JonoBlade

Yeah, well no one listened to JP for the literary genius of the lyrics. Some of the earliest albums were decent, but after that I kind of just got used to the absurd characters Rob creates and then accepted it blindly. There are a couple of filler tracks on Resurrection but The One You Love to Hate is fine. Silent Screams is excellent. Each to their own I suppose.

Topically: https://www.blabbermouth.net/news/rob-halford-and-his-brother-to-launch-hails-horns-english-bitter-ale/ Both Maiden, Bruce being particularly involved, and now Rob are in the ale game. To be fair Rob has been careful to never say he is anti-drinking, despite being a recovering alcoholic. However, this strikes me as one business venture an alcoholic just shouldn't get into. It's like a vegan buying shares in a factory farm. It's not just that he is sober, but he brings it up in every second interview, just like those blasted vegans do.

Resurrection and Crucible are both better than anything Priest released since Painkiller. Even Fight has some great stuff on it. I haven't heard all of Bruce's solo stuff but it was pretty good and possibly better than latter-day Maiden too. The Scream for Me Sarajevo documentary is excellent. By "mid-life crisis" I presume you refer to 2wo. I haven't ever heard it; but one dud (ok, Winter Songs, 2; ok Halford IV probably and Celestial) is not bad. I still reckon Rob is a better singer though. Just not the all round dynamo that Bruce is. Or lyric-writer. Plus one for Di'anno. I just prefer his vocals.

Bandcamp isn't as insidious as facebook yet then. It is up to the labels and bands how irritating they want to be with mailshots.

Nostalgia trip: King Diamond - Fatal Portrait Just finished Them and Conspiracy. Bandcamp has all King Diamond albums for $10 each. I presume King must have the rights to the downloads so this is a good way to get money directly into his pocket rather than Roadrunner or Metal Blade. I have my eye on a few original KD LPs on eBay but can't decide if 30 squid (at least, many are 50 or more) is really worth it. Either way I don't have any digital copies of any KD albums except Voodoo because I had all (up until The Eye) on cassette! Hail to the King baby.

Out of interest who is sending the link? Is it a record label you've bought from before or an algorithm generated email that thinks it knows you? I get lots of bandcamp emails but they are always from bands or labels I already bought from, trying to sell new merch or advise of new releases. But never a "you might be interested in...."

Even Cowboys from Hell has a lot of vocal range. I only heard Power Metal once. It sounded like Queensryche to me, but that was a long time ago. Phil is so deeply flawed but you feel he is worthy of redemption and that might be why he has a loyal fanbase. Judging by critical and fan response I appear to be wrong about Firepower. By all measures it was a successful record....but I just don't like long albums of samey music. There was no ebb and flow and it was too polished. I even prefer Nostradamus to Firepower because I liked the musical ideas better, but it was an even greater offender in the crime of unjustified runtime. I would rank Firepower above Redeemer of Souls and the ripper albums (which have their moments, once again, too long) but I'll take Turbo over it any day. That's just how I roll. Oooh. I never buy new LPs anymore but I did pre-order the KK's Priest record. The first two tracks sounded, well, good at least. Brothers of the Road or something was a bit lame but if it fits on two sides of vinyl it is already better than the last six Priest albums.

Johnny G. Goode was ill-judged, although to be honest my 14 year old self never cared even if it were an unnecessary track. Rob's voice still sounds solid today but it sits in a range that some simply don't like. Some people, my wife and other heathens, think exactly the same of Freddie Mercury. The voice just sits in a place that grates them. I can understand it even if they are wrong. Come to think of it, she can't stand Bruce either. But in that case I understand it better. To me he often sounds like singing on the edge of his range. It is a technically good voice and when it's on it's on, but it just doesn't sound as measured and consistent as Halford. I guess a great vocal performance is one that you don't actually notice. With Bruce sometimes I wince, with Rob I don't.

Ditto, except the Phil Anselmo part. I like him but it would never have occurred to me to put him on a list of greatest vocalists/frontmen. Maiden and Priest have a lot in common. Every album they have produced since 1990 has been over-bloated and could have been greatly improved by trimming down to fit on one LP of 40 minutes. In some cases 35 minutes. I bought Book of Souls from an actual record store when it came out and have listened to it maybe half a dozen times. Same with Firepower. Within them there is some good shit but it shouldn't be my job as a fan to sift through and work out what it is. That is a producer's job. The production team of both those albums failed to present a distillation of the best material. They let it all through. That takes no skill at all.

It might not be quite so malevolent. Hoglan is a session player and was hired to tour and play on an album. The fact that they didn't want to hire him to play on the next album is purely a financial decision. Of course, they can't expect Hoglan to then want to agree to play on the next tour, but as a session player he's not entitled to anything. I dug up Obsolete from the garage the other week. Quite enjoyed it, but there is not much need to ever check out more recent Fear Factory.

Was just thinking, while listening to No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith at lunchtime: "what are the bands of musicians where EVERYONE is now dead" like, from the classic line up. The ones that spring to mind are Motörhead and The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Both power trios. All dead. Any others? Legends are dropping dead all the time but usually not everyone is gone. There are still two Beatles left. Christ, all of Black Sabbath is somehow still alive.

Production is solid. This sounds like something I might have liked at some stage in my life (given that in the 90s/2000s I had albums by Killing Heidi, Kittie and, of most hotness, Drain STH). It is good. All based on first impressions of course, because I am never going to listen to this again after today. The Dumpster Diving topic with you tube link works well for me now because I spend all day at home working and can blast music as loud as I want. Back in the old days of Metal-Fi I used to read the topic but rarely checked out the music because I was in an office and never listened to music during the day.

It was similar in NZ. UK Metal Hammer was probably the main one. Those magazines were expensive but that is what literally gave them value, so would get read from cover to cover. The internet made it all easy and ruined everything at the same time. My gateway to metal (other than a dalliance with Twisted Sister in 1984 when the videos were on TV and, earlier, Kiss around 1981) was a mate at school I asked to "dub" me cassette tapes of Iron Maiden in early 1988. Yet, he disobeyed my request for providing Iron Maiden albums (except one, Seventh Son) and gave me more Judas Priest instead. He reckoned I would like it more and he was right. Actually, upon reflection, I lie. In 1987 Bon Jovi Slippery When Wet came out (it was August 1986 according to Wikipedia but I suspect it didn't build up steam and hit NZ until 1987) and then I visited my cousins in UK for Christmas '87 and they were into W.A.S.P. and Def Leppard. I was already into Queen big time. Rock was always going to be the way to go, but metal became all consuming by the time I gave in and finally accepted cookie monster vocals as my lord and saviour in 1992.

And now Dusty Hill from ZZ Top is gone too. What a week!

Tasmania is in the top five places to survive societal collapse. But if they are obese alcoholics they'll be easy to outrun or bludgeon to death for the masses coming over from the mainland as it burns. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/28/new-zealand-rated-best-place-to-survive-global-societal-collapse Of this list Britain might turn out to be the safest place because it has a nuclear deterrent. This article (although maybe not the report, I haven't read it yet) conveniently forgets to factor in whether New Zealand could defend against an invasion. Alas, it can't.

I understand the reluctance but to be honest it was the aspect of our discontinued community at Metal-Fi that I liked most. Undoubtedly there are other places on the internet for political chat but my guess is those places are just a shouting match with polarized views or an echo chamber of confirmation bias. The reason it worked well (mostly) on Metal-Fi is that ultimately we had the brotherhood of metal to fall back on which trumped political allegiance. Tensions sometimes flared but they soon calmed back down. Besides which, most of the time it was not political. Dead was good at examining current events through the lens of history from his (interesting) POV, and I often learned to respect other peoples' views. Disagree with them sure, but understand how nurture (or lack thereof) shapes the man. I also liked reading about tanks. The general consensus on Metal-Fi was that all politicians, of all flavours, are corrupt assholes. We only differed as to the exact magnitude of assholeness. In that way we were apolitical. By being exposed to different ideas, even ideologies, some of the young ones here might actually learn something more worthwhile than whether Metallica is better than Megadeth or not. It's a tough one. Of course, maybe the Metal-Fi guys that were far more vocal than me about such topics had enough and were happy to move on. I miss it. Mike Howe dead at 55? I never heard what the dude sung like but from his photo he looked dependable and pleasant. RIP.

I'm not sure which comes first, the freakish fingers or the talent. In Bill's case, he's about 5 foot tall so they might just look long but are actually normal sized. In any event, remember that our Lord Tony is missing his finger tips. So its not the length, it's what you do with it.

I'd rather get a topic started on US withdrawal from Afghanistan because I've never heard Metal Church before. Was more surprised to hear about Joey Jordison today. Being well established in my unflinching metallic taste by 1999 when Slipknot's debut came out I didn't think too much of it. I did own it though. I liked the percussive side; it was the vocals and lyrics that I just couldn't relate to at the time, or anytime since. However, while they had a gimmick there was something new enough going on musically to deserve their success. Slipknot was probably responsible for an entire generation of metalheads - misguided from the true path of righteousness though they may be. So yeah, how about that withdrawal? I am sure it will go off without a hitch and absolutely not leave a power vacuum and another generation of disillusioned angry young men.

Been listening to exactly these + Heartwork FDR edition. I went on a bit of a Carcass bender after watching an Ola Englund video about the Carcass Heartwork tone. Bill Steer used a Marshall Guv'nor overdrive pedal into a 5150 head. In a moment of madness I bought myself a Made in England Guv'nor from late 80s from eBay. It is in absolutely mint condition but I do find the bottom end drops out a bit when it is on. A few experiments straight into my Diezel Herbert dirty channel (but with gain right down) seem to yield decent results. It doesn't make me magically play like Bill Steer though so its a bit of a rip off.

I remember when this came out. It was a huge departure from Testimony of the Ancients and not well received at the time, although I thought it was ok. Nowadays its zaniness would barely raise an eyebrow. N.P. The Antichrist Imperium - Volume II Every Tongue Shall Praise Satan

This is great. Quite different and I love the different flavours it has. A bit-o-black, a bit-o-death, a bit-o-punk, a bit-o-post

Or a vest that is literally made of patches, worn only with a pair of underpants. Surely there a picture of such a configuration from a festival somewhere.

I don't find any filler on the Type O albums. It is the only band that ever existed where I give them a pass for 70+ minute albums. NO OTHER BAND is entitled to a 70+ minute album (or over 50 minutes for that matter) unless it is their career defining magnum opus, a la The Wall...or Nostradamus. Guffaw. Sabbath is solid all the way through. I even started giving Forbidden a go since there hasn't been anything new from Lord Tony in a while. A friend of mine remastered it and re-jigged the track listing. It works fine as a middle of the road 90s trad metal album. But I can't expect anyone this far down the line, polluted by the toxic stench of goat metal, to understand or be bothered to check out Tony Martin era Sabbath. The rest of the bands on my list have long discographies and are also my favourite bands no matter how thrashed each entry in the catalogue has been. I did think of doing a tongue in cheek list of bands that burned bright and faded away after one or two albums. The only ones I an think of (i.e. albums that I loved but the bands disappeared): Scatterbrain - Here Comes Trouble Disincarnate - Dreams of the Carrion Kind Chris Poland - Return to Metalopolis One band I thought of after the original post is my own, which also has about 20 albums. Ego-centric? Somewhat, but I didn't think of it until later than the others and, honestly, I chose my favourite bands because they have stronger nostalgia/memories tied up with them. Besides, yeah. No electricity, so I'd be better off with a nylon string guitar and some bongos. Made from the skulls and skin of the deceased passenger from the wreck. Or the other survivors, if they have a problem with me screaming Hellbent for Leather while foraging for food.

Without a moment of hesitation: AC/DC Judas Priest Queen Black Sabbath Type O Negative

I must be going mental because I recall that there was supposed to be a remix of Heartwork which replaced the original drum samples with better ones....but I can't find any reference to it anywhere. The current definitive (best) edition of Heartwork appears to be a full dynamic range remaster from a few years ago. I never noticed at the time but even the original 1993 CD was bricked. I have that in a box in the garage I think. Just got interested because I watched an Ola Englund video about the guitar tone and got nostalgic.