Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Recommendations, discussions, questions & debates regarding the godly Metal of olde...
wicked keeper
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by wicked keeper »

Kamelot were always krap.... :lol:
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whiteravenmetal
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by whiteravenmetal »

wicked keeper wrote:
whiteravenmetal wrote:engraved in stone

Great album...
Now you make me curious, must check this Commandment 7'' then
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nightsblood
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by nightsblood »

Kit- props received, cheers mate!

Ion- I had those first 2 Kamelot albums back in the day and they did nothing for me. I found them very boring and blase. the band couldn't seem to find a sound at all. Things got a little better on Siege Perilous, but not by much. I didn't even get Fourth Legacy when it came out b/c I had written the band off, but after reading a review for it in Metal Maniacs I decided to give it a shot and was blown away- couldn't believe it was the same band that had put out those earlier duds. I will say they improved by moving towards a more standard Euro power metal sound, but I'll take a great Euro metal sound over a clunky though more individdual power metal sound any day. But if you like them that's cool- you see through the FDU hype, so you still get a big thumbs up :mrgreen:

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Re: Rob & his love for BiA- four for you doomedplanet! You go doomedplanet!
(If no one hereabouts has ever watched Mean Girls I'm gonna feel pretty dumb for typing that)

I can understand why some folks don't like 'Thundersteel'; it had to be really jarring to hear it when it came out if you were a fan of their earlier albums. You're still a bunch of sick, sick monkeys and in desperate need of serious mental assistance for not instantly loving the album, but I understand why you don't :)

Re: other strong catalogs-

I think most people feel Black Sabbath started fraying well before Ozzy left, though TE and Never Say Die have their fans. Most folks feel they do have some real low points along the way though- the post-Dio 1980s come to mind (but Seventh Star is the bomb!). My 'Sabbath ranks have always been a tad wonky. For example, I'm not a huge fan of 'Paranoid'. I've heard the 'hits' so many times over the years that I just don't want to listen to that album very often, and the other songs on there don't really compel me to dust it off either. It also just sounds so thin/plain production-wise compared to the 900-lb pitch black hulking behemoth that is 'Masters of Reality'. That album is so damned heavy I'm pretty sure it generates it's own gravitational anomaly (an odd symptom of the universe you might say).
(or you might not say. Moving on then......)

Motorhead: I don't know their catalog thoroughly enough to have strong feelings about it overall. I've always gotten the sense that some albums are a lot better than others, but I've never found one I loved start-to-finish. I can take 'em or leave 'em. Yeah, I'm weird.

Bathory: I like some of their albums, but they were sorta hit or miss for me. If I want to hear that particular style of 80s Black Metal, I almost always reach for the first two Venom albums instead of the early Bathory catalog. It's hard to find anyone who enjoyed their Octagon years. It's also hard to find anyone who admires mimes or enjoys having a mule kick them in the head repeatedly or who actually wants the XFL to come back
.
Since we're talking some Riot in this thread, Hammerheart is Quorthon's Thundersteel moment, and it is almost as equally glorious. Hammerheart was one of the old Noise catalog CDs I found while living in West Texas (see the Hunting & Tracking thread for the full story). I only knew their Scandanavian Metal Attack style, so HH was really incredible to me. And yeah, finding a copy of Hammerheart in West Texas in the mid 90s is like finding a Lasceaux cave painting featuring a two-headed llama watching the Dukes of Hazard on an iPad. My current theory for this inexplicable paradox is that at some point in the future I will develop super powers and travel back in time to 1996 so I can seed the used CD bin of Ralphs Records with interesting titles to help keep a younger nightsblood sane when he discovers he just moved to a dry county. The alternative hypothesis is that someone in that area actually ordered a copy of Hammerheart before I got there, but then they didn't like it- and I've never heard anyone say they don't like that album- and so they traded in their expensive import order CD for like $3 of store credit so they could get a used cassette tape of Garth Brooks' Greatest Hits. See, when I put it that way, a time-traveling nightsblood doesn't sound so crazy after all, now does it?
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
-Becky
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doomedplanet
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by doomedplanet »

Never saw that movie nor know reference, googled it, I guess it is a hearty cheer?

