They've probably been mentioned already, but Ravensire (Portugal) are well worth a listen.

http://ravensire.bandcamp.com

Already posted it in the Virgin Steele thread but might as well do it here.

So the tracklist of Virgin Steele's Invictus re-issue can already be seen on spv's website.

http://www.spv.de/_BRIDGE/products.php?product=308472

Thoughts on it? Personally I get the idea these new songs, save for the covers, will be somewhat more direct, accesible and not as overlong in their length. Sister Moon, Summertime Darkness and The Birth of Beauty are the most promising songtitles for me so far. Of The Marriage of Heaven and Hell I really look forward hearing A Great Burning if Innocence. Seems like a cool title to me.

Hey! I'm looking for some Don't Break the Oath worship. Haunting vocals, old-school production, you get the idea.

Any suggestions?

Not here or there, but the way Henrik sings in this video is really...distracting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ravGcKto3I

Check out Sacred Oath's A Crystal Vision, awesome MF-inspired USPM. Definitely fits your request.

Sweet! Thanks a lot, man!

i don't hear too much MF in sacred oath. you should listen to it anyway, but it doesn't share much in common. has more roots in bay area thrash than danish heavy metal.

i'd say use the similar artists tabs, but i don't it's too accurate. kd solo i think has a significantly different feel, in solitude seems to becoming more gothish and ghost is just blue oyster cult in halloween costumes.

Portrait's second album is the last word in Mercyful Fate worship. Absolutely awesome.

FSM is right

Check it out.

Looking for bands that are similar to Black Majesty?

Wow, Portrait is awesome. Thank you, guys.

To be perfectly honest, I can't think of a single group that captures their sound even remotely. The closest I can think of would be...maybe Dragonland or Iron Fire? Maybe?

I dunno. Anytime I'm in the mood for something Black Majesty-ish, I just head straight for the source.

Kamelot come pretty close, though their later material is more refined and less heavy. Try Karma and The Fourth Legacy. Dragonland and Iron Fire are also good recs, especially both bands' latest albums.

Maybe The Dogma?

New Iron Savior track

Burning Heart

This makes me so happy.

err...how happy?

just make sure to wash your hands before playing the cd. sticky substances can really fuck up your system.

Tell me about it.

If anyone is still interested, Virgin Steele's remastered Marriage and Invictus albums won't see the light of day until probably the end of March or even later than that. They were supposed to have come out in October last year but SPV is rescheduling as always. The new full length is planned for a September release and at this point even that is subject to change.

:longfuckingsigh:

Are people seriously surprised about this? VS has been stalling for years now...I'm a bit doubtful if we even see a new full-length at all.

We'll see it before a new Pagan Altar album, I'm sure.

I thought that fucking album was done like over a year ago?

They keep having to trade out bassists because they keep hiring douchebags who formerly played in technical death metal bands.

Give them some time, Father Jones is god damn near your grandparents age.

He's older than my paternal grandfather by several years most likely, hah. In other news, been digging Ningen-Isu's debut full-length lately, probably should get the others but I lost the PM Crick sent me awhile ago, heh. Really cool stuff, wish there was more out there like them.

Do you have a source for this? The last update on the VS facebook page made it sound like it could be out any day now:

From same post on VS official Facebook:

A brief history: The albums were originally planned to be released last October, and then they were moved back in the schedule for a February release. Now we are awaiting the final word about a release for sometime between the end of March and May. As I stated above...these Works have all been completed. At the present time we are just waiting on SPV.

So they're ready to go but they're not going.

Virgin Steele is washed up. I have to say I don't really care about anything they do now...Pagan Altar, while they had some stupid e-drama going on a while back, I still have some hope for.

I'm definitely skeptical about anything VS put out from here on, but I'll still listen to any albums/bonus tracks on reissues they put out. There may or may not be any worthwhile songs, but I haven't lost all hope for them, at least as far as their musical talent. Release date, on the other hand...well, we'll see.

The only thing I'm skeptical about is when we'll get to hear some of the band's material for real. I read the Februari releases were confirmed by the label but whatever. I'm sure they can still deliver some worthy material even though the upcoming material would probably be different from the latest 2 albums. Can't we just hear a new song or song samples perhaps?

