JamesT

Overkill - "The Grinding Wheel" (album)

Lamb of God - "Lamb of God" (self-titled album from 2020)

Overkill - "Taking Over" (album)

Fleshgod Apocalypse - "Agony" (album)

That's awesome! I do enjoy some melody in my metal as well. I'm not as into power metal as I used to be, but I still really enjoy bands like DragonForce and Orden Ogan quite a bit. I'd definitely recommend Solitude Aeturnus if you're a doom metal fan! Saturnus is another great doom band. And if you like doom with some gothic flourishes, Virgin Black is a great one. Trouble and St. Vitus are a couple of classic doom bands to check out as well. My favorite sub-genre is groove metal, followed closely by thrash metal. After that, I'd go with traditional heavy metal. I also enjoy hard rock, good ol' fashioned stripped down rock 'n roll, and blues-based hard rock/metal. PanterA is my favorite band of all time. Another great modern groove metal band is Betzefer (from Israel). The Red Coil, Hell's Fire, Stoneghost, Behind the Smokescreen, The Helldozers, and Blessed Hellride are some more groove-oriented metal bands, if you'd like to check them out as well. Rock on!!

Been putting my "Thrash" playlist on shuffle lately. Got 762 songs (more than 52 hours) of thrash on that one playlist alone. The five bands that came up today are: Shrapnel, ThrashWall, Terrordome, Exodus and Warfect.

Yep, same here! Both parts of the "Keeper of the Seven Keys" in the 80's are tough to beat. Ensiferum has some great ones. Elvenking has some, too!

I've always thought power metal had great album covers for the most part: DragonForce - "Valley of the Damned" Rhapsody - "Symphony of Enchanted Lands" (both parts) A few other favorites of mine are: Overkill - "Ironbound" and "The Electric Age" PanterA - "Far Beyond Driven" and "The Great Southern Trendkill" Candlemass - "Nightfall", "Epicus Doomicus Metallicus", "Ancient Dreams" Tons of great covers out there!

Shrapnel - "The Virus Conspires" (album) Another killer new thrash band. Highly recommended!

Gotcha, we've all done that before! But yeah, I'd certainly highly recommend them for fans of CoF!

Definitely agree! Not sure if you're familiar with his other band, Devilment, but they've got 2 really good albums out so far. It's got a similar sound to CoF, but it's also got some heavy groove elements in addition to the gothic flourishes.

Awesome! Yeah, I'm really digging the two singles so far. As a fan of their whole discography, I've never been truly disappointed by anything they've put out, so it's a win-win for me! I find "Damnation and a Day" to be very underrated.

Rumpelstiltskin Grinder - "Ghostmaker" (album) Killer new wave thrash band

So true! I just saw Judas Priest live 5 days ago, and they played Victim of Changes. Such a powerful song. It's easy to tell how "Sad Wings of Destiny" was a template for metal back in 1976. Priest absolutely killed it on stage, and it was a pleasure to witness!

Oh okay, gotcha. So you're not as familiar with albums like "Nymphetamine", "Thornography", "Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder", "Darkly, Darkly, Venus Aversa"? I enjoy all of their albums, but I can understand how "Thornography" wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea. It was definitely pretty experimental by their standards. If you haven't checked any of those out, I'd definitely recommend them! "Hammer of the Witches" is an incredible album - you're right about that! Can't wait for their new album next month!