So which Tarot album(s) would be good to start with the "sorta reminiscent of Heaven & Hell and Mob Rules" criteria?

They all have the same sound; they've never deviated from it. Like I said, Suffer Our Pleasures is their best album, bar none. But they're all worth hearing.

Alright, thanks.

So the new Falconer is quite good and the new Portrait is FUCKING AWESOME (I have reviews for both), any other albums from this year worth listening to in this genre? 2013 had a fuckton of awesome albums with Satan's Host, Attacker, Satan, Voivod, Battle Ram, Manilla Road, Argus, Vicious Rumors, etc. I know Cauldron Born have an EP coming in a few days and there should be another Manilla Road before too long, anything else? Great time to be a fan of this type of music!

Hitten and "First Strike With The Devil" is a great album. Classic heavy metal to the bone, some US sounding riffage and lots of NWOBHM nods. Go listen give it a shot.

Crusader "Onward Into Battle" is a cool US sounding band with some Omen touches. Cool stuff.

Axe Battler's debut full-length is another worthy album.

The EP was really cool. It suffered from some production faults and some vocals problems but otherwise was a cool piece of classic heavy metal.

Hitten's all right, but the songwriting isn't really above average to me. Can't find that Axe Battler anywhere. I know Crusader, that album's from 2013 actually, but it's good stuff.

For some reason I really liked that Hitten album. Maybe it was the delivery or the energy but something just clicked. I cannot really point to a reason why I liked it so much.

Ambush and their "Firestorm" album is a new release that I liked. Some of their stuff reminds me of Air Raid for some reason.

I'm burning something good in preparation for my first spin through the new Demon Bitch EP. Very excited.

Edit: It doesn't seem quite as wild as the demo. Not as immediately grabbing but it's whispering things to me. I think this is going to take a few spins to crack. The subject matter is a lot more somber than the demo and I think the mood of the music fits that a bit. Evil Night could be from the demo though, that one is immediately powerful. The bass is way louder this go-round. The vocalist is still one of my modem favorites.

The new Metal Inquisitor is pretty decent. If anybody missed the Stone Dagger demo from 2013, make sure to hear it! It's the Magic Circle guy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gZUqFukI4fM

Hmm, this Axe Battler vocalist isn't very good imo, decent falsetto but not a fan of his voice in general. The Ambush guy on the other hand is sounding pretty solid, and this Crusader is a lot of fun.

Already a fan of them, but thanks. Pretty close to what I was looking for actually.

I need some help in remembering an album. Not entirely sure if it's a trad. metal album, but it's most likely that or thrash metal. The only thing I remember is that it had at least couple of tracks that used the letter z instead of s for plurals. Something like Agent Steel's "Bleed for the Godz". Thanks.

Yup. That's the one. Thanks.

Just got a promo from SKR, Johnny Touch (pretty shitty name) are pretty solid trad metal, the singer reminds me of JP from Borrowed Time a bit and their cover art is gloriously 80s. Check them out.
http://shadowkingdomrecords.bandcamp.co ... ity-wolves

Don't look into the lyrics! *shivers*

For those that don't know are fans. Skol records re-release of Solar Eagle's Charter to Nowhere and See was released yesterday. Got mine on the way straight and signed by the band themselves. www.skolrecords.com

I just came across this band while looking at the related bands on the Virgin Steele page. This song is so weird it reminds me of so many different band, I heard bits of Oratory, Dark Moor, Edguy, Black Majesty, Crosswind, Pegazus, Lost Horizon, and the chorus reminds me of something but I cant think of what it is.

You'd never heard Human Fortress? They were contemporaries of most of those bands. To me they always just kinda sounded like a way better Hammerfall.

Well I don't think they are listed on any of the similar artists tabs on those band pages. And this is the only website I use to look for new music, and I haven't seen anyone mention them yet.

And I realize a lot of these bands sound similar because they are contemporaries, but this song just sounds strange to me because of its structure, I hear different bands in each section of the song. I listened to some of the other tracks and they aren't like that.

I just know you listen to a lot of PM; figured you had already heard them, was all.

