No, that isn't what I said. More over the top type stuff often is more boring to me.

Don't you listen to a lot of Euro Power? Isn't that THE MOST over the top possible?

Again, nothing about what Jake is doing is over the top to me. It's normal for the style.

It's very different from Visigoth, so I'm not sure what your point is. Everything like this is a case by case basis and the stuff I like has completely different qualities than what I'm criticizing here, and is more to my liking. Unsure what your point is here...

I think his voice combined with the style of singing just isn't my favorite. Jesus, people get really testy about this.

Because you aren't really being consistent. That's probably why. Or maybe your criticism is so microscopic that it seems rather non-existent.

Visigoth is a heavy/power metal band, with a powerful baritone singer that uses vibrato. There's no surprise here. He could fit into a lot of power metal bands, and also a lot of heavy metal bands and work well.

Another example, Brendan Radigan singing in a more power/heavy style on Journey Blind. It was fantastic. And now he is filling in for Pagan Altar. Perfect fit.

Jake could also fill in for Pagan Altar. And many many other bands.

I'm really just not sure what he could do to please you? A change to his style would probably be less common though given his genre.

Sometimes people just don’t like something for inscrutable reasons. Even if it’s something they’d normally like. There’s no point haranguing him over it, or combing through old reviews to find inconsistencies like we’ll think you’re a genius for it. There’s no accounting for strangers taste...

I’m liking the song more the more I hear it. Though I disagree that the production is rawer than TRK, it sounds a little bit cleaner to me. TRK was a good example of a modern and powerful production of trad metal that isn’t super glossy or squeaky clean sounding. The guitar tone was really appropriate imo.

This is just crazy to me. All I meant was that their particular style is a bit cloying and much for me, so I don't play them very much. For that matter most of my trad metal is much more based in old 70s rock or very early 80s metal (favorite trad album of 2017 was Legendry's and I'm looking forward to Season of the Wolf's more than this one if I had to choose). I like a lot of music in a lot of styles, but if I want trad metal, that's what I am looking for. You're making a mountain of a molehill here.

I wasn't discussing any of this as some ironclad way to say the band sucks - merely just stating opinions in a thread built for it. I think they're pretty good and I'll probably try the new album when it's out anyway.

You seem to be making the mountain out of a molehill with your criticism, like I said in my earlier post, which is why I'm criticizing your criticism. And what exactly was crazy?

Now this IS a bit kooky. You really think my motivation for pointing out a review title was to make people think I'm a genius? Lol. No. The dude has like 5,000 reviews, it just happen to fit the context and I remembered the title, because I binged a lot on Grand Magus the last year.

Yep ain't that true, but he tried to articulate his distaste and I found it to be lacking. As did most others apparently from his own experience. I'm just another of others scratching my head with that criticism he brang up of the band.

lmao holy smokes man just let it go, he doesn't care for the vocals, big deal.

Highlander metal! One of my favorite tracks on the album; I love it when they pick up the pace and drop the track length.

Yeah man, Outlive Them All is a ton of fun. As much as I like their slower, more anthemic tracks, they might be even better when they speed it up. Looking forward to this album even more now.

Warrior Queen has grown on me. Still find the riffs a bit unremarkable/uninspired, but that chorus is awesome.

New track is also not hitting me super positively at first. Maybe it'll grow on me too.

Man, the production sounds kinda weird, when the double bass comes in it sorta overpowers the rest of the drums, which really takes the energy out of a fast paced song. Otherwise, it's pretty great.

Great band, good pals. Guys can fucking play. My main complaint is that their songs are pretty safe and obvious and I don't think they take enough risks. I kind of wish they'd let 'er rip and just do something crazy once in a while, which is my main complaint with Grand Magus, as it happens. This newest songs is pretty fun though. I like the singing a lot and the guitar solos are always great.

The newest single, Steel and Silver, is available! A song that I've seen them perform since later 2016 or so, it's nice to finally have a studio version to listen to! This album is shaping up to be quite the force to be reckoned with.

Honestly, Element, the songs are pretty obvious, but they are well written enough to sounds pretty fresh to my ears. The performances are pretty great all around, too, love the vocals, lots of attitude and passion when it's needed, and the guitarists sound great when they just go for a good shred. This is probably my favourite release so far this year.

Yeah I'm really like the song Warrior Queen. The chorus and the vocalist is what's kicking my ass. I'm hoping the rest of the album is just as good or at least they haven't released the best song off the album yet.

I'm honestly not enjoying these songs as much as TRK, but I'll keep my hopes up.

This album is like if Crescent Shield's first album was as good as their second. Probably my favourite release of 2018 so far. Traitor's Gate is SOTY contender. The vocal lines are so well written and the delivery is dramatic yet emotional, he really sells the lyrics. The song is expertly written too.

