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Avenger wrote:Tokyo Blade - Blackhearts and Jaded Spades

Catchy in terms of catching some nasty venereal disease whilst playing it?

This actually was the first really heavy disappointment for me when I was an innocent little teen-age headbanger (followed by the likes of Cold Lake, No Prayer for the Dying and Disconnected). Catchy? No way! To be filed with them Ratts and Poisons and covered in dung.

Angel Witch - Frontal Assault is a very catchy and quality album.

Nocturnal Rites- Shadowland

stormtrooper - armies of the night (ep)

GJ wrote:

Avenger wrote:Tokyo Blade - Blackhearts and Jaded Spades

Catchy in terms of catching some nasty venereal disease whilst playing it?

This actually was the first really heavy disappointment for me when I was an innocent little teen-age headbanger (followed by the likes of Cold Lake, No Prayer for the Dying and Disconnected). Catchy? No way! To be filed with them Ratts and Poisons and covered in dung.

How was Disconnected a step down from A Pleasant Shade of Grey? I agree it might have lingered on the same themes a bit too much for a band that up to that point really progressed from record to record, but it's still a very very solid album.

GJ wrote:

Avenger wrote:Tokyo Blade - Blackhearts and Jaded Spades

Catchy in terms of catching some nasty venereal disease whilst playing it?

This actually was the first really heavy disappointment for me when I was an innocent little teen-age headbanger (followed by the likes of Cold Lake, No Prayer for the Dying and Disconnected). Catchy? No way! To be filed with them Ratts and Poisons and covered in dung.

This album is in the same vein as "Night Of The Blade" in my opinion…

If you hate "Blackhearts..." then you've got to hate them both.

When it comes to Tokyo Blade and "disappointments", I've heard a lot of bitching about "No Remorse" and the more melodic direction the band took with that album, not to mention the vocalist change, but I really don’t see what's so bad about "Blackhearts...”

Helm wrote:

GJ wrote:

Avenger wrote:Tokyo Blade - Blackhearts and Jaded Spades

Catchy in terms of catching some nasty venereal disease whilst playing it?

This actually was the first really heavy disappointment for me when I was an innocent little teen-age headbanger (followed by the likes of Cold Lake, No Prayer for the Dying and Disconnected). Catchy? No way! To be filed with them Ratts and Poisons and covered in dung.

How was Disconnected a step down from A Pleasant Shade of Grey? I agree it might have lingered on the same themes a bit too much for a band that up to that point really progressed from record to record, but it's still a very very solid album.

I don't think that it really would have mattered which Fates Warning album GJ would have ragged on, you would still disagree.

Sometimes I think that you and John Arch were separated at birth, haha...

Avenger wrote:This album is in the same vein as "Night Of The Blade" in my opinion…

If you hate "Blackhearts..." then you've got to hate them both.

When it comes to Tokyo Blade and "disappointments", I've heard a lot of bitching about "No Remorse" and the more melodic direction the band took with that album, not to mention the vocalist change, but I really don’t see what's so bad about "Blackhearts...”

Well, Blackhearts have no Night of the Blade, Unleash the Beast or Warrior of the Rising Sun - songs that the fourteen year old Göran (aka GJ) held almost as close to the heart as Hallowed be thy Name, Where Eagles Dare and Aces High. It had sissy poser titles (the teenager thought):
Dirty Faced Angels
Lovin' You is an Easy Thing To Do
Undercover Honeymoon
You Are the Heart
Tough Guys Tumble
Dancing in Blue Moonlight
Playroom of Poison Dreams
The band (like many others at the time) had just left the path of Euro/Brit metal and began their tough guy tumble around the poisonous playrooms of "american metal" (as opposed to the, then not so commonly used term US Metal). They were severely Van Halenized - and that's was not looked upon with mild eyes from this particular juvenile headbanger. And the singer looked (more than ever) like a girlie.

I don't know if you have to lived in the eighties to understand this kind of hostile reaction towards the "posery" that emerged in circa 1983-85. I have got the impression that many younger people who are quite heavily into eighties Metal may well find the likes of Europe and Duran Duran as "musically correct" as Iron Maiden or Accept. I guess a similar thing happens to me also finding it easier accepting the pop music of the sixties and seventies, stuff that the original Black Sabbath fan may see totally out of order.

All this being said: Night of the Blade has it's ups and downs whilst Blackhearts mostly has downs. Still, I have two different pressings of that LP in my collection and was more than happy a few years back when I found the Undercover Honeymoon EP at a reasonable price at some record fair! Ain't life strange and beautiful ?

Helm wrote:How was Disconnected a step down from A Pleasant Shade of Grey? I agree it might have lingered on the same themes a bit too much for a band that up to that point really progressed from record to record, but it's still a very very solid album.

At the time of release A Pleasant Shade of Grey was welcomed by me after the AOR-ishness of Parallells and Inside Out (both which I still kind of like) but it (APSOG) has since lost my interest also. The Disconnected disappointment probably has quite a lot to do with my own progression/regression/change as a listener. Between the release of APSOG and Disco. I, for the first time since the eighties (that would be No Exit), found new (as in recent recordings) heavy metal music being made which fully (almost) realized my inner scheme for what it should be about: Skullview - King of the Universe, The Lord Weird Slough Feg - Twilight of the Idols, Steel Prophet's Dark Hallucinations etc.
Thus the lack of "earthiness" was even more obvious when I first heard Disconnected. Also Ray Alder's singing have become more and more uninspired and predictable over the years. Fates Warning have become more of a project than a band and if they still deliver quality, which they well may, I personally just can't detect it, they don't hit off with me anymore but bore me. Opinions hopefully delivered decipherably!

An improvised Fates Warning Index (as of today):
Night on Bröcken - 100
A Spectre Within - 190
Awaken the Guardian - 250
No Exit - 150
Perfect Symmetry - 160
Parallells - 80
Inside Out - 90
A Pleasant Shade of Grey - 100
Disconnected - 50
X - 30

I've always assumed Fates Warning only had three albums..

Add to the Index:

John Arch - A Twist of Fate - 135

Black Axe wrote:I've always assumed Fates Warning only had three albums..

Hahaha...

Ignorance is bliss I suppose, but I'm in that same boat I'm afraid




EDIT: GJ, what do those numbers beside the album titles represent?

I was quite disappointed by Disconnected too. Some particularly annoying TOOL influences and Alder was definitely not the Alder i knew in Perfect Symmetry. None of the songs had an impact on me. APSOG was far better imo, although different from the older material.

Sacrilegio wrote:Nocturnal Rites- Shadowland

you all see?, im not the only one who is into this band ...although i dont like that album at all...

about Tokyo Blade,well maybe it turned more catchy for "american" ears...Def Leppard anyone

MEXDefenderOfSteel wrote:

Sacrilegio wrote:Nocturnal Rites- Shadowland

you all see?, im not the only one who is into this band ...although i dont like that album at all...

here I expected you to say, that you only like their first demo