Metal

Health complications apparently. And to be fair he has clearly been in a bit of a bad shape for a few years now.

Iced Earth's frontman Jon Schaffer was apparently among the group of Trump supporters that broke into the Capitol building. Guess I'm not listening to them anymore.

9/11 turned them into the sort of dipshits who'd write a song literally called When The Eagle Cries.

Yeah, I should be surprised by this, but I'm not. Which is a shame since Alive in Athens is still one of the greatest live albums ever made.

Sadly, another important person in the Metal community has passed away, Marsha Zazula:

https://blabbermouth.net/news/megaforce-records-co-founder-marsha-zazula-dies-at-68/

(on a side note, is Megaforce records still around?)

They actually *are* still around, surprisingly, but have been distributed through Sony Music since 1993 or so.

Iced Earth and Demons & Wizards have both been dropped by Century Media, following Jon Schaffer's arrest by the FBI for his part in the Jan. 6th Capitol riots. Guess I'm hanging onto my CDs then, since I doubt they're going back into print anytime soon.

By the way, to answer question StillbornMachine asked back in January, it turns Laiho officially died because of alcoholism-related problems (article again in Finnish).

Still on Spotify though.

Hve you guys heard this? It's a scrapped song from Blind Guardian's Nightfall in Middle Earth album, tha was finally released almost 20 years later. It's become one of my favourites.

(I'm certain there was a dedicated Power Metal thread at one point, but I can't find it anymore.)

Edited by Druplesnubb on Apr 9th 2021 at 12:54:54 PM

Whats up with BG anyway? We havent had a new album for a while.

There was that orchestra album but that was just Hansi so it doesn't really count... and they released another live album a few months ago.

Pretty sure it's completely done and is just waiting to be announced.

Just listened to the latest Gojira album Fortitude. I liked it a lot more than I expected from the singles.

My main problem with Magma was its lack of diversity, and boy does this one make up for that. Joe and Mario had said in interviews that the band members’ musical tastes had diverged in the past few years, and it does feel like there are influences from a lot of different places compared to the past albums. Which gives it a suprising depth despite the simplicity of some of the compositions. It’s definitely Gojira but they visibly tried to not rely on their old tricks too much.

The only thing I found weird was that "Fortitude" and "The Chant" are split into two separate tracks even though they were clearly written as one long interlude (middle of the album and all). And "Another World" feels somewhat… out of place, I don’t know.

All in all though, I think this album does a much better job than Magma at balancing accessibility and complexity, melody and brutality. I don’t think I like it quite as much as The Way of All Flesh or L’Enfant Sauvage (yet) but probably more than From Mars to Sirius already.

In the last few months, I've started digging into Ihsahn's solo material. I've picked up Arktis, Samr, and Telemark and really enjoyed all three...what would be the next must-listen from him?

How is Twilight Force a parody of Power Metal?

Been trying to readjust to being first and foremost a metalhead for most of the last year starting about two years after I first approached the K-pop rabbit hole. For the first half of this January, it seemed mostly successful (not that I escaped the rabbit hole).

I ended last year trying to get why Sleep Token is being hyped up by the media as the saviors of metal. I listened to some random song samples from the current album (Take Me Back to Eden) via Apple Music and was like "what. the. fuck." What I first heard sounded like literal British contemporary pop, making me wonder if most songs made you wait for the guitars to come in later. Some more song samples confirmed that they do have some heavier songs (even including screaming). Finally, I was able to listen to the album all the way through. It still mostly confirmed what I was suspecting.

As a pop band, Sleep Token musically on the more experimental side of things but still a bit boring. With some exceptions ("The Summoning", "Vore"), the on-and-off djent guitars are mainly there to justify the band having a "scary" image. The biggest issue for me is the vocals. The vocal melodies have a very mainstream pop sound on much of the album while Vessel mainly sings in a monotone not too different from some drunk guy at a pub. They also can't seem to decide if they're a metal band trying to cater to the pop crowd or a pop band trying to stand out among their contemporaries.

I've never been subjected to more than 15 seconds of this band and I would prefer to keep it that way.

Sleep Token, just based on the limited exposure I've had, sounds like someone tried to fuse Bastille and goth metal.

So I've added pages for a few metal bands in the last while. In no particular order:

• Angus McSix (Affectionate Parody Power Metal)
• Alien Weaponry (Maori thrash)
• The Halo Effect (throwback Gothenburg melodeath)
• Æther Realm (Finnish-style melodeath)

Also apparently Wintersun actually managed to finish Time II. Cue the Flying Pigs.

Like album-album or "adding a sauna to the recording studio" album?

They said on Facebook last week that they legit finished it. I think the derision that got sent their way after "Warning" came out was the kick in the ass Jari needed.

Sabaton just announced that Thobbe Englund is returning to play guitars for them with Tommy Johansson leaving the band.

Sabaton are one of those bands that I like the idea better than the execution. I love history and metal. But Sabaton's music is just too overproduced and clean sounding for my liking.

Sabaton is just the HOI 4 modded fandom's sweatiest discovering Swedepower and I mean that as an insult.

I like to refer them as "aggressively mediocre".

Edited by DeadlyAssassin on Feb 12th 2024 at 8:17:49 PM