Accept - Metal Heart (If it's not a perfect album (and it might be), it's at least pretty damn close!!)

Conception - Million Gods

KHAAAAAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

GLORIOUS!!!!!!!!!!

Since it was mentioned


Van Halen - Women and Children First

God mode rock and roll

This guitar tone should be worshipped. The riffing in Romeo Delight puts most death metal bands to shame.

Heart - Magic Man

Speaking of ballsy rock…

Power Trip – Nightmare Logic. Good proto-crossover thrash.
Warfect – Spectre of Devastation. Hard to describe but sounds a bit like deathy Holy Moses fronted by Quorthon.
Enforced – Kill Grid. Spectacular old-school thrash with a one-dimensional Sepultura-style vocalist.

That era of Immortal is amongst the best stuff to come from that scene.

Blut Aus Nord - 777

The whole masterpiece of a trilogy.

Some stunning guitar work on this one....the soling in the title track, and opening riff in "Midnight Mover", the outro soloing in "Bound To Fail"...all such majestic stuff.

I'm obsessed with ATHOW - I remember hearing some of their earlier shit years ago, along with Sons of Northern Darkness. But this one is really another level. It's been ages since I gave them a listen; I guess the weird ice fantasy themes were just kind of odd to me. But this kind of epic riff-after-riff songwriting is very much The Chasm to me. Very cool.

Bathory - Hammerheart

There's really something focused and intense about a mostly one-man project. Not always in the mood for this but it's undeniable. Massive riffs.

Chat Pile - 'Why'

W H Y

Revocation - Fields of Predation

Early Revocation. Their technicality shines through even early on in their careers. Razor sharp riffing coupled with shredding solos makes for for a lot of air guitar time for me.

Mirror of Deception - Der Student von Ulm (The Traitor's Son)

Good stuff, nice Black Sabbath feeling on some riffs here!

Carach Angren - The Funerary Dirge of a Violinist

Carach Angren has become one of my recently discovered black metal bands that has become my favorite. Their music is exquisite and intricate with its symphonic arrangements mixed with their black metal attack. This song in particular is one of my favorites. Not only is it technically proficient but it has a strong emotional impact to it as well.

Dark Angel - No One Answers

Easily one of my favorite cuts from Leave Scars. The riffs here are wild.

Garden of Worm - Trampled in the Dust

Great Doom, need to get more from this band!

Dio - Hollywood Black

Angry Dio. "Strange Highways" is Dio's immediate answer to Black Sabbath's "Dehumanizer", proving that one wasn't a fluke. Dio still had the fire and magic in him to produce such a great piece of music, and it was relatively heavier compared to his previous work. Brilliant Dio.

Great album!


Iron Maiden - Where Eagles Dare

''Piece of Mind'' is one of my favorite albums from Iron Maiden.
It's just awesome!

Moonsorrow - Liides Luku - Hävitetty

A really beautiful album. Not quite as intense as their other work but every bit as grandiuse.

Acid - S.T.C.

Awesome and rocking band!

Satan- Hunt You Down

You know what? Brian Ross' vocals hold up better than any NWOBHM singer that didn't sing on an Iron Maiden record.

Not listening to anything right now as I’ve just finished working and need some calm. Last thing I have spin:

The Hu - The Gereg

This sounds as fresh as when it was released. Innovative and highly addictive kind of music. My favorite song is The Legend of Mother Swan. I don’t speak a single word of Mongolian but that song is just full of positive vibrations, which believe it or not, we all need from time to time.

The four latest Metallica tracks. All four are rocking and rolling rock that's fun to listen to and makes your arse move from left to right and back, but they're not aggressive in any way, shape or form. The title track reminds me of "Death Magnetic". If the rest is in the same vein, it'll be a solid album, no more, no less. If the rest is cobbled together like "ManUnkind" or ballady like "The Unforgiven 6.2", it'll be an expensive..., well, thing that everybody knows but few people need.

Rage - Wings of Rage

Going through their catalogue in a reverse chronological order. This one is a dud, unfortunately.

Man, I remember when I first started listening to Immortal and having such crazy goosebumps while listening to ATHOW. I think Where Dark and Light Don't Differ is always the first song I think about, but the entire album is perfect. DIB is underrated AF also. Triumph is like one of their best songs, My Dimension is amazing, In Our Mystic Visions Blest has such a killer "chorus" and the title track rules too. I remember headbanging so hard listening to Triumph when I first heard it while chilling in my car at night smoking weed like 20 years ago, lol. Edit: Against the Tide is pretty great too, and all of these songs are what I just listened to for the first time in awhile

Yeah. I was pretty beat up over the Inquisition revelations as that was one of the best bands in metal for me for so long. Glad to have something else a little bit like that now without the awful associations.

