Why? Too less dommy tendencies? Too much hardrock tinges (guitars/solos)?

Knowing a little of Acrobat's taste, I doubt that's his problem with the album. I haven't listened to it yet, myself, but I felt that "Monument" was their best .. yes, I like them as a doom band. I'm also not totally sold on that singer .. yes, he's got a powerful voice all right, but something about his delivery just doesn't sit well with me. One of those things I can't really put my finger on, and I wish I could.

Anyway, I finally discovered just how fantastic Sacred Blade's "Of the Sun and Moon" album is. There is some stuff going on here I can safely say I've never heard before inn traditional metal. That twelfth track is bloody incredible, with that endless soloing spiralling over a dark, drony riff.

Even Heathen can get pretty dull with the chugging. Sometimes I wish "Victims of Deception" would just speed up more. It's the same problem I have with Mid-Period Exodus .. I like Steve's voice and some of the riffs are cool, but .. meh.

Weird. I think the newest GM album is probably one of their best ones. They completed the transition into a total heavy metal band with only some Sabbathy tendencies. The guitar playing and melodies are really pulling the tracks forward with some great arrangements of mid-period Manowar. And I really like JB's approach but I like Spiritual Beggars so that might be it.

And that Sacred Blade album is one of the best power/progressive records I ever listened to.

I'll give the GM a listen, for sure. I may very well like it .. "WOlf's Return" did have its moments, too, and it's not like they lost the doomy feel altogether.

Yeah, I wish Sacred Blade had recorded another album. It took me a long time to understand this one, so if there was another record, I'd probably be gnawing at it bemusedly for years.

You don't count Othyrworld "Beyond Into The Night Of Day" as one?

What the hell, I didnt' even know about that!!

SO .. how does it compare?

I don't know, I haven't listened to it yet. As soon as I do, I'll let you know my thoughts about it.

@Zdan, I'll never have a problem with hard rock influences. It should be noted that I'm re-writing my review of Lizzy's Live and Dangerous... I've always been a big hard rock fan. I liked the direction of the new GM, it's just that I thought some of it was a little too "here's an epic number". I only listened to it about 3 times, so I'll give it another. It was by no means bad though.

So I've been searching for some great power metal demos. I'm loaded with full-lengths, but I thought maybe there were some demos out there worth listening to as well. Perhaps EP's as well. Any suggestions?/What are your favorites?

Dark Age, Glacier, Oblivion, Witch Killer... Sorry, I don't have much time to elaborate, I'll try to post some more on Thursday.

You might also read Failsafeman's and Xeogred's reviews.

EDIT: whoops, shit, it's called Oblivion, not Oblivion Knight... I'm totally messed up.

For the most part it's just re-recordings of songs that were on Of the Sun and Moon, but a few tracks here and there are different. Unfortunately, no "Salem", but I'm not sure the singer could pull off those awesome screeches anymore anyway. That and falsetto always seem the first things to go when singers get old. Still, if you like the first one, it certainly couldn't hurt to check out Beyond into the Night of Day as well. Just don't think you're getting an entirely new album.

Talisphere, Oblivion (US), and Stone Soldier are all good.

Hmm, going back and listening to Beyond into the Night of Day again, more of it seems to be new than I remembered. It's good.

Are there any power metal bands out there that are simmilar to early White Skull? All I really want is power metal with less keyboards and harsher vocals than the normal power vocals

True, I can't argue against this. Hence why I can safely say I've honestly always liked Heathen's debut more than Victims, mainly because it's all around faster. And overall, this is probably why I've never been too big on Bay-Area stuff and rather go for melodic/speed/thrash albums.

I just re-listened to some stuff I own and I wonder why only a few old-school metallers worship Attack's "Destinies Of War"? That album is amazing - melodic, powerful, great production, a very good balance between the European style and some US touches. Total old-school metal bonanza!

If only "Beastkiller" wasn't ultimately rare. I'd really like to hear that one. I think some of the tracks might have re-appeared on "Revitalize" though, which is a really good compilation.

Overall, definitely an underated band. Great melodic European power.

I actually also like their post-Destinies albums. Great melodic/speed metal with the Euro touch dominating. I would go out and say that bits of pieces of US sound are present here. But the melodies are what makes this band so great. "Death Rider" is such a epic song!

Edit: And old Vicious Rumors rules a ton. "Welcome To The Ball" is such a monster!

Okay guys. A reccomendation from Uncle Zdan here - if you don't mind your heavy metal rock'n'rollish and melodic check out the awesome Ritual from the UK. I am just listening to this and the guitar parts are awesome as hell. It is on the pretty tame side of the NWBOHM but the melodies are so haunting it has to be heard to be believed!

What about Ritual's twin sister - Widow?

Today I have discovered the awesomeness that is Diamond Head, first two albums in particular. With all honesty, I didn't expect it to be SO catchy, fun, energetic, lively, powerful, melodic and thrashy at the same time.

Widow and Ritual are basicly the same band mate. But you know that I presume. How do you like Ritual anyhow? I find their records pretty astounding and downright catchy as hell - they had a unique sound with their occult rock/heavy metal stuff.

