Does it really? I've never given them a chance before, despite my Slauter Xstoyres obsession. Everything I read indicated it was kind of pedestrian in the riffing department compared to SX. I love John Stewarts whole style but Kratky/Sullivan are what really drew me into the band. I guess I'll have to give Energy Vampires a go and see what's waht.

Been a while but I have a request. I am looking for more Mercyful fate worship but outside of the Swedish scene if possible. Any time frame will do.

Cheers

A Tortured Soul http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgXGOmiGh9c

I must find another power metal band like this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoVk19Bm ... re=related

Destiny's End "The Suffering" ... @ 5:10, this is the coolest thing ever.

Damn I'm loving up Rivera right now. Helstar in the car, Destiny's End at work... amazing. He is absolutely fantastic in Destiny's End and I actually like how he kind of sticks to a mid range, or just sounds a lot more confident and powerful than his stuff in early Helstar. It's just completely hilarious how comparable him and Grant are to me, topped off with Dan's music... Destiny's End and Crescent Shield are like two sides to the same coin. It does seem like Destiny's End is a bit darker though. I definitely think they'll grow on me now.

Dan needs to post here so we can bug him about making a new band! Fucking blown away by this stuff, riffs meltdown.

They have complex song structures and a singer with odd inflections and a rather different sense of melody. That's all I meant.

Energy Vampires are cool in my books.

I've lately been on a Fairyland binge. They feature Dark Moor's ex-vocalist Elisa Martin.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0y9AJVfHgU

Hey, I saw Vacant Throne open for Satan's Host last year in Denver. Out of curiosity, are you a member of the band?

Has anyone else really explored Greek power metal? I've been doing that again recently, and I'm still convinced that Phantom Lord's In Twilight World is the best thing to come out of that scene.

Look at his profile!

Bah, too much work.

So yeah, I am definitely evolving now. Destiny's End has sunk in. It'll probably just be a mood thing between them and Crescent Shield.

This is simply the best modern power metal in existence. Think I'm digging "Breathe Deep the Dark" the most at the moment. I can't believe how fucking good this stuff is. The music is so dense, there is so much going on but it all flows together perfectly. Solo's on "Unsolved World" are off the hook.

I won't stop saying it... Dan ... and Urban Breed... DO IT!!!

So here I am searching some obscure torrent sites for all those rare gems that are fucking impossible to find elsewhere these days (Fuck you mediafire!) and I come across Razorwyre's new album for download. I was quite surprised to say the least.

As much as Michael Grant's untimely demise sucks (cerebral brain hemorrhage due to liver disease, if anyone was curious), and is undoubtedly hard on his former bandmates, I really hope they continue. It makes sense to end Crescent Shield, as Grant's voice and lyrics were such an integral part of their sound, but Dan DeLucie is just such a great songwriter that he better found a new band, or he'll have a very pissed-off USPM nerd to contend with.

Seriously, I haven't been this intrigued and destroyed by riffs and a style in a long time. This makes me wanna pick up the guitar. Crescent Shield probably would've kept going I assume, but yeah after this final album we're getting I'd agree it makes sense to end it. But I clearly hope Dan is just getting started. With that and Destiny's End under his belt, hopefully he can start up another big successful project and keep it going.

How about him and Conklin? Haha oh man.

It's also easy to say I hope he doesn't change his style or anything at all. Just give us more material like this stuff and it'll be gold.

I'm gonna write a review for it soon, DRD hates is but he's a lame diva.

Where the heck has DRD been?

You know, cocaine and hoes, shit like that. Also, IRC, he's often on.

I told myself I wouldn't talk to DRD unless he released this album, and finally I'm hearing it. If the first song's any indication, then this won't disappoint.

Edit: three tracks in and this could be my favorite heavy metal album of the year thus far.

Hi all,

I'm somewhat of a Power Metal neophyte, but I really enjoy Blind Guardian and a bit of Symphony X and that ilk.

