"Cheesy" is really a person-dependant term. To me most black metal is cheesy as hell. Fucking Norwegian panda bears singing about Satan ruling this world and then going about their dayjobs and whatnot. And traditional metal, speed, doom - those are the backbone genres of metal whether someone likes it or not. I get that some people may not like it but at least show respect. I do not like Darkthrone in particular but I respect them as viable, creative band and one that it important to metal history.

And Bezerko - I listen to old school death metal, some first wave black and lots of hardcore/punk/crust. Yet I still come back to my Ritual, Blitzkrieg, Omen, Manilla Road, Phantom, Jag Panzer albums.

Agreed. You don't have to like it all, but the sub-genres do demand at least some respect... like how can you be a metalhead and not respect Sabbath, Priest and Maiden? It can work the other way too, I'm not the biggest grind fan, but a band like Napalm Death will always have my respect.

I enjoy pretty much anything that kicks ass, but I'll always lean towards the classic stuff in terms of Metal.

Oh and the new Helstar is growing on me.

The old Helstar is growing on me, I can't stop listening to Nosferatu. I bought Remnants of War on vinyl the other day too, but I'm still mainly just listening to Nosferatu.

Nosferatu is the crowning achievement of Helstar. They will not top it - the songs and especially the guitar parts are amazing.

And I like the new Helstar stuff - it has got this harder egde that is really cool.

It basically sounds like what you'd expect from them in the modern day, looking only at their 80s stuff. It's got some groove in there, but it isn't really the "Lamb of God" or "Pantera" sort of groove; it's just more modern in general. A lot of the compositions remind me of Remnants of War, barring the weird ones like "Pain" and "In My Darkness."

Agreed. They could do FAR worse with this - it kind of reminds me of "Warball" by Vicious Rumors.

And fuck US metal needs reissues. Vicious Rumors old discs, Powermad, Heretic etc. They have been some reissues but they are few and far between.

Manilla Road have such great fucking lyrics.

The reason I know naught -- I have to know more!

Do you guys frequent any review sites? I'm looking for metal reviewers with good taste I can rely on. The only one I visit is metalcrypt, and I mainly read Sargon's reviews (and yours too of course Emp!). Pagan Shadow is good for the black metal and folk side of things. But I can't find any other consistent sites. Tartareandesire has some good and some bad.

There's a really good line in Fritz Leiber's "Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser" tales, one of the early ones, I think, where Fafhrd scoffs at the clueless skalds who boomm and brag in a bass voice, maintaining with fiery drunken zeal that the proper way for a trained skald is to sing inn a proud, high register. I grinned from ear to ear when I read this because this is exactly what I say about metal. If you don't like soaring, majestic heavy metal vocals, you're no man!

Acrobat, funny you should say that you were a metalhead before you even knew about metal .. that is kind of how I feel about doom, specifically. I always loved slow, melancholy stuff, going back as far as I can remember (and my marliest memories are of listening to music) .. took me a while to be convinced that any rock from after the 1970s was good, and I spent about a year delving into the realms of 90s mainstream rock. It didn't take my taste long to evolve to the level it's at today.

Edit: I used to use LARM a lot, but that site is long gone. Basically it's metal-archives only for my metal needs now.

Manilla Road do have great lyrics .. even their heavy metal anthems are usually really convincing and sincere. I think "Metal" off of the album of the same name brings about more of a feeling of pride and conviction and spirit than any Manowar anthem (and I'm not putting down the latter band, but they usually worked best in the more epic stuff of the early 80s) .. to say nothing of something like "Triumvirate", which doesnt' even seem like a metal anthem until you really examine the lyrics.

Hey guys, I'm looking for something in the vein of Machine Men, Sabaton, Jag Panzer and the likes. Solid, melodic, catchy and at times fairly aggressive heavy/power metal.

All recommendations are appreciated.

Wolf - The Black Flame sounds like exactly what you're looking for, and on that note you'd probably like Tarot - Suffer Our Pleasures as well. They're both solid, melodic, catchy, and at times aggressive heavy/power metal.

oh and Tad Morose - Modus Vivendi!

Somewhat related, I think this is kind of like how I've always had a thing for fast, melodic, screaming metal that's just really catchy. Before I really got into metal all I really cared to listen to was videogame music, dating back to the NES, Genesis, SNES, etc. You look back at music from those like the Megaman games, etc, and it's not too hard to see how they were probably influenced by rock and metal when it came to the tunes. So it just felt like a natural transition from listening to vg music to metal.

I know many might disagree and think that's silly, but that's me.

Pretty much how I got into metal, and makes sense to me. iD's Doom made me nostalgic about metal songs I had never even heard in my childhood.

I can always remember at the start of the decade being so frustrated at music on the radio and TV, I couldn't hear a guitar solo or anything more than strumming of chords. I can remember being very angry at this, I don't think I knew what guitar solo actually sounded like until I was 12. And of course if you don't love high pitch heavy metal wailing then you're no man! I guess I'd heard shitty pop punk records when I was very young and I'd assumed that was as most guitar as I could get... thankfully no one would get this today, guitar solos are back in fashion and noodling is cool again and kids at least have some guitar solos to show them what to do at least.

The main riff in "Death before Disgrace" from Battleroar's new album sounds just like Savatage's "By the Grace of the Witch". Hmmm.

Gutterscream's latest Crossfire (Bel) review got me to check them out ... and HOLY SHIT! This is absolutely amazing. "Second Attack" is really awesome, I may as well get the other two.

What the hell! How is this the Ostrogoth singer? He's way more over the top on this, I love it. Edit: Actually, I think I'm thinking of some other band... Cirith Ungol for some reason.

