Trollheart

You're kind of right. I don't like music too loud but then there's also the practical considerations, like if the music is too high I may not hear my sister ringing the bell for me. So of necessity it has to be relatively low. Also I can't use headphones in the house for the same reason. This house was never one where you could blast your music. Once in a while I'd find myself first home and would then turn my Maiden or Manowar up really loud, but it would never last. When listening on headphones outside I generally do have it up loud, but that's more down to the crappy quality of mp3s and ipods really.

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The Batlord

Dude, you could always wait till after she's rung the bell and you've helped her, and then put the headphones on and blast for a few minutes. I imagine you'd be good for a little while. Maybe you don't care to do that but if I were you I'd take any opportunity I could to level my eardrums.


@ mods - you can merge this with my other post. I only posted this afterwards and...you know.

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Trollheart

Like most of us, I was not born playing an air guitar or with the sound of Iron Maiden in my ears. IHeavy Metal music only became known to me around the time I hit my fourth or fifth year in school, and then only slowly. We've all memories of our first Metal band, our first Metal album and our first Metal concert, and in this section over the next few weeks I'll be looking at the albums, artistes and influences that shaped my interest in the heaviest music of all. One of the kids in school once crowed "If you're into Pink Floyd then you're a headbanger!" Shows what he knew!

But I'd like to take a look back now at some of the music that opened the door to the wonderful world of Heavy Metal for me, even if, unlike others here, I didn't quite step all the way through. Even then, as now, I knew what I liked and more importantly what I didn't, but nevertheless what I discovered was pretty awe-inspiring. To go from chart songs (come on: we all started there, just admit it!) to progressive rock and thence to Metal was an amazing step for me, and afforded me access to a world of music I had hitherto not even been aware of, or if I was aware, was somewhat in awe and perhaps even a little afraid of. Hell, I used to be scared of The The!

Some of the albums that impressed me so much over that early period in my life have already of course been reviewed, like Iron Maiden's "The number of the Beast", the review of which you can read here http://www.musicbanter.com/members-j...ml#post1199777. But there was a period in my life when really, all I listened to was Heavy Metal. Some of it was bad, some of it was very good. I'd like to take a personal trip back in time now and share with you some of

Although Iron Maiden were my gateway into the world of Metal, there were other bands who influenced me just as much, and one of these was Saxon. I went to their gigs, bought their albums, ate up everything they had to offer. My brother was into the Scorpions but at the time I didn't really like them: the harsh German accent and somewhat shriller tones of Klaus Meine got on my nerves. But Biff! Biff had a deep, growly, very English voice and he said "fook" a lot. Scorpions' music was polished and precise compared to Saxon's raw, heavy tunes, and they were the one for me. This was one of the first albums of theirs I ever bought.

Wheels of steel --- Saxon --- 1980 (Carrere)

Okay, so the album cover betrays a worrying sense of Nazi Germany, but to my knowledge that's purely coincidental. After all, the Romans were the first ones to use the eagle as their sigil, and Saxon are a British band, and so far as I know, have no connections whatever with Nazism or fascism. I should point out too that this album has already been reviewed in part by me in my series on the NWOBHM, but here I'd like to take a deeper look at an album that really helped introduce me to the rawer side, for me, of Heavy Metal.

"Wheels of steel" began a cycle of four excellent albums for Saxon, and discounting their lacklustre, self-titled debut shows a band in a strong position. Sadly, after "Power and the glory", released in 1983, they would fade somewhat from the public eye, although they would go on to record, to date, another fifteen albums, with their latest released this year. Of course, it's hard to quantify their output in terms of charts, as generally speaking Metal albums seldom do well there anyway, but it seems to me that the years 1980-83 were the times when Saxon were big, commercially. Maybe it's just how I remember it, but I recall seeing them on TV more times during those four years than I ever did since. Perhaps their later albums did well, I don't know; chart performance records don't seem to be readily available. It could also be the fact that I stopped buying Saxon albums after "Power and the glory".

