Trout

Speaking of Napalm Death, the new track “Narcissus” is absolutely killer.

Traxan

In today's best-news-EVAH department, Dave Lombardo has rejoined Testament.

https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/te...dave-lombardo/

Trout

Listening to Pure Wrath- Hymn to the Woeful Hearts. Killer black metal from Indonesia that might make my AOTY list.

Josh-da-man

I am... tempted... by these:




Three great albums. Some nifty colored vinyl.

But I already own the original releases of all three on vinyl in mint condition.

Rebuying all of these things kind of defeats the smug thrill of already owning them on vinyl.

Decisions... decisions...

Trout

Stop resisting, you know you want them.

morriscroy

Listening more closely to Kreator's mid-late 2000s era albums "Enemy of God" and "Hordes of Chaos". I did hear "Enemy of God" and "Hordes of Chaos" a few times previously (mostly on yotube), but didn't think much of them. They seemed rather forgettable at the time circa late 2000s and over the past 2010s decade.

As mentioned in previous posts, I largely didn't pay much attention to Kreator during the 1990s. In 2003, I did pick up the "Live Kreation" live album and the 2001 "Violent Revolution" album, where the latter sounded ok though rather generic. After that, I largely stopped paying attention to Kreator until this past year or so.


The more I listen to Kreator's output over the past 20+ years, the more I realize they're like the thrash equivalent of "Iron Maiden" (after the "Brave New World" album). A very "generic familiar" sound, but with no nostalgic feeling nor meaning for me.

Nevertheless, these 2000s era albums sound like the "Coma of Souls" quality of songwriting being perfected.

Phodg

Kreator are like Overkill. You know what you're going to get and 99% of the time you get it. Nothing new, but nothing bad either. Kind of comforting.

morriscroy

The exception was Kreator's 1990s era stuff, which it sounded more "experimental" (Renewal, Cause For Conflict, Outcast, Endorama)

After y2k, it was back to the generic thrash style stuff they made world famous back in the 1980s.

morriscroy

Another band which consistently produces the same generic metal songs over and over again, is Saxon.

Listening to some of their studio albums over the past 30 years or so long after their peak prime (ie. Solid Ball of Rock, Lionheart, etc ... to the current day), they all sounded like they were replicating heavy metal thunder, crusader, etc ...

(Back in the day, I use to listen to the "Rock The Nations" album over and over again).

morriscroy

Listening to Saxon's recently released album "Carpe Diem". On a first listening, it is more or less what I expected from them.

It remains to be seen whether it has much of any replay value for me.

Josh-da-man

Saxon is one of those bands I could never get into. Just completely bland and generic. You know how a lot of albums will have one, two, or maybe three good songs and the rest of it's just a bunch of throwaway junk to fill space? Saxon has always sounded to me like those albums with the good songs removed.

I'd also throw UFO and Raven into that group as well.

morriscroy

I would agree. I never really got into ufo.

The only Raven albums which had any relistening value for me, was "The Pack Is Back" and some songs on "Stay Hard" (such as "On and On"). Basically their first two albums on the major record label Atlantic. ("The Pack Is Back" was produced by Eddie Kramer, who produced may 70s era KISS albums and Anthrax "Among The Living").

Overall I found their earlier Neat Records released stuff sounded like generic nwobhm type stuff, such as All For One, Wiped Out, Live At The Inferno, etc ...

morriscroy

In hindsight, Saxon were basically the "Nickelback" or "mcdonalds" producing generic anthemic metal for over 45+ years. Manowar is another band which was like this too. Enough to be listenable a few times, but nothing which stood out.

A lot of "power metal" type stuff since the 1980s, has taken a similar Saxon/Manowar blueprint.


The only band I can think of which came out of the NWOBHM scene which produced memorable catchy songs, was Def Leppard starting with Pyromania. (I thought the first two Def Leppard albums sounded like slightly better written NWOBHM type stuff, but not really memorable).

