JamesT

Enslaved - "Heimdal" My Dying Bride - "For Lies I Sire" Vitriol - "Suffer & Become" Exodus - "Blood In, Blood Out"

Very cool! And yes, those two albums you named are pure doom metal greatness! I'll be listening through "For Lies I Sire" at the gym today.

Excellent news! I'm just getting around to checking it out, and it's really good upon first listen. Stainthorpe sounds just as good now as he did on "Turn Loose the Swans", which is remarkable. I love those 90's albums, especially "Angel and the Dark River" and "Like Gods of the Sun". "The Light at the End of the World" is also very good. I'd say "A Line of Deathless Kings" is quite underrated. My very first exposure to the band was "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light", which remains my favorite MDB album. You really can't go wrong with any of their material, though!

Oh man, I'm disappointed to hear that! I'm just getting around to checking it out and have been looking forward to this one for awhile now. Been a fan of these guys for about 17 years now. Does this new one lean more toward the doom side i.e "Like Gods of the Sun" and "Angel and the Dark River" or the death/doom end of the spectrum i.e "The Dreadful Hours" and "Songs of Darkness, Words of Light"?

I gotcha. I've had that album in my library for several months but never listened to it all the way through until today. I've really missed out on it! It doesn't have a weak track on it. Really pumped to listen to it again.

Can't go wrong with the Speed Ball! Great choice. Elegant Weapons - "Horns for a Halo" What a fantastic album! A side project with which Richie Faulkner of Judas Priest fame is involved. Perhaps leaning a bit more toward hard rock than traditional metal, but it's a fine line, because there's definitely some heavy stuff here. Saxon - "Solid Ball of Rock"

Fantastic choice! I'll be making my way through the Manowar catalog very soon.

Dee Snider - "For the Love of Metal" My goodness, what a great album! Seriously heavy.

Accept - "Too Mean to Die"

Good evening, my friend! Ah, I'm sorry to hear that the shopping experience was a frustrating one. And I'm at a loss for why the smaller fridge would cost $300 more than the larger one - but then again, there's a lot that I don't understand in this world. I work in sales in the mobile and modular home business, and the way that contractors' prices continue rising, I'm often left wondering where it will all end up. And hey, that's totally cool that modern Accept isn't your thing. I think it's way cool that you gave it a chance, and I'm glad to hear that you can at least arrive at the assessment that some of the songs are cool and are well done. "Death Row" (1994) is actually one of the Udo-era albums that I have, and I enjoy it quite a bit! It's definitely pretty heavy and aggressive. I wish the production was a bit better, but that's only a minor complaint. I'd say "Teutonic Terror", "The Abyss", "Pandemic" (eerily titled in hindsight, given that this album was released a decade before the whole COVID mess hit), and "No Shelter" are my favorite tracks from the mighty "Blood of the Nations", but the entire album is without a single weakness in my book. Today, I've been listening to "Blind Rage" (2014) and "The Rise of Chaos" (2017), getting prepared for the release of "Humanoid" in a little over a week! This is my second most anticipated album of 2024, only behind the new Judas Priest album, and only slightly ahead of the new Saxon album. But that's what makes this forum a blast to be a part of. So many different sub-genre tastes, with a fair amount of overlap for sure, make it a worthwhile endeavor to interact with my fellow metalheads, get recommendations, and enjoy the world of heavy music. P.S. I'm forever indebted to you for making me aware of Ritual Carnage. What a killer band!

Good evening, my friend! As far as I understand it, the "southern metal" descriptor is merely a reference to the style of music being played, rather than the location where the band is based. I remember posting about a band called Black Tooth, who play a southern-tinged groove metal sound similar to PanterA, and they're from Turkey. A couple of others are Betzefer (from Israel) and Overcharger (who I think are from Germany, but I could be mistaken) and Behind the Smokescreen (from Greece). They tend to model their sound after bands like PanterA, Down, Corrosion of Conformity, Crowbar, etc., that are all from down here in the American south (most of those bands are from New Orleans, but I still claim them, being from the southeast region of the country!). I have a few thousand songs in my music library that fall under the "southern/groove metal" label, so I'm constantly making my way through them. It gives me great joy that you're at least mildly curious about the modern era of Accept! I'm actually the opposite - I almost exclusively listen to this new era. I know some folks might consider this to be metal sacrilege, but I much prefer Mark Tornillo as a singer over Udo. Don't get me wrong - I own several U.D.O. albums, and I like Udo quite a bit. And very occasionally, I'll listen to "Restless and Wild", "Balls to the Wall", "Objection Overruled", etc. But in my opinion, Mark is a far more dynamic singer - he has that very gruff singing voice in general, and he can hit those banshee screams at will. I'm absolutely pumped for the release of "Humanoid" (Mark's 6th album with the band now) next Friday, April 26! With regard to this modern era of Accept, my top recommendation would be Mark's debut with the band, "Blood of the Nations" (2010). However, right on its heels would be "The Rise of Chaos" (2017). I can say with all honesty that I enjoy all 5 (soon to be 6, I'm fully confident) of the Tornillo-era albums fairly equally, but I'd put those two at the top of the list. And hey, I'm psyched that the Goatmaster even cares enough to ask for my humble opinion on these albums! I hope you're not totally disappointed (I can't conceive how these albums would be even remotely disappointing, but of course, I'm incredibly biased toward this era), but I'd be curious to hear your thoughts if you do decide to have a listen. Take care, my metal friend! P.S. I hope that issue with your refrigerator/freezer turned out okay!

Overkill - "The Grinding Wheel" Accept - "Blood of the Nations" Accept - "Stalingrad" Whiskey Rebellion - Self-titled (EP)

Love me some Tyr! The epic feel to the music, the melodic compositions, and the stellar vocals all make this band a great listen at any time. Can't go wrong with Body Count either! The last couple of albums have been fantastic.

Hardbone - "This is Rock 'N' Roll" Hardbone - "Bone Hard" Overkill - "Scorched" Facebreaker - "Dead, Rotten, and Hungry" Fantastic, mid-paced death metal!

My goodness, I had no idea! I sure hope nothing disastrous happens while Joel is up high - seems like a bad combination with lots of beer drinking. Hardbone - "Dirty 'N' Young" Love some good ol' rock 'n' roll!

I don't doubt that at all! I've seen some of their live shows on YouTube, and he seems to climb a tower or two during every show. Not sure how he manages to continue playing his guitar in the meantime, but he certainly brings that rock 'n' roll energy on stage, reminiscent of the mighty Angus Young.

Great minds think alike, my metal friend! If Joel and the boys ever come over to the U.S. near me, I'll be there waiting to catch a beer can that he crushes against his own forehead.

Airbourne - "No Guts, No Glory" My favorite Airbourne album! The one-two punch of "Raise the Flag" and "Bottom of the Well" (tracks 4 and 5) is just tremendous. Big Ball - "Hotter Than Hell" Yep, it's been a great day of stripped down rock 'n' roll!

Completely agree! No reason for the pandemic to be an excuse any longer, especially given how many bands put out new albums during the past few years. I've been reading that they're putting out a new album this year, so hopefully that happens!

Mean Machine - "Livin' Outlaw" Strong Motorhead vibes with this bunch - very well done! Airbourne - "Runnin' Wild" Can never go wrong with one of the modern torchbearers of rock 'n' roll!

3 Inches of Blood - "Advance and Vanquish" Lamb of God - "Omens" Metallica - "Hardwired...to Self-Destruct" Saxon - "Innocence is No Excuse" Saxon - "The Inner Sanctum" Cannibal Corpse - "Chaos Horrific" Cannibal Corpse - "Bloodthirst" Medicine Horse - Self-titled

Raider - "Trial by Chaos" Cattle Decapitation - "Terrasite" Enforced - "Kill Grid" Enforced - "War Remains" Atrophy - "Asylum"

I appreciate your showing mercy on me, my friend! I've been a huge DragonForce fan for about 18 years now, but in hindsight, I don't play those first four albums with ZP Theart on vocals as much as I used to. But now with Marc Hudson on vocals for the last 5 albums, the songwriting has been more varied, and the material has been top-notch! I listen to far less power metal in general these days - with DragonForce, Cellador, GloryHammer, Sabaton, and Rhapsody being the main exceptions - but when DF puts out something new, I'm on it as soon as possible. Always a pleasure, my metal brother! I couldn't have stated it any better! The first four albums - "Ecliptica", "Silence", "Winterheart's Guild", and "Reckoning Night" - are absolute classics for me, and I play them quite often. I enjoyed "Unia" fairly well, although I much prefer when they play a more straightforward power metal style. "The Days of Grays" (2009) came out during my freshman year of college, and I played it quite a bit, but it continued to stray from power metal (with the exception of the impeccable track, "Flag in the Ground"), so I started to lose hope. "Stones Grow Her Name" and "Pariah's Child" were albums that I only played a couple of songs from and really never revisited. However, with this new release, "Clear Cold Beyond", they've made more of a return (although not completely) to the power metal style I fell in love with all those years ago. With this new release, my love for Sonata Arctica has been completely rekindled, and I'm really enjoying the albums from the last 15 years a lot more. Love this band and so glad to have come back around!

Sonata Arctica - "Winterheart's Guild" My favorite Sonata album. Can't wait to check out the brand new release! DragonForce - "Maximum Overload" My favorite DF album - not a single weak track.

Alestorm - "Captain Morgan's Revenge" DragonForce - "Warp Speed Warriors" Really enjoying the first new album in 5 years from my favorite power metal band. Really glad Marc Hudson is in the band and has been for some time now. I know ZP Theart was beloved on those early albums, but Hudson is a much more dynamic singer and never hits a sour note. I'll be playing this one for a long time.