Anyway whatever the reason this was the first of four that set me on my way as a fan of this band. As you would expect for a song called "Motorcycle man", the opener starts with the sounds of a motorbike roaring past, then fast guitar and heavy percussion cut in before Biff Byford's echoing voice comes through. Biff has that sort of voice that is just in the right register: he neither screams nor growls, but has that sort of high-pitched roar that sounds manly and powerful without even trying. Great guitar work from Graham Oliver and Paul Quinn on the twin axe attack, and it's a fast, punchy opener, piling into "Stand up and be counted", one of those us-against-the-world, stand-up-for-your-music anthems that were so popular during the heyday of the NWOBHM, when Metallers affirmed their allegiance to their heroes and dared anyone to gainsay them. Yes, I'm a pussy for using a word like gainsay, but who cares?

With a guitar riff not two light years removed from ZZ's classic "Tush", the song belts along with some great guitar and a rollicking drumbeat and a great snarly vocal from Biff, then we're into the big single, "747 (Strangers in the night)" with its almost Lizzy-like opening guitar solo which then drops down to grinding guitar and this time Biff's voice is clearer than it has been up to now. Also some vocal harmonies coming through, for the first time on the album. Great riff in the chorus, very ominous and dark, presaging a real feeling of danger. As a choice for a single it's an odd one, not because it's not a great song, which it is, but due to the length. The original track is almost six minutes long, and even cutting that down for a single left it five minutes running time. Not ideal for the radio.

The title track is up next, and one of a number of songs that became anthems and signature songs for Saxon. With a big angry guitar riff with boogie overtones, it rocks along like Status Quo on crack, and Biff's voice is in fine fettle as he belts out the chorus. Sure, it's a simple song, and nothing Saxon wrote was really all that groundbreaking, although the previous track broke the mould a little, but it's great fun and the riff is just totally infectious. When Biff snarls "When I'm toolin' down the freeway/ I don't give no lifts!" you tend to believe him. It's the longest track on the album, just shy of six minutes, and while a little repetitive and a little overlong at that it never gets boring. The shivery guitar solo in the third minute is a pure joy to behold, and while it could probably end on the fifth minute, with the final one basically a reprise to end, it's such a great rock song that you really can't get enough of it.

Now, while I mention this album as one of the ones I grew up on, that nurtured my love of Heavy Metal, I don't for a moment suggest it's perfect, because it is not. Like many albums I've listened to, and reviewed, over the years, it has its cutoff point, and we've reached it. The first four songs --- well, three of them anyway --- are Heavy Metal perfection, but that's sort of where it ends. The closing five are not terrible by any means, but this is the point where the album begins something of an inexorable slide downhill, rescued occasionally by better tracks, but all the really good stuff has been put on side one, as it were. A pity, because it really unbalances the album, and after "Wheels of steel" you're ready for more. But what you get is...

A big drum solo intro that sounds like a train coming at you and then a hard guitar rocker which goes under the name of "Freeway mad". Now, considering Saxon are English this was obviously an attempt to break America, since we don't have no freeways over here, as was remarked upon by the annoying American in the Fawlty Towers episode "Waldorf salad" when he grumps "Couldn't find the freeway, had to take some little backroad called the M4!" It's a decent enough song but a little derivative, and given that we've just listened to a song about motorbikes it's maybe a little unoriginal. Then again, the album is called "Wheels of steel", so three songs about motor vehicles I suppose is acceptable.

"See the light shining" is another fast rocker, heads-down, pedal-to-the-metal as Biff and the boys charge on. It changes tempo though halfway through and take a sort of slow boogie turn, bit of early Lizzy in it. One of the better tracks on the second half of the album. "Street fighting gang", on the other hand, is not; a pretty basic, by-the-numbers metal track, it hasn't too much to recommend it. But then comes "Suzie hold on", a rarity in a Saxon slow song. Not a ballad by any stretch of the imagination, but as close to a lovesong as these guys get. The vocal is restrained, the guitar still heavy but more in a "2-4-6-8 motorway" manner than an "Ace of spades", and the drumming is pretty downbeat. A good song certainly, then the album ends on the very mediocre "Machine gun", which has power and energy but not a lot else.

