FatherAlabaster

RIP Geordie Walker. Legend. Bummer.

Carpenter Brut - Trilogy

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory

Gentle Giant - Octopus

Deathspell Omega - The Long Defeat

on headphones to drown out an episode of "Blue's Clues" from sometime during their failed experiment with the Joe character

Tigran Hamasyan - An Ancient Observer 

Chopin - Complete Nocturnes

Tigran Hamasyan - Mockroot

Tigran Hamasyan - The Call Within

Dawn - Nær solen gar niþer for evogher

13 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

😆 Believe me, there are some items in my iTunes library that, if discovered, would require I turn in my metalhead card with all privileges immediately revoked.

Do tell

Careful man, lumping Rush in with Quiet Riot and Twisted Sister might get you banned.

The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown is always a good look. Late 60s psych rock, flaming headgear, something like "corpse paint", nuns having fun, high wailing vocals. A precursor to your Kings Diamond if not your Priests Judas.

Fire:

Nightmare:

Cryfemal - Apoteosis Oculta

Thorn - Evergloom

3 hours ago, agamerwholovesmetal said:

"De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" by Mayhem (1994): This seminal album is considered a cornerstone of black metal, with its raw, atmospheric sound and vocalist Euronymous's infamous shrieking vocals.

"vocalist Euronymous's infamous shrieking vocals"

and people mock Wikipedia

Ripping Corpse - Dreaming With The Dead

Welcome. Moved this to promo section for band links. You're welcome to share your music in this section but please don't post it elsewhere on the forum.

40 minutes ago, Arioch said:

My 1995 albums that I listen to regularly:

Akhenaton - Divine Symphonies
At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
Crown Of Thorns - The Burning
Darkthrone - Panzerfaust
Death - Symbolic
Grip Inc. - Power Of Inner Strength
Illdisposed - Submit
Luciferion - Demonication (The Manifest)
Morbid Angel - Domination
No Return - Seasons of soul
Sodom - Masquerade In Blood
Spock's Beard - The Light
The Gathering - Mandylion

Have you heard this one? You might dig it.

Disaffected - Vast:

5 hours ago, Dead1 said:

Which albums?

1995 for me - some good stuff

 

At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul

Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

Carcass - Swansong (not their best but I like it)

Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery

Death - Symbolic

Down - NOLA

Fear Factory - Demanufacture

Iced Earth - Burnt Offerings

Meshuggah - Erase Destroy Improve

Morbid Angel - Domination

Paradise Lost - Draconian Times

Napalm Death - Diatribes

 

(Also X Factor which along with Virtual XI are Maiden's crappiest albums that I only keep cause I am a Maiden fanboy).

I have a few of those on my 1995 list too.

Suffocation - Pierced From Within

Opeth - Orchid

Abigor - Nachthymnen

My Dying Bride - The Angel And The Dark River

Darkthrone - Panzerfaust

Ulver - Bergtatt

Naglfar - Vittra

Disaffected - Vast

Deicide - Once Upon The Cross

Anathema - The Silent Enigma

Blind Guardian - Imaginations From The Other Side

Dark Tranquillity - The Gallery

Death - Symbolic

Meshuggah - Destroy Erase Improve

Fear Factory - Demanufacture

Septic Flesh - Esoptron

Sinister - Hate

Infernal Torment - Man's True Nature

Wicked Innocence - Omnipotence

Hieronymus Bosch - The Human Abstract

Unanimated - Ancient God Of Evil

Rammstein - Herzeleid

Swans - The Great Annihilator

Alice In Chains - s/t

1995 is the clear winner.

Hornwood Fell - Damno Lumina Nocte

33 minutes ago, Dead1 said:

With regards to extreme vocals, I think one of the most boring things a band can do is have one vocal style especially if it's just low death metal growls with little emphasis on pronunciation.  You need a bit of diversity - not just growls but black metal rasps, shrieks, howls and barks.  It's what made early Carcass so awesome.  

Agree, I love hearing variety and expressiveness. Monotone vocals drag albums down.

Enslaved - Mardraum

11 hours ago, Nasty_Cabbage said:

Every time I see this album and their other classics come up I'm reminded that I really should do a deep dive on their whole catalogue, but then I remember the times I've tried before and just what a weird mess their discography is

Standouts for me are Red, the first two 80s albums with Belew on vocals (Discipline and Beat), and Thrak. I like a few of their other albums a lot too, but those are the ones I play the most. The early 80s live shows are also phenomenal - Frejus 1982:

Japan 1984:

Red is probably my favorite studio recording of theirs, but the live shows with this lineup capture the most of what I love about them. The studio albums don't tell the whole story. I don't want to say the albums are just byproducts but they aren't the ultimate statements and complete focus of the group the way they are for a lot of bands, especially metal bands. If a methodical deep dive is the kind of thing that works for you, go for it. I tend to get burned out trying to enjoy music that way, I do better finding one or two recordings to hang my hat on and letting my appreciation of the rest of the catalog grow naturally. 

Gentle Giant - The Power And The Glory

King Crimson - Red

1 hour ago, GoatmasterGeneral said:

I'd consider them the best European thrash band of all time though, by a country mile.

Yup.

24 minutes ago, MacabreEternal said:

Immolation - Failures For Gods (1999)

Normally a guaranteed win with anything I discovered by them, Failures for Gods has always been the exception to the rule for me with Immolation's otherwise fantastic discography.  With only Alex Hernandez new in post, the same line up that produced Dawn of Possession and Here In After somehow managed to go off the boil with album number three.  I will call out early in the review that although Hernandez is a fantastic drummer, his performance on this record is dubious and suffers from some mistiming on top of a poor mix and production that makes the drums sound too wet and tepid.  His perfomance on Failures for Gods is nowhere near the level of confidence that is obvious on the follow up to this record, Close To A World Below (my favourite Immolation album).

To be clear though, the let downs on this album are not all down to Alex.  Paul Orofino does little to help the band with a production job that sounds murky and claustrophic.  Guitars sound stifled, as if struggling to find space to fill with their angular sound.  The clicky sound to the drums does nothing to help this sense of confinement and in the end, only Dolan's vocals get anything like the attention they should in the mix.  Again, this problem did not persist when Orofino continued to produce Immolation albums for the next few releases so I suspect that Failures for Gods was his first death metal production job (or one of his first at least) and so he had quickly learned his trade come the next album.

This album is full of the trademark Immolation attack coming straight out of the traps with the monstrous Once Ordained making the bands intentions clear enough on track one.  But a few of the tracks on here feel cumbersome in nature with that familiar shifting sound becoming more of a lurch, certainly without a consistent sounding percussive backdrop to shape and guide it at least.  The threat of the melodic and lead work of the guitar is all but tamed in the grander scheme of things, sounding more monotone than menacing.  Thankfully little more than a blip on the discography, Failures for Gods is cursed by a tired production job and some lack of focus on all details and is an album that I rarley visit as a result.

Huh, it's my third favorite after Here In After and Closer To A World Below, it never stood out as bad to me.

Worm - Foreverglade

Rush - Moving Pictures

Rush - Signals 

Rush - Power Windows