Album is streaming on Noisey, along with a nice little article about USPM and all the trad metal revivalism happening for the past few years. Still haven't gotten to any of the unreleased songs yet, but I'm liking all of those more and more as I hear them again.

https://noisey.vice.com/en_us/article/5 ... onal-metal

This album totally blows away "The Revenant King" in just about every aspect. Much better vocals (he was already a good singer, but here he's absolutely breathtaking here - the intro to Traitor's Gate left me totally speechless), and the band manages to both include a lot variety while at the same time feeling more consistent and original, like they've more or less found "their sound" and are able to stick to it while also exploring new areas. I also thought the relatively modest album length, at only 40 minutes, really puts this a leg up above the debut...not that 60 minutes was ridiculous or particularly excessive for an "epic metal" album, but I do appreciate this album's ability to say neither too much, nor too little.

My favorite track has got to be "Blades in the Night", just for that amazing melody in the middle , it actually reminds me quite a bit of classic In Flames or maybe early Dark Tranquillity to a lesser extent. Not at all what I was expecting, but I suppose that's a good thing...

I definitely noticed those tremolo riffs, the way they were executed was really classy and subtle. And those epic lead melodies on top! That style of riffage seems to be gaining traction with new trad metal bands, Lunar Shadow and Hundred definitely have them too.

Loved the album as a whole, but at the end of the day I think my favorites were the longer epics: the opener, Traitors Gate and the closing title track. The groovy start of Salt City really threw me for a loop, i was not expecting straightforward rockin hoedown metal from this band.. but damn if they don't pull it off.

I love TRK so much it will probably take a very long time until I truly know whether I like this more or less than the debut. Much more focuses on melody and hooks than the last one. All I can say is I appreciate them mixing it up juuust the right amount.

still waiting for my pre order to come through >:( the blue vinyl keeps on getting delayed

Shame the songs are shorter (apparently)- I liked arcane mists, the title track etc. off the first one. Oh well. Guess I'll youtube the thing tomorrow and have a listen.

Listened to it this morning and I've got no complaints. No point in repeating what has already been said about this. I'm liking it better than their debut, but not by much. By far the best of the new wave bands IMO.

It's not blowing me away nor is it as immediate as I'd hoped it would be, but it also feels like a grower so I'll have to spin it a few more times. Time will tell.

This is a lot better than the debut for me. Much snappier, tighter writing that accentuates what they're good at. I liked their first EP more than the album and this one is back to that kind of rocking, aggressive style.

this is a cool article. thanks for posting. most noisey shit i've read has been awful so this is a nice surprise.

haven't heard the album in full, but the shit i have heard fuckin bangs

It's nice music but I don't think the band name fits. I was expecting some brutal grinding down tuned death metal.

Is that supposed to be a joke? The Visigoths were an ancient nomadic Germanic tribe, don't see how that's more befitting of brutal death metal than epic heavy metal . To be honest the only death metal bands I can think of offhand, that have lyrics in that vein have much more "brutal" sounding names (Unleashed, Molested, and Amon Amarth).

No joke. The Visigoths were hardcore barbarians. This music seems a bit too happy for a name like that. That's just what I feel about it.

It's growing! Hooray!

"Salt City" is ridiculously fun, "Warrior Queen" still slays, and "Silver and Steel" is a kickass opener. Hopefully it grows even more.

What's everyone's thoughts now that it's been out for a few days now?

I've only had a chance to listen to the first 4 tracks or so , but I'm loving Warrior Queen and Silver and Steel. Gonna check the rest of it out tonight.

only given one proper listen (just got it off bandcamp this morning) but fuck me this album is immense. gonna have to get a shirt for sure.

It's been steadily growing. The only track I still don't care for is "Hammerforged," but the rest is freakin' sweet, and I hope it grows even more.

It's probably gonna be my album of the year, I don't think much else is going to be able to top it. Whether it's a better album than The Revenant King, I'm not too sure. Still, an amazing album through and through!

I remember these guys from when they were still just a new local band, and I've honestly never understood the appeal. I get along with some of the guys well enough, but their music has never done anything for me. Can someone help me out here? Am I missing something that makes this more than generic retro-metal throwback stuff?

Yeah: they don't suck. Their songs actually have hooks and aren't just tasteless metal tofu.

They're more talented than a lot of random other new bands and just happened to catch wind due to the prowess of the vocals and the propensity for big, grandiose moments. Just one of those things really.

They're just really good at mixing trad, power, and epic doom together in a way that maintains the essence of all three genres while also being full of fist-pumping moments, massive hooks, and just enough technical flash in the leads to keep the shred kids happy, and while Jake may not have a massive range, he's damn good at putting what he does have to good use.

The guitar players are definitely talented, but that's about it IMO. The drums essentially recycle the same beat throughout every song, and the bass just follows the riffs. Since they're tuned to B, having additional low end doesn't make a ton of difference with trad metal. I saw them many times live before ever hearing any recorded work of theirs, and it seems like there's a lot of studio magic that goes into the vocals based on those experiences, so the guitar solos are all that real jump out to me as "talented". The riffs and songs don't really go anywhere, so it all just sounds kind of bland to me, like a pale imitation of an original work, so I guess I prefer the real thing over the shadow. A lot of retro heavy metal falls victim to this, so it's not as though they're alone in this plight or a bad band because of it, I just don't get what all of the fuss is about.