TRACKLISTING

1. Motorcycle man
2. Stand up and be counted
3. 747 (Strangers in the night)
4. Wheels of steel
5. Freeway mad
6. See the light shining
7. Street fighting gang
8. Suzie hold on
9. Machine gun

Sure, there's nothing subtle about this album but it was a hell of an introduction to Saxon and led me on to albums like "Denim and leather", "The eagle has landed" and "Power and the glory". Saxon were another of the big NWOBHM bands but unlike Maiden and Leppard and others they never quite made it commercially. Of course, they're legends in the Metal community, but ask anyone outside of that brotherhood who they are and you'll be greeted by blank stares. I'll always be grateful to them though, for creating some of the Metal that made me.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saxon_%28band%29

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Trollheart

Dante XXI --- Sepultura --- 2006 (SPV)


I knew that if I was running Metal Month I would eventually have to tackle at least some death metal bands, so with The Batlord's advice ringing in my ears that "ALL death metal bands are growlers, dude!" I steeled myself and began looking. Having heard good things about Sepultura I was intrigued to find that they had an album based on the concept of Dante's "Inferno", and as I've read this I thought this might be interesting. So I'm starting off with this one.

The first two tracks are almost totally instrumental, in two different ways. The intro, "Lost", is nothing more than creepy sounds with a voice either backwards masked (though I think I caught the words "are you ready" a few times...) or heavily effected muttering, and this goes on into "Dark wood of error", which for much of its just over two minutes features pretty much nothing other than the hammering drumwork of Igor Cavalera, who apparently was playing his swansong on this album. Then hard punchy guitar kicks in and finally the vocals. Now, this is as everyone knows, not my cup of Tetley, but for growlers Derrick Green is not the worst. It's still all shouted nonsense to me, but then I've never made my dislike of death metal a secret.

On we go into "Convicted for life", and the guitars are certainly screeching and grinding, with thumping percussion. You know, looking down at the personell on this album I was amazed to see a credt for horns and strings --- on a death metal album? Well, we shall see. This is a little slower --- though not much --- and Green's vocal still puts me in mind of a man suffering some sort of mental breakdown, but let's just accept I hate any sort of death vocals and just leave it at that, shall we? I'm sure he's great at what he does, but this is not singing I would want to listen to for any sort of protracted period.

"City of Dis" has a nice, almost melodic guitar opening, with something akin to a sitar sound there too, then Green's vocal screams across it as Cavalera's almost machine-gun drumming pounds along. Hmm, almost a rap vocal here, stylistically. Interesting. Must say I don't see the Dante connection so far, though when you can't really understand the vocalist it's probably going to be hard to work out any lyrics at all. "False" opens on another strong guitar riff before Green bellows all over it and the drumming thunders along again: you can certainly hear the anger in this! Jesus man! Have a Strepsil! You'll need one after all that roaring.

Can I go out on a limb at this point and say I don't expect any ballads on this album? "False" almost fades away on the second minute of its three, but then comes pounding back on a chugging guitar riff. To be honest I could probably enjoy this if it wasn't for the singing. Oh well, that I suppose is death metal for you. Very Black Sabbath opening to "Fighting on", and it's mercifully almost a quarter of the way through before Derrick Green decides to join us. Surprisingly enough, when his voice drops to a low, gutteral mutter it's a lot more palatable to me, though of course I guess you couldn't expect anyone to sing a whole album like that. Still, it's better than the roaring. There's cello and violin then for the short instrumental "Limbo" before we piledrive into "Ostia", and Green is with us from the beginning. Oh no.