Geofferson

Timely comment. I revisited their 3rd album Phenomenon last night and was blown away so I'll have to respectfully disagree. Their albums from 75-81 are great if I may say.

Its true they never really hit it big in the US - that'd be another interesting topic: Ten Years After, Tucky Buzzard, Budgie, Girlschool, etc.

morriscroy

The only UFO song I listened to over and over again, was Lights Out.

morriscroy

Nowadays the only reason I still occasionally listen to Saxon, is that they were one of the first batch of metal records I purchased when I was a preteen. In those days, I listened to "Strong Arm of the Law" over and over again.

Just about every Saxon album after that, has not really lived up to it.

cultshock

I'm not a huge UFO fan, but really like the Lights Out album, especially the title track and "Love to Love", those are great songs.

morriscroy

The first UFO album I heard was the 1985 "Misdemeanor", which I thought sounded rather lackluster and unmemorable. At the time, I largely dismissed UFO as a boring sounding metal band and wasn't willing to do further blind buys on ufo albums.

Before I heard UFO, I was listening to Micheal Schenker. I first heard Waysted and Michael Schenker on a metal radio show on a college station, where I thought Waysted sounded kinda boring but I really liked MSG songs like "Attack of the Mad Axeman" and "Red Sky". (When I first picked up a guitar, Red Sky was one of the first batch of songs I tried to figure out).

Geofferson

Admittedly, Misdemeanor was a bad place to start. Despite Phil still being on vocals it was a far cry from their 70s output. I don't really care for anything post Way leaving the band to form Fastway.

An interesting UFO album I always liked was No Place to Run - produced by George Martin (Beatles).

morriscroy

The first time I heard ufo's 1970s era albums, I thought they sounded similar to Michael Schenker's msg albums.

Perhaps not surprising, considering Schenker was a primary songwriter on those ufo albums.

morriscroy

Moog didn't seem to be a proficient songwriter on his own.

It seemed like after Schenker left, the songwriting quality took a hit. I didn't think Pete Way was as good as a songwriter, reflected on the next several post-Schenker albums and Waysted.

morriscroy

The first Girlschool record I picked up was "Nightmare At Maple Cross", which I thought was largely forgettable at the time. It was a blind buy based on Vic Maile credited as producer. (Maile is the producer on Motorhead's "Ace of Spades").

Later I found "Play Dirty" in a bargain bin for $2, which I thought sounded somewhat different than Maple Cross. More of an aor commercial sound, but not particularly memorable after the first song on side 1.

Many years later I heard their previous albums on youtube, which I thought sounded more like punk rock. Much more listenable than Play Dirty or Maple Cross.

Josh-da-man

Iron Maiden. Maiden and Leppard are really the only bands that came out of the NWOBHM scene that had any kind of lasting career. (Though Motorhead could be included in there as well, but, like the Ramones, they were more influential than commercially viable, who got to watch the bands they influenced wearing their t-shirts in arenas while they themselves were still playing the club circuit.)

There were quite a few NWOBHM bands that I liked -- Diamond Head (though not as much as Lars), Angel Witch, and Venom (though that's kind of pushing it).

There are also quite a few decent songs on this double CD compilation I bought back in the day...




... "Eye of the Storm" (Sweet Savage), "Set the Stage Alight" (Weapon), "Leaving Nadir" (Witchfynde), "Witchfinder General" (Witchfinder General), "S. S. Giro" (Fist) (I think that's the one I'm thinking of).

I never got to listen to more songs from most of these bands until Napster hit the scene about ten years after I bought the CD.

cultshock

So many great bands during the NWOBHM movement. I'm especially a fan of Diamond Head, Witchfynde, Venom, Demon, Satan and Angel Witch (the later two of which have had completely unexpected great reunion/comeback albums during the past several years).

Phodg

One of my fave NWOBHM style bands was Taipan. Although they were Australian ...