Virgin Steele - Trail of Tears

Some time since I listened to the Marriage... albums. They're quite consistent.

Blood Ceremony - Morning of the Magicians

Best of the spooky retro-witchy-occult-rock bands for me. Flute solos !

Zealotry - The Last Witness

Just about anything involving Tougas on guitars is gonna slap and this is no exception. Lots of clear influences (Gorguts, Immolation, Anata, Demilich, Timeghoul, etc.)

Good shit \m/

Deicide - Once upon the Cross

All this talk about the album got me to listen to it again. Still a great album overall!

Synkletos - The Ascent

I think this is one of the most ''out of place'' tracks I've ever heard on any melodic doom/death metal album (and there are also some similar fast parts on a few other songs/tracks from the album). It's kind of fun to listen to, but, to me, all these parts with very fast guitar playing do not fit into the album's overall style and they destroy the atmosphere. All the slow/mid tempo melodic parts are quite beautiful though.. I just would have preferred the album to have more songs instead of instrumental tracks, because I really like the vocals (growls and cleans) on this album.

Black Majesty - Silent Company

The more time that goes by, the more I see how excellent the craftsmanship was for these early BM albums. Power metal fucking elite.

Black Majesty - Children of the Abyss

I remember I had some worse than usual hearing issues when this came out and maybe that affected how I heard the production here... but nah this is really quite bad production. Way too soft. Great writing though.

Shredder - Tortured Souls

Seen these guys live a few times, a very good OSDM sounding release and even more impressive that the members were all 16-18 years of age when it was done.

Epica - Resign to Surrender ~ A New Age Dawns, Pt. 4

"Design Your Universe" is their heaviest and most progressive album. Most of the time, I think it works quite well. There are a few silly spoken word moments, though... but those happen on all their other albums too so it just doesn't bother me that much at this point.

Cro-Mags - We Gotta Know

Very nice crossover thrash with a strong hardcore element, and a highly under-reviewed band on this site.

Metallica - Now That We're Dead

Revisiting the Hardwired... album, and this song is easily one of my favorites off of the album.

Havenlights - Sands of Time

Brand new band, and it's Euro-power, so I gotta check it out. This album is kinda wild--the stuff that's bad is REALLY bad, and the stuff that's good is REALLY good. There is no in-between.

SERIOUSLY! After Sebs left, no one gave a shit about them anymore. And their first 2 albums are GREAT.

the album actually holds up! Though I wouldn't call it as memorable as the 3 Dio/Sabbath albums.

Mercyful Fate - Evil

One of the greats. Seemed appropriate for number 666.

Unreqvited - Meadows of Elysium

Took what Alcest did on Shelter & ran with it. A little heavier in places, but it all works really well.

Virgin Steele - Unholy Water

Now here's a catchy song. Great.

Trippie Redd - Neon Shark

Decided to give this rapper's rock album a chance. So far I'm really impressed.

Septagon - Cosmic Outrage

Markus Becker of Atlantean Kodex fronts this speed/thrash project. Super cool stuff - this particular song sounds like an update of Anthrax's Spreading the Disease. Looking forward to their new album.

Twilightning - Jester Realm

The synths and these vocal melodies are some of the more addictive in PM. A really fun, cool piece of music.

Judas Priest - Jugulator

This album is full of ripping metal and this gets the party started.

Evil - From the Black Horde of Pure Evil

Good old Evil demos...!

Green Day - Ha Ha You're Dead

Thinking about Rush Limbaugh right now...
"Ha ha you're dead
And I'm so happy
You were an asshole
And now you're gone"

Runemagick - Monolithic Death

Excellent death/doom!

Just spun Eternal Champion - The Armor of Ire since my CD finally showed up.

Great record, just not as great as the next one.

Hail and Kill!

Symphony X - The Divine Wings Of Tragedy (the song)

Ugh, they were so good!

Ithaqua - Sorcerers of Profane Enchantments

Newer greek BM done right, could have been made in the 90's really.
Hope this band makes an album soon!

Blackbriar - The Séance

One of the more interesting gothy pop-symphonic metal bands going right now. Looking forward to their LP!

Iron Maiden - Aces High

Rocking!!!

Triptykon - Procreation of the Wicked

I actually much prefer this slower, doomier take compared to the original version. Much more punch like this, and heavier too.

Who is this Iron Maiden you speak of?

Eldamar - The Border of Eldamar

Highlight of the first album. The beginning and ending are the best. The climax is like the Alcest song Les Iris.

Protest the Hero - Drumhead Trial

Everyone needs to listen to Volition. FanfuckingTASTIC album.

Ehnahre - Colossus

Yeah, this is some next level weirdness. Ehnahre plays dissonant death doom- earlier on in their career Portal comparisons were warranted but they were always more strange and somewhat different, and know I have no idea what they are at this point. Their EP Quatrain was one of my favorite releases of 2020 and now I'm just going back to check out their 2020 full length The Scrape Of A Keel- yep, I'm impressed and perplexed.

Hammers of Misfortune - The August Engine

This album always puts me in a unique mental space. A truly individual work of art. Metal elevated to a higher kind of space.

Virgin Steele - Mind, Body, Spirit

Some of these middle era VS songs are just so good, can't believe it. Still to hunt down at least The House of Atreus albums and The Book of Burning. And I WILL hunt them down.

^
All those albums have been remastered and reissued through SPV (I think) and should be easy to get a hold of....and yes, mid-era Virgin Steele is untouchable.

Zero Hour - Demise and Vestige

One of my fave troo prog metal bands. Essential listening!

Celtic Frost - Wings of Solitude

Turns out that Vanity/Nemesis is really, really good. Cold Lake next....

Sargeist - Black Treasures of Melancholy

Disciple of the Heinous Path is great, been a long time since I spun the lp.

Nuclear Assault - Wired

One of the best slow-paced vocal from John Connolly.

Inculter - Traducers Attack

It's Slayer and Postmortem nods for the intro on this.
No complaints from me.Great thrasher.