indeed.
This album, and “Guardian”, remain to this day highly unique and without peer.

Motorhead - The Chase Is Better Than the Catch.

Yeah Fast Eddie and Philthy were bad motherfuckers.

And lets not get started on Lemmy....


I will never see Motorhead live again...

Pantera - Mouth For War

Holy shit.

Yep.


One of the sexiest riffs in rock 'n roll.

Heavy Load – Full Speed at High Level
Heavy Load – Metal Conquest
Heavy Load – Death or Glory
Heavy Load – Stronger than Evil

Often called "the first Swedish metal band". The regular vocals are an acquired taste but the frequent choir vocals are excellent and reminiscent of early Magnum, Queen or Blue Öyster Cult. Also, the guitar work is remarkable for its fusion of Iommi and Tipton/Downing. Right up my alley. Why didn't I come across them earlier?

Don't skip the comeback album from last year either, it's fucking brilliant.

Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Neurosis - Times of Grace

"Face in the Mirror" off Mandrake Project is really hitting me these days, no clue why - but he really does do the ballads well.

Times of Grace is really something... not to take away from the preceding several albums but this one is so well-constructed and seems like a real mature work for them. Stunning beauty and also so much chaos and tragedy in it all.

Gorguts - Obscura

I struggle a bit with dissonant black and death metal, especially all the new blackened death bands out so went back and started listening to some of the earlier more well known stuff, and this is insane. What an album, never heard it before. Early Immolation next.

Root - Hell Symphony
Root - Temple in the Underworld
Root - Kärgeräs

Brilliant, idiosyncratic band. The Bathory influence is notable, but they have their own voice, and I don't mean just Big Boss's charismatic vocals. Next Coffin Storm and some good ol' Judas Priest.

first spin for Rage "Afterlifelines" - sounds sweet for now, I'm curious for what's inside this double LP

Immolation - Here In After

One of the most evil sounding death metal albums i've ever heard, absolutely sinister.

Yep, that was actually the first one I listened to a couple of weeks ago. A seamless continuation of the old stuff. (I could have done without the synthetic strings though.)

NP: Heavy Load – Riders of an Ancient Storm

After that: more epic metal in the shape of Gatekeeper's "East of Sun" and "From Western Shores". Not sure yet which album and vocalist (they're both very good) I like better.

Except I did try about ten years ago. Listened to it about 8 times over a couple months. John Arch's voice got on my nerves and the songs, progressive or not, just didn't stick with me.


Tower- The Black Rose

They did have a weird 7 minute string ambient instrumental. But the actual songs are all so great - I gotta give the classic stuff more spins soon.

Blind Guardian - Script for My Requiem

This (the full album) is really where they seemed to fully evolve into who they were... the guitar tone, the vocal production, the songwriting, everything seems like it all finally clicked into place. Iconic songs.

Realm - Endless War

God this is so fuckin good. Manic, substantial riffs, wailing awesome vocals, what else do ya need.

They nailed….

To the gooold for the Christ’s Cage

Caladan Brood - A Voice Born of Stone and Dust

About time these guys release a new album

This was a gem of an album. I played this along with Artillery's "By Inheritance" practically side by side for quite a long time.

Currently Playing: Tiamat - "Sumerian Cry". The music for this album is a really dirty and murky death metal that has a great low end to it. But the vocals are just slightly off, not quite being quite clear enough to really push it into classic territory. If the vocals were cleaner, more like the follow up album it would deserve a lot more acclaim. Something closer to how Cemetary's "An Evil Shade of Grey" vocals were would be preem for it.

I'd love to hear someone do a cover from this album to see how good it could have been...or if I'm just looking at it through the lens of my love for the next four albums they put out.

You're probably referring to the acoustic (guitar) track "Butterfly Whispering" but I meant the string section that accompanies many parts on the album, e.g. the very beginning of "Raven is Calling". On their homepage they say "Walhalla Warriors" features a real string quartet recorded in 1987. So maybe the other string sections aren't synthetic either, I don't know. Real or not real – I think everything would sound more powerful without this feature or with some cool keyboard sounds instead of strings.

Now playing: some old Talon albums, long forgotten German priest-style metal. First listen. There are so many old seggcond-tier bands with half-familiar names and cover artworks I never heard a single note of. Yesterday I treated myself to my first couplegg of seconds of Tygers of Pan Tang, and maybe there'll be more seggconds in the foreseeable future.