More punching guitar with a somewhat restrained (for Sepultura, that is) line in drumming, track a little slower but what it lacks in speed it makes up for in power. Violins come back in rather unexpectedly about halfway as the song really slows down for a nice instrumental piece before it's all blown to hell by Green's scream and the guitars take over again. Hey, it was never going to last, we all knew that. But it was nice. Speaking of nice, there's a really effective echoey little bass line to finish, and then "Buried words" opens with what sounds like fires crackling --- maybe that ties in to the "Inferno" concept? --- before it takes off on busy guitar again and growled vocals from Green.

Sounds like there may be horns in this? Decent song to be fair and for once Green's vocal actually complements the lyric, very angry as he sings "Your words are dead/ I buried them/ They're dead!" A real raw grinder then in "Nuclear seven" with a sort of Megadeth vibe to it, and Green's voice not as grating as it has been up to now. "Repeating the horror" has a great threatening guitar riff running through it, very ominous, and again that weird sitar sound, plus almost conga drums there for a second. And some sort of crazy metal rap! And congas again at the end.

There's another short instrumental then in "Eunoe", a real cello fest that lasts all of thirteen seconds then "Crown and miter" pushes the destruct switch and we're off at full volume, speed and roar as the album approaches its end. One more tiny instrumental consisting of mostly a single echoey drum stroke and the album comes to a close on rather surprisingly, again, acoustic guitar with some sort of chant in the background as "Still flame", the longest track on the album at just under five minutes --- this is death metal, after all! --- seems to be ready to let us off lightly, though I'm expecting a mad ambush at any moment. Right now though it's soft, almost ambient piano with attendant violins and cellos, gentle percussion and so far no vocal. And we're halfway through.

The first real sounds of electric guitar insinuate themselves into the melody, but not harshly, and with only one minute to go I'm convinced there will be no singing on this final track, nor does there seem to be time for a big BOO! from Sepultura, as we're fast approaching the final seconds. No, it's a big horn and cello ending with dramatic cinematic drumming, oh and then a final growl from Derrick Green to send us on our way. Guess he has to have the last word!

TRACKLISTING

1. Lost (intro)
2. Dark wood of error
3. Convicted in life
4. City of Dis
5. False
6. Fighting on
7. Limbo
8. Ostia
9. Buried words
10. Nuclear seven
11. Repeating the horror
12. Eunoe
13. Crown and miter
14. Primium mobile
15. Still flame

This will forever be the stumbling block for me with death metal bands. While the music is still not what I would listen to of choice, it's not bad and were it not for the gutteral, often savage and sometime unintelligible singing I could perhaps grow to like it, or at least tolerate it. But to me, if you're having a fit you should be in hospital, not on stage, and that's certainly how Derrick Green comes across to me for the larger percentage of this album. It doesn't quite ruin it for me, but it sure as hell doesn't enhance it.

Guess that makes me a pussy, eh, Batlord?


Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepultura

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The Batlord

The Batlord approves of this message.

When I was first getting into metal it was the same as most people around my age. I heard Metallica on the radio. Then I went on to the rest of the Big Four and Iron Maiden. Then I bought a book called The Sound of the Beast that pretty much gave me a crash course in all things metal. I have a clear memory of reading the introduction and then downloading the first two bands I saw mentioned: Celtic Frost and Saxon. Don't ask me why they were mentioned together. I checked out CF first cause, come on, Celtic Frost is one of the best band names ever, but I wasn't too thrilled by To Mega Therion so I went on to Wheels of Steel. Blew my mind then and still does. The second half may be kinda meh, but the first half is one of my favorite things to listen to on Earth. I've been obsessed with the riff to the title track for over a decade and I still get pumped when I turn it on.

And "Suzie Hold On" is wonderful. It shows them to be working class numbskulls who don't really know how to express that kind of strong emotion, but it has an honesty to it that still gets to you.



I know you didn't want anyone telling you that you should have listened to this or that album over the one you reviewed but you really shouldn't have picked this one. Sepultura hadn't been relevant for about a decade by this point and they'd lost their original vocalist to boot. You pretty much just started listening to Iron Maiden by listening to The X Factor. I doubt you'd like them regardless, but Beneath the Remains or Chaos A.D. would have been far more appropriate.