I do listen to a lot of PM, but I kind of started at the beginning and am working my way forward, while trying to keep an eye on current releases. Right now I am currently on the 80's. So most of what I know/own is from 1969-1989, 2012-2014. So there is a lot between that I don't know about.

I know youtube videos aren't the best places to find intelligent opinions, but I had to share this gem I found on an Outworld video:

Looking for some more good Russian power and speed metal, here. Just to give an idea of what I'm looking for:

- I'm a fan of Catharsis. Imago was brilliant, though a bit frilly. (Occupational hazard, it seems, for the neoclassical types.)
- Kolizei's first album didn't really do much for me, but Zhit', Chtoby Zhit' had moments which absolutely floored me. Definitely shades of Gamma Ray there.
- E.S.T. kill. Full stop. Well-executed speed/thrash in the vein of Motörhead and Sodom is always good. Keep your gun in oil!
- Mavrin, P.oS.T. and Epidemia are listenable. Of these bands I tend to prefer P.oS.T., but that's largely because they're more on the traditional heavy metal side of things.

Ooooh this rules! And that cover artwork is pure magic

Warrell Dane? Really? Hansi wasn't available? I love youtube comments.

Are there any Gamma Ray albums with lots of Speedy harmonized guitar leads, a la Keepers era Helloween?

All of them?

I'm not into the Keepers anymore (not a fan of Kiske or how mellow it is compared to Walls of Jericho). But I've always liked how this song sounds like a lost Keepers track:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZlPBLqmDrE

I just listened to Land of the Free earlier and there weren't enough for my liking.

Have you not heard their other albums? That one is a bit more on the Priest side maybe, though not as much as No World Order. I'd say Somewhere Out in Space and Powerplant might be more of what you're looking for. I don't know much beyond Majestic, I'm not the fan I used to be heh.

I've always thought their first three albums were terrible too. But the Blast From the Past remakes they did were really good, I'd say check out that collection too since it's all redone and has Kai on vocals.

Welp I checked out Powerplant, but it didn't deliver what I was looking for. Like with Land of the Free, most of the solos were without harmonizations. And the sections that were harmonized were generally not very speedy. The only song I can think of that delivered what I'm looking for at all was Wings of Destiny. I could be way off base here, but the impression I'm getting is that unlike Michael Weikath, the second guitarist in Gamma Ray just can't keep up with Kai so they're not doing harmonized leads they can't do live.

Also, Kai's vocal performance bored me throughout the whole album.

Well, Somewhere Out in Space is way better than Powerplant imo.

If you like E.S.T., check out the following bands:
Black Obelisk (material up to 1995, especially the album "1986-1988")
Kruger
Korroziya Metalla
Rock Syndrome (The album "1%")

I've heard very little of Epidemia and P.oS.T., but I've got most of Mavrin's albums and have seen him live twice. Because you prefer traditional heavy metal, you might as well check out two traditional metal bands Sergey Mavrin used to be in:
ARIA and Kipelov.

Since I haven't seen them talked about around here much, everyone who's a fan of USPM should check out Antithesis (the power/thrash/prog one). I've just done a review for their debut and the follow-up might be even better. Technical progressive Cauldron Born-ish stuff of the highest order, not sure why they're so unknown (well, besides the fact that their first album is 1998 and their name doesn't stand out too much). I believe maybe Temple of Blood mentioned them once, so he gets a pass, but the rest of you need to get on this shit! Here's a sample:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXkjH--Hg00

Yeah that first album by them was pretty awesome. The only problem was some weak production but that's understandable since it was an Indy release. I had no clue they even had a second album.

Maybe the first two Revelation albums... they remind me a bit of trouble and cirith ungol... also, Mortalicum's faster material sounds similar to Pagan Altar, to me at least.

I'm a huge fan of these guys and had the honor of working with their bassist Jim Lewis on our previous release.

Cowbell!?

I really like this Visigoth - Final Spell EP. The singer is great. Also, NEW MIDNIGHT! Fuck yes!

I really dig Visigoth too. I feel like I've been too harsh on the new wave of trad metal bands, mostly because of my disdain for White Wizzard and Holy Grail. Any recs for what I should check next? Figure I'll try Speedwolf.

SPEED WITH THE WOLF

Great band, though they can be a bit one-dimensional with their Motorhead worship.