Well, that's a relatively obscure song (not as readily available as the bulk of their classic era material, at least), which is in part why I picked it among the many Scanner gems. You won't find the song directly listed on MA, but it's mentioned right on the band's page: "Contributed "Galactos" to "Doomsday News Vol. I" (Noise Records, 1989)". You can read a bit more about it in the Additional Notes for the album it was recorded for, but ended up not appearing on. Their debut (as Scanner, anyway) is a great album as it is, but it's a shame it didn't get to be released as it had been envisioned by the band. Considering the whole story behind the concept-album 'Hyper Trace' is based on a world called Galactos, the absence of this particular song is a bit ironic. Probably like many a Scanner fan, I only got to hear this one years after the album, when I stumbled upon a vinyl copy of the compilation it was released on.

You're not entirely wrong in your perception of their influences, as they initially had a quite noticeable rock 'n' roll-ish hard/heavy side to their style (just listen to their debut Damn the Night, it reeks of NWoBHM idioms). To be fair though, I don't think they owe much to early Metallica or even to Motörhead directly; they're more of the Accept-descending Grave Digger / Running Wild strand of power/speed. Of course, there's also a truckload of intricate, highly melodic songwriting and arrangements which sound nothing like classic thrash or speed, particularly in the guitar work, which is more akin to their peers of the early Helloween / Mania school of Teutonic speedy power metal. Having said all that, like you concluded, they very much had their own recognizable style and touch.

No particular reason for that detailed rambling, just felt you ought to know in case you're further interested in the band.

Glad you liked the song!

A little context seems welcome before you dive into AD's discography head first. In the long line of "band as a brand" cases (as opposed to a consistent group of people representing one coherent and legitimate artistic entity, the way things should be), Angel Dust is a notable one: it's basically been three clearly distinct bands throughout "their" career, with the only two main traits in common, besides the name, being that they shared the same drummer and bassist (neither of whom contributed much to the songwriting process back in the 80s - don't know about nowadays, don't care). What you have here is a perfect example of Angel Dust, MK II, the brillant and mildly thrashy power/speed band led by no other than SL Coe (who, among other things, also shone on Scanner's second masterpiece, 'Terminal Earth') and guitarist Vinni Lynn for all of one album: 'To Dust You Will Decay'. I highly recommend that one, unlike anything else released under the Angel Dust name before or after that. The 1986 debut, 'Into the Dark Past', was done by MK I, the primarily "evil thrash" styled speed/thrash band led by a completely other pair of guitarists, one of whom also provided semi-harsh Schmier-like vocals; it's an okay album, but it's certainly no 'Infernal Overkill' either. From 1998 onwards, we've been humoring Angel Dust, MK III, which is the flowery, NerverMore-y EuroPM band that's better known today.

So yeah, try 'To Dust You Will Decay', try anything that has SL Coe at the helm, actually: the guys is (or at least, was) essentially the RJ Dio of German power metal in the sense that he's done albums with different bands, but they all very clearly bear his mark. Sadly, Vinni Lynn, who composed "Stranger" and a couple of other great tracks on that album, never did anything else save for a recent demo band I have yet to try.

That Angel Dust song was cool. I quite like Scanner's second album (I've not heard the first yet), and SL Coe's voice was definitely the main selling point for me.

LegendMaker, you take that back, new Angel Dust is excellent music!

Well, now you've heard one song that was meant to be on the first Scanner album, now ("Galactos" from earlier on in this page); the track isn't on the album, but right off of the same sessions, so if you like it, then you probably should check 'Hyper Trace' if you can. It's a bit different from the one with SL Coe (which remains my favorite), but a fantastic album in its own right. And yeah, SL Coe's discography wise, once you've crossed 'Terminal Earth' off the list, the next two mandatory albums to try would definitely be Angel Dust's 'To Dust You Will Decay' and Reactor's 'Farewell To Reality'. It's all awesome stuff, and although each band/album has its own sound and style, there's a whole lot in common due to his touch; which goes far beyond his unique voice: he's always been highly involved in a variety of aspects from songwriting to arrangements to production to overall direction, whichever band he crashed to make his own for one album. Hence my Dio comparison.


Hehe I'm not at all surprised you're into them! I actually caught myself thinking "yeah, Empyreal must like this" upon giving them yet another chance earlier today. They're talented musicians (topped by a strong lead singer in Dirk Thurisch, I'll give them that) and some of their songs do have passages I find just perfect (stuff like "Black Rain" off of 'Bleed'). However, it's still pretty tough for me to overlook the three main afflictions they suffer from: A) Manticora/modern-Maiden Syndrome ("let's take those awesome 3 minute potential songs and dilute them into a 2 hours chore instead, cause we're progressive, man"); B) as mentioned above, NeverMore syndrome ("whaddyamean my riffs are "hollow?" I chug that power chord over and over again all the way through, my tone is compressed as hell and offensively over-saturated for the style I play, man... composi-what?!!1?"); and, duh, C) Santa Chorus Syndrome (I'll just assume everybody knows where I'm coming from with this, by now). Don't let me keep you from enjoying it, though; different strokes and priorities.