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Trollheart

Heretic --- Morbid Angel --- 2003 (Earache)


Yeah, I'm tapping into all The Batlord's favourites for this little excusion into death metal, aren't I? His Batship raves on about these guys being "bitchin'", which I can only assume means I'm probably going to hate them, but then, this is all about pushing boundaries so let's have a shot. As most of the albums I've listened to up to now seem for reasons best left undisclosed to have been recorded in the nineties, I wanted to take something a bit more recent, a little more contemporary, and so this is Morbid Angels' seventh and most recent-album-but one to be released.

I'm a little worried to see that there are fourteen tracks on this, even moreso as the opener, "Cleansed in pestilence (Sword of Elohim)" goes right for the throat with a massive metal assault on the guitar. But that's nothing compared to the vocals of Steve Tucker, who makes Chuck Schuldiner sound like an operatic soprano! THIS is the kind of vocal I absolutely LOATHE! I can't make out a word. Not one. It's all just growling. And the music doesn't really appeal either; way too fast and not at all technical, though I'm told Trez Azagthoth is considered the most technical guitarists in death met --- oh hold on. That was a pretty fine solo. Hmm.

Okay, well to be fair I'm basing my initial and immediate dislike of this band on one track, so far, and there are (God preserve my soul!) thirteen more to go, so let's see if my opinion changes as the album progresses. I do have to say it's a very short sigh of relief though when the opener ends, and then "Enshrined by grace" is a slower, doomier sound with some heavy, hevay drumming and grinding basswork, and a churning, snarling guitar with a whole minute before I'm subjected to Tucker's gutteral growl again. Jesus! The guy could be singing his shopping list for all I know ---- Chainsaw, duck tape, rope, bodybag, bottle of milk --- it's just impossible to figure out what he's singing.

A great solo from Azagthoth lends the song a semblance of class, even if it comes across as a little indulgent, but other than that I have nothing good to say about this track. The third one is more of the same, and I really don't see any miraculous transformation about to happen here that will change my mind about this band. Problem is, everything's heavy which is fine, but to these ears it's all fairly similar and apart from the odd decent guitar solo I can't pick out anything I really like or can talk about. I know, Batlord: go do something useful, girl, like clean your makeup brushes or hang your knickers up to dry! Yeah well, you know, as I say this just is not my thing, okay?

Deep breath then: let's try to review this properly. If we can. We're now up to "Praise the strength", which I sigh to see is over five minutes long. Okay, here's a good solo from Azagthoth but it's only short, and the blinding guitar and drum assault resumes, trying to bludgeon me into submission and take advantage of me while I'm down. It can, cos I have no defence against this. If I wasn't reviewing it for the journal I would have turned this off long ago, about three seconds into track one. There's another great solo to end and then we hit "Stricken arise", the first song to feature a writing contribution from drummer Pete Sandoval --- hey, I'm trying to write something interesting here --- with the previous all having been penned by Tucker and Azagthoth.

Nah, don't see any difference in this one. Loud, crashing, manic drumming, pounding, churning guitar and a ragged, growly vocal. Same as everything else on the album to this point. Well, interesting drum solo, if you can call it that. Then, just when you think it's (blessedly) over, it picks up again for the final minute with screeching guitar, hammer drumming and a scream from Tucker. The next two tracks are both written by the axeman on his own, and "Place of many deaths" has some interesting effects in it at the start, sounds of voices crying and laughing, doomy drumbeats, a sort of high-pitched feedback on the guitar. At least this is different.

Is it an instrumental? Well, at just over four minutes I would have said no, but we're now into the second and there has been no appearance from Tucker yet. Perhaps he's gone to have a flesh sandwich and a glass of blood --- newborn, of course! Yeah, we're heading into minute three and it's still just music, so that's definitely a plus. Seems like it is an instrumental. Not half bad if a little confused. The next one is much shorter, minute and a half, and it's called "Abyssous". This is definitely an instrumental, almost laidback by Morbid Angel's standards --- hell, almost a ballad!