I wouldn't even call it groove, really. It's just heavier on the slower parts. I'd sooner call it the doomy sort of "groove".

So, I basically agree with you. It doesn't really have any groove. There's just a more modern production on it.

I still think King Of Hell is pretty fucking bad ass. At least these guys remember how to play fast. I love when they do the octave harmonized parts they've always been good at. Sounds fucking amazing.


P.S. James Rivera still sounds godly and I feel as if he's one of the only few from the 80s, who can still fucking SING!

Hi all.

I've recently come to own Helloween's Keep of the Seven Keys Pt. I and Blind Guardian's Follow the Blind and I have to say I really like their approach to Proto-Power/Speed Metal - it's still very upbeat like most Power Metal is, but it also has some balls to it. The vocals are not nuts-in-your-throat falsetto, but just a nice, powerful clean vocals, and the drums keep the beat using fairly simple beats, but ones which really add to the song. The guitars also keep things interesting, but don't try to blow your mind with prog-wankery or un-needed technicality. The riffs are catchy and have a good feel to them.

Now, can anyone tell me where I can find some bands/albums which suit that sort of old-school sound? Many thanks!

----------------
Now playing: Blind Guardian - Beyond the Ice
via FoxyTunes

Scanner's first two (Hypertrace and Termnial Earth) are obligatory mentions.

Possibly Avantasia's first two Metal Operas, both very similar to the Keeper's saga.

Try Helloween's Walls of Jericho obviously if you haven't, very much traditional speed metal like early Blind Guardian.

Crimson Glory's Transendence is another early sounding semi-prog/power/speed metal festival.

Stormwarrior is some awesome straight up speed metal with a fairly old school sound, but slightly modern production.

Beat me to it.

Also going to second Walls of Jericho, it annihilates the Keeper albums if you ask me.

I'm assuming you've heard these Nyaricus, but if not, get Keepers II since you liked the first (though I like the first a lot more) and Blind Guardian's debut Battalions of Fear is better than Follow the Blind in my opinion. Tales From the Twilight World and Somewhere Far Beyond come highly recommended too, they still had speed influences with those.

I'd say check out Warrant (Ger) also.

Also, Hibria is kind of old school I guess. Either way, they're one of the best thesedays.

Thanks guys! I have a list to make and some DLing to do to see what I like

----------------
Now playing: Suicide Commando - Bind, Torture, Kill
via FoxyTunes

No problem!

And so, can anyone think of any Belgium classics I need to know about? Been listening to Crossfire a lot lately and some of Ostrogoth. Ostrogoth has some insanely epic songs, though their albums seem like mixed bags. For instance "Samurai" on "Feelings of Fury" (almost sounds like Iron Savior) is probably one of the coolest songs I've heard in a long time, though the rest of the album doesn't come close to that amount of quality again.

Peter de Wint is an amazing singer too, on both bands.

Killer is alright, I'd take Crossfire/Ostrogoth over them though.

This shouldn't be on the third page.

And you guys are missing out if you haven't heard "Samurai" by Ostrogoth.

I may have to sift through Ostrogoth songs if they're uneven, but I've skimmed through their work a few times over the years and always thought they sucked.

I'm looking for something similar to Grand Magus-Iron Will, with the great vocals, amazing riffs, and overall epicness.

Doomsword? Icy Steel?

Be a bit more specific.

Today, my song of power is Cloven Hoof's "Road of Eagles", the 1988 version. Argh, so good. It was hard not to bellow along with Russ North on the subway.

Speaking of Battleroar,, how come "Age of Chaos" is so much better than the other two? Could it be because Mark Shelton plays some guest guitar solos and acoustics on it?

Any fans of Solemnity here? They're good, epic metal .. nothing too fancy but I really like the singer's voice. Also, any band that references Clark Ashton Smith's writing gets a thumbs up from me.

I'll second Nahsil's recommendations of Wolf and Tad Morose and add Tarot (fin) and Iron Savior. All of them supremely catchy yet agressive.

THE KING IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE KING!

...Helstar?

Haha, I just can't help but always think of Helstar's "The King is Dead" (obviously!) with those lines.

I'd take "Road of Eagles" over it though, for sure.

That Cloven Hoof album is another one I can't seem to find for a reasonable price in the UK. I do rather like their debut, the title track is stunning. Just got Thane to the Throne today, sounds pretty good, certainly a grower. I've always liked Macbeth.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure both Dominator and A Sultan's Ransom are probably hard to come by, I'd imagine it'd be easier to find in the UK ... but maybe not?

Hence we've been waiting for over a year for that supposed double pack re-release that they announced forever ago. Then the Definitive Part One came out and I think that just flatout replaced the reissue plans ...

Yeah, I know. I was waiting for those reissues. I've got Dominator on mp3, but I thought what I've heard of Sultan's sounded more interesting. I've just checked and all their 80s stuff seems pretty hard to find. Shame really, I suppose the funds for a proper reissue must have fallen through.

Hmm, well I think you'd be able to find their debut for a fair price. I actually own that own myself, since it was reissued somewhat recently I believe.

Yeah, I got the debut a few years back. Good stuff for NWOBHM in '84, surely they should have been singing about Sailing to America or some bollocks (fucking frustrating mid 80s Saxon!). But that too has become harder to come by.

Since i'm too lazy to look for the progressive metal help thread, i'll ask it here.

I'm looking for albums similar to Set the world on fire by Annihilator, progressive metal with a touch of heavy metal. I don't mind production and lyrics must be in english, thanks in advance!

Triosphere - Onwards might be my favorite female fronted metal album. Everyone should hear it!