Ah yeah it did occur to me that's what you meant. I really like those sections - sounds fucking cool and gives it all a different vibe.

just playing LP reissues of both Warbringer "Walking into nightmares" & "World turns asunder"
the first still got the fresh crush of their first release, while the second is closer to what I've heard from them later
for now imo this second is a bit underrated on there (first listening maybe 79% for 1st & 82% for 2d roughly) < edit: nah i don't know
nice to ear an Unleashed cover (I'm not yet to the Motorhead one)

Old Nick - Iam Vampire Castle

Awesome as always from this band!

Triumpher- Storming the Walls

This is an awesome album. Very traditional sounding with some experimental stuff going on here, almost borderline black metal at times (see the song Epitaphios)
This band is hard to pin down, almost Iced Earth sounding at times but still worlds apart, even reminiscent of early Ihsahn . Outstanding production.
I'm loving the newer power/epic bands that Greece is cranking out lately. Between these guys, Sacred Outcry, Protean Shield, and Sacral Rage there is quite a nice circle starting to evolve there.
Keep cranking em out!

Dead Congregation - Hostis humani generis

Running out of interesting things to say about this kind of death metal, so I'll just keep it short; AAARGH!

Dark Forest - The Battle of Badon Hill

Really good band, perfect for Spring!

Fides Inversa- Historia Nocturna

Black Metal from Italy, perfect for an Easter Sunday.
Love the cover art on this one. Great album.

I absolutely love Dark Forest.

NP- Fatal Fire - Arson
Almost gave it a pass, but it's actually pretty good. Interesting high energy riffs and some great vocal hooks by their frontwoman.

Must give a shot at Blaspherian,Goreaphobia and Imprecation

But maybe you know them…

Cccp Emilia Paranoica

Kuuullltttt

Currently Playing:

"Dawn of Perishness" by Therion from 'Symphony Massess: Ho Drakon Ho Megas'

While "Theli" really kicked off the 'Symphonic Metal' trend, for me it's this album that was it's inverted counterpart. I believe it's the peak of Therion's Death Metal sound and it just drops me in that pure energy state where you just want to mosh and head bang to get it all out.

Darkthrone - Eternal Hails....

They're flat. They're very flat. I wish something would stick out from their later albums, but they're just playing their blend of metal from here to eternity with little variety. In their case it would almost be better if they recorded half good/half shit albums. At least something would stick out. Good for a couple of listens but not more.

Grausamkeit - Ewiger Holokaust

Excellent stuff!

Bruce Dickinson - The Mandrake Project

Fuck yes! Bruce Bruce back where he belongs with Roy Z making music that's a million times better than Maiden. These songs are fuckin glorious.

^ Great stuff, definitely. Gets even better with repeated listenings.

Thulcandra - Under a Frozen Sun

Yeah, I hear the Dissection influence... I really haven't listened to this band before.

Trying to catch up on band names and artworks I know from ancient album reviews:

Darxon – No Thrills: second-rate Saxon, unintelligible vocals, some good lead guitars; somehow solid but rightfully forgotten. 6/10
Railway – Climax: simple early Quiet Riot heavy rock; no substance, no fun, sorry. 5-5.5/10
High Tension – Under Tension: like Warlock/Doro with a male singer; not much substance but solid. 6.5-7/10
Faithful Breath – Live: noisy horned helmet biker fun! 7/10
Faithful Breath – the other 80s albums: between second-rate Skynyrd (4-5/10) and solid Accept-like stuff. 6.5-7/10
Stranger – The Bell: "Walls of Jericho" + heavy rock; competent but not for me. 6.5-7/10
Stranger – Pretty Angels: AOR, pop rock; flimsy but not bad at all. 6.5-7/10
Stormwitch – Walpurgis Night: like a simplified version of Paul Di'Anno's Maiden. 6.5-7/10

Up next:

Stormwitch – Tales of Terror
Stormwitch – Stronger than Heaven
Stormwitch – The Beauty and the Beast (already listened to it years ago but can't remember anything)
Stormwitch – Eye of the Storm

Horrifying - Sinister Chaotic Visions

Back to this again... what a powerful piece of work; like you're caught into a vortex of soul-devouring riffs and inhuman vocals.

Vorga - Beyond the Palest Star

I randomly clicked on this because it was in my Apple Music recommendations and the art looked cool. Seems alright - black metal with a kind of cosmic, otherwordly vibe, a bit like Suplur Aeon but with less of a death metal feel. Dunno if I'll go back to it but I'm definitely listening to the whole album.