Warlord were such a frustrating waste of potential. They clearly had all the talent to make it, but their songwriting just wasn't all that good, overall. Aside from the excellent highlights of Deliver Us From Evil and Child of the Damned, everything else on the debut is solid at best (Aliens), with Lost and Lonely Days being downright bad.

Can't say that I agree. If anything, their songwriting is probably their strongest suit, along with Mark Zonder's wonderful drumming. Deliver Us is just perfect, start to finish. You mentioned Deliver Us from Evil, Aliens, add Black Mass and there you have my 3 fave songs by them. Seriously, Black Mass man. It's FUCKING AWESOME. And so is every other song of theirs, at least in their first era. Including Lost and Lonely Days, which I don't understand why you call "bad". It's really sublime melodies, like usual with Tsamis.

The wasted potential as far as success goes is with the inability to lock down a great vocalist, play live shows and keep up the momentum imo. The guy went to study and become a professor so...

Warlord's and Lordian Guard's albums have been on my wantlist for some time now but other albums keep getting bumped higher on the priority list... Where would you suggest a good starting place for Warlord to be?

Oh damn you've never heard them at all? The EP called Deliver Us would be a great starting point I think. It was my personal entry way and I still get a craving for it pretty regularly. Their debut, And the Cannons... is also super strong, huge heavy riffs with lots of pomp and majesty. I get where Lost and Lonely Days is a miss for some people, but within the context of the whole album I don't mind it one bit.

I'm hyped for you, hope you dig their shit! They're a great example of US style power metal, lots of muscle and might.

Awesome, thanks! I've listened to songs of theirs here or there so I have a pretty good idea of their sound; I'm just yet to make the plunge and buy their albums.

I agree infinitely more with this than the post before it (though my fav 80s Warlord songs are Lucifer's Hammer, Lost and Lonely Days, Soliloquy, and Aliens).

As for the guy looking for recommendations, The Deliver Us EP is definitely good, but I find And the Cannons of Destruction Have Begun to be far superior.

Their first reunion album Rising Out of the Ashes is pretty decent, but I think their second reunion album The Holy Empire is fantastic. It's actually pretty Lordian Guard like, and some of the songs on it came from old Lordian Guard demos. Lordian Guard is fantastic as well. I prefer the first album to the second, though the second is absolutely worth hearing if for no other reason than the title track Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. One of the most epic songs I have ever heard.

Cool, thanks guys. I intend on buying all four releases (EP + three full-lengths) eventually so maybe it'll just be a matter of which one I can find for a good deal first - since they're not particularly cheap.

(As a side-note, I never like to get a band's "best" album first because everything after that is a sort of disappointment. Am I the only one?)

Fans of Europower that is complex and heavy and seriously constructed would do well to check out some of these old Vision Divine albums - Stream of Consciousness, The Perfect Machine and The 25th Hour are all really good stuff. It's like your usual Europower act but with actual propulsive, quality riffs, intricate writing, etc. I'm surprised I don't hear them talked about more. I suppose some of Michele Luppi's vocal lines are a bit AOR for some peoples' taste in here, but the level of detail and care to this music is stunning to me.

Vision Divine is fantastic, especially the Luppi era. He's easily one of the best singers in existence.

I find The 25th Hour to be my favourite, but there are lots of great songs on Stream of Consciousness as well. I only recently got The Perfect Machine, so I'm not as familiar with it, but it fits the sound.

Actually the two albums with Lione after these 3 are really enjoyable too. Even the new album works surprisingly well - that singer had huge shoes to fill and he did a great job.

Yeah, I remember 9 Degrees West of the Moon having an intriguing vibe. I can't remember if I checked out the one after that. The new one is pretty good, but on first listen it seemed inconsistent and not as good as their old stuff. The singer was very good, though maybe a little too heavily accented.

Stream of Consciousness was blowing my mind at work the other day. The stuff they did on there is insane compared to so many bands' output back then - much less straightforward, and progressive in a very natural way. It was almost like a Europower version of some of the stuff bands like Psychotic Waltz or other old prog bands were doing, rather than just ripping off Dream Theater and Rush like a lot of bands tended to do in the '00s.

The 25th Hour is the one I always used to play - that one just had such a tight, catchy set of songs. Gonna play it again soon.

New Legendry album for those who can't get enough of their lo-fi dungeon crawling heavy metal.

https://www.indymetalvault.com/2019/11/ ... ower-keep/

It's got some Mark of the Beast-isms which are pretty interesting.

Starting off a heavy metal album with a three minute acoustic folk song is something. I dig it.

Yeah this is killer as the last one was. They got a good feel for dirty, in your face riffs.

This is a lot more mature than their last one was. They seem to have gotten a taste for slower, more sweeping melodies.

edit: I could do with the vocals not being so buried, but gotta say I dig how the guitars create this real enveloping, soulful atmosphere. It's very psychedelic in a weird way, like epic metal filtered through much older 70s rock. The Mark of the Beast comparison is accurate. The heavy parts remind me of Omen.

Just read caspian's Crystal Logic review. Could you be any more wrong, dude?! the vocals are amazing.

also I enjoy reading philosophy for its own sake and I love cats. AND Lightning to the Nations has great vocals too.

