I like this guy!

I do not always agree with him, but I feel he often says what I thought but could not express myself.

Abominatrix' new review of Witchtrap is good.

Thanks. I really don't know what else to say about that album; it might convey the impression that I don't like it much considering how I can ramble about a good album, but it really doesn't need any more padding than that.

Human666's new review of Nadja annoyed me intensely, but I can't deny that it was short, straight to the point and surprisingly well written, a much better slagging off then his previous effort. Nice touch with using my Opeth quote as well.

requiem99: I read your review of Gamma Rays' Land of the Free II, & yeah I agree about them ripping off Iron Maiden in Opportunity. But I've found 2 more rip-offs in that album worth mentioning/updating:

- The 8:05 mark on "Insurrection", which is really similar to the Misty ghosts of childhood fears part in Bruce Dickinson's "Tears of the Dragon".
- The solo in "Empress", 3:55 mark, which is from the Soviet Army's hymn "Полюшко Поле" (Polyushko Pole).

Cheers.

I like his review too, although I thought "Rain" was one of the best songs on there. He did make a lot of good points, though, and it was the first positive review I had seen from him in ages.

So 89 for the new Pagan's Mind wasn't positive enough, eh? FANBOY!

I love Gamma Ray to death and everything, but Kai ripping off Iron Maiden again? Doesn't surprise me too much, I'll have to pay more attention to those parts.

I still think his worst ripoff though was the track Deadly Sleep off of Iron Savior's Unification. Listen to that then Aces High ... eeegh. Not a complete ripoff, but blatantly similar at a lot of parts.

Actually Aces High is quite similar in turn to Kill the king (Rainbow)

Touche'.

failsafeman's dishing out some decent reviews for some real oddballs.

Thanks! Recently I've been going through a lot of obscure metal, and noticed that most of it hasn't been reviewed; figured I might as well let other people know about some of my better discoveries.

I'm thinking of doing a three-review series about Dutch heavy metal from the 80's (that isn't Angus).

Sounds good. What did you have in mind?

zeingard's reviews are good, but does he have to do that joke AOL speak in EVERY one?

Yeah, keep them coming I say. That Lester Maddox review was interesting. I'd never heard of the band before .. nor the man, in fact!

You know, there are still loads and loads of albums from everywhere and everywhen that haven't been reviewed. I tried to make a list once of the stuff I had that hadn't been touched yet and didn't get very far with it, and my collection is probably not as large as many here. It's daunting but at the same time pretty cool that there are still so many virgins around!

I just totally stumbled upon them by accident. Badly-drawn fantasy cover art is always a good indicator of cool heavy metal.



Yea, it's kind of depressing to see some album that was released this year already has 12 reviews, while some that have been around for decades have none.



Dark Wizard, Vault, and Vortex's first album. Possibly also Picture's third; though that band is much more well-documented here, somehow no one's reviewed their best album!

Lots of Dutch metal is insanely awesome, from the 80's. Martyr, Defender, Mysto Dysto, Exises (whoa is this Blind Fury?), Proud Existance, etc, and everything you mentioned failsafeman.

Good to see you reviewing rare obscure stuff now. Its what I've been sticking too mainly myself, lately.

I'll race ya to Dark Wizard. Only kidding. I've been on more of a thrash kick lately.

Hmm, I seem to have missed Exises in my search, as I limited it to just heavy/trad/speed metal...I'll have to give them a listen. As for Proud Existence, I have to say I really didn't like The Trial at all; just didn't work for me. Of course, if you'd like to try and change my mind with a positive review, be my guest

As usual?

@failsafeman: Come to think of it that EP isn't amazing or anything, feels a little held back at times. Does have its moments though, but yeah.

I should finish going through the archives. I think I made it halfway through the alphabet, 200 some bands later it was kind of overwhelming. (I looked out for anything speed basically).

I'm going through heavy/trad/speed bands based on country; I finished with the Netherlands, I'm thinking of Germany next.

Thanks for the compliment and criticism, I don't know why I over use that gimmick. I'll start cutting it out of my reviews from now on since it's outlived it's usefulness. Especially since I'll try and do some more obscure releases if I can help it.

Someone should upload some.

Any takers?

You can find quite a bit on www.vibrationsofdoom.com.

Yeah, there's lots of stuff there. Unfortunately the last time I checked the quality was really terrible (as in, worse than the Hell on Earth stream terrible) and makes it difficult to form a real impression of some of these bands. Still, it's good for getting a general notion of what some pretty obscure stuff sounds like.

I used to read that guy's reviews all the time when I was exploring metal early on (for me, that would be 1995 or so).

Vibrations of Doom is a great resource; obviously the samples there aren't enough to form crystal-clear opinions of the bands, but it helps to separate the really bad bands from those that deserve a closer look.

I don't use Vibrations very much ever since I started going to thrashmageddon quite often, but its definitely an amazing source for some rare obscure old stuff. I got into a lot of my favorite bands thanks to that site. It should be seen an an ultimate sampler site, or something.

Thrashmageddon is nice, as is noname. I basically get most of my stuff through those two places, once I've decided it warrants a closer inspection.

Isn't Thrashmegeddon an invite only, elitist community? Hmm.

Only since like last week. Used to be open to the public.

I disagree with that... shouldn't be stopping people from downloading quality rare Metal albums!

I enjoyed reading both Mutilitia's "King of Grey Islands" and Empyreal's bashing of the new Iced Earth album. The former does an excellent job of describing the concept while not losing focus of the music, while the latter says pretty much everything I feel about modern Iced Earth. Good work to the both of you.

^ Thanks.

Yeah, Mutilatia's King of the Grey Islands review made me want to go check it out. I had no idea it was even a concept album till I read that.

Aye, I did enjoy Mutilatia's as well but while I respect your view on Iced Earth, I just submitted my positive review on Framing Armageddon

caspian's review of the cover of Holy Diver is... interesting, in how much I disagree with it. Still, at least he didn't flip out either way (giving it 100% or 0%).

I agree with it almost completely though I haven't heard the original Holy Diver to compare.

The rhythm guitar is to far back in the mix and can't be heard quite as well as I would like. The leads are decent though. The clean vocals are very good and quite soaring. The breakdown is fucking horrid and pointless and when he goes back to his metalcorish vocals it is quite annoying. Anyways that is just my quick review.

It's interesting alright, saying that the original Dio version is boring?!

I too really liked caspian's review, nice to have someone who actually likes KsE to an extent review it for a change.

It's just slow and plodding! The vocal lines and melody are excellent, but it's just a boring song. But having said that, I'm not the biggest fan of trad metal in general, though. I like some Priest and Maiden but most of it just bores me. Honestly, I don't see why most of the classic stuff is liked so much... It was the first kind of metal so there's point for originality, I guess, but since then the newer genres (as in, thrash and anything after) have made metal much better.

I find it funny that the site's resident drone fanatic is calling Holy Diver "boring".

Regardless, sir, well done with the review.