I really like Tony Martin era Sabbath too. Now that I think on it I really like all Sabbath albums. A few songs here & there that don't work but the full discography hits all the spots for me.
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bigfootkit
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by bigfootkit »

nightsblood wrote:I'm not a huge fan of 'Paranoid'. I've heard the 'hits' so many times over the years that I just don't want to listen to that album very often, and the other songs on there don't really compel me to dust it off either. It also just sounds so thin/plain production-wise compared to the 900-lb pitch black hulking behemoth that is 'Masters of Reality'. That album is so damned heavy I'm pretty sure it generates it's own gravitational anomaly (an odd symptom of the universe you might say).
I don't mean to derail the thread from it's intended purpose, but i feel compelled to say a few words in defence of 'Paranoid', and encourage you to revisit it. Whilst I get completely that there is no earthly reason why anyone ever needs to hear the title track ever again, (and just due to sheer familiarity, War Pigs & Iron Man), but everything else on there is pure gold, particularly 'side 2', which is an absolute masterclass in the art of the swing.
Butler & Ward are utterly incredible throughout, tight as a duck's arse but somehow perfectly loose at the same time, like an elastic anchor. Hands down the funkiest rhythm section in Metal, all that earlier jazz & blues playing paid off beautifully.
Iommi was always an incredible & really individual talent, and this album is where he really starts to find his own voice. Every riff, melody & solo is perfect. He's even a class apart when it comes to choosing where not to play. The spaces he leaves to let the atmosphere build, or to provide some light & shade are exemplary & remarkably ego-free for a 'guitar hero'.
Ozzy's still mainly just following the riffs throughout, but as simple as that seems, it's rarely been done so effectively as on the first 3 or 4 Sabs albums. He's mainly still using his lower vocal register here, which i always found to be more emotive & expressive than when he goes for the high one, (even when he could actually hit those notes).
I've no idea which version you own, but i remember being amazed by the remastered CDs which came out on Castle/Essential in the mid-90s. Compared to the NEMS vinyl i used to have it sounded like a completely different record, particularly on headphones. Previously unheard mid-tones appeared from nowhere!
Granted, it's pretty frills-free production-wise, but when cranked up loud or heard through cans, the separation between the instruments is incredible. It's like you're sat right there in the room whilst they play. Close your eyes and you can smell the patchouli oil, cheap beer, cheaper dope & the faint whiff of damp frayed bell-bottoms.
For me, it's every bit the equal of 'Master...', so i'm a little baffled that you feel kinda ambivalent towards it.
I realize i'm unlikely to sway your opinion as personal taste is such a deep-rooted and individual thing, but i had to try.
Be a 'cleverclogs' and reevaluate. ;)
I cannot, I shall not, I will not obey.
Avenger wrote : I'm not a copyright office nor a judicial entity.
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Ernest Thesiger
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by Ernest Thesiger »

bigfootkit wrote:Whilst I get completely that there is no earthly reason why anyone ever needs to hear the title track ever again, (and just due to sheer familiarity, War Pigs & Iron Man)
Heard "Iron Man" in a hotel lobby in Manchester yesterday morning.
"His name's Antichrist Vandelay. He's an insulter-expulser."
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doomedplanet
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by doomedplanet »

this thread needs a money shot:
Image
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nightsblood
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Re: Power Metal Masters Through the Years

Post by nightsblood »

Kit- just for you, I will put 'Paranoid' on the soon-to-revisit list. It's not that I think it's a bad album at all, it just suffers from the 'eh, I could play it, but I really don't wanna hear 'War Pigs' yet again and I COULD play 'Master of Reality' instead- ooo, let's play that one!". I'll email you some 'clever clogs' related developments in a moment....

Rob- a hearty cheer indeed!
"I'm sorry Sam, we had real chemistry. But like a monkey on the sun, our love was too hot to live"
-Becky
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