Also reading this is somewhat sad:

''Work also continues on a few other special releases that we expect to see the light of day later this year.'' (Taken from the same facebook message)

Does anyone actually expect the band to release that much stuff a year? Which band could release an dubble disc as an extra for reissues, a new offical full length album and even more material, whatever that's suppose to mean to begin with?

If they actually put out material at even a fraction of the rate they keep promising every year, maybe I'd be a little more optimistic even if it wasn't good. But the poor quality of the last album, the bad production and the continued hoopla over constantly re-releasing albums with new cover songs and demo tracks without actually ever releasing them...just seems silly to me, is all.

If I could choose between a new full length album or a reissue with extra material, then I would prefer a new full length album, sure, but considering the reissue is rather a bonus than anything else I don't see anything wrong with it, especially not considering we'll to hear a bonus album now. Something>nothing I'd say...but yeah, I can see why people get frustrated by this. There are two things that I don't really get though.

1: Why did the band actually write new material last summer for their reissues instead of using the material they had already written before? The new bonus disc is around 79 minutes long and considering the band have material for 3 freakin' albums already it would make more sense to me that they would released as much written material already.

2: Isn't it an option for the band to release some new EP's? The only argument against this that I could understand is that ''certain songs belong to one album because they relate to eachother in a conceptional way and yada yada...''

I've been listening to Conception's The Last Sunset a lot lately and I love the combination between straightforward songs and the more ''out there'' tunes....not to mention the titled track is pretty much their finest ballad and Among the Gods a real riff-onslaught.

Ah, I misread that, I thought it was about the new album. That's disappointing I still don't have any VS album in my collection. I had bought a used copy of "Invictus", but the company I bought it from lost it in a large shipment so they refunded my money. I've been looking forward to finally getting a copy, so I hope they get them out soon.

Just checked out some of their stuff on youtube, the band must have influenced Angra, it sounds very similar to their style. Cool stuff.

Oh for fuck's sake, Virgin Steele released ONE bad album and fans are already throwing in the towel? I'm not saying the next one is guaranteed to be good, but Jesus Christ, we can at least give the band the benefit of the doubt. Marriage 1, Marriage 2, Invictus, and Atreus 1 are all top-tier albums in my book. Atreus 2 and Visions of Eden are definitely good, though not quite up to that earlier standard. Black Balls Bacchanalia sucks, but it was the only one in a long string of good albums, and it was bad in large part due to the lack of Ed Pursino, who is apparently back in the fold and hopefully wrote plenty of tasty riffs for the new one.

I, for one, am looking forward to the new album.

^^ Exactly, even Visions of Eden, with all it's flaws and all, was still a really good album by any standards. The passion and the music where still there, even if the production was somewhat weird. Saying they are on a bad streak is nothing more than false precognition.

Not to mention it's not really fair comparing the band's ''recent'' material wich consists of 2 albums vs their prime works which consists of 5 albums (okay, for some it's 4). Once two other albums would be released or so (I realise this will take some) I could give a better opinion about the band nowadays. Both VoE and TBLB have potential but they're so full of flaws. Anyway I'm still looking forward to what the band will deliver in the future.

The Animator: glad to see that you like that album! Might as well give In Your Multitude a listen which is modern but more consist, too.

I wouldn't say any Virgin Steele album is outright bad, to be honest. Even Life Among the Ruins! I don't like the style, but they don't really suck at it. My expectations are low for the new album, however, I imagine that it'll have some good melodies/cool parts but if it's all plastic guitars and electronic drums then I'm not going to pleased.

The guitars and drums sounded more than fine on the last few reissued stuff so I'm assuming that won't change this time, either. If anything I'm sure the new material will be different from what we've heard so far.

I need to revisit Heir Apparent's debut again. Heard some of their songs yesterday for the first time in years and ''Another Candle'' has to be one of the catchiest, well crafted uspm tunes out there.

Anybody else thinks WASP's The Heretic is like a perfect traditional metal song? I mean, the first part (depressive part), the second (happy part) and the last completely-out-of-control-speed-metal are so incredibly intertwined it just feels completely natural.

Just discovered Ravensblood
http://www.metal-archives.com/bands/Ravensthorn/24381

Like King Diamond without the operatic vocals.

Can you guys recommend me any speed metal in the vein of Paradox and Agent Steel?