I like Marks vocals on every release but i def understand why people wouldnt like em, esp on crystal logic. Most of my favourite vocalists are like this tbh normal "good" singers are overrated.

I like a lot of the more polished, "good" singers, but guys like Shelton, Mike Scalzi, etc are the real treat for me. That has been a tradition going back to Bob Dylan and even before that - weird singers that nonetheless have their own identity. It's not a new phenomenon.

Sampling this old 80s band Mystery Blue today... https://mysterybluefr.bandcamp.com/

Always meant to give 'em a try. This is exactly the kind of kick ass, groovy guitar playing I like.

What kind of Heavy/Speed/Power bands can you suggest (could be with "extreme" in their names maybe if they are power metal) that play with breakneck (very fast) speed?

I already know Cellador and Burning in Hell. Maybe Brimstone, for a bit of extreme power on some songs.

Maybe try something like Enceladus-Journey to Enlightenment

Ooh, another Brimstone fan! Cool!

Do you consider Children of Bodom fast? Maybe you'll like Hallows Eve's "Speed Freak"?

While I'm on this thread... I've lately been massively enjoying Pretty Maids's Red, Hot and Heavy. I'm not sure what I like about it so much; I think it is the rhythm guitar, and the chiming almost-U2-like sound. However, I can't seem to get into the rest of Pretty Maids albums. Does anyone have any suggestions for any other albums that I might like? I know it's not much to go on -- sorry.

I quite like the first EP (self titled) and the first 3 Albums (Red Hot and Heavy, Future World, Jump the Gun).
The first EP and Red Hot and Heavy have a similar sound. While Future World and Jump the Gun sound similar to each other with a more polished 80s sound.

As a general recommendation, Sardis recently released a really fun music video from their upcoming EP. The music is great and fans of The Twilight Zone should especially enjoy the video. Their earlier work is great but they've obviously really honed their sound for this new material.

I only enjoy ONE Pharaoh song that I have heard: "Fighting". Could anyone recommend me a few other songs that I might enjoy by this band?

I suppose it depends on what you dislike about their other work.

I don't think there's a bad song on either of their last two albums, which are some of the best metal albums of the latter 00s for me. But if you don't like complex, prog-tinged stuff then you won't like it. "Fighting" is a cool song but definitely not the top of their discography for me.

I love complex, prog-tinged stuff.

Voivod, Cynic, early Dream Theater, Fates Warning, Watchtower, Spastic Ink, Depressive Age, Obliveon, DBC, etc. etc. etc.

Nothing I've heard from this band was very prog. I used to own their first album BTW.

Yeah it's more tinged with a general complexity than actually "prog" the genre. It's just complex, fascinating melodies. They're not like any of those bands, nor would I want them to be. To me they are just excellent writers who are doing involved, dextrous song-craft. It's just great melodicism. It's a bit of Maiden, some modern power metal and also their own unique flavor of intelligent, sophisticated stuff.

I think people just give power metal bands way too much credit for being "prog", in general.

It ain't all that progressive or complex. It's really not.

Sure, but it can still be very well written or meticulous. That's what I like. Good, strong, well constructed songwriting. I don't need everything to sound exactly like the 80s all the time.

Try these two from Pharaoh

I'm not the biggest Pharaoh fan on the planet, but "By the Night Sky" fucking rips from start to finish. Magnificent track.

This! Never got the hype of this band, but that track is fucking great.

Anyone heard the new Dressed to Kill full length album that got released some days ago? Pretty solid heavy/speed metal from...China, out of all countries.

Just heard the new version of Cage's "Science Of Annihilation" - the one that is remixed, remastered and with re-recorded drums. Normally I would avoid such a thing like the fucking plague because in 99% of cases this type of move ruins everything that made the original album great/good. HOWEVER in the case of this album I think this move was warranted. I know some people do not like that record very much but I love it. It is very straightforward in approach - pedal-to-the-metal fast tunes with tons of speed metal riffing. The problem was always the production because it rendered the record nearly unlistenable. This new version seriously improves on the sound - drums sound leagues better, everything is fuller and more powerful.

Heard it. Didn't do much for me.

Anyone have recs for recent albums/bands similar to Lord Fist, Legionnaire and (to an extent) Terminus? Generally speedy, mid-fi, and melodic. Chevalier almost fits the bill, but don't have enough interesting riffs or melodies, Mystik is close too, but less melodic than I'm looking for.

Decided to sit through the entire album but it's just the opener that blows me away...so far at least.

I originally posted this in the prog thread, but I'll repost it here since this band seems to overlap quite a bit with USPM. This band called Syrinx was a French prog band with riffs, riffs and more riffs. Not to mention their album came out in 2000.

Thank you. I'll check them out.

I just gave Sacred Warrior's Master's Command a go and Christian lyrics aside, it's one of the most inconsistent albums I've ever heard. When it gets going, it riffs pretty hard, but when it's bad... it's really bad.

Just compare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4g4zvRO-sSU to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPcY8AvBYb8

I never could get into that album. It has its moments but as you said it often drops the ball hard.