Sabaton is enjoyable in small doses, but to say they're the ideal of power metal is baffling to me. When I think of the "ideal power metal," I think of "The Apparition" for USPM and "The Red Rose" for Euro PM.

Strictly speaking on music...I'm not praising Sabaton as the best. Technically, they are no different than Hammerfall. I just like Sabaton's vocals, gimmick and overall production/presentation better. The actual music could be randomly generated on a computer by typing in "Swedish Power Metal". I could take a Hammerfall song, switch out the vocals and you'd never know. So riffs and all that is not what I'm defending. My brain requires bare minimal. Palm muted chugging E power chord. Just give me kick ass lyrics and delivery over that and I'm happy.

Changing the topic as I just cannot read Exigence's stuff regarding USPM without shouting at the monitor - do any of you guys have heard the Drakkar (Bel) "X-Rated" album? If yes - what do you think of it? To me it's a pretty good power/speed ditty. The vocals are fairly uninspired but the rest sounds on point. Any opinions?

Anyone?

Skullview's debut fits the bill, and it's also quite excellent. I have a review up if you want a more in-depth description. Desolation Angels also have some slow-paced stuff; I'm not as big of a fan as some folks around here, but they definitely have some catchy tunes. Definitely check out MR's Spiral Castle if you haven't done so yet. I might think of some more bands later.

That's perfectly fine. I like both Sabaton and USPM alike, but they are way different, and used for different occasions, like how you said you like metal for working out, of course you are not going to listen to Fates Warning while on it. You could eventually start to like this kind of music, or maybe you have found your favorite band already(congrats!), but there's no need to start bashing genres, let's just agree we have different tastes.

Have you listened to this?

Edit: Thanks for the guy recommending the latest Satan

Anyone here familiar with Züül? They've a heavy metal band from Illinois. Totally killer stuff that sounds like old Iron Maiden and the like:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_t90scLBdc

They're playing a show in Lansing real soon, I think I'm going.

Love the band and have both of the albums. Really great stuff with a Thin Lizzy tint to the guitars. The Maiden stuff is there too but I see more Lizzy there. Anyways - great, great band!

So I guess I missed some sort of hilarious parody of all the worst aspects of Euro PM fandom while I was in Montreal? It's ok, I saw Manilla Road and Satan play for two hours apiece. Those people who say Manilla Road are all "message board hype" should explain to me how 300+ people seemed to know all the lyrics to their songs. People sang along so hard to "Flaming Metal System" that you could hardly hear the band.

I thought you didn't like Satan, you legless ginger bellend?

So I haven't heard Scanner's second album nearly as much as the debut, but I really think Mike Knoblich on the first album is just a better vocalist overall for this band. Fits the sound better...got that cool sci fi power metal tone. Coe is good too, but he just didn't have that extra wacky tint to his voice, ya know?

Totally agreed. Still the second album is also a classic. The later ones lost all flair and power but those two are totally awesome.

In other news - anyone heard that Drakkar album I mentioned? If you like speed metal look into that because musically it's pretty good. Some Iron Angel tones and Scanner ones too. Too bad the vocalist is nothing special.

I thought Coe was even wackier, in a way, even more goofy pronunciation related mishaps. I think both albums are great, though. Not many bands can successfully replace vocalists like that, either.

Coe doesn't sing every line like it's the single most awesome thing in the universe. Knoblich just has this completely absurd, gushing enthusiasm which really takes Hypertrace from "good" to "absolutely amazing."

YEP, when I saw MR at Chaos in Tejas there was clearly a hardcore fanbase. I was right up at the front singing along with the rest of them.

Well, it wouldn't work given Terminal Earth's themes, would it? I mean he can't really sing about being broke and alienated by consumerism as if they're FUCKING AWESOME, can he? Whereas the silly lame sci-fi concept on Hypertrace needs that kind of delivery. WIZARD FORCE! I dig both singers, but I'd give the slight edge to Coe.

It is a good album. I bought the X-Rated Reloaded reissue last year and it sounds good. Rise and fight is a real speedmetal anthem if I ever heard one, and Lords of the North was pure Euro Cheese at its best before it was cool cool song though. Did you know they are back together? Listen to this new track: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=VnFG_0CFhDk

I like Scanner's debut, but never really understood the love the first singer gets. He's fine for what he is, but I prefer Coe vastly.

Sez who? It's true that I don't spray fanboy jizz all over them like most people here, but they're definitely a good band and they performed extremely well. Brian Ross hit the notes perfectly, and he told us that England sucks.

Also, this guy.

Who the hell is that?!

The vocalist of Piledriver, now Exalted Piledriver. Also did vocals for Convict and Dogs With Jobs. Out of those the first Piledriver album and the first Dogs With Jobs album are worth listening to. The Convict album is also listenable but nothing spectacular.

They played the first album in its entirety, so it was pretty sweet! The dude is a great frontman, he was rubbing his belly and letting people poke it and pinch his nipples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OG-9Kcv6yPo

Jeremy and I are catching the Road again in a few months at Reggies in Chicago. No Satan though, but High Spirits will be playing which I'm obviously very excited about.