And the two first Diamond Head albums rule a TON. Especially the first one and the singles from the era. Definitely one of the more amazing bands from the NWOBHM next to Tank, Blitzkrieg etc.

Ritual and Widow are possibly the only two one-album NWOBHM bands I haven't listened to yet. Maybe tomorrow if studies don't take away too much time. And I know they're basically the same band, that's why i used "twin sister".

Speaking of occult vibe, what about Incubus "To The Devil A Daughter"?

Hmm, actually I've just found a copy of "Lightning To The Nations" in one of local shops. Wondering if I have enough money to buy it.

Incubus would be the second band I know with that occult vibe but Ritual has much more intricate guitar passages.

And by ALL MEANS get the version of Lightning To The Nations with bonus tracks off the singles ie - the Sanctuary version. This is mandatory!

What's even better, I found their best of, which Boris gave an unbelievably high 95%, and for a very moderate price. Either I'll fucking buy this tomorrow, or the sky will fucking fall down onto the earth.

I've just bought it.

Did you two not have the first DH album before? It's such a glaringly obvious metal classic. I've listened to it so many times and it never gets boring. I think I'll crank the rating up on that one.

Again, they're hard-to-find here.

Fair enough, though you do tend to be doing rather well for picking up obscure gems. It's good to hear Russia isn't just full of black market copies of Scorpions albums anymore.

Well, I can't speak for the rest of Russia, but in Moscow pirate industry (in metal music, at least) is pretty much dying off as more and more metal labels are being established. Unfortunately, they mostly focus on black, or brutal death, or all sorts of doom, or whatever is popular at the moment, but not on heavy/speed/power/thrash, damn it!

So how do you like your DH tunes? Really great rockin' metal tunes with some heaviness too!

And I urge everyobdy to listen to the two first Vicious Rumors albums - they are probably the closest thing in power metal to "Ample Destruction". Really great riffs, marvelous vocals by Carl Albert and speed metal insanity!

Actually I've been meaning to check out Vicious Rumors for a while...

Go with the two first albums (especially "Digital Dictator" - that is really a marvelous album full of great heavy metal) and "Welcome To The Ball". Really cool stuff.

Thanks for the advice. I'll check them tomorrow.

I've always prefered Vicious Rumors' debut (seemed a little darker, I guess. Gary St. Pierre is also pretty similar to Carl I'd say), but both that and "Digital Dictator" are really good. "Welcome to the Ball" is excellent as well and their newest "Warball" (with James Rivera on vocals) is worth hearing!

Do note my reviews for them are some of my earliest works.

Yeah, "Soldiers of the Night" is seriously one of my top favorites. One I go back to quite a bit. Last track "Blistering Winds" is fucking crazy, pretty much defines why they were on Shrapnel Records.

It sucks that most people I know IRL have no interest in traditional metal, even the "metalheads". It's that old "80s shit" and it's no better than Twisted Sister, just spandex and hair spray!

What is it about singers who actually sing that turns people off? If it's not growling or shrieking (not that there's anything wrong with them) or singing where it sounds more like talking then it's GAY and cheesy and dated.



I genuinely like some Manowar (Blood of my Enemies? Fucking awesome song!), but I don't know anyone who ever takes them seriously at all.

We had this kind of dude here recently - in the Metallica thread. Motleydude was his handle and he seemed to dislike all power metal - even USPM like Vicious Rumors, Metal Church, Jag Panzer etc. He said (gasp!) it was bland, boring and uninteresting - especially the vocals. He kind of lost me there.

I think I know why this is - as said here before - people now start with the extreme stuff and if ever they move to more traditional forms of metal they look down on them because of the cheese (like black metal did not have that) and lack of extreme in the music.

As a sidenote - I put Vicious Rumors' "Digital Dictator" on par with the debut. The speed metal tracks off that album really smoke like hell and it is fairly decently produced.

That always bugs me, sometimes people start off with death and black metal and then assume melody or high vocals = gay or cheesy. I don't get it really... though the first time I heard Maiden I did snigger a bit, it was Run to the Hills on TOTP2 (which shows old performances from the 70s, 80s etc) and I laughed because I'd never seen something so fun! Growing up in the late 90s I never heard guitar playing like that, I was really guitar starved as a youth... you couldn't hear a decent guitar solo on mainstream radio at all (though that much hasn't changed, but you'll hear a lot more shredding around nowadays). It was liberating, I suppose that I always wanted to listen to heavy metal and hard rock even when the best I could hear was mainstream pop punk on the radio. The cover art may and general imagery may turn people off, I was always intrigued by the Iron Maiden stuff I'd seen even before I was a fan. I suppose it was the complete antithesis of the po-faced stuff that was in vogue.

I guess I can take pride in the fact that I was always a metalhead, even before I listened to it. Still, brutal death metal is far more cheesy than someone screaming "RIDE DER SKKKAIII!!" and widdly guitar harmonies.

I sort of started in extreme metal I guess, but I've certainly branched out to power, trad and doom.

I wasn't saying it's always the case, certainly there are people who started with trad metal and can't get into more extreme stuff as well. I pity people who can't see (hear?) beyond one sub-genre.