Arioch

Morbid Angel - Domination (1995) Mekong Delta - The Music of Erich Zann (1988) Mekong Delta - Dances of Death (and Other Walking Shadows) (1990)

Voïvod - The Wake (2018)

Vltimas - Epic (2024)

ADX - Étranges visions (2021) This is the 1991 album Weird Visions, re-recorded in French 30 years later. ADX in French - that's what all his fans wanted, and they got it! And with a much better sound.

Savage Grace - Master of Disguise Nuclear Assault - Game Over/The Plague Nuclear Assault - Survive Deicide - Serpents of the Light Deicide - In The Minds Of Evil

Mekong Delta - The Music of Erich Zann (1988)

Napalm Death - Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (2020)

Nuclear Assault - Out of Order (1991)

Psychotic Waltz - A Social Grace (1990) Listening to such a dense and rich album for the first time while I'm writing code (I'm a Python developer) is frankly not a good idea. To be listened to again in much better conditions to fully enjoy this album!

Vltimas - Something Wicked Marches In (2019) The new album from the band featuring David Vincent, Rune "Blasphemer" Eriksen and Flo Mounier was released yesterday (I think), so I'm replaying the first album released in 2019. Vltimas - Epic (2024) To say I was thrilled with the first album would be an understatement. I'd listen to it from time to time, but it was far from all-days-listening. I've just listened to Epic twice and got the same impression. It plays well, there are some good riffs, but I don't find it as hard-hitting as its predecessor.

Akhenaton - Divine Symphonies (1995) Atmospheric and Symphonic Black Metal, by Lord Vincent (Daemonium, Akhenaton, Sangdragon).

ADX - Exécution (1985) Melodic Speed Metal.

Undead Prophecies - False Prophecies (2015) Today, I only listen to Metal from my country, France! Voight Kampff - Substance Rêve (2018)

Psychotic Waltz! Here's another band I only know by name. Thanks for mentioning them. I'm going to listen to their debut album as soon as possible to form an opinion.

Undead Prophecies - Sempiternal Void (2019) French old school DM 🤩

Testament - The Gathering (1999) Oddly enough, this album marks Testament's return to Thrash, after Low (1994), which leaned towards Pantera/Machine Head-style Metal, and Demonic (1997), which tried to steer the band towards Death Metal. But The Gathering is also the first in a long line (5 albums, up to and including Titans of Creation) of albums where the band no longer takes many risks, no longer really innovates. It offers what its fans expect. A bit like Exodus on their last albums, in fact.

Terra Odium - Ne Plus Ultra (2021) In 2000, Norway's Spiral Architect released a fabulous album of progressive, technical metal: A Septic's Universe. Basically, it's closer to a band like Watchtower than Dream Theater. But there you have it. A single album and then nothing. Spiral Architect is in hibernation, with no further news. So when I heard that singer Øyvind Hægeland and drummer Asgeir Mickelson were putting together a new band, I was delighted. And now Terra Odium has arrived! Less technical than Spiral Architect, but very interesting. And with Steve Di Giorgio on bass, yum!

Strike Master - Tangram Apocalypse (2023) Listen in Bandcamp.

S.O.D - Rise of the Infidels (2007)

Recipients of Death - Final Flight (1988)

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (2017) I mentioned this yesterday. So I'm not posting a Youtube video this time 😉 I only discovered Power Trip last week. I like the Thrash groove the band develops on several tracks. It makes you want to headbang.

So good luck... Or not 🙃 You know, when it comes to music, film or reading, taste and colour are generally hard to argue with. Everyone has their own, which they defend tooth and nail (I don't know if tooth and nail will be easy to understand). One day, on a French Metal forum, I read a guy posting a YouTube video of a Death Metal band. He said of the album from which the title was taken: pure mega-violence. No one can come away unscathed. Curious, I wanted to listen. I listened for 30 seconds. Not that it was ultra-violent, but it was Death Metal with mono sound, not stereo. What's more, it sounded as if the band had been recorded 3 km away from the microphones, which made for a distant hubbub. You needed a particularly attentive ear to make out anything. The singer's voice was so cavernous and distant that it sounded like he was whispering. It wasn't violence that I felt. More like deep and immediate boredom. I think I bought this Hate Eternal album because Eric Rutan was playing on Morbid Angel's Domination. I really liked that album, so I went straight for Conquering the Throne. And like you at first, I listened to it and quickly put it on the shelf. But a year or two later, I decided to give it another chance and I listened to it for weeks. Every morning, every evening. By dint of this, all the songs have become permanently ingrained in my skull and I'm now able to hum them without a care in the world. Incidentally, a little anecdote: I have a terrible time falling asleep at night and when I want to fall asleep very quickly, I listen to Spiritual Holocaust. It's rare that I'm still awake when it's finished. I just love this track! Every time I play it, I stop everything I'm doing and concentrate on it. And concentrating on the music is one of my secrets for falling asleep faster.

Hate Eternal - Conquering the Throne (1999) My favorite Hate Eternal album. Maybe already, because I took a slap in the face when I discovered the band with this album. But also, because I love the tracks that weren't composed by Eric Rutan but by Doug Cerrito (Suffocation): Nailed to Obscurity, Dethroned, Spiritual Holocaust. I find that on these 3 tracks, there's an original research in the riffs.

Hate Eternal - I, Monarch (2005)

Power Trip - Nightmare Logic (2017)