Iron Maiden - s/t

So obvious why they got big.

Black Boned Angel - The End. Nothing fancy, just devastating drone metal. Haven’t really had success finding anything comparable. I’m also a big fan of the collaboration with Nadja.

NP: The Ruins Of Beverast - Rain Upon The Impure. Isn’t there a remaster of this one? (Just curious it it’s worthwhile. I like the production, but have wondered if it’d work as well in the more typical TROB style.)

Cerebral Rot - Crowning The Disgustulent (Breed Of Repugnance)

Absolutely nasty death metal, the Finnish murk is strong in their sound.

What is your opinion on All Shall Fall?

I’m listening now and is very good.

Shores of Null- My Darkest Years

Came across them via a Spotify playlist. Have explored and started listening to their latest release. They are an Italian doomy sort of band, quite impressed with what I've heard so far

Dødheimsgard - En krig å seire

I love how massive the sound is. The transition to the midsection around 2:00 is so epic. They are just 3 guys, but they make it sound like an army is descending upon the battlefield.

Sacred Reich - Manifest Reality

When I saw these guy's a couple of weeks ago Phil spent a bit of time in between songs explaining what the new songs were about.
My initial reaction was "Shut the fuck up, let's fuckin thrash!" but then I actually listened to what he had to say and the message in the lyrics. His positivity was a breath of fresh air in a scene where it's often frowned upon and made me appreciate the songs a lot more, fuck, the dude spent the whole show smiling. There was a super cool peace and love vibe to their whole set and it was infectious.
Manifest Reality and it's lyrics in particular really stood out.

"Be the change you wanna see,
Manifest Reality."

Conception - Flow

For me their best album. Great mix of stuff and great performances all around. Østby seems to channel Dimebag and Zakk at times. I think this is where Khan really hits his stride as a vocalist.

It’s a great listen. Kick ass stuff from a classic, reformed band.

Obituary - Dying Of Everything

Fuck this rocks like a motherfucker! Absolute neckwrecker, fuck that, it's a bodywrecker, just one killer riff after another killer riff all the way.
Donald Tardy has got to be one of my favorite drummers ever and he totally kills it on every track and how about his brother John on vokills? How the fuck does he sound so great after all these years?
Hate saying this sorta shit but this has got to be my favorite of theirs since World Demise and I never ever thought I'd be saying this too, but Dying Of Everything will end up top of my top 10 at this rate...it sure as hell won't be bloody Metallica.

I really wanted to love it when it came out, but it was just ok. Norden on Fire was my favorite track, and it's a slow one which is a bad sign since I love the faster Immortal style, and then Hordes to War, which sounded more like a simple Bathory song, and the closer was a little more "epic". I don't think I've listened to it since the year it was released. I saw them on that reunion tour though which was sweet, but could have gone for some more old songs. I always wanted Demonaz to return to guitars/music writing and that finally happened with Northern Chaos Gods, which was leagues better than All Shall Fall. Now he is in full control of the band and I think the new album is gonna be even better since the single is about as Battles in the North as they have ever sounded since, with much better drumming and a pretty crispy wintery production. He got Ice Dale on Bass, not that it really matters, but he played on the Demonaz - March of the Norse album which was fucking fantastic, all good signs.

NP Demonaz - March of the Norse! Under the Great Fires is a song I could listen to over and over again. I was hoping for another album for years, but I'll take Demonaz making Immortal albums instead any day.
Just listened to some Satan songs after noticing I missed them on tour last night, damn. Never listened to them too much, but they are more in line with the style of metal I'm listening to most these days.

Anthem - Snake Eyes

Still stunned by how refreshing this sounds. Here's hoping there will be plenty of more riff-driven tunes on the upcoming record.

The White Stripes - Elephant

20 years since this came out. I love all the White Stripes albums but this one's usually considered to be the best for good reason. Every track is different and, unusually, they're all really good no matter what. Blues rock, garage rock, acoustic folk, punkish stuff, everything. Classic.

It's in turns blustery and then sensitive, nostalgic but also just sort of poetic in general - love the lyrics, just fragments of weird stories and thoughts. Well written.

this morning:

Immortal - At the Heart of Winter
Inspired by a recent post by Empyreal...such killer riffage. A masterclass in razor-sharp riffing. And the frogman vocals really work well here.

God Dethroned - Illuminati
This band seems to do the blackened death stuff as well as, if not better than, anyone else. This, their latest full length, really gets the blood flowing.

Obsequiae - Ceres in Emerald Streams

Really great melodies.
Loveley stuff!