If I don't get a longer set from Shark and co. this time I may throw a hissy fit. They played for 2 hours? Any unexpected songs or anything? All I want in life is Fires of Mars and Cage of Mirrors.

His midrange sounds a bit stuffy for my taste, but he's growing on me. There's always something to like about these old school singers who didn't use many effects and just, y'know, fucking belted their lines out. I'm starting to see why everyone loves Terminal Earth so much, this shit shreds. And rocks out.

Piledriver playing Metal inquisition would have been great in a live setting I imagine, especially that chorus.

AND IF YOU'RE NOT A METALHEAD YOU MIGHT AS WELL BE DEAD.

No Fires of Mars unfortunately, I was hoping for that one too. Here's the setlist as I remember it, though I couldn't remember the exact order:

Masque of the Red Death
Death by the Hammer
Hammer of the Witches
Witches Brew
Divine Victim
Only the Brave
Open the Gates
Stand Your Ground
The Grey God Passes
Haunted Palace
Road of Kings
The Ninth Wave
Mystification (Shelton broke a string just as the song got going, so Neudi played a drum solo and fucked around with the bassist while Hellroadie and Shelton re-strung and tuned the guitar, after which they started over again)
Cage of Mirrors
The Riddle Master
Flaming Metal Systems
Crystal Logic
Up from the Crypt
Necropolis
Encore: Queen of the Black Coast

Granted, this may just be Google translator fucking it up and if we have a German speaker to clear it up, it would be appreciated but:
If it's true/correct, it's a damn shame as he kind of vanished from 2004 - 2011. Wonder what we could have gotten out of him during those 7 years.

Mmmmmmmmm

That's pretty close to their setlist at CiT. Was awesome.

They played 'Fires of Mars' when I saw them. It was fucking awesome.

High Spirits ruled at KiT, too, I haven't bothered with their studio stuff yet but those choruses were ace with 2000 + people belting them out.

Just wondering, what else is like Tramontane, Prodigy/Oracle, and Talisphere?

Also does anyone here have the lyrics for Tramontane, specifically the first two demos?

Unfortunately, hearing Cage of Mirrors live has kind of killed the studio version for me. It just sounded SO MUCH BETTER.


Try False Witness and New Religion, they're in that similar vein of prog USPM.

In other news Raven's "Nothing Exceeds Like Excess" is a killer piece of speed metal madness. Why are not discussing this album more? It has tons of riffage, melodic interludes and still oozes power. Really an awesome release. Love it.

haha for 3 seconds i thought you meant this until i heard it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz2WlE6b978

Im really enjoying the catchy riffs of New Religion, reminds me of Talisphere definitely. But False Witness seems to be more my style, heavier riffs sound so amazing with good vocals. A little thrash influence goes a long way imo, but i like stuff like this more than thrash generally speaking

thanks though. on a vaguely similar note, i just discovered Savage Grace - Master of Disguise, any bands/albums like this? Best Speed Metal ive heard in a bit, the title track is so fucking amazing.

Congratulations you've stumbled upon what is, in my opinion, maybe the greatest speed metal record ever. My copy comes with the Dominatress EP, I'd recommend checking that out if you haven't heard it yet. It's not quite as "balls out" as Master of Disguise but there are some great tunes.

ATTENTION PHARAOH FANS:

Nwnprod.com has a bunch of their CDs in stock for 5 bucks a piece. This is the cheapest I've seen them anywhere. I've never heard this band but I'm going to take this opportunity to splurge and probably make some purchases I'll regret later. And seriously, if you don't have High Spirits "Another Night" by now, what the fuck are you doing with your life? It's only five dollars.

edit: Alright so...I'm really glad I made myself listen to a song or two on youtube before I ordered every god damn album by Pharaoh. The first two songs I randomly selected from Be Gone are...well let's just say they aren't for me and leave it at that. Yikes. Still, quite a deal if you're a fan.

Figures, never heard anything quite like it before, i like it better than Agent Steel, Raven, Ample Destruction, etc. Only thing i would compare to it as of now is Walls of Jericho/Starlight/Victim of Fate era Helloween if that counts as purely speed metal instead of more power. And the song Keeper of the Seven Keys but thats not because its speed metal just because its incredible. Fuck most of Keeper part 1 and 2 though, seriously.

Solitude Aeturnus' first two and Tyrant, "Too Late to Pray" especially.

Enchanter fits in pretty well next to Cauldron Born too.

I second Skullview, don't hear enough about them. "Consequences of Failure" is a great album.

The artwork of Tad Morose's upcoming album (to be released in november this year) looks silly as hell. Hopefully the music will be good though. That tune ''A Veil of Cying souls'' or whatever they played live sounded pretty killer. Also the vocalist seems to fit's the band's unique sound pretty well.

"Cage of Mirrors", man!!! Tears of joy! Who is the idiot who says Manilla Road are "message board hype"? DO they not realise the band has been around in some form since 1979?