About Morifade, just to clarify 'Across the Starlit Sky' is a an official mini-album, not just a demo; it was released through the same tiny, short-lived local label that also released their first full-length, as well as Freternia's. They had one Christian Stinga-Borg on vocals and keys back then, who sadly never got back on the horse after splitting with them after the one release together. I have this as a bonus MCD included in some limited edition of 'Possession of Power', and I'm really glad I got this version. PoP (hehe) shows a tremendously softened style, with a neutered production and a new singer who's almost the opposite of his predecessor: thin, treble, soft vocals after the strong, intense, raspy manliness of those on the EP. The new singer is excellent in his own right, but well, it's a bit of a huge leap. Songwriting wise, it's hit and miss, and it clearly foreshadows the "okay, we're giving up, what kind of PM is popular about now in Europe, again?" road to failure they would soon follow, but it still has a few brilliant, subtle, highly emotional compositions as well ("The Vision and the Temple", "Cast a Spell", "Ancient Prophecy", "Ending of Time"). The main songwriter has a quite a distinctive style of riffing and a talent for pretty sweet/sour melancholic melodies, and the band had potential, but from 'Imaginarium' on, they've lost themselves in what looks to me like a vain attempt to reach fans of bands like Freedom Call. Too bad, but oh well.


Hm, I'm very close to the second option, but I don't hate this with a passion either, it's just something I'd rather not hear again. I saw a similar styled band a few years back on TV and sort of gave them a Lordi shrug; it might have been them. And like Turner, I seem to vaguely remember Kiske doing a guest appearance for a band called Force Majeure... I guess we just had it confused with Revolution Renaissance.

Interesting note on the Force Majeure I posted - that is the only track on the album that sounds like that, with the power metal/electronica blend. The rest of the album is quite varied, from speedy double-kick Power Metal to pretty proggy, emotional stuff. Personally I find it an incredibly joyous and fun experience, with tons of energy and creativity behind it. Just saying - give it a chance!



Well fair enough, I can sort of see where you're coming from. But Angel Dust really have a much stronger style and sense of riffing than Nevermore do - check out "Enjoy!" or "Let Me Live" for examples, and the songwriting as a whole is just so amazing and well-thought out - very emotionally driven, very conceptual, very creative. Santa Choruses, maybe, but I think they're done up with enough honest, serious pathos that they work incredibly well. But I suppose we'll end up agreeing to disagree on this one.

Totally. I see where you're coming from as well, it's just that this is a clean cut case of material that has good grades in all the classes you're far more interested in than I am, and poor grades in all the ones I care for far more than you do. I did listen to both songs you cited above, and not only did they both utterly fail to convince me, but on top of that I couldn't help but notice that they're both from 'Enlighten the Darkness'. Not surprisingly, I consider this very album the worst offender of all the personal turn-offs I listed in my previous post. In contrast, 'Bleed' is the closest they ever got to enjoyable for me (let me guess: is this their weakest to your tastes?). So yeah, basically we're dining at the same restaurant and you're having a great time because the setting is great, the waitress is genuinely nice and helpful, the meals are generous and presented in a lovely manner, and the salad is really, really good and fresh... meanwhile, despite your best efforts to cheer me up, I'm still brooding because the steak is bland as fuck, the cook has "well done" confused with "burnt offering", and what passes for a béarnaise sauce in this dump is nothing but tasteless mayo with a pinch of yellow coloring agent. You'll happily go back to this place, and bring other friends with you, but they'll never see my hairy ass ever again. I'm fine with that, to each his own.

yes, the cover truly is awesome, hehe! "Wanna be loved" is def. better seen in total, but for me personally the chorus of "Ball of Fire" is just so fucking great!

Yeah, I think more people ought to know that Budgie is simply a great band, and that there's for more to them than just those two songs that Metallica covered (and not all that well mind you). I deliberately chose a song that I figured most people wouldn't have heard as in my experience people only know the early 70s material. This one's from the Power Supply album, and that's probably one of their more normal song titles ("Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Woman", anyone?) I only wish the whole album were as cool as that opening song. Sadly, it isn't, and their 70s material with Tony Borges on guitar really is the best, generally, but every so often on later albums they'd strike gold with a song or two.

I wasn't too familiar with the band until recently, save for a few tracks off of magazine samplers and such. About a year ago, there was this "is viking metal an actual genre?" thread (or something like that), and the discussion there led me to a self-imposed experiment to try out a bunch of bands generally classified as "viking metal" in a quest for the answer. I had selected 27 albums from the advanced search feature, and started sampling and mini-reviewing them as I went. Einherjer's 'Dragons of the North' was the third I did, which is a good thing, since I stopped at number 6 and had almost forgotten all about it until just now. So, since I have it handy, I'll use my old mini-review of the album, and update it after this first new listen since then.

Hmm, actually it's best I let someone else take this one. Talking about déjà-vu! You and I discussed this particular album at length over a year ago: viewtopic.php?p=1731435 And you never told me what you thought of those KISS tracks, btw!

Yeah, sorry. I was too jarred by the response. It's kind of disappointing when people don't actually listen to the song you post.

Indeed they do have vocals in the relentlessly screamed DSBM fashion. I posted that song only because it's a short one. Their best songs are over 10 minutes in length. It's all synth wall of sound with little guitar antics to be heard, but it's awesome in that same way as Summoning is. Grim Woods or Motherland Ostenvegr are probably the best songs.

Nice to see you haven't forgotten it. I've been wondering where the OP went quite a few times over the pages.
It might have been locked early on if we had let it stray down the "one-liner flame wars fest" path, but it's been consistent, helpful, and most of all fun enough that I think it's pretty safe by now. It's a little bit of a small club, but with a strong following. It's just a really cool format, somewhere between a recommendations thread, a blind test type of game, and an ongoing, ever evolving discussion. Thanks again for launching it, man.

Please don't say what the song you post is going to be in advance; leave that to the guy mini-reviewing the track. Faut préserver le mystère, voyons ! Nice to see a fellow French speaker ("desillusions", haha).