I'm really really enjoying the new Manilla Road. Much more than their two previous one. Even if all the songs are good, it does blow its load early with the 10 mins title track at the start of the album.

Strong riffs to start with re MR! Sounds promising.



Awesome dude, thanks. Big fan of some Holy Martyr, hope this new one is good!

Did it leak?

I've been looking for something that resembles the early Mercyful Fate and first Iron Maiden albums, old-school type heavy metal with songs that have a more technical style and progressive edge to them. And before the possibility of anyone mentioning them, I'm aware of the NWOBHM Legend. Thanks.

Slauter Xstroyes, Arch-era Fates Warning, Sacred Blade/Othyrworld, and the first Taramis album will probably appeal. To a lesser extent, Metal Church's Blessing in Disguise album, more straight forward than those but at least complex as Iron Maiden at their most. A little more power metal/less trad, but Titan Force were on the proggy side as well.

This Ironflame is really cool. Legionairre was great musically but the vocalist not so much...

Checking out Deep Switch's Nine Inches Of God and this is pretty awesome. Sweety chunky, proggy riffing a la Psychotic Waltz but less polished, and the warbly, unprofessional vocals make me think of a B-grade sci fi or something. Just odd, unique material... digging this. Same sort of oddball charm as Slough Feg, Antiquus, etc.

Lol, it doesn't sound like Psychotic Waltz. It's like Bad News playing Jethro Tull. Moderately entertaining stuff, nonetheless. An orgy of sly-winking filthy puns.

It doesn't really sound like them, but that was the first thing I was reminded of in a knee jerk way. Not too familiar with Tull or Bad News though, so who knows.

Can't wait to hear it. Definitely a bit puzzled by the negative comments about Mysterium; I always thought that one was great. The Blessed Curse grew on me but those vocals are so subdued, and I hope they're a little more forceful this time around. I know the trend for them has generally been twoard deeper, mellower singing and given Shelton's mature years that's perfectly reasonable, but I definitely miss the wailing sometimes.

I really like the Deep Switch album; always have. It's definitely full of sly and slightly ribald winking as Acrobat says. But I can get behind all of this. Puts a huge grin on my face the entire time. And the lyrical approach is almost always interesting. The recent review sums it up nicely, but it's also cool to see a song ("Time machine") that seems to reference early 1960s Doctor Who. And the title track with all its self-aware sex puns always cracks me up.

I am trying to decide if I want to put Cauldron Born - Born of the Cauldron and Briton Rites - For Mircalla back in print on CD. If I do, who is interested?

Howie

I'd be interested in Born of the Cauldron, I was never able to find a copy on CD.

Mysterium seemed a bit less complex than their other recent works, but maybe for that reason I enjoyed it quite a bit. Seeing them play songs off it live was fun as well.

I would definitely be interested in Born of the Cauldron

I am sure I'd buy Born of the Cauldron. I've had a copy of Briton Rites since it came out though!

What about ...And Rome Shall Fall?

I'd definitely be interested in a For Mircalla reissue.

I'm trying to get a good friend of mine to listen to more metal music. I made him some mix CD's that contained Heavy, Power, Thrash & Melodic Death metal. It seems like he enjoyed the Powerwolf songs the most. The songs in question are 'Amen & Attack' and 'Conquistadores' (their cover of the Running Wild song).

I'd now like to make him a mix of strictly Power & Heavy metal (and maybe some easy going Thrash, the lines between genres get blurred at this point for me). I'm mainly a Thrash guy so I need some help for suggestions. I suspect he likes fast paced songs, double bass drum, clean vocals, nice riffing and good solos are a plus. I'm obviously going to add some more Powerwolf and I think the following:

Holy Grail - My Last Attack
Savage Messiah - Hellblazer
Savage Messiah - Be Quick or Be Dead
Orden Ogan - F.E.V.E.R.
Orden Ogan - Gunman
Tygers of Pan Tang - Only the Brave
Reign of Fury - Born to Die

And possibly (I'm undecided if this fits what I'm looking for)
Unleash the Archers
Elm Street
Accept

I'm hoping to have enough songs to make 2 CD's so please offer suggestions. I have a feeling he'll really enjoy the Orden Ogan songs but I'm not really familiar with them so if they have any other kick ass songs let me know. I checked out some Firewind material but I don't think he'll like that, seems to cheesy if you know what I mean. I'm sure there's a lot of awesome Power/Heavy metal bands that I'm not aware about. Thanks in advance.

Anything like White Skull's "Tales from the North"?

So he likes fast, bombastic, and melodic? Some suggested additions:

Mary's Blood - Promised Land
Mary's Blood - Bite the Bullet
Mary's Blood - Moebius Loop
And then a thousand other Mary's Blood songs, fuck me I love them so much.
Battle Beast - Cyberspace
Dynazty - The Human Paradox
Edguy - Under the Moon
Heavatar - Replica
Helion Prime - The Drake Equation
Hell - Darkhangel
Iron Savior - Tales of the Bold
Pharaoh - Fighting
Satan - Farewell Evolution
Symphony X - Bastards of the Machine
Triosphere - As I Call

...And Rome Shall Fall is still tied up with Underground Symphony. They are selling copies again on ebay.

Jophelerx, I have Born of the Cauldron on vinyl and cassette. Are you only wanting the CD?

By the way, thanks to all of you who answered my question.

Howie

While not exactly like Powerwolf, perhaps some more 'retro' styled metal might hook him in:

Crystal Viper - The Witch is Dead
Burning Point - Master Them All
Hitten - Evil Power
Ambush - Firestorm
Hibria - Defying the Rules
Jack Starr’s Burning Starr - Land of the Dead

Can I get some recs for bands that sound like Cirith Ungol? I've always found them to be very unique.

They always reminded me a lot of early The Lord Weird Slough Feg. You've probably already checked them out, but if you haven't...there ya go!

You might try Falcon, they're a straight-up CU worship band, but they're pretty safe-sounding and derivative, just a heads-up. I take it by your post count that you probably know your shit, but I can't keep track of who knows what, so if you haven't heard it, Manilla Road's Spiral Castle has a very similar riffing style, though without the noodly solos for the most part. Brocas Helm too for a super obvious rec. Quicksand Dream too, they have that fuzzy 70s riffing style and they do it well. I'd also mention Adramelch; they also have a weird production (though way weirder than King of the Dead's) and a lot of strange primeval noodling. Lastly I'll mention Skullview's Legends of Valor, whose brand of slow, plodding barbarism often evokes CU for me, and the singer is even a bit similar (cleaner delivery than Baker, but still has that screechy element). Hope at least one of those was new to you, cheers!

You are talking about the US Falcon with Greg Lindstrom, right? Checking out some songs right now. It's a bit more doomy than Cirith Ungol (at least the songs I've heard) --which is great because doom is my favorite kind of metal. You are right though, it is a bit generic and lacks the spark CU had. I don't listen to nearly as much metal these days, so I only have the time for most inspired and visionary bands. But I'll keep these guys in mind, I can easily see it growing on me. I'm liking what I'm hearing on the first album a lot more than the second.

I've dabbled with various Manilla Road albums, but none ever clicked with me. However, it's been so long since I listened to them, there's no predicting how I'll feel now. I also don't believe I've ever listened to Spiral Castle in particular.

I'm really liking Brocas Helm, despite it being thrashier than what I had in mind. Great solos! They definitely have a couple of moments where I can see parallels to Cirith Ungol. Defender of the Crown is fucking awesome. This is exactly what I'm talking about above wrt Manilla Road, by the way. I didn't think much of Brocas Helm when I first listened to them.

Quicksand Dream is great! Pretty much exactly what I had in mind. Thanks!