However one thing that is immediately obvious to me about most of the PM I've listened to is that it is invariably quite cheesy... Not to say that this is a bad thing, but I'm looking for recommendations for somewhat 'darker' Power Metal, if such a thing exists? This doesn't necessarily mean non-clean vocals, but perhaps just a bit less emphasis on the over-the-top pretensions of the likes of Helloween and Sonata Arctica and so on! Cheers

Grave Digger is the first to come to my mind
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grt7KwO7xWY

Oblivion's "Quest for Power" demo, Adramelch's Irae Melanox, Cauldron Born's Born of the Cauldron, Chozzen Phate's 1995 demo, and Steel Prophet's "Inner Ascendance" demo all fit the bill. There's quite a bit of dark PM out there, the bands I listed just barely scratch the surface.

I've been trying to sell this album for so long. Some people already like it, but yeah.

Oh and if you're really into Rivera right now, don't forget to hear the new Malice album with him on vocals.

I should give that Destiny's End album another chance. I remember thinking it was solid, pretty decent at times but not really anything I'd praise much...I dunno, something about the riffs just felt too Iced Earth-y to me, like they didn't have much gusto or propulsiveness to them. But who knows, sometimes albums grow on me a lot after a long time. Maybe I'll like it a lot better if I play it again.

The Razorwyre album is truly great. Not only does it have riffs and awesome solos up the ass, but the vocals are great (though it does feel like he's trying a bit to hard to sound like Coklin at times and some of his high notes can be iffy)

Yeah the album kicks some ass and when they hit pure speed they are at their best. Some of those mid paced bangers are pretty decent too. If it is true he hates this album I am at a loss to understand.

More praise going to Razorwyre, and they deserve it. Fantastic album. DRD deserves a kilo for this album. "Fight or Be Fucked" is king.

Dude, no just no. lol, one song has more riffs than Iced Earth's entire career.

I will definitely check out Malice Nahsil, better than new Helstar? lol.

I finally listened to Remnants again after ages, I remember for awhile I liked it the most, but I think I'm back to liking "Distant Thunder" the most. It's pretty crazy how different Remnants and Rivera sound actually. Listening to "Distant Thunder" and Destiny's End back to back isn't too unusual, but yeah Remnants is definitely pretty different. Still great stuff though.

I was born to hear Razorwyre.

Album of the year. /theend

DRD's new nickname should be "Harry Cokeline".

I love it, awesome stuff, ordered a copy from Chris the other day. Have already listened to it start to finish a bunch of times. Every track is seriously good with a couple of Standouts personally: Fight or be Fucked, Speed Warrior, Hangman's Noose, The Conjuror.

Well played, Acrobat

A Distant Thunder is probably my favorite Helstar album as well, the riffs and vocals just seem to work very well together, making for awesome songs like "The King is Dead" and "Abandon Ship", and of course there's the epic "Winds of War", which is probably my favorite Helstar song. RoW and Nosferatu are both good, but the former seems to lack the energy of ADT, and the latter is a bit inconsistent. Burning Star just doesn't do much for me for the most part.

I've been giving some more time to VS's 1986 escapades - Exorcist's Nightmare Theatre, Piledriver's Stay Ugly, and Original Sin's Sin Will Find You Out. All of them are better than I remembered, and ironically all of them are better than what the band was releasing under its actual name at the time (Noble Savage). I'm probably going to do a 3-part review miniseries for them at some point. Exorcist especially is just crazy and awesome as fuck.

I always wished they had done more in the vein of 'Winds of war' as that one is definitely their best but it is also a one off to their more power/thrash leanings. I always got a Maiden vibe off that one. It has been on my Power/speed/trad music list for ages now and I still love it.

I guess I've been indifferent about "Winds of War" for ages now. I love it, and I truly do agree that it's one of Helstar's greatest songs, but I've always personally thought it sounded a bit out of place... still to this day when I've been listening to the whole thing lately. It just seems a lot more straightforward and different than the rest of the whole album and most of their stuff in general. Hard to sum up my thoughts on it, but I still love the song itself.

I punched this band name into the search. I like the old band name better. Way more metal.

But yes, these guys aren't bad!

Oh god yeah lol, thankfully they changed their name. Sheesh.

Yeah the former conjured up images of pink leotards on a clothing line or something. Glad it was changed because Razorwyre is just a fucking cool name for a metal band.

Razorwyre is pretty bitchin' so far.

Dark Quarterer re-recorded "Red Hot Gloves", I can't believe the dude can still sing like this after all the years.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGTyjcKnNyk