Good, good. Thanks! People need hearing aids all the time, so I'm lucky too ^^

Oh, I see. Well, I'm still not too sure what to think of that sound, it manages to be both captivating and sluggish at the same time.

Put them on your list man, worth every damn penny.

You're not wrong there. Priest have made a few albums that have been less than stellar. Point of Entry is my best example of that as it sits between British Steel and Screaming and half the time I forget it even exists. In recent times I've been assuming Screaming directly follows up British Steel.

Nostradamus was another one of theirs that didn't fare so well. Has some great songs, sure but a concept album spread over two discs doesn't suit them.

Those are some class tunes from Blaze era of Maiden. I actually find The X Factor to be a quality album whereas Virtual XI has enough gems but has a bit of dirt to go with. The Angel and the Gambler remains my least favourite song from them to this date for its repetitive nature.

Cheers! It's adding to my singles collection which will need more development. Already spent more than enough and a half on vinyl for this month and I still have Keepers of the Seven Keys (both parts) original pressings to arrive through the post. And that's not all, picked up Kings of Metal during my Birmingham day trip last weekend solely for the description of the colour vinyl. 😂

That's one of his classic tracks. It's the best I recall from that album, sadly. Will need to give Tattooed Millionaire and Balls to Picasso another spin as it's been way too long since I listened through them.

I certainly understand that. The only PoF song I'm listening to regularly is "Desert Plains". One of their better rockers.

Fully agree.

The Angel...is really quite the horrid song. I do prefer Blaze's solo work a lot over his time in Maiden ("The Man Who Would Not Die" reaches "Painkiller"-levels of instrumental intensity!) and his voice has improved A LOT with age, he has a lot more control and rawness these days.

Epic shit!

I haven't put on these albums in a long time either, currently I'm actively re-listening to "Chemical Wedding", especially "The Trumpets of Jericho" kicks my ass about as hard as it did the first time I heard it.

Currently enjoying this here as well, even though the riffs are very typical "Schaffer" chugs - Hansi Kürsch sounds great still today.

Demons & Wizards - Wolves in Winter

Also guys, the new HEATHEN album "Empire of the Blind" is out today. It sounds like it could be almost as good as everything that came before it, which is not something I'd take for a granted after another decade of silence.

Heathen - Sun In My Hand

For those who don't know the band, these are veterans of melodic/thrash metal from the late 80s. Excellent stuff.

It's that and Heading Out to the Highway that are the only highlights from the album. I've heard them play that song live before and it was still good fun. Just the album as a whole really doesn't match the rest of their works from the 70s and 80s.

I really need to invest in more of his solo works but the one song I know well and really like is Stare at the Sun. Actually, come to think about it, that album Silicon Messiah is one I've put on a few times on Spotify. It deserves a better treatment for sure.

I do have a few albums from his other band Wolfsbane who I've seen live and even got to meet Blaze to sign my CDs (fun fact: Also met Bruce Dickinson so that leaves me with Paul Di'Anno).

Now that is a terrific song. Book of Thel and Jerusalem are some of my favourites amongst it.

Still need to actually listen to the new Demons & Wizards album and I'm still happy to know they worked on a new record after 15 years. Sure, with Schaffer you know what you're getting but I've felt his works with Iced Earth made significant improvements after the mess that was the Something Wicked sequels.

A new discovery I've been made up to hear is Wind Rose. An Italian folk metal band that like to dress up like dwarves on stage. Only listened to the latest album Wintersaga but it's good fun. I haven't really discovered any new folk metal bands in ages so it's really pleasing and refreshing to have had YouTube thrown it on my TV through autoplay.

Wind Rose - Drunken Dwarves

My friend showed me a band called Moth Gatherer. Pretty fucking great stuff.

Well, these Metaltrump videos surely take quite a bit of work ^^ and they are entertaining enough.

I've been trying to find some time to dive into more 2020 material but simply couldn't make it. As is stands, this year's Unleash the Archers record is still gonna be my #1 album of this year.

What's yours? Or are you still waiting for a December release for final judgement?

I know we had some Manilla Road fans in the past. I had an urgent retail therapy last Sunday with getting a bunch of their LPs from High Roller Records and to arrive five days from Germany to my flat is really impressive.

With this lot I got all but one of their albums from the 80s, although it's extremely hard to complain given on average with postage costs each one was like £18 per LP for me.

For any new releases right now, I'm waiting for what's to come in 2021 at this point. My favourite for this year has remained to be Haken's Virus (the title is somewhat ironic for 2020). It's really pushed the boundaries for this newer generation of prog metal and I've hardly resisted to keep listening back to it during many walks to/from work. I'll also add as a prog metal album this knocks anything Dream Theater and Opeth have done in the last ten years out of the fucking park!

In 2021 I'm already anticipating some releases including Helloween and Diablo Swing Orchestra so the new year is already looking up to me.

Hey guys, it's been rather quiet once again around here. My fault as well, barely any time left for surfing around. Now, if you want to know what I've been up to: I've finished the work on my project's EP and just released it this last weekend.

If you want to hear (and see!) what my Heavy/Gothic Metal baby "Adder's Fork" is doing these days, check out this link to the music video of the title track of my brand-new EP "The Fatalist":

Hope you enjoy it, I'm gonna upload the whole EP to the Audio Portal as well (if that is still a thing).

The Audio Portal is still a thing. This was the perfect song for me to listen to right now since I'm about to go into our weekly staff teleconference and get super busy. I'm looking forward to the EP in full.

Hehe, thanks a lot man. Second song off the EP is here now:

Adder's Fork - Herald's Curse

....aaaand the third one:

Failures Grin and Fears Remain - the toughest one to write and perform considering my moderate-skill level on guitar.

I have a new official audio track visualizer for “Yesterday’s Favourite” out! This (half-)ballad is the closing song off my new Adder’s Fork EP “The Fatalist”.

I don't want to spam everything with my music here, but since there is NO OTHER CONTENT here right now, I might as well plug my shit, if you want to have a listen ;-)

HAPPY (and better) 2021 for all of you guys and gals in here!

alexi laiho is dead.

Shocking news. Really hit me when I heard earlier today. Playing some Bodom tonight in honour of him.

Crazy, crazy, crazy....

I've never been to big on his band, but there's no denying his technical skills and huge influence to metal musicians worldwide.

41 years, for fuck's sake....

Hey there guys! How's everybody doing? In light of the recent passing of Alexi Laiho, I decided to drop by here and pay my respects for the man. I revisited a good chunk of Children of Bodom's discography upon hearing the news. This truly saddens me. 41 years old is no age to go.

Going back through their catalog, I remember just how fond I was of Something Wild, Hatebreeder and Follow the Reaper. I listened to all three of these, and also Hatecrew Deathroll and Are You Dead Yet?. I know some perceive AYDY as the beginning of CoB's decline, but I actually really enjoy the rhythm guitars on some of the tracks. Early CoB was all about the leads, and that's all fine by me, but with Roope Latvala joining back around 2005 and CoB changing their sound to a thrashier, less neoclassical/melodeath sound, they actually stepped up their game in terms of rhythm guitars. After Blooddrunk I basically stopped following the band, but I know some people actually enjoyed some of their later releases (Halo of Blood is supposed to be pretty good, right?) so I might give it a spin later.

Anyway. I hope everybody is doing good. Happy New Year folks!

With my Friday night tunes in lockdown I've been putting different artists on to discover new bands and one of my best as of late is a band named Shylmagoghnar (with an awkward name like that predictive text is a godsend). They're a dutch band who combined progressive metal with elements of black metal and I've been made up to find them. So much so I bought the CD of Transience the day after discovery. They're also impressive with making some lengthy instrumentals which I'm always a sucker for. The linked track isn't one of them but it's a great example of what they can portray.

https://youtu.be/sKUQI0d5mEQ

Meanwhile, still collecting more CDs and vinyl which is the best thing I can do with nowhere to go at this time but at the very least I've given myself quite a boost with some Blind Guardian and Helloween LPs. If there's any bands for me to make a vinyl collection out of it's definitely the ones that have stood the test of time for me.

Any good discoveries from anyone else az of late?

No way am I letting this club go to page 2 like some old sick dog that needs to be put out of its misery.

Who is still around? I need band or new album recommendations; I've been so out of the loop listening to the same stuff for years. Still a big fan of doom + viking themed death metal. I lean towards melodic themes, but open to whatever.

Also, glad to see you posting your music. Awesome work my dude

I'm still here. I'm just too busy with work and other stuff to be on here nearly as much as I was before. As for new music, have you given Spelljammer or Eye of Doom a listen?

I'm adding them to my queue now to check out! Thanks

Did you get a chance to give them a listen?

I really liked Spelljammer a lot. I wasn't as crazy about Eye of Doom, I can't put my finger on it; Maybe the vocals? Too light? Not as heavy feeling? Something just didn't click for me.

Spelljammer makes me feel like I'm sinking into the ground though, and I love it lol.

Yob, Ufomammut, Subrosa, Obscure Sphinx do anything for you? I got nothing for viking death metal, though. Welcome back!

Seeing Helloween announce their new album for June has me super excited. I may not get to see them until May next year now but at the very least their new self titled album (seriously, they did a self titled EP already back in 1985) is much to look forward to given Kai Hansen and Michael Kiske's return to the band. And on top of all of that they've got a gobsmackingly awesome artwork to go with it. I don't know about anyone else but this is perhaps one of the best album covers in metal I've ever seen! Makes up for all the CGI crap they did on their albums from the last 20 years.

Now that's a name I've not seen in forever! How's it going? 😃

Thank you a lot! :-)

Well, I've been lurking here for a while, disappeared and just clicked newgrounds.com today and BAM - the thread is alive again. Not bad, people ;-)

In terms of listening habits - it's all Danzig now these days, especially his mid-era, after the over-industrial, crappier stuff and before his recent dumpster releases...

Heres my 2 cents.

A classic one would be 'Pagan Altar'. Legends in metal, early doom and trad metal.

'Iron Griffin' , again sorta on the trad metal side, but I'd say they're pretty doomy.

And also check out 'Warning'. They sound like the quintessential doom band, highly recommend them.

Fuck yeah dude. Best fuckers on the internet.

We could try posting more. But who has the time, amirite guys, amirite

Now here's an old member! Whoah

It's pretty fascinating seeing people joining clubs and crews in here just like I was when I discovered this website! How trippy is time man. It's been like fifteen years and I still want people to recommend me music in here.

I do a bunch of music stuff these days I might come here and post about it. Peace and love, PenisClOwN

Yo guys an gals,

what are your opinions on the new Gojira album "Fortitude"?

I still don't know what to do with that band, I love some of the ideas, but it all sounds a bit too similar to my ears. Didn't like what I heard of "Magma" and thought the old stuff I heard (bits and snippets) wasn't for me either.