Adramelch is also fucking awesome! I've only just started their 1998 album "Irae Melanox," but I'm already loving it. I love how audible the bass is, and that's also one of my favorite things about Cirith Ungol.

I'm not sure what to make of Skullview. Their sound is hard to pin down, and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

Thanks a ton! Those were all new to me except Brocas Helm and Manilla Road. Quicksand Dream is seriously great!

Do you see any money from that?

I'm interested in both!!

You have a vinyl of Born of the Cauldron? I'll be interested in that.

Yeah, I used to have a cassette player in my car but it broke a few months ago so CD is really the only format I'm interested in at the moment.

This Angel Sword is kickass, love the combo of early NWOBHM riffs and gruff vocals.

I'm surprised I didn't like that album too much. Found it kinda lame and artificial sounding - just weak compared to other bands in the genre I thought.

Yeah, I'm kind of in agreement. I really can't get into the vocals, sounds like Rockin' Rolf with none of the charisma and very little musical talent. I don't have a special problem with the riffs, but they're not especially great to me, either, fairly generic-sounding for revival bands. Background music at best for me.

To me, it sounded like they wanted to make something that sounded low-fi on purpose like a lot of old 80s metal did. Except when bands like Manilla Road or Cirith Ungol or something made their music, it was just because that was naturally how it came out - they were raw, barbaric-styled songwriters and they didn't just keep everything to a very boring trod with purposefully limited vocals like Angel Sword does in their attempt to force the old school sound. Just sounds kinda inauthentic and try-hard to me I guess.

You could say that about so many other bands. There's a whole subgenre now of groups like Ranger and Vulture where their whole gimmick is 80s Exciter or Razor.

The problem isn't that they're forcing a lo-fi sound, the problem is that they're not stellar songwriters. Spell go for a lo-fi sound and record on analog tape and whatnot and hey, they're good songwriters so it works.

Well, "purposefully limited vocals" isn't something I really ever like. I'm not sure what bands are using it as a gimmick and which vocalists just don't have any range, but stuff like Heavy Load or Ironsword has never done much of anything for me. Someone like Tim Baker has very weird and inaccessible vocals that aren't technically good, but that's not the same as "purposefully limited," which I would interpret as "deliberately not using the full extent of your voice because you're dumb." Again, I'm not trying to point fingers, I don't know which bands, if any, actually do that, but I don't know of any band in heavy/power/speed metal that benefits from a vocalist having less range.


Yeah that's true. I'm not really big into either Ranger or Volture. I think several of the newer bands a lot of people have been plugging are pretty overrated, like Skull Fist or Enforcer (after the debut), or for a more recent example, Eternal Champion's full-length. That's a band I actually like, and whose demo I plugged because it was quite promising, and I even like the full-length, but it's way less ambitious and epic than the demo, none of the new songs stand up to the first two and it doesn't strike me as especially original. I'd probably give it something in the 75-80 range, but people hailing it as album of the year or one of the major examples of great modern heavy metal just makes me scratch my head.

On the other hand, there are also plenty of new bands/albums that are legitimately great, like Portrait, Silver Machine, Trial, Demon Bitch, Sacral Rage, Terminus, etc. I wouldn't at all question that's it's a very strong time for the heavy/power/speed scene, but a lot of the bands and albums that I see named and given hype most often just don't do a ton for me. Many of them seem to have unmemorable and/or generic riffs to my ears. I get that I'm not always in the majority opinion even with older stuff though, not much liking Savatage or Warlord or Queensryche, for example, which are some of the most lauded in the scene. Not trying to diss anyone who digs any bands I've mentioned in this post not liking and/or considering overrated, just calling it like I see it. I think it's always good to understand why we like / don't like certain things and what elements myself and others disagree on which are most directly responsible for differing tastes.

Them being bad songwriters and inauthentic are the same things to me.

There are lots of good new bands. Demon Bitch are probably the most authentic, but Sumerlands and Walpyrgus are tremendous to me. Trad metal is all about the soul and feeling to me in addition to the riffs.