And then we're back to it, as Steve Tucker carves the last slice from their roasted human captive, drains his human skull goblet and picks up the mike to launch into "God of our own divinity", at which point I almost wet my knickers, seeing this is over six minutes long! Oh dear lord no! It's back to mach 2 drumming, pulsating axework and that voice, but at least we're getting near the end, with only five tracks to go. Less than twenty minutes and I can put this behind me forever.

But what's this? A rather nice, almost but not quite introspective guitar piece? I had never expected to use that word in the same sentence as death metal, and certainly, given what I've heard of them to date, with Morbid Angel! But it takes off then into a soaring metal solo, which I have no problem with, and the longer it goes on the less I have to hear Tucker's --- oh. He's back again. How long to go now? Just over a minute. Okay. Next up is "Within thy enemy" (should that not be "thine"?) and Tucker doesn't give us a second's respite, growling like a wounded beast all over the first few seconds and then taking control of the track.

Decent rhythm to it, and I have to admit to surprise to see my fingers tapping to it, but this ain't finding its way onto my ipod any time soon: it'd massacre all my poor Marillon and Arena albums, and kick the crap out of Rod Stewart, then blame it on Stratovarius! At least the last few tracks are all around the three minute mark, and as Tucker snarls the ending to this one an acoustic guitar and piano (???) open "Memories of the past", the first of three tracks penned solo by Sandoval, and on which he plays the piano and keyboards. Piano? Keyboards? Did I read that right? Maybe there's some small shred of hope for Morbid Angel to win me over after all...

I very much like this. With a sort of Russian feel to it this instrumental track is stark and lonely, sad and despairing but something I can listen to. Finally. If all his compositions are like this then the ending of this album could be a big surprise indeed. Well, "Victorious march of reign the conqueror" (unnecessarily long and complicated title but let's not split hairs) has a very dramatic feel to it, with solid synthesiser and powerful piano, a triumphant aura and best of all, no singing! With a title like "Drum check", you probably know what to expect from the penultimate track, and indeed it's a storming drum solo, but I still prefer it to hearing Tucker sing. The final track is "Born again", which for me brings up uncomfortable associations with Black Sabbath, but this is nothing like that, starting off with a guitar riff almost out of the Trogg's "Wild thing", believe it or not, and continuing as a serious runthough on the guitar, showing what Trez Azagthoth can do, and why he is considered such a giant in his field.

TRACKLISTING

1. Cleansed in pestilence (Blade of Elohim)
2. Enshrined in grace
3. Beneath the hollow
4. Curse the flesh
5. Praise the strength
6. Stricken arise
7. Place of many deaths
8. Abyssous
9. God of our own divinity
10. Within thy enemy
11. Memories of the past
12. Victorious march of reign the conqueror
13. Drum check
14. Born again

Look, I went into this knowing that Morbid Angel were the litmus test. If I could handle them, I could handle anything. If there had been some sudden epiphany as I listened to the album and I realised I actually liked their music, I could take off this dress and throw away my stiletto boots. But I really didn't expect that would happen, and from the moment Steve Tucker opened his mouth I knew the chances of my ever listening to this band again had shrunk to virtually zero. Unlike Death, who I could take in small doses, the raucous, gutteral, unintelligible at all times vocals of the frontman made it impossible that I would ever listen to Morbid Angel again, never mind enjoy their music.

I'm sure fans of the death metal genre will rise up and say I haven't a clue what I'm talking about, that I'm a pussy and so on, and they're probably right. This kind of music isn't my cup of rose-scented tea. It never was, I never claimed it to be and it never will be. There are some bands and genres I just know to stay away from, and with good reason. Still, at least I can say I listened to one of their albums, even if I hated it.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm late for a bra fitting.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morbid_Angel

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Trollheart

Outcast --- Kreator --- 1995 (Gun)


One of the big three German thrash bands, Kreator's vocalist utilises that sort of hoarse screaming that makes you wonder what kind of problems he's going to have with his throat when he gets older, but at least it's intelligible. "Leave this world behind" kicks the album off in fine style with a big grinding metal guitar assault, and while it's not as fast as your average thrash metal band it's no slouch either, and heavy as hell. "Phobia" gives me a real sense of mid-eighties Maiden, chugging drums and screaming guitars and quite a lot of fun really. "Forever" is another slow and grindy song that I must say complements Mille Petrozza's voice perfectly.

"Black sunrise" is another slow one, but this time Petrozza's voice is "normal", very understated and low-key and you begin to wonder if this could be a balla --- nah. Silly thing to think really. It's a slow, crunching, brooding grinder sort of in the mould of Tiamat, but with edges sharp enough to draw blood. Nice guitar solo too. "Noncomformist" is the first time I've heard these guys hit any sort of groove and even then it's not as fast as I would expect a thrash band to be: Annihilator for example were much more heads-down than this. Great roaring guitars though and a good vocal, with a lot of energy and power.

"Enemy unseen" stomps all over the place with anger and frustration, but again it's a slow, in general, song, with none of the fretburning, fingerscorching guitar histrionics and galloping drums of other thrash metal bands. The title track is another slow grinder, quite Sabbath in its feel, and I'd have to say my favourite so far along with "Paranoia", while things finally kick up a gear with the uptempo "Stronger than before". Odd to hear vocoder, of all things, used on "Whatever it may take", though the song is a good heavy puncher, and the tempo hits up again with "Against the rest", another fine guitar-chugging track but ends more or less as it began in a slow, powerful grind with "A better tomorrow".

TRACKLISTING

1. Leave this world behind
2. Phobia
3. Forever
4. Black sunrise
5. Nonconformist
6. Enemy unseen
7. Outcast
8. Stronger than before
9. Ruin of life
10. Whatever it may take
11. Alive again
12. Against the rest
13. A better tomorrow

I'm not quite sure how to take Kreator. At least on the basis of this album they seem more almost doom metal than thrash; certainly few of their songs hit the kind of speed even Maiden practice, and I always thought (correct me if I'm wrong Batlord) that thrash metal was traditionally played as fast as possible?

That said, this is a pretty fine album and I'm glad I listened to it. I may sample more of Kreator's catalogue (should that be katalogue?) in time, and find this not to be typical of their output: perhaps their other albums are fast and heavy and deserve the description of thrash. For now though I'm thinking more a sort of slightly more uptempo doom, but certainly very impressive.

Read more here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kreator

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Unknown Soldier

I can't believe that you decided to review Sepultura and then chose this album to review! The band are quite irrelevant in the 00's and all their classic stuff is in the Max era. It's like somebody reviewing Genesis but deciding to completely miss out on all their 70's material.

You're not doing your homework properly are you Because if you had, you'd know most of their material prior to this was thrash and around this time the band were messing around with gothic and industrial metal.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Trollheart

Hey, get off my back! I asked for help but the two Metal Icons were too busy, so I just did the best I could. Some of the albums were selected purely down to the name; in Sepultura's case, I know about Dante (tried to read "The Divine Comedy" once) so that attracted me, and in Kreator's case it could have been any album but again I liked the title. You don't think I've managed, among all the other things I do, to review the discography and history of every metal band in just two months, do you?

Anyhoo, it's all relative. Some of the bands I could have chosen better examples from, apparently, had I known about them, but to use your own Genesis example, if I knew nothing about Genesis how would I decide between "Trespass" (cool title!) and the self-titled? I wouldn't know that one differed vastly from the other. That's why I could have done with some help. Meh, it's all rock and roll anyway, innit?

See what you think of the next one...

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Unknown Soldier

There is something called Wikipedia, All Music and Rate Your Music that would give you any band's best albums in just a few keystrokes and there's always a consensus on what's best as well. Also sites like Amazon have 'listmania' where fans of the band rate their best albums by an band as well. Nobody was expecting you